Is Whop cheaper than Skool or Learnea?

For payments alone, yes. Whop takes 2.7% + $0.30 per domestic card payment with no subscription, about 3.3% of sales at a $50 average payment. Skool and Learnea charge a subscription and a percentage, and include the members' space that Whop's public pages do not describe.

Can I host courses and a community on Whop?

Whop's public pricing and Coaching & courses pages describe payments, financing, payouts and tax tools. A course builder or a community space is not described there, so check Whop's product, or plan to add a community platform and count its cost.

How much does Whop plus Circle cost?

With Circle Professional at $89 a month billed yearly and a $50 average payment: $89 + 3.3% of sales, or $89 + 5.3% if Circle's 2% transaction fee applies to your sales. At $1,000 a month, that is $122 or $142.

When does Learnea cost less than Whop plus Circle?

On monthly billing, Learnea Starter ($29 + 5% + Stripe) costs less below $1,875 a month with Circle's 2% counted, or below $1,153.85 without it. Learnea Pro ($79 + 2% + Stripe) costs less below $5,000, or below $454.55. Above those points, Whop + Circle costs less.

Does Learnea include live calls?

No. Learnea does not include built-in video calls, email marketing, sales funnels or a native mobile app. Skool lists unlimited live calls on both plans, and Circle Professional lists live events.

Skool vs Whop vs Learnea (2026): Which One Runs a Community?

Three different tools

Whop sells payments. Its pricing page reads "Pay-as-you-go. No setup fees, no monthly costs." and covers card processing, payouts, fraud tools and tax. Its Coaching & courses page is about "Payments, banking, and compliance". A course builder, a community feed and member messaging are not described on its public pages, checked on October 22, 2026.

Skool is a community platform: Hobby is $9 a month plus a 10% "transaction fee", Pro $99 plus 2.9%, with unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls on both plans.

Learnea is a community and course platform: Starter is $29 a month plus 5%, Pro $79 plus 2%, with Stripe card fees of 2.9% + 30¢ on top, and a 14-day free trial.

If you only need a checkout, Whop costs less

If your members already gather somewhere else and you only need to take payments, Whop is the lighter option. At a $50 average payment, its base rate is 3.3% of sales: $33 on $1,000 a month. That is less than Skool or Learnea at every level we computed. Its pricing page also lists +1.5% for international cards, +1% for currency conversion, payout fees from $2.50, $15 per dispute, and optional services (orchestration 0.8%, billing 0.5%, tax 2%) that bring a domestic card payment to "6% + $0.30" with everything enabled.

Whop plus a community platform: the Circle example

For a members' space with courses, a community and messaging, you add a community platform next to Whop. We use Circle Professional because its pricing page lists "Community", "Courses", "Direct messaging", "Gamification", "Live events" and a "Custom domain", at $89 a month billed yearly (no monthly price is published), with "Transaction fees" of 2%. Circle also lists its own "Payments"; if you take payments there instead of Whop, its page does not quantify the card processing cost.

Method:

Whop + Circle: $89 + 2.7% + $0.30 per payment. Circle's page does not say whether its 2% applies to payments taken on Whop, so we show both readings: with the 2% (5.3% of sales) and without it (3.3%).
Learnea: $29 + 5% (Starter) or $79 + 2% (Pro), plus Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ per payment, monthly billing.
Skool: subscription + its listed percentage, nothing else: the reading most favorable to Skool.
A $50 average payment everywhere, so $1,000 of sales is 20 payments. Whop's payout fees and options are left out, which favors the Whop setup.

Sales per month	Whop + Circle (with Circle 2%)	Whop + Circle (without it)	Learnea Starter	Learnea Pro	Skool Hobby	Skool Pro
$500	$115.50	$105.50	$71.50	$106.50	$59.00	$113.50
$1,000	$142.00	$122.00	$114.00	$134.00	$109.00	$128.00
$1,875	$188.38	$150.88	$188.38	$182.13	$196.50	$153.38
$3,000	$248.00	$188.00	$284.00	$244.00	$309.00	$186.00
$5,000	$354.00	$254.00	$454.00	$354.00	$509.00	$244.00
$10,000	$619.00	$419.00	$879.00	$629.00	$1,009.00	$389.00

Two cells worked out at $1,000: Whop + Circle with the 2% is $89 + $27 (2.7%) + $6 (20 × 30¢) + $20 (2%) = $142. Learnea Starter is $29 + $50 (5%) + $29 (2.9%) + $6 = $114.

The break-even points

Learnea Starter ($29 + 8.5% of sales) costs less than Whop + Circle below $1,875 a month with Circle's 2% counted ($60 ÷ 3.2%), or below $1,153.85 without it ($60 ÷ 5.2%).
Learnea Pro ($79 + 5.5%) costs less below $5,000 a month with Circle's 2% ($10 ÷ 0.2%), or below $454.55 without it ($10 ÷ 2.2%).
Circle's $89 is a yearly-billing price. With yearly billing on both sides ($290 or $790 a year for Learnea), the Starter break-even rises to $2,026.04 (or $1,246.79 without Circle's 2%), and Pro to $11,583.33 (or $1,053.03).
Skool Pro, read as $99 + 2.9% and nothing else, costs less than Learnea Pro above $769.23 a month. If your Skool statements show card processing on top, add it to the Skool side.

What you get in one place

	Whop alone	Whop + Circle Professional	Skool	Learnea
Payments	2.7% + $0.30 per card payment	Whop (Circle also lists Payments)	Subscriptions or 1-time purchases	Monthly, yearly or one-time, plus a second offer
Courses	Not described	Courses	Unlimited	Unlimited courses and videos
Community feed	Not described	Community	Unlimited members	Unlimited members
Private messaging	Not described	Direct messaging	Not listed	Included
Gamification	Not described	Gamification	Not listed	Points, levels and a leaderboard
Sales page	Not described	Website	Not listed	About page for your pitch
Subscribers can switch to lifetime access	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed	Included
Loyalty discount when a member cancels	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed	Included
Affiliates for your members	Not described for creators	"Affiliate/conversion tracking code"	Pro ($99)	Pro ($79)
Live calls	Not described	Live events	Unlimited	Not included
Domain	Not described	Custom domain	Custom URL on Pro	Custom URL on learnea.io (Pro), not your own domain
Native mobile app	Whop app, iOS and Android	iOS, Android and desktop apps	About page mentions your "mobile device"	Not included
Accounts to run	1	2	1	1

"Not described" or "not listed" means the public pages we checked do not mention it, not that the product cannot do it.

Where Learnea comes out ahead, and where it does not

One subscription for the whole members' space: courses, community, private messaging and gamification. With Whop, you connect a second platform and keep access in sync when someone cancels.
Keeping members: subscribers can move to lifetime access, and members who cancel are offered a loyalty discount.
Affiliates for $79 a month on Learnea Pro, where Skool lists them on Pro at $99 and Circle Professional's page lists tracking code only.
A lower total than Whop + Circle below the break-even points above.

What is missing, so you decide with all the facts: Learnea does not include email marketing, sales funnels, a native mobile app or built-in video calls. Skool lists unlimited live calls and Circle lists live events: if live sessions are the heart of your offer, count that. Above the break-even points, or if you only need a checkout, the numbers favor the others.

How to choose

You only take payments for something that lives elsewhere: Whop alone.
You want courses, a community and messaging in one place and sell less than about $1,150 to $1,875 a month: Learnea Starter costs less than Whop + Circle in our math.
You sell more, or want affiliates: compare Learnea Pro, Skool Pro and Whop + Circle in the table, at your own average payment.
Weekly live calls are central: Skool and Circle list them; Learnea does not include them.

Skool vs Whop vs Learnea: what it takes to run a paid community