Podia vs. Teachable (2026): Which Online Course Platform Is Right for You?
Podia and Teachable take opposite bets on what course creators need. Here's how their pricing, transaction fees, and features stack up in 2026.
Podia charges a 5% transaction fee on its entry plan. Teachable charges 7.5% on its equivalent. That gap is small in dollar terms when you’re starting out, but it’s the clearest signal of how each platform thinks about your growth — and your money.
Both tools let you build and sell online courses. Where they differ is in scope. Podia bundles communities, digital downloads, coaching, events, email, and a full website into one product. Teachable stays closer to its original brief: a polished course school with AI-assisted creation, student apps, and a clean checkout. Choosing between them is mostly a question of whether you want a studio or a school.
| Podia | Teachable | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Mover | Starter |
| Price | $49/month ($42 billed annually) | $59/month ($39 billed annually) |
| Transaction fee | 5% | 7.5% |
| Free tier | Trial only (30 days) | Trial only (7 days) |
| Key limit | 50 products, 100 email subscribers | 5 products |
Which plan is cheapest?
Teachable’s Starter Plan bills at $39/month on an annual plan, making it the lower entry price among plans that publish a monthly figure. Podia’s Mover starts at $42/month billed annually. The difference is $3/month — effectively a rounding error until you factor in transaction fees, which flip the math once you’re doing real volume.
Is there a free tier?
Neither platform offers a permanent free tier. Podia gives you a 30-day free trial with no credit card required and no need to pick a plan first. Teachable offers a 7-day free trial plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. Podia’s trial window is longer, which matters if you’re still building your first course.
What do you actually get for the money?
This is where the products diverge sharply. Podia’s Mover ($49/month billed monthly, or $42/month billed annually) includes up to 100 email subscribers, 50 products, and 25 community spaces alongside courses — but carries that 5% transaction fee. Step up to Shaker ($99/month or $84/month billed annually) and the fee disappears, subscribers rise to 500, and affiliate marketing unlocks. The top Earthquaker tier ($179/month or $150/month billed annually) removes product and space limits entirely and raises the subscriber cap to 1,000.
Teachable’s Builder Plan ($119/month or $89/month billed annually) drops the transaction fee and allows up to 10 products. That’s a meaningful ceiling for anyone building a catalogue. The Growth Plan ($239/month or $189/month billed annually) expands that to 50 products and adds upsells and cart recovery. Teachable also lists Enterprise Core and Enterprise Pro plans, but does not publish pricing for either.
Where Podia wins
Podia’s pitch is consolidation. If you would otherwise pay separately for a course tool, a community platform, an email service, and a website host, Podia’s Shaker tier covers all of it for $99/month. The 1,900+ integrations and support for 20+ currencies and sales tax across 230 countries mean it scales internationally without much configuration. Migration help is included, which is a practical detail that matters if you’re moving an existing audience.
Follow the money: Podia makes more from you on the Mover plan (5% of every sale) and nothing from your transactions on the two higher tiers. That incentive structure rewards you for upgrading, which is either straightforward or cynical depending on your sales volume.
The tell is in the email subscriber caps. If your business is built on email, Podia’s limits — 100 subscribers on Mover, 500 on Shaker — will push you to upgrade or pay for a separate list tool before the platform’s other features start to bind. Creators who would rather keep their list on a dedicated platform can compare that side separately — MailerLite vs Brevo covers what those subscriber caps cost elsewhere.
Where Teachable wins
Teachable’s focus is the student experience. iOS and Android student apps, course certificates, AI-assisted course creation, and built-in affiliate programs are all available without assembling a stack. For a creator who wants to sell courses and nothing else, that narrower surface area is a feature, not a limitation.
Worth it only if you’re selling courses at volume: Teachable’s Growth Plan at $239/month (or $189/month billed annually) makes sense when you need up to 50 products and want cart recovery and upsells baked in. At lower volumes, you’re paying for capacity you won’t use.
The 7.5% transaction fee on the Starter Plan is steep. Teachable’s own Builder Plan, at $119/month billed monthly, eliminates it, but that’s a $60/month jump from Starter. Anyone planning to stay on the entry tier and sell at any real scale should run the fee math before committing.
The product limits problem
Both platforms cap how many products you can list on lower tiers, and both use that cap as the primary upgrade lever. Podia caps at 50 products on Mover and 150 on Shaker. Teachable caps at 5 on Starter and 10 on Builder. If you’re building a multi-course school, Teachable’s lower caps will pinch sooner, though its Growth Plan at 50 products matches Podia’s mid-tier.
Verdict: which platform should you pick?
For creators who want one dashboard to run everything — courses, community, email, events, downloads — Podia Shaker at $84/month billed annually is the practical choice. The fee disappears, the product limit is generous enough for most, and the integrated toolset removes the need to stitch together multiple subscriptions.
For creators focused purely on courses, especially those who want a polished student-facing product with native apps and certificates, Teachable Builder at $89/month billed annually is the cleaner fit. You get a 0% transaction fee, up to 10 products, and a tighter scope that doesn’t require managing features you’ll never use.
Avoid both entry plans if you’re generating meaningful revenue. Podia Mover’s 5% fee and Teachable Starter’s 7.5% fee both erode margin fast. The upgrade to a fee-free tier pays for itself well before you’d expect on either platform. Pencil that math out against your own average order value before you sign up.
Methodology. Pricing and feature data was taken from the official pages of Podia, Teachable, collected on 2026-08-08. We did not test the products’ APIs for this article. Figures come directly from those sources; where a value was unavailable it is marked ”—”. Prices change often — confirm on the provider’s site before buying.
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