Platform review · for community builders
Skool Review (2026): Is It Worth It for Creators?
Thinking about building your community on Skool? Here is what it actually costs, what the fees do to your margin, and what 884 real Skool communities tell us about what works there.
- $9–$99 /month
- 2.9%–10% transaction fee
- 14-day free trial
- 884 communities analysed
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Pricing read from skool.com/pricing on August 10, 2026
Skool pricing at a glance
Skool has exactly two plans, and — unusually — they include the same features. The only difference is the base price and the cut Skool takes of what your members pay you.
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Fee on member payments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | $9 | $90 (2 months free) | 10% |
| Pro | $99 | $990 (2 months free) | 2.9% |
Included on both plans: unlimited members, unlimited courses, unlimited videos, unlimited live calls, custom url, built-in affiliate programme. There is no free tier for owners, though a community can be free for its members while you pay the monthly fee. Payouts settle in 7–14 days.
Hobby or Pro? Run your own numbers
Skool shows the two plans side by side and leaves you to work out which is cheaper. It is a single equation: Hobby costs $9 + 10% of what your members pay you, Pro costs $99 + 2.9%. They meet at $1,268 a month.
Which plan is cheaper for you?
Hobby
Cheaper$109/mo
$9 base + 10% of $1,000
Pro
$128/mo
$99 base + 2.9% of $1,000
At $1,000 a month, Hobby costs you $19 less per month. The two plans cost the same at $1,268 in monthly member revenue — below that Hobby wins, above it Pro does.
Because the feature sets are identical, upgrading early buys you nothing. Start on Hobby, and move to Pro the month you cross $1,268 in member revenue.
What 884 real Skool communities tell us
Skool's marketing shows you the outliers. We track 884 live communities and refresh their public figures regularly, so here is the shape of the actual market — useful if you are deciding what to charge.
- Median price
- $24
- per month
- Median size
- 353
- members
- Are free to join
- 17%
- 150 of 884
- Reach 1,000+ members
- 22%
- 197 of 884
What paid communities actually charge
Three things stand out. The market is cheaper than the case studies suggest — the median paid community charges $24 a month, and 62% sit under $30. Size is modest: half have fewer than 353 members and only 22% pass a thousand. And 599 of 884 run Skool's built-in affiliate programme, at a median cut of 40% — recruiting affiliates is closer to the norm than the exception.
Figures from this site's own directory, recomputed on every build. Medians rather than averages, because a handful of listings carry placeholder prices in the tens of thousands.
Skool pros and cons for community builders
Pros
- One tool replaces a course platform, a forum and a checkout — no stack to wire together
- Features are not gated by plan, so a $9 account has the same product as a $99 one
- Genuinely simple to set up; a working community in an afternoon with no technical skill
- Built-in affiliate programme, used by 599 of the 884 communities we track
- Discovery page sends real traffic — free distribution most platforms don't offer
- 14-day trial, cancellable in one click
Cons
- The transaction fee is real money: 10% on Hobby is a tenth of your revenue, on top of the subscription
- Almost no design control — every Skool community looks like a Skool community
- No tiered membership levels, so you can't run a $9 and a $99 tier in one community
- Weak native analytics; you will not get funnel or cohort data without exporting
- Exit is painful: emails export, but courses, posts and history do not port anywhere
- No permanently free plan for owners
Who Skool is and isn't for
Skool fits if you…
- Want to launch fast and validate before investing in tooling
- Are selling one thing at one price to one audience
- Value a simple product over a configurable one
- Plan to recruit affiliates to sell for you
- Are already creating content and need somewhere to put a paid audience
Look elsewhere if you…
- Need multiple pricing tiers inside one community
- Want your brand, not Skool's, to be the visual experience
- Depend on deep analytics or integrations with an existing stack
- Run high revenue at thin margins where a 2.9% cut still hurts
- Cannot accept that your content is hard to move later
Skool review FAQ
How much does Skool cost?
Skool has two plans. Hobby is $9 a month and takes a 10% cut of member payments. Pro is $99 a month and takes 2.9%. Both include unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls — Skool does not gate features by tier, only the transaction fee. Yearly billing is advertised as two months free, and there is a 14-day free trial on both. Prices verified on skool.com/pricing on 2026-08-10.
Should I pick Hobby or Pro?
It is pure arithmetic. Hobby costs $9 + 10% of your member revenue; Pro costs $99 + 2.9%. They cost the same at about $1,268 a month in member revenue. Below that, Hobby is cheaper; above it, Pro is. Since the features are identical, there is no reason to pay for Pro before you cross that line.
Is Skool worth it for creators?
If you want one tool that replaces a course platform, a forum and a payment processor, and you value simplicity over customisation, yes. If you need granular design control, complex funnels, tiered membership levels or deep integrations with an existing stack, Skool will frustrate you — it is deliberately opinionated and does very little configuration.
Does Skool take a cut of my revenue?
Yes, on top of the monthly fee: 10% on Hobby, 2.9% on Pro. That is Skool's cut and is separate from the underlying card processing. Payouts settle in 7–14 days. Budget for the fee when you price your community — a $30/month member nets you $27 on Hobby.
Can I move my community off Skool later?
You can export member emails, but courses, posts, comments and the community history do not port to another platform in any usable form. This is the real cost of the simplicity: the switching cost grows with every month of content and discussion you add. Weigh that before you commit a business to it.
Is there a free plan?
No. There is a 14-day free trial on both plans, cancellable in one click, but no permanently free tier for community owners. Note that a community can be free for its members while the owner still pays the monthly fee.
Verdict: should you build on Skool?
Skool is the fastest way to get a paid community running, and the $9 entry price means the decision costs almost nothing to test. For someone with an audience and no product, that combination is hard to beat — you can be selling this week.
The trade-off is control. You accept Skool's design, Skool's feature set and a cut of every payment, and you accept that leaving later means leaving your content behind. That is a fair deal at $9 a month while you are proving the idea. It is a more serious commitment once the community is your business.
The honest framing: start on Hobby, price near the $24 median the market actually pays, and treat the 10% fee as the cost of not building anything yourself. Move to Pro the month you pass $1,268. If you get to the point where the fee genuinely hurts, that is a good problem, and by then you will know whether the switching cost is worth paying.
From $9/month
14-day free trial · cancel in one click
Deciding which community to join instead? Browse our 884 community reviews →