You choose where to host a paid or free community, with courses and payments in the same place. Five verified platforms compared on entry price, trial, transaction fees and caps.
Creators pick a community platform to keep members, courses and payments in one place instead of splitting them between a chat app, a course host and a payment tool. This page compares five from our verified catalogue: Skool, EzyCourse, SchoolMaker, Outseta and Podia. Skool is the cheapest to start ($9 a month, but with a 10% transaction fee on the Hobby plan). EzyCourse and Podia bundle courses, email and websites. Outseta is membership infrastructure for SaaS and clubs. None has a permanent free plan; all offer a 14-day trial. Transaction fees and member or email caps decide the real cost, so check those columns before you move an audience.
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Communities, unlimited courses, videos and live calls on both plans; Hobby is $9/mo with a 10% transaction fee, Pro $99/mo with 2.9%.
When to pick it: Pick it if you want a simple community-plus-course site and can accept the Hobby fee or pay $99 for the lower fee.
Course hosting, community and coaching in one product with drip delivery and built-in video hosting; from $29/mo.
When to pick it: Pick it if courses are the core and you want a community attached at a lower entry price.
Courses (13 lesson types), communities, coaching, events, memberships, email marketing and a website builder in one subscription; from $97/mo.
When to pick it: Pick it if you want everything in one subscription and a branded-app route on higher plans.
Courses, downloads, coaching, community with topic spaces, email and a website in one account; 14-day trial, no card.
When to pick it: Pick it if you sell digital products and want a community as one feature.
Membership management with payments through Stripe, CRM, email and help desk, working with Webflow, Framer, WordPress and others.
When to pick it: Pick it if you run a membership site or SaaS and want to keep your own front end.
None of these tools has a free plan.
| Criterion | Skool | SchoolMaker | EzyCourse | Podia | Outseta | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From (price/mo) | $9/mo source | $29/mo source | $97/mo source | custom, not published source | $47/mo source | |
| Free plan / trial | no; trial: 14-day free trial source | no; trial: 14-day free trial source | no; trial: 14-day free trial source | no; trial: 14-day free trial, no card needed source | no; trial: 14-day free trial with every plan source | |
| Key capability | Community + courses + live calls, unlimited members source | Courses + community + coaching, video hosting source | All-in-one: courses, community, email, website source | Courses, downloads, community, email, website source | Memberships, payments, CRM, email, help desk source | |
| Main limit | No free plan; 10% transaction fee on Hobby; web only per the card source | Lite: 1 course, 1 owner, keeps SchoolMaker badge source | Essential: 2 communities, 10,000 emails/month; extra emails $30 per 10K source | Mover plan has a 5% transaction fee; email subscribers capped at 100–1,000 source | From $47/mo; contact caps and transaction fees on lower plans source |
Facts from the vendors' official pages, checked on the date in the last column. Prices are what the vendor published on that date.
Free community, paid membership or community plus course. This sets whether transaction fees or monthly price matters more.
Compare Skool Hobby (10%) with Pro ($99/mo, 2.9%) and Podia Mover (5%) at your expected sales; payment processor fees may apply on top.
All five list a 14-day trial; import or invite a small group and test the member experience on mobile.
Look at community, email and contact caps (EzyCourse, Podia, Outseta).
Confirm how member lists and content export before you commit.
SchoolMaker, EzyCourse and Podia combine courses and community with different pricing; Outseta suits membership sites. See the criteria table.
Circle is not in this shortlist, so we do not compare it here. Skool starts at $9/mo with a 10% fee.
None of the five has a free plan; all list 14-day trials.
For community plus courses: Skool, SchoolMaker, EzyCourse, Podia. For memberships: Outseta.
Something wrong or missing on this page — a wrong fact, an outdated price, a tool that should be here? Tell us, ideally with a link to the official page. We check every suggestion within 7 days; a suggestion never changes the page by itself.