7 Best Teachable Alternatives for Course Creators (2026)

Quick picks

Each of these wins for a different kind of course business. Start with the one closest to how you sell.

• Courses plus community with no monthly fee: Whop
• Closest feel to Teachable: Thinkific
• Email marketing and funnels in the same account: Kajabi
• Simple all-in-one for a small catalog: Podia
• Interactive training, assessments and SCORM: LearnWorlds
• Community-led courses: Skool
• A free plan for one course: Systeme.io

What $10,000 a month costs on each platform

On subscription revenue, the per-charge fees decide most of the bill, so plan price alone can mislead. Here is each option at $10,000 a month in $50 subscriptions, which is 200 charges.

Prices as of October 2026. Sources at the end of this page.

Total = plan price + $10,000 × fee percentage + 200 × 30¢. Teachable, Thinkific and Kajabi charge 2.9% + 30¢ on their own processors plus 0.7% on recurring charges, Teachable Starter adds its 7.5% fee and Podia Mover its 5%. Whop is 2.7% + 30¢ plus 0.5% billing, and Skool's rate is all-in. Systeme.io, Podia and LearnWorlds send payments to your own Stripe at 2.9% + 30¢ and don't say whether Stripe Billing's 0.7% applies to subscriptions. If it does, add $70 to each of their totals. Skool's Growth Boost commission and Teachable's 0.5% on taxed sales aren't included.

Two results are worth knowing. If Stripe Billing doesn't apply, Systeme.io's $17 Startup plan undercuts Whop above about $5,700 a month, though it caps you at five courses. Skool Pro overtakes Whop above about $33,000 a month, where its lower 2.9% covers the $99 plan, and Podia Shaker and LearnWorlds Pro Trainer do the same if Stripe Billing doesn't apply to them. Thinkific Basic and LearnWorlds Starter aren't in the table because neither sells subscriptions. Test your own price and volume in the fee calculator.

Why creators look for Teachable alternatives

Teachable's pricing has changed several times since mid-2025, and the 2026 changes hit students, payments and community. Here is what changed, with dates.

• Plans changed in 2025. Teachable announced its current plans on May 28, 2025 and moved existing schools onto them between June 15 and July 15, 2025. In an r/elearning thread the day after the announcement, creators reported bills rising two to three times with about 30 days' notice.
• Usage fees arrived in 2026. Teachable's May 2026 usage-fee article charges per student at renewal when a school goes over its plan's limits. Under Teachable's usage-fee policy, schools created since September 3, 2026 pay $0.50 a month for each student added without a purchase beyond the first 100, and older schools move to that policy at their first renewal on or after April 30, 2027.
• Payment fees changed. Teachable Payments' default Standard bundle adds 0.7% to recurring charges and 0.5% to taxed sales, and the Global bundle adds 2.8% to every sale. Gifting, the student referral program and post-purchase upsells were removed in the switch.
• Starter takes 7.5% of every sale and caps you at 5 published products, against 10 on Builder and 50 on Growth.
• Community went into maintenance mode on August 10, 2026, and new schools can't create one.
• There's no free plan, and cancelling takes your school offline for students.

How we chose these alternatives

We picked course platforms with published pricing that cover what Teachable does, then scored each on five things:

1. Course features compared with Teachable's, including quizzes, certificates and drip.
2. Total cost at $10,000 a month in $50 subscriptions, from each platform's published fees.
3. Who holds payments and who handles sales tax.
4. Switching effort from Teachable, including any migration help the platform offers.
5. Free plan or trial, so you can test before you pay.

Prices and features come from official pricing pages and help centers, checked on October 3, 2026. We haven't run a school on every platform side by side.

We list Whop first because it had the lowest total cost in our example among options with no published caps on courses, students or members, and it's the platform our free migration tool moves you to. Systeme.io can cost less if your school fits inside its plan limits. We earn a referral commission if you create a Whop through our links, and there are no affiliate links to the other platforms on this page.

1. Whop: best for courses plus community with no monthly fee

Whop is a pay-as-you-go platform where a course is one app inside a product, next to Chat, Forums, Events, Calendar Bookings for coaching and Files for downloads. There's no plan fee. A domestic card payment costs 2.7% + 30¢, subscriptions add 0.5% for billing, and international cards and currency conversion add 1.5% and 1%. The Courses app handles video lessons, quizzes and progress tracking, and Whop's course tools support drip schedules and completion certificates.

Pros:

• $380 at $10,000 a month in our example, the lowest among options with no published caps on courses, students or members.
• One product can bundle a course, a community, coaching calls and downloads.
• Checkout takes PayPal, crypto and buy now, pay later, and the Discover marketplace has charged a 0% commission since May 12, 2025.

Cons:

• Teachable has no course export, so lessons are rebuilt and videos re-uploaded.
• Whop's managed tax collection costs 2% of each sale, where Teachable's Standard bundle charges 0.5% on taxed sales.
• You can't connect your own Stripe, and new accounts can face payout reserves and a $2,500 per-checkout cap.

Switching effort from Teachable is moderate. Students come from Teachable's users export and claim access on Whop, subscribers re-join on a trial plan that lines up with their Teachable renewal, and the wizard builds your course structure from your outline. The Teachable to Whop playbook walks through each step.

Choose Whop if you sell memberships or course bundles with a community and want low fees with no plan price.

2. Thinkific: best for a course-first switch that feels like Teachable

Thinkific is the closest like-for-like move: a course platform first, with communities, memberships and downloads added. Basic costs $54 a month ($40 billed annually), Start $109 ($82) and Grow $219 ($164), after a roughly 10% increase on August 13, 2026, Thinkific's first since 2022. Plus is priced by quote, and every plan starts with a 30-day free trial. Thinkific Payments charges 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards plus 0.7% on subscriptions and payment plans, with no platform fee on top.

Pros:

• Unlimited courses and up to 10,000 current students on every self-serve plan.
• Certificates, assignments, bundles and payment plans from Start, where Teachable keeps certificates for Growth at $189.
• A 30-day trial, tied with LearnWorlds for the longest here.

Cons:

• Basic can't sell paid memberships, so subscription businesses need Start.
• Communities are capped at one on Basic and Start and three on Grow.
• Your own Stripe or PayPal needs Grow and adds a third-party gateway fee, 1% on Grow.

Switching effort from Teachable is moderate to high. Courses are rebuilt by hand, Grow adds bulk student import, and Teachable subscribers re-subscribe.

Choose Thinkific if you want to stay on a course-first platform and get certificates and assignments on a cheaper plan.

3. Kajabi: best for courses with built-in email marketing and funnels

Kajabi bundles courses, coaching, community, a website, funnels and email marketing in one subscription. Basic costs $179 a month ($143 billed annually), Growth $249 ($199) and Pro $499 ($399). Kajabi Payments charges 2.9%, 2.8% or 2.7% + 30¢ by plan, plus 0.7% on subscription charges and 1.5% on international cards, with no platform revenue share.

Pros:

• Unlimited marketing emails, landing pages and funnels on every plan.
• Community and coaching sit next to your courses.
• A branded mobile app is included on Pro.

Cons:

• The highest plan prices on this list.
• Basic caps you at 5 products and 2,500 contacts.
• Connecting your own Stripe or another gateway adds 2%, 1% or 0.5% by plan, with PayPal the exception.

Switching effort from Teachable is high, since courses are rebuilt by hand and subscribers re-subscribe. For more, see Whop vs Kajabi, our list of Kajabi alternatives and the Kajabi pricing breakdown.

Choose Kajabi if you want courses, email, funnels and your website in one Kajabi account and the plan price fits your revenue.

4. Podia: best simple all-in-one for a small catalog

Podia sells courses, downloads, coaching, community and email from one storefront. Mover costs $49 a month ($42 billed annually) and takes a 5% transaction fee. Shaker costs $99 ($84) and Earthquaker $179 ($150), both with no Podia fee. Payments go to your own Stripe, or PayPal on Shaker and Earthquaker, and Podia quotes processing at 2.9% + 30¢.

Pros:

• Email marketing included: 100, 500 or 1,000 subscribers by plan.
• Podia's team migrates up to 50 products on Mover and 150 on Shaker and Earthquaker, including course files and text and customer email addresses.
• Money lands straight in your own Stripe or PayPal account.

Cons:

• Mover's 5% fee gets expensive as sales grow.
• Hard caps below Earthquaker: 50 or 150 products and 500 or 1,000 videos.
• No public API, with Zapier only from Shaker up.

Switching effort from Teachable is lower than most here for course content, thanks to the migration team, but paying subscribers still re-subscribe because Teachable Payments holds their cards.

Choose Podia if you run a small catalog, want email included, and prefer someone else to move your course files.

5. LearnWorlds: best for interactive training and SCORM

LearnWorlds is built for training businesses and academies, with interactive video, assessments and SCORM support. Starter costs $29 a month ($24 billed annually) plus $5 per paid enrollment, Pro Trainer $99 ($79) and Learning Center $299 ($249), and Corporate is priced by quote. Every plan has a 30-day free trial. You connect your own Stripe, PayPal or Shopify, and LearnWorlds takes no platform fee above Starter.

Pros:

• Interactive video, question banks, assessments and certificates.
• SCORM packages from Pro Trainer, with up to 20 on that plan.
• Payments go straight to your own account, and LearnWorlds doesn't hold your funds.

Cons:

• Monthly active learner caps of 1,000 on Starter and 2,000 on Pro Trainer and Learning Center.
• Subscriptions need Pro Trainer and run only through Stripe.
• White-label and API access start at $299 a month, and a branded app costs from $149 a month extra.

Switching effort from Teachable is high unless you pay for LearnWorlds' migration service. Courses are rebuilt and subscribers re-subscribe.

Choose LearnWorlds if you sell training where assessments, interactivity or SCORM matter more than community.

6. Skool: best for community-led courses

Skool puts a course classroom inside a community feed, with points and leaderboards that keep members active. Hobby costs $9 a month plus 10% + 30¢ per sale. Pro costs $99 a month plus 2.9% + 30¢, or 3.9% on charges above $900. Both include unlimited members, courses and video hosting, and Skool is the merchant of record, so it collects and pays sales tax and VAT.

Pros:

• Low entry price and very little setup.
• Skool handles sales tax and VAT for you.
• Pro has the lowest percentage fee on this list and overtakes Whop on cost above about $33,000 a month.

Cons:

• You can't use your own Stripe or PayPal, and members always pay in USD.
• No public API; Zapier and an invite webhook come only with Pro.
• Growth Boost, on by default, takes 30% of payments from members Skool brings in through Discovery and its ads.

Switching effort from Teachable is high. You rebuild courses in Skool's Classroom and every paying student signs up again. Compare the details in Whop vs Skool, the Skool alternatives roundup or our Skool pricing guide.

Choose Skool if your students come for the community as much as the content and you're fine with Skool running payments.

7. Systeme.io: best free plan for a single course

Systeme.io combines courses, funnels, email and a store, and charges no transaction fees on any plan. The free plan includes 1 course for up to 500 students, 1 community and 2,000 contacts. Startup costs $17 a month for 5 courses and 5,000 contacts, Webinar $47 for 20 courses and 10,000 contacts, and Unlimited $97, with two months free on annual billing. Payments go through your own Stripe or PayPal.

Pros:

• A free plan with no time limit that can still sell a course.
• 0% transaction fees and unlimited email sends on every plan.
• Free migration help on the Unlimited plan.

Cons:

• Course caps of 1, 5 and 20 below Unlimited.
• Support is by email only.
• Systeme.io isn't a merchant of record, so most tax filing stays with you.

Switching effort from Teachable is high on the free and Startup plans, where you rebuild courses yourself. Subscribers re-subscribe either way.

Choose Systeme.io if you're running one course on a tight budget and want funnels and email in the same account.

Should you leave Teachable at all?

Not always. Teachable still has real strengths, and a rebuild costs time.

Staying makes sense if:

• You rely on Teachable Payments to calculate, collect and remit sales tax and VAT across 45+ markets for 0.5% of taxed sales.
• Your school was created before September 3, 2026, so the new usage-fee policy doesn't reach you until your first renewal on or after April 30, 2027.
• Your courses lean on Teachable features your students already use, such as its iOS and Android student apps.
• You sell mostly one-time courses on Builder or Growth, where moving saves you mainly the plan price.

How to move off Teachable

Whatever you pick, the order is the same: export, rebuild, re-invite, then cancel. Teachable has no course export, and Teachable Payments holds your students' cards, so every destination means rebuilding lessons and asking subscribers to sign up again.

Export your users from Teachable and download the file within 24 minutes of the email arriving, export your transactions, and download course files block by block while your plan is still active, because cancelling takes the school offline. For a move to Whop, the step-by-step Teachable to Whop plan covers the order, the free migration wizard builds your products and course structure, the member CSV converter cleans the users file, and our guide to moving paid subscribers explains how to line up renewal dates. For a fuller look at Whop's own costs, read Whop's fees explained.

What changed

• October 3, 2026: First published. Prices and fees for Teachable and all seven alternatives checked on October 3, 2026.

Spotted something out of date? Email hello@movetowhop.com and we'll fix verified errors within 7 days.