Teachable Pricing in 2026: When the 7.5% Fee Costs More Than the $69 Plan

Teachable’s $29 plan stops being the cheap one at about $533 a month in sales. Teachable pricing has one number that matters more than the price tag, and it isn’t in big type on the plan card. It’s 7.5%, the fee Teachable takes from every sale on Starter. Once your course earns a modest amount each month, that fee costs you more than simply paying for Builder.

Teachable’s 2026 lineup shows how much quiet work a low entry price can do. This post takes the beliefs coaches most often hold about it and checks each one against the actual numbers. Most of them are partly true, which is exactly what makes them expensive.

The two Teachable plans most coaches choose between

Before the myths, here’s the short version of the Teachable pricing page as of 3 November 2026. Above Builder sit Growth (formerly Pro) and Advanced. They’re built for bigger catalogues than most solo coaches run, so I’ll keep them out of the main math.

That’s the whole menu for most solo coaches. Two plans, one clear trade: pay less up front and share your sales, or pay more and keep them.

Myth 1: “Starter is the cheap Teachable plan”

Reality: Starter is the cheap plan only while you sell very little.

The gap between Starter and Builder is $40 a month on yearly billing. Starter’s 7.5% fee eats that gap once your sales reach about $533 a month, because 7.5% of $533 is $40. Above that line, every dollar you sell makes Starter the more expensive choice.

Here’s what that looks like at a few sales levels, yearly billing, platform costs only:

At $2,000 a month, Starter’s fee alone is $150. Add the $29 plan and you’re at $179 a month, against $69 on Builder. That’s $110 a month you hand over for the privilege of being on the “cheap” plan.

This is the Teachable problem that reaches me most often after a first launch, and it nearly always has the same shape. A coach starts on Starter for a small course that earns a few hundred dollars most months, so the fee feels like nothing. Then a proper launch to her list brings in around $2,000, and her statement shows $150 gone to Teachable on top of the subscription. The plan she picked to save money cost her more in that one month than two months of Builder would have.

Nobody did anything wrong there. The pricing just works the way it was designed to. A low entry plan with a percentage fee is how SaaS companies grow with you. It’s fair while you’re small. It stops being fair to you the moment you aren’t.

Myth 2: “The 7.5% is the only fee I’ll pay”

Reality: card processing comes on top, on every plan.

Stripe or PayPal take roughly 2.9% + 30¢ per sale. That’s the cost of moving money, and every course platform charges it or passes it through. Builder doesn’t remove it. Neither does any competitor.

So on Starter, a sale carries two cuts:

• Teachable’s platform fee: 7.5%
• Payment processing: about 2.9% + 30¢

Together that’s a little over 10% of each sale before you see it. On Builder you’re left with just the processing part. This is why I’d compare plans on “what’s left after fees”, not on the sticker price. The sticker is the smallest number on the page for a reason.

One thing worth checking yourself: Teachable’s payout settings, and whether the payout method changes the fees. That detail lives in Teachable’s help docs, not on the pricing page, so read it before your first launch.

Myth 3: “Paying monthly is the safe way to test Teachable”

Reality: monthly billing is a reasonable test, but it costs more and moves the break-even.

Monthly billing costs $39 for Starter and $89 for Builder. That’s $10 and $20 more per month than yearly. The flexibility is real. If your course flops, you can leave without a year’s commitment.

But notice what happens to the break-even. On monthly billing the gap between the two plans is $50, not $40. Divide $50 by 7.5% and you get about $667 a month in sales. So if you’re paying monthly, Starter stays cheaper a little longer, up to roughly $667 instead of $533.

What I’d do: pay monthly for the first two or three months while you find out if anyone buys. The moment your monthly sales look steady, switch to yearly billing on the plan that fits. Paying monthly forever is a slow leak.

Myth 4: “I can start free and upgrade when I’m ready”

Reality: Teachable dropped its free plan in 2026.

Older blog posts and YouTube videos still mention a free Teachable plan. It’s gone. Today, $29 a month on yearly billing is the lowest way in. There’s a 7-day free trial and a 30-day guarantee, but no free plan.

This matters for the “is Teachable worth it” question. If you haven’t sold a single course yet, you’re now paying to find out. Teachable isn’t alone in this. Thinkific also has no free plan anymore, and Podia offers a 14-day free trial with no card but no free plan either.

If you truly want $0 while you validate an idea, a course platform might be the wrong first purchase. Plenty of coaches pre-sell a program on a simple booking page and build the course only once people pay. Our ranking of the best course platforms for coaches covers when to wait.

Myth 5: “Builder is overkill for a coach with one course”

Reality: Builder isn’t about how many courses you have. It’s about how much you sell.

This is the most common belief of the lot. Coaches read “Builder” and think it’s for people building a big course library. So they stay on Starter because they only have one program.

But the main thing Builder buys you is the 0% platform fee. A coach with one course selling $1,000 a month is better off on Builder than a coach with five courses selling $300 a month. Course count only matters at the caps. Starter allows 5 products and Builder allows 10. Teachable doesn’t cap students by plan.

Think of the decision like this:

• Under about $533/mo in sales: Starter costs less.
• Around $533/mo: the two plans cost the same, $69.
• Above $533/mo: Builder costs less, and the gap widens with every sale.

If your one course is a $1,000-plus group program and you expect even a few buyers a month, Builder is the plan from day one. Starting on Starter would be planning to overpay.

Myth 6: “Thinkific is the cheaper option”

Reality: not any more. Thinkific retired its Basic plan in late October 2026; the cheapest plan is now Start.

Thinkific Start is $82 a month on yearly billing, with a 0% transaction fee and unlimited courses and students. Teachable Builder is $69 with a 0% platform fee. Same fee, and Teachable is $13 a month cheaper at every sales level.

Against Starter, the $53 gap to Thinkific Start closes once Teachable’s 7.5% fee reaches $53. That happens at roughly $707 a month in sales ($53 ÷ 7.5%). But by then you should be on Builder anyway, which beats Starter from about $533. So on price alone, Teachable now wins at every sales level.

Thinkific’s case is room, not price. If you need more than 10 products, Teachable’s next step is Growth at $139, while Thinkific Start gives you unlimited courses for $82. That’s $57 a month in Thinkific’s favour. We cover the full matchup, including where Teachable’s checkout pulls ahead, in Thinkific vs Teachable.

Where Teachable can still make sense: if you like how its checkout and course pages look, or you’re already set up there and moving would cost you a week of work. A familiar tool has a value that a pricing table can’t show.

Myth 7: “Once I pick a plan, I’m stuck with it”

Reality: moving up a plan inside Teachable is a billing change, not a rebuild.

Coaches sometimes put off choosing because it feels permanent. It isn’t. Going from Starter to Builder keeps your courses, students and pages where they are. You’re changing what you pay, not where you live.

Leaving Teachable is a different story. Moving courses, students and payment links to another platform takes real time. If you suspect you’ll want Kajabi’s built-in email or Podia’s all-in-one setup within a year, decide that now rather than after you’ve built everything twice. Our Teachable alternatives switcher’s guide has a migration checklist if you’re already partway there.

The myths and the math, side by side

A 12-month look at Teachable Starter vs Builder

Here’s what a year costs on each plan if your sales stay steady. Yearly billing, platform fees only, processing left out because it’s the same either way.

That bottom row is the one to sit with. A coach steadily selling $2,000 a month on Starter pays Teachable $1,320 more over a year than she needs to. That’s real money for a solo practice.

The Teachable cost the plan card leaves out: email

There’s one more line most coaches forget when they add up Teachable pricing. Teachable sells you a place to host and sell a course. It doesn’t give you a proper email marketing tool on these plans. And for a coach, email is usually where sales come from.

So the honest monthly bill is Teachable plus an email tool. Here’s how that stacks up on yearly billing, with Builder as the base:

Kit’s Free plan is enough to start. One welcome sequence, one automation, and you can email your whole list. Many coaches run on that for months. The trigger to pay is usually wanting a second sequence, say one for course buyers and one for discovery-call leads. Our Kit pricing breakdown goes plan by plan.

The point isn’t that Teachable is a bad deal. It’s that comparing Teachable’s $69 to Kajabi’s $143 isn’t a fair fight until you’ve added the email line. Once you do, Teachable Builder plus paid Kit is still about $41 a month cheaper than Kajabi Basic. You just have two logins instead of one.

How we checked these numbers

Every price here comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, checked on 3 November 2026. We re-check prices monthly and update the date at the top when something moves. Where a detail couldn’t be confirmed, like Teachable’s payout timing, we leave it out instead of filling the gap.

The break-even figures are simple division: the monthly price gap between two plans, divided by the fee percentage. You can do it on a napkin. I’d encourage you to, with your own sales numbers, because your break-even is the only one that matters.

Who should pick which Teachable plan

Stay on Starter if

• You’re testing your first course and don’t know yet if it’ll sell.
• Your sales sit well under $533 a month and you don’t have a launch planned.
• You’ll stay under Starter’s 5-product cap.
• You treat it as a short stop, with a date in your calendar to review.

Go straight to Builder if

• You already have an email list or audience that buys from you.
• Your program is priced high enough that a couple of sales a month passes the break-even.
• You’re planning a launch. Launch months are exactly when the 7.5% hurts most.

Don’t buy Teachable at all if

• You need more than 10 products but don’t want Growth’s $139. Thinkific Start gives you unlimited courses for $82.
• You want email, course and website under one login. Teachable doesn’t include marketing email in these plans, so you’d pay for a separate tool. Kajabi Basic includes email at $143, and Podia bundles it too.
• You mostly sell 1-to-1 sessions and the “course” is really session notes. You may not need a course platform yet.

What I’d do with Teachable pricing in 2026

If I were a coach starting a first course today and set on Teachable, I’d begin on Starter with monthly billing. I’d set one rule: the first month sales pass $533, I move to Builder on yearly billing. No debate, no “let’s see next month.”

If I already had a list of a few hundred people who trust me, I’d skip Starter entirely. Builder from the first day, because my first launch would almost certainly cross the line.

And if I expected to outgrow 10 products, I’d look hard at Thinkific Start before Teachable Growth. $82 a month, no platform fee, unlimited courses and students. That’s $57 a month less than Growth, with no product cap at all. Run your own sales numbers through our cost calculator before you commit.

Teachable pricing questions coaches ask