Teachable Pricing Plans (2023): Which One is Best for You?

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If you’re considering launching an online course of your own, now’s the time.

First things first, you need a platform to host your course. However, there are so many on the market; it can be difficult to know where to start.

In light of this, we’ve put together an article breaking down everything you need to know about the Teachable pricing plans, in addition to what each bundle has to offer.
Let’s dive in!

What Do You Get with Teachable?

With each of Teachable’s pricing plans it’s important to remember that you have access to all the following features (yes, this includes the free program):

  • Unlimited video
  • Unlimited courses
  • Unlimited students
  • Unlimited hosting
  • Integrated payment processing
  • Student management
  • Discussion forums
  • Basic quizzes
  • No fees on free courses’

How awesome is that?!

Like the list above suggests, every Teachable pricing plan permits teachers to upload an unlimited number of videos, texts, PDF’s, etc. to their course- so, there isn’t a cap on the pearls of wisdom you can offer your audience.

You also don’t have to go through the hassle of researching payment processing services. Teachable accepts credit cards, debit cards, and payments via PayPal, so you don’t have to register with a separate payment processor.

Before we delve any deeper into Teachable’s paid plans, you should be aware you can cancel at any time. They don’t lock you into lengthy contracts. So, if you decide for whatever reason this isn’t the platform for you, you can cancel your subscription without incurring extra charges.

Don’t forget to check out our full Teachable review and our Teachable tutorial if you want to learn how to create an online course from start to finishโ€“ including setting up your school, creating your course and landing page.

What About Customer Service?

If you want to contact Teachable, you can easily use their handy live chat. This is amazing if you have a quick question you want an instant response to.

There’s also an email ticketing system you can use to send in your queries.

However, we thoroughly suggest heading over to their Knowledge Base. Over there you’ll find a ton of helpful resources to answer any faqs.

Presently, Teachable doesn’t offer telephone support- which isn’t ideal for users who prefer talking to a live support agent. Yet, who knows? Maybe Teachable will add this in due course?

Teachable also has an incredible blog you should take a look at.  If you’re new to writing and marketing online courses, you’ll learn a lot. That’s in addition to their weekly live workshops. These are jampacked full of handy hints and tips on how you can make this venture a success.

Now we’ve covered all that, let’s dive into the critical differences between Teachable’s pricing plans.

teachable pricing - general features

Teachable Pricing Plans:

Teachable offers 3 different pricing plans, plus the free plan:

  • Free: $0 for 1 course and one admin user
  • Basic: $59/month or $39/month when billed annually
  • Professional: $159/month or $119/month when billed annually
  • Business: Custom Pricing

teachable pricing get started

Teachable now offers a free package to help you get up and running with teaching as quickly as possible. However, this comes with limited features, higher fees, and it’s available for only one course. This means that the cheapest plan available for Teachable is the โ€œBasicโ€ option. Letโ€™s take a closer look at how each package works.

Teachable Pricing: Basic Plan

The Basic plan from Teachable is available for $59 per month, plus 5% of your sales. This is one of the more affordable options for online course platforms. Unlike previous versions of Teachable where you had to wait to access your money, you can access it instantly now.

With the basic plan, youโ€™ll pay processing fees in the US of 2.9% + 30 cents. These processing fees change depending on where youโ€™re taking payments from. For instance, international credit and debit card sales cost 3.9% plus 30 cents.

International PayPal sales also cost 4.4% + 30 cents. Thereโ€™s a chargeback fee of $15 which applies to all of the Teachable pricing options. You can also pay a Back Office fee of 2% if you enable that feature. BackOffice is an optional extra service where Teachable can deal with things like tax filing, author and affiliate payouts and reemitting for you.

The Basic plan offers unlimited access to regular courses, video bandwidth, and unlimited hosting support. You can also get customer service through email, and access integrated payment processing student management tools, lecture comments, basic quizzes, and custom domain options. Other features include:

  • Coupon codes
  • Integrated email marketing
  • Third-party integrations
  • Drip course content
  • 2 admin-level users

The price of Teachable’s Basic Plan is relatively affordable. This makes it a fabulous choice for any startup working with a tight budget.

In short, this bundle is the first step to creating a more professional looking school, the domain name of your free plan will look like this; yourschool.teachable.com. Whereas with the basic plan (or any of the other paid packages) you can enjoy the use of a custom domain name.

Therefore, you don’t need to shell out money for web hosting as Teachable hosts all your course content on your behalf. However, to your audience with a custom domain, it looks as though you’re hosting everything.

Although the majority of these extra features that come with the basic plan are terrific, there are a few that…well, aren’t so great.

Most notably, Teachable still takes a 5% transaction fee for every course you sell. Needless to say, this massively eats into your profits.

Therefore, as the Pro Plan doesn’t have any transaction fees associated with it, and only costs $99 per month (billed annually), if you’re selling so many courses your transaction fees total over $99 per month, you’re literally throwing money out the window. At this stage, you NEED to upgrade to the next plan.

In light of this, the Basic plan is only appropriate for hobbyists or those looking to run a low-key side hustle.

You’re also required to offer your students a 30-day refund policy. Now for me, this doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable, but for other business owners…it’s a big deal. Whether this effects you or not comes down to your business model and personal opinions on refund policies.

However, what this does mean is that Teachable keeps hold of your funds until the 30-day refund period has passed. For smaller enterprises, this can result in issues surrounding cash flow.

teachable pricing plans - new costs

Teachable Pricing: Professional Plan

The professional package starts at $159 per month with no sales fees required. You still pay the same processing fees that we covered in the basic plan for UC and international sales, however. Thereโ€™s also the same $15 chargeback fee to be aware of, and the 2% Back Office fee if you chose to enable this feature.

Payouts are available instantly or monthly, and you get unlimited courses, video bandwidth and hosting. Unlike with the basic plan, you can also use Live chat to get customer service, alongside email. The Professional package includes all the standard features of the Basic plan, from student management and payment processing, to custom domains, and coupon codes, however there are some extra options available too, such as:

  • Graded quizzes
  • Integrated affiliate programs
  • Course completion certificates
  • Course compliance services
  • Advanced reports
  • Unbranded website access
  • 5 admin-level users

If you’re serious about launching an online course, this is the Teachable pricing plan for you. Best of all, you don’t need to be a professional web developer or coder to customize and launch a branded school.

Teachable provides you with a template to help kicks things off. From there you can upload your content and start marketing your product as you see fit.

Like we’ve already said, one of the best features about the professional plan is that you’re not subject to transaction fees- so, you can enjoy 100% of your course’s revenue.

Plus, you can opt to receive your funds instantly (there’s no need to wait 30 days). Just integrate your PayPal and Stripe accounts directly to your Teachable account, and you won’t have to worry about the transferral of funds- you’ll be paid automatically!

You should note: if you’re using either a custom payment gateway or Teachable Payments, you’ll be paid daily. Alternatively, you can select your payment schedule.

As highlighted in the list above, this Teachable payment plan permits you to award students with course completion certificates. This is fabulous for generating a feeling of accomplishment and for stimulating a sense of community spirit amongst students.

Let’s circle back to the advanced reporting tools for a sec. With these, you can monitor student completion rates and see precisely how far your students go through the course. This works wonders for highlighting the weaker spots in your classes.

After all, knowledge is power. Once you know which sections of your course need improving, you can take the necessary steps to tighten things up.

You can also integrate your school with tons of third-party apps, which is terrific for automating some of your marketing tasks and freeing up your time to focus on scaling your business.

For instance, you can use Zapier to connect your digital school with popular tools like Intercom, Olark, and Zendesk

Moreover, with the professional plan, you own all your data including your custom domain name. So, if you want to cancel your subscription (which you’re free to do so at any time) you can download all the following info:

  • The entirety of your course
  • All your student info
  • Your revenue analytics

With this data, you can then either launch your own site or switch to another online course hosting service.

teachable pricing - student feedback

Teachable Pricing: Business Plan

The business plan is by far the most expensive option available from Teachable used to cost $299 per month, but now you’ll need to contact sales to get a custom quote. However, this is also the most extensive and comprehensive package from the company. Like with the Professional plan, you wonโ€™t pay transaction fees with your course sales, and youโ€™ll have the same standard processing fees to pay for all sales.

Instant and monthly payments are available, and you can access unlimited courses, video bandwidth and hosting too. Support is available through email and live chat, and all the features you expect come as standard, including lecture comments, quizzes, graded quizzes, integrated payment processing, student management, custom domains, coupon codes, and more.

Business package users can access the integrated affiliate programs with their email marketing, and thereโ€™s third-party integrations available too. You also get advanced features like:

  • Developer customization
  • Custom user roles
  • Bulk import students
  • Group coaching calls
  • Up to 20 admin-level users

This plan is better suited to larger enterprises with vast teams of staff. If you need the support of tons of admins to help run your school or have numerous instructors who need to upload materials and resources, this is the payment plan for you.

teachable pricing - compare plans

How Does Teachable Measure Up?

As great as Teachable can be, itโ€™s worth checking out the other options on the market too. There are tons of tools out there that can help you to create a sales page for your online course.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Check out this article if you want to explore more Teachable alternatives.

Thinkific

Thinkific is a convenient and easy to use platform for online learning. You get a host of great features built into the service, from community forums and assignments, to quizzes. You donโ€™t always get personalized quizzes and similar solutions from Teachable. Thinkific doesnโ€™t have access to the funnel builder and email marketing you get from Teachable as an LMS, however,

Compared to Teachable, Thinkific can deliver a variety of benefits, including PDFs, video and text-based quizzes, as well as drip content for courses. Thereโ€™s also a free version of Thinkific, which is no longer available from Teachable.

Thinkific also doesnโ€™t have any transaction fees to worry about, which can save you some money when youโ€™re selling course experiences for the first time.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Lots of security for your courses without extra plugins
  • Easy payout when you need to get paid
  • Lots of site and page customization options
  • Powerful standalone community area
  • Lots of quiz styles to choose from
  • No transaction fees

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • No live chat feature (you can get that from Teachable)
  • No EU VAT support
  • Fewer options for analytics and reports
  • Not the best checkout process
  • Only a handful of payment gateways

Further reading:

Kajabi

Kajabi is another excellent tool for course creation if you want to go beyond things like WordPress for selling your knowledge online. Kajabi is packed full of additional features to help you make the most of your educational business. You can create online courses, host videos, market your campaigns, and even create landing pages or sales funnels too.

There are lots of great options to explore with this learning management system, including extra features for course creation and management from your smartphone on a digital app. Thereโ€™s also the option to build a complete blog alongside your course, which isnโ€™t something you get from Teachable.

While Kajabi is a little more expensive than Teachable overall, it comes with a lot of great functionality to explore, including a host of pipeline tools and no pesky transaction fees. Thereโ€™s no option to create certificates when you want to award your students for completing their education though. This is something you can do with teachable courses.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Lots of great tools for building and promoting your new course
  • Various customization options and themes to explore
  • Website and blog functionality that you donโ€™t get with teachable courses
  • Great customer support similar to Teachable live chat support
  • Tools for marketing automation
  • Mobile apps available on Android and Ios

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Pricey compared to other options
  • Minimal reporting and analytics
  • No native option for course completion certificates
  • No EU VAT support like you get from Teachable

Further reading:

Podia

Finally, when it comes to the best online course creation platforms, many educators love sticking with the convenience of Podia. This excellent online tool makes it easier to create courses and webinars that you can sell online. You can even get multi-media support for your lectures, audio and video lessons, course players that match your branding and so much more.

Podia is great for those who want to create comprehensive membership sites that are packed full of functionality. You can create one-off posts for customers and speak through live chat for better customer support. Thereโ€™s also excellent customer support for you as a business owner too. However, bare in mind that you do pay a little extra for the features you get from Podia.

Podia makes it easy to move information that you have on another course creation platform or tool like ConvertKit onto your system too. However, Teachable offers more flexibility for course customization, ass well as affiliate and VAT support services that arenโ€™t available through Podia.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Attractive course player with easy-to-use design
  • Lots of engagement features for membership websites
  • Live chat for excellent customer support
  • Easy to migrate from other services
  • No transaction fees to worry about
  • Lots of multiโ€”media options

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • No option for creating certificates and quizzes
  • Limited integrations (unlike Teachable with things like Mailchimp)
  • No support for charging VAT on a paid course
  • Basic options for analytics and reporting

Further reading:

FAQ

Is Thinkific Better Than Teachable?

There are lots of course creation tools out there ranging from Udemy to Kajabi which help you to make money from learning opportunities and upsells. Whatโ€™s right for you will depend on your specific needs. Thinkific is one of the few options on the market now that has a long-term option for hosting free courses โ€“ which Teachable no longer offers.

Can You Make Money With Teachable?

You can make money with any course creation website if you know how to build and market your educational opportunity correctly. Teachable stands out as one of the top platforms for course creation, and itโ€™s excellent for tracking the things that might lead to your success. There are tons of reporting and analytics features so you know where to spend your money when you want to boost your chances of success.

What percentage does teachable take?

Teachable does have a transaction fee that you need to be aware of. Thereโ€™s a 5% transaction fee on all course sales which can reduce your earning potential with this platform. Just keep that expense in mind when youโ€™re pricing your courses and when choosing the best online course platforms.

Can I Integrate Teachable With WordPress?

There are ways to connect Teachable and WordPress through things like Zapier. However, Teachable isnโ€™t a WordPress plugin โ€“ itโ€™s a full course creation solution in its own right. You donโ€™t need an existing WordPress website to begin taking advantage of Teachable features.

Are You Ready to Register for One of Teachable’s Pricing Plans?

We hope this article gave you a clearer idea of which Teachable pricing plan is best for you. In short, it comes down to how many courses you plan to sell and whether you’re taking this enterprise seriously.

If you’re just launching a course for the fun of it, you can probably get away with the basic of even the free plan, however, if you’re taking this business seriously you’re likely to need the professional plan (once you’ve finished writing the course).

Do you have experience with any of the above Teachable pricing plans? If so, we would love to hear about your experiences in the comments box below. Speak soon!

Rosie Greaves

Rosie Greaves is a professional content strategist who specializes in all things digital marketing, B2B, and lifestyle. She has over three years of experience crafting high-quality content. Check out her website Blog with Rosie for more information.

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