TL;DR: Member count tells you almost nothing by itself. Reviews from actual members, understanding what you're buying, and checking the creator's track record tell you a lot more.
I've made the mistake of joining communities based on member count alone.
Big member counts feel like social proof. They're not. A community with 50,000 members could be mostly inactive accounts from a viral campaign months ago. A community with 2,000 members could have more daily engagement than one ten times its size.
Here's what I actually look at now.
Read the reviews first
The most direct signal is what actual members say.
On KoolReviews, every review comes from someone who is or was a member of the community. Reviewers affirm their membership, and I verify Skool profile links where possible. When I read reviews, I look for patterns, not individual opinions.
One complaint about creator availability might be a bad fit. Three complaints about the same thing from different people is a real signal.
I also check how recent the reviews are. A community that was excellent two years ago may have declined since. Look at the dates, not just the ratings.
Understand what you're actually buying
Skool communities run on a few different models, and knowing which one you're evaluating changes everything.
Community access. You're paying for access to a group of people and some accountability structures. The value is in the relationships, not the curriculum. This lives or dies by the other members.
Course plus community. There's a structured course inside Skool, and the community is where you get support while going through it. This is closer to buying a course. It lives or dies by the content quality.
Coaching access. The membership buys you direct access to the creator or their team through live calls, DMs, or feedback on your work. This lives or dies by creator availability.
Most bad experiences I've seen come from a mismatch between what the buyer expected and what the creator was actually offering. If you're paying $200 per month expecting direct coaching access but the creator only posts in the feed once a week, you're going to be disappointed even if the community is technically active.
Look at the data before you join
With 1,000+ communities tracked in the KoolReviews directory, there's enough data to set reasonable expectations before you join.
Across the platform, 693 communities are free and 307 are paid. Free community member counts range from under 100 to nearly 300,000. The largest paid communities tend to be more selective by price, so smaller member counts in paid tiers are normal and often desirable.
For context: Digital Wealth Academy 3.0 has 134,800 members and is free. The Virtual Bookkeeping Series has 77,000 members and is also free. If a paid community in the same niche has fewer than 500 members and minimal reviews, that's worth understanding before you pay.
One rule I follow: for a paid community, I want to see at least some member reviews or a significant active member count before I commit. Either signal tells me people stayed long enough to form an opinion.
Research communities before you join →
Look at the creator's track record
For paid communities, I look for creators who have proven themselves outside of Skool.
A creator with an active YouTube channel, podcast, or social presence in the same niche is less likely to let a paid community go dormant. They have external audiences they're accountable to.
The preview test I always run: watch two or three of their free videos or read their recent posts. If their free content feels thin or generic, their paid community will feel the same way. Free content is a direct preview of what you're buying.
A good example: Mobility & Injury Prevention has 175,400 members in the Health category. That kind of member count in a niche topic only happens when the creator is consistently delivering value over time. The member count is evidence of an earned audience, not a viral moment.
Red flags worth remembering
- Zero reviews: no member signal yet, proceed carefully
- All five-star reviews: possible very new community or unusual situation
- Creator has not posted in months: community is likely coasting
- High price, very few reviews: significant unknown, worth waiting for more data
- No free content anywhere: no way to preview the creator's style
If a community charges $200 or more per month and has fewer than five reviews, that's a real risk. I'd either wait until more members have shared their experience or reach out to the creator directly to ask about activity levels before committing.
Compare before you commit
If I'm choosing between two communities in the same niche, I use the compare tool on KoolReviews. Side-by-side ratings, member counts, prices, and top pros and cons from actual reviews.
For example: if you're deciding between two Money communities at similar price points, seeing that one has three times the member count and more verified member reviews is useful information you can act on. The compare tool pulls that data automatically.
The right community isn't the most popular or the most expensive. It's the one where the creator and the other members are a good fit for where you're trying to go.
Browse by category: Money, Tech, Health, Self-improvement, or all nine categories.
If you've been in a community and want to help others decide, write a review. It takes about five minutes.
Originally published in the KoolReviews weekly newsletter. For more like this, subscribe here.