Teachable vs Thinkific: Where to Sell Your First Online Course (2026)

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Teachable and Thinkific are the two names that come up first when you’re about to sell a course on your own. Both host your videos, take payments and give students a login. Where they really differ is in how they charge you, how many products you can sell on each plan, and how quickly the money gets to you.

This is a research-based comparison. We went through each vendor’s official pricing page and help docs in October 2026. We haven’t run a paid course on either platform yet, so hands-on notes will come later.

Free plans: neither has one anymore

Both platforms dropped their free tiers.

• Teachable: the pricing FAQ calls it “a paid service that includes a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.” While we were checking, the site also showed a pop-up advertising a 30-day trial, so look at what the signup page offers you on the day you sign up.
• Thinkific: the pricing page says there’s no free plan and every plan starts with a 30-day free trial. One of Thinkific’s feature pages says “14-day trial,” so check the length when you sign up as well.

If you only want to test the idea first, use the trial window to build one module and a sales page before you commit to a billing cycle.

Pricing and transaction fees by plan

Prices checked October 2026, in USD.

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\Teachable’s 0% applies when you use Teachable Payments. Card processing fees still apply. \\*Thinkific’s pricing page doesn’t list a platform cut, but it notes that third-party gateway fees (Stripe or PayPal used directly) “vary per plan type” without giving amounts. Check current pricing if you won’t be using Thinkific Payments.

Both vendors also sell a custom or enterprise tier (Teachable Custom, Thinkific Plus) priced through their sales teams. Solo creators won’t need it.

The product limit is the hidden catch on Teachable

Teachable counts every course, coaching offer and digital download as one product toward your limit. Memberships, bundles and unpublished drafts don’t count. Starter gives you 5 products. So one course, one workbook download and one coaching call use three of your five slots.

Thinkific works the other way around. Courses are unlimited on every plan, and the Basic plan caps digital downloads at 5 and coaching/webinar offers at 5. If you expect to build a library of small courses, Thinkific’s structure suits you better.

Payment processing: what you pay on every sale

Platform fees are only part of the cost. You also pay a card processing fee on every sale.

Teachable lists these rates on its pricing page:

• U.S. cards: 2.9% + 30¢
• International cards: 3.9% + 30¢
• U.S. PayPal: 3.49% + 49¢
• International PayPal: 4.99% + 49¢
• Chargebacks: $15
• Optional “BackOffice” fee: 2–2.8%

Teachable’s help center also describes an optional Go Global bundle (+2.8%). It adds 35+ local payment methods (Klarna, Afterpay, iDEAL and others), automated affiliate and author payouts, and adaptive pricing. It also waives the separate tax and recurring-transaction fees that come with the default “Standard” bundle. Teachable’s setup article doesn’t publish the Standard bundle’s tax and recurring rates, so check current pricing if you plan to sell subscriptions.

Thinkific Payments charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for card processing, according to Thinkific’s payment gateway page. Thinkific’s pricing page says extra third-party gateway fees vary by plan when you use Stripe or PayPal directly, and some fees can vary by country and payment method (for example Apple Pay or Google Pay).

Payout options: how fast you get paid

This is where Teachable has a clear advantage for creators outside North America.

Teachable Payments

• Available in 41 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Japan and Singapore.
• Pays out to your bank in your local currency on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule. Daily payouts run on a 2-day rolling delay.
• In unsupported countries you connect your own Stripe account through Teachable’s Custom Payment Gateway. That option works in every country and on every plan. Payouts then follow your Stripe schedule, and PayPal can be added for one-time USD purchases.
• Tax forms: US persons file a W-9, and non-US persons file a W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E. Teachable holds payouts once you reach $500 in earnings without a valid form on file.

Thinkific

• The pricing page says all plans get payouts immediately after a successful purchase, with no extra hold period from Thinkific.
• Thinkific Payments is available in the US, Canada and UK, with “limited release in other countries.” Outside those countries you’ll probably rely on Stripe or PayPal directly. PayPal checkout is only included from the Grow plan up.

If you run a US LLC with a US bank account, both platforms work fine. If you’re a solo creator in, say, Germany or Singapore without a US entity, Teachable Payments is the easier route.

Course builder

Both builders follow the same basic structure: sections, lessons, video, text, quizzes and drip scheduling.

• Teachable lists drip content, auto-graded quizzes and short-answer assessments on every plan, plus “Create with AI” tools for outlining and drafting. Video storage goes up to 1TB, and Teachable’s mobile app is included on all plans. Course certificates appear on the Growth plan card, along with branding removal and free subtitles/translations.
• Thinkific caps video bandwidth by plan: 100 GB/mo (Basic), 200 GB/mo (Start), 400 GB/mo (Grow). A first course won’t come near those numbers, but a popular course with long HD videos could. A branded mobile app costs $199/mo as an add-on.

Community and coaching

Thinkific builds community into every plan and lists the limits clearly. Basic gives you 1 community with 5 spaces and 5 live events. Start gives you 1 community with 10 spaces and unlimited live events. Grow gives you 3 communities with 20 spaces. Coaching and webinar offers are capped at 5 on Basic and unlimited from Start up.

Teachable describes community as groups and discussion boards where students can talk to each other. Teachable’s pricing table lists community on Builder and Growth, but not on Starter. Check the live comparison table before you buy if community matters to you. Coaching is a product type on every plan, but each coaching offer uses up one of your product slots.

If cohort-style discussion is central to your course, Thinkific’s community limits are easier to plan around.

Digital downloads

You can sell standalone downloads (templates, ebooks, worksheets) on both platforms.

• Teachable: downloads are allowed on all plans, and each one counts as a product (5, 10 or 50 depending on plan).
• Thinkific: you get 5 downloads on Basic and unlimited downloads on Start and above.

If you plan to sell many small downloads, Thinkific Start ($82/mo annual) gives you more room than Teachable Builder (10 products total).

Email features

Neither platform should be your main email tool if you’re serious about growing a list. Both are adequate for a first launch.

• Teachable: every plan includes unlimited abandoned-cart recovery emails, upsells and automatic US sales tax/VAT/GST handling. The pricing page also mentions “built-in email marketing,” but it doesn’t make clear which plans include it.
• Thinkific: its email marketing page lists list management, one-off campaigns, automated flows with pre-built sequences, AI-written copy, and integrations with Mailchimp and AWeber (via Zapier). It doesn’t publish send or contact limits per plan.

Many creators connect a dedicated email platform such as Kit or MailerLite once their list grows. Teachable Starter allows 1 third-party integration, Builder 3 and Growth 5, so count your integrations before choosing a plan.

Total cost examples: $1,000 and $5,000 a month

Assumptions: US card sales only, a $100 course price (10 sales at $1k, 50 sales at $5k), card processing at 2.9% + 30¢ on both platforms, and the default fee setup with no optional bundles. Taxes, chargebacks and Teachable’s Standard-bundle extras aren’t included.

At $1,000/month in sales (processing ≈ $32)

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At $5,000/month in sales (processing ≈ $160)

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What the numbers show:

• Thinkific Basic is the cheapest option at both sales levels, as long as its limits (5 downloads, 5 coaching offers, no payment plans, no PayPal) don’t get in your way.
• Teachable Starter becomes expensive quickly. The upgrade to Builder costs $50 more per month on monthly billing, and the 7.5% fee reaches $50 at about $667/month in sales. Above that, Builder is cheaper.
• At $5k/month, Teachable Builder and Thinkific Start cost about the same. At that point, choose based on payouts, product limits and community rather than price.

Who should choose which

Choose Teachable if:

• You live outside the US/Canada/UK and want native daily payouts in your currency.
• You’ll sell a small number of products (under 10) to a large audience.
• You want automatic tax handling and local payment methods (with Go Global).

Don’t choose Teachable if:

• You want to stay on a $29–39 plan for long. The 7.5% fee makes Starter expensive once you have real sales.
• You plan to sell dozens of small courses and downloads.

Choose Thinkific if:

• You want the lowest total cost for a first course.
• You plan to build a library of courses, or want community spaces included.
• You’re in the US, Canada or UK, where Thinkific Payments is available.

Don’t choose Thinkific if:

• You need PayPal or payment plans on the cheapest tier.
• You’re in a country where Thinkific Payments isn’t available yet and you don’t want to set up Stripe yourself.

Migration note: moving later is a real chore. You’ll have to re-upload videos, re-create sales pages and coupons, and migrate active subscriptions, which may mean students re-entering card details. Choose with year two in mind, not just month one.

See how course software fits into your monthly budget in our solo creator tool stack, and connect your sales with our Kit vs MailerLite vs beehiiv comparison.

FAQ

Does Teachable or Thinkific have a free plan in 2026? No. Both are paid only. Teachable’s plan cards mention a 7-day trial plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. Thinkific’s pricing page lists a 30-day free trial.

Which is cheaper for a first course? Based on published pricing, Thinkific Basic ($40/mo annual) is cheaper at both $1k and $5k in monthly sales, because it has no 7.5% platform fee like Teachable Starter.

Does Thinkific charge transaction fees? Thinkific’s pricing page doesn’t list a platform percentage. Thinkific Payments charges 2.9% + $0.30 per card transaction. If you use Stripe or PayPal directly, Thinkific says additional gateway fees vary by plan, so check current pricing.

How does Teachable’s 7.5% fee work? It applies only on the Starter plan and is taken on top of card processing. Builder and Growth have 0% platform fees when you use Teachable Payments.

Can I get paid via PayPal? On Teachable, students can pay with PayPal through the Custom Payment Gateway (one-time USD purchases) if you connect your own PayPal business account. On Thinkific, PayPal checkout is only included from the Grow plan up.

Which platform pays out faster? Thinkific says payouts happen immediately after a successful purchase with no extra hold. Teachable Payments offers daily payouts on a 2-day rolling delay, or weekly or monthly.