Circle Communities vs Heartbeat Chat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Circle Communities
Stay connected with your online communities on the go. This app lets you participate in discussions, join live streams, and track events for any Circle.so community you're a part of. Never miss an update from your creators or fellow members.
- Community discussions
- Event tracking
- Live stream hosting
- On-the-go access
- Message notifications
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The official companion app for your Circle community is here! If you’re a member or creator of a Circle.so community, our app allows you to keep up with your discussions, events, and messages on the go. Join and host live streams, keep track of upcoming events, and never miss a beat on any of your Circle communities.
Heartbeat Chat
Build and manage your online communities with a versatile platform. Engage members through chat, voice, and video, and create a knowledge base for lasting discussions. Integrate with other tools to automate actions and track growth.
- Customizable channels for chat and posts
- Voice rooms for real-time conversations
- Presence indicators for a shared room feel
- Knowledge base creation from discussions
- Integration with Zoom, Google Calendar, Salesforce, etc.
- Automated community match-ups and intros
- Permission management and payment processing
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Heartbeat is the home for all your online communities. Create a space where you and your community can have fun through chats, threads, voice, and video. Heartbeat works great for online schools, accelerators, incubators, paid communities, innovations hubs, support groups, and so much more! Whether its a massive, established community, or you're just getting started, Heartbeat makes it easy to build lasting, genuine relationships. LAUNCH AN INVITE-ONLY COMMUNITY SPACE: - Customize channels to use posts or chats and design a space just for you and your community to have deep discussions about how the world is changing or just to share the best restaurants in Atlanta. - Voice rooms help you take your conversations to the next level — jump into a voice room with 1 click - Presence indicators floating around the app show you where other people are, and make it feel like you're in the same room CREATE A LASTING LIBRARY OF KNOWLEDGE - Turn insightful posts into long-lasting knowledge base articles & grow your community off the great conversations that happen - Organize information vital to your community members & create a space they can always reference for the best information - Manage access through powerful permissioning tools native to Hearbeat SCALE YOUR COMMUNITY LIKE A BOSS - Use deep integrations with Zoom, Google Calendar, Salesforce, Hubspot, Airtable, and more to automate community actions & track deep analytics over time to see how your community is growing - Automate in-community match-ups and conversations through customizable, weekly Heartbeat intros - Create moderators, special access permissions, manage payments, oversee projects & more within your customizable community space
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Circle Communities at 4.9 against Heartbeat Chat's 3.9. Circle Communities also leads on review sentiment (65% vs 39%) and ratings volume (84K vs 119). Heartbeat Chat's advantage is monetization model (free vs ad-supported) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.5). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Circle Communities holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Circle Communities has 84K ratings behind it against 119, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 65% of Circle Communities's written reviews are positive against 39% of Heartbeat Chat's.
Circle Communities ships an update fortnightly, Heartbeat Chat every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Circle Communities | Heartbeat Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (84K ratings) — better | 3.9 (119 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 64.8% of reviews — better | 39.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 84K — better | 119 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #75 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.5 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 52 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CircleCo Inc | Heartbeat Chat, Inc |
Customer experience
Circle Communities
Heartbeat Chat
User reviews
Circle Communities
From 84K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🤍 Very Clear
- 💫 Great layout and easy to understand
- 👍 Simple and easy to navigate
- 🤸♂️ Great community and networking platform
- 🥰 Supportive and helpful community
Room to improve
- 🐛 Unstable software with crashes and bugs
- 🤔 Non-intuitive and unintuitive design
- 🔒 Limited admin functionality on mobile
- 🤯 Frustrating text editing and cursor issues
- 🤖 Glitchy video playback and freezing issues
Heartbeat Chat
From 119 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use and navigate
- 🚀 Fast and streamlined experience
- 💡 Great for community building and hosting
- ✨ Elegant toggling between memberships
- ✅ User-friendly features for admins
Room to improve
- 🐛 Glitchy and buggy performance
- 🐌 Slow loading times
- ❌ Difficult login process for users
- 📱 Poor iPad optimization
- ⚠️ Invasion of privacy concerns
Bugs and requests
Circle Communities
Reported bugs
5 issues- Frequent app crashes and freezes
- Disappearing messages and notifications
- Inability to access certain communities
- Malformed data errors and login issues
- Compatibility problems with older devices
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to save draft posts and comments
- Improved text editing and cursor control
- Better video playback controls and functionality
- Syncing notifications and activity across devices
- More customization and personalization options
Heartbeat Chat
Reported bugs
40 issues- Audio playback stops when phone locks
- Users struggle with logging in
- App is not optimized for iPad, especially in landscape view
- Invasion of privacy concerns regarding photo access
- Notifications are inconsistent and important messages are missed
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- Auto-subscriptions and difficulty with cancellation
- App performance is non-existent, leading to slow loading and unresponsiveness
- Content overlaps
- Tiny frame on iPad, displaying a mobile view
- Forced photo upload during sign-up
- Email already in use error after providing email
- Courses are inaccessible
- Slow response from support
- App fails to update
- Unable to access community
- Unable to cancel subscription
- Charged without consent
- App not working on iPhone
- App freezes frequently
- White screen issues upon opening the app
- App does not function correctly
- Messages not sending when the send button is tapped
- App doesn't work on tablets
- Phantom notifications causing frustration
- App crashes frequently
- Jank and unstable performance
- App shows it has posted but it never publishes
- Notifications and Activity pages have major glitches and don't refresh
- Unable to pull down the Activity page to refresh
- App started messing up immediately, unable to access anything
- App asks for information, then shows an error that it cannot find the channel
- App loads but nothing is tappable or responsive
- App is constantly freezing
- App crashes after iOS update
- App shows communication but refuses to show what it is
- App shows a white screen and is unusable
- App shows a white screen and is garbage
- App shows it has posted but it never published the comment
- Notifications are funky and make zero sense
- App doesn't work correctly on iPhone
Requested features
17 requests- Allow audio to play while phone locks
- Improve iPad optimization, especially in landscape view
- Fix the app icon to not resemble a dating app
- Allow users to change their RSVP to an event after confirming
- Enable users to join public threads via the app
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- Improve image embedding, especially on mobile
- Reduce excessive white space
- Fix notification logic
- Improve image insertion functionality
- Add permalinks to the app
- Allow location changes within the app
- Fix phantom notifications
- Enable profile editing
- Fix the login process for users
- Make the app work on tablets
- Improve backend setup on mobile
- Allow deletion of communities on mobile
In-app purchases
Circle Communities
No in-app purchases
Heartbeat Chat
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Circle Communities free?
Is Heartbeat Chat free?
Which has better reviews, Circle Communities or Heartbeat Chat?
Do Circle Communities or Heartbeat Chat have ads?
Which is updated more often, Circle Communities or Heartbeat Chat?
Other comparisons
