Teachable costs $39 to $189 a month, Thinkific $54 to $219 and Kajabi $179 to $499 when billed monthly, going by each company's own pricing page. Paid yearly, the cheapest plans come to $29, $40 and $143 a month. Teachable's entry plan also charges a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale; Kajabi and Thinkific take no platform share.
None of the three has a free plan. Each one offers a free trial instead: 7 days at Teachable, 14 at Kajabi and 30 at Thinkific.
How much does each course platform cost per month?
Billed monthly, the entry plans are $39 at Teachable, $54 at Thinkific and $179 at Kajabi, and the top self-serve plans are $189, $219 and $499. Paying for a year up front lowers each price; Teachable says yearly billing "saves you 22%", Thinkific advertises "Annual (Save 25%)" and Kajabi "Save 20%".
| Platform and plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly, per month | Platform fee on sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter | $39 | $29 | 7.5% |
| Teachable Builder | $89 | $69 | 0% |
| Teachable Growth | $189 | $139 | 0% |
| Thinkific Basic | $54 | $40 | None stated |
| Thinkific Start | $109 | $82 | None stated |
| Thinkific Grow | $219 | $164 | None stated |
| Kajabi Basic | $179 | $143 | 0% |
| Kajabi Growth | $249 | $199 | 0% |
| Kajabi Pro | $499 | $399 | 0% |
Prices from teachable.com/pricing, thinkific.com/pricing and kajabi.com/pricing, read on 16 October 2026. US dollars. Teachable's 0% applies "when you use Teachable Payments". Kajabi says it "does not take a revenue share as a platform". Thinkific's pricing page lists no platform fee on sales. Card processing is extra on every plan.
Each company also has a custom tier above these plans (Teachable's Custom, Thinkific's Plus) priced on a sales call, so they are not in the table.
How much is Teachable a month?
Teachable's plans are $39, $89 and $189 a month, or $29, $69 and $139 a month billed yearly. The page labels them Starter ("5 products"), Builder ("10 products") and Growth ("50 products"), and counts any published course, coaching offer or digital download as one product.
The catch is on the cheapest plan. In Teachable's own FAQ: "Only on the Starter plan, which has a 7.5% transaction fee. Builder, Growth, and Custom plans have 0% transaction fees when you use Teachable Payments. Standard payment processing fees may still apply." Teachable has no free plan; it "includes a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee."
How much is Kajabi a month?
Kajabi costs $179, $249 or $499 a month, or $143, $199 and $399 a month billed yearly, which is $1,716, $2,388 and $4,788 a year. The plans are Basic, Growth and Pro. Kajabi's FAQ says "If you haven't sold anything yet, Basic is the right plan for you. Growth makes sense once revenue is coming in and your list is past a few thousand people."
Kajabi is the most expensive of the three because it bundles email marketing and contacts: 2,500 contacts on Basic and 25,000 on Growth. Beyond that, "Contacts come in blocks of 25,000 for $125 a month, at any size." It offers a free trial, and "every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee."
Kajabi was showing two different versions of its pricing page when we read it. The prices and contact limits were the same on both; the 14-day trial length appeared on one version only.
How much is Thinkific a month?
Thinkific's plans are $54, $109 and $219 a month, or $40, $82 and $164 a month billed yearly. They are called Basic, Start and Grow. Basic already includes "Unlimited courses", and the page shows yearly billing as the default, so the monthly prices only appear after you switch the toggle.
Thinkific has no free plan either. Its FAQ answers "No, instead, you can explore the whole platform with a 30-day free trial", the longest of the three. On payments, it says its built-in processor charges in line with Stripe and PayPal "at 2.9%", and that "an additional third-party payment gateway fee applies" if you connect Stripe or PayPal yourself instead.
Is Teachable's 7.5% fee worth avoiding?
Yes, once sales pass about $667 a month. At that point 7.5% of sales equals $50, the gap between Teachable Starter ($39) and Builder ($89) on monthly billing. Below it, Starter is cheaper; above it, Builder is. This is our arithmetic from Teachable's published prices.
| Monthly course sales | Starter: $39 + 7.5% | Builder: $89, 0% |
|---|---|---|
| $300 | $61.50 | $89 |
| $667 | about $89 | $89 |
| $1,000 | $114 | $89 |
| $3,000 | $264 | $89 |
Our arithmetic from teachable.com/pricing, monthly billing, before card processing (which applies on both plans).
The same logic works for Kajabi's higher entry price: at $179 a month, it costs more than Teachable Builder at any sales level unless its bundled email tool replaces a separate email subscription you would otherwise pay for.
Which course platform is cheapest for a beginner?
Teachable Starter, at $39 a month or $29 billed yearly, while sales are small. Thinkific Basic at $54 a month has no platform fee and unlimited courses, so it overtakes Teachable Starter once 7.5% of sales passes the $15 gap between them, which is $200 a month in sales by our arithmetic.
Kajabi is not built to be the cheap option. It is priced as an all-in-one: website, email, checkout and community in one bill. It makes sense for someone who would otherwise pay for those separately, not for a first course with no audience yet.
Before paying for any of them, the course has to exist and sell. Building a course without being the expert covers the part no platform does for you, and pricing with no track record covers what to charge for it. For a live, in-person comparison, what a cooking class costs shows what people pay to learn face to face.
The honest hard part
The platform fee is the smallest cost of a course business. All three platforms let you publish a course within days, but none of them sends buyers. The real costs are the weeks spent making the course and the work of finding the first hundred students, and no pricing page lists those.
The second hard part is that the prices move. Each page mixes yearly and monthly figures, shows yearly prices first by default (Thinkific and Kajabi did when we read them), and runs offers. Check the toggle and the date before comparing.
The third is processing. Every plan on every platform pays card fees on top, and they differ by country and payment method. Kajabi points to a separate page of fees "which differs by country", and Teachable says "Standard payment processing fees may still apply." We have not put a single processing figure on Teachable or Kajabi because neither states one on its pricing page.
