Skool is built for courses. What if your community meets in person?
Skool is great at what it was built for. Here’s how it compares with Fellow on events, money, AI and being found, and which one fits a community that meets in person.
Juniper CoffeeLatte Art ThrowdownHosted by @junipercoffeeFri 7:00 PMJuniper Coffee
+Juniper CoffeeSkool is a community and course platform. Creators and coaches use it to run paid groups with a feed, a classroom of lessons, live calls and a leaderboard that keeps members coming back.
Fellow is a community app for brands and the people who love them. It is built for communities that meet in real life, like cafés, run clubs, studios and brands with pop-ups and drops.
If you teach online, Skool is hard to beat. If your people show up somewhere in person, the two apps start to look very different. This guide uses Skool’s own pricing page and help center for its side.
The short answer
Skool is the better pick for a paid online community built on courses and live calls, where members pay a monthly fee to learn from you. Fellow is the better pick for a brand or local community that meets in person: events with waitlists and paid tickets, a Shop, newsletters and a Fellow Friend that answers your customers, free to start with no monthly fee.
| Feature | Fellow | Skool |
|---|---|---|
| To start | Free, with unlimited members | $9 a month (Hobby), after a 14-day free trial |
| Paid plans | Fellow Premium $29 a month, Fellow Brand $149 a month | $99 a month (Pro); two months free when paid yearly |
| Fee on paid memberships | 10% on Free, 5% on Premium, 3% on Brand, plus card processing | 10% + 30¢ on Hobby, 2.9% + 30¢ on Pro |
| Events and RSVPs | Events with RSVPs, waitlists and reminders | A calendar of one-off and recurring events, online or at an address, with an email reminder the day before |
| Paid event tickets | Yes, built in (5% on Free, down to 1% on Brand) | Not built in; Skool suggests tying an event to a paid course or tier |
| Chat | Group chats and one-on-one Lines | A community feed and direct messages |
| AI that answers for you | A Fellow Friend on every plan, on your website and in the app | No AI that answers members |
| Newsletters | Yes, free and members-only; emailed to subscribers on Premium and up | No newsletter tool in Skool’s help center |
| Courses | Not built in | Yes, with drip, levels and one-time course sales |
| Live voice and video | Not built in | Skool Call built in; webinars on Pro |
| Apps | iOS, Android and web | iOS, Android and web |
Fellow's fees are on top of Stripe's card fee. Members never pay to use Fellow.
Skool and Fellow at a glance
Skool
A paid online community, at its best when members come to learn from you.
- $9 or $99 a month per group, after a 14-day trial
- A community feed and direct messages
- A classroom with lessons, drip and levels
- Live calls built in; webinars on Pro
- Points, levels and a leaderboard
- A public Discovery directory of groups
Fellow
A community app for brands and local communities, at its best when people meet in real life.
- Free to start, with unlimited members
- Events with RSVPs, caps, waitlists, reminders and paid tickets
- Check-ins, stamp cards and badges for regulars
- Group chats and one-on-one Lines, with polls
- Paid memberships, a Shop and newsletters
- A Fellow Friend AI on your website and in the app
Quick verdict
| If you want to | Pick |
|---|---|
| Teach a course with lessons and levels | Skool |
| Run in-person events with tickets and a waitlist | Fellow |
| Start with no monthly fee | Fellow |
| Answer customer questions automatically | Fellow |
| Gamify a paid online group | Skool |
| Sell memberships to your community | Either |
Feature by feature
Five areas that matter most to a brand or local community, with what each app does and which one we'd pick for it.
Events and tickets
Skool’s calendar is built around live calls. Fellow’s events are built for a room with a door.
| Feature | Fellow | Skool |
|---|---|---|
| Create events | Yes, in person or online | Yes, online (Skool Call, Zoom or Meet) or at an address |
| RSVPs | Going, with the list of who’s coming | Not covered in Skool’s help center |
| Capacity and waitlists | Set a cap; the waitlist moves people in on its own | Not covered in Skool’s help center |
| Reminders | You pick: from an hour to three weeks before | An email 24 hours before |
| Paid tickets | Built in: 5% on Free, down to 1% on Fellow Brand | Not built in; tie the event to a paid course or tier |
Juniper CoffeeA weekly call doesn’t need a cap. A tasting for twenty does, and so does a run with a van full of bags. On Fellow the cap, the waitlist, the ticket and the check-in at the door are all part of the event.
Our pick: FellowCourses, calls and leaderboards
This is what Skool is built for, and it keeps it simple.
| Feature | Fellow | Skool |
|---|---|---|
| Courses | Not built in | Yes, with drip, levels and one-time course sales |
| Live calls | Not built in | Skool Call, in the app or a browser |
| Webinars | Not built in | On Pro |
| Points and levels | Badges for regulars | Points for likes, nine levels and a leaderboard |
If members join to learn from you, Skool has the classroom and the calls, and Fellow doesn’t. If you teach in person, like a run clinic or a cupping class, an event with a cap and a ticket usually does the job.
Our pick: SkoolGetting paid
Both let a community earn money. The bill arrives at a different time.
| Feature | Fellow | Skool |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly platform fee | None on Free | $9 on Hobby, $99 on Pro |
| Paid memberships | Yes, with perks, on every plan | Monthly or yearly, tiers, freemium or one-time |
| Fee on memberships | 10% on Free, 5% on Fellow Premium, 3% on Fellow Brand | 10% + 30¢ on Hobby, 2.9% + 30¢ on Pro |
| Event tickets | Yes: 5% on Free, down to 1% | Not built in |
| Selling products | A Shop, connected to Shopify if you have it | Not built in; courses can be sold one-time |
Fellow’s fees are on top of card processing.
Juniper Coffee · Shop
Gesha Reserve, 250g$32 leftRoasted ThursdayA café or a club sells beans, tees and tickets more often than it sells a monthly membership. Fellow has a place for each, and nothing to pay until the first sale.
Our pick: FellowAI that answers for you
Skool uses AI to write ads for your group. Fellow uses it to talk to your customers.
| Feature | Fellow | Skool |
|---|---|---|
| AI that answers members | A Fellow Friend, on every plan | No |
| On your website | Yes, a chat widget with your Fellow Friend | No |
| Welcome messages | Your Fellow Friend answers new members’ first questions | AutoDM, a set message you write, on Pro |
Most of what a café or a club gets asked is the same twenty questions: hours, parking, oat milk, can I bring a friend. A Fellow Friend answers them with your name and voice, on your website and in the app, and passes the rest to you.
Our pick: FellowBeing found
Both help new people find you, in different places.
| Feature | Fellow | Skool |
|---|---|---|
| A directory | Search and profiles in the Fellow app | Skool Discovery, ranked by growth and engagement |
| A page on the web | fellow.so/yourname for your profile, circles and events | A skool.com/yourname address |
| Search engines and AI assistants | Public pages built to be found and quoted | Discovery lists groups that clear an activity bar |
Skool Discovery is a real advantage for a paid online group, because people browse it looking for one to join. A café or a run club is found differently: by someone nearby searching Google or asking an AI, and landing on a page they can follow and RSVP from.
Our pick: EitherPricing
Skool charges every group a monthly fee, then a cut of each sale. Fellow is free to start and takes a fee only when a community sells something.
Fellow
- Fellow FreeFree5% on tickets and Shop, 10% on memberships
- Fellow Premium$29 a month3% on tickets and Shop, 5% on memberships
- Fellow Brand$149 a month1% on tickets and Shop, 3% on memberships
Plus card processing. Members never pay to use Fellow. See pricing
Skool
- Hobby$9 a monthUnlimited members and courses; 10% + 30¢ on each sale.
- Pro$99 a month2.9% + 30¢ on each sale, plus webinars and Pro plugins.
- Yearly2 months freeEither plan, paid a year up front.
Skool’s US prices, checked November 2026. Every group starts with a 14-day free trial.
Where each one shines
Skool
- A classroom built in
- Lessons, drip and levels, with live calls in the same place.
- Gamification that works
- Points, levels and a leaderboard keep a paid group active.
- A directory of groups
- Discovery puts active groups in front of people looking for one.
- Simple to run
- One feed, one classroom, one calendar. Little to set up.
Fellow
- Built for meeting in person
- Caps, waitlists, tickets, check-ins and stamp cards.
- More than memberships
- Sell tickets and products from a Shop, not only a monthly fee.
- A Fellow Friend on every plan
- It answers your community on your website and in the app.
- Free until you sell
- No monthly platform fee to start, with unlimited members.
Which should you choose?
Choose Skool if
- Your community is a paid course or coaching program
- You want a classroom with lessons, drip and levels
- You want points, levels and a leaderboard
- You want to be listed in a directory of paid online groups
Choose Fellow if
- Your community meets in real life: runs, pop-ups, classes, drops
- You want to start free, with no monthly platform fee
- You want paid event tickets and a Shop alongside memberships
- You want an AI with your brand’s name answering customers on your website
The bottom line
If you are a coach or creator and your members pay to learn from you online, Skool is a great home. Its classroom, calls and leaderboard do exactly that, and we wouldn’t talk you out of it.
If your community shows up somewhere, a café, a track, a pop-up, Fellow gives you what that needs: events with a door, tickets and a Shop, and a Fellow Friend answering for you, with nothing to pay until you sell something.
Questions
Skool costs $9 a month with a 10% + 30¢ fee on each sale, or $99 a month with 2.9% + 30¢, after a 14-day free trial. Fellow is free to start; its paid plans lower the fees and add more Fellow Friend and newsletter capacity, and members never pay to use it.
No. Fellow is built for communities that meet and buy: events, tickets, chat, a Shop and newsletters. If your community is mainly an online course, Skool is the better fit.
Fellow. A run club needs weekly events with RSVPs and waitlists, a group chat, and a place to share photos after the run. That is what Fellow is built around.
Not directly. Skool’s help center suggests tying an event to a paid course or a paid tier. On Fellow, events have paid tickets, caps and waitlists built in.
Skool can write Meta ads for paid groups, but it has no AI that answers your members. Every Fellow plan includes a Fellow Friend that answers customers on your website and in the app.
Yes. Some coaches keep their course on Skool and run in-person meetups, tickets and merch on Fellow.
