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A course seller asks what the platform costs per month, whether it takes a share of sales and whether it can be tried before paying. These decide 50 points out of a hundred.
Score shows how the company does on our comparison criteria, on a 0–100 scale. Rankings cannot be bought.
Basic metrics · 77.0
+ The permanent free tier is genuine: 2,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels, 1 course and unlimited emails, no credit card and no expiry
Basic metrics: 77.0, rank 1 · no change
Basic metrics · 70.3
+ A per-sale fee is stated clearly: Starter 5 dollars per course enrolment, and enrolment fees are removed from the Pro Trainer tier upwards
Basic metrics: 70.3, rank 2 · no change
Basic metrics · 69.1
+ Transaction fees are broken down exceptionally clearly: Mover 5 per cent, Shaker and Earthquaker 0 per cent, and the payment intermediary fee of 2.9 per cent + 0.30 dollars is also stated separately
Basic metrics: 69.1, rank 4 · ▲ 1 place
Basic metrics · 67.2
+ Prices are shown in euros in Finland and by tier: Basic 39 EUR/month, Start 79 EUR/month and Grow 159 EUR/month with annual billing, which makes it easier to assess the real cost
Basic metrics: 67.2, rank 6 · ▲ 2 places
– Sales commission: The price list page states only the payment intermediary's 2.9% fee, not the platform's own sales commission for the Basic package.
Basic metrics · 61.1
+ Per-sale transaction fee is itemised by tier: Starter 5 percent and Growth 0 percent
Basic metrics: 61.1, rank 7 · ▲ 2 places
Basic metrics · 69.2
+ Pricing is publicly displayed without having to make contact: Basic 39 $/month, Pro 89 $/month and Pro+ 189 $/month, each with its own trial and a 30-day guarantee
Basic metrics: 69.2, rank 3 · ▼ 3 places
Basic metrics · 67.6
+ A 0% transaction fee on all tiers is clearly stated ('without the hidden fees'), so the platform does not take a cut of every sale
Basic metrics: 67.6, rank 5 · ▼ 2 places
– Trial: The length of the trial is not stated on the price list page, which only mentions the Start Free Trial button and the end of the trial.
Weights are fixed. All companies are measured on the same scale. Read the full methodology.
| Buying motive | What is measured | Scale | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price QUESTIONWhat does the platform cost per month? | Monthly price of the cheapest paid package with monthly billing, in the currency shown on the page. | 20 or fewer = 100 points, 180 or more = 0, directly proportional in between. | 26 p |
| Sales commission QUESTIONDoes the platform take a share of my course sales? | The platform's own fee in the cheapest paid package, payment intermediary fee not included. | No fee = 100, fixed or 5% = 40, over 5% = 0. | 12 p |
| Trial QUESTIONCan I try before I pay? | Free tier or trial period. | Permanent free tier = 100, 30 days = 75, 14 days = 50, 7 days = 25. | 12 p |
| Basic metrics | Digital quality, transparency, reachability and AI quality score | Basic metrics × 0.5 | 50 p |
We scored 7 online course sales and publishing platforms on 20 metrics. The most important question for a content creator: is the real monthly price revealed, does the platform take a share of every course sale, and are the free tier, data location and cancellation stated before you register?
Monthly price publicly shown without making contact (20), transaction fee per sale (%/course) itemised clearly (20), free tier or free trial and its limits stated (15), what the price includes (own domain, memberships, number of courses) itemised (10), EU or GDPR data location and data protection stated (10), contract period and cancellation stated (10), owning company stated on the site (15)
Transparency is 30% of the basic metrics, i.e. 15% of the total points · these metrics make up its 100 points · the full formula and the other pillars
How to read the comparison correctly: Half of the points come from buyer's questions, i.e. things the buyer finds out before deciding. The other half measures how openly the company publishes its prices, terms and contact details. Clear differences in points indicate a genuine difference: one tells you the price immediately, another only after logging in. Close scores should not be read as a ranking order, because every measurement has a margin of variation. The measurement accuracy and the full calculation formula are open in the methodology.
Customer experience is brought into the assessment separately. We also collect customer feedback and customer experiences about companies through separate surveys. The survey results will be added to the overall assessment later.
The transaction fee eats into the margin. Some platforms charge a percentage of every course sale (Teachable Basic 7.5 percent, Podia Mover and Kartra Starter 5 percent, LearnWorlds Starter a fixed enrolment fee). On higher tiers the fee often drops to zero. Systeme.io and Kajabi market a zero percent fee on all tiers. The cheapest monthly price can turn out expensive if sales volume is high and the fee is high.
The free tier varies sharply. Systeme.io offers a permanent free tier and Teachable a free version, while Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, Kartra and LearnWorlds mainly offer a time-limited free trial. Check the limits of the free tier and the price of the next tier before you build your course on a platform.
Data location and owner vary. Systeme.io (France) and LearnWorlds (Cyprus/Greece) are European operators whose data processing is focused on the EU. Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia and Kartra are North American. We show the owning company for each one. Prices are often quoted according to the user's location, so the euro amount may differ from the dollar price.
The free pre-analysis shows every item where your company loses points and which rank fixing it is enough for. The paid analysis shows what the items are and how to fix them.
Can't find your company on the list even though it should be there? Get in touch and we will include it in the next measurement round.
See the free pre-analysis A ranking cannot be bought. The analysis shows how it is earned.