DoorFee vs Skool Comparison 2026
DoorFee's free plan charges 10 percent with no monthly cost, the same rate as Skool's $9 a month Hobby plan, so DoorFee is strictly cheaper at the entry level. Pro tiers widen the gap further: DoorFee's $28 a month drops to 2.5 percent, while Skool's $99 a month only reaches 2.9 percent. What Skool sells for that price is a forum, course player and calendar in one deliberately plain space; DoorFee only ever gates and sells access to a Discord server you already run.
Paid Discord memberships with a sales funnel
Community, courses and a calendar in one paid space
At a glance
- Skool starts cheaper, at $9.
- Only DoorFee has a free tier.
- DoorFee takes 2.5% of what you earn against Skool's 10%.
Side by side
DoorFee | Skool | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $28 | From $9 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
DoorFee
Paid Discord memberships with a sales funnel
DoorFee sells access to a Discord server and gives you the pages and email that sell it, which is the half most access tools leave to you. Payments run through Stripe and roles are granted and revoked automatically. The page builder, affiliate program and coupon codes are what separate it from a bare paywall bot.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
- Works with Discord
Skool
Community, courses and a calendar in one paid space
Skool puts a forum, a course player and events behind one membership. The interface is deliberately plain, which keeps people posting, and there is very little customization by design. Both plans take a percentage of what members pay, which is the part of the pricing that has changed most since Skool launched.
Our note
Skool was worth recommending when it was one flat fee, and the two-tier pricing has made it a calculation instead. Run the $1,300 sum against your own numbers before picking a plan, and look at Circle instead if the community needs to look like yours.
Why people weigh these two
- Skool instead of DoorFee
- Skool moves the paid community into one space with courses and a calendar, the option when leaving Discord altogether is on the table.
- DoorFee instead of Skool
- DoorFee wraps a sales funnel around a paid Discord server rather than replacing Discord with a new space, with a free tier before a $28 plan.
Which one should you pick
Pick DoorFee if the community already lives on Discord and the job is selling into it: a sales page, email marketing, an affiliate program and abandoned-checkout recovery come built in. Free costs nothing at 10 percent, matching Skool's paid Hobby tier for less, and Pro's $28 a month for 2.5 percent beats Skool's $99 a month for 2.9 percent on both counts.
Pick Skool if the community needs a course player and calendar alongside the forum, not just a paid gate, and a deliberately plain design that keeps people posting is a feature rather than a limitation. Hobby is $9 a month at 10 percent, and Pro at $99 a month drops to 2.9 percent, worth it by Skool's own math above roughly $1,300 a month in member payments.
Common questions
- Which one is cheaper at the entry level?
- DoorFee. Its free plan charges 10 percent with no monthly fee at all, the same percentage Skool charges on its $9 a month Hobby plan. Anybody just starting out pays the same cut on DoorFee for nothing extra.
- Does Skool have anything like DoorFee's sales page and email marketing?
- Skool's listing describes a forum, course player, calendar and gamification, not a dedicated sales funnel. DoorFee builds the sales page, email marketing, an affiliate program and abandoned-checkout recovery specifically to convert visitors into paying Discord members.
- Which upper tier is the better deal?
- DoorFee's Pro plan, at $28 a month for 2.5 percent, costs less and takes a smaller cut than Skool's Pro plan at $99 a month for 2.9 percent. Skool's higher price buys a full community platform with courses and a calendar; DoorFee's buys custom domains and white-label branding on top of Discord.
- Can DoorFee run courses the way Skool does?
- Not by its own description. DoorFee is built around selling and gating a Discord server, with no course player mentioned. Skool bundles a course player with the forum and calendar behind the same membership, which is its main advantage over a Discord-only tool.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.