Home › Best online course platforms 2026
Creator software · Updated October 2026Best online course platforms 2026: five picks, fee traps exposed
The short answer
Teachable is the default for a first course — Builder at $69/mo annual carries 0% transaction fees and handles EU VAT for you. Thinkific wins for independents who want unlimited courses and 0% fees via its own processor. LearnWorlds is the interactive-course pick, but avoid its Starter plan's $5-per-enrollment trap. Kajabi is the best all-in-one after its January 2026 price rise, if you can live with the contact caps. Podia is the simplest option of the five.
These are researched assessments from published pricing, fee documentation, and affiliate terms checked October 2026 — not lab scores. Hands-on platform trials are pending; prices below can change at renewal. Verify at checkout.
The five, side by side
| Teachable | Thinkific | LearnWorlds | Kajabi | Podia | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Starter $39/mo, $29/mo annual (7.5% fee) | Basic $54/mo, $40/mo annual | Starter $29/mo, $24/mo annual + $5/enrollment | Basic $179/mo, $143/mo annual | Mover $49/mo, $42/mo annual (5% fee) |
| Sweet-spot plan | Builder $89/$69 — 0% fee | Start $109/$82 — unlimited courses | Pro Trainer $99/$79 — no fees | Growth $249/$199 — affiliate + automations | Shaker $99/$84 — 0% fee |
| Platform fee | 7.5% Starter; 0% Builder+ | 0% via Thinkific Payments; own processor +5%/2%/1% | $5/enrollment Starter; none Pro Trainer+ | 0% platform fee; own Stripe +2%/1%/0.5% | 5% Mover; 0% Shaker+ |
| Free tier / trial | ✗ free plan retired Jun 2025; 7-day trial + 30-day money-back | ✗ free plan retired 2024; 30-day trial | ✗ 30-day trial, no credit card | ✗ 14-day trial + 30-day money-back | ✗ free plan retired Oct 2024; 14-day trial, no credit card |
| Standout | Teachable:pay auto-remits EU VAT; coaching built in | Unlimited courses on every plan | Interactive video editor with in-player quizzes | Website + email + funnels + courses, all-in-one | Simplest: blog, community, email, courses on all plans |
Prices from official pricing pages checked October 2026; promotional and renewal rates differ — verify at checkout.
The fee traps, honestly
Course platforms compete on headline price and monetize the fine print. Here are the three traps our research turned up, plus the honest upgrades that avoid them:
- LearnWorlds' $5-per-enrollment trap. Starter at $24/mo annual looks like the cheapest plan here — but every student enrollment costs $5. At roughly 14 enrollments a month, Pro Trainer at $79/mo annual (no fees) works out cheaper. Start on Pro Trainer if you have any audience at all.
- Thinkific's own-processor surcharge. Thinkific Payments carries 0% platform fees — but bring your own Stripe or PayPal and you pay 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, or 1% on Grow. If your brand matters, use Thinkific's checkout, not yours.
- Kajabi's contact caps. Kajabi takes no platform fee at all, but Basic caps you at 2,500 contacts — email list growth forces you up tiers faster than any fee would. Same story if you connect your own Stripe: +2% Basic, +1% Growth, +0.5% Pro.
The smaller traps: Teachable Starter's 7.5% fee and Podia Mover's 5% fee both vanish one tier up (Builder $69/mo annual, Shaker $84/mo annual, both 0%). If you sell even modest volume, don't stay on the entry tier.
The Kajabi freshness note
If you're reading older guides, two things about Kajabi are stale. First, its partner program was restructured in late 2025: new partners earn a 100% first-month bounty on their first 4 referrals, then 10–20% recurring from the 5th referral onward. The flat 30% recurring you see quoted survives only for grandfathered partners. Second, Kajabi raised prices in January 2026 — its first increase in nearly a decade — with Basic now at $179/mo ($143/mo annual), and existing customers were not grandfathered.
Our picks, ranked
1. Teachable — best overall for a first course
Teachable's pricing is the most honest in the group once you know the rule: Starter ($39/mo, $29/mo annual) carries a 7.5% transaction fee, and every tier above it — Builder ($89/$69), Growth ($189/$139) — is 0%. The differentiators are operational, not decorative: native Teachable:pay collects and remits EU VAT automatically, coaching with scheduling is built in (no Calendly needed), there's a student mobile app from Builder, and the AI Course Starter with AI subtitles in 70+ languages sits on all plans. Email marketing and affiliate management start at Builder; certificates and white-label need Growth. No free plan since June 2025 — but there's a 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans.
2. Thinkific — best for independents
Thinkific's headline deal is unlimited courses on every plan with 0% platform fees through Thinkific Payments — the catch is the surcharge if you use your own Stripe or PayPal (5% Basic, 2% Start, 1% Grow), covered above. Self-serve plans cap at 10,000 students; the branded mobile app is a $199/mo add-on unless you're on Plus. Certificates, memberships, bundles, and payment plans start at Start ($109/mo, $82 annual); white-label and group orders need Grow ($219/mo, $164 annual); SCORM is Plus-only. Note the August 2026 ~10% price increase — the first since 2022 — and that the free plan was retired in 2024, leaving a 30-day free trial on Basic/Start/Grow. Of the five affiliate programs here, Thinkific's is the most generous: 30% recurring for lifetime on a 90-day cookie.
3. LearnWorlds — best for interactive courses
LearnWorlds earns its place with the strongest course-building toolkit: an interactive video editor with in-player quizzes, SCORM support (20 packages on Pro Trainer, unlimited on Learning Center), full white-label from Learning Center, and an AI course and assessment builder on all plans. The honest pricing math: Starter ($29/mo, $24 annual) plus $5 per enrollment is only a deal for near-empty schools — at ~14 enrollments a month, Pro Trainer ($99/mo, $79 annual, no fees) wins. Affiliate management starts at Pro Trainer; a white-label mobile app is a $149/mo add-on from that tier. A 30-day free trial needs no credit card. Its affiliate program pays up to 30% recurring for lifetime on a 90-day cookie — with the caveat that the network it runs on is unconfirmed (the official blog cites its own Partners Club dashboard).
4. Kajabi — best all-in-one
Kajabi is the only platform here that replaces your whole stack: website, email marketing and automation, funnels, and courses on every plan, with no transaction or platform fees at all. The price of that convenience is the January 2026 increase — Basic is now $179/mo ($143 annual), Growth $249 ($199), Pro $499 ($399) — and the contact caps: 2,500 contacts on Basic is the real limiter, with the built-in affiliate program requiring Growth and the branded student app needing Pro. Also note the late-2025 partner restructure: 100% first-month bounty on the first 4 referrals, then 10–20% recurring — treat any guide quoting a flat 30% as stale. 14-day trial, 30-day money-back on tiers.
5. Podia — best simplicity
Podia is the plain-English option: website, blog, community, email, and courses on every plan, with generous product caps (50/150/ unlimited). Mover ($49/mo, $42 annual) takes 5%; Shaker ($99/$84) and Earthquaker ($179/$150) take 0%. Watch the email subscriber caps (100/500/1,000) with overage pricing, and know there's no native member mobile app — browser only — and sales-tax calculation in 230 countries without auto-remittance (you file). Podia relaunched as a community-focused business hub in June 2026, with mandatory migration for legacy accounts in August, and the free plan ended October 2024 (14-day trial now, no credit card). Its affiliate program pays 20–30% recurring, but sources conflict on the duration — terms vary, so confirm in the dashboard before promoting.
Pick a course platform when…
- You sell video courses and want checkout, hosting, and delivery in one place
- You'd rather pay a platform fee than stitch together a checkout stack
- You want to grow into memberships, coaching, or affiliates later
Reconsider when…
- You sell under ~10 enrollments a month — a simple checkout page costs less
- You need SCORM on a budget — it's LearnWorlds Pro Trainer or Thinkific Plus only
- Kajabi Basic's 2,500-contact cap is smaller than your list — start at Growth
Questions, answered
What is the cheapest course platform for a first course?
Which platform takes 0% of my course revenue?
What changed with Kajabi's affiliate program?
Teachable vs Thinkific — which should I pick?
Do any of these still have free plans?
Are prices on this page current?
Final verdict
Start with Teachable Builder if you want the simplest path to a paid course with 0% fees and handled VAT. Choose Thinkific Start for unlimited courses with no platform fee through its own checkout. Pick LearnWorlds Pro Trainer for interactive and SCORM-ready courses — and skip the Starter tier unless your audience is nearly zero. Kajabi is the all-in-one for established businesses past the contact caps. Podia is for creators who value simplicity above everything.
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