How much do community platform fees actually cost?
Community platform fees come down to three models: a percentage taken from every member payment, a flat monthly rent that ignores your revenue, or nothing beyond what card processing costs. And every payment carries two shares, not one — the platform's, and the card company's. So compare the models against the revenue you expect, not against the headline number, and always ask for the worked figure: on a $10 payment, how much remains mine?
Three models, not a pile of numbers
Every number you will see in this category comes from one of three models, and understanding the model helps you more than memorizing the numbers:
- A share of each payment. You pay nothing before you earn, and the share grows with your revenue. Kindest at the start, heaviest once the community is large.
- Flat monthly rent. One number that does not move with your revenue. Heavy early, when there is no income covering it, and very cheap once income is steady.
- Processor cost only. The platform takes nothing from your members' payments, and what the card company charges is all that remains. That is not free — the platform is paid somewhere else, usually in higher monthly rent.
Most platforms blend two of them: smaller rent with a bigger share, or bigger rent with a smaller share. So the right question is not which number is smaller. It is which mixture is cheaper on your revenue — a different question with a different answer.
Every payment carries two shares
Two shares come out of a member payment, and they go to two different companies. One is the platform's. The other belongs to the card company that moves the money, and it has two parts of its own: a percentage, plus a fixed amount on every single transaction.
The fixed amount is what makes small prices more expensive than they look. Thirty cents on a $5 payment is 6% of it on its own, before any percentage at all; on a $30 payment the same thirty cents is 1%. Your membership price changes your real fee even when the advertised rate does not move a letter.
Adding the two together into a single number is not a lie, but it hides who takes what. A platform's own share looks bigger than it is when card costs are folded into it, and smaller than it is when the fixed amount is left out. Ask for the two numbers separately, every time.
Which model fits your revenue?
Between any two plans there is a point where they cost exactly the same. Below it the cheaper rent wins; above it the lower percentage wins. Finding it is one line of arithmetic: divide the difference in monthly rent by the difference in percentage.
An example. A plan costs $30 more per month but takes 5% less from every payment. Divide 30 by 5% and you get 600. While your members pay you less than $600 a month, the cheaper-rent plan is genuinely better for you; above that, the answer flips.
Work that point out before you choose, then work it out again six months later. The right plan for a community in its first month is not the right plan in its second year, and the gap between them is real money.
The questions that reveal the real number
Before you build on any platform, ask it these. If the answer is not written on a public page, that is itself an answer:
- How much does the platform take, and how much does the card company take? Two different numbers — one blended figure has not answered yet.
- Is there a fixed amount on every transaction, and how much is it?
- Does the rate change with the country or currency of a member's card?
- What happens if the platform raises its rate later? Does a community already running keep the old one, and how much notice do you get?
- Is anything taken after that: a monthly minimum, a transfer charge, or a fee that grows with members, courses or videos?
- And the most useful one: on a $10 payment, exactly how much remains mine? Ask for the amount, not the percentage.
Community platform fees compared
Most of what search returns under that heading is a table ranking platforms by name, and a good deal of it is written for a referral commission. The problem is not only the bias. It is that a table compares advertised rates, while the number that decides your case never appears in one: what remains of your payment, at your price, with your number of members.
So build the table yourself. One row per platform you are considering, and five columns: monthly rent, the platform's share, the card company's share, the fixed amount, and finally what remains of a single payment at the price you expect to charge. That last column is the one that decides.
And do not choose on fees alone. Half a percentage point matters less to your income than a community members stay in one month longer. The fee is a line in the decision, not the decision.
Nadi plans
Free is $0/month with a 9% Nadi fee, Pro is $29/month with 5%, and Max is $99/month with 1%. Card processing is added at the provider’s actual charge and is paid by the instructor or teacher. All plans include unlimited members, courses, videos and posts. Free includes five Live hours a month; Pro and Max include unlimited Live hours and recording.