Skool
Skool is a SaaS platform that lets independent creators and coaches host paid community groups and courses in one place. It charges $9/month per community, takes a share of member subscriptions, and drives discovery through a built-in marketplace of 25 million users and 200,000+ communities.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Skool does
Skool, operated by Skool.com, Inc., is a cloud-based SaaS platform that combines community hosting, course delivery, and member monetization into a single product aimed at independent creators, coaches, and educators. The platform's core offering charges $9 per month per community to group owners, who can monetize members through paid subscriptions priced anywhere from $1 to $99+ per month, while Skool takes a cut of member-paid revenue. Beyond the basic community feed and classroom tools, the product includes gamification features (levels, leaderboards), a calendar, Stripe-integrated billing, and an embedded discovery marketplace where Skool's 25 million registered users browse over 200,000 active communities.
The company's go-to-market is product-led and community-led: any creator can launch a community in under 60 seconds with a 14-day free trial, the marketplace provides organic distribution that competitors like Circle and Patreon lack, and a 40% lifetime recurring affiliate program converts successful creators into a distributed sales force. Growth is further amplified by the Skool Games, quarterly 90-day competitions with leaderboards and prizes that function as a viral acquisition loop. Headcount is small (~27 employees, fully remote across the US and Canada) and the company has not disclosed any outside funding rounds, suggesting either bootstrap profitability or a lean capital posture. Notable customers span AI education (Claude Code Club, AI Video Bootcamp), e-commerce training (Evolve, Origins), trading education (TDG), faith communities (Bible in a Year), and coaching (School of Mentors), with aggregate member spending across the platform reportedly exceeding $1 billion annually.
Skool firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Skool
- Legal name
- Skool.com, Inc.
- Website
- https://skool.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Skool is a SaaS platform that lets independent creators and coaches host paid community groups and courses in one place. It charges $9/month per community, takes a share of member subscriptions, and drives discovery through a built-in marketplace of 25 million users and 200,000+ communities.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Skool industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Online Community Platform
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (5132), Exam Preparation and Tutoring (611691), Educational Support Services (611710)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Course Bundle Subscriptions & Learning Membership Marketplaces (EDAFAIAI)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Software/SaaS Subscriptions (Consumer & Prosumer) (CRAFAIAB), Digital Learning & Course Subscriptions (CRAFAIAD)
Keywords
Where Skool is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Skool business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Platform Subscription - Community Creators: Skool charges community creators $9/month per community. Creators can offer free or paid memberships. The platform handles payment processing.
- Member Subscription Fees: Community creators set their own pricing for memberships (ranging from free to $99+/month). Skool takes a platform cut from paid communities. Members pay recurring fees to access communities.
- Affiliate Revenue Share: Skool pays affiliates 40% of monthly recurring revenue for referring new creators. This is Skool's GTM cost rather than a revenue stream.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Platform fee for community creators: $9/month per community |
| Unit Pricing | Monthly | Community membership tiers vary by creator |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels4 records
Skool product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Skool is a cloud-based platform that allows course creators, coaches, and experts to host paid student communities and courses in one place, combining community feeds, classrooms, calendars, leaderboards, and member management. The platform charges creators a flat $9/month per community and provides a built-in discovery marketplace where 25 million users can browse and join communities.
Product overview
Skool is a unified community-building and monetization platform that enables creators, coaches, and experts to create and manage paid membership communities. The core product (Skool at $9/month per group) provides an all-in-one solution combining community feeds, classrooms, calendars, leaderboards, and member management with no transaction fees. The platform also includes Skoolers, a private community for Skool owners to network and learn growth strategies, and an affiliate program offering 40% recurring revenue. The platform serves over 200,000 communities earning approximately $1 billion annually, with access to 25 million potential users.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- The Skool Games: Quarterly competitions for community builders with leaderboards and prizes including trips to Skool HQ to meet Alex Hormozi
Products and services
- Skool (Core Platform)
Quantifiable outcome
- 25M users spending $1B+ annually browsing and joining communities
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Skool
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Skool technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Skool partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators5 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Skool competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Circle: Circle is a direct competitor offering branded community spaces with course, events, and chat functionality. It targets the same creator/coach SMB segment with tiered pricing (Basic $99/mo to Enterprise $999+/mo), making it Skool's closest product substitute despite Circle's higher price point.
- Mighty Networks: Mighty Networks is a direct competitor that combines community, courses, and memberships for creators and coaches. Its Mighty Pro and Mighty Hosted tiers compete with Skool's discovery marketplace and offer comparable integrated chat + course functionality.
- Kajabi: Kajabi is an all-in-one creator platform spanning courses, communities, email, and websites. While priced higher than Skool (~$149/mo+), it competes for the same knowledge-creator customer with overlapping course + community capability.
- Teachable: Teachable is a course-creation platform widely used by individual creators and SMBs to sell courses and coaching. It overlaps with Skool's classroom functionality, though it lacks Skool's community-centric discovery marketplace.
- Thinkific: Thinkific is a course and membership platform for creators and SMBs, offering community, course, and digital-product functionality at tiered pricing. Comparable to Skool in serving solo creators monetizing knowledge, with similar no-code tooling.
- Patreon: Patreon is a direct competitor in the creator-membership space, monetizing via a percentage fee (5-12%) on member payments vs. Skool's flat $9/month per community. Skool explicitly positions against Patreon's high take rate.
- Podia: Podia is an all-in-one creator platform for courses, downloads, webinars, and community. With a free tier and low-cost paid plans, it competes for the same SMB creator as Skool and offers zero transaction fees on paid plans.
Broad incumbents
- Discord: Discord is a broad incumbent in online community infrastructure, serving creators who host free and paid communities (via Stage Channels, Server Subscriptions). It competes at the low end against Skool's free tiers and forces Skool to differentiate on monetization tooling.
- GoHighLevel: GoHighLevel is a broad-inbound-marketing and CRM incumbent increasingly bundling community and course features into its agency-focused SaaS platform, competing for the same SMB creator/marketer wallet at higher price points with sales-funnel tooling.
Emerging players
- Substack: Substack is an emerging player enabling creators to monetize with subscriptions and (recently added) chat/community features. It overlaps Skool's community+subscription model for newsletter and thought-leadership creators.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Skool social profiles
Digital presenceSkool financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Skool leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Skool funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Skool M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Skool
What does Skool do?
Skool is a cloud-based platform that allows course creators, coaches, and experts to host paid student communities and courses in one place, combining community feeds, classrooms, calendars, leaderboards, and member management. The platform charges creators a flat $9/month per community and provides a built-in discovery marketplace where 25 million users can browse and join communities.
Is Skool a public or private company?
Skool is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Skool founded?
Skool was founded in 2017. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Skool based?
Skool is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Skool make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Platform Subscription - Community Creators are the primary driver. The others are member Subscription Fees and affiliate Revenue Share.
Who are Skool's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Circle, Mighty Networks, Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Patreon and Podia. Broad incumbents are Discord and GoHighLevel. Substack is listed as an emerging player.
Does Skool have an API?
No public API is recorded for Skool.
What industry is Skool in?
Skool's product category is Online Community Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAFAIAI, Course Bundle Subscriptions & Learning Membership Marketplaces, with a secondary code of CRAFAIAB, Software/SaaS Subscriptions (Consumer & Prosumer). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.