Why most course platforms charge before you earn

Most major course platforms — Kajabi, Podia, Teachable paid plans — require a monthly subscription regardless of whether you make any sales. Kajabi starts at $119 per month. Podia Mover starts at $33 per month. Teachable Pro starts at $119 per month. You pay these fees whether you enrolled zero students or a hundred.

For a creator who has not yet validated their course topic, this structure creates real financial risk. Spending $1,428 per year on a Kajabi subscription before knowing whether anyone will pay for your course is a significant bet. Many creators have launched courses on platforms they were paying for, found the course did not convert, and lost money on the subscription before they could iterate.

The alternative is to use platforms that charge on a per-sale basis rather than a fixed monthly fee, or that offer genuinely useful free plans. These options exist — and for most creators in their first year, they are the more sensible financial choice.

Option 1: CourseOS free plan

CourseOS offers a free plan that includes the course builder, branded school site, checkout, quizzes, and certificates. You pay a platform fee on each sale rather than a monthly subscription. There is no credit card required to start and no monthly cost until you choose to upgrade.

The free plan also includes the AI course builder — a feature that does not exist on most paid plans at other platforms. If you have existing content (TikTok, YouTube, PDF), CourseOS can generate a curriculum draft automatically, which significantly reduces the time to your first publishable course.

The platform fee on the free plan applies to each sale. On Pro ($39/month) and Business ($99/month) plans, this fee is reduced. The breakeven point between free plan fees and the Pro subscription depends on your course price and volume. The pricing page includes a comparison that shows at what revenue level it makes sense to upgrade.

Option 2: Teachable free plan

Teachable's free plan allows one course with unlimited students and a 10 percent transaction fee on each sale. There is no monthly cost. The 10 percent fee is higher than CourseOS's free plan fee, but Teachable has broader brand recognition, which may matter if your audience is familiar with it.

Teachable is a straightforward option for a creator who wants to test a single course quickly without any commitment. The free plan's limitation to one product means you will need to upgrade before you can publish a second course.

Option 3: Gumroad

Gumroad is not a course platform in the traditional sense, but it supports selling digital products including structured course content as a PDF or file download. There is no monthly subscription, and the fee is 10 percent of each sale. If your 'course' is closer to a document or guide than a structured video curriculum, Gumroad is a low-friction starting point.

The limitation is the learner experience. Gumroad does not have a course player, progress tracking, quizzes, or certificates. Students receive a file. For simple knowledge products, this is fine. For anything requiring structured learning and accountability, a dedicated course platform provides a significantly better experience and justifies a higher price.

The actual cheapest approach end to end

The lowest total cost for a creator starting from zero is: build on CourseOS's free plan using the AI course builder from existing content, set your course price, and pay the platform fee only when you make sales. If your first launch generates $1,000 in sales, your platform cost at a 5 percent fee is $50. Compare that to $119 paid upfront to Kajabi before you made a single sale.

Once you have validated that your course topic converts and you are generating consistent monthly revenue, upgrading to a paid plan — on CourseOS or elsewhere — makes financial sense. At that point you are paying for features with money your course is already generating, rather than betting subscription money on an unvalidated product.

The best platform for starting is the one that costs you nothing until you earn something. Validate first, optimize the platform cost later.