Teachable's Cheapest Plan Takes 7.5% of Every Sale. We Did the Math on Where That Stops Being Cheap.

The break-even is about 16 sales. Not 16 sales a month. Sixteen sales a year.

That is the point where Teachable's cheapest plan stops being the cheap one, and almost nobody runs the number before they pick a platform.

Here is the setup. Teachable's Starter plan runs $39/month month-to-month or $29/month billed annually and charges a 7.5% platform transaction fee on every sale; Builder at $89/month ($69 annual) and above charge 0%. Thinkific's Basic plan costs $54/month, or $40/month on annual billing, after a roughly 10% price increase that took effect August 13, 2026. Thinkific lists no platform fee on your sales.

So Teachable looks $11 to $15 a month cheaper. That is the entire pitch of the Starter plan.

The arithmetic the pricing page leaves out

On monthly billing, Thinkific costs $15 more a month — $180 a year. A 7.5% cut reaches $180 at $2,400 in annual sales.

On annual billing, the gap is $11 a month, or $132 a year. That one breaks even at $1,760 in sales.

Call it $1,760 to $2,400 a year. Roughly $147 to $200 a month in revenue. At a $110 course, that is 16 to 22 sales — spread across twelve months.

Past that line, the "cheaper" plan is the expensive one, and it gets worse every time you make a sale.

Processing fees don't change the comparison. Teachable's 2.9% + $0.30 per domestic card transaction goes to the payment processor and applies on every plan, and Thinkific Payments processes at 2.9%. Those cancel. The 7.5% does not.

The trap running the other way

Thinkific's 0% has a footnote, and it catches people who insist on owning their checkout. Thinkific documents conditional third-party gateway fees of 5% on Basic, 2% on Start and 1% on Grow for affected Stripe transactions in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union — fees that Thinkific Payments avoids. The fee is waived after your first $1M in sales each year.

Run your own Stripe on Basic and you've bought a 5% platform at a higher monthly price. That is the worst square on the board.

One more line worth knowing before you compare: Basic has no certificates, no quizzes and no live cohorts — those start on Start at $82/month annual.

Teachable's own upgrade number

Starter to Builder costs $40 more a month on annual billing. That puts the Starter-to-Builder break-even at $533/month in course revenue — above it, Builder is cheaper.

Treat Starter as a 90-day validation tool, not a home.

One rule to carry

Flat fees punish you before you have customers. Percentage fees punish you after.

And check the live pricing page, not a comparison post. Third-party listings are badly out of sync right now: one vendor marketplace still describes Thinkific's Basic plan as carrying a 10% transaction fee, while another guide says Thinkific has no transaction fees on any of its plans. Both can't be right, and neither is the one billing your card.