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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

LinkedIn vs Circle Communities

LinkedIn 4.8★ · Free + IAP 65
Winner LinkedIn
Circle Communities 4.9★ · Free to download 60

LinkedIn is the better choice for professional networking and job searching, despite its significant usability issues and aggressive premium push, while Circle Communities excels as a dedicated platform for niche community engagement, though it also suffers from technical glitches.

Full reviews: LinkedIn · Circle Communities

LinkedIn offers extensive professional networking and job opportunities but is plagued by sign-in problems, buggy features, and aggressive paywalls. Circle Communities provides a user-friendly platform for niche groups, fostering strong connections, but struggles with video playback, notifications, and occasional app instability.

Head to head

Features & Purpose edge: LinkedInR2R3R8R11
LinkedIn LinkedIn is praised for its core purpose of professional networking, career growth, and job seeking, with users finding it helpful for connections and finding employment R2R11. However, users are frustrated by features being locked behind a paywall, such as extensive search capabilities R3. Some users also report issues with finding saved jobs on the app R8 and a desire for better job filtering to avoid scams .
Circle Communities Circle Communities is highly valued for its ability to foster strong community connections, support, and sharing within specific groups . Users appreciate it as a central hub for community activities and communication R102. However, some users note a lack of advanced features like adding events to calendars or admin tools within the app .
Ease of Use & User Experience tieR1R6R7R10
LinkedIn LinkedIn users frequently report significant difficulties with the sign-in and verification process, describing it as impossible, time-consuming, and frustrating due to CAPTCHAs and verification loops R1R7R10R13. The app's interface and layout are also criticized, with complaints about cumbersome navigation, small text/buttons, and unintuitive updates . Commenting features are buggy, with cursor jumps and tagging failures R6.
Circle Communities Circle Communities is generally considered user-friendly and easy to navigate by many users . However, others find it confusing or challenging to navigate initially . Specific frustrations include text fields crowding when creating posts , difficulty managing multiple emails , and non-intuitive notification settings . Some users also report issues with the cursor disappearing when editing text on an iPad .
Reliability & Performance tieR4R13R20R22
LinkedIn LinkedIn is frequently criticized for its poor performance, with users reporting the app crashes R4R22, is extremely slow to load pages and edit information , and has general jankiness R13. There are also issues with posts and comments not saving if the user leaves the app . Notifications are a major problem, with users being flooded with unwanted updates and finding it difficult to turn them off R20.
Circle Communities Circle Communities users report frequent app crashes and freezing . Video playback is a significant issue, with videos going dark, not continuing after pausing, and not remembering the user's spot R61R84R102R110. Users also experience lags on calls and inconsistent notification delivery .
Price & Value tieR3R4R31R33
LinkedIn LinkedIn offers a free tier but heavily pushes its premium subscription, which users find ridiculously priced R3R35. Many users feel the app handicaps them without paying and that premium doesn't deliver value, leading to spam and no leads . Some users even report issues with premium subscriptions disappearing after payment R33 or the app still not working once paid R4R31.
Circle Communities Circle Communities is free to download, but the reviews indicate that access to communities often involves a fee paid to the community leader or program . Some users express frustration over not being able to access content they've 'earned' without purchasing the program . There are also complaints about hidden charges and difficulty getting refunds for subscriptions .
Support & Security tieR7R9R28R37
LinkedIn LinkedIn users report significant issues with customer service, especially for hacked accounts, with pleas being ignored R37. There are also concerns about consumer security, unauthorized access, and breaches R9. The verification process is criticized as invasive and unreliable R7R28.
Circle Communities Circle Communities users report a lack of customer support, with no easy way to reach support or contact them when experiencing errors . Users also struggle with verification codes not being sent or having only one verification option, making it difficult to sign in .
Pick LinkedIn if

Pick LinkedIn if you need a widely recognized platform for professional networking, job searching, and career development, and are willing to tolerate significant app bugs and aggressive premium prompts R2.

Pick Circle Communities if

Pick Circle Communities if you are looking for a dedicated platform to engage with niche communities, share experiences, and receive support within specific groups, and prioritize community interaction over advanced features .

Evidence note: Both apps have a significant number of negative reviews regarding app functionality and support, despite high lifetime ratings. LinkedIn's negative reviews often center on login issues and paywall frustrations, while Circle Communities users frequently cite video playback and notification problems. The free-vs-paid asymmetry is notable for LinkedIn, where many negative reviews stem from free-tier limitations or issues after paying for premium.

Frequently asked

Is LinkedIn worth paying for?
Based on user reviews, paying for LinkedIn Premium is often not considered worth the cost, as users report that many desired features remain inaccessible, the app still crashes, and it can lead to unwanted spam R3R4R31R35.
What are the main problems with the LinkedIn app?
The main problems with the LinkedIn app include extremely difficult and buggy sign-in and verification processes, frequent app crashes and slow performance, aggressive and often ineffective premium paywalls, and unreliable customer service for account issues R1R4R7R10.
Does Circle Communities have good video playback?
No, Circle Communities frequently has issues with video playback, with users reporting that videos go dark, do not resume after pausing, do not remember the user's spot, and often fail to load or play consistently R61R84R102R110.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R2] LinkedIn 5/5 · US Stronger connection.: If you feel your gift is dying try LinkedIn, a few connection will reassure you of bring your gift back to life. Is not just connection is a place of hope when your talent is clear.
  2. [R3] LinkedIn 3/5 · US Cannot Access Certain Features Unless You Pay: I can no longer extensively browse people through search because I have to pay in order to look at more than 5 people but I can't afford to pay for the monthly or yearly membership as it's ridiculously priced. I understand how Premium makes sense for the job application process but everyone should have unlimited access to the search capabilities.
  3. [R8] LinkedIn 4/5 · US Impossible to find saved jobs on app: No option to find saved jobs on the app, must use PC for this feature seems overly cumbersome
  4. [R11] LinkedIn 5/5 · US MONSTER: ADVICE: About Career And Life. WHICH: Is My Version of What LINKED IN Is. · translated
  5. [R1] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Not a robot: I haven’t logged in to LinkedIn in years. Trying to login seems impossible. The “not a robot” prompts are apparently too difficult for me to understand. Mark all boxes with busses. If a bus bleeds over to another square does that count as a square? Tried both ways and still I fail it. Try the audio version. Am I supposed to put spaces between the words? Try both ways and still fail. H
  6. [R6] LinkedIn 3/5 · US Comments are buggy: Cursor jumps to the end of text when attempting to revise comments on a post, no matter where it is placed. Tagging more than one user in comments also fails.
  7. [R7] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Problematic & Evasive: Sign in process can be outlandishly time consuming and ID requirements can be shockingly invasive.
  8. [R10] LinkedIn 1/5 · US CANT SIGN IN: It won’t let me sign in. I’m being led in circles. To approve a sign in, I have to “follow steps in your LinkedIn app” well I can’t. I’m trying to sign into the app. To sign in it says it will send an email to verify myself, in that email, it says “We noticed you recently tried to sign in to your Linkedin account from a new device. You can finish signing in to your LinkedIn account b
  9. [R4] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Once I paid, it crashes every time I open it: Once I upgraded to premium. Every time I open the app on my iPad it prompts me for an update. And doesn't allow me to do anything. I click update. Which brings up the App Store. Asking me to open the app. And it starts all over again, prompting me for the update. I've deleted the app. Reinstalled the app. I can do nothing on LinkedIn. Because all I get
  10. [R13] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Janky barely works: The app barely works. Spent 10 mins on one recaptch only to find out it was stuck in a loop
  11. [R20] LinkedIn 4/5 · US App concept and execution are great but the amount of notifications should be criminal: I could not understand why I was getting flooded with random summaries and updates constantly so I went to check- they had added several dozen individual controls for turning off notifications. It took me 15 to 20 minutes to turn them all off. That was a cheap trick I don’t appreciate.
  12. [R22] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Fails to open: This app closes after the startup screen. Sometimes it works.
  13. [R31] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Bad app: Too expensive and doesn’t work even when you pay.
  14. [R33] LinkedIn 3/5 · US Lost my Premium membership: I just paid $42 with taxes for a monthly premium subscription on June 12, 2026 and should have premium until July 12th but for some reason my premium subscription is gone from my account on LinkedIn but it still shows as active in my subscriptions on my phone. That’s a lot of money for a subscription for it just to disappear.
  15. [R9] LinkedIn 3/5 · US Consumer Protection Act: It’s time for large technology companies to take consumer security seriously. Too many people are experiencing unauthorized access to their accounts, changes to their personal information, and breaches that should never happen in the first place. Consumers are required to follow strict rules, strong passwords, multi‑factor authentication, identity verification, recovery
  16. [R28] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Verification process: The verification process is tedious and useless. I’ve spent over an hour trying to log into MY account, change password, etc. Nothing works. Please fix this, there are so many verification options and recaptcha is unreliable.
  17. [R37] LinkedIn 1/5 · US Customer Service about hacked Account: I tried to Get my account back multiple times after finding out my account was Hijacked and now being impersonated, And now the LinkedIn customer service is just ignoring my plead, so if this doesn’t get resolved or have my Number Changed to my Actual number 1386, I Will personally File a Lawsuit For Discrimination Against My Data
  18. [R35] LinkedIn 5/5 · US Only rating 5 starts so you’ll see it: I think it’s absolutely insane that it wants me to pay for looking at Jobs?? That’s so ridiculous!!
  19. [R61] Circle Communities 1/5 · US App goes dark: When watching a video in the Circle app, if I pause video & navigate to another app or answer a phone call and navigate back to the video the video is dark and will no longer play and I have to completely close down the app and it loses my spot in the video. It would also be nice if the app would remember between PC and mobile device where you were at in the video (same login) inste
  20. [R84] Circle Communities 3/5 · US Pretty good, but some improvements are in order: I love that this app exists and am grateful for the communities it’s given me access to, but it could use some technical improvements. I’ve experienced two outages within the past two weeks, and the video player is buggy. Most of the time when I pause a video and leave the app momentarily, the video won’t continue playing upon my return and I need
  21. [R102] Circle Communities 3/5 · GB One place for all community activities: This is a lovely application which connects all the activities happening within the community. Only issue I see is with respect to the video previewing it kind of is a bit lazy. overall a great app.
  22. [R110] Circle Communities 2/5 · US Placemarks: Circle needs to remember where the viewer was when a video is stopped. It is way more than annoying to have to log timestamps. Cmon guys how hard can this be!

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store