Are you considering the newly trending platform Skool for your online community? There are a few great things to consider about it. Explore it in this article about the pros and cons of Skool for creating an online community!
When I discovered Skool, I got really excited about its opportunities and instantly started brainstorming what I could do with the space.
After a thorough research, I realized that it would not be the best fit for me, despite my initial excitement. However, it can still be an amazing option for your online community. If you’re thinking about creating a community online, either paid or free, explore this Skool review!
Please keep in mind: This article is written with course creators and online coaches in mind.
Disclaimer: This blog post includes affiliate links! If you make a purchase using one of the provided links, I’ll receive a commission from the purchase. If you do – THANK YOU. Your support keeps this blog going!
Creating online communities is a great way to bring together your audience.
From there, the opportunities are endless. You can work on a repeated revenue by having a paid membership or you can nourish a free community space with the intent to upsell your more high-end products.
Either way, the online communities is where the juice is at these days.
If you want to create a community on Skool – I hope this article will help you to explore the key features you need to know about.
Skool review: create a community on Skool
Skool is a community-focused platform that has two key components: community + course space.
Skool can be an amazing solution for building a free or paid community online so let’s review if creating a community on Skool would be the way to go for you.
When would you consider Skool as your platform?
It can work like a charm in cases like:
- Moving your Facebook community into a more enclosed and personalized space
- Having a course with a community space
- Doing a group coaching program with community and/or course access
Below I have shared a more indepth Skool review.
Pros & cons of Skool for creating an online community
Pros of Skool for online communities
There seem to be plenty of great benefits of using Skool for your online community. Some of the most important ones would be the following.
Friendly user interface. It’s simple to use, there are no complicated layouts, everything is right in front of you and your students. It’s very intuitive and understandable even for those who are not as familiar with online communities.
Simple pricing. Skool is only $99/per month. There are no restrictions to what you can do with it: you have one community with unlimited courses available, you can enroll an unlimited number of students and have several admins in your community. It also has a 14-day Free trial available!
Free or subscription-based spaces. One of the best aspects of Skool is that you can choose to either charge for your community or have it as a free space which then can be fully available to anyone or private. This is a great recurring revenue opportunity if you’re thinking about creating a membership-focused space.
Great gamification features (users can unlock new spaces along the way). This is one of my absolute favorite features of Skool! It has great gamification that invites your audience to participate in the community to unlock new content, as they do. It also has leaderboards included which can be seen as an amazing opportunity for some of the users to become more known within your community.
Native library of community spaces. It can serve as a great opportunity to be found by even more people!
Other important aspects of Skool:
- Connection with Zapier available
- Simple signup and purchase process
Related read: How to create a course for free?
Cons of Skool for creating an online community
However, as I mentioned above, there are a few things that stopped me from using this platform for myself and you might want to consider them too!
That being said – none of these is a red flag unless you truly need it for your business! There are always some workarounds and many online communities function perfect fine without having these features.
No built-in funnels or landing pages. This means that their native “landing page” is just a simple checkout page with the details about the offer on the other side. Unless you have your own website, you won’t have an option to set up a pretty landing page with thorough information.
No white label. The name of the Skool will always be present! You can’t add custom domain like yourschool.com or classes.yourschool.com The only way to have the link is skool.com/your-school This might not seem like a very important aspect at first but once you want to scale, it’s important to have a platform that can carry your name and branding.
No native video hosting. For me, this is the biggest downside of this platform, along with not having the white label opportunity. No native video hosting means that you need to, first, upload your videos elsewhere and then you can embed them into this platform. This can cause several issues. First of all, any course experience is more visually pleasing if there is a built-in video hosting, aligned with the platform. It can also cause some tech issues and will be something to look out for regularly.
No various pricing plans or access customization. You can choose only one current pricing plan for your offer.
Related read: Circle vs Skool for online community space
When would I suggest creating a community on Skool?
If your key focus is on building a free community, Skool will be an amazing alternative to Facebook or other spaces.
With a bit more of the tech setup, you can also have one-time purchase or subscription-based upgrades available. (But keep in mind that to accomplish this, you will need to do Zapier connection).
Skool will be the perfect fit for you, if:
- You don’t need much of customization options for your space
- You want to offer a community space with (optional) course access
- You want to build a free or paid community space online
- You need a simple space that provides easy-to-start-with solutions
- You have an existing website or other platform you’d use for building landing pages, if needed
If this sounds like you – choosing Skool for creating an online community might be the perfect fit for you!
I hope this Skool review gave you all the information you need to make the decision for your business. If you’re still trying to find the best fit course platform – explore my free Course Platform Guide!
To learn more and stay connected:
- Connect with me on Instagram @coursecreationlab
- Make your online course happen with Course Creation Bootcamp
- Listen to the Savvy Offer Hub podcast
