The price anchor
| Forumly | Circle | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 — no subscription | $89+/mo |
| Annual | $0 after purchase | $1,068 |
| 5-year total | $39 | $5,340 |
| 10-year total | $39 | $10,680 |
Subscription figures from the vendor's published pricing ($89+/mo, ~$1,068/yr); the Forumly column is the full price, paid once.
Break-even analysis
If what you actually need is the discussion board, Forumly pays for itself in 13 days of Circle.
- After 1 year: Forumly has cost you $39 total — Circle has cost $1,068.
- After 3 years: Forumly is still $39 — the subscription is at $3,204.
- After 5 years: Forumly is still $39 — the subscription is at $5,340.
What you get for $39 once
- Categories, threads, replies. One-level nesting for readability, thread pinning and locking, and new-since-your-last-visit indicators.
- Reactions. A six-emoji reaction set with toggling and per-member state.
- Member profiles. Avatar or generated initials, bio, join date, post count and a manual-award badge system.
- Notifications. Reply-to-your-thread and @mention notifications with an unread bell (email digest is a stub — wire your own SMTP).
- Search. Across thread titles and post bodies, with snippets.
- No renewal, ever. The license does not expire and there is no per-seat meter — $39 is the whole price.
Pricing questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — Forumly is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/community-forum-mvp. The $39 buys the packaged installer and 1-click setup; building from source is free.
Does it do courses and payments like Circle?
No — it's deliberately just the forum. If you need courses, payments and video, Circle does more; Forumly does the discussion board and owns its data.
Where does my community data live?
In one SQLite file on your own server that you can copy to back up. No cloud, no telemetry.
Forumly — $39, one time
Or get Forumly plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.