Vendor · Skool · Community section · USD

Skool (2026) — who it’s actually for

Updated August 29, 2026 · Official pricing, about, and payments pages fetched this evening. If a number is missing below, we could not cite it.

Skool is a community platform. Hobby is $9/mo with a 10% cut. Pro is $99/mo with 2.9%+$0.30 up to $899 and 3.9%+$0.30 above $900. Skool is merchant of record. You do not keep your Stripe. Native email and funnels are not the product.

Who this page is for

Experts with a method, deciding whether Skool is the room — not whether they should invent a community. A paid group as the offer. Courses and live calls live inside the feed. You would otherwise buy a forum, a calendar, and a checkout, or you would buy Kajabi and never open the community tab.

This is the community section of a course-platform directory, not a second site. It is not a Skool vs everyone table. Those live on Kajabi vs Skool and Skool vs Circle vs Mighty Networks. This page is Skool on its own terms: Hobby vs Pro, merchant of record, and the 3.9% tier the pricing card does not put in the headline.

The short version

Cited numbers, August 29, 2026

USD. Monthly is month-to-month. Annual is advertised as “2 months free”; we did not extract a yearly dollar from the official page this fetch. Platform fee is Skool’s cut — Skool is merchant of record, so this is the processing, not a cut on top of Stripe.

Sources: skool.com/pricing, Skool Payments FAQ, payment terms. Full list at the bottom.

What you are actually buying

The room. Official about page: discover or create communities; some free, some paid; creators, artists, hobbyists, and experts. Founded 2019 by Sam Ovens and Daniel Kang; 30 employees; Los Angeles. Alex Hormozi partnered in 2024 to create The Skool Games (about page). That last line is company history, not a reason to pick the host.

Courses inside the group. Unlimited courses on both pricing cards. About page: one-time course purchases or subscription memberships. A Skool course is still a community feature. It is not a Kajabi product, not a Thinkific LMS, not SCORM. Native email, funnels, and a website builder are not listed as products on the public pricing page this fetch.

Checkout you do not own. Payments FAQ: all payment processing happens on Skool’s merchant. You connect a bank account via Stripe Express for payouts. You cannot point Skool at the Stripe account you already have. That is the trade for “no integrations required.”

Hobby vs Pro

Public prices: Hobby $9/mo. Pro $99/mo. Gap: $90/mo month-to-month. Yearly dollars omitted.

The 10% has to recoup that gap before Hobby is “cheaper.” Payments FAQ: Hobby is 10%+$0.30 on every charge. Pro is 2.9%+$0.30 to $899 and 3.9%+$0.30 above $900. The pricing card’s “2.9%” is not the rate on a $2,000 invoice.

Arithmetic on listed price, Skool’s cut only (no tax, no Growth Boost):

• $97 membership. Hobby 10%+$0.30 = $10.00. Pro 2.9%+$0.30 = $3.11. Extra on Hobby: $6.89 per charge. About 13 such charges recoup a month of the $90 gap. That is not a forecast. It is the official 10% vs 2.9% on a $97 price.
• $497. Hobby $50.00. Pro $14.71. Extra on Hobby: $35.29. Three such charges already exceed a month of the gap — and you are still not buying Circle’s branded community or Kajabi’s OS.
• $2,000. Hobby $200.30. Pro 3.9%+$0.30 = $78.30. The $900 tier is the product on a high-ticket checkout. Pro’s public 2.9% card does not apply.

Hobby is a trial of the shape. Sit on it while the group is empty. Do not sit on it as a long-term home for a $97 membership that actually renews, and do not sit on it for a $2,000 course.

What the fees do to a simple offer

On Skool the published cut is the processing. Circle and Mighty add a platform percentage on top of Stripe. Kajabi Payments has no extra platform percentage. Arithmetic only.

• $97. Skool Hobby $10.00. Skool Pro $3.11. Kajabi Payments Basic 2.9%+$0.30 = $3.11, plus $179/mo for the OS. Circle Professional 2% = $1.94 plus Stripe (Circle help, US cards: typically 2.9%+$0.30 — combined $5.05 if you use that help’s card example). Mighty Launch 2% = $1.94 plus Stripe.
• $497. Hobby $50.00. Pro $14.71. Kajabi Payments Basic $14.71. Circle Professional 2% = $9.94 plus Stripe.
• $2,000. Hobby $200.30. Pro $78.30. Kajabi Payments Basic $58.30. Circle Professional 2% = $40.00 plus Stripe.

Growth Boost, if you leave it on, is 30% of the customer Skool brought you, on top of the plan’s processing, including recurrences. Turn it off in SETTINGS > Discovery if you did not ask for it. We are not publishing a break-even month against Kajabi or Circle. Those hosts are not this machine. Comparisons: Kajabi vs Skool, Skool vs Circle vs Mighty, Discord + Teachable vs Skool.

Who should pick Skool

Hobby if you are testing whether the offer is a feed. $9/mo. Unlimited members. 10%+$0.30. 14-day trial first. Treat the 10% as the product, not a temporary inconvenience.

Pro if the membership is real and you accept merchant-of-record checkout. $99/mo. 2.9%+$0.30 under $900. Price a $900+ charge at 3.9%+$0.30 before you put a $2,000 course on the card. Group transfer requires Pro.

Both plans: USD prices, Wednesday payouts, Skool handles EU VAT, existing members grandfather when you raise the price. That is the honest fit for a paid community as the offer.

Skip Skool if

You need your own Stripe, a course business with email and funnels, or a branded app with your name in the store. Native email and funnels are not listed as products on skool.com/pricing this fetch.

Also skip Hobby once $97–$497 products are actually selling — the 10% is the product. Skip Pro’s 2.9% card as the rate on a checkout above $900. Skip leaving Growth Boost on if you did not ask Skool to buy you members at 30%. Skip Skool if you wanted Circle’s branded community or Mighty’s branded membership. Skip Skool if you wanted a recorded library — public Kajabi Basic is $179/mo for that OS; Thinkific Basic is $54/mo for the player.

Payment terms: no refunds for full or partial billing periods. Cancel to stop the next invoice. After the period ends, the group is archived and read-only. That is not a migrate-off path. The Kajabi map is migrate off Kajabi — a different leave.

Visit Skool

Circle affiliate slot — not live Mighty Networks affiliate slot — not live Teachable affiliate slot — not live Thinkific affiliate slot — not live

Visit Skool uses the Skool signup affiliate. Official skool.com/pricing remains the source for every Skool number on this page. Kajabi’s trial box and visit button use the 30-day trial affiliate, justinwise.net/kajabi. The Kajabi pricing button is a pricing-page affiliate. Circle, Mighty Networks, Teachable, and Thinkific stay official product URLs plus labeled affiliate slots.

Omitted on purpose

• Skool yearly dollar amounts. Official page: “2 months free.” No yearly dollar extracted this fetch.
• A public member cap, storage cap, or live-call attendee cap beyond “unlimited” on the pricing cards. Not extracted as a number this fetch.
• Native email, funnels, and website builder as Skool products. Not listed on skool.com/pricing this fetch. We are not inventing a Kit replacement inside Skool.
• Skool Games / Hormozi partnership as a pricing or feature row. About-page history only.
• Third-party “Skool is overpriced” threads as a fee source. The objection page is Discord + Teachable vs Skool. Official fees stay on Skool’s help center.
• Circle Plus and Mighty Pro public dollar cards. Both are custom. Cited only as the branded-community / branded-membership fork, not priced here.
• Keyword volumes, guru-adjacent Skool screenshots, and anything that documents your method for you.

Sources

1. Skool pricing — Hobby $9/mo, Pro $99/mo, 10% vs 2.9% on the cards, unlimited members/courses/videos/live calls, custom URL, affiliates, “2 months free” yearly toggle. Fetched August 29, 2026.
2. Skool about — community platform; community, courses, and events; subscriptions or one-time course purchases; all-in-one, no integrations required (vendor copy); founded 2019; 30 employees; Los Angeles; Hormozi / Skool Games 2024. Fetched August 29, 2026.
3. Skool Payments FAQ (updated August 18, 2026) — Hobby 10%+30¢; Pro 2.9%+30¢ to $899 / 3.9%+30¢ above $900; $100,000 transaction limit; cannot use existing Stripe; merchant of record; EU VAT; USD prices; Wednesday payouts; first payout up to 14 days; Growth Boost 30% default ON; grandfathering. Fetched August 29, 2026.
4. Skool payment terms and policy (updated February 19, 2026) — 14-day free trial, then Hobby or Pro; monthly or annual billing; auto-renew; no refunds; cancel anytime, then archived read-only; URL change on Pro is a one-time purchase; group transfer requires Pro. Fetched August 29, 2026.
5. Kajabi pricing — public Basic $179/$143; Kajabi Payments 2.9%+$0.30; 30-day trial. Cited as the library/OS alternative, not re-priced as a community host. Fetched August 29, 2026.
6. Circle pricing — Professional $89/mo*; 2% plus Stripe. Cited as the branded-community fork. Fetched August 29, 2026.
7. Mighty Networks pricing — Launch $79/mo annual-toggle, $950/year; 2% plus Stripe. Cited as the branded-membership fork. Fetched August 29, 2026.
8. Thinkific pricing — Basic $54/$40. Cited as the cheaper recorded-library alternative. Fetched August 29, 2026 (curl 200).