Every platform advertises one number — a monthly price, or a flat percentage. What you actually pay is three numbers added together: the subscription, the platform's transaction fee, and payment processing. This guide adds them up for four platforms creators shortlist when they search for a Teachable alternative, and shows the sales level where each fee model stops being the cheap one.
Starter, billed annually ($39/mo monthly). Carries a 7.5% transaction fee — the 0%-fee Builder plan is $69/mo billed annually.
Start plan, billed annually ($109/mo monthly). No free plan — 30-day trial.
Mover, billed annually ($49/mo monthly), with a 5% transaction fee. The 0%-fee Shaker plan is $84/mo billed annually.
No subscription and no plans. You pay per sale: 10% + $0.50 on direct sales, 30% on Discover marketplace sales.
| Teachable | Thinkific | Podia | Gumroad | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Course sellers who want checkout, tax handling and upsells built in | Structured courses, cohorts, certification and training businesses | Solo creators who want store + courses + email in one dashboard | A first download or course, sold from a link, with zero setup cost |
| Fee model | Subscription + % fee on the entry plan only | Subscription only (0% platform fee with its own payments) | Subscription + % fee on the entry plan only | No subscription; per-sale % + fixed fee |
| Free way to sell | None — free plan removed in 2025; 7-day trial | None — free plan removed; 30-day trial | None — free plan removed in 2024; 14-day trial | Yes — $0/month, you only pay when you sell |
| Entry paid plan | Starter $29/mo billed annually ($39 monthly), 7.5% fee, 5 products | Start $82/mo billed annually ($109 monthly), 0% fee*, unlimited courses | Mover $42/mo billed annually ($49 monthly), 5% fee, 50 products | No plans — 10% + $0.50 per direct sale |
| First 0%-fee plan | Builder $69/mo billed annually ($89 monthly), 10 products | Start — 0% on all paid plans* | Shaker $84/mo billed annually ($99 monthly), 150 products | Never on a plan; direct-sale rate drops to 5% + $0.50 only after $20,000 of sales in a month |
| Payment processing | On top of the above: standard card processing (about 2.9% + $0.30 for US cards) | On top: about 2.9% + $0.30 via Thinkific Payments (US); a 0.5% sales-tax solution fee can apply on taxed sales | On top: Stripe / PayPal standard fee (2.9% + 30¢ per Podia's FAQ) | Card processing (2.9% + $0.30) is charged on top for direct sales per Gumroad's help pages; the 30% Discover rate includes processing |
| Selling from Japan | Japan is supported by Teachable Payments (bank payouts, tax handling included) | Thinkific Payments does not cover Japan — you connect your own Stripe / PayPal instead | Works through your own Stripe account; Stripe operates in Japan | Japan is on Gumroad's bank-payout list (local bank account, local currency) |
| Trade-off to know | The cheap Starter plan is the expensive one past ~$533/mo in sales (see fee math) | Highest entry subscription here; the old Basic plan was discontinued for new customers in 2026, so older reviews quote prices that no longer exist | The 5% Mover fee makes the "cheap" plan costly past ~$840/mo in sales | "10%" is really 10% + $0.50 + processing — about 13.7% on a $100 sale, and far more on cheap products |
*Thinkific's 0% applies when you use Thinkific Payments. If you connect your own Stripe or PayPal instead, a gateway fee applies in supported regions: 2% on Start, 1% on Grow, 0.5% on Expand. Prices are USD, before tax, as published by the vendors in November 2026. Plans and fees change — Teachable, Thinkific and Podia all restructured pricing in 2024–2026 — so always confirm the current figures on the vendor's site before you buy.
Headline fees hide two things: payment processing is charged on top almost everywhere, and fixed per-sale amounts punish low prices. Below is the arithmetic on published prices — no estimates beyond the standard US card processing rate of 2.9% + $0.30, which every route pays in some form. Direct sales only; annual billing for subscriptions.
| Route | Platform fee | Processing | You keep per sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter | $7.50 (7.5%) | $3.20 | $89.30 |
| Teachable Builder / Growth | $0 | $3.20 | $96.80 |
| Thinkific Start (Thinkific Payments) | $0 | $3.20 | $96.80 |
| Podia Mover | $5.00 (5%) | $3.20 | $91.80 |
| Podia Shaker / Earthquaker | $0 | $3.20 | $96.80 |
| Gumroad — your own link | $10.50 (10% + $0.50) | $3.20 | $86.30 |
| Gumroad — via Discover | $30.00 (30%, processing included) | included | $70.00 |
| Route (monthly sub) | At $1,000/mo sales (10 × $100) | At $5,000/mo (50 × $100) | At $20,000/mo (200 × $100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter ($29) | Keep $864 | Keep $4,436 | Keep $17,831 |
| Teachable Builder ($69) | Keep $899 | Keep $4,771 | Keep $19,291 |
| Thinkific Start ($82) | Keep $886 | Keep $4,758 | Keep $19,278 |
| Podia Mover ($42) | Keep $876 | Keep $4,548 | Keep $18,318 |
| Podia Shaker ($84) | Keep $884 | Keep $4,756 | Keep $19,276 |
| Gumroad direct ($0) | Keep $863 | Keep $4,315 | Keep $17,260 |
The break-even points are the useful part. Teachable Builder costs $40/mo more than Starter on annual billing and removes a 7.5% fee, so it becomes the cheaper plan at about $533/month in sales (about $667 on monthly billing). Podia Shaker costs $42/mo more than Mover and removes a 5% fee, so it wins from about $840/month (about $1,000 on monthly billing). And Gumroad's $0 subscription stops being the cheapest route at roughly $657/month in sales of a $100 product, where a 0%-fee subscription plan starts paying for itself. Below those lines, pay-per-sale and entry plans genuinely are cheaper — that is what they are for.
Low prices change the picture again. Gumroad's fixed $0.50 is 0.5% of a $100 sale but 5% of a $10 one: on a $10 download the platform fee alone is $1.50 (15%), and about $2.09 (20.9%) once card processing is added. Percentage-only entry plans have the same shape in reverse — a 7.5% fee is 7.5% at any price. Price point, not just sales volume, decides which model fits.
Assumptions: direct sales only, US card processing at 2.9% + $0.30, annual-billing subscription prices, no taxes, refunds or currency conversion. Thinkific Payments can add a 0.5% sales-tax solution fee on sales where tax is assessed; Gumroad's reduced 5% + $0.50 rate applies only to direct sales made after your paid sales pass $20,000 within the same calendar month, so the $20,000 row above is calculated at the standard rate. Your real figures will differ — the structure won't.
Teachable is a hosted school for courses, coaching and digital downloads, with checkout, upsells, bundles and an integrated affiliate program for your own products. Its current plans are Starter ($29/mo billed annually, $39/mo monthly) with 5 products and a 7.5% transaction fee, Builder ($69/mo billed annually, $89/mo monthly) with 10 products and 0% fees, and Growth ($139/mo billed annually, $189/mo monthly) with 50 products, certificates and branding removal; a Custom tier is quote-based. There is no free plan — Teachable removed it in June 2025 — only a 7-day trial with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The 0% fee applies when you use Teachable Payments, which also handles US sales tax and global VAT/GST for you; standard card processing still applies on top. If Teachable Payments is not available in your country, you can connect your own Stripe account instead, but then the automated tax handling does not come with it.
Thinkific is built around the learning experience itself: unlimited courses with quizzes and graded assignments, completion certificates, live lessons and cohorts, communities, memberships and digital downloads. Its current self-serve plans are Start ($82/mo billed annually, $109/mo monthly), Grow ($164/mo billed annually, $219/mo monthly) — which removes Thinkific branding and adds API access and invoicing — and Expand ($374/mo billed annually, $499/mo monthly); Thinkific Plus is custom-priced for organizations. Self-serve plans include up to 10,000 active learners. There is no free plan, and the long-running Basic plan was discontinued for new customers in 2026 — many older reviews still quote its $36–49 pricing, which you can no longer buy. All paid plans charge 0% platform fees when you use Thinkific Payments; if you connect your own Stripe or PayPal, a gateway fee applies in supported regions (2% on Start, 1% on Grow, 0.5% on Expand).
Podia puts your website, online store, courses, digital downloads, coaching, webinars, community and email marketing in a single dashboard, which is its whole pitch: fewer tools to stitch together. Plans are Mover ($42/mo billed annually, $49/mo monthly) with 50 products and a 5% transaction fee, Shaker ($84/mo billed annually, $99/mo monthly) with 150 products, 0% fees, plus affiliate marketing, upsells and PayPal / Zapier integrations, and Earthquaker ($150/mo billed annually, $179/mo monthly) with unlimited products. Every plan includes email marketing up to a subscriber allowance (100 / 500 / 1,000 included). There is no free plan — Podia removed it in October 2024 — but there is a 14-day trial. Payments run through your own Stripe or PayPal account, so the processor's fee (2.9% + 30¢, per Podia's FAQ) applies on every sale, on every plan.
Gumroad is the simplest way to sell a digital product that exists in this comparison: upload a file or build a simple course or membership, set a price, share the link. There are no plans and no monthly fee. In exchange, Gumroad takes 10% + $0.50 on every sale through your profile or direct links, and 30% when a new customer finds you through its Discover marketplace. Per Gumroad's help pages, card processing (2.9% + $0.30) is charged on top of the direct-sale fee, while the 30% Discover rate includes processing. Once your paid sales pass $20,000 in a calendar month, new direct sales that month are charged 5% + $0.50 instead. Since January 2025 Gumroad acts as merchant of record, collecting and remitting sales tax and VAT worldwide — a genuine administrative saving that is part of what the percentage pays for. You can also let other creators promote your products through Gumroad's built-in affiliate features.
Most comparisons are written as if the seller is in the US. If you are based in Japan, the decisive difference is not the headline fee — it is whether the platform's own payment system will onboard you at all.
Teachable is the clearest case: Japan is one of the 41 countries supported by Teachable Payments (per Teachable's support documentation, checked November 2026), so a Japan-based creator can use the built-in gateway, receive bank payouts on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, and get the automated tax handling. Japanese students can pay by card including JCB, and locally familiar options such as Konbini appear for Japan-based schools.
Thinkific is the opposite case: Japan is not on the Thinkific Payments supported-country list (which covers the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and a set of other countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand). A Japan-based creator sells by connecting their own Stripe or PayPal account. Whether the own-gateway fee (2% on Start, 1% on Grow) is charged depends on region — Thinkific's published material ties it to the US, Canada, the UK and the EU — so confirm what your dashboard shows before assuming the 0% headline applies to you.
Podia has no country gate of its own in its public materials: checkout runs through your own Stripe or PayPal account, and Stripe operates in Japan, so a Japan-based creator can sell and receive payouts through a Japanese Stripe account. The platform fee logic (5% on Mover, 0% from Shaker) is the same as anywhere.
Gumroad lists Japan among the countries where it pays out to a local bank account in local currency, and as merchant of record it handles the sales tax and VAT side of cross-border sales. Payouts require a minimum balance, and the exact threshold and schedule for Japan should be confirmed in your account, as Gumroad has changed these terms over time.
The same percentages in this guide apply to a course priced in yen — on a ¥15,000 course, a 7.5% platform fee is ¥1,125 and a 10% fee is ¥1,500 before processing and fixed per-sale amounts. What differs by platform is the payment plumbing above, not the arithmetic.
Under a few hundred dollars a month, fixed subscriptions dominate: Gumroad's pay-per-sale model or an entry plan costs least. The crossover points in the fee-math section ($533 / $657 / $840 a month) are where that stops being true.
Subscription + platform fee + processing, at your price point. A "0% fee" plan with an $82 subscription and a "$0" platform taking 13.7% of every sale can both be the expensive option — at different sales levels.
Can you actually use the platform's built-in payments from where you live, and get paid to a local bank account? For Japan-based creators this alone separates Teachable (supported) from Thinkific (own Stripe required). Confirm before building your course, not after.
A single download or simple course: Gumroad or Podia. A course business with upsells and affiliates: Teachable or Podia Shaker. Structured learning with assignments, certificates and cohorts: Thinkific. Then re-run the fee math at the sales level you expect in six months, not today's.
It depends on your sales volume, which is the point of the fee math above. At very low volume, Gumroad costs least because there is no subscription — you keep about $863 of your first $1,000 in $100-course sales. From roughly $533/month, Teachable's own Builder plan (0% fees) is cheaper than its Starter plan; from about $840/month, Podia Shaker beats Podia Mover; and at $20,000/month the 0%-fee subscription plans keep roughly $19,300 of $20,000, against about $17,260 on Gumroad. "Cheapest" is a sales-level question, not a platform question.
Because the platform fee and the card fee pay different parties. The platform fee is the vendor's revenue; the processing fee (typically 2.9% + $0.30 for US cards) goes to the payment processor that moves the money. Teachable, Thinkific and Podia state this split openly. Gumroad's pricing page headline (10% + $0.50) does not itemize it, but its help pages treat card processing as an additional charge on direct sales; the 30% Discover rate is the exception, with processing included.
Not for selling. Teachable removed its free plan in June 2025, Thinkific replaced its free plan with a 30-day trial (and discontinued the Basic plan for new customers in 2026), and Podia removed its free plan in October 2024, leaving a 14-day trial. Gumroad is the only zero-subscription route left, and it charges the highest per-sale rate of the four in exchange. Any guide still recommending a "free plan" from the other three is out of date.
Yes, with different plumbing per platform — see the Japan section above. Teachable Payments supports Japan directly. Podia works through your own Stripe account, and Stripe operates in Japan. Gumroad pays out to Japanese bank accounts. Thinkific is the constrained one: its built-in payments do not cover Japan, so you connect your own Stripe or PayPal and should confirm which gateway fees apply to your account.
Marketplaces sell a different thing: they bring an audience, and take a much larger share of each sale plus control over pricing in exchange. The four platforms here are hosted stores — you bring your own audience and keep a larger, predictable share. Which trade is right depends on whether you have an audience; nothing in this guide's fee math applies to marketplace revenue shares.
Because this guide is compiled from the vendors' published specifications and pricing, not from hands-on testing. We have not sold courses on these platforms for this review. Where a judgment appears — for example, that an entry plan becomes the expensive option past a certain sales level — it is arithmetic on the published prices, shown in full in the fee-math section so you can judge for yourself.