Skool
Community and course platform built around gamified levels and leaderboards, with Hobby at $9/mo (10% fee) or Pro at $99/mo (2.9% fee) and a 14-day trial.
Who it's for
Creators running a paid community who want built-in gamification to drive engagement instead of stitching together a Discord server and a separate course platform.
Standout details
- Hobby ($9/mo, 10% transaction fee) and Pro ($99/mo, 2.9% fee) now ship nearly identical features since an April 2026 pricing change moved custom domains and the affiliate program onto Hobby; the gap left is 1 admin seat versus 30 and standard versus priority support
- Gamification runs on one rule, 1 like equals 1 point, and members climb levels 1 through 9 that can be renamed and used to lock course content behind engagement rather than a payment
- Every new group gets a 14-day free trial on either plan, a card is required at signup, the first charge lands on day 15, and Skool does not refund once a subscription bills
- There is no quiz builder, graded assessment, certificate, or native email marketing tool, features a dedicated course platform usually treats as standard
- Founder Sam Ovens, who also built Consulting.com, has run Skool since 2019; Alex Hormozi's Acquisition.com announced a stake in the company he has publicly called co-ownership on January 10, 2024, with neither side disclosing the percentage
What it is
Skool bundles a community feed, courses, live calls and a leaderboard-driven points system into one product for anyone running a paid membership. A group owner posts discussions, uploads course content and schedules calls from the same dashboard a member uses to browse, comment and climb the leaderboard.
Both paid plans, Hobby at $9/mo and Pro at $99/mo, get a 14-day free trial, with a card required at signup. The first charge lands on day 15, and Skool does not refund a subscription once it has billed.
Who should use it
A creator who already has or is building a paid community and wants engagement handled for them rather than configured by hand. It fits someone choosing between a Discord server with bolted-on course links and a single tool built around community plus content. It fits less well someone running structured training that needs quizzes, graded work or certificates, since none of that is part of what Skool offers.
What stands out
The gamification is the actual product, not a side feature. The rule is simple: 1 like equals 1 point, earned from publishing a post, commenting, getting liked, or logging in that day. Points push a member up through levels 1 to 9, each one visible next to their name everywhere on the platform, and a group owner can rename every level and attach a perk to it, commonly unlocking a new course inside the classroom rather than charging for it separately. A public 30-day leaderboard keeps the top contributors visible, and owners can reward whoever sits at the top of it.
Pricing used to separate the two plans by feature, but an April 2026 change moved the custom domain and affiliate program onto Hobby, so both plans now carry the same unlimited members, courses, videos, live calls, custom URL and affiliate tools. What is left to decide between them is the transaction fee, 10% on Hobby versus 2.9% on Pro, plus 1 admin seat on Hobby against 30 on Pro and standard support against priority support. A community doing meaningful sales volume clears the $90 monthly gap on the fee difference alone well before it needs a second admin.
What Skool leaves out matters for anyone coming from a course-first platform. There is no quiz builder, no graded assessment, no certificate of completion and no native email marketing or funnel tool, the kind of feature a dedicated course host treats as a given. Skool’s Trustpilot page skews negative, with recurring reports centered on the trial-to-paid transition: users describing a charge landing after they believed they had canceled, and slow responses from support once a dispute starts.
Skool was founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens, who had previously built the business-training program Consulting.com, with Daniel Kang as co-founder and CTO. Alex Hormozi’s firm, Acquisition.com, announced taking a stake in Skool on January 10, 2024, a deal Hormozi has since referred to publicly as co-ownership, though neither side has disclosed the size of that stake.
The verdict
Skool earns its following on the gamification mechanics: a simple points-and-levels system that gives members a reason to keep showing up, which is a real answer to the usual problem of a paid community going quiet after the first month. Pro is worth the jump the moment real revenue is flowing through the platform, since 2.9% against 10% pays for the extra $90 a month on its own.
Where Skool asks for caution is the trial-to-paid transition and the feature list it does not have. Go in with the cancellation deadline on your calendar before day 15, and look elsewhere if certificates, quizzes or built-in email marketing are part of how you plan to run the community, since Skool leaves all three to other tools.
Honest verdict
Skool's real pitch is the gamification layer, a 1-like-1-point system and public levels that make a paid community feel like a game, which is the main reason owners pick it over a Discord server or a dedicated course platform. Choose Pro over Hobby once a community does real sales volume, since the gap between a 10% and 2.9% transaction fee outweighs the extra admin seats and support tier Pro also adds. Skip Skool if your audience needs quizzes, certificates, or built-in email marketing, since none of the three make Skool's own feature list, and go in knowing the 14-day trial bills automatically on day 15 with no refund after that.
Published 7 Oct 2026