LaunchPass vs Whop Comparison 2026
LaunchPass gates an existing Discord, Slack or Telegram community, free to start or $29 a month for Premium at a 3.5 percent fee. Whop has no monthly fee at all, ever, charging 2.7 percent plus 30 cents on a card transaction and more on other payment methods, with its own marketplace attached that brings additional traffic. On card payments alone, Whop undercuts LaunchPass Premium at every volume, though LaunchPass is built specifically around chat platforms you already run rather than a general storefront.
Charge for access to a Discord or Slack group
Sell access to a community with no monthly fee
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
LaunchPass | Whop | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $29 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | 14 days | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
LaunchPass
Charge for access to a Discord or Slack group
LaunchPass puts a paywall in front of a chat community you already run, and hands out and removes the roles as people pay and lapse. It connects to Discord, Slack and Telegram, and the money arrives through your own Stripe account. It manages access rather than hosting anything, so the community stays where your members already are.
Our note
Sensible if your community is already somewhere and already wanted. Compare it against DoorFee if the community is on Discord, since DoorFee sells the membership as well as gating it, and against Circle or Skool if you were half thinking of moving anyway.
Only on this side
- Covers community platforms
- Works with Discord
Whop
Sell access to a community with no monthly fee
Whop sells memberships, courses, software and communities from a storefront that handles the checkout and the access control together, so a paying customer lands inside whatever they bought rather than in an email thread. There is no setup cost and no monthly cost; the money comes off each transaction. Rates differ by how the customer pays, with cards cheapest and instalment financing dearest. The marketplace side brings its own traffic, which is either the reason to be here or noise to ignore depending on what is being sold.
Why people weigh these two
- Whop instead of LaunchPass
- Whop is free with no monthly fee at all, selling access to a community outright rather than layering a paywall onto a Discord server that stays free to join.
- LaunchPass instead of Whop
- LaunchPass charges monthly from $29, with a free tier, to gate an existing Discord or Slack rather than Whop's no-monthly-fee storefront for courses and software too.
Which one should you pick
Choose LaunchPass if a Discord, Slack or Telegram community is exactly what needs gating and nothing more, since that native fit is the whole product. Premium is $29 a month at 3.5 percent, though its own free tier is worth checking first for lower volume.
Choose Whop if the product is broader than one chat platform, a course, software or a community storefront, since there is no monthly cost ever and card payments run 2.7 percent plus 30 cents, cheaper than LaunchPass Premium at any volume. Push customers toward cards specifically, since other payment methods run 4 to 5 percent plus a dollar.
Common questions
- Which one is cheaper on card payments?
- Whop, at every volume: 2.7 percent plus 30 cents with no monthly fee, against LaunchPass Premium's $29 a month plus 3.5 percent. LaunchPass does have its own free tier for lower-volume communities.
- Does Whop work specifically with Discord the way LaunchPass does?
- Whop sells access to a community, course or software more broadly, with checkout and entitlement handled together. LaunchPass is built specifically around Discord, Slack and Telegram, granting and revoking roles as people pay.
- Does Whop bring its own audience?
- Yes, a marketplace attached to Whop surfaces listings to people already browsing the platform. LaunchPass's listing does not describe an equivalent built-in marketplace; it only manages access to a community you already have.
- Is either one free to set up?
- Both have no setup cost. LaunchPass has a genuine free tier for the paywall itself, and Whop has no setup or monthly cost at all, charging only per transaction.
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.