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VendastaSkool vs Circle: $99 Flat or the Tier Ladder?
Skool charges $99 per month, one plan, everything included. Circle charges $89, $199, or $419 per month depending on tier, plus transaction fees on lower tiers. At 200 paying members, that spread is worth roughly $100 to $200 a month. Here is the math.
Short answer: Skool costs $99 per month, period. Circle costs between $89 and $419 per month depending on which features you need, and its lower tiers add transaction fees on member payments. If you sell a paid community with a course inside it and want zero configuration, Skool is cheaper to run and simpler to predict. If you need a branded mobile app, multiple spaces, or livestreams, Circle is the only one of the two that sells them, and you will pay tier prices for the privilege. Neither has earned a Lab Score from us yet; the numbers below are list prices as of 2026.
The sticker prices
Skool refuses to play the tier game. One plan, $99 per month, and everything the platform does is in it: community, courses, an events calendar, and the gamified leaderboards it is known for. There is no free plan, only a free trial. Beyond standard payment processing, Skool takes no cut of what your members pay you.
Circle sells three main tiers. The differences are not cosmetic: the branded mobile app and API access sit on the top tiers, and lower tiers carry transaction fees on member payments in addition to processing.
| Plan | Monthly price | Transaction fee | What is gated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skool (only plan) | $99 | None beyond processing | Nothing; everything included |
| Circle Basic | $89 | Yes, on member payments | No API, no branded app, limited spaces |
| Circle Professional | $199 | Lower than Basic | No branded app |
| Circle Business | $419 | Lowest | Full feature set, API, white-label app |
Circle discounts annual billing, so the monthly figures above drop if you prepay a year. Skool has no annual discount to offer because it has no pricing page complexity to discount.
What 200 paying members actually cost you
Take a solo creator with 200 members paying $30 per month. That is $6,000 in monthly revenue. Card processing at roughly 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction runs about $234 on that volume regardless of platform. Here is what each platform keeps on top of that.
| Line item | Skool | Circle Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue (200 × $30) | $6,000 | $6,000 |
| Platform fee | $99 | $199 |
| Payment processing (est.) | ~$234 | ~$234 |
| Platform transaction fee | $0 | Depends on tier; lower tiers add a cut |
| Estimated total cost | ~$333 | ~$433 or more |
The gap is real but not decisive at this size. It becomes decisive if you sit on Circle Basic at $89 and let the transaction fee compound. A percentage cut of $6,000 in monthly billing can quietly exceed the price difference between Basic and Professional, which is exactly why the tier exists.
The math at bigger scale
Move to 1,000 members at $30 per month, or $30,000 in monthly revenue. Skool is still $99. Processing scales with volume on both platforms, roughly $1,170 at this size, so ignore it for comparison purposes.
On Circle, this is the point where most operators feel pushed toward Business at $419, because at $30,000 a month a branded app and the lowest possible fee structure start paying for themselves. That is a $320 monthly spread against Skool, or $3,840 a year, for features Skool simply does not sell. Whether that is a rip-off or a bargain depends entirely on whether you need those features. It is not a hidden cost; it is a priced one.
Where each platform wins
- Flat $99 with no tier decisions, ever
- Paid community plus course in one login
- Zero configuration; setup takes an afternoon
- Gamified leaderboards that measurably drive engagement
- No platform cut of member payments beyond processing
- Brand control and deeper visual customization
- White-label mobile app on the top tier
- Multiple spaces for segmenting audiences
- Native livestreams
- Cheaper entry point at $89 if you accept the fees
The trap in each direction
Skool’s trap is rigidity. If your community outgrows one space, one look, and one engagement model, there is no upgrade to buy. You migrate, and community migrations cost members.
Circle’s trap is the ladder. The $89 headline gets you in, the transaction fees make Professional look sensible, and the branded app makes Business look inevitable. Budget for the tier you will actually need in twelve months, not the one on the ad.
The budget path neither vendor mentions
Here is the configuration we see working for creators whose real business is a course, an email list, and landing pages, with community as a supporting feature rather than the product. Run the business on Systeme.io, which bundles courses, email marketing, funnels, and basic communities from $27 per month with a genuinely free plan to start. Then keep the community itself on the free trial or entry tier of whichever platform you are testing, and only commit to $99 or $199 a month once the community is producing revenue on its own.
That path caps your fixed software cost near $27 to $50 a month while you validate, instead of $99 to $199 before your first member pays. The full plan-by-plan breakdown is in our Systeme.io pricing analysis.
Bottom line
Both platforms price honestly; they just price differently. Skool sells predictability at $99. Circle sells options at $89 to $419 plus fees. If the community is the product, pick the pricing model that matches how you want to grow. If the community is a feature, do not pay community-platform prices for it.