Kohortly vs SchoolMaker
SchoolMaker sells courses with community. Kohortly runs cohorts.
SchoolMaker is a Skool alternative for course creators: community, courses, gamification, sales pages and coaching, with no transaction fee. Kohortly is built for organisations that run cohorts with admissions, attendance, offline fees, certificates and reports.
The short answer
Choose SchoolMaker if
- You are a course creator selling online by card.
- You want sales pages and coaching alongside a community.
- You want a low monthly price and no transaction fee.
Choose Kohortly if
- You admit people into intakes with seats, dates and class times.
- Learners pay by bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix, cash or through an employer.
- You need attendance, certificates and impact reports.
- You want WhatsApp reminders and an installable app under your own name included.
SchoolMaker and Kohortly at a glance
- Price
- SchoolMaker: From about $29 to $49/month
- Kohortly: From $49 a month ($41 billed yearly). Every feature on every plan, 0% on what learners pay.
- Fee on payments
- SchoolMaker: 0%, plus Stripe
- Kohortly: 0%
- Best for
- SchoolMaker: Course creators
- Kohortly: Organisations running cohorts
- Branded app
- SchoolMaker: On higher plans
- Kohortly: Not yet: your community installs from the browser under your name
Feature by feature
| Feature | Kohortly | SchoolMaker |
|---|---|---|
| Community feed, categories and polls | ||
| Courses, lessons and progress | ||
| Points, levels and leaderboards | Yes | |
| Live sessions | Live rooms in the browser, with breakout groups and recording | Zoom links |
| Admissions | Application forms with a review queue | Sales pages and forms |
| Cohorts | Intakes with seats, dates and class times | Course cohorts, no seats or timetable |
| Attendance | Online and in person, with QR check-in | |
| Certificates | Issued on completion, with a public check page | Course certificates |
| Small groups | Squads inside each cohort | |
| Impact reporting | Impact reports and follow-up surveys | Course analytics |
| Payments made outside a card checkout | Bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix, card and cash recorded, with receipts and balances | Card checkout through Stripe |
| One payer for many learners | An employer or sponsor pays for several learners | |
| WhatsApp and SMS | WhatsApp and SMS reminders and announcements | |
| Email broadcasts and automatic sequences | Basic | |
| Phone app | Installable web app under your own name and logo, plus the Kohortly phone app | Branded app on higher plans |
| Web address | kohortly.com/yourname, or your own domain | |
| Developer access | Public API, MCP server and CLI | Zapier |
| Fee on what learners pay | 0% | 0% plus Stripe |
SchoolMaker details as of November 2026, from SchoolMaker and published reviews. Prices and fees change, so check SchoolMaker's site before you decide.
What SchoolMaker really costs
The plan price is only part of the bill. Here is what each platform costs a month when 200 learners each pay $50 ($10,000 a month), on the cheapest plan that can sell memberships, billed yearly where offered: the plan, the platform's fee, and card processing where it is charged separately.
| Platform | Monthly cost | How it adds up |
|---|---|---|
| Skool Pro | $372 | $82 plan (yearly) + 2.9% Skool fee |
| SchoolMaker | $386 | $36 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| Thinkific | $386 | $36 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| LearnWorlds Pro Trainer | $429 | $79 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| Podia Shaker | $434 | $84 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe (Mover adds 5%) |
| Kajabi Basic | $493 | $143 plan (yearly) + 0% + Kajabi Payments |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $629 | $79 plan (yearly) + 2% + Stripe |
| Whop | $630 | $0 plan + 3% community fee + 2.7% + $0.30 |
| Circle Professional | $639 | $89 plan (yearly) + 2% + Stripe |
| Disco | $749 | $399 Create plan (yearly, up to 250 active members) + 0% + Stripe |
| Teachable | $889 | $39 plan + 5% Teachable fee + card processing |
| Skool Hobby | $1,008 | $7.50 plan (yearly) + 10% Skool fee |
| Maven | $1,350 | $0 to list + 10% of each sale + Stripe |
| Patreon | $1,350 | 10% platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Discord | $1,600 | 10% fee + about 6% desktop processing |
| Udemy | $6,300 | Free to publish; Udemy keeps 63% of marketplace sales |
| Kohortly | $56–$406 | Starter billed yearly ($41) plus 100 more learners ($15), and 0% on learner payments. $406 if all 200 pay by card through your own provider; $56 when they pay by bank transfer or mobile money. |
Worked from each vendor's published prices in November 2026. Fees change and card rates vary by country, so check before you decide.
Cohorts, not just a membership
SchoolMaker combines a community with courses, gamification and coaching, and can group buyers into course cohorts. It doesn't manage intakes with seats, timetables or an admissions queue. Kohortly starts from the programme: you open an intake with a start date, seats and class times, people apply, your team admits them, and they move through the cohort together until graduation.
Every learner has a record that follows them: which intake they joined, which sessions they attended, what they paid and which certificate they earned. When a funder or board asks how the last cohort went, the answer is already there.
If you only need an open membership that anyone can join with a card, SchoolMaker may be all you need. If you admit people into programmes that start and finish, that structure is what Kohortly is for.
Getting paid the way your learners pay
SchoolMaker charges no transaction fee, but payments go through a Stripe card checkout. Many of the organisations we work with are paid by bank transfer, mobile money such as M-Pesa, UPI or Pix, a company cheque, a card on their own machine (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) or cash at the first session, often in instalments.
Kohortly records each payment against the learner's fee account, issues a receipt, shows the balance and reminds people before an instalment is due, by email, WhatsApp or SMS. Nothing is taken from what your learners pay: Kohortly charges 0%.
When an employer pays for ten staff, one payer covers all ten seats and gets one invoice, while each learner still has their own place in the cohort.
Attendance and certificates that prove the work
SchoolMaker doesn't keep attendance registers for live sessions or in-person days. In Kohortly, people who join a live session are marked present automatically, and for in-person days staff can tick a register or learners can scan a QR code at the door, even on a weak connection.
Completion rules can require attendance as well as lessons. When a learner finishes, their certificate is issued with a public check page, so an employer can confirm it is genuine.
Where SchoolMaker is the better choice
No platform suits everyone. SchoolMaker does these things better than Kohortly:
- A low monthly price with no transaction fee.
- Sales pages and coaching tools built for course creators.
- A clear upgrade path for creators moving off Skool.
Moving from SchoolMaker to Kohortly
- Request a community. We set it up with your name, logo and colours, at kohortly.com/yourname or on your own domain.
- Import your members from a CSV export, with their names, emails and phone numbers.
- Recreate your programmes and courses. Lesson videos can be uploaded or embedded, and we can help with the move when we agree your plan.
- Invite members to sign in. Their history starts in Kohortly from the next intake.
Questions
SchoolMaker or Kohortly: which should I choose?+
Choose SchoolMaker if you're a course creator selling online by card. Choose Kohortly if you run cohort programmes with admissions, attendance, offline or employer payments, certificates and reports.
How much does SchoolMaker cost?+
SchoolMaker starts at roughly $29 to $49 a month with 0% transaction fee. Check their site for current plans.
Other comparisons
Bring your next cohort to Kohortly
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