Independent review · Checked 14 August 2026
Teachable: the transaction fee is the whole decision
We have no affiliate relationship with Teachable, and nothing on this page earns us a commission from Teachable. That is not true of every tool named below: further down we suggest Systeme.io as an alternative for some readers, and Systeme.io does pay us. It is flagged again at that point.
Teachable is one of the two best-known course platforms, with the largest third-party ecosystem in the category — more templates, more integrations, more tutorials than the other course platforms we cover. If you want a course platform where every problem has already been solved publicly by someone, this is it.
Its pricing has one feature that matters more than everything else combined: the cheaper plans charge a percentage of every sale. Get that decision wrong and you'll pay hundreds of dollars a year for nothing.
A note on the numbers below
Teachable restructured its pricing in mid-2025, and the plan names and prices reported by third-party sites genuinely disagree with each other — partly because the change was recent, partly because several of the sites reporting on it sell competing platforms.
What follows is the structure, which is well corroborated. The exact figure attached to your tier is not something we'll state with confidence we don't have. Check teachable.com/pricing before you commit, and treat any number you read elsewhere — including a range below — as needing confirmation.
- Best for
- Course creators who want the biggest integration ecosystem
- Free plan
- Removed in 2025 — short trial instead
- Entry tier
- Roughly USD $29–$39/mo annual, with a transaction fee
- 0% fee tier
- Roughly USD $89–$119/mo
- Watch for
- The fee stacks on top of Stripe's own charge
How the fee works, and when it stops making sense
Teachable's entry plan charges a percentage of each sale — reported between 5% and 7.5% depending on tier and source — on top of your normal payment processing (around 2.9% + 30¢ through Stripe). So your real cost per sale on the cheap plan is roughly 8–10%.
The arithmetic that matters:
| Monthly course revenue | What the fee costs you | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| $0–$500 | Under $40 | Entry plan is fine |
| ~$700–$1,000 | Roughly the gap to the 0% tier | Break-even. Upgrade. |
| $2,000+ | $100–$150 a month | The cheap plan is now the expensive one |
Somewhere around $700–$1,000 a month in course sales, the fee costs more than upgrading to the fee-free tier. Past that, every month you stay on the cheaper plan is money handed over for nothing. Work out your own break-even from the actual current prices — but know that the break-even exists and arrives sooner than most people expect.
The free plan is gone
Teachable removed its free tier during the 2025 restructure. The old one allowed one course and a small number of students, and charged around $1 + 10% per sale — so it was never really free for anyone selling.
What replaces it is a short free trial on paid plans, notably briefer than Thinkific's. If you want to build a course before paying anything, this is not the platform.
Who it suits
- Creators who need specific third-party integrations — Teachable's ecosystem is the largest in the category by a clear margin
- Anyone selling into multiple countries who wants tax handling done for them, which Teachable does better than most
- Course businesses running their own affiliate program, which is built in
- People who value having every question already answered in a public forum somewhere
Where it's weaker
- Transaction fees on lower tiers, stacking on top of payment processing
- No free plan since 2025, and a short trial compared to competitors
- Pricing restructured recently and reported inconsistently — harder to plan around than it should be
- Product and student caps on middle tiers that don't always match the price
- Existing customers were moved off legacy pricing during the restructure, which was not popular
Probably not for you if
- You're selling meaningful volume and would stay on the entry tier — that fee is pure loss
- You want to build and launch before paying anything
- Predictable costs matter more than ecosystem size
- Your course is a side offer rather than the main product — an all-in-one platform's course module may be enough
Questions
Is there a free plan?
Not any more. Teachable removed it in 2025. There's a short free trial on paid plans instead — shorter than Thinkific's. Neither of the two big course platforms now offers a permanent free tier.
How much is the transaction fee really costing me?
Take your monthly course revenue and multiply by the fee percentage on your plan. Compare that to the price gap to the next tier up. Around $700–$1,000/month in sales, upgrading becomes cheaper than staying — and the gap widens fast after that.
Teachable or Thinkific?
The clearest split: Thinkific charges 0% platform fees on every plan; Teachable charges a percentage on its lower tiers. If you're selling anything meaningful, that favours Thinkific on cost. Teachable answers back with a bigger integration ecosystem and better tax automation. Below roughly $130/month in sales the fee barely matters and Teachable's cheaper entry price wins.
Do I need a course platform at all?
Not necessarily. If your course is a simple video series sold to your own list, an all-in-one like Systeme.io handles it inside a subscription you may already have. Disclosure: Systeme.io pays us a commission and Teachable pays us nothing — so this is the one suggestion on the page we stand to gain from, and it deserves more scepticism than the rest of it. Course platforms earn their place when the learning experience is the product — quizzes, certificates, drip content, completion tracking — and if that's your course, the cheaper route we'd earn from is the wrong one.
Why are the prices on this page vague?
Because Teachable changed them recently and reliable sources disagree on the current figures. We'd rather say so than print a number we can't stand behind — see how we choose. The fee structure is solid; the exact tier price needs checking on their site.
If it fits, start here
Before signing up, do one calculation: your expected monthly course revenue multiplied by the entry plan's fee. If that number is bigger than the gap to the fee-free tier, skip the cheap plan entirely. That single sum is worth more than any feature comparison.
This link earns us nothing. We have no affiliate relationship with Teachable.
Read next: Teachable vs Thinkific — the comparison people actually search for, and the transaction fee decides most of it. Or Kajabi vs Teachable, if you're weighing a focused course platform against full consolidation.