How to Start a Skool Community, Step by Step

To start a Skool community, you pick a plan on skool.com, set up your group, set a price, and invite your first members. This guide shows how to start a Skool community step by step, from an empty group to a live one. Every price, limit and step below comes from skool.com or Skool's own help centre, checked on 29 September 2026. We run our own Skool community.

What it costs to start

Skool has two plans for owners. The price is the same whatever you sell. The difference is the fee Skool takes on each payment, plus a list of features only Pro gets.

On Skool's pricing page, the Hobby card marks Custom URL and Affiliates as not included. The help centre reserves more for Pro: most plugins, including AutoDM, the onboarding video, Zapier, the cancellation video, Google Ads, Links, instant membership approval and webhooks. Transferring the group to someone else also needs Pro. On Hobby, Skool shows "Suggested groups" in your sidebar. Our Skool pricing guide works out when Pro becomes cheaper than Hobby.

If you are ready, you can start a Skool community here (affiliate link). Then follow the steps below.

Step 1: Sign up and pick a plan

Go to skool.com/pricing, pick Hobby or Pro and click TRY FOR FREE. Skool's payment terms say both plans are recurring subscriptions after a 14-day free trial. You can cancel any time, but Skool gives no refunds for full or partial billing periods.

Not sure which plan? Start on the one that fits today. You are not locked in. Skool's plan change article shows how to drop from Pro to Hobby under SETTINGS, Billing, Manage subscription, Change plan, and its URL article shows an UPGRADE NOW button for going the other way.

Skool's help centre has no article that walks through the sign-up screens themselves, so we do not list them here. Everything from Step 2 on is done inside your group's settings.

Step 2: Add a logo, cover photo and URL

From Skool's logo and cover article:

1. Click the SETTINGS button in your community.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Click CHANGE for the group icon or the cover photo, and pick an image.
4. Click SAVE.

Your group starts with a temporary URL. Changing it to your own name is only on the Pro plan. The first change is free. After that, Skool charges $100 per change. To claim one, go to SETTINGS, the General tab, and click CLAIM URL. If you later drop to Hobby, Skool warns that you lose the custom URL and others can claim it.

Step 3: Write the About page

The About page is what people see before they join. Skool calls it "essentially a landing/checkout page for your group." From its About page article:

1. Go to the About page.
2. Click Upload images/videos. Skool suggests what is in the program, an explainer video and what members say.
3. Write the group description: what the group is and what members get out of it. Click Save.

Two things to know. Links in the About page description do not work, so leave them out. And the About page must be complete before your group can appear in Skool Discovery (Step 10). Skool also suggests opening your About page in an incognito tab to see it the way a buyer does.

Step 4: Set your price

Skool's pricing article lists five ways to charge:

• Free: members join for free.
• Subscription: monthly or annual, with an optional 7-day free trial for members.
• Freemium: a free plan and a paid plan in the same group. Members can upgrade at any time.
• Tiers: several paid plans, each with its own benefits.
• One-time payment: one price, for things like lifetime access courses or seminars.

Before you can charge, you connect a bank account. In the US, Skool uses a Stripe Express connection, and you cannot use an existing Stripe account (US payouts article). Outside the US, Skool's newer payout setup applies. Either way, identity verification is mandatory, and payouts arrive in your local currency. In Skool's US steps, once the bank is connected you click ADD PRICE and enter the monthly, annual or lifetime amount.

For how owners actually earn from a group, see how to make money on Skool.

Step 5: Build the Classroom

The Classroom holds your courses, guides and resources. Skool's course article says to open the Classroom tab and click + New course, then add a name, description, cover photo and who can access it. Courses are published by default. Use the green toggle to turn one back into a draft while you work on it.

Each course can be locked in one of five ways (course permissions):

• Open: every member can see it.
• Level unlock: members unlock it when they reach a level.
• Buy now: members pay a one-time price for it.
• Time unlock: it opens a set number of days after a member joins.
• Private: only members you pick.

Levels come from points. Members get a point each time someone likes their post or comment. Level 2 needs 5 points, level 3 needs 20, and level 4 needs 65 (level-locked courses). You can also drip single lessons: open a page's three dots menu, click Drip status, toggle it on and set the number of days (drip article).

Step 6: Add events to the Calendar

From Skool's event article: click the plus button in your Calendar tab, then fill in the title, date, time, length (30 minutes to 24 hours) and time zone. Tick Recurring Event for a weekly call. The location defaults to Skool Call, which Skool says is included in both plans. You can pick Zoom, Meet or a physical address instead.

A weekly call gives a new group a reason to come back. Put it in the calendar before your first member arrives, so they see something planned.

Step 7: Set categories, rules and a pinned post

• Categories sort the posts in your feed. You can have up to 10. Go to SETTINGS, Community, Categories, then click NEW. Each one can let members post, or admins only (categories article). Skool's own example is an admin-only Announcements category sorted by newest.
• Rules live under SETTINGS, the Rules tab. Skool adds a few default rules you can edit or remove, and recommends keeping them "simple and to the point" (rules article).
• A pinned post stays at the top of the feed. Admins can pin up to 3. Click a post, the three dots menu, then Pin to feed (pin article). A welcome post that links your rules is a good first pin.

Step 8: Add membership questions

Membership questions let you ask people a few things before you let them in. They work on both Hobby and Pro. From the membership questions article:

1. Click SETTINGS and go to the Plugins section.
2. Click EDIT next to Membership questions.
3. Toggle it on and click ADD QUESTION.

You can ask up to three questions. Answers can be a text box, multiple choice or an email address, and only one question can ask for an email. People must answer all of them to join. Skool's own tip: ask why they want to join, then for their email, then where they found you.

Step 9: Invite your first members

From Skool's invite article, updated 28 September 2026:

1. Click the SETTINGS button in your community.
2. In the Invite tab, click COPY and share your link.

You can also type an email address and click SEND, or click IMPORT to upload a CSV of emails. Email and CSV invites give instant access without paying or asking to join. Skool says email invites are mainly for adding admins or mods, and CSV is for bringing over old customers. The person must click JOIN NOW in the email to get in. For large lists, Skool recommends inviting through your own CRM instead.

Skool's own setup lesson, "Setup + first 3 members", compares starting a community to starting a party. Its second step is "Invite 3 friends." Start there, not with a launch to thousands.

Skool's own advice for a new group: invite three friends before you invite anyone else.

After the first invites, Skool's own team has advice on where the next members come from: see how to get more members on Skool.

Step 10: Get listed in Discovery

Discovery is Skool's own search, where people browse groups. A new group shows as UNLISTED until it passes a minimum bar (Discovery visibility):

• a cover image
• a group description
• a finished About page
• at least one post
• invited members

Skool's team then reviews it, and says it is usually listed within an hour or two. Groups rank on member growth, activity and retention. New groups start lower and rise as they age (ranking article).

Growth Boost is on by default. It shows your group to more people in Discovery and in Skool's off-site ads, and "You pay the 30% commission only when Skool gets you a member" (Discovery FAQ). Members you bring yourself cost nothing extra. Skool says Growth Boost is not recommended for high ticket sales, and you can turn it off under SETTINGS, Discovery.

After launch: when cards fail and members cancel

Once people pay, two things start to happen every month. Some cards fail, and some members cancel.

Skool handles part of this. When a card fails, the member gets a red "Declined" label. Skool retries the charge itself, shows you how many retries it has done, lets you retry by hand, and asks the member to update their card (card declines article). For cancellations, Pro owners can add a cancellation video under Plugins, which Skool shows on step two of the cancel flow.

What Skool does not do is send the member a personal message from you. Backpack is a Chrome extension, not made by Skool, that does that part. Payment Recovery messages a member when their card fails. Cancellation Recovery messages a member who cancels. You write the messages, and it sends them from our servers, so it works with your computer off. It is $9 a month for every Skool community you admin, every feature included.

Ready to start?

That is how to start a Skool community: pick a plan, set up the look and the About page, set a price, add a course and a weekly event, write your rules, then invite three friends before anyone else. If Skool fits what you want to build, you can try Skool free for 14 days (affiliate link). Still deciding? Read what Skool is and how it works first.

FAQ

How much does it cost to start a Skool community?

Starting a Skool community costs $9 a month on Hobby or $99 a month on Pro, after a 14-day free trial. Skool also takes a fee on each member payment: 10% plus 30c on Hobby, or 2.9% plus 30c on Pro. A free group pays no payment fees, but you still pay your plan.

Can I start a Skool community for free?

Only for 14 days. Both plans come with a 14-day free trial, then they bill monthly or yearly. You can run a free group that members join at no cost, but you as the owner still pay Skool for Hobby or Pro once the trial ends. Cancel before it ends if you decide not to go ahead.

Should I start on Hobby or Pro?

Hobby is cheaper to run while you have few paying members. Pro adds a custom URL, member affiliates, most plugins, ownership transfer and more than one admin, and its payment fee is lower. Skool lets you change plans later, so many owners start on the plan that fits today and switch when the numbers change.

How long does it take a new Skool group to show in Discovery?

Once your group meets the minimum bar, Skool says it usually appears within an hour or two. The bar is a cover image, a group description, a finished About page, at least one post and invited members. Until then the group shows as UNLISTED. New groups rank lower at first and rise as they age.

Can I change my Skool group URL later?

Yes, but only on the Pro plan. Every group starts with a temporary URL. The first change to a custom URL is free, and each change after that costs $100. If you later downgrade to Hobby, Skool warns that you lose the custom URL and someone else can claim it.

Can I give members a free trial?

Yes. Skool's pricing setup lets a subscription group offer members a 7-day free trial. This is separate from the 14-day free trial you get as the owner. Skool's help centre lists the member trial under subscription pricing, so choose Subscription as your price model if you want to offer one to new members.

We may earn a commission if you start a Skool community through a link on this page. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not change what we write.