Course platforms
Built to sell and deliver recorded content. Strong at courses, thin on the ongoing relationship.
Course platforms are the largest and best-known category in this directory, and the one most likely to be bought by mistake. A coach who wants to "put something online" searches for software to do it, finds Kajabi or Teachable, buys a tool designed for a content business, and then spends a year running a coaching business inside it.
That is not a criticism of the products. Kajabi in particular is a serious piece of software and better than anything we make at the job it was built for. It is a criticism of the purchase: the category is defined by what it is built around, and what it is built around is a catalogue.
This page explains what a course platform is, what the three products here do differently, what they cost once transaction fees and student caps are included, when a coach genuinely needs one, and the specific signal that means you have bought the wrong category.
The short answer
A course platform is software built around a catalogue: recorded content is the object, buying access is the transaction and completion is the metric. Three are filed here — Kajabi at $179 to $499 a month, Thinkific at $49 to $199 with a 0 per cent platform fee, and Teachable at $39 to $189 with a 7.5 per cent cut on its Starter tier. All three are strong at selling content and none of them models an ongoing coaching relationship.
The products in this category
CP 03-01KajabiCourse & marketing platform$179–499/mo ($143–399 annual)
CP 03-03TeachableCourse platform$39–189/mo + 7.5% on Starter
CP 03-02ThinkificCourse platform$49–199/mo, 0% platform feeSide by side
- KajabiKajabi is genuinely strong for selling courses and running marketing funnels, and its Coac…What it isCourse & marketing platformPrice$179–499/mo ($143–399 annual)
- TeachableTeachable is the cheapest of the big course platforms on annual billing ($29/mo Starter), …What it isCourse platformPrice$39–189/mo + 7.5% on Starter
- ThinkificThinkific is a strong course builder with unlimited courses and students on every plan, a …What it isCourse platformPrice$49–199/mo, 0% platform fee
Pricing verified May 2026
What is a course platform?
A course platform is software whose central object is a piece of recorded content that someone buys access to. It gives you a video player, a lesson structure, a checkout, access control, and usually an email tool and page builder wired to the same purchase event, so that buying a course can trigger an enrolment and a welcome sequence without a third-party automation tool in between.
The metric the category is built around is completion. Did the buyer watch the modules, in what order, and where did they stop. That is the right metric for content, and it is a strange one for coaching, where the thing being measured should be whether the client changed anything.
The distinction from a coaching platform is structural rather than one of feature count. A course platform models a purchase granting access. A coaching platform models an engagement with sessions, progress and a renewal date.
Kajabi ships a genuine coaching product with a built-in scheduler and live video, and the comparison registry still records its coaching programmes and accountability tracking as partial, because sessions and milestones are covered and the daily work between them is not.
Which course platforms are in this directory, and how do they differ?
Three products, and they separate cleanly on price and on how much marketing machinery comes with the course player. Prices as recorded in the comparison registry, verified May 2026.
| Product | Published price | Platform fee | Genuinely strong at | Coaching gaps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi | $179–499/mo ($143–399 annual) | None published | The most complete content business in one subscription: courses, funnels, email, checkout, a website and a community, all wired to each other. Its Coaching product includes a built-in scheduler and live video | No contracts or e-signatures. Coaching programmes, accountability tracking and the client app are all recorded as partial; two-way calendar sync is unverified |
| Thinkific | $49–199/mo | 0% | Unlimited courses and students on every plan, a 0 per cent platform fee and a 30-day trial that does not ask for a card; 4.6 on Capterra | No booking calendar, no calendar sync, no contracts, no habits and no client intake. Coaching products link out to Calendly and Zoom |
| Teachable | $39–189/mo | 7.5% on Starter, 0% from $89 Builder | The cheapest of the big three on annual billing at $29 a month on Starter, with a coaching product that includes an intake block, milestones and messaging, and BackOffice handling sales tax and affiliate payouts for you | Active-student caps of 100 and 1,000, no contracts and no habits; scheduling, calendar sync and video all depend on Calendly and Zoom |
Comparison registry, pricing verified May 2026. Coachful is not in this table because it is filed as a coaching platform; it sells courses and downloads with drip release and completion tracking from $29/mo.
What does a course platform cost, including the fees?
The subscription is between $39 and $499 a month, and on the cheaper tiers it is not the whole cost. Teachable takes 7.5 per cent of sales on its Starter plan, and removing that cut means moving to the $89 Builder tier. Thinkific charges no platform fee on any plan.
Kajabi publishes no platform fee and starts at $179, which is where the money goes instead.
That trade is worth doing as arithmetic rather than instinct, because the crossover point is lower than most people expect. On $2,000 of monthly course sales, Teachable Starter at $39 plus 7.5 per cent costs $189, against $89 flat on Builder: Builder is already cheaper. On $5,000 of monthly sales, Starter costs $414 against Builder's $89. The percentage fee is a tax on success and it compounds quietly.
The student caps deserve the same treatment. Teachable caps active students at 100 and then 1,000 depending on tier, and Thinkific does not cap students on any plan. If you sell an evergreen course to a growing list, an uncapped plan at a higher monthly price can be cheaper than a capped one you keep upgrading.
What does the 7.5 per cent actually cost?
Teachable's Starter tier is the cheapest entry point in the category and carries a 7.5 per cent platform fee. This table is arithmetic on the published figures rather than a measured outcome, and it shows where the flat-fee tier overtakes it.
| Monthly course sales | Starter $39 + 7.5% | Builder $89 + 0% | Cheaper option |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $76.50 | $89.00 | Starter |
| $1,000 | $114.00 | $89.00 | Builder |
| $2,000 | $189.00 | $89.00 | Builder |
| $5,000 | $414.00 | $89.00 | Builder |
| $10,000 | $789.00 | $89.00 | Builder |
Arithmetic on published Teachable pricing, verified May 2026. The crossover sits between $500 and $1,000 of monthly sales, so almost anyone selling seriously is better off on the flat tier.
The figures on this page
When does a coach actually need a course platform?
Buy one when
- Recorded content is the revenue, not a bonus attached to coaching.
- You are selling the same material to many people who never speak to you.
- You need a checkout, an email sequence and a sales page working together, which Kajabi does better than anything else here.
- Your catalogue is large enough that access control and drip release are real problems.
- You run a launch model with a sales page, a waitlist and a cart close.
Buy something else when
- The course exists to support one-to-one clients. That is a coaching platform with a course module, not a course platform with a coaching module.
- You need contracts signed. None of the three ships them.
- You need booking and video inside the product. Thinkific and Teachable both route out to Calendly and Zoom.
- Your clients need habit tracking or check-ins. No product in this category offers them.
- You sell one cohort a year. A community platform may fit the shape better.
How do you know you have bought the wrong category?
There is one reliable signal, and it arrives in about month three. You find yourself keeping a separate list — a spreadsheet, a notes app, a whiteboard — of which clients are where. The course platform knows who has watched module four.
It does not know who has three sessions left, who missed last week's check-in and whose renewal is due, so you maintain that yourself.
The second signal is the number of tools you have bolted on. Calendly for booking, Zoom for the call, a document tool for the agreement, a spreadsheet for progress. Each of those is a sensible individual decision and together they are the fragmented stack the 2026 Coaching Business Report prices at $539 to $600 a month across twelve line items.
Roughly $150 of that total is card processing at about 3 per cent of revenue rather than a subscription, so the part consolidation actually removes is the $390 to $450 of software underneath it.
None of this means leaving the course platform. A coach whose content genuinely is the product should stay, and the honest answer is often to run both: the content business where it belongs and the coaching relationship where it belongs. What is rarely right is to run the coaching relationship inside a catalogue and call the spreadsheet a system.
How does this category relate to the other six?
Seven categories are used across this directory, and they are separated by one question: what is the central object the software is built around? A coaching platform is built around an engagement, a course platform around a catalogue item, a scheduling tool around a calendar slot, a CRM around a project, a community platform around a group, a marketing platform around a funnel, and a coaching admin tool around the transaction that surrounds a session.
That is the whole taxonomy, and it is the reason cross-category comparisons go wrong. Asking whether a scheduling tool is better than a course platform is asking whether a hinge is better than a door. Both questions have answers and neither answer helps.
The category index sets out all seven with the products filed under each, and the method page explains how a product gets filed and what happens when it straddles two.
Common questions
What is a course platform?
Software built around a catalogue of recorded content: a video player, lesson structure, checkout and access control, usually with an email tool and page builder attached. Content is the object, buying access is the transaction and completion is the metric.
What is the best course platform for coaches?
Kajabi, if recorded content is genuinely your product. It is the most complete content business platform in this directory, at $179 to $499 a month, and its funnel, email and checkout tools are better than ours. Thinkific at $49 to $199 is the better buy for course delivery alone with no platform fee, and Teachable is the cheapest on annual billing.
Does Kajabi work for coaching?
Partly, and the registry is precise about which parts. Kajabi ships a real Coaching product with a built-in scheduler and live video, so sessions and milestones are covered. Coaching programmes and accountability tracking are recorded as partial and contracts are absent, because the model is a purchase granting access rather than an engagement with progress and a renewal date.
How much does Teachable's platform fee cost?
7.5 per cent of sales on the Starter tier, falling to zero from the $89 Builder tier. On $1,000 of monthly course sales Starter costs $114 against Builder's $89, so the flat tier is already cheaper; on $5,000 of sales the gap is $414 against $89. Thinkific charges no platform fee on any plan.
Do course platforms include contracts?
No. None of the three products filed here ships contracts or e-signatures. If you need an agreement signed before work starts, that job belongs to a coaching admin tool, a CRM or a coaching platform.
Can I sell courses without a course platform?
Yes, and most coaching platforms include course delivery. Coachful, which publishes this directory, sells courses and downloads with drip release and completion tracking from $29 a month. The question is which half is your business: if the content is the product, buy from this category, because a course module inside a coaching platform is not competing with Kajabi and should not be bought as though it were.
The verdict
If recorded content is your revenue, this is the category to buy from and Kajabi is the strongest product in it. Thinkific is the better value for course delivery alone, with unlimited students and no platform fee, and Teachable is the cheapest way in provided you move off the 7.5 per cent tier as soon as you are selling more than about $700 a month.
If recorded content supports your coaching rather than replacing it, this is the wrong category and the mistake is expensive in a quiet way: not the subscription, but the four bolted-on tools and the spreadsheet you maintain because none of them talk to each other. Coachful, which publishes this site, is a coaching platform that also sells courses, and the honest version of that claim is that it is not competing with Kajabi on content and is not trying to.