How course platform fees work

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How course platform fees work

Most course platforms advertise a monthly price, but that is only one part of what you pay. Once you know the four layers of cost, you can read any pricing page and work out what a platform will really cost you at your own sales volume. The figures below come from the same dataset the calculator uses, last verified in October and November 2026.

The four layers of cost

Subscription. The flat monthly (or discounted annual) price of your plan. You pay it whether you sell anything or not.
Platform transaction fee. A cut the platform takes from each sale, on top of the subscription. Teachable Starter charges 7.5%, Podia Mover 5%, Payhip's free plan 5%, and Gumroad 10% plus 50 cents per sale.
Payment processing. The card processor's charge. For most platforms in our data this is about 2.9% plus 30 cents per sale.
Own-gateway surcharge. Some platforms add a fee if you connect your own payment account instead of their built-in payments. Kajabi Basic charges 2% and Thinkific Start charges 2% (the Thinkific figure comes from secondary sources, so verify it).

Why "0% transaction fee" is not free

When a platform says it takes 0%, it usually means it takes no cut of its own. The payment processor still charges its normal rate, around 2.9% + 30c per sale. On Teachable Builder, for example, the platform fee is 0% but card processing is still 2.9% + 30c. Stan Store, Systeme.io, LearnWorlds and Payhip also take no cut on at least one plan, and you pay Stripe or PayPal directly. Kit is the exception: it quotes one blended 3.5% + 30c that already includes processing, so you should not add Stripe on top.

How fixed per-sale fees hurt cheap products

A percentage fee scales with the price. A fixed fee does not, so it takes a bigger bite out of small sales. Take Gumroad's 10% + 50c and Stripe's 2.9% + 30c:

$10 product: Gumroad takes $1.00 + $0.50 = $1.50. Processing takes $0.29 + $0.30 = $0.59. Total $2.09, or 20.9% of the sale.
$200 product: Gumroad takes $20.00 + $0.50 = $20.50. Processing takes $5.80 + $0.30 = $6.10. Total $26.60, or 13.3% of the sale.

Even processing alone shows the effect: 59 cents is 5.9% of a $10 sale, but $6.10 is only 3.05% of a $200 sale. If you sell low-priced products, look closely at the per-sale cents. Gumroad's processing charge on top of its own fee comes from secondary sources, so check it before relying on it.

When a pricier plan pays for itself

A higher plan often swaps a percentage fee for a bigger subscription. That trade is worth making once your monthly sales are high enough. Here is the arithmetic for Teachable Starter (7.5% fee) versus Builder (0% fee):

Starter is $39 a month and Builder is $89 a month, a difference of $50.
Builder saves 7.5% of your sales. Break-even is where 7.5% of sales equals $50.
$50 ÷ 0.075 = $666.67 a month in sales.

Check it: at $666.67 in sales, Starter costs $39 + $50.00 = $89, the same as Builder. Below that, Starter is cheaper. Above it, Builder is cheaper. On annual billing ($29 versus $69 a month) the gap is $40, so break-even falls to $533.33 a month. Processing is 2.9% + 30c on both plans, so it does not change the comparison.

Merchant of record and sales tax

Per secondary sources, Gumroad acts as the merchant of record, which means it handles sales tax on your behalf. That is a real service and part of why its fee is higher. Most other platforms in our data have you connect your own Stripe or PayPal account, and the data does not say how they handle tax, so check your own obligations.

Limits we do not model

Plans also differ in how many students, courses, admins or contacts they allow. LearnWorlds Starter, for instance, caps active learners at 1,000 a month, and Systeme.io's free plan allows one course. These limits can matter more than a small fee difference, but the calculator does not model them. It compares fees and subscriptions only, so read each plan's limits before choosing.

To see these costs at your own numbers, use the calculator. For how we collect and verify prices, read our methodology.

How course platform fees work