Thinkific vs Teachable in 2026

Thinkific vs Teachable: The Short Version

Thinkific and Teachable are the two best-known places to sell an online course from your own site. They look alike on the surface: both host your videos, run checkout, handle drip schedules and quizzes, and give students a free mobile app. The differences are in the limits and the fees, and they decide which one is cheaper for you.

• Choose Thinkific if you will sell more than five products, want a community and email marketing on the entry plan, or sell mainly to buyers in the US and Canada. Basic costs $54 billed monthly ($40 billed annually) with unlimited courses and no transaction fee on Thinkific Payments.
• Choose Teachable if you sell a few products to buyers in many countries and want tax calculated, collected and remitted for you. Builder costs $89 billed monthly ($69 billed annually) with 10 products, 0% transaction fee, email marketing and affiliates.
• Skip Teachable Starter unless your sales are small: it charges a 7.5% transaction fee on top of payment processing.

Every price and limit below comes from the vendors' own pricing pages and help centers, checked in October 2026. "Billed annually" means the monthly equivalent of a yearly payment.

Pricing Side by Side

Plan for plan, Teachable is cheaper: Builder is $20 a month less than Thinkific Start billed monthly, and Growth is $30 less than Grow. But the plans don't line up feature for feature, so the cheaper plan isn't always the cheaper choice. The next sections show where each one puts the features you are likely to need.

What Each Plan Actually Includes

Three patterns stand out.

Thinkific gives more on the entry plan. A custom domain, email automation, a community, landing pages and unlimited courses all come with Basic. On Teachable, a custom domain and email marketing start at Builder, and community is no longer offered to new schools at all.

Teachable gives more selling tools earlier. Memberships, bundles, upsells and order bumps are on every Teachable plan. On Thinkific, paid memberships, bundles, payment plans and after-purchase upsell flows start at Start ($109 billed monthly).

Certificates cost less on Thinkific. If your students need a certificate of completion, Thinkific includes it from Start ($82/month billed annually). Teachable keeps it for Growth ($139/month billed annually). That is $57 a month, or $684 a year, in Thinkific's favour.

Transaction Fees and What You Keep

Both platforms run their own payment product on Stripe, and both charge standard card processing on top of the plan.

Thinkific Payments has no Thinkific transaction fee on any self-serve plan. In the US, cards cost 2.9% + $0.30, plus 0.7% on subscriptions and payment plans and 0.5% on sales where tax is collected. International cards add 1.5% and currency conversion adds 1%. Buy now, pay later (Klarna, Afterpay) costs 6.5% + $0.30. Thinkific Payments is available in 36 countries.

If you connect your own Stripe account instead, Thinkific charges a gateway fee of 5% on Basic, 2% on Start and 1% on Grow, on the first $1 million of sales in a calendar year. Use Thinkific Payments if it is available in your country.

Teachable charges a 7.5% transaction fee on Starter only; Builder, Growth and Custom have 0%. Teachable's pricing page lists card processing at 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards and 3.9% + 30¢ for international cards (a help center article gives 4.4% + $0.30 for international cards at US schools). Teachable Payments also has optional bundles: Standard adds 0.5% on taxed transactions and 0.7% on recurring ones, while Global charges 2.8% on all transactions, waives those two fees and adds more than 35 local payment methods. Teachable Payments is available in 41 countries.

If you use a Custom Payment Gateway (your own Stripe account, plus optional PayPal for one-time USD sales), it works in every country, but US schools pay a 2% integration fee and Teachable doesn't handle tax.

What the fees mean at real sales levels

On Teachable Starter billed monthly, the 7.5% fee makes Starter more expensive than Thinkific Basic once you sell more than $200 a month: $39 + 7.5% of $200 = $54. Billed annually, the crossover is about $147 a month ($29 + 7.5% of $147 = $40). At $2,000 a month in sales, Starter costs $39 + $150 = $189 a month before card processing, more than Teachable Builder ($89) and Thinkific Basic ($54).

From the middle plans up, neither platform takes a cut, and the plan price is what you compare.

Payouts

• Thinkific Payments pays out daily. Funds take 2 business days to arrive in the US and Australia, 3 in Canada, the EEA, Switzerland and the UK. Your first payout takes 7 to 14 days. Instant payouts cost 1.5% in the US.
• Teachable Payments pays out daily, weekly or monthly. Daily payouts run on a 2-day rolling delay. Teachable holds payouts once earnings pass $500 until your tax forms are in. Teachable charges a $15 fee per chargeback.

Sales Tax and VAT

This is Teachable's clearest advantage.

Teachable calculates, collects and remits tax for you when you use Teachable Payments: US sales tax in the states where it is required, EU and UK VAT, and digital-content taxes in more than 20 further markets. Teachable markets this as tax handling in 45+ countries, and says it only collects and remits where local law requires it. On a Custom Payment Gateway, you handle tax yourself.

Thinkific says it will calculate, collect and remit sales tax for the US and Canada through Thinkific Payments. For UK and EU VAT, its help center only says it will calculate the tax once you opt in. If many of your buyers are in Europe, check how you will file VAT before choosing Thinkific.

Teachable's 2026 Usage Fees

Teachable added usage fees in September 2026, and they matter if you enroll students outside checkout.

• Students who buy through a paid checkout above $0, on Teachable's own gateways or a Custom Payment Gateway, never generate a fee.
• Students added any other way (imports, the API, manual enrollment, $0 checkouts, 100% coupons, or access from sales on other platforms) cost $0.50 per student per month beyond 100 per school.
• Video storage above 1,000 GB costs $15 a month per extra TB.
• The fees are the same on every plan. They apply to schools created from September 3, 2026; older schools stay on legacy fees until their first renewal on or after April 30, 2027.

If you give away a free course to build a list, or you sell corporate seats and enroll learners by hand, those students count. 300 free-course students would cost (300 - 100) x $0.50 = $100 a month. Thinkific doesn't charge per student; its limit is 10,000 current students on self-serve plans.

Course Building and Learning Features

Both builders cover the basics: video lessons, drip schedules, quizzes and completion tracking.

Thinkific adds assignments and Zoom live cohorts from Start, private or hidden courses and course compliance settings from Start, and exams through Brillium from Grow. Its AI Quiz Generator is on every paid plan. SCORM, SSO and learning paths are kept for Plus, the custom-priced plan.

Teachable includes quizzes and drip on every plan, certificates from Growth, and AI tools called Course Starter and Quiz Generator. Free subtitles and translation into 70+ languages come with Growth and Advanced; Starter and Builder pay an extra usage cost. We didn't find SCORM support or live cohorts on Teachable's pages.

If you need SCORM on a published plan, neither is a good fit: look at LearnWorlds, which supports SCORM from Pro Trainer ($79/month billed annually, up to 20 SCORM uploads).

Community, Coaching and Memberships

Community. Thinkific includes communities on every plan, with spaces and live events (5 events on Basic, unlimited from Start). Teachable's help center says its Community feature is in maintenance mode, gets no new features or bug fixes, and isn't available to new schools. If community is part of your offer, Teachable is out unless you use a separate tool.

Coaching. Teachable counts a coaching offer as a product, available on every plan within the product cap. Thinkific allows 5 coaching products on Basic and unlimited from Start.

Memberships. Teachable includes memberships on every plan. Thinkific's paid memberships start at Start.

Marketing Tools

Thinkific puts email automation, landing pages and a site builder on every plan, and affiliate reporting too. Teachable adds email marketing, affiliates and a custom domain at Builder. Both have coupons, order bumps and abandoned-cart emails on every plan.

Neither is a full marketing suite. If your business runs on email funnels, Kajabi includes unlimited marketing emails, landing pages and funnels on every plan, starting at $179 billed monthly.

Team, Integrations and Admin

• Admins: Thinkific gives 1, 2 and 6 admins on Basic, Start and Grow. Teachable gives 1 on Starter and Builder and 5 on Growth; extra admins cost $20 a month ($240 a year on annual plans).
• API and webhooks: Grow on Thinkific, Growth on Teachable.
• Zapier: Thinkific has triggers on every plan and actions from Grow. Teachable has Zapier and webhooks from Growth, and limits third-party integrations to 1, 3 or 5 by plan (unlimited on Custom).
• Support: Thinkific offers email and chat on Basic and Start, phone and priority support on Grow. Teachable offers real-time support from Builder and priority support on Custom.

Thinkific review

Overview

Thinkific calls itself a learning commerce platform. Its strength is room to grow: no course cap on any plan, a community from day one and marketing tools on the entry plan. Its weakness is that several selling features (memberships, bundles, payment plans, certificates) start one tier up, at Start.

Pricing

• Basic: $54/month billed monthly or $40/month billed annually. Unlimited courses, 1 community, 5 coaching products, 5 downloads, 1 admin.
• Start: $109 or $82. Certificates, assignments, live cohorts, memberships, bundles, payment plans, unlimited coaching and downloads, 2 admins.
• Grow: $219 or $164. Branding removal, PayPal, API, bulk import, 3 communities, 6 admins, phone support.
• Plus: custom quote, with SCORM, SSO and learning paths.

30-day free trial, no free plan. Branded mobile app: $199/month add-on.

Pros

• Unlimited courses on every plan
• Community, email automation and custom domain on Basic
• No platform fee with Thinkific Payments
• Certificates from Start, one tier below Teachable
• 30-day free trial

Cons

• Memberships, bundles and payment plans need Start
• PayPal and API need Grow
• UK and EU VAT is calculated, not remitted
• Using your own Stripe adds a 1% to 5% gateway fee

Who should use it

Creators building a catalog of courses, anyone who wants a community with the course, and US or Canadian sellers who want tax remitted.

Who should skip it

Sellers with many European buyers who don't want to file VAT, and creators who need memberships or bundles but want to stay on the cheapest plan.

Teachable review

Overview

Teachable focuses on checkout. Unlimited students through checkout, up to 1TB of video, tax remitted in many countries with Teachable Payments, and selling tools such as memberships, bundles and order bumps on every plan. The trade-offs are hard product caps, a 7.5% fee on Starter, new usage fees for students added outside checkout, and a community feature that is closed to new schools.

Pricing

• Starter: $39/month billed monthly or $29/month billed annually. 5 products, 1 admin, 7.5% transaction fee.
• Builder: $89 or $69. 10 products, 0% fee, custom domain, email marketing, affiliates.
• Growth: $189 or $139. 50 products, 5 admins, certificates, bulk imports, branding removal, API, Zapier.
• Custom: contact sales, with migration assistance and priority support.

No free plan. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

• Tax handling in many countries with Teachable Payments
• Memberships, bundles, upsells and order bumps on every plan
• Unlimited students through checkout and up to 1TB of video
• Free student app with offline viewing
• 0% transaction fee from Builder

Cons

• 7.5% fee on Starter
• Product caps of 5, 10 and 50
• Usage fees for students added outside checkout
• Certificates only from Growth
• Community closed to new schools

Who should use it

Creators with a small number of products who sell to an international audience and want tax and checkout handled.

Who should skip it

Anyone planning more than 10 products on a mid-tier budget, anyone who needs a community, and anyone who enrolls many students by hand or through free courses.

Other Options Worth a Look

Kajabi replaces several tools at once: website, unlimited marketing emails, funnels, community and checkout, with no revenue share. Basic is $179 billed monthly ($143 billed annually) with 5 products and 2,500 contacts. Pick it if marketing is the bottleneck, not course hosting.

Podia is the simple all-in-one: courses, downloads, coaching, community and email in one plan. Mover is $49 billed monthly ($42 billed annually) with 50 products and a 5% fee; Shaker at $99 ($84) drops the fee. 14-day trial, no card.

LearnWorlds is the strongest course builder of the group, with interactive video, assessments, SCORM and full white-label on Learning Center. Starter is $29 billed monthly ($24 billed annually) plus $5 per paid enrollment; Pro Trainer at $99 ($79) drops the fee. 30-day trial.

Udemy is a marketplace, not a course platform. Publishing is free and Udemy sells to its own learners, but you keep 37% of marketplace sales after fees (97% when the buyer uses your coupon or referral link), prices come from Udemy's tier list, and a paid Udemy course can't be offered free elsewhere. You can use it alongside Thinkific or Teachable, but a course you sell on Udemy can't be given away free on your own school.

How to Choose

1. Fewer than 5 products and small sales: Teachable Starter is the cheapest entry, but past about $200 a month in sales Thinkific Basic costs less.
2. More than 10 products on a budget: Thinkific. Teachable Builder stops at 10.
3. Need certificates: Thinkific Start ($82/month billed annually) is $57 a month cheaper than Teachable Growth.
4. Selling to Europe and the UK: Teachable with Teachable Payments, which remits VAT.
5. Need a community: Thinkific, or Podia or Kajabi. Teachable no longer offers one to new schools.
6. Free courses or manual enrollments at scale: Thinkific, which has no per-student usage fees.
7. Need SCORM on a published plan: neither; look at LearnWorlds.

What to test in the trial

• Build one course with a quiz and drip schedule and check the student view on the mobile app
• Run a test purchase and check the checkout in your buyers' currency
• Check whether your country is supported by Thinkific Payments (36 countries) or Teachable Payments (41 countries)
• Ask how tax is handled for your largest buyer country

The Verdict

Thinkific is the better choice for most course creators: unlimited courses, community and email marketing on the entry plan, certificates one tier earlier and no per-student usage fees. Teachable wins if you sell a few products to buyers worldwide and want VAT and sales tax handled for you, and from Builder up it is the cheaper plan for the same tier.