I sell software for a living, and even I had to read Skool's fee page twice. The plan prices are simple. The fee structure is where the real bill lives, and it is the part most pricing posts skim past. Here is the whole thing with actual math.
The 30-second answer
| Plan | Monthly price | Transaction fee | Plan cost per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | $9 | 10% of member payments | $108 |
| Pro | $99 ($82.50/mo billed annually) | 2.9% all-in | $990 to $1,188 |
Source is skool.com/pricing. The Pro fee is all-in, meaning it includes card processing. Hobby's 10% is the number to stare at.
Prices verified July 2, 2026. Re-check skool.com/pricing before you decide, vendor pricing drifts.
The fee is the price
If your community is free, Skool costs $9 or $99 a month and you can stop reading this section. The moment members pay you, the percentage becomes the real price. Here is the monthly fee bill at three revenue levels.
| Member revenue/mo | Hobby fee (10%) | Pro fee (2.9%) |
|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $100 | $29 |
| $5,000 | $500 | $145 |
| $20,000 | $2,000 | $580 |
Our arithmetic from the verified fee schedule. At $5,000 a month, Hobby's fee is $500 a month riding on a $9 plan.
Hobby's 10% cut is the most expensive line on this whole comparison, and it hides in plain sight. A $9 badge riding on a 10% toll is very good pricing design... for Skool.
Where Hobby vs Pro breaks even
Hobby charges $9 plus 10%. Pro charges $99 plus 2.9%. Set those equal and the crossover lands around $1,270 a month of member revenue on monthly billing, or around $1,040 if you pay Pro annually. Call it roughly $1,000 to $1,300, our calculation from the verified fee schedules. If you earn more than that, Pro is already the cheaper plan. Which means the cheap-looking plan is for hobbyists, exactly as labeled, and everyone else is a $99-a-month customer paying 2.9% of everything, forever.
What $99 a month does not buy
- No white-label. Your community lives at a skool.com/yourbrand subpath, with Skool branding throughout.
- No public API. Automation means Zapier triggers, not real integration.
- Courses without quizzes, certificates, or progress tracking.
- No content export. You can download a members CSV, and that is the entire exit door. Posts, comments, and courses stay behind. More in the export comparison.
The refund and billing record
Skool's Trustpilot rating sits at 1.9 out of 5 on an unclaimed profile, per a competitor teardown from April 2026. The recurring complaint patterns are billing-shaped. Users report being charged months after cancelling a trial, and the refund stance reported by reviewers amounts to “we don't do refunds.” I am paraphrasing reviews here, not court records, so weigh accordingly. But when the complaints cluster this tightly around billing, it belongs in a pricing post.
What Skool is genuinely good at
Honesty section, and I mean it. Skool's gamification loop is the best in the category, full stop. The UX is deliberately simple in a way that non-technical creators love. Hosting, uptime, and security are their problem, not yours. And native livestreaming shipped around October 2025, closing an old gap. If you want zero setup and you are fine renting, Skool is a polished landlord, and you should weigh that honestly against everything above.
The pay-once alternative
Seedly Communities is $399 once. Not per month, not per year. The transaction fee is 0% because members pay through your own Stripe account, so there is no path for a platform cut to exist. Members are unlimited, and you get the full source code with a commercial license. You do take on your own hosting, which is the honest trade covered in the five-year cost post.
Skool Pro's cumulative bill passes $399 in month five, before the fee line.
The full head-to-head, including the rows Skool wins, is on the Seedly Communities vs Skool page.
