Skool vs Circle: Which One Costs Less at Your Revenue?

By Ryo KitamuraPublished 20 August 2026Updated 25 September 2026Pricing verified 20 August 2026How this was researched

For the revenue levels and assumptions in the table below, Skool Pro costs less than Circle Professional. That answers the cost question for those plans; choosing a platform also depends on the features your community needs. Circle’s displayed rate is an annual-billing rate, so use the billing basis and payment fees together when comparing the totals.

Circle vs Skool: which plan fits your community?

If your priority is the modeled cost of a paid community, start with the head-to-head table below. If a custom domain or automated workflows is a requirement, check the eligible plan before treating the lower-cost option as a fit.

Circle’s pricing page lists a custom domain under Professional, and workflows and removal of Circle branding under Business. A custom domain and removing the platform’s branding are separate requirements. The Professional comparison below does not price a Business workflow setup or optional add-ons.

Skool’s pricing page lists courses, videos, live calls, and custom URL as shared plan features. That wording alone does not establish support for your own domain. If using your own domain is essential, confirm that specific requirement with Skool before choosing it on cost alone.

Head to head on cost

Monthly platform cost at each revenue level. Each amount is the total you pay per month. Bold values are the lowest cost in each column when that result is guaranteed. Ranges show where a platform has not published whether Stripe's subscription surcharge applies: the surcharge component is inferred and not published. The low figure excludes it; the high figure includes Stripe's published rate. A single figure means this calculation does not use an inferred surcharge for that plan; it does not mean every input has been independently verified. See the linked source list for each source's direct verification status.
Platform plan	$500 revenue	$1,000 revenue	$2,000 revenue	$3,000 revenue	$5,000 revenue	$10,000 revenue
Skool Pro	$100Lowest cost	$118Lowest cost	$153Lowest cost	$188Lowest cost	$258Lowest cost	$433Lowest cost
Circle Professional	$120	$151	$213	$275	$399	$709

Pricing last verified 2026-09-06. Members billed $50/month. Every figure includes the subscription, the platform's transaction fee, and card processing, on annual billing throughout.

Sources checked through 2026-09-06; individual source dates and verification status: Skool pricing — plan price; rendered page checked for both billing states and no plan comparison table or add-on/additional-cost section was present (checked 2026-09-06) (directly verified); Skool Payments FAQs — vendor-published transaction fee rates and per-transaction tiers; payout examples deduct the published fee from the membership price (checked 2026-09-06) (directly verified); Skool analytics definitions — vendor explicitly states that fees collected by Skool cover payment processing (checked 2026-09-06) (directly verified); Circle pricing monthly billing availability — three checks of the Professional, Circle Plus, and Business tabs found no billing-period toggle (checked 2026-08-26) (directly verified; operator manual verification); Circle paywall transaction fees — vendor-side verbatim itemization of Stripe Payments and Stripe Billing rates in a paywall subscription fee example (checked 2026-08-21) (directly verified); Stripe US pricing — card processing rate (checked 2026-08-21) (directly verified); Stripe Billing pricing — pay-as-you-go tier rate / charged on Billing volume / one-off invoices excluded (checked 2026-08-21) (directly verified)

How the fees are structured

Effective transaction fees by platform plan.
Platform plan	Quoted fee	Structure	Real cost per transaction
Skool Pro	2.9%	appears all-inSkool charges 3.9% + $0.30 when a single transaction is above $900. This threshold is per transaction, not monthly revenue. Every scenario on this site bills members $50/month, so the 2.9% tier applies at every revenue level shown.	2.9% + $0.30
Circle Professional	2.0%	stacked	5.6% + $0.30
Circle Business	1.0%	stacked	4.6% + $0.30

Pricing last verified 2026-09-06. "Stated" means the provider says so in writing on its own pricing page. Ranges show where the surcharge component is inferred and not published. The low figure excludes it; the high figure includes Stripe's published rate. A single figure means this calculation does not use an inferred surcharge for that plan; it does not mean every input has been independently verified. See the linked source list for each source's direct verification status. Stripe is modelled at 2.9% + $0.30 (Standard US online card rate.)

Affiliate link — we may earn a commission.Ready to try it? Start a Skool community.