Is Skool Legit? What Is Skool.com and Is It a Pyramid Scheme?

What is Skool? Skool.com is an online community platform founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens that combines courses, community discussions, and events in one place. Many people searching “is Skool legit” want to know whether this platform is a genuine business tool or just another pyramid scheme. Whilst Skool itself is a legitimate software platform, the way some coaches are using it raises serious red flags. Here’s everything you need to know about Skool.com and whether it’s worth your time and money.

But first, let me answer the burning questions: What is Skool? What is Skool.com? And is Skool legit? These are the questions bringing thousands of people to articles like this one, so let’s get straight into it.

You know I love talking about a scam! I HATE THEM so much. So many people trying to scam money out of others constantly. So I’ve uncovered another dodgy money-making scheme and it’s related to coaching (of course) and it seems to be an actual pyramid scheme.

If you don’t have time to read this whole article, the short version is that coaches are using a community-building website called Skool. They’re funnelling people from different platforms with clickbait, get-rich-fast, and quick social media growth content. This allows them to charge for groups and courses, where they teach others how to do the same, and earn a profit from any community that’s started on their referral. Their coach coaches them and then they coach others who then coach others. Confusing, right?

So let’s learn about Skool and the deceptive ways I’ve seen it be used. 

Skool Review: The Quick Verdict

If you just want the short version before diving into the rest of this, here it is.

The good:

Skool itself is legitimate, well-built software, not a scam. It’s a genuinely useful all-in-one setup for community, courses and events. The interface is clean, the app works properly, and the gamification does actually boost engagement. It’s also backed by serious investment from Alex Hormozi and used by thousands of real communities.

The bad:

There’s no real buyer protection, refunds are down to individual coaches, not Skool. The 40% recurring affiliate commission actively rewards recruiting people into new communities, not just teaching them something useful. A noticeable chunk of the coaching world is using it to sell “how to make money on Skool” courses, which is exactly where it tips into pyramid scheme territory. And £99 a month is steep when you’re just starting out, especially when Facebook Groups does a chunk of this for free.

My verdict: Skool the platform, fine. Some of what’s being built on top of it, not fine at all. Keep reading for the full breakdown of why.

One more, small but it’s good ammunition for your existing argument: “skool games review” only gets 7 impressions, not worth a dedicated section, but I looked into it and it’s worth a sentence where you’re already making the recruitment-incentive point. Skool runs an actual official competition called Skool Games, co-run by Sam Ovens and Alex Hormozi, where communities compete on who can grow their monthly recurring revenue the fastest over 90 days, with winners flown to LA. Find this, in the “Claims about recruitment-focused revenue” section:

Phrases like “recurring revenue for life” are plastered all over promotional materials, which gives me MLM and pyramid scheme vibes. It seems Skool might be more about getting new members to make their own communities than building valuable community platforms.

Skool even gamifies this at a platform level: there’s an official 90-day competition called Skool Games, co-run by Sam Ovens and Alex Hormozi, where communities compete on who can grow their monthly recurring revenue the fastest, with the winners flown out to LA. Read that again, an actual prize for growing recurring revenue the fastest. That’s not me reading between the lines, that’s literally how Skool’s own flagship competition is structured.

What Is Skool.com? Understanding the Platform

Skool (stylised as Skool.com) is an online community platform that combines courses, community discussions, and events all in one place. Think of it as a blend between Facebook Groups and an online course platform like Teachable, but specifically designed for creators, coaches, and course creators who want to build paid communities.

So what is Skool exactly? In simple terms, Skool.com is a community platform that aims to replace multiple tools. Instead of using Facebook Groups for community, Teachable for courses, and Calendly for scheduling, Skool puts everything in one place. The platform currently hosts thousands of communities across various niches, from fitness and business coaching to language learning and hobby groups.

The platform was founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens, a New Zealand-born entrepreneur who previously founded Consulting.com. Sam created Skool after noticing that course creators were struggling with fragmented tools—they’d use one platform for courses, Facebook Groups for community, and Zoom for events. Skool promised to solve this by putting everything under one roof.

In 2024, the platform gained massive attention when Alex Hormozi, the well-known entrepreneur and investor, made what he called “the biggest investment of my life” into Skool. This endorsement sent waves through the online business community and dramatically increased Skool’s visibility.

Skool.com at a Glance:

Feature	Details
What is it?	All-in-one community and course platform
Founded	2019 by Sam Ovens
Pricing	£99/month (Premium) or £9/month (Hobby plan with 10% fee)
Key investors	Alex Hormozi (2024 investment)
Main features	Community feed, course classroom, calendar, gamification, mobile app
Is it legit?	Yes, platform is legitimate software; some users exploit it
Best for	Coaches, course creators, paid membership communities

How Skool Works

Skool positions itself as an all-in-one platform with these core features:

Community Section: A Facebook-like feed where members can post, comment, share images and videos, and engage in discussions. It’s the main hub where all interactions happen.

Classroom Section: Where course creators can upload and organise their courses into modules. You can create unlimited courses with video lessons, PDFs, and other resources. The platform now supports native video hosting, so you don’t need to embed from YouTube or Vimeo.

Calendar: A scheduling feature for live events, Q&A sessions, webinars, and Zoom calls. It automatically adjusts to members’ time zones, which is quite handy for global communities.

Gamification and Leaderboards: Members earn points by engaging in the community—posting, commenting, and getting likes. As they accumulate points, they level up and can unlock exclusive courses or perks. There are nine levels you can customise with unique names.

Members Directory: A searchable list of all community members with their profiles, engagement levels, and activity.

The platform charges £99 per month for unlimited members and unlimited courses. There’s a 14-day free trial to test it out before committing. Compared to competitors like Circle or Mighty Networks, Skool keeps things deliberately simple with minimal customisation options.

Is Skool Legit? The Platform Itself vs How It’s Being Used

This is the crucial question everyone wants answered: is Skool legit? The short answer is yes, Skool.com is a legitimate software platform with real functionality. It’s not a scam in the traditional sense—you get what you pay for, which is community management software.

However, the platform’s legitimacy doesn’t mean everyone using it is operating legitimately. Think of it like WhatsApp or Telegram—the apps themselves are perfectly legal and useful, but they can be exploited for illegal activities. The same applies to Skool.

The platform offers genuine features including native video hosting (added in 2024), gamification systems, a mobile app available on iOS and Android, and integration with payment processors. From a technical standpoint, Skool.com is legit. The problem lies in how certain coaches and “gurus” are leveraging the platform’s affiliate programme to create pyramid-like structures.

Understanding Skool’s Business Model

Skool charges a £99 monthly fee. For this price, users get one community where they can welcome unlimited members and set up as many courses and events as they want. There’s a 14-day trial to test things out before committing.

Subscription-based services

Skool asks for a £99 monthly fee. For this price, users get one group where they can welcome unlimited members and set up as many courses and events as they want. Before paying anything, there’s a 14-day trial to test things out.

Allegations of Being a Pyramid Scheme

Is Skool truly a pyramid scheme? Well, I’m not going to beat around the bush—I think it is. Or rather, it’s being used as a pyramid scheme at least.

Claims about recruitment-focused revenue

Here’s where things get dodgy: Skool’s referral system pays out 40% monthly recurring commission to members if someone from their group starts a new community. So if I refer you to Skool and you pay £99/month, I get roughly £40 every single month for as long as you remain a paying member.

Phrases like “recurring revenue for life” are plastered all over promotional materials, which gives me MLM and pyramid scheme vibes. It seems Skool might be more about getting new members to make their own communities than building valuable community platforms.

The incentive structure encourages a never-ending chain: Coach A creates a community, teaches members how to create communities, those members (Coach B, C, D) create their own communities teaching the same thing, and money flows upwards to Coach A through the affiliate programme. Sound familiar?

Lack of tangible products or services

Moving on from the focus on recruitment, another concern arises about what’s being offered on Skool. The platform itself is a legitimate tool—that’s not the issue. But the communities I’ve seen using it offer coaching about coaching, courses about creating courses, and paid groups about starting paid groups.

Critics argue that a genuine online business should have something solid to show for it—be it programme materials, courses with real skills, or even merchandise. But the schemes I’ve witnessed offer nothing but the promise of teaching others to do exactly what they’re doing. It’s coaches coaching coaches coaching coaches, all the way down.

Skool’s Features

Let’s be clear: Skool itself has some decent features. The problem isn’t the platform—it’s how certain people are exploiting it.

Educational tools and community interaction

Skool has tools for learning and chatting to people online. But here’s the thing—Facebook groups have all this for free! The difference is Skool is cleaner, more organised, and doesn’t have Facebook’s algorithm burying your posts. But is that worth £99/month when you’re just starting out? Debatable.

Gamification and leaderboards

Skool makes learning engaging with its gamification system. Users can accumulate points and ascend on the leaderboard as they participate more within the community. Things such as courses, videos and access to resources can be unlocked as you get to certain levels. This keeps the community active, which is attractive to new members.

I’ll admit, the gamification is clever. It does increase engagement. But it also creates a culture where people are incentivised to post constantly (sometimes meaningless drivel) just to climb the leaderboard and unlock content. It’s not always about quality.

Skool Mobile App and support services

The Skool platform offers a mobile app that users can download on both iOS and Android devices. This app makes it easier to connect with the community anytime, anywhere. People can keep up with discussions, live events, and different lessons through their phones.

The app is actually quite well-designed—clean interface, no bugs that I’ve encountered, fast loading. Credit where credit’s due.

What is a pyramid scheme?

A pyramid scheme is a form of investment scam where individuals are recruited to invest money into a programme with the promise of receiving high returns. Participants are encouraged to recruit others into the programme as well. The structure typically resembles a pyramid, where initial investors at the top recruit new members below them, who in turn recruit more members, with money flowing upwards.

The key characteristic of a pyramid scheme is that the primary source of revenue comes from recruitment, not from selling legitimate products or services. Eventually, the scheme collapses when there aren’t enough new recruits to sustain the payouts to those at the top.

Why do I think Skool is a pyramid scheme?

When people ask “what is Skool” or “is Skool legit,” they’re often trying to work out whether communities on the platform are worth joining. The answer depends entirely on what’s being taught. A Skool community teaching genuine skills—photography, coding, fitness programming, language learning—is perfectly legitimate. A Skool community teaching you to create Skool communities is exploiting the platform’s structure as a pyramid scheme.

Let me be very clear: Skool itself is not a pyramid scheme. It’s a legitimate software platform. You can use it to create a community about knitting, book clubs, fitness coaching, or any other topic without engaging in pyramid-like behaviour.

However, these coaches are using Skool AS a pyramid scheme. Here’s how it works:

1. A coach creates a “free” Skool community with clickbait content about making £10k/month or growing your YouTube channel fast
2. They funnel people in from TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube with these get-rich-quick promises
3. Once you’re in the free community, they upsell you to a paid community or course (often hundreds or thousands of pounds)
4. The paid content teaches you… how to create your own Skool community and do exactly what they’re doing
5. They earn their 40% recurring commission when you start your own community
6. You then teach your members the same thing
7. The cycle continues, with money flowing upwards

The “product” isn’t real coaching, marketing skills, or business strategy. The product is teaching people to recruit others into the same system. That’s textbook pyramid scheme behaviour, even if it’s dressed up in the language of “community building” and “online courses.”

I’ve seen communities where literally every single course module is about:

• How to find your niche (spoiler: it’s teaching people to make money online)
• How to create content that attracts people (spoiler: it’s get-rich-quick content)
• How to build a community on Skool
• How to monetise your community (by teaching others to do the same)

It’s bloody exhausting.

How can you watch out for these types of schemes?

You don’t need a coach and you don’t need to be joining communities or making them yourselves. If someone asks you to go over to a different platform, that’s a red flag. Often people start these Skool communities for free, then turn them into paid communities, or add paid courses once the community is popular.

Here are some red flags to watch for:

1. The “What” is vague, but the “How Much” is specific: If someone’s content focuses more on how much money they’re making rather than what they actually do, run away. Real businesses talk about their services, products, or transformations they provide.

2. Platform switching: Legitimate creators keep you on one platform. If someone’s constantly saying “join my free Skool,” “hop over to my Telegram,” “check out my Discord,” they’re likely funnelling you through multiple touchpoints to build trust before the big sell.

3. The course teaches you to create a course: If the primary value proposition is “I’ll teach you my system for making money” and that system is teaching others to make money, you’re looking at a pyramid.

4. Testimonials focus on income, not transformation: Real coaching shows transformation—weight lost, skills gained, businesses built (selling actual products/services). Pyramid schemes show screenshots of bank accounts and Stripe payments.

5. Free community that becomes paid: This isn’t always a red flag, but combined with other signs, it’s suspect. They build trust with free content, then charge you to learn “the real secrets.”

6. Emphasis on the Skool affiliate programme: If they’re banging on about “40% recurring revenue for life” more than the actual value their community provides, they’re more interested in recruitment than education.

If you are a new YouTuber…

Do not get drawn into these types of videos where people offer services to help you make money. There is so much information out there on how to grow on YouTube. You do not need to pay anyone and nor should you, unless you have researched the person thoroughly, they have case studies of previous clients, and you have more than enough money to do so.

This should mostly apply to brands and businesses who will hire a legitimate marketing team to help with their social strategy, not some random person on YouTube who’s had one viral video claiming they’ve earned £5,309 in a weekend.

The truth is, most of these “gurus” had ONE bit of luck—a viral video, a successful product launch, being in the right place at the right time. Instead of building on that with legitimate business practices, they pivoted to teaching others their “secret system,” which is really just recruiting more people to do the same.

Is Skool worth using?

Despite everything I’ve said, Skool CAN be used legitimately. If you’re a:

• Fitness coach with genuine transformation programmes and workout plans
• Language tutor building a community for learners to practise together
• Artist sharing techniques and hosting critique sessions
• Developer creating a learning community for a specific programming language
• Book club organiser wanting a better platform than Facebook Groups

Then yes, Skool might be brilliant for you. The platform itself has merit. The gamification genuinely does increase engagement. The all-in-one nature is convenient. The interface is clean.

Just don’t use it to teach people to use Skool. For the love of God, please create something of actual value.

Skool vs Competitors:

If you’re evaluating whether Skool.com is the right platform, here’s how it compares:

• Skool vs Circle: Circle offers more customisation and branding options but costs more at higher tiers. Skool is simpler with better engagement features.
• Skool vs Mighty Networks: Mighty Networks includes a built-in app store and more complex community structures. Skool is cleaner but less flexible.
• Skool vs Kajabi: Kajabi is a complete course platform with marketing automation and sales funnels. Skool focuses purely on community engagement.
• Skool vs Facebook Groups: Facebook is free but algorithm-driven and cluttered with ads. Skool costs money but offers a premium, focused experience.

What is Skool.com best at? Creating engaged communities through gamification and simplicity. Where does it fall short? Limited branding, no advanced course features like quizzes or certificates, and potential for misuse through its affiliate programme.

Final thoughts

Skool.com is a legitimate platform—that’s the answer to “is Skool legit” in the technical sense. What is Skool.com’s main value? It does make community building easier than juggling multiple tools. But knowing what Skool is and whether it’s legitimate doesn’t mean every community on the platform is worth your money. The platform itself is fine; it’s the pyramid schemes being built on top of it that you need to watch out for.

But like any tool, it can be misused. And bloody hell, is it being misused right now. The coaching industry has latched onto Skool as the latest vehicle for pyramid-style schemes, using the platform’s affiliate programme as the carrot and vague promises of financial freedom as the stick.

If you’re considering joining a Skool community or paying for access, ask yourself:

• What specific, tangible value am I receiving?
• Does this community teach me to create another community?
• Is the focus on recruiting others or learning a real skill?
• Can I find this information for free or much cheaper elsewhere?

And if you’re thinking of creating a Skool community, ask yourself:

• Am I offering genuine value beyond “make money online”?
• Would I be proud to explain what I teach to my nan?
• Is my business model sustainable without recruiting others to do what I do?

Read my post here about the truth behind the coaching industry so you can avoid hiring someone who is just scamming you.

Stay safe out there, and remember: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And if everyone in the community is teaching others how to build communities, you’re in a pyramid.

Frequently Asked Questions About Skool.com

What is Skool.com used for?

Skool.com is used for building online communities that combine course hosting, discussion forums, and event scheduling. It’s popular amongst coaches, consultants, course creators, and anyone wanting to monetise their knowledge through a paid membership community.

Is Skool legit and safe to use?

Yes, Skool.com itself is a legitimate platform founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens. The software is safe, secure, and offers real functionality. However, some users exploit it for pyramid scheme-like activities, so evaluate individual communities carefully before joining or paying.

What is Skool com’s pricing?

Skool charges £99 per month (approximately $99 USD) for unlimited members and courses. There’s also a newer £9/month Hobby plan with a 10% transaction fee. Both plans include a 14-day free trial. The platform also has an affiliate programme paying 40% recurring commission.

Who founded Skool?

Skool was founded in 2019 by Sam Ovens, a New Zealand entrepreneur who also created Consulting.com. In 2024, Alex Hormozi made a significant investment in the platform, calling it the biggest investment of his life.

What is Skool.com’s affiliate programme?

Skool pays 40% monthly recurring commission to members who refer others to create communities. This means if you refer someone who pays £99/month, you earn approximately £40 every month for as long as they remain subscribed. Whilst this is a legitimate affiliate structure, it’s being exploited by some to create pyramid-like schemes.

Is Skool better than Facebook Groups?

Skool offers advantages over Facebook Groups, including no algorithm suppressing posts, built-in course hosting, gamification features, and a cleaner interface without ads. However, Facebook Groups are free whilst Skool costs £99/month, making it less accessible for beginners.

What is p.skool.com on my bank statement?

If you’ve spotted “p.skool.com” on your bank or card statement and had a little panic, you’re not the only one, this is one of the most-searched things about Skool and it catches loads of people out. It’s not a separate, dodgy site, it’s just the billing domain Skool uses to process subscription payments, so any Skool community fee shows up under that name rather than plain “Skool.” The most likely explanation is a Skool subscription you, or someone else in your household, signed up for and forgot about, often a free trial that quietly rolled into a paid one. You can cancel it directly through your Skool account settings, or contact Skool’s support at help@skool.com. If you genuinely never signed up for anything at all, that’s when it’s worth disputing the charge with your bank.

Does Skool protect buyers if a coach scams them?

Not really, and this is one of the bigger reasons I think some of what happens on Skool tips into pyramid scheme territory. Skool’s own policy is that subscription fees aren’t refundable once paid, refunds are left entirely up to individual community creators, who can offer one if they like, but don’t have to. It gets murkier still with the pricier courses some coaches sell: a lot of those high-ticket sales happen through a separate payment processor outside Skool altogether, with the coach only adding you to their Skool community afterwards. That means if it goes wrong, you’re not dealing with Skool’s buyer protection at all, you’re dealing with whatever that individual coach decides to do, which in my experience is often nothing. If you’re handing over real money to a stranger on the internet, that complete lack of a safety net should give you pause.