| Tool | Best for | Starts at | The limit that bites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Circle | The straight swap when you want the community to stop looking like Skool | $89/mo billed annually | No automations, workflows or API until Business at $199/mo billed annually |
| Mighty Networks | Selling cohort courses and memberships from inside the community, on one plan | $79/mo billed annually | 3 hosts and 2 landing pages, with no API, MCP or Zapier until Scale |
| Heartbeat | A small paid community you want to start cheaply, month to month | $49/mo | 350 members total, and your admins and moderators count toward it |
| Kajabi | Replacing Skool, your email tool and your funnel with one bill | $179/mo | 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 community, 2 admin users, 0 AI credits |
| Whop | Paying nothing monthly until the community is actually earning | $0/mo | The headline rate is a base — optional modules stack on top of it |
| Discord | The free answer, as long as you never need to charge inside it | Free | Paid memberships require US banking, and Discord says they won't be offered outside the US |
| Podia | When the community is really a course with a chat attached | $49/mo | 100 email subscribers on Mover, plus a 5% cut of every sale |
Skool does one thing and prices it one way, and I understand why people like that. Courses, discussions, live calls and a paid membership in a single feed, no plan matrix to decode. Its pricing page lists the same capabilities on both plans — the only things that change are the price and the cut.
The cut is the problem. Hobby is $9/mo and Skool takes 10% of every payment. Pro is $99/mo and takes 2.9%. That reads like a choice until you do the arithmetic: the two plans cost the same at about $1,270/mo in community revenue, and past that the $9 plan is the expensive one. At $3,000/mo in memberships you hand Skool $186 on Pro and $309 on Hobby.
The second problem is what isn't there. Skool's pricing page lists courses, live calls, video, a custom URL, affiliates and paid memberships. It doesn't list email marketing, a funnel builder, a website, an API or a branded app. For most people the real cost is Skool plus an email tool plus wherever the sales page lives.
I pulled the live US pricing page for every tool below on 2 September 2026 and recorded what the entry plan costs, fee included. I haven't run a paid community on any of them, so this is a pricing-and-limits read, not a hands-on one.
Skool sells one product at two fee levels. Hobby is $9/mo with a 10% cut, Pro is $99/mo with 2.9%, and the feature lists are identical — Skool's own in-app copy tells downgraders their "transaction fees will increase from 2.9% to 10%". The plans break even at roughly $1,270/mo in revenue, and nothing about the choice is about features. Circle takes 2%, Mighty Networks takes 2%, Kajabi and Podia's $99 tier take 0%.
Skool's pricing page lists courses, live calls, video, a custom URL, affiliates and paid memberships. Email marketing, landing pages, funnels and a website builder are not on it. Kajabi Basic includes unlimited emails, landing pages and funnels at $179/mo ($143 billed annually), and Podia's $49/mo Mover plan includes a website with a blog, landing pages and email. Pay Skool $99 plus an email tool and you're spending Kajabi money on a thinner stack.
The pricing page publishes no white-label option, no branded mobile app and no API on either plan. Every platform here that offers those puts a number on them: Kajabi Pro at $499/mo ($399 annual) bundles a branded app it values at $199/mo, and Heartbeat's Scale plan at $849/mo ($766 annual) includes a white-label one. Circle opens its API at Business, $199/mo billed annually; Mighty Networks at Scale, $179/mo billed annually. Discord, which costs nothing, has had a full API the whole time.
None of that makes Skool a bad tool — the full breakdown is in my Skool review.
The straight swap when you want the community to stop looking like Skool
The most direct answer if your complaint is that every Skool community looks like every other Skool community. Branding, 20 spaces and a lower payment fee for $89/mo on annual billing. Price the Business tier before you commit — the entry plan has no automations and no API, and those are what people go looking for in month three.
Selling cohort courses and memberships from inside the community, on one plan
The closest match to Skool's single-feed shape while adding cohort courses and a member CRM. You pay for that in programmability: Launch has no API, no MCP and no Zapier, so if you plan to automate onboarding, budget $179/mo instead of $79.
A small paid community you want to start cheaply, month to month
Cheap to start and more community than Skool Hobby gives you for the money. Do the fee maths first: at $3,000/mo in memberships, Build's 5% is $150 on top of the $49 plan, so $199 a month against Skool Pro's $186. A good entry platform and an expensive destination.
Replacing Skool, your email tool and your funnel with one bill
The upgrade rather than the swap. If you've been paying Skool $99 plus an email platform plus a page builder, Kajabi Basic at $143/mo on annual billing consolidates all three and takes no revenue share. If Skool genuinely was your entire stack, it's a big step up in price for capability you may never touch.
Full Kajabireview →Paying nothing monthly until the community is actually earning
The honest answer for a community that isn't earning yet, and one of only two things here that costs nothing to run. Read the fee schedule before you scale on it: with tax remittance and billing switched on, the effective rate climbs well past the 2.7% headline.
The free answer, as long as you never need to charge inside it
Worth including because for a lot of people the honest answer is that they were paying $99/mo for a chat room. If your community is free, or you monetise it elsewhere, Discord does the community part for nothing and hands you an API. If you need to charge inside it and you aren't in the US, it isn't an option at any price.
When the community is really a course with a chat attached
The pick if you sell a course and the community is the wrapper rather than the product. Shaker matches Skool Pro's $99 with no transaction fee, and that pays for itself at any real volume — on $3,000/mo in sales, Skool Pro's 2.9% is $87 a month Podia doesn't take.
Full Podiareview →No. Skool has no free tier. The cheapest plan is Hobby at $9/mo with a 10% transaction fee, and the only free access is a 14-day trial. If free is the requirement, the two real options here are Discord, which is free to run and takes 10% only if you switch on Server Subscriptions, and Whop, which has no monthly fee and charges 2.7% + $0.30 per domestic card transaction.
Two of the seven cost nothing monthly. Discord gives you unlimited servers, members, channels and voice rooms plus a full API for $0, and takes a cut only if you enable Server Subscriptions, which are US-only at a 10% split. Whop charges no subscription and earns on transactions instead, from 2.7% + $0.30 on domestic cards. The other five start at $49/mo or more.
$186 a month on Pro — the $99 plan fee plus 2.9% of $3,000, which is $87. The same revenue on the $9 Hobby plan costs $309, because the fee there is 10%. The two plans cross at roughly $1,270/mo: under that Hobby is cheaper, over it Pro is. Podia's Shaker plan is the same $99 with a 0% transaction fee, so $3,000 in sales costs $99.
Circle if you want the community to carry your branding and can live with annual billing at $89/mo. Skool if you want one price, one feed and nothing to configure. Circle takes 2% of payments against Skool Pro's 2.9%, gives you 20 spaces, 3 admins and 10 moderators, and bundles courses, events and a website builder. What Professional doesn't give you is any automation or API — those start at Business, $199/mo billed annually.
Mighty Networks Launch is $79/mo billed annually, stated by the vendor as $950/year, with a 2% fee. Cheaper than Skool Pro on both the plan and the cut, and it adds cohort courses, gamification, a member CRM and basic automations. Skool wins on simplicity. Mighty caps Launch at 3 hosts and 2 landing pages and holds the API, MCP and Zapier back for Scale at $179/mo billed annually.
Yes, but it sits at the top of every price list. Kajabi Pro at $499/mo ($399 annual) includes a branded mobile app it values at $199/mo, and Heartbeat's Scale plan at $849/mo ($766 annual) includes a white-label one. Mighty Pro and Circle Plus offer branded apps on sales-quoted plans with no public price. On cheaper tiers, removing branding is itself the paywall — Kajabi won't let you until Growth at $249/mo.
