Skool vs Thinkific: Which One for Your Course?

Thinkific is the better course builder. Skool is the better place to run a paid group. That is the short version of Skool vs Thinkific. Thinkific gives you graded assignments, certificates, live cohorts, your own domain and a community with spaces. Skool gives you one feed, levels, a leaderboard and a simple classroom, for less money. Below we compare price, fees, tax, courses, community, apps and selling tools. Every fact comes from each company's own pages, checked on 29 September 2026.

We run our own Skool community, so we know Skool from the owner's side. We have not run a Thinkific site, so every Thinkific fact below comes from Thinkific's own pricing page and help centre, not from our own use.

Skool vs Thinkific at a glance

What each platform is built around

Thinkific calls itself a learning management platform. The course sits at the center. You build courses, then add products around them: digital downloads, coaching and webinars, memberships, and communities. A community on Thinkific is one product among several, with a set number of spaces inside it.

Skool works the other way round. You create a group, and the group is the product. The feed is the first thing a member sees. The Classroom, the Calendar and the leaderboard are tabs beside it. There is one layout, and every group uses it.

On Thinkific you sell courses and add a community. On Skool you sell a community and add courses.

Neither is better in general. It depends on what your customers are paying for. If they pay to finish a program and get a certificate, that is Thinkific's job. If they pay to belong, ask questions and show up to calls, that is Skool's.

Price per month

Skool has two plans. Hobby is $9 a month and Pro is $99 a month. Both include unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls. Skool's pricing page marks Custom URL and Affiliates as not included on Hobby, and Skool's help centre reserves more for Pro, including webinars, group ownership transfer, and plugins such as Zapier, AutoDM 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 through both plans.

Thinkific's pricing page has a Monthly and an Annual switch, and says annual billing saves 25%. Here is what each plan includes.

Plus is custom priced through sales. It adds unlimited communities, an AI teaching assistant, single sign-on, SCORM, learning paths and more seats. Every plan below Plus is capped at 10,000 current students, meaning people with active access to at least one course.

The line that matters most for a community owner is paid memberships. Thinkific's compare table ticks recurring memberships, paid community access and free trials for subscriptions on Start and up, not on Basic. So the real starting price for a monthly membership on Thinkific is $109 a month on monthly billing, or $82 billed yearly. On Skool, both plans can charge monthly, yearly, freemium, tiers or one-time.

Thinkific has no free plan. It offers a 30-day free trial instead, twice as long as Skool's, and you can cancel during it. If you want the cheaper route for a paid group, you can try Skool free for 14 days (affiliate link).

Fees, payments and payouts

Skool is the seller. Skool's payments FAQ says Skool is a "merchant of record", runs every payment itself, and does not let you connect your own Stripe account. You pay one fee: 10% + 30c on Hobby, or 2.9% + 30c on Pro (3.9% + 30c above $900). Nothing is listed on top for the card. Payouts go to your bank every Wednesday, in your local currency. Members pay in US dollars.

Thinkific takes no cut, but processing adds up. When you use Thinkific's own processor, Thinkific Payments, which it runs with Stripe, Thinkific lists processing fees but no platform fee of its own. Thinkific's fee article lists the rates for a business based in the US:

The 0.5% tax fee is easy to miss. Thinkific says it applies to every paid sale to a student in the US, Canada, the UK or the EU where tax is assessed, even when the tax works out to 0%. For UK and EU students, it applies only where you are registered for tax.

Thinkific Payments is open to businesses in 36 countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, most of the EU, Australia and New Zealand. Outside those, you use Stripe or PayPal, and Thinkific adds a third-party gateway fee that it says varies by plan. It does not publish those percentages on its pricing page. PayPal as a payment option is on Grow and up.

Chargebacks are your problem on Thinkific. Its help centre says a lost dispute is taken from your account and returned to the student, and that Thinkific's role is only to pass evidence between the parties. It sells an optional chargeback protection plan, priced by quote.

A worked example

We worked out the monthly cost from each company's listed rates for two setups: a $50 a month membership, and a $297 course sold 50 times in a month. This assumes a US business, US cards, monthly billing, no refunds and no tax charged. Thinkific's 0.5% tax fee is included, because it applies to US students even at a 0% rate.

Skool Pro is the cheapest in every column. For a membership, Thinkific's per-payment cost is $2.35 on a $50 charge against Skool Pro's $1.75, and its cheapest membership plan costs $10 more. For a single course, the gap is smaller: Thinkific Basic is $29 a month more than Skool Pro here. Skool Hobby only makes sense while you are small. Its 10% fee costs more than Pro's extra $90 a month once you sell about $1,270 a month.

Skool has one cost Thinkific does not. If Skool brings you a paying member through its Discovery search or its own ads, Skool's Growth Boost takes 30% of that member's payments, plus fees, while they stay. It is on by default, and you can switch it off in Settings, then Discovery.

Sales tax and VAT

On Skool, tax is off your plate. Skool's payments FAQ says it collects, files and pays sales tax, and adds EU VAT on top of your price.

On Thinkific, it depends where the student is. Thinkific's tax article says that for US and Canadian students it calculates, collects and remits sales tax under its own tax return, and this is switched on for everyone. For UK and EU students, VAT is optional and you switch it on yourself. Thinkific then calculates and collects the VAT but pays it to you with your payouts, and you remit it under your own registration. VAT is included in your price, not added on top.

Courses: where Thinkific pulls ahead

Thinkific is built for teaching, and its compare table shows it. Every plan has a drag-and-drop course builder, unlimited courses, drip schedules, quizzes and in-course discussions. Start adds completion certificates, assignments you grade, course compliance so students cannot skip lessons, private and hidden courses, multimedia lessons and live Zoom lessons. Grow adds exams through the Brillium integration. Plus adds SCORM, learning paths and an AI teaching assistant.

Skool's Classroom is much lighter. You write pages, add video to turn them into lessons, attach files and links, add transcripts so videos are searchable, and group pages into folders. Skool hosts video and adds English captions automatically. You can drip a page by days after joining, lock a course until a member reaches a level, or sell a course for a one-time price inside the group. Skool's Classroom article does not mention quizzes, certificates or assignments.

If your students need to prove they finished, or your buyers are companies training staff, Thinkific fits far better. If the course is a bonus inside a group, Skool is enough.

Community: Skool's strength, Thinkific's add-on

Thinkific's community is real, but capped. Basic includes one community with a private feed, direct messages and weekly digests. Every plan has threaded replies, mentions, user profiles and notifications. Spaces are limited to 5, 10 or 20 per community by plan, and Basic allows 5 live events in the community. Charging for the community, on its own or bundled with a course, needs Start or higher.

For points and leaderboards, Thinkific's own help answer points to its Digital Badges feature, which is Plus only, and to third-party apps from its app store, such as Pointagram for points and leaderboards.

On Skool, this is built in. Each like earns the author one point, members climb nine levels, a leaderboard shows who is ahead, and you can lock courses until a level. The Calendar holds repeating events that default to a Skool Call, included on both plans, and you can go live from the app or the browser. Webinars are a Pro feature.

Apps

Thinkific has its own mobile app. You switch it on in your admin under Channels, then Mobile App, and students download it from the App Store or Google Play. If you want an app with your own name and logo in the stores, Thinkific sells a branded app for $199 a month on top of your plan, included on some Plus contracts.

Skool has its own app, and you can go live from it. For more on what it does, see our guide to the Skool app.

Selling tools and your website

Thinkific gives you a full site. Every plan has a site builder, landing pages, email automation, a custom domain, order bumps, gifting, abandoned cart emails, coupons and affiliate reporting. Start adds payment plans, bundles, extra pricing options, after-purchase flows and a CSS and HTML editor. Grow removes Thinkific branding and adds group orders for companies, the API, webhooks and Zapier actions.

Skool keeps it short. Your sales page is your group's About page, which Skool describes as a landing and checkout page, and links in its description do not work. Your address is your custom URL on skool.com, and changing it is Pro only: the first change is free, then $100 each time. Member affiliates are Pro only. What Skool has that Thinkific does not is Discovery, where people browse groups on skool.com, with Growth Boost behind it.

Pick Skool if, pick Thinkific if

Pick Skool if

• Members pay for the group: posts, calls, each other and you.
• You want a monthly membership for $99 a month, or $9 while you test.
• You want Skool to handle card processing, sales tax and EU VAT.
• You want points, levels and a leaderboard without add-on apps.
• You want members to find you through Discovery, and accept the 30% Growth Boost cut on those members.

Pick Thinkific if

• Your business is courses: many of them, sold one by one or as bundles.
• You need graded assignments, certificates, course compliance or exams.
• You sell to companies and need group orders or invoices.
• You want your own domain and a full website on the entry plan.
• You want a 30-day trial before you pay.

If you want another course platform in the mix, read our Skool vs Teachable comparison. If you want a community-first rival with chat and livestreams, see Skool vs Mighty Networks.

For most people weighing Skool vs Thinkific, the answer follows what you sell. A catalogue of courses with tests and certificates belongs on Thinkific. A paid community with a course inside it costs less and runs simpler on Skool. If that is you, start a Skool community here (affiliate link) on the 14-day free trial.

FAQ

Can you sell a monthly membership on Thinkific Basic?

No. Thinkific's compare table ticks paid memberships, paid community access and subscription free trials on Start and higher, not on Basic. Start costs $109 a month on monthly billing, or $82 a month billed yearly. Both Skool plans can charge a monthly or yearly membership, from $9 a month on Hobby.

Is Thinkific better than Skool for courses?

Yes. Thinkific has quizzes on every plan, and assignments, certificates, course compliance and Zoom lessons from Start. Grow adds exams, and Plus adds SCORM and learning paths. Skool's Classroom has lessons, video, files, drip and level locks, but its help article does not mention quizzes, certificates or assignments.

Does Thinkific take a cut of sales?

Not on Thinkific Payments. You pay processing instead: 2.9% + 30c for a US card, 0.7% more on subscriptions, and a 0.5% tax fee on sales to US, Canadian, UK and EU students where tax is assessed. With Stripe or PayPal, Thinkific adds a gateway fee that varies by plan.

Does Thinkific have leaderboards like Skool?

Not built in. Thinkific's help centre points to Digital Badges, which are on the Plus plan only, and to third-party apps such as Pointagram for points and leaderboards. Skool builds points, nine levels and a leaderboard into every group, and lets you lock courses until a member reaches a level.

How long are the Skool and Thinkific free trials?

Thinkific gives 30 days, and you can cancel during the trial. Skool gives 14 days on both the Hobby and Pro plans. Neither has a free plan for creators. After the trial, Thinkific starts at $54 a month on monthly billing, and Skool starts at $9 a month.

Who handles sales tax on Skool and Thinkific?

Skool handles all of it as merchant of record, including EU VAT. Thinkific collects and remits sales tax for US and Canadian students. For UK and EU students, VAT collection is optional, and when it is on, Thinkific collects the VAT but you remit it under your own registration.

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.