Thinkific vs Teachable for Coaches: 2026 Comparison

Thinkific vs Teachable comes down to budget versus breadth. Teachable is cheaper to start, at $39 a month for Starter as listed in October 2026, and includes iOS and Android student apps, but that plan takes a 7.5% transaction fee. Thinkific starts at $109 a month for Start and gives you unlimited courses, a community and live cohorts from the first plan, with no Thinkific fee when you use Thinkific Payments. Choose Teachable to test one or two courses cheaply, Thinkific to build a course business with a community around it. Neither is built to run 1:1 coaching clients, with booking, contracts, habits and check-ins, and that gap matters more for most coaches than anything else in this comparison.

We make Coachful, a coaching platform, so weigh our view of the third option with that in mind. Everything here about Thinkific and Teachable comes from their own pricing pages as listed in October 2026, their documented features, our September 2026 vendor profiles where noted, and public review scores. We did not run paid accounts on either platform for this article.

What is the short answer for each kind of coach?

If you sell courses first and coach second, pick between Thinkific and Teachable by budget and product count. If you coach clients first and sell courses second, neither is the right core tool. Here is the quick version by situation:

• One flagship course on a tight budget: Teachable Starter at $39 a month, but move to Builder once your course sales pass roughly $667 a month, because the 7.5% fee then costs more than the upgrade (the math is below).
• Several courses plus a community and live cohorts: Thinkific Start. Unlimited courses, one community with 10 spaces, five live community events and Zoom-based live cohorts are all on the entry plan.
• Lots of small products: Thinkific. Teachable caps products at 5, 10 and 50 across Starter, Builder and Growth.
• Students who learn on their phones: Teachable, which lists iOS and Android student apps on every self-serve plan. Thinkific's branded mobile app is a $199 a month add-on.
• A small team running the school: Thinkific, with 2 admins on Start and 6 on Grow. Teachable allows 1 admin until Growth, which allows 5.
• 1:1 or group coaching with programs, habits, check-ins, booking and payments in one place: a coaching platform such as Coachful, covered in its own section below.

How do Thinkific, Teachable and Coachful compare side by side?

On features coaches actually use, Thinkific is the stronger course platform, Teachable is the cheaper one, and Coachful is the only one of the three built around the coaching client. This table puts the three next to each other.

Ranked on what decides a coaching business: one login for the whole client journey, delivery between sessions, total stack cost, and setup effort, including Coachful's free white-glove build.

Between the two course platforms, the honest verdict for coaches is Thinkific for depth and Teachable for price. Thinkific puts community, cohorts, memberships, certificates and unlimited courses on its entry plan. Teachable gets you selling for less and ships student apps by default, but holds back certificates and branding removal until Growth at $189 a month.

How much do Thinkific and Teachable cost in 2026?

Teachable runs $39, $89 and $189 a month on its three self-serve plans; Thinkific runs $109, $219 and $499, all as listed in October 2026. Both offer a custom tier above that, and both discount annual billing.

Thinkific's prices moved recently. On August 13, 2026, Start rose from $99 to $109 a month and Grow from $199 to $219, roughly a 10% increase. The older Basic plan is no longer on the public pricing page, and Expand is a new tier at $499 a month. If you see euros instead of dollars, that is because Thinkific's pricing page shows local currency; in October 2026 it showed €107, €213 and €488 a month. The dollar figures here come from Thinkific's official AI info page, which says they were confirmed in October 2026.

Teachable's prices did not change between our September profile and October 2026. What did change is the fine print: the old active-student caps are gone and every self-serve plan now lists students as "Unlimited", the Starter plan now lists student apps and AI creation tools, and PayPal rates and a $15 chargeback fee are now spelled out on the page.

For the full plan breakdowns, see our Thinkific pricing guide and Teachable pricing guide.

When does Teachable Builder pay for itself?

Teachable Builder pays for itself once you sell more than about $667 a month on monthly billing, or about $533 a month on annual billing. Builder costs $50 more per month than Starter ($89 versus $39), and 7.5% of $667 is $50. On annual billing the gap is $40 ($69 versus $29), and 7.5% of $533 is $40.

As an example, a coach who sells a $297 course (an illustrative price) to four buyers in a month takes in $1,188. On Starter, Teachable keeps $89.10 in transaction fees, so the month costs $128.10 before card processing. On Builder the same month costs $89. The table below runs the same logic at $2,000 a month in sales, again as an example.

Card processing comes on top everywhere. Teachable Payments lists 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards and 3.9% + 30¢ for international cards. Thinkific describes its Thinkific Payments rate as "in line with other processors at 2.9%".

What does the whole stack cost a coach?

The plan price is only part of the bill, because neither course platform covers the coaching side of the business. A coach running 1:1 or group clients on Thinkific or Teachable usually adds a scheduler for discovery and coaching calls (see our Calendly pricing guide for what that costs), an e-signature tool for coaching agreements, a video tool for sessions, and often a separate app or spreadsheet for habits and check-ins between calls. Each of those has its own login, its own bill and its own copy of the client's details.

That is the comparison worth making. Teachable Starter at $39 is not cheaper than a coaching platform if you also pay for three or four tools to fill the gaps. Add up the tools you would actually keep before you decide.

Which is better for building and selling courses?

Thinkific is the deeper course builder, particularly on its entry plan. Teachable is simpler and cheaper, with AI creation tools and student apps included from Starter, but it limits how many products you can sell.

On Thinkific Start, as listed in October 2026, you get unlimited courses, digital downloads, and coaching or webinar products, plus quizzes, certificates, bundles, upsells, payment plans, memberships, a custom domain, and live cohorts run over Zoom. Start allows up to 10,000 current students and 200 GB a month of video bandwidth. Grow adds exams and question banks, B2B sales and invoicing, an API and webhooks, and engagement reports. The custom Plus tier adds an AI teaching assistant, SSO, SCORM and learning paths.

Teachable's plans are organised around product counts: 5 on Starter, 10 on Builder, 50 on Growth. Every plan includes AI creation tools, upsells, cart recovery, global payments and taxes, and up to 1 TB of video. Builder adds an affiliate program and real-time support. Certificates only arrive on Growth, along with removing Teachable branding, importing existing students, custom admin permissions, and free subtitles and translations.

The practical difference: a coach with one signature course and a couple of downloads fits comfortably inside Teachable's limits. A coach who wants a library of mini-courses, a certificate at the end of each one, and a members' area on day one will hit Teachable's walls sooner and should look at Thinkific. Our Thinkific review and Teachable review go deeper on each builder.

Which handles coaching calls and 1:1 clients better?

Neither handles 1:1 coaching well. Both are built to sell courses to students, not to run an ongoing relationship with a client, and both leave scheduling to other tools.

Thinkific lists coaching and webinar products and Zoom-based live cohorts on every self-serve plan. Our September 2026 profile found no built-in 1:1 scheduling: coaching products rely on external booking links. Teachable, per the same profile, has no native scheduling or calendar sync, and coaching calls run through Calendly and Zoom. Neither platform has client habits, daily check-ins or a plan that differs per client.

Here is what a coaching practice usually needs that a course platform does not supply:

• Booking pages with availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection.
• Reminders by email, and ideally SMS or WhatsApp, before each session.
• Intake questions at booking and a coaching agreement signed before the first call.
• A client record with notes, goals, sessions and payments in one place.
• Something for the client to do between sessions: tasks, habits, check-ins.

Coachful covers all five in one account. Booking pages include availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, with two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook calendar sync, built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links, paid sessions and session credits. Here is a short walkthrough of scheduling in Coachful.

If you only need to add a booking page to a course you already sell, a standalone scheduler works. If booking is half of your business, see our coaching scheduling software page.

How do payments, fees and checkout differ?

Thinkific charges no platform fee when you use Thinkific Payments; Teachable charges 7.5% on Starter and nothing from Builder up. Both support PayPal, but each adds conditions.

Thinkific's 0% fee applies to Thinkific Payments and its commerce stack. If you connect Stripe or PayPal as a third-party gateway instead, Thinkific adds a per-plan gateway fee, and the pricing page does not list the amounts. Checkout tools on Start include bundles, upsells and payment plans.

Teachable lists more of its numbers. Through Teachable Payments, US cards cost 2.9% + 30¢ and international cards 3.9% + 30¢. PayPal costs 3.49% + 49¢ in the US and 4.99% + 49¢ internationally. There is a $15 fee per chargeback, and an optional BackOffice service priced at 2% to 2.8% of sales. Upsells and cart recovery are on every plan.

Coachful takes payments through the coach's own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, with a 0% Coachful platform fee since August 2026, so the only cost is Stripe or Razorpay processing. It supports one-time payments, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, refunds, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and Stripe Tax, and creates an invoice per transaction plus manual invoices when you need them. It does not support PayPal, which matters if many of your buyers pay that way. More on our coaching payment software page.

Communities, cohorts and live events: which does more?

Thinkific does more here. Community spaces, live events and cohorts are part of every Thinkific plan, while community does not appear among the Teachable plan features we recorded from its October 2026 pricing page.

Thinkific Start includes one community with 10 spaces, five live community events and a maximum group size of 50. Grow raises that to three communities with 20 spaces and groups of 100. Expand allows 10 communities, 200 spaces and unlimited group size. For a coach running a cohort-based course, that structure covers a lot of ground without another tool.

If you want a community alongside Teachable, plan for a separate community tool and its cost. Our Kajabi vs Teachable comparison covers how that trade-off looks against an all-in-one course suite.

In Coachful, community is part of the client's home: a feed, group chat, direct messages and video events, with cohort groups created automatically when a client enrolls in a program, plus group calls and webinars. See the group coaching software page for how cohorts work.

What does the experience look like for your clients?

On Thinkific and Teachable your clients are students: they log in, watch lessons and complete quizzes. On a coaching platform they are clients with a coach, a plan and a next session.

Teachable lists iOS and Android student apps on every self-serve plan, including Starter. Teachable's branding stays visible until Growth. Thinkific puts your school on a custom domain from Start and removes Thinkific branding on Grow, but a branded mobile app is a $199 a month add-on, included only on select Plus contracts.

Coachful gives each client one branded home and app, running inside the Coachful app with the coach's branding rather than under the coach's own App Store listing. In one login the client sees the next session, their program for the week, tasks, habits, check-ins, goals with progress bars, courses, documents and the community. That single login is the biggest practical difference from a course platform plus a stack of add-on tools, where a client might juggle four logins in the first week.

How do admin seats, teams and integrations compare?

Thinkific gives you more seats on every tier: 2 admins on Start, 6 on Grow and 15 on Expand. Teachable allows a single admin on Starter and Builder and 5 on Growth, with custom admin permissions also on Growth.

For integrations, Thinkific opens its API and webhooks on Grow and lists HubSpot and Salesforce on the custom Plus tier. Thinkific Expand also adds email white-labeling, custom SSL and revenue sharing with up to 10 partners, which suits a coach selling courses alongside co-instructors. Teachable's Custom tier adds a success manager, bulk sales, flexible seats, a sandbox school and migration assistance.

Coachful's Studio and Agency plans add coach seats with per-coach availability and staff permissions, and multi-coach session types can assign bookings by round-robin or to the least-busy coach. Integrations cover Google Calendar, Apple Calendar/iCloud, Outlook, Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Stripe, Razorpay, Zapier, Meta Pixel and GA4. There is no HubSpot or Salesforce integration and no multi-stage sales deal board for large teams. See Coachful for teams.

What do public reviews say about Thinkific and Teachable?

Public sentiment favours Teachable. On Trustpilot, as seen on October 25, 2026, Teachable scores 3.3 from 1,110 reviews and Thinkific scores 1.8 from 868 reviews.

Open review sites tend to attract people with a problem to report, so treat the scores as a signal rather than a verdict on the product. Still, the gap between the two is wide. For comparison, Coachful scores 4.5 on Trustpilot from 21 reviews, a much smaller sample.

Can you take your data with you if you switch later?

You can take your student list from either platform, but not your courses in one click. Plan for a manual move of course content whichever you choose.

Per our September 2026 profiles, Thinkific exports students and its email list to CSV, while course content has to be downloaded manually. Teachable exports students, course reports and sales reports to CSV, but video has to be downloaded manually and there is no bulk course export. If you think you might move later, keep your original video files and lesson text in your own storage from day one.

Coachful exports full client data as a ZIP (roster, notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions and form responses) and exports courses. Coming in, clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. If you are already on Teachable and weighing a move, read how to deliver online courses without Teachable and how to deliver coaching video courses without Teachable.

Which should you pick for which kind of coach?

Pick by what you mostly sell. If it is a course to many people, choose a course platform. If it is your time and guidance to a set of clients, choose a coaching platform.

A few common coaching situations:

• A new coach testing a first mini-course: Teachable Starter keeps the fixed cost low. Watch the 7.5% fee once sales grow, and look at Coachful for new coaches if 1:1 clients are the real business.
• A business or executive coach selling a signature program to a large audience: Thinkific handles the course and cohort side well. If the program includes 1:1 calls and accountability, see Coachful for business coaches.
• A life or mindset coach with weekly clients: neither course platform fits the core work. Coachful for life coaches covers programs, check-ins and sessions together.
• A fitness or nutrition coach: course platforms do not log workouts or meals. Coachful's Fitness & Nutrition pack adds a workout builder, client logging, nutrition targets and weekly check-ins.

If you have already ruled one of them out, our lists of Thinkific alternatives for coaches and Teachable alternatives for coaches go wider, and our comparison hub collects every head-to-head.

The third option: when does Coachful beat both, and when does it not?

Coachful beats both when your business is coaching clients rather than selling courses to students. It does not beat them when you need a large-scale course operation with SCORM, PayPal or your own App Store app.

What Coachful is. Coachful is a coaching platform. One subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant, with one login for the coach and one branded app for the client. It is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions; for solo coaches growing into a small team; and for coaches replacing four to six tools. The company is based in Tallinn, Estonia.

Where it beats Thinkific and Teachable for coaches:

• Programs that live between sessions. Multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks. Course platforms deliver lessons; this delivers the work clients do between calls.
• Booking and agreements built in. Booking pages, calendar sync, reminders by email plus SMS (24 hours before) and WhatsApp (1 hour before) once messaging is enabled, intake questions on booking, and coaching agreements with e-signature sent before the first call and stored on the client record. See coaching contracts.
• A client record that shows who needs you. Goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments, sessions and an AI briefing per client, with a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk.
• Courses too. Modules, lessons, drip and completion tracking, plus downloads, videos, books, AI tools, events and bundles, delivered into the client's branded home and app. More on our online course platform for coaches page.
• A website, funnels and email. A section-based website builder with blog, custom domain and 30 designed homepage templates; booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels; email lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences with branching and A/B splits.
• Michelle, the built-in AI assistant. Michelle works from your live practice data to build programs, draft emails and content, summarise recorded sessions, brief you before sessions and, if you want it, give private feedback on your coaching against ICF Core Competencies 3 to 8. Questions and planning are included in your Coachful membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits. See the AI coaching assistant page.
• ICF hour tracking. Coaching hours and distinct clients counted against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds, with an exportable ICF client coaching log. See ICF hour tracking.

Here is a short walkthrough of how programs work in Coachful.

On cost, compare one Coachful plan against a course platform plus the scheduler, e-signature tool and check-in app you would add to it. Coachful's plans are flat monthly prices, lower plans cap the number of clients, Pro is unlimited, and team plans add seats (current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients). There is a 0% Coachful platform fee on your sales.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can ask the Coachful team to build things for you inside your own account. From Create, choose "We'll build it for you", or use the "Want us to build it for you?" card on the Website, Funnels and Programs pages. Describe what you want (a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline and written material, email sequence, form, link in bio, lead quiz, webinar or automation), attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files such as logos, photos, brand guides and copy, and the team builds it, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing is invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. Recent builds include a five-page site in sage and cream for a menopause and midlife health coach starting from nothing, with every button leading to a free 20-minute consultation, and a 12-week mentorship sales page, a start-up-guide funnel and rewritten follow-up emails for a business mentor to beauty professionals. A somatic coach leaving Kajabi had the homepage and About page rebuilt and the contact form connected. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more in our white-glove service guide.

When Coachful is not the right choice. Be honest with yourself about these:

• You sell mainly self-paced courses to a large audience and rarely work with individuals. Thinkific or Teachable is built for that, and Coachful is not a course marketplace.
• You need SCORM packages, learning paths or B2B seat sales. Thinkific's Grow and Plus tiers cover those.
• You need PayPal at checkout. Coachful supports Stripe and Razorpay, not PayPal.
• You need your own app in the App Store under your own developer account. Coachful's client app carries your branding inside the Coachful app.
• You work in a clinical setting that requires HIPAA compliance. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified, offers no BAA, and is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing.
• You need a sales pipeline with HubSpot or Salesforce, or third-party plugins.

How to start. Start a free trial, then request the free white-glove build for your website, first program or funnel. Clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding, and monthly plans cancel in one click. If you are leaving one of these platforms, the Thinkific alternative and Teachable alternative pages show what the move looks like.

Frequently asked questions

Is Thinkific or Teachable better for coaches?

For coaches who mainly sell courses, Thinkific is the stronger platform: unlimited courses, communities, cohorts and certificates on its entry plan. Teachable is the cheaper way to launch a first course. For coaches who mainly work with clients 1:1 or in groups, neither is a full fit, because neither has built-in booking, habits or check-ins.

Which is cheaper, Thinkific or Teachable?

Teachable is cheaper on paper: $39 a month for Starter versus $109 for Thinkific Start, as listed in October 2026. Starter takes a 7.5% transaction fee, though, so above roughly $667 a month in sales Teachable Builder at $89 is the cheaper Teachable plan. Builder still undercuts Thinkific Start by $20 a month.

Does Teachable still charge a transaction fee?

Yes, on Starter. Teachable takes 7.5% of each sale on Starter and 0% on Builder, Growth and Custom. Card and PayPal processing fees apply on every plan, plus a $15 fee per chargeback.

Can I book 1:1 coaching calls in Thinkific or Teachable?

Not natively, based on our September 2026 profiles. Thinkific's coaching products rely on external booking links, and Teachable coaching calls run through tools like Calendly and Zoom. Thinkific does run live cohorts over Zoom.

Do Thinkific and Teachable have mobile apps?

Teachable lists iOS and Android student apps on every self-serve plan, including Starter. Thinkific offers a branded mobile app as a $199 a month add-on, included on select Plus contracts.

Do Thinkific and Teachable offer free trials?

Thinkific offers a 30-day free trial on every self-serve plan. Teachable's plan cards show a 7-day free trial plus a 30-day money-back guarantee, and a pop-up offered a 30-day trial on Builder monthly in October 2026. Neither page states whether a card is required.

Can I move my courses between Thinkific and Teachable?

You can export your student list from either one to CSV, but course content, and video in particular, has to be downloaded and re-uploaded manually. Keep master copies of your videos and lesson text outside the platform so a move stays manageable.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

On every plan, the Coachful team will build a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence or similar inside your account from a short brief, your reference links and your files, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing is invented on your behalf, and gaps are left for you to fill. It does not cover video recording, logo design, ads or ongoing marketing.

When should I choose Coachful over Thinkific and Teachable?

Choose Coachful when your income comes from coaching clients through programs and you want booking, contracts, payments, habits, check-ins, courses and community under one login. Stay with Thinkific or Teachable if you mainly sell self-paced courses at scale, need PayPal or SCORM, or need an app under your own App Store account. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients.