Teachable Review: Who Should Actually Pay for It

Teachable dropped its student caps. Unlimited enrollments through Teachable checkout now apply on Starter, Builder, and Growth, which matters if you were avoiding the platform over that specific worry.

Teachable is worth it once your sales justify moving up to Builder, where the platform fee drops to 0%. Below that point, the entry plan quietly taxes every sale you make. Above it, this is a competent, well-worn platform that does the job without much drama.

The real pricing

Prices verified September 2026.

There’s no free plan. You get a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans, and that’s it. Starter runs $39/month, or $29/month if you pay annually. Builder is $89/month ($69 annually), and Growth is $189/month ($139 annually). A Custom tier exists above that with no published price — you contact sales, and Teachable’s own materials point businesses selling more than $12k/year toward it.

Here’s the part that trips people up: Starter carries a 7.5% platform fee on top of payment processing. Builder, Growth, and Custom drop that platform fee to 0% — but only if you’re using teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway. Processing fees apply on every plan regardless, no matter your tier: 2.9% + 30c for US cards, 3.9% + 30c for international cards, 3.49% + 49c for PayPal in the US, 4.99% + 49c for PayPal internationally. There’s also a $15 chargeback fee and an optional BackOffice fee of 2-2.8%.

Run the math on that Starter fee before you commit. A 7.5% cut on every sale is a real number once you’re actually selling, and it’s the kind of thing that looks small on a pricing page and large on a bank statement.

What it does well

Teachable’s core course-building tools are mature, this is not a platform that just launched. Builder adds an affiliate program, real-time support, and community features, which matters if you plan to recruit affiliates to sell for you. Growth removes Teachable’s own branding from your course pages, adds custom admin permissions, subtitles and translations, and a public API capped at 10,000 requests per month.

Payout timing is flexible: daily with teachable:pay, or monthly if you’re on the Monthly Payment Gateway instead. Annual billing saves real money too. Teachable’s own numbers put it at 22% cheaper than paying monthly, which works out to $120/year saved on Starter, $240 on Builder, and $600 on Growth. Just remember that’s a year paid upfront, not a discount you can back out of.

The catch

The surprising one: Starter’s admin seats. You get exactly one admin user on Starter, and that stays true on Builder too, you don’t get a second seat until Growth, which bumps you to five. If you’re planning to bring on a co-creator or a virtual assistant with their own login, you’re paying $189/month before that’s possible, not $89.

The other catch is the platform fee structure itself. It’s designed to push you off Starter fast: pay 7.5% forever, or pay $50/month more for Builder and keep 100% of platform-level revenue (processing fees still apply, always). For anyone doing meaningful sales volume, Builder pays for itself quickly. For anyone doing occasional sales, the fee-versus-flat-price math actually favors staying on Starter longer than you’d think.

Who should NOT choose Teachable

Skip it if you’re pre-revenue and just want to see if anyone will buy your course. Paying $39/month plus a 7.5% cut on your first uncertain sales is a rough way to test an idea, a platform with a genuine free tier serves that stage better. If you also need email marketing and a full website builder bundled in rather than bolted onto a course host, it’s worth comparing what you’d actually pay across tools; Kajabi vs Teachable walks through that trade-off directly.

If you want a second admin seat without jumping straight to Growth, Teachable’s tier structure will annoy you. And if transaction fees are your main fear, Podia vs Teachable is worth a read before you commit here.

Reader scenarios

A first-time creator with one course and no audience yet: don’t start here. The Starter plan’s 7.5% fee plus a monthly bill before you’ve made a dollar is a bad bet at this stage, use the free trial to test the waters, but budget for the fee eating into early sales.

A creator with a steady catalog of 3-4 courses and consistent monthly revenue: Builder makes sense. The affiliate program and zero platform fee (once you pick teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway) start paying for themselves once volume is real.

An established educator running a team with multiple staff logins: among plans with a published price, only Growth gives you more than one admin seat, five in total, plus the API access and white-label branding removal that a more polished operation usually wants. Custom terms can flex further on admin seats, but you’ll need to talk to sales to find out what that actually costs.

Switch cost

Moving into Teachable from another platform means re-uploading course content and rebuilding your checkout flow, which is standard across most tools. What you won’t bring with you: any reviews or testimonials tied to your old platform’s page, and any student progress history if your prior tool doesn’t offer a clean export. If you’re weighing this move against a competitor with a similar course-building core, Teachable vs Thinkific covers the actual cost difference plan by plan.

FAQ

Does Teachable have a free plan? No. There’s a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans, but no permanent free tier to build on. Budget for at least one paid month before you see a dollar back.

How do I avoid the 7.5% platform fee? Upgrade to Builder or higher and use teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway. Starter is the only tier that charges the platform fee; the other tiers charge 0% at the platform level, though payment processing fees still apply regardless of plan.

Is annual billing worth it? If you’re confident you’ll stay a year, yes, it’s meaningfully cheaper than paying monthly on every tier. If you’re not sure Teachable is the right long-term fit, pay monthly first and switch to annual once you’ve confirmed it.

What happens if a student disputes a charge? You’ll eat a $15 chargeback fee on top of losing the sale. That’s worth mentioning to students clearly at checkout to cut down on avoidable disputes.

Can I run an affiliate program on the cheapest plan? No. Affiliate tools start on Builder, not Starter, so factor that into which plan you actually need if affiliate marketing is part of your sales strategy.

How many products can I sell on the entry plan? Starter caps you at 5 products. If you’re planning a catalog rather than a single course, you’ll hit that ceiling faster than expected and need to move to Builder’s 10-product limit.

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How we got these numbers. Prices and fees come straight from the official pricing pages of Teachable, checked in September 2026. Where a value wasn’t published, the table shows “—”. Prices in this space change often — confirm on the provider’s site before you buy.