Teachable
Course-hosting platform for online courses, coaching, memberships and digital downloads, owned by Hotmart since a 2020 acquisition.
Who it's for
Creators selling courses, coaching or digital downloads at real volume who want AI-assisted course building and are willing to pay past the entry tier to drop the per-sale fee.
Standout details
- Teachable's own pricing page gives two different trial lengths. The plan cards list a 7-day trial with a 30-day money-back guarantee, while a separate pop-up on the same page advertises a 30-day free trial, so it's worth confirming which one you actually get before starting the clock
- Starter, the $39/mo entry plan ($29/mo billed annually), is the only tier with a Teachable transaction fee, 7.5% on every sale on top of card processing (2.9% + $0.30 for U.S. cards); Builder at $89/mo and Growth at $189/mo drop that to 0% through Teachable Payments
- AI tools ship on every paid plan, including Starter. A course-starter tool drafts a curriculum, a quiz generator builds questions from existing lesson content, and automatic subtitles translate into more than 70 languages
- Teachable has been owned by Brazilian edtech company Hotmart since a 2020 acquisition; founder Ankur Nagpal stayed on as CEO after starting the company in 2013 under the name Fedora
- Teachable's Trustpilot page shows a 3.2 average (TrustScore 3) across 1,060 reviews, well below its 4.3 rating on Capterra; a February 2026 Trustpilot review describes being charged $500 after repeated cancellation attempts, which Teachable's reply attributed to each school owner managing their own billing and refunds
What it is
Teachable is a hosted platform for building and selling online courses, coaching programs, memberships and digital downloads, with a drag-and-drop course builder, student mobile apps for iOS and Android, and built-in payments across 45-plus countries. Ankur Nagpal started the company in New York in 2013 under the name Fedora before rebranding it to Teachable. Brazilian edtech company Hotmart acquired it in 2020, and Nagpal stayed on as CEO.
Who should use it
A creator whose business is primarily course sales, where the payment processing, student apps and AI course-building tools matter more than running a community. It’s a weaker fit for someone who wants community features built in from the start, or who is still testing an idea and does not yet have the volume to make Starter’s 7.5% fee worth escaping.
What stands out
The fee structure is the first thing to budget around. Starter at $39/mo ($29/mo billed annually) keeps a 7.5% cut on every sale, stacked on top of whatever card processing already takes. Builder at $89/mo and Growth at $189/mo both drop that Teachable fee to 0% through Teachable Payments, which means the real break-even question isn’t the monthly price difference but how much of that 7.5% you’d pay on your actual sales volume before the upgrade pays for itself.
The AI tooling is genuinely built into the base plan rather than reserved for the top tier. A course-starter tool drafts a curriculum from a topic, a quiz generator builds questions from existing lesson content, and Teachable auto-generates subtitles and translates them into more than 70 languages, all available on Starter.
One detail worth flagging before signing up: Teachable’s own pricing page doesn’t agree with itself on the trial. The plan comparison cards list a 7-day trial paired with a 30-day money-back guarantee, while a pop-up on the same page advertises a straight 30-day free trial. Which one applies is worth confirming with support rather than assuming.
Review sentiment is mixed in a way that’s worth sitting with. Trustpilot puts Teachable at 3.2 out of 5 (TrustScore 3) across 1,060 reviews, while Capterra rates it 4.3 out of 183. A February 2026 Trustpilot reviewer reported being charged $500 after repeated attempts to cancel, and Teachable’s public reply pointed to its policy that each school owner manages their own subscription, billing and refunds rather than Teachable handling it centrally.
The verdict
Teachable earns its place once you’re past the testing phase and selling courses at a volume where the 0% fee on Builder or Growth clearly beats paying 7.5% on Starter. The AI course-building tools are a real time-saver on day one rather than a gimmick reserved for higher tiers, and Hotmart’s backing shows up in the breadth of payment and tax handling.
What it doesn’t earn is the benefit of the doubt on support and billing. The Trustpilot score sitting more than a full point below Capterra’s, combined with a visible cancellation complaint Teachable itself answered by pointing back at the creator, is enough to budget extra time for account administration rather than assuming it runs itself. Skip Teachable while you’re still validating an idea at low volume, since Starter’s fee eats into exactly the sales you’re trying to prove out, and look elsewhere if a community is the actual product you’re building around a course.
Honest verdict
Teachable works as a straightforward default once you're selling courses at real volume: Builder and Growth charge 0% on top of card fees, the AI course-starter and quiz tools cut real setup time, and Hotmart's backing means tax handling across 45-plus countries is someone else's problem. The catches are specific rather than vague. Starter, the plan most new creators land on, keeps a 7.5% fee that only goes away once you commit to $89/mo or more, and the trial length is unclear on Teachable's own pricing page, 7 days in one place and 30 in another. The Trustpilot score, well under Teachable's own Capterra rating, lines up with real complaints about billing and cancellation friction. Skip Teachable if you're testing an idea with a handful of students and can't justify $89/mo to avoid the fee, or if responsive human support matters more to you than AI tooling.
Published 11 Oct 2026