JustFrank vs Skool
Skool and JustFrank are both platforms for running a paid community with courses. This page sets out what each one does, side by side. Every claim about Skool below links to the page on Skool's own site that it came from, and the date it was read. Where a difference could not be confirmed from a primary source, the row was left out rather than guessed at.
What does Skool’s cheaper plan cost once you sell something?
The subscription is not the whole price. Worked at $5,000 of sales in a month, using Skool’s own published rates.
| Plan | Subscription | Fee on $5,000 | That month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skool Hobby | $9 | 10% = $500+ 30c per transaction | $509 |
| Skool Pro | $99 | 2.9% = $145+ 30c per transaction | $244 |
At $5,000 of sales in a month, Skool’s Pro plan is the cheaper of the two, by $265, even though it is the one with the higher subscription. The plans are quoted per month and the percentages are taken from every sale, so the gap widens as you sell more.
Subscription prices and percentages from Skool’s own site, checked 2026-08-12. The per-transaction amount is quoted as published and not multiplied out, because the number of transactions behind $5,000 of sales is unknown. Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12
What does Skool do, and what does JustFrank do?
Five groups, 11 rows. Each row says who is ahead, and links to the page on Skool’s own site the claim came from.
| Question | JustFrank | Skool |
|---|---|---|
| 02Can you make it yours? | ||
| What web address does your community live at?JustFrank | A domain you own. A community can be served at yourname.com, an address in your name rather than ours. | A skool.com group URL. Skool's help centre says “You start your community with a temporary URL. You have the option to upgrade the group URL to your brand,” and that changing it means typing in “the URL you're interested in to check if it's available for claiming.” It is a Pro plan feature: “This feature is only available on the Pro plan.” The first change is included, and Skool says later changes cost $100 each.Quoted as written from Skool's help centre.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| 03What can you sell, and how? | ||
| What ways can you charge your members?Even | Free or paid membership, billed monthly, annually or as a one-off, with tiers so different members can pay different amounts. Courses can also be sold on their own through a course sales page. | Free groups, subscription groups billed monthly or annually, freemium (a free plan and a paid plan in the same group), tiers, and one-time payment for lifetime access. Owners can offer members a 7 day free trial.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| Can you host and sell courses?Even | Yes, on both plans. A classroom with courses, modules and lessons, and a separate sales page for any course you want to sell on its own. | Yes, on both plans. Skool's pricing page lists unlimited courses and unlimited videos on Hobby and Pro, and its help centre documents one-time course purchases for “in-classroom purchases, event sales, or upsells in your program”.Unlimited courses and unlimited videos are listed on skool.com/pricing.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| Is there a limit on how many members you can have?Even | No member limit on either plan. | No member limit. Skool's pricing page lists unlimited members on Hobby and Pro.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| 04Who holds the money? | ||
| Who processes the money, and when do you get paid?Skool | You do, through your own Stripe account. The money is yours from the moment it clears, on Stripe's own payout schedule, and the customer relationship is yours. | Skool does. Its help centre says “All payment processing happens on the Skools merchant.” Your available balance is paid out every Wednesday to your bank account, in your local currency, and prices are set in USD.Skool lists payouts to 150+ countries, and says India is not currently supported.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| 05Can you run live calls? | ||
| Can you run live calls inside the platform?Skool | The calendar schedules events and calls and carries the join link, so the call runs in the video tool you already use. | Yes, natively. Skool's help centre says “Skool allows you to go live natively in the app or on the browser without needing any third-party streaming platforms.” You can share screen, let members share screen, mute or remove people, and record the call.On the recording, Skool says “You have 14 days to download it before it expires.” Zoom and Meet can be used instead of the native call.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| 06What does it actually cost? | ||
| What does the platform take from each sale?JustFrank | No platform cut on any plan, at any price. The only thing taken from a sale is card processing, which every business online pays. | A transaction fee, and the rate depends on the plan and on the size of the sale. Pro is 2.9% + 30c per transaction up to $899, and 3.9% + 30c above $900. Hobby is 10% + 30c on all transactions.Skool processes the payment itself, so its fee is all-in and there is no separate card fee on top of it.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| How much does Skool cost?Skool | Two plans. Starter is $97/month or $930/year. Growth is $197/month or $1,890/year. | Two plans. Hobby is $9/month. Pro is $99/month.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| Is it cheaper to pay yearly?JustFrank | Yes. Annual is a flat 20% off twelve months: $930 a year on Starter and $1,890 a year on Growth. | Yes. Skool's pricing page advertises “2 months free!” on yearly billing.Two months off twelve is about 17%.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| Is there a free trial?Even | 14 days, on the tier you picked, with a card on file. Cancel any time before it ends. | 14 days. Skool's terms say “Both are recurring subscriptions after 14 day free trial.”Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
| What do you have to upgrade to get?Skool | Email marketing and public booking pages are on Growth and not on Starter. Everything else is on both. Starter includes one community, Growth includes three. | The transaction fee is the main difference: 10% on Hobby against 2.9% on Pro. Skool's pricing page lists the same feature set on both plans (unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls, custom URL, affiliates).Some individual help articles name features as Pro-only, so the pricing page's two lists are not a complete account of the difference.Skool’s own site, 2026-08-12 |
Checked on 2026-08-12. Every Skool claim above links to the page on Skool’s own site it came from. Where a difference could not be confirmed from Skool’s own documentation, the row was left out rather than guessed at.
Questions people ask about Skool
The same rows as the table above, one question at a time.
Can you make it yours?
Where the community lives, and whose name is on the address.
What web address does your community live at?
On Skool a community lives at a skool.com group URL. Skool's help centre says you start on a temporary URL and can upgrade the group URL to your brand by typing in the URL you want “to check if it's available for claiming”. That is a Pro plan feature, the first change is included, and Skool says later changes cost $100 each. A JustFrank community can be served on a domain you own, at yourname.com.
What can you sell, and how?
The ways each platform lets you charge, and what you can charge for.
What ways can you charge your members?
Skool lets you run a free group, a monthly or annual subscription, a freemium group with a free and a paid plan side by side, tiered plans, or a single one-time payment for lifetime access. JustFrank supports free or paid membership billed monthly, annually or once, with tiers, plus selling a course on its own.
Can you host and sell courses?
Both host courses on every plan. Skool lists unlimited courses and unlimited videos on both Hobby and Pro and supports one-time course purchases. JustFrank includes a classroom with courses, modules and lessons on both Starter and Growth.
Is there a limit on how many members you can have?
Neither platform caps how many members a community can have. Skool lists unlimited members on both of its plans, and JustFrank has no member limit on either of its.
Who holds the money?
Who the buyer actually pays, who holds the balance, and when it reaches your bank.
Who processes the money, and when do you get paid?
Skool is the merchant of record and pays you out to your bank every Wednesday, so there is no payment processor to set up yourself. With JustFrank you connect your own Stripe account and are paid directly by Stripe, so you hold the merchant relationship. Skool's way is less to set up; JustFrank's way leaves the account in your name.
Can you run live calls?
Whether the call happens on the platform, and what becomes of the recording.
Can you run live calls inside the platform?
Skool hosts the call itself: you can go live in the app or the browser with no third-party streaming tool, share screens, and record. Skool says of the recording, “You have 14 days to download it before it expires.” JustFrank schedules the event and carries the join link, so the call itself runs in whichever video tool you already use, and the recording lives wherever that tool keeps it.
What does it actually cost?
The subscription is the smaller half of this. The fee taken from each sale is the other half, and it is the one that scales with you.
What does the platform take from each sale?
Skool charges a transaction fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents on the Pro plan for sales up to $899, 3.9% plus 30 cents above $900, and 10% plus 30 cents on the Hobby plan. Because Skool processes the payment itself, that fee covers card processing too. JustFrank takes no platform cut on sales at all, and you pay your own payment processor's standard rate directly.
How much does Skool cost?
Skool costs $9 a month on the Hobby plan and $99 a month on the Pro plan. JustFrank costs $97 a month on Starter and $197 a month on Growth. Skool's Pro plan and JustFrank's Starter plan are within a few dollars of each other, and Skool's Hobby plan at $9 is much the cheaper way in. The two plans are priced differently for a reason worth reading next to this one: Hobby carries a 10% transaction fee where Pro carries 2.9%.
Is it cheaper to pay yearly?
Both offer a discount for paying yearly. Skool advertises two months free on annual billing, which is about 17% off. JustFrank's annual price is a flat 20% off twelve months, at $930 a year on Starter and $1,890 a year on Growth.
Is there a free trial?
Both Skool and JustFrank offer a 14 day free trial before the subscription starts.
What do you have to upgrade to get?
On Skool the headline difference between the $9 Hobby plan and the $99 Pro plan is the transaction fee, 10% against 2.9%, with the same feature list shown on both. On JustFrank, email marketing and public booking pages are the two things Growth has and Starter does not, and Starter covers one community where Growth covers three.
Skool describes itself as an all-in-one platform to “Build your own community, courses, and events” and to “Charge subscription memberships or 1-time course purchases”.
Source: Skool’s own site, checked 2026-08-12
See JustFrank for yourselfSkool is a trademark of its respective owner and is not affiliated with JustFrank. This comparison is for reference only. Prices and features were read from Skool’s own published pages on 2026-08-12 and are subject to change. If you spot something out of date here, tell us and we will correct it.