Best Teachable Alternatives 2026

Teachable charges a 7.5% transaction fee on its $39/mo Starter plan. Earn $1,000, lose $75 to Teachable. On top of the subscription. That gets old fast.

I spent weeks testing alternatives and here’s what I found. Some of these platforms charge zero transaction fees. Others ditch the stale video library format entirely and build courses around community. A few try to do everything at once, with mixed results.

How these 7 platforms compare

Platform	Starting price	Transaction fee	Works best for
Skool	$9/mo	10% (Hobby) / 2.9% (Pro)	Community + courses
Thinkific	$49/mo	0% on all plans	Self-paced courses
Kajabi	$143/mo	0% on all plans	Marketing funnels
Podia	$33/mo	5% (Mover) / 0% (Shaker)	Budget all-in-one
LearnWorlds	$24/mo	$5 per sale	Interactive video
Mighty Networks	$79/mo	2-3%	Branded community apps
Circle	$89/mo	2%	Slack-style community

Teachable, for comparison: $39/mo with that 7.5% fee. You’d need the $89/mo Builder plan to drop it to 0%.

1. Skool — community-first, courses built in

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Skool doesn’t work like a traditional course platform. There’s no isolated video library. Your course content lives inside a community feed, and the platform uses gamification — leaderboards, levels, unlockable content — to keep people actually coming back.

It costs $9/mo on the Hobby plan (10% transaction fee) or $99/mo for Pro (2.9% processing only). Most serious creators go Pro pretty quickly.

Here’s why that matters: self-paced courses average somewhere between 3% and 5% completion rates. That’s abysmal. Skool’s gamified setup doesn’t magically fix human nature, but it creates reasons to log in beyond “I should probably finish module 4.” That’s more than Teachable gives you.

Alex Hormozi co-owns the platform. Over 250,000 communities run on it. There’s also a 40% recurring affiliate program, which is unusually generous.

The downside? No branded mobile app. Limited design customization. No email marketing or funnel builder built in — you’ll need separate tools for that stuff.

I’ve spent time inside several Skool communities. If you want to see how courses actually work on the platform, check my AI Video Bootcamp review or AI Automation Society+ review. My full Skool platform review covers pricing and features in more detail.

2. Thinkific — zero fees, solid course builder

If you mostly care about the course itself — good video player, structured modules, professional feel — Thinkific is probably where you land. The headline feature: 0% transaction fees on every paid plan, period.

Basic runs $49/mo. Pro is $99/mo. What you pay is what you pay. No surprises.

You keep all your course revenue minus standard Stripe/PayPal processing. Thinkific also rolled out “Thinkific Labs” in 2026 — AI tools that generate course outlines and quizzes from your existing content. Handy if you’re staring at a blank canvas. The app store connects ConvertKit, Zoom, and whatever else you’re already using.

Where it falls short: no real community features. If you want students talking to each other and building relationships, you’ll need to bolt something else on. Branded mobile apps are locked behind the expensive Plus tier.

3. Kajabi — everything under one roof (at a price)

Kajabi is a course platform, email service, funnel builder, and CRM rolled into one product. If you’re currently paying for Teachable plus Mailchimp plus Leadpages plus a CRM, Kajabi replaces all of that.

The catch: it starts at $143/mo (annual billing). They killed the cheaper Kickstarter plan in January 2026, so there’s no budget entry point anymore.

The “Pipelines” feature builds out marketing funnels you’d normally need ClickFunnels for. Their new AI tools can draft sales pages and email sequences from a prompt. For someone running a marketing-heavy course business, that consolidation has real value.

But the Basic plan limits you to 5 products and 2,500 contacts. You’ll bump into those ceilings sooner than you think. And at $143/mo, you’re paying 3x what Thinkific costs for a weaker course builder.

4. Podia — cheapest way in

Podia is about as simple as it gets. If you just need to sell a course without a 3-hour setup process, this is it.

Mover plan: $33/mo with a 5% transaction fee. Shaker plan: $75/mo with 0% fees. Quick math — once you’re earning about $840/mo, upgrading to Shaker saves you money. And Shaker’s $75/mo is cheaper than Teachable’s 0%-fee tier at $89/mo.

Podia bundles in digital downloads, webinars, and coaching sessions on every plan, which is nice. But the course builder is basic. No advanced quizzes. No certificates. No SCORM. If your courses are mostly simple video content, that’s fine. If you need anything sophisticated, look at Thinkific or LearnWorlds.

5. LearnWorlds — interactive video that nobody else does well

LearnWorlds has one genuinely unique feature: interactive video. Embed quizzes, clickable buttons, and branching paths directly into your video stream. Students answer questions while they watch, not after.

Starts at $24/mo, but there’s a $5 per-sale fee. The $79/mo Pro plan drops that to zero.

If you’re running corporate training that needs SCORM compliance, graded assessments, or printable certificates, LearnWorlds covers it. Teachable doesn’t touch most of that.

6. Mighty Networks — your own branded app

Mighty Networks ranked #1 for community management on G2 in 2026. The big draw is branded native apps — your community gets its own icon on people’s phones. According to Mighty’s own data, members with a home screen icon are 62% more active than web-only users. That tracks with what I’ve seen.

Launch plan starts at $79/mo with a 2-3% transaction fee. Their “Mighty Co-Host” AI handles onboarding and engagement prompts automatically.

If the branded app matters to you, Mighty’s the clearest path. I compared it head-to-head with Skool in my Skool vs Mighty Networks breakdown.

7. Circle — polished, Slack-style community

Circle looks and feels like Slack for communities. Organized spaces, threaded conversations, clean design. Their 2026 “AI Agent” can learn your course material and answer student questions around the clock, which is genuinely useful.

Professional plan: $89/mo with a 2% fee. Business: $219/mo with a 1% fee.

The community experience is excellent. The course-building tools? Still thin. No graded assessments, no formal certifications. If courses are your main product, Circle alone won’t cut it. If community is your main product and courses are secondary, it works well.

FAQ

What’s the cheapest Teachable alternative? Skool at $9/mo or LearnWorlds at $24/mo — both charge per-transaction fees at those prices. If you want 0% fees on the cheap, Thinkific at $49/mo is the best deal.

Which platforms charge no transaction fees? Thinkific, 0% on all paid plans. Kajabi too, but it starts at $143/mo. Podia Shaker ($75/mo) and LearnWorlds Pro ($79/mo) also go to zero.

Can I move my courses from Teachable? Yeah. Most platforms let you import course content. Thinkific and Kajabi have specific migration guides. Student progress and enrollment data usually needs manual transfer, though.

Is Skool better than Teachable for community courses? For community-driven stuff with gamification, absolutely. Skool was built for that. For self-paced video courses with drip content, quizzes, and certificates? Teachable’s LMS is still deeper.

So which one do you actually pick?

It depends on what you’re building:

• Want community and engagement? Skool ($9-99/mo)
• Want the best pure course platform? Thinkific ($49/mo)
• Want everything in one tool? Kajabi ($143/mo)
• Want to spend as little as possible? Podia ($33/mo)

Most people building community-based courses right now are going with Skool. The $9 Hobby plan lets you test it without much risk.

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