Teachable vs Thinkific: an honest 2026 comparison
Teachable opens at $39 with a 7.5% fee, Thinkific at $54. A certificate is a climb on both: $189 or $109. Fees, limits, and who needs neither.
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Launch your first courseTL;DR. Teachable opens lower and Thinkific opens more complete. Teachable is $39 / $89 / $189 a month ($29 / $69 / $139 billed annually) with a 7.5% transaction fee on the cheapest plan and 0% on the two above it — that 0% conditioned on selling through teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway — plus processing on all of them, 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards. Its pricing grid ticks certificates only from $189. Thinkific is $54 / $109 / $219 ($40 / $82 / $164 annually) with 2.9% through its own payment layer, unlimited courses and a custom domain on every paid plan, and completion certificates from $109, exams at $219. Neither has a free plan. The number that decides it is rarely the one on the pricing card.
Two products, near-identical feature grids, and a difference that only shows up once you know what you are selling and how much of it.
Who each is built for
Teachable is built for someone launching a first paid product cheaply. $39 a month is a low door, the plan carries five products, and auto-graded quizzes, short-answer assessments, course compliance and drip content are all ticked on it. What you give up at that price is a custom domain, which starts on Builder at $89, a certificate, which the grid does not tick until Growth at $189, and 7.5% of every sale.
Thinkific is built for someone who wants the finished school on day one. $54 buys unlimited courses, a custom domain, quizzes and up to 10,000 current students, and there is no platform cut on top of the 2.9% its payment layer charges. The catch is a ladder: certificates begin on Start at $109, exams on Grow at $219, and SCORM is reserved for the custom-priced Plus tier.
So the honest framing is not “which is cheaper”. It is: does the thing you sell need a certificate, and how much are you selling? Answer the first half and the ladder reorders itself — the platform with the lower entry price has the dearer certificate, $189 against Thinkific’s $109.
The arithmetic that flips
Teachable Starter’s 7.5% is the row people skim past. At $500 of monthly sales the fee is $37.50, roughly doubling the $39 plan. Two crossovers follow from the published numbers, and both come early.
Against Teachable’s own next tier: Starter costs $39 plus 7.5%, Builder costs $89 plus nothing, so they meet at about $667 in monthly sales. Above that, the $89 plan is the cheaper one. Against Thinkific Basic, which charges no platform fee on top of processing, Starter meets $54 at just $200 in monthly sales.
Thinkific has no equivalent trapdoor. Its 2.9% through Thinkific Payments is processing, in line with standard card rates, and Teachable charges the same 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards on every one of its plans. Once you are past Teachable Starter, the fee rows are effectively level and the comparison returns to features and limits.
One condition sits under that 0%. Teachable footnotes it as applying on Builder, Growth and Custom “for those using teachable:pay or Monthly Payment Gateway”, with standard processing still charged on top. Sell through a gateway outside those two and the number you were quoted is not the number you get.
Side by side
| Teachable | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly plans | $39 / $89 / $189 | $54 / $109 / $219 |
| Annual (per month) | $29 / $69 / $139 | $40 / $82 / $164 |
| Platform transaction fee | 7.5% on Starter; 0% on Builder and Growth with teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway | None stated on top of processing |
| Payment processing | 2.9% + 30¢ US cards, 3.9% + 30¢ international; PayPal 3.49% + 49¢ US, 4.99% + 49¢ international | 2.9% via Thinkific Payments; third-party gateways add their own |
| Free plan / trial | No free plan; 7-day trial, 30-day guarantee | No free plan; 30-day trial |
| Products or courses | 5 / 10 / 50 products | Unlimited courses on every plan |
| Student cap | Not stated by plan | 10,000 current students on Basic, Start and Grow |
| Admin seats | 1 / 1 / 5 | 1 / 2 / 6 |
| Custom domain | Builder and Growth | Every paid plan |
| Assessment | Auto-graded quizzes, short-answer assessments and course compliance on all plans; certificates ticked only from Growth ($189) | Quizzes on all; assignments and certificates from Start; exams from Grow; SCORM on Plus |
Where Teachable wins
- The entry price, if you are pre-revenue. $39 — or $29 annually — is the lowest real door of the two, and it still includes quizzes and drip content.
- Graded assessment on the entry plan. Auto-graded quizzes, short-answer assessments and course compliance are ticked on all three plans; Thinkific gives quizzes on Basic but holds assignments until Start at $109. Certificates are the exception, and an expensive one — the pricing page ticks those only on Growth at $189. Confirm it in the trial: an older Teachable help article still says all plans.
- Video storage. Up to 1TB is quoted on all three plans, which is a lot of lessons before storage becomes a conversation.
- A named 0%. Builder and Growth carry no platform transaction fee when you sell through teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway, leaving only processing.
- Support that scales with the plan. Email on Starter, real-time on Builder, priority plus a dedicated account manager on Growth.
Where Thinkific wins
- A custom domain from the first paid plan. Teachable’s $39 tier does not have one; Thinkific’s $54 tier does. For anyone running ads at a course page, that is not cosmetic.
- The cheaper certificate. Completion certificates start on Start at $109. Teachable’s grid does not tick them below Growth at $189, so if the certificate is part of the product, Thinkific reaches it $80 a month sooner.
- Unlimited courses, immediately. No product counter to bump into at 5 or 10.
- Headroom on students. 10,000 current students on the standard tiers is a number most creators will never reach.
- Team seats earlier. Two admins on Start where Teachable still gives one on Builder; six on Grow.
- The top of the ladder exists. Exams, SCORM compliance and an AI assistant on Plus give a corporate buyer somewhere to go. Teachable’s answer there is a custom plan through sales.
The third option: doing it inside Telegram
There is a version of this decision where you buy neither, and it fits one kind of creator: your audience already reads you in a Telegram channel, and the course website is a detour between the trust you built and the purchase.
Delivered that way, lessons arrive as blocks — text, image, video, audio, files — in the bot’s direct chat. There is no account to create, because Telegram is the account. A lesson can name a prerequisite the student must mark done and carry a scheduled date, and both gates apply together. A lesson can hold a live meeting link with the recording attached afterwards. An AI tutor answers from your own lesson content rather than a general model, and Telegram’s protocol-level protection blocks forwarding and saving on every lesson message.
Our cut is 0%. That is our cut and not the whole cost: a buyer pays $19.99 per 1,000 Stars as a store pack or $14.10 at Telegram’s sell rate and the payout side of Telegram’s developer terms is $0.013, so price on the second number — what withdrawing Stars actually pays has the withdrawal floor and the 21-day hold.
Who should not choose it: anyone who needs quizzes, certificates or a view of who finished which lesson. We have none of the three — students mark lessons done and that drives their own unlocking, but there is no roster for you. Course access is digital delivery, which Telegram policy puts on Stars exclusively, so buyers who will not pay in Stars are unreachable here.
If… then…
| If | Then |
|---|---|
| You are launching a first course and not selling much yet | Teachable Starter at $39 — then move to Builder past about $667 a month |
| You will run ads to a course page on your own domain | Thinkific — a custom domain is on its $54 plan, not Teachable’s $39 one |
| A completion certificate is part of what buyers pay for | Thinkific at $109 — Teachable’s grid does not tick certificates below Growth at $189 |
| A corporate buyer is asking for SCORM or exams | Thinkific — Grow for exams, Plus for SCORM |
| You need more than ten products or a second admin early | Thinkific: unlimited courses, two seats on Start |
| Your students already live in your Telegram channel | Chat delivery removes the signup and the login instead of styling them |
| You must know who stalled on lesson two | Either platform, not Telegram — that view does not exist on our side |
Where to start
Price the plan you will be on in six months, not the one you sign up on. If that plan is Teachable Builder or Thinkific Basic, the two products cost within $35 of each other, both carry a custom domain and neither issues a certificate — that is a separate climb, to $109 on Thinkific or $189 on Teachable.
And if the honest answer is that your students are already in one chat with you every day, run one module there first and compare completions before paying either subscription.
The longer single-product versions of this comparison: Teachable alternatives and Thinkific alternatives. Where the subscription also buys a marketing stack: Kajabi alternatives. How chat-delivered courses actually work: selling courses on Telegram. A course priced in Stars costs the student one number and pays you another — the Telegram Stars calculator shows both.
Teachable plan prices, annual rates, the 7.5% Starter transaction fee, the 0% footnote naming teachable:pay and the Monthly Payment Gateway, processing rates, product and admin limits, video storage, the custom-domain tier and the certificates row (crossed on Starter and Builder, ticked from Growth): teachable.com/pricing, checked September 2026. The older, conflicting statement that certificates are included on all plans: Teachable’s help center article New Teachable plans in June 2025, checked September 2026. Thinkific plan prices, annual rates, the 2.9% processing rate, trial length, course and student limits, admin seats and which tier carries certificates, exams and SCORM: thinkific.com/pricing, checked September 2026. Star payout rate: Telegram’s terms for bot developers, section 6.2.4.
What people usually ask
- Is Teachable cheaper than Thinkific?
- On the sticker, yes: Teachable Starter is 39 dollars a month against Thinkific Basic at 54. But Starter carries a 7.5% transaction fee and Thinkific charges no platform fee on top of its 2.9% processing, so the two meet at about 200 dollars of monthly sales and Thinkific is cheaper above that. Compare the plan you would actually sell on, not the entry row.
- Which one is cheaper if I need completion certificates?
- Thinkific, going by the published grids. Its completion certificates start on Start at 109 dollars a month and exams on Grow at 219. Teachable's pricing grid marks certificates unavailable on Starter at 39 and on Builder at 89 and ticks them only from Growth at 189. An older Teachable help center article from June 2025 says certificates are on all plans, but it describes a plan lineup the current pricing page no longer lists, so price the tier that shows one today. Quizzes are on every plan of both.
- Do both let me use my own domain?
- Thinkific includes a custom domain on every paid plan, starting at 54 dollars. Teachable puts it on Builder at 89 dollars and above, so its 39-dollar plan runs on a Teachable subdomain.
- How many students and products does each allow?
- Teachable counts products: 5 on Starter, 10 on Builder, 50 on Growth, with 1 admin user on the first two plans and 5 on Growth. Thinkific gives unlimited courses and caps current students at 10,000 across Basic, Start and Grow, with 1, 2 and 6 admin seats respectively.
- Is there a free plan on either?
- No. Teachable runs a 7-day free trial with a 30-day guarantee; Thinkific runs a 30-day free trial. Both require a paid plan to keep selling after that.
- When is neither of them the right tool?
- When your students already live in a Telegram channel and the course website is a detour rather than a destination. Delivering lessons inside the chat removes the signup and the login, but it costs you quizzes, certificates and any owner-facing view of who finished what. If you need to measure students rather than only reach them, buy a course platform.