Selling a course is a commerce problem wearing an education costume.
This guide ranks the platforms creators and small businesses use to sell courses, memberships and communities on what decides the annual bill: whether the platform takes a percentage of every sale, who is the merchant of record for VAT, and how the video leaves.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry
says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a
vendor. How that works.
In short
What online course platform software does
An online course platform hosts the video, sells the access, handles the checkout and tracks who watched what, so a course can be a product rather than a file.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each online course platform tool is built for. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Per month, published, from $79; a transaction fee of 2% to 0.5% on every plan
—
A membership community that wants native phone apps on every plan
A course catalogue where the community is an afterthought
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Courses, downloads and memberships on one published monthly price
Ranked #1 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Podia is the default answer for one person selling a handful of courses and downloads, because everything needed to take money is already switched on, and from the Shaker plan up the seller keeps all of it; Mover takes 5%.
Setup is an afternoon. The ceiling arrives when the catalogue grows: drip sequences, cohort logic, quizzes and reporting are all thinner than they look in the demo, and the built-in email tool is the first thing most sellers replace.
What stands out
No cut above Mover
Published price
Fast setup
Where it costs you
Email marketing and the site builder are basic
Quizzes are multiple choice only, and the entry Mover plan takes 5% of sales
Right for
A solo creator who wants one bill and no sales cut from the Shaker plan up
Wrong for
Structured training that needs assessment, certificates and completion reporting
United States14-day trial only, no free plan; published monthly plans, Mover takes 5% of sales, Shaker and Earthquaker take no cut
WordPress plugin that keeps the course on your own hosting
Ranked #2 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
LearnDash is the independence option: the course, the students and the video references live in your database, nobody meters enrolments, and the annual licence does not scale with sales. That is also the work.
WordPress hosting, plugin conflicts and backups become part of running a course business, though Stripe and PayPal checkout come built in, with WooCommerce optional. Right for anyone with a developer nearby, wrong for anyone without one.
What stands out
Self-hosted
No sales cut
Annual licence
Where it costs you
You own the hosting, updates and security
Group management is reserved for the Elite plan
Right for
An organisation that wants the course data on its own server
Wrong for
A creator who does not want to run WordPress
United StatesAnnual licence, published, from $259 a year; no hosted option listed, WordPress hosting is yours
German platform that can sell the course as merchant of record
Ranked #3 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
elopage, now renamed ablefy, earns its place on tax, not on teaching. In reseller mode it sells the course in its own name, so cross-border VAT inside the EU is handled at its end rather than yours, which removes a real annual chore for a small seller.
The product around that is competent and unexciting: course design is templated, the automation is limited, and the fee per sale means the arithmetic has to be redone once monthly revenue grows.
What stands out
Merchant of record
EU VAT handled
EU hosting
Where it costs you
Per-sale fee on top of the monthly plan
Interface and support are German before English
Right for
An EU seller who wants VAT filing off their own books
Wrong for
An English-first brand that wants polished course design work
Germany14-day trial only; monthly plan published from EUR 27, plus 2.7% and EUR 0.50 per sale; reseller mode adds 2.5% and EUR 1.00
Established course host that handles tax on digital sales
Ranked #4 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Teachable is a settled product doing an unglamorous job well: checkout, coupons, affiliates, payouts and tax on digital goods all work without a project, though affiliates start on Builder.
The pricing structure is the thing to read carefully, because the 7.5% taken on Starter turns into the largest line on the invoice at any real volume, and the fix is an upgrade rather than a negotiation. Course design stays templated no matter what you pay.
What stands out
Tax handling
Affiliate tools
Sales cut on Starter
Where it costs you
The Starter plan takes 7.5% of every sale
Community and design control are limited
Right for
A seller who wants tax and affiliates handled without building them
Wrong for
A high-volume seller sitting on a percentage plan
United StatesStarter takes 7.5% of each sale; Builder and above, published, take none on Teachable Payments; 7-day trial only
Community first, with courses attached to the membership
Ranked #5 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Circle is bought for the forum, the live rooms and the events, and the course module exists so members have something to work through between conversations. For that shape it is one of the two strongest options here, alongside Mighty Networks.
Judged as a course platform it is weak: no real assessment, thin progress reporting, limited drip control. The risk is not technical but commercial, because a quiet community renews far worse than a finished course does.
What stands out
Community first
Email Hub add-on
Fee on every plan
Where it costs you
Course features stay shallow next to a real LMS
Transaction fee on every plan: 2% on Professional, 1% on Business and Scale, 0.5% on Circle Plus
Right for
A paid community where the course is the joining excuse
Wrong for
A catalogue of structured courses with assessment and certificates
United StatesPer month per plan, published, from $89 on annual billing; a transaction fee of 2% to 0.5% on every plan
Funnels, email and courses in one expensive published plan
Ranked #6 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Kajabi is priced as a business system rather than a course host, and for someone already turning over real money the flat fee with no revenue share on Kajabi Payments beats a percentage plan easily; bringing your own processor adds 2%, 1% or 0.5% by plan.
Before that revenue exists it is an expensive way to find out a course does not sell. The deeper cost is concentration: pages, emails, funnels, checkout and community all live there, so migrating later is a rebuild rather than an export.
What stands out
All in one
Fee on outside processors
Priciest tiers
Where it costs you
The most expensive entry plan in the category
Everything is replaced at once when you leave
Right for
An established seller consolidating funnels, email and courses in one place
Wrong for
A first course with no audience and no revenue yet
United StatesPer month, published tiers by products and contacts, from $179; a 2% to 0.5% fee on sales through third-party processors
Cheap British checkout for courses, files and memberships
Ranked #7 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Payhip is a checkout with a course viewer bolted on, and priced accordingly: free with a 5% cut while you are testing, 2% on Plus and nothing on Pro once sales justify $99 a month.
The EU VAT handling is the part that punches above the price, since Payhip collects and remits the tax, which removes the rate table from a small seller's life. Everything else is deliberately small. Expect to outgrow it within a year or two, and treat that as the plan rather than a surprise.
What stands out
EU VAT handled
Free to start
UK based
Where it costs you
The course player and reporting are minimal
No community and no automation to speak of
Right for
A first paid course that needs a checkout this week
Wrong for
A growing catalogue that needs community and automation
United KingdomFree with 5% of each sale; Plus at $29 a month takes 2%, Pro at $99 takes nothing
French funnel builder with courses and email included free
Ranked #8 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Systeme.io bundles funnels, email, affiliates and courses at a price that undercuts everything else here, and the free tier is complete enough to run a real launch.
Nothing about it is polished: the builder is clumsy, the templates look old, and the course experience is the weakest part of the bundle. It is the cheapest way to answer the only question that matters at the start, which is whether anybody pays.
What stands out
Generous free tier
No sales cut
French vendor
Where it costs you
Interface and course player feel dated
Support is documentation and email only
Right for
Testing whether a course sells before paying for a platform
Wrong for
A brand where the buying experience must look current
FranceFree tier with limits; paid monthly plans published, no cut of sales
French all-in-one for courses, funnels, email and payments
Ranked #9 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
LearnyBox is a French SAS that sells an all-in-one: course hosting, membership areas, sales funnels, email, and payments, on a free plan and several published monthly tiers.
For a creator in France the attraction is a local contracting party, French-language support and French contract terms. For anyone else it is a harder sell than Systeme.io, which is also French and has a larger international following. Test the export of students and videos before committing.
What stands out
European vendor
All-in-one
French-first
Where it costs you
French-first product, documentation and community
Page and design tools are less refined than Kajabi's
Right for
A French-speaking creator who wants courses, funnels and email in one
Wrong for
An English-language creator who sells mainly outside France
FranceFree plan; paid per month by plan, published
A community with a classroom, on two published plans
Ranked #10 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Skool sells two plans and one opinion about how a paid community should work, and that opinion is why groups stay active: a single feed, a leaderboard, and a classroom that never asks to be configured. The limits are equally blunt.
No funnels, no email sequences, no serious analytics, and no way to make it look like your brand. It does act as merchant of record and remits VAT on member payments. Buy it for the group, not for the courses.
What stands out
Two plans
Community first
Deliberately minimal
Where it costs you
Almost no design control or marketing tooling
A transaction fee on every sale: 10% on Hobby, 2.9% on Pro
Right for
A paid group whose value is the other members in it
Wrong for
A course business that needs funnels and segmentation
United StatesPer community per month, published: Hobby $9 plus a 10% transaction fee, Pro $99 plus 2.9%
Video membership, with branded phone apps from App Essentials and TV apps on Custom
Ranked #11 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Uscreen is an over-the-top video business in a box, and the branded television and phone apps are what the money buys, on the App Essentials and Custom plans rather than the entry ones. For a fitness channel or a hobby library that is exactly right.
For a course it is a mismatch: learners are viewers, progress is watch time, and assessment barely exists. The per-subscriber charge also means the bill rises with success, which needs to be in the model before launch.
What stands out
Branded apps
Video first
Per-subscriber fees
Where it costs you
Weak assessment and completion tracking
Charges grow with every paying subscriber
Right for
A video library sold as a monthly subscription with apps
Wrong for
Structured courses where finishing matters more than watching
United StatesPer month, published from $49; $1.99 or $0.99 per subscriber on Growth and App Essentials, and 5% to 10% on one-time sales
Marketing suite with courses attached, priced by contacts
Ranked #12 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Kartra, a Las Vegas company, sells pages, funnels, email, checkout and membership sites under one login.
That breadth is the reason to buy it and the reason to hesitate: the course module works but feels secondary, and the tiers are set by contacts and emails, so a large free list raises the bill before sales do. Setup takes longer than Podia's. Export contacts regularly; the funnels themselves do not travel.
What stands out
Marketing suite
Funnels
Contact-based tiers
Where it costs you
Learner experience is plainer than on dedicated course platforms
Price scales with contacts, and Essentials also takes 5% of sales
Right for
A marketer running launches who wants funnels and courses together
Wrong for
An educator whose main product is the course itself
United StatesPer month by plan, published; tiers by contacts and email volume; Essentials takes 5% of sales, higher plans none
Course platform with mobile apps, built for Indian payments
Ranked #13 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingAsia-Pacific
Graphy is well built for its home market, with mobile apps, live cohorts, local payment methods and prices that European vendors cannot match.
Bought from Europe, those advantages invert: the tax handling assumes Indian rules, support hours sit in another timezone, and cross-border VAT is left entirely to you. Ownership by Unacademy adds the usual question about which features survive the parent company's next strategy.
What stands out
Mobile apps
India first
Owned by Unacademy
Where it costs you
Tax and payment defaults assume the Indian market
Roadmap is set by its parent company
Right for
A creator selling mainly to learners inside India on mobile
Wrong for
An EU seller who needs local VAT handling
IndiaPer month, published tiers; annual billing discounted
Community and courses with mobile apps on every plan
Ranked #14 of 14 in Best Online Course Platform in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Mighty Networks does communities with native mobile apps and member matchmaking, and courses as a supporting act. Native apps come with every plan, which matters because a member who installs an app churns less than one who bookmarks a page, though Circle includes shared apps too and an app under your own name is reserved for the quoted Mighty Pro tier.
The course side is not competitive with LearnDash or Teachable, the transaction fee matters once memberships sell, and the frequent repackaging makes long-range budgeting awkward.
What stands out
Mobile apps on every plan
Fee on every plan
Community first
Where it costs you
Percentage of sales on every plan, from 2% down to 0.5%
Plan names and features change often
Right for
A membership community that wants native phone apps on every plan
Wrong for
A course catalogue where the community is an afterthought
United StatesPer month, published, from $79; a transaction fee of 2% to 0.5% on every plan
An online course platform hosts the video, sells the access, handles the checkout and tracks who watched what, so a course can be a product rather than a file. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
14 of the 14 tools here publish what they cost; the other 0 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: Podia, LearnDash, ablefy, Teachable, Circle, Kajabi, Payhip, Systeme.io, LearnyBox, Skool, Uscreen, Kartra, Graphy, Mighty Networks.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 14 vendors are established in 5 countries across 3 regions (North America 9, Europe 4, Asia-Pacific 1). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
Where an online course platform stops and an LMS begins
These two categories sell video and call it training, and the difference is who pays. A course platform exists to take money from strangers: checkout, coupons, affiliates, funnels, tax. Podia, Kajabi, Teachable and Payhip are all built around that transaction. A staff-training LMS exists to prove that employees completed something: org structure, assigned paths, compliance reporting, audit trail.
Nothing on this page does the second job properly, and the products that do are in our learning management guide instead. The rule is simple. If the learner has an invoice, you are shopping here. If the learner has an employee number, you are shopping there. Buying the wrong one leaves you either without a checkout or without a compliance report, and both are expensive discoveries.
Ask whether the learner pays you or is paid by you.
If completion has to be provable to an auditor, this is the wrong category.
Selling to companies as well as consumers usually means two systems, not one.
The revenue cut, not the plan fee, decides the bill
Read the transaction fee before the monthly price. Teachable, Podia, Kartra and Payhip take a percentage of sales on their lowest plans; Circle, Mighty Networks and Skool charge a transaction fee on every plan, smaller on the dearer ones; Kajabi adds a fee of 2% to 0.5% when you use a processor other than Kajabi Payments; LearnDash, Systeme.io and LearnyBox take nothing at any tier. At low volume the percentage plan wins and the flat plan looks absurd.
Somewhere around a few thousand a month in sales the lines cross, and after that the cheap plan is quietly the most expensive product on the page. Do the arithmetic at your realistic annual revenue rather than at this month's, because the fee scales with success and the plan fee does not. Payment processing sits on top of both, and the platform cut is charged in addition to what the processor takes, not instead of it.
Multiply the percentage by your target annual revenue before comparing plans.
Check whether the fee applies to refunds and chargebacks too.
Confirm whether processing charges are on top of the platform's cut.
Who is the merchant of record, and who files the VAT
Sell a course to a consumer in another EU country and VAT is due at their rate, not yours, which is what the OSS scheme exists to collect. The question that decides how much work this is: does the platform sell in its own name, or does it sell in yours? ablefy (formerly elopage) in reseller mode, Skool as merchant of record, and Payhip's handling of EU VAT, put that filing on the vendor's side.
Kajabi, Podia and LearnDash connect your own Stripe account, which means the sale is yours, the rates are yours and the OSS return is yours to file every quarter. Neither model is wrong, but only one of them is a decision you can make after launch without unpicking a year of invoices.
Ask in writing whether the platform is the seller of record or a payment agent.
If it is not, register for OSS before the first cross-border consumer sale.
Check that invoices carry the buyer's country VAT rate, not your own.
Getting out: the video, the list and the students
Three things have to leave separately and only one of them usually exports cleanly. Student records and email addresses come out as CSV nearly everywhere. Video is worse: Kajabi and Uscreen host it themselves, so leaving means re-uploading a library and losing every embed.
Community history is worst of all, because the archive of a Circle, Skool or Mighty Networks group is the thing members paid for and is rarely exportable in a form anyone can read. LearnDash avoids all three problems by keeping everything on hosting you already control, which is most of why it ranks where it does. Keep your masters somewhere the platform cannot reach, and the migration becomes an inconvenience instead of a loss.
Keep original video files outside the platform from the first upload.
Export the student and email list during the trial, not at the end.
Ask what happens to community posts and comments when the account closes.
What goes wrong most often when buying online course platform software
Comparing monthly plan prices while ignoring the percentage of sales. At any real volume the cut is the larger number.
Selling to EU consumers on a Stripe-connected platform without registering for OSS, then discovering the VAT was due at the buyer's rate all along.
Uploading the only copy of the video to Kajabi or Uscreen and deleting the masters.
Buying a community product such as Circle or Skool to deliver structured training, then finding there is no assessment, no drip control and no completion report.
07
Frequently asked questions
7 answers
What is the best online course platform in 2026?
Podia leads our ranking of 14. Podia puts courses, digital downloads, a community and an email list behind one published monthly price, and above the entry Mover plan, which takes 5% of sales, no percentage leaves the building, which is the number that matters once revenue is real.
The trade is depth: the course player is plain, the email tool is basic, quizzes are multiple choice only, and the site builder will not survive a designer's opinion.
Which online course platform tools publish their pricing?
14 of the 14, with the pricing model each one publishes:
Podia: 14-day trial only, no free plan; published monthly plans, Mover takes 5% of sales, Shaker and Earthquaker take no cut.
LearnDash: Annual licence, published, from $259 a year; no hosted option listed, WordPress hosting is yours.
ablefy: 14-day trial only; monthly plan published from EUR 27, plus 2.7% and EUR 0.50 per sale; reseller mode adds 2.5% and EUR 1.00.
Teachable: Starter takes 7.5% of each sale; Builder and above, published, take none on Teachable Payments; 7-day trial only.
Circle: Per month per plan, published, from $89 on annual billing; a transaction fee of 2% to 0.5% on every plan.
Kajabi: Per month, published tiers by products and contacts, from $179; a 2% to 0.5% fee on sales through third-party processors.
Payhip: Free with 5% of each sale; Plus at $29 a month takes 2%, Pro at $99 takes nothing.
Systeme.io: Free tier with limits; paid monthly plans published, no cut of sales.
LearnyBox: Free plan; paid per month by plan, published.
Skool: Per community per month, published: Hobby $9 plus a 10% transaction fee, Pro $99 plus 2.9%.
Uscreen: Per month, published from $49; $1.99 or $0.99 per subscriber on Growth and App Essentials, and 5% to 10% on one-time sales.
Kartra: Per month by plan, published; tiers by contacts and email volume; Essentials takes 5% of sales, higher plans none.
Graphy: Per month, published tiers; annual billing discounted.
Mighty Networks: Per month, published, from $79; a transaction fee of 2% to 0.5% on every plan.
The other 0 quote per organisation.
Is there a free online course platform tool?
Payhip, Systeme.io, LearnyBox offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these online course platform vendors established?
In 5 countries across 3 regions: North America 9, Europe 4, Asia-Pacific 1.
Podia: United States.
LearnDash: United States.
ablefy: Germany.
Teachable: United States.
Circle: United States.
Kajabi: United States.
Payhip: United Kingdom.
Systeme.io: France.
LearnyBox: France.
Skool: United States.
Uscreen: United States.
Kartra: United States.
Graphy: India.
Mighty Networks: United States.
Which online course platform tools can you host yourself?
LearnDash. The other 13 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of Podia?
LearnDash and ablefy are the next two on this page. LearnDash is for an organisation that wants the course data on its own server; ablefy is for an EU seller who wants VAT filing off their own books.
Who should not buy Podia?
Structured training that needs assessment, certificates and completion reporting. Email marketing and the site builder are basic.
If your online course platform product belongs among these 14, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
