Best Platforms to Sell Online Courses in 2026: Teachable, Systeme.io & More
May 2026 · 12 min read
Selling online courses is one of the most scalable ways to monetise expertise — you create the content once, and it can generate revenue indefinitely. But the platform you choose significantly affects how much of each sale you keep, how professional your student experience is, and how much additional software you need to buy. Here's the honest comparison for 2026.
Quick answer
- Best free option (no transaction fees): Systeme.io — free plan includes courses, funnels, email, and 0% transaction fees
- Best student experience and course features: Teachable (Pro, $119/mo) — quizzes, certificates, drip content, community
- Best all-in-one for serious course businesses: Systeme.io ($27/mo Startup) — replaces your email platform, funnel builder, and blog
What to look for in a course platform
Course platforms are not all the same. Beyond the surface-level feature comparison, three factors have the largest impact on your actual profitability:
- Transaction fees — Some platforms charge 5–10% on every sale on their lower plans. On a $200 course with 100 sales, that's $1,000–$2,000 going to the platform. Always calculate total cost including transaction fees, not just the subscription price.
- Student completion experience — Completion rates affect your review quality and word-of-mouth. Platforms with better student UX (progress tracking, reminders, mobile apps, community) produce higher completion rates and more testimonials.
- Built-in marketing tools — Can the platform send automated emails when someone abandons checkout? Can it run upsells and order bumps? Does it have an affiliate system so other people can promote your course? These features can double your revenue without extra tools or costs.
The platforms — detailed review
Teachable
Teachable (Hotmart Company)
Create and sell online courses — trusted by 100,000+ creators
Starting at: Free
Systeme.io
Systeme.io
Free all-in-one platform: funnels, email, courses, and automation
Starting at: Free
Teachable — the polished course platform
Teachable has been the default choice for course creators since 2014. Its student interface is genuinely excellent: clean video player, progress tracking, quiz engine, certificate issuance, course completion emails, and a native mobile app. For creators who want their students to have a premium experience without building custom software, Teachable delivers it.
The free plan exists but comes with an 8% transaction fee per sale — which becomes significant fast. The Basic plan ($39/month) reduces this to 5%. The Pro plan ($119/month) eliminates transaction fees entirely and adds graded quizzes, course completion certificates, advanced reports, live group sessions, and a customisable student community. For most serious course creators, Pro is where the real value sits.
Teachable's affiliate marketing feature (available on Pro and above) lets you recruit other people to promote your course in exchange for a commission you set. A well-structured affiliate program can drive more sales than your direct marketing. Teachable handles all the tracking, commission calculations, and payouts automatically.
Systeme.io — the all-in-one alternative
Systeme.io is a fundamentally different product: rather than a specialised course platform, it's an all-in-one marketing suite that includes courses as one of many features. The free plan is the most generous in the market: unlimited course creation, 0% transaction fees, up to 2,000 email contacts, unlimited funnel steps, and a built-in blog — all for free.
The economics are compelling for course creators early in the journey. Instead of paying for Teachable ($39/month) + an email platform like ConvertKit ($29/month) + a funnel builder like ClickFunnels ($97/month), Systeme.io replaces all three at $27/month (Startup plan) — or even at free tier for the first year.
The trade-off is course delivery quality. Systeme.io's student experience is more basic than Teachable's — the video player is simpler, there are no native mobile apps, and the quiz functionality is limited. For creators selling high-ticket courses ($500+) where student completion and transformation are central to the value proposition, Teachable's superior UX matters. For creators selling lower-to-mid price digital products and prioritising marketing efficiency over student experience, Systeme.io's all-in-one stack is hard to beat.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Teachable | Systeme.io |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan transaction fee | 8% | 0% |
| Entry paid plan | $39/mo (Basic, 5% fee) | $27/mo (0% fee) |
| No transaction fees from | $119/mo (Pro) | Free plan |
| Native mobile app | ✓ | ✗ |
| Quizzes & certificates | ✓ (Pro plan) | Basic |
| Built-in email marketing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Sales funnels | ✗ | ✓ |
| Affiliate program | ✓ (Pro plan) | ✓ (all plans) |
| Built-in blog | ✗ | ✓ |
| Community features | ✓ (Pro plan) | Basic |
Tools to help you create and market the course
Your course platform hosts and sells the course — but you still need tools to create the content and drive traffic. Here are the ones most course creators use:
ChatGPT
OpenAI
The world's most popular AI assistant
Starting at: Free
Beehiiv
Beehiiv, Inc.
The newsletter platform built for growth and monetisation
Starting at: Free
Canva AI
Canva Pty Ltd.
Design anything with AI — no design skills needed
Starting at: Free
- ChatGPT or Claude — Script your course content, write module descriptions, generate quiz questions, and create the sales page copy. AI-assisted content creation can cut course production time in half.
- Beehiiv or ConvertKit — An email list is the most reliable channel to launch a course to. Even a small list of 500 engaged subscribers in your niche can generate a meaningful launch.
- Canva Pro — Course thumbnail images, promotional graphics, downloadable workbooks, and slide deck templates. Professional-looking visuals signal quality and increase purchase confidence.
Realistic expectations: what a course business looks like in year one
Most course creators don't make meaningful revenue in their first launch. The creators who succeed treat the first launch as market validation and feedback collection, then improve the course based on what students actually struggle with. Here's what a realistic year-one trajectory looks like:
| Milestone | Typical timeline |
|---|---|
| Validate course idea (pre-sales or survey) | Weeks 1–4 |
| Create minimum viable course (3–5 hours content) | Weeks 4–8 |
| First launch to email list or community | Month 2–3 |
| Revenue from first launch (5–15 students) | $500–$2,500 |
| Iterate based on feedback, improve content | Months 3–6 |
| Second launch with better testimonials and social proof | Month 6 |
| Evergreen funnel running with consistent monthly sales | Month 8–12 |
The creators who build sustainable course businesses focus on outcomes: what can their student demonstrably do after completing the course that they couldn't before? Courses that deliver clear, measurable outcomes generate testimonials, referrals, and repeat business. Courses that are informational without being transformational struggle regardless of how good the platform is.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a large audience to sell an online course?
No — in fact, many successful course creators have launched profitable courses with audiences under 1,000 people by targeting a very specific problem for a defined audience. A course solving a specific pain point for a motivated niche (e.g., 'Excel dashboards for sales managers' or 'Instagram growth for food bloggers') will consistently outperform a generic course on a broad topic. A warm email list of 500 highly relevant subscribers can generate more course sales than a social following of 50,000 people who followed you for entertainment.
What's the difference between Teachable and Systeme.io?
Teachable is a specialised course platform with excellent student experience tools — certificates, quizzes, drip content, cohort features, and a native checkout. It charges transaction fees on its lower plans (8% on the free plan, 5% on Basic). Systeme.io is an all-in-one marketing platform: it includes courses, but also sales funnels, email marketing, affiliate programs, and blog hosting. The biggest difference is that Systeme.io has a genuinely free plan with no transaction fees that includes all core features, while Teachable's free plan has significant restrictions and fees.
How much should I charge for an online course?
Most self-paced online courses are priced between $47 and $497. The key variable is the value of the outcome your course delivers. A course that helps someone land a $60,000 job can justifiably charge $500+. A course that teaches a hobby skill might price at $47–$97. Do not undercharge trying to maximise volume — a higher-priced course signals quality and attracts more committed students who complete it and get results (which then generates testimonials). Low prices attract impulse buyers who rarely finish courses.
Can I sell courses for free without paying platform fees?
Yes — Systeme.io's free plan allows you to create and sell unlimited courses with 0% transaction fees, up to 2,000 contacts. This is the most generous free course-selling option available. Teachable's free plan has 8% transaction fees, which makes it considerably more expensive as your course gains traction. Gumroad (not reviewed here) also has a free tier with a 10% fee. For zero fees with a free plan, Systeme.io is the clear choice.
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