Skool fees explained: Hobby vs Pro, and the $899 rule

Skool sells two plans (prices verified June 2, 2026). Hobby is $9 a month and takes 10% of each transaction plus $0.30. Pro is $99 a month and charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, which is roughly what card processing costs anywhere. On Pro, an individual sale above $899 is charged 3.9% + $0.30 instead, which works out to a 1% platform fee on that sale.

On both plans the per-transaction charge is Skool's own processing. You do not pay a separate Stripe fee on top of it. That makes Skool's pricing unusually easy to model: one monthly number and one percentage per plan.

That simplicity is part of the product. Skool is easy to set up, members understand it immediately, and its gamification (points, levels, a leaderboard) is genuinely good at getting people to post. The fee question is only worth asking once you know which plan fits your sales.

The rule is per sale, not per month. If one member pays $899 or less in a single transaction, Pro charges 2.9% + $0.30 and there is no platform fee at all. If one member pays more than $899 in a single transaction, the whole sale is charged 3.9% + $0.30. It does not matter how much you sell in total that month.

Two consequences follow. First, a community selling a $49 monthly membership never touches the threshold, however large it grows. Second, a high-ticket offer does. An annual plan at $1,200, a coaching program at $2,000 or a mastermind at $5,000 each pay the extra 1% on the full amount, not just on the part above $899.

Here is the sentence worth screenshotting: on Skool Pro, a $899 sale costs about $26.37 in fees, and a $900 sale costs about $35.40. One extra dollar of price adds about $9 of fees, because crossing the line moves the entire sale from 2.9% to 3.9%. Math example, not a customer outcome.

If you are pricing an annual plan or a program near that line, set it at $899 or below, or move clearly above it so the extra revenue covers the extra 1%. Anywhere from $900 to about $908 you would keep less money than you would at $899. Math example, not a customer outcome.

For larger tickets the extra 1% is easy to reason about. A $2,000 program pays $20 more than it would below the threshold. A $5,000 mastermind pays $50 more. Payment plans also change the picture: splitting a $2,000 program into four $500 payments keeps every transaction under $899. Math example, not a customer outcome.

Pro costs $90 a month more than Hobby but charges 7.1 percentage points less per sale (2.9% instead of 10%). The $0.30 per transaction is the same on both, so it cancels out. Divide $90 by 7.1% and you get about $1,268. Below roughly $1,270 a month in sales, Hobby is cheaper. Above it, Pro is. Math example, not a customer outcome.

The decision rule: if you expect to sell less than about $1,270 a month for the next few months, start on Hobby. If you already sell more, or expect to within a quarter, start on Pro and stop paying 10%.

Hobby also suits free communities and tests. If you are still finding out whether anyone will pay, $9 a month is a cheap way to find out. Just put a calendar reminder on the day your sales pass the break-even, because 10% gets expensive quickly.

Example 1: a $29 membership with 30 members, $870 a month. On Hobby: $9 + $87 (10%) + $9 (30 x $0.30) = $105 a month. On Pro: $99 + $25.23 (2.9%) + $9 = $133.23 a month. Hobby wins by about $28. Math example, not a customer outcome.

Example 2: a $49 membership with 100 members, $4,900 a month. On Hobby: $9 + $490 + $30 = $529 a month. On Pro: $99 + $142.10 + $30 = $271.10 a month. Pro saves about $258 a month, or about $3,100 a year. Math example, not a customer outcome.

Example 3: the same 100 members, plus three people a month buying a $2,000 coaching program. That adds $6,000 in sales. On Pro each program sale costs 3.9% + $0.30, or $78.30, so the three cost $234.90 in fees, $60 more than they would at 2.9%. The total monthly bill is about $506. Math example, not a customer outcome.

To run your own numbers, use the Skool fee calculator linked below. Enter your price, your member count and any high-ticket sales, and it applies both plans and the $899 rule for you.

Skool's price buys you its community, its classroom and its gamification. It does not include native quizzes, certificates or RSVP events. If your community needs those, you add other tools, and each one has its own bill and its own login for members.

That is the honest way to compare Skool's cost with anything else: add up the full stack you would actually run, not just the platform line. A creator who only needs discussion and a simple course library may find Skool's $99 is the whole cost. A creator running assessments, certificates and ticketed events will pay more somewhere else to fill the gaps.

HiveLearn puts courses, community, events and payments in one place, including server-graded quizzes, verifiable certificates and events with RSVPs, paid tickets and QR check-in. Its pricing works differently from Skool's: a revenue share that stops at a monthly cap, with Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30) charged on top.

Starter is $0 a month with a 6% rev share and no cap, so there is no monthly fee until you monetize. Growth is $39 a month at 4%, rev share capped at $2,000/month. Pro is $99 a month at 2%, rev share capped at $3,000/month. Scale is $249 a month at 1%, rev share capped at $4,000/month. Enterprise is $499 a month at 0.25%, rev share capped at $5,000/month. Annual billing saves 17%, and Growth, Pro and Scale come with a 14-day free trial, no credit card.

When not to switch: if you sell a low-priced membership, need nothing beyond discussion and a classroom, and love Skool's simplicity, Skool Pro is a fair deal. If you are moving, the Skool migration guide covers the steps in order.