Best Online Course Platforms

• Fabricate builds a course platform with lessons, quizzes and progress, and takes no share of your sales; video plays from YouTube or Vimeo. Building and previewing are free; publishing is on Pro and Max.
• Teachable Starter is $39 a month with a 7.5% transaction fee; LearnWorlds Starter is $29 with a $5 fee on each paid enrollment; Podia Mover is $49 with a 5% fee.
• Thinkific Start is $109 a month billed monthly, after a 30-day free trial.
• Kajabi Basic is $179 a month, with courses, a website, email and a community and no revenue sharing.

• FabricateWe make this

  Built around

  Your own course and lessons

  Fee on each sale

  None from Fabricate

  Paid plans from

  $25 a month

• TeachableCourse platform

  Built around

  Courses and digital products

  Fee on each sale

  7.5% on Starter

  Paid plans from

  $39 a month

• LearnWorldsCourse platform

  Built around

  An online school

  Fee on each sale

  $5 per paid enrollment on Starter

  Paid plans from

  $29 a month

• PodiaCourse platform

  Built around

  Courses and an email list

  Fee on each sale

  5% on Mover

  Paid plans from

  $49 a month

• ThinkificCourse platform

  Built around

  A course business

  Fee on each sale

  See Thinkific's pricing page

  Paid plans from

  $109 a month

• KajabiAll in one

  Built around

  Courses, site, email, community

  Fee on each sale

  No revenue sharing

  Paid plans from

  $179 a month

Tool	Built around	Fee on each sale	Paid plans from
FabricateWe make this	Your own course and lessons	None from Fabricate	$25 a month
TeachableCourse platform	Courses and digital products	7.5% on Starter	$39 a month
LearnWorldsCourse platform	An online school	$5 per paid enrollment on Starter	$29 a month
PodiaCourse platform	Courses and an email list	5% on Mover	$49 a month
ThinkificCourse platform	A course business	See Thinkific's pricing page	$109 a month
KajabiAll in one	Courses, site, email, community	No revenue sharing	$179 a month

Each tool's cheapest paid plan as its own pricing page showed it on October 26, 2026: billed monthly where the page offers it, otherwise as the page bills it. Fabricate's figures come from our live plans; Stripe charges its own card fees on every platform.

What we looked for

• Lessons and progress

  Modules, lessons, quizzes and a record of what each student finished.

• Fees on each sale

  Does the platform take a share or a fee on each enrollment?

• Video

  Does it host your videos, or play them from somewhere else?

• Everything else

  A website, an email list or a community in the same place?

• Price

  What does the cheapest paid plan cost?

What is the best online course platform?

It depends on what you sell. For a course platform of your own, with no share of your sales, Fabricate, which we make. For a course site ready the day you sign up, Teachable. For the lowest starting price on a ready-made course site, LearnWorlds. For courses with an email list, Podia. To grow a course business, Thinkific. For everything from one company, Kajabi.

Which course platforms take a fee on each sale?

On their cheapest plans, Teachable Starter charges a 7.5% transaction fee, Podia Mover 5% and LearnWorlds Starter $5 for each paid enrollment. Their larger plans drop the fee, and Kajabi has no revenue sharing. Fabricate takes no share of what you are paid; Stripe charges its own card fees.

Can I host videos with Fabricate?

Fabricate does not host video files. Each lesson can show a video you host on YouTube or Vimeo, and anyone who has that video's own link can watch it, so use the video site's privacy settings for anything you sell.

Can I sell my course with Fabricate?

On Pro and Max, the app can take card payments through Stripe Checkout, paid into your own Stripe account, which you connect under More > Payments. Ask for a one-off price or a monthly plan, and the platform opens the course once Stripe confirms the payment. Fabricate takes no share of what you are paid; Stripe charges its own card fees.

Can the platform email my students?

Not about courses. On Pro and Max, a published app sends the emails that confirm a student's address and reset a password; course news and lesson reminders by email are not built in, so send them from your own email tool. Published as a phone app on Pro and Max, the app can remind each person on their own phone at a time they set, such as before a booking, a class or a due date, even with the app closed; on an iPhone, once they have added it to the home screen.