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Teachable
Created by @namkyu · Updated Sep 3, 2026
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Created by @namkyu · Updated Sep 3, 2026
Teachable is a platform for creating and selling online courses, coaching, digital downloads, memberships, and bundles under your own brand. Unlike a marketplace such as Udemy, Teachable is designed around running an independent education business rather than relying primarily on a shared course marketplace.
Its main advantage is control over pricing, products, branding, customer relationships, and sales funnels. The tradeoff is that Teachable does not automatically provide a large built-in audience, so creators generally need to generate their own traffic through content, email, social media, advertising, or an existing audience.
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Main use | Creating and selling courses, coaching, memberships, and digital products |
Best for | Course creators, coaches, experts, and education businesses |
Free trial | 7 days |
Starter | $39/month |
Builder | $89/month |
Growth | $189/month |
Advanced | Higher tier for larger businesses |
Annual Starter | $29/month equivalent |
Annual Builder | $69/month equivalent |
Annual Growth | $139/month equivalent |
Starter transaction fee | 7.5% |
Builder and higher transaction fee | 0% |
Payments | Teachable Pay / supported payment gateways |
Tax handling | Sales tax, VAT, and GST handled in supported jurisdictions |
Products | Courses, coaching, downloads, memberships, bundles |
Global sales | 120 currencies across 200+ countries and regions |
Teachable's current plans include:
Plan | Monthly Billing | Annual Billing Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
Starter | $39/month | $29/month |
Builder | $89/month | $69/month |
Growth | $189/month | $139/month |
Advanced | Higher tier | $309/month annual equivalent on current plan structure |
Teachable currently offers:
7-day free trial
and advertises a:
30-day guarantee
for paid plans.
Starter is designed for creators launching a small product catalog.
Current features include:
Up to 5 products
Courses
Coaching
Digital downloads
Memberships
AI creation tools
Mobile student apps
Global payments and taxes
Upsells
Cart recovery
A typical Teachable course workflow is:
Create course → Upload lessons → Create pricing → Build sales page → Customer pays → Student receives access → Track progress
A broader education business can operate:
Course + Coaching + Digital Download + Membership
from the same school.
This makes Teachable suitable for building an independent Online Course Business rather than selling only one standalone course.
Do not begin by building five different products.
Choose one clear offer.
Examples:
Video course
Coaching program
Template pack
Paid membership
Validate whether people want the outcome before building a large catalog.
For a course:
Create sections → Add lessons → Upload content → Configure access
Lesson content can include:
Video
Text
Downloads
Quizzes
Embedded material
Live streams
The course should be structured around what the student needs to accomplish rather than how much content the instructor can produce.
Teachable currently supports several product pricing methods:
Free
One-time purchase
Payment plan
Subscription
The current minimum paid product price is:
$1 USD
or approximately the equivalent in supported currencies.
Subscriptions are not currently supported for standalone digital download products.
Explain:
Who the product is for
What problem it solves
What is included
Courses organize learning content into sections and lessons.
A practical structure might be:
Introduction
→ Fundamentals
→ Practical implementation
→ Project
→ Next steps
Features can include:
Video
Quizzes
Drip content
Completion certificates
Mobile access
Avoid adding unnecessary lessons purely to make the course appear longer.
Teachable supports one-on-one and group coaching products.
A coaching workflow can include:
Client purchases → Intake → Milestone → Schedule call → Share work → Next milestone
Coaching products can use milestones for:
Meetings
Video calls
Messages
File sharing
Assignments
This allows a creator to combine scalable course revenue with higher-value service revenue.
Digital downloads can include:
PDFs
Templates
Spreadsheets
Audio
Guides
Printables
Design files
They can be sold:
Separately
In bundles
Audience → Sales page → Course purchase → Student onboarding → Course completion
Traffic might come from:
YouTube
SEO
Social media
Advertising
Unlike Udemy, Teachable generally does not provide marketplace demand at the same scale.
The creator owns more of the acquisition responsibility.
Student buys course → Completes core material → Offered coaching → Books session → Higher-value customer
Example:
$99 course
→ $500 coaching package
The course can qualify and educate customers before the more expensive service.
This can be especially useful for a Coaching Business.
Free guide → Email subscriber → Low-cost template → Course → Coaching
This creates multiple levels of customer commitment.
For example:
Free PDF
→ $29 template
→ $199 course
→ $1,000 coaching
Teachable can host several stages of this product ladder in one system.
Teachable makes it easy to create several product types.
That does not mean launching all of them at once is a good idea.
A better sequence is:
Validate one offer → Sell → Improve → Add related product
This keeps product development connected to real customer demand.
Starter's 7.5% transaction fee can become expensive as revenue grows.
Compare:
Starter subscription + transaction fees
against:
Builder subscription
rather than staying on the cheapest plan automatically.
A $900 course may be difficult for some customers to purchase in one payment.
A payment plan can reduce the upfront barrier.
For example:
$900 one-time
or:
3 × $325
The payment plan may generate more total revenue but also introduces:
Failed payments
Longer collection periods
Customer support
Teachable currently allows bundles containing up to:
200 products
including:
Courses
Coaching
Digital downloads
Example:
Course A = $100
Course B = $100
Template = $30
Bundle:
$179
The lower combined price can encourage a larger purchase.
Before recording a large course, sell a smaller:
The most direct use is building an independent course business.
Compared with Udemy, Teachable provides more control over:
Pricing
Brand
Customer journey
Product combinations
The tradeoff is less built-in marketplace discovery.
Coaches can sell:
Individual sessions
Group programs
Packages
Course + coaching combinations
This can support a broader Coaching Business.
Creators can sell:
Templates
Guides
Spreadsheets
Audio
Resources
This connects naturally with a Digital Products business.
Educational businesses can combine recurring memberships with courses and other resources.
A membership can create more predictable revenue than repeatedly launching standalone products, but it requires ongoing value delivery.
Teachable Pay is Teachable's native payment system for eligible creators.
Current features include:
Daily, weekly, or monthly payouts
Fraud protection
Automated tax handling
Multiple local payment methods
Teachable states that its checkout supports:
35+ local payment methods
and sales in:
120 currencies
across:
200+ countries and regions
Availability varies by creator and student location.
One of Teachable's practical advantages is tax handling.
For transactions processed through supported native payment systems, Teachable handles collection and remittance of applicable taxes in supported jurisdictions, including areas involving:
U.S. sales tax
EU VAT
UK VAT
GST
Teachable currently advertises automated tax handling across:
45+ countries
This can significantly reduce administrative work for creators selling globally.
However, creators remain responsible for their own income taxes and any business obligations that fall outside Teachable's platform tax responsibilities.
Teachable supports integrations and automation through:
Native tools
Analytics integrations
Email platforms
Zapier
APIs and webhooks on supported plans
A typical workflow might be:
Student buys course → Email marketing platform → Tag customer → Start follow-up sequence
or:
Student completes course → Automation → Coaching offer
Use integrations when they solve a real workflow problem.
Do not build a large automation stack before the basic product sells.
Builder and higher plans include affiliate functionality.
A typical affiliate workflow is:
Affiliate shares link → Customer buys → Sale attributed → Affiliate commission calculated
This can provide another acquisition channel.
Before launching an affiliate program, determine whether product margins can support:
Affiliate commission
Payment processing
Refunds
Platform costs
Bundles can currently contain up to:
200 courses, coaching products, and digital downloads
A bundle can increase average order value and simplify access to several related products.
Eligible Teachable Pay users can access BackOffice functionality involving:
Affiliate payouts
Author payouts
Tax form collection
PayPal checkout
This can reduce administrative work as the education business grows.
Creating a course does not create demand.
Unlike a marketplace such as Udemy, the creator usually needs their own acquisition channels.
The 7.5% transaction fee matters as sales increase.
Monitor the break-even point between Starter and Builder.
A 0% Teachable transaction fee does not mean payment processing is free.
Payment-processing and other applicable charges can still reduce revenue.
Creators can spend months producing:
50 lessons
Complex funnels
Memberships
Coaching packages
before knowing whether anyone wants the offer.
Validate the product earlier.
Greater control means greater responsibility.
Creators must generally handle:
Traffic
Audience
Sales copy
Conversion
Platform features cannot compensate for weak customer demand.
Platform | Best Fit | Main Difference |
|---|---|---|
Teachable | Independent course and education businesses | More brand and customer control |
Udemy | Marketplace-driven course discovery | Built-in course marketplace |
Kajabi | Broader creator marketing and course business stack | More integrated marketing system |
Gumroad | Simple digital products and lightweight courses | Easier setup with less learning-specific functionality |
Choose Teachable when:
You want your own branded course business
You can generate your own audience
Courses and coaching need to work together
You want more pricing control than a marketplace
Global payment and tax handling is valuable
Choose Udemy when marketplace discovery matters more than owning the full customer journey.
Choose Gumroad when selling simple digital files is more important than structured learning features.
Current monthly pricing starts at:
Starter — $39/month
Builder — $89/month
Growth — $189/month
Annual billing reduces the effective monthly price.
Starter currently charges a 7.5% platform transaction fee.
Builder and higher current plans have a 0% Teachable transaction fee.
Payment-processing charges still apply.
Not in the same way.
Teachable is primarily an independent course platform, so creators generally need to generate their own traffic and customers.
Yes.
Teachable supports one-on-one and group coaching products with milestones, scheduling, messages, and file sharing.
Yes.
Teachable supports standalone digital downloads such as templates, PDFs, spreadsheets, audio, and other files.
Teachable handles applicable sales tax, VAT, and GST for supported transactions and jurisdictions through its native payment infrastructure.
The main limitation is the:
7.5% transaction fee
on sales.
This is significant.
For example, if a creator sells:
$1,000
of products through Starter:
$1,000 × 7.5% = $75
in Teachable transaction fees before payment-processing fees and other expenses.
Builder currently costs:
$89/month
or approximately:
$69/month billed annually
It supports up to:
10 products
and removes Teachable's platform transaction fee:
0% transaction fee
Builder also adds functionality such as:
Affiliate program
Real-time support
Additional selling features
The fee difference means Builder can become cheaper than Starter once sales reach a certain level.
Ignoring other plan differences:
Starter monthly cost:
$39 + 7.5% of revenue
Builder:
$89
Break-even:
$89 − $39 = $50
$50 ÷ 7.5% ≈ $667
At around:
$667 in monthly sales
the additional Starter transaction fee would approximately equal the $50 difference between the monthly Starter and Builder subscriptions.
Actual payment-processing charges still apply separately.
Growth currently costs:
$189/month
or approximately:
$139/month billed annually
It supports up to:
50 products
and is intended for businesses with larger catalogs and more advanced growth requirements.
Like Builder, Growth currently has:
0% Teachable transaction fee
The additional subscription cost should be justified by actual business requirements rather than simply choosing the more expensive plan for perceived professionalism.
Expected outcome
Price
Call to action
Do not make the sales page a list of lesson titles without explaining why the course is useful.
Complete the customer flow:
Sales page → Checkout → Payment → Student account → Product access
Check this before sending real traffic.
As upsells
As lead magnets
Digital products are generally much faster to create than full online courses.
This makes them useful for testing demand before investing in a larger course.
Memberships can create recurring revenue by providing ongoing access to:
Courses
Content
Community
Resources
Other products
The business challenge is retention.
A membership must continue providing enough value for customers to remain subscribed.
Guide
Template
Workbook
If customers buy and ask deeper questions, that can provide evidence for a larger educational product.
Courses involving:
Software
Marketing
AI
Business tools
can become outdated.
Update important sections rather than allowing a successful course to slowly lose relevance.