Skool vs having your own community

What Skool does well

• You can start a group in minutes.
• Community, simple courses and a calendar are in one place.
• People already on Skool can find your group.

What you give up

• The monthly fee. ~$99 a month for the paid plan, for as long as you run the group.
• Your own look. Every Skool group looks like Skool. Your brand is a picture and a name.
• Your own address. Members go to Skool, not to your website.
• The next click. Members browsing Skool are one tap away from someone else's group.

What your own community gives you

• Your name, your colours and your domain.
• A members app your members add to their phone home screen, with your icon.
• Courses, live sessions, events and email in the same place, with one login.
• Your member list, payments and data in your own accounts.

Which should you choose?

Skool is quick to start, but you're renting: the group, the app and the rules stay Skool's. If you plan to keep your community, owning it makes more sense, and the numbers show why:

• Skool's paid plan over three years: ~$3,560, and the group still lives on Skool.
• Your own platform with Deedmade^™: $2,499, once, with your website, members app, courses, email marketing and community all included.

Moving later is easier than it sounds: see how to move your members off Kajabi or Skool.

Prices of other companies are approximate, from their own pricing pages on October 11, 2026, and they change. Where a page shows a monthly price that is billed a year at a time, we say so. Check their websites for today's prices.