Selling a first course takes three tools: somewhere to host and sell it, an email list to launch it to, and a way to edit your lessons.
Why these picks
- Course platform: Teachable Starter. It has the lowest entry price of the platforms we cover, $29 a month billed yearly, with unlimited students. It allows up to 5 products.
- Email: Kit Free. Build your launch list for free, up to 10,000 subscribers.
- Editing: Descript Hobbyist. Edit lesson videos by editing the transcript, with 10 media hours a month and 1080p exports without a watermark.
The fee to watch
Teachable Starter adds a 7.5% transaction fee on sales, on top of card processing. Here’s a quick way to decide when to upgrade: Builder costs $40 a month more than Starter when billed yearly ($69 vs $29) and has a 0% transaction fee. Once your monthly course sales pass about $533, the 7.5% fee costs more than that $40 difference, so Builder becomes cheaper overall.
When to upgrade
- Automated launches. Kit Creator adds sequences and automations for $33 a month billed yearly (at 1,000 subscribers).
- More products, no fee. Teachable Builder raises the limit to 10 products and removes the transaction fee.
- Course plus community. If students ask for a community, compare Teachable vs Thinkific.