Nathan FieldWhat is Skool? It is a website and app where people run online communities. One Skool community puts a discussion feed, courses, a calendar for live calls, a member list and a points leaderboard behind one login. This guide explains how Skool works for members and for owners, what it costs, and who runs it. Every fact was checked on skool.com and Skool's help centre on 29 September 2026. We run our own Skool community too.
Skool is a community platform. Each Skool group puts a discussion feed, courses, a calendar, a member list and a points leaderboard in one place, on the web and in a mobile app. Members join free or paid groups. Owners pay Skool $9 or $99 a month plus a fee on each payment.
Skool in plain words
Skool describes itself in one line on its homepage: "Skool is a community platform. You can discover communities or create your own."
That covers the two ways people use it:
- Members join communities. Some are free. Some charge a monthly or one-time price.
- Owners build a community, fill it with posts, courses and live calls, and invite people in. If they charge, Skool takes the payments and sends them the money.
On Skool, "community" and "group" mean the same thing. Each one lives at its own address on skool.com, like skool.com/your-group-name. You log in once, and every group you belong to sits under the same account and profile.
Who uses it? Almost anyone who teaches or gathers people around a topic. The skool.com homepage sorts communities into Hobbies, Music, Money, Spirituality, Tech, Health, Sports, Self-improvement and Relationships. The first page of groups on 29 September 2026 covered ads, AI, investing, dance and storytelling, among others.
What is inside a Skool community
Open any Skool group and you see a row of tabs across the top. In Skool's own help screenshots, they are Community, Classroom, Calendar, Members, Leaderboards and About. Owners can also switch on a Map. Here is what each part does.
Community: the feed
This is the main page. Members write posts, comment and like each other's posts. Owners can sort posts into up to 10 categories, such as an Announcements category where only admins can post (Skool's categories guide). Each category can show posts by recent activity, newest first, or the top posts of the week or month.
Classroom: the courses
Skool's Classroom guide says owners use it "for guides, instructions, courses, recipes, workout plans, resources, templates, etc." A course is made of pages. Each page can hold text, a video, a link, a file like a PDF or spreadsheet, and a video transcript that makes the video searchable. Pages can be grouped into folders.
Owners can also lock a course until a member reaches a certain level. That ties the courses to the points system below.
Calendar: events and live calls
Owners add events to the Calendar, one-off or repeating daily, weekly, monthly or yearly (create an event). The location defaults to Skool Call, Skool's own video call, which Skool says is "included in both plans". Owners can pick Zoom, Google Meet or an in-person address instead.
Admins can also go live on the spot, in the app or the browser (go live on Skool). On a call you can chat, share your screen and record. Skool gives you 14 days to download a recording before it expires.
Leaderboards: points and levels
This is the game side of Skool. Skool's points guide is short: "1 like = 1 point for the post or comment author." Get enough points and you level up. Your level shows next to your name.
| Level | Points needed |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | 0 |
| Level 2 | 5 |
| Level 3 | 20 |
| Level 4 | 65 |
| Level 5 | 155 |
| Level 6 | 515 |
| Level 7 | 2,015 |
| Level 8 | 8,015 |
| Level 9 | 33,015 |
Levels belong to each group. If you are level 3 in one group and join another, you start at level 1 there. The Leaderboards tab ranks members and shows which courses open at which level. Owners, billing managers and admins do not appear on their own group's leaderboard (member roles).
Points only come from other people liking what you write. The way up the leaderboard is to help the group.
Members and the Map
The Members tab lists everyone in the group. If the owner turns on the Map in settings, the group gets a map of member locations, and each member can change or remove their own location (Skool's map guide).
Chat
Skool has private messages between members. The app store listing puts it as "Chat - DM anybody in your communities." You can turn chat on or off for each group you are in (turn off chat). Owners can also stop members from using chat until they reach a set level, which Skool suggests for big groups that get spam.
About: the sales page
Every group has an About page. Skool calls it "essentially a landing/checkout page for your group" (About page guide). It holds a description, images or videos, and the Join button. One catch for owners: links in the About page description do not work.
The Skool app
Skool works in a web browser at skool.com and in a free mobile app. On the Apple App Store the app is called Skool Communities, by Skool.com, Inc. On Google Play it is called Skool, and its listing says "The official Skool app."
The App Store listing says the app has "All Skool's features + push notifications", naming the community feed, courses, calendar and chat. Skool also comes in 11 languages, including English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Japanese (supported languages).
How members join a Skool community
Joining takes a few steps. Here is the path, pieced together from Skool's help articles.
- Find the group. Use a link the owner shares, or browse communities on skool.com.
- Open the About page and click Join.
- Finish your profile. "A profile pic and a bio are mandatory for a Skool account" (profile pic rule).
- Answer the membership questions, if the group uses them. There can be up to three, and you must answer all of them (membership questions).
- Pay, if it is a paid group. Prices are in US dollars. Some owners offer a 7-day free trial.
- Wait for approval, if the group checks new members. Admins and moderators can approve or decline requests.
An owner can also skip all of this by sending an email invite. Skool says email invites "grant instant access without purchasing or requesting membership" (invite members).
Free groups and paid groups
Each owner picks how their group is priced. Skool's pricing setup article lists five options: free, a monthly or annual subscription, freemium (free with a paid upgrade), tiers (several paid plans), and a one-time payment.
On 29 September 2026, the first page of communities on skool.com showed 30 groups priced from $9 to $249 a month, and two with a one-time price. That is a snapshot of one page, not the whole of Skool.
Leaving a group
Paid members can cancel from their settings, under Communities, then the group's Settings, then Manage membership. You stay in the group until the end of the billing period (cancel a membership). Cancelling does not refund you. Refunds are up to the group's owner. Our guide on how to cancel a Skool subscription covers both members and owners.
How Skool Discovery works
Discovery is the list of communities you can browse on skool.com. Not every group is in it. Skool's Discovery FAQ says a group needs a minimum number of members, posts and activity, plus a description, a finished About page and a cover image. Once it qualifies, it shows up within two hours.
Groups are ranked by "member growth, engagement, and retention". A person at Skool also reviews rankings to stop people gaming them. Skool lists what helps and what hurts:
- Helps: good artwork and About page, an interesting niche, real human engagement, an active owner and admins.
- Hurts: bots or fake accounts, spam, poor artwork, taking payments off Skool, bad customer support, an inactive owner.
Owners can also let Skool promote their group through Growth Boost. Skool shows the group to likely members and runs ads for it. In return, Skool takes a 30% commission on members it brings in, for as long as they stay. It is on by default and can be turned off. Our Skool pricing guide works through the numbers.
How Skool works for owners
If you are thinking of starting a group, this is the owner's side in brief.
- You start with a trial. Both plans come with a 14-day free trial.
- You set up the group. Write the About page, set the price, add courses and events, and invite your first members.
- Skool handles payments. Skool is the "merchant of record". It charges members, collects EU VAT and deals with sales tax. You connect a bank account, and Skool pays your balance every Wednesday in your local currency (Payments FAQ).
- You can bring in help. Skool has owners, billing managers, admins and moderators. Admins can do everything except billing. Moderators can approve new members and remove reported posts.
If that sounds like what you need, you can try Skool free for 14 days (affiliate link) and build your group before you pay.
What Skool costs
Members pay whatever the owner charges. Owners pay Skool one of two plans, from skool.com/pricing and the Payments FAQ:
| Plan | Monthly price | Fee on each member payment |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby | $9 | 10% + 30c |
| Pro | $99 | 2.9% + 30c (3.9% + 30c above $900) |
The pricing page marks a custom URL and affiliates as Pro only, and Skool's help centre adds more, such as most plugins. For the full breakdown, and the point where Pro becomes cheaper, see Skool pricing: what it costs per month, plus fees.
Who runs Skool
Skool's about page says it was founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens (CEO) and Daniel Kang (CTO), and is based in Los Angeles, California. Skool says it has 30 employees.
You will often hear Alex Hormozi's name next to Skool. The about page says "Alex Hormozi partnered with Skool in 2024 to create The Skool Games." He is not a founder. If you want to know whether Skool is safe to pay and build on, read is Skool legit.
What Skool does not do
Skool is simple, and that has a cost. Be clear on these before you start.
- It is Skool's address, not yours. Your group lives on skool.com. Skool's help centre has no article on using a domain you own.
- One feed per group. Posts can be sorted into up to 10 categories, but they all sit in the one Community tab.
- Other groups can show up. On the Hobby plan, Skool's own downgrade warning says "Suggested groups will be shown in your sidebar."
- No help articles on quizzes or AI tools. We searched Skool's help centre for both on 29 September 2026 and found none.
- Refunds come from your balance. An owner cannot refund more than their current Skool balance (refund guide).
If one of these is a dealbreaker, our list of Skool alternatives covers other platforms.
So, what is Skool?
What is Skool, in one breath? A simple place to run a community, with a feed, courses, a calendar, points and payments built in, on the web and in an app. Members join free or paid groups. Owners pay $9 or $99 a month plus a fee on each payment, and Skool handles the money and the tax. If Skool fits, you can start a Skool community here (affiliate link).
FAQ
Is Skool free to use?
Joining a free Skool group costs nothing. Paid groups charge whatever their owner sets, in US dollars. Running a group is not free. Owners get a 14-day free trial, then pay $9 a month on the Hobby plan or $99 a month on the Pro plan, plus a fee on each member payment.
Is Skool an app or a website?
Both. Skool runs in a web browser at skool.com and in a free mobile app. On the Apple App Store it is called Skool Communities, and on Google Play it is called Skool. The app covers the community feed, courses, calendar and chat, and adds push notifications.
What is a Skool community?
A Skool community, also called a group, is one owner's space on Skool. It has a discussion feed, a Classroom for courses, a Calendar for events and live calls, a member list, a leaderboard and an About page. Each one has its own address on skool.com.
How do points and levels work on Skool?
You earn 1 point each time someone likes your post or comment. Points move you up nine levels, from 0 points at level 1 to 33,015 points at level 9. Levels count per group, so you start at level 1 in every new group. Owners can lock courses until a level.
Who owns Skool?
Skool was founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens, the CEO, and Daniel Kang, the CTO. It is based in Los Angeles. Alex Hormozi is often linked to Skool, but he is not a founder. Skool says he partnered with it in 2024 to create The Skool Games.
How do you find communities on Skool?
Browse the list of communities on skool.com, which Skool calls Discovery, or use a link from a group's owner. A group only shows in Discovery once it has enough members, posts and activity, plus a finished About page. Skool ranks groups by member growth, engagement and retention.
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.