Last Updated: November 2026 | Prices, fees, trial, refund terms and affiliate commissions checked on Teachable’s official pricing, partner and affiliate terms pages.
Key Takeaways
- Teachable’s self-serve plans are now Starter, Builder and Growth, plus a sales-led Custom plan. The old Free, Basic, Pro and Pro+ plans are gone.
- Prices: Starter $39/mo ($29/mo billed yearly), Builder $89/mo ($69/mo yearly), Growth $189/mo ($139/mo yearly). Yearly billing saves 22%.
- There is no free plan. Every self-serve plan has a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Starter charges a 7.5% transaction fee. Builder, Growth and Custom charge 0% when you sell through Teachable Payments, but card and PayPal processing fees still apply.
- The Teachable affiliate program (on PartnerStack) pays 30% recurring commission for the first 12 months of each referred subscription, with a 30-day cookie.
Is Teachable worth it in 2026? For creators who want to sell courses, coaching, digital downloads and memberships without running their own WordPress stack, yes, as long as you budget for the Builder plan. Builder at $69/mo (billed yearly) removes the 7.5% transaction fee, adds an affiliate program for your own school and real-time support, which is where Teachable starts to make financial sense. This Teachable review covers current pricing, what the fees really cost, the features that matter, who should pick something else, and how the Teachable affiliate program pays if you want to promote it.
Content Outline
What Is Teachable?
Teachable is a hosted platform for selling online courses, coaching, digital downloads and memberships. It handles hosting, checkout, student accounts, iOS and Android student apps, and sales tax, VAT and GST collection through its own checkout, Teachable Payments. It was started by Ankur Nagpal and is now part of Hotmart Company, the Brazilian creator-economy group.
Teachable says more than 150,000 creators and businesses use it, that creators have earned over $3.5 billion on the platform, and that it has served over 100 million students in 180+ countries. Those are the company’s own figures. The useful takeaway is that Teachable is a mature, well-funded platform rather than a startup that might disappear with your school.
Teachable Pricing 2026: Plans Compared
Prices checked November 2026 on Teachable’s official pricing page, in US dollars.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Yearly billing | Products | Admins | Transaction fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $39/mo | $29/mo (save $120/yr) | 5 | 1 | 7.5% | Testing one or two products |
| Builder | $89/mo | $69/mo (save $240/yr) | 10 | 1 | 0% with Teachable Payments | Most solo creators |
| Growth | $189/mo | $139/mo (save $600/yr) | 50 | 5 | 0% with Teachable Payments | Teams and larger catalogues |
| Custom | Contact sales | Contact sales | Flexible | Flexible | 0% with Teachable Payments | High-volume and enterprise schools |
A “product” is any published course, coaching offer or digital download. A course with 30 videos and 5 quizzes still counts as one product. All self-serve plans include unlimited students through Teachable checkout and up to 1 TB of video storage.
What changes between plans
- Starter covers the basics: AI course creation tools, iOS and Android student apps, global payments and taxes, upsells and cart recovery. The 7.5% fee is the catch.
- Builder drops the transaction fee to 0% on Teachable Payments and adds community, your own affiliate program, real-time support and 3 webhooks.
- Growth adds course certificates, removal of Teachable branding, imported students, custom admin permissions, free subtitles and translations, 5 admins, 5 webhooks and the public API (10,000 requests a month).
- Custom adds a dedicated success manager, bulk sales features, a sandbox school, priority SLA support, white-glove onboarding and migration help.
Teachable also advertises promotions that change often. During our check the site showed a “3 months for the price of 1” offer and a pop-up offering a 30-day trial that rolls into Builder monthly. Treat those as temporary and confirm on the pricing page before you sign up.
Teachable Fees: What You Really Pay per Sale
Plan price is only part of the cost. These are the processing fees Teachable lists on its pricing page for sales through Teachable Payments:
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| US credit and debit cards | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| International cards | 3.9% + 30¢ |
| US PayPal sales | 3.49% + 49¢ |
| International PayPal sales | 4.99% + 49¢ |
| Chargeback | $15 |
| BackOffice (optional) | 2% to 2.8% |
| Transaction fee on Starter | 7.5% on top |
Here is why the Starter fee matters. On $1,000 of monthly course sales, Starter takes $75 in transaction fees on top of its $29 to $39 plan price. Builder costs $40 more per month on yearly billing but charges 0%, so it becomes the cheaper plan once you sell more than roughly $535 a month. Payouts with Teachable Payments are daily, with no reserve held back. If you use a monthly payment gateway instead, payouts are monthly.
Teachable Features Worth Knowing
Course builder and AI tools
The drag-and-drop course builder handles video, text, PDFs, audio, quizzes and drip schedules. An AI course starter drafts a curriculum from a short description, a quiz generator turns lessons into questions, and Growth adds automatic subtitles and translations into 70+ languages. You still have to write and record the course. The AI tools save setup time, not teaching time.
Products beyond courses
You can sell one-on-one or group coaching (with scheduling through tools like Calendly and Zoom), digital downloads such as templates and guides, and memberships with recurring subscriptions. Bundles and course-specific coupons let you package products for higher order values.
Checkout, taxes and sales tools
Teachable Payments supports 35+ local payment methods and collects and remits sales tax, VAT and GST across 45+ countries. That tax handling is one of the strongest reasons to choose Teachable over a self-hosted setup. Every plan includes upsells and cart recovery, and Teachable also offers coupons, order bumps, bundles and built-in email marketing for simple broadcasts to students.
Student experience
Students get a clean course player, iOS and Android apps, lesson comments, progress tracking, auto-graded quizzes and, from Builder, a community space. Course compliance rules can force students to finish a lesson or pass a quiz before moving on.
Integrations and developer tools
Teachable connects with Zapier, Stripe, PayPal, Mailchimp, AWeber, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta, TikTok, Segment, Hotjar, Zoom and Calendly. Webhooks are limited by plan (1 on Starter, 3 on Builder, 5 on Growth), and the public API is only on Growth and Custom.
Support
Every plan gets email support plus Teachable University and Launch Accelerator resources. Builder and Growth add real-time support, and Custom adds priority SLA-based support and a dedicated success manager.
How to Launch a Course on Teachable
- Start a free trial on the plan you expect to use. Builder is the sensible default if you plan to sell more than a few hundred dollars a month.
- Name your school and connect a custom domain if you have one.
- Create a product: choose Course, then add a title and generate an outline with the AI course starter or start from a blank curriculum.
- Upload lessons, set drip schedules or compliance rules, and add quizzes.
- Set pricing (one-time, subscription or payment plan) and connect Teachable Payments.
- Build the sales page, add coupons or an order bump, then publish the course. Hidden products stay off your directory but can still be sold through a direct link.
Who Teachable Is Best For (and Who Should Skip It)
Teachable suits coaches, consultants, authors, trainers and niche experts who want a hosted school with built-in payments and tax handling. It is strongest for creators selling to an international audience, because the VAT and GST collection saves real admin work.
It is a weaker fit if you need deep design control (pages are template-based), if you only sell a single low-priced course and cannot justify Builder, or if you want a full marketing suite with funnels and advanced email automation. If you are comparing platforms, read our Thinkific review for a close alternative with a different fee model, and browse these Kajabi website examples if you want an all-in-one platform with funnels and email built in.
Teachable Affiliate Program
If you write about online courses, creator tools or side businesses, Teachable is an easy SaaS product to recommend. Official terms checked November 2026:
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Commission | 30% recurring on every referred subscription |
| Duration | First 12 months of each referred customer |
| Cookie | 30 days |
| Network | PartnerStack (links, reporting and payouts) |
| Approval | Applications reviewed within 2 to 3 business days |
| Who it targets | Bloggers, educators, industry experts, course strategists and review sites |
| Average earnings | Teachable says partners average $450 a month (its own figure) |
| Not paid | Self-referrals and referrals of existing Teachable customers |
As a rough example, one referral on Builder monthly ($89) is worth about $26.70 a month, or about $320 over the 12-month commission window, if the customer stays subscribed. Yearly plans pay on the lower yearly price.
Rules worth knowing: no paid traffic such as pay-per-click, pop-ups, purchased traffic or banner exchanges without Teachable’s written consent, no cookie stuffing, and coupons only if Teachable supplies them through the program. Teachable can change the commission rate without notice, so recheck the partner page before you publish rate claims. For more programs that pay month after month, see our best recurring affiliate programs and the wider list of SaaS affiliate programs.
Teachable Pros and Cons
Here is how Teachable looks after checking its current plans, fees and terms, rather than the homepage pitch.
Pros
- Hosted school with courses, coaching, downloads and memberships in one place
- Automatic sales tax, VAT and GST handling in 45+ countries
- 0% transaction fee on Builder and Growth with Teachable Payments
- Daily payouts with no reserve on Teachable Payments
- 7-day free trial and 30-day money-back guarantee on every self-serve plan
Cons
- No free plan any more
- 7.5% transaction fee on Starter adds up quickly
- Template-based pages limit design control
- Certificates, branding removal and the API need the $139/mo Growth plan
- Product caps (5, 10, 50) can force an upgrade as your catalogue grows
FAQs
Teachable Starter is $39/mo or $29/mo billed yearly, Builder is $89/mo or $69/mo billed yearly, and Growth is $189/mo or $139/mo billed yearly. The Custom plan is quoted by sales. Yearly billing saves 22%.
No. Teachable removed its free plan. Every self-serve plan includes a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee instead, and Teachable sometimes runs longer trial promotions.
Starter charges a 7.5% transaction fee per sale. Builder, Growth and Custom charge 0% when you use Teachable Payments. Processing fees still apply on every plan: 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards, 3.9% + 30¢ for international cards, and 3.49% + 49¢ (US) or 4.99% + 49¢ (international) for PayPal.
Yes. Teachable offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can request a refund within your first 30 days. You can cancel any time after that, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing cycle.
Teachable pays affiliates 30% recurring commission for the first 12 months of every subscription they refer, tracked with a 30-day cookie and paid through PartnerStack. Self-referrals and referrals of existing Teachable customers do not earn commission.
Choose Starter only to test an idea, because of its 7.5% fee. Builder suits most solo creators selling more than about $535 a month on yearly billing. Choose Growth if you need certificates, branding removal, more than one admin, the public API or more than 10 products.
Final Verdict
Teachable is a solid, low-maintenance home for an online course business in 2026, and its automatic tax handling and daily payouts are real advantages over a DIY setup. Skip Starter unless you are testing an idea, start a trial on Builder, and move to Growth only when you need certificates, more admins or the API. If you promote creator tools, the 30% recurring first-year commission makes Teachable a worthwhile program to add.
