Teachable vs Podia: best course platform for solopreneurs (2026)

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Pricing side by side

All prices below are in US dollars, taken from each vendor's pricing page in October 2026. Prices change, so check the vendor page before you buy.

Both platforms also pass on payment processing fees. Podia states Stripe or PayPal charge about 2.9% + 30¢ per sale, varying by location. Teachable says standard processing fees may apply on top of its plan fees. Teachable says annual billing saves 22% against monthly.

The break-even maths

For a solopreneur, the entry plan's percentage fee matters more than the headline price. These figures use only the published plan prices and platform fees, leaving out processing fees, which you pay on every plan either way.

When to leave Teachable Starter for Builder

Builder costs $50 a month more than Starter on monthly billing ($89 against $39) and removes the 7.5% fee. 7.5% of $667 is $50, so once you sell more than about $667 a month, Builder is cheaper. On annual billing the gap is $40 ($69 against $29), so the switch point drops to about $533 a month.

When to leave Podia Mover for Shaker

Shaker costs $50 a month more than Mover on monthly billing ($99 against $49) and removes the 5% fee, so it pays off above about $1,000 a month in sales. On annual billing the gap is $42 ($84 against $42), so the switch point is about $840 a month.

Teachable Starter against Podia Mover

On annual billing, Teachable Starter costs $29 + 7.5% of sales and Podia Mover costs $42 + 5% of sales. They cost the same at about $520 a month in sales. Below that, Teachable Starter is slightly cheaper. Above it, Podia Mover is. On monthly billing ($39 against $49) the crossover is about $400 a month.

The pattern is simple. If you expect steady sales above roughly $550 a month, Teachable Builder is the cheapest option of the four, because it has no fee and the lowest flat price of the zero-fee plans. If your sales are small or unpredictable, the entry plans keep fixed costs down, and Podia Mover suits you better as you grow past the $520 mark.

Price isn't everything, though. Teachable Starter allows only 5 published products, while Podia Mover allows 50. If you sell lots of small downloads, templates or mini-courses, Teachable may push you up a tier on product count alone, before the fee maths ever kicks in. Teachable says memberships, bundles and unpublished drafts don't count toward its product limit, which helps.

What you get on each platform

Teachable

Teachable is built around courses, coaching and digital downloads. Its pricing page lists these on every plan:

• AI tools for creating course content
• iOS and Android student apps
• Global payments, plus US sales tax, global VAT and GST handling
• Upsells and abandoned-cart recovery

Its plan comparison also lists built-in email marketing, custom domains, Zapier and webhooks, but doesn't make clear on the summary which tiers include each, so check the full table on teachable.com before you rely on one.

Builder adds an affiliate programme for your own products and real-time support. Growth adds course certificates, removal of Teachable branding, imported students, custom admin permissions and free subtitles and translations. A custom plan exists for high-volume schools.

Podia

Podia positions itself as an all-in-one storefront. Every plan includes:

• Online courses, digital downloads, coaching and events (live and in person)
• A community, with 25, 100 or unlimited spaces depending on plan
• A website, blog, landing pages and custom domain
• Podia Email, free for 100 (Mover), 500 (Shaker) or 1,000 (Earthquaker) subscribers
• Sales tax handling in 230 countries, 20+ currencies and built-in checkout
• Podia AI tools, migration help, and email and chat support

Shaker adds affiliate marketing for your own products, upsells, PayPal and Zapier, plus an assistant seat. Earthquaker removes limits on products, videos and community spaces.

Podia's included email is generous for a starter list but small for a growing one. If you already have, or plan to build, a list in the thousands, budget for extra Podia subscribers or pair either platform with a dedicated email tool. Our best email marketing for solopreneurs guide compares the main options, and Kit is our pick for course sellers who need tagging and automations.

Which one fits your business?

Choose Teachable if

• Courses are your main product and you want a platform designed around them
• Your students would benefit from a mobile app, which every Teachable plan includes
• You expect sales above roughly $550 a month and want the cheapest zero-fee plan (Builder at $69/mo annually)
• You want certificates, subtitles and translations later (Growth plan)
• You value a 30-day money-back guarantee while you test it

Choose Podia if

• You sell a mix of products: a course, a few templates, coaching calls, maybe an event
• A community is part of your offer and you want it in the same place as your products
• You want your website, blog and email in the same tool to keep your stack small
• You have many products, since even Mover allows 50
• You want a longer 14-day trial with no card needed

Consider neither yet if

You haven't sold anything and don't want a monthly bill. Both platforms are paid only. Systeme.io has a free plan that includes courses, funnels and email, which makes it a lower-risk way to validate a first course; see Systeme.io vs Kit for how it compares. If you mostly sell from social media, Beacons combines a link-in-bio store with email.

How each fits into a solo course stack

A course business needs a few jobs covered: getting attention, capturing emails, selling, delivering and following up. Here's how a lean stack tends to look with each platform.

With Teachable: Teachable handles checkout and delivery. You might add Kit for the email list and automations, a social scheduler such as Metricool for promotion, and Descript for editing lesson videos. Connect them with Make or Zapier.

With Podia: Podia can cover the website, store, community and starter email, so the stack can stay at two or three tools: Podia, a video editor and a scheduler. Note that Podia's Zapier integration is on Shaker and above. You can see full stacks built around this kind of business on our creator stack and coach stack pages, and our budget stacks page shows what a $50 or $100 a month setup looks like.

Switching later

Podia offers migration help on every plan: it says it will move up to 50 products on Mover and up to 150 on Shaker and Earthquaker, including course content, downloads, customer emails and free community subscribers. Teachable lists bulk student imports, with imported students on Growth, and migration assistance on its custom plan. Either way, keep your own copies of your videos and a regular export of your customer list, so you're never locked in.

Verdict

For a course-first solopreneur expecting steady sales, Teachable Builder is the better value: no transaction fee, student apps and the lowest price of the zero-fee plans. For a creator selling several kinds of product to a community, Podia is the simpler all-in-one choice, and its Mover plan is cheaper than Teachable Starter once sales pass about $520 a month. Run your own expected monthly sales through the break-even maths above before you commit, and use the free trials to build one real product on each.

Read our full reviews: Teachable review · Podia review

Sources: teachable.com/pricing and podia.com/pricing, checked 18 October 2026. Break-even figures are our own arithmetic from those published prices and exclude payment processing fees. We haven't been paid by either company for this comparison.