COMPARE · WHOP ALTERNATIVES
Whop converts. Premium brands leave.
Whop's marketplace drives volume — and repels premium educators. Alternatives compared for professional communities: curation, course depth, branding, and honest all-in fees. (Nobody on this list beats Whop's 2.7% rate floor; that's not the fight.)
Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026
The ranked list
Honest pros and cons — every platform on this list wins somewhere.
community.io
The professional community platform — the pick if you want Skool’s engagement engine plus the things they won’t build.
- Skool-grade engagement engine — points, levels, leaderboards, algorithm-free feed
- A real classroom: quizzes, certificates, drip schedules, progress tracking
- Member tiers & gated spaces in one community — priced per account, not per community
- All-in merchant-of-record pricing — processing included, nothing stacks on top
- Full export — posts, courses, members, history. No exit penalty.
- Multi-currency member payments; payouts in 40+ countries, including India
Free $0/mo — 4.9% + 30¢ per transaction · Pro $49/mo — 2.9% + 30¢ — flat, no $900 cliff · Scale $199/mo — 2.4% + 30¢ volume pricing
Whop
$0 + 2.7% + 30¢ processing (0% platform take)
Where it wins
- Cheapest rails in the category: 0% platform take + 2.7% + 30¢ processing
- App-store extensibility
- Large consumer marketplace with built-in demand
Where it costs you
- Get-rich-quick marketplace adjacency repels premium brands
- Fund-hold complaints from sellers
- Weak course/LMS tooling for premium educators
pricing source: whop.com↗ · Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026 · full comparison: community.io vs Whop →
Skool
$9/mo per community + 10% + 30¢ · $99/mo per community + 2.9% + 30¢ · 3.9% over $900
Where it wins
- Engagement engine that converts lurkers into contributors — points, levels, leaderboards
- Paid community live in under an hour; radical simplicity
- Algorithm-free feed and mobile apps members actually open
- Discovery marketplace and a huge creator ecosystem
Where it costs you
- No quizzes, certificates, drip, or progress tracking — a classroom in name only
- One feed per community: no tiers, gated spaces, scheduling, or post approval
- $99/mo per community, no bundling — two paid tiers plus a free funnel group = $297/mo
- 3.9% + 30¢ on any transaction over $900 — not shown on the public pricing page
- Export is a CSV of member emails only — no posts, courses, or history
- Members always pay in USD; India payouts unsupported
- No white-label, no public API, no AI features
pricing source: skool.com↗ · Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026 · full comparison: community.io vs Skool →
Circle
$129 + 2% platform + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ (stacked) · $219 + 1% platform + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ (stacked)
Where it wins
- AI Agents and a genuinely deep feature set
- Real public API
- White-label available (gated to the Plus add-on)
- Email Hub built in
Where it costs you
- Advertised 1–2% take stacks Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ on top — realistically 3.9–4.9% all-in
- Price stacking: a realistic setup runs ≈ $277/mo
- Engagement complaints — creators report communities feel polished but quiet
pricing source: circle.so↗ · Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026 · full comparison: community.io vs Circle →
Kajabi
$89 + 2.9% + 30¢ (Kajabi Payments, 0% platform take) · $199 + 2.7% + 30¢ (Kajabi Payments, 0% platform take) · $349 + 2.7% + 30¢ (Kajabi Payments, 0% platform take)
Where it wins
- Full business OS: funnels, email marketing, websites
- Branded app on Pro
- 0% platform take via Kajabi Payments
Where it costs you
- Community is a bolt-on, not the product
- 2025 repricing backlash
- Contact caps meter your growth
pricing source: kajabi.com↗ · Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026 · full comparison: community.io vs Kajabi →
Mighty Networks
$95 + 2% platform + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ (stacked) · $215 + 1% platform + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ (stacked)
Where it wins
- Branded apps on the Pro plan
- AI "People Magic" member-matching
- Livestream to 3,000
Where it costs you
- Cluttered UX — the anti-Skool on simplicity
- Self-help support maze
- Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ stacks on top of the advertised 1–2% take
pricing source: mightynetworks.com↗ · Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026 · full comparison: community.io vs Mighty Networks →
The feature ledger
Verified against live pricing pages · July 7, 2026
| Feature | community.io | Whop | Skool | Circle | Kajabi | Mighty Networks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honest all-in fees (processing included) | All-in MoR: 4.9% / 2.9% flat / 2.4%, + 30¢ — nothing stacks | 0% + 2.7% + 30¢ — the rate floor; we don't claim to beat it | 10% + 30¢ (Hobby) · 2.9% + 30¢, 3.9% over $900 (Pro) | 2% take + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ stacked ≈ 4.9% all-in (Pro) | 0% take; 2.9→2.7% + 30¢ via Kajabi Payments | 2% take + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ stacked ≈ 4.9% all-in (Launch) |
| Engagement engine (points, levels, leaderboards) | Skool-grade gamification: points, levels, leaderboards, level-gated content | Marketplace traffic; thin community engagement | The benchmark — this is what Skool got right | Engagement complaints — polished but quiet | Community is a bolt-on | Good events + livestream; cluttered elsewhere |
| Course tools (quizzes, certificates, drip, progress) | Built in on every tier — a classroom, not a video list | Marketplace-first — weak for premium educators | None — requested since 2021 | Course spaces exist; certification depth is thin | Deep course tools — but community is the bolt-on | Courses included, wrapped in a cluttered UX |
| Branding & white-label | Custom domain on Pro; full white-label + branded app on Scale ($199) | whop.com marketplace framing | skool.com/your-name, forever | White-label gated to the Plus add-on | Branded app on Pro ($399, annual-billed) | Branded apps on the Pro plan |
| Data export & lock-in | Full export — posts, courses, members, history. No exit penalty. | Payment data portable; content export minimal | A CSV of member emails only | Member + content exports available | Contacts exportable; content export limited | Member export; content export limited |
The fee math, all-in
Total monthly cost — fees + subscription. Computed, not quoted.
| Platform | Growing — $10k/mo · $50 avg | At scale — $100k/mo · $50 avg |
|---|---|---|
| Whop$0 + 2.7% + 30¢ processing (0% platform take) | $330/mo | $3,300/mo |
| Skool Hobby$9/mo per community + 10% + 30¢ | $1,069/mo | $10,609/mo |
| Skool Pro$99/mo per community + 2.9% + 30¢ · 3.9% over $900 | $449/mo | $3,599/mo |
| Circle | $679/mo | $4,719/mo |
| Kajabi | $529/mo | $3,649/mo |
| Mighty Networks | $645/mo | $4,715/mo |
| community.io Free$0 + 4.9% + 30¢ all-in | $550/mo | $5,500/mo |
| community.io Pro$49 + 2.9% + 30¢ all-in — flat, no $900 cliff | $399/mo | $3,549/mo |
Run the numbers at your revenue.
The same math behind every table on this page — every formula published at /fees.