Flat fee or transaction fee: which one actually costs you less
The break-even maths nobody puts on a pricing page, worked out with real numbers.
Two pricing models dominate this category and they are not comparable at a glance, which I suspect is the point. One charges you a fixed amount every month whether you sell anything or not. The other charges you nothing up front and takes a percentage of every sale. Which one is cheaper depends entirely on how much you sell, and the crossover point is easy to calculate.
The break-even formula
Take the monthly fee, divide it by the transaction rate, and you get the monthly revenue at which the two models cost the same. Below that number the percentage model wins. Above it the flat fee wins.
Skool charges $99 a month. Whop charges 3% per transaction. So: 99 divided by 0.03 gives $3,300. If you are turning over less than $3,300 a month, Whop costs you less. Above $3,300, Skool does, and the gap widens fast. At $10,000 a month, Whop takes $300 and Skool still takes $99.
| Monthly revenue | Whop at 3% | Skool flat | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $15 | $99 | Whop |
| $1,500 | $45 | $99 | Whop |
| $3,300 | $99 | $99 | Level |
| $6,000 | $180 | $99 | Skool |
| $15,000 | $450 | $99 | Skool |
Why the maths is not the whole answer
If cost were the only factor, everyone under $3,300 would use the percentage model and switch later. Two things get in the way.
The first is that moving is painful. Migrating members, content, payment subscriptions and muscle memory is a week of work and some churn. People stay on the wrong model for a year because the switch is unpleasant, and the switch gets more unpleasant the bigger you get.
The second is that the percentage is not only a cost. On Whop, part of what you are paying for is the marketplace putting your product in front of people who did not know you existed. If that produces even a handful of sales a month you would not otherwise have made, the 3% is not really a fee, it is a commission on business you did not have to go and find. A flat fee buys you no distribution at all.
The fee everyone forgets
Neither model includes card processing. Stripe and PayPal take roughly 2.9% plus a fixed amount per transaction on top of whatever the platform charges, and on Skool that payment fee applies too. When you compare two platforms, compare the total that leaves your account, not the number on the pricing page.
Teachable adds a third pattern worth knowing about: a monthly fee and a transaction fee on the lower tiers, dropping to zero percent higher up. That structure means the cheapest plan is often the most expensive plan once you are selling properly, which is exactly how it is designed to work.
What I would do
Start on the percentage model while revenue is small and uncertain, because paying $99 a month to sell $400 of product is how people talk themselves out of continuing. Set a calendar reminder at $3,000 a month. When you hit it, do the migration in a quiet week rather than a busy one.