Teachable vs Thinkific (2026): Which Course Platform Costs Less?

By the AI Tools For Me team · Updated October 17, 2026

This page has no affiliate links right now: every link goes straight to the vendor. How we make money.

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 and no platform fee from day one: Basic is $40/mo billed yearly, with unlimited courses and a 30-day trial.

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	Basic: $54/mo, or $40/mo billed yearly
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; Basic caps downloads and coaching at 5 each
Students	Unlimited on every self-serve plan	10,000 current students on Basic, Start and Grow
Admin seats	1 on Starter and Builder, 5 on Growth	1 on Basic, 2 on Start, 6 on Grow
Completion certificates	Growth ($139/mo billed yearly)	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)
Memberships	Listed on every plan	Start and up
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 17, 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 Basic	$54	$40	Unlimited courses, 5 downloads, 5 coaching, 1 admin
Thinkific Start	$109	$82	Memberships, payment plans, certificates, 2 admins
Thinkific Grow	$219	$164	No branding, API, PayPal, 6 admins

Teachable Custom and Thinkific Plus are quote-only. Thinkific’s page lists yearly savings of $173 (Basic) and $330 (Start); the plan prices work out to $168 and $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 5% on Basic, 2% on Start and 1% on Grow, 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 Basic	$480	$0	$384	$864

Where the lines cross: Teachable Starter is $11 a month cheaper than Thinkific Basic on yearly billing ($15 on monthly). Its 7.5% fee eats that gap at about $147 in monthly sales ($200 on monthly billing). Below that, Teachable Starter costs less. Above it, Thinkific Basic does, as long as its limits fit. Within Teachable, Builder beats Starter above about $533 a month in sales on yearly billing; we show that 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 even on Basic. 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: 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	Thinkific Basic or Teachable Builder	No platform fee on either
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 17, 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.

Visit Thinkific Visit Teachable

FAQ

Is Teachable or Thinkific better for beginners?

Both include a course builder and AI outline tools, and neither has a free plan. Thinkific gives you a 30-day trial, unlimited courses and no platform fee from its $40/mo (billed yearly) Basic plan. Teachable is cheaper to start at $29/mo billed yearly, but Starter takes 7.5% of each sale and allows 5 products.

Which is cheaper, Teachable or Thinkific?

On sticker price, Teachable: Starter is $29/mo billed yearly against Thinkific Basic at $40/mo (prices checked October 17, 2026). Once you sell more than about $150 a month, Teachable’s 7.5% Starter fee costs more than the $11 gap, and Thinkific Basic becomes the cheaper choice.

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 5% on Basic, 2% on Start and 1% on Grow, on top of Stripe’s own fee. 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

All pages checked October 17, 2026.