Teachable
Why Teachable
Teachable is a hosted platform for creating, marketing and selling online courses, coaching and digital downloads, with built-in payment processing and a course player. It handles hosting, checkout, student management, email marketing and a built-in community feature. It suits experts, creators and entrepreneurs who want to sell structured learning directly to an audience without managing their own infrastructure.
What it does
Teachable is a hosted platform for creating and selling learning products. You build courses with a drag-and-drop builder, quizzes and drip-fed lessons. You can also sell coaching, digital downloads and memberships. It handles the site, the course player, checkout, student management and email. Students get a mobile app, and Teachable Payments handles local payment methods and automated tax across more than 45 countries.
Why you would need it
If you sell knowledge, the hard part is not the content, it is everything around it. You need a place to host lessons, take payments in many countries, deal with VAT and sales tax, deliver access and keep students engaged. Building that yourself, or stitching tools together, costs time that should go into the course.
Teachable puts that in one account. You upload the lessons, set a price and start selling, and the platform deals with the payment and tax details.
Where it fits
It sits at the centre of a course business. Your audience comes from search, social and email. They land on your Teachable site, buy, and move through the course. It replaces a custom site plus a separate payment and tax set-up. It connects to tools such as Stripe, Zapier, Mailchimp, Google Analytics and Zoom. It is not a general website builder, so most people link to it from their main site.
What stands out
- Courses, coaching, downloads and memberships in one place.
- Teachable Payments, with 35 or more local payment methods and automated tax in 45 or more countries.
- AI help for building courses and quizzes, and automatic video subtitles in many languages.
- A public API and webhooks, plus an early-access MCP server.
My take
I'd pick it when you sell courses internationally and want payment and tax handled for you, so you can focus on content. Having coaching and memberships on the same platform is useful when your offer grows past one course.
What I'd watch is cost structure. The entry plan carries a transaction fee, and the plan without it comes at a higher price, so work out which fits your early sales. Product limits on lower plans mean a growing catalogue pushes you up. Also, API access needs the Growth plan or higher, which matters if you want to automate.
Verdict
Pick it when you want a hosted course platform with strong payment and tax handling, and you are happy to live inside it. Skip it when you want to start completely free or need full control of your site. Compare Kajabi, Thinkific and Podia.
Notes
Your note
Before you choose
The transaction fee on the entry plan
The Starter plan charges a transaction fee on each sale, and the Builder plan removes it at a higher plan price. Estimate your early sales volume and compare the two before you pick. There is a 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but no free plan.
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Product and feature limits
Lower plans limit how many products you can sell, and some features sit higher up, including certificates, custom branding and permissions on the Growth plan. A growing catalogue will push you up a plan. Ask which limits apply to you.
API and MCP need the Growth plan
The public API and webhooks require the Growth plan or higher. The MCP server is in early access with a waitlist, runs locally on your machine, works with Claude Desktop and needs the Growth plan and an API key. If automation is part of your plan, start there.
Alternatives to compare
Kajabi is a broader marketing platform for course creators. Thinkific and Podia are direct rivals. LearnWorlds suits more interactive learning. If community is central, look at Circle or Mighty Networks, and for simple digital products, Sellfy.