Whop vs Skool in 2026: No Monthly Fee vs $9 or $99 a Month, and Why Easyapp Puts Your Members Under Your Own Icon

Whop vs Skool in 2026 is a choice between two ways of paying for a paid community, from each company's own pages read 16 September 2026. Whop charges no monthly fee and takes 2.7% plus $0.30 per domestic card payment, or 6% plus $0.30 with every module on. Skool's Hobby and Pro plans are the same product at two fee levels: $9 a month with 10% plus $0.30 per transaction, or $99 a month with 2.9% plus $0.30, both with unlimited members, courses and live calls. Skool is the merchant for every payment and files the sales tax; Whop is merchant of record for card settlement only, and the tax is the seller's. A Mini App for creators, the category we call Mini Apps for Creators, is the third arrangement: on Whop and Skool the fee buys a member inside the platform's own app, and what it does not buy is the creator's own icon, where a Mini App membership lives. One fee structure here is ours.

This page is written by Easyapp, the Mini App platform for creators, and our own plans are on the same table: Creator, free with a 5% fee on web sales, and Creator Pro at $15 a month with 0%. Four reasons to pick that row for a membership: the member is inside your own app, under your own icon, rather than inside the Whop or Skool Communities app; the notification that brings them back carries your name; Member gates the content you choose and the payment lands in your own Stripe account; and it starts free, against $9 or $99 a month on Skool. If you want your members inside your own app rather than inside Whop's or Skool's, that is the row to read.

What does each one charge, side by side?

The two fee schedules are built differently, so the table keeps them on separate columns rather than adding them into one ranking. Whop prices the payment and sells its services as optional modules. Skool prices the subscription and folds the payment into it.

Sources: skool.com/pricing with the monthly and yearly toggles, and Skool's payments FAQ updated 10 September 2026, both read 16 September 2026; Whop's fee schedule at docs.whop.com/fees and its affiliate documentation, read the same day. Skool's pricing page shows the percentages; the $0.30 per transaction and the $900 threshold come from the payments FAQ.

One more line sits outside Whop's fee schedule because the fee is Apple's rather than Whop's. Whop's documentation on in-app iOS purchases, read 16 September 2026, states that Apple processes all one-time purchases under $700 made through the Whop iOS app with its in-app purchasing system and charges a 30% fee, which Apple receives and Whop does not; Whop offsets it by raising the price of those products by 42.86% on the iOS app only; subscriptions and purchases of $700 or more go through Whop's web checkout without the 30%; and Apple remits iOS purchases to Whop up to 75 days after the transaction. Whop's iOS developer guide, read the same day, adds that apps built with its iOS SDK use Whop's own processing in the United States, 2.7% plus $0.30 against what the guide calls Apple's 15-30%, and fall back to Apple's StoreKit elsewhere, so the answer depends on where the buyer is and what is being bought. Skool's payments FAQ describes one processing path, on Skool's merchant, and does not describe a separate in-app purchase path.

What does the percentage actually include on Whop and on Skool?

On Skool the percentage is the whole cost of taking the payment; on Whop the percentage is the card processing, with its services priced as add-ons. Skool's payments FAQ, updated 10 September 2026, states that all processing happens on Skool's merchant account, that Skool handles EU VAT and all sales tax collection, filing and payments, and that Pro's 2.9% plus $0.30 covers international cards and subscriptions, cheaper in Skool's words compared to Stripe, where 1.5% and 0.5% come on top. Whop's seller terms, updated 14 July 2026, describe the reverse: Whop is merchant of record for card network rules and payment settlement only, the seller is the supplier for value-added tax, sales tax, consumer protection and content licensing, and tax remittance is the 2% module, which is the line to read twice. Merchant of record means the party that legally counts as the seller and files the tax; on Skool that party is Skool, and on Whop it is you unless you pay for the module.

The full list of Whop's lines, from fraud screening to the four payout options, is on the Whop fees page. The column that ranks fifteen platforms by who files the tax is in the creator platform fee data set.

What can you sell on each, and how is it priced?

Skool sells one thing, a group, and prices it five ways. Skool's help centre article on group pricing, updated 28 October 2025, lists a free group, a subscription group billed monthly or annually, a freemium group with a free plan and a paid plan side by side, tiers with more than one paid plan, and a one-time payment for lifetime-access courses, pop-up groups and seminars, with an optional 7-day trial for new members. Inside the group, a course can also be sold as a one-time purchase, per the article updated 1 November 2025, once the owner has connected a bank account through Stripe Express. Both plans include unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls and a custom URL; Skool's own app listing describes the product as community, courses and live calls plus push notifications.

Whop sells the storefront and prices the payment. Whop's home page, read 16 September 2026, describes a storefront, ads manager, checkout and wallet in one place, lists coaching and courses, services, physical products, marketplaces, paid groups, software, telehealth and events as what runs on it, and says $4.6B+ has been paid to businesses on Whop. Whop's documentation describes payments, payouts, apps distributed through the Whop App Store, and messaging, forums and notifications; its own App Store listing calls it an all-in-one home for selling digital products and managing communities.

Where new members come from is priced differently too. Skool Discovery shows groups that meet a minimum threshold of members, posts and activity, ranked by member growth, engagement and retention with a human review of the rankings, per the Discovery FAQ updated 23 June 2026; the optional Growth Boost shows the group in Discovery results and off-site ads and costs a 30% commission only on members Skool brings in, and nothing on customers you bring yourself. Whop's affiliate program, in its documentation read the same day, lets the seller set the commission for their own products, 30% by default, as a recurring or first-payment commission, paid by Whop after a 30-day waiting period.

How much does each cost at $1,000 and $10,000 a month?

Four numbers per volume, because the plan and the modules change the answer. The assumptions are ours: 20 sales of $50 at $1,000 a month and 200 sales of $50 at $10,000, domestic cards, monthly billing on Skool, no financing, no affiliate sales, one next-day payout a week on Whop. Skool's figures include card processing because Skool is the merchant; Whop's rate is the processing.

Add $10 a month to the Whop lines for four next-day payouts at $2.50 each. On Skool, Pro overtakes Hobby once monthly sales pass about $1,270 on monthly billing, or about $1,050 on yearly billing at $7.50 and $82 a month, because the 7.1 points of difference in the percentage outrun the $90 difference in subscription from there.

Whop costs less than either Skool plan at both volumes on these assumptions, Skool Pro overtakes Skool Hobby past about $1,270 a month in sales, and neither fee buys what a Mini App's fee buys: a membership under the creator's own icon.

The arithmetic on a Mini App runs on two lines instead of a schedule. On Easyapp's free Creator plan the platform fee is 5% of web sales, $50 on the same $1,000 and $500 on $10,000; Stripe's processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 is charged separately by Stripe in the creator's own account, $35 on those twenty sales. On Creator Pro, at $15 a month or $150 a year, the platform fee is 0%, so the $15 is the whole Easyapp line at any sales volume; once monthly Stripe sales pass $300, Pro's $15 costs less than Creator's 5%. The three are not forced onto one row, because the fee buys a different thing on each, which is the next section.

Where does the difference between Whop, Skool and Easyapp sit?

The line between all three is the app the member lives in, and what it buys follows from that. On Whop the buyer creates a Whop account, pays in Whop's checkout and joins through the Whop app, which its App Store listing, read 16 September 2026, calls an all-in-one home for selling digital products and managing communities. On Skool the member joins a group on the web or in the Skool Communities app, which Skool's listing describes as all Skool's features plus push notifications. Both are strong at the community itself: threads, comments, courses and live calls; each has a marketplace where new members find the group. A Mini App, compared to that, is the creator's own app: the follower opens the creator's link, adds the creator's icon to the home screen, pays through Stripe in the creator's own account, and receives notifications in the creator's name. Adding to the home screen and allowing notifications are separate choices, and support varies by device and browser.

Two of Whop's own documents sharpen the border. The notifications guide, read 16 September 2026, says notifications appear in the Whop mobile app and web interface and display the experience avatar, the account avatar or both by default; that is the strength, a seller reaches every member without leaving Whop, and the Whop app is where the member lands. Whop's article on what a whop is, updated 18 August 2026, describes Whop Discover as the place where buyers check out the top whops by category or explore trending searches; Skool Discovery ranks groups by growth, engagement and retention, per its FAQ updated 23 June 2026. Whop's documentation also opens its payment and other services to apps built outside Whop through its API. On the Mini App side the same things run in the creator's name: the notification is delivered by the creator's own Mini App under the creator's icon; the Link service connects outside tools into the Mini App today, and Easyapp Store API, coming very soon, runs the other way and opens Easyapp's membership, payment and other services to an app the creator builds elsewhere; and discovery is live today in Easyapp Store, on the web and in the Store app, where Mini Apps are listed and found, a channel rather than a result; the checkout inside the Store is what arrives next.*

The difference is a category difference rather than a feature difference, which is why the three fee lines should not be added up into one ranking. Whop and Skool sell a home inside their platform, with strong community tools behind it. A Mini App sells a place under the creator's brand, which is what the category is about.

Why choose Easyapp for the membership itself

Whop and Skool are strong at the conversation, and the sections above say so. These are the reasons to pick a Mini App for the membership, in the order they matter.

Your members live under your icon. On Whop the member joins through the Whop app and on Skool through the Skool Communities app, per each company's App Store listing. On a Mini App the member opens your link, adds your icon to the home screen and receives notifications in your name, to followers who opt in, up to 100 on Creator and unlimited on Creator Pro. Adding to the home screen and allowing notifications are separate choices, and support varies by device and browser.

Free to start, against $9 or $99 a month. Creator has no subscription fee and takes 5% on web sales; Creator Pro is $15 a month or $150 a year with 0%. Skool's plans are $9 and $99 a month; Whop has no monthly fee and prices the payment.

Member gates the content, and the payment is yours. Member makes the content you choose members-only today, and Shop and Event take one-time payments straight into your own Stripe account, on Stripe's payout schedule rather than a platform's.

You keep what you already have. The Link service connects your existing pages, tools and stores into the Mini App, so the first week is a Mini App beside what you run today, and the migration happens one product at a time.

Live in minutes, with no app store between you and your audience. AI builds the first version in 2-3 minutes from a description or your website, and the Mini App is live at its own address the moment you tap Publish: no review step, no developer account, no store listing to buy.

The store checkout is on its way, and Easyapp Store itself is already live. Easyapp Store is live today on the web at easyapp.ai/store and as the Easyapp Store app on the App Store and Google Play, where Mini Apps are listed and found; what arrives next is the checkout inside it, and the Mini App you build now is the one it lands on. Inside Easyapp Store, digital purchases and subscriptions go through Apple's or Google's own checkout, with saved payment details and the familiar subscription settings. On iPhone those purchases run under Apple's Mini Apps Partner Program, so Apple's commission is 15% instead of the standard 30% on qualifying purchases. Easyapp's fee is 5% on Creator and 3% then 2% on Creator Pro; Apple's or Google's fee applies separately.* Your Mini App stays on the web at the same link; the follower moves to the store checkout only at the moment of paying for something digital, then comes back.

* In-app payments through Easyapp Store are coming very soon. The launch follows technical integration and platform approvals.

If this is your situation, Easyapp is built for it

Easyapp is built for the creator whose paid membership is content and access, held under their own brand and icon rather than inside Whop's or Skool's app, and what you pay for that is printed: Creator is free with 5% on web sales, and Creator Pro is $15 a month or $150 a year with 0%. Member gates the content you choose; Shop and Event take one-time payments through Stripe in your own account; Notification sends in your name to followers who opt in, up to 100 on Creator and unlimited on Creator Pro. The recurring charge itself is what Easyapp Store adds. If the product is the conversation itself, threads and comments, that is the job Whop and Skool are built for, and the Link service puts an existing Whop or Skool community one tap inside your Mini App, so the two are not a choice against each other. The Mini App is live the moment you tap Publish, with no review step.

Inside Easyapp Store, digital purchases and subscriptions go through Apple's or Google's own checkout, with saved payment details and the familiar subscription settings. On iPhone those purchases run under Apple's Mini Apps Partner Program, so Apple's commission is 15% instead of the standard 30% on qualifying purchases. Easyapp's fee is 5% on Creator and 3% then 2% on Creator Pro; Apple's or Google's fee applies separately.*

Prices are in USD. Easyapp fees are calculated on sales. Stripe, Apple, and Google fees apply separately. All fifteen services are included in both plans, and connecting a custom domain is free through 31 December 2026, then a one-time $19.99.

* In-app payments through Easyapp Store are coming very soon. The launch follows technical integration and platform approvals.

What that looks like for a community owner today: the group stays on Whop or Skool while the Mini App goes up in front of it, because the Link service connects the existing community page, a booking page or a product to the Mini App. The creator announces the Mini App to the audience, watches in Reports who adds it to the home screen and who opts into notifications, moves the members-only content into Content behind Member, and sells the next launch through Shop, where the payment lands in the creator's own Stripe account. Subscriptions, payment details and archives do not move automatically from one platform to another, on Whop, on Skool or anywhere else, so the migration is one product at a time.

Where to start

Three steps, and the first two take an afternoon. Download the Easyapp app on iPhone or Android and describe your business in a sentence or paste your website address; AI builds the first version of your Mini App in 2-3 minutes. Replace the generated text and images with your own, connect your Stripe account so that Shop can take payments, mark the content that is members-only, and add your Whop or Skool community through the Link service. Tap Publish, and the Mini App is live at your easyapp.ai address that moment; put the link in your bio and announce it to your members. Start free on the Creator plan, and switch to Creator Pro when your monthly Stripe sales pass $300. If the question underneath all this is what each platform takes from a creator's sales, what creators actually keep works four big platforms through from scratch.

If the question underneath all of this is why Easyapp at all, that page makes the whole case in one place, plans, services and prices included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Skool cheaper than Whop?

Not on the fee lines. Whop has no monthly fee and takes 2.7% plus $0.30 per domestic card payment, so twenty $50 sales a month cost $33 in processing, or $66 with every optional module on. Skool costs $9 a month plus 10% and $0.30 per transaction on Hobby, $115 on the same sales, or $99 a month plus 2.9% and $0.30 on Pro, $134. What Skool's price includes is different: Skool is the merchant for every payment and files the sales tax, and both plans include unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls. Figures from each company's own pages, read 16 September 2026.

Does Skool take a percentage of sales?

Yes. Skool's payments FAQ, updated 10 September 2026, lists 10% plus $0.30 per transaction on the Hobby plan and 2.9% plus $0.30 on Pro for transactions up to $899, rising to 3.9% plus $0.30 above $900. The percentage is the whole cost of taking the payment, because all processing happens on Skool's merchant account; there is no separate Stripe line for the group owner.

Who handles sales tax on Whop and on Skool?

On Skool, Skool does: its payments FAQ states that Skool handles EU VAT and is responsible for all sales tax collection, filing and payments. On Whop, the seller does: Whop's seller terms, updated 14 July 2026, make Whop merchant of record for card network rules and payment settlement only and name the seller as the supplier for value-added tax, sales tax, consumer protection and content licensing. Whop's tax and remittance module handles the filing for 2% per transaction when tax is collected.

How do Whop and Skool compare with Easyapp?

Whop and Skool host the community inside their own app, and the fee pays for that: a rate on the payment on Whop, a subscription plus a rate on Skool. Easyapp builds the creator's own Mini App, where a membership lives under the creator's own icon and notifications go out in the creator's name. Creator is free with a 5% fee on web sales through your own Stripe account; Creator Pro is $15 a month or $150 a year with 0%. Member gates the content you choose today, Shop and Event take one-time payments, and the recurring charge is what Easyapp Store adds, coming very soon. If the product is the conversation itself, threads and comments, that is the job Whop and Skool are built for.

Can I earn money by referring people to Skool or Whop?

On Skool, yes: its help centre, updated 10 December 2025, pays 40% of Skool's subscription price every month for a group created through your link, $39 a month for a Pro group and $3.60 for a Hobby group, with 14-day last-touch attribution and a 14-day hold. Inside your own community, Skool lets Pro group owners set an affiliate percentage for members; Whop lets sellers set the rate for their own products, 30% by default, with a 30-day hold before the affiliate is paid and a 1.25% processing fee on affiliate sales.

Update log

16 September 2026, night. Easyapp Store described as live, on the web at easyapp.ai/store and as the Easyapp Store app, where Mini Apps are listed and found; the footnote now says that in-app payments through Easyapp Store are coming very soon, which is the part that is not yet launched. The reasons-to-choose section and the title were added the same night.

16 September 2026. First publication. Skool's pricing page, payments FAQ, group pricing, one-time course purchase, referral, member affiliate and Discovery articles read on 16 September 2026, together with the Skool Communities listing on the App Store. Whop's fee schedule, seller terms, affiliate documentation, in-app iOS purchase and iOS developer documentation, notifications guide, article on what a whop is, home page and App Store listing read the same day. Easyapp plans and fees as published on 13 September 2026. The $1,000 and $10,000 scenarios are our arithmetic on each company's published rates, with the assumptions stated next to them.

We refresh this page when Whop or Skool changes its pricing, fee schedule or seller terms, and on 16 March 2027 at the latest. When the data changes, the modified date moves.

Sources