Merkora Pricing in 2026: Plans, Fees and What Coaches Pay

Merkora pricing is simple on paper, as listed in October 2026: a Free plan at $0 that lasts only until your first paid sale, and a Professional plan at $79 a month. Fifty founding members can get Professional for $29 a month for the first 12 months, then $39 a month for life. There is no annual plan, no time-limited trial and no Merkora platform fee on your sales; you pay standard Stripe processing on top. The real questions are how long the Free plan actually lasts, what the usage limits mean for group work, and which tools you will still pay for beside it.

This guide walks through every plan, every fee Merkora lists, what a coach pays at three practice sizes, the gotchas on the pricing page, and how Merkora compares with five alternatives. We make Coachful, one of those alternatives, and we say so plainly; every Merkora fact below comes from Merkora's own homepage, pricing page and features page, checked on 27 October 2026.

What does Merkora cost in October 2026?

Merkora costs $0 until you make your first paid sale, then $79 a month for Professional, or $29 a month if you claim one of 50 founding-member spots. Those are the only two plans on the pricing page, and both run on monthly billing.

Merkora describes itself as a platform for coaches, therapists, consultants and other independent experts. You get one branded public page at yourname.merkora.app, where clients book sessions, buy courses and digital products, and join live events. Payments go through your own connected Stripe account, directly to you. The company behind it is Merkora LLC, registered in Wyoming, USA, and prices are shown with a dollar sign and no currency code, so read them as US dollars.

One naming note before you search: the product lives at merkora.app. The merkora.com domain is parked and is not the product, so do not judge the company by that page.

Merkora also looks new. We found no public reviews on Trustpilot, so there is no reviewer sentiment to report on reliability, support or billing. That does not mean the product is bad; it means you are an early customer, and you should treat the 30-day money-back guarantee on Professional as your real test window.

What plans does Merkora offer?

Merkora offers two plans: Free and Professional, with a limited founding-member rate on Professional. Here is the full lineup with every limit the pricing page lists.

The comparison table on the pricing page writes Professional as "$79 / mo ($29 founding)". There is no annual discount anywhere on the page, while several alternatives below (Paperbell, Practice Better, Satori) list one. On Merkora, the founding rate is the only discount, and it is a steep one.

What does each Merkora plan add?

Free already includes the core of Merkora: bookable services, paid courses, digital products and live events. Professional adds session packages, deeper analytics, white-label branding and much higher usage limits.

What is included on the Free plan?

The pricing page lists these on Free:

• A personal Merkora page.
• Unlimited paid bookable services.
• Unlimited paid courses and digital products.
• Live events, capped at 10 participants.
• A client dashboard.
• A cancellation policy with a credit system.
• Automatic booking confirmations and reminders.
• Payments through your own Stripe account.
• Basic analytics.

The features page fills in more detail. Booking includes intake forms and a waitlist. Courses are hosted video courses, so you do not need to upload lessons to YouTube. You can sell digital downloads and give away free lead magnets that capture an email address. Cancellation and no-show enforcement issues wallet credits to clients instead of cash refunds, which protects your income but is worth explaining in your client terms.

What does Professional add?

Professional includes everything in Free, plus:

• Session packages and bundles, where clients can see their remaining balance.
• Advanced analytics with a revenue breakdown.
• Removal of Merkora branding from your page.
• Higher limits: events up to 200 participants, 500 participant hours a month, 10 hours of recordings a month and 200 GB of storage.

For most coaches, session packages are the feature that forces the upgrade. If you sell a 6-session or 12-session package, which many coaches do (see our guide to hourly vs package pricing for coaches), you need Professional. Recordings are the other one: Free records nothing, so a group program with replays needs Professional from day one.

What does Merkora not mention?

The features page does not mention a mobile app, a community space, coaching contracts or e-signature, invoices, email marketing, or Google or Outlook calendar sync. That does not prove these are missing, but if any of them matter to you, ask Merkora before you pay. For 1:1 calls, Merkora says you use a video integration or your existing setup; built-in live streaming is for events and group programs.

What fees does Merkora charge beyond the plan?

Merkora charges no transaction or platform fee on any plan. The pricing page states that Merkora "earns $0 from your sales." Stripe's standard processing fees still apply, and no add-ons are listed.

The 0% fee is genuinely good. Some all-in-one platforms take a percentage of every sale on lower plans, which quietly costs more than the subscription once you sell a few packages a month. Merkora does not.

The unknowns are overages and seats. "500 participant hours a month" reads as each participant's time in a live session, so a 60-minute group call with 12 people would use about 12 participant hours. That is our reading of the term, not a definition from Merkora. Ask how they count it and what happens past the cap before you build a big cohort on it.

What does a coach actually pay for Merkora at three sizes?

In practice, almost every coach pays $79 a month for Merkora (or $29 as a founder), because the Free plan ends at your first sale and Professional has no client caps. What changes with size is the stack of other tools you pay for beside it.

The table below compares monthly plan prices for three example practices: a new coach with 5 clients, a growing coach with 15, and an established coach with 40. Prices are list prices as published in October 2026; processing fees are excluded because they depend on your volume and country.

Over two years, the founding rate is a strong deal: 12 months at $29 plus 12 at $39 comes to $816, against $1,896 for 24 months at the standard $79. A founder pays $348 in year one; a standard Professional customer pays $948.

The column that matters most is the last one. If Merkora covers booking, courses and live events but you still pay separately for e-signature contracts, an email marketing tool and a community app, your total stack cost is the Merkora plan plus those subscriptions. Add them up honestly before you compare platforms. Our package pricing calculator helps you check what those costs mean for your session prices.

What are the hidden costs and gotchas in Merkora pricing?

The biggest gotcha is that "Free" is not a free plan in the usual sense. It is free until your first paid sale, then you have 14 days before new bookings and sales pause. Here are the points worth reading twice.

1. Free ends when you start earning. Merkora says there is no time-limited trial, and the Free plan needs no credit card. But the moment a client pays you, the 14-day clock starts. Plan your upgrade for that moment rather than treating Free as a long-term home.
2. "Everything unlimited" sits beside real limits. The page says "Everything unlimited, no per-feature caps" while also listing caps on event size, participant hours, recordings and storage. Services, courses and products are unlimited; usage is not.
3. The founding rate is scarce and the count is hidden. Fifty spots, with no counter on the page. If you want it, decide quickly, and confirm in writing that the $39 "for life" price is locked to your account.
4. No annual plan. You cannot prepay a year for a discount. That keeps you flexible, but it also means the standard price never drops below $79 a month.
5. Recordings are capped at 10 hours a month on Professional. A weekly 90-minute group call plus a monthly workshop fits; two or three weekly groups with replays may not.
6. Credits instead of cash refunds. Cancellation and no-show enforcement issues wallet credits. Clear for you, but tell clients in your terms so it does not surprise them.
7. Stripe only. If some of your clients prefer to pay another way, you will need a workaround outside Merkora.
8. No reviews yet. With no public reviews, you cannot check how support handles billing questions or outages. Use the 30-day money-back window to test the full client journey with a real client or two.
9. Single page, single expert. Your public presence is one page at yourname.merkora.app. No team plan is listed, so adding an associate coach later may mean moving platforms.

Is Merkora worth it for your type of coaching?

Merkora is worth it for a solo coach who sells sessions, courses and live events from one page and grabs a founding spot. It is a weaker fit for coaches who deliver structured programs between sessions, need contracts and email marketing, or plan to grow a team.

New coaches testing an offer

The Free plan lets you set up services, courses and a page without a card, which is useful while you build. Expect to upgrade within two weeks of your first sale. If you can claim a founding spot, $29 a month is a low cost of entry. If you are just starting out, our guide for new coaches covers what to set up first.

Course and workshop sellers

Hosted video courses, digital downloads, lead magnets and built-in live streaming make Merkora reasonable for coaches who mainly sell content and events. Watch the 10-hour recording cap if you run many replays.

1:1 coaches selling packages

Session packages with visible remaining balance and credit-based cancellation policies are well suited to package coaching, but you need Professional for them. You will still want a coaching agreement signed before the first session; Merkora's features page does not mention e-signature, so budget for a separate tool or see our page on coaching contracts.

Program-based and health coaches

If your results come from what clients do between calls (habits, check-ins, weekly goals), Merkora's listed features do not cover that delivery layer. Health and wellness coaches should also remember that coaching is not medical treatment: stay in scope, and refer clients to a doctor or licensed professional for diagnosis, medication or symptoms that need clinical care.

Coaches growing into a team

No seats or team plan are listed. If you expect to add associate coaches within a year, a platform with team plans saves you a migration.

How does Merkora pricing compare with Coachful and other alternatives?

Merkora is one of the cheaper paid options at the founding rate and mid-priced at $79, with no client caps. We rank the options below on one login for the whole client journey, between-session delivery, total stack cost, and setup effort; on those criteria Coachful leads, and Merkora competes mainly on its founding price.

Paperbell is the comparison most coaches make. It is a single-plan, all-in admin tool for solo coaches, at $97 a month, with booking, packages, payments, contracts, a client portal and a simple website, but no courses, community or habit tracking. Merkora is cheaper and adds courses and live events; Paperbell adds contracts and a longer track record (Trustpilot 3.5 from 14 reviews). We cover the head-to-head in Merkora vs Paperbell and the single plan in Paperbell pricing.

Practice Better suits practitioners who need charting and telehealth, though evergreen programs, portal branding, a custom URL and SMS start on its Plus plan. Simply.Coach and CoachVantage both cap things on lower tiers; see Simply.Coach pricing and CoachVantage pricing. For a wider list, read our Merkora alternatives roundup or the comparison hub.

Why does Coachful come out ahead for most coaches?

Coachful covers what Merkora does (booking, payments, courses, live sessions) and the parts Merkora's features page does not mention: contracts, programs with habits and check-ins, community, a full website with funnels, and email. That means one login for you and one branded app for your clients, instead of a page plus three or four other subscriptions.

What Coachful is, and who it is for

Coachful is a coaching platform built in Tallinn, Estonia. One subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and Michelle, a built-in AI assistant. It is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions; for solo coaches growing into a small team; and for coaches replacing four to six tools. It holds a Trustpilot rating of 4.5 from 21 reviews.

Booking and payments

Booking pages handle availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, with two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook calendar sync. Sessions get built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links, plus email reminders, and SMS and WhatsApp reminders once messaging is enabled. You can sell paid sessions and session credits and ask intake questions at booking. See scheduling software for coaches.

Payments run through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account: one-time, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, refunds, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and Stripe Tax, with an invoice per transaction plus manual invoices. Coachful has charged a 0% platform fee since August 2026, so you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing. More on coaching payment software.

Here is a short walkthrough of invoices and payments inside Coachful:

Contracts and the client record

Coaching agreements with e-signature go out before the first call and are stored on the client record. That record also holds goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments, sessions and an AI briefing per client, with a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk.

Programs, courses and community

Multi-week programs carry weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks. Courses come with modules, lessons, drip and completion tracking, alongside downloads, videos, books, events and bundles, all delivered into the client's branded home and app. A community feed, group chat, direct messages and video events sit in the same place, and cohort groups are created automatically when someone enrolls in a program. More than 40 program templates and 48 course templates with quizzes give you a starting point.

Website, funnels and email

The section-based website builder includes a blog, custom domain, SEO settings and 30 designed homepage templates. Booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels support pixels and UTM tracking. Email lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits replace a separate email tool.

What Coachful does not do

Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and offers no BAA, so it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. There is no PayPal and no permanent plan at zero cost. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account. There is no Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop or Oura sync, no stock exercise videos, no Salesforce or HubSpot integration and no third-party plugins. The affiliate program tracks links, clicks, conversions and revenue, but payouts are recorded manually rather than sent by Coachful.

What Coachful costs

Plans are flat and monthly; lower plans cap the number of clients, Pro is unlimited, team plans add coach seats, and monthly plans cancel in one click. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients. Compare that with your full stack cost, not just the Merkora line.

Why Coachful stands out

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can open Create > We'll build it for you, describe what you need (a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence, form, link in bio, webinar and more), attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files, and the Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing.

Recent builds give a sense of scope. A menopause and midlife health coach starting from nothing got a five-page site in sage and cream, with every button leading to a free 20-minute consultation. A real-estate and money coach got a year-long cohort program with an application form, an eight-page site and a free nine-day bootcamp funnel. A leadership coach with a Squarespace renewal days away got one clean homepage with a repeated "talk with me" button. Read more about the white-glove service.

How to start

Start a free trial, request your build from the Create page, and your clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. If you leave, you can export your full client data as a ZIP. See how it fits in coaching software for coaches.

How can you save money on Merkora?

The single biggest saving is the founding-member rate, if spots remain. After that, the savings come from timing your upgrade and keeping the rest of your stack lean.

• Ask for a founding spot first. At $29 then $39, you save $600 in year one compared with $79. Confirm the lifetime price in writing.
• Build on Free, upgrade at your first sale. Set up your page, services and courses on Free with no card. Upgrade within the 14-day window so bookings never pause.
• Use the 30-day guarantee as a real test. Run your full client journey on Professional in the first month, including a package sale and a live event, and cancel inside the window if it does not fit.
• Count participant hours before launching groups. Estimate your monthly group time so you are not surprised by the 500-hour or 10-hour recording caps.
• Price for processing. Stripe fees come out of every payment. Build them into your package prices; our guide to raising package prices without losing clients can help.
• Audit the tools beside it. If you pay separately for contracts, email and a community, compare that total with an all-in-one plan. A coaching pricing audit walks you through it.

Frequently asked questions about Merkora pricing

How much does Merkora cost per month?

As listed in October 2026, Professional costs $79 a month. Founding members pay $29 a month for 12 months, then $39 a month for life, with 50 spots available. The Free plan costs $0 but only until your first paid sale.

Is Merkora really free?

Only until you earn. After your first paid sale, you have 14 days to move to Professional before new bookings and sales pause. Free also limits events to 10 participants, gives 25 participant hours a month and includes no recordings.

Does Merkora have a free trial?

No. Merkora states there is no time-limited trial; the Free plan, which needs no credit card, plays that role. Professional comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Does Merkora take a cut of my sales?

No. Merkora lists a 0% transaction fee on all plans and says it earns nothing from your sales. You still pay Stripe's standard processing fees, since payments go through your own Stripe account.

Does Merkora offer annual pricing?

No annual plan is shown on the pricing page. The founding-member rate is the only discount listed.

How many founding spots are left?

The page says there are 50 founder spots but does not show how many remain. Ask Merkora directly before you count on the $29 rate.

Are there reviews of Merkora?

We found no public reviews on Trustpilot when we checked in October 2026. The product appears new, so there is no reviewer sentiment to report yet either way.

Is Merkora a good Paperbell alternative?

It can be for a solo coach who wants courses and live events and can get the founding rate. Paperbell includes contracts and has a longer track record. Our Merkora vs Paperbell comparison goes deeper.

What is Coachful's white-glove build service?

It is a free service on every Coachful plan: you describe what you want built, such as a website, funnel, program or email sequence, attach references, and the team builds it inside your account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ads or ongoing marketing.

Can I move from Merkora to another platform later?

Merkora's features page says client history (bookings, purchases and wallet balance) can be exported to CSV. That gives you a starting file for a move; if you move to Coachful, clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding.