Teachable vs Podia: the fee flips this comparison at $333 a month
Both platforms sell courses, both take a cut at the entry tier, and both stop taking one in the middle. The difference is where the lines sit — and at current prices, Teachable's entry plan is cheaper only until your monthly sales pass about $333.
The two ladders
| Teachable Starter | Teachable Builder | Podia Mover | Podia Shaker | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (annual billing) | $39/mo · $468/yr | $89/mo · $1,068/yr | $42/mo · $504/yr | $84/mo · $1,008/yr |
| Price (monthly billing) | $59/mo | $119/mo | Not captured | Not captured |
| Transaction fee | 7.5% | 0% | 5% | 0% |
| Products | 5 | 10 | 50 | 150 |
| Email subscribers | Not stated | Not stated | 100 | 500 |
| Affiliate program | — | Yes | — | Yes |
| Free tier / trial | 7-day trial | 7-day trial | 14-day trial, no card | 14-day trial, no card |
The crossover, computed
Teachable Starter costs $59 a month on monthly billing plus 7.5% of sales. Podia Shaker costs $84 a month with no fee. Shaker is cheaper when:
$59 + 0.075X > $84, which is X > $333 a month in sales.
That is one $400 course a month, or four $85 courses. Below it, Teachable Starter is cheaper; above it, Podia Shaker wins on pure cost while giving you 150 product slots instead of 5.
At the top of the mid-market the comparison inverts again: Teachable Builder at $119 with no fee undercuts Podia Earthquaker at $150 with no fee, for 10 products instead of unlimited. So the honest shape of this comparison is: Teachable wins the bottom, Podia wins the middle, and which one wins the top depends on whether 10 product slots are enough.
The limits that decide it before the fee does
- Product count. Teachable Starter allows 5 products. If you sell a catalogue — many low-priced downloads, a workbook per course — 5 is not a starter tier, it is a wall. Podia Mover allows 50.
- Email subscribers. Podia counts email subscribers on its pricing ladder: 100 on Mover, 500 on Shaker, 1,000 on Earthquaker. Any real list outgrows Mover in months. Teachable's page data does not state a subscriber cap on its tiers — we have not printed a number we do not have, and you should ask before you build your list inside either tool.
- Free tier. Teachable no longer has one — 7-day trial, then paid. Podia's 14-day trial does not require a card. If your honest answer is "I do not know if I will sell anything", Podia lets you find out without giving payment details; Teachable gives you a week.
Where each one is the better buy
- Under $333/month in sales, one flagship course: Teachable Starter. Cheapest real option, 7.5% is a tax on a small number.
- $333 to $1,600/month, still one or two products: Podia Shaker — flat $1,008 a year beats everything here once the fee is gone from the picture.
- A catalogue of many products: Podia, at any level. 50 products on a $42 plan against 10 on a $119 plan is not close.
- You need the affiliate program: Teachable Builder or Podia Shaker — both gate it at their second tier, so the real comparison is $1,068 vs $1,008 a year, and the difference is 10 products against 150 plus a bigger email allowance.
- You want zero fee at the lowest possible price: neither entry tier. systeme.io charges no fee even on its free plan and costs $204 a year paid — we covered it in Podia vs systeme.io, and it wins this whole comparison on price if you can live with a rougher product.
The thing both vendor pages agree on
Neither company publishes how its fee interacts with real checkout behaviour — refunds, chargebacks, payment-plan interest, taxes. Both advertise "global payments and taxes" as a feature; neither explains in the pricing table what happens when a sale is refunded after the platform fee has been taken. That is not a reason to avoid either, but it is a question to ask in the trial: process one refund and read the payout line.
What we cannot verify
All figures were read from both vendors' own pricing pages on October 23, 2026, in USD — Teachable's from its structured pricing data, Podia's from its yearly-billed view. Podia's monthly-billed prices were not captured. We have not run a course sale on either platform, so checkout conversion, fee application to upsells and payment plans, refund handling and email deliverability are all unverified. Teachable's subscriber caps are not published in the data we read and we have not estimated them. See How We Test, and for the fee arithmetic in isolation, Teachable pricing explained.