Picking a course platform is a two-axis decision: how much of the surrounding stack (email, website, community, funnels) ships in the same seat, and how the bill scales as your catalog and revenue grow. The five leaders diverge hard on both axes. Kajabi consolidates the whole marketing suite in one seat at $179/mo monthly (Basic, $143/mo annual) with 0% platform fees on Kajabi Payments; Growth at $249/mo and Pro at $499/mo open up to 25,000 then 100,000 contacts. Thinkific strips the stack back to courses at $54/mo monthly Basic ($40/mo annual), 0% fees from the $109/mo Start tier up, with the cluster's standout 30-day full-featured trial replacing a standing free plan. Podia bills by tier, never by student: Mover at $39/mo carries unlimited products and learners at a 5% fee, and its free plan is the cluster's only standing one (1 product, 8% fee). Teachable bills by published product instead (1 on Starter at $39/mo monthly, $29/mo annual, 5 on Builder, 25 on Growth, 100 on Advanced) and carries a 7.5% transaction fee on Starter that drops to 0% at Builder. LearnDash is the outlier: a WordPress plugin at $259/yr Essentials ($399 Pro, $599 Elite), no per-learner fee and no per-sale cut, but you carry your own hosting (roughly $10-20/mo). Rule of thumb: all-in-one creator stack at scale = Kajabi; clean course-first with 0% fees = Thinkific; solo seller on a budget with a standing free plan = Podia; product-count-limited with native mobile apps = Teachable; WordPress already in place = LearnDash. Pricing verified against official pages (2026-09-19 through 2026-09-21).
The cluster's top rating (4.2/5): courses, unlimited-sends email, landing pages, website, community and webinars in one $143/mo annual seat, 0% fees via Kajabi Payments. The right pick when the tools it replaces run $150-250/mo separately.
Free tier: No — trial only · 14-day free trial
Paid from: $143/mo (annual, Basic) (Kajabi bills by tier, not by seat: Basic 5 products / 2,500 contacts, Growth 50 products / 25,000, Pro unlimited products / 100,000. Using Kajabi Payments carries 0% platform fees; routing through your own Stripe adds a 2% (Basic) / 1% (Growth) / 0.5% (Pro) surcharge. The priciest entry in this cluster — the 2026-01 restructure dropped the $55 Kickstarter and lifted every tier.)
Kajabi is the all-in-one creator operating system: courses, coaching, podcasts, community, email marketing, landing pages and a website in one subscription. It bills by product and contact volume, and its January 2026 restructure removed the cheap Kickstarter entry — Basic is now the floor at $143/mo annual.
The value anchor (4.1/5): unlimited courses and students on every paid tier and 0% platform fees from Start ($82/mo annual) up, with the most generous 30-day trial. Course depth without revenue-sharing.
Free tier: No — trial only · 30-day free trial
Paid from: $40/mo (annual, Basic) (Thinkific bills by tier, not by learner — every paid plan carries unlimited courses and up to 10,000 students. Basic adds a 5% Stripe surcharge; Start and above remove it entirely (0% platform fees). All three paid tiers include the Accelerator program; Plus (quote-based) adds SCORM, SSO and a dedicated success manager. No standing free plan as of 2026 — the 30-day trial replaces it.)
Thinkific is a hosted course platform that builds, markets and sells courses, communities and digital downloads without a developer. It bills by tier and is the cluster's standout on fees: 0% platform transaction fees on Start, Grow and Plus tiers, with a 5% surcharge on Basic — and the only cluster member whose free option is a 30-day full-featured trial.
The cheapest real business (4.0/5): a standing free plan, flat unlimited products on every paid tier, and 0% fees from Shaker ($75/mo annual). Deliberately shallow — no mobile apps, lighter course tooling.
Free tier: Yes · 30-day free trial
Paid from: $39/mo (monthly, Mover) (Podia bills by tier, never by student or product — every plan, free included, carries unlimited students and unlimited products. The free plan takes an 8% transaction fee; Mover at $33-39/mo drops the platform fee to 5% while bundling unlimited courses, downloads, webinars, coaching and basic email; Shaker at $75-89/mo removes fees entirely (0%) and adds affiliates, memberships and community.)
Podia is an all-in-one creator commerce platform for courses, downloads, memberships and coaching, aimed squarely at solo sellers. It bills by tier and is the cluster's only standing free plan (1 product, 8% fee); paid tiers are flat-priced with unlimited products and 0% fees on Shaker and up.
The course specialist (3.9/5): a deeper lesson builder, grading, certificates and native iOS/Android student apps on every paid tier. The 7.5% fee on the $39 Starter pushes volume sellers to the fee-free Builder.
Free tier: No — trial only · 7-day free trial
Paid from: $39/mo (monthly, Starter) (Teachable bills by published-product count: 1 product on Starter, 5 on Builder, 25 on Growth, 100 on Advanced. Starter charges a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale; Builder and above carry 0% fees. There is no standing free plan — entry is the 7-day trial, and annual billing saves about 22-33% per tier.)
Teachable is a course-first platform for selling self-paced courses, coaching and digital products with native iOS and Android student apps. It bills by product count, not by seat, and its entry tier carries a 7.5% transaction fee that drops to 0% at the Builder tier.
The cost floor at volume (3.8/5): a $259/yr license with unlimited courses and learners and no per-sale fee, on your own WordPress site. Own the domain and the data; you own the hosting too.
Free tier: No — trial only · 48-hour live demo (no card)
Paid from: $259/yr (Essentials, about $21.58/mo) (LearnDash is a plugin, not a SaaS: you pay a yearly license (Essentials $259, Pro $399, Elite $599) on top of your own WordPress hosting (roughly $10-20/mo). Every plan includes unlimited courses and learners and no per-sale fee. Since the Liquid Web acquisition, new customers buy the bundled Essentials/Pro/Elite plans; legacy 1-site/10-site/unlimited licenses are grandfathered. MemberDash memberships are bundled into every tier.)
LearnDash is the WordPress LMS plugin: a one-time annual license you install on your own site, with unlimited courses and learners on every tier. It bills by license (Essentials / Pro / Elite per year), takes no cut of your sales, and is the only cluster member priced annually-only.
Bottom line: Kajabi when you are consolidating a five-tool stack and the marketing suite is the point; Thinkific when course depth and 0% fees matter more than a website; Podia when the bill must stay small and one or two products is the whole shelf; Teachable when the course and its mobile app are the product; LearnDash when you live on WordPress and want the lowest per-learner cost. Fee structure and bundled tooling decide; price alone does not.
Kajabi at 4.2/5 — the cluster's top independent score, earned on all-in-one depth (courses, email, website, community and webinars in one seat) with 0% fees via Kajabi Payments. Thinkific follows at 4.1/5 on value.
Teachable Starter at $29/mo annual and Thinkific Basic at $40/mo annual are the two cheapest paid entries. LearnDash Essentials at $259/yr becomes the cheapest true cost at real volume because it never charges per learner or per sale.
Only Podia — 1 product, unlimited students, an 8% transaction fee, no card. The other four are trial-only: Thinkific (30-day), Teachable (7-day), Kajabi (14-day) and LearnDash (48-hour card-free demo).