Vendor · Teachable · USD · United States rates where noted
Teachable (2026) — who it’s actually for
Starter vs Builder is the whole story. Starter is $39/mo with a 7.5% platform cut. Builder is $89/mo with 0% if you stay on teachable:pay or Monthly Payment Gateway. The school is real. The cheap plan is not cheap once you sell.
Who this page is for
Experts with a method, deciding whether Teachable is the school — not whether they should invent a catalog. One flagship course, coaching, a digital download, a membership. You are picking a host, not a methodology shop.
This is not a Teachable vs everyone table. Those live on Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific and Teachable transaction fees, in dollars. This page is Teachable on its own terms: the 7.5% / 0% split, the public cards, and who should not sit on Starter.
The short version
What it is
Official line: a school for creators, experts, entrepreneurs, and businesses who are serious about education. Courses, coaching, digital downloads, memberships. Teachable handles checkout, tax remittance, and the student app.
You pay for
A published-product cap, an active-student cap until $10k/year in sales on Teachable, and — on Starter — 7.5% of every transaction on top of card processing.
You do not get
A free plan. Native live video. Unlimited published products on a named public card. Growth stops at 50. Custom is a sales conversation.
Actually for
A course catalog — several products, a student list, Teachable as the school. Builder is the plan that drops the platform cut to 0% on teachable:pay or Monthly Payment Gateway.
Fits
An expert who will sell more than a test invoice. Memberships and bundles do not count toward the product cap. Self-paced courses are the default shape.
Skip
If you will sit on Starter while a real offer sells. If the work is a dated live group, Thinkific Start advertises that product; Teachable’s live path is embeds. If you need the business OS, read Kajabi.
The 2026 facts
Public Starter $39/mo month-to-month, $29/mo billed annually. Builder $89 / $69. Growth $189 / $139. Custom: contact sales. 7-day trial, 30-day money-back. USD. 22% off annual.
Stay on teachable:pay
Starter 7.5% of total transaction value (product price including taxes). Builder, Growth, Custom: 0%. US card processing 2.9%+$0.30 on every plan.
Leave those gateways
The public FAQ only covers 0% / 7.5% on teachable:pay or Monthly Payment Gateway. A Custom Payment Gateway surcharge was not on the public pricing page this fetch — omitted.
Cited numbers, August 29, 2026
USD. Monthly is month-to-month. Annual is the advertised per-month rate when you pay yearly. Platform fee is Teachable’s cut, not card processing.
| Starter | Builder | Growth | Custom | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly / annual (per month) | $39 / $29 (save $120) | $89 / $69 (save $240) | $189 / $139 (save $600) | Contact sales |
| Platform transaction fee | 7.5% | 0%* | 0%* | 0%* |
| Published products | 5 | 10 | 50 | Flexible (sales copy) |
| Active students | 100 | 1,000 | 5,000 | Flexible (sales copy) |
| Imported students | 5 | 50 | 1,000 | — |
| Admin-level users | 1 | 1 | 5 | Flexible (sales copy) |
| Video storage | Up to 1TB on the named public cards | |||
| Webhooks | 1 | 3 | 5 | Unlimited |
| Student cap lift | Official FAQ: active and imported student caps do not apply once you reach $10k USD/year in sales directly on Teachable. | |||
| What counts as a product | A published course, coaching offering, or digital download. Memberships and bundles do not count. Unpublished drafts do not count. One course with 30 videos = 1 product. | |||
| Memberships | On the public comparison for named plans. Recurring access; does not eat the product cap. | |||
| Community | Listed on Builder, Growth, and Custom in the public comparison this fetch. Starter’s current grid does not list it. Treat Starter community as unverified tonight. | |||
| Remove Teachable branding / Growth extras on the public card | — | Affiliate program, real-time support | Course certificates (highlighted), remove branding, imported-student row, custom admin permissions, free subtitles and translations | Everything in Growth, plus dedicated success manager, sandbox, priority SLA, white-glove onboarding (sales copy) |
| US card processing (Teachable Pay, all plans) | 2.9% + $0.30. Same across plan levels. Dropping the 7.5% does not drop this. | |||
| Trial | 7-day free trial, 30-day money-back guarantee. No free plan. Prices in USD. Annual billing 22% off. | |||
Sources: teachable.com/pricing, Teachable Pay. *0% if you use teachable:pay or Monthly Payment Gateway, per the public pricing FAQ. Teachable Pay names Builder, Growth, Advanced, and Business at 0% on Teachable Payments — live public cards are Starter / Builder / Growth / Custom.
What you are actually buying
A school. Official who-uses copy: creators, experts, entrepreneurs, and businesses scaling real-world expertise into an education business. Product types on the public site: online courses, coaching (1:1 or group, scheduling and payment), digital downloads, memberships.
Courses. Drag-and-drop builder, drip, quizzes, certificates, iOS and Android student apps, offline access on the apps (courses page). Official courses FAQ, this evening: Teachable is built for self-paced courses by default. Live courses use third-party embeds — YouTube, Vimeo, Zoom. A cohort-style schedule is drip content, not a native live room.
Checkout and tax. teachable:pay: fraud protection, tax-inclusive pricing, flexible payouts. Official homepage and courses page: Teachable calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST (homepage: 45+ countries). That is part of the school, not a Kajabi-style funnel OS.
Built-in email marketing, coupons, upsells, order bumps, and abandoned cart emails are on the public comparison. You are still buying a school with commerce, not landing pages + email + checkout as the product. If that bundle is the job, Kajabi is the OS page.
Starter vs Builder
Public prices: Starter $39/mo monthly, $29/mo annual. Builder $89/mo monthly, $69/mo annual. Gap: $50/mo month-to-month, $40/mo on the advertised annual rates.
The 7.5% has to recoup that gap before Starter is “cheaper.” Official Teachable Pay (updated June 22, 2026): Starter’s cut is 7.5% of total transaction value (product price including taxes). Builder’s 0% is conditional on teachable:pay or Monthly Payment Gateway. Card processing sits on both.
Arithmetic on listed price, no tax, platform cut only (full dollar tables are on Teachable transaction fees):
- $97 sales. Each costs $7.28 in platform fee on Starter. Seven sales = $50.93, which already exceeds the $50 monthly gap. Six sales = $43.65, which exceeds the $40 annual gap.
- $497 sales. One sale is $37.28 — under both gaps. Two sales are $74.55 — over both. A consultant who sells two $497 seats in a month does not have a cheap Starter plan.
- $2,000 sales. One sale is $150.00. That is three months of the monthly gap before the card network is paid.
That is not a break-even forecast. Refunds, tax-inclusive bases, reserves, and coupons change the dollar. It is the official 7.5% applied to three prices a real offer uses. If you sit on Starter “until it sells,” the first $2,000 invoice has already paid for more than three months of Builder.
Growth is a catalog and branding conversation (50 products, remove Teachable branding on the public card), not a fee conversation. The 0% is already on Builder.
What the fees do to a simple offer
US card, Teachable Pay. The 7.5% is Teachable’s cut. 2.9%+$0.30 is the card cut, all plan levels.
- $97: Starter 7.5% = $7.28. US card = $3.11. Starter total $10.39. Builder (0% + US card) $3.11.
- $497: Starter 7.5% = $37.28. US card = $14.71. Starter total $51.99. Builder $14.71.
- $2,000: Starter 7.5% = $150.00. US card = $58.30. Starter total $208.30. Builder $58.30.
Other Teachable Pay methods, same across plans, replace the US-card column: US PayPal 3.49%+$0.49; international card 3.9%+$0.30; international PayPal 4.99%+$0.49; Buy Now Pay Later 6.99%+$0.30. Currency conversion 0.95% on some non-USD transactions. BackOffice, if enabled, standard 2.8% on total transaction value before processing fees (rate may vary).
Reserves (Teachable Pay, not the pricing cards): standard 10%, unlocked 45 days after purchase. New schools may face a 100% reserve with a 14-day unlock. Some transactions 0% reserve. Withheld cash, not a listed percent on the pricing page.
Kajabi Payments: no extra platform percentage; US card on Basic 2.9%+$0.30. Thinkific Payments: no third-party gateway fee; public native headline 2.9%. Those hosts are compared on Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific. We are not publishing a break-even month against them here.
Who should pick Teachable
Builder if the offer is real and Teachable is the school. 10 published products, 1,000 active students, 0% platform cut on teachable:pay. That is the honest starting point.
Growth if the catalog is the job — 50 products, five admins, 5,000 active students, remove Teachable branding — or you need the Growth-card extras (custom admin permissions, free subtitles and translations on that card). The fee line does not change.
Custom if you are past the public grid. Contact sales. The pricing page also waves at “selling more than $12k/yr” as a sales conversation, not a public card we priced.
Starter is a test plan. 5 products, 100 active students, 7.5%. Use it if you understand the cut in dollars. Do not use it as a long-term home for a $497 or $2,000 offer.
Skip Teachable if
You will sit on Starter while the offer sells. The 7.5% is the product.
Also skip if you need unlimited published courses on a named plan — Growth stops at 50 unless you go Custom. Skip if you need a native live cohort room; official courses FAQ: self-paced by default, live via embeds, cohort-style via drip. Thinkific Start is where live cohorts are advertised. Skip if you need the business OS — landing pages, email, and checkout as one stack. That page is Kajabi.
Skip leaving teachable:pay / Monthly Payment Gateway unless you have an official surcharge in writing. We did not this fetch.
Visit Teachable
Teachable affiliate slot — not live
Teachable buttons are official product URLs only. Kajabi’s trial box and visit button use the 30-day trial affiliate, justinwise.net/kajabi. The Kajabi pricing button is a pricing-page affiliate. Official Kajabi pricing remains the source for Kajabi numbers. No invented Teachable affiliate.
Omitted on purpose
- Teachable Custom Payment Gateway extra percentage. Not on teachable.com/pricing this fetch. Prior local pages: official custom-gateway help returned 401 / “sign in.” Third-party recaps quote 2% for US schools. Not in the table.
- Teachable Advanced as a current public card. June 2025 help lists Advanced at $399/mo or $309/mo annual. The live pricing page shows Starter / Builder / Growth / Custom. Teachable Pay still names Advanced and Business at 0% on Teachable Payments. Custom’s card once says “Everything in Advanced, plus” — naming drift, not a public Advanced price tonight.
- The online-courses FAQ sell-limit line (“up to one course on Starter… five on Builder… 25 on Growth… 100 on Advanced”). That contradicts tonight’s live pricing grid (5 / 10 / 50 published products). We cite the pricing page.
- Starter community. June 2025 help said community on all new plans. Tonight’s public comparison lists Community on Builder, Growth, and Custom, not on the Starter column. Unverified on this fetch.
- A tax-inclusive dollar table. 7.5% is of price including taxes. We did not invent a sales-tax rate to inflate $97 / $497 / $2,000.
- A break-even month presented as advice. The seven-$97 / two-$497 / one-$2,000 arithmetic is the 7.5% applied to those prices. Refunds, reserves, and tax change it.
- Homepage “Daily payouts, no reserve held back” as a fee fact. Teachable Pay still documents variable reserves. We cite Teachable Pay for reserves.
- “Selling more than $12k/yr” special conditions as a public price. Sales copy, not a cited tier.
- Chargeback / dispute dollars. Not extracted as a published fee on Teachable Pay this fetch. Teachable refund-fee dollars omitted (no published “fees returned” line).
- Keyword volumes, “Teachable is expensive” listicles as pricing sources, and anything that documents your method for you.
Sources
- Teachable pricing — Starter $39 / $29, Builder $89 / $69, Growth $189 / $139, Custom contact sales; 7.5% vs 0%*; 5 / 10 / 50 products; 100 / 1,000 / 5,000 active students; 5 / 50 / 1,000 imported students; 1 / 1 / 5 admin-level users; 1 / 3 / 5 / unlimited webhooks; up to 1TB video; 22% annual; save $120 / $240 / $600; 7-day trial; 30-day money-back; USD; $10k/year cap lift; product definition (course / coaching / download; memberships and bundles excluded); FAQ: 0% on Builder, Growth, and Custom for teachable:pay or Monthly Payment Gateway; 7.5% on Starter; standard processing fees may still apply. Community listed on Builder / Growth / Custom comparison columns this fetch. Fetched August 29, 2026.
- Teachable Pay (updated June 22, 2026) — Starter 7.5% of total transaction value (product price including taxes); Builder/Growth/Advanced/Business 0% on Teachable Payments; US card 2.9%+$0.30; US PayPal 3.49%+$0.49; international card 3.9%+$0.30; international PayPal 4.99%+$0.49; BNPL 6.99%+$0.30; BackOffice standard 2.8% on total transaction value before processing fees (rate may vary); currency conversion 0.95% on some non-USD transactions; reserves 10%/45 days standard, 100%/14 days possible for new schools. Fetched August 29, 2026.
- Teachable online courses — self-paced by default; live via YouTube / Vimeo / Zoom embeds; cohort-style via drip; iOS and Android apps with offline access; teachable:pay checkout; tax calculate/collect/remit. The sell-limit FAQ on this page contradicts live pricing and is omitted from the table. Fetched August 29, 2026.
- Teachable home — product types (courses, coaching, digital downloads, memberships); tax handling across 45+ countries. Fetched August 29, 2026.
- New Teachable plans in June 2025 — plan rename (Starter / Builder / Growth / Advanced in help); used only to flag Custom vs Advanced naming drift and that June 2025 help listed community on all new plans. Not a current public price card. Fetched August 29, 2026.