Every course platform charges you in two layers: a monthly subscription, and a percentage of each sale. The second layer is where the real difference hides. This guide separates platform transaction fees from payment processing fees, adds them up at three revenue levels, and shows where the cheaper plan stops being cheaper.
Starter, billed annually. Watch the fee: Starter takes 7.5% of every sale; Builder ($69/mo annual) takes 0%.
Start plan, billed annually ($109 monthly). No free plan — a 30-day trial instead.
Mover, billed annually — but Mover takes a 5% transaction fee. Shaker ($84/mo annual) removes it.
Basic, billed annually ($179 monthly). The most expensive entry here — priced as a full business suite.
| Teachable | Thinkific | Podia | Kajabi | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Solo instructors launching a first paid course | Course businesses that want no platform cut and room to add communities | Creators selling courses, downloads and memberships from one simple site | Established sellers who want marketing and courses in a single system |
| Free plan | No — 7-day trial | No — 30-day trial | No — free trial available | No — 30-day trial |
| Plans (annual billing, per month) | Starter $29 · Builder $69 · Growth $139 | Start $82 · Grow $164 · Expand $374 | Mover $42 · Shaker $84 · Earthquaker $150 | Basic $143 · Growth $199 · Pro $399 |
| Plans (monthly billing) | $39 · $89 · $189 | $109 · $219 · $499 | $49 · $99 · $179 | $179 · $249 · $499 |
| Platform transaction fee | 7.5% on Starter; 0% on Builder and up | 0% via Thinkific Payments. Using your own Stripe instead adds a gateway fee: 2% on Start, 1% on Grow | 5% on Mover; 0% on Shaker and Earthquaker | 0% via Kajabi Payments. Using your own processor adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, 0.5% on Pro (where Kajabi Payments is offered) |
| Payment processing (separate, always applies) | Teachable Payments: 2.9% + 30¢ per US card; 3.9% + 30¢ international | Thinkific Payments: from 2.9% (US); a further 0.5% applies to US/Canada sales where Thinkific handles sales tax | Your Stripe or PayPal account's standard rates (about 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards) | Kajabi Payments (US): 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.8% on Growth, 2.7% on Pro |
| Catalogue / audience limits | 5 / 10 / 50 published products. Paid-checkout students unlimited; free or imported students: first 100 included, then $0.50 per student per month | Unlimited courses; 10,000 current students on Start and Grow; video bandwidth caps by plan | 50 / 150 / unlimited products; email subscribers included: 100 / 500 / 1,000 | 5 / 50 / unlimited products; contacts: 2,500 / 25,000 / 100,000 |
| Standout included tools | Student mobile apps, automated sales-tax / VAT handling on Teachable Payments, upsells and cart recovery | Communities, memberships, live cohorts, completion certificates, assignments | Built-in website and blog, community, email marketing, downloads and webinars | Email marketing, funnels / pipelines, website, community, coaching, automations |
| Trade-off to know | The entry plan's 7.5% fee makes it the most expensive option past a few hundred dollars of monthly sales | Its own payments are not available to sellers based in every country — outside the supported list you connect your own Stripe and the gateway fee can apply | The 5% Mover fee, and an included email list that serious sellers will outgrow quickly | Highest subscription of the four; on fees alone it does not pay for itself — the value case is replacing separate website and email tools |
Prices checked November 2026, USD, before tax. Two different charges are shown separately on purpose: the platform transaction fee is the platform's own cut of your sale; payment processing is what the card networks and payment provider charge, and it applies on every platform and every plan. Older articles describing a permanent free plan for Teachable, Thinkific or Podia are out of date — all three retired their free tiers (Podia in 2024, Teachable in 2025, Thinkific in 2026). Plans change — always confirm on the vendor's site before you buy.
A subscription price alone doesn't tell you the cost of a platform, because two of these four charge a percentage of sales on their entry plans. The table below adds all three layers together — subscription (annual billing) + platform transaction fee + card processing — assuming an average order of $100, US cards, and processing at 2.9% + 30¢ per order ($3.20 per sale). Thinkific is modelled on Thinkific Payments and Kajabi on Kajabi Payments, so neither carries a platform fee in this model.
| Plan | At $500/mo sales (5 orders) | At $2,000/mo sales (20 orders) | At $10,000/mo sales (100 orders) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter ($29 + 7.5%) | $82.50 | $243 | $1,099 |
| Teachable Builder ($69 + 0%) | $85 | $133 | $389 |
| Podia Mover ($42 + 5%) | $83 | $206 | $862 |
| Podia Shaker ($84 + 0%) | $100 | $148 | $404 |
| Thinkific Start ($82 + 0%) | $98 | $146 | $402 |
| Kajabi Basic ($143 + 0%) | $159 | $207 | $463 |
Two break-even points fall straight out of the published numbers. On Teachable, Builder costs $40/month more than Starter on annual billing and removes a 7.5% fee — so Builder is cheaper in total once you sell more than about $533 a month ($40 ÷ 7.5%). On Podia, Shaker costs $42/month more than Mover and removes a 5% fee — the crossover is about $840 a month ($42 ÷ 5%). At $2,000 a month in sales, the "cheapest" entry plan on Teachable is actually the most expensive row in the table. Kajabi stays the priciest on fees alone at every level shown; its case rests on the tools bundled with the subscription, not on fee savings.
Model assumptions, so you can redo the maths with your own numbers: annual billing; every sale is a $100 order paid by a US card; processing 2.9% + $0.30. International cards, subscriptions and payment plans can add small extra processing percentages on some platforms, and Thinkific adds 0.5% to US/Canada sales where it remits sales tax. Your figures will differ — the structure (fixed + percentage + processing) won't.
Teachable is built around selling courses, coaching and downloads, with student apps on iOS and Android and checkout, tax calculation and remittance handled inside its own Teachable Payments. Starter ($29/mo billed annually, $39 monthly) allows 5 published products and takes a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale, on top of processing (2.9% + 30¢ for US cards, 3.9% + 30¢ for international cards). Builder ($69/mo annual, $89 monthly) raises the cap to 10 products, adds a custom domain, built-in email and the affiliate programme, and drops the transaction fee to 0%. Growth ($139/mo annual, $189 monthly) allows 50 products and 5 admins. One newer rule matters for anyone using a free mini-course as a lead magnet: students who enrol for free, via a 100% coupon, or by import are only included up to 100 per school — beyond that they cost $0.50 per student per month. Students who pay through Teachable's checkout are unlimited. There is no free plan; a 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee are the way in.
Thinkific pairs course selling with communities, memberships, live cohorts, certificates and assignments, which makes it the most "learning platform" shaped of the four. Start ($82/mo billed annually, $109 monthly) includes unlimited courses and a custom domain; Grow ($164/mo annual, $219 monthly) removes Thinkific branding and adds more communities, analytics and API access; Expand ($374/mo annual, $499 monthly) scales seats and communities further. When you sell through Thinkific Payments, there is no platform transaction fee — you pay processing (from 2.9% in the US), plus 0.5% on sales to US and Canadian buyers where Thinkific handles their sales tax. If you instead connect your own Stripe account, Thinkific charges a gateway fee of 2% on Start and 1% on Grow. Two limits to plan around: Start and Grow cap you at 10,000 current students, and Thinkific Payments is only available to sellers based in a defined list of countries (including the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong) — sellers based elsewhere, including Japan, use their own Stripe account. There is no free plan; a 30-day trial covers the whole platform. The site interface for students can be set to Japanese, one of 45 supported site languages.
Podia bundles a website and blog, course and download selling, a community space and email marketing into one deliberately simple dashboard — you give up deep customisation and get a store that is quick to assemble. Mover ($42/mo billed annually, $49 monthly) covers 50 products but takes a 5% transaction fee on every sale, on top of your Stripe or PayPal processing. Shaker ($84/mo annual, $99 monthly) covers 150 products, removes the transaction fee, and adds affiliate marketing, upsells and PayPal checkout. Earthquaker ($150/mo annual, $179 monthly) removes the product cap. Every plan allows unlimited customers and sales; the quieter limit is email — 100, 500 or 1,000 subscribers are included by plan, and a growing list means add-on costs or an upgrade. Payments run through your own Stripe or PayPal account, so there is no Podia-side payments programme to qualify for. Podia retired its free plan in 2024; a free trial is the current way to test it.
Kajabi is not just a course host: the subscription covers your website, email marketing, landing pages and funnels, community, coaching and courses in a single system, which is why it costs more than the other three combined at some tiers. Basic ($143/mo billed annually, $179 monthly) allows 5 products and 2,500 contacts. Growth ($199/mo annual, $249 monthly) allows 50 products and 25,000 contacts and adds the affiliate programme and advanced automations. Pro ($399/mo annual, $499 monthly) allows unlimited products and 100,000 contacts. On Kajabi Payments there is no platform transaction fee, and the processing rate itself improves with your plan in the US: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.8% on Growth, 2.7% on Pro. If you use your own payment processor instead, Kajabi adds 2% / 1% / 0.5% by plan — but only in countries where Kajabi Payments is offered; Kajabi's own documentation says no third-party fee applies where Kajabi Payments is unavailable. That matters because Kajabi Payments is limited to businesses based in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, the UAE and select European countries — a business based in Japan, for example, sells through its own Stripe or PayPal. There is no free plan, only a 30-day trial.
Your expected revenue decides which fee structure wins. Under a few hundred dollars a month, a low subscription with a percentage fee (Teachable Starter, Podia Mover) costs least. Past roughly $533/month (Teachable) or $840/month (Podia), the fee-free tier is cheaper in total. Run your own numbers through the model in the cost table above.
Catalogue sellers hit Teachable's and Podia's product caps. Audience builders hit Podia's included email subscribers and Kajabi's contact caps. Anyone running a free lead-magnet course should read Teachable's per-student charge for free enrolments past 100. The limit that binds is rarely the one on the pricing page's headline.
The 0% platform fee on Thinkific and Kajabi is tied to their own payment services, and both are limited to sellers based in specific countries. If your business is based outside the list, you'll connect your own Stripe or PayPal — check what fee, if any, applies in that setup, and who handles sales tax and VAT.
None of the four offers a permanent free plan any more, so the trial is your test bench. Build one real lesson, set a price, and run a test purchase all the way through checkout on your top two candidates. The fee table tells you the cost; the trial tells you whether you'll actually enjoy selling there.
They are two separate charges on the same sale. The transaction fee is the course platform's own percentage — 7.5% on Teachable Starter, 5% on Podia Mover, 0% on the other plans listed here. The processing fee is charged by the payment provider for moving the money (typically 2.9% + 30¢ for a US card) and applies on every platform, including the ones advertising "0% fees". A "no transaction fees" claim never means a sale costs you nothing.
Not on a permanent free plan — not any more. Podia removed its free plan in 2024, Teachable in 2025 and Thinkific in 2026, and Kajabi has not offered one. All four provide a free trial (7 days on Teachable, 30 days on Thinkific and Kajabi, a trial on Podia), after which a paid subscription is required to keep selling. Articles that describe a free tier with a higher transaction fee are describing the old pricing.
It depends on the plan and your sales volume. Teachable's entry subscription is lower ($29 vs $82 a month on annual billing), but Starter takes 7.5% of every sale, while Thinkific takes no platform fee on sales through Thinkific Payments. Using the cost model on this page, Teachable Builder (0% fee) totals $133 at $2,000/month in sales against Thinkific Start's $146 — close, and the order flips at other volumes and with monthly billing. Card processing applies on both. Do the arithmetic with your own expected sales rather than trusting either headline price.
It differs, and it matters if you sell internationally. Teachable calculates, collects and remits sales tax and VAT on sales through Teachable Payments. Thinkific does the same for US and Canadian sales on Thinkific Payments (the 0.5% addition on those sales covers this), with an opt-in calculation service for the UK and EU. On Podia, and on Kajabi outside its payments programme, tax handling is largely your responsibility — check the vendor's current documentation for your country before you launch.
Course content itself can be written in Japanese on all four platforms. For the storefront around it: Thinkific lets you set the student-facing site language to Japanese, and Teachable Payments supports Japan-based sellers including local payment methods such as Konbini. Thinkific Payments and Kajabi Payments are not available to businesses based in Japan, so Japan-based sellers there connect their own Stripe or PayPal account. None of the four offers Japanese-language human support as far as their public documentation shows — support is in English. The Japanese version of this guide goes into more detail.
Because this guide is based on publicly available vendor information, not hands-on testing. We have not sold courses on these platforms for this comparison, so we publish no earnings claims, no invented user ratings and no first-person impressions. Every judgment on this page — for example, that an entry plan becomes expensive past a certain sales volume — is arithmetic on the published prices and fees, shown next to the claim so you can verify it.