# Circle alternatives: what AI models name instead, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. 143 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where Circle holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/circle/alternatives

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Higher Logic Vanilla: 39
- Khoros Communities: 12
- Gainsight Customer Communities: 10
- Discourse: 9
- Bettermode: 7
- Salesforce Experience Cloud: 4

## Community platforms

**Small business**: 21 of 84 answers did not name Circle (Circle is #1 of 12 at 39%).

- Discourse: first choice in 4 of those 21
- WordPress with community plugins: first choice in 1 of those 21

**Mid-market**: 44 of 84 answers did not name Circle (Circle is #4 of 12 at 14%).

- Bettermode: first choice in 7 of those 44
- Higher Logic Vanilla: first choice in 6 of those 44
- Gainsight Customer Communities: first choice in 3 of those 44
- Discourse: first choice in 2 of those 44
- Discord: first choice in 1 of those 44
- Discourse self-hosted: first choice in 1 of those 44
- Skool: first choice in 1 of those 44

**Enterprise**: 78 of 84 answers did not name Circle (Circle is #8 of 10 at 2%).

- Higher Logic Vanilla: first choice in 33 of those 78
- Khoros Communities: first choice in 12 of those 78
- Gainsight Customer Communities: first choice in 7 of those 78
- Salesforce Experience Cloud: first choice in 4 of those 78
- Discourse: first choice in 3 of those 78
- Higher Logic: first choice in 2 of those 78
- CustomerHub: first choice in 1 of those 78
- Hivebrite: first choice in 1 of those 78

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.