Membership · one offer · USD

Best membership platform for a simple one-offer expert

Updated August 29, 2026 · Official product and pricing pages fetched this evening. If a number is missing below, we could not cite it.

You already have a method. The membership is the offer — not a 12-product catalog with a “members area” taped on. Pick the host that matches the thing people pay to stay in: a library, a school subscription, or a room.

Who this page is for

Experts with one flagship membership. Recurring access to the method, a community around it, or both. Not a school with fifty SKUs. Not a how-to on launching a membership. If the method is not yet a product, this page is not the work.

A dated cohort that starts and ends is a different page: Thinkific vs Kajabi for cohort / live programs. A recorded course you sell once is closer to best course platform for consultants.

The short version

One membership, three shapes

Recurring library. People pay monthly or yearly to keep the method. Kajabi’s membership FAQ: weekly, monthly, or annual recurring Offers; you can bundle a Course, a Community, and Downloads on one Offer; drip or all-at-once; optional Monthly Enrolling Memberships that hide past content. Thinkific Start: “charge monthly for ongoing access to a course library.” Teachable lists Memberships on the public grid; memberships and bundles do not count toward the 5 / 10 / 50 published-product cap.

Recurring room. The feed is the product. Skool’s about page: community, courses, and events; subscriptions or one-time course purchases. Circle is a community platform with Stripe-powered paywalls (you connect your Stripe). Mighty Networks Launch is a community with courses and events. A Kajabi community can be sold standalone or bundled — it is still a course-business feature, not a Skool-shaped room.

If the method is something people stay in for the content, start with Kajabi or Thinkific Start. If they stay for the room, start with Skool (or Circle if you want your own Stripe and a branded community). Do not pick Kajabi because it “includes community” if the room is the whole business. Do not pick Skool because it is $9 and then try to run Kajabi-style funnels in a feed.

Cited numbers, August 29, 2026

USD. Monthly is month-to-month. Annual is the advertised per-month rate when you pay yearly, except Skool yearly dollars (omitted) and Mighty Scale yearly (not extracted). Platform fee is the vendor’s cut, not card processing.

Sources: kajabi.com/pricing, Kajabi memberships, thinkific.com/pricing, skool.com/pricing, circle.so/pricing, Circle payments. Full list at the bottom.

Also in the mix, if the one offer is a membership

Teachable — a school membership. Builder, not Starter, if it actually sells

Memberships are on the public feature list. They do not count toward the published-product cap. Starter’s five-product ceiling is not the problem for one offer. The 7.5% on every charge is. Visible pricing cards this fetch: Starter $39/mo ($29/mo with the annual/sale figure shown beside it), Builder $89/mo ($69), Growth $189/mo ($139). Builder, Growth, and Custom drop the platform cut to 0% if you stay on teachable:pay or Monthly Payment Gateway. US card 2.9%+$0.30 on top. Dollars at $97 / $497 / $2,000 are on Teachable transaction fees.

Podia — cheaper all-in-one, if you will actually use email and a site

Official JSON-LD on podia.com/pricing: Mover $49/mo monthly or $42/mo annual, 5% Podia transaction fee, 50 products, 25 community spaces, 100 email subscribers. Shaker $99 / $84, no Podia transaction fees, 150 products, 100 spaces, 500 subscribers. Earthquaker $179 / $150, no Podia fees, unlimited products and spaces, 1,000 subscribers. Processor (Stripe or PayPal) 2.9%+30¢ on top, per the pricing FAQ. 30-day free trial. One membership fits Mover’s product cap; the 5% is the Mover tax, same shape as Teachable Starter.

Mighty Networks — branded community, not a Kajabi substitute

Public cards: Launch Plan $79 per month ($950/year on the yearly figure shown), “run courses and events in your own community.” Scale Plan $179 per month, more integrations and automations. Mighty Pro: branded apps; public dollar amount not extracted as a card this fetch. Transaction fee row on the comparison grid lists 2% / 1% / 0.5% across the three paid columns. Explore Plan appears in a calculator dropdown; no public monthly dollar extracted — omitted.

Memberful — membership billing, $49 + 4.9%

Official pricing: Standard $49/month + 4.9% transaction fee. Custom enterprise. Try for free until you go live and accept payments. Unlimited members. Monthly, annual, weekly subscriptions. The FAQ answers (whether 4.9% includes Stripe, whether you must have Stripe) did not render as text this fetch — omitted. A fit only if you already have a site and want a membership layer, not an all-in-one expert OS.

What the fees do to one membership charge

Say the membership is $97/month, US cards, one successful charge. Card processing sits on almost every stack. The extra question is the vendor’s own cut. Arithmetic only — refunds, tax, failed-payment retries, and Skool VAT change the dollar.

• Kajabi Payments, Basic: public card rate 2.9%+$0.30 = $3.11, plus the US help-page 0.7% subscription add-on ($0.68). Combined $3.79. No extra platform percentage.
• Thinkific Payments: public native headline 2.9% → $2.81. No third-party gateway fee. Keep Stripe on Start: add 2% = $1.94 on top of Stripe’s own fee (Stripe’s schedule is Stripe’s; omitted here).
• Skool Hobby: 10%+$0.30 = $10.00. Skool Pro: 2.9%+$0.30 = $3.11 (under $900). Hobby’s extra $6.89 per charge is the cheap-plan tax on a small membership.
• Circle Professional: 2% = $1.94 plus Stripe. If Stripe is 2.9%+$0.30 ($3.11), combined $5.05. Circle Business drops Circle’s cut to 1% ($0.97 + Stripe).
• Teachable Starter: 7.5% = $7.28 plus 2.9%+$0.30 ($3.11). Combined $10.39. Builder drops the 7.5%.
• Podia Mover: 5% = $4.85 plus processor 2.9%+30¢ ($3.11). Combined $7.96. Shaker drops Podia’s 5%.
• Memberful Standard: 4.9% = $4.75. Whether Stripe stacks on that 4.9% was not in extractable FAQ text this fetch — not added here.

A $97 membership that actually renews makes Starter’s 7.5%, Hobby’s 10%, and Mover’s 5% the numbers that matter, not “$39/mo” or “$9/mo.” We are not publishing a break-even month.

Who should not pick which

Skip Kajabi if

The offer is a feed and you will not use landing pages, email, or funnels. Public Basic is $179/mo. Also skip if you need more than one community on Basic or Growth, or more than three on Pro.

Skip Thinkific if

You need Kajabi-style funnels and native email as the marketing system. Also skip Basic if the membership is paid — that starts on Start. Skip keeping Stripe unless you have priced 5/2/1%.

Skip Skool if

The membership is a content library you want on your own Stripe. Also skip Hobby once $97 renewals are real — the 10% is the product. Skip Pro for a $2,000 one-time attached product (3.9% above $900). Turn Growth Boost off if you did not ask for a 30% discovery cut (payments FAQ: 30%, default ON).

Skip Circle if

You wanted Skool’s all-in processing and no Stripe account. Circle’s 2% is on top of Stripe. Also skip if you only needed a course player — Circle is a community with courses and events, not a Kajabi OS.

Skip Teachable Starter if

The membership will sell. The 7.5% hits every renewal. Builder is the Teachable plan that drops it.

Visit the hosts

Thinkific affiliate slot — not live Circle affiliate slot — not live Teachable affiliate slot — not live Podia affiliate slot — not live Mighty Networks affiliate slot — not live Memberful affiliate slot — not live

Kajabi’s trial box and visit button use the 30-day trial affiliate, justinwise.net/kajabi. Official Kajabi pricing remains the source for numbers. Visit Skool uses the Skool signup affiliate. Official skool.com/pricing remains the source for Skool numbers. Other buttons are official product URLs only.

Omitted on purpose

• Kajabi legacy dollar table and Kickstarter as a buyable public price. Not on kajabi.com/pricing as a current card. JSON-LD on product pages still exposes a $69 lowPrice; that is not a public plan card.
• Skool yearly dollar amounts. Official page: “2 months free.” No yearly dollar extracted this fetch.
• Circle add-on menu ($10/mo per admin, $20/mo per 10 spaces, Email Hub, etc.) as a total cost of ownership. Listed on the comparison grid; not priced into the table as a required membership bill.
• Mighty Networks Explore public monthly price and Mighty Pro public dollar card. Not extracted as text this fetch. Scale yearly dollars omitted.
• Memberful FAQ answers on whether the 4.9% includes Stripe, and whether a Stripe account is required. Questions were on the page; answers did not render as text.
• Teachable JSON-LD Offer prices that did not match the visible $39 / $89 / $189 cards this fetch. Visible cards are what we cite, consistent with the August 29 comparison pages.
• How to price a membership, how to reduce churn, or anything that documents your method for you.

Sources

1. Kajabi pricing — public plans, JSON-LD prices ($143/$179 Basic, $199/$249 Growth, $399/$499 Pro), product/contact/community limits, Kajabi Payments rates, 3rd-party 2%/1%/0.5%, 30-day trial. Fetched August 29, 2026.
2. Kajabi memberships — recurring weekly/monthly/annual; tiers via separate products and Offers; drip or all-at-once; Monthly Enrolling Memberships; membership vs community FAQ; bundle on one Offer.
3. Kajabi communities — access tied to products; standalone paid memberships; Access Groups; Meetups with a built-in live room.
4. Kajabi Payments fees: United States — 2.9%+$0.30 cards, +1.5% international, +0.7% subscriptions and payment plans.
5. Thinkific pricing — Basic $54/$40, Start $109/$82, Grow $219/$164; paid memberships on Start+; live cohorts on Start; 1 / 1 / 3 communities; 10,000 current students; 30-day trial. HTML fetched August 29, 2026.
6. How much does Thinkific cost? — third-party gateway 5% / 2% / 1% / 0.5%; $1M/year cap; Thinkific Payments avoids the fee.
7. Skool pricing — Hobby $9/mo, Pro $99/mo, 10% vs 2.9% on the cards, unlimited members/courses/videos/live calls, “2 months free” yearly toggle.
8. Skool Payments FAQ (updated August 18, 2026) — Hobby 10%+30¢; Pro 2.9%+30¢ to $899 / 3.9%+30¢ above $900; cannot use existing Stripe; Growth Boost 30% default ON.
9. Circle pricing — Professional priceMonth 99 / priceYear 89; Business 219 / 199; Plus custom; 14-day trial; 30-day money-back; members unlimited; transaction fees 2% / 1% / 0.5% plus Stripe. Fetched August 29, 2026.
10. Circle payments — paywalls powered by Stripe; connect existing Stripe; Professional 2% / Business 1% / Plus 0.5% in addition to Stripe.
11. Teachable pricing — visible cards $39 / $89 / $189 (annual/sale figures $29 / $69 / $139); 7.5% vs 0%; memberships do not count toward product limit. Fetched August 29, 2026.
12. Podia pricing — JSON-LD Mover $49/$42 + 5%; Shaker $99/$84 0%; Earthquaker $179/$150 0%; processor 2.9%+30¢; 30-day trial.
13. Mighty Networks pricing — Launch $79/mo and $950/year; Scale $179/mo; transaction fee row 2% / 1% / 0.5%.
14. Memberful pricing — Standard $49/month + 4.9%; unlimited members; free until you go live.