- Choose Kajabi if you need courses, checkout, email, landing pages, funnels, automations and community in one premium system, with plans from $89/month.
- Choose Skool if the product is a simple paid community with classroom content, live calls and discussion, priced at $99/month plus transaction fees.
- Choose Mighty Networks if member interaction, spaces, events and cohort-style activity matter more than a built-in sales funnel suite, with plans from $41/month.
- Do the fee maths before you choose: Kajabi, Skool and Mighty Networks all have payment or platform-fee details that can change the real cost.
- If you need employee training, partner training or formal L&D reporting, look at a corporate LMS instead of forcing a community membership tool to do that job.
A membership platform with courses is a recurring-revenue choice before it is a hosting choice. The first question is where the ongoing value comes from after members finish the first lesson.
For some businesses, retention comes from a structured curriculum. For others, it comes from live calls, accountability, coaching access, community discussion, events or steady member interaction.
That is why Kajabi, Skool and Mighty Networks can all make sense, even though they suit different jobs. Kajabi is the premium all-in-one business system, Skool is the simple community-first classroom, and Mighty Networks gives more weight to community and events.
Quick verdict: which platform fits which membership?
Choose Kajabi if your membership sits inside a wider expert business. It suits creators who want courses, checkout, email, landing pages, funnels, automations and community in one place, but the monthly price starts higher than simpler community tools.
Choose Skool if the product is a paid community and the course area supports the discussion. The member experience is simple, but that simplicity can feel restrictive if you want layered community spaces or a fuller marketing setup.
Choose Mighty Networks if the membership depends on spaces, events, challenges and member interaction. It gives you more room for community design than Skool, but it does not replace Kajabi’s built-in funnel and email system.
This guide is not an overall LMS ranking. Thinkific, Teachable and LearnWorlds remain stronger fits for many course-first creators, while TalentLMS and Docebo sit in the corporate training category.
What are members paying to keep access to?
Start by naming the retention engine. A member does not renew because the platform has a course player; they renew because something useful keeps happening inside the membership.
If members pay for a course library, you need clear lesson structure, drip access, video delivery and tidy content organisation. The downside is that a static library can become easy to cancel once members finish the main material.
If members pay for coaching access, the platform needs to make calls, replays, resources and follow-up easy to manage. The catch is that your operating workload matters more than the feature list.
If members pay for peer interaction, community design becomes central. Skool and Mighty Networks usually suit this better than a plain course platform, but they may be weaker if your business relies on complex sales funnels.
If members pay for progress over a fixed period, a cohort or challenge structure may matter more than a large archive. In that case, test events, reminders, spaces, comments and weekly activity before judging the course builder.
Do you need course depth, community depth, or a sales system?
Pick the anchor first. A membership built around curriculum should be judged differently from one built around discussion or events.
If course depth is the anchor, check lesson structure, drip, video hosting, downloads, transcripts, quizzes, comments, completion tracking, live cohorts and mobile access. Do not assume every community-first platform can replace a course platform for assessment-heavy learning.
If community is the anchor, check posts, spaces or groups, direct messages, events, live calls, member discovery, moderation, notifications and the mobile experience. The upside is stronger engagement, but content organisation may be lighter than on a dedicated course platform.
If the sales system is the anchor, Kajabi is the clearest fit among these three. It brings the course, checkout, landing page, email, funnel and automation pieces together, but you pay for that breadth even if you use only part of it.
For a creator selling a flagship membership with ongoing launches, Kajabi can reduce the number of tools in the stack. For a creator running one simple paid group, Skool may be easier to operate.
How much does a membership platform with courses really cost?
The headline monthly fee is only the start. The real cost includes the subscription, platform transaction fees, payment processing, app-store fees, refunds, disputes and tax or VAT handling.
Kajabi starts from $89/month in the EverythingLMS data, and its current public pricing page lists Starter, Basic, Growth and Pro. The Starter plan is listed at $89/month on monthly billing and includes 1 product, 250 contacts, 1 website, 1 community and 2 admins.
Kajabi’s payment fees now need careful reading. Its pricing page lists Kajabi Payments US card rates of 2.9% + $0.30 on Starter and Basic, 2.8% + $0.30 on Growth, and 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro.
The watch-out is third-party payment provider fees. Kajabi lists fees of 5% on Starter, 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth and 0.5% on Pro when not using Kajabi Payments, with payment provider fees still applying.
Skool is listed at $99/month and advertises unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls on its Pro plan. Its pricing page shows a 2.9% transaction fee, but the help centre adds that Pro transactions up to $899 are 2.9% + $0.30.
For Skool transactions above $900, the Pro fee is 3.9% + $0.30. Skool uses Stripe Express for payouts, but creators cannot use their existing Stripe account because processing happens on Skool’s merchant account.
Mighty Networks starts from $41/month in the EverythingLMS data, and its public plan names are Launch Plan, Scale Plan and Mighty Pro. Its pricing table lists platform transaction fees of 2% on Launch, 1% on Scale and 0.5% on Mighty Pro.
Mighty’s web payments use Stripe, and Stripe or card processing fees are additional. PayPal is not directly supported, and iOS purchases use Apple In-App Purchases, where Apple charges 15% under its standard policy.
Use a simple worksheet before buying: expected members multiplied by monthly price, minus churn assumptions, platform fees and payment processing. A platform that looks cheap at 20 members can become expensive at 1,000 members.
When does Kajabi make sense for memberships with courses?
Kajabi makes sense if the membership is part of a serious creator business, rather than a small content area behind a paywall. Its fixed EverythingLMS positioning is clear: best for serious creators who want to run their whole business from one platform.
The upside is consolidation. Courses, payments, landing pages, email, automations and community can sit in one system, which reduces the duct-tape work of connecting multiple tools.
The limitation is cost and commitment. If you only need a small paid group with a few videos, Kajabi may be more platform than the business needs.
Kajabi also had a major pricing and plan update announced in December 2025, with new pricing taking effect for existing customers on their first billing date on or after January 13, 2026. That makes stale pricing advice risky.
Kajabi is strongest when your membership needs a polished sales journey as much as a learning experience. If the main value is member-to-member discussion, Skool or Mighty Networks may fit the day-to-day rhythm better.
When is Skool the better fit?
Skool is the better fit if you want a simple paid community where the classroom supports the conversation. EverythingLMS positions Skool as best for creators building a paid community where courses support the discussion.
Skool’s Classroom is built for guides, courses, resources, templates, workout plans, recipes and similar learning content. It supports videos, folders, resource links and files, transcripts, pinned community posts and drip lessons that open after a set number of days.
That is enough for many coaching memberships and expert communities. The trade-off is that Skool is intentionally simpler than a broader community platform like Mighty Networks or an all-in-one business platform like Kajabi.
Skool also has practical payment advantages for some creators. It says it handles EU VAT and is responsible for sales tax collection, filing and payments as merchant of record.
The catch is control. Because processing happens on Skool’s merchant account, creators cannot use their existing Stripe account, and the fee details matter for high-ticket payments above $900.
Skool offers a 14-day free trial for subscription plans. Use that trial to test the member view, classroom structure, call flow and checkout before moving a paid audience.
When is Mighty Networks the better fit?
Mighty Networks is the better fit if the membership is built around community design, events, spaces and cohort-style participation. EverythingLMS positions it as best for membership and cohort-based learning communities.
Its advantage is breadth on the community side. A membership can be organised around different spaces, events and member activity, which suits programmes where people need a place to participate rather than just consume lessons.
The limitation is the sales stack. If you want native landing pages, email marketing, funnels and automations to be the centre of the business, Kajabi is usually the cleaner fit.
Mighty Networks advertises a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. That is useful because community software is hard to judge from a feature table; you need to feel how members will move through it.
Its changelog is active, with recent 2026 updates including AI Cohost improvements, Cohost-generated spaces, expanded trial durations and unlimited multi-feature Spaces on all plans as of April 10, 2026. The upside is product momentum, while the watch-out is that new features still need testing against your actual workflow.
Mighty is worth shortlisting if weekly participation is the product. If the course curriculum is the product and community is a bonus, a course-first platform may be simpler.
What should you test before moving members?
Test the exact checkout and renewal flow before you commit. Membership businesses are sensitive to failed payments, unclear trials and awkward upgrade paths.
Check recurring billing, free trials, paid trials, coupons, tiers, bundles, free members, one-time offers, grandfathering, invites, referrals, failed-payment handling, refunds and member migration. A missing billing feature can create manual work every month.
If you sell internationally, confirm tax and VAT handling early. Skool acts as merchant of record for sales tax collection, filing and payments, while Kajabi and Mighty have their own payment structures that need reading on the plan you intend to buy.
If you expect mobile purchases, check the app-store path. Mighty’s iOS purchases use Apple In-App Purchases, and Apple’s 15% standard policy can change your margin.
For course delivery, test the first week as a member. Check how lessons open, where replays live, whether resources are easy to find, and whether notifications bring people back without becoming noisy.
For retention, ask one blunt question: what will members do every week? Choose the platform that fits that operating rhythm, rather than the one with the longest feature list.
When should you choose a different LMS category?
Choose a different category if courses are the main product and community is secondary. Thinkific, Teachable and LearnWorlds are often better fits for creators who care most about structured course selling and course design.
Choose a corporate LMS if you are training employees, partners or customers at scale. TalentLMS and Docebo are built for corporate and L&D buyers, while Kajabi, Skool and Mighty Networks are creator and community tools.
Choose a WordPress route if you already own a WordPress site and want more control over the platform. Thrive Apprentice is the fixed EverythingLMS pick for WordPress users who want to own their platform and pay no per-student fees.
For this specific use case, the recommendation is simple. Pick Kajabi for an all-in-one expert business, Skool for a simple community-first membership, and Mighty Networks for a richer community with spaces and events.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best membership platform with courses?
Kajabi is the best fit if you need a premium all-in-one system for courses, checkout, email, funnels, automations and community. Skool is better if you want a simple paid community with classroom content, and Mighty Networks is better if spaces, events and member interaction are central.
Is Skool a course platform or a community platform?
Skool is best treated as a community-first platform with a classroom. Its Classroom supports videos, folders, files, links, transcripts, pinned posts and drip lessons, but the core appeal is the simple paid community experience.
Does Kajabi still have no transaction fees?
Do not rely on old blanket claims. Kajabi’s current pricing page lists Kajabi Payments US card rates, and it also lists third-party payment provider fees when not using Kajabi Payments. Check the exact plan and payment setup before calculating margin.
How much does Skool cost for a paid membership?
Skool is listed at $99/month. Its pricing page shows a 2.9% transaction fee, while the help centre says Pro transactions up to $899 are charged 2.9% + $0.30, and transactions above $900 are charged 3.9% + $0.30.
Is Mighty Networks cheaper than Kajabi?
Mighty Networks starts from $41/month in the EverythingLMS data, while Kajabi starts from $89/month. That does not make Mighty cheaper in every case, because Mighty also has platform transaction fees, Stripe or card processing fees, and Apple In-App Purchase considerations for iOS purchases.
Should a corporate training team use Kajabi, Skool or Mighty Networks?
Usually no. If the job is employee, partner or customer training with L&D requirements, shortlist corporate LMS tools such as TalentLMS or Docebo instead. Kajabi, Skool and Mighty Networks are stronger fits for creator memberships and community-based learning businesses.