Thinkific
- Tweak every possible aspect of your course and sales page
- Lowest cost option to get started fast
- Great for new course creators with quizzes and certificates
Kajabi
- All tools included so nothing to connect or manage
- Easy to launch with room to scale
- Strong choice for serious long term creators
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 against 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.
Note: Major pricing changes across all five platforms took effect in 2025 and early 2026. Thinkific and Podia both removed their free plans. Kajabi removed its entry-level Kickstarter plan and raised prices. Teachable completely renamed its plan structure. Udemy cut instructor revenue share again. Full details below.
Table of Contents
- Thinkific
- Kajabi
- Pricing Plans: Side-by-Side Comparison
- Transaction Fees Comparison
- Thinkific Pricing Plans
- Kajabi Pricing Plans
- What will Kajabi actually cost you?
- Teachable Pricing Plans
- Podia Pricing Plans
- Udemy Pricing Plans
- Head-to-Head Course Platform Comparisons
- See Which Online Course Platform Fits You Best
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.
Note: this post does include some affiliate links, but that does not impact my honest recommendations. If you visit a course website through one of my links and ultimately sign up, you pay nothing extra, but I may earn a small commission, which helps me provide all this content to you for free.
Pricing Plans: Side-by-Side Comparison
| Platform | Entry Plan | Mid Plan | Top Plan | Free Option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific | Basic $49/mo | Start $99/mo | Grow $199/mo | 14-day trial only |
| Kajabi | Basic $179/mo ($143 annual) | Growth $249/mo ($199 annual) | Pro $499/mo ($399 annual) | 14-day trial only |
| Teachable | Starter $39/mo (7.5% fee) | Builder $89/mo (0% fee) | Growth $189/mo | Free plan (limited, 10%+$1 fee) |
| Podia | Mover $39/mo ($33 annual, 5% fee) | Shaker $89/mo ($75 annual, 0% fee) | Shaker is top tier | 30-day trial only |
| Udemy | Free to publish | Free to publish | Free to publish | Yes, but 37-63% revenue share |
Transaction Fees Comparison
| Platform | Entry Plan Fee | Mid Plan Fee | Top Plan Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Kajabi | 0% (Kajabi Payments) | 0% (Kajabi Payments) | 0% (Kajabi Payments) |
| Teachable | 7.5% (Starter) | 0% (Builder+) | 0% |
| Podia | 5% (Mover) | 0% (Shaker) | 0% |
| Udemy | 37-63% revenue share | 37-63% revenue share | 37-63% revenue share |
Thinkific Pricing Plans
Thinkific no longer offers a free plan as of 2025 and has replaced it with a 14-day free trial. All paid plans include unlimited courses and 0% transaction fees, which is a strong advantage over Teachable and Podia at the entry level.
The Basic plan ($49/mo) gives you unlimited courses, a custom domain, affiliate tools, and email integrations via Zapier. It's a solid starting point for new creators who want to launch without overpaying.
My paid pick is the Start plan ($99/mo). It unlocks advanced pricing options like payment plans and subscriptions, completion certificates, and live lessons via Zoom. Priority phone support is also available on this tier, which no other platform at this price point offers.
The Grow plan ($199/mo) adds advanced analytics, bulk student tools, API access, and removes Thinkific branding. Best for established creators managing multiple courses and a growing team.
All plans save 25% with annual billing: Basic drops to $36/mo, Start to $74/mo, and Grow to $149/mo.
Kajabi Pricing Plans
Kajabi overhauled its pricing in January 2026 for the first time in nearly a decade, removing the entry-level Kickstarter plan and raising prices across all tiers. It's now the most expensive platform on this list, but also the most feature-complete.
What justifies the price is everything Kajabi bundles in that other platforms make you pay for separately: built-in email marketing, sales funnel builder, marketing automation, website hosting, community tools, and podcast hosting. If you're paying for ConvertKit, Leadpages, and a funnel tool alongside another course platform, Kajabi Basic at $143/mo annual can actually be cheaper than your current stack.
Get your real monthly and annual price, see how it stacks up against paying for separate tools, then find your plan. Affiliate link. We may earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you. Check the tools you currently pay for. Edit any price to match what you actually pay. Kajabi rolls all of these into one plan. Stack prices are typical starting prices, not exact quotes. Affiliate link, no extra cost to you. 1. How big is your audience / contact list? 2. Will you run a community or membership? 3. Need advanced automation, multiple sites, API, or a branded app?What will Kajabi actually cost you?
The Basic plan ($179/mo, $143/mo annual) supports 5 products and 2,500 contacts. Good for creators with a small catalog who want the full Kajabi stack.
My pick is the Growth plan ($249/mo, $199/mo annual). It adds affiliate management, advanced automations, branding removal, and 24/7 support, with 50 products and 25,000 contacts. This is the plan that makes Kajabi's value proposition click.
The Pro plan ($499/mo, $399/mo annual) is for established businesses needing unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 3 websites, and a branded mobile app.
No transaction fees on any Kajabi plan when using Kajabi Payments.
Teachable Pricing Plans
Teachable completely restructured its plans in 2026, moving from the old Basic/Pro/Business naming to four new tiers: Starter, Builder, Growth, and Advanced.
Teachable does technically still have a free plan, but it charges a 10% + $1 transaction fee on every sale and caps you at 1 course and 10 students total. It's useful only for testing the interface, not for running a real course business.
The Starter plan ($39/mo) is the real entry point, but the 7.5% transaction fee is the catch. If you sell a $100 course, $7.50 goes to Teachable before payment processing fees. Once your transaction fees exceed the difference between Starter and Builder, upgrading is cheaper.
My pick is the Builder plan ($89/mo). It removes transaction fees entirely, allows 5 products, includes email marketing tools, a custom domain, and an affiliate program. This is the first Teachable tier worth taking seriously.
The Growth plan ($189/mo) allows 25 products, unlimited students, white-label branding, and bulk student import/export.
The Advanced plan ($399/mo) unlocks 100+ products, full API access, webhooks, and custom user roles for large teams.
Annual billing saves around 30% across all tiers.
Podia Pricing Plans
Podia removed its free plan in October 2024 and replaced it with a 30-day free trial. It now has two paid plans. Podia is one of the more affordable options for getting unlimited products and built-in email marketing under one roof, though the 5% transaction fee on the Mover plan is worth factoring in if your revenue is growing.
The Mover plan ($39/mo, $33/mo annual) includes unlimited products, a website builder, and built-in email marketing. The 5% transaction fee applies on all sales. At around $840/month in revenue, upgrading to Shaker becomes cheaper than paying the transaction fees.
The Shaker plan ($89/mo, $75/mo annual) removes transaction fees entirely and adds affiliate marketing, PayPal integration, and embedded checkout. Best for creators who are already selling consistently and want to maximize revenue.
Podia Email is included in both plans for up to 100 subscribers, then tiered pricing starts at $7/month based on list size.
Udemy Pricing Plans
Udemy operates differently from every other platform on this list. There is no monthly subscription fee. It is free to publish a course. But that free access comes at a significant cost in revenue share.
When Udemy brings in a student organically, you keep only 37% of the sale. When you drive the sale yourself through your own coupon link, you keep 97%. The problem is that Udemy runs frequent site-wide promotions that discount your course to $9.99 or $14.99 regardless of your listed price, and you cannot opt out.
Udemy Business, their subscription product where enterprises pay for employee access to course libraries, has seen instructor payouts cut repeatedly: from 25% in 2023, to 20% in 2024, to 17.5% in early 2025, to 15% as of January 2026. That is a 40% reduction in three years.
The main benefit of Udemy is discoverability. Their marketplace has millions of students and you can get sales without doing any marketing. But you don't own your student email list, you can't control your pricing, and you can't build a brand. Most serious course creators use Udemy as a lead generation channel and then move students to their own platform for higher-margin sales.
Read my full Udemy review for more detail on how instructors actually earn on the platform.
Head-to-Head Course Platform Comparisons
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