Strategic guidance to help you build your education business

TL;DR: Most course creators use roughly a third of Kajabi's built-in tools. If your actual workflow is a course builder, a checkout page, and an email list you run elsewhere, you are paying for a marketing stack you do not open. Kajabi Basic sits at $143/month on annual billing. Our Builder plan at $69/month includes 0% platform fees, native mobile delivery, and automated VAT and GST remittance across 45+ countries. If Kajabi's email automation runs your business daily, switching adds external tool costs that close the gap. This guide runs the numbers.

Kajabi's entry tier costs $143 a month on annual billing, and many creators use less than a third of its built-in marketing features, effectively paying a large premium on course hosting alone. If you pay that monthly invoice while running your actual email marketing through a separate tool, you are carrying the "Unused Feature Tax," and it compounds every month you stay.

Leaving Kajabi to protect your margins is a financially sound move, but only if you audit your usage first. For creators who live inside Kajabi's email automation and CRM every week, switching platforms means rebuilding a marketing stack, and that cost can quickly erase your savings. This guide breaks down the real cost of ownership across the top Kajabi alternatives so you can choose based on your actual revenue model.

Identify your essential creator tools

Before looking at any alternative, answer one honest question: which Kajabi features do you open every week? Two clear paths follow, and which one describes you changes everything about the math.

1. Path 1: You use the funnels, email automation, and CRM actively. Kajabi's pipeline builder fires email steps automatically as contacts move through your funnel, and its native CRM tracks every student interaction in one place (though Kajabi's own users and reviewers consistently describe that CRM's pipeline management specifically as limited relative to standalone CRM platforms, worth confirming it actually covers your needs before counting it as a full replacement). If you manage nurture sequences, automated launch sequences, and a contact list through Kajabi's built-in tools, switching to a course-first platform means rebuilding each of those workflows with external software. At 5,000 subscribers, a MailerLite plan runs approximately $32/month on annual billing and a basic Zapier connection adds roughly $30/month on monthly billing or $20/month on annual billing. That replacement stack, on top of a new course platform subscription, closes much of the gap against Kajabi's $143/month entry price before you account for setup time.
2. Path 2: You use Kajabi mainly to host and sell courses. You record your course, upload it, send checkout links to an email list that lives in Kit or MailerLite, and that is the extent of it. If this sounds familiar, you are paying $143/month to host a product catalog that course platforms handle for $17 to $249/month across different feature tiers. Running $1,716 a year through a system you use at 30% capacity is an expensive habit.

Calculating your true cost of ownership

Platform pricing comparisons almost always mislead because they anchor on the subscription line and ignore the full fee stack. Think of it like a receipt with multiple line items: the headline subscription is the sticker price, but transaction fees and processing fees are the line items at the bottom that determine your actual take-home.

Kajabi's Basic plan charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction on top of its $143/month subscription. At $5,000 in monthly course revenue, that processing fee adds approximately $145/month to your cost. Our Builder plan has 0% platform fees, and US card processing via Teachable Payments (our native payment gateway) runs 2.9% + $0.30, so processing costs are equivalent. The difference is the $74/month gap between the two subscription fees, or $888 in fixed annual savings before a single transaction is processed. Check our full pricing breakdown for processing rates across all plans.

Focusing only on course delivery

Course-first platforms are built around one job: getting a student from checkout to course completion with as little friction as possible. That narrow focus produces tangible differences in the student experience, particularly on mobile. We include native iOS and Android apps on every paid plan, so students download the Teachable app, find your course, and consume it with offline playback and push notifications, starting at $29/month on the Starter plan.

Real cost breakdown of Kajabi alternatives

The verified cost and fee comparison below splits across two tables because the key decision factors span more than four columns. Table 1 covers subscription and fee structure. Table 2 covers business model fit and migration trade-offs.

Table 1: Subscription and fee structure

Table 2: Business model fit and what you lose vs. Kajabi

What replaces Kajabi's email and funnels

If you move to a course-first platform, you need a standalone email tool. At 5,000 subscribers, the most common options are:

• MailerLite: Approximately $32/month at 5,000 subscribers on the Growing Business plan on annual billing, which covers automation, landing pages, and website.
• Kit (ConvertKit): Starts at $39/month (monthly billing) for 1,000 subscribers on the Creator plan and scales with list size.
• ActiveCampaign: Pricing scales with contacts and feature tier. The entry-level Starter plan starts at $15/month for 1,000 contacts, while the Pro plan with comparable automation capabilities starts at $79/month on annual billing.

A MailerLite stack at $32/month plus Teachable Builder at $69/month totals $101/month, still $42 cheaper than Kajabi Basic at $143/month, and you carry 0% platform fees. Our business operations blog covers cost modeling for creators at different revenue stages.

Teachable: Lowering your monthly platform spend

Our Builder plan at $69/month (annual) is the most direct margin-saving alternative for course-first creators who already own an external email tool. The plan removes the 7.5% transaction fee that sits on the Starter plan and adds affiliate marketing tools. At $74/month less than Kajabi Basic, the annual saving is $888 before fees, and the 0% platform fee means every dollar of revenue stays with you rather than going back to the platform.

One reviewer's experience captures the core appeal:

"With Teachable, you can go from idea to execution fairly quickly, and get your course up and running and (potentially) making sales fast." - Verified user on G2

The Builder tier is the effective starting point for anyone earning more than $533/month in course revenue on annual billing. At $533/month, our Starter plan's 7.5% fee adds exactly $40/month, which equals the cost of upgrading. Above that threshold, upgrading costs less than staying on Starter. Our revenue and pricing blog covers this break-even math in more detail.

Ideal creator profiles for Teachable

Teachable works best for two specific creator types:

1. The creator with an existing email list on Kit or MailerLite. You already handle your own marketing outside of whatever course platform you use. You want a clean, reliable checkout with built-in affiliate tools and 0% transaction fees, not a second email system running in parallel.
2. The creator selling to international students. You have buyers in Germany, Australia, Canada, and Japan. Each purchase carries a potential VAT or GST obligation. Our native gateway handles filing automatically across 45+ countries, reducing the manual compliance work from your workflow. Our case studies section includes examples of creators at different revenue levels who moved from manual tax filing to automated remittance.

Where Teachable outperforms Kajabi

We built Teachable Payments to automatically calculate, collect, and remit VAT and GST across 45+ countries on every sale. When a student in Germany buys your course, we charge the correct VAT rate, collect it at checkout, and remit it through the EU's VAT One Stop Shop (OSS) system on your behalf each quarter. You do not register in Germany, file anything, or track the liability manually. Teachable Payments also accepts payments in 130+ currencies, so your German, Australian, and Japanese students pay in their own currency without you building separate pricing sheets for each market. Kajabi offers no equivalent, leaving creators responsible for registering and filing taxes in every country where they sell. Our product updates section explains how the gateway handles EU VAT through the OSS system on a quarterly basis.

We also include native iOS and Android apps on every paid plan starting at $29/month. Kajabi's branded mobile app is included on the Pro tier at $399/month on annual billing and available as a $199/month add-on for Basic and Growth tiers. Basic and Growth plan subscribers do not receive a branded app for their school.

Our course-specific tooling, gradebook, compliance settings, minimum watch-time enforcement, and per-student progress tracking, also goes deeper than Kajabi's at the same price point. Kajabi's strength is the marketing stack wrapped around the course, several third-party reviews of both platforms note our learning-management depth as more developed at comparable tiers, which matters for creators whose students need structured progress tracking, not just a purchase funnel.

What to model before you migrate

For non-USD transactions processed through Stripe where currency conversion is required, Stripe charges a 0.95% currency conversion fee shown separately from our processing rate. UK-based creators and those with high-volume EUR or AUD sales should model this fee against expected transaction volume before comparing net revenue across platforms. At $5,000/month in international sales, the conversion fee adds approximately $47.50/month.

We do not include a built-in email funnel builder or CRM. If Kajabi's automation is central to your business today, you need to rebuild those workflows in an external tool before migrating, and that is a real cost to model honestly.

Manual tax compliance

Thinkific's Basic plan at $40/month on annual billing includes 0% platform fees, undercutting Kajabi's $143/month entry tier by 72% on subscription. Thinkific helps you configure tax collection for US and Canadian sales, but remittance remains the creator's responsibility, and VAT collection for UK and EU sales requires additional manual configuration.

Thinkific's Trustpilot rating, 1.8 of 5 as of mid-2026, is worth checking directly before committing. For any creator with international buyers, the Builder plan at $69/month covers automated VAT and GST remittance across 45+ countries without manual configuration, at $29/month more than Thinkific's entry price.

Broad product catalog support, no mobile delivery

Podia's Shaker plan at approximately $84/month on annual billing (as of the June 2026 relaunch, confirm the current figure on Podia's pricing page before publishing) with 0% transaction fees caps you at 150 products (Earthquaker, at $150/month annual, is the only unlimited-product tier). Kajabi's Basic tier caps you at 5 products, which pushes many growing creators into the Growth plan at $199/month (annual) simply to expand their catalog. If you sell a large catalog of downloads, mini-courses, and webinars without needing deep educational infrastructure, Podia's product limits work in your favor. However, Podia does not offer a native mobile app, and students access content through their web browser on every plan.

There is also no automated international VAT remittance. The Builder plan at $69/month sits roughly $15/month below Podia's Shaker plan, and adds native iOS and Android delivery and automated international tax remittance, the two areas Podia leaves open at every tier.

Is LearnWorlds worth the subscription cost?

LearnWorlds' Starter plan at $24/month on annual billing carries the lowest subscription price in this comparison, but the $5-per-course-sale fee scales quickly. At 50 enrollments a month, you pay $24 plus $250 in enrollment fees before card processing, totaling $274/month. That far exceeds our Builder plan at $69/month with 0% platform fees at the same enrollment volume.

LearnWorlds' Learning Center plan at $249/month removes the per-sale fee entirely, but that subscription cost exceeds Kajabi's entry tier and undercuts the value proposition for a margin-conscious creator. SCORM compliance is a narrow requirement. For creators whose courses do not depend on it, the fee structure and subscription cost of LearnWorlds erases the value proposition quickly compared to 0% platform fees at $69/month on the Builder plan.

Built-in funnels, basic course delivery

Systeme.io's Startup plan at $17/month on annual billing includes built-in email marketing, sales funnels, and basic course hosting with 0% transaction fees. If you are leaving Kajabi primarily because of cost and need funnels built in, Systeme is the cheapest way to maintain that capability, at $126/month less than Kajabi Basic. However, the course player is basic, student management tools lack depth, and automated international tax handling requires manual VAT configuration.

Our course player, mobile delivery via native iOS and Android apps, and automated tax remittance through Teachable Payments are meaningfully more polished at $69/month. For any creator where student experience and completion rate affect refund rates and word-of-mouth, a basic course player is a real business cost that does not appear in Systeme's subscription comparison.

Migrating assets: A realistic checklist

A complete Kajabi-to-Teachable migration covers three phases and typically takes anywhere from a few days for a small catalog to several weeks for a large, multi-integration setup, your migration specialist will confirm a specific date range for your setup:

1. Export and import student data: Download your student list, contact records, and transaction history as CSV files from Kajabi's account settings, then import them into Teachable and your email tool.
2. Course content upload (time scales with your course count and complexity): Download video lessons individually from Kajabi (bulk export is not available), upload them to our drag-and-drop course builder, and rebuild quiz and drip settings manually since course structure does not port between platforms. You can apply for a migration consultation to get a specific estimate based on your catalog.
3. Email and checkout reconnection (time varies by integration count): Connect your email tool via Teachable's native integration in Settings, set up enrollment triggers so new students are added to your list automatically, and test a live checkout transaction before going live. Kajabi's custom website pages and landing pages do not port between platforms and require a full rebuild. Kit, MailerLite, and Mailchimp connect via Zapier, available from the Builder tier up.

Our launch strategy blog covers post-migration email sequence setup in practical detail. Weighed against $888/year in subscription savings and the elimination of international VAT filing, the migration time pays back in weeks for any creator earning above $2,000/month. Our success stories section includes creator accounts of the migration experience at different scales.

Decision criteria for leaving your stack

• If your course catalog is small, your email list runs through Kit or MailerLite, and Kajabi's pipeline builder goes largely unused, the Builder plan at $69/month saves you $888/year in subscription costs alone, before accounting for 0% platform fees on every sale. Your Unused Feature Tax is real and eliminating it returns those dollars to your business immediately. Teachable Payments calculates, collects, and remits VAT and GST across 45+ countries automatically.
• If you currently file international VAT manually or carry unresolved EU, Australian, or Canadian tax obligations, that compliance gap is a real financial liability. The Builder plan closes it at no additional cost beyond the $69/month subscription.
• Kajabi Basic's 5-product cap pushes growing creators toward the $199/month Growth plan. Our Builder plan supports 10 products with 0% platform fees at $69/month, $130/month less than the Kajabi tier the product limit forces you into.
• Model the external tool cost first if your marketing runs entirely inside Kajabi's pipeline builder and CRM. At 5,000 subscribers, a MailerLite replacement runs approximately $32/month on annual billing. A MailerLite plus Builder stack totals $101/month, still $42/month less than Kajabi Basic, but the 10-plus hours of sequence rebuild is a one-time cost to scope honestly before committing to a migration date.
• Factor in landing page rebuild time if Kajabi's native website builder and landing pages are your primary web presence. That content does not port between platforms and requires a full rebuild. Weigh that one-time setup cost against $888/year in subscription savings and 0% platform fees, for most creators earning above $2,000/month, the rebuild pays back within the first quarter.
• The math on leaving Kajabi is straightforward for course-first creators. The subscription saving is real, the tax compliance benefit is structural, and the migration cost is bounded and one-time. The only question worth settling before you move is which Kajabi features you actually open every week. If the honest answer is mostly the course builder and checkout, the numbers point clearly toward the switch.

Run the full fee comparison across our plans, including processing rates. The 7-day trial requires a credit card, and a 30-day money-back guarantee covers the first month if the platform does not fit your workflow.

FAQs

When does Kajabi pay for itself?

Kajabi pays for itself when you actively use its native email marketing, automated funnels, and CRM to manage a contact list that would otherwise cost $39 to $79/month on a standalone tool like MailerLite or ActiveCampaign. If you only use it to host courses, the $143/month entry price costs more than a course-first platform plus an external email tool combined.

What are the top Kajabi alternatives for low budgets?

Our Starter plan at $29/month on annual billing is the lowest-cost entry option that includes automated international VAT and GST remittance through Teachable Payments, which no other budget-tier platform in this comparison covers. For creators with any international sales volume, that remittance capability removes a compliance obligation that carries real cost and risk if ignored.

How do I export my Kajabi course content?

You can export student lists and transaction history as CSV files from Kajabi's account settings, but video lessons and text content must be downloaded and re-uploaded to your new platform manually. Our Custom plan includes migration support for high-volume creators moving from another platform.

Do I need a separate email provider?

Yes, if you leave Kajabi for a course-first platform like Teachable or Thinkific, you need a standalone email provider like MailerLite or Kit to run automated marketing campaigns. Zapier integrations with tools like Kit and MailerLite are available from the Builder tier up, so you can automate student list updates after each purchase.

How do platforms handle VAT and sales tax?

Most platforms, including Kajabi, Thinkific, and Podia, leave VAT and sales tax compliance entirely to the creator, requiring manual registration and filing in every country where you sell. We are the exception: our native gateway, Teachable Payments, automatically calculates, collects, and remits VAT and GST across 45+ countries on your behalf, removing you from the tax filing loop entirely.

Key terms

Platform fee: A percentage Teachable or another course platform charges on each sale, on top of payment processing. Our Builder plan charges 0%, our Starter plan charges 7.5%.

Transaction fee: Used interchangeably with platform fee in most course platform contexts. Always confirm whether a platform's stated fee is the platform's cut, the processor's cut, or both stacked together.

VAT (Value Added Tax): A consumption tax applied to digital product sales in the EU, UK, and several other jurisdictions. Rates and registration thresholds vary by country. Teachable Payments remits VAT automatically when you use the native gateway.

GST (Goods and Services Tax): The equivalent of VAT in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and other markets. Teachable Payments handles GST remittance in covered countries automatically.

VAT OSS (One Stop Shop): The EU system that lets a single quarterly VAT filing cover sales across all EU member states. Teachable files through OSS on your behalf each quarter so you do not register separately in Germany, France, or any other member state.

Annual billing: Paying a platform subscription in one upfront yearly payment rather than month to month. Annual billing typically reduces the effective monthly rate. All plan prices in this article use the annual billing rate unless stated otherwise.

‍

TL;DR: Teachable is the only platform in this comparison that automatically calculates and remits VAT, GST, and sales tax in 45+ countries through Teachable Payments, our native payment gateway. Thinkific handles US and Canada sales tax automatically and calculates VAT for UK and EU sales, but creators remain responsible for filing with foreign tax authorities. If you sell to students in Europe, Australia, or other international markets, that gap puts you personally responsible for registering and filing in jurisdictions beyond the US and Canada. We close that gap through Teachable Payments, removing you from the filing loop entirely.

International tax compliance is the most commonly overlooked operational risk when creators choose a course platform. Most platforms handle domestic payment processing reliably, but the gap between collecting payment from an international student and actually remitting the correct tax to that country's authority is where creators run into trouble. Teachable solves this through Teachable Payments, our native payment gateway that automatically calculates, collects, and remits taxes in 45+ countries, removing you from the filing loop entirely.

If you sell to students outside the US, international tax compliance should be your first filter on any platform you evaluate, not an afterthought. This comparison examines how Teachable stacks up against Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, LearnWorlds, Skool, and Systeme.io on tax remittance, pricing structure, and the features that matter most to creators who sell globally.

What to look for when evaluating a Thinkific alternative

When evaluating alternatives to Thinkific, creators consistently prioritize three criteria. These are the same operational gaps that drive platform switches regardless of which platform a creator starts with.

1. Automated VAT remittance on cross-border sales: Many platforms calculate VAT for UK and EU sales, but creators remain responsible for remitting that VAT to foreign tax authorities. When you sell to a student in Germany, France, Australia, or the UK, you are personally responsible for registering in each jurisdiction, tracking your obligations, and filing on schedule. Teachable removes you from that loop entirely. Through Teachable Payments, we automatically calculate, collect, and remit taxes in 45+ countries, so you never pay collected VAT or GST amounts to tax authorities directly.
2. Support response time during a live launch: For a creator running a 48-hour live launch to a warm email list, support response time is a business continuity question, not a nice-to-have. As of mid-2026, Thinkific's Trustpilot rating is 1.8 out of 5, with billing, cancellation, and content-deletion issues among the most cited complaints in recent reviews. Support response speed is worth verifying for any platform you evaluate before a high-stakes launch window.
3. Tier limits that force premature upgrades: As revenue grows, creators bump into limits on administrative seats, community features, and advanced automation that force a tier jump before their earnings justify it. Teachable's Builder plan at $69/month (annual) includes 0% platform fees, affiliate tools, and unlimited courses, with no caps that force upgrades based on product count alone.

The compliance gap in your current platform

The practical risk of international VAT is this: digital services sold to buyers in EU countries, the UK, Australia, and many other markets create an obligation the moment you cross that country's registration threshold. As a Thinkific creator, you are personally responsible for tracking those thresholds, registering in each relevant jurisdiction, collecting the correct rate, and filing on schedule.

If you sell internationally

If students in Europe, Australia, Canada, or any non-US market make up a meaningful share of your revenue, the VAT filing burden is a real risk that compounds as you grow. Our payments documentation confirms that Teachable Payments handles this automatically in 45+ countries, removing you from the filing loop entirely on transactions processed through the native gateway.

If your buyers are all in the US

If you sell exclusively to US-based students, Thinkific's tax handling covers that compliance scope adequately. In that scenario, the decision comes down to builder preference, pricing math at your current revenue, and how much the support pattern matters to your tolerance for launch risk.

Thinkific alternatives at a glance

The table below uses entry-level annual pricing where available, as referenced on Teachable's pricing page. Platform fees are separate from credit card processing fees.

Teachable

For creators with international buyers, Teachable is the only platform in this comparison with automated VAT, GST, and UK VAT remittance built in across 45+ countries. Skool automates EU VAT remittance as Merchant of Record but does not collect UK VAT and has not confirmed GST handling in its documentation. Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, and LearnWorlds all leave filing and remittance to the creator. Our no-code course builder handles video, audio, text, quizzes, and drip content, and the built-in checkout includes order bumps, one-click upsells, and abandoned cart recovery on every plan. The revenue and pricing resources on our blog cover the fee math in more depth.

• Who it fits: Individual creators and coaches who sell to an international audience and want payments, automated tax remittance, and student management in one plan without writing code or managing external tax tools. iOS and Android apps are included on every plan at no additional cost, giving your students a real mobile experience rather than a browser wrapper. Teachable is also SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant, worth mentioning alongside tax compliance if your students ask about data security before purchasing.
• How our tax handling works: Our native payment gateway, Teachable Payments, automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST in 45+ countries, and accepts student payments in 130+ currencies so international buyers pay in their own currency without you configuring separate pricing sheets. The Teachable Payments support documentation confirms that for transactions processed through the native gateway, you never pay collected VAT or GST amounts to tax authorities directly because we handle remittance on your behalf. This infrastructure is built into a $69/month course platform.
• Pricing math worth running: The Starter plan at $29/month (annual billing) carries a 7.5% transaction fee. Once your monthly revenue passes approximately $533, that fee costs more than the $40/month price gap between Starter and Builder. The Builder plan at $69/month (annual) removes the transaction fee entirely and adds affiliate tools, making it the tier where our economics are strongest for growing creators.
• The honest limitation: Email funnel building and CRM are not built in. Creators who need email automations and sales sequences alongside course delivery can connect a third-party email tool through our native integrations.

"Classes are easy to create and navigate." - Verified user on G2

Kajabi

Kajabi combines course delivery with a full email marketing stack, CRM, and pipeline builder in one subscription. The platform is positioned at a higher price tier than most standalone course platforms.

• Who it fits: Creators earning $5,000 to $10,000 or more per month who need email sequences, pipeline automation, and course delivery in one tool and can absorb the higher subscription cost.
• The honest trade-off: Our Builder plan at $69/month (annual) includes automatic VAT and GST remittance in 45+ countries, so you get tax compliance built in at our mid-tier price point. Kajabi includes a built-in email marketing stack, CRM, and pipeline builder, but tax remittance remains the creator's responsibility even at Kajabi's higher entry price. Where Kajabi's CRM focuses on funnel tracking and contact scoring, our course-specific tooling goes deeper on gradebook functionality, drip scheduling, and completion enforcement, which matters more to creators whose primary product is the course itself rather than the funnel around it.

Podia

Podia suits creators selling digital downloads alongside courses who want a clean, low-friction storefront.

• Who it fits: Solo creators with a primarily US-based audience who prioritize simplicity. Product listings are capped at 50 on Mover ($42/mo annual) and 150 on Shaker, unlimited listings require the Earthquaker plan at $150/mo annual.
• The honest trade-off: Podia's Help Center documents that it can calculate and collect tax in jurisdictions where you are registered, but explicitly states that Podia does not file taxes on behalf of users. Remittance to foreign tax authorities remains your responsibility, which is the same gap as Thinkific. If you sell to students in Europe, Australia, or other non-US markets, that obligation applies here too. Through Teachable Payments, we automatically remit taxes in 45+ countries, and our Builder plan at $69/month (annual) includes native iOS and Android apps at no additional cost.

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds targets creators who want an academic-style course structure with advanced quiz engines, SCORM compatibility, and interactive video.

• Who it fits: Creators building courses that need formal assessment structures, branching content paths, or the ability to import and deliver existing SCORM packages.
• The honest trade-off: Where LearnWorlds falls short is international tax compliance. Remittance to foreign tax authorities remains the creator's responsibility, the same gap as Thinkific and Podia. Through Teachable Payments, we handle both calculation and remittance automatically in 45+ countries, which means you can sell internationally without managing tax filings across multiple jurisdictions.

Skool

Skool is a community-first platform built around gamification, group discussions, and live event hosting.

• Who it fits: Creators whose primary product is the community itself, with courses serving as supporting content rather than the core offer.
• The honest trade-off: Per Skool's help documentation, Skool acts as Merchant of Record for EU VAT and automatically collects, remits, and files it on your behalf. However, Skool does not collect UK VAT, it is registered as a virtual training business, which is exempt in the UK, and GST remittance is not confirmed in Skool's documentation. If you sell to students in the UK or Australia, those obligations would remain yours on Skool. The real distinction is product structure. Skool is built around community with courses as supporting content, while Teachable is built around course delivery with community as a supporting feature. If structured course delivery, drip content, and a dedicated checkout with order bumps are central to your product, our Builder plan at $69/month (annual) covers those alongside automated tax remittance in 45+ countries.

Systeme.io

Systeme.io offers a free entry tier and positions itself as a budget funnel builder for creators who need basic course delivery alongside email sequences and sales page tools.

• Who it fits: Creators at the very beginning of their journey who need funnel tools, basic course hosting, and a low or zero monthly fee while validating demand.
• The honest trade-off: As your revenue grows, our native mobile apps, built-in checkout, and automated tax remittance in 45+ countries provide a more stable foundation than Systeme.io's basic feature set.

Why international VAT remittance is the deciding factor

Thinkific remits US and Canada sales tax automatically and calculates VAT for UK and EU sales, which is genuine, functional tax handling for North American sellers. However, creators remain responsible for remitting that VAT to foreign tax authorities. When you sell a course to a student in Germany, you have a VAT obligation in Germany. When you sell to a student in Australia, you have a GST obligation in Australia. Thinkific calculates the correct rate at checkout but the remittance relationship with those tax authorities is yours to manage.

Our Teachable Payments changes that structure entirely. As documented in our payments documentation, we handle the filing relationship with tax authorities on your behalf in 45+ countries. You receive your payout and a clean record of what was collected, without ever touching a foreign tax form.

How to decide if Teachable is right for you

• Site builder customization: Thinkific's site builder offers more layout flexibility than our standard templates. Creators who want full control over homepage design, custom landing pages, and branded course storefronts without code will find Thinkific's builder more accommodating. Three responsive themes, each with multiple styles, give meaningful visual range. Our builder prioritizes speed to first sale over design depth, with clean templates that handle the most common creator needs without requiring you to invest time in layout decisions before your first student enrolls. For creators who sell internationally, that speed to first sale is paired with automated tax remittance in 45+ countries, which Thinkific does not offer.
• Zero platform fees from the entry tier: Thinkific charges 0% transaction fees on all paid plans, including the entry plan. Our Starter plan at $29/month carries a 7.5% fee. Above approximately $533/month in revenue, upgrading to our Builder plan eliminates the fee entirely, on top of the automated tax remittance available across all Teachable plans. The Builder plan at $69/month (annual) includes 0% platform fees and affiliate tools, making it the tier where our economics are strongest for growing creators.
• Structured course building experience: Thinkific's course builder is clean, well-documented, and suited to creators who prioritize content organization and layout control. Our course builder covers the core content types optimized for creators who want to go from signup to a live, purchasable course as quickly as possible. For creators whose audience is entirely US-based and whose course structure is the main product differentiator, Thinkific's builder may be a closer fit. For creators who sell internationally, our automated tax remittance through Teachable Payments removes the VAT filing burden that Thinkific creators carry themselves.

Is Teachable the right move for you?

Use this as a decision filter before comparing features in more depth.

Switch to Teachable if

1. You sell internationally and want VAT and GST remittance handled automatically, alongside structured course delivery and a built-in checkout, in one plan.
2. You want native iOS and Android apps included in your plan at no extra cost.
3. Your monthly revenue is above approximately $533 and you want 0% platform fees starting at $69/month on annual billing.
4. You want a live checkout with order bumps and upsells without a third-party page builder.

When Thinkific may be a closer fit

1. Your entire student base is in the US and Canada, and you have no plans to sell internationally.
2. You have built significant course content in Thinkific's builder and the migration effort outweighs the operational benefit of switching.

For most creators selling to an international audience, the VAT filing gap is the decision. If automated tax remittance in 45+ countries, 0% platform fees at $69/month, and a no-code checkout are the right fit for your current setup, start a 7-day trial and build your first course before committing to a plan.

FAQs

Does Thinkific handle VAT for international sales?

No, Thinkific does not remit VAT or GST to foreign tax authorities on your behalf. You are personally responsible for registering, tracking, and filing taxes for sales made to students outside the US and Canada, where Thinkific's automatic remittance coverage ends.

What is the cheapest Thinkific alternative?

Our Starter plan costs $29/month on annual billing. Model your transaction fees before deciding: the Starter plan's 7.5% fee makes upgrading to the Builder plan ($69/month, annual) the cheaper option once monthly revenue passes approximately $533. Systeme.io offers a free basic plan for creators at the very beginning of their journey.

How does Teachable handle international taxes compared to Thinkific?

Our native gateway, Teachable Payments, automatically calculates, collects, and remits VAT and GST in 45+ countries, as confirmed by our payments documentation. Thinkific automates sales tax remittance for the US and Canada and calculates VAT for UK and EU sales, but creators remain responsible for remitting that VAT to foreign tax authorities. Of the platforms in this comparison, Teachable is the only one with automated remittance covering 45+ countries, giving you the broadest international tax compliance coverage available at this price tier.

Can I migrate my course from Thinkific to Teachable without losing student data?

Yes, you can migrate your content and student data from Thinkific to Teachable. Our support team provides migration assistance on select plans, and our support documentation covers how creators have moved their content and student records across platforms.

Does Thinkific charge transaction fees on paid plans?

Thinkific charges 0% platform transaction fees on all paid plans. Standard credit card processing fees still apply on every transaction at rates set by your payment gateway.

Key terms glossary

Teachable Payments: Our native payment gateway that automatically handles global tax compliance including VAT, GST, and US sales tax in 45+ countries.

Tax remittance: The process of sending collected sales tax, VAT, or GST to the appropriate government tax authority, which teachable:pay handles on your behalf for transactions processed through the native gateway.

VAT (Value Added Tax): A consumption tax applied to digital products sold to buyers in the European Union and many other international markets, creating a filing obligation for creators who exceed the registration threshold in each country.

Platform fee: The percentage-based transaction fee a course host charges on each sale, separate from credit card processing fees, which stack on top of the platform fee for every transaction.

Break-even point: The monthly revenue threshold where transaction fees on a lower-tier plan equal the higher subscription cost of an upgraded plan. For Teachable, the Starter-to-Builder break-even is approximately $533/month on annual billing.

‍

TL;DR: If Podia's course features no longer match where your business is headed, or the transaction fee structure is cutting into your margins, we are the most practical upgrade for most growing creators: 0% platform fees on the Builder plan ($69/month annual), automated VAT/GST remittance via Teachable Payments across 45+ countries, and native iOS and Android apps included on every plan. We don't include a built-in email funnel or CRM, creators who need complex multi-step behavioral automations typically connect a dedicated email platform at the Builder tier. For creators whose primary product is community rather than structured courses, or who need the simplest possible single-file delivery with no monthly subscription, the platform comparison table further down covers where those trade-offs land.

Most creators choose a platform based on the monthly subscription price, then discover the processing fees and tax compliance hours that determine their actual take-home pay only after committing. Podia's clean interface and simple setup make it a logical first choice, but the 5% transaction fee on the Mover plan creates a compounding cost that hits hard as revenue grows past a few hundred dollars a month.

Key pain points triggering a platform switch

Podia earns its reputation for simplicity. For a creator selling a single PDF or a lightweight digital download, the clean checkout and straightforward setup are genuinely useful. The friction shows up when a creator's product mix shifts toward structured courses, international students, and higher monthly revenue. At that point, three specific pain points tend to push creators to look elsewhere.

Calculating your real take-home pay

Podia's Mover plan is priced at $42/month on annual billing, which looks competitive until you add the 5% transaction fee that applies on every sale. At higher revenue volumes, that percentage-based fee compounds quickly, bringing total platform costs well above the base subscription before a single payment processing charge. Standard Stripe or PayPal processing adds another 2.9% + $0.30 per US transaction on top.

By contrast, our Builder plan at $69/month on annual billing carries 0% platform fees, so the $69 is the ceiling, not the floor. For creators comparing our plans, the break-even point between our Starter and Builder plans lands at approximately $533/month in monthly revenue on annual billing, the point where our Starter plan's 7.5% transaction fee equals the price difference between the two plans. Above that threshold, our Builder plan costs less in total platform fees for every additional dollar you earn.

Why creators outgrow the Podia toolkit

Podia's course builder handles basic video lessons and digital files, but graded assessments, section-level drip sequencing, and structured lesson progression within a course are native to our architecture, not bolt-ons. That matters when you're building a curriculum that requires students to complete one module before unlocking the next.

Students access Podia courses through a mobile browser, which means no offline playback, no push notifications, and no native app experience on iOS or Android.

Optimizing the student learning journey

Student completion rates directly affect refund requests and word-of-mouth referrals. Our course design resources address completion at the curriculum level, and the native iOS and Android apps allow students to download content for offline playback and track progress automatically. For any creator building a course business that depends on repeat purchases and referrals, the combination of graded quiz enforcement, completion certificates, and native mobile delivery is a meaningful structural advantage.

How we vetted each Podia competitor for creators

To compare these platforms objectively, we evaluated each one across four criteria that directly affect a creator's operational cost and revenue trajectory. The goal was to model the real total cost of ownership, not just the headline subscription price.

Decision matrix

Real take-home pay after platform fees

Think of your platform cost as a receipt with multiple line items: the subscription is the sticker price, but transaction fees, payment processing, and currency conversion charges at the bottom determine what you actually keep. We modeled the subscription cost plus transaction fee stack across four monthly revenue tiers.

Total cost of ownership (annual billing, subscription + transaction fees only):

Our Starter plan undercuts our Builder plan below approximately $533/month in revenue. Above that level, Builder's flat $69 is the most cost-effective option in the table, and the gap widens substantially at $5,000 and $10,000 per month.

Selling courses alongside digital files

The most common product mix for growing creators is a core course priced between $97 and $497, paired with lower-priced digital downloads like templates, workbooks, or resource guides. Teachable handles this natively through order bumps and one-click upsells, so a student checking out of a course can add a $19 PDF in a single click without leaving the cart.

Launch your first product faster

Setup speed matters most for creators who've already spent weeks recording content and need to go live without configuring separate tools. Our no-code course builder connects checkout, payments, and tax handling in one subscription, so there are no Zapier chains or external payment configurations required before your first sale.

Platform uptime for critical launch windows

A broken checkout during a 48-hour launch window is a revenue emergency with no recovery window. We are SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant, both independently audited validations, which means payment handling and student data storage meet a documented security and reliability standard. For creators running time-sensitive launches to an existing email list, having checkout, payments, and tax handling on a single certified infrastructure removes one category of failure risk that comes with stitching together separate tools.

Top Podia alternatives for growing creators

Teachable: Advanced features for scale

We are the most direct upgrade path for creators who've outgrown Podia's basic course structure. The drag-and-drop builder supports video, audio, text, quizzes, drip content, and certificate issuance, all without code or third-party plugins. We include both quiz functionality and certificate issuance as native features, which makes it a workable option for creators who need assessments and credentials in the same platform.

The defining technical differentiator is Teachable Payments, our native payment gateway, which automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries on your behalf.

At the Builder tier ($69/month annual), we add affiliate tools and third-party integrations, making it a complete platform for a creator whose revenue has grown past the point where Podia's fee structure makes sense.

Kajabi: All-in-one funnel automation

We cover broadcast email and basic sequences natively. Creators whose launch strategy requires complex multi-step automations, behavioral tagging, or lead scoring connect a dedicated email platform at the Builder tier through our third-party integrations. Kajabi bundles that CRM layer into its subscription at $143/month on annual billing, roughly double our Builder plan at $69/month.

The pricing gap is the first trade-off worth running. The second is tax compliance: Kajabi calculates and collects tax at checkout via a Quaderno partnership, but filing and remitting remains the creator's responsibility everywhere, including the US, so creators on Kajabi still manage their own VAT and sales tax obligations across every jurisdiction they sell into. Our Teachable Payments handles remittance across 45+ countries automatically, with no action required from the creator. Creators who prioritize course-delivery depth (gradebook controls, compliance settings, and minimum watch-time enforcement) will find we go further than Kajabi at a comparable price point.

Thinkific: Course-focused alternative

Thinkific offers a strong no-code course builder with 0% platform fees starting at $40/month on annual billing, price-competitive with Podia Mover. But even for course-only creators specifically, the comparison favors us on two fronts: our mobile app is included on every plan where Thinkific charges extra for it, and our tax coverage extends past the US and Canada.

For UK and EU sales, Thinkific's TCommerce calculates and collects VAT, but remittance to the tax authority remains the creator's responsibility, unlike Teachable Payments, which automatically calculates, collects, and remits across 45+ countries with no action required from the creator. Thinkific's native mobile app is also a paid add-on rather than included on all plans, whereas we bundle iOS and Android apps on every tier.

Gumroad: Low-friction digital file sales

Gumroad's primary advantage is frictionless setup for single digital products. There's no monthly subscription fee, and Gumroad handles VAT collection and remittance automatically. Gumroad's per-transaction fee structure means platform costs grow with revenue even though tax handling is automated on both platforms, while our Builder plan's flat $69 subscription with 0% platform fees keeps costs predictable regardless of sales volume. Gumroad is optimized for simple digital file delivery rather than structured course programs with assessments and progressive curricula.

Mighty Networks: Best for community-first models

Mighty Networks is designed for community engagement and courses together. If your business model centers on ongoing membership, discussion threads, live events, and a branded social environment, Mighty Networks delivers that experience naturally. The community tools are comprehensive, and the overall product emphasizes social interaction alongside course content.

Where we hold the advantage is in structured course curricula, native mobile apps included on all plans at no extra cost, and automated global tax compliance through Teachable Payments. For creators whose primary product is a structured course rather than open-ended community discussion, we are the stronger fit.

Teachable vs. Podia: Feature comparison

Course hosting and asset delivery

Our drag-and-drop builder supports video, audio, text, quizzes, and drip content with assessments and certificate issuance built in. Podia's course builder handles basic video and file delivery and issues certificates on completion. For a creator selling a course that requires structured credentialing with assessment validation, our quiz infrastructure supports that requirement.

Net revenue after platform fees

A creator earning $10,000/month on Podia Mover pays significantly more in platform costs based on the 5% transaction fee structure plus the monthly subscription. The same creator on our Builder plan pays $69 flat. Our pricing page shows the full plan structure, including processing fee breakdowns for US and international transactions.

Essential sales tools for creators

Both platforms include order bumps, coupon codes, and basic checkout functionality. We add one-click upsells and abandoned cart recovery, which allow creators to maximize revenue per visitor without additional tools.

Drive higher course completion rates

We include native iOS and Android apps on every plan, giving students the ability to download content for offline playback and track progress automatically. Podia's mobile experience runs entirely through the browser, so students lose offline access and the native app experience that drives habit formation and completion. This Teachable platform review covers the student-facing mobile features in practical detail, and our success stories archive shows how creators have used mobile-first delivery to improve student engagement across different niches.

Managing global sales tax and VAT

Our Teachable Payments automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries on your behalf. You receive your earnings with tax handling already completed, no registration or filing required from you in those covered jurisdictions.

Podia uses Stripe as its payment processor. EU VAT OSS allows creators to file a single quarterly return covering all EU member states, but the registration obligation and ongoing compliance responsibility remain with the creator regardless of which payment processor handles the transaction. Podia's approach leaves VAT registration, compliance, and filing responsibility with the creator throughout.

Why Teachable outperforms Podia for scaling

As revenue grows, Podia's simplicity becomes an operational cost rather than an advantage. The 5% transaction fee that barely registers at $300/month costs $6,000 annually at $10,000/month. The manual VAT self-registration requirement that seemed like a future problem becomes an immediate compliance obligation the moment a student in Germany or Australia checks out.

Real revenue data from active creators

Teachable and Hotmart together have facilitated over $10B in cumulative creator earnings as of 2026. We serve 150,000+ active creators across 180 countries, with over 100M students served globally, and our success stories archive documents creators at multiple revenue stages. Creators earning $100K or more annually are growing over 10% year-over-year on the platform.

Course creators migrating from percentage-based transaction fee platforms to Teachable Builder's flat-fee model eliminate ongoing platform fee expenses that scale with revenue, while gaining automated tax handling for their international student base through Teachable Payments.

Keep 100% of your course revenue

The Builder plan's 0% platform fees mean that the $69/month subscription carries no additional transaction fee on top. Payment processing fees still apply on every plan, including Builder: 2.9% + $0.30 per US transaction, 3.9% + $0.30 for international transactions, and a 0.95% currency conversion fee for non-USD payouts. Past $533/month in revenue on annual billing, Builder is the more cost-efficient option regardless of how much your revenue grows, because the platform fee is eliminated entirely and the processing fee stack stays flat. Our revenue and pricing resources go deeper on the plan math for different revenue tiers.

Tailor your storefront in minutes

Our no-code builder lets you build a professional sales page, set up a checkout, and go live without a developer. You own your student data, your course IP, and your payment history, with no marketplace controlling your visibility or taking a cut beyond the published plan fees. Our launch strategy resources cover the full flow from course creation to first sale for creators ready to go live quickly.

Start a 7-day trial and build your first course before committing to a plan. Compare the full cost stack across our plans, including processing fees, on the pricing page.

FAQs

What are the lowest-cost Podia alternatives?

Teachable's Starter plan at $29/month on annual billing is the lowest-priced option in the named competitor set that includes built-in checkout, payment handling, and automated tax remittance through Teachable Payments. Gumroad has no monthly subscription fee, but its 10% + $0.50 per-transaction fee makes it more expensive than Teachable Builder for any creator earning above roughly $690/month in direct sales.

Which platform has the lowest fees?

Teachable Builder at $69/month on annual billing carries 0% platform fees, making it the lowest total fee structure for creators earning above approximately $533/month. Thinkific also offers 0% platform fees starting at $40/month annually, but handles tax remittance for US and Canada only, with creators responsible for VAT filing in other jurisdictions.

Can I bundle courses and downloads on Teachable?

Yes. We allow creators to attach digital downloads as course resources or add them as order bumps at checkout, so a student purchasing a $297 course can add a $19 workbook in a single click without leaving the cart. Podia supports digital downloads as standalone products and also offers native upsell capabilities at checkout.

When should I use standalone email software?

If your launch strategy requires multi-step behavioral automations, lead scoring, or complex tagging logic tied to student actions, connect a dedicated email tool like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign at the Builder tier. Our native email tools handle basic broadcast and sequence delivery but are not a replacement for a full CRM.

How long does a Podia to Teachable migration take?

For most self-serve plans, migration is a manual process: you rebuild your course content in Teachable and re-invite students using a CSV export from Podia. Our Custom plan includes white-glove onboarding and migration assistance through a direct sales conversation, which covers scoping, timelines, and hands-on support. If you're on a self-serve plan, our Help Center documents the import steps.

Key Terms

Teachable Payments: Our native payment gateway that automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries so the creator is removed from the tax filing loop entirely.

Transaction fee: A percentage-based fee charged by a platform on each sale, on top of the monthly subscription cost. Podia's Mover plan charges 5% per transaction, Teachable's Starter plan charges 7.5%, Teachable's Builder plan charges 0%.

Platform fee: The total cost layer a platform adds to each sale, distinct from payment processing fees charged by the underlying payment gateway (such as Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per US transaction). Platform fees and processing fees stack, so both need to be included when modeling real take-home pay.

VAT (Value Added Tax): A consumption tax applied to digital product sales in the EU and many other jurisdictions. Creators selling to international students may owe VAT in multiple countries simultaneously, depending on where each buyer is located at the time of purchase.

‍

TL;DR: Starting a blog that earns real money is realistic, but only if you treat it as a business rather than a hobby. Display ads and affiliate commissions can bring in some revenue, but the highest-margin path is selling your own digital products: courses, coaching, and memberships. Teachable bundles the checkout, payments, and tax handling you need into one plan, so you can go from a first post to a first sale without stitching together a stack of third-party tools. Two habits matter most from day one. Choose a specific niche you know well and stick to it, since search engines reward depth over breadth. And start building your email list right away: it's one of the most effective ways to protect your income from algorithm changes.

Starting a blog has one of the lowest barriers to entry of any business model. A domain name, hosting, and a few hours of setup and you have a live site. The hard part is not the setup. It is learning how to make money blogging once the posts are live.

This guide covers both. You will learn how to start a blog as a beginner, what actually drives revenue once you have traffic, and why selling your own digital products (courses, coaching programs, and memberships) is the highest-margin path available to a blogger who has real expertise to share.

If you are already a creator or coach with an existing audience, you may be ready to add a course or membership to your blog monetization mix right now. If you are starting from scratch, work through the steps below in order.

Step 1: Choose a niche you can go deep on

A niche is the specific topic your blog covers. "Fitness" is not a niche. "Strength training for women over 40" is a niche. The more specific you are, the easier it is to rank in search engines, build a loyal audience, and eventually sell a product your readers actually want.

How to choose?

Pick something you know well and can write about consistently for years, not just months.

• Confirm there is search demand. Use a free tool like Google Search Console (once your site is live) or a basic keyword tool to check whether people are searching for your topic.
• Check whether other bloggers are already making money in the space. Competition is a good sign: it means there is a paying audience. Zero competition usually means zero demand.
• Ask yourself what product you could eventually sell to this audience. A blogger who teaches personal finance can sell a budgeting course. A blogger who teaches graphic design can sell templates or a Teachable course on Adobe Illustrator. If you cannot imagine a product, the niche may not have commercial potential.

The top-earning blog niches include personal finance, health and fitness, career and professional development, language learning, and technology. These categories earn well because the audience has money to spend and a clear reason to spend it.

Step 2: Set up your blog

You have two main options: a hosted platform (Wix, Squarespace) or a self-hosted setup (WordPress.org on a hosting provider like Bluehost or SiteGround). For a blog you intend to monetize, self-hosted WordPress is the standard recommendation because you own the data, control the design, and can install any plugin or monetization tool without platform restrictions.

The basic setup checklist:

1. Buy a domain name. Keep it short, clear, and related to your niche. Expect to pay $10-20 per year for a standard .com.
2. Sign up for hosting. Introductory plans from providers like Bluehost or SiteGround start around $2-3 per month, though renewal pricing after the first term often jumps to $15-18 per month, worth checking before you commit.
3. Install WordPress. Most hosts offer one-click WordPress installation.
4. Pick a clean, fast theme. Do not spend weeks on design before writing a single post.
5. Install a few essential plugins: an SEO plugin (Yoast or Rank Math), a caching plugin for speed, and a forms plugin for email signups.
6. Write your About page and your first post before you touch anything else.

Total startup cost is typically under $100 for the first year. You do not need to spend more than that to get a professionally functioning blog live.

Step 3: Write content that ranks

A blog that earns money needs traffic. Traffic comes from search engines, social platforms, and an email list. Search is the most consistent and scalable source, which is why every post you publish should be built around a keyword someone is actually searching for.

The basics of blogging for beginners:

• Start with specific, lower-competition keywords rather than broad ones. "How to budget on a $40,000 salary" will rank faster than "personal finance tips."
• Structure every post with a clear H1 heading, descriptive H2 subheadings, and short paragraphs. Search engines and readers both prefer scannable content.
• Answer the reader's question in the first paragraph. Do not make them scroll to find what they came for.
• Aim for posts of 1,500-2,500 words on topics where the SERP shows long guides. Match the format of what already ranks.
• Publish on a consistent schedule. One well-researched post per week beats five thin posts that go live in a rush and then silence for a month.

Before you hit publish, check the People Also Ask box on Google for your target keyword. Those questions are the exact follow-up questions your readers have. Answer them in your post and you give yourself a chance at a featured snippet or AI Overview placement.

Step 4: Build your email list from day one

Your email list is the one business asset a blog algorithm cannot take away from you. Social reach is borrowed. Search rankings shift. An email list of 1,000 engaged readers who have opted in to hear from you is more valuable for monetization than 50,000 passive social followers.

How to start building it immediately:

1. Add an opt-in form above the fold on your homepage and at the bottom of every post.
2. Offer a free resource in exchange for an email address: a checklist, a short guide, a template. This is called a lead magnet, and it roughly doubles opt-in rates compared to a plain "subscribe to my newsletter" prompt.
3. Send a welcome email the same day someone subscribes. Introduce yourself, deliver the lead magnet, and tell them what to expect from future emails.
4. Be consistent. A monthly newsletter is enough to keep your list warm. More frequent is fine if you have something useful to say.

The email list also becomes your launch list when you release a paid product. Bloggers who sell courses or coaching programs generate most of their launch revenue by emailing their own list, not by running paid ads.

Step 5: How to monetize a blog

There are five main ways to make money blogging. They are not mutually exclusive, but they have very different income ceilings and time-to-first-dollar timelines.

1. Display ads

Display ads are the lowest-effort monetization method but also the lowest-paying at small scale. Ad networks pay per thousand impressions (RPM), and rates vary widely by niche, finance and business blogs earn $25-45 RPM, while general lifestyle blogs may earn $5-10 RPM. To earn $1,000 per month from ads alone at a $15 RPM average, you need roughly 67,000 monthly pageviews. That is not a beginner number.

Google AdSense has no published traffic minimum, but premium ad management companies set their own bar. Mediavine, for example, now runs an on-ramp program starting at just 1,000 monthly sessions with no revenue requirement, with entry to its main network based on hitting $5,000 in annual ad revenue rather than a fixed session count. Most bloggers start with AdSense and move to a premium network once they clear that bar. Do not expect meaningful ad revenue in your first six months.

2. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing means recommending products and earning a commission when a reader buys through your link. It scales better than ads because commission rates are higher, often 5-30% per sale, and traffic to a single buying-intent article can drive consistent monthly income without you doing additional work.

The key is to only recommend products you have actually used and can describe from direct experience. Readers trust your recommendation more when you include specific results ("I used this tool to grow my email list from 0 to 1,200 subscribers in four months") rather than a generic endorsement. Sign up for affiliate programs directly through the brands you already use, or join networks like ShareASale, Impact, or Amazon Associates.

3. Sponsored posts and brand partnerships

Brands pay bloggers to write posts that feature their product or service. Rates vary from a few hundred dollars at small audience sizes to several thousand once you have 25,000+ monthly readers or a highly engaged niche audience. Sponsored content works best in niches where brands are actively looking for influencer placements: beauty, food, travel, tech, and personal finance.

Disclose all sponsored content clearly. The FTC requires it, and your readers will trust you more for being upfront than resent you for mentioning a brand.

4. Services and consulting

A blog is one of the best ways to attract consulting and freelance clients. When someone reads a detailed, expert post you have written on a topic, they arrive at your services page already convinced you know what you are talking about. Freelance writing, coaching, consulting, and done-for-you services are all high-margin, low-overhead revenue streams a blogger can add without building a product.

The ceiling on services income is your time. You can only take on as many clients as you have hours. That is why most service providers eventually productize their knowledge.

5. Online courses, coaching, and digital products

This is the highest-margin monetization path available to a blogger who has genuine expertise. A course or coaching program lets you package your knowledge once and sell it repeatedly, without trading your time for every dollar.

A focused email list can produce outsized launch results even at a modest size: one blogger grew her list to 5,000 subscribers in a specialty coaching niche and generated a $20,000 launch from it, without significant paid advertising. The blog builds the trust. The course converts it into revenue.

To sell a course, you need a course platform that handles the checkout, payment processing, student management, and, if you sell internationally, tax compliance. Teachable bundles all of that into one subscription: the Builder plan at $69/month (annual) includes 0% platform fees, an integrated checkout, and teachable:pay, which automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries so you never file those taxes yourself.

Digital downloads such as templates, printable guides, Notion dashboards, and Lightroom presets have a lower price point than courses but require almost no ongoing maintenance once built. They work well as lower-ticket entry products that warm up buyers for a higher-ticket course later.

How long does it take to make money from a blog?

The honest answer depends on which monetization method you choose and how consistently you publish.

• Affiliate income and display ads: most bloggers see their first meaningful affiliate commission within 6-12 months of consistent publishing. Display ads pay almost nothing until you clear 50,000 monthly sessions, which typically takes 12-24 months for a focused niche blog.
• Services: you can get your first consulting or coaching client from a blog within 30-90 days if you already have expertise to offer and you write directly about the problems your ideal client is trying to solve.
• Online courses: if you already have an email list or social audience, you can sell a course within weeks of launching your blog. If you are building from scratch, plan for 6-12 months to grow the audience before your first launch.

The fastest path to first dollar is services. The fastest path to scalable income that does not depend on trading hours is a course or digital product with a consistent content funnel feeding it.

Teachable gives you a checkout, built-in payments, and automated tax handling in one plan, so you can go from first post to first course sale without stitching together three separate tools. Explore Teachable plans and start a 7-day free trial.

FAQs: How to make money blogging

How can a beginner start a blog?

A beginner can start a blog in a single afternoon. Register a domain name ($10-20/year), sign up for hosting (around $2-3/month on an introductory rate, more at renewal), install WordPress with one click, pick a free theme, and publish your first post. The full technical setup takes two to three hours if you follow a step-by-step guide. The harder work is choosing a niche you can cover in depth and publishing consistently enough to build search traffic over time.

Do bloggers get paid money?

Yes, but most beginner bloggers earn very little in the first six to twelve months. Meaningful income tends to follow once a blog has a steady readership, a built email list, and at least one monetization method in place, whether affiliate links, a digital product, or a services offer. Bloggers who sell courses or coaching to their own audience often reach $1,000-$5,000 per month faster than those who rely on display ads, because you do not need massive traffic to sell a high-value product to a small engaged audience.

Is it free to start a blog?

You can start a blog for free on platforms like WordPress.com, Blogger, or Substack, but free plans come with significant limitations: no custom domain, limited design control, and restrictions on monetization. A self-hosted blog, the setup most professional bloggers use, costs around $50-100 for the first year, covering domain registration and basic hosting. That is the minimum realistic budget for a blog you intend to monetize.

How long does it take to earn $500 a month from a blog?

Many bloggers who reach $500 per month report doing so within 12-24 months of consistent publishing, though the range is wide and depends heavily on niche and monetization method. Bloggers who sell their own products or services to a focused audience can often hit that number faster, sometimes within six months if they already have expertise and a small existing audience. Bloggers relying on display ads alone typically need well over a year to build the traffic required.

Is blogging still worth it in 2026?

Yes, for bloggers who treat it as a business and focus on a specific niche. Search traffic to well-written, expert content continues to compound over time, and the monetization options, especially selling courses, memberships, and digital products directly to a niche audience, are better than ever. The bloggers who struggle are those who write generic content on broad topics and rely entirely on ad revenue. The bloggers who succeed build owned audiences (email lists) and sell products their readers actually want to buy.

Key terms glossary

Niche: The specific, narrow topic a blog focuses on. The more specific the topic, the easier it is to rank in search and build an audience with real buying intent.

RPM (revenue per mille): What an ad network pays per 1,000 page views, the main way to estimate how much a blog can earn from display ads.

Lead magnet: A free resource, such as a checklist or short guide, offered in exchange for an email address to grow a blog's subscriber list.

Affiliate marketing: Earning a commission when a reader clicks a blogger's link and buys the recommended product.

teachable:pay: Teachable's built-in payment system, which automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries."

‍

TL;DR: The fastest way to increase website traffic is publishing one piece of content, a blog post, a video, or a guide, that answers a specific question your ideal student is already searching for, then pairing it with the systems (email, social, community) that bring people back instead of starting from zero every time. Course creators have a built-in advantage: free content like YouTube videos and blog posts lets prospective students sample your teaching style before they buy. The same rule applies to every strategy below: pick one or two channels your audience already uses, go deep before expanding, and send every visitor to a clear next step, a free lesson, a waitlist, or a lead magnet, so the traffic actually converts.

Getting more people to your website is the most common growth problem course creators face, and one of the most misunderstood.

Most advice tells you to "do SEO" or "post on social media" as if those are single actions. They're not. Traffic is a system: you create something useful, you put it in front of the right people, and you give them a reason to keep coming back. This guide covers 10 proven ways to increase website traffic, with specific tactics for creators, coaches, and solopreneurs who are selling courses or digital products online.

If you already have a course ready and need more students, start with strategies 1, 3, and 7. If you're earlier in the process and building your audience from scratch, start with strategies 2 and 4.

10 ways to increase website traffic for your online business

1. Publish content that answers real search questions

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the highest-return traffic channel for most course creators because the results compound over time. A blog post that ranks for a question your students are searching for keeps driving traffic months after you publish it, without ongoing ad spend.

The single most important thing you can do is match your content to what people are actually typing into Google. Use a free tool like Google Search Console or a paid tool like Ahrefs to find questions your audience is asking. Target low-competition, specific phrases first: "how to learn Python for data science" will earn you more traffic than "learn Python" as a new site.

Once you identify a question, write one comprehensive post that answers it better than anything currently ranking. Include a clear answer in the first paragraph, break the rest into scannable sections, and link to your course where it's natural.

2. Build your email list as your owned traffic channel

Your email list is the one traffic source you fully control. Social algorithms change, ad costs rise, and search rankings shift, but an email you send goes directly to the people who asked to hear from you.

The fastest way to grow your list is to offer something specific in exchange for an email address. A free lesson from your course, a PDF checklist, or a short email series on your topic all outperform generic "subscribe for updates" prompts. Put the opt-in on every page of your site that gets traffic.

Once someone is on your list, email them consistently. A weekly or fortnightly email that links back to your site (a new post, a student story, an answer to a common question) keeps your traffic base active between launches.

3. Use YouTube as a free traffic engine

YouTube is one of the largest sources of search traffic online, and one of the main acquisition channels for Solo Educators on Teachable, alongside Instagram and creator partnerships. A video that ranks for a relevant search term sends viewers directly to your site for years.

You don't need production equipment to start. A screen recording or a direct-to-camera video filmed on your phone is enough. What matters is whether the video answers the question the viewer typed in the search bar. Include a link to your course or a free resource in the video description and mention it once during the video.

The most efficient approach: make a YouTube video on the same topic as your blog post. Both pieces reinforce each other, and the video often ranks in Google search results as well as YouTube search.

4. Repurpose one piece of content across channels

Creating content from scratch for every platform is unsustainable. Repurposing is how creators multiply their output without multiplying their time.

Start with one long-form piece (a blog post, a YouTube video, or a podcast episode). Then break it into shorter formats: a carousel for Instagram, a thread for X (formerly Twitter), a clip for TikTok or Reels, or a LinkedIn post for professional niches. Each format sends a different segment of your audience back to your website.

One rule: always include a link or a clear next step. "Full guide linked in bio" or "link in description" is the mechanism that converts a social viewer into a website visitor.

5. Optimize your existing pages before publishing new ones

If you already have pages on your site, auditing what you have often produces faster traffic gains than publishing new content. Look for pages that are getting impressions in Google Search Console but not clicks. A better title tag and meta description alone can lift click-through rate significantly.

Also check for pages that rank on page two or three of search results (positions 11–30). A targeted update (adding a section that covers a sub-topic competitors have missed, or adding an FAQ block that answers related questions) can move a page from position 15, where almost no one clicks, into the top 10, where average click-through rates run from roughly 2.5% at position 10 up to 27.6% at position 1.

6. Guest post on sites your audience already reads

A guest post on a site your audience trusts puts you in front of readers who have never heard of you, and it earns a backlink that strengthens your own site's search authority.

The best targets are niche publications, newsletters, and blogs in your subject area, not generic marketing sites. A finance educator guest-posting on a personal finance blog will see far better results than posting on a general content-marketing site. Pitch a topic the publication hasn't covered well, write something genuinely useful, and include one link to a relevant page on your site.

7. Build a referral loop with affiliates and collaborations

If you're selling courses, affiliate marketing is one of the most efficient ways to drive traffic to your website, because someone else is doing the promotion. Teachable's affiliate tools (available from the Builder plan) let you set a commission rate and give each affiliate a unique link to track their sales. With teachable:pay handling the payout side, affiliate commissions and tax forms go out automatically instead of requiring manual disbursement.

Beyond formal affiliates, collaborations with other creators in adjacent niches work well. A co-hosted webinar, a joint free resource, or a "my peers recommend" email swap introduces each creator's audience to the other's work. The key is finding someone whose audience overlaps with yours without directly competing.

8. Answer questions on Reddit and in online communities

Reddit, Quora, Facebook Groups, and niche Slack communities are full of people asking the exact questions your course answers. Being genuinely helpful in those spaces, not spammy, builds credibility and sends targeted traffic to your site.

Search Reddit for questions in your niche. Write a thorough answer in the thread itself, then include a link to a relevant article or free resource on your site where it adds value. Don't lead with the link. Earn it by answering well first. Threads with strong answers often rank in Google search results themselves, giving your link ongoing exposure.

9. Run a free challenge or live event

A free live event (a 5-day challenge, a free workshop, a live Q&A) drives a concentrated burst of traffic to your site and builds your email list at the same time. Teachable creator Antoine van der Lee launched a free 5-day email course as a lead magnet and called it the strongest growth he'd seen in six years of building his audience, driving both new subscribers and traffic across his linked platforms. Creators use these as launch mechanisms, but they also work as standalone audience-building tools.

Promote the event through every channel you have (social, email, your existing content) and send all registration traffic through a landing page on your own site, not a third-party event platform. That keeps the traffic on your domain and gives you the registrant's contact details directly.

10. Make sure your site loads fast on mobile

Technical performance is the floor, not the ceiling. A slow site loses traffic before any strategy gets a chance to work. Google uses page speed as a ranking factor, and most of your visitors are on mobile. Google's own mobile research found that 53% of visits are abandoned once a page takes longer than three seconds to load.

Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights (free). Fix the highest-impact issues first: compress images, remove unused scripts, and use a fast hosting provider. Most course site builders handle the hosting layer well by default, but images uploaded without compression are the most common culprit for slow load times.

Which traffic strategy should you start with?

The answer depends on where you are in the business:

• If you have zero audience: Start with SEO content (strategy 1) and one social channel (strategy 4). Both compound over time and cost nothing but hours.
• If you have a small audience: Add email (strategy 2) and community participation (strategy 8). These convert existing attention into repeat visitors.
• If you have a course ready to sell: Layer in affiliates (strategy 7) and a live event (strategy 9) to create a traffic spike around your launch.

No strategy works in isolation. The creators who grow their traffic fastest use two or three of these channels simultaneously and keep the destination consistent: every channel sends people to a page that gives them a clear next step.

All of this assumes you have somewhere to send that traffic. If you're still deciding what a paid offer even looks like, prioritizing distribution before you have a course to sell puts the strategy ahead of the product. Start a 7-day trial and build your first course before committing to a plan, so the traffic you're about to build has an actual destination waiting for it.

FAQs

How do I get more traffic to my website?

The fastest path to consistent traffic is publishing content that answers specific questions your audience searches for, then building an email list so returning visitors don't depend on an algorithm. SEO and email work best together: SEO brings new visitors, email brings them back. Organic traffic from new content typically builds gradually rather than overnight, so treat the first few months as the investment phase, not the payoff.

How do you improve website traffic quickly?

The fastest short-term traffic tactics are: running a free live event or challenge (drives immediate registration traffic), partnering with another creator for a joint promotion (borrows their audience), or improving the click-through rate on existing pages by rewriting title tags and meta descriptions. These produce results in days or weeks rather than months.

How to get 1,000 visitors a day to your website?

Reaching 1,000 daily visitors takes a library of well-optimized pages targeting specific keywords, not a single viral post, plus active promotion on at least one channel (YouTube, email, or social). The exact timeline depends heavily on your niche's competition and your publishing frequency, so treat it as a milestone you build toward steadily rather than a fixed deadline. The fastest way to accelerate it is to publish long-form content that answers questions no competitor has answered well, so you capture positions in thin-competition gaps.

What is the most effective free way to increase website traffic?

For course creators, YouTube is one of the highest-return free traffic channels because videos rank in both YouTube and Google search, and a single video can send traffic to your site for years. Pair it with an email opt-in on every page that receives that traffic, and you convert a one-time viewer into a subscriber you can reach directly.

Key terms glossary

Organic traffic: Website visitors who arrive through unpaid search results, as opposed to paid ads, social media, or direct links. It's the traffic strategies 1 and 5 build toward.

Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click your page's link after seeing it in search results. A stronger title tag and meta description raise CTR without changing your search ranking.

Backlink: A link from another website to yours. Backlinks signal to search engines that other sites trust your content, which strengthens your own site's ranking potential. Guest posting (strategy 6) is aimed at earning exactly this.

Affiliate marketing: A referral arrangement where someone promotes your course using a unique tracking link and earns a commission on resulting sales. Teachable's affiliate tools, available from the Builder plan, handle the link tracking and payouts.

Top-of-funnel: The first stage of a prospective student's journey, when they're discovering your content but haven't yet decided to buy. Free content like YouTube videos and blog posts does the work of top-of-funnel traffic in this guide.

‍

TL;DR: Power words are specific, emotionally-charged terms that trigger a psychological response in a reader, and for course creators they are one of the highest-leverage edits available on a sales page, email subject line, or course title. The words that convert fall into six core categories, trust, urgency, curiosity, value, ease, and exclusivity, plus four supporting emotional registers covered in the power words list of 390+ terms below. Placement matters more than volume, a headline, a subheadline, and the area near the buy button do the most work, and a word only earns its place when the claim behind it is genuinely true. Used sparingly and honestly, power words move a reader from browsing to buying. Used carelessly, they read as hype and cost trust instead of building it.

Power words are specific, sometimes called powerful words, emotionally-charged terms that trigger a psychological or physiological response in your reader. They are not vague motivational language. They are precise words that decades of direct-response copywriting practice have linked to higher attention, clicks, and conversions.

For course creators, coaches, and solopreneurs, power words are the difference between a sales page that sits quietly and one that gets someone to type in their card number. They work because they speak directly to what a buyer feels, not just what they think.

The psychological mechanisms behind them are consistent: they reduce perceived risk, create a sense of urgency, satisfy curiosity, or make the reader feel they are part of something exclusive. When those mechanisms are matched to your offer and your buyer, the effect shows up directly in clicks and conversions.

Why power words matter for course creators specifically

Most generic power word guides are written for e-commerce stores, cold email sequences, or B2B SaaS landing pages. Course creators face a different persuasion problem.

Your buyer is not comparing features. They are deciding whether they trust you, whether your course will produce the outcome they want, and whether now is the right moment to spend money on it. Power words that speak directly to trust, outcome certainty, and urgency are the ones that matter most on a course sales page.

The categories that work

Not all power words work equally well on all pages. Matching the category to the emotional job of the copy is what separates a natural-feeling sales page from one that reads like a list of buzzwords dropped at random. Here are the core categories with the highest conversion impact for digital product sellers, plus four supporting emotional registers covered in the full list below.

1. Trust power words

Trust words reduce the perceived risk of buying from someone the reader has only just discovered. They are especially important on course sales pages where social proof and credibility need to do the heavy lifting.

How to use them: Place trust words near your course outcome statement and near your refund or satisfaction guarantee. "Proven framework" works harder than "method." "Tested by 2,000+ students" works harder than "popular course."

2. Urgency and scarcity power words

Urgency words create a reason to act now rather than later. Used honestly, when there is a real deadline, a real enrollment limit, or a real bonus window, they can increase same-session conversion rates.

How to use them: Urgency words only work when they are true. A perpetual countdown timer destroys the trust words you just spent a paragraph building. Use urgency words around real cohort launch windows, real bonus cutoffs, or real enrollment caps. A creator running a live cohort who says "enrollment closes Friday" earns the click. A creator with an evergreen course who says "only 3 spots remaining" does not.

3. Curiosity power words

Curiosity words open an information gap in the reader's mind. The gap creates discomfort. Clicking to close the gap is the most natural thing in the world. These words are most powerful in email subject lines and blog post headlines, where the goal is to earn the open or the click.

Examples: secret, hidden, uncovered, revealed, untold, behind the scenes, what nobody tells you, the truth about, little-known, overlooked, surprising, unusual, counterintuitive

How to use them: "The counterintuitive way to price your first course" tends to outperform "How to price your course" because it implies the reader's existing assumption is wrong. "What most course platforms don't tell you about VAT" opens a gap that a worried creator will click to close.

4. Value and outcome power words

Value words describe a result the buyer wants to have. For course creators, outcomes are the product. The transformation your student experiences after completing the course is worth more than any individual lesson. Value words make that transformation concrete and immediate-feeling.

Examples: transform, achieve, master, build, earn, profitable, results, breakthrough, progress, momentum, milestone, goal, outcome, revenue, income

How to use them: Lead your sales page with the outcome, not the curriculum. "Build a profitable coaching business in 90 days" is a value-led headline. "12 modules on business fundamentals" is a curriculum-led headline. The first sells the transformation. The second sells the container.

5. Ease and simplicity power words

Ease words reduce the perceived effort required to get the outcome. For creators, the objection "I don't have time" or "I am not technical enough" is almost always in the room. Ease words address that objection before it is voiced.

Examples: simple, straightforward, step-by-step, no experience needed, beginner-friendly, without, even if you have never, in minutes, done-for-you, no code required, plug and play

How to use them: Pair ease words with the specific fear you are addressing. "Build your first course without touching code" speaks directly to the non-technical creator. "Launch your coaching offer in a weekend, even if you have never sold anything online" pairs ease with the timeline objection.

6. Exclusivity power words

Exclusivity words make the buyer feel they are gaining access to something not everyone gets. For course creators who sell cohort programs, masterminds, or gated communities, exclusivity words can raise the perceived value of an offer without raising the price.

Examples: exclusive, members-only, insider, private, invite-only, vetted, hand-selected, not publicly listed, available to students only, first access

How to use them: "Join 400 vetted course creators in a private community" feels different from "join our community." "First access" to a new cohort feels different from "sign up." The word does the positioning work.

The 390+ power words list by category

Use the lists below as a reference when writing your sales page, email sequence, or course title. Do not drop words at random. Match the category to the emotional job the copy needs to do.

Trust

Proven, verified, guaranteed, authentic, certified, tested, backed, researched, documented, established, reliable, consistent, accountable, transparent, credible, audited, confirmed, validated, trusted, secure, safe, legitimate, accurate, real, dependable, solid, grounded, evidenced, demonstrated, peer-reviewed, insured, licensed, endorsed, corroborated, fact-checked, battle-tested, field-tested, no-nonsense, straight-talking, proof-backed, independently verified, warrantied, time-tested, no-gimmicks

Urgency and scarcity

Now, today, immediately, limited, deadline, closing, final, last chance, expiring, ending, hurry, act fast, don't miss, closing soon, doors close, before it is gone, only X left, final hours, running out, not for long, time-sensitive, this week only, today only, enroll before, flash, cutoff, countdown, wrapping up, almost gone, selling out, final call, capped, first-come-first-served, limited spots, closing tonight, price increase soon, spots filling fast, cart closes

Curiosity

Secret, hidden, uncovered, revealed, untold, behind the scenes, what nobody tells you, the truth about, little-known, overlooked, surprising, unusual, counterintuitive, rarely shared, most people don't know, what they won't tell you, myth, mistake, warning, unpopular opinion, the real reason, exposed, forbidden, controversial, what if, imagine, what happens when, the one thing, nobody talks about this, here's why, the real story, what changed, the missing piece, connect the dots, the pattern, why this works, the part nobody mentions, what happened next, the catch, the twist

Value and outcomes

Transform, achieve, master, build, earn, profitable, results, breakthrough, progress, momentum, milestone, goal, outcome, revenue, income, multiply, double, accelerate, skyrocket, maximize, unlock, generate, grow, scale, succeed, win, gain, benefit, reward, bonus, jackpot, goldmine, treasure, wealth, abundance, return, yield, payoff, return on investment, five-figure, six-figure, compound, snowball, leap forward, level up, next-level, tangible, concrete, bottom line, proof of concept, turning point, real numbers, stacked results, measurable growth, financial freedom

Ease and simplicity

Simple, straightforward, step-by-step, no experience needed, beginner-friendly, without, even if, in minutes, done-for-you, no code, plug and play, ready, instant, automatic, effortless, hands-free, set it and forget it, quick, fast, easy, painless, smooth, clear, guided, done in a day, shortcut, cheat sheet, template, system, blueprint, framework, roadmap, formula, no fuss, low-lift, minimal setup, zero learning curve, one-click, ready-made, pre-built, out of the box, no guesswork, foolproof, streamlined, frictionless, drag-and-drop

Exclusivity

Exclusive, members-only, insider, private, invite-only, vetted, hand-selected, limited to, access restricted, not publicly listed, available only to, reserved for, by application only, founding member, charter member, VIP, premium, elite, inner circle, behind closed doors, first access, priority, early access, waitlist, presale, members get first look, backstage access, private group, closed door, limited seats, by invitation, hand-picked, curated group, small cohort, intimate group, concierge access, gatekept, select few

Emotions: Fear and safety

Risk-free, worry-free, protected, covered, backed by, no obligation, cancel anytime, money-back, refund, trial, test drive, try before you commit, peace of mind, confident, certain, assured, no risk, safe to try, secured, locked in, no strings attached, nothing to lose, fully covered, zero commitment, low-risk, safety net, no catch, transparent terms, fair terms, no hidden fees, no surprises, buyer protection, easy exit

Emotions: Aspiration and identity

Become, belong, join, recognized, respected, known, seen, leader, expert, authority, professional, thriving, flourishing, independent, free, owning, building, creating, contributing, proud, accomplished, fulfilled, purposeful, aligned, intentional, transformed, empowered, unstoppable, driven, capable, in control, self-made, trailblazer, changemaker, visionary, on your own terms, next chapter, the person you're becoming

Emotions: Curiosity and discovery

Discover, explore, find out, learn, uncover, see, understand, realize, grasp, finally get, make sense of, decode, demystify, crack, figure out, solve, dig into, peel back, get to the bottom of, piece together, break down, dive deeper, spot the pattern, work it out, get clarity, see clearly, unpack, make it click, get the full picture

Emotions: Social proof

Trusted by, used by, loved by, rated, reviewed, as seen in, featured in, students say, graduates report, community members confirm, thousands have, hundreds have, X people have already, most popular, bestselling, top-rated, highest-rated, most recommended, backed by thousands, recommended by, endorsed by, praised by, chosen by, five-star, verified reviews, real testimonials, case studies included, join thousands, proven track record, industry-recognized, award-winning, community favorite

How to use power words in your course marketing

On your course sales page

The headline is the highest-leverage placement. A power word in the headline changes whether someone reads the rest of the page. Lead with the outcome and pair it with one trust or ease word.

Weak: "A course on freelance writing for beginners"

Strong: "The proven system for landing your first three paid writing clients, even if you have never been published"

In your email subject lines

Email subject lines compete with dozens of other messages in an inbox. Curiosity words and urgency words do the most work here. Keep the subject line under 50 characters so it renders fully on mobile.

Weak: "New course announcement"

Strong: "The counterintuitive pricing mistake costing you students"

On your checkout and upsell pages

At checkout, the buyer is already committed but still looking for a reason to back out. Trust words near the payment button, "guaranteed", "risk-free", "30-day money-back", reduce last-second hesitation. Exclusivity words on order bumps, "available only to students enrolled today", increase uptake without reducing the core offer's perceived value.

In your course title itself

A searchable course title uses an outcome word and a specificity marker. "Freelance Writing Masterclass" is weak. "Freelance Writing in 30 Days: A Proven System for Beginners" is findable, clickable, and self-explanatory.

Three rules for using power words without losing trust

1. Rule 1: Specificity beats intensity. One Teachable creator launched to a list of just 300 people and sold to 61 of them, earning just under $6,000 on that first course. A specific result like that outperforms a vague promise like "massive income breakthrough" because a reader can picture exactly what it would take to get there. Specific outcomes are believable. Superlatives are not.
2. Rule 2: Use power words sparingly, a couple in a headline at most, thinning them out across the rest of the page. Power words lose their power when every sentence contains one. Density kills the effect.
3. Rule 3: The underlying offer has to be real. No power word saves a course that does not deliver the outcome it promises. Conversions built on inflated copy generate refunds, chargebacks, and audience burnout. Use power words to describe what is genuinely true, not to compensate for a weak offer.

Power words only work if the page behind them delivers on what they promise. Once your sales page, email sequence, or course title reflect the offer honestly, these words are what turn a browsing visitor into an enrolled student. Start a 7-day free trial, build your course on Teachable and put this list to work on a page designed to convert.

FAQs

What are examples of power words?

Examples of power words include: proven, guaranteed, secret, revealed, exclusive, limited, transform, simple, now, and free. Each works by triggering a specific psychological response: trust, curiosity, urgency, or perceived value. The most effective power words for course creators are trust words (proven, guaranteed) and outcome words (transform, master, achieve), because they address the two biggest buyer objections: "Is this real?" and "Will this work for me?"

What are the 12 power words?

The "12 power words" referenced in some teaching frameworks are: proven, love, safe, you, results, new, easy, free, guarantee, discovery, health, save. These were popularized in direct-response marketing as a shortlist of the most broadly effective terms. For course creators, the most directly relevant from that list are: proven, you, results, easy, free, and guarantee.

What are power words used for?

Power words are used to increase engagement, clicks, and conversions in copywriting. For course creators specifically, they are used in: course sales page headlines and subheadings, email subject lines, social media captions and ads, course titles and descriptions on a platform marketplace, checkout and upsell page copy, and webinar registration pages. The goal in every case is the same: trigger the emotional response that makes the next action feel obvious.

How do I use power words in my course sales page?

Place power words in the four highest-leverage positions on your sales page. First, the headline: use an outcome word paired with a trust or ease word. Second, the subheadline: address the primary objection using a simplicity or risk-reduction word. Third, the course description summary: use outcome and transformation words. Fourth, near the buy button: use trust and risk-reduction words ("30-day guarantee", "risk-free", "cancel anytime"). Avoid scattering power words randomly through every paragraph. Density reduces their impact.

What are power words for online course titles?

The most effective power words for course titles combine an outcome word with a specificity or ease marker. Strong options include: masterclass, blueprint, system, framework, roadmap, bootcamp, challenge, guide, and proven. "The Freelance Writing Blueprint: Land 3 Clients in 30 Days" works because it pairs an outcome (land clients) with a timeframe (30 days) and a trust-loaded format word (blueprint). Avoid vague power words like "ultimate" or "complete" in course titles, they signal filler to a savvy buyer.

Key terms glossary

Direct-response copywriting: A style of persuasive writing built to prompt an immediate, measurable action, a click, a signup, a purchase, rather than build brand awareness over time.

Conversion copywriting: Copy written and tested specifically to increase the rate at which readers complete a target action on a page, such as buying a course or starting a trial.

Buyer objection: A specific doubt, such as cost, trust, or timing, that stops a reader from completing a purchase, which persuasive copy is written to address directly.

Value proposition: The clear, specific statement of the outcome a buyer gets from a course, distinct from a list of features or curriculum topics.

Scarcity marketing: A persuasion tactic that ties a real deadline, cap, or limited window to an offer, effective only when the constraint is genuine.

‍

Stefan Kunz can fill a room. Before he recorded a single lesson, he was teaching hand lettering in person to sold-out workshops in New York, Los Angeles, London, and beyond.

Reaching the rest of his audience meant teaching online, and the first online setup he saw up close looked complicated. Stefan taught a guest course for a fellow lettering educator whose school ran on WordPress, Vimeo, and password protection, all wired together by hand. The arrangement delivered the course. Keeping it running took constant attention.

Stefan wanted the opposite of that. He went looking for one place to build, sell, and run his courses, even if a packaged platform meant giving up some custom control. A recommendation from his friend and podcast co-host Lauren Hom pointed him to Teachable, and he has stayed there ever since.

“It felt like a platform that would let me focus on creating and teaching rather than managing technology.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

Related: How to make money selling courses right now

Stefan's Teachable story at a glance

The turning point

Stefan never set out to become a teacher. His path ran through filmmaking, then wedding photography, then hand lettering, each craft picked up on his own and turned into a living.

Lettering took off as a trend, and people kept asking him the same question about how he did it.

Answering that question in person became a business of its own. 

In 2019 he hired an assistant, cleaned out his studio, and ran his first lettering workshop off a big chalk wall in his own office, with pizza for about fourteen people. Demand kept showing up, so the rooms kept getting bigger.

By the time recording crossed his mind, he had taught hundreds of students face to face. He understood that whatever platform he picked would carry all of that online, which raised the stakes on choosing well.

How Stefan found Teachable

That first online teaching, the guest course for a fellow lettering educator, ran on a custom mix of WordPress, Vimeo, and password protection stitched together piece by piece. 

The setup delivered the lessons, and it also showed Stefan how much upkeep a hand-built system demands.

He wanted one place that handled the whole job, and he was willing to give up some custom control to get it. When Lauren Hom, his friend and Striving Artist podcast co-host, told him she was running her own courses on Teachable and loving it, the platform went straight to the top of his list.

A closer look confirmed the fit. The course builder, student management, comments, and online course tools all sat in one place, with a setup simple enough to learn in an afternoon. What stood out most was speed, since payments and delivery already worked together, so he could put his attention on the course instead of the connections between separate tools.

One detail settled it for him. Stefan could build his entire course before paying anything, which let him confirm everything worked before he committed. He created his first course, an online version of his lettering workshop, in a few days.

The feature he reaches for most today solves a problem that used to eat his evenings. Teaching a global audience, he once uploaded every video to separate services to make transcripts and subtitles by hand. Teachable now generates them for him, which feeds the kind of student experience that keeps international learners moving through a course.

“Being able to upload a video and have transcripts and translations generated automatically saves an incredible amount of time and helps me make my courses accessible to students around the world.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

Stefan started with Teachable and has stayed. Switching platforms later, he points out, is no small task, which made getting the first choice right worth the care he gave it.

Payments and a global student base

When Stefan started, having payments built into the platform mattered. He could open enrollment without wiring up a separate processor, which kept his attention on the course itself.

His needs changed as the business grew, and the platform gave him room to adjust. Stefan now connects his own Stripe and PayPal accounts through Teachable while keeping the built-in option available for whenever he wants it.

“As my business expanded, I had more flexibility to customize parts of my setup, including connecting my own payment processors like Stripe and PayPal.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

Those options matter more for someone teaching across borders. Stefan's students reach nearly every continent, and Teachable Payments, powered by Stripe, handles tax and local payment methods across dozens of countries. For a creator selling to that kind of audience, the platform manages each market so the creator does not have to.

What Stefan looks for in a platform

Stefan is the first to say there is no single right platform for everyone. Predicting how a business will grow is hard at the start, so he tells new creators to pick a tool that can grow with them.

“I would highly recommend choosing a platform that can grow with you.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

The economics deserve early attention too. Giving up a small percentage feels minor in the beginning, and it adds up as the numbers get bigger.

“When you are just starting, giving up a small percentage may not seem significant. But as your business grows, every percentage point starts to matter.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

The last thing he weighs is presentation. How a course looks and feels is part of a creator's brand, so Stefan wants a platform that lets him organize content, shape the student experience, and use tools like drip release to deliver a course the way he pictured it.

Take action

• Choose for where you are headed, not only where you are today. A platform that adds room as you grow saves you a painful move later.
• Read the fee and revenue-share terms before you commit. A percentage that feels small now grows with every sale you add.
• Treat the course experience as part of your brand. Pick tools that let you organize, customize, and pace the content the way you want students to see it.

Stefan's strategies for building a sold-out course business

Stefan has launched more than 25 courses since 2019, and along the way he built a way of working that any creator with an audience can follow. The core of it is simple. He proves that people want something before he spends weeks building it.

Strategy 1: Sell it before you build it

Stefan learned this the hard way. Early on he poured months into courses he felt sure would land, then watched some of them open to near silence.

“You should sell first and then build it later. If it sells really well, then you build it. If it does not sell, what is the point of building it?” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

His model came from outside the course world. A sportswear brand he follows released a limited shoe by inviting people to enter their payment details for a chance to buy a pair, which told the brand exactly how much demand existed before it produced anything.

Stefan runs his launches on the same logic. For his animation course, he set up a tool that sent a waitlist link to anyone who commented the word animate on his videos. Around 3,000 people signed up within a couple of weeks, and that list became his proof.

“I had to have around 3,000 people on the waitlist to get 250 students. That conversion is still really good.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

Take action

• Build a waitlist before you build the course. A list of people asking for the thing is the clearest signal that making it is worth your time.
• Watch the ratio, not only the raw number. Stefan plans around roughly 3,000 sign-ups for 250 sales, and a higher price needs a longer list.

Strategy 2: Grow it in person before you take it online

Stefan began in the smallest way possible, with a chalk wall and a pizza order.

His first workshop ran in his own office, with room for about fourteen people, and he taught it across a weekend before running it again. From there he booked a thirty-seat space, then back-to-back weekends in New York and Los Angeles with 120 seats to fill, followed by London, the Philippines, and India.

By the time recording crossed his mind, he had taught more than 300 students in person. He knew the questions they asked, the parts that confused them, and the moments things clicked.

“Start small, understand how it works, build up, and you can grow it piece by piece.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

Take action

• Test your material live before you film it. Each in-person round shows you what to cut, what to charge, and where students get stuck.
• Let real rooms refine the content. A version recorded after several live runs beats a first draft shot in isolation.

Strategy 3: Run the workshop, bootcamp, evergreen sequence

Stefan rarely changes his order of operations. He runs a live workshop first, turns it into a multi-week bootcamp next, and records the evergreen course last, once the material has proven itself several times.

The bootcamp stage is where Teachable's comment feature earns its place. In his weekly animation bootcamps, students post their homework and Stefan replies with video feedback, something a single-day workshop never had room for. The multi-week format makes space for that exchange, and the work students hand in gets noticeably better.

“Like a band performing the same show at different stadiums, I have refined it with every iteration.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

By the time he records the evergreen version, real students have pressure-tested every lesson. The final course is the polished result of all those rounds.

Take action

• Treat your course as a live act before you treat it as a recording. Workshops and cohorts are rehearsals that make the evergreen version stronger.
• Use a comment or community feature to collect homework and reply with feedback. The back and forth turns a one-day lesson into real progress.

Strategy 4: Keep the launch simple enough to repeat

Stefan compares a good course to a football team with one play it runs perfectly. The other side knows exactly what is coming and still fails to stop it.

“They were so good at that one single play that nobody could beat them.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

He has watched his own launches grow so elaborate that even his team lost track of the plan. The fix was always the same. He stripped the launch back until everyone understood it again.

Simple plans are the repeatable ones. A launch you can run cleanly the second and third time is worth more than a clever one you manage to pull off once.

Take action

• If your launch plan is too complicated for your team to follow, cut it back. The version you can repeat beats the version that works once.
• Write your launch sequence down in plain steps. Anything you struggle to explain quickly is a sign to simplify.

Strategy 5: Teach the method underneath

Plenty of creators teach students to copy one finished piece, step by step, which produces good imitations and little else. Stefan teaches the thinking underneath instead, the principles he uses to make any piece, and he gets students to a first win as fast as possible because an early result keeps them going.

He has a phrase for the balance.

“People want the quick win. So I try to hide the vegetables in the food.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

The quick win is the food, and the principles are the vegetables. Students arrive for the result they saw on Instagram and leave able to make work of their own.

Take action

• Give students a fast, satisfying win, then teach the principles underneath it. They stay for the result and keep the method.
• Aim to make the first win quick. Stefan treats time to a student's first result as a number worth lowering with every version.

Expert corner: staying an artist while you teach

A common worry among creators is that teaching will pull them away from their craft. Stefan found the reverse to be true.

“You try to figure things out yourself, and then there comes the next level. Now you have to teach it to someone else, and that is when you learn whether you really understood it.” — Stefan Kunz, Founder of Stefan Kunz Studio

Explaining a technique forces him to understand why it works, which sharpens his own work. When he shares a method and watches other artists run with it, the pressure to find the next idea pushes him forward.

That loop is why he keeps taking client projects alongside teaching. His wife, a primary school teacher, pointed out that he learns the most when he solves real problems for paying clients. One recent brand project asked for a painterly texture effect he had never made before. He spent hours working it out, and now it is one more thing he can teach.

His path has run from lettering to Procreate to animation, and each new area started as a client challenge or a personal experiment. The teaching always follows the making.

What Stefan's reach says

Stefan prefers to let his reach tell the story rather than share revenue figures.

His brand animations have passed 400 million views, and his audience across social platforms sits above 2.1 million people. More than 8,000 students have come through his courses and workshops, with over 1,000 in his animation bootcamp alone. He has worked with brands including Coca-Cola, Apple, and Adobe, and he has taught students on nearly every continent.

For an artist who started by adding words to his Instagram photos, the pattern holds steady. He keeps making the work, and the teaching grows out of it.

Stefan is one of many creators using Teachable to reach students far beyond their home country. Elisa Azoum grew French Mornings to more than 2,850 language students across dozens of countries on the same platform, and Amie Tollefsrud built an eight-figure course business on it. The pattern repeats: real expertise, a clear program, and a platform that travels with the student.

Looking ahead

Stefan's focus right now is client work, which has kept him busier this year than ever. He treats every project as research.

The lessons stack up quietly. How to use AI as a real tool in animation rather than a shortcut, how to build a studio camera setup, how to edit a video that travels well. Each one is a future course waiting for the right moment.

When the season turns and he has room to teach again, the material will be ready. The order will stay the same as always. Prove the demand, run it live, then record it.

The wider market is moving in his direction. Goldman Sachs Research projects the creator economy could reach $480 billion by 2027, roughly double its 2023 size. Creators who prove demand before they build, the way Stefan does, are the ones ready to claim a share of it.

What to do next

See Stefan's work: Follow his animation on Instagram and YouTube, explore his Teachable school, or browse his full portfolio at stefankunz.com. You can also hear him on the Striving Artist podcast.

Read more creator stories: See how Youness School chose Teachable to train more than 2,000 engineering-prep students, and browse the full Success Stories collection.

Learn the sell-first approach: Stefan proves demand before he builds. For more on that, read how to make money selling courses right now.

Try Teachable yourself: Teachable gave Stefan one place to build, sell, and run his courses, with Teachable Payments handling tax and local methods for a global audience. Start your free Teachable trial and build the course your audience keeps asking you for.

Before Youness Es-Sebiy built Youness School into a course business that has trained more than 2,000 students, he did what most serious creators do first: he tried the other options. 

He taught on several platforms and compared what each one actually delivered for his school. 

The answer he reached was Teachable, and he is direct about the reasons.

"I have tested other platforms in the past, including Thinkific and Podia. While they are good platforms, I ultimately chose Teachable because of two factors that were very important for my business and my students … The first is security … The second is the mobile learning experience." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

That decision came from someone who knows the stakes from the inside. In Morocco, the road to a top engineering school runs through CPGE, the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles: two intensive years after high school studying advanced math, physics, chemistry, and engineering sciences, then one national exam that decides which schools will take a student. Youness went through all of it. He reached the other side and graduated from École Hassania des Travaux Publics, one of the leading engineering schools in the country.

Then he started teaching the students coming up behind him. He launched Youness School in 2019 while he was still an engineering student himself, recording lessons for the exact exams he had just survived. By 2023 the school was his full-time work.

Today it has directly supported more than 2,000 students preparing for Morocco's national exam (the CNC) and the French Grandes Écoles exams, with more than 20,000 others reached through free lessons and his YouTube channels across Morocco, France, Tunisia, and Mauritania.

The two reasons he named for choosing Teachable, security and the mobile experience, run through every part of how that school works.

Youness's Teachable story at a glance

The turning point

Youness built Youness School around a problem he had felt directly. CPGE students carry an enormous load across many subjects, and a lot of them hit a wall in one or two of those subjects with little structured help to get past it. He wanted to give them that help in a format that fit how they actually live and study.

" I went through the same preparatory classes, and they were very difficult. My goal is to help students who are facing the same problems, to help them grow and reach the best engineering schools." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

He made one early decision that shaped everything after it. Youness School would be online only. He had looked at in-person tutoring and found it too limited for what he wanted to build.

"We chose e-learning because we find the platforms very efficient. Physical classes are limited, and for our students online learning is the best solution." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

That decision raised the stakes on the platform itself. If an entire school lives online, the platform has to protect the content, reach students on whatever device they own, and keep working when the connection drops. Those three requirements are what pointed Youness toward Teachable over the other tools he had tried.

Youness's strategies for running an online engineering-prep school

Youness runs the school with the same clarity he asks of his students. Five choices shape how Youness School finds, teaches, and keeps its students.

Strategy 1: Diagnose before you sell

Most enrollments at Youness School begin with a conversation, usually on WhatsApp, where his sales team finds out where a student is actually struggling before recommending anything.

"In the beginning, we try to understand the needs of the student. If a student has problems across many topics, we offer a bundle with the whole platform. If they only have difficulty in one subject, we give them one or two courses." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

The result is a recommendation matched to what the student actually needs. A student weak in one subject buys a single course. Someone starting the full two-year climb buys a bundle, which Teachable lets him package as one grouped program.

Take action

• Map your catalog to specific problems before you set pricing. When a buyer can see the one course that solves their exact issue, the decision gets easier for both of you.
• Use a short intake conversation or form to route students to the right product. Bundles let you group related courses into a single program for learners who need the full path.

Strategy 2: Blend recorded courses with live teaching and coaching

Youness School runs on three formats at once: recorded lessons students watch on their own time, live sessions with collaborating professors, and one-on-one coaching.

"We use both approaches. We have recorded classes on the platform with Teachable, and we have live courses with professors who teach in these preparatory classes. There is also coaching to answer questions and correct their work." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

The recorded library carries the core curriculum and reaches every enrolled student. Live sessions and coaching cover the moments where students need a person in the room with them: stuck on a problem set, preparing for a mock exam, or talking through method. Together they create the kind of student experience that keeps learners moving through the material.

Take action

• Treat recorded and live formats as partners. Recorded content delivers your teaching to every student who enrolls, and live sessions add the accountability and feedback that keep them on track.
• Decide which parts of your subject truly need real-time interaction, and reserve live time for those. Let the recorded library handle everything a student can absorb on their own.

Strategy 3: Protect the content so it stays worth paying for

For a school that sells exam-prep video, the content is the product. Youness named content protection as one of the two factors that decided his platform choice.

"As an online school, protecting our educational content is a top priority. I found Teachable's video hosting and content protection to be particularly strong, which gave me more confidence using the platform for premium courses." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

Secure video hosting keeps his lessons from leaking out, which matters when the same exam prep sells to a fresh cohort every year. Content that walks out the door loses the value he priced it on.

Take action

• If your courses are your main income, weigh content security when you choose a platform, not after you have already built on it.
• Price premium material with the assumption that it will keep selling for years. Protection is what keeps that assumption true.

Strategy 4: Make the school work on a phone, and offline

This is the choice most specific to where Youness teaches. His students are spread across Morocco and the wider Francophone world, and the connection they study on is uneven. The Teachable mobile app, and offline downloads in particular, became central to how the school reaches them.

"The mobile app lets students access their courses easily on their phones and tablets. The ability to download videos for offline viewing has been extremely valuable, especially for students who do not always have a stable internet connection." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

The context behind that quote is real. In 2025, about 36 percent of people in Africa used the internet, the lowest rate of any world region, according to the International Telecommunication Union. For a student living inside that gap, a course that only streams is a course that stalls every time the signal drops. An offline download turns a commute, a power cut, or a weak connection into study time.

Take action

• If any part of your audience studies on mobile or deals with patchy internet, test the offline experience yourself before you commit. Download a lesson, switch off your data, and watch what your student would see.
• Shoot and format your video for a phone screen. Most of these students learn on a device they hold in one hand.

Strategy 5: Keep the door open on price and access

Youness prices across a wide range, from single courses around $60 to full programs above $1,000, so a student pays only for what they need. He also gives free access to families facing financial hardship, and he has used free trial periods to let students try the school before paying.

"We give some courses for free to families facing financial difficulties. We want talented students to have access regardless of their financial situation." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

More than 5,000 students have come through Youness School's free-access and trial campaigns, which widened his reach and let prospective students experience the platform before buying. Payment access shapes the model too. In Morocco, many students and parents pay by bank or cash transfer, and a card is rarely the default, so a real conversation often comes before a sale.

Take action

• Build a price ladder. A range from one course to a full program lets students sort themselves by need and budget.
• Give people a low-cost way to try before they buy. A free lesson or trial period does the convincing a sales page cannot.

How Youness thinks about access

Youness built the school around one belief, and he states it plainly.

"We believe talented students should have access to elite-level education regardless of their city, country, or financial situation." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

That belief is why offline access matters so much to him, and why the price range stays wide. The students he most wants to reach are often the ones with the least reliable connection and the tightest budgets. Building for them first is what makes the school useful to everyone else.

What his students take away

The measure that matters to Youness is straightforward: whether his students get into the schools they are aiming for. Since 2019 he has worked directly with more than 2,000 of them, with another 20,000-plus reached through free lessons, webinars, and his YouTube channels. They sit the same national exam he once sat, and the strongest performers go on to the top engineering schools in Morocco and France.

"My advice would be to focus on the student experience and content protection. If security, accessibility, and mobile learning matter to you, I would recommend Teachable. Students can learn from any device and access content wherever they are, and that makes a real difference." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

Youness is one of a growing number of creators using Teachable to teach students far beyond their home country. Elisa Azoum grew French Mornings to more than 2,850 language students across dozens of countries on the same platform. The pattern is consistent: subject expertise, a clear program, and a platform that travels with the student.

Looking ahead

Youness has a wider plan for the school. CPGE is a small field by design, with roughly ten thousand students entering each year in Morocco. He wants to take the same model to high school students, a group he puts at around half a million in Morocco alone, and eventually to learners in other countries.

"I have a global strategy to develop Youness School and help more people. In Morocco there are about half a million high school students, and we want to give them similar platforms and solutions." — Youness Es-Sebiy, Founder of Youness School

The plan he describes brings together education, technology, and the careful use of AI, built for students who would otherwise sit outside the reach of this kind of coaching.

Youness's students pay differently than a US or European creator's audience does. Cards aren't the default in Morocco. Many families pay by bank transfer. And selling across Morocco, France, Tunisia, and Mauritania means four different markets, currencies, and different sets of tax rules.

But the best part is that, in the near future, Youness won't ave to manage payments manually.

That's exactly what Teachable Payments is built for. Local payment methods appear automatically at checkout based on where the student is. Tax is calculated, collected, and remitted across 45+ countries without the creator filing anything. Prices display in the student's local currency without manual configuration.

For a school built around the belief that talented students should have access regardless of where they live, the checkout experience should reflect that too, and now it does.

What to do next

Explore Youness School: Visit younesschool.com to see the courses and programs, and youness.online for more on Youness's work. Follow Youness Es-Sebiy on LinkedIn and YouTube, and follow the Youness School YouTube channel and company page on LinkedIn.

Try Teachable today: Youness built a school that protects its content, reaches students on any device, and keeps teaching when the internet drops. Teachable handles the video hosting, the mobile app, and the payments so creators can spend their time with students. With Teachable Payments, that now includes local payment methods for an international student base like his.

‍Start your free Teachable today.

Amie Tollefsrud calls herself a lazy person. She has generated over $11 million on Teachable saying so.

"I am a self-proclaimed, very lazy person." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Most creators treat that word as the enemy. Amie treats it as the whole strategy.

She runs an eight-figure course business from her bed or a beach club lounger, and she got there by doing less of the wrong work, not more of it. The lazy move, in her hands, keeps turning out to be the smart one.

Amie's Teachable story at a glance

The turning point: From nanny gigs to a scalable business

Before the eight figures, Amie worked a nannying job and felt certain it was not going to be her life. She trained as a nutritionist, started seeing clients one-on-one, and hit the ceiling every service provider eventually hits. 

There are only so many hours in a day, and trading them for money never scales.

So she did the lazy thing, which also happened to be the smart thing. Amie took the advice she repeated to clients over and over and built it into an online course that could reach all of them at once.

"That's when I created my first online nutrition course to try and reach and help more people all at once. A little less effort from there." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

She built that first course from a tiny hut in Maui, carrying five figures of debt and using an outdoor toilet. Amie had no business degree, no investors, and by her own account no tech skills. The slick tools creators reach for today did not exist for her, so she sold it without them. Then she ran her first launch.

"One of my first course launches ever, I think I had made like $5,000 in the span of an hour. And I just remember, like, jumping up and down. [It] was the most money I'd ever made at once in my entire life." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

The nutrition courses worked, and as they kept working, her audience started asking her about something other than nutrition.

"All anybody ever wanted to ask me was, like, how I ran [and] how I built [my] business online, because it allowed me to travel the world and really do all the things that I dreamed about growing up." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

That repeated question was its own market research. Her audience told her what they wanted before she ever built it, the exact validation signal she now teaches her students to watch for.

So she followed it. The nutritionist became the course-creation expert.

That pivot grew into Rebelle Nutrition's eight-figure education business: Online Course Academy, Passive Income Academy, and the program that ties them together, the Lazy Millionaire Method, which has helped more than 4,000 students across niches build profitable courses of their own. 

Amie has been on Teachable since close to the platform's earliest days, running the same play on repeat for the better part of a decade: take lived experience, turn it into a course, sell the shift it creates, and let it run.

The throughline from that first nutrition course to the business today comes down to a handful of principles Amie applies every single time. Here are the ones doing the heaviest lifting.

Amie's strategies for building an 8-figure course business

Strategy 1: Sell the shift your student is buying

The biggest mistake Amie sees in first-time creators is selling the wrong thing. They list their modules, their PDFs, their hours of video, then wonder why nobody buys.

"When somebody buys a course, they're not just buying the number of lessons or modules or PDFs. They're buying a shift, a shift in how they feel, how they think, what they can do, or what their life is going to look like after the course is finished." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Amie points to her own dentist as the perfect salesperson.

Curious about Invisalign, she expected a pitch about process and timeline. Instead he showed her a photo of her teeth that day, next to a mockup of her teeth a year later. He simply sold her the result she actually wanted.

"Immediately, I was like, 'Take my money. I want that.'" – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Amie has her students build what she calls a before-and-after blueprint. They write the student's exact frustration today in the student's own words, then the specific, tangible result waiting on the other side.

The result has to be concrete, never a fuzzy phrase like "feel empowered." It should be something a person could physically point to, like "I don't even need to wear foundation anymore because my skin is so clear," or "I got my 5K down by five minutes." The course becomes the bridge between those two points.

Take action

• Write the shift in one sentence: "This course takes you from ______ to ______." Say it aloud to someone outside your industry. Hesitation on their end means it needs sharpening.
• Replace every fuzzy outcome like "clarity" or "confidence" with something the buyer could point to in real life.

Strategy 2: Get specific enough to stop the scroll

Selling a shift only works when it gets specific enough that the right person cannot scroll past it.

"Vague doesn't sell. Specific sells. Specific is what makes people stop scrolling. Specific is what makes people pull out their wallets and buy." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Her litmus test sits in the gap between "Learn how to eat clean" and "A step-by-step guide to clear your hormonal acne in 30 days."

Identical expertise sits underneath both titles. The second one aims at one specific person with a real promise, and that version is the one that sells. Broad offers leave buyers quietly wondering whether the thing is really for them, and uncertainty kills the sale.

"When somebody is not sure, they do not buy. But when your offer is specific, it builds instant trust. It shows people that you know exactly what they're going through and exactly how to help them." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Amie pushes for a timeframe wherever it stays honest, such as "in 30 days" or "in 90 days," because a clear timeline makes the result feel achievable. She also insists on the buyer's actual language over insider jargon.

Take action

• Rewrite your title to name a clear outcome, and add a realistic timeframe when you can stand behind it.
• Read your title for jargon. Any word your ideal student would never say out loud in conversation has to go.

Strategy 3: Validate before you build a single lesson

Amie is blunt about why so many capable creators, even ones with big audiences, launch into silence. They guessed.

"You wouldn't want to open a French bakery without knowing if anyone in town likes croissants, right? So same thing here. Let's make sure you're baking what people are actually hungry for." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Her method skips surveys and spreadsheets.

Amie has creators hold three to five real conversations with people who feel like ideal students, through DMs, email, or a quick call. 

The questions stay simple: their biggest frustration with the topic, what they have already tried and why it fell short, and whether a step-by-step course to the result would actually help. Then she listens for the line between polite interest and real urgency.

"We're not looking for perfection, we're just looking for proof. Proof that your idea has legs, and proof that people are already searching for this solution." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

She also reframes the whole exercise so it never feels like begging for approval.

"Validation is not about asking for permission. You are the expert. You have the vision. This is just about making sure that your offer meets people where they are before you invest the time turning it into something amazing." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Take action

• Before building anything, run three to five conversations with ideal students and capture their exact words. Those words become your sales page copy.
• Track urgency over politeness. "That sounds interesting" carries far less signal than "when can I buy this."

Strategy 4: Launch imperfect, then get 1% better forever

For all the strategy, Amie credits one unglamorous habit above the rest. She ships before it is ready.

"That's also, I think, exactly why I have been successful, because I take action and I launch things actually before they're perfect." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Her first launch, by her own description, was scrappy and far from what she wanted. It still made $5,000 in an hour.

The creators who never break through are usually the ones tweaking and refining until the moment to launch quietly slips past.

"Launch quickly and fast and let it be imperfect. And also just always go back and iterate, like, there's always something you can make better, and then you can get, like, 1% better every time. And it really, over time, does make a difference." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

That iteration habit also keeps students coming back. Asked what most reliably turns a one-time buyer into a repeat customer, Amie answered without hesitating.

"The results that they get the first time around. So if they feel like you went above and beyond the thing that they thought they were going to get, they're definitely going to come back in for a second time." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Take action

• Set a launch date before the course feels finished, and treat version one as a starting point instead of a final product.
• Build your first module to deliver a real, fast win. Early results earn you the student's next purchase.

Strategy 5: Build a passive funnel, then get more from every buyer

Amie's revenue does not come from chasing new customers all day. It runs on a system that works without her and pulls more value from every person who already decided to buy.

The top of her funnel is her audience on Instagram, TikTok, and now Substack. From there she offers something free and valuable, a fully automated hour-long masterclass, and sells her program at the end of that training.

Automated email sequences of five to seven messages follow up over the next week with anyone who did not buy right away, paired with a real reason to act now.

The lazy genius shows up in what she layers on top: order bumps and post-purchase upsells.

"Think about, like, when you're at the grocery store and there's all the candy right before you checkout, the people are buying things anyway. So at the last minute, it's a really good time to upsell them on similar items that they might also want." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Someone who just decided to spend money will spend a little more, so one buyer becomes worth far more without any extra traffic.

"It's just a really easy and lazy way, honestly, to generate more revenue with the same amount of effort. You [don't] have to be continuously, like, chasing down [a new] client. You can just make more off of the one-time purchase." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Take action

• Replace one-off launches with an evergreen funnel: free value such as a masterclass leading to your paid offer, backed by an automated email sequence.
• Add an order bump or post-purchase upsell at checkout. The buyer already said yes, which makes it the easiest revenue you will add all year.

Why Amie bets on being human in the age of AI

The obvious objection to any course in 2026 sounds simple. Plenty of people ask why they would pay for a course when AI hands over information free.

Amie does not dodge that objection. She agrees that good free information exists everywhere, then explains why it falls short of the real thing.

"[AI] can give you a lot of valuable information, but [it hasn't] actually done the thing in real life and achieved the results that you're looking for. Like a human can." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Her edge comes from having lived the outcome she teaches, start to finish.

"I actually have achieved the results that I'm teaching in real life. I'm somebody who literally started from zero. I didn't have any money to invest. I didn't even have tech skills... I went through years of, like, struggle and figuring it out and trying things that didn't work and failing. And that was years of experience in real life." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

She sees the same change defining the whole industry. The creators who win next will skip the losing game of competing with a chatbot on facts.

"The next wave of successful course creators will be the ones who are thinking really innovatively about what they can offer and sell that is... offering people more than what they can just go to [AI] and find an answer to." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

In practice, that means pairing the digital course with something only a person can give: community, group support, an occasional live touchpoint, whatever fits the creator's energy and style.

This reframe helps any creator worried that AI made their knowledge worthless. Amie's bet runs the other direction. The more information becomes free and instant, the more valuable a real guide who has walked the path becomes.

"People don't want a robot or a guru or a PhD professor. They want a real person who's relatable and a few steps ahead of them." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

Looking ahead

These days, Amie is most excited about Substack, which she started in the past year.

It has become both a fresh revenue stream and a surprisingly strong top of funnel. Readers who find her there often go on to buy her courses, sometimes converting better than social media. Her approach to it stays pure Amie: every post gets treated like a tiny product.

"I look at every article I write almost like a 12-minute course." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

For someone who has done eight figures, she stays remarkably clear that the path was never about being special.

"To be honest, I always imagined that this would be my life... I just had no clue, like, how [I was] actually going to do that." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

The advice she would give the version of herself still working that nannying job is the same advice underneath everything she teaches today.

"Keep going. Let the things that you are excited about drive you. If you feel this excited about something, you're probably onto something. Keep going. Keep doing it, because it's just going to lead you to [the life] that you've always dreamed of." – Amie Tollefsrud, Founder of Rebelle Nutrition and Lazy Millionaire

What to do next

Get Amie's free playbook: Grab The Profitable Course Playbook on Teachable, where Amie walks through how to find the right course idea, validate it, and build something people actually pay for.

Watch the full interview: See Amie tell her complete story on YouTube.

Explore more from Amie: YouTube | Instagram | Teachable School | Website 

Explore more creator stories: Read how other educators are winning on Teachable in our Success Stories collection.

Try Teachable yourself: Amie turned a scrappy first launch into an eight-figure business by selling the shift her students want, validating before building, and refusing to wait for perfect. Start your free Teachable trial and build the course your audience already keeps asking you for.

TL;DR: Moving your course from Udemy to your own platform is the most direct way to gain revenue control and own your student data without the technical overhead of self-hosting. Udemy takes 63% of marketplace sales and doesn't share student email addresses, per Udemy's own instructor revenue-share terms. On our Builder plan at $69/month (annual billing), you keep 100% of revenue after standard processing fees, and Teachable Payments automatically remits VAT and GST across 45+ countries. This guide is for creators who have already validated a course on Udemy and are ready to build an independent business around it, not for creators who are still testing whether their idea sells. It covers content backup, email list capture, platform setup, and launch strategy.

When Udemy runs a site-wide sale, your $200 course can be discounted to as low as $9.99, Udemy's own stated Deals Program price floor. You spent months building that course, recording lectures, designing slides, and answering student questions. Now you're realizing you don't own your student list, you can't email your buyers directly, and you're giving 63% of your revenue to a marketplace that controls your pricing. That revenue split and the email restriction are both covered in Udemy's instructor terms.

Udemy is a great place to validate a course idea. It's a terrible place to build a business. Migrating to your own platform is a structured process that pays for itself almost immediately once you run the actual fee math.

Why independent creators leave Udemy behind

The core problem with Udemy isn't the platform's quality. It's the business model. When you host on Udemy, you're renting an audience from a marketplace that sets your prices, hides your student data, and takes the majority of every sale.

Why you need direct revenue control

On organic marketplace sales, Udemy takes 63% of the transaction, leaving you with 37%. Instructor payouts haven't kept pace with Udemy's revenue growth. Payouts as a share of Udemy's revenue fell from roughly 40% in 2019 to roughly 31% in 2022, according to SellCoursesOnline's Udemy earnings study.

The subscription model is worse. Udemy's subscription revenue share has been cut three times in three years: 25% to 20% in January 2024, to 17.5% in January 2025, and to 15% in January 2026.

On your own platform, you set the price. You can charge $200, $500, or $2,000 for the same course. You control the discounting, not a marketplace algorithm that can discount your course to Udemy's stated floor of $9.99 during every site-wide sale.

Building assets you actually control

Your email list is the one business asset that doesn't change when a platform restructures its pricing. On Udemy, you don't have that asset. While you can export student names and enrollment data as CSV, you cannot access student email addresses. The platform treats those students as Udemy's customers, not yours.

This matters more than the revenue share. If Udemy changes its algorithm, its pricing, or its policies tomorrow, you have no way to contact your students directly. You can't tell them about a new course, a coaching offer, or a migration to your own site. You're building on rented land.

Break free from Udemy pricing

Udemy caps your pricing at $200 for most courses. And unless you opt out of the Deals Program, which is on by default when you register as a premium instructor, Udemy's pricing algorithm can discount your course automatically without your day-to-day approval. The platform's educational announcements rules also prohibit you from linking to paid content off Udemy or sites that request money or personal information from students.

On your own platform, you can offer order bumps, one-click upsells, abandoned cart recovery, and coupon codes. We include these checkout tools on every plan. You can also offer subscriptions and memberships, which smooth out the launch-or-nothing income pattern that plagues marketplace sellers.

Get ready to move your course: A checklist

Before you touch a single file, you need a preparation plan. Rushing the migration means losing content, missing students, or launching to silence.

Download your Udemy course files

Udemy does not package your course for bulk download. Each lecture video must be downloaded individually, as there is no option to download a course in its entirety from the Curriculum page.

Manual asset backup steps:

1. Locate original video files: Check your computer's video folders, external drives, and cloud storage first. These are your highest-quality source files.
2. Download from Udemy if needed: Preview course content through the course player and click the gear icon at the bottom right to access course settings for individual downloads.
3. Organize by module: Create a folder structure that mirrors your course curriculum, with separate folders for each section and lecture.
4. Save supplementary resources: Download any PDFs, worksheets, slide decks, or resource files you uploaded to Udemy.
5. Export your student list CSV: While you can't get emails, you can export student names, enrollment dates, and progress data as a CSV for your records.

Understand what you can and can't take

Here's the hard truth: you cannot export student email addresses from Udemy. You can export names, enrollment dates, progress, and last visited dates, but email addresses are not included.

You also can't take Udemy's marketplace ranking. What you can take is your content, your expertise, your brand, and your course reviews and ratings, which you can export via CSV.

Build your email list first

Since you can't export student emails, you need to capture them before you leave. The most effective strategy is to add a lead magnet to your Udemy course that directs students to free educational content on your own site. Udemy's educational announcements policy prohibits linking to sites that request money or personal information, so any email capture must happen after students voluntarily navigate to your site for the free resource.

Email capture strategies while still on Udemy:

• Add a bonus lecture that offers a free resource (checklist, template, or mini-course) hosted on your own website.
• Include a link in your course description to free educational content on your own website.
• Use Udemy's educational announcements to share valuable educational content that links to your site.
• Create a free companion resource on your own site that complements the Udemy course, where students can then discover ways to stay connected with your work. The goal is to build visibility for your own platform among your Udemy students before you migrate. Students who visit your site for free resources are more likely to follow you to your independent platform.

Evaluate top Udemy alternatives

Before you commit to a platform, understand your options. Here's the decision matrix we use when advising creators on where to move.

Our Builder plan at $69/month (annual billing) includes 0% platform fees and affiliate tools, and every plan, including Starter, comes with native iOS and Android apps. Kajabi's Basic plan starts at $143/month (annual billing), more than double our Builder price for a comparable feature set, though Kajabi does include a native email funnel and CRM that we connect to through Builder-tier integrations instead. Thinkific charges $199/month for its branded mobile app as a separate add-on, while we include iOS and Android apps on all plans.

"Since I moved them to Teachable, my sign ups have tripled and my cancellations have gone down to almost nothing." - Stephanie L. on G2

Migrating your course from Udemy: A simple guide

Once you've backed up your content and started capturing emails, it's time to set up your independent course hub. Here's the step-by-step process on our platform.

1. Launch your independent course hub

Sign up for a 7-day free trial and create your school. The setup takes minutes, not days. You'll name your school, choose a subdomain, and land in the dashboard. No code, no payment gateway configuration, no Zapier chains. Our no-code builder means you can go from signup to a live, purchasable course without touching a single line of code.

2. Upload and organize your course content

Our drag-and-drop course builder lets you bulk upload video files and organize them into sections. This resolves the pain point of manual page-by-page creation that plagues self-hosted setups.

The builder supports video, audio, text, quizzes, and drip content. You can reorder modules, add completion requirements, and enforce minimum watch-time. This course-delivery depth goes further than Kajabi at the same price point, with gradebook, compliance settings, and per-student progress tracking built in.

3. Maximize revenue with flexible pricing

On our platform, you set the price. You can offer one-time purchases, payment plans, and subscriptions. You can create multiple pricing tiers for the same course, offer order bumps at checkout, and set up one-click upsells. This membership setup tutorial shows how to build subscription-based revenue on your own platform.

4. Design your high-converting sales page

Our page editor lets you build a sales page with testimonials, FAQs, and clear call-to-action buttons. You can customize the layout, add video embeds, and connect your custom domain. The page editor is no-code, so you can launch a professional sales page quickly. For a complete walkthrough, this full setup guide covers the entire setup process.

5. Set up your custom domain

Connecting a custom domain establishes brand authority and professionalism. Instead of sending students to a Udemy URL, you send them to your own branded site. This is a small step that makes a big difference in how students perceive your course.

6. Ensure smooth student purchases

Checkout reliability matters more than any other feature during a launch window. A broken checkout during a 48-hour promotion means lost revenue and frustrated students. Our built-in checkout handles transactions securely, with order bumps, one-click upsells, abandoned cart recovery, and coupon codes available on paid plans.

How to migrate your existing student list

This is the hardest part of the migration, and it's where most creators lose students. Here's how to handle it.

Can you export your Udemy student list?

No. Udemy does not provide student email addresses to instructors. You can export names, enrollment dates, and progress data, but not contact information. This is why building visibility for your own platform before you leave is critical.

How to share your new course link

Udemy's educational announcements rules prohibit linking to paid content off Udemy or sites that request money or personal information. The safest approach is to use educational announcements to share valuable free content that happens to live on your own site, where students can then discover your paid offerings.

Strategies for discounting your migration

Offer your existing Udemy students an exclusive migration discount. On our platform, you can create coupon codes that give your Udemy students a special price on your independent course. This incentivizes them to move with you and gives you their email address in the process. A significant discount can net you more revenue than Udemy's 37% share on organic sales. This student enrollment tutorial shows how to add students to your new school.

The real cost of selling courses: Udemy vs. you

Let's run the actual fee math. This is where the migration decision becomes obvious.

The real cost of selling on Udemy

On organic marketplace sales, Udemy takes 63% of the transaction. On instructor coupon sales, Udemy takes 3%, but you're driving all the traffic yourself. On subscription sales, Udemy takes 85%, leaving you with 15%.

The average revenue per course on Udemy is already below $100, according to Class Central's analysis of Udemy's financials, which demonstrates the financial pressure driving migrations. If you're earning $1,000/month on Udemy organic sales, you're keeping $370. That's the reality of the marketplace model.

Our pricing and transaction fees

Our pricing is straightforward. The Starter plan costs $29/month on annual billing with a 7.5% transaction fee. The Builder plan costs $69/month on annual billing with 0% platform fees. The Growth plan costs $139/month on annual billing with 0% platform fees and more products and students. Full details are in our plan documentation.

Payment processing fees apply on every plan. US card processing via Teachable Payments is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. International card payments incur 3.9% + $0.30. Non-USD transactions processed through Stripe where currency conversion is required incur a 0.95% currency conversion fee, as detailed in our 2025 pricing update.

Calculating your true take-home pay

Here's the comparison at different monthly revenue levels, assuming US card processing at 2.9% + $0.30.

The break-even point between Starter and Builder is approximately $533/month in course revenue on annual billing. At that point, the Starter plan's 7.5% transaction fee equals the $40/month price gap between the two plans. Any creator earning above that threshold pays more in fees on Starter than they would on Builder.

Proven tactics for selling courses independently

The biggest fear when leaving Udemy is launching to silence. Without marketplace traffic, will anyone buy? Here's how to build demand before you launch.

Building organic reach before you launch

Your email list and social following are the business's core assets. Solo Educators on our platform lean on Instagram (41%) and YouTube (25%) as primary channels. Start publishing free content on these channels before you launch your independent course. A YouTube video that teaches a small piece of your course content can drive signups to your email list, which becomes your launch audience. For more strategies, check out our audience building resources.

How to migrate your email list safely

Once you've captured emails from your Udemy students, import them into an email marketing tool. We connect with dedicated email platforms through Builder-tier integrations, so you can use your preferred tool for advanced automation. Send a warm-up sequence that introduces your new platform, explains the benefits, and offers the migration discount.

Set up your own evergreen funnel

An evergreen funnel captures leads and converts them to sales automatically. On our platform, you can offer a free preview or mini-course that captures email addresses, then automatically upsell students to your paid course. This creates a revenue stream that runs without your active involvement, which is the opposite of Udemy's launch-dependent model. For a step-by-step approach, see our launch strategy guides.

How affiliates expand your course reach

Our built-in affiliate tools, available on the Builder tier, let you recruit partners who sell your course for a commission. With BackOffice enabled on Teachable Payments, an optional add-on at 2% to 2.8%, affiliate payouts and tax forms are handled automatically. This is how you replace Udemy's marketplace traffic with a network of partners who have their own audiences. For more on growing your business, see our business growth resources.

Managing your first 90 days as a solo creator

The first 90 days after migration are critical. Here's what to expect and how to handle it.

Timeline to your first platform sale

Days 1-30: Set up your school on our platform, upload your course, and send your first email to your migrated list. Expect slow sales as your audience adjusts to the new platform.

Days 31-60: Launch your evergreen funnel and start publishing organic content. Your first sales should come from your email list and social channels.

Days 61-90: Refine your sales page, test different pricing, and recruit your first affiliates. By day 90, you should have a clear picture of your conversion rates and revenue trajectory. For real-world examples, see our success stories.

Driving enrollments on your own platform

Run limited-time promotions to create urgency. Offer order bumps at checkout to increase average order value. Use local payment methods and adaptive pricing to convert international students. We accept student payments in 130+ currencies, so your global audience can pay in their own currency with familiar payment methods. For pricing strategies, see our revenue and pricing resources.

When to keep your Udemy course live

You don't have to delete your Udemy course immediately. Many creators keep a simplified, lower-priced version on Udemy as a lead generation tool that funnels advanced students to their independent school on our platform. Udemy offers instructors the choice to opt out of their Deals Program and exercise full control over pricing, or participate in their data-driven pricing strategy. The key is to make your independent course the premium offering and your Udemy course the entry point.

Ready to make the transition to your own platform? Start a 7-day free trial and build your independent course hub today. Or run the fee math comparing your current Udemy earnings against our plans on the pricing page.

FAQs

Can I export my student email list from Udemy?

No, Udemy does not allow instructors to export student email addresses due to privacy policies. You must build an off-platform email list using opt-in incentives before closing your Udemy account.

What are your platform fees?

The Starter plan costs $29/month on annual billing with a 7.5% transaction fee. The Builder plan costs $69/month on annual billing with 0% platform fees.

Do you handle international sales tax?

Yes, Teachable Payments automatically calculates, collects, and remits VAT and GST across 45+ countries. This removes the creator from the tax filing loop entirely, as detailed in our payment documentation.

Can I keep my course on Udemy and sell it elsewhere?

Yes, non-exclusive Udemy courses can be sold elsewhere. Instructors can opt out of Udemy's Deals Program to exercise full control over pricing.

How long does it take to migrate my course from Udemy?

Migration timelines vary by course size and complexity. Effort scales with how much content, email infrastructure, and customization you're rebuilding. Book a call with our team and you'll walk away with a migration plan specific to your course, no obligation.

What happens to my Udemy course reviews and ratings?

Your Udemy reviews and ratings can be exported via CSV, but they stay associated with your Udemy presence. You can collect new testimonials from your migrated students on your new platform.

Key terms glossary

Teachable Payments: Our native payment gateway that processes student transactions and automatically handles global tax compliance across 45+ countries.

Tax Remittance: When you sell through Teachable Payments, we automatically calculate, collect, and remit sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries on your behalf. You are not responsible for filing those taxes yourself.

Revenue Share: The percentage of course sales kept by a marketplace platform like Udemy in exchange for hosting and traffic. Udemy takes 63% on organic marketplace sales.

Order Bump: A checkout feature that offers an additional product at a discounted price during the purchase flow, increasing average order value.

Evergreen Funnel: An automated marketing sequence that captures leads and converts them to sales without requiring a live launch event.

‍

TL;DR: When course creators start evaluating alternatives to their hosting platform, the trigger is usually one of four friction points: a transaction fee on every sale, student or product caps, lower-than-expected international payouts, or the absence of a built-in email funnel and CRM. On our Starter plan, that transaction fee sits at 7.5%. Three of those four problems are solvable without switching: upgrading to Builder at $69/month on annual billing removes the fee entirely, and outgrowing your caps just means moving up a tier, Growth raises your product limit to 50 (students are unlimited on every plan), with a Custom plan available via a sales conversation beyond that. The fourth, a built-in funnel and CRM, is not native to our platform, and most creators solve this by connecting a dedicated marketing platform through Builder-tier integrations rather than migrating their entire course business. Before migrating for any reason, know the trade-off: our Teachable Payments remits VAT and GST across 45+ countries automatically, and native iOS and Android apps are included on every plan.

If you're looking at alternatives to Teachable, you're most likely hitting one of four specific bottlenecks: transaction fees, plan caps, international payout friction, or the need for a built-in marketing funnel. The sections below diagnose each trigger honestly and show what's solvable on our platform today versus what genuinely requires different tooling.

Solving switching triggers

Most switching intent comes from a solvable problem inside our own pricing structure. Work through these four triggers before you start an export.

How our plan caps actually work

We cap published products, not enrolled students, students are unlimited on every plan. Starter allows 5 products, Builder 10, Growth 50. If you're outgrowing even Growth's 50-product cap, our pricing page invites larger sellers, those doing more than $12,000/year, to contact sales directly about a Custom plan rather than assuming you're stuck.

When Builder pays for itself

The Starter plan's 7.5% transaction fee is the most common reason creators look elsewhere, and it is also the most fixable. Above $533/month in revenue on annual billing, the 7.5% Starter fee costs more than upgrading to Builder at $69/month. Run that math for your current revenue at our pricing page before writing a cancellation email.

How we connect to your marketing stack

Our Builder plan connects to dedicated email and marketing platforms via Zapier, so most creators solve this by pairing a third-party marketing tool with our course delivery rather than replacing the whole platform. A native funnel builder and CRM are not included on our platform. The comparison section below covers what that trade-off actually looks like.

Our international tax coverage explained

Our Teachable Payments automatically calculates, collects, and remits VAT and GST across 45+ countries so you never file those taxes yourself, a compliance overhead that falls entirely to you on most competing platforms. The processing fees behind that coverage are: US card transactions run 2.9% + $0.30, international card transactions run 3.9% + $0.30, and non-USD transactions carry an additional 0.95% currency conversion fee charged by Stripe. If international processing fees are the sole pain point, model that fee stack against the cost of manual VAT compliance before switching to a platform that pushes that burden back to you.

Teachable vs the main alternatives

The table below compares entry-level pricing, platform fees, and tax handling across the six main alternatives. All pricing reflects 2026 annual billing where available.

Our full fee stack: Platform fee is 7.5% on Starter or 0% on Builder. Processing fee details are listed under the international tax coverage section above. All fees stack on each sale. Automatic VAT and GST remittance across 45+ countries is shown in the tax handling column below.

Teachable vs Kajabi

Kajabi bundles a built-in email funnel, automated sequences, landing page builder, and CRM into one subscription, at a meaningful premium over Teachable, and without our automated international tax remittance.

When Kajabi makes sense

Kajabi suits creators who want to run their entire business, course delivery, email marketing, and pipeline automation, from a single dashboard without connecting third-party tools. While Kajabi's marketing stack is its core strength, its entry price starts at $143/month on annual billing, making it 107% more expensive than our Builder plan at $69/month on annual billing. Based on Kajabi's published documentation as of writing, Kajabi does not automatically remit international VAT or GST, so that compliance overhead may fall entirely to you. Our course-specific tooling, gradebook, compliance settings, minimum watch-time enforcement, and per-student progress tracking, also goes deeper than Kajabi's at the same price point, since Kajabi's strength is the marketing stack around the course, not the course delivery itself.

The real cost of switching to Kajabi

Beyond the subscription gap, you may absorb the manual VAT compliance burden the moment you migrate. Kajabi requires you to manage tax compliance yourself, either by including tax in your product prices or by connecting a third-party tool to stay compliant with EU, Australian, and other international tax authorities. For any creator with meaningful international student volume, that is a real operational cost that does not appear on Kajabi's pricing page.

Teachable vs Thinkific

Based on Thinkific's published pricing as of writing, the platform retired its free plan in 2025 and now starts at $40/month on annual billing on the Basic plan with 0% transaction fees on all paid plans in primary markets like the US, cheaper at entry than our Builder tier but without our automated VAT and GST remittance. It has a capable no-code builder and suits creators comfortable configuring third-party integrations for email and tax.

When Thinkific is worth evaluating

If 0% platform transaction fees from your first dollar of revenue is the priority and you sell to students in markets where Thinkific charges no platform fee, Thinkific is worth evaluating. Thinkific Payments manages sales tax for US and Canadian students and calculates VAT for UK and EU buyers, though if you sell to buyers in the EU, VAT remittance is your responsibility, which means either a third-party tax tool or an accountant.

Hidden costs of moving to Thinkific

Thinkific's Trustpilot rating sits at 1.8 out of 5 across 866 reviews as of September 2026, with the majority of recent negative reviews citing billing and subscription problems, payment processing failures, and account access or data export issues. For a creator whose entire business runs through a single platform, that pattern warrants attention before committing. You also take on the cost of third-party tax tools to cover international buyers, which we handle automatically at no extra configuration.

Teachable vs Podia

Based on Podia's published pricing as of writing, the Mover plan starts at $42/month on annual billing (50 products, 100 email subscribers, 25 community spaces) with a 5% transaction fee, and the Shaker plan removes that fee at $84/month annual (150 products), both without our automated VAT and GST remittance or native mobile apps. Unlimited products require the Earthquaker plan at $150/month annual.

When Podia makes sense

Podia suits solo creators who sell a mix of digital downloads, simple courses, and memberships and want a straightforward setup without complex configuration. Our students get offline playback and progress sync through native iOS and Android apps included on every paid plan, rather than a mobile browser session, while Podia has no native iOS or Android app at any tier.

Hidden costs of migrating to Podia

Podia calculates tax for creators but leaves registration, filing, and remittance entirely to you. There also appears to be no native mobile app, so students access all content through a mobile browser rather than a dedicated app experience. For a creator with students in multiple countries, the manual VAT obligation means researching jurisdiction requirements independently or paying an accountant to manage them.

Teachable vs LearnWorlds

Based on LearnWorlds' published pricing as of writing, the Starter plan starts at $24/month on annual billing with a per-sale fee that disappears at higher tiers. It is built for interactive, certification-heavy learning experiences with SCORM support.

The one case for LearnWorlds

Our no-code setup gets a standard consumer-facing course live quickly, which is the right trade-off for individual creators selling to general audiences rather than corporate training departments. The exception is SCORM: we don't currently support SCORM content packages.

Hidden costs of moving to LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds offers Stripe Tax integration for calculating and collecting tax at checkout, but creators retain responsibility for filing returns and actual remittance to each tax authority. Setup complexity on LearnWorlds may be substantially higher than on our platform, so factor in configuration time before assuming the move is straightforward.

Teachable vs Skool

Based on Skool's published pricing as of writing, the Hobby plan starts at $9/month with a 10% + $0.30 transaction fee and the Pro plan costs $99/month with a 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee on sales up to $900, rising to 3.9% + $0.30 on any single transaction above $900. Skool is built around community discussion forums as the primary engagement mechanic and includes native video hosting and a drag-and-drop course builder.

When Skool fits better

Skool suits creators whose core product is a community-led cohort experience where discussion threads and group interaction drive retention. The trade-off is course architecture and tax coverage: Skool's course builder appears to be simpler than our structured module system, and creators who need defined progress tracking, quizzes, and drip content will find our course player more capable for that product type. Skool's VAT handling as merchant of record is also scoped to the EU and UK, while our Teachable Payments covers 45+ countries.

What you give up moving to Skool

Checkout features are limited compared to our order bumps, one-click upsells, and abandoned cart recovery. Creators who monetize through structured self-paced courses with defined modules and certification will find Skool's setup too shallow for that model.

Teachable vs Systeme.io

Based on Systeme.io's published pricing as of writing, the platform offers a free plan and a Startup tier at $17/month with no transaction fees. It bundles basic course delivery, funnels, and email automation at a price point nothing else in this comparison matches.

When Systeme.io makes sense

For creators who haven't yet validated their first product, our 7-day trial covers the same job: build a real course, connect checkout, and test with paying students before committing to a plan. Systeme.io's free plan is a genuine no-cost option too, though it comes without our native mobile apps, detailed analytics, and advanced checkout tools like order bumps and abandoned cart recovery, which matter once that first validated course starts converting.

What Systeme.io lacks

There is no native iOS or Android app for students. The course interface is basic compared to dedicated course platforms. Systeme.io applies VAT automatically at checkout based on the buyer's country. Unlike Skool, it does not publicly describe itself as merchant of record for VAT, so confirm remittance responsibility directly with Systeme.io before relying on this for compliance planning. Our native iOS and Android apps, included on all paid plans, give students a polished offline-capable experience that Systeme.io cannot replicate at any tier.

What you lose when you switch

Our automatic VAT and GST remittance

Our Teachable Payments automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries on every transaction. You do not register with foreign tax authorities, track filing deadlines, or calculate jurisdiction-specific rates. Among the platforms compared here, Skool also handles VAT as merchant of record, but Skool's merchant-of-record coverage stops at the EU and UK, our Teachable Payments extends automatic remittance to 45+ countries, the broadest coverage in this comparison. For creators with students in the EU, UK, or Australia, the manual alternative means paying an international tax accountant or registering for VAT in each country where your sales cross the local threshold.

Native mobile apps on every plan

We include native iOS and Android apps on every paid plan. Students get offline playback, progress sync, and a genuine app experience rather than a mobile browser session. Podia and Systeme.io have no native apps at any tier. For creators whose students commute, travel, or consume content away from a desktop, the app experience directly affects completion rates and refund requests, both of which feed back into audience trust.

The real cost of migration downtime

A platform migration is not a copy-paste operation. Platforms typically cannot transfer active student subscriptions automatically, course progress data generally does not migrate between platforms, and payment history may remain in our system. Custom domain SEO authority rebuilds slowly after a change. A poorly timed migration during a launch window can break checkout access for active students and cost you refund requests and audience trust at the same moment. Our launch strategy resources cover timing considerations for creators managing live cohorts or active payment plans.

Checklist for moving your course content safely

If you've worked through the diagnostic above and the decision is still to migrate, these steps reduce your downside.

1. Export your student list as a CSV from your admin dashboard before cancelling.
2. Download all video files, PDFs, and audio assets locally. If you uploaded videos directly to our native hosting, download them from your library first, since you may not have local backup copies. Platforms typically require fresh uploads and may not accept direct video transfers.
3. Document quiz and assessment structures in full, since quiz logic typically does not migrate between platforms and must be rebuilt manually on the new platform.
4. Screenshot current pricing, coupon codes, and affiliate commission rates for reference during setup.
5. Rebuild each lesson module from scratch using your downloaded assets, then reconnect your custom domain and allow 24 to 72 hours for DNS propagation.
6. Reconfigure all integrations from the beginning. Connection credentials for Zapier, email platforms, and affiliate tools typically do not transfer, and active student subscriptions on payment plans require direct communication with each affected student before you cancel.

Our revenue and pricing resources cover the fee modeling work worth completing before committing to a migration.

The true cost of platform migration

The decision comes down to what your business needs right now, not what a competitor's pricing page makes look attractive.

Stay with us if

• You sell to international students in the EU, UK, Australia, or Canada and do not want to register for VAT or manage remittance manually.
• Your monthly revenue is approaching or past $533, the point at which upgrading from Starter to Builder at $69/month on annual billing is cheaper than paying the 7.5% fee.
• You want native iOS and Android apps for your students without paying extra or stitching together a third-party solution.
• Your product count is approaching your current plan's cap, each tier up raises it substantially, and larger sellers (more than $12,000/year) can contact our sales team about a Custom plan.

The Builder-tier integrations handle funnel and CRM connections without a platform switch. The 7-day trial covers first-product validation with a live checkout and real payments before any plan commitment.

Run the fee math for your current revenue volume at our pricing page. The 7-day trial lets you build a live, purchasable online course and test the full checkout workflow before committing to a plan.

FAQs

What are the best alternatives to Teachable in 2026?

The strongest alternatives are Kajabi for creators who need a built-in email funnel and CRM, Thinkific for 0% platform transaction fees in primary markets, Podia for digital downloads and memberships, LearnWorlds for SCORM-compliant corporate training, Skool for community-led cohorts, and Systeme.io for budget-conscious beginners testing their first product. None of these platforms automatically remit international VAT and GST the way we do, with the possible exception of Skool, which handles VAT as merchant of record.

How does Kajabi's cost compare to ours?

Kajabi's entry plan starts at $143/month on annual billing in 2026, while our Builder plan starts at $69/month on annual billing with 0% transaction fees, making Kajabi's entry tier 107% more expensive than our Builder plan. Kajabi includes a built-in email funnel and CRM that we do not offer natively, which accounts for the price gap. Our Builder plan connects to dedicated email and marketing platforms via Zapier, and our course-specific tooling, including gradebook, compliance settings, minimum watch-time enforcement, and per-student progress tracking, goes deeper than Kajabi's at a significantly lower price point.

How do you export your student list from us?

You can export your student list as a CSV file directly from your admin dashboard before cancelling your subscription. You can also export transaction data from the Transactions section by clicking "Export CSV" in the upper right corner. Active payment subscriptions and student course progress typically must be rebuilt manually on any new platform.

How do we handle international sales tax?

Our Teachable Payments automatically calculates, collects, and remits VAT and GST across 45+ countries so creators never file those taxes themselves.

Which course platform has the lowest transaction fees?

Thinkific offers 0% platform transaction fees from their entry plans in primary markets, but Thinkific manages sales tax for US and Canadian buyers and calculates VAT for UK and EU buyers, leaving EU VAT remittance to the creator. Systeme.io offers 0% transaction fees and applies VAT at checkout automatically, but does not publicly describe itself as merchant of record for VAT. Confirm remittance responsibility directly with Systeme.io before relying on this for compliance planning. We offer 0% platform fees from the Builder plan at $69/month on annual billing, and that tier may cost less than staying on Starter once monthly revenue passes a certain threshold.

Key terms glossary

Teachable Payments: Our native payment gateway that processes transactions and automatically handles international tax remittance across 45+ countries with no manual filing required from the creator.

VAT/GST: Value-Added Tax and Goods and Services Tax, consumption taxes levied on digital products sold to international buyers that creators must calculate, collect, and remit to foreign tax authorities unless the platform handles this automatically.

Platform fee: The percentage-based transaction fee charged by a platform per sale, separate from credit card processing fees and deducted before funds reach your payout account.

Processing fee: The fee charged by payment processors like Stripe or PayPal to handle credit card transactions, separate from platform transaction fees and deducted before funds reach your payout account.

Plan caps: The maximum number of published products permitted on a specific subscription tier, students are unlimited on every plan. Caps rise with each tier, and larger sellers can contact our sales team about a Custom plan.

‍

TL;DR: Choose your course platform based on revenue volume, student location, and mobile needs, not the headline subscription price. Our Builder plan at $69/month (annual) is the most practical default for creators earning above $533/month who sell internationally and need automated VAT and GST remittance across 45+ countries with native mobile access included on every plan. Thinkific suits US and Canadian sellers who want deep customization and accept 0% fees only on Thinkific Payments, but it leaves UK and EU VAT filing to the creator. Kajabi suits creators who need email funnels built in and can absorb the $143/month entry price. Podia suits creators with large product catalogs who accept no native mobile app at any tier. Udemy suits creators with no existing audience who accept giving up significant revenue share and access to student emails.

Most creators choose a course platform based on the monthly subscription price, only to discover that transaction fees, processing fees, and manual tax filing cost them thousands after their first launch. A $29 plan can quietly become a $150 monthly expense once the 7.5% transaction fee kicks in at scale. The real differentiator is not the video player or the page builder. It is who handles your global tax compliance, whether students can access lessons on their phones, and what you actually take home after every fee stacks up.

This guide breaks down the true cost of ownership, student engagement tools, and mobile delivery across the top five platforms so you can protect your margins before your first sale. We compared our platform against Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, and Udemy on the metrics that matter most: take-home pay, tax automation, course-delivery depth, and native mobile access.

How we ranked each online course platform

We evaluated each platform on three criteria that directly affect revenue and student outcomes:

1. True take-home pay: The actual revenue you keep after subscription fees, transaction fees, processing fees, and currency conversion fees stack up.
2. Student engagement tools: Course-delivery depth including graded quizzes, compliance settings, watch-time enforcement, and gradebooks.
3. Mobile app access: Native iOS and Android apps with offline playback versus mobile-responsive web wrappers.

These factors determine whether your course business survives past the first launch.

Calculating your true take-home pay

The headline subscription price is the sticker price. Transaction fees, processing fees, and currency conversion are the line items at the bottom of the receipt. A platform with a lower monthly fee can cost significantly more once those line items stack up.

Who handles your tax filing determines how much administrative work lands on you after each sale. We automatically calculate, collect, and remit sales tax, VAT, and GST on our native payment gateways. Thinkific automates US and Canadian sales tax but leaves VAT filing for UK and EU sales to the creator. Kajabi and Podia leave more of the tax filing burden to the creator, which means you may need to handle registration, calculation, and remittance yourself or pay an accountant to do it.

Platform tools for student engagement

A basic video player does not drive course completion. The platforms that keep students engaged offer:

• Graded quizzes with automatic scoring
• Compliance settings that require students to watch at least 90% of a self-hosted video before advancing
• Drip schedules to control content release
• Per-student progress tracking and gradebooks

We include these tools in our course builder. This matters for creators who sell credentialed programs or need to prove that students actually completed the material. The course design resources and student engagement strategies on our blog show how these tools translate into higher completion rates.

Evaluating mobile app student access

Students expect to access courses on their phones. The question is whether they get a real native app or a mobile-responsive web wrapper. Native apps offer offline playback, automatic progress syncing, and push notifications. Web wrappers require a stable internet connection and often lose progress when the browser refreshes.

We include native iOS and Android apps on every plan. Thinkific charges $199/month for its branded mobile app as a separate add-on. Podia has no native app at any tier.

Compare fees and features for course sites

Here is the master comparison across the four direct platforms. We excluded Udemy from this table because its marketplace model operates on a fundamentally different revenue structure.

Platform details

Thinkific: Automates US and Canadian sales tax only. Creators selling to UK, EU, or other regions handle VAT registration, calculation, and remittance themselves or through an accountant. Carries a 1.8/5.0 Trustpilot rating as of September 2026, with recurring complaints about billing, cancellation, and payment access issues documented across 2025 and 2026 reviews.

Kajabi: Kajabi Payments adds a 0.7% surcharge on top of the base card rate for every subscription or payment plan transaction. International sales incur tiered surcharges: 1.5% for EEA (non-UK) cards, 2.5% for UK cards, and 3.25% for cards issued outside the EEA and UK, plus a small fixed fee per transaction. Built-in email funnels and CRM eliminate the need for third-party email tools.

Podia: No native mobile app at any tier, students access courses through a mobile-responsive web wrapper with no offline playback or push notifications. The break-even between Mover ($42/month, 5% fee) and Shaker ($84/month, 0% fee) is $840/month in revenue on annual billing. Offers unlimited products on all plans.

Udemy: Operates as a marketplace, not a direct-to-consumer platform. Udemy reportedly keeps as much as 63% of revenue on organic marketplace sales. The platform cut its subscription revenue share for instructors three times since 2023, from 25% down to 15% by January 2026. Instructors do not receive student email addresses and cannot build a mailing list or take their audience with them if they leave.

Our pricing and fee structure

We offer three plans on annual billing: Starter at $29/month, Builder at $69/month, and Growth at $139/month. The Starter plan carries a 7.5% transaction fee per sale. Builder and Growth carry 0% platform fees. Payment processing fees apply on every plan: US card processing via Teachable Payments is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, and international cards incur 3.9% + $0.30.

The break-even point between Starter and Builder is approximately $533/month in revenue on annual billing. At that volume, the Starter plan's 7.5% fee equals the $40 monthly price difference between the two plans. Any creator earning above $533/month pays more in fees on Starter than they would on Builder. On monthly billing, where Starter costs $39/month and Builder costs $89/month, the break-even rises to approximately $667/month because the price difference is $50/month instead of $40/month.

Teachable Payments is our native payment gateway that handles tax calculation, collection, and remittance automatically. Creators on this gateway are removed from the tax filing loop for EU and UK VAT plus US sales tax. Tax-inclusive pricing, which shows one price regardless of buyer location, is exclusive to this gateway.

Our pricing: Clear costs for growing creators

We are the most practical path from expertise to income for creators who sell to a global audience and cannot afford a tax compliance mistake or a prolonged technical setup. Here is what that looks like in practice.

Predicting your take home pay

The Teachable Payments dashboard displays transaction details and payout breakdowns. It automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries. You see the full cost stack: subscription, transaction fee, processing fee, and currency conversion, in one view once you understand the complete fee structure.

Building courses for better outcomes

Our Course Builder includes compliance settings, graded quizzes, and student progress tracking. You can require students to watch at least 90% of a self-hosted video before advancing, set drip schedules, and track completion rates per lesson. These tools matter for creators who sell credentialed programs or need to prove learning outcomes.

Supporting students on the go

The native iOS and Android student apps are included on every plan. Students download our app and access your courses. Both the iOS and Android apps support offline playback, letting students download lessons and keep learning without a data connection. Progress syncs across devices, so a student who starts a lesson on their phone can continue it on their laptop.

What creators actually take home

Creators who sell internationally remove VAT filing from their workflow entirely with Teachable Payments. One verified Teachable user on G2 put it directly:

"I looked at many online course platforms before deciding on teachable. It's intuative and they offer excellent support." - Verified user on G2

We've processed $10B+ in cumulative creator earnings in partnership with Hotmart, and 150,000+ active creators across 180 countries use our platform to sell courses, coaching, and digital downloads. The Made on Teachable and Success Stories collections document real creator outcomes, while the Why I Love Using Teachable walks through the platform from a creator's perspective.

Calculating your true net revenue

The math of course hosting comes down to three cost layers: the fixed monthly subscription, the per-transaction processing fees, and the hidden currency conversion fees. Here is how to model your real take-home pay.

Hidden per-transaction platform costs

Payment processing fees apply on every plan, regardless of platform. US card processing via Teachable Payments is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. International cards incur 3.9% + $0.30. Non-USD transactions processed through Stripe where currency conversion is required incur a 0.95% currency conversion fee. A US business accepting a European card in euros could pay 3.9% + $0.30 (international card rate) plus 0.95% (currency conversion), for a total of 4.85% + $0.30.

Real net take home after fees

The break-even logic is simple: model your expected monthly revenue against each platform's total cost stack. On our Starter plan, the 7.5% transaction fee costs $150/month at $2,000 in revenue, which is over five times the $29 plan cost. Upgrading to Builder at $69/month removes that fee entirely and saves $110/month in net savings at that volume. The grow your business resources include additional fee modeling examples.

Real take-home pay per revenue tier

Here is the total cost of ownership at three revenue tiers, combining subscription, transaction, and processing fees. Processing assumes 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction on US cards with 30 transactions per tier.

*All figures assume 2.9% + $0.30 per US card transaction and 30 transactions/month, the same base rate each platform publishes for its native payment gateway: Teachable Payments, Thinkific Payments, Kajabi, and Podia's processor (Stripe or PayPal) all state this rate directly. Kajabi's total is a floor: it adds a further 0.7% surcharge on subscription and payment-plan transactions and steeper international-card surcharges not modeled here. Thinkific's total assumes payment via Thinkific Payments, connecting a third-party processor instead adds a 5% surcharge at the Basic tier.

Thinkific appears cheapest on subscription alone, but it automates sales tax only for US and Canadian sales and leaves UK and EU VAT filing to the creator. If you sell to students in other regions like Australia, the administrative cost of tax compliance may erode that subscription savings. The business operations resources cover tax compliance workflows in more depth.

Addressing creator doubts about course hosting

Creators evaluating platforms carry specific doubts: hidden fees, tax compliance errors, launch failures, and platform lock-in. Here is how each concern resolves.

Comparing total costs for creators

See the comparison table above for full platform detail on pricing, tax automation coverage, and mobile app access across all four platforms.

Evaluating mobile access requirements

Students expect native mobile access. See the comparison table above for full mobile app details across all platforms.

Can I export my student data?

Data portability varies by platform. We allow CSV exports of student data. Migration effort scales with how much content and infrastructure you're moving, and bulk student import into our platform is available on the Growth plan and up.

Expected setup time for new courses

On our platform, you can go from signup to a live, purchasable course quickly using this checklist:

1. Sign up for the 7-day free trial
2. Upload your course content using the no-code builder
3. Configure pricing and checkout (built-in, no third-party tools)
4. Enable Teachable Payments for automated tax handling
5. Publish and share your course link

No Zapier chains, external payment configuration, or tax plugin setup required. The launch strategy resources provide a full pre-launch checklist for first-time creators.

Compare the full cost stack across our plans, including processing fees, on the pricing page. Start a 7-day trial and build your first course before committing to a plan.

FAQs

Which platform is cheapest for a creator earning $2,000/month?

Our Builder plan at $69/month with 0% platform fees has lower total monthly costs at $2,000 in revenue when factoring in processing fees. Thinkific Basic at $40/month costs less on subscription alone, but it automates sales tax only for US and Canadian sales and leaves UK and EU VAT to the creator, which may require additional accounting costs for international sellers.

Do my students need a native app to access my course?

Students can access courses through a mobile-responsive web wrapper on any platform, but native apps offer offline playback, push notifications, and automatic progress syncing. We include native iOS and Android apps on every plan, both with offline playback, while Thinkific charges $199/month extra and Podia has no app at all.

What happens if I want to leave my platform?

You can export your student data, but the process varies by platform and plan tier. We allow CSV exports of student data, and the effort scales with how much content and infrastructure you're migrating.

How long does it take to go from signup to my first sale?

On our platform, you can go from signup to a live, purchasable course quickly. The no-code builder with built-in checkout, payments, and tax handling requires no third-party configuration.

Key terms glossary

Tax remittance: The process of calculating, collecting, and paying sales tax, VAT, and GST to the relevant tax authority on behalf of the seller. We automatically handle remittance across 45+ countries on our native payment gateways, removing that filing obligation from the creator entirely.

Teachable Payments: Our native payment gateway that automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ countries.

Tax nexus: A legal connection between a seller and a tax jurisdiction that creates a tax filing obligation. Selling to students in multiple countries can trigger tax nexus in each jurisdiction.

Transaction fee: A percentage of each sale charged by the platform on top of the subscription price. Our Starter plan charges 7.5%, while Builder and Growth charge 0%.

Processing fee: The fee charged by the payment processor for each transaction. US card processing via Teachable Payments is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

Currency conversion fee: A fee charged by Stripe when a payment currency differs from your settlement currency. Non-USD transactions incur a 0.95% currency conversion fee.

Break-even point: The revenue threshold where upgrading from a transaction-fee plan to a 0% fee plan saves more than the subscription price difference. The break-even between our Starter and Builder plans is $533/month on annual billing.

‍