Migration
Moving from Teachable to LearnDash
The common trigger is the fee and the product cap. Teachable Starter takes a 7.5% transaction fee and caps you at 5 products; LearnDash's license takes no transaction fee and does not cap courses or learners at all. The trade is Teachable's hosting and support for LearnDash's self-managed WordPress site. The move is still a migration project: inventory, written export answers, a reconciliation test, then cutover.
Why creators consider this move
Three registry facts drive most of these switches. None of them is about export tooling, which we do not claim either way.
- The transaction fee. Teachable Starter takes 7.5% of every sale. LearnDash publishes no transaction fee at any license.
- Product caps. Teachable limits products to 5, 10 or 50 depending on plan. LearnDash's license does not cap courses or learners at all, on any tier.
- What you take on. LearnDash is self-supported by default: you or your host run WordPress, backups and updates. Teachable hosts everything with support included.
Plan mapping and the cost delta
Map your Teachable plan to the LearnDash license with matching capability, then add what WordPress hosting will cost you.
| Platform | Platform or transaction fees |
|---|---|
| Thinkific | Thinkific Payments processes cards at standard processor rates (about 2.9% + 30 cents per card transaction). Using your own Stripe or PayPal instead adds a platform surcharge: 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, 1% on Grow, none on Plus. |
| LearnWorlds | No platform transaction fee above Starter; Starter charges 5 USD per course sale. Payment processor fees apply separately. |
| Teachable | Starter takes a 7.5% transaction fee. Builder and Growth take no platform fee, but payment processing (about 2.9% to 4.99% depending on method) still applies. |
| Podia | Mover takes a 5% transaction fee; Shaker and Earthquaker take none. Stripe or PayPal processing (about 2.9% + 30 cents) applies separately. |
| LearnDash | Payments run through your own Stripe or PayPal integration; no platform fee, only processor fees. |
A creator on Teachable Starter ($29 per month on annual billing) selling $3,000 a month pays roughly $348 in subscription plus about $2,700 in transaction fees per year, near $3,048 total. LearnDash Essentials is $259 a year for the license, plus WordPress hosting (commonly $10 to $30 a month) and a page builder if your theme needs one. Run your numbers in the cost calculator.
Apply the checklist to your Teachable school
Follow the full LMS migration checklist and adapt it here.
- Inventory. Count products (capped at 5, 10 or 50), learners, quizzes, certificates and order history.
- Ask both vendors in writing. Request a sample export from Teachable for each object type and check what your WordPress and LearnDash setup can import.
- Run the reconciliation test. Build a fictional dataset, export it, import it into a LearnDash staging site, and compare object counts before and after.
Cutover order
Rebuild and verify before touching anything live. Set up WordPress and LearnDash on a staging site, recreate courses, confirm your payment processor is connected, and run the reconciliation test on fictional data. Keep Teachable live and billing throughout.
Only when the destination is proven do you migrate learners, point your domain, and take on the WordPress maintenance that comes with it.
Frequently asked questions
Does LearnDash charge a transaction fee like Teachable?
Will I need to manage WordPress after leaving Teachable?
Does LearnDash cap the number of products like Teachable?
Keep deciding
LMS migration checklist: what really moves, and what you rebuild
A migration matrix by object type, courses, learners, progress, subscriptions, with what to inventory and what to demand from each vendor in writing.
Teachable vs LearnDash: hosted selling or WordPress ownership
Teachable is a hosted course platform from $29 a month with a 7.5% fee on Starter. LearnDash is a WordPress plugin from $259 a year, license only. Compare cost and control.
LMS transaction fees explained
The three fee layers on course platforms: card processing, platform transaction fees, and the break-even math for when a fee-free plan beats a cheap one.
Hosted LMS vs WordPress LMS: ownership and total cost
SaaS subscription versus a LearnDash license plus hosting, updates and backups. The yearly cost, the responsibility split, and who owns your data.