SchoolMaker

SchoolMaker is a community platform launched in 2023 by YouTuber Stan Leloup.

It’s grown quickly despite being a newcomer to the scene and has over 1,500 users.

SchoolMaker is comparable to platforms like Skool, Circle or Mighty Networks and that’s what we’ll compare it to in this review.

This is to say that it’s not trying to compete with the likes of Kajabi or HighLevel that are all-in-one platforms.

The main selling point of SchoolMaker is its community-centric approach where students get access to a private community and directly to the teacher, on top of the self paced course content.

Here is the highlight of what it offers:

• Online course creation (video hosting included)

• Consultation/Q&A

• Coaching calls

• Community

• Live scheduling (not self hosted)

• Checkout and affiliate program

• AI coaches (paid addon)

Let’s note some features that are not included and that you’ll probably need to handle with other platforms: funnel/page building and email marketing.

There is also no mobile app available.

Online Courses

Again, the philosophy of SchoolMaker is to move away from boring, static online course delivery.

The way you build a course in the platform is somewhat standard: add Sections, then add Lessons, which can be Text, image or Video.

These are called steps and milestones, giving students a clear direction on what they need to do next.

The goal here is to keep them pro-active and make sure they take action.

Students can then Ask Questions below any lesson which will be sent to you for an answer.

This is one of the key features of SchoolMaker, making it easy for your members to have direct access to you, but in a way that’s not too overwhelming or time-consuming for you.

This is also available in the Consultations tab that chosen members can have access to:

Same principle again, members can ask questions and you answer them all from your admin dashboard.

You can make the answers accessible to everyone and categorize them so that future members search for them easily.

Over time you will build a library of these Q&A and the value of the community will increase while the number of new questions people ask should go down (because they’ve been answered before). 

Let's note here some limitations of the online course builder.

First, you can’t customize the layout of the course, it will always be the same look with the left sidebar:

Then, note that there are no fancy learning tools like quizzes or assessments that you can use to help your students test their knowledge.

Also, you can use the Live feature to schedule live sessions, and these will appear on the program’s calendar for your students to join.

But these are not self-hosted ,meaning that you will have to run them in either Zoom or Google Meet, and not directly in SchoolMaker.

Community Feature

This is the heart of the platform and what really defines SchoolMaker, especially when compared to its closest competitors.

At the core of it, you have Spaces, which are different sub-threads and where members can post, comment,etc.

This is very similar to any other community platform, so nothing new here.

Though I do like how granular you can get with the access for specific members to different Spaces.

Customization is bare however, you can’t really change any of the colors or how the community is laid out.

Posts can be scheduled out to a future date, which helps for community management.

There is also a leaderboard to gamify the engagement for your members a little, again nothing other platforms don’t offer here but it’s worth mentioning.

I think what really sets SchoolMaker apart is the Consultation tab we’ve talked about before, which is another aspect of the community.

A lot of membership group are mostly questions that have been asked and answered before.

This tabs allows for a separate space where these are searchable and keep the posts in the Community, fresh and relevant rather than the same old topics.

Checkout & Payment

SchoolMaker provides a native checkout system to take payment and get new members in the program.

The only option you have here is to connect Stripe to take care of the payment processing.

You would then set a price in the Offers for your product: one-off payments, recurring or split payments.

One limitation to mention here is that you can only create offers in the currency of your Stripe account, so no multiple currency setting is possible right now.

This is fairly basic but doing the job, note that the actual checkout pages can’t really be customized much and will look very basic:

The truth is, most people end up using an external checkout and page builder, and then connect it to SchoolMaker.

The last feature to mention here is the referral program that you can setup to allow people to promote your programs and get a commission from it.

This is relatively flexible and can be set on a percentage basis or fixed amount.

Coaching & AI Features

The last type of product you can sell in SchoolMaker are coaching sessions.

But here again this isn’t really a fully native feature as you will need to embed from an external booking system like Calendly:

All the platform is helping with here is to facilitate the process and make it look as seamless as possible for the end user.

So payments and bookings will all happen in Schoolmaker and here you have different options: pay per session or minutes, or have a welcome video before the session,etc.

Then your external booking system will handle the rest (reminders, connecting to Zoom for instance).

This is a bit of a workaround for you but the experience from the student perspective is acceptable.

The last coaching feature is the new AI coaching.

The way this works is that you will give the AI access to your courses content or any files you’d like to upload for all the context it needs.

You can also write up a custom system prompt to help influence the tone of voice of the AI.

Then students will be able to open the AI chat and ask questions, you will be charged per message: either via the native AI feed ($0.05 per message) or using your own API key (much cheaper).

SchoolMaker has a relatively competitive pricing. You can start with a 14 days free trial on any plan.

Then you’ll have 4 paid plan options:

The starter plan at $29/month is interesting for new users just starting out, especially compared to other platforms like circle that don’t really offer a cheap plan.

There is no transaction fee, but you will be limited to 100 members and only 1 online course. 

The “Powered by SchoolMaker” badge will also be displayed in your footer.

Each plan upgrade doesn't really offer any more features but simply an increase in your allowance for storage, members, online courses and team accounts.

You have a few ways to connect with other SchoolMaker users and get support.

You can start by posting in the SchoolMaker community and get some questions answered there.

Or simply go through the official Documentation with a lot of articles for each features and how to use them.

Finally you can also contact support through the chatbot in the platform.

There is no phone number you can use to call SchoolMaker support though and it will only work through a support ticket system.

Does SchoolMaker charge transaction fees?

No. SchoolMaker does not charge transaction fees on any plan. You will need to connect Stripe to process payments, which applies its own standard processing fees.

Can I use SchoolMaker without Stripe?

Not currently. Stripe is the only supported payment processor, and all offers must be created in your Stripe account's currency.

Does SchoolMaker have a mobile app? 

No, there is no mobile app available at this time for either creators or students.

How does the AI coaching feature work? 

You upload your course content or other reference files, write a custom system prompt, and SchoolMaker generates an AI coach students can chat with. You can use SchoolMaker's native AI feed at $0.05 per message, or connect your own API key for lower costs.