Best course platforms
The subscription is not the whole cost: some platforms take a percentage of every sale on their cheaper plans, which the comparisons linked from each row spell out. Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page on the date beside it. The ordering is cheapest entry price first — a basis you can check rather than a ranking you have to trust.
What “best” means on this page
“Best” is not a mood — it is whichever axis you actually care about, measured. Our record can say which tool is cheapest to start, whose free plan is real, who bills local currency and whose prices just moved; it cannot say which tool fits your work, which is what the full comparisons are for. Cheapest never means best — it means cheapest. Each verdict below names its axis, and every tool links to its own site so you can check us against the source. No vendor paid for any position.
Entry at $17/mo — the lowest published paid plan in this set. Cheap is a fact, not a verdict; the profile below says what you get for it.
site ↗pricing ↗A plan priced at zero on the vendor’s own page — trials not counted. What each one caps differs; the profiles say.
Showed us different money in different countries on the same day — measured, not assumed. The profiles carry the figures.
A change only counts once a second clean read agrees. The change log →
Tool by tool
Systeme.iosite ↗pricing ↗
An all-in-one platform bundling funnels, email, courses and affiliate management — aimed at solo operators who would otherwise stitch four tools together. Paid plans start at $17/mo (Startup); a free plan exists. The ladder we hold runs 3 paid tiers, topping out at $97/mo (Unlimited). We read the same $17/mo in every market we check, so this vendor does not price by country. Publishes a genuinely free plan and unlocks features by tier rather than by list size, which is the opposite of how most of this category charges.
Teachablesite ↗pricing ↗
A platform for building and selling online courses, handling hosting, payments and student management. Paid plans start at $39/mo (Starter); no free plan is published. The ladder we hold runs 3 paid tiers, topping out at $189/mo (Growth). We read the same $39/mo in every market we check, so this vendor does not price by country. Its published prices moved on 2026-09-03 — the change log holds the rows. Its cheaper plans take a cut of every sale on top of the subscription — the flat price is not the whole price.
Podiasite ↗pricing ↗
Paid plans start at $42/mo (Mover); no free plan is published. The ladder we hold runs 3 paid tiers, topping out at $150/mo (Earthquaker).
Thinkificsite ↗pricing ↗
A course platform for creators and businesses selling their own teaching, with communities and bundles alongside courses. Paid plans start at $54/mo (Basic); no free plan is published. The ladder we hold runs 3 paid tiers, topping out at $219/mo (Grow). It bills by country — entry £46/mo to a UK reader and €53/mo in the eurozone, from our same-day reads. Charges no transaction fee on paid plans, which is the number to weigh against a cheaper rival that does.
Side by side
| Tool | Paid from | Free plan | Currency | Read | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systeme.io | $17/mo | Yes | USD | 2026-10-13 | page |
| Teachable | $39/mo | — | USD | 2026-10-13 | page |
| Podia | $42/mo | — | USD | 2026-09-03 | page |
| Thinkific | $54/mo | — | USD | 2026-08-28 | page |
How to choose in this category
- Work the percentage out at the revenue you expect — a higher monthly plan can cost less once sales start.
- Entry rows usually carry the platform’s own branding on the checkout your buyers see.
- Every row links the platform’s own pricing page; the fee schedule lives there, not here.
Questions the record can answer
How much do course platforms cost?
Between $17/mo and $54/mo. The lowest entry price we hold for any of the 4 course platforms we track is Systeme.io, at $17/mo; the highest is Thinkific, at $54/mo. Both are the vendor's own published list price, read on 2026-10-13. Cheapest is not best; it is cheapest, and it is the one axis a price record can settle on its own.
Which course platforms publish a plan priced at zero?
1 of the 4 we track: Systeme.io (Free) — the entry each zero price sits on is named beside it. A free trial is not counted here: a trial is a deadline, not a price.
Do course platforms charge in my own currency?
Some do. We read every pricing page from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany on the same day, and 1 of the 4 course platforms we track showed us a different currency in at least two of those three markets: Thinkific. The rest billed the same money to all three.
Have any course platforms changed their prices recently?
One confirmed change in this category: Teachable, on 2026-09-03. A change is confirmed only when the vendor's own page showed us one set of figures and then another; the old reading stays in the record rather than being overwritten.
How many course platforms does Wicketry track?
7 in this category, last read on 2026-10-13. 4 of them publish a plan ladder we can put in the table; we also track Kajabi, LearnWorlds and Sensei LMS, but hold no named ladder for them in US dollars yet, so they are absent rather than converted or guessed.