Course platform pricing research log.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped Thinkific connection-cost check

A fee rate does not grant Stripe access

Five Thinkific comparisons, its fee guide and exported calculator assumptions now distinguish new Grow-or-higher Stripe access from confirmed legacy Basic/Start scenarios. The LearnWorlds comparison adds separate fictional Grow costs and named keyboard tables. Official connection, regional fee and subscription sources were rechecked; the model and September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates are unchanged. This does not approve an account or establish sales demand.

The pricing CSV retains those connection limits. The beginner table separates regular monthly bills from full annual commitments, using current public subscriptions and Thinkific's invoice guide. Podia's existing 14-day trial claim was confirmed, not changed; unrelated feature review dates remain intact.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped Gumroad billing comparison check

A monthly equivalent is not a monthly invoice

The Gumroad alternatives guide and three comparisons now separate annual budgets, regular monthly bills and full first-year commitments. A fictional four-sale launch costs $42 in Gumroad platform fees versus $54 for monthly Thinkific Basic or a $475 annual commitment—not a $39.58 bill. Current public subscriptions and Gumroad direct/Discover/tier/processing/refund rules were read; the model is unchanged.

Scoped learner-fit consumer review: Included delivery and assessment limits checked against actual Library/Thinkific documentation; the public assignment-plan conflict remains explicit. This is not a fresh fee audit, demand, account or outcome evidence. Payment/migration costs remain separate; September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates stay unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped international money-path check

A supported native-payment country does not establish a Stripe surcharge

The international guide now separates Thinkific native eligibility, Grow-or-higher new standalone Stripe access and the fee FAQ's US/Canada/UK/EU list. Two fictional $1,000 calculations distinguish a $10 Grow surcharge from a $50 confirmed-legacy Basic surcharge; neither is a full payment bill or proof of new Basic access. Native payment-method, conversion, recurring, tax-service and invoicing charges remain separate.

Current Thinkific country/fee/access sources and Teachable country/payout sources were read. Four comparison tables gain named keyboard-scroll regions and a real heading handoff connects the explanation with the private readiness check. The older Podia/LearnWorlds route review is not redated.

This scoped consumer correction does not complete the cross-platform audit, resolve Teachable's public payout discrepancy, approve an account or establish buyer demand. No payment/account action or modeled rate change occurred; September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates remain unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped zero-base-fee comparison check

A zero plan fee is not a zero payment bill

The existing zero-fee guide now distinguishes annual and regular-monthly upgrade ties and corrects a Teachable subscription-difference table cell. The five Teachable comparisons retain current payment-layer qualifications. Podia's actual billing control and the vendors' price/fee documentation were checked.

The Podia–Teachable comparison no longer assumes processing differences are immaterial; a fictional omitted-cost example shows how a narrow plan-only lead can reverse. Three existing zero-fee tables gain named keyboard regions.

No modeled rates, account/payment settings or paid-product prices changed. This is scoped verification, not a completed audit or measured demand/sales result; September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates remain unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped migration and exit-cost check

An import is not a complete business transfer

The existing migration guide now distinguishes documented Podia, Thinkific and Teachable import workflows, progress/access limits and recurring-billing transitions. Google's hosting-only and URL-changing guidance and Stripe's separate payment-data/subscription process were checked. The selection and hidden-fee guides add an exit-gate pilot and a fictional overlap/labor example.

These are scoped source/consumer corrections, not a completed pricing audit or a claim of preserved revenue. No account, billing, learner record or domain was changed; September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates remain unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped export and refund explanation repair

Keep the assumptions with an offline calculation

The pricing, benchmark and calculator CSVs now retain exact annual amounts, billing/payment assumptions, exclusions, official sources and separate audit/documentation dates. Non-Thinkific benchmark rows no longer describe a native Thinkific route. Original numeric columns and fee inputs are unchanged.

The benchmark's offline-use explanation separates an annual invoice from a monthly equivalent and a cost remainder from business profit. The glossary's refund example now matches the calculators' original-fee defaults and independently selectable returns; Stripe's current refund documentation was checked. Two existing tables gain named keyboard-scroll regions.

This is a scoped documentation/consumer correction, not a completed cross-platform pricing audit. September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates and modeled prices remain unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped LearnWorlds fee and entitlement check

Billing basis and exact learning requirements change the choice

Starter and Pro Trainer tie at 11 enrollments with annual-plan equivalents, but at 14 with regular monthly subscriptions; Pro becomes cheaper from 12 or 15 respectively. Capacity/support limits, certificate exclusions, Pro's 20 SCORM/HTML5 packages, connected live-account counts and program navigation tiers were rechecked.

The pricing-options article restricts subscription-based learning programs to Learning Center, while the newer subscription guide describes Pro Trainer access. We retain that disagreement rather than promise a plan entitlement. Subscription checkout bypasses the multi-product cart, and manual enrollment or learner deletion is not proof of billing activation/cancellation.

Read the scoped requirements and official sources. This is not a completed cross-platform audit; September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates remain unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped Thinkific invoice and plan correction

Use the invoice for fee math and the eligible plan for features

Thinkific's rounded $40/$82 headlines are not twelve equal invoice installments: Basic costs $475/year ($39.58/month), Start $978/year ($81.50/month). We reconciled worked comparisons and shortlists with the calculator's existing invoice-derived model. The native-payment Teachable Starter crossover is $141.11 monthly gross on annual billing, or $200 with regular monthly billing.

Membership and native Zoom-course recommendations now budget Start, not Basic. Coaching and download shortlists distinguish Basic's five-product allowances from Start's unlimited allowances. Live delivery still needs a suitable external Zoom account and a real session pilot; a platform subscription is not a video-conference license.

The official invoice/renewal guide, current pricing, membership and live-lesson documents were checked. Existing annual renewals and active discounts can change an account quote. This remains a scoped correction, not a completed cross-platform audit; September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates stay unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped certificate and checkout correction

Compare the plan and payment experience that actually support the workflow.

We corrected promises of Teachable certificates on lower-priced plans: current pricing marks and its course guide place native certificates on Growth or higher. The fee guide now separates certificate eligibility, checkout offers and conflicting cart-recovery documentation. Five comparisons and the cohort/certificate shortlists carry the qualifications; the certificate shortlist also uses Thinkific Start rather than Basic for its native award feature.

New payment-system documentation removes old post-purchase placements and labels cart recovery coming soon, while older cart-email guidance describes automatic sending. Actual school availability is not assumed. This is a scoped correction; remaining full-audit coverage and September 2 full-audit/Dataset dates are unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped Kajabi cost and capacity check

Product counting, legacy plans and payment charges change the comparison.

The Kajabi guide now compares optional capacity with a full upgrade, explains shared Downloads slots and separate Community limits, and distinguishes native card and recurring charges from third-party-provider fees. Five existing comparison/alternative pages retain explicit annual-billing, processor and legacy-plan qualifications.

Subscription and selected Kajabi payment/capacity sources were rechecked. Historical migration and current legacy-account wording are not treated as one universal renewal quote. Remaining cross-platform feature/consumer coverage is incomplete; September 2 full-audit and Dataset dates are unchanged.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped gateway-model reconciliation

Route availability, payment cost, and model limits are separate.

We corrected the Thinkific guide's cap explanation and native-payment cost exclusions without changing the fee engine. Its cap is a steady-month approximation, not a monthly entitlement. We also clarified LearnWorlds' recurring-method limits, its legacy PayPal notice and existing Stripe billing after a Shopify switch. Three gateway tables now have named keyboard-scroll regions.

Official payment and usage sources were checked, including Podia's PayPal prerequisites and the distinct Teachable legacy schedule. Remaining comparison/guide coverage is unfinished; full-audit and Dataset dates remain September 2.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped Teachable payment check

Plan fees and payment charges are separate decisions.

The setup guide links a new, publicly accessible fee article. We checked its current processing, bundle and US custom-gateway charges and replaced the old inaccessible fee reference. The fee guide now lists the separate cost layers; the model's prices and fees remain unchanged, with unmodeled charges labeled. We also flag conflicting public payout schedules rather than promise a first-payout date.

The full audit is still unfinished: remaining gateway assumptions and cross-page coverage require verification. Full-audit and Dataset dates remain September 2.

October 4, 2026 · Scoped Podia correction

Trial length and billing choice change the comparison.

We checked Podia's actual monthly and annual pricing controls and fee documentation. We corrected stale trial descriptions and clarified the billing commitment and two upgrade thresholds. Standard prices and fee-model inputs are unchanged.

A later October 4 check of Podia's refund and email guides supports the full-refund sensitivity example: platform and processing fee returns differ, and email sending stops above the selected subscriber tier. Calculator defaults remain unchanged; these are not predicted refunds or sales.

The full audit is still unfinished, including detailed Teachable fee verification and remaining cross-page reconciliation. Full-audit and Dataset dates remain September 2.

October 3, 2026 · Scoped billing check

Regular rates and the annual commitment are different questions.

We checked Podia's native monthly/annual controls and Thinkific's standalone Stripe prerequisite; the existing prices and eligibility notes match. LearnWorlds' native controls confirm its regular rates and show a temporary monthly offer. We clarified annual commitments and short-project subscription math, without assuming promotion eligibility or changing standard model prices.

This is not a completed full audit. The detailed Teachable payment-processing and bundle checks, and remaining cross-page reconciliation, are still unfinished. The September 2 full-audit and Dataset dates remain unchanged.

October 3, 2026 · Scoped correction

Teachable usage policy: student exemptions are not product allowances.

We read the September 28 legal-policy revision and current pricing cards. The policy no longer promises unlimited published products; the cards list 5, 10, and 50 for Starter, Builder, and Growth. We corrected the usage explanation, separated zero-dollar access from qualifying paid checkout, and added a billing-period peak example. Subscription prices and platform transaction-fee percentages did not change.

Detailed payment-processing and bundle verification remains unfinished. This correction is not a claim that the whole pricing dataset or every guide has been freshly audited.

September 2, 2026

What the latest audit confirmed

What “verified” means

We check the model inputs, not just the headline price

A plan's subscription is only one line in a creator's cost. Each full audit checks published monthly and annual pricing, platform transaction fees, fixed enrollment or transaction charges, whether payment processing is included or separate, material gateway rules, relevant plan limits, and any announced effective date.

We then trace changed facts through the homepage calculator, specialist calculators, machine-readable CSV, fee guides, comparison examples, FAQ answers, page update dates, and sitemap dates. A central audit date is advanced only after all modeled platforms have been checked.

Model boundaries

What the calculators intentionally do not promise

• Payment processing defaults are editable assumptions, not universal quotes.
• Taxes, VAT, currency conversion, chargebacks, refunds, and payout costs can vary.
• Country eligibility is a separate gate from a plan's published fee.
• Legacy, negotiated, nonprofit, enterprise, or account-specific pricing can differ.
• Feature value and migration cost are not reduced to a single ranking number.

That is why every result is presented as an estimate and every article links back to primary vendor documentation.

Reusable research data

Download the verified pricing model as CSV

The machine-readable dataset contains one row per modeled plan with its exact annual subscription, monthly annual-billing equivalent, platform percentage fee, fixed charge, any modeled annual fee cap, explanatory notes, audit date, and primary source URL. It is designed for independent checking and spreadsheet analysis—not as a substitute for a vendor quote.

The pricing dataset is available for personal or internal business research under the dataset reuse terms. Those terms explain attribution and when permission is needed for redistribution. The pricing verification date remains September 2, 2026.

Quality assurance

Each release candidate is tested as rendered HTML

The site is built before release and every sitemap URL is requested from the production bundle. Automated checks cover HTTP status, canonical URLs, titles, descriptions, one-H1 structure, Open Graph metadata, social-preview URLs, responsive viewport and charset, indexability, JSON-LD validity, visible dataset license links, image alternatives and dimensions, form labels, button names, skip links, heading order, new-tab safety, duplicate IDs, broken internal links, orphaned sitemap pages, broken fragments, feed coverage, and official-source integrity. Initial JavaScript and CSS are also measured against explicit gzip budgets.

August 26 product milestone

The research now supports decisions, not just reading

This audit also connected the verified fee model to four practical decision aids: shareable calculator scenarios, downloadable result files, plan-level break-even explorers, and a weighted platform scorecard. The international creator guide gained a payment-readiness check that treats country, currency, gateway, payout, and identity requirements as separate gates instead of assuming that a globally advertised platform works identically everywhere.

These tools use the same tested pricing functions as the published tables and CSV. They do not replace a vendor quote, and their editable assumptions remain visible so a reader can challenge the result. Canonical redirects, page-specific social previews, structured-data entity references, accessibility states, and route-level asset budgets were checked in the same release candidate.

Earlier milestones

How the research library evolved