Migration
Moving from Teachable to Thinkific
The common trigger is the fee. Teachable Starter takes a 7.5% transaction fee, while Thinkific Payments charges no platform fee. Add product caps of 5, 10 and 50 on Teachable versus unlimited courses on Thinkific, plus group and B2B selling from Thinkific Grow, and the case builds. The switch is still a migration project: inventory, written export answers, a reconciliation test, then a careful cutover.
Why creators consider this move
Four registry facts do most of the work. None of them is about export tooling, which we do not claim for either platform.
- The transaction fee. Teachable Starter takes 7.5% of every sale. On $36,000 of yearly sales that is $2,700, more than most subscriptions. Thinkific Payments takes no platform fee; bringing your own Stripe or PayPal adds a surcharge (5% on Basic, 2% on Start, 1% on Grow, none on Plus), so use Thinkific Payments to avoid it.
- Product caps. Teachable limits products to 5 on Starter, 10 on Builder and 50 on Growth. Thinkific lists unlimited courses on every plan. A growing catalog hits the Teachable ceiling; Thinkific does not have one.
- Group and B2B selling. Thinkific opens group and B2B selling plus invoicing from Grow. Teachable publishes no comparable seat-selling workflow. If you want to sell to companies, that is a real gap.
- Admin seats. Thinkific Grow lists six admin seats; Teachable Growth lists five. A small edge, but it matters for a team.
Plan mapping and the cost delta
Map your Teachable plan to the Thinkific tier with matching capability, then compute the yearly total including fees. On Starter, the fee is often the whole story.
| 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. Thinkific Basic ($40 per month on annual billing) with Thinkific Payments takes no platform fee, so the comparable total is closer to $480. The fee, not the subscription, decides the entry-level case. If you need group selling and branding removal, map to Thinkific Grow ($164 per month on annual billing). Put your real sales volume into the cost calculator.
Apply the checklist to your Teachable school
Follow the full LMS migration checklist and adapt it to Teachable.
- Inventory. Count products (you are capped at 5, 10 or 50), learners, quizzes, issued certificates, order history and any active payment plans. Note which fields you need to keep for each learner.
- Ask both vendors in writing. Request a sample export from Teachable for each object type and ask Thinkific what it imports and in what format. Get the subscription answer in writing from both.
- Run the reconciliation test. Build a fictional dataset, export it, import it into a Thinkific trial, and compare object counts and fields before and after. Confirm completion records and order data arrive intact, not just names and emails.
Cutover order
Rebuild and verify before touching anything live. Recreate courses in Thinkific, set up Thinkific Payments so you actually escape the fee, configure group selling if you plan B2B, 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 announce. If active payment plans cannot move, plan learner communication before cutover. The point of leaving Teachable Starter is usually the 7.5% fee, so confirm Thinkific Payments is live before you send a single learner across.
Frequently asked questions
Does Thinkific really have no transaction fee?
Will my Teachable courses and students import into Thinkific?
When is leaving Teachable worth it financially?
Can Teachable sell training seats to companies like Thinkific?
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.
Thinkific vs Teachable: entry price versus the fee
Teachable Starter is cheaper monthly but charges 7.5% per sale. Thinkific takes no platform fee with its payments. See where the math flips.
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.
Selling training seats to companies: the buyer-to-learner workflow
The buyer-to-learner path for B2B seat sales, with named roles and the three things vendors blur: purchase orders, payment, and seat allocation.