Introduction
Circle.so is a leading all-in-one community platform that empowers creators, brands, and businesses to build and manage thriving online communities. With an estimated revenue of over $10M and a user base of entrepreneurs, educators, and large organizations, Circle.so's marketing website is a critical tool for attracting and engaging new users. To ensure their website performance matched their growth, Circle engaged custom website development experts, MultiDots, to undertake a significant migration and optimization project.
The Challenge
Circle’s marketing website was originally built on Webflow CMS. While effective initially, the platform began to face limitations as the company grew. The primary goals for the project were to:
Improve Website Performance: Optimize a significant number of third-party extensions to achieve faster load times and a smoother user experience.
Enhance Scalability and Control: Migrate all existing content from Webflow to the more flexible and scalable Builder.io platform.1
Streamline Development: Create a more efficient and manageable workflow for deploying new features and updates.
The Solution
To address these challenges, the solution involved a complete overhaul of Circle's website infrastructure. The development team at MultiDots leveraged the Next.js framework for custom coding and chose the Pressidium server for hosting. To manage the deployment of this new, high-performance website, they integrated DeployHQ into their workflow.
DeployHQ provided the essential link between the development environment and the live production server. By automating the deployment process, it allowed the team to:
Deploy Code Seamlessly: Push new code and updates to the Pressidium server quickly and reliably.
Ensure Consistency: Maintain a consistent and error-free deployment pipeline, crucial for a high-traffic website with over a million monthly visitors.
Focus on Development: Free the development team from manual deployment tasks, allowing them to focus on building custom components and optimizing performance.
The Results
The strategic combination of Builder.io, Next.js, Pressidium, and DeployHQ led to a dramatic improvement in Circle’s website performance and development workflow. The results were immediate and impactful:
60% Page Speed Improvement: By migrating to a more efficient stack and leveraging advanced caching strategies, Circle saw a significant improvement in performance metrics, with mobile scores increasing by 60%.
Seamless Migration and Enhanced Functionality: All content, design elements, and functionality were successfully migrated from Webflow to Builder.io.2 The new platform provided enhanced scalability and extensive customization, future-proofing the website.
Dynamic, Responsive, and SEO-Friendly Platform: The use of Builder.io and Next.js resulted in a modern website that is more responsive and better optimized for search engines.
Improved Development Workflow: With DeployHQ managing the deployment process, the development team could implement new features and content updates with greater speed and reliability, ensuring the website remains dynamic and efficient.3
Conclusion
The successful migration and custom development project for Circle.so demonstrates the power of a robust technology stack. By integrating a seamless deployment tool like DeployHQ, the development team was able to confidently and efficiently launch a new, high-performance website. This not only provided a 60% increase in mobile page speed but also established a scalable and future-proof foundation, directly contributing to a better user experience and supporting Circle's continued growth in the community platform space.
Source: Multidots Case Study: Circle.so
