Systeme.io
Free forever · Startup $17/mo
- Genuine free-forever plan, no credit card
- Funnels, email and courses in one tool
- 0% transaction fee on every plan
Updated June 2026
Seven course and community platforms, compared by what they cost, the transaction fee they keep, and the kind of creator each one suits. No fake benchmarks, no "best platform, period".
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Three shortcuts for the most common needs. The big names matter too — see the full table below.
Free forever · Startup $17/mo
Hobby $9/mo · Pro $99/mo
Mover ~$39/mo
Prices as of June 2026 — check the official site for current plans.
These tools do different jobs. Systeme.io is a free all-in-one; Skool is community-first; Podia is a simple storefront; Thinkific and Teachable are course-first builders; LearnWorlds leans into interactive video and certificates; Kajabi is the premium marketing suite. The transaction fee is the percentage the platform keeps from each sale on its own checkout — it varies by tier, so read it carefully. Scroll the table sideways on mobile.
| Platform | Entry price | Free plan | Transaction fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systeme.io | Startup $17/mo (~$14 annual) | Yes — free forever (no card) | 0% (all plans) | Free all-in-one: funnels, email, course |
| Skool | Hobby $9/mo · Pro $99/mo (~$82.50 annual) | No (14-day trial) | Hobby ~10% · Pro ~2.9% | Community + course + gamification |
| Podia | Mover ~$39/mo (~$33 annual) | No (trial) | Mover 5% · Shaker 0% | Simple storefront, digital downloads |
| Thinkific | Basic ~$49/mo (~$36 annual) | No (trial) | 0% on paid tiers | Polished course building |
| Teachable | Starter ~$39/mo (~$29 annual) | No | Starter 7.5% · Builder+ 0% | Fast launch; handles tax/VAT |
| LearnWorlds | Starter ~$29/mo (~$24 annual) | No (30-day trial) | Starter $5/sale · Pro+ 0% | Interactive video, quizzes, certificates |
| Kajabi | Kickstarter ~$89/mo (~$71 annual) | No (trial) | 0% | Premium all-in-one marketing |
A few figures are billed-annually effective rates, and some tiers change often: Thinkific's entry tier and Podia's exact Mover price are worth confirming in your own browser. Kajabi's headline "0%" applies to its own checkout; its plans are the priciest here.
Start from the job, not the brand. These pages go deeper on the most common decisions.
Research-based, not lab-tested. We read each vendor's pricing and feature documentation, track plan changes month to month, and weigh widely reported user feedback. We have not run a controlled hands-on benchmark of every platform, so you will not find invented quality scores or "we built 50 courses" claims here.
Our recommendations lean on three things anyone can verify: what a platform is built to do, what it costs, and the transaction fee it keeps. The fee matters more than it looks — a 10% cut on a $200 course is $20 a sale, every sale. Where a price is volatile, we say so and point you to the official site. We would rather be useful and honest than confidently wrong.
A simple way to choose: if budget is tight and you want everything in one place, start free with Systeme.io. If your product is a community, look at Skool or Mighty Networks. If you mostly sell digital downloads, Podia is the simplest. Reach for Thinkific, Teachable, LearnWorlds or Kajabi when you need their specific strengths — and accept their higher cost.
There is no single best platform for everyone. For a free, all-in-one start with 0% transaction fees, Systeme.io is hard to beat. For a paid community with courses and gamification, Skool fits well. For a simple storefront and digital downloads, Podia is the easiest. Bigger names like Kajabi, Thinkific and Teachable suit specific needs but cost more. Choose by what you are selling and your budget, not by a leaderboard.
Systeme.io charges 0% on every plan, including its free plan. Kajabi and Thinkific paid tiers also charge 0% on their own checkout. Skool's Hobby plan takes about 10% while its Pro plan is around 2.9%, and Podia charges 5% on Mover and 0% on Shaker. See our 0% transaction fee guide for the full picture.
Systeme.io offers a free-forever plan with no credit card required, including funnels, email and a course. Most other platforms here only offer time-limited free trials rather than a permanent free plan. Skool, Podia, Thinkific, Teachable, LearnWorlds and Kajabi are trial-based.
We compare publicly available pricing, plan structures, free tiers, transaction fees and documented features, plus widely reported user feedback. We have not run a controlled hands-on test of every platform, so we avoid invented quality scores and focus on what each platform is built to do.