How We Test, Check Prices and Calculate Fees

This page explains where our numbers come from and how we reach our verdicts. If something here doesn’t match what you see on a page, tell us.

1. How we choose products

We cover tools that creators ask about most when they choose or switch platforms, across four areas:

• course platforms;
• community platforms;
• email and newsletter tools;
• creator finance tools.

Whether a vendor pays us does not decide whether it’s covered. Comparisons include tools that pay us nothing.

2. Hands-on testing protocol

A page carries a Tested badge, a rating, or statements about how a product behaves only after hands-on testing. On each platform, we build the same things:

1. a test sales funnel (opt-in page → sales page → checkout);
2. a three-lesson course;
3. a community space with one paid tier;
4. a three-email welcome sequence.

For each test we record:

• the date;
• the plan used;
• screenshots.

Until a product has been through this, its pages are labelled not yet tested. Those pages only use published facts: pricing, fees, limits and help-centre documentation.

3. Price and fee checks

• Source: only the vendor’s own pricing page, help centre or terms. Third-party sites are never the source. When an official page doesn’t show a number (for example, prices that only appear after clicking an annual toggle), we mark it partially verified and say why.
• Frequency: at least monthly, and whenever a vendor announces a change.
• On the page: every price shows a Prices checked date. A Needs verification chip appears on any value we could not confirm.
• Change log: every change is recorded with the old value, the new value and the date. Material changes update the “last updated” date on every page that uses that platform.

4. How the calculators work

All five calculators use simple formulas that you can read and check. Each calculator page has:

• an Assumptions & sources panel;
• a worked example.

Unless a calculator says otherwise, results exclude:

• sales tax, VAT and GST;
• refunds and chargebacks;
• currency conversion and payout fees;
• promotions and discounts.

Some details we model:

• Card processing: we use each platform’s published rates. Where a platform has you bring your own processor, we use Stripe’s standard US rate.
• Annual plans: shown as a per-month price.
• Approximations: some fee rules depend on the size of each individual sale, such as Skool Pro’s higher rate on payments of $900 or more. For these, the calculator uses your average sale size and says so.

Calculators: course platform fees · membership MRR · course price · creator take-home · Skool plan picker

5. Rating rubric (our weighting)

Ratings appear only on tested reviews. Each rating is a weighted score out of 5:

These weights are our own judgement, not an industry standard.

6. What we don’t do

• No paid placements or paid rankings.
• No fake reviews or invented user quotes.
• No AI-generated test results. AI tools may help with drafting, but every factual sentence is checked against a source on the page or in our data.
• No income claims.

7. Corrections

Spot an error? Contact us. Fixes are made promptly and listed on the corrections page with the date and what changed.