Pricing and fees

LMS transaction fees explained

In this guideTeachablePricing →PodiaPricing →LearnWorldsPricing →ThinkificPricing →

Three fee layers, kept separate

Confusion comes from mixing these together. Keep them apart.

• Card processing: the fee the payment network charges to move money, about 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. Every platform passes this through, whether through its own payments or your Stripe. It is roughly equal everywhere, so it does not decide between platforms.
• Platform transaction fees: an extra cut the LMS takes on top, only on certain plans. This is the layer that changes the ranking. Teachable Starter takes 7.5%, Podia Mover takes 5%, LearnWorlds Starter takes $5 per course sale, and Thinkific adds a surcharge of 5%, 2% or 1% on Basic, Start and Grow if you bring your own gateway instead of Thinkific Payments.
• The subscription: the flat plan price. Higher plans usually drop the platform fee to zero, which is the whole trade you are weighing.

Why the platform fee is the dangerous one

Card processing is unavoidable and equal across platforms, so ignore it when comparing. The platform fee is different: it scales with your revenue and it is optional in the sense that a higher plan removes it. That means at some sales volume, paying more for a fee-free plan is cheaper than paying less and bleeding a percentage on every sale.

The trap is that the cheap plan looks cheap on the pricing page, where no sales have happened yet. Run your own volume through the fee before you choose. Below are three clean break-even calculations you can copy.

Three break-even calculations

The method is always the same: find the monthly sales volume where the platform fee on the cheap plan equals the price gap to the fee-free plan. Above that volume, upgrade.

1. Teachable Starter (7.5%) vs Builder (0%)

On annual billing, Starter is $29 per month and Builder is $69, a gap of $40 per month. Starter's fee covers that gap when 7.5% of monthly sales exceeds $40. Divide: $40 divided by 0.075 equals about $533. So above roughly $533 per month in sales, Builder is cheaper than Starter despite costing more, and it adds a custom domain and affiliates.

2. LearnWorlds Starter ($5 per sale) vs Pro Trainer (no fee)

On annual billing, Starter is $24 per month and Pro Trainer is $79, a gap of $55 per month. Starter charges $5 per course sale, so it costs $55 once you make 11 sales in a month ($55 divided by $5 equals 11). Above 11 course sales per month, Pro Trainer is cheaper on fees alone, and it also adds SCORM and a client group.

3. Podia Mover (5%) vs Shaker (0%)

Mover is $42 per month and Shaker is $84, a gap of $42 per month, with no annual discount on either. Mover's 5% fee reaches $42 when monthly sales hit $840 ($42 divided by 0.05 equals $840). Above roughly $840 per month in sales, Shaker costs the same or less after the fee, and adds affiliates, upsells and an assistant.

Turn this into your own number

The pattern generalizes. Take the price gap between your cheap plan and the fee-free plan above it, then divide by the fee rate to find your break-even monthly sales. For a per-sale fee like LearnWorlds, divide the gap by the fee per sale to get a break-even sale count instead. Below the break-even, the cheap plan wins. Above it, upgrade.

The cost calculator runs this across all five platforms at once from your learners, admins, sales and order value, so you do not have to do each division by hand. For how fees fit each platform's tiers, see the Thinkific, Teachable and Podia plan pages.

Frequently asked questions

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