Cost rule
Total platform cost = fixed subscription + variable selling cost + required stack + operating labor
A platform is not cheap because one fee is zero. Compare the cost of producing a successful learner and collecting usable money in the business bank account. Every assumption should be tied to an official fee rule, a provider quote, or a measured workflow.
Current fee patterns
Six popular platforms use five different cost models
| Platform route | Fixed cost modeled | Variable platform charge | Critical qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gumroad direct sales | $0/month | 10% + $0.50 per sale before processing | Discover sales use a different 30% fee that includes processing |
| Teachable Starter | $29/month annually | 7.5% | Usage, processing, tax, refund, and payout rules remain separate |
| Podia Mover | $42/month annually | 5% | Email, product, video, and community-space limits affect the plan |
| LearnWorlds Starter | $24/month annually | $5 per paid enrollment | The fee behaves differently for a $20 product and a $500 product |
| Thinkific Basic | $39.58/month ($475/year) | Third-party gateway fee can apply | TCommerce availability, plan, and region determine the relevant route |
| Kajabi Basic | $143/month annually | 2% with affected third-party providers | Exceptions include Kajabi Payments, PayPal, and unavailable regions |
Subscription examples use annual-billing monthly equivalents, not cancel-anytime invoices. The latest complete cross-platform audit remains September 2, 2026; October 4 scoped corrections do not complete the overdue review. Normal payment processing and route-specific additions are excluded here. Check the linked fee guides for current account, provider, country and transaction-type qualifications.
The 12-line audit
Put every cost in one model
| Cost line | What to collect | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Subscription | Monthly and annual price, billing commitment, taxes, renewal | Using the annual equivalent but ignoring the annual cash outlay |
| 2. Platform fee | Percentage, per-sale, per-enrollment, marketplace fee | Calling a plan fee-free because one fee category is zero |
| 3. Processing | Card, wallet, PayPal, local method, international card rates | Assuming every buyer uses the lowest domestic card rate |
| 4. Gateway | Third-party gateway percentage, eligibility, settlement, reserve | Modeling a preferred gateway that the business cannot use |
| 5. Currency | Conversion markup, settlement currency, bank receipt fee | Comparing gross checkout currency with usable bank revenue |
| 6. Tax | Calculation, collection, remittance, filing, merchant-of-record scope | Confusing tax calculation with legal remittance responsibility |
| 7. Refunds and disputes | Refunded platform fees, processing retention, chargeback fee, reserve | Applying the sale fee but no expected refund or dispute cost |
| 8. Email and contacts | Included subscribers, contacts, sends, overages, automation plan | Counting inactive contacts differently from the vendor |
| 9. Content limits | Products, courses, videos, storage, bandwidth, learners, admins | Pricing today's catalog instead of the next 12 months |
| 10. Apps and integrations | Community, scheduling, webinar, analytics, certificates, automation | Comparing one platform subscription with another platform's full stack |
| 11. Migration and exit | Export, rebuild, redirects, content, students, subscriptions, downtime | Treating switching cost as zero because files are exportable |
| 12. Labor | Weekly admin, reconciliation, support, publishing, reporting, fixes | Ignoring 10 hours of work to save $30 of software |
Three-scenario formula
Do not model only the month you hope to have
Annual total cost = subscription + platform charges + processing + gateway and currency costs + add-ons + refund/dispute cost + valued labor + migration allocation.
Low case
Use conservative sales and higher effective percentage fees. This shows how much subscription risk exists while demand is unproven.
Expected case
Use the actual product mix, average order value, refund rate, card geography, contact count, and support hours expected after launch.
High case
Test the next plan threshold, fee break-even, storage and contact limits, team seats, payout reserve, and support load.
Failure case
Model cancellation after three months, annual commitment, export work, redirects, and moving active subscriptions to a new processor.
Keep every cost label consistent with the online course platform fee glossary, then compare the result with the three-volume course platform cost benchmark.
No-refund, fee-only examples
Billing cadence changes the fee-only upgrade tie
These examples assume no refunds, the same selling route and no other cost changes. Divide the extra subscription by the fee saving to find equality; the higher plan costs less only above the exact tie. Currency ties are rounded for display. Annual equivalents are monthly budgets for an annual commitment, not cancel-anytime invoices.
| Upgrade comparison | Annual-equivalent subscription increase and tie | Regular monthly subscription increase and tie | Fee saving modeled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter → Builder | $40 more; about $533.33 monthly gross | $50 more; about $666.67 monthly gross | 7.5 percentage points of base platform fee |
| Podia Mover → Shaker | $42 more; $840 monthly gross | $50 more; $1,000 monthly gross | 5 percentage points of base platform fee |
| LearnWorlds Starter → Pro Trainer | $55 more; 11 paid enrollments/month | $70 more; 14 paid enrollments/month | $5 per paid enrollment, not a percentage of gross |
| Kajabi Basic → Growth, affected provider only | $56 more; $5,600 affected-provider gross/month | $70 more; $7,000 affected-provider gross/month | 1 percentage point of conditional third-party-provider fee |
LearnWorlds ties at 11 or 14 enrollments on the respective billing basis; Pro Trainer first saves on this fee-only comparison at 12 or 15. Its regular monthly comparison uses $29 and $99, not the displayed introductory promotion. Kajabi's row excludes Kajabi Payments, PayPal and regions where its extra third-party fee does not apply; it does not compare native card-processing rates.
Processing is excluded only where both plans use the same assumed processor. Tax, currency, payment bundles, usage, add-ons, disputes, migration and labor are outside these ties. Different retained fees on refunds can change the result; do not assume that a refunded sale reverses every fee. Feature requirements or limits can justify an upgrade before the fee-only tie.
Use the detailed annual and monthly threshold comparison, the Podia refund-adjusted example and the qualified Teachable refund sensitivity. LearnWorlds' Starter enrollment-fee return remains unverified here; check the actual route rather than treating it as returned. These October 4 scoped checks do not complete the September 2 cross-platform audit.
Exit-cost example
Separate $486 transition budget from $328 extra cost
This fictional budgeting example uses an old cancel-anytime tool at $84/month, a new one at $79/month, two months of overlap, and eight hours of rebuild/testing work valued at $20/hour. It is not a vendor quote or a customer result; valued owner labor is not necessarily a cash payment.
Two-month subscriptions: 2 × ($84 + $79) = $326. Valued labor: 8 × $20 = $160. Transition total: $486 before other charges. If the annual model already includes twelve months of the new tool, its first two months ($158) are already budgeted. Only the old-tool overlap ($168) plus labor ($160)—$328—is additional migration cost, equivalent to $27.33/month over twelve months. That allocation is not an installment schedule. Do not count new subscriptions or labor twice.
Add any committed old annual renewal, extra contact/import capacity, caption or quiz rebuilding, URL work and approved subscription handling separately. The actual vendor import boundaries explain why a free content service is not an all-inclusive move. Retain a contingency for items the pilot has not established.
Payment eligibility
A fee model is invalid until the payout route works
- Confirm the business country and entity type are eligible.
- Confirm the seller can open and verify the required processor account.
- Confirm buyer currencies and methods at checkout.
- Confirm settlement currency, conversion, bank eligibility, and payout timing.
- Confirm reserves, holds, refunds, chargebacks, and tax responsibilities.
- Save screenshots or official links for every assumption used in the cost model.
Frequently asked
Hidden-fee questions
Does zero transaction fee mean no fees?
No. Payment processing, subscription cost, tax, refunds, currency conversion, gateway charges, email limits, apps, and operating labor can remain.
Should I choose the cheapest entry plan?
Only if it remains cheapest at expected volume and includes the required workflow. A low subscription with a percentage fee can quickly exceed the fee-free upgrade.
How should I value my own time?
Assign an hourly rate you would pay a competent operator or the value of work displaced. Track a trial workflow and multiply the recurring hours by 12 months.
Can a platform change its prices?
Yes. Save the pricing and fee documentation used for the decision, note the audit date, review renewal notices, and maintain an export and migration plan.
Official pricing sources
Check the current rule before using any example
Vendor links are currently direct and non-affiliate.