Most Customizable
Thinkific
- Tweak every possible aspect of your course and sales page
- Free option to get started
- Great for new course creators
Best All-In-One
Kajabi
- Intuitive marketing tools to help promote and sell your course
- No need to pay extra for email marketing, sales funnel builder, or marketing automations (all included)
- Great for selling big ticket courses
Confused by online course platform pricing? There are several price plans to decipher from each online course platform, let alone figuring out how the different providers stack up to each other.
I found it confusing as well, so I created a side-by-side comparison of ALL the price plans across the Top 5 online course platforms: Thinkific, Kajabi, Teachable, Podia, and Udemy.
We offer this website completely free to our visitors. To help pay the bills, we’ll often (but not always) set up affiliate relationships with the top providers after selecting our favorites. However, we do our best not to let this impact our choices. There are plenty of high-paying companies we’ve turned down because we didn’t like their product.
An added benefit of our relationships is that we always try to negotiate exclusive discounts for our visitors.
Pricing Plans – Comparison Between Online Course Providers
Overall Course Platform Pricing Details |
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| Course Platform | |||||
| Monthly billing / tiers | Free / $49 / $99 / $199 | $149 / $199 / $399 | $39 / $119 / $299 | $39 / $79 | Free |
| Discount for annual pre-payment (all plans) | 25% | 20% | 20-26% | 17% | 0% |
| Free Trial | Start a 1-month free trial of the Pro Plan | Start a 14-Day Free Trial | Start a 14-Day Free Trial | Start a 14-Day Free Trial | Start the Free Plan |
Free (forever) Price Plans |
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| Course Platform | |||||
| Plan Name | Free  | not offered | not offered | not offered | Free |
| Monthly Plan Price | Free | Free | |||
| Transaction fees | None | 3% for your own referrals, 50% for marketplace sales | |||
| Key Features | |||||
| Missing features from comparable plans | |||||
Low Budget Price Plans |
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| Course Platform | |||||
| Plan Name | Basic | Basic | Basic | Mover | not offered |
| Monthly Plan Price | $49 | $149 | $39 | $39 | |
| Transaction fees | None | None | 5% | None | |
| Key Features | |||||
| Missing features from comparable plans | |||||
Mid Budget Price Plans |
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| Course Platform | |||||
| Plan Name | Start | Growth | Professional | Shaker | |
| Monthly Plan Price | $99 | $199 | $119 | $79 | not offered |
| Transaction fees | None | None | None | None | |
| Key Features | |||||
| Missing features from comparable plans | |||||
High Budget Price Plans |
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| Course Platform | |||||
| Plan Name | Grow | Pro | Business | not offered | not offered |
| Monthly Plan Price | $199 | $399 | $299 | ||
| Transaction fees | None | None | None | ||
| Key Features | |||||
| Missing features from comparable plans | |||||
Thinkific Pricing Plans
Thinkific has the most pricing tiers out of all the online course providers which gives you a few more choices to pick a price plan that meets your needs.
They also have the only truly free option. All other providers only offer a free 14-day trial or a free plan with transaction fees. Thinkific's free price plan is more than enough to get started selling courses.  You'll want to upgrade once you have more than 1 course or when you are looking for more features like starting your own affiliate program or using a custom domain with no co-branding.
Thinkific's Basic plan ($49/mo.) has a few more features like unlimited courses and the option to integrate with your favorite email provider or other 3rd party programs through Zapier. However, my paid pick is the Start plan for a few extra bucks per month.
The Start plan ($99/mo.) opens up advanced pricing like payment plans and subscriptions. And my favorite Start features are priority phone support (which no other platform offers) and affiliate tools which allow you to have a team of marketers selling your course for you. The Thinkific Start plan also comes bundled with completion certificates from Accredible (which can cost a bit if you had to subscribe to Accredible outside the platform).
My pick for the best plan is the Start plan for $99/month
Kajabi Pricing Plans
While Kajabi pricing is a little more expensive than other providers, Kajabi provides the biggest bang for your buck.
Kajabi is a high-end course platform that comes with it's own tools that other providers typically require you get from 3rd parties. Kajabi delivers it's own email management, sales funnel builder, marketing automations, web hosting+themes, a blog function, and a course marketplace.  If you were to purchase these functions from 3rd parties the cost quickly escalates.  3rd party sales funnel software alone could cost you several hundred dollars per month.
Kajabi's lowest tier, the Basic plan ($149/mo.) is a little higher in price than the low price tiers from the other course providers. However, it comes with all the extra bells and whistles like email management and funnel builder. The main caveat is that you are capped at 3 courses.
My pick for the best Kajabi price plan is the Growth plan ($199/mo.). This includes everything on the Basic plan and supports up to 15 courses and includes affiliate management (to allow other people to sell your course for a commission) as well as marketing automatons.
Teachable Pricing Plans
Teachable is one of the more well known platform and used by pros like Pat Flynn.
Teachable discontinued their free price plan and now only Thinkific offers one.
The first paid tier is the Basic plan ($39/mo.), but it comes with a hefty 5% transaction fee.  If you are considering Teachable, I would opt for the Professional price plan ($99/mo.) which is the first tier without any transaction fees (you can also get 50% OFF the first 2 months using coupon code: DDIY2PRO50 at checkout). This plan does come with unlimited courses, affiliate tools, and built-in course certificates (which only Thinkific also offers).
Podia Pricing Plans
Podia is a lower cost alternative to the other course providers. I've found they have some of the better customer support (very responsive chat agents) and a lot of features for the low price point.
The Mover plan ($49/mo.) and Shaker plan ($79/mo.) are very comparable to each other. The main difference is that the Shaker plan comes with integrated email marketing and affiliate tools.
Udemy Pricing Plans
Udemy is a slightly different animal than the other online course platforms above. Udemy only has a free plan and it is extremely cost prohibitive. You will pay 50% of your marketplace sales to Udemy.
All the other platforms allow you the flexibility to customize your course and storefront and come with a wide variety of tools. On the other hand, Udemy is very basic and has little flexibility. You have to follow strict guidelines on course structuring, there is a low course pricing cap, and you have to apply to be an instructor.
The main benefit to using Udemy is their course marketplace. If you do not want to take on marketing yourself, Udemy claims to have millions of students browsing their course catalog. Of course, you will also have to compete with other courses in your niche.
Head to Head Course Platform Comparisons
Have you already weeded down your options to two platforms already? Check out our head to head online course comparisons for a granular analysis:
- Compare Thinkific vs Teachable
- Compare Kajabi vs Teachable
- Compare Thinkific vs Kajabi
Geoff Cudd
Stefan Schulz
