7 Teachable Alternatives That Don't Charge 7.5% Per Sale (2026)

Teachable\'s Starter plan now charges a 7.5% platform transaction fee on top of Stripe\'s standard 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee. On a $100 course sale, the combined effective rate is 10.4% + $0.30. On $50,000 in annual sales, that adds up to $3,750 in platform fees alone, $1,750 in Stripe processing, and $468 in subscription, a total of $5,968 in fees before you see a dollar of profit. The 7.5% fee did not exist on the Starter tier before mid-2025. It was added during a forced pricing migration that moved every existing account onto the new structure with no grandfathering, between June and July 2025.

Who should read this. If you are on Builder ($89/mo) or Growth ($189/mo) with 0% platform fees when using teachable:pay, the math is not catastrophic, and the LMS features are genuinely good. You probably do not need to migrate. If you are on Starter and selling more than $12,000 to $15,000 per year, the 7.5% fee is actively working against you and the switching cost pays itself back in months. If you are launching a new course and have not yet committed to Teachable, do not sign up for Starter at all.

Seven alternatives are compared below. Order is by total annual fee efficiency at $50K in sales, not by feature count. Fee math first, features second. One is the Editor\'s Pick for most creators (Whop). Two are strong use-case-specific picks (ThriveCart Learn+ for established sellers, Systeme.io for budget). The rest are positioned for the audience that actually fits them.

What Teachable actually costs in 2026 (the real numbers)

Before the alternatives, the math needs to be unavoidable. Here are the verified 2026 figures from teachable.com/pricing, and what they translate into at three revenue levels.

Plan breakdown

• Starter: $39/mo monthly, $29/mo annual. 7.5% platform transaction fee on every sale, plus 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe processing. Caps: 5 products, 100 active students.
• Builder: $89/mo monthly, $69/mo annual. 0% platform fee when using teachable:pay or the monthly payment gateway. Standard Stripe processing applies. Caps: 10 products, 1,000 students.
• Growth: $189/mo monthly, $139/mo annual. 0% platform fee with teachable:pay. Caps: 50 products, 5,000 students. Student caps lift once you cross $10K/year in sales directly on Teachable.
• Free plan: eliminated in 2025. Replaced by a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee. There is no permanent free tier anymore.

The forced June-July 2025 migration

The trust signal worth weighing is not just the price point, it is how Teachable handled the change. Every existing account was automatically migrated between June and July 2025. There was no opt-out, no legacy pricing grandfathered, no way to keep the previous structure even temporarily. Community forums documented multi-year users reporting costs jumping from roughly $119/mo to $309/mo to maintain their existing course catalog and student limits, a near-tripling.

There is also no native CSV export of payment history. Creators who want to leave have to manually capture transaction records before canceling, which is an operational friction designed to make migration harder than it needs to be. Most operators discover this only when they try to leave.

Annual fee total at $50K in sales

The anchor comparison. This is what $50,000 in annual course sales actually costs you on each platform, all-in, with the math shown.

The numbers carry the editorial work. Teachable Starter at $50K/year costs more than twice what Thinkific or Systeme.io cost. Whop sits in roughly the same range as Teachable Builder on total fees, but with no monthly subscription, no product cap, and a built-in marketplace of 22.5M+ buyers feeding organic discovery the others cannot match.

The 7 best Teachable alternatives in 2026

Ranked by total fee efficiency first, then feature fit for course creators. We do not recommend all seven equally, see the verdict at the end of each card.

1. Whop: Editor\'s Pick for coaches and creators escaping Teachable Starter

At a glance. Whop has no monthly subscription. The headline rate is "Just 2.7% + $0.30 per transaction. No subscription required. No hidden costs." On top of that processing rate sits a platform fee of up to 3% for community-automation features. Effective combined rate for a typical creator is approximately 6% all-in on domestic sales, less than the 7.5% platform fee alone on Teachable Starter. No product caps. No student caps. Whop runs its own payment rails, structurally outside Stripe.

Fee math vs Teachable Starter at $50K/year. Teachable Starter: $3,750 platform + $1,750 Stripe + $468 subscription = $5,968. Whop: $1,350 platform (~3%) + $1,500 processing (2.7% + $0.30) = approximately $2,850. Whop saves you roughly $3,100 a year at this revenue level. The gap widens as revenue grows.

The fee math is only half the case for Whop. Four other reasons make it the right pick for Teachable Starter defectors specifically:

1. No subscription owed at $0 revenue months. Teachable\'s $39/mo is due whether you sell or not. For seasonal launches, paused programs, or new offers being validated, Whop\'s pure fee-only model removes the recurring tax. For a deeper look at this dynamic during a launch window, see our info-product launch payment setup guide.
2. Built-in marketplace means free organic discovery. Teachable has no equivalent. The Whop marketplace has roughly 22.5M+ active buyers browsing for paid communities, courses, and signal groups. Nothing else on this list offers that.
3. No Stripe freeze exposure. Teachable processes through Stripe (or teachable:pay, which is built on Stripe infrastructure). For creators in elevated-risk categories (coaching, trading, make-money-online, supplements-adjacent), the risk profile does not change when you move between Teachable, Thinkific, Podia, or Systeme.io. Whop runs its own rails.
4. Disputes handled and fought automatically. Whop automatically handles and fights disputes on your behalf, helping protect from holds and account closures. Compliance reviews trigger at predictable revenue milestones rather than randomly at launch spikes.

Social proof on Whop is verifiable. Iman Gadzhi has made $25M+ on Whop. TJR runs $1M a month. Airrack hits $250K a month with his agency. Those are public, named, and documented. Whop\'s tagline is "Where the internet does business," and the five officially supported verticals are coaching and courses, paid groups, agency programs, software, and platforms, the exact list of categories most Teachable defectors come from.

Use case fit. Coaches, course creators selling community-led programs, paid Discord and Telegram community operators, digital product sellers who also want community. If you are on Teachable Starter and selling more than $12,000/year, Whop is cheaper from day one. At $50K/year you save roughly $3,100 versus staying on Starter. At $100K/year the gap exceeds $6,000. Read our full Whop review for the dispute-handling and payout mechanics in depth.

Start selling on Whop free

2. ThriveCart Learn+: best for established sellers who want zero ongoing fees

At a glance. ThriveCart Standard is $495 one-time (lifetime license). Learn+ upgrade adds approximately $195 one-time for the course player with drip content and quizzes. No recurring subscription on the Standard tier. 0% platform fee. Card processing via Stripe or PayPal applies separately. Verify current pricing at thrivecart.com before committing, the lifetime deal structure has held since launch but pricing should be confirmed on publish day.

Why ThriveCart for Teachable defectors. The seller who fits ThriveCart has already validated their product, is doing consistent monthly revenue, and wants to eliminate per-transaction platform fees permanently. The payback math against Teachable Builder is brutal in ThriveCart\'s favor: at $50K/year, the $690 combined one-time cost recovers in under six months versus Builder\'s $1,068 annual subscription, and every sale after that is platform-fee free.

Use case fit. Sellers already doing $2,000+/month who want to eliminate recurring platform fees and have a product that is established (not still being validated). If your course is the primary product and you have a separate email tool already, ThriveCart Learn+ is the cleanest exit from Teachable on long-term cost. Not for Stripe-risk categories, the freeze risk transfers when you switch.

3. Systeme.io: the budget winner with a usable free plan

At a glance. Free plan ($0/mo, up to 2,000 contacts, 1 course, 3 funnels, unlimited email sends). Startup at $27/mo (10 courses, 5,000 contacts, unlimited funnels). 0% platform fee on all plans. Standard card processing via Stripe and PayPal applies separately. Built-in email marketing and funnel builder included.

Why Systeme.io for Teachable defectors. If you need email marketing alongside your course, Systeme.io replaces both Teachable and a separate Mailchimp or Kit subscription in one tool. At $27/mo against Teachable Starter at $39/mo plus 7.5% fees, the budget gap is substantial. A creator doing $50K/year saves roughly $3,800 in plan and platform fees by switching to Systeme.io Startup.

The trade-off is a less polished UI than Teachable or Kajabi and community features that are basic. Start free on Systeme.io.

Use case fit. Budget-first creators who need courses plus email marketing in one tool and whose content is low-risk (fitness, productivity, language, cooking). Not for paid community operators or coaching categories Stripe flags as elevated risk.

4. Thinkific: 0% platform fees on every plan, closest like-for-like swap

At a glance. Basic at $36/mo, Start at $74/mo, Grow at $149/mo. 0% platform transaction fees on all plans, including the entry tier. Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30) applies separately. Unlimited students even on Basic.

Why Thinkific for Teachable defectors. Thinkific is the closest feature-for-feature Teachable replacement on this list. The LMS interface is comparable, the course player is solid, completion certificates are built in, drip scheduling works, and the quiz builder covers the basics. The structural difference is the fee model: 0% platform fee on every plan, which means at $50K/year you pay $432 in subscription plus $1,750 in Stripe, total $2,182. That is roughly $3,800 cheaper than Teachable Starter and only $636 more than Builder at a similar feature level.

Use case fit. Creators switching from Teachable who want the closest feature-level replacement without the transaction fee. Best for pure course creators with a self-paced, certification-style product where the LMS experience matters more than community or marketplace discovery.

5. Kajabi: premium all-in-one (for the $5K+/mo creator)

At a glance. Basic at $149/mo (up from $89/mo before January 2026), Growth at $249/mo, Pro at $499/mo. 0% platform transaction fees on all plans. Built-in email marketing, funnel builder, landing page editor, podcast hosting, and community.

Why Kajabi for Teachable defectors. Kajabi is the premium end of the Teachable migration spectrum. If you are doing $5,000+/mo and want the most polished all-in-one suite (email, funnels, courses, community, podcast) in one dashboard, Kajabi is the only platform here that competes on full-stack polish. The January 2026 price increase narrowed the gap with Teachable Builder, but Kajabi\'s feature depth still justifies the premium for established operators.

For the full breakdown of where the breakeven sits and which creator profile Kajabi makes sense for, see our dedicated Kajabi alternatives breakdown.

Use case fit. Course-first creators above $5K/mo who want the most polished all-in-one suite and are willing to pay for it. Not for new launches still being validated or for Stripe-risk categories.

6. Podia: simplest interface, fastest migration path

At a glance. Mover at $39/mo with a 5% transaction fee (still lower than Teachable Starter\'s 7.5%). Shaker at $89/mo with 0% platform fee. Digital downloads, courses, memberships, and email in one tool. One-click migration support team available.

Why Podia for Teachable defectors. Podia\'s interface is the simplest of any platform on this list. One-screen setup, minimal configuration overhead, no learning curve. For creators who want to migrate fast and not think about it for a year, Podia is the lowest-friction swap. The Mover plan at the same monthly price as Teachable Starter ($39) cuts the transaction fee from 7.5% to 5%, an immediate savings without any extra work.

Use case fit. Creators who want the fastest migration path with no learning curve. Best for solopreneurs whose course catalog is small and who do not need advanced LMS features.

7. Skool: community-first courses (when the community is the product)

At a glance. $99/mo flat. 0% platform transaction fee. 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe processing. Gamified community with leaderboards as the core product, courses integrated as a secondary layer. Skool directory provides modest organic reach.

Why Skool for Teachable defectors. Skool is a different beast. If your course has an active community element and you are losing students because Teachable\'s community features are weak, Skool is worth the $99/mo. If you just need a straight LMS swap, it is not. The pitch is clear: pay $99 flat regardless of revenue, get a gamified community that drives retention, attach your course as the educational layer. The trade-off is no native email marketing and no funnel builder.

Use case fit. Creators whose course value is community-driven and who want the Skool ecosystem for discovery. Not for self-paced certification courses or solo course catalogs without an active community.

Which Teachable alternative is right for you (decision framework)

Three clear paths based on where you are right now. Direct and opinionated, no hedging.

Path A: You are on Teachable Starter and selling $12,000+/year. Switch to Whop. The fee savings alone pay for the migration effort. You lose some LMS polish, you gain marketplace discovery and Stripe-independent payment rails. Run the math: at $50K/year you keep roughly $3,100 more per year versus staying on Starter. At $100K/year the gap exceeds $6,000. If your content sits in a Stripe-flagged category (coaching, trading, make-money-online), this is non-negotiable, see our best payment processor for online courses guide for the full safety analysis.

Path B: You need a like-for-like Teachable replacement (same LMS features, same student experience). Thinkific if budget is the constraint (0% fees, $36/mo Basic). Kajabi if you are above $5K/mo and want email marketing and funnels included. Podia if you want the fastest migration with the least friction.

Path C: You are launching a new course and have not committed to Teachable yet. Do not sign up for Teachable Starter. Either start on Whop ($0/mo, roughly 6% effective) or Systeme.io Free (0% platform fees, email included). Validate your course before paying a monthly platform fee. If you also want the all-in-one funnel builder bundled with the course host, see our roundup of the best platforms to sell digital products for adjacent picks.

Migrating off Teachable: what to know before you switch

The practical blockers that keep people on Teachable longer than they should. Address each one head-on so friction is not your excuse to keep paying 7.5%.

• No CSV export of payment history. Teachable does not natively provide a clean payment-history export. Screenshot your transactions and use the Teachable dashboard\'s available exports before canceling. Document everything you might need for taxes or refund requests in the months after migration.
• Student data is exportable. Teachable allows CSV export of student emails. You can email your list and invite them to the new platform. Whop, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, and Systeme.io all have import flows for re-onboarding students.
• Course content is portable. Teachable lets you export your video files. Download every video before migrating. The curriculum structure (sections, lessons, drip schedule, quiz logic) is not portable, you rebuild it on the new platform. Budget 1 to 3 hours per course.
• Coupons and affiliate links rebuild from scratch. Take screenshots of every active discount code, affiliate setting, and price rule before you start the migration. Recreate them on the new platform before you cancel Teachable.
• Redirect your sales page URL. If you run paid ads to a Teachable checkout link, update those immediately on launch day of the new platform. Set up 301 redirects on any owned domain pointing to the old Teachable URL.
• Plan a 30-day overlap window. Keep both platforms active for the first month after migration. Students still expecting access to Teachable have a soft landing, and you have a rollback option if anything breaks on the new platform.

Teachable versus alternatives: full comparison table

The SEO anchor and the clearest visual summary for readers skipping the cards.

Three short routing notes based on the table:

• Coaching, paid community, paid Discord or Telegram, trading education, make-money-online: Whop. The Stripe-risk factor is the deciding variable.
• Cheapest like-for-like Teachable LMS replacement: Thinkific Basic at $36/mo.
• Established sellers over $2K/mo who want zero per-sale fees forever: ThriveCart Learn+.

Who should stay on Teachable

Not everyone should leave. This is the honest section, written so you can stop reading if any of the following apply to you.

• You are on Builder or Growth and happy with the LMS. 0% platform fees on teachable:pay, the course player is genuinely solid for self-paced content, and the student experience is polished. If it is working, the migration cost (time and student confusion risk) may not be worth the savings.
• You need SCORM compliance for corporate or enterprise clients. Teachable Growth supports SCORM. Very few alternatives on this list do at the same price point. If your customers are HR departments and L&D teams, Teachable is built for that.
• You sell to enterprise-adjacent audiences who expect a "professional" LMS interface. Kajabi is the only alternative that competes on polish, and it costs $149/mo. If your audience reads the platform as a quality signal, the migration may not be worth the perceived downgrade.
• You have a large imported student base (thousands of students) and re-engagement is a revenue line. Teachable\'s import and export flow for large schools is mature. Migration is a real operational cost at scale, factor it into the decision.

Payment safety note for course creators

Switching platforms is not only about fees. If you sell coaching, "make money online" courses, trading education, supplements-adjacent content, or any product Stripe categorizes as elevated risk, the platform you migrate to determines whether your payment processor will freeze your account mid-launch. Teachable, Thinkific, Podia, and Systeme.io all process via Stripe rails, switching between them does not change your risk profile. Kajabi Payments is built on Stripe infrastructure too. Whop processes on independent rails and officially supports these content categories as core use cases. For the deeper breakdown on how launch freezes typically happen and what to do about them, see our Stripe account frozen during a launch playbook.

The verdict

Teachable\'s 7.5% Starter fee is the reason this article exists. At $50K/year it costs you $3,750 in platform fees alone before Stripe even touches the sale. The forced 2025 migration moved every existing account onto that structure with no opt-out. For coaches, community operators, and creators in any Stripe-flagged category, Whop is the only pick that solves the fee problem and the Stripe-risk problem in the same move, with no monthly subscription on top. For creators who want the closest like-for-like LMS swap, Thinkific Basic at $36/mo with 0% platform fees is the cleanest exit. For established sellers, ThriveCart Learn+ pays itself back in under six months and eliminates the subscription forever.

Frequently asked questions

What are Teachable's transaction fees in 2026?

Teachable Starter ($39/mo monthly billing, $29/mo annual) charges a 7.5% platform transaction fee on every sale, plus standard Stripe processing fees of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Builder ($89/mo) and Growth ($189/mo) charge 0% platform fee when using teachable:pay or the monthly payment gateway. Teachable eliminated its permanent free plan in 2025 and now offers only a 7-day trial.

Why did Teachable raise its prices in 2025?

Teachable restructured pricing mid-2025 and automatically migrated all existing accounts between June and July with no grandfathering of legacy pricing. The new Starter plan added a 7.5% transaction fee that did not previously exist on the entry tier. Documented community complaints include long-time users reporting costs tripling (from roughly $119/mo to $309/mo) to maintain their existing course catalog and student limits. The forced migration with no opt-out is the trust signal most worth factoring in.

What is the cheapest Teachable alternative with no transaction fees?

Systeme.io's free plan (0% platform fee, 1 course, 2,000 contacts) is the cheapest option with no platform transaction fee. Thinkific Basic at $36/mo charges 0% platform fee with proper LMS features and is the closest like-for-like Teachable swap. Whop has $0 monthly cost with an effective rate of roughly 6% all-in, no per-product cap, and no student limit. The cheapest pick depends on whether your bottleneck is the monthly subscription or the per-transaction cost at your revenue level.

Can I migrate my courses from Teachable without losing student data?

Partial migration is possible. Teachable allows CSV export of student email lists, which you can reimport into Whop, Thinkific, Kajabi, or most alternatives and use to invite students to the new platform. Video files can be downloaded before canceling. The course curriculum structure (lessons, sections, drip schedule) must be rebuilt manually on the new platform, budget 1 to 3 hours per course. Existing coupons and affiliate links also need to be recreated.

Does Whop have a course player like Teachable?

Whop includes a course player with drip content, video hosting, and community gating. It is functional but less polished than Teachable's LMS, no SCORM support and no branching quiz builder. For creators whose primary delivery is community plus coaching plus content (not a standalone self-paced course), Whop's player is sufficient and the marketplace adds free discovery Teachable does not have. For creators who need advanced LMS features (SCORM, detailed quiz analytics, completion tracking), Thinkific or Kajabi sit closer to Teachable's feature level.

Is ThriveCart a good alternative to Teachable?

ThriveCart Learn+ is a strong alternative for established sellers. The one-time pricing model means 0% ongoing platform fees after the initial investment. The payback period at $50K/year in sales is typically under six months versus Teachable Builder. ThriveCart still routes through Stripe or PayPal, so Stripe freeze risk applies for elevated-risk content categories like coaching, trading education, and high-income-claim offers. Verify current ThriveCart pricing before committing.

What is the best Teachable alternative for coaches?

Whop is the strongest pick for coaches. It handles digital products, community access, live sessions, and coaching programs in a single dashboard, with no monthly fee and no student cap. It also processes payments on independent rails rather than Stripe, which matters for coaching and mentorship content that Stripe frequently flags as elevated risk. Whop automatically handles and fights disputes on your behalf, helping protect from holds and account closures.

Does Kajabi charge transaction fees?

Kajabi charges 0% platform transaction fees on all plans. Standard Stripe or PayPal processing fees apply (2.9% + $0.30 for US cards). The monthly subscription starts at $149 for Basic in 2026. Kajabi's pricing increased in January 2026, with Basic moving from $89 to $149/mo. Compared to Teachable Starter at $39/mo with a 7.5% transaction fee, Kajabi only becomes the cheaper option once you cross roughly $2,500/mo in sales.

Will switching from Teachable affect my existing students?

Existing students will lose access to the Teachable-hosted course when you cancel. Best practice: (1) export student emails before canceling, (2) set up the new platform and re-upload content first, (3) email students with the new access link before shutting down Teachable, (4) offer a 30-day overlap window where both platforms are active. Most alternatives include a student re-invitation flow that handles the new login setup.

Is Teachable still worth it in 2026?

Teachable Builder ($89/mo, 0% platform fee with teachable:pay) is defensible if you value the LMS interface and are selling $2,000 to $8,000 per month. The course player is polished, the certificate builder is mature, and the student experience is clean. Teachable Starter ($39/mo with a 7.5% fee) is hard to justify above $12,000 to $15,000 per year in revenue, the fee math actively works against you. The forced 2025 migration with no grandfathering is a trust signal worth weighing: Teachable has now repriced existing users twice in three years.

Last reviewed : 2026-05-29. Pricing data sourced from official documentation (teachable.com/pricing, thinkific.com/pricing, systeme.io/pricing, thrivecart.com, kajabi.com/pricing, podia.com/pricing, skool.com, whop.com/sell). Effective rates may differ based on country, currency, and feature mix. WhatPayment may earn a commission on certain links (notably Whop, Systeme.io, and ThriveCart). Read our affiliate disclosure.