Teachable vs Thinkific: costs, fees and limits for a small course business

Teachable and Thinkific are two of the longest-running course platforms, and they’re the pair people compare most: in our check of Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo search suggestions on 29 October 2026, typing “teachable vs” suggested Thinkific first or second, and “thinkific vs” suggested Teachable first on every engine. Both host video courses, take payments and give students an app. They differ most in how they charge you: Teachable has a cheaper entry plan with a per-sale fee, while Thinkific charges more each month and has no Thinkific transaction fee.

This guide is for someone with a few hours a week who sells, or is about to sell, one or a few courses. It compares what you’d pay in a real year, what the entry plans leave out, and when it’s worth moving up a plan.

How this comparison was made: every price, limit and fee below comes from each platform’s own pricing page and FAQ, captured on 29 October 2026 (saved copies are kept with our records). We haven’t built the same course on both, so this is a comparison of published plans and terms, not a hands-on usability test. Prices are in US dollars, as both pages list them.

The quick answer

• Teachable is cheaper to start. Starter is US$39 a month, or US$29 a month billed yearly, but it takes a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale and allows 5 products.
• Thinkific costs more but takes no Thinkific fee. Start is US$109 a month, or US$82 a month billed yearly, with unlimited courses, memberships, payment plans, quizzes and certificates included.
• Teachable’s Builder plan (US$89 a month, or US$69 billed yearly) removes the 7.5% fee when you use Teachable Payments, and it’s still cheaper than Thinkific Start.
• Neither has a free plan. Teachable has a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee; Thinkific has a 30-day free trial.

Entry plans side by side

Checked on teachable.com/pricing and thinkific.com/pricing on 29 October 2026. Thinkific’s yearly figure is US$109 × 12 less the US$330 a year Thinkific says you save by billing annually.

A Teachable “product” is any published course, coaching offer or digital download; each counts as one, however many videos it holds. Memberships, bundles and unpublished drafts don’t count. Thinkific’s “current students” means people who have unexpired access to at least one course right now, not everyone who has ever enrolled.

Teachable

Teachable describes itself as a place to “launch, sell, and scale” an online education business, with courses, coaching and downloads sold through its own checkout.

Plans

• Starter: US$39 a month, or US$29 a month billed yearly (save US$120 a year). 5 products, AI course tools, iOS and Android student apps, global payments and taxes, upsells and cart recovery, 7.5% transaction fee, 1 admin.
• Builder: US$89 a month, or US$69 a month billed yearly (save US$240). 10 products, 0% transaction fee, an affiliate program for your products, real-time support, 1 admin.
• Growth: US$189 a month, or US$139 a month billed yearly (save US$600). 50 products, course certificates, removes Teachable branding, imported students, custom admin permissions, free subtitles and translations, 5 admins.
• Custom: priced on a call, for high-volume schools, with a success manager, migration help and international tax handling.

Teachable’s FAQ says the 0% fee on Builder, Growth and Custom applies when you use Teachable Payments, and that standard payment processing fees may still apply. Every paid plan has unlimited students and up to 1 TB of video storage. Teachable’s pricing page also notes that you can cancel at any time, effective at the end of the billing cycle.

Strengths for a small course business

• Lowest entry price of the two, by a wide margin if you bill yearly.
• Selling a course, a coaching offer and a download together is fine on Starter, up to 5 products.
• No cap on students on any plan.

Watch out for

• The 7.5% fee on Starter adds up quickly. On US$5,000 of sales in a year it’s US$375, more than Starter’s yearly subscription.
• Certificates and removing the branding need Growth, the US$139-a-month (yearly) plan.
• The product limits are low on Starter and Builder if you plan lots of small offers.

→ See Teachable’s plans

Thinkific

Thinkific is a learning platform first: its plans lead with course building, cohorts, quizzes and certificates, and it pitches itself at businesses that “can’t afford to outgrow their platform”.

Plans

• Start: US$109 a month, or US$82 a month billed yearly (save US$330). Unlimited courses; video lessons with discussions; live cohorts and coaching with unlimited Zoom sessions and bookable calendars; quizzes, assignments and certificates; bundles, upsells and payment plans; memberships and subscriptions; a custom domain; 1 community; 2 admins.
• Grow: US$219 a month, or US$164 a month billed yearly (save US$660). Removes Thinkific branding, 3 communities, bulk enrolment and imports, B2B sales and invoicing, phone and priority chat support, API access and webhooks, engagement reports, bulk email to students, 6 admins.
• Expand: US$499 a month, or US$374 a month billed yearly (save US$1,500). 10 communities with 200 spaces, 1,000 GB a month of video bandwidth, 15 admins.
• Plus: priced on a call.

Start, Grow and Expand all allow 10,000 current students. Video bandwidth is 200 GB a month on Start and 400 GB on Grow. A branded mobile app is a paid add-on.

Payments and fees

Thinkific’s FAQ says its own processor, Thinkific Payments, charges in line with other processors at 2.9%, and that creators on Thinkific Payments don’t pay a third-party gateway fee. If you use Stripe or PayPal on Thinkific instead, an extra gateway fee applies in some countries and varies by plan. Apple Pay and Google Pay fees vary. Thinkific doesn’t have a free plan; its FAQ points to the 30-day free trial instead.

Strengths for a small course business

• Unlimited courses on the cheapest plan, so a free starter course plus a paid course costs nothing extra.
• Certificates, quizzes, payment plans and memberships from Start. On Teachable, certificates need Growth.
• A 30-day trial is long enough to build a first module before you pay.

Watch out for

• Price. Start is about US$980 a year billed yearly, almost three times Teachable Starter’s yearly price.
• The 10,000 current-student cap is plenty for most small schools, but Teachable has no student cap at all.
• Branding stays until Grow, US$164 a month billed yearly.

→ See Thinkific’s plans

What a year costs at different sales levels

Here’s the yearly platform cost at three sales levels, using yearly billing. Card processing is left out because you pay it on both, and both platforms say their own payment processors are needed for the 0% or no-gateway-fee terms.

The break-even between Teachable’s two cheapest plans is simple: Builder costs US$480 a year more than Starter (billed yearly), and saves 7.5% of sales. Above about US$6,400 a year in sales, Builder is cheaper than Starter. On monthly billing the gap is US$50 a month, so Builder wins above about US$667 a month in sales.

Thinkific Start never beats Teachable Builder on price alone; it costs about US$150 a year more. What you get for that is unlimited courses instead of 10 products, plus quizzes, certificates, memberships and payment plans on the entry plan.

If you want to run your own numbers, any per-sale fee calculator will do: enter your price, the platform’s % fee, any monthly fee, and your card fee.

Which should you pick?

• You’re selling your first course and don’t know if it will sell: Teachable Starter has the lowest fixed cost. Use the 7-day trial, then move to Builder once sales pass about US$530 a month on yearly billing, or about US$670 a month on monthly billing.
• You already sell a few thousand dollars a year: Teachable Builder is the cheapest of the three plans here at that level, as long as 10 products are enough.
• You want certificates, quizzes, cohorts or memberships from day one, or plan many small courses: Thinkific Start. You pay more each month, but those features need Teachable’s Growth plan, which costs more again.
• You train teams or sell seats to companies: Thinkific Grow lists B2B sales, invoicing and bulk enrolment.
• You’re comparing more course hosts: our Thinkific vs Kajabi vs Podia guide covers two more options and a first-year cost table.

The 5-hours-a-week verdict: if you haven’t sold the course yet, start on the cheapest plan with the shortest commitment. Teachable Starter on monthly billing is the lowest-risk way to test, as long as you upgrade once the 7.5% fee costs more than the step up. If the course is the business and you want the learning features built in, Thinkific Start is worth the extra cost; use the full 30-day trial before paying.

Quick answers

Does Teachable or Thinkific have a free plan? No. Teachable’s FAQ says it’s a paid service with a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Thinkific’s FAQ says it has no free plan and offers a 30-day free trial instead.

Which is cheaper, Teachable or Thinkific? Teachable, on list price. Teachable Starter is US$29 a month billed yearly and Builder is US$69, against US$82 for Thinkific Start. Teachable Starter adds a 7.5% fee on every sale, so it’s cheapest only at low sales.

Does Thinkific charge a transaction fee? Thinkific’s pricing page lists no Thinkific transaction fee. If you use Stripe or PayPal instead of Thinkific Payments, an extra gateway fee applies in some countries and varies by plan, and card processing applies either way.

When does Teachable Builder pay for itself? Billed yearly, Builder costs US$480 a year more than Starter and removes the 7.5% fee, so it’s cheaper once you sell more than about US$6,400 a year.

Before you choose: both platforms change plans and limits often. Everything here was checked on each vendor’s website on 29 October 2026. Build your first module during the free trial before you commit to a yearly plan.

Sources (each vendor’s own pages, checked 29 October 2026): Teachable pricing and FAQ, Thinkific pricing and FAQ. Search-suggestion check: Google (US and Australia), Bing and DuckDuckGo autocomplete for “teachable vs” and “thinkific vs”, 29 October 2026.