Skool Review: Is It Still Worth Your Money in 2026?

• Last year, I took a hard look at Skool and shared my honest assessment. My conclusion? Intuitive, functional, but not worth $99 per month.

• Since then, things have shifted. So I decided to give Skool another shot and see whether it's evolved enough to change my mind.

• Here's what's new:

• 1) Skool got cheaper. They now offer a $9/month plan with unlimited courses and unlimited group members. The catch? A 10% transaction fee that can quietly eat into your revenue.

• 2) They've added meaningful features. Livestreaming, webinars, and native content hosting are now built in, meaning you can ditch Zoom and manage everything in one place.

• With these changes in mind, I ran a fresh trial and evaluated Skool across seven key areas:

  2. User experience

  3. Online course creation

  4. Community building

  5. Events hosting and management

  6. Customization and branding

  7. Marketing tools

  8. Value for money

• Here's everything I found.

• 
  
• What Is Skool?

• Skool is an online community platform founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens and Daniel Kang.

• Sam Ovens, a well-known course creator and consultant, spotted a critical gap in the market. Most learning management systems offered courses or community, rarely both in a seamless package. He partnered with Daniel Kang to fix that problem, and Skool was born.

• The platform gained massive mainstream attention when Alex Hormozi made a high-profile $400 million investment. Since then, Skool has ridden that wave of visibility, benefiting from Hormozi's reach in the online business world.

• At its core, Skool positions itself as an all-in-one platform where creators can bring courses and community together under one roof, giving members a social learning environment to connect, learn, and grow.

• Key features include:

  2. Skool Games

  3. Classrooms (course builder)

  4. Community forum

  5. Leaderboards

  6. Events manager

  7. Email broadcasts

  8. Direct messaging

  9. Community search

  10. Community marketplace

• I tested each of these features in depth. But first, let's address something Skool fans consistently praise: the user interface.

• 
  
• Skool Review: User Interface

• Rating: ★★★☆☆
  Easy to navigate, but the design feels dated.

• Skool's interface hasn't changed much since my last review, and that's both a strength and a weakness.

• The layout is minimal and mirrors the feel of classic forum platforms or Facebook Groups. That familiarity makes it instantly approachable, but it also makes it feel behind the times compared to modern tools like Circle.

• The dashboard is clean and well-organized. Core tools like community, classroom, calendar, and member directory sit in the top navigation bar for quick access. Secondary features like reporting, plugins, and leaderboards are tucked into the Settings menu in the right sidebar.

• Compared to platforms like Circle or Mighty Networks, Skool required almost no learning curve. I was navigating confidently within minutes.

• The mobile app reinforces that experience. It's fast, clutter-free, and easy to use. During my testing, I encountered zero bugs or glitches.

• That said, the overall design feels barebones. In a world where users judge software by how it looks and feels, an outdated interface can make your brand feel less premium, and that perception directly affects how potential members value what you're offering.

• Bottom line: Skool delivers a smooth, intuitive experience on both web and mobile. But its dated aesthetic could undermine the high-end positioning some creators are working hard to build.

• 
  
• Skool Review: Online Course Creation

• Rating: ★★★★☆
  Solid course structure with native hosting, but no assessment or certification tools.

• Skool's course builder uses a simple drag-and-drop system built around two elements:

  2. Folders = Modules

  3. Pages = Lessons

• The course player follows a familiar layout: modules and progress tracking on the left, lesson content in the center. Clean and functional.

• Within each lesson, you can include text, videos, images, and code snippets. Skool now supports native video hosting, which is a genuine improvement for creators who want to keep everything in one place. You can also embed content from YouTube, Wistia, or Loom if you prefer an external host.

• Additional touches worth noting:

  2. Attach supplemental resources like templates, worksheets, and checklists to individual lessons

  3. Upload video transcripts to improve accessibility

  4. Drip-feed lessons based on enrollment date to maintain a structured learning experience

• Where Skool falls short is assessment and certification. There are no built-in quizzes, graded tests, student surveys, or completion certificates. Platforms like Kajabi, Teachable, and Thinkific offer all of this natively. If measuring student comprehension and issuing credentials matters to your program, you'll need to bring in third-party tools.

• Bottom line: Skool handles course delivery well, but educators running structured upskilling programs will hit walls quickly without proper assessment features.

• 
  
• Skool Review: Events Management

• Rating: ★★★★☆
  Impressive live event capacity with useful built-in tools, though some limitations remain.

• This is one area where Skool has made a significant leap.

• Previously, hosting community calls meant routing members to Zoom or another external platform. That's no longer necessary. Skool now supports native live sessions for up to 10,000 participants, a number that puts it well ahead of many competitors.

• For context, Circle caps livestreams at 100–2,000 attendees and live rooms at 30–150, depending on your plan.

• Skool offers two distinct live formats:

• Skool Call is designed for collaborative sessions where participants can join with camera and microphone enabled. It's well-suited for interactive workshops, group coaching, and mastermind calls where two-way communication is the priority.

• Skool Webinar supports large-scale broadcasts where you stream to thousands of attendees. You can promote attendees to the stage when needed, allowing them to participate with audio and video.

• Both formats support session recording, and you can reshare recordings directly to your community or repurpose them as course content.

• If you prefer to stick with Zoom or Google Meet, Skool still lets you embed external links directly into your events.

• On the organizational side, Skool includes a community-wide calendar where you can schedule one-time or recurring sessions. Events can be open to all members or restricted by membership level or course enrollment. Members can RSVP from both the calendar and the community feed with a single click.

• Bottom line: Skool's events infrastructure is now genuinely competitive and removes the need for most external conferencing tools.

• 
  
• Skool Review: Community Engagement and Management

• Rating: ★★★★☆
  Clean and easy to manage, but limited in depth for growing communities.

• One of Skool's structural constraints is worth addressing upfront: you get one group per community. Unlike Circle or Mighty Networks, which allow multiple spaces organized by topic, cohort, or course, everything in Skool lives inside a single central feed.

• For simple communities, this works fine. For creators managing complex ecosystems, it's a real limitation.

• Within your group, members can post text, images, videos, polls, GIFs, and file attachments. Others can comment and like. If a post violates community standards, members can flag it for admin review.

• Posts can trigger automatic email broadcasts to all members, keeping your community informed without additional effort. You can also pin important announcements to prevent them from getting buried in the feed.

• Posts can be organized into categories, which appear at the top of the feed, and members can filter discussions by topic, popularity, or recency. However, filtering options are noticeably thinner than Mighty Networks, which allows sorting by location, member type, and activity category.

• Engagement Tools

• Beyond discussion, Skool offers leaderboards, direct messaging, and live events. Group chat is notably absent, which limits real-time casual interaction.

• The leaderboard rewards members with points for receiving likes and comments. You can rename leaderboard levels to match your community's tone, but you can't customize the scoring logic or introduce your own reward structures.

• Skool also lacks broader gamification features like badges, challenges, or custom gifts. Mighty Networks, for comparison, supports streak tracking and custom badges that add meaningful depth to member participation.

• Member Management and Moderation

• Skool gives admins basic but functional management tools. You can view all members, assign roles, promote moderators, edit or delete posts, and control who can post or comment.

• Member onboarding is straightforward. You can invite via link or require approval for controlled access. Built-in insights track discussion activity, course progress, and member contributions. Removing inactive or disruptive members is simple from the admin dashboard.

• Moderation tools are minimal. There's no automated content flagging, spam detection, or profanity filtering. Keeping your community clean requires hands-on oversight. Skool also limits the number of custom member profile fields, which restricts segmentation and personalization.

• Bottom line: Skool's community system is clean, approachable, and effective for focused learning communities. But creators who need deeper organization, advanced gamification, or nuanced member management will find it limiting as they scale.

• 
  
• Skool Review: Sales and Marketing Features

• Rating: ★★☆☆☆
  Handles transactions, but relies entirely on third-party tools for marketing.

• Skool's marketing capabilities are minimal. There's no built-in system for attracting, nurturing, or converting leads. Specifically, you cannot:

  2. Build sales pages, opt-in pages, or a full website

  3. Run email marketing campaigns to leads or prospects

  4. Create automated workflows for community or business processes

• All of that requires external tools, which adds cost and complexity.

• On the sales side, Skool handles checkout natively and supports credit and debit cards, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. You can also:

  2. Offer 7-day free trials to reduce friction at sign-up

  3. Enable affiliate referrals so members earn commissions for bringing in paying members

• However, Skool doesn't support order bumps, upsells, or post-purchase offers. If increasing average transaction value is part of your business model, you'll need to build that infrastructure elsewhere.

• Bottom line: Skool can process payments reliably, but it's not built for marketing. Creators who depend on funnels and automated campaigns will need to invest in additional tools.

• 
  
• Skool Review: Customization and Branding

• Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
  Bare-bones branding options with no white-labeling or custom domain support.

• If brand identity matters to your community, Skool will frustrate you.

• Your customization options are:

  2. Group icon

  3. Group name

  4. Cover image

  5. Light or dark mode toggle

• That's the full list.

• You cannot:

  2. Use a custom domain

  3. Apply brand colors or typography

  4. Display your logo in the forum header

  5. White-label your community

  6. Build a branded mobile app

• Every community you create will live under skool.com and visually resemble every other Skool group on the platform. For creators building premium brands, this is a significant drawback.

• Bottom line: Skool's branding limitations are a deal-breaker for anyone serious about owning their visual identity or presenting a polished, professional community experience.

• 
  
• Skool Games: Smart Motivation or Clever Marketing Trap?

• The Skool Games is a monthly competition where community owners race to attract the most paying members to their groups. The top 10 performers earn exclusive access to coaching sessions with experts including Alex Hormozi.

• The pitch is appealing. Grow your community, generate revenue, and compete for high-value mentorship. On paper, it sounds like a compelling incentive.

• But look closer and a few concerns emerge.

• To join Skool Games, you must start a 14-day free trial and provide your credit card details. The competition itself runs for a full month. That means your free trial expires mid-game, and you'll need to pay the $99/month subscription to finish what you started.

• That timing is not accidental. By the time your trial ends, you're already invested, emotionally and financially. Walking away feels like quitting, even if Skool isn't the right platform for your needs.

• There's also a broader philosophical issue. Skool Games is structured around out-earning other participants. That framing naturally shifts focus toward revenue generation over genuine community building. When winning becomes the priority, the quality of member relationships can take a back seat.

• Making money from your community is entirely valid. But the most valuable communities are ones where members win, not just owners. A contest that measures success purely in dollars doesn't always reflect that.

• My take: Skool Games is a smart gamification strategy that creates real motivation and generates action. But the 14-day trial window that conveniently expires before the competition ends feels more like a conversion tactic than a genuine on-ramp. If it were purely about community growth, a 30-day trial would match the competition's timeline. It doesn't.

• 
  
• Skool Pricing

• Skool offers two straightforward plans:

Hobby

Pro

Monthly price

$9

$99

Admins

1

Unlimited

Members

Unlimited

Unlimited

Courses

Unlimited

Unlimited

Transaction fee

10%

2.9% + $0.30 (under $901) / 3.9% + $0.30 (over $901)

• At first glance, $9/month is an attractive entry point. But once you factor in the 10% transaction fee and the inability to use a custom domain, the value proposition weakens quickly for any creator generating consistent revenue.

• Upgrading to the Pro Plan addresses those issues, but the $99/month price tag invites comparison. Circle's Professional plan, for instance, costs $89/month and includes features Skool doesn't offer at any price, such as custom domain support, richer member profiles, and flexible page-building tools.

• 
  
• Skool Pros and Cons

• Pros

  2. Genuinely easy to use from day one

  3. Unlimited courses and members on both plans

  4. Built-in gamification with leaderboards

  5. Native livestreaming for up to 10,000 attendees

  6. Simple, transparent pricing

  7. Community marketplace and auto-discovery features

  8. Community-first design that avoids unnecessary complexity

• Cons

  2. Very limited branding and customization options

  3. High transaction fees on the Hobby plan

  4. No built-in marketing, funnels, or email campaigns

  5. Restricted to one group per community

  6. No assessment, quiz, or certification tools

  7. Minimal moderation automation

• 
  
• Final Verdict: Is Skool Worth It?

• Skool has improved meaningfully since my last review. Native livestreaming, webinar hosting, and course content management are genuine upgrades that reduce dependence on third-party tools.

• It remains one of the easiest community platforms to get started with, and for creators who value simplicity, that matters.

• But Skool still has real gaps. The branding limitations make it a poor fit for creators building premium brands. The lack of marketing tools means you'll need a separate stack to generate and nurture leads. And the single-group structure will feel restrictive as your community grows in complexity.

• Skool is worth considering if you're a coach, consultant, or creator who wants a clean, no-fuss platform to run a focused learning community with live events and basic monetization.

• Look elsewhere if you need advanced branding control, sophisticated marketing automation, complex community organization, or robust student assessment tools. In that case, Circle or Mighty Networks will serve you better.

• Rewriting this article: Last year, I reviewed Skool and gave my candid and objective view.

• Skool is intuitive, gets the basics done, but certainly not worth $99 per month.

• Since then, few things have changed:

  2. Skool became cheaper.

• Yay!

• They introduced a $9 per month plan that lets you create unlimited courses and host unlimited group members.

• But there’s a catch.

• This plan also includes a 10% transaction fee.

  2. They’ve added more features like livestreaming, webinars & content hosting.

• Meaning you don’t need tools like Zoom for web conferencing. And now you can host your course materials natively on the platform.

• Lately, I decided to give Skool a fresh trial.

• Specifically to see in detail how it measures up in aspects like:

• user experience
  online course creation
  community building
  events hosting & management
  customization & branding
  marketing tools
  value for money
  So, in this Skool review, I’ll share my personal experience with the platform to show you if it’s worth your time and money.

• Let’s get right into it.

• What is Skool?
  Skool community platform
  Skool is an online community platform founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens and Daniel Kang.

• Sam Ovens is a successful course creator and consultant. He noticed a major gap in traditional course creation and LMS platforms—most lacked a seamless way to integrate courses with communities. To address this, he teamed up with his friend Daniel Kang, and together they launched Skool.

• However, when Alex Hormozi invested $400 million in the platform, Skool’s popularity skyrocketed.

• Alex Harmozi post on Instagram about his investment on Skool
  Since then, the platforml has been on a hype ride, enjoying the marketing and exposure for the internet business coach.

• To give you a quick overview, Skool is an all-in-one platform that promises to have everything you need to bring an online community and courses all in one place where members can learn, share, and grow together, much like a social learning environment.

• Some of its features include:

• Skool games
  Classrooms ( or simply its online course builder)
  A community forum
  Leaderboards
  Events manager
  Email broadcasts
  Messaging
  Community search
  Community marketplace
  I’ll explore each of these features to show how effective each one is.

• But before that, let’s tackle one aspect that Skool’s fans frequently rave about—the user interface—and see if their claims hold up.

• Skool Review: User Interface
  skool website logo
  UI Rating

• ★★★
  It’s easy to use but the UI looks outdated.
  Skool’s user interface hasn’t changed much since my last review.

• It still has the same minimal layout that mirrors classic forum platforms or Facebook Groups. While that makes it instantly familiar, it also feels dated compared to modern community tools, like Circle.

• The dashboard looks clean and is refreshingly easy to use. Primary tools like tools like—community, classroom, calendar, and members directory— are conveniently located in the top navigation bar for quicker access. While additional features like reporting, plugins, and leaderboards are accessible through the “Settings” menu in the right sidebar.

• Skool dashboard
  If I compare how much time it took me to figure out other platforms’ interfaces and tools like Circle and Mighty Networks, navigating Skool was a breeze.

• Skool also has a mobile app that allows you to connect with your members on the go. It’s clutter-free, loads very fast and it’s easy to navigate. During my testing, I didn’t encounter any bugs or glitches.

• However, the interface felt outdated and barebones. In a time when users judge software by its look and feel, a dated design can make your brand appear less premium. That perception can influence how potential members value your community.

• Overall, Skool offers an intuitive user experience on both web and mobile devices, but the outdated design can limit how high-end your brand feels to potential members affecting your bottom line.

• Skool Review: Online Course Creation
  skool website logo
  Skool Online Course Creation

• ★★★★
  Lets you host your learning materials and drip feed lessons but it lacks built-in assessment tools such as quizzes, exams, and surveys.
  Skool features a simple drag-and-drop course builder that lets you structure your content using Folders and Pages. Essentially:

• Folders become modules
  Pages become lessons
  Its course player follows a classic design for most online course builders. Modules, lessons and progress tracking appear on the left side with the lesson content displayed at the center.for most online course builders. Modules, lessons and progress tracking appear on the left side with the lesson content displayed in the center.

• Within each lesson, you can include multiple content types such as text, videos, images, and code snippets.

• Skool course player
  Within each lesson, you can include multiple content types such as text, videos, images, and code snippets.

• Skool now allows you to host course materials directly on the platform—a notable improvement for creators who want to manage everything in one place. Alternatively, you can embed videos from YouTube, Wistia, or Loom if you prefer hosting externally.

• Upload or embed content into your course lessons
  You can also attach supplemental resources like templates, worksheets, and checklists to your lessons, giving students practical materials to apply what they learn.

• In addition, you can upload video transcripts to make your lessons easier to follow and even drip feed lessons based on each student’s enrollment date, helping maintain a structured learning flow

• drip-feed course lessons
  However, Skool lacks built-in assessment and certification tools. You can’t create quizzes, graded assessments, student surveys, and issue course completion certificates. Platforms like Kajabi, Teachable, or Thinkific offer these features out of the box, giving instructors better control over progress tracking and student engagement. If you’re an educator wanting to run upskill programs where you to assess students, understand how they’ve comprehended your knowledge and afterwards issue a completion certifica want , you’ll need to rely on third-party integrations for such.

• Skool Review: Events Management
  skool website logo
  Skool Events Management

• ★★★★
  Skool lets you host live events and livestream sessions directly inside your community, supporting up to 10,000 participants.
  Skool has greatly improved when it comes to hosting events. Previously, you had to rely on third party video conferencing software like Zoom to host your community calls, events, webinars and workshops.

• Now, using Skool Call and Webinars, you can natively host your live sessions for 10000 participants, saving you the cost of using third-party platforms.

• Skool live calling and webinars tools
  That’s a lot more than many platforms I’ve ever reviewed. For comparison, Circle limits livestreams to 100–2,000 attendees and live rooms to 30–150 participants depending on your plan.

• Circle livestream and live room limits
  With Skool call, you can host collaborative sessions where participants can join with their camera and microphone, making it ideal for interactive workshops, group coaching, or mastermind calls where two-way communication matters.

• Skool live call functionality
  Meanwhile, Skool webinar lets you run full webinars directly on the platform leting you livestream your video feed to thousands of attendees. When needed, you can even promote attendees to the stage, allowing them to join the discussion with audio and video.

• On both your Skool call and webinar, you can record your live sessions and choose to reshare them into your community or repurpose as course materials.

• If you prefer to use other third-party services like Zoom or Google Meet, you can also embed their links directly in your Skool events.

• other video conferencing tools like Zoom and Google Meet are supported in Skool
  The platform also includes a community-wide events calendar where you can schedule and organize sessions. Events can be recurring or one-time, open to all members, or restricted based on membership level or course enrollment.

• limit events access by members level and courses
  Members can view upcoming sessions both in the calendar…

• Skool events calendar
  …and on the community feed, where they can RSVP with a single click.

• Skool events in a community feed
  Skool Review: Community Engagement & Management
  skool website logo
  Skool Community Building

• ★★★★
  You can start simple threaded discussions, but gamification and members management tools are shallow.
  Unlike Circle or Mighty Networks, which let you create multiple spaces under one community, Skool restricts you to one group per community. All your discussions, announcements, and posts live inside this central feed. While this keeps things simple, it limits flexibility for creators who want to separate conversations by topic, cohort, or course.

• In your group, you can create posts, and add other content types like images, file attachments, polls, videos, and GIFs. Members can engage with posts by leaving comments and likes. And if they feel like one of the members posts is inappropriate or it breaks the community rules, they can take action by reporting it to the admin, where you can choose to take action like deleting it.

• Once you’ve created your posts you can choose to automatically send an email broadcast to all members in your group updating them. You can further choose to pin your post to the feed which can be handy if you’re making important announcements and you don’t want the post buried in your forum feed.

• Pinned post in a forum feed in Skool
  Posts can be organized into categories, displayed at the top of the community feed.

• Skool post categories example
  Members can filter discussions by topic, popularity, or recency. However, filtering options are limited compared to platforms like Mighty Networks, which lets users sort content by location, member type, or activity category.

• Engagement tools

• Beyond discussions, Skool includes community engagement tools such as leaderboards, direct messages (DMs), and live events. However, it doesn’t support group chats, which limits real-time interaction.

• Its leaderboard system lets you incentivize participation by rewarding points to members when they receive likes or comments on their posts. You can rename leaderboard levels to fit your community’s theme, but you can’t modify the scoring logic or introduce custom rewards.

• default leaderboard points system in Skool
  Skool also doesn’t include other gamification elements like challenges, badges, or custom gifts that can make participation more interactive. This makes the system functional but surface-level compared to platforms like Mighty Networks with strikes and custom badges.

• Member management & moderation
  Skool provides basic tools for managing members and maintaining community order. The Member Directory lets admins view all members, assign roles, or promote moderators to assist with engagement oversight.

• Assign moderators in your Skool group
  You can edit, delete, or pin posts, and control who can create or comment within the group.

• Member onboarding is straightforward. You can invite users through links or enable approval-based enrollment for controlled access.

• Once members join, admins can track participation using built-in insights that show discussion activity, course progress, and overall contribution. Removing inactive or disruptive members is simple and can be done from the admin dashboard.

• Moderation tools are minimal. You can assign moderators and ban users, but Skool doesn’t support automated content flagging, spam detection, or profanity filters—so maintaining quality requires hands-on oversight. Additionally, Skool only allows a limited number of custom member fields, restricting how much profile information you can collect for segmentation or personalization.

• Bottom line: Skool’s community system is clean, lightweight, and easy to manage. It’s effective for simple communities focused on discussion and shared learning. But if you need deeper segmentation, advanced gamification, or complex member management, that’s where Skool begins to fall flat.

• Skool Review: Sales and Marketing Features
  skool website logo
  Skool Marketing and Sales Tools

• ★★
  Relies on third-party apps for page building, email marketing and sales funnels
  Skool offers no built-in marketing system for promoting your community or courses. It lacks the basic tools needed to attract, nurture, and convert leads within the platform.

• You can’t:

• Build custom sales pages, optin page, or full websites
  Send email marketing campaigns to leads or members
  Create automated workflows to manage community and business processes
  In that case, you’ll rely on external tools for that, which can quickly add up the costs.

• On the sales side, Skool keeps things simple. You can set pricing for your community or courses, and Skool handles checkout through its payment processor. It supports payments via credit/debit cards, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. During checkout you can also:

• Offer 7-day free trials to boost conversions
  Enable affiliate referrals, letting members earn commissions for inviting new paid members
  However, Skool doesn’t support order bumps, upsells, or post-purchase offers, which limits your ability to increase average transaction value.

• Skool Review: Customization and Branding
  skool website logo
  Skool Brandability Rating:

• ★
  No custom themes, community white-labelling or branded mobile apps
  If you want a community space that reflects your brand’s identity, Skool is the last platform that you’ll want to go with.

• Its customization options are extremely limited. You can only:

• Add a group icon
  Set a group name
  Upload a cover image
  Switch between light or dark mode
  And that’s all.

• You can’t:

• Use a custom domain
  Add brand colors or typography
  Display your logo in the forum header
  White-label your community
  Build a branded mobile app for your community
  This means every group you create will still live under skool.com, and will look like every other Skool community.

• Skool Games Review: Useful or Just a Clever Marketing Ploy?
  The Skool Games is essentially a contest where community owners compete to attract more paying members to their groups.

• The objective is to grow their audience, generate revenue, and improve their community-building skills.

• Here’s how it works:

• You create a community on Skool and work to bring in paying members.
  You compete with other participants to see who can generate the most revenue each month.
  The top 10 winners get exclusive opportunities to meet with experts like Alex Hormozi.
  On paper, this sounds like a win-win. You grow your business, get to meet Alex Harmozi and his team, and more “importantly” earn some “bragging” rights. Shut up! Who wouldn’t want to meet Alex Harmozi and let him coach you.

• But here’s the catch though.

• First, to join Skool Games, you’ll need to sign up for Skool’s 14-day free trial where you’ll need to submit your credit card information.

• But the Skool Games last for one month. This means you still need to pay the $99 per month subscription to continue playing.

• Now, call me skeptical, but this feels like a sneaky way to lock you into paying for the subscription.

• By the time the trial ends, you’re already invested, and canceling feels like giving up, even if Skool’s platform doesn’t fully meet your needs.

• To be fair, there’s a lot to like about Skool Games. It motivates you to grow your community, and the gamification aspect makes it fun.

• Here’s where Skool Games loses me.

• Its structure encourages relentless competition, where your success depends on out-earning others. For many, this means prioritizing revenue over genuine community-building.

• To me, that kinda dilutes the overall purpose of a community—building authentic connections and offering value.

• Don’t get me wrong—making money is rewarding. But you have to ask yourselves: Is your community providing genuine value to your members? Because if you win and your members don’t, what’s the point?

• My thoughts?

• Skool Games is a clever gamification strategy, no doubt.

• It motivates action, provides resources, and adds a competitive edge to community-building. But, it feels like a sneaky marketing tactic to lock users into the subscription.

• Because if it weren’t they’d offer a 30-day trial to match the competition’s duration.

• Skool Pricing and Transaction Fees

• Skool keeps its pricing simple with two plans:

• Hobby Plan – $9/month
  Pro Plan – $99/month
  Both include unlimited members and courses, along with full access to key features such as course creation, events, and livestreaming.

• The difference lies in admin limits and transaction fees:

• Hobby Plan: 1 admin, 10% transaction fee
  Pro Plan: Unlimited admins, 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for payments below $901 USD, or 3.9% + $0.30 for payments above that threshold
  At first glance, Skool appears extremely affordable. Starting a community for $9 a month sounds like a bargain. Until you factor in the 10% transaction fee and the inability to customize your group’s URL. That combination can quickly offset the initial savings, especially for creators earning consistent revenue.

• Upgrading to the Pro Plan removes most of these restrictions. But you can still get more value from other platforms at the same price tag. For instance, Circle’s Professional plan costs $89/month, slightly cheaper than Skool Pro, yet offers features Skool lacks—such as hosting your community on a custom domain, creating richer member profiles, and building custom website pages for branding flexibility.

• Skool Pros & Cons
  Pros

• Easy to use
  Unlimited courses and members
  Built-in gamification tools
  Simple pricing structure
  Community first design
  Community auto-discovery and marketplace
  Native livestreaming
  Cons

• Limited customization
  High transactional fees on the Hobby plan
  No built-in sales and marketing tools
  Limits you to 1 group per community
  Skool Review: Is it a Good Choice for Online Community Building?
  In this Skool review, I did my best to be objective and share my honest take on Skool as a community software.

• Skool deserves credit for a few things:

• It’s incredibly easy to use, even for beginners.
  It’s community-focused, avoiding the clutter and complexity of all-in-one systems like Kajabi.
  It lets you host live sessions for up to 10,000 attendees directly inside your community.
  Its pricing model is simple and transparent, avoiding the confusion of multiple tiers.
  However, Skool also has some limitations:

• The course builder is basic and lacks assessment or certification tools.
  Community organization is restricted to a single group per community.
  Branding options are minimal, which can make professional customization difficult.
  But should you use it to build an online community?

• If you want a straightforward, easy-to-manage platform that lets you monetize your community and run live events without complexity, Skool is a solid choice. It’s ideal for coaches, small community builders, and creators who value simplicity over advanced customization.

• However, if you need stronger community organization, deeper engagement tools, or advanced branding control, platforms like Circle or Mighty Networks will serve you better.

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