Quick answer: There is no single best platform to sell courses. There is only the best platform for your stage, your budget, and the kind of course you are actually building.
That said, here is the short version if you want it now.
| If you are… | Choose |
|---|---|
| A beginner with no revenue yet | Systeme.io — free plan, 0% fees |
| An established creator earning $10k+/mo | Kajabi — the most polished all-in-one |
| Focused on the best learning experience | LearnWorlds — interactive video, SCORM |
| Building a community-led course | Skool or Mighty Networks |
| Wanting pure course features, nothing else | Thinkific |
| Selling one-off digital downloads | Gumroad |
| Running funnels and courses together | Systeme.io or Kartra |
Below is the honest version, with real 2026 pricing, the transaction fees nobody advertises, and the specific reason each platform loses.
How We Ranked These
Most lists claiming to name the best platform to sell courses are ranked by affiliate commission, not by merit. Here is what we actually weighted.
1. Total cost at real revenue, not the sticker price. A $39/month plan with a 7.5% fee costs more than an $89/month plan with 0% once you sell anything. The monthly price is the least important number on the pricing page.
2. Whether you can start without paying. Most of this category quietly killed its free plans between 2024 and 2026. That matters enormously if you have not validated your course yet.
3. Whether the platform sells for you or just hosts. Some are learning platforms with a checkout bolted on. Some are marketing platforms with a course module. These are different products and people confuse them constantly.
4. The ceiling. Everything works at 50 students. What breaks at 5,000?
5. What it does badly. Any list where every platform sounds great is a list nobody proofread.
The Full Comparison Table (2026)
| Platform | Entry price | Free plan | Transaction fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systeme.io | $0 (free) / $17 | Yes, permanent | 0% on all plans | Beginners, funnels + courses |
| Kajabi | $179/mo ($143 annual) | No | 0% via Kajabi Payments; 0.5–2% with own Stripe | Established creators |
| Thinkific | $49/mo ($36 annual) | No (removed) | 0% via Thinkific Payments | Pure course features |
| Teachable | ~$39/mo (Starter) | No (removed 2025) | 7.5% on Starter; 0% on Builder ($89) | Fast launch, marketplace |
| Podia | $39/mo (Mover) | No (removed 2024) | 5% on Mover; 0% on Shaker ($89) | Simple digital products |
| LearnWorlds | $29/mo ($24 annual) | No — 30-day trial | $5 per sale on Starter; 0% on Pro Trainer ($99) | Serious learning design |
| Skool | $9/mo (Hobby) | No | 10% on Hobby; 2.9% on Pro ($99) | Community-first courses |
| Mighty Networks | $95/mo (Launch) | No | 2% Launch, 1% Scale — never 0% | Community + courses |
| Gumroad | $0 | Yes | 10% free; ~3.5% paid | One-off digital downloads |
| Kartra | ~$99/mo | No | 0% | Marketers running funnels |
Read that transaction fee column twice. It is where the money goes.
1. Systeme.io — Best Value and Best for Beginners
What it is: An all-in-one platform. Sales funnels, email marketing, a course platform, a checkout, a blog, and an affiliate program manager, in one login.
Pricing: Free ($0, permanent) · Startup $17/mo · Webinar $47/mo · Unlimited $97/mo. Annual billing gives two months free.
Transaction fee: 0% on every plan, including free. No asterisk, no “only if you use our payment processor.”
Why it wins on value
The free plan is not a trial. It is permanent, needs no credit card, and includes 2,000 contacts, unlimited email sends, 3 funnels, 1 course, 1 blog, and a working checkout.
You can build a course, sell it, and take real money without paying anything.
That single fact changes the calculation for anyone who has not yet proven that people will buy their course — which is most people reading this.
Then the paid tier is $17/month for 5,000 contacts.
Compare that to Kajabi’s $143/month entry, and the gap over a year is roughly $1,500 before you have sold anything.
Where Systeme.io genuinely loses
Be honest about this or the whole article is worthless.
- The course experience is basic. Modules, lessons, video, drip, simple quizzes. No interactive video, no SCORM, no advanced assessments. LearnWorlds and Thinkific both beat it here, decisively.
- The design is functional, not beautiful. Templates feel a few years behind Kajabi’s. If your brand sells on visual polish, you will feel it.
- Mobile editing is fiddly. There is no real-time mobile editor. You build, preview, fix, repeat.
- Automation has no nested branching. Fine for most, limiting for power users.
- Reporting is shallow. Opens, clicks, funnel conversions. No cohort analysis.
Who it is for
Beginners. Bootstrappers. Anyone selling a course through a funnel rather than through a course marketplace. Coaches and affiliate marketers who want one bill instead of five.
Who should skip it: Anyone building a serious learning institution, anyone whose brand depends on design, anyone running an agency.
Our Systeme.io for course creators guide covers the setup properly, and the full Systeme.io review is honest about what frustrates people.
Verdict: Best value in the category, and the only genuinely usable free entry point. Not the best course platform — the best business platform for someone selling a course.
2. Kajabi — Best Premium All-in-One
Pricing (2026): Basic $179/mo ($143 annual, 5 products, 2,500 contacts) · Growth $249/mo ($199 annual) · Pro $499/mo ($399 annual).
Transaction fee: 0% platform fee using Kajabi Payments. If you connect your own Stripe account instead, a surcharge applies — around 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, 0.5% on Pro.
What Kajabi genuinely does better
This is the polished one, and it is not close.
The course player looks premium. The templates look like a designer made them. The email builder, funnel builder, and analytics are all a tier above what $17/month buys you anywhere.
There is a branded mobile app on the Pro plan. There is a mature ecosystem of themes, coaches, and agencies.
If you are already making $10,000+ a month from courses, Kajabi’s price is a rounding error and its polish is worth paying for.
Where it loses
- The price. Kajabi overhauled pricing in January 2026, removed its cheap entry tier, and pushed the floor to $143/month annual. That is $1,716 a year before your first sale.
- The contact limits. Basic caps at 2,500 contacts — and “contacts” includes every lead, not just students. Run one webinar and you will burn through it.
- The Stripe surcharge. The advertised 0% has an asterisk.
- Product caps. Basic allows 5 products. A fourth and fifth course idea pushes you to $199/month.
Our Systeme.io vs Kajabi breakdown goes deeper, and our best Kajabi alternatives roundup covers who should leave and who should stay.
Verdict: The best platform on this list, and the wrong one for most people reading it. Buy Kajabi when the revenue justifies it, not before.
3. Thinkific — Best Pure Course Platform
Pricing (2026): Basic $49/mo ($36 annual) · Start $99/mo ($74 annual) · Grow $199/mo ($149 annual). The free plan was removed in late 2025.
Transaction fee: 0% when using Thinkific Payments. Bringing your own Stripe adds a percentage in some regions — check eligibility for your country before you commit.
What it does well
Thinkific is a course platform that takes the course seriously. Communities, live lessons via Zoom, completion certificates, assignments, quizzes, and bulk student management are all first-class.
The 0% fee from the entry plan is a real advantage over Teachable and Podia, both of which tax you at the bottom tier.
Phone support on the Start plan at $74/month is unusual at that price.
Where it loses
- The free plan is gone. That was its best beginner argument and it is no longer available.
- Basic is thin. No memberships, bundles, assignments, or certificates on the entry plan. Most creators end up needing Start at $74/month.
- Branding removal costs $149/month. That is the Grow plan.
- Marketing tools are weak. You will still need email software and probably a funnel builder. Budget for it.
Verdict: If you want a course platform and you will bring your own marketing stack, Thinkific is the strongest pick. Our Systeme.io vs Thinkific comparison covers the trade-off in detail.
4. Teachable — Fast to Launch, Expensive to Grow
Pricing (2026): Restructured into Starter (~$39/mo), Builder ($89/mo), Growth ($189/mo), Advanced ($399/mo). The free plan was eliminated in 2025.
Transaction fee: 7.5% on Starter. Zero on Builder and above.
The honest read
Teachable is easy, well-known, and gets a course live quickly. The student experience is clean. The marketplace can send you some traffic.
But that 7.5% is the biggest gotcha in this entire category.
At $5,000/month in sales, Starter costs you $39 plus $375 in fees. That is $414 a month — more than Kajabi’s annual Basic plan, on a “cheap” tier.
The fix is to pay $89/month for Builder, which zeroes the fee. Which means Teachable’s real entry price is $89, not $39.
Once you understand that, Teachable stops looking cheap.
Verdict: Fine platform, deceptive entry tier. If you use it, go straight to Builder and never touch Starter.
5. Podia — Simplest All-in-One
Pricing (2026): Mover $39/mo · Shaker $89/mo. The free plan was removed in October 2024 and replaced with a 30-day trial.
Transaction fee: 5% on Mover. 0% on Shaker.
The honest read
Podia is genuinely pleasant to use. Courses, digital downloads, a website, and email marketing in one place, with an interface that does not intimidate anyone.
It is the most forgiving platform on this list for a non-technical creator.
But the pricing follows the same trap as Teachable: the affordable plan taxes your sales, and escaping the tax costs $89/month.
Also worth knowing: the affiliate program feature requires Shaker.
Verdict: Good simple tool. If you are going to end up on the $89 plan anyway, compare it honestly against Systeme.io’s $47 tier and Thinkific’s $74 one.
6. LearnWorlds — Best Learning Experience
Pricing (2026): Starter $29/mo ($24 annual) · Pro Trainer $99/mo ($79 annual) · Learning Center $299/mo ($249 annual). 30-day free trial, the longest in the category.
Transaction fee: $5 flat per course sale on Starter. Zero on Pro Trainer and above.
What it genuinely wins
If you actually care about teaching — not just hosting video behind a paywall — LearnWorlds is the most serious tool here.
Interactive video with in-video quizzes and branching paths. SCORM and xAPI support. Real assessments. Custom certificates.
Nothing else on this list comes close for accredited or professional training.
The pricing trap
That $5-per-sale fee is not a percentage, which sounds friendly until you do the arithmetic.
On a $20 course, $5 is a 25% fee. On a $50 course it is 10%.
Sell 50 courses at $50 and you have paid $250 in fees on a $29 plan.
The break-even is roughly 14 sales a month, after which Pro Trainer at $79 is cheaper. So Starter is really only viable for high-ticket, low-volume courses.
Verdict: The best learning platform on this list. Skip Starter unless your course is expensive and rarely sold.
7. Skool — Best for Community-Led Courses
Pricing (2026): Hobby $9/mo · Pro $99/mo. 14-day trial.
Transaction fee: 10% all-in on Hobby. 2.9% on Pro.
The honest read
Skool’s model is community first, course second — and for certain businesses that is exactly right. Cohort programs, masterminds, and accountability-driven courses genuinely retain better inside a community.
The interface is simple almost to a fault, which is the point.
But that 10% on the $9 plan is brutal.
At $5,000/month in revenue, Hobby costs $9 + $500 = $509/month. Skool Pro at $99 + 2.9% costs about $244. The “cheap” plan is more than double the expensive one.
The break-even is around $1,000/month in revenue. Above that, Hobby is the wrong choice.
Also note: Skool’s fee is all-in, including payment processing. So the comparison to a 0%-fee platform is 2.9% versus 2.9% at the Pro tier — meaning Skool Pro takes no platform cut, which is fair.
Verdict: Excellent if community is the product. Weak if the course is the product. Run the fee math before picking Hobby.
8. Mighty Networks — Community Plus Courses
Pricing (2026): Launch $95/mo ($79 annual) · Scale $215/mo ($179 annual) · Mighty Pro (custom, branded app).
Transaction fee: 2% on Launch, 1% on Scale. It never reaches 0%.
The honest read
Mighty Networks is the most feature-complete community platform here, and its course tooling is deeper than Skool’s.
The thing to understand is the model: you pay a percentage of every sale, forever, on every plan. There is no fee-free tier.
At $5,000/month, Launch costs $95 + $100 = $195/month. That is genuinely competitive.
At $50,000/month, that 2% is $1,000/month — permanently.
Verdict: Strong platform, but the perpetual fee is a structural cost you should model out three years, not three months.
9. Gumroad — Not Really a Course Platform
Pricing: Free to start.
Transaction fee: 10% on the free plan, around 3.5% on paid.
The honest read
Gumroad is superb at one thing: selling a file. An ebook, a template pack, a preset, a PDF.
It is not a course platform. There is no real student experience, no drip, no progress tracking, no community.
And 10% is a brutal fee. Sell $2,000 of product and you have handed over $200.
Verdict: Use it for one-off digital downloads. Do not build a course business on it.
10. Kartra — For Marketers Who Also Teach
Pricing: Roughly $99/month at entry.
Transaction fee: 0%.
The honest read
Kartra is the closest thing to Systeme.io conceptually — funnels, email, courses, checkout, affiliates — but built for people running paid traffic at volume.
The automation and funnel tooling is deeper. So is the learning curve, and so is the price.
Verdict: A real option if you are a marketer first and a teacher second, and you have outgrown Systeme.io’s automation.
Honourable Mentions
Udemy. A marketplace, not a platform. It sends you students, then keeps roughly half the revenue on its own traffic and takes a cut on yours. Use it as a marketing channel and a validation tool, never as your primary home.
LearnDash / WordPress. Full control, no platform fee, and a genuine maintenance burden. Best if you already run WordPress and enjoy owning your stack.
ThriveCart. A checkout with a course module attached, sold as a lifetime deal. Compelling economics if you only need the cart.
What Actually Matters Beyond Price
Cost dominates this article because cost is where creators get ambushed. But it is not the only axis, and picking the best platform to sell courses on price alone is its own mistake.
Here is what else decides whether you succeed on a platform.
Video hosting and playback
Every platform on this list hosts video. They do not all host it well.
Ask two questions: is there a storage cap, and does playback adapt to slow connections?
Systeme.io includes unlimited video storage on paid plans, which quietly saves the $20–$100/month you would otherwise spend on Wistia or Vimeo. Thinkific and Kajabi handle playback well. Gumroad barely tries.
The checkout, not the course
Most creators obsess over the course player and ignore the checkout — which is where the money is either made or lost.
What you want: order bumps, one-click upsells, payment plans, coupon codes, and multiple currencies.
Systeme.io, Kajabi, and Kartra all have real checkouts with upsell logic. Thinkific and LearnWorlds have checkouts that take payment and little else. Payment plans on LearnWorlds require the $99 tier.
An order bump alone typically lifts average order value 10–30%. That is worth more than any feature in the course player.
Whether it can build you an audience
This is the split that matters most and gets discussed least.
Course platforms assume you already have an audience. They host, deliver, and take payment. Thinkific, LearnWorlds, Teachable.
Marketing platforms assume you do not. They build the landing page, capture the email, run the sequence, and then sell the course. Systeme.io, Kajabi, Kartra.
If you have 10,000 newsletter subscribers, take a course platform and keep your existing email tool.
If you have nobody, a course platform will sell you a beautiful empty classroom.
Ownership of your student list
Can you export your students and their emails? On every platform here, yes — except Udemy, where the students are Udemy’s, not yours.
That is the single strongest argument against building on a marketplace.
Support when it breaks on launch day
Kajabi has solid support that slows down at peak. Systeme.io is email-only, typically fast, with no live chat. LearnWorlds is tiered. Skool is thin.
Whichever you pick: do your technical setup a week before launch, not the morning of.
Migration cost, three years out
Everything works at 50 students. Ask what happens at 5,000, and what it costs to leave.
Content moves easily. Automations, checkout links, and domain routing do not. Budget a weekend and expect some broken links.
Our walkthrough on how to sell online courses on Systeme.io shows what the full stack looks like when funnel, email, checkout, and course all live in one place.
The Real Cost Math
Percentages are abstract. Here is what a creator selling $5,000/month ($60,000/year) pays each platform per year, excluding Stripe processing (which everyone pays equally).
| Platform | Plan cost/yr | Fees/yr | Total/yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| Systeme.io Startup | $204 | $0 | $204 |
| Systeme.io Webinar | $564 | $0 | $564 |
| Thinkific Basic | $432 | $0 | $432 |
| Skool Pro | $1,188 | $1,740 | $2,928 |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $948 | $1,200 | $2,148 |
| Podia Mover | $468 | $3,000 | $3,468 |
| Kajabi Basic (own Stripe) | $1,716 | $1,200 | $2,916 |
| Teachable Starter | $468 | $4,500 | $4,968 |
| Skool Hobby | $108 | $6,000 | $6,108 |
| Gumroad (free) | $0 | $6,000 | $6,000 |
The two cheapest-looking plans on the market — Skool Hobby at $9 and Teachable Starter at $39 — are the two most expensive outcomes in that table.
That is not a coincidence. It is the business model.
How to Actually Choose (A Decision Framework)
Answer these in order and the choice usually makes itself.
Question 1: Have you sold this course to anyone yet? If no → start on a platform that costs nothing. That is Systeme.io. Validate first, pay later. Our guide to creating an online course for free walks through it.
Question 2: Where will your students come from?
- From a funnel and an email list → you need marketing tools. Systeme.io, Kajabi, or Kartra.
- From an existing audience → a course-only platform works. Thinkific or LearnWorlds.
- From a community you are building → Skool or Mighty Networks.
Question 3: How much does your course cost, and how often will you sell it?
- High-ticket, low-volume → per-sale fees hurt less. LearnWorlds Starter becomes viable.
- Low-ticket, high-volume → percentage fees are lethal. Go 0% from day one.
Question 4: Does the teaching need to be sophisticated?
- Certificates, SCORM, assessments, branching video → LearnWorlds, no contest.
- Video lessons behind a paywall → almost anything works, so optimise for cost.
Question 5: What is your realistic monthly revenue in 12 months? Multiply it by each platform’s fee. Multiply by twelve. That is the comparison.
Common Mistakes Creators Make Choosing a Platform
Mistake 1: comparing monthly prices. The monthly price is the smallest number in your total cost. Fees and forced upgrades dwarf it.
Mistake 2: buying the platform before validating the course. The most expensive course platform is the one you paid $143/month for and never launched on.
Mistake 3: confusing a learning platform with a selling platform. Thinkific hosts your course beautifully and sells nothing for you. Systeme.io sells aggressively and hosts adequately. Know which problem you have.
Mistake 4: ignoring the “contacts” definition. On Kajabi, every lead counts as a contact. Your webinar registrants eat your plan limit.
Mistake 5: assuming you can migrate easily later. You can, but it costs a weekend and some broken links. Choosing well the first time is cheaper.
Mistake 6: picking based on a review that never mentions a weakness. If a list tells you every platform is excellent, close the tab.
The Verdict
There is no universal best platform to sell courses, and anyone who claims otherwise is selling you something.
Kajabi is the best product on this list. It is also $1,716 a year before you make a single sale.
LearnWorlds is the best teaching tool. It is overkill for a $47 course.
Thinkific is the best pure course platform. It will not market for you.
Systeme.io is the best place to start — and for a large number of solo creators, the best place to stay. Free to begin, 0% transaction fees at every tier, and a funnel and email system that actually sells the course instead of just hosting it.
It is not the most beautiful. It is not the most powerful. It is the one where you can build the whole thing, sell it, and keep all of the money, before you have spent a cent.
If your course is not yet proven, that is the only advantage that matters.
Our full guide on how to create an online course covers the part that actually determines whether any of this works — the course itself.
FAQ
What is the best platform to sell courses for someone starting from zero? Systeme.io, because it is the only option with a permanent free plan, 0% transaction fees, and the funnel plus email tools you need to build an audience rather than just host a course.
What is the best platform to sell online courses in 2026? It depends on your stage. Systeme.io is the best value and the only one with a permanent free plan and 0% transaction fees. Kajabi is the most polished. LearnWorlds is the best for serious teaching. Thinkific is the best pure course platform.
Which course platform has no transaction fees? Systeme.io charges 0% on every plan including free. Thinkific and Kajabi charge 0% but only when using their own payment processors. Teachable and Podia only reach 0% on their $89/month tiers.
Can I sell a course for free with no monthly cost? Yes, on Systeme.io’s free plan. It includes a course, funnels, unlimited email, and a checkout with 0% platform fees, with no credit card required and no expiry.
Is Kajabi worth $179 a month? If you earn $10,000+ a month from courses, probably yes — the polish, mobile app, and marketing tools justify it. If you are pre-revenue, it is very hard to justify.
Why did so many course platforms remove their free plans? Teachable, Podia, and Thinkific all removed theirs between 2024 and 2025. Free plans are expensive to run and the category has consolidated around paid acquisition. Systeme.io keeping its free plan is now the exception, not the norm.
Which platform is best for a beginner with no audience? Systeme.io, because it costs nothing to start and includes the funnel and email tools you need to build an audience — not just host a course for one you do not have yet.
Is Teachable’s $39 plan actually cheap? No. The 7.5% transaction fee on Starter means that at $5,000/month in sales you pay $414/month. The real entry price for Teachable is the $89 Builder plan.
What about Udemy? Udemy is a marketplace, not a platform you control. It keeps roughly half the revenue from students it sends you. Treat it as a marketing channel, not as your course business.
Do I need a separate email tool? With Thinkific, LearnWorlds, or a WordPress LMS, usually yes — budget $20–$100/month. Systeme.io, Kajabi, and Kartra include email.
Can I switch platforms later? Yes. Video and content move fine. What hurts is rebuilding automations, redoing checkout links, and re-pointing your domain. It is a weekend of work, not a catastrophe — but choosing correctly the first time is cheaper.
The fastest way to find your platform is to stop reading lists and put a real course behind a real checkout — start free on Systeme.io, launch it this week, keep 100% of what you sell, and upgrade only once the revenue makes the decision for you.
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