Teachable vs Thinkific: Course Platform Comparison (2026)

The case for

• Builder and Growth drop the platform transaction fee to zero when you use teachable pay or the monthly payment gateway
• Plan prices, product counts and student limits are published, so you can model the cost of a course launch without talking to sales
• Growth includes 5 admin users and 50 products, which supports a small team running several courses under one account

The catch

• The Starter plan takes a 7.5 percent platform fee on every sale, charged on top of card processing of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents
• That fee replaced the older 5 percent Basic plan rate, and creators reported annual cost increases above 200 percent after the change
• Starter and Builder include one admin user only, so a second person editing courses forces the jump to Growth at $139 a month yearly
• Schools based in India cannot set up a Stripe custom payment gateway because of Stripe data storage rules, which narrows payout options

The case for

• Basic costs 54 US dollars a month, or 40 billed annually, and covers unlimited courses, a custom domain and abandoned cart emails.
• The 30 day trial opens the whole platform, and Basic, Start and Grow can be upgraded, downgraded or cancelled at any point.
• Video hosting and bandwidth are included in the plan, at 100 GB a month on Basic rising to 400 GB on Grow.

The catch

• Thinkific Payments does not support India, so an Indian course seller has to run checkout through Stripe or PayPal instead.
• TCommerce selling tools such as buy now pay later and group orders only work when Thinkific Payments is your processor.
• Thinkific branding stays on your site until the Grow plan at 219 dollars a month, so the two cheaper plans are not white labelled.
• API access, webhooks and phone support all begin on Grow, while SCORM and single sign on need the Plus plan and a sales call.