Skool vs Circle (September 2026)

Skool has two plans. Hobby is $9 a month with a 10% transaction fee. Pro is $99 a month with 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction and a 1% platform fee on individual sales over $899. Circle has three. Professional is $89 a month with a 2% transaction fee, Business is $199 with 1%, and Plus is custom-priced at 0.5%. Neither platform caps its percentage.

Skool's extra 1% applies per individual sale over $899, so a community charging a normal monthly membership never pays it and Skool Pro's platform line is a flat $99 plus processing. At $5,000 a month in member revenue, that is $99 plus processing for Skool Pro against $89 plus $100 plus processing for Circle Professional. At $20,000, Skool Pro is still $99 plus processing, while Circle Professional adds $400 to its subscription and Circle Business adds $200 to $199. Skool is cheaper at scale on the platform line; Circle's Business tier narrows it. Math example, not a customer outcome.

Skool wins on gamification and it is not close. Points for engagement, levels that unlock content, and a leaderboard on every community page create a habit loop that many creators credit for retention. Circle has a basic gamification layer but its community strength is structure: spaces let you organise by topic, cohort or tier, and the member directory, profiles and moderation tools are more developed.

If your community is one conversation, Skool's single feed is a feature. If it is six conversations that should not mix, Circle's spaces are the feature.

Both have a classroom and neither is a full LMS. Skool's classroom is modules and lessons with drip by level; there are no quizzes and no certificates. Circle's course builder handles lessons, sections and drip, and it looks better, but quizzes are basic and there is no verifiable certificate. Creators who sell assessed courses usually keep a separate LMS with either platform.

Circle is clearly ahead here. Native live streams, event pages with RSVPs, recordings and reminders are part of the product. Skool has a calendar: you can list an event with a link, and members can see it in their timezone, but there are no RSVPs, no ticketing and no reminder system. For cohort programmes with regular calls, this is the gap most often cited.

Circle's member experience is more designed and its admin tooling suits teams: roles, moderation, analytics and integrations are more developed. Skool's admin surface is small on purpose, which means fewer settings and fewer things to break. Skool's creator-celebrity halo and its community of creators helping each other are a genuine strength; Circle's enterprise motion and support are the equivalent on its side.

A coach or creator with one paid group, a light course library, and a community that runs on engagement. You value simplicity and the leaderboard, you do not need RSVP events or quizzes, and you want the lowest platform bill at scale.

A brand or team running several distinct spaces, hosting regular live events, and wanting a polished member experience with real admin tooling. You accept an uncapped transaction fee for a richer product and you are not selling assessed courses through the platform.

HiveLearn is for the creator who reads both lists and wants the leaderboard and the RSVP events and the quizzes. The classroom is a full LMS with quizzes across six question types, verifiable certificates, progress tracking and an AI course builder. Events have RSVPs, ticketing, QR check-in and automatic reminders. Gamification with points, levels and leaderboards is native. Starter is $0 a month with a 6% revenue share and no monthly fee until you monetize; Growth is $39 with 4% capped at $2,000 a month; Pro is $99 with 2% capped at $3,000. Growth, Pro and Scale start with a 14-day free trial, Enterprise 30 days, no credit card. The full comparisons with each platform are linked below.

Both have mobile apps and both send email and push notifications for activity. Skool's app is simpler and mirrors the web feed exactly, which is a feature for members who do not want to learn anything new. Circle's app carries spaces, events and courses and is correspondingly heavier. HiveLearn posts new courses, posts and events into Slack, Discord and Telegram natively; check each competitor's integrations page for current support, which matters if your members already live somewhere else.

Moving from Skool to Circle means rebuilding one feed as several spaces and re-uploading course content, and members will need to create new accounts. Moving from Circle to Skool means collapsing spaces into one feed, dropping events with RSVPs to a calendar, and accepting that any quizzes you built will not carry over. Both platforms export member lists. In both directions, rebuild the classroom first, test a purchase, and keep the old platform open for a week of overlap.

At $1,000 a month in member revenue, Skool Hobby costs $9 plus $100 and Skool Pro costs $99 plus processing, while Circle Professional costs $89 plus $20 plus processing. At $5,000, Skool Pro is $99 plus processing, with no platform fee as long as no single sale exceeds $899, and Circle Professional is $89 plus $100 plus processing. At $20,000, Skool Pro is still $99 plus processing and Circle Professional adds $400, with Circle Business at $199 plus $200 sitting between them. Skool is cheaper at scale on the platform line; Circle is buying you events, spaces and admin tooling with the difference. Math example, not a customer outcome.