Nathan FieldSkool vs GoHighLevel is not a contest between two community apps. Skool is a community platform: a feed, courses, a calendar and payments in one simple group. GoHighLevel (also searched as Go High Level, or GHL) is a CRM and marketing system for businesses and agencies, with funnels, email, texts, calendars, pipelines and automations, and a community feature inside it. We build on both. Havstock, the company behind Backpack, builds GoHighLevel funnels and systems for clients, and we run our own Skool community. Every price and feature below comes from each company's own pages, checked on 29 September 2026.
Pick Skool if you want a paid community running fast: $9 or $99 a month, and Skool handles payments and sales tax. Pick GoHighLevel if you need a CRM, funnels, email and SMS in one place, from $97 a month plus usage charges. You can also use both: GoHighLevel to sell, Skool to host the community.
Skool vs GoHighLevel at a glance
| Skool | GoHighLevel | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A community platform | A CRM and marketing platform, with communities as one feature |
| Price, monthly billing | Hobby $9, Pro $99 | Starter $97, Unlimited $297, Agency Pro $497, Enterprise custom |
| Price, yearly billing | "2 months free" | $970, $2,970 and $4,970 a year |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days on the pricing page, 30 days through the bootcamp sign-up |
| Usage charges | None listed | Phone numbers, SMS, emails sent and premium AI |
| Fee per sale | Hobby 10% + 30c. Pro 2.9% + 30c (3.9% + 30c above $900) | No platform fee listed. Your payment provider's fees apply |
| Whose payment account | Skool's, as merchant of record | Yours: Stripe, PayPal, Square, NMI, Authorize.net, Adyen, Razorpay and more |
| Sales tax and EU VAT | Skool collects, files and pays | You set up taxes in Payments, and checkout can add them |
| CRM, pipelines, funnels | Not built in | Yes |
| Email and SMS marketing | No email marketing tool listed | Yes, charged by use |
| Community | Feed, Classroom, Calendar, live calls | Groups, channels, private channels, courses, events, live rooms |
| Points, levels, leaderboards | Yes, 9 levels | Yes, the same 9 levels and point thresholds |
| Your own domain | Custom URL on skool.com (changing it is Pro only) | Yes, for communities, funnels and websites |
| Mobile app | Skool's app | Kollab app (Beta v2). Branded apps are paid add-ons |
What each one is for
Skool gives every group the same layout: a Community feed, a Classroom for courses, a Calendar for events, and a leaderboard. You set a price, write your About page, and Skool takes the payment. It does one job, and it keeps the setup small. Our guide to what Skool is covers the basics.
GoHighLevel is built to run a whole business. Its pricing page lists CRM and pipelines, a website and funnel builder, email and SMS marketing, calling, booking calendars, workflow automation, forms and surveys, reviews, payments and invoicing, social media management, courses and communities. GoHighLevel says most users replace their "CRM, funnel builder, email marketing software, appointment scheduler, SMS marketing tools, and review management software" with it. Agencies use it to run many clients, each in their own sub-account.
On Skool, the community is the product. On GoHighLevel, the community is one feature inside a CRM.
Price per month
Skool's pricing page shows two plans. Hobby is $9 a month and Pro is $99 a month. Both list unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls. The page marks Custom URL and Affiliates as not included on Hobby, and Skool's help centre reserves more for Pro, including plugins such as Zapier, AutoDM, webhooks and the cancellation video. Yearly billing gets "2 months free", and both plans start with a 14-day free trial. Our Skool pricing guide goes plan by plan.
GoHighLevel's pricing page shows three plans you can buy yourself, plus a custom Enterprise plan:
| Plan | Monthly billing | Yearly billing | Sub-accounts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $97 a month | $970 a year | 3 |
| Unlimited | $297 a month | $2,970 a year | Unlimited |
| Agency Pro | $497 a month | $4,970 a year | Unlimited, plus SaaS Mode |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Talk to sales |
Every plan includes unlimited contacts and unlimited users. GoHighLevel's FAQ says Starter's 3 sub-accounts make it "perfect for a single business owner or a new agency". There is no long-term contract: GoHighLevel says it "operates on a month-to-month basis".
The plan price is not the whole bill. GoHighLevel's pricing page says there are "usage-based costs for telecommunications and AI services", including "phone numbers, SMS (text messaging), emails sent, and premium AI usage". Some add-ons cost extra too. A few from its list: AI Employee from $50 a month per sub-account, a Branded Client Portal App at $49 a month per sub-account, a white label mobile app at $497 a month, HIPAA compliance at $297 a month, and premium support at $500 a month.
GoHighLevel's pricing page offers a 14-day free trial on any plan. If you sign up through our special link (we earn a commission if you sign up), you get a 30-day free trial plus a free live bootcamp. The bootcamp page says it runs every weekday at 11am CT on Zoom, lasts up to 60 minutes, and is not recorded. It also says "communication surcharges may apply" during the trial, and the subscription starts billing when the trial ends unless you cancel.
So on price alone, Skool is cheaper to start. $9 or $99 gets you a working paid community. GoHighLevel's $97 gets you a much bigger toolkit, and whether that is good value depends on how much of it you would use. If a community is all you need, you can try Skool free for 14 days (affiliate link).
Payments, fees and sales tax
Skool runs payments itself. Skool's payments FAQ says "All payment processing happens on the Skools merchant" and that Skool is a "merchant of record". You cannot use your own Stripe account. Hobby pays "10% + 30c /transaction for all transactions". Pro pays "2.9% + 30c /transaction for transactions up to $899 USD" and "3.9% + 30c /transaction for transactions above $900 USD". Payouts go to your bank every Wednesday in your local currency. Skool says it handles "all sales tax collection, filing, and payments", and adds EU VAT on top of your price.
GoHighLevel uses your own payment account. Its pricing page lists Stripe, PayPal, NMI, Authorize.net, Square, Adyen and Razorpay, "and many more". The pricing page lists no platform fee on your sales, so what you pay per sale is your payment provider's fee. Stripe's standard US rate is 2.9% + 30c for domestic cards, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% if currency conversion is needed.
For a paid community, GoHighLevel's Paid Groups article says you can charge a one-time payment or a recurring subscription, monthly or annually, with optional trial days. When a member cancels, they are removed from the group automatically, and you can refund from GoHighLevel's Payments screen or from Stripe. For tax, GoHighLevel's Communities checkout can apply the tax settings you set up in Payments, either automatic or manual rates. Its help article explains how tax is added at checkout. It does not say GoHighLevel files or pays that tax for you, so plan for that yourself.
Community features compared
Skool
Skool's Classroom holds your courses. You add pages, turn them into video lessons, attach files and links, add transcripts, and group pages into folders. The Calendar holds events, which can repeat, and default to a Skool Call. You can go live in the app or the browser, record the call, and download the recording for 14 days. Your About page is your sales page. Skool calls it "essentially a landing/checkout page for your group", and links in its description do not work.
Skool also has Discovery, where people browse and search for groups. If Skool finds you a paying member through Discovery or its own ads, Growth Boost takes 30% of that member's payments for as long as they stay. It is on by default, and you can switch it off in Settings, then Discovery.
GoHighLevel Communities
GoHighLevel's Communities guide covers groups with their own name, URL and description, public or private. You add channels to split up conversations, and private channels for members-only talk. You can connect a custom domain through your DNS, and upload your own logo, cover image and favicon. Courses sit in a Learning tab inside the group.
For live sessions, Go Live gives you a meeting room or a broadcast from streaming software, with optional replays. Community events can be free or paid. Members use Kollab, GoHighLevel's app for communities, courses, events and chats. Its help article calls the current version Beta v2, "an early-access release".
Two things stand out. First, GoHighLevel's gamification copies Skool's. One like is one point, there are nine levels, and the thresholds match Skool's levels exactly, from 0 points at level 1 to 33,015 at level 9. You can rename the levels, but GoHighLevel says the number of levels and the point structure "cannot be changed". Second, the community ties into the rest of the CRM. Workflows can react when someone gains or loses access to a group, and you can schedule community posts from GoHighLevel's Social Planner.
The honest summary: GoHighLevel's community can do most of what Skool's does, plus branding and a custom domain. Skool's is simpler to set up, and it has Discovery.
CRM, funnels, email and automation
This is where GoHighLevel wins clearly. It is built around a CRM with pipelines, funnels and websites on your own domain, email and SMS campaigns, booking calendars, and workflows that tie them together.
Skool has none of that built in. Its pricing page lists no email marketing tool, and it has no funnel builder. What it does have is a few plugins that pass members to other tools:
- Membership questions (Hobby and Pro) let you ask people for their email when they request to join.
- Zapier (Pro) can send each new paid member's name and email to your CRM, as Skool's Zapier guide shows.
- Webhook (Pro) sends a unique invite link to people who paid through an outside checkout. Skool calls it "a developer-only feature".
- AutoDM (Pro) sends new members a welcome message inside Skool.
Using Skool and GoHighLevel together
You do not have to choose. There are two common ways to run both.
Sell on Skool, follow up in GoHighLevel
People join and pay on Skool, so Skool stays the merchant of record and handles the sales tax. Skool's Zapier plugin sends each new paid member to your CRM, where GoHighLevel runs your emails, texts and follow-ups. This needs Skool Pro, because Zapier is a Pro plugin.
Sell in GoHighLevel, host on Skool
People buy through a GoHighLevel funnel and your own Stripe account. Skool's webhook plugin then sends them an invite to your group. This gives you full control of the sales page, order bumps and follow-up, but it has costs. You lose Skool's tax handling on those sales. Skool's Discovery FAQ lists "Payments off-platform" as a ranking penalty. And Skool says Growth Boost "is not recommended for high ticket sales", and to switch it off if you sell members "via a sales call or via a sales funnel".
The third option is to skip Skool and run the community inside GoHighLevel. That makes sense if you already pay for GoHighLevel and want one login, one bill and your own domain.
Pick Skool if, pick GoHighLevel if
Pick Skool if
- The community is your product, and you want it live this week.
- You want the lowest bill: $9 while you test, $99 on Pro.
- You want Skool to handle payments, sales tax and EU VAT.
- You want people to find you through Skool's Discovery, and accept the 30% Growth Boost cut on those members.
Pick GoHighLevel if
- You need a CRM, pipelines and funnels, not just a community.
- You run email or SMS follow-up, or take bookings and calls.
- You are an agency running marketing for several clients.
- You want your community on your own domain with your own branding.
Use both if
- You like Skool for the community but need GoHighLevel for leads, follow-up and sales.
- You already run GoHighLevel and want members to find you on Skool.
If you are weighing other all-in-one tools too, our Skool vs Kajabi comparison covers a course platform with email built in.
For most people deciding Skool vs GoHighLevel, the question is whether you need a community or a whole sales system. If it is the community, start a Skool community here (affiliate link) on the 14-day free trial. If you need the CRM, you can try GoHighLevel with our special link for a 30-day trial and a free live bootcamp.
FAQ
Does GoHighLevel have a community feature like Skool?
Yes. GoHighLevel Communities has groups, channels, private channels, courses, events, live rooms and a mobile app called Kollab. It can charge a one-time or recurring fee to join a group. Its points, nine levels and leaderboard use the same thresholds as Skool. It also supports a custom domain, which Skool's help centre does not mention.
Is GoHighLevel more expensive than Skool?
Yes, on the plan price. GoHighLevel starts at $97 a month on monthly billing, or $970 a year, plus usage charges for SMS, email, phone numbers and premium AI. Skool is $9 or $99 a month. But GoHighLevel includes a CRM, funnels and email and SMS tools, which Skool does not have.
Can I use Skool and GoHighLevel together?
Yes. On Skool Pro, the Zapier plugin can send each new paid member's name and email to your CRM. Or you can sell through a GoHighLevel funnel and use Skool's webhook plugin, also Pro, to invite buyers to your group. Skool lists payments made off-platform as a Discovery ranking penalty, so weigh that first.
Does GoHighLevel have a free trial?
Yes. GoHighLevel's pricing page offers a 14-day free trial on any plan. Its bootcamp sign-up page offers a 30-day free trial plus a free live bootcamp on Zoom, held every weekday at 11am CT. GoHighLevel says usage charges for texts and calls can apply during the trial, and billing starts when it ends.
Who handles sales tax on Skool and GoHighLevel?
Skool does it for you. Skool is the merchant of record and says it handles all sales tax collection, filing and payments, including EU VAT. On GoHighLevel, payments go through your own provider. Its Communities checkout can add tax from your Payments settings, but its help article does not say GoHighLevel files or pays it.
Does Skool have a CRM?
No. Skool's pricing page lists no CRM, funnel builder or email marketing tool. It has a Zapier plugin on the Pro plan that sends each new paid member's name and email to the CRM you already use, and membership questions on both plans that can ask new members for their email.
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.