⚡ Quick Verdict:
- Pricing: Teachable starts at $29/month. Thinkific starts at $36/month, billed annually.
- Best for: Teachable suits creators who want native tax handling. Thinkific suits those building a course website with zero transaction fees.
- Key difference: Thinkific charges no transaction fees on any plan. Teachable adds fees on its lowest tier.
- Our pick: Thinkific for most course creators. It keeps more of your course sales and scales better.
Both tools promise to help you build and sell online courses.
But Teachable and Thinkific solve that goal in different ways.
Teachable leans on native payments and tax handling.
Thinkific leans on a flexible course website with no transaction fees.
This guide breaks down both online course platforms so you can pick with confidence.
Overview
This Teachable vs Thinkific comparison covers pricing, key features, and ease of use.
We also break down who each course platform works best for.
Our sources include published specs, documentation, and G2 reviews.
By the end, you will know which tool fits your online school.
What is Teachable?
Teachable is a course platform for creating and selling online courses.
The Teachable platform lets you build an online school without coding.
You can upload videos, add graded quizzes, and issue completion certificates.
It also handles coaching services and digital products from one Teachable account.
Teachable was acquired by Hotmart in 2020 and has recorded over $500 million in course sales.
Here is a short Teachable review video before we go deeper.
Teachable
Teachable is built for beginners who want to sell online courses fast. It handles global payments and tax without extra tools.
Teachable Pricing
Here is what Teachable costs in 2026. These are the plan prices you pay when billed annually.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29/month | Your first online course |
| Builder | $69/month | Growing course creators |
| Growth | $139/month | Full marketing features |
| Advanced | $309/month | A scaling coaching business |
Pricing verified July 2026.
Free trial: Teachable offers a free trial to test the builder before you pay.
Money-back guarantee: Refund terms depend on your plan and billing cycle.
📌 Note: The Starter plan carries a transaction fee on each sale. Higher plans drop the fee. Teachable Payments is the native payment processor across every plan.
⚠️ Warning: Published web pricing and older reviews may show different figures. We use the CSV rates above. Many Teachable reviews from 2025 flagged price increases and lower product limits.
Key Benefits of Teachable
Here is what makes Teachable worth a look:
- Native Payments: Teachable Payments supports Stripe, PayPal, and Apple Pay. It also gives you flexible payment options like subscriptions and payment plans.
- Tax Handling: It manages EU/UK VAT and U.S. sales tax natively. Few other online course platforms do this.
- Course Curriculum: Upload videos, PDFs, audio, and text. You can also create milestones to guide students.
- Coaching Products: Sell a coaching program alongside your online classes from one dashboard.
- AI Tools: An AI Course Starter builds your course curriculum outline. An AI Quiz Generator speeds up creating quizzes.
- Teachable U: Teachable U and a rich knowledge base help new course creators launch their first online course.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer signed up for a Teachable account in July and spent several days building a test course. Here is what stood out from that hands-on time:
The clip below shows more of that walkthrough.
Teachable Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Native tax handling for VAT and U.S. sales tax
- Simple drag-and-drop builder that is welcoming for beginners
- Flexible payment options with subscriptions and payment plans
- Commendable customer support and an active community
❌ Cons
- Transaction fee on the Starter plan cuts into course sales
- Limited customization and basic built-in email marketing
- Weak community-building compared with dedicated tools
What is Thinkific?
Thinkific is a course platform for building your own online courses.
It works like a course website builder plus a light learning management system.
You can sell courses successfully with a site builder and a custom domain.
Thinkific also supports memberships, coaching, digital downloads, and a community feature.
It is built for online education, not internal corporate training.
This short Thinkific review video covers the basics.
Thinkific
Thinkific gives you full control over your course website. Every plan comes with zero transaction fees.
Thinkific Pricing
Here are the Thinkific pricing plans in 2026. Prices below are per user, billed annually.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $36/user/month | Solo creators and your first course |
| Start | $74/user/month | Memberships, bundles, and certificates |
| Grow | $149/user/month | Advanced analytics and priority support |
Pricing verified July 2026.
Free trial: Thinkific offers a 14-day free trial. It dropped its free plan back in 2024.
Money-back guarantee: You can cancel during the trial before any charge.
📌 Note: Every Thinkific plan has zero transaction fees. You keep your course sales minus normal payment processor charges. The TCommerce suite handles one-time fees, subscriptions, and payment plans.
⚠️ Warning: Older articles list a free plan and different figures. Thinkific pricing plans changed, so we use the CSV rates above.
Key Benefits of Thinkific
Here is what makes Thinkific worth a look:
- Zero Fees: No transaction fees on any plan. That protects your margin as course sales grow.
- Course Building: A drag and drop builder creates interactive lessons in a few clicks. No coding skills or technical stuff needed.
- SCORM Support: Upload SCORM files for course compliance features and corporate training content.
- Full Branding: Higher plans let you remove Thinkific branding for complete control over your site.
- Analytics: Thinkific analytics track progress, student engagement, and course performance with deeper insights on the Grow plan.
- Sell More: Landing pages, live sessions, and sales tools help you create promotions and boost sales.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer built a test course website in Thinkific and explored the creation tools. Here is what stood out from that hands-on time:
The clip below shows the course building flow in action.
Thinkific Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Zero transaction fees on every plan
- User friendly drag and drop course builder with unlimited courses
- SCORM support for course compliance features
- Full branding control and a custom domain on higher plans
❌ Cons
- Community feature can feel detached from the main platform
- Video player lacks automatic captioning
- Bulk student enrollment is slow for large groups
Feature Comparison
Ready to see how Teachable and Thinkific stack up? We will walk through the key features that matter most for creating online courses. This table gives you a quick overview first.
| Feature | Teachable | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $29/month | $36/month |
| Free Trial | ✅ | ✅ (14 days) |
| Transaction Fees | ❌ On Starter plan | ✅ Zero on all plans |
| Drag-and-Drop Builder | ✅ | ✅ |
| Community Feature | ✅ Basic | ✅ |
| SCORM Support | ❌ | ✅ |
| Completion Certificates | ✅ | ✅ |
| AI Tools | ✅ | ✅ |
| Best For | Native tax handling | Course website control |
1. Course Builder
Teachable: The course builder supports video, audio, text, PDFs, and HTML embeds. You upload videos with unlimited bandwidth and organize a clean course curriculum.
Thinkific: Thinkific courses use a drag and drop builder for interactive lessons. It also supports SCORM files for corporate learning content.
2. Design and Customization
Teachable: Design templates keep your online school professional looking. Customization options are limited without deeper design skills.
Thinkific: The site builder gives you more control over your course website and a custom domain. Higher plans remove Thinkific branding for full brand control.
3. Sales Pages and Checkout
Teachable: A page manager and sales page builder create course pages, a checkout page, and thank-you pages. Coupons and order bumps can lift your average order value.
Thinkific: An AI landing page builder writes copy for landing pages and course pages. It helps you create promotions and sell courses successfully.
4. Course Content and Drip
Teachable: You can drip-feed course content on a schedule after enrollment. Custom content blocks let you tailor a specific course for offer students at each stage.
Thinkific: Email automation sends broadcasts and simple sequences. This built-in email marketing supports your sales strategy without external tools.
5. Milestones and Certificates
Teachable: You can create milestones and award course completion certificates. Students earn completion certificates as they finish each module.
Thinkific: Thinkific adds coaching and webinars for live sessions. You can run a coaching program or coaching services alongside your courses.
6. Community and Discussion
Teachable: The Teachable community tools are basic. They cover simple student interaction but not deep discussion forums.
Thinkific: The community feature hosts discussion forums and live events. It drives student engagement, though it can feel separate from the main dashboard.
7. Quizzes and Assessments
Teachable: Creating quizzes is simple, and you can build graded quizzes to test understanding. An AI Quiz Generator speeds this up.
Thinkific: Sales tools pair quizzes with surveys and assignments. The Thinker AI assistant can draft quiz questions for you.
8. Analytics and Reporting
Teachable: Analytics and reports show signups, revenue, and sales performance. Advanced reporting is thinner than some other online course platforms, and it connects to Google Analytics.
Thinkific: Student management and advanced analytics track progress and student data. The Grow plan adds deeper insights into course performance.
9. AI-Powered Tools
Teachable: An AI Course Starter drafts your course curriculum outline. This helps beginners speed up content creation on their first online course.
Thinkific: The Thinker AI assistant handles lead generation copy, outlines, and landing page text. It supports business growth with less manual work.
10. Pricing & Cost
Let’s compare the pricing options side by side.
| Plan | Teachable | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Starter $29/month | Basic $36/user/month |
| Mid | Builder $69/month | Start $74/user/month |
| Growth | Growth $139/month | Grow $149/user/month |
| Top | Advanced $309/month | — |
Teachable: The Starter plan is cheaper to start, but it charges a transaction fee on each sale. Teachable Payments is the payment processor, and Teachable offers subscriptions and payment plans so buyers can easily pay. Neither Teachable’s free plan nor free courses appear on the current CSV rates.
Thinkific: Thinkific offers zero transaction fees on every tier, so you keep more from more sales. There is no separate business plan or monthly payment gateway surcharge. That makes Thinkific pricing plans easier to predict as you scale, and rates are billed annually.
Different Scenarios
| If You Need… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest entry price | Teachable | Starter is $29/month |
| No transaction fees | Thinkific | Zero fees on all plans |
| Native tax handling | Teachable | Built-in VAT and sales tax |
| Full course website control | Thinkific | Site builder and custom domain |
| Your first online course | Either | Both are beginner friendly |
💰 Your Budget
Teachable starts lower at $29, but its Starter transaction fee eats into course sales. Thinkific costs a little more upfront yet keeps every dollar you earn.
🔌 Your Tech Stack
Both host all your videos and connect to Google Analytics. Teachable integrations and Thinkific both support custom integrations through Zapier, so your existing tools stay in place.
📝 Your Course Type
If you run one course or a specific course, Teachable is quick to launch. If you plan multiple courses with room for business growth, Thinkific handles course creation at scale.
🎓 Your Experience Level
Neither tool asks for coding skills or technical stuff. User friendliness is high on both, though Teachable feels slightly simpler for a first course.
🆓 Free Trials and Demos
Test the free trial on a real project first. Neither platform lists a free plan or free courses at these rates, so trial the core features before you commit.
🛟 Support Options
Teachable customer support is mostly email, with live chat support on higher tiers. Thinkific adds priority support on Grow, and its support team gets solid marks from users.
Switching Guide
Already using one of these tools? Here is what to expect if you switch.
🔄 Switching from Teachable to Thinkific?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Zero transaction fees on every plan
- SCORM support and stronger course compliance features
- More control over branding and your course website
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Native VAT and U.S. sales tax handling
- The lower $29 entry price
- Teachable U onboarding resources
📋 How to switch:
- Export students and course content from your Teachable school
- Create a Thinkific account and set your custom domain
- Rebuild courses with the drag and drop builder
🔄 Switching from Thinkific to Teachable?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Native tax handling that saves admin time
- A lower starting price for your first online course
- Simple setup for coaching services and digital products
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Zero transaction fees on lower plans
- SCORM support and advanced analytics
- Full branding control and custom domain flexibility
📋 How to switch:
- Export learning content and student data from Thinkific
- Open a Teachable account and connect Teachable Payments
- Upload videos and rebuild your course curriculum
What Our Review Didn’t Cover
This comparison focused on solo creators and small teams. We did not test enterprise SSO, Thinkific Plus, or bulk licensing across many teachable users. Our observations are based on the July 2026 versions, so all the features may shift over time. If you manage 50+ seats, your priorities may differ from what we covered.
Final Verdict
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| 💰 Pricing | Teachable |
| 🚀 Core Features | Thinkific |
| 🧾 Fees | Thinkific |
| 🎯 Tax Handling | Teachable |
| 👶 Ease of Use | Tie |
| 🔌 Branding & Control | Thinkific |
| 🏆 Overall Winner | Thinkific |
🏆 WINNER: THINKIFIC
Thinkific wins 3 of 6 categories, with 2 ties factored in.
Best for: Fee-free course sales, full branding control, and scaling course creators.
Teachable and Thinkific serve different creators. Teachable shines when you want native tax handling and the lowest entry price. Thinkific wins when you want to create and sell without transaction fees.
Teachable is excellent for beginners launching their first course. But for most course creators who want control and margin, Thinkific is the better pick among online learning platforms. Thinkific helps you keep more of every sale as you grow.
More of Teachable Compared
Here is how Teachable stacks up against other course platforms:
Teachable vs Kajabi
Teachable wins on: lower entry price, native tax handling, simpler setup for a first online course
Kajabi wins on: all-in-one marketing features, deeper funnels, stronger email marketing
Teachable vs Podia
Teachable wins on: VAT and sales tax handling, AI course tools, more payment options
Podia wins on: flat pricing, bundled email marketing, simpler digital downloads
Teachable vs LearnWorlds
Teachable wins on: faster launch, native payments, beginner friendliness
LearnWorlds wins on: interactive video, advanced customization options, richer assessments
More of Thinkific Compared
Here is how Thinkific stacks up against other platforms:
Thinkific wins on: lower cost, zero fees, cleaner course building
Kajabi wins on: broader marketing suite, built-in funnels, email sequences
Thinkific vs Udemy
Thinkific wins on: full ownership of student data, custom domain, no revenue share
Udemy wins on: a built-in marketplace audience, free discovery, ready buyer traffic
Thinkific vs Skool
Thinkific wins on: deeper course tools, SCORM support, advanced analytics
Skool wins on: tighter community feature, gamified discussion, simpler flat pricing
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Teachable legit and safe to use?
Yes. Teachable is legit, and many Teachable reviews confirm it. Teachable users have earned over $500 million in course sales since 2014.
What percentage does Teachable take?
The Starter plan adds a transaction fee on each sale. Higher plans drop it. Creators often ask how Teachable Payments work, and it processes cards on every plan.
Is Thinkific better than Teachable?
For most course creators, yes. Thinkific charges zero transaction fees and gives more control. Teachable still wins for native tax handling and a lower entry price.
Does Thinkific have a transaction fee?
No. Every Thinkific plan has zero transaction fees. You keep your course sales minus standard payment processor charges from Stripe or PayPal.
Which is the best course platform for beginners?
Both are user friendly. Teachable is fastest for a first course. Thinkific is the stronger long-term pick for selling online courses without fees.
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