Thinkific vs Teachable 2026: The 7.5% Fee Decides

Thinkific wins for most creators, and the 7.5% fee on Teachable Starter is why. Teachable’s entry plan looks cheaper at $39/month, but it skims 7.5% off every sale. Thinkific Basic costs $54/month with a 0% platform fee, so it becomes the cheaper platform the moment you clear roughly $200/month in course sales. Teachable still wins if you sell internationally and want tax handled for you.

Both platforms moved their prices this year. Thinkific raised list prices about 10% on August 13, 2026, which is why the numbers below are higher than most comparison posts still show.

TL;DR: Thinkific Basic at $54/month with 0% transaction fees beats Teachable Starter at $39/month once you clear about $200/month in sales. Teachable wins on tax automation and affiliate payouts. Thinkific says its 35,000 customers have earned more than $4 billion on the platform as of mid-2026 (Thinkific, 2026).

Last updated: August 2026

Which is cheaper: Thinkific or Teachable?

Thinkific is cheaper for anyone earning real revenue. Teachable Starter costs $39/month billed monthly ($29/month annual) and adds a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale (Teachable, 2026). Thinkific Basic costs $54/month billed monthly ($40/month annual) with no platform fee at all (Thinkific, 2026).

The gap between the two monthly prices is $15. At a 7.5% fee, $15 is the tax on $200 of sales. So $200/month is your breakeven. Sell more than that and Thinkific costs you less.

Run it at $1,000/month in sales. Teachable Starter costs $39 plus $75 in fees, so $114. Thinkific Basic costs $54 flat. That is $60/month more going to Teachable, or $720 a year you never see again.

At $2,000/month it gets worse. Teachable takes $150 in fees on top of the $39 subscription, so $189 against Thinkific’s $54.

Teachable Builder at $89/month ($69 annual) drops the fee to 0%, which puts it against Thinkific Start at $109/month ($82 annual). Builder is cheaper on paper. It also caps you at 10 products and 1,000 active students, while Thinkific Start allows unlimited courses and 10,000 students.

Verdict: Thinkific wins on price above roughly $200/month in sales. Teachable Starter only wins while you are barely selling.

Full pricing comparison table

	Thinkific Basic	Teachable Starter	Thinkific Start	Teachable Builder	Thinkific Grow	Teachable Growth
Monthly price	$54	$39	$109	$89	$219	$189
Annual price	$40/mo	$29/mo	$82/mo	$69/mo	$164/mo	$139/mo
Transaction fee	0%	7.5%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Products/courses	Unlimited courses, 5 downloads	5	Unlimited	10	Unlimited	50
Active student cap	10,000	100	10,000	1,000	10,000	5,000
Free plan	No (30-day trial)	No (7-day trial)
Communities	1	Yes	1	Yes	3	Yes
Tax automation	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
SCORM	No (Plus only)	No	No (Plus only)	No	No (Plus only)	No

One detail almost nobody covers: Teachable’s product and student caps lift once your account passes $10,000 in sales (Teachable, 2026). That changes the story. The 100-student ceiling on Starter is a problem for a creator with a 200-person list and no revenue yet. It stops being a problem for anyone already selling. Read the caps as a floor on small accounts, not a permanent ceiling.

Does Thinkific or Teachable have a free plan?

Neither one does in 2026. Both killed their free tiers. Thinkific replaced its free plan with a 30-day free trial (Thinkific, 2026). Teachable replaced its free plan with a 7-day trial plus a 30-day money-back guarantee (Teachable, 2026).

Thinkific’s trial is the better deal by a wide margin. Thirty days is enough to build a real course, wire up checkout, and run a test purchase before you pay anything. Seven days is barely enough if you only work on the thing at night.

If you genuinely need $0 to start, look elsewhere. Gumroad and Payhip both run free tiers that take a cut of each sale instead of a monthly fee.

Verdict: Thinkific’s 30-day trial beats Teachable’s 7 days. Neither has a free plan.

Which has lower fees?

Thinkific charges 0% platform fees on all paid plans (Thinkific, 2026). Payment processing still applies, at 2.9% through Thinkific Payments. Teachable charges 7.5% on Starter on top of standard processing of 2.9% + $0.30 for US cards (Teachable, 2026).

Watch what that does to a single sale. On a $200 course, Teachable Starter takes $15.00 in platform fees plus $6.10 in processing, so $21.10 leaves your pocket. Thinkific Basic takes $5.80 and nothing else. You keep $15.30 more per sale, every sale.

There is a second fee most posts skip. Teachable’s optional BackOffice service charges 2-2.8% to handle affiliate payouts (Teachable, 2026). Run a serious affiliate program and that stacks on top of processing. Thinkific’s affiliate payouts are manual but carry no extra percentage.

Percentage fees are the quiet killer on every course platform, which is why the same math decides the Podia vs Teachable comparison too.

Verdict: Thinkific wins on fees, and it is not close. Zero platform fee on every plan.

Which is better for beginners?

Teachable is the easier first platform. The setup flow is linear. Upload videos, write descriptions, set a price, publish. Most people get a first course live in an afternoon.

Thinkific is more capable and slower to configure. Its drag-and-drop editor accepts video, text, audio, PDFs, quizzes, surveys, and downloads inside a single lesson. That range helps once you know what you are building. It gets in the way when you do not.

Teachable also handles US sales tax, EU VAT, and GST automatically on every plan, Starter included (Teachable, 2026). For a first-time creator who does not want to think about tax registration, that is real. Thinkific offers nothing equivalent on self-serve plans, so you would bolt on TaxJar or Quaderno.

The 100-student cap on Starter is the one thing to check before you commit. If you already have 300 subscribers and expect a decent launch, you will bump into it before the $10,000 threshold lifts it.

Verdict: Teachable wins on simplicity. Check your list size against the 100-student cap first.

Which is better for large course libraries?

Thinkific publishes unlimited courses on every paid plan, Basic included (Thinkific, 2026). Fifty courses on a $54/month plan is allowed. Basic does limit digital downloads to 5, which matters if you sell templates or PDFs rather than courses. Start and above remove that limit.

Teachable counts products instead: 5 on Starter, 10 on Builder, 50 on Growth. Building a catalog across several topics means climbing tiers. Going from Builder to Growth doubles your bill from $89 to $189 monthly, or $69 to $139 annual. That is $840 a year in extra cost to publish more than 10 things.

Thinkific Grow at $219/month opens API and webhook access, which is the plan you want if you are tagging, bundling, or licensing a large catalog to companies.

Verdict: Thinkific wins on library size. Unlimited courses everywhere against hard product counts.

The community features on both platforms are an afterthought

Neither platform is built for community-led courses. Thinkific gives you one community space on Basic and Start, and three on Grow (Thinkific, 2026). You get spaces, threaded replies, live events, and member profiles. Paid community memberships need Start or higher.

Teachable includes community on all paid plans including Starter. The feature list is comparable: discussion threads, lesson comments, spaces.

In practice, anyone running group coaching or a cohort program ends up bolting on Discord, Circle, or Skool anyway. Budget for that separately if community is the product rather than a bonus.

Verdict: Tie. Both are basic. Neither replaces a real community tool.

Which has a better mobile app?

Both ship generic iOS and Android student apps, not apps with your name on them (Teachable, 2026; Thinkific, 2026). Your students open the Thinkific app or the Teachable app and find your course sitting next to everyone else’s.

Thinkific sells a branded app as a $199/month add-on, or bundles it into some Plus contracts. Teachable offers no branded app at any price as of August 2026.

If your logo needs to be in the App Store, Thinkific is the only path, and it is expensive. The add-on sits on top of your base plan, so $253/month minimum with Basic.

Verdict: Thinkific wins by default. It is the only one with a branded app option.

Which is better for international sellers?

Teachable, clearly. It acts as Merchant of Record and handles US sales tax, EU VAT, and GST collection and remittance on every paid plan (Teachable, 2026). Teachable also points to creators selling into more than 180 countries who stay for exactly that reason.

Thinkific handles none of this on self-serve plans. You calculate, collect, and remit yourself in every jurisdiction where you owe. TaxJar or Quaderno adds $19-$49/month on top of your subscription, plus the filing work.

Merchant of Record covers more than tax. It absorbs payment disputes and chargebacks in many jurisdictions. For anyone selling globally at volume, that administrative cover is worth more than the fee difference at moderate revenue.

Verdict: Teachable wins for international sellers. Automatic tax on every plan is a genuine advantage.

Which has better marketing and affiliate tools?

Teachable wins on affiliates. The built-in program runs on every paid plan including Starter (Teachable, 2026). Affiliates get referral links, and Teachable tracks sales and manages payouts. The optional BackOffice service takes 2-2.8% and runs payouts for you.

Thinkific reports affiliate sales on all plans, but paying commissions is manual. It tells you who referred what. It does not send the money. If affiliates are a real channel for you, Teachable is less work every month.

Both include abandoned cart recovery on their entry plans. Both do coupons and upsells. Thinkific includes order bumps on Basic. Thinkific’s email automation is available on every plan and is the stronger of the two, though most serious creators run Kit or ActiveCampaign regardless of platform.

Verdict: Teachable on affiliates, Thinkific on email. Roughly a tie.

Complete feature comparison table

Feature	Thinkific Basic	Teachable Starter	Thinkific Start	Teachable Builder	Thinkific Grow	Teachable Growth
Monthly cost	$54	$39	$109	$89	$219	$189
Annual cost	$40/mo	$29/mo	$82/mo	$69/mo	$164/mo	$139/mo
Transaction fee	0%	7.5%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Published courses/products	Unlimited	5	Unlimited	10	Unlimited	50
Digital downloads	5	Included	Unlimited	Included	Unlimited	Included
Active student cap	10,000	100	10,000	1,000	10,000	5,000
Caps lift at $10k sales	n/a	Yes	n/a	Yes	n/a	Yes
Drip content	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Quizzes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCORM compliance	No	No	No	No	No	No
Affiliate program	Basic tracking	Full	Better tracking	Full	Full	Full
International tax handling	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Community	1 community	Yes	1 community	Yes	3 communities	Yes
Branded mobile app	Add-on $199/mo	Not available	Add-on $199/mo	Not available	Add-on $199/mo	Not available
AI course creation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free trial	30 days	7 days	30 days	7 days	30 days	7 days

How much does switching from Teachable to Thinkific cost?

Neither platform charges an exit fee, so the migration cost is entirely your time. One course with under 10 lessons takes 2-4 hours to rebuild. A library of five or more takes 1-3 weeks depending on how much custom work sits on top.

What transfers: course video files (download from Teachable, re-upload to Thinkific), student enrollment lists via CSV, and your course structure as a blueprint to rebuild against.

What does not transfer: student progress and lesson completions, Teachable’s email automation behavior, affiliate commission history, and anything built on Teachable’s CSS.

The decision is pure arithmetic. At $2,000/month on Teachable Starter you are handing over $150/month in platform fees that vanish on Thinkific Basic. That is $1,800 a year against a two-week migration. At $200/month the savings are $15 and the migration is not worth a weekend.

Migrate if you are earning over $1,000/month on Teachable Starter and have not moved to Builder. Every month costs you $75 for nothing.

Stay on Teachable if you sell internationally and rely on the tax handling, or if you have an active affiliate program you do not want to rebuild.

Verdict: Migrate above $1,000/month on Starter. Below that, your time costs more than the fees.

Who should choose Thinkific vs Teachable?

Self-paced course creator with a US audience: Thinkific. No transaction fees, unlimited courses, predictable cost at every revenue level, and a 30-day trial to prove it before you pay.

First-time creator with a list under 100 people: Either works. Teachable gets you live faster. Just know that Starter’s 100-student cap holds until you pass $10,000 in sales.

International seller with EU or global customers: Teachable. Automatic VAT and GST on every plan beats the fee difference at most revenue levels.

Creator building a large catalog: Thinkific. Unlimited courses on a $54 plan beats product caps at every comparable price.

Creator who needs affiliates selling for them: Teachable. The built-in program with tracked payouts is less operational work than Thinkific’s manual process.

Corporate training or B2B sales: Thinkific Plus. SCORM lives only on Plus, and Teachable does not offer it at all. Selling into companies that run their own LMS usually makes this non-negotiable. If you want to see how the wider field handles this, the LearnWorlds review covers a platform built around it.

Category winners: Thinkific vs Teachable

Category	Winner	Reason
Lowest entry price	Teachable ($39)	Cheaper headline, then a 7.5% fee
Lowest total cost	Thinkific	0% fees win above $200/month in sales
Free trial	Thinkific	30 days against 7
Course library size	Thinkific	Unlimited courses against hard product caps
Transaction fees	Thinkific	0% on every plan
International tax	Teachable	Automatic on every plan
Affiliate tools	Teachable	Built-in program on every plan
Mobile app	Thinkific	Only branded app path
Community	Tie	Both basic
Ease of setup	Teachable	More linear setup flow
Overall	Thinkific	Better for most US-based course sellers

FAQ

Is Thinkific better than Teachable?

For most creators, yes. Zero transaction fees, an unlimited course library, and a 30-day trial make Thinkific the stronger default. Teachable beats it in two specific cases: international sellers who need automatic tax compliance, and creators who want a built-in affiliate program with automated payouts (Teachable, 2026).

Which platform has lower fees?

Thinkific charges 0% platform transaction fees on all paid plans (Thinkific, 2026). Teachable charges 7.5% on Starter and 0% on Builder ($89/month) and above (Teachable, 2026). Payment processing of roughly 2.9% + $0.30 applies on both regardless of plan.

How much does Thinkific cost in 2026?

Thinkific Basic is $54/month billed monthly or $40/month billed annually. Start is $109 monthly or $82 annual. Grow is $219 monthly or $164 annual. Plus is custom priced. Thinkific raised list prices about 10% on August 13, 2026 (Thinkific, 2026).

Does either Thinkific or Teachable have a free plan?

No. Both removed their free plans. Thinkific offers a 30-day free trial. Teachable offers a 7-day free trial with a 30-day money-back guarantee (Teachable, 2026; Thinkific, 2026). For a genuinely free start, look at Gumroad or Payhip.

Can I migrate from Teachable to Thinkific?

Yes, manually. Export course videos and your student CSV from Teachable, rebuild the course structure in Thinkific, then re-upload the files. Student progress and lesson completions do not carry over. Budget 2-4 hours for one course and 2-3 weeks for a library of five or more. The fee savings usually justify it above $1,000/month on Teachable Starter.

Does Thinkific support SCORM?

Only on Plus, the enterprise tier with custom pricing (Thinkific, 2026). SCORM is not on Basic ($54), Start ($109), or Grow ($219). Teachable does not offer SCORM at any price. For corporate training that requires it, Thinkific Plus or a dedicated LMS is the better route.

Which platform has better affiliate tools?

Teachable includes a full affiliate program on every paid plan including Starter (Teachable, 2026). Thinkific reports affiliate sales on all plans but leaves commission payouts manual. Teachable also sells an optional BackOffice service at 2-2.8% that automates payouts entirely.

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• LearnWorlds Review 2026
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