Skillest vs CoachNow for Coaches: Which Should You Build Your Business On?
Posted by
Brian Park, Skillest CEO
If you coach golf and you’re choosing a platform, Skillest and CoachNow look similar from the outside (both let you send video feedback to students) but they answer different business questions.
CoachNow is a private workspace for the clients you already have. Skillest is a suite of tools that help you coach clients you already have and also grow your client base, increase your global presence, and automate many tedious functions in your business. This article compares them from the coach’s side: economics, what each does, and which fits your goal.
Quick verdict (TL;DR)
CoachNow gives coaches private workspaces for video analysis, annotations, messaging, and progress logs with the clients they already have. No marketplace, no new-student discovery, no marketing automation, no ratings and reviews, no booking for in-person lessons, and no courses.
Skillest offers a breadth of tools to run your coaching business, including a booking calendar for in-person lessons, the ability to sell courses, offer remote coaching subscriptions, collect ratings and reviews from clients, video analysis tools, messaging, and AI summaries of lessons all in one tool.
If you are looking for one platform that can replace 5 different apps you are paying for to run your business, Skillest is the right choice.
You can use both. Some coaches who previously used CoachNow switch to Skillest and use both for some time until they’ve migrated all of their clients over to Skillest.
What each one is
Skillest is an online coaching marketplace and a suite of business and operations tools with a focus on golf. Golfers browse 1,000+ active coaches by sport, location, language, specialty, and price, then hire one for video-based lessons. As a coach you create a profile and you can sell a variety of services ranging from in-person coaching, to online lessons, to hybrid ( in-person and online ), to courses so students can watch videos and learn on their own.
Skillest makes it easier for coaches to take a client who is interested in lessons and automating the process from interest to purchase. For example Skillest allows you to collect ratings and reviews from both online and in-person coaching which allows you to gain 3rd party credibility and social proof as you build a global presence.
Skillest has many time saving features like AI summaries of every lesson as well as AI-enabled Skeleton tracking. Although Skillest is known as an online marketplace, you may be surprised to find out that Skillest delivers twice as many in-person lessons as online lessons. Coaches love the time saving tools Skillest offers so that they can provide lessons summaries and drills to their clients for their in-person coaching.
Skillest was founded in 2015 in Melbourne and now headquartered in San Francisco Bay Area.
CoachNow is coach-side software, a private workspace. You create a “space” for each client, they post videos and messages, and you reply with annotated video, voice notes, drills, and progress logs. One area where CoachNow stands out is they support academies so multiple coaches can work with multiple students. Founded 2012 by Spencer Dennis; based in Tempe, Arizona. There is no public coach directory: you bring your own clients. CoachNow also introduced AI-enabled Skeleton Tracking inside the video analysis suite.
The core differences: discovery and organization
This is the whole decision in one line. CoachNow has no marketplace; Skillest does.
- With CoachNow, every student in your account is one you recruited yourself, through your facility, your network, your reputation. CoachNow stores and streamlines those relationships for you.
- With Skillest, golfers who have no coach can come to the platform to find one. If your profile fits what they want, they hire you. That’s a lead-generation channel that CoachNow doesn’t offer.
A second difference is that CoachNow organizes the learning and coaching experiences into workspaces that feel like a Whatsapp conversation. Skillest has both a messaging interface but also a Lessons interface. When a student submits a video, it is analyzed along with drills, messages, AI summaries, and organized separately into it’s own lesson.
This organization makes it easier for golfers to find an old lesson and review it versus having to go through a long conversation to find the content they are looking for. This also makes it easier for coaches to find lessons with clients and review past progress.
Economics compared
| Skillest | CoachNow | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Marketplace + lesson platform | Private coaching software |
| Coach cost | Monthly subscription for tools | Monthly subscription for tools |
| Per-lesson revenue share | 0% in-person / 1% hybrid / 13% online | None |
| New-student discovery | Yes (marketplace) | No |
| Who sets lesson price | You | You |
| Best for | Growing your business, automating it, and servicing your existing roster. | Servicing an existing roster |
The honest read: Both services have monthly subscription fees to use the platforms. CoachNow takes no cut of your lessons, because it’s a pure tool to communicate with clients. You aren’t selling lessons through the platform. Skillest has a revenue share but it depends on what you are selling. 0% for in-person lessons and lesson packages. 1% for subscriptions that include in-person lessons. 13% for online lesson packages and subscriptions. You’re paying mainly for customer acquisition, and almost entirely on the online side.
Skillest’s selling point is if you are a coach and want to replace 5 different apps with 1, Skillest can do that for you: Video analysis, messaging, billing, scheduling, marketing automation all in one place.
Tooling: what separates the tools
Both platforms do the core async video-coaching job well: slow-motion, frame-by-frame, drawing, voice-over, side-by-side comparison, drills, and a place to store a student’s history.
- CoachNow uses a training space format and has video analysis tools and messaging.
- Skillest emphasizes organized lessons and drills over a training space. Skillest also offers tools for calendar booking, marketing automation, ratings and reviews, courses and more.
Which should you pick?
- “My calendar is full, I just want a simple tool that I can use to message and share video analysis with my clients.” CoachNow is purpose built to manage relationships with clients you already have. Skillest also does the same but offers more ways to keep lessons organized.
- “I have hours to fill or want to grow beyond my area.” Skillest. The marketplace is the lead channel CoachNow doesn’t have.
- “I want to keep my in-person roster organized AND acquire new remote students.” Use both, or use Skillest for both jobs (it handles existing-client video lessons too). You can use Skillest to sell and book your in-person coaching in addition to your online coaching. See Skillest for in-person coaches.
Try it
The best way to learn about a platform is to try it. Most offer monthly options including free trial periods. So try taking a look under the hood and see what each platform offers and which one seems like the best fit for your business.
FAQ
Is Skillest or CoachNow better for a golf coach?
Different jobs. CoachNow works if you only need a private tool for clients you already have. Skillest is better if you want new students and one tool to also interact with existing clients: it’s a marketplace and a full suite of tools to run your coaching business.
Does CoachNow bring you new students?
No. CoachNow is a private workspace for your existing clients. There’s no public directory or marketplace; every student is one you recruited yourself. Skillest is the platform with the discovery channel.
How much does each cost a coach?
Pricing is different and constantly changes so you should check the pricing for each platform. At the time of publication, Skillest charges a $59/mo for a coach subscription and you get video analysis tools, calendar booking tools ( like Accuity ), the ability to sell online and in-person coaching, a platform to sell courses, the ability to broadcast messages to your client, and marketing automation tools.
Can I use Skillest and CoachNow together?
Yes. A common setup: CoachNow for your existing clients that you aren’t able or willing to migrate over to your new tool. Migrate your coaching business to Skillest and use Skillest for all in-person and online coaching that you do.
Does Skillest take a commission and CoachNow doesn’t?
Broadly yes, but Skillest’s share is tiered. If you use Skillest’s calendar booking tool to sell in-person lessons, you won’t pay any additional fees. There are fees for selling online lessons through the marketplace ( 13% of the total transaction ) and for selling hybrid lessons that combine online and in-person together ( 1% of the total transaction ).
I have a full in-person book. Is there any reason to use Skillest?
Skillest has many automation tools to save you time. You can use Skillest to record your in-person lessons and Skillest will automatically generate AI summaries of the lesson so you can go to your last lesson with your client and read what the lesson was about. Skillest also lets you collect ratings and reviews from your clients which will help you build a global brand. Skillest is a great tool to future proof your business.