Skool Review (2026): The Fees Nobody Tells You About
By Stefan Ciancio on
Almost every Skool review currently ranking is missing three things that directly affect what you pay.
Skool is not a flat $99 anymore. There is a fee tier above 2.9 percent that nobody mentions. And there is a 30 percent commission feature that is enabled by default on your account right now.
Here is the version with all of that in it.
The quick verdict
Use it if: you want a community that people actually return to, you value simplicity over control, and your pricing sits in the $20 to $100 a month range.
Skip it if: you need real customization, tiered member experiences inside one community, proper analytics, or the ability to export your data later.
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Skool pricing in 2026
It is two tiers now, not one.
| Plan |
Monthly |
Annual |
Transaction fee |
| Hobby |
$9 |
about $7.50/mo |
10% + 30 cents |
| Pro |
$99 |
about $82.50/mo |
2.9% + 30 cents up to $899, then 3.9% + 30 cents |
Both include unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls. There is a 14 day free trial and it requires a card.
That 3.9 percent tier above $900 is the detail nearly every review misses. It is in Skool's own help center. If you sell a $2,000 program through Skool, you are not paying 2.9 percent on it. You are paying 3.9 percent. On a hundred sales that is a $2,000 difference from a number you probably never saw.
Pricing is per community, not per account. Two communities means two subscriptions.
Growth Boost: the 30 percent nobody talks about
This is the big one.
From Skool's own payments documentation: Growth Boost, which is enabled by default, applies a 30 percent commission on customers Skool brings you.
Skool now runs paid ads and discovery placement on your behalf and takes 30 percent of the revenue from members it sources. It rolled out around mid 2026 out of the Discovery update.
Thirty percent is not a small number. If you have not looked at that setting, go look at it. It is in your community settings and it is on unless you turned it off.
There is an Efficiency Score dashboard attached to it, scoring you red, amber or green on five factors: niche clarity, how specific your niche-within-a-niche is, whether your pricing sits between $20 and $100 a month, whether your About page converts above 1 percent, and whether you hold 80 percent plus monthly retention.
Whether Growth Boost is worth 30 percent depends entirely on whether you can acquire members cheaper yourself. For most people starting out, it probably is. For anyone with working paid acquisition, it probably is not. Either way you should be choosing, not defaulting.
What Skool is genuinely good at
The gamification actually works. This is not a gimmick and it is the real reason people pick Skool over Circle.
One like equals one point. Points come from receiving likes, not from posting, which quietly rewards being useful rather than being loud. There are nine levels with exponential thresholds: level 2 at 5 points, level 5 at 155, level 9 at 33,015. Three leaderboards run at once, 7 day, 30 day and all time, and the short ones reset so new members can realistically rank.
The mechanic that matters: you can gate content by level. Bonus course unlocks at level 3. That single feature does more for retention than anything else on the platform.
It is genuinely simple. Community, courses, calendar and payments in one place with almost no setup. That is the whole pitch and it delivers.
Skool Games. Alex Hormozi runs a quarterly competition with 50 winners across 10 categories, prizes including a mastermind day with him. Membership fees are capped at $100 a month for scoring purposes so big-ticket communities cannot buy the leaderboard. It is a real distribution channel if you lean into it.
The catch, and there are several
Customization is close to nonexistent. No custom CSS, no layout changes, no themes. You can change a logo and a cover image. Every Skool community looks like every other Skool community. Custom domain is Pro only, and after the first change it costs $100 per change.
Analytics are thin. Post activity, member levels, course progress. No churn dashboards, no segments, no behavioral data. On courses you can see whether someone opened a lesson. You cannot verify they completed it.
The LMS is basic. No quizzes, no certificates, no assignments, no drip content. Every module is available immediately.
The one-room problem. All members share a single feed with 10 flat categories. If you want a different experience for a $50 tier versus a $500 tier, you need two communities at $99 a month each. This is the structural cost trap for anyone running tiers.
No email marketing. No broadcasts, no automation, no funnels, no landing pages. You need an external stack.
Almost no native integrations. Nearly everything routes through Zapier or webhooks, which adds cost and fragility.
And the one that should worry you most: you cannot export your data. Community discussions, DMs and member activity history do not come out. Only member emails and externally hosted course files transfer. If you leave, you leave the community's history behind. That is the strongest lock-in of any platform in this category and it deserves more attention than it gets.
Skool vs Circle
The honest comparison is not about features, it is about where the fee math crosses.
|
Skool Pro |
Circle Professional |
| Monthly |
$99 |
$89 |
| Transaction fee |
2.9%, 3.9% above $900 |
2% |
| Customization |
Minimal |
Extensive |
| Gamification |
Excellent |
Weaker |
Circle charges 2 percent against Skool's 2.9. That gap is small at low volume and meaningful at high volume. Above roughly $11,000 a month in community revenue the fee difference starts favoring Circle, and Growth Boost tilts it further if you leave it on.
Skool wins on simplicity and retention mechanics. Circle wins on control and, past a certain revenue, on cost. Pick based on which of those you actually need.
Mighty Networks runs $79 to $179 a month with 2 percent down to 0.5 percent fees. Kajabi runs $179 to $499 and is a different product, closer to an all-in-one course business platform.
Who owns Skool
Founded 2019 by Sam Ovens, CEO, with Daniel Kang as co-founder and CTO. Alex Hormozi invested in January 2024 through Acquisition.com and describes himself as a co-owner.
Worth knowing: the size of Hormozi's stake has never been disclosed. Neither has the investment amount or a valuation. If you see a specific percentage or a "$1 billion valuation" figure in another article, it has no primary source behind it.
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FAQ
How much does Skool cost in 2026?
Two plans. Hobby at $9 a month with a 10 percent plus 30 cent transaction fee, and Pro at $99 a month with 2.9 percent plus 30 cents, rising to 3.9 percent on transactions above $900. Annual billing gives you two months free. There is a 14 day trial and it requires a card.
What are Skool's hidden fees?
Three that most people miss. The 3.9 percent tier on transactions above $900. Growth Boost, which takes 30 percent of revenue from members Skool sources and is enabled by default. And $100 per custom URL change after the first one.
Is Skool better than Circle?
Skool is better at retention and simpler to run. Circle is better at customization and cheaper in transaction fees at 2 percent versus 2.9. Above roughly $11,000 a month in community revenue, Circle's fee advantage starts to matter.
Can I export my data from Skool?
Only member emails and externally hosted course files. Community discussions, DMs and member activity history cannot be exported. Factor that into the decision before you build years of content there.
Is Skool worth it?
For most people running a paid community under $100 a month per member, yes. The gamification genuinely drives retention and the simplicity means you actually ship. If you need customization, tiers or your data back, look elsewhere.