Skool Review (2026): Two Plans, One Product, and the Fee That Decides Which You Want

Disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we earn a commission, at no additional cost to you. Commission is excluded from the Product Score. Full disclosure.

Skool costs $9 or $99 a month. Both plans are the same software — the difference is the cut Skool takes on member payments. Prices checked 30 August 2026.

By Jack Gandolfo · Reviewed Aug 30, 2026

Last updated Sep 9, 2026

Pricing verified Aug 30, 2026 — plan prices, transaction fees and feature lists were read by hand from skool.com/pricing, skool.com/about, circle.so/pricing and kajabi.com/pricing on 30 August 2026. They are reported figures, not captures from our marketplace collectors.

Direct answer: Skool is a community platform with two plans — Hobby at $9/month and Pro at $99/month. Both plans carry the identical feature list on Skool's own pricing page. The only difference is the transaction fee Skool takes on payments from your members: 10% on Hobby, 2.9% on Pro. If you charge nothing, Hobby is the whole product for $9. If you charge members, the fee is the entire decision.

That is the fact most Skool reviews get wrong, because they describe Hobby as a limited tier. It is not limited. It is the same software with a bigger rake.

What does Skool cost?

Prices below were read from skool.com/pricing on 30 August 2026.

Yearly billing is advertised on the same page as 2 months free. Skool offers a free trial ("TRY FOR FREE"); the trial length is stated on the sign-up screen, so treat that screen as authoritative rather than any review, including this one.

Which Skool plan is cheaper for me?

This is arithmetic on the two published numbers, not a projection. Pro costs $90/month more than Hobby and takes 7.1 percentage points less on every member payment.

$90 ÷ 0.071 = about $1,270 a month in member payments. Below that, Hobby costs you less overall. Above it, Pro does. At exactly that volume the two plans cost the same.

What is Skool actually for?

Skool describes itself as a community platform where you "build your own community, courses, and events" and "charge subscription memberships or 1-time course purchases" (skool.com/about, read 30 August 2026). It was founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens and Daniel Kang, has 30 employees, and is based in Los Angeles. Alex Hormozi partnered with Skool in 2024 to create The Skool Games.

The design bias is obvious once you use it: one feed, one classroom, one calendar, one members list. There is no page builder to configure and nothing to integrate. That is the product's actual argument.

What does Skool do badly?

Skool's published feature list contains no marketing email, no landing pages, no funnels, and no automation builder. Kajabi's pricing page lists all four as unlimited on every tier. That is not a Skool bug — it is a scope decision — but it means Skool is not a replacement for a marketing stack, and if you were planning to run a launch sequence from it, you cannot.

The 10% fee on Hobby is also genuinely steep for a paid community. On $1,000 of member payments it is $100 a month, which is more than Pro's entire subscription.

Who should not use Skool?

• Anyone whose main product is a polished, standalone course with drip schedules, upsells and a branded checkout funnel. That is Kajabi's shape, not Skool's.
• Anyone who needs granular spaces, member segmentation, workflows or an admin API. Circle's Business plan lists those; Skool's pricing page does not.
• Anyone who needs to send marketing email from the same tool.
• Anyone who cannot tolerate a platform fee on top of card processing.

The verdict

Skool is worth buying on Hobby at $9/month, and worth Pro only above about $1,270/month in member payments. That is the whole recommendation. The feature list is short on purpose and the pricing is honest about it: you are buying one feed, one classroom, one calendar and no configuration work. If that is the product you wanted, start on Hobby today and upgrade when the fee maths flips — there is nothing to gain by starting higher.

If you need marketing email, funnels or landing pages, buy something else or budget for a second tool now, because no Skool plan adds them.

How Skool's own affiliate program works

Worth stating plainly because almost nobody does: Skool's affiliate program pays 40% recurring for life with a 14-day attribution window — checked 31 August 2026. The 40% applies monthly, for as long as the person you referred keeps paying for their group. Attribution is last-touch over 14 days, which is short. Joining the core program needs only a free Skool account; the link is under Settings then Affiliates. Community-specific internal affiliate programs are a separate thing and do have their own membership requirements. Sources: help.skool.com/article/187 and help.skool.com/article/33, read 31 August 2026.

What we could not verify

We do not have vendor confirmation for Skool's storage limits, video length limits, number of communities allowed per subscription, or which payment processors are supported. Skool's public pricing page does not state them. The sign-up screen and Skool's help centre are authoritative on those points; we would rather say so than guess.

Read next

• Skool pricing in detail — the two plans, the fees, and the break-even maths
• Is Skool worth it? — the honest case for and against
• Skool vs Kajabi — community platform against a full course-and-marketing suite
• Skool vs Circle — the closest direct comparison
• Skool alternatives — six platforms priced against Skool
• Skool vs Discord — free chat server against a $9 classroom
• Skool vs Teachable — where the 10% and the 7.5% bite