Teachable Pricing [July 2023 Update]: Find the Best Plan for You

But honestly, straightforward isn’t the most accurate word here.

Compared to more than a dozen platforms we’ve reviewed, Teachable has one of the most confusing pricing plans. And now, after the recent price hike, it seems like Teachable lost its competitive edge.

However, we can still see the potential of Teachable for some specific use cases. In this article, we’ll simplify Teachable’s pricing strategy, compare it to prominent competitors, and suggest the ideal users for each plan. Let’s get into it.

Teachable Pricing: In-Depth Look

Teachable unlocks more features with each plan.

Teachable Free Plan

Teachable was best known for its lifetime free plan, which made it the go-to option for beginner educators. That’s one of the main reasons why it became popular in the first place.

However, a major cost of this plan are the transaction fees — a $1+10% cut from each product sold. It also has a list of restrictions, including:

• 1 Digital product from each category
• 10 Students at any given time
• 10 Published course videos
• No third-party integrations
• No custom domain

Before raising prices, Teachable offered unlimited students for the Free plan. Now, you can only have 10 enrollments at a time and new students will have to wait before joining the course.

But even after the recent price updates, Teachable still has one of the best free-forever plans compared to other learning management system platforms we’ve reviewed. This is because the platform has an intuitive user interface and a decent course builder workflow. And you get to utilize a bit more than just basic features for free: course design templates for easier course creation, complete student management functionality, unlimited hosting, lecture comments, student referrals, and more.

Overall, Teachable’s free plan is better suited for a side hustle than a stable business. Its limited functionality can’t serve a growing business in the long term. You’ll eventually have to upgrade if you’d like more students to enroll or if you want to cut the transaction fee costs. Some additional features you’ll miss in the free plan are drip course content, course completion certificates, coupon codes, live group coaching calls, and unlimited video.

The most valuable thing about this plan is displaying your digital products on a customizable free website (the website still shows Teachable’s branding, though). Other valuable use cases of the free plan include selling a single high-ticket digital download or scheduling periodic coaching sessions.

Teachable Basic Plan: $59/month

The Basic plan is Teachable’s most affordable paid plan — it costs $39/month when paid annually ($59/month on a monthly subscription). But the low cost comes at a price. Teachable still charges a 5% transaction fee on this plan.

So, the Basic plan only makes sense until your cumulative transaction fees cross $119/month (or $159/month), which is the cost of the Pro plan.

The Basic plan is most valuable if you have five or fewer high-ticket courses and a large number of students. However, it’s missing graded quizzes, certificates, and course compliance controls, which makes the plan less reliable for educational purposes.

Another drawback of the Basic plan is Teachable’s branding — you can’t get rid of it. So, if you want to stand out with your own brand, using an external website might be the play. Added to that, Zapier isn’t supported on this plan, so you won’t be able to automate repetitive processes.

Teachable Pro Plan: $159/month

Teachable’s most popular (and in our opinion most valuable) plan is the Pro plan. Starting at $119/month for annual subscriptions ($159/month for monthly), this plan has no transaction fees and offers almost all of Teachable’s features.

It offers up to 50 courses and all educational tools like graded quizzes and certificates, as well as marketing features like the affiliate program.

However, although you get a fully branded website with a custom domain, the website doesn’t include a blog. The other downside is that Teachable, in general, offers a limited number of integrations.

All in all, Teachable’s Pro plan will suit most digital product businesses.

It’s the plan to go for if your business has taken off and you’ve got a growing number of students and digital products.

Teachable Business Plan: $665/month

The Business plan has more than doubled in price after the recent price increase. Currently, it starts at $499/month when paid annually and $665/month for monthly subscriptions.

In addition to all the features on the Pro plan, the Business plan also includes:

• Advanced developer customization,
• Bulk student imports,
• Custom user roles,
• Priority support.

It’s hard to justify the price of Teachable’s Business plan, but it’s generally aimed at larger companies rather than solopreneurs. The custom user roles allow you to set specific permissions to a team of up to 20 admins, which helps in managing a school-like business.

Ideal Users for Teachable’s Plans

Teachable offers a helpful quiz on its pricing page to assist course creators in choosing their ideal plan. It considers the number of your digital products, team size, integrations, advanced features, and support. For a brief overview, we’ve put together our own list of ideal users for each plan.

Choose the Free plan if:

• You’re testing out a new course idea.
• You want to coach a small number of students.
• You want to sell a high-ticket digital downloadable on a good-looking website.

Choose the Basic plan if:

• You have five or fewer courses.
• You’ve got an independent website.
• You can streamline your business without automation.

Choose the Pro plan if:

• You’ve got a growing number of courses.
• You’ve got a growing number of students or a loyal fan base.
• You need graded quizzes, certificates, or course compliance features.

Choose the Business plan if:

• You need extensive customization options.
• You’ve got a school-like business with several admins and tutors.
• You need to migrate a large number of students from another platform.

Teachable’s Free Trial

Since the free plan has limited features, Teachable offers a 14-day free trial of its most popular tier, the Pro plan. But keep in mind, Teachable’s Accelerator Program takes around a month, so you can’t expect to generate revenue within the two-week trial period unless you’ve got an established fan base or a student email list.

Teachable Pricing: Feature Value

Teachable’s Pro plan is its best deal, but its built-in tool package is less valuable than other course-creation platforms.

Teachable’s Pro plan has the best value for fast-growing businesses.

Teachable’s Pro plan is its most valuable plan because it has no transaction fees and provides almost all of the platform’s features. Compared to other platforms like Kajabi, Teachable’s Pro plan stands out with its native payment gateway in addition to a large quota of courses, digital downloads, and students.

Teachable has some built-in tools, but they lack essential features.

Teachable can replace your website, cart, and email marketing tools, but you’ll have to give up on essential features like blogs and email automation. These features are available for all plans on competing online course platforms, like Kajabi and New Zenler.

Teachable’s website builder is also very limited compared to standalone providers, like Wix.com.

You can complement Teachable with third-party alternatives (ex.: ConvertKit) but then it makes more sense to use Teachable’s Basic plan, especially if you’ve got a limited number of courses.

Another main tool that’s lacking in Teachable is a community tool — which means it’s not the best platform for collective learning. Still, if you’re willing to pay for an external community, you can use the Circle.so integration provided by Teachable.

Teachable’s native payment gateways cost more, but they simplify financial management.

On top of the transaction and monthly fees, Teachable charges additional fees for its native payment gateways: Teachable:Pay and the Monthly Payment Gateway. It can cut up to 4.99% + 49¢ per transaction, depending on the student’s payment method. In return for this fee, Teachable handles affiliate payments, taxes, and more.

Teachable:Pay allows for daily payments, but it’s not available in all countries. Alternatively, you can use the Monthly Payment Gateway, which makes transfers once per month via PayPal.

Teachable also provides BackOffice, which is an optional service that charges an additional 2% transaction fee.

Another option for Pro and Business plan users is to use PayPal or Stripe as a custom payment gateway. Here are the pros and cons of this option:

Teachable Pricing: Other Points To Consider

Teachable is one of the most reliable platforms, but its prices went up abruptly in 2023.

Teachable was an affordable platform until its prices increased in June 2023. They also added more restrictions to the free plan, which forces freemium users to upgrade.

Hidden Costs of Teachable

Even before the price hike, Teachable had additional processing fees on all plans because of its native payment gateways, which we discussed earlier. Here’s a detailed chart of all additional processing fees:

Teachable vs Competitor Pricing

Teachable still has one of the best free lifetime plans, compared to other course-creation platforms. Its Basic plan is reasonably priced, and its Pro plan is slightly costly but offers great features. Still, for this category other LMS platforms, like LearnWorlds, offer more advanced features like gamification.

After the price increase, Teachable’s business plan became the most expensive plan among the platforms we’ve reviewed. Unfortunately, its features aren’t as value-packed as on Kajabi’s top plan, for example, so it’s more likely that the Business plan users will consider shifting to other platforms.

Teachable Alternatives

Here are our suggested alternatives based on common concerns about Teachable’s pricing:

Teachable Pricing: Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to publish a course on Teachable?

You can publish and monetize one Teachable course for free, but you can only upload 10 videos and enroll 10 students at once. You can also publish up to five courses for as low as $39/month and unlimited courses for $119/month, on annual subscriptions.

How does Teachable pay you?

Teachable makes payouts to you directly through your bank account if you’re eligible for Teachable:Pay. Otherwise, you’ll get paid via PayPal using their Monthly Payment Gateway. You can also use custom gateways (Stripe/PayPal) if you’re on the Pro or Business plan.

Teachable Review: Final Verdict

Teachable is a reliable platform, but it comes with additional costs.

After the recent price increase, Teachable lost its competitive advantage as an affordable platform.

Even so, Teachable is still worth the investment because of its reliable system that handled thousands of courses over the past decade.

It would be your ideal platform of choice if your business thrives with external marketing and you’ve got a growing number of students and digital products.