Understanding Teachable Pricing Plans

Teachable is a popular online course platform that allows creators to build and sell their own courses and other products. Known for its user-friendly interface and robust features, Teachable is a go-to choice for many educators, entrepreneurs, and businesses looking to share their knowledge and monetise their expertise.

Teachable offers five pricing plans: Free, Basic, Pro, Pro+, and Business. Each plan is designed to cater to different stages of business growth, from beginners to large enterprises.

Detailed Breakdown of Each Plan

Plan #1: The Free Plan

Usage Limits on the Free Plan

The Teachable free plan is designed to give you a taste of what the platform offers without any upfront cost. You can publish one course, one coaching product, and one download product.

This is perfect if you're just starting and want a free trial to test different types of content delivery. For example, you can create your first online course, offer a coaching program, and provide a downloadable resource like an eBook or a template.

But there are limits you need to be aware of.

• You're restricted to 10 students, which is great for a small beta group or initial test audience but won't work for larger audiences.

• You can only publish 10 videos, which is enough to create a short course or the first part of a longer course before you upgrade.

• The free plan only allows 1 admin seat, which just means only you can manage and create content on the platform (not other members of your team).

Feature Limitations on the Free Plan

While the Teachable free plan gives you a decent starting point to launch, it lacks some of Teachable's more advanced features.

For example, memberships and community aren't available on the free plan, so you can't create a membership site or have built-in community for your students.

Drip course content, coupon codes, order bumps and upsells are also missing until you upgrade to a paid plan.

Advanced customisation options are limited too. For example, you can't use CSS snippets to edit the look and feel of your site, and you're stuck with a Teachable subdomain since custom domains aren't allowed.

You'll also need to be on a paid plan before you can use third-party integrations like connecting with an email marketing provider or analytics tools.

But you will get plenty of Teachable's core features:

• Payment gateway - Take payments through Teachable's checkout right out of the box. No complicated set-up or forms needed. It just works.

• Tax handling - Teachable keeps an eye on how much a school earns in various countries and notifies users if they need to fill out any forms.

• Lesson comments - You can enable comments on each lesson so that students can share their thoughts. Comments can be moderated so you can check them before they're visible to other students.

• Basic quizzes - Teachable allows you to set up multiple-choice quizzes to check students' understanding. You can also ask open-ended text questions.

• Student referral system - Reward students with a discount when they share your course with friends and family. This is a great way to promote organic growth.

• Email support - Every Teachable plan includes email support. You'll submit a ticket to their support team and hear back via email.

• Teachable app - Your students can access any of your courses through the Teachable application, which is available for free for iOS users.

If you need course compliance features, the free plan might fall short. Graded quizzes, completion certificates, and enforced video watching are all unavailable. You also can't set up an affiliate program or access the public API if you're a developer.

Free Plan Support and Branding

Support on the Teachable free plan is limited to email only. There's no live chat support, which might be a drawback if you anticipate needing quick help on short notice.

You also can't remove Teachable branding from your site unless you're on a higher plan. The main place you'll notice this is in the footer of your school.

Some people worry this might affect how professional your site appears, but compared to other platforms, Teachable's branding is super subtle.

Transaction Fees on the Free Plan

Another consideration is the fee structure, though this shouldn't affect you for long.

While there’s no monthly fee, Teachable takes $1 + 10% of each sale.

But you'll hit your limit of 10 students on the free plan before that 10% fee becomes too much of an issue. You'll need to upgrade to allow more students, so the 10% fee is likely to only affect your first small batch of sales while you get your course off the ground.

Is Teachable's Free Plan Right for You?

The Teachable free plan is perfect for you if:

• You're a beginner course creator just testing the waters.

• You want to test how Teachable compares to other course platforms.

• You have a very small audience (fewer than 10 students).

• You don't need many videos in your curriculum (fewer than 10).

• Your course is priced low enough that paying the 10% transaction fee is worth the savings you'll get from not being on a paid plan.

But if you find yourself needing more products, a larger student capacity, advanced features, or lower transaction fees, it might be time to consider upgrading to a paid plan.

Plan #2: The Basic Plan

The Basic plan is designed to provide foundational tools and support to help you build your business. It includes a 5% transaction fee.

Usage limits on the Basic plan:

• 5x published products of each type (course, coaching, digital downloads)

• Unlimited students

• Unlimited published videos

• 1x admin & author seat

• 1x membership tiers

• 500x membership tier members

Available features (plus everything on Free):

• Community

• Drip course content

• Coupon codes

• Compose emails

• Order bumps

• Private community access

• CSS snippets

• Custom domain

• Third-party integrations

Plan #3: The Pro Plan

The Pro plan offers more advanced features and support to help you scale. This plan has no transaction fees so it makes sense to check your numbers as you grow. At a certain point, you'll save more on transaction fees than the difference between the Basic/Pro subscriptions, so it will make sense to upgrade.

Usage limits on the Pro plan:

• 50x published products of each type (course, coaching, downloads)

• Unlimited students

• Unlimited published videos

• 5x admin & author seats

• Unlimited membership tiers

• Unlimited membership tier members

Available features (plus everything on Basic):

• Graded quizzes

• Completion certificates

• Course compliance

• Affiliate program

• Live chat support

• Upsells to increase order value

• Public API access

• Removable Teachable branding

Plan #4: The Pro+ Plan

The Pro+ plan is ideal for when you need more products or custom user roles. Those are the only difference between Pro and Pro+. This plan also has no transaction fees.

Usage limits on the Pro+ plan:

• 200x published products of each type (course, coaching, downloads)

• Unlimited students

• Unlimited published videos

• 5x admin & author seats

• Unlimited membership tiers

• Unlimited membership tier members

Available features (plus everything on Pro):

• Custom user roles

Plan #5: The Business Plan

The Business plan is designed for enterprise-level users, which much more extensive customisation and support. This plan has no transaction fees.

Usage limits on the Business plan:

• Unlimited published products of each type (course, coaching, downloads)

• Unlimited students

• Unlimited published videos

• Unlimited admin & author seats

• Unlimited membership tiers

• Unlimited membership tier members

Available features (plus everything on Pro+):

• Advanced theme customisations

• Bulk student enrollment

This structure clearly outlines the differences in each plan, making it easy for readers to compare and choose the best option for their needs.

When to Upgrade Your Plan

• Free to Basic - When you need more products, published videos or students

• Basic to Pro - When you need more products or extra features like compliance

• Pro to Pro+ - When you need significantly more products and/or custom roles

• Pro+ to Business: When you need unlimited products or bulk student enrollment

Teachable Fees

Teachable adds some fees on top of paying for your plan, but it can be hard to understand which fees you'll be paying and why. Here's a breakdown.

Transaction Fees

Transaction fees are taken out of each sale you make on Teachable. The amount you pay depends on your plan:

• Free Plan: $1 + 10% per transaction

• Basic Plan: 5% per transaction

• Pro Plan and Above: No transaction fees

The fees on the free plan tend not to be an issue for long, since you'll outgrow the plan when you reach 10 students anyway.

But if you're on the Basic plan, it makes sense to do the math around the $1500/month mark in sales to see if you'll save more on transaction fees if you upgrade to Pro.

Processing Fees

Like any online payment system, Teachable charges processing fees for transactions. These fees are similar to what you'd expect if you were using Stripe or PayPal directly:

• U.S. Credit & Debit Card Sales: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction

• International Credit & Debit Card Sales: 3.9% + 30¢ per transaction

• U.S. PayPal Sales: 3.99% + 49¢ per transaction

• International PayPal Sales: 4.99% + 49¢ per transaction

• International Non-US/EU/AU School: 4.4% + 30¢ per transaction

The exact processing fee depends on the location of your school, where your student is buying from, and the payment method they're using.

BackOffice Fees

Teachable's BackOffice is an optional feature that adds extra services around your school's payment system. If you enable it, you'll pay either 2% or 2.8% per transaction (depending on Gross Merchandise Value).

With BackOffice enabled, you can use:

• Automated Commission Payouts - Automatically pays out their commissions.

• Automated Tax Form Collection - Sends tax forms to people who've earned money from your school, so you don't need to.

• PayPal as a Payment Option - Allows students to pay from their own PayPal account, with funds deposited into your Teachable account like normal.

• Buy Now Pay Later - Enables students to use services like Affirm, Afterpay (named ClearPay in the UK), and Klarna to purchase products. You get paid up front and they'll pay back the lending company in installments.

Buy Now Pay Later Fees

If you turn on BackOffice and enable Buy Now Pay Later, you'll pay 6.99% + 30¢ on each of these transactions. BNPL isn't available in all countries or on all payment gateways, so it's worth checking your eligibility.

Chargeback Fees

Teachable chargebacks occur when a customer disputes a charge on their card. If this happens, you’ll be charged $15 for each chargeback unless you're on a custom payment gateway.

Other Teachable Fees

If you choose to use a custom gateway instead of Teachable's own payment gateways, you'll pay an extra fee called an integration fee. It only applies to US schools and it's 2%.