Teachable vs Thinkific (2026): Which Course Platform Costs Less?
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Teachable vs Thinkific is the choice between two online course platforms that creators often weigh against each other. An online course platform hosts your video lessons, takes payment and gives each student a login, all under your own brand. The two look alike on the surface. The real differences are fees per sale, how many courses you can publish and which plan unlocks certificates.
The short answer
Choose Thinkific if you want many courses, certificates and a community from the first plan: Start is $82/mo billed yearly, with unlimited courses, no platform fee and a 30-day trial. Thinkific removed its cheaper Basic plan in October 2026.
Choose Teachable if you sell a few products plus coaching or downloads and want student apps included. Pick Builder ($69/mo yearly) once sales pass about $533 a month.
Teachable vs Thinkific at a glance
 Teachable |  Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Starter: $39/mo, or $29/mo billed yearly | Start: $109/mo, or $82/mo billed yearly (the Basic plan was removed in Oct 2026) |
| Free plan / trial | No free plan. 7-day trial on the plan buttons (a pop-up on the same page offered 30 days) | No free plan. 30-day free trial |
| Platform fee per sale | 7.5% on Starter; 0% on Builder and up with Teachable Payments | 0% with Thinkific Payments on every plan |
| Card processing (US card) | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| How many courses | Products are capped: 5 on Starter, 10 on Builder, 50 on Growth (courses, coaching and downloads all count) | Unlimited courses on every plan |
| Students | Unlimited on every self-serve plan | 10,000 current students on Start, Grow and Expand |
| Admin seats | 1 on Starter and Builder, 5 on Growth | 2 on Start, 6 on Grow, 15 on Expand |
| Completion certificates | Growth ($139/mo billed yearly) | Every plan (Start, $82/mo billed yearly) |
| Remove platform branding | Growth ($139/mo billed yearly) | Grow ($164/mo billed yearly) |
| Community | Builder and up | Every plan (1 community; 3 on Grow, 10 on Expand) |
| Memberships | Listed on every plan | Every plan |
| Mobile app | Student iOS and Android apps on every plan | Branded iOS and Android app: $199/mo add-on |
| Affiliate program for your course | Builder and up | Not listed on the pricing page |
| Corporate training (SCORM) | Not listed | Plus (custom pricing) only |
From each vendor’s pricing page and help center, checked October 26, 2026 from a US connection. List prices in US dollars before tax. Thinkific’s page shows prices with “$” but no currency code.
Teachable vs Thinkific pricing
Both sell three self-serve plans plus a custom-priced top tier. Yearly billing cuts roughly a quarter off the monthly price on both.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | Main limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter | $39 | $29 | 5 products, 1 admin, 7.5% fee per sale |
| Teachable Builder | $89 | $69 | 10 products, 0% fee, community, affiliates |
| Teachable Growth | $189 | $139 | 50 products, 5 admins, certificates, no branding |
| Thinkific Start | $109 | $82 | Unlimited courses, certificates, memberships, 1 community, 2 admins |
| Thinkific Grow | $219 | $164 | No branding, API, PayPal, 3 communities, 6 admins |
| Thinkific Expand | $499 | $374 | 10 communities, 15 admins, 1,000 GB video bandwidth a month |
Teachable Custom and Thinkific Plus are quote-only. Thinkific removed its Basic plan ($54 monthly, $40 billed yearly) in October 2026. Its page lists a yearly saving of $330 on Start; the plan prices work out to $324, so check the total at checkout.
Fees: what you keep from a $100 sale
Two charges can come out of every sale. A platform fee is the cut the course platform takes. Processing is what the card network and payment provider charge to move the money. Both platforms charge the same processing for US cards (2.9% + 30¢), so the platform fee decides the gap.
| One $100 sale | Teachable Starter | Teachable Builder or Growth | Thinkific, any plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| US card | $89.30 | $96.80 | $96.80 |
| International card | $88.30 | $95.80 | $95.30 (plus 1% if currency is converted) |
Our arithmetic from published rates, for a seller based in the US using each platform’s own checkout (Teachable Payments, Thinkific Payments). Teachable: international cards 3.9% + 30¢. Thinkific: 2.9% + 30¢, plus 1.5% for international cards. Before tax, refunds and chargebacks.
Using your own Stripe account changes the maths. Thinkific adds a third-party gateway fee of 2% on Start, 1% on Grow and 0.5% on Expand, on top of Stripe’s own fee, on your first $1M of sales each year. Teachable lets you connect your own Stripe or PayPal as a custom gateway, mainly for countries where Teachable Payments isn’t offered. Teachable Payments runs in 41 countries and Thinkific Payments in 36, both including the US, Canada and the UK.
What a year costs
Here is one realistic case: you sell ten $100 courses a month to US buyers ($12,000 a year) and pay yearly.
| Plan | Plan cost | Platform fee | Processing | Total for the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter | $348 | $900 | $384 | $1,632 |
| Teachable Builder | $828 | $0 | $384 | $1,212 |
| Thinkific Start | $984 | $0 | $384 | $1,368 |
Where the lines cross: Thinkific’s removal of its $40 Basic plan in October 2026 changed this comparison. Teachable Starter is $53 a month cheaper than Thinkific Start on yearly billing ($70 on monthly), and its 7.5% fee only eats that gap at about $707 in monthly sales ($933 on monthly billing). Before that point, Teachable Builder already becomes the cheaper Teachable plan, above about $533 a month in sales on yearly billing, and Builder costs $13 a month less than Thinkific Start ($20 on monthly billing), with no platform fee on either. On price alone, Teachable is cheaper at every sales level, as long as its product caps (5 on Starter, 10 on Builder) fit; Thinkific earns its higher price with unlimited courses, certificates and a community on every plan. We show the Starter-to-Builder maths in our guide to selling courses on Teachable.
Features can flip the result. If you need certificates, Thinkific Start ($984 a year billed yearly) is far cheaper than Teachable Growth ($1,668). If you need a student mobile app, Teachable includes one on every plan, while Thinkific’s branded app adds $199 a month.
Building courses and teaching
Both cover the basics: video lessons, quizzes, drip schedules (releasing lessons over time) and a course player for students.
- Teachable lists auto-graded quizzes, drip content and student iOS and Android apps from Starter. Its AI tools draft a course outline, generate quizzes, and add subtitles and translations in 70+ languages (free subtitles and translations are listed on Growth).
- Thinkific lists assignments, live cohorts (groups that move through a course together) and certificates from Start. Its Course Outline Generator is available on every plan. SCORM (a file format corporate training systems use) and an AI teaching assistant are on Plus.
The biggest structural gap is the course count. Teachable counts every published course, coaching offer and download as a product, capped at 5 on Starter. Thinkific allows unlimited courses on every plan, starting with Start. If you plan a library of short courses, Thinkific gives you more room for the money.
Selling, community and marketing
Teachable leans into sales tools. It lists upsells, order bumps, coupons and cart recovery, plus a built-in affiliate program from Builder, so other people can promote your course for a commission. Teachable Payments also handles sales tax, VAT and GST.
Thinkific leans into community. Every plan includes a community space with posts, direct messages and live events, and Grow allows three. Its checkout handles one-time prices, subscriptions and payment plans (from Start), coupons, order bumps, multi-currency checkout and automated sales tax and VAT.
Neither replaces a full email marketing tool. Both connect to outside apps; Teachable caps integrations at 1 on Starter, 3 on Builder and 5 on Growth.
Who should pick which
Teachable
Who it’s for: coaches and creators who sell a handful of products, such as one flagship course, a coaching package and a few templates, and want student apps, unlimited students and an affiliate program on Builder.
Skip it if: you plan more than 10 courses on a mid-range budget, or you’ll stay on Starter while selling more than a few hundred dollars a month, because the 7.5% fee adds up.
Thinkific
Who it’s for: educators building a library of courses, communities or certificate programs, and anyone who wants to test with a 30-day trial and pay no platform fee from the first plan.
Skip it if: price matters most (Teachable Starter and Builder both cost less), you need a student mobile app without a $199/mo add-on, more than 10,000 current students on a self-serve plan, or PayPal before the Grow plan.
| If you are… | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Launching your first course on a tight budget | Teachable Starter | Lowest entry price while sales are small |
| Selling $500+ a month | Teachable Builder | No platform fee, $69/mo yearly vs $82 for Thinkific Start |
| Building a library of many courses | Thinkific | Unlimited courses on every plan |
| Selling courses plus coaching and downloads | Teachable | All count as products under one checkout |
| Issuing certificates | Thinkific Start | $82/mo yearly vs $139 on Teachable Growth |
| Training staff or clients with SCORM files | LearnWorlds or Thinkific Plus | SCORM support (Thinkific: Plus only) |
How we compared them
We compared published plans, limits and fees from each vendor’s pricing page and help center, read from a US connection on October 26, 2026. The fee and yearly-cost tables are our own arithmetic from those rates. We haven’t built or sold a course on either platform hands-on yet, so we can’t rate video quality, support or checkout conversion. Both offer a free trial: build one lesson in each before you pay.
Alternatives worth a look
If neither fits, LearnWorlds adds interactive video and SCORM, starting at $24/mo billed yearly plus $5 per paid enrollment. Kajabi bundles email marketing, funnels and a website, from $143/mo billed yearly. See all three side by side in our Teachable alternatives guide, or browse every online course platform we list.
FAQ
Is Teachable or Thinkific better for beginners?
Both include a course builder and AI outline tools, and neither has a free plan. Teachable is cheaper to start at $29/mo billed yearly, but Starter takes 7.5% of each sale and allows 5 products. Thinkific removed its Basic plan in October 2026; its entry plan, Start, is $82/mo billed yearly with unlimited courses, certificates, no platform fee and a 30-day trial.
Which is cheaper, Teachable or Thinkific?
Teachable, at every sales level we priced (prices checked October 26, 2026). Teachable Starter is $29/mo billed yearly against Thinkific Start at $82/mo. Above about $533 a month in sales, Teachable Builder ($69/mo, no platform fee) is the cheaper Teachable plan, and it still costs $13 a month less than Thinkific Start. Thinkific earns its price if you need unlimited courses or certificates.
Does Thinkific charge transaction fees?
Not with Thinkific Payments: you pay only processing (2.9% + 30¢ for US cards). If you use Stripe directly, Thinkific adds a gateway fee of 2% on Start, 1% on Grow and 0.5% on Expand, on top of Stripe’s own fee, on the first $1M of sales each year. Plus has no gateway fee for now.
Does Teachable charge transaction fees?
Starter charges a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale. Builder, Growth and Custom charge 0% when you sell through Teachable Payments. Card processing (2.9% + 30¢ for US cards) applies on every plan.
Can I move my course from Teachable to Thinkific (or back)?
Yes, but neither pricing page lists a one-click switch, so plan for manual work: re-upload your videos and files, and expect to rebuild sales pages and quizzes. Teachable’s quote-only Custom plan lists migration help. Use the other platform’s free trial to rebuild one course before you cancel.
Which is better for selling to a company or team?
Thinkific, if you need SCORM files or SSO: both are on its custom-priced Plus plan. Teachable’s self-serve plans don’t list SCORM; bulk sales are on its quote-only Custom plan. For most solo creators selling to individuals, neither feature matters.
Sources
Pricing pages and the Thinkific fee article checked October 26, 2026; the payments help-center articles and homepages on October 17, 2026.
- teachable.com/pricing
- support.teachable.com/en/articles/15624639-set-up-teachable-payments-and-start-selling
- teachable.com/
- www.thinkific.com/pricing/
- support.thinkific.com/hc/en-us/articles/360030721393-How-much-does-Thinkific-cost
- support.thinkific.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012376321-Thinkific-Payments-Supported-Countries-and-Transaction-Fees
- www.thinkific.com/