Skool vs Circle: pricing, fees and features

The short answer

Choose Skool if you want the simplest setup and the lowest bill, and gamified levels suit your members. Choose Circle if your brand has to come first, including a branded app on its higher plans, and you need automations to run larger programs.

People search "Skool vs Circle" when choosing a community platform: Skool for its simplicity and gamification, Circle for its branding and automations.

Price and fees at a glance

What it costs to sell $1,000, $5,000, $20,000 a month

Skool costs less at every level compared here ($1,000, $5,000 and $20,000 a month in sales): $109 against $144, $244 against $364, $679 against $1,099. These are all-in monthly costs on each platform's cheapest plan for that revenue.

Assumes US card payments, an average sale of $50, and the cheapest plan on each platform at that revenue. Where a platform adds card processing on top of its own fee, Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 is used. Member limits, taxes, currency conversion, payout fees and add-ons are not included.

Where Skool wins

• Simplicity. Skool deliberately does fewer things, so there is less to set up.
• Gamification at the core: levels, a leaderboard and content that unlocks by level.
• An established discovery directory that already sends people to groups.
• One fee that covers card processing. Skool processes payments itself; Circle adds Stripe processing on top of its own fee.
• Monthly billing from $9. Circle's listed prices are billed yearly.

Where Circle wins

• Deep branding and customization, including branded mobile apps on higher plans.
• Workflows and automations for running larger programs.
• A lower platform percentage (2% on Professional, 1% on Business and Scale), though Stripe processing is added on top.
• Many integrations and an established customer base.

A third option: Allied Tribes

Allied Tribes keeps a paid group, Lessons (courses), events, live video and paid one-to-one sessions in one place, with Freya, a built-in AI guide, to set it up. It has a Free plan and Pro at $11 a month. At $1,000 a month, Allied Tribes costs about $96, less than both. At $5,000 a month, Allied Tribes costs about $436, more than both. At $20,000 a month, Allied Tribes costs about $1,411, more than both. Its fee is a percentage of sales, so it suits groups that are starting out more than groups already selling thousands a month. See Allied Tribes vs Skool and Allied Tribes vs Circle.

Frequently asked questions