Best online course platforms in 2026 compared by fees

Last updated: October 2026.

Short answer: the best platform depends on how you sell. Teachable and Podia charge a 7.5% or 5% fee on their cheapest plans, Kajabi takes no sales fee but starts at $179 a month, and Mavibot takes no commission and has a free plan for up to 10 students. Prices were checked on each vendor's pricing page in October 2026.

An online course platform is software that hosts your lessons, takes payments and gives students access to what they bought. This comparison covers Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia and Mavibot. Mavibot is our product, so we say where it is the weaker choice as well as where it is the stronger one. Prices and fees come from the pricing page of each vendor, checked in October 2026, and they change often, so confirm the final number before you pay.

Three questions to answer before you compare prices

Most comparisons begin with a feature list. Begin with your own situation instead.

First, think about where your audience lives. If people find you through email or a website, any platform below works. If they message you in WhatsApp, Telegram or Instagram, look for a platform that connects to a bot and a CRM, because that is where you answer questions and close the sale.

Next, decide whether you sell one course or run a business. Plans limit the number of products. Teachable allows 5, 10 or 50 products depending on the plan, Podia Mover 50, Kajabi Basic 5. If you plan to add coaching, a community or downloads, count them as products now.

Finally, count the tools you want to run. Some platforms include email and marketing tools, others expect you to add your own. Podia lists email, a website and landing pages on every plan, and Kajabi lists a CRM and automations. Price the whole stack, not only the platform.

Online course platforms compared by price and fees

Teachable and Podia charge a sales fee on their lowest plans, Kajabi and Mavibot do not take a share of your sales, and we could not confirm Thinkific's fee on its pricing page.

All prices are in US dollars per month, except Thinkific, whose page showed euros for our region. They come from the vendor pricing pages: Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi and Podia, and the pricing section of the Mavibot homepage. Checked in October 2026.

The limits are not the same unit on every platform. Teachable and Kajabi count products, Podia counts products and email subscribers, and Mavibot counts students. Compare them against what you actually plan to sell.

On top of the platform fee, a payment processor charges its own fee. Podia's pricing page, for example, quotes 2.9% plus 30 cents for Stripe or PayPal, and the rate depends on your country. Kajabi lists 2.9% plus $0.30 on its own Kajabi Payments on the Basic plan.

What the fees cost over a year

A cheap plan with a sales fee can cost more than an expensive plan without one. Here is an illustration at $30,000 in course sales per year with annual billing. The processor fee is left out because it is similar everywhere.

The break-even point shows when the cheaper plan stops being cheaper. Moving from Teachable Starter to Builder pays off once you sell about $6,400 a year, because 7.5% of that equals the $480 difference in yearly price. On Podia, moving from Mover to Shaker pays off at about $10,080 a year. If you use a third-party processor on Kajabi, add its 2% fee on Basic, which is $600 on $30,000.

Teachable pricing and fees

Teachable's plans differ mostly by product count and sales fee. Starter has 5 products and a 7.5% transaction fee. Builder has 10 products, no transaction fee, an affiliate program and real-time support. Growth has 50 products and adds course certificates, removal of Teachable branding, imported students, custom admin permissions and free subtitles and translations. Every plan includes iOS and Android student apps, global payments and taxes, upsells and cart recovery. There is a 7-day free trial and a 30-day guarantee.

Teachable fits creators who sell to an email or website audience and want student apps included. The limits to watch are the 7.5% fee on Starter and the 5-product cap.

Thinkific pricing and fees

Thinkific offers a free trial and no free plan. On the page we checked, the prices were in euros: Start costs €79 a month on annual billing (€107 billed monthly), Grow €159 (€213) and Expand €366 (€488). Courses are unlimited on every plan.

Start includes live cohorts and coaching, quizzes, assignments and certificates, bundles, upsells and payment plans, and memberships and subscriptions. Grow removes Thinkific branding and adds three communities, bulk enrollment with a CSV import, B2B sales with invoicing, and phone and priority chat support. Expand adds ten communities with 200 community spaces, 1,000 GB of video bandwidth a month, unlimited group sizes, and email white-labeling with custom SSL. Thinkific Plus is priced on request and adds an AI teaching assistant, single sign-on, SCORM support and learning paths.

Thinkific fits creators who want quizzes, assignments and certificates from the first plan and unlimited courses. We could not confirm the sales fee on the pricing page, so check it before you buy.

Kajabi pricing and fees

Kajabi is the all-in-one option. Its pricing page says there is no revenue sharing, and plans are measured by products and contacts: Basic has 5 products and 2,500 contacts, Growth 50 products and 25,000 contacts, Pro unlimited products and 100,000 contacts. Its pricing table also lists a CRM, a universal inbox, automations and AI tools. Paying through Kajabi Payments costs 2.9% plus $0.30 on Basic, 2.8% on Growth and 2.7% on Pro, and a third-party processor other than PayPal adds a fee of 2%, 1% or 0.5%.

Kajabi fits creators who sell several product types, want one tool and have the budget for it. The entry price is $179 a month ($143 on annual billing), and Basic is limited to 5 products.

Podia pricing and fees

Podia keeps the setup simple. According to its pricing page, every plan includes online courses, digital downloads, coaching, events, a community, a website and blog, a custom domain, landing pages, email and sales tax handling in 230 countries. Mover has 50 products and 100 email subscribers with a 5% fee, Shaker has 150 products and 500 subscribers with no Podia fee, and Earthquaker removes the limits. There is a 14-day free trial.

Podia fits creators who sell a mix of courses, downloads and coaching and want a quick setup. Mover carries a 5% fee, and the lower plans cap email subscribers.

Mavibot for online courses

Mavibot combines bots, a CRM and a website builder, and it has a course builder inside, so a course can sit next to your bot and your customer data.

A course has modules and lessons, and each lesson can have a homework task. You choose a course type: course, marathon, intensive, training or club.

Homework goes to mentors. You add employees as mentors, and Mavibot distributes the homework among them evenly. A report shows which lessons to rewrite first, sorted by the share of failed tasks. You can mark a lesson with a test as the final exam and set the progress a student needs before the exam opens. A certificate is issued after the course, and new students receive it only after they pass the exam.

Each plan defines what a student gets and for how long. A plan can be free, a one-time payment or a subscription with auto-renewal. You set an access period (a number of days, until a date or unlimited), turn on dripped lessons or dripped modules, allow freezing, add a student limit, hide the price or sell a plan only by a personal link. Promo codes and a feedback form are built in. Auto-renewing subscriptions work only with payment services that support recurring payments, which are TipTop and Robokassa according to the Mavibot documentation.

Students pay from the course page. They fill in a short checkout form with a name, a phone number, an email and an optional promo code, and then go to payment. Any payment system that is connected to your project can be used for courses.

Around the course, Mavibot sends automatic emails: a welcome email with access, a reminder for an unfinished payment, a payment receipt and a completion email with the certificate. Student reminders cover new lessons, ready certificates and study streaks, and an At risk list, built every night, shows students who have been learning for over a week and show signs of dropping out. You can also prevent text copying, put a watermark with the student's contact on videos and block video downloads.

Students learn in a mobile app named Mavibot, and reminders arrive on their phone. The course settings also include an AI tutor, a chat inside the lesson that answers only from the course materials, and it is included in the free plan. You can set your own domain in the course settings under Configure domain.

The main difference is the link to a bot. Course events, such as homework submitted, accepted or rejected, a lesson opened or closed, the course ended or a plan frozen, can send a callback to the bot flow, so a bot can write to the student in WhatsApp, Telegram or Instagram. New students can get a label and be added to a list automatically. The course builder page has more detail.

Mavibot fits creators who sell and support students through messengers, or who want courses, a CRM and a bot in one account. Know the limits: the student pays on the course page, not inside the chat, the free plan is limited to 10 students, and Mavibot is a newer name for course creators than Teachable or Kajabi. New accounts get a trial of the top plan, and the promo code MAVI10 gives 10 days.

Which online course platform fits your situation?

Whatever you pick, do the math with your expected sales and check the vendor page on the day you buy. If you are still deciding what to teach, the guide to starting an online coaching business covers the first steps.

Try the course builder for free

Create a Mavibot account, add a course with a free plan and test it with your first students. Use the code MAVI10 on the project creation screen to get 10 days of the top plan, or stay on the free plan. Open the course builder to start.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best online course platform?

There is no single best platform. Teachable and Podia suit creators who sell to an email or website audience, Kajabi suits larger businesses with several products, and Mavibot suits creators who sell through messengers. Compare prices, sales fees and limits against your expected sales.

What should I compare before choosing an online course platform?

Compare the sales fee, the plan price on annual and monthly billing, the limits on products, students or contacts, the payment methods you need, and whether email, a bot and a CRM are included. Then multiply the plan price and the fee by your expected yearly sales.

Which online course platforms have no transaction fees?

Kajabi's pricing page says there is no revenue sharing, Teachable has no transaction fee on Builder and Growth, Podia has none on Shaker and Earthquaker, and Mavibot takes no commission on any plan. We could not confirm Thinkific's sales fee on its pricing page, so check it before you buy. Payment processors still charge their own fee, as of October 2026.

Is there a free online course platform?

Mavibot has a free plan with no credit card that allows courses for up to 10 students. Teachable offers a 7-day free trial, Podia a 14-day free trial, and Thinkific a free trial without a free plan. New Mavibot accounts also get a trial of the top plan, and the promo code MAVI10 gives 10 days.

How much does it cost to sell an online course?

With annual billing, the cheapest paid plans in October 2026 are Teachable Starter at $29 a month with a 7.5% fee, Podia Mover at $42 a month with a 5% fee, and Mavibot Business at $39 a month or $398 a year with no commission. Kajabi Basic is $143 a month on annual billing. A payment processor fee comes on top.

Is Podia cheaper than Teachable?

On annual billing, Podia Mover is $42 a month with a 5% sales fee, against $29 a month and a 7.5% fee for Teachable Starter. The next tiers cost $84 for Podia Shaker and $69 for Teachable Builder, and neither charges a sales fee. Prices checked in October 2026.

Is Teachable or Kajabi cheaper?

Teachable is cheaper at the entry level: Starter is $39 a month, or $29 on annual billing, against $179 or $143 for Kajabi Basic. Teachable Starter charges a 7.5% sales fee, and Kajabi does not take a share of sales, so the cheaper plan depends on how much you sell.

Can I sell courses through WhatsApp or Telegram?

With Mavibot, a bot in WhatsApp, Telegram or Instagram can send the course link and react to course events, such as a submitted homework or an opened lesson. The student pays on the course page, not inside the chat.

Does Mavibot support homework, drip content and certificates?

Yes. A lesson can have a homework task reviewed by mentors, a plan can open lessons or modules on a schedule, a lesson with a test can be marked as the final exam, and certificates are issued after the course.

Can students pay in installments or by subscription?

A Mavibot plan can be a one-time payment or a subscription with auto-renewal. Auto-renewing subscriptions work only with payment services that support recurring payments, which are TipTop and Robokassa according to the Mavibot documentation.

How many students can I have on Mavibot?

The free plan allows courses for up to 10 students. The Business and Mavibot AI plans allow up to 1,000 students.