When it comes to building and selling online courses, there's no doubt that Teachable is a major player in the market for creating and selling online courses. It is understandable why the platform is appealing to so many course creators given its simple layout and features. It can be difficult to choose which pricing plan is best for you, though, as each has a unique set of benefits.
In this article, we'll delve into the pricing plans of Teachable, exploring the various features and limitations of each. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur looking to create your first online course or an established educator seeking to expand your offerings, we've got you covered. We'll break down and discuss the different pricing plans available, compare the benefits of each, and provide insight into which plan might be the best fit for your unique needs, and also the considerations you should make before selecting one to help you better understand how the platform operates.
So, buckle up and get ready to explore the world of Teachable pricing with an objective eye. Let's dive into the details and see what Teachable has to offer!
A Brief History and Overview of Teachable
Teachable(then known as Fedora) was established by Ankur Nagpal in 2014, and it has since grown to be a major force in the online course market. What began as a side project to host Ankur's own marketing course has developed into a platform that has assisted more than 100,000 instructors in making more than $500 million through their courses.
Teachable started out with a team of just 15. Ankur changed the name of the company to Teachable in an effort to develop a course platform with more customization features and a more lucrative payment system.
Transparency is something Teachable has always prized; in 2017, their Monthly Recurring Revenue reached $550,000. Since then, the site has added seminars, authoring, coaching services, and annual tax filing to its list of offerings in addition to courses. With specialists joining the team who were formerly platform creators themselves, the Teachable team has greatly expanded to support creators.
With a $4 million investment round at a $134 million valuation in 2018, Teachable also got sizable funding, increasing its total capital spent to $12.5 million.
Teachable provides authors with a flexible and lucrative option if you're thinking about using an e-learning platform to make your course available to a wide audience. Teachable is a platform to monitor in the online course market because of its outstanding growth and dedication to openness.
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Teachable Free Plan
The Teachable Free Plan is like a teaser trailer for your course. It gives you a sneak peek of the platform's capabilities before you commit to a plan. But just like a teaser, you only get a glimpse of what is on offer.
The plan is generous enough to allow you to test and explore the platform's features. They include:
1 published product of each type (course, coaching, downloads)
No-code course builder and web pages
Student referrals
teachable:pay with integrated payment processing
Email support
1 admin & author seat
However, it comes with its fair share of limitations. As a course creator, you are limited to only basic features such as basic quizzes and course design templates. This might not be suitable for you if you have advanced course creation needs.
Another important thing to note is that the free plan comes with transaction fees. Every time a student enrolls into your course, you are charged 10% of the course fee plus $1. These fees can quickly add up and might reduce your profits.
The free plan might be a good fit for you if you are just starting and have a limited budget or just experimenting out. But as your business grows and gains more students, you might want to consider upgrading to a paid plan. Remember to weigh the costs and benefits before making a decision.
For example let’s consider this scenario: You're a course creator selling a course for $250 using Teachable's free plan. While the free plan offers a great way to get started, be aware of the implicit costs associated with it. Teachable takes a cut of $1 + 10% every time someone buys your course, which may seem small, but it adds up quickly.
Let's break it down. Every time a student buys your $250 course, Teachable takes $26 in fees, leaving you with $224 in profit. And that's not even including the additional credit card processing fees that can add up to a significant amount over time. That is if the payment was made through a U.S credit or debit card, you’d be losing an additional 2.9% of your sales plus 30 cents. And for payments made via U.S PayPal accounts incur 3.9% + 30 cents and if it is from a non-U.S PayPal account, 4.99% and 49 cents are charged as the processing fee. These fees are applicable to all the plans, including the free plan.
So, if you're planning on selling your course long-term and want to maximize your profits, it's worth considering upgrading to one of Teachable's paid plans that offer lower transaction fees. It's important to weigh the costs and benefits of each plan to find the one that's right for you and your business.
Who may use Teachable's free plan?
The Teachable Free Plan is like a warm embrace for those just starting out in the world of online course creation. It's the perfect plan for those who are dipping their toes in the water, testing the temperature, and getting familiar with the platform.
If you're feeling unsure about whether you can make a profit from selling your course or if you have any fears holding you back, Teachable's free plan is there to provide you with reassurance. It's like a safety net that catches you before you hit the ground.
Teachable's free plan is generous and offers unlimited students, instant payouts, course design templates, and basic quizzes. It's like a treasure trove of features that help you kickstart your course creation journey without breaking the bank.
As you grow your business and start to see more success, you can then upgrade to any of the paid plans and unlock even more features if needed. But for now, the free plan is like a training ground where you can hone your skills and build your audience with no costs upfront.
Pros of the Teachable Free Plan
A terrific place to start for people who are new to the realm of creating online courses is the Teachable Free plan, too. You may learn the market and hone your talents on the platform without having to worry about upfront fees.
Think of Teachable as your personal guide on this exciting journey. They offer various tools and resources to help you every step of the way. The email support feature ensures that you have someone to reach out to whenever you have questions or need assistance.
The platform also provides you with course design templates that make it easier for you to create visually appealing content without spending a fortune on graphic design. With Teachable's integration with multiple payment platforms, you can be sure that your students will have a wide range of payment options available to them.
Moreover, Teachable's automatic handling of US sales tax and EU value-added tax saves you time and hassle, allowing you to focus on creating and selling your courses.
In summary, the Teachable Free plan is a great option for those starting out in the world of online course creation. It provides you with the necessary tools and resources to develop your skills and grow your business without upfront costs.
Cons of the Teachable Free Plan
While the Teachable Free Plan offers a lot of useful features for budding course creators, it also has its fair share of drawbacks.
One of the most significant limitations of the free plan is that it doesn't allow for coupons or affiliate partnerships, two essential marketing tools. Additionally, the platform takes a 10% cut of every sale you make, which adds up quickly.
In addition, the free plan only allows for one admin user and restricts you to using a Teachable subdomain. This subdomain might not look professional and can hamper your brand's growth.
Furthermore, the lack of graded quizzes, drip course content, and certificates for students can negatively impact their engagement and learning outcomes. These are features you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan to access.
Overall, while the Teachable Free Plan can be a useful starting point, upgrading to a paid plan is necessary for serious course creators who want to grow their business and take advantage of more advanced features.
Teachable Paid Plans
Teachable has 3 paid plans:
Basic
Pro
Business(For enterprise level solutions)
Each plan has a monthly and annual subscription option. If you choose to be billed annually you'll get to save a good amount.
Here’s a summary of Teachable’s paid plans:
PLAN | MONTHLY PRICING | YEARLY PRICING |
BASIC | $59/month | $39/month |
PRO | $159/month | $119/month |
BUSINESS | $665/month | $499/month |
Table: Teachable Pricing Plans
Let’s look at each of the pricing plans in depth in the sections ahead.
The Teachable Basic Plan
The Teachable Basic Plan is like the next level in your online course creation journey. Apart from all the Free plan features, it also includes:
5 published courses, unlimited coaching and downloads
Integrated email marketing
Coupons and order bumps
Custom domains
Live group coaching
Accelerator challenge access
2 admin & author seats
One of the biggest perks of the Basic Plan is that it allows you to use a custom domain. This means that you can have your own domain name, which makes your online course look more professional and credible. Your students will be able to access your course from your own website address, making it easier to find and remember.
Another great feature of the Basic Plan is drip course content. This allows you to schedule your course content and deliver it gradually to your students, keeping them engaged and motivated. It's like giving them a taste of your course content, little by little, instead of overwhelming them with all the information at once.
With the Basic Plan, you also get two admin users. This is helpful if you have a team or co-instructors working with you on your course. You can give them access to your course content and collaborate with them easily.
Integrated email marketing is another great feature that comes with the Basic Plan. You can use Teachable's email marketing tools to send newsletters, updates, and promotions to your students. This helps you keep in touch with your students and build a relationship with them beyond just the course.
Third-party integrations are also available on the Basic Plan. This allows you to connect your Teachable course to other platforms like social media, email marketing tools, and payment gateways. This makes it easier for you to manage your online course business from one place.
However, one of the downsides of the Basic Plan is that it charges a 5% transaction fee on every sale you make. Even if this is half of what they charge on the free plans initially this might seem like a small amount, but it can add up over time, as your business grows.
Overall, the Teachable Basic Plan is a great option if you are ready to take your online course creation business to the next level. With additional features like a custom domain, drip course content, integrated email marketing, and third-party integrations, it can help you create and sell your course more effectively.
Who should go for the Teachable Basic Plan?
The Teachable Basic Plan is an excellent option for those who are starting out or have a limited budget. It offers essential features such as a custom domain and drip course content that will give your online course a more professional feel. However, keep in mind that Teachable takes a 5% commission on each sale you make, which can add up quickly if you're making a lot of sales.
If you're generating significant revenue, it might be more cost-effective to upgrade to a higher-priced plan that offers more features without taking a commission. But, if you're making fewer sales, the Teachable Basic Plan might be the best fit for you, and you can save more by using it. Remember to monitor your sales for a month or so and compare your total transaction fees to the cost of the Pro Plan monthly subscription before making your decision.
Pros of the Teachable Basic Plan
The Teachable Basic Plan offers a variety of advantages to new course creators. With a price of just $59 per month, or even less at $39 if you opt for annual payment, you'll have access to unlimited course uploads, unlimited student access, video bandwidth, and hosting.
One significant benefit of upgrading from the Free Plan to the Basic Plan is the option to use a customized domain name. This feature adds a professional touch to your course and can help build credibility with potential students.
Another excellent feature of the Basic Plan is the ability to drip your course content. This allows you to release your course content bit by bit, making your students more eager and expectant of each lecture.
Coupon codes, live group coaching and email marketing integrations remain available on the Basic Plan. Overall, the Teachable Basic Plan is an excellent option for anyone starting out in the online course creation industry, offering many valuable features at a budget-friendly price.
Cons of the Teachable Basic Plan
While the Teachable Basic Plan offers a great deal for beginners, it comes with its own set of limitations. Firstly, the 5% transaction fee on every sale made may seem small at first, but it can add up over time and eat into your profits.
Additionally, the Basic Plan lacks some crucial features that are necessary for running a successful course business. For instance, it does not come with an integrated affiliate program, meaning you can't easily leverage the power of affiliates to drive more sales and traffic to your courses.
Furthermore, the plan does not allow for course upsells, which limits your ability to market and sell other courses to your existing students. This means that you may miss out on potential sales and revenue opportunities.
The absence of course completion certificates, custom user roles, and bulk student import options also make it more challenging for course creators to manage and grow their businesses. These features are critical for large-scale course creation and management.
Finally, the Teachable Basic Plan does not integrate with Zapier, a marketing tool that allows you to automate and streamline your workflow by connecting with popular apps. This can make it more difficult to manage and scale your course business effectively.
Overall, while the Teachable Basic Plan offers a great starting point for beginners, its limitations can be a hindrance for those who want to take their course business to the next level.
The Teachable Pro Plan
The Pro Plan offers you all the Basic plan features, unlimited published courses, coaching and downloads, affiliate marketing, plus the opportunity to provide graded quizzes and issue course completion certificates to your students. This helps you measure their understanding of the course and track their progress.
Most importantly, with the Pro Plan, you can create an unbranded website that reflects your brand and does not have Teachable branding attached to it. This feature gives your course a more professional and personalized look.
Overall, the Teachable Pro Plan is the perfect plan for course creators looking to scale their business. It provides advanced features that give you more control over your courses and helps you create a more engaging learning experience for your students.
Whom is Teachable Pro Plan for?
The Teachable Pro Plan is ideal for entrepreneurs, content creators, and online educators who are looking to expand their businesses and take their online courses to the next level.
This plan is intended for people who are looking for more control over the creation and management of their courses and have outgrown the limitations of the Basic and Free plans.
The Teachable Pro Plan lets you publish an unlimited number of courses. You may therefore design as many courses as you like and make them all available to your students through a single Teachable account, if you run several courses.
Additionally, the Pro Plan has an integrated affiliate marketing program that enables you to incentivize your students to promote your courses to their network. You also get access to graded quizzes, course completion certificates, and an unbranded website.
If you are serious about building a successful online course business, the Teachable Pro Plan is the way to go. It offers the tools and features necessary to scale your business and take it to the next level. The plan is an investment that can help you generate more revenue, grow your audience, and build a thriving online community around your courses.
Benefits of the Teachable Pro Plan
The Teachable Pro Plan is a powerful tool for online course creators looking to take their business to the next level. The plan is packed with features that are designed to increase student engagement, automate marketing tasks, and provide valuable insights into your course sales.
One of the most significant advantages of the Pro Plan is that you get access to all the benefits available on the Free and Basic Plans and more such as unlimited students, courses, video bandwidth, and hosting. However, the Pro Plan goes a step further by not taking any commission from your course sales, giving you complete control over your revenue.
With the Pro Plan, you can grade quizzes, issue certificates, and use course upsells to encourage your students and drive traffic to other courses. You also get access to live chat support, which is more effective than email support, and can integrate a wide range of third-party apps using Zapier.
The Pro Plan unlocks advanced reporting features, allowing you to monitor your sales and identify areas that need improvement. Additionally, you can remove all platform branding from your website, making it appear more professional.
The plan also includes live group coaching, where you can get expert help with any questions you have about the platform. Finally, you can integrate an affiliate program into your school and delegate marketing responsibilities to third parties.
In short, the Teachable Pro Plan is a comprehensive solution for online course creators who want to take their business to the next level. With advanced features and no commissions, it's a smart investment for anyone serious about building a successful online course business.
Downsides of the Teachable Pro Plan
Despite the many benefits of the Teachable Pro Plan, there are a few downsides that potential users should be aware of.
First, while the plan does offer several customizable templates for website design, users cannot create their own unique templates. So if you have a specific vision for your website that isn't available within the Teachable templates, you may be disappointed.
Another downside of the Pro Plan is that it does not allow for the creation of custom admin roles. This means that you'll need to work within the limitations of the built-in roles of Website Owner and Course Author, which may not meet the needs of all users.
Lastly, if you're migrating from a different online course creation platform to Teachable and want to import your user data, you won't be able to do so using the Pro Plan. This could be a dealbreaker for some users who don't want to lose valuable data on their existing students.
Overall, while these downsides are important to keep in mind, though, they may not be significant enough to outweigh the benefits of the Teachable Pro Plan for many users
The Teachable Business Plan
The Teachable Business plan is the highest priced plan available currently. At $499 per month when billed annually or $665 per month when subscribed monthly, it's the most expensive plan on Teachable's website. However, it comes packed with features that will soar your business.
One of the most significant benefits of the Teachable Business Plan is the ability to create custom user roles. This feature allows you to assign custom roles to different team members or employees, streamlining the workflow and making collaboration much easier.
Another feature that sets the Business Plan apart is the ability to bulk import students. If you already have a significant following or customer base, this feature can save you time and effort when onboarding them onto the platform.
The Business Plan also allows you to have up to 20 admin-level users, making it perfect for larger teams. This feature allows you to add additional users to your account, each with their login credentials and unique permissions.
If you're a developer or have someone on your team who is, the advanced developer customization feature can be a game-changer. This feature allows you to create custom code snippets to customize your school's look and functionality. This feature can help you in creating a unique user experience for your school.
Just like the Pro Plan, there are no transaction fees with the Business Plan. You're entitled to all the revenue from your courses.
The Teachable Business Plan is not for everyone, and the high price point may be a turn-off for some. However, for those who are really serious about taking their online course creation business to the next level, the features included in the Business Plan can be a worthwhile investment.
Who can benefit from Teachable Business Plan?
The Teachable Business Plan is a premium plan for those looking for advanced features to support their online course creation needs. This plan is not for everyone, but it's ideal for enterprises, large organizations and/or established course creators who need advanced customization options and support.
If you are a company looking to train your employees, the Teachable Business Plan is perfect for you. With its advanced features like custom user roles, bulk import students, and 20 admin-level users, you can efficiently manage and monitor your employees' progress.
On the other hand, if you are an established online course creator with a team, the Teachable Business Plan is also good for you. You can employ other course creators to support you in your business, and the advanced developer customization feature can help you create a unique and engaging learning experience for your students.
In summary, the Teachable Business Plan is a powerful plan that offers advanced features for those who need them. If you are a large organization, established course creator, or have a team supporting your online course creation business, this plan could be the perfect fit for you.
Benefits of Teachable Business Plan
The Teachable Business Plan is the ultimate package for established online course creators or organizations seeking an efficient way to train their staff. The plan provides access to all features on the Teachable platform, which includes unlimited courses, students, hosting, marketing and sales features.
Moreover, the plan comes with a wide range of advanced features like drip course content, integrated email marketing, live chat, and email support, graded quizzes, certificates, third-party integrations, custom domains, coupon codes, affiliate marketing, and course creator training. You can also create up to 20 custom users and assign different administrative permissions to them.
Furthermore, you have the flexibility to modify your school's appearance to align with your branding goals. Unlike the Pro Plan, the Business plan allows you to customize your website with advanced developer tools, although it may require some coding skills or the services of a developer.
Importantly, if you're switching from a different online course creation platform to Teachable, you can easily import your students' data to your new school without any hassle. Also, with Teachable's Business Plan, you can rest assured that you won't be charged any transaction fees, giving you complete control of your course revenue.
Teachable Business Plan provides everything you need to create, manage, and scale your online courses with ease. The plan's advanced features, coupled with the freedom to customize your school's appearance and delegate administrative tasks to custom users, make it one of the best solutions for established course creators or organizations.
Drawbacks of Teachable Business Plan
The Teachable Business Plan is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive plans available on the Teachable platform. However, it comes with a significant disadvantage - its price.
At $499 per month when billed annually or $665 per month when billed monthly, the Business Plan is relatively expensive, and this could be a significant downside for most course creators, especially smaller ones. While it is suitable for large companies or organizations with a sizable budget, it may not be feasible for individual creators with limited resources.
Additionally, the plan only allows for a maximum of 20 admin users, which may be limiting for larger corporations that may require more than 20 people to manage their course content.
While the Business Plan offers numerous features, some smaller creators may find that they don't necessarily require all of them, and therefore the high cost might be unjustifiable.
Conclusions regarding Teachable pricing plans
Teachable is a powerful platform with a range of pricing plans designed to suit a variety of course creators. However, it's worth noting that the plans can be quite expensive for some creators, and this is something you should consider when deciding whether to use Teachable.
Whether you're a solo entrepreneur, an established course creator, or a large corporation, there is a Teachable pricing plan designed for you. The Free Plan is a great option for those just starting out, but then, be aware that you will be charged $1 + 10% transaction fee for each course sale.
The Basic Plan and Pro Plan are priced at $39 and $119 per month respectively when billed annually, and provide access to more advanced features. However, for course creators on a tight budget, the Pro Plan may not be a viable option, as it can quickly eat into your funds if you don’t make a good amount of sales.
The Business Plan, which costs $665 per month when billed monthly, is designed for larger corporations, but may also be suitable for smaller course creators who require advanced features such as integrations with Zapier.
Overall, Teachable is a solid option for course creators looking to build their online businesses. However, if you're on a budget, it may not be the best fit for you. In that case, you might want to consider other options such as EzyCourse.com, a platform that offers affordability and ease of use for both aspiring and established course creators.
Still not satisfied? Can’t find all the features you need? Worried about the pricing? You may want to check out the Best Teachable Alternative. You may also want to compare Teachable with Thinkific.
At EzyCourse, you get access to built-in email marketing, a custom domain name, free customer support, real-time group and private chats. Plus, the platform is very easy to use, and provides an awesome user experience for both you and your students.
In conclusion, while Teachable is a powerful platform with a range of pricing plans, it's important to consider your budget and whether or not it's the right fit for your needs. Regardless of which platform you choose, remember that success in online course creation will eventually come down to your content and your marketing strategy.
If you have any questions regarding online course platforms or online course creation, you can reach us out on our Facebook group: Join the EzyCourse (Official) Community Facebook Group.
