Kohortly vs Whop
Whop is a marketplace. Kohortly is a home for your programme.
Whop is a storefront and marketplace for digital products, courses and paid Discord or Telegram access, with a strong affiliate program and discovery. Kohortly is built for organisations delivering programmes: cohorts, sessions, attendance, fees and certificates under their own name.
The short answer
Choose Whop if
- You sell digital products or paid group access to buyers on a marketplace.
- You want affiliates and Whop's discovery to drive sales.
- Your members live in Discord or Telegram and you just need payments and access.
Choose Kohortly if
- You run programmes where people are admitted, attend and graduate.
- You want everything under your own brand, not a marketplace storefront.
- Learners pay by bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix, cash or through an employer.
- You need attendance, certificates and reports.
Whop and Kohortly at a glance
- Price
- Whop: $0/month
- Kohortly: From $49 a month ($41 billed yearly). Every feature on every plan, 0% on what learners pay.
- Fee on payments
- Whop: 2.7% + $0.30 card rate, plus 3% on community sales and payout fees
- Kohortly: 0%
- Best for
- Whop: Selling digital products and access
- Kohortly: Organisations running cohorts
- Brand
- Whop: Whop storefront and app
- Kohortly: Your own name and domain
Feature by feature
| Feature | Kohortly | Whop |
|---|---|---|
| Community feed, categories and polls | Chat and forum apps | |
| Courses, lessons and progress | ||
| Points, levels and leaderboards | Limited | |
| Live sessions | Live rooms in the browser, with breakout groups and recording | Livestream app |
| Admissions | Application forms with a review queue | Checkout questions |
| Cohorts | Intakes with seats, dates and class times | |
| Attendance | Online and in person, with QR check-in | |
| Certificates | Issued on completion, with a public check page | |
| Small groups | Squads inside each cohort | |
| Impact reporting | Impact reports and follow-up surveys | Sales analytics |
| Payments made outside a card checkout | Bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix, card and cash recorded, with receipts and balances | Card and crypto checkout |
| 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 | Whop-branded app |
| Web address | kohortly.com/yourname, or your own domain | Whop storefront |
| Developer access | Public API, MCP server and CLI | Developer API and apps |
| Fee on what learners pay | 0% | About 3% plus card processing |
Whop details as of November 2026, from Whop and published reviews. Prices and fees change, so check Whop's site before you decide.
What Whop 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
Whop sells access to products and apps: a course, a chat, a Discord role. Buyers get access when they pay, and there is no admissions step, intake or timetable. 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, Whop 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
Whop charges cards at about 2.7% + $0.30, adds 3% on community sales, and payout and currency fees can bring the total near 7%. 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
Whop has no attendance register and no certificates, because it isn't built for programmes that people attend and complete. 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 Whop is the better choice
No platform suits everyone. Whop does these things better than Kohortly:
- Discovery and affiliates: Whop's marketplace and affiliate program can sell for you.
- No monthly fee, so it costs nothing until you make a sale.
- Easy paid access to Discord and Telegram groups.
Moving from Whop 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
Is Kohortly a Whop alternative?+
For organisations delivering cohort programmes, yes. Whop is best for selling digital products on a marketplace; Kohortly is best for running the programme itself under your own brand.
What are Whop's fees?+
Whop has no monthly fee. Cards cost about 2.7% + $0.30, community sales carry a 3% fee, and payout and currency fees come on top. Kohortly charges 0% on what learners pay.
Can Kohortly connect to Discord or Telegram like Whop?+
Yes. Kohortly can give paying learners access to your Discord roles and Telegram groups and remove it when their access ends.
Other comparisons
Bring your next cohort to Kohortly
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