Skool vs Stan Store: Fees and Which to Pick in 2026

Skool and Stan Store solve different problems. Skool runs one paid community with a discussion feed, a classroom and a discovery engine that sends it traffic, and charges $9 or $99 a month plus a 10% or 2.9% transaction fee. Stan Store is a link in bio storefront that sells courses, downloads, coaching calls and memberships side by side, and charges $29 or $99 a month with no platform cut of sales.

Which one costs less depends entirely on how much you sell, and the crossover point is not where most comparison articles put it. The tables below work it out at four revenue levels using both companies' published prices.

What is the difference between Stan Store and Skool?

Skool sells one room to many people. Stan sells many products to one visitor. On Skool the unit is a community with a feed, courses, live calls, levels and a leaderboard, and everything a member buys is access to that room. On Stan the unit is a storefront you link from a bio, holding digital downloads, e-courses, coaching calls, webinars, lead magnets, memberships and external links, each purchasable on its own.

That difference decides almost everything else. Skool has no shopfront and no product catalogue, so it cannot sell a one off ebook well. Stan has no discussion feed at its centre and no discovery directory, so a community there does not benefit from other people's traffic. Neither limitation is a defect; they are consequences of what each one is.

Which is cheaper, Skool or Stan Store?

Stan is cheaper than Skool Hobby above roughly $200 a month in sales, and cheaper than Skool Pro at almost every level. Skool's transaction fee is the reason. Below are the platform costs only, excluding Stripe or PayPal processing, which both platforms charge separately and at similar rates.

At $10,000 a month, Skool Hobby costs $1,009 and Stan Creator costs $29. That is a difference of $980, and it is the single strongest argument anyone can make for Stan on price alone.

It is also incomplete, and here is why. Skool's fee is a share of revenue that Skool partly earns back by sending you members through Discovery and Growth Boost. Stan sends you nobody. If Skool's own traffic produces even a tenth of a $10,000 month, the $980 has bought something. If you already have an audience and only need a checkout, it has bought nothing. That, not the arithmetic, is the actual decision.

Which one should you choose?

Choose Skool if the thing you sell is people talking to each other. A mastermind, an accountability group, a coaching container, a practice community, a paid mentorship. The feed, the levels and the leaderboard exist to make a room worth returning to, and Skool Discovery puts your community in front of people who are already searching the platform, which is a traffic source Stan simply does not have.

Choose Stan Store if the thing you sell is products. A creator with an Instagram audience selling a $27 template, a $97 mini course, a $300 coaching call and a $19 monthly membership from one link needs a catalogue with a checkout, and Stan is built precisely for that, with order bumps, upsell funnels, discount codes and payment plans on the Pro plan. Nothing on Skool does that job.

Choose both if you already sell products and want a room around the buyers. This is the common real answer and it is not a cop out: Stan handles the front end catalogue, Skool holds the recurring community, and the two do not overlap enough to be redundant. At $29 plus $9 that combination costs $38 a month before Skool's cut.

What Stan Store gates behind Creator Pro

More than the pricing page implies, and it matters because the features most creators assume are standard are on the $99 plan. According to Stan's own help centre, email flows and broadcasts, discount codes, quantity limits, order bumps, payment plans including Afterpay and Klarna, the affiliate share feature, Meta and TikTok pixel tracking, and removing Stan branding from your store are all Creator Pro only.

That reshapes the comparison. If you need email or order bumps, Stan costs $99 a month, not $29, and at that point it is priced identically to Skool Pro. Skool Pro at $99 includes everything Skool has, with no feature gated above it, and takes 2.9% on top. Stan Creator Pro at $99 takes nothing on top but gives you no community engine and no traffic.

How do payouts work on each?

Both settle through a payment processor rather than holding your money themselves. Skool pays out through a Stripe Express account connected to your community, and the transaction fee is deducted before the payout reaches you. Stan connects to Stripe or PayPal and takes no platform cut, so what arrives is the sale minus processing.

One practical difference: Stan's help centre states you cannot pay for your own Stan subscription using PayPal or using funds sitting in your Stan income tab, so you need a card on file regardless of how you collect. Our Skool payouts guide covers the Skool side, including the country and timing questions that come up most.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Stan Store and Skool?

Skool is a community platform where the product is one paid room containing a discussion feed, courses, live calls and gamification. Stan Store is a link in bio storefront where the product is a catalogue of individual items, such as downloads, courses, coaching calls and memberships, that a visitor buys one at a time. Skool sends you traffic through its Discovery directory; Stan does not.

Is Stan Store cheaper than Skool?

On platform cost, usually yes. Stan charges $29 or $99 a month with a 0% platform transaction fee, while Skool charges $9 or $99 plus 10% or 2.9% of sales. At $10,000 in monthly sales, Skool Hobby costs $1,009 against Stan Creator's $29. Payment processing is charged separately on both, by Stripe on Skool and by Stripe or PayPal on Stan.

Does Stan Store really charge 0% transaction fees?

Stan's homepage states "0% Transaction Fees, Always" and the same claim appears across both plans. That refers to Stan's own cut. Standard payment processing, typically around 2.9% plus 30 cents per sale, still applies: through Stripe or PayPal on Stan, and through Stripe on Skool.

What is better than Stan Store?

It depends what you are selling. For a recurring community, Skool gives you a feed, gamification and platform traffic that Stan has no equivalent of. For selling many separate digital products from one link, Stan's closest comparisons are Gumroad, Beacons and Payhip rather than Skool. For an all in one course business with funnels and email, Kajabi is the usual alternative to both.

Can you run a community on Stan Store?

Stan has a Community product type and its help centre carries a section on it, so you can sell community access there. It is not built around a discussion feed the way Skool is, and there is no discovery directory pushing new members toward it, so growth is entirely down to traffic you supply yourself.

How much does Stan Store cost per year?

$300 a year on the Creator plan and $948 a year on Creator Pro, according to Stan's help centre, against $29 and $99 monthly. Skool bills yearly at two months free, so $90 a year on Hobby and $990 on Pro.

Should I use both Skool and Stan Store?

It is a reasonable setup if you already sell individual products and want a recurring room around your buyers. Stan handles the catalogue and checkout, Skool holds the community and pulls in new members through Discovery. Starting on Stan Creator plus Skool Hobby is $38 a month before Skool's transaction fee.