Fees & Figures

What creators actually keep after platform fees. Every number sourced and shown.

Choosing where to host and sell an online course is mostly a pricing question that nobody answers clearly. Platforms publish a monthly price, then take a transaction cut, then charge separately for email, and the number you actually keep is buried three pages deep.

We work the arithmetic out from published pricing and show what each platform leaves you at $2,000, $5,000 and $10,000 a month — numbers you can check against the vendor's own page.

And we tell you how well we actually know each tool. Every review opens with its access level: paid account, free trial, free plan, or pricing only. Running six platforms at once would cost more than $600 a month, so we would rather label the gap than pretend it isn't there.

Tools

• Course platform fee calculator — what Kajabi, Thinkific, Teachable and Podia actually leave you, after every fee

Start here

• How we test — what our access levels mean, and what we refuse to do
• How this site makes money — in plain language

Reviews and comparisons

• Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific: what you actually keep — All 11 plans at $2,000, $5,000 and $10,000 a month. The cheapest sticker price finishes last.
• Kajabi vs Teachable: pricing, fees and what you keep, plan by plan — Which plans to set against each other, what each leaves you on annual and monthly billing, where the fee arithmetic flips, and how the two handle payments and tax, in their own words.
• Podia vs Teachable: what you actually keep — Two of these four plans skim a percentage of every sale and two do not. The crossover moves with your revenue.
• Teachable pricing: what Starter, Builder and Growth cost, and when the 7.5% fee makes Builder cheaper — What each plan costs monthly and annually, what each includes, the trial and the tax, and the revenue above which the more expensive plan is the cheaper plan.
• Kajabi pricing: what Basic, Growth and Pro cost, and what Kajabi takes from your sales — All three plans on monthly and annual billing, the three cases in which Kajabi does or does not add a percentage to your sales, what Growth adds, and the tax on top, in Kajabi's own words.
• Thinkific pricing: what each plan costs, what it takes from a sale, and what the trial showed us — Basic, Start and Grow on monthly and annual billing, what Thinkific takes from a sale on its own payments and on your own Stripe, what Start and Grow add, the tax, and what the trial and Thinkific's own pages say about cancelling.
• Kajabi Stripe integration: the extra fee for connecting your own Stripe account — A surcharge on top of card processing for taking payments through your own provider. What it costs, and why it shrinks on the pricier plans.
• Which countries can use Kajabi Payments? — Outside the supported list you cannot set up Kajabi Payments, and Kajabi says its third-party fee is not charged there. The full list, the rule Kajabi uses to pick European countries, and a correction.
• Which countries can use Thinkific Payments, and what you pay outside them — Thirty-six countries get Thinkific Payments. Outside them the third-party gateway fee is not charged, in Thinkific's own words, and PayPal comes with two limits, one-time purchases and USD only, stated on a help page.
• Kit pricing by subscriber count: what Creator and Creator Pro cost from 1,000 to 25,000 — Kit charges by list size. Every captured tier on monthly and yearly billing, what each step up adds per thousand subscribers, where the free plan stops, and how far Creator Pro sits above Creator.
• Kit Commerce fees: 3.5% + $0.30 on every plan, and what that is made of — Kit publishes the same fee three ways on three pages. What the number contains, which plans pay it, which countries and currencies it covers, and how it compares with the standalone stores.
• Kajabi's bundled email vs Thinkific + Kit: what the bundle is worth at each list size — Kajabi Basic includes unlimited marketing emails and caps contacts. A cheaper course platform plus a free email tool covers a larger list for less, until you need automations. The arithmetic by list size.
• beehiiv vs Kit pricing: plan prices and what you keep from a paid newsletter — One takes nothing from paid subscriptions but needs a paid plan; the other has a free plan and takes a percentage. Both at four list sizes, and the paid revenue at which the order flips.
• Gumroad vs Payhip vs Lemon Squeezy: what you actually keep — Three headline percentages that measure different things. The same sales through all three, and the revenue at which the order changes.
• Annual vs monthly pricing: what the discount is actually worth — Every plan is cheaper paid annually. The saving, the discount rate, and how long you have to stay before it stops being a bet.