If you’ve been looking into platforms for building an online course business, there’s a good chance Skool has come up more than once lately.
Skool has grown into one of the more talked-about platforms in the creator space, and for good reason. What started as a simplified alternative to bloated course platforms has matured into a full suite of tools for building a community and course business in one place – with over 200,000 community builders already on the platform.
In this review, I’m going to give you an honest look at what Skool offers, what it costs, how it compares to other platforms, and whether it’s the right fit for you.
Pros, cons, pricing, features, alternatives and more are all covered here. So if you’re looking for a thorough and honest Skool review, keep reading.
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What is Skool?
Skool was created by Sam Ovens in 2019 and has grown steadily from a simplified course platform into a well-rounded tool for creators who want to build a community and course business together in one place.
The idea behind Skool has always been to make things simpler than the feature-heavy platforms most creators were used to. What’s changed is that simple no longer means stripped down. Skool has added the tools that matter most – native video, live calls, built-in payments, and more – without losing the clean, easy-to-use experience that made it appealing in the first place.
At its core, Skool is a combination of community, courses, and calendar. You create a group, build your courses, schedule events, and manage everything from one dashboard. Members engage through discussions, work through your courses, and earn points through gamification, all without you needing to stitch together a bunch of separate tools.
The platform operates on a community-first model, which means the focus is on building an engaged group of people around your topic before, or alongside, selling them your knowledge. It’s a model that works well for creators who understand that an engaged audience is worth more than a large but passive one.
Who is Skool For?
Skool works for a wide range of creators. Bloggers, YouTube creators, coaches, consultants, and anyone who wants to move their community off Facebook and into a space with less noise and more focus can find a home on the platform.
The community-first model is really the heart of what Skool does, so it tends to work best for people who want an engaged audience around their topic, not just students who buy a course and disappear.
If building relationships with your audience matters to you as much as delivering the content itself, Skool is built with that in mind.
One thing worth mentioning is that Skool isn’t just a place you build in isolation. Around 30% of members on Skool find communities through the platform itself, which means there’s a built-in discovery element that most course platforms don’t offer. For new creators especially, that’s a meaningful head start.
The $9/month Hobby plan also makes Skool accessible to creators who are just starting out and aren’t ready to commit to a higher monthly cost. You get the full feature set at that price, so there’s no real barrier to getting started and seeing if the platform works for you.
If you want to try it before committing, Skool offers a 14-day free trial on both plans.
Skool Interface
One of the strong points of Skool is its clean, easy-to-use interface. Once you’re logged into the dashboard, everything is presented with lots of white space and clear navigation that doesn’t take long to figure out.
Right at the top, you can see navigation to the most important parts of the platform — the community, which is presented by default, the classroom, calendar, and leaderboards.
The classroom and calendar links only appear once you’ve added courses or events, which keeps things from feeling cluttered when you’re just getting started.
If you click on your group name, you get a list of all the groups you belong to and can easily switch between them. The search bar at the top lets you search everything within your selected group including discussions, course content, and members.
Chat, notifications, and your profile icon sit in the top right corner so you can easily stay on top of any communications and manage your settings.
The post editor is straightforward and lets you add attachments like images and files, links, embedded video, polls, gifs, and emojis. owing if formatting your posts a certain way matters to you.
Members can react to posts by liking and comments have the same media options as posts (minus polls).
Overall, Skool’s interface is one of its genuine strengths. It’s easy to navigate, easy to learn, and doesn’t overwhelm you with options the way some of the more feature-heavy platforms can.
Skool Features
Skool has come a long way since it first launched. What follows is a look at the most important features available to creators on the platform today.
1. Community
Community is at the heart of what Skool does and it shows. When you sign up, one of the first things you do is create a group – this is essentially your home base on the platform where everything else lives.
The community feature is clean and easy to use. Members can post discussions, leave comments, react to posts, follow each other, and send direct messages. Everyone has a profile where you can see their bio, activity, website, and social media links.
You can customize your community in a number of ways inside your group settings:
- Set member rules and add categories for posting
- Upload a group icon and cover image and add your description
- Change your group name, initials and color
- Set your group to private or public
Inviting people to your group is flexible too. You can invite members individually by email, bulk invite by uploading a CSV file, share a link, or allow your existing members to invite others themselves.
If you want to run multiple groups, each additional group requires its own separate subscription.
2. Courses
Building a course on Skool is a straightforward process. You organize your content into sets and modules. Sets work like chapters and modules are your individual lessons, and you can add, rename, reorder, and publish them as you go.
Skool now includes native video hosting, so you can upload your course videos directly to the platform without needing to rely on YouTube, Vimeo, or any other third-party host. This is a significant improvement from when the platform first launched and makes the course-building experience much more self-contained.
You have three options for controlling who can access each course:
- All members have access
- Only specific members have access
- Members who have reached a certain level through gamification
This gives you flexibility in how you structure and gate your content.
Skool also has a built-in funnel and checkout system, so you can charge for course access or community membership directly through the platform without needing to set up a separate payment processor through Zapier.
3. Events
The calendar and events feature lets you schedule live calls and other community events so members always know what’s coming up.
You can create events so that community members can view upcoming events and add them to their personal calendars with a click.
Creating an event is simple – add a title, description, event link, and date and time settings. You can also set up recurring events and remind members by email before the event starts, which is checked on by default.
Once you’ve added your first event, the calendar link appears in the header navigation so members can access it easily.
4. Payments & Monetization
One of the biggest gaps in the original Skool was the lack of a built-in way to charge for anything. That’s no longer the case.
Skool now has a full funnel and checkout system built directly into the platform. You can charge for community access, courses, or both, without needing to set up a separate payment processor or connect anything through Zapier.
The flexibility here is worth noting. You can sell access as a one-time payment, a recurring subscription, or offer different membership tiers depending on what makes sense for your business. Free trials are also supported, which is useful if you want to let potential members experience your community before committing to a paid plan.
5. Gamification
Gamification remains one of Skool’s standout features. Members earn points for participating in the community and can track their progress on leaderboards.
Levels can be customized and renamed to whatever fits your brand, and courses can be unlocked when members reach designated levels.
It’s a genuinely effective way to keep your community active and engaged, and it’s something most other platforms either don’t offer or have bolted on as an afterthought. On Skool it’s built into the foundation of how the platform works.
I personally don’t see creators using this feature in the groups I’m in but you can turn this on and off depending on your groups focus.
Beyond points and leaderboards, Skool also includes a member map so your community can see where other members are located around the world, and mobile apps for both iOS and Android so members can stay connected on the go.
How Skool Has Matured
When I first tried Skool, there were two things that were deal-breakers for me. They were the lack of native video and the absence of a built-in way to monetize.
Both of those gaps are now filled.
Native video hosting means you no longer need to rely on YouTube or Vimeo to deliver your course content. Your videos live on the platform alongside your community and courses, which keeps the experience cleaner for your members and your content more secure.
Built-in payments mean you can charge for access to your community or courses directly through Skool without stitching together a workaround. Subscriptions, one-time payments, membership tiers, and free trials are all supported natively.
Live calls are also now part of the platform, so you can run workshops, coaching sessions, or community events without sending members off to something like Zoom.
What’s worth appreciating is that Skool added all of this without turning the platform into something complicated. It still feels like Skool – clean, focused, and easy to use – just with fewer reasons to look elsewhere.
If there’s one area still worth keeping an eye on, it’s the advanced analytics, which is currently only available on the Pro plan. For creators on Hobby who want deeper insight into how their community is growing and engaging, that’s something to factor into your plan decision.
Skool Help & Support
Finding help on Skool has never been a problem and that’s still the case. In the bottom right corner of your dashboard, you’ll find a question mark button that gives you access to everything you need.
From there you can reach the Skool knowledge base, which covers common questions and platform tutorials with screenshots. You can also access email support and Skool’s own courses directly from this menu.
The Skool Community group is probably the most useful support resource available. With over 200,000 community builders on the platform, there’s almost always someone who has dealt with the same question you have. You can start a discussion and get responses from experienced members and admins, or initiate a one-on-one chat with anyone who has messaging enabled.
One thing that stands out is that Skool offers 100% human support with response times of around 30 minutes. For a platform at this scale, that’s not something you see very often and it makes a real difference when you’re stuck on something and need a quick answer.
Finally, the Skool courses available inside the Skool Community group are worth taking advantage of. The Skool 101 course is available to all members and walks you through setting up and running your group. More advanced courses are unlocked as you earn points through gamification, which is also a nice way to experience firsthand how that feature works for your own members.
Skool Pricing
Skool has two plans and the way they’ve priced them is pretty straightforward.
The Hobby plan is $9/month and includes everything on the platform – community, courses, native video, live calls, built-in payments, gamification, mobile apps, and more. The transaction fee on Hobby is 10% on any sales you make through the platform.
The Pro plan is $99/month and includes everything in Hobby with a few key differences. The transaction fee drops to 2.9%, and you also get a custom URL, the ability to hide Skool’s suggested communities from your members, and access to advanced analytics.
Neither plan has an annual billing option, so you’re paying month to month on both.
For most creators just getting started, Hobby at $9/month is a genuinely low barrier to entry for everything you get. The point where Pro starts to make more sense is when you’re actively selling and the transaction fee difference starts to add up.
Skool also has a built-in affiliate program. Once you’re a member you can refer others to the platform and earn 40% of whatever plan they sign up for – that’s $3.60/month per Hobby referral or $39.60/month per Pro referral. After three Pro referrals, your commissions cover your own subscription.
Both plans come with a 14-day free trial so you can get inside the platform before spending anything.
Skool Pros & Cons
Skool has come a long way since it first launched and the platform is in a much stronger position today than it was even a year or two ago. Here’s where things stand.
Skool Pros
Skool Cons
Skool Alternatives
Skool is a great fit for a lot of creators, but it’s not the only option.
Here are five platforms worth considering depending on what matters most to you.
1. Thinkific
Thinkific is one of the more established course platforms and has continued to grow, adding AI tools and a built-in teaching assistant along the way.
Their Start plan at $99/month is the most comparable to Skool’s Pro plan and includes live events, advanced sales tools, memberships, and subscriptions. If selling courses with a full set of marketing and checkout tools is your priority, Thinkific has a lot to offer. They offer a 30-day free trial which is one of the longer trials in this space.
Thinkific is the better choice if you want a more sales-focused platform with landing pages, order bumps, and upsells built in. The community features are there but are more of an add-on compared to what Skool offers.
2. Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is one of the closer comparisons to Skool in terms of philosophy – community-first, with courses and events built around that model. I was so impressed that I put Mighty Networks at #1 on my list of best community platforms here on TrialBear.
Their Launch plan starts at $95/month, making it one of the pricier entry points in this space compared to Skool. They offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Compared to Skool, Mighty Networks gives you more flexibility in how you structure and monetize your community, but you’re paying more for it. Worth a look if community is your primary focus and you want more customization options than Skool provides.
3. Heights Platform
Heights Platform is a course platform primarily that has community features included. The reason why I chose this platform as a worthy alternative to Skool is because of their strong gamification features.
In Heights, badges are automatically awarded to students for completing different tasks (such as completing their first lesson in a course). Creators can make it even more exciting by creating their own custom badges and requirements.
What makes Heights stand out now is a strong set of AI-powered features across the board, from course creation to an AI coaching feature on higher plans. There are zero transaction fees on all plans, which is a meaningful advantage if you’re actively selling. Their plans start at $29/month and they offer a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.
If your main goal is selling courses with no transaction fees and you want AI tools built into your workflow, Heights is worth trying.
4. Circle
Circle is a well-designed community platform that has built out courses, events, and gamification alongside its core community features.
The Professional plan at $89/month is the most comparable entry point to Skool, but there’s a significant catch. Circle only offers annual billing, which means you’re committing to $1,068 upfront just to get started. Compare that to Skool’s Hobby plan at $9/month, or $108 for the entire year, and the price difference is hard to ignore.
Circle does offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card required so you can at least try before committing.
Circle is a strong platform but the annual-only pricing makes it a harder sell for creators who aren’t ready to make that kind of upfront commitment.
5. GroupApp
GroupApp combines community, courses, and events in one place and is one of the more underrated alternatives to Skool.
Like Heights, there are zero transaction fees across all plans. Courses are available from the Grow plan at $64/month, so the entry-level Launch plan at $24/month is better suited for community and events only.
Member limits apply depending on the plan, which is worth keeping in mind compared to Skool’s unlimited members on both plans.
GroupApp offers a 14-day free trial to get started.
Final Words
Skool has come a long way from the platform it was when it first launched. What started as a simplified alternative to feature-heavy course platforms has grown into a well-rounded tool that covers community, courses, live calls, native video, built-in payments, and more – all under one roof.
The $9/month Hobby plan changes the conversation considerably. For creators who have been sitting on the fence about trying a community and course platform, there’s very little financial risk in giving Skool a shot. You get the full feature set, unlimited members, and unlimited courses at a price point that’s hard to argue with.
The Pro plan at $99/month makes sense when you’re actively selling and want the lower transaction fee, advanced analytics, and the ability to hide suggested communities from your members. But most creators starting out will find everything they need on Hobby.
What Skool does better than most platforms is keep things simple without stripping them down. The interface is clean, the learning curve is short, and the gamification and community features are genuinely built to keep your audience engaged and coming back.
If you want to see it for yourself, Skool offers a 14-day free trial on both plans so you can get inside the platform and decide before spending anything.
