# How to Vibe Code Your Own Circle (and Stop Paying for It)

> A new era for digital businesses

- Site: https://circle.so
- Category: Community & Creator SaaS
- Verdict: **Solid side project** (62/100 vibecodeable)
- Estimated effort: 3-4 weeks of focused development

## Verdict

Build a modular community and course workspace clone for personal use, but drop the enterprise mobile app wrapping, email hub, and native billing tiers.

Building a personal clone of Circle's core loop—spaces, discussions, direct messaging, and course modules—is a solid side project for a full-stack AI coding agent. However, replicating an all-in-one platform means juggling multiple distinct domains: a forum, a chat system, a video player course interface, and a role-based access control system. The hardest part isn't any single feature, but cleanly wiring up the relational access matrix so that buying or joining a space instantly unlocks the right channels and course modules without permission leaks.

### What you can't replicate

- The massive creator network effect and community ecosystem
- White-labeled native iOS and Android app store distribution pipelines
- Certified enterprise compliance (SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA)

## What it does

An all-in-one community and creator monetization platform combining community discussions, live events, group chats, online courses, and member directories under a custom brand.

### Core features

- Modular spaces (discussions, chats, courses, events)
- Real-time WebSockets messaging and chat rooms
- Member directory with rich profiles
- Course builder with lessons and video embeds
- Access control layer linking memberships to spaces
- Customizable branding and color themes

## The business

### Pricing

- Professional: $89/mo
- Business: $199/mo
- Circle Plus: Custom

### Funding

$33.3M raised.
- Seed Round ($4M)
- Series A (~$20M-25M)
Investors: Bond Capital, Tiger Global Management, Notation Capital, Bossa Invest, Tiago Forte

Founded 2020.
Team size: 201-500.

## The hard parts

- Granular multi-tenant permission system mapping members to specific restricted spaces without security leaks
- Real-time state synchronization across concurrent chat rooms and discussion feeds without dropping messages
- Unified notification dispatch engine handling in-app alerts and email feeds
- Course progress tracking and lesson completion state machines

## How to vibe code Circle

### Prerequisites

- Node.js (free): Runtime environment for Next.js and TypeScript full-stack development.
- GitHub (free): Source code repository and deployment integration.
- Supabase Account (free): Provides Postgres database, built-in Auth, and real-time WebSocket capabilities.

### Recommended AI tools

- Claude Code: Unmatched capability for scaffolding full-stack relational schemas, server actions, and handling multi-file component architectures.
- Cursor: Ideal for iterative UI tuning of the community feed, chat sidebars, and course layout views.

### Stack

- Frontend: Next.js with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui
- Backend: Next.js Server Actions & API Routes
- Database: Supabase Postgres
- Auth: Supabase Auth
- Payments: Stripe (optional/skipped for personal use)
- Other: Pusher or Supabase Realtime for chat, Resend for transactional emails

### Hosting

- Vercel (Hosting the Next.js frontend and serverless API endpoints.): $0/mo (Hobby Tier)
- Supabase (PostgreSQL database, real-time channels, and user authentication.): $0/mo (Free Tier)

### Build guide

1. **Project Scaffolding & Database Schema** — Initialize the Next.js 16 app with Tailwind CSS and configure the core relational database schema in Supabase for communities, spaces, posts, comments, and members.

```
Create a new Next.js 16 project with Tailwind CSS, TypeScript, and App Router structure. Configure Supabase client utilities for browser and server operations. Write a complete PostgreSQL migration script for a community platform with tables: `communities`, `spaces` (linked to community with type: discussion, chat, course, events), `profiles`, `posts` (with title, content, space_id, author_id), `comments`, and `space_memberships` (for access control). Ensure foreign keys have cascading deletes and proper indexing on foreign key columns.
```

2. **Authentication & Member Profiles** — Implement Supabase Auth with email/password login and automatic profile record creation upon sign up.

```
Implement Supabase Auth sign-in and sign-up flows with a clean, modern auth page styled using Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui components. Create a database trigger that automatically provisions a row in the `profiles` table whenever a new user signs up in `auth.users`. Build an authenticated layout with a navigation sidebar showing the user's avatar, display name, and settings link. Protect all community routes so unauthenticated visitors are redirected to the login page.
```

3. **Spaces & Modular Feed Implementation** — Build the core community space layout with dynamic space switching and a rich-text discussion feed.

```
Build a community space navigation sidebar that lists spaces grouped by category (e.g. Discussions, Chat, Courses). Clicking a space should load its dedicated view. For 'discussion' spaces, implement a feed view showing posts with author avatars, timestamps, and vote/comment counters. Include a post creation modal with rich text support or Markdown preview. Ensure posts can be filtered by tags or sorting options (latest, top, active).
```

4. **Real-time Chat Spaces** — Add real-time messaging support inside chat-type spaces using Supabase Realtime subscriptions.

```
Implement a real-time group chat interface for spaces marked with type 'chat'. Use Supabase Realtime channels to broadcast and listen to new messages instantly without requiring page reloads. The chat view should feature a scrollable message history list with grouping by sender and day, an auto-scrolling bottom anchor for new messages, and an input bar with emoji support and enter-to-send functionality.
```

5. **Course Builder & Lesson Viewer** — Build a structured course module space with a sidebar lesson navigator and video embedding.

```
Create a course viewer layout for spaces of type 'course'. The layout must feature a left sidebar showing course modules and nested lessons with completion checkmarks, and a main content area rendering lesson details, markdown text, and embedded video players (YouTube or Vimeo iframe support). Add a 'Mark as Complete' server action that updates user progress and visually reflects the updated state in the module tree.
```

6. **Member Directory & Access Control** — Build a searchable member directory and enforce space-level access control permissions.

```
Implement a searchable member directory page displaying user profiles, roles (admin, moderator, member), and join dates with instant search filtering. Create a robust access control middleware or server helper function that checks if a user has an active membership record in `space_memberships` before granting access to private spaces or course content. Return a clean 'Access Denied / Upgrade Required' state if permissions fail.
```

### Cost vs paying

**Starting costs (one-time):**

- AI Coding Assistant (Claude Pro): $20
- Total: $20 one-time

**Ongoing costs (monthly):**

- Vercel & Supabase Free Tiers: $0/mo
- Total: $0/mo

- Paying for the SaaS instead: $89/mo (Professional)
- Build time: 40-60 hours
- AI tool credits: $20 (Claude Pro)
- Break-even: Immediate

## Sources

- [Circle.so Official Website & Feature Overviews](https://circle.so)
- [Circle Pricing & Plan Matrix](https://circle.so/pricing)