Skool pricing in 2026: plans, fees and real costs

Skool's 2 plans at a glance

Every Skool group comes with a community feed, a classroom for courses, a calendar for events, leaderboards and member chat. You can run it free, as a subscription, freemium, tiered or as a one-time payment, and both plans include unlimited members.

Both plans start with a 14-day free trial, and Skool's pricing page also offers yearly billing labeled "2 months free". On monthly billing, the plan alone costs $108 a year on Hobby or $1,188 on Pro.

Transaction fees explained

Hobby charges 10% + 30 cents on every transaction. Pro drops that to 2.9% + 30 cents on charges up to $899 and 3.9% + 30 cents on charges above $900, according to Skool's payments FAQ.

Skool's own examples: at a $9/month price you receive $7.80 on Hobby and about $8.44 on Pro, and a $999 charge on Pro pays out $959.74. Fees are non-refundable.

Skool is the merchant of record. Card processing happens on Skool, so there's no separate Stripe fee, but you also can't use your existing Stripe account. Skool adds EU VAT on top of your price and files it for you: a $100/month price plus 19% German VAT becomes $119/month at checkout.

Prices are in USD, and payouts go out in your local currency every Wednesday. US banks get the money in 1 to 3 business days and international banks in 3 to 5, though your first payout can take up to 14 days.

What 100 members at $20/month really costs

Say 100 members pay $20/month, all recruited by you, so you bring in $2,000/month. Here's what each plan costs:

• Hobby: fees of 100 x ($2.00 + $0.30) = $230, plus the $9 plan = $239/month, or 11.95% of revenue. You keep $1,761.
• Pro: fees of 100 x ($0.58 + $0.30) = $88, plus the $99 plan = $187/month, or 9.35% of revenue. You keep $1,813.
• Break-even: Pro becomes cheaper than Hobby once member revenue passes about $1,268/month, roughly 64 members at $20.

Tip: Start on Hobby while you build the group, then move to Pro once member revenue passes about $1,268/month or you need a Pro-only feature.

Growth Boost: the 30% commission

Growth Boost is part of Skool's Discovery and it's on by default. Skool promotes your group in its search results and runs off-site ads at its own cost. When that brings you a paying member, Skool takes 30% of that member's recurring charges for as long as they stay subscribed.

On a $20/month member who found you through Growth Boost, Skool takes $6 plus the normal fees. You keep $11.70 on Hobby or $13.12 on Pro. Members you bring yourself only pay the normal fees.

Note: You can switch Growth Boost off anytime in Settings > Discovery.

What Pro adds over Hobby

Both plans include unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls, membership questions, and the option to unlock chat or posting at a certain level. Gamification is on both too: 1 like = 1 point, members climb 9 levels (level 9 takes 33,015 points), and admins can unlock courses at a level.

Pro's $99/month adds lower fees plus:

• A custom group URL (skool.com/your-name); the first change is free, then $100 per change
• Affiliates, Zapier and webhooks
• AutoDM, onboarding videos and cancellation videos
• Google Ads tracking, links on the group card and instant approval

Who Skool fits and who should look elsewhere

Skool fits coaches, creators and course sellers who want their feed, classroom, calendar, leaderboards and chat in one place, with an official free app for iOS and Android. Hobby gets you started for $9/month with no member or course limits.

The catch: your group always lives on skool.com, with no custom domain, and you can't bring your own Stripe account. If either matters, compare the best online community platforms or our list of Skool alternatives.

Alternatives, including free ones

For $0, CommentCamp, our product, gives you free comments and community spaces on your own website, with unlimited threads plus optional member levels, quests and accepted answers (Q&A). It's free forever for site owners, and readers never hit a paywall to read or comment. There are no transaction fees, since it's built for open discussion on your own site rather than selling access.

CommentCamp launches with an official WordPress plugin and a universal embed script, with WordPress comment import and full data exports on its roadmap. It's in private early access, onboarding the first cohorts of sites; join the waitlist to get your site in.

We compare the two biggest paid rivals in Skool vs Circle vs Mighty Networks. Circle starts at $89/month billed annually ($99 monthly) with a 2% transaction fee on top of Stripe and a custom domain on every plan. Mighty Networks starts at $29/month billed annually ($35 monthly) on Explore with a 5% fee; courses and a custom domain start on Launch at $79/month billed annually.

Other free options: Discourse has a hosted Free plan with 2 staff seats and a yourname.discourse.group address (Pro is $100/month), and Discord is free, with paid Server Subscriptions that let US creators keep 90%.