Simplero vs Skool
Launched in 2019, Skool.com is a relative newcomer to the online education market, offering a unique community-focused approach to course hosting. By comparison, Simplero has been in the trenches for over 10 years and has established itself as a comprehensive platform for all aspects of online business management, including course hosting.
Both platforms boast features aimed at streamlining the creation, management, and growth of online educational content. However, their approaches and specific offerings differ significantly.
In this article, we'll compare the unique strengths and capabilities of Skool and Simplero to help you make an informed decision about which platform best suits your needs as an online entrepreneur.
What Is Skool & Who Is It For?
Skool is a community and course-hosting platform designed to help creators build and grow online communities. It's the perfect course hosting solution if you want to consolidate your online course offerings and community engagement into a modern, straightforward platform.
With its unique features like video-first content presentation, distraction-free learning environments, and community-focused tools, Skool is perfect for coaches, consultants and other content creators looking for an easy-to-use and affordable way to build a community and an information business.
What is Simplero & Who Is It For?
Simplero.com is an all-in-one marketing and business management software. Easily create your website, sell products, host online courses, build membership communities, and automate virtually everything in your business - all in this simple yet powerful web app.
Simplero is the ideal platform for entrepreneurs and business owners ready to streamline their business for simpler business management. Whether you're a seasoned guru in your niche or a rising star eager to share your knowledge, this platform empowers you with the tools to craft a comprehensive online ecosystem.
Simplero is perfect for those who demand efficiency, effectiveness, and excellence in every aspect of their online business from course creation and robust membership sites to streamlined marketing and automation processes.
Media Management & Course Creation
Managing Content & Creating Courses With Skool
At the heart of Skool’s design is a video-first strategy that prioritises an immersive learning experience with a clean and simple app. You can easily organise your courses with Skool’s clean, streamlined interface, which showcases course progress directly on the front icon and neatly aligns the content on the left for easy navigation.
Notably, Skool champions a community-centric approach, with a dedicated community tab serving as the main hub where creators and learners interact, search content and build meaningful connections without ads or other distractions (looking at you, Facebook).
This blend of features underscores Skool’s commitment to not just simplify course creation but to elevate it and foster vibrant, knowledge-sharing communities.
One downside is that Skool does not host your content natively. For example, if you add videos, you'll need a third-party host for the videos such as Vimeo, Wistia or YouTube and then add the link into Skool.
Managing Content & Creating Courses With Simplero
Simplero streamlines the process of delivering educational content, allowing you to not only create captivating courses but also manage your entire online presence with ease.
Simplero's robust system supports a wide range of content types, enabling users to seamlessly integrate videos, text, PDFs, and quizzes into their courses, thus offering a multifaceted learning experience.
Additionally, with features like automated course dripping and easy-to-build membership sites, Simplero ensures that users have everything they need to launch, manage, and scale their online courses efficiently.
One of our favourite features of Simplero is the native media library. You can easily upload all of your videos, PDFs and content directly to Simplero's built-in media library. Once uploaded, it's available to attach to anything you choose inside Simplero, including courses, sales pages, digital downloads, emails or whatever. All plans include generous storage, beginning at 250gb for the Starter plan.
Membership Sites & Communities
Skool's Take On Memberships
With Skool, creating a membership site takes nothing more than setting up a subscription program and choosing which communities and/or courses will be included.
The community features include:
- Posts, comments and pinned posts
- Categories, user profiles, member-to-member chat
- Likes, mentions and notifications
- Comment and Like counts
- Photos, videos, GIFs and polls
- Public and private communities
- Moderation, filters and search
Posts are presented feed style and when a post is clicked, a modal window will open showing the full discussion. Chat functions include associated profiles, both in-app and email notifications, and email digests available.
Since Skool's focus is on community, you can't disable this function. Your account starts with the community, with the courses and memberships being the elements you can choose to use or not.
Your communities can be public, private, free or paid. One community is included in the Skool subscription.
Simplero's Take On Memberships
Membership sites in Simplero can be used in a couple of different ways: as a way to group courses and community features for a certain group or as an additional website with optional associated courses and community features.
The Simplero Starter plan includes one membership site but the Scale and Skyrocket plans include unlimited membership sites.
Membership features include:
- Public or private
- Custom theme, optional
- Custom navigation menu
- Forum (aka community), optional
- Member directory, member profiles, mentions in posts & comments, optional
- Reactions on content, optional
- Member-to-member chat, optional
- Engagement badges, optional
- Courses, optional
- Groups (private communities per course, per membership level, or other member subset), optional
- Blog, optional
The community feature (which they call "Forum) can optionally be included in membership sites and includes:
- Groups, posts, comments and pinned posts
- Moderation, filters and search
- Multiple reaction choices
- Member directory, profiles profile, and badges based on activity
- Comment and Like counts
- Image and file uploads
Simplero's community posts also open in a modal window, allowing you to participate in a discussion without losing your place in the feed.
The main difference between Skool's and Simplero's communities is that Simplero's communities are part of a membership site. Where communities can be freestanding in Skool with no courses or other content included.
Marketing & Sales Tools
Marketing & Sales With Skool
As of this writing, Skool does not offer any native marketing tools. The focus is on building community and its features reflect that primary goal. You can send emails to your members inside the platform, but there is no way to send emails to anyone outside the community.
For sales, you can create Subscriptions to communities and/or courses natively in Skool using Stripe to collect payment.
Integrations to Zapier and Webhooks are available which may enable you to add third-party functionality.
Marketing & Sales With Simplero
This is where Simplero sets itself apart from Skool in a major way. Simplero offers a complete suite of marketing tools that enable you to create and automate an entire sales funnel. And because these tools are native, they work together seamlessly, with no integration headaches.
Marketing features include:
- Email, lists, tags, campaigns & sequences
- Landing pages & opt-in forms
- Automation rules & triggers
- Affiliate program management
- Surveys & events
- Events & scheduling capabilities
Sales features include:
- One-click upsells & downsells
- Coupon codes & discounts
- Payment plans & subscriptions
- Multiple payment processing options
- And more
The single, most powerful thing Simplero offers is the automations engine that connects all of the above. This allows you to trigger actions from almost anywhere along the customer journey - add/remove tags based on customer activity, start and stop nurture sequences and other automations and so much more.
Having worked with many platforms, we can confidently say that Simplero's automation engine is a true game-changer!
Pricing
Skool's pricing is very simple. They charge $99 per month per community, with access to all features and unlimited courses and members. In-platform sales incur a 2.9% transaction fee.
In contrast, Simplero offers 3 tiers of pricing based on the needs of your business, with plans ranging from $59 to $249 per month. Most people find the Starter plan will work for them at the beginning and they can move up as their business grows or they need additional functionality. Paying annually instead of monthly can also provide a discount. There are no additional transaction fees, just whatever the payment processor you select charges.
Which Is Right For You - Skool Or Simplero?
When choosing between Skool and Simplero for building your online community or membership site, the decision boils down to your specific needs and goals.
Skool shines with its straightforward, community-focused platform, making it an excellent choice for those prioritizing ease of use and engagement within their community. It's a great choice for new entrepreneurs just getting started or those who want a minimalist experience.
On the other hand, Simplero offers a robust, all-in-one solution that not only supports community building but also integrates powerful marketing and sales tools, making it ideal for those looking to grow and monetize their community effectively. It's perfect for established entrepreneurs looking to streamline their tech stack or those with big dreams who want all the tools right at their fingertips.
Each platform has its unique strengths, and your choice should align with your strategic objectives, whether they be fostering a vibrant community, scaling your business, or both. Remember, the success of your online community or membership site ultimately depends on the value you provide and the connections you foster, regardless of the platform you choose.
