7 Best Skool Alternatives For Community-Led Learning Businesses

TL;DR: What Are the Best Platforms Like Skool?
Skool is still my first pick for a single-topic paid community. Switch when you outgrow its one feed, need proper course tools, or want email and digital product sales in the same place.

The best Skool alternatives:
1. Circle for communities that need separate spaces for different groups
2. Mighty Networks for challenges, certificates, and cohort programs
3. Kajabi for course businesses that run on email and sales funnels
4. Podia for creators selling several kinds of digital products
5. Thinkific for structured courses with quizzes and certificates
6. Heartbeat for chat-style communities with courses and events
7. Whop for selling access with no monthly fee

My take: Most creators who outgrow Skool should move to Circle. Choose Kajabi only if email and funnels drive your sales, and Whop if you want to test an offer before paying for any platform.

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Skool solved a real problem for coaches and online educators.

Before it existed, most creators ran their paid community in a Facebook Group, their courses on a separate platform, and their live calls through yet another tool.

Skool put community, courses, and gamification in one clean interface at a price that made sense for early-stage creators.

But Skool isn’t the right fit for every creator building a community-led learning business.

I’ve judged the seven alternatives in this guide on one question: can this platform help you build a learning business where community drives growth and courses or digital products drive revenue?

I’ve used all of them over the years and know where their community and course features hold up and where they don’t.

Read my detailed Skool review to see what it offers

Skool vs Alternatives: Quick Comparison Table

Here’s how Skool compares with the seven alternatives on the features that matter most for a community business.

Platform	Best for	Gamification	Course tools	Branded mobile app	Starting price	Transaction fee
Skool	Single-topic paid communities	Points, levels, leaderboard, unlockable courses	Simple modules, no quizzes or certificates	No	Hobby $9/mo, Pro $99/mo	10% + 30¢ on Hobby, 2.9% + 30¢ on Pro
Circle	Communities with several groups or programs	Points, levels, leaderboards, badges	Courses inside community spaces	Plus plan only	$89/mo billed annually	2% on Professional, plus card processing
Mighty Networks	Challenges, cohorts, and certificate programs	Badges	Quizzes, certificates, cohort and live courses	Pro plan only	$79/mo billed annually	2% on Launch, plus card processing
Kajabi	Course businesses built on email and funnels	Points, leaderboards, challenges	Courses, coaching, cohorts on Growth	Included on Pro	$143/mo billed annually	Card processing only with Kajabi Payments
Podia	Selling several kinds of digital products	Not offered	Courses, downloads, coaching, events	No	$42/mo billed annually	5% on Mover, none from Shaker up
Thinkific	Structured courses and certification	Not offered	Quizzes, assignments, certificates from Start	$199/mo add-on	$82/mo billed annually	Card processing only with Thinkific Payments
Heartbeat	Chat-style communities with courses	Member badges	Evergreen, drip, and cohort courses	Scale plan only	$40/mo billed annually	5% on Build, plus card processing
Whop	Selling access with no monthly fee	Not offered	Courses with quizzes and certificates	No	No monthly fee	2.7% + $0.30 per domestic card sale

Skool’s fee includes card processing. Circle, Mighty Networks, and Heartbeat add Stripe’s card processing, about 2.9% + 30¢, on top of their own fee. Kajabi and Thinkific charge only card processing when you use their built-in payments.

Why Some Creators Leave Skool

Skool has earned its reputation, and I think it’s an excellent community platform, especially for someone starting from scratch.

But over time, many of my clients on Skool hit walls that have nothing to do with price or simplicity. These are limits Skool has chosen to keep, and for some creators they become dealbreakers.

1. One Community Feed for Everyone

The limit that comes up most often is the feed.

Skool gives you one feed for everyone. That’s a great constraint for a small, focused community. But once a community grows to several hundred active members, or serves people at different stages, one feed becomes a problem.

A new member asking beginner questions next to a two-year member who’s ready for advanced strategy creates friction for both of them.

We tried to manage this with categories, pinned posts, and workarounds. Eventually, some of my clients switched platforms because their audience outgrew what one feed can handle.

2. Limited Digital Product Sales

Skool now lets you sell memberships in tiers and courses as one-time purchases. It still has no storefront for anything else.

If you want to sell a template pack or a downloadable resource library alongside your community, you need a second platform, which means two checkouts and two customer lists for people who should be in one place.

3. No Email Marketing

Skool has no email marketing. You can broadcast a message to your members, but you can’t build automated onboarding sequences, segment your list by behavior, or run a launch campaign inside the platform.

For creators who came to Skool from a tool like Kit or ActiveCampaign, that gap never closes. You end up paying for Skool and a separate email tool, which changes the cost comparison with platforms like Kajabi and Podia that include email.

4. A Basic Course Builder

Skool was never trying to be Thinkific, and the simple course experience is a deliberate choice.

But I’ve worked with enough learning business owners to know that missing quizzes, assessments, and completion certificates is a real limit for many of them.

If you sell a program where the credential or documented progress is part of what the buyer pays for, Skool’s course tools will leave you looking for workarounds.

Read our detailed Skool vs Kajabi comparison

The 7 Best Skool Alternatives for Community-Led Learning Businesses

Based on my experience running community-led course programs, here are the Skool alternatives worth your time. I’ve ranked them by how many Skool users they suit.

1. Circle: Best Skool Alternative for Structured Communities

• Best for: Communities that serve several groups or programs
• Not for: A small, single-topic community on a tight budget
• Starting price: $89/mo billed annually
• Transaction fee: 2% on Professional, plus card processing
• Key features: Spaces, courses, live streams and events, points and levels, workflows, and Circle AI

In my experience, Circle is the closest direct competitor to Skool.

Circle was built by former Teachable executives to bring community and course delivery into one place, and it beats Skool on organization.

Circle uses Spaces, which are separate rooms for specific topics, cohorts, or audience groups inside one community. A beginner track, an advanced program, and a coaching inner circle can each have their own feed, courses, and events without members overlapping.

Skool’s single feed can’t do that, and for creators running several programs, this is the main reason they move from Skool to Circle.

Circle also matches Skool on gamification now, with points, levels, leaderboards, and badges on every plan. On Business and above, workflows can tag a member, open a new space, or send a message when someone finishes a module or hits a milestone.

Choose Circle when: your community serves distinct audience groups, your cohort programs need separate spaces, or you need automations Skool can’t support. Circle suits creators who have validated their model, have bigger communities, and need more structure to scale.

Stick with Skool when: your community covers a single topic and daily engagement is the number you watch most. Circle gives you more structure, but structure alone doesn’t create engagement.

Pros	Cons
Separate spaces for each group or program	2% fee on Professional, plus Stripe
Points, levels, and leaderboards on every plan	Workflows start on Business
Workflows that automate onboarding and access	Branded apps only on the custom Plus plan
Live streams and events built in	More setup than Skool

Circle pricing plans:

Circle shows annual-billing prices only. Most creators moving from Skool will want Business, since it adds workflows, removes Circle branding, and cuts the transaction fee to 1%.

Circle features by plan:

Read our Circle vs Skool comparison for more details

2. Mighty Networks: Best Skool Alternative for Challenges and Certificate Programs

• Best for: Challenges, cohort courses, and certificate programs
• Not for: Creators whose members aren’t comfortable with technology
• Starting price: $79/mo billed annually
• Transaction fee: 2% on Launch, plus card processing
• Key features: Quizzes, badges, and certificates, cohort and live courses, livestreaming, events, and branded apps on Pro

Mighty Networks shines when your community runs structured programs.

Quizzes, badges, and completion certificates come on every plan, so a 30-day challenge with daily check-ins and a certificate at the end works out of the box. You can’t build that on Skool.

Courses can run on demand, as cohorts, or live, and livestreaming and events are built in. For a professional development network or a fitness program, that gives you a full learning experience inside the community.

Mighty also offers your own branded iOS and Android apps, but only on the custom-priced Pro plan, so budget for it if the app is the reason you’re looking.

The tradeoff is navigation. A consistent complaint from longtime Mighty Networks users is that members struggle to find things, which forces creators to make tutorial content only to help people use the platform. Skool doesn’t have that problem.

Choose Mighty Networks when: you run certification programs, challenges, or cohort courses as core products, or a branded app is a real business requirement and you can afford Pro.

Stick with Skool when: you’re at an early stage or your retention depends on daily member participation. Mighty’s navigation slows engagement for less technical audiences.

Pros	Cons
Quizzes, badges, and certificates on every plan	Members find navigation confusing
On-demand, cohort, and live courses	2% fee on Launch, plus Stripe
Built-in livestreaming and events	Branded apps only on custom Pro
Branded iOS and Android apps available	Zapier and Kit integrations start on Scale

Mighty Networks pricing plans:

The transaction fee drops as you move up, from 2% on Launch to 1% on Scale and 0.5% on Growth. Selling one-time events and connecting Zapier or Kit both require Scale.

Mighty Networks features by plan:

Read our Skool vs Mighty Networks comparison for more details

3. Kajabi: Best Skool Alternative for Marketing Features

• Best for: Course businesses that run on paid ads, email, and sales funnels
• Not for: Early-stage creators on a small budget
• Starting price: $143/mo billed annually
• Transaction fee: Card processing only with Kajabi Payments
• Key features: Email automation, funnels, landing pages, courses, coaching, communities with points and challenges, and a branded app on Pro

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform built around marketing and sales first. Email automation, funnels, landing pages, affiliate management, and course delivery all come in one subscription.

The difference from Skool is obvious if you run paid advertising. If you send cold traffic to a sales page, nurture leads through an email sequence, and sell a high-ticket course on the back end, Kajabi handles the whole pipeline. Skool has none of it.

Kajabi’s community is better than its reputation. It now has points, leaderboards, and challenges, and it works well as a discussion space for course students. In my experience, though, it doesn’t produce the daily, unprompted participation that Skool communities do.

I usually recommend Kajabi as a Skool alternative to established creators with bigger budgets and advanced marketing needs.

Choose Kajabi when: your business runs on paid traffic, email marketing, and sales funnels, and community supports your courses rather than carrying the business. Kajabi is easiest to justify when it replaces separate email, funnel, and course subscriptions.

Stick with Skool when: community energy is how members stay and how word spreads. Kajabi’s community is a feature. Skool’s community is the product.

Pros	Cons
Email, funnels, pages, and courses in one place	Highest starting price on this list
Community with points, leaderboards, and challenges	Basic caps you at 5 products and 2,500 contacts
Branded mobile app included on Pro	Affiliates and cohort courses need Growth
No separate email tool to pay for	Community engagement lags behind Skool

Kajabi pricing plans:

Kajabi often runs launch discounts, so check the live price before you buy. Basic has no affiliate program or cohort courses, which is why most growing course businesses end up on Growth.

Kajabi features by plan:

Read my guide to Kajabi Communities

4. Podia: Best Skool Alternative for Multi-Product Digital Creators

• Best for: Creators selling courses, downloads, coaching, and memberships together
• Not for: Communities where daily peer participation drives renewals
• Starting price: $42/mo billed annually
• Transaction fee: 5% on Mover, none from Shaker up
• Key features: One storefront for courses, downloads, coaching, webinars, and memberships, email marketing, community spaces, and a website

Podia is built for selling any kind of digital product, including courses, memberships, downloads, webinars, and coaching, from one storefront.

On Skool, your main ways to earn are memberships and courses. Templates and downloadable resources need another platform. Podia handles all of it natively, with email marketing built in.

The community on Podia works well as a discussion and support space. A recurring pattern among Podia users is that community activity stays reactive. Members show up when prompted, not because the platform pulls them back.

For a creator whose members stay for access to products rather than group belonging, that’s acceptable.

Choose Podia when: you sell several types of digital products alongside a membership, you want email marketing built in, and community is one of several reasons members stay.

Stick with Skool when: the community experience is why members renew. Coaching groups and accountability memberships that depend on daily participation will find Podia’s community too quiet.

Pros	Cons
Courses, downloads, coaching, and events in one store	Mover caps email at 100 subscribers
Email marketing included	5% transaction fee on Mover
Website, blog, and custom domain on every plan	Community stays quiet without prompting
No transaction fee from Shaker up	No gamification

Podia pricing plans:

The Mover plan looks cheap, but its 100-subscriber email cap and 5% fee push most creators to Shaker quickly.

Podia features by plan:

Read my full Podia review

5. Thinkific: Best Skool Alternative for Selling Online Courses

• Best for: Structured courses, certification programs, and professional training
• Not for: Communities where membership itself is the product
• Starting price: $82/mo billed annually
• Transaction fee: Card processing only with Thinkific Payments
• Key features: Quizzes, assignments, certificates, progress tracking, communities with spaces, email automation, and landing pages

Thinkific is my number one choice among online course platforms for e-learning features.

It’s built for structured course delivery, with quizzes, assignments, completion certificates, and detailed student progress tracking. None of these exist in Skool.

For creators selling professional development, certification programs, or corporate training, Thinkific gives you what Skool leaves out.

Thinkific’s community feature is a discussion space where students ask questions. Members don’t return to it on their own, and unlike Skool, nothing in it is built to drive engagement.

One practical note. Certificates, assignments, and paid memberships start on the Start plan, so the Basic plan won’t work for a community-plus-course business.

Choose Thinkific when: your main product is a structured learning program where buyers expect quizzes, certificates, and documented progress.

Stick with Skool when: membership in a community is the product and courses come with it. If daily participation and peer accountability drive renewals, Thinkific won’t produce that.

Pros	Cons
Quizzes, assignments, and certificates	Community doesn’t drive engagement
Detailed student progress tracking	Certificates and memberships need Start
Email automation and landing pages built in	Branded app is a $199/mo add-on
No platform fee with Thinkific Payments	Learning paths only on Plus

Thinkific pricing plans:

For a membership or community-plus-course business, start with Start. Basic lacks paid memberships, certificates, and assignments.

Thinkific features by plan:

Read our detailed Skool vs Thinkific comparison

6. Heartbeat: Best Skool Alternative for Chat-Based Communities

• Best for: Coaching groups and communities that talk in real time
• Not for: Large communities on a tight budget
• Starting price: $40/mo billed annually
• Transaction fee: 5% on Build, plus card processing
• Key features: Threads, chat channels, DMs, voice and video rooms, courses, events with Zoom, workflows, and member badges

Heartbeat feels closer to Slack or Discord than to Skool. Members get threads, chat channels, direct messages, and voice and video rooms in one place, with courses and events built in.

For a coaching group or mastermind that talks in real time, that chat-first design keeps conversations moving in a way a single feed doesn’t.

Courses can be evergreen, dripped, or run as cohorts, and events come with Zoom setup and recordings. Workflows handle onboarding, and member badges add some gamification.

The catch is pricing. The Build plan caps you at 350 members and takes 5% of each sale on top of Stripe, and native video hosting starts on Grow.

Choose Heartbeat when: your members want to chat and meet live, and you’d rather run your community like a Slack group with courses attached.

Stick with Skool when: you want one simple feed and lower fees as your revenue grows.

Pros	Cons
Chat channels, DMs, and voice rooms	Build caps you at 350 members
Evergreen, drip, and cohort courses	5% fee on Build, plus Stripe
Events with Zoom setup and recordings	Native video hosting starts on Grow
Free Heartbeat mobile app for members	Branded app only on Scale

Heartbeat pricing plans:

Most paid communities outgrow Build’s 350-member cap fast, so plan for Grow, which also lowers the fee to 2.5%.

Heartbeat features by plan:

7. Whop: Best Skool Alternative for Marketplace Selling and Discord Communities

• Best for: Testing an offer with no monthly cost, and selling to Discord audiences
• Not for: Memberships that depend on community belonging
• Starting price: No monthly fee
• Transaction fee: 2.7% + $0.30 per domestic card sale
• Key features: Marketplace listing, courses with quizzes and certificates, community chat and forums, Discord access, and a built-in affiliate system

Whop is a digital product marketplace and creator platform that has become popular with younger buyers in niches like crypto, trading, fitness, finance, and online marketing.

Its model is different from everything else here. There’s no monthly fee and no tiered plans. You pay card processing of 2.7% + 30¢ on each domestic sale, so you only pay when you sell.

Whop’s marketplace brings real discovery traffic from buyers looking for digital products. For the right offer, such as trading signals, Discord access, software tools, or template packs, that visibility produces sales Skool’s discovery page doesn’t match.

The community tools on Whop are lighter than Skool’s. There’s no points system and no leaderboard, and members come to access what they paid for. Creators who’ve run communities on both describe Whop communities as transactional and Skool communities as social.

Choose Whop when: you want to test an offer without a monthly platform fee, your audience already lives in Discord, or marketplace discovery is a real way buyers find you.

Stick with Skool when: community belonging drives renewals and referrals. Skool builds a place members return to. Whop sells access.

Pros	Cons
No monthly fee	No points or leaderboards
Marketplace discovery traffic	International cards cost 1.5% more
Discord and Telegram access selling	Payout fees, such as $2.50 per next-day ACH payout
Built-in affiliate system	Feels transactional for community-led memberships

Whop pricing plans:

Whop charges only on sales. International cards add 1.5%, currency conversion adds 1%, and payouts carry their own fees, such as $2.50 for a next-day bank transfer.

Whop features by plan:

Read our detailed Skool vs Whop comparison

What About Teachable?

Teachable is a solid course platform, but its community feature is closed to new schools and Teachable has stopped developing it. That rules it out as a Skool alternative unless you pair it with a separate community tool, such as Circle or Skool itself.

Read our detailed Skool vs Teachable comparison

Skool vs Alternatives: What You’ll Pay at Different Revenue Levels

Monthly prices only tell half the story. Transaction fees grow with your revenue, so I’ve added each plan’s fee and card processing to its annual-billing price at $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 a month in sales.

Platform	Plan	Monthly price (annual billing)	Fees on each sale	At $2K/mo	At $5K/mo	At $10K/mo
Skool	Pro	$82	2.9% (processing included)	$140	$227	$372
Skool	Hobby	$7.50	10% (processing included)	$208	$508	$1,008
Circle	Professional	$89	2% + 2.9% processing	$187	$334	$579
Mighty Networks	Launch	$79	2% + 2.9% processing	$177	$324	$569
Kajabi	Basic	$143	2.9% processing	$201	$288	$433
Podia	Mover	$42	5% + 2.9% processing	$200	$437	$832
Podia	Shaker	$84	2.9% processing	$142	$229	$374
Thinkific	Start	$82	2.9% processing	$140	$227	$372
Heartbeat	Grow	$124	2.5% + 2.9% processing	$232	$394	$664
Whop	No plan	$0	2.7% processing	$54	$135	$270

Totals assume annual billing and US cards, and leave out the 30¢ per-transaction charge. I used Thinkific Start instead of Basic because Basic can’t sell memberships, and Heartbeat Grow because Build caps you at 350 members.

Three things stand out.

• Whop is cheapest at every level, because you pay no subscription and no platform fee.
• Skool Pro, Thinkific Start, and Podia Shaker cost about the same, since none of them adds a platform fee on top of card processing.
• Circle, Mighty Networks, and Heartbeat cost the most on their entry plans, because their own fee stacks on top of Stripe. Their higher plans cut that fee.

Two details from Skool’s pricing are worth knowing. Skool Hobby becomes more expensive than Pro once you pass roughly $1,000 to $1,300 a month in sales, and when Skool’s Discovery page brings you a paying member, Skool keeps 30% of that member’s payments.

Skool pricing plans:

Which Skool Alternative Should You Choose?

Match the platform to how your business earns and keeps members.

Your situation	Best choice	Why
Community engagement is your main retention driver	Skool	Gamification, one simple feed, and fees that include processing
Your community serves several distinct groups	Circle	Spaces separate each group inside one community
You run challenges or certificate programs	Mighty Networks	Quizzes, badges, and certificates on every plan
Paid ads and email funnels drive your sales	Kajabi	Email, funnels, landing pages, and affiliates built in
You sell courses, downloads, coaching, and memberships together	Podia	One storefront with email included
Buyers expect quizzes, certificates, and progress tracking	Thinkific	The strongest course tools on this list
Your members want real-time chat and live rooms	Heartbeat	Chat channels, DMs, and voice rooms with courses attached
You want to test an offer with no monthly cost	Whop	No subscription and marketplace discovery
A branded mobile app is a must	Kajabi Pro or Mighty Networks Pro	Branded apps come with these plans

When Skool Is Still the Best Choice

Skool is still the platform I recommend first to coaches, educators, and membership site owners whose business puts community engagement at the center. Its simplicity is its biggest strength.

The cases where a Skool alternative makes more sense are specific.

• Choose Circle if your community has grown to where one feed creates real friction and you need separate spaces plus automation.
• Choose Mighty Networks if challenges, cohorts, or certificates are core products.
• Choose Kajabi if paid traffic and email funnels drive your sales.
• Choose Podia if you sell several types of digital products and want email without a separate subscription.
• Choose Thinkific if course completion and certificates matter to your buyers.
• Choose Heartbeat if your members would rather chat in real time than post in a feed.
• Choose Whop if you want to test an offer with no monthly fee or your audience already lives in Discord.

Pick the platform that matches how your learning business earns and keeps members, not the one with the longest feature list. For most creators building a community-led business from scratch, that’s still Skool. My guides to building a learning community and increasing community engagement cover what to do once you’ve picked a platform.

Frequently Asked Questions About Skool Alternatives

What is the best alternative to Skool?

Circle is the best Skool alternative for most creators, because its Spaces let you separate groups, cohorts, and programs inside one community while keeping points, levels, and leaderboards. Choose Kajabi if email and funnels drive your sales, Thinkific if you need quizzes and certificates, and Mighty Networks for challenges and certificate programs.

Is Circle better than Skool?

Circle is better than Skool for communities that need separate spaces, cohort management, and workflow automation. Skool is better for single-topic communities where daily engagement drives retention. Circle’s entry plan also takes a 2% fee on top of card processing, while Skool Pro’s fee already includes processing.

What is cheaper than Skool for a paid community?

Whop is the cheapest option, with no monthly fee and only card processing on each sale. Skool Hobby has a lower monthly price than Pro, but its 10% fee makes it more expensive once you sell more than about $1,000 to $1,300 a month. Podia Shaker and Thinkific Start cost about the same as Skool Pro.

Does Kajabi have a community feature like Skool?

Yes. Kajabi Communities include points, leaderboards, and challenges, and they work well as discussion spaces for course students. In my experience, they don’t create the daily, unprompted participation Skool communities do, so choose Kajabi when marketing and email matter more than community energy.

Which Skool alternative has a branded mobile app?

Kajabi includes a branded mobile app on its Pro plan, and Mighty Networks offers branded apps on its custom Pro plan. Circle and Heartbeat reserve branded apps for their top plans, and Thinkific sells one as an add-on. Skool itself has no branded app for your community.

What is the best Skool alternative with email marketing built in?

Kajabi and Podia are the strongest Skool alternatives with built-in email marketing. Kajabi offers full automation, funnels, and segmentation for creators running ad-driven launches. Podia includes email at a lower price, though its Mover plan caps you at 100 subscribers, so most creators need Shaker.

Is Whop a good Skool alternative?

Whop is a good Skool alternative for testing an offer without a monthly fee, selling access to Discord groups, or reaching buyers through its marketplace. It’s a weak choice when community belonging drives renewals, because Whop has no points or leaderboards and its communities feel transactional.

Can I still use Teachable instead of Skool?

Not for community. Teachable has closed its community feature to new schools and stopped developing it. Teachable still works well for selling courses and coaching, but you’d need a separate community tool, such as Circle or Skool, to run a community-led business alongside it.

Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution

Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.