7 Best Skool Alternatives for Paid Communities (2026)

Quick picks

Each of these fits a different kind of Skool group. Pick by what your members actually do, then check the cost table below.

• Best for selling more than group access, with no monthly fee: Whop
• Best for deep community features: Circle
• Best for courses, livestreams and member apps: Mighty Networks
• Best for small groups that want gamification: Heartbeat
• Best all-in-one suite for course and coaching businesses: Kajabi
• Best free starting point: Systeme.io
• Best for chat-first groups in Discord: Discord with LaunchPass

What each option costs at $5,000 a month

At $5,000 a month in $49 memberships, Whop costs about $191 and Skool Pro $275, while Circle, Kajabi and Mighty Networks land between $370 and $410. Only Systeme.io's free plan comes in lower than Whop.

Prices as of October 2026. About 102 charges of $49, US cards, plans billed monthly. Sources at the end of this page.

Cost = plan price + platform fee % + processing % + 30¢ per charge. Circle and Kajabi include the 0.7% recurring-billing fee they document. Rows marked * bill through your own Stripe account; if Stripe also charges its 0.7% Billing fee on your subscriptions, add about $35. Heartbeat's cheaper Build plan actually costs more at this revenue ($475) because of its 5% fee. Run other price points in the creator fee calculator.

Why creators look for Skool alternatives

Five reasons come up again and again, in Skool's own help center and in owner threads:

• Fees with no flexibility. Hobby takes 10% + 30¢ of every sale, Pro costs $99 a month, prices are USD-only, and you can't connect your own Stripe or PayPal.
• Growth Boost. Skool takes 30% of recurring charges from members it brings you, and the setting is on by default.
• Thin selling tools. Skool sells access to your group (free, subscription, freemium, tiers or one-time), and it doesn't list funnels, a website builder or email automation among its features (October 2026).
• Money rules. You can't refund more than your available Skool balance, payouts come once a week, and archived groups don't get paid out.
• Slower growth than expected. In one r/SKOOL thread, an owner with more than 400 members reported a single new paying member in three months (July 2026 comment). That's a single report, not a trend.

If fees are your only problem, check our Skool pricing breakdown first. Hobby owners selling more than about $1,268 a month save money just by moving to Pro.

How we chose these alternatives

We looked for platforms that can replace what a paid Skool group does: host a community, deliver courses or content, and charge members. Each option was judged on five things: total monthly cost at $5,000 in sales, community and engagement features (including gamification), course hosting, payment options, and how much work it takes to move from Skool.

We list Whop first because it covers the same three jobs as Skool (courses, community and paid memberships) with no monthly fee and the second-lowest cost in our $5,000 example, and because it's the platform our free migration tool moves you to. We earn a commission from Whop and nothing from the other platforms on this list.

All pricing and features come from each company's public pricing and help pages, checked October 2 and 3, 2026. We didn't run a paid community on each platform for this page.

1. Whop: best for selling more than group access

Whop is a pay-per-sale storefront where you attach apps such as Courses, Forums, Chat and Events to each product. It costs $0 a month, and you pay 2.7% + 30¢ per domestic card payment plus 0.5% billing on recurring charges.

The main draw is the missing plan fee, so a small group isn't paying $99 a month just to exist. Checkout takes cards, wallets, PayPal, crypto and ACH, plus buy-now-pay-later once you're approved, in more than 135 currencies. Whop's Discover marketplace has charged 0% commission since May 2025, and you can sell one-time products, downloads, 1:1 bookings and Discord or Telegram access next to your community.

The gaps are real. Whop has no native points, levels or leaderboards, and you can't connect your own Stripe account, because every payment runs through Whop Payments. New accounts go through identity verification and can face reserves and a $2,500 cap per checkout until approved. Tax on direct sales is yours unless you pay 2% for Whop Tax Service, and non-US cards cost 1.5% more.

Switching from Skool: our free wizard creates your products and plans, builds the course outline you paste in, and sets up Forums and Chat. Paying members re-subscribe through a hidden plan whose free trial lines up with their next Skool charge. The feature-by-feature Whop vs Skool breakdown weighs the tradeoffs.

Choose Whop if you're on Skool Hobby, you're on Pro with less than about $33,000 a month in sales, or you want to sell more than access to a group.

2. Circle: best for deep community features

Circle is a community platform with discussion spaces, chat, events, live streams, courses with quizzes, gamification and workflows, built for owners who want more structure than a single feed.

Pricing as of October 2026: Professional costs $99 a month billed monthly or $89 billed yearly, Business $219 ($199 yearly) and Scale $419. Circle adds a transaction fee of 2% on Professional and 1% on Business and Scale, on top of Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ and Stripe Billing's 0.7% on subscriptions.

Circle's strengths are depth and data ownership. Gamification is included on every plan, and payments run through your own Stripe account, so you hold your customer and payment records. Its pricing page also lists standard migration services from the Business plan up.

The costs stack up, though. In our $5,000 example, only Heartbeat and Skool Hobby cost more than Circle. Stripe is the only processor, so there's no PayPal, many extras such as Email Hub and AI credits are metered add-ons, and a full community export (posts and comments) is only available by asking support, without uploaded media.

Switching from Skool: rebuild spaces and courses yourself or with Circle's help, and members re-subscribe through Circle paywalls. See Whop vs Circle for a closer look, or the best Circle alternatives if Circle is already on your shortlist.

Choose Circle if community depth matters more to you than cost and you want payments in your own Stripe account.

3. Mighty Networks: best for courses, livestreams and member apps

Mighty Networks combines community spaces with courses, events and native livestreaming, and its plans include points, badges and leaderboards. Members use the Mighty Networks app on iOS and Android.

The Launch plan costs $95 a month billed monthly or $79 billed yearly, with a 2% transaction fee and 20 hours of livestreaming a month for up to 100 viewers. Scale costs $215 a month ($179 yearly) with a 1% fee, and Growth starts at $354 a month billed yearly with 0.5%. Processing runs through your own Stripe account on top of Mighty's fee.

Mighty puts gamification, livestreams and courses in one app, which is close to how a Skool group works. You can also sell in up to 10 currencies.

The tradeoffs are cost and payment options. Stripe is the only processor, so there's no PayPal or BNPL, and integrations such as Zapier start on Scale. Purchases made in the iOS app go through Apple, which takes 15% (Mighty adds no fee), and that money reaches you 8 to 12 weeks later.

Switching from Skool: there's no Skool import, so you rebuild courses and spaces. Mighty documents a pattern for moving paying members with long free trials, and its Growth plan includes migration services.

Choose Mighty Networks if you want Skool-style gamification plus livestreams and courses, and a monthly plan fee doesn't bother you.

4. Heartbeat: best for small, gamified communities

Heartbeat is a community platform with channels, threads, courses, events and documents, and it includes member badges and gamification on every plan.

Build costs $49 a month ($40 billed yearly) for up to 350 members with a 5% transaction fee. Grow costs $149 ($124 yearly) for up to 5,000 members at 2.5%, and Scale costs $849 ($766 yearly) for unlimited members at 1.25%. Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ comes on top of every plan.

Heartbeat's pricing page lists unlimited channels, courses, events and documents on every plan, plus member data migration and a 14-day free trial with no card required.

Watch the member caps: they count everyone, including admins and moderators. Build's 5% fee is high once you sell regularly, native video hosting starts on Grow with 50 hours included, and a white-label app comes only with Scale.

Switching from Skool: Heartbeat lists member data migration on every plan, but courses need rebuilding and paying members re-subscribe.

Choose Heartbeat if your group has fewer than 350 members (or 5,000 on Grow) and gamification matters to you.

5. Kajabi: best all-in-one suite for course businesses

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for courses, coaching, communities, email marketing, funnels and websites.

Basic costs $179 a month ($143 billed yearly), Growth $249 ($199) and Pro $499 ($399). Kajabi Payments charges US cards 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.8% on Growth and 2.7% on Pro, plus 0.7% on every subscription charge and 1.5% on international cards. If you connect your own Stripe instead, Kajabi adds 2%, 1% or 0.5% depending on the plan.

Every plan includes unlimited marketing emails, landing pages and funnels. Kajabi Payments adds Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna and Afterpay, every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee, and Pro includes a branded app.

It's the most expensive base price here, and Basic is tight: 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 community and 2 admins. Gamification isn't listed on its pricing page (October 2026), and Kajabi isn't the merchant of record, so tax filing stays with you.

Switching from Skool: rebuild your courses, import your member CSV as contacts, and run a re-subscribe campaign. If you're comparing all three, the Kajabi vs Skool vs Whop breakdown puts them side by side, and Whop vs Kajabi compares the two head to head.

Choose Kajabi if you want courses, coaching, email and funnels on one bill and $179 a month fits your revenue.

6. Systeme.io: best free starting point

Systeme.io is a low-cost all-in-one tool with funnels, email marketing, courses, communities and websites. Its free plan includes one course, one community and 2,000 contacts with a 0% transaction fee, and paid plans cost $17, $47 or $97 a month, still with 0% fees.

You pay only your payment gateway, such as Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢, and you can choose from Stripe, PayPal and several regional gateways. That makes it the cheapest option in our cost table, as long as Stripe doesn't add its Billing fee to your subscriptions.

The limits show up in community and polish. Systeme.io has no native live streaming (its webinars are automated replays, from the $47 plan), design options are basic, the lower plans have hard caps, and support is by email only. It isn't the merchant of record, so tax stays with you.

Switching from Skool: Systeme.io offers a free done-for-you migration with yearly plans and the monthly Unlimited plan. Paying members re-subscribe through your own gateway.

Choose Systeme.io if you're starting small and want to pay nothing until the group grows.

7. Discord with LaunchPass: best for chat-first groups

LaunchPass sells paid access to a Discord server (or a Telegram group or Slack workspace). It runs the signup page, sends invites and removes roles when a member cancels. Discord itself is free for you and your members.

LaunchPass Premium costs $29 a month plus a 3.5% transaction fee, on top of your own Stripe account's 2.9% + 30¢. The free Basic plan can't take payments, so it only fits free communities.

The appeal is that members stay where they already chat, and the money lands in your own Stripe account, with one-time and recurring billing, trials, coupons and tiers.

There's no course hosting, Stripe is the only processor, and you pay about 6.4% + 30¢ per payment plus the plan fee. Whop can also gate a Discord server while hosting your courses; see our guide to running a paid Discord server with Whop and the Whop vs LaunchPass comparison.

Switching from Skool: move your categories into Discord channels and send members to your LaunchPass page to re-subscribe.

Choose Discord with LaunchPass if chat is the product and you don't need courses.

When Skool is the better choice

Leaving isn't always the right call. Skool is still the better home for some groups, and a re-subscribe campaign can cost you members, because everyone has to enter a card again.

Stay on Skool if:

• points, levels and level-locked courses are what keep your members active;
• most members are in the EU and you want Skool to keep handling VAT as merchant of record;
• you're on Pro with more than about $33,000 a month in sales, mostly on US cards;
• Discovery and Growth Boost bring you paying members you wouldn't find on your own.

How to move off Skool

Every alternative here starts the same way, because Skool only exports a member list. Export members from the Members tab (paid groups include emails), rebuild your courses from your original files, and run a re-subscribe campaign with a free trial so nobody pays twice.

Our guide on how to export members from Skool covers the file itself. If Whop is your pick, the Skool to Whop playbook walks through each step, and the free migration tool sets up your products, course outline and community for you.

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