Future of Community & Course Platforms: Skool vs Rest of the World

Skool dot com is growing massively ever since Alex Hormozi jumped onboard.

With its innovative Skool Games concept, it’s quite well positioned to lead the wave of community-first course platforms (and maybe even achieve Sam Ovens’ goal of onboarding 1 billion users onto Skool)

According to Skoolgamesreview.com, the average earnings of Skool Games winners in September 2024 reached a whopping $66,300.

But does their platform really beat existing solutions on the market?

Let’s jump right into the beef one-by-one:

Skool vs Teachable

Teachable has several things as advantages:

• Well-established course creation tools — one could even say ‘battle-tested’ here
• Strong video hosting capabilities (they’re native)
• Custom domain support (good for branding)
• Built-in payment processing
• Certificate creation

But on the other hand:

Where Skool Wins

• Native community engagement features (WAY better engagement going in most communities)
• Gamification-first approach (leaderboards FTW)
• More interactive learning experiences
• Lower pricing structure (99usd per month + plenty of free groups for users)
• Better mobile experience
• Real-time engagement tools

Best For

• Teachable: Traditional course creators focused on structured content delivery
• Skool: Community-first creators who want engagement-driven learning

So community-first creators will clearly be better of with Skool.

Skool vs Kajabi

Kajabi’s Strengths

• All-in-one marketing solution
• Advanced email marketing
• Pipeline/funnel builder
• Robust automation
• Website builder

These are pretty strong together!

Some areas though come to surface as not-so-state-of-the-art when comparing it to Skool:

Where Skool (Likely) Wins

• More affordable entry point vs Kajabi
• Stronger community features that lead to higher engagement
• Better user engagement metrics (not a surprise!)
• Simpler learning curve for users
• Modern interface
• Games and challenges (that are fun!)

Best For

• Kajabi: Marketing-focused creators who need comprehensive business tools
• Skool: Creators who want great community engagement and interactive learning (who wouldn’t want those haha!)

Skool vs Thinkific

Thinkific’s Strengths

• Comprehensive course builder
• Built-in survey tools
• Advanced quiz features
• White-labeling options
• Multiple instructor support

Where Skool Wins

• Superior community engagement
• More intuitive interface
• Better social features
• Gamification elements
• Mobile-first design
• Real-time interaction capabilities

Best For

• Thinkific: Traditional educators needing robust course structuring
• Skool: Modern educators focusing on interactive, community-based learning

Skool vs Udemy

Udemy isn’t really that much into communities.

It’s more like a marketplace for courses.

Still, it’s THE place to be for many creators to host their courses so we need to give it some space here.

And I really mean that: In 2024 according to Wikipedia, Udemy claimed to have over 73 million learners with over one billion course enrollments. The platform offers over 250,000 courses, and more than 75,000 instructors teaching courses in 75 languages.

So it’s much bigger that Skool — at least for now.

Is the balance of power changing here?

Udemy’s Strengths

• Massive marketplace (see numbers above)
• Built-in audience (tons of hungry learners)
• Professional native video hosting
• Established brand for learning ANYTHING
• Multiple language support

So Udemy seems to have the upper hand here at first look.

Still, there are areas where Skool excels vs Udemy:

Where Skool Wins

• Creator owns the community
• Higher revenue share
• Better control over community
• Direct member relationships (many creators offer 1–on-1 onboarding call for each new member)
• Interactive features (tons of them)

Best For

• Udemy: Course creators seeking BIG marketplace exposure
• Skool: Creators building their own branded community or monetizing a passion

Skool vs Mighty Networks

The very first thing before weighing up the features here is…

…both have pretty cool brands!

So what are the strong areas of each?

Mighty Networks’ Strengths

• Strong community features
• Course + Community integration
• Event management
• Custom mobile apps
• Rich member profiles

Where Skool Wins

• More engaging gamification
• Better pricing structure
• Simpler interface
• Faster loading times
• More interactive features
• Stronger retention tools

Best For

• Mighty Networks: Large organizations needing complex community features
• Skool: Creators wanting engaging, gamified communities

Skool vs Circle.so

Circle’s Strengths

• Clean interface
• Good integration options
• Space organization
• Discussion forums
• Member directories

Where Skool Excels

• Native gamification
• Better mobile experience
• More engaging features
• Built-in course tools
• Community challenges
• Activity-driven engagement

Best For

• Circle: Business communities needing clean, professional spaces
• Skool: Communities focusing on engagement and interactive learning

Skool vs Ghost

Well, this one might be a bit off-the-scope in terms of comparisons.

(More like apples to oranges).

Let’s take a look anyways as both platforms are aimed for creators:

Ghost’s Strengths

• Content-first approach
• Newsletter features
• Clean publishing tools
• Open-source
• SEO optimization

Where Skool Wins

• Stronger community features
• Better member engagement
• Interactive elements
• Course capabilities
• Social features
• Gamification

Best For

• Ghost: Content publishers focusing on newsletters and blogs
• Skool: Community builders needing engagement tools

Skool vs Podia

Podia’s Strengths

• Digital product sales
• Webinar hosting
• Email marketing
• Affiliate program
• Simple interface

Where Skool Wins

• Better community engagement
• More interactive features
• Stronger retention tools
• Gamification elements
• Mobile experience
• Real-time interaction

Best For

• Podia: Digital product creators needing simple selling tools
• Skool: Creators building engaged learning communities

Skool vs Skillshare

Skillshare’s Strengths

• Large existing audience
• Project-based learning
• Creative focus
• Professional video hosting
• Established marketplace

Where Skool Wins

• Direct community ownership
• Better revenue potential
• Stronger engagement tools
• Community control
• Interactive features
• Custom branding

Best For

• Skillshare: Creative instructors seeking marketplace exposure
• Skool: Creators building branded learning communities

Skool vs Facebook Groups

Should this even be a comparison?

I think yes.

The discover feature (which is essentially a search bar) is pretty much the same on on both of these platforms.

Facebook has one very massive thing going for them.

The user base is WAY bigger than all these other platfroms combined.

And, it’s hard to catch up with Facebook on that.

Facebook Groups’ Strengths

• Massive user base
• Familiar interface
• Free to use
• Built-in discovery
• Mobile app available
• Unlimited users per group

Where Skool Wins

• Better organization of course modules & materials
• Monetization options (you have to do these in Facebook manually — yuck!)
• Engagement features (the leaderboards)
• Data ownership
• No distractions (well, chatting with other members might turn into one…)

Best For

• Facebook Groups: Casual communities needing basic features
• Skool: Professional communities needing structured engagement

Skool vs Discord

This comparison is also a bit weird since Discord is aimed for gamers originally.

Nowadays it’s a go-to-platform for many niches, especially crypto.

Let’s check the differences:

Best For Discord vs Skool

Discord:

• Gaming communities
• Casual social groups
• Real-time chat focus
• Tech-savvy users
• Free communities

Skool:

• Professional educators
• Course creators
• Business communities
• Structured learning
• Monetized communities

Conclusion

So does everything come back to features, benefits, value props and other product-related general stuff?

I think not.

The fact that Alex Hormozi is invested in Skool tells me something important.

He thinks he is on to a winner.

And this guy is relentless (so is Sam Ovens).

To conclude: While the race for dominance in the community and course platform space is far from over…

…Skool’s innovative approach with Skool Games positions it uniquely in the market.

By combining…

gamification + community building + learning + events in a native, integrated way, Skool could potentially revolutionize how we think about online learning communities.

Only time will tell!