For the coach or expert weighing up Teachable right now
The course is built. The launch is still a blank page.
Every platform hands you an empty builder. See the exact work that stays on your plate before you pick one.
- ✓What every course platform quietly leaves you to write yourself
- ✓The gap between 'build a page' and 'a page that sells'
- ✓Why the blinking cursor is the part nobody prices
The Course Platform Checklist: What Every Builder Leaves Behind (And What You'll Actually Need to Do) — a plain walk through the parts of running your platform that fall on you: the writing, the offer, the follow-up.
Or apply to run KBD in your business nowAn early application, unpaid, honest feedback only, not for everyone
You pick a builder — and it opens empty
The course platform gives you the shell: a blank funnel, a blank email, a blinking cursor. The tools are ready. The words, the offer, and the follow-up are still yours to write.
The real work starts, alone, at 9pm
Writing the launch emails so they sound like you. Fixing the page that broke. Building the sequence that fires after someone buys. This is the part nobody warned you was the job.
You read the checklist and see it laid out
Every task a builder leaves on your plate, in plain language — so before you commit to any platform, you know exactly what you're signing up to do yourself.
You decide who does the actual work
Keep doing it by hand across a stack of tools, or let a system that arrives already written from your own business carry the writing, the pages and the follow-up — and you approve it.
Teachable and KBD, side by side — for the person deciding right now
Teachable is a course platform: you build and sell courses, coaching and digital downloads, and it handles checkout, students and global payments, with native student apps. What it does not do is fill the blank pages — the funnel, the campaign, the launch copy, the follow-up all start empty and stay yours. That empty page is the work nobody priced.
| Teachable plan | Published allowances | Monthly | Annual /mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterTheir words: basic tools for getting your business started. | Products: 5 · Admin users: 1 · Active students: 100 · Imported students: 5 · Video storage: Up to 1 TB · Transaction fee: 7.5% | $39 | $29 |
| BuilderTheir words: essential features to build your multi-product offering. | Products: 10 · Admin users: 1 · Active students: 1,000 · Imported students: 50 · Video storage: Up to 1 TB · Transaction fee: 0% | $89 | $69 |
| GrowthTheir words: powerful tools for growing your revenue and audience. Marked popular. | Products: 50 · Admin users: 5 · Active students: 5,000 · Imported students: 1,000 · Video storage: Up to 1 TB · Transaction fee: 0% | $189 | $139 |
| CustomTheir words: for high-volume education businesses that need custom tools and premium support. Book a call. | Everything: Everything in Growth, plus dedicated support and custom terms | — | — |
Prices read from teachable.com/pricing on 6 August 2026. A “—” means Teachablepublishes no figure — we don’t estimate. Billed on top: Payment processing on every plan: 2.9% + 30¢ US cards, 3.9% + 30¢ international cards, 3.49% + 49¢ US PayPal, 4.99% + 49¢ international PayPal; A $15 chargeback fee; An optional BackOffice fee of 2–2.8% for handling affiliate and author payouts. Transaction fees: 7.5% of your sales on Starter; 0% on Builder and above. Processing fees still apply on every plan.
What KBD Systems does that Teachable doesn’t
- KBD arrives already written from your own business — its plays, your stored brand DNA and Matrix, and the finished pages, emails and campaigns — instead of an empty builder you fill yourself.
- It runs the whole business between a stranger and a paying customer and everything after: attracting people, selling to them, delivering what they bought, getting paid, keeping them — not one department near the checkout.
- The launch email, the funnel and the follow-up are written in your voice and handed to you to approve — done for you, not done by you at 9pm.
- Follow-up fires off what people actually do, and whole campaigns are assembled end to end, so the sequence after 'someone bought' isn't a blank you build from scratch.
- A knowledge layer keeps every word grounded in your business, so the copy sounds like you rather than a template.
- One system carries content, pages, email, checkout and the member area together — instead of you being the strategist and the labour stitching it into shape.
What Teachable does
- Teachable is a course platform for creating and selling courses, coaching and digital downloads, with native iOS and Android student apps.
- It handles checkout, global payments, VAT and sales tax on your behalf, and offers a 7-day trial with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Its marketing tools sit around the checkout — coupons, upsells and abandoned-cart emails; the funnels, campaigns and copy that fill the course are the owner's to write.
If you're an expert who already has a real offer and paying clients, and you're tired of being the one who writes every launch by hand, KBD is the one for you — it ships loaded so the actual work is done, not just enabled.
A builder is ready. That's not the same as done.
Teachable is a course platform — you build courses, coaching and downloads, and it handles checkout, students and payments. What it hands you for the launch itself is an empty page: the funnel, the email, the campaign are still yours to write from scratch. The checklist shows you exactly which of those jobs stay on your side of the line.
The writing was always the wall — no tool climbs it for you
Coupons, upsells and abandoned-cart emails live near the checkout on most platforms. The campaign that fills the course, the copy that sounds like you, the sequence that follows up when someone goes quiet — that's the blank page, and it comes back to you every single launch. That's the work KBD arrives having already done, in your voice, from your own business.
The difference is who does the actual work
A builder enables the work. A system that arrives loaded does it. KBD captures who you are, who you serve and how you talk — once — then runs the whole business from it: content, pages, email in your voice, follow-up, checkout, the member area, the launch. You approve the next move; you don't build it.
See what the builder leaves behind before you commit
Get the checklist now, and one honest email the day KBD can actually be bought.
We never sell your information.
Or apply to run KBD in your business nowAn early application, unpaid, honest feedback only, not for everyone
Questions people ask about Teachable
How much does Teachable cost?
Read off teachable.com/pricing on 6 August 2026: Starter is $39/month, or $29/month billed annually. Builder is $89/month, or $69/month billed annually. Growth is $189/month, or $139/month billed annually. Custom has no price published on that page. There is no free plan. The free trial is 7 days.
Does Teachable charge fees on top of the subscription?
Yes — on 6 August 2026 their own pages listed: Payment processing on every plan: 2.9% + 30¢ US cards, 3.9% + 30¢ international cards, 3.49% + 49¢ US PayPal, 4.99% + 49¢ international PayPal; A $15 chargeback fee; An optional BackOffice fee of 2–2.8% for handling affiliate and author payouts. On transaction fees specifically: 7.5% of your sales on Starter; 0% on Builder and above. Processing fees still apply on every plan.
What does Teachable do well?
The cheapest tiered entry among the course platforms here — $39/mo, or $29/mo billed annually. Native iOS and Android student apps on every plan, including the entry one. Coaching and digital downloads are first-class products beside courses, not bolt-ons. Global payments and tax are handled for you — checkout, VAT and sales tax are its job, not yours. A 30-day money-back guarantee on top of the 7-day trial, stated plainly on the pricing page. That is from their own pricing and product pages, read on 6 August 2026.
Where does Teachable fall short for a small business owner?
Starter's real price is 7.5% of every sale plus processing, with 100 active students and 5 products. Admin seats are scarce: one on Starter and Builder, five on Growth. Active students are metered per tier — past 5,000 you are in contact-sales territory. Marketing is checkout-adjacent — coupons, upsells, abandoned-cart emails; the funnels, campaigns and copy that fill the course are still your blank page. That is our reading of their published plans and limits as of 6 August 2026 — check teachable.com/pricing before you decide anything on it.
Can I get a refund from Teachable?
Their pricing page publishes a 30-day money-back window, checked on 6 August 2026. Read the terms on teachable.com/pricing before relying on it.
What's a cheaper alternative to Teachable?
Teachable's lowest published tier is $39/month, read off teachable.com/pricing on 6 August 2026. Of the 11 platforms priced on this site, these publish a lower entry tier: Systeme.io at $0/month, Skool at $9/month. Systeme.io publishes a permanently free plan. Read that carefully before switching on price alone: the entry tier is not the bill. Teachable's own pages list these on top of the plan: Payment processing on every plan: 2.9% + 30¢ US cards, 3.9% + 30¢ international cards, 3.49% + 49¢ US PayPal, 4.99% + 49¢ international PayPal; A $15 chargeback fee; An optional BackOffice fee of 2–2.8% for handling affiliate and author payouts. On transaction fees: 7.5% of your sales on Starter; 0% on Builder and above. Processing fees still apply on every plan. Several of the cheaper options above charge a percentage of your sales or per-message usage instead, and every one of those is listed per vendor, in their own words, at /data/platform-pricing — all of it read on 6 August 2026. The alternative this page is about is KBD Systems, which is priced at /pricing; the difference it is arguing is not the monthly figure but what you still have to do yourself after you have paid it.
Is Teachable worth it?
That depends on who is going to run it, and their own pages make it answerable. Teachable is a course platform for creating and selling courses, coaching and digital downloads, with native student apps, sold to creators selling courses, coaching and digital products. What it genuinely does better: The cheapest tiered entry among the course platforms here — $39/mo, or $29/mo billed annually. Native iOS and Android student apps on every plan, including the entry one. Where it is hardest on a small business owner running it alone: Starter's real price is 7.5% of every sale plus processing, with 100 active students and 5 products. Admin seats are scarce: one on Starter and Builder, five on Growth. Its lowest published tier is $39/month. There is a 7-day free trial, so this is testable before it is decided. That is our reading of their published plans, limits and product pages as of 6 August 2026, not a rating — we publish no scores, and you should check teachable.com/pricing yourself before deciding anything on the strength of ours.
What it costs to stay, and what it takes to leave
This page put KBD beside one platform. The related pages cover what to use instead of it, what it charges in full, and what actually happens when you move.