Video Transcript
Transaction fees are the silent tax on course creators. Unlike your monthly subscription — which you see on every billing statement — transaction fees hide inside each sale, compounding as your business grows. A 5% fee on $50,000 in annual revenue costs $2,500 per year. Over five years, that's $12,500 — gone. This guide compares every major course platform's fee structure so you can make an informed decision about where your revenue actually goes.
Transaction fees vs. payment processing fees
Before comparing platforms, a critical distinction: there are two types of fees on every course sale, and they're not the same thing. (Worth reading alongside this guide: the five hidden course platform fees most reviews miss — fees that don't show up on public pricing pages but appear in each platform's own help center.)
Payment processing fees (typically 2.9% + $0.30 per domestic card transaction via Stripe) go to the payment processor. These are unavoidable on any platform that accepts credit cards. They cover the cost of securely processing the payment, fraud prevention, and moving money to your bank account. Every platform pays these, whether they pass them to you directly or absorb them into their pricing.
Platform transaction fees are an additional percentage charged by the course platform on top of processing fees. This is the platform's cut of your revenue — a toll for using their software to sell your course. Not all platforms charge this. The ones that do typically charge 1-10%, which stacks on top of the 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee.
When a platform says "zero transaction fees," they mean zero platform fees. You still pay standard payment processing through Stripe or the platform's integrated processor. The question is whether you are paying 2.9% + $0.30 (processing only) or 5-10% + $0.30 (processing plus platform cut) on every sale.
How transaction fees compound over time
The real cost of transaction fees isn't what you pay this month — it's what you pay over years as your business grows. Here's the math at different revenue levels, showing only the platform transaction fee (payment processing excluded since it's the same everywhere):
| Annual Revenue | At 5% Fee — 1 Year | At 5% Fee — 3 Years | At 5% Fee — 5 Years | At 7.5% Fee — 5 Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $1,250 | $3,750 | $6,250 | $9,375 |
| $50,000 | $2,500 | $7,500 | $12,500 | $18,750 |
| $75,000 | $3,750 | $11,250 | $18,750 | $28,125 |
| $100,000 | $5,000 | $15,000 | $25,000 | $37,500 |
At $100K annual revenue with a 7.5% transaction fee, you pay $37,500 over five years. That's the price of a full-time contractor for several months — spent on a fee that a zero-fee platform eliminates entirely.
Every major platform's fee structure
Here's the complete transaction fee breakdown for every major course platform, current as of early 2026. All figures use published pricing.
| Platform | Plan | Monthly Price | Transaction Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruzuku | Free | $0 | 0% | Up to 5 participants |
| Core | $99 | 0% | Unlimited courses & students | |
| Pro | $199 | 0% | Custom domain, multiple instructors | |
| Teachable | Starter | $39 | 7.5% | 5 products, 100 students |
| Builder | $89 | 0% | 10 products, 1,000 students | |
| Growth | $189 | 0% | 50 products, 5,000 students | |
| Thinkific | Basic | $54 ($40 annual) | 0% / 5% | 0% on Thinkific Payments, 5% on your own Stripe; 10,000 students |
| Start | $109 ($82 annual) | 0% / 2% | 0% on Thinkific Payments, 2% on your own Stripe; 10,000 students | |
| Grow | $219 ($164 annual) | 0% / 1% | 0% on Thinkific Payments, 1% on your own Stripe; 10,000 students | |
| Kajabi | Basic | $179 ($143 annual) | 0% | 5 products, 2,500 contacts |
| Growth | $249 ($199 annual) | 0% | 50 products, 25,000 contacts | |
| Pro | $499 ($399 annual) | 0% | Unlimited products, 100,000 contacts | |
| Podia | Mover | $49 ($42 annual) | 5% | 50 products |
| Shaker | $99 ($84 annual) | 0% | 150 products | |
| Earthquaker | $179 ($150 annual) | 0% | Unlimited products | |
| LearnWorlds | Starter | $29 | $5/enrollment | Per-enrollment, not per-transaction |
| Pro Trainer | $79 | 0% | Unlimited | |
| Mighty Networks | Launch | $79 | 2% | Stacks on top of Stripe 2.9% |
| Scale | $179 | 1% | Reduced but never 0% |
The true cost of selling $50K/year on each platform
Fee percentage alone is misleading. What matters is the total annual cost: subscription plus platform transaction fees. Here's what you actually pay to sell $50,000/year in courses on each platform (payment processing excluded since it's comparable across all):
| Platform & Plan | Subscription | Platform Fees on $50K | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruzuku Core | $997 | $0 | $997 |
| Teachable Starter | $348 | $3,750 | $4,098 |
| Teachable Builder | $828 | $0 | $828 |
| Thinkific Start | $978 | $0 or $1,000 | $978 or $1,978 |
| Kajabi Basic | $1,716 | $0 | $1,716 |
| Podia Mover | $504 | $2,500 | $3,004 |
| Podia Shaker | $1,008 | $0 | $1,008 |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $948 | $1,000 | $1,948 |
| LearnWorlds Pro Trainer | $948 | $0 | $948 |
Every row uses annual billing, the cheapest published rate on each platform. Thinkific Start ($82/mo annual) charges 0% if you take payments through Thinkific Payments and 2% if you use your own Stripe, which is where the second number in that row comes from; either way you're capped at 10,000 current students. Teachable Starter limited to 5 products and 100 students — impractical at $50K revenue. Kajabi Basic ($143/mo annual) limited to 5 products and 2,500 contacts. Mighty Networks Launch charges 2%, and no Mighty Networks plan reaches 0%. Ruzuku Core is $997 on annual billing; month to month it is $1,188.
The table reveals something important: at $50K revenue, Teachable Starter costs $4,098 while Teachable Builder costs $828. Staying on the Starter plan to "save money" actually costs $3,270 more per year. The breakeven point where upgrading from Starter to Builder pays for itself is $533/month in revenue on annual billing, or $667/month month to month. See our detailed Teachable fee breakdown for the full math.
Platform-by-platform analysis
Ruzuku — 0% on every plan, no exceptions
Ruzuku charges zero platform transaction fees on every plan, including the free tier. This isn't a promotional offer or a limited-time deal — it's been the pricing model since the platform launched. Your costs are predictable: the subscription fee is the subscription fee, and 100% of your course revenue (minus standard Stripe processing) goes to you.
Stefanie Kessen of The Online Itinerant specifically asked about fees while evaluating platforms during her migration from Teachable. For creators who have experienced transaction fees on another platform, the simplicity of flat-rate pricing with zero cuts is a meaningful relief. Debbie Stine, PhD, who runs the Science & Technology Policy Academy, moved back to Ruzuku from Kajabi — not because of Kajabi's fees (which are also 0%) but because of total cost. Even zero-fee platforms can be expensive if the base subscription is high enough.
See Ruzuku pricing | How selling works on Ruzuku | Compare Ruzuku to other platforms
Teachable — 7.5% on Starter, 0% on Builder and above
Teachable's fee structure creates a tax on their lowest-tier users. The Starter plan ($39/month) charges 7.5% on every transaction, plus limits you to 5 published products and 100 active students. The Builder plan ($89/month, $69 annual) removes the transaction fee and expands to 10 products and 1,000 students.
The practical implication: if you're earning any meaningful revenue, Builder is the right plan. On annual billing, at $533/month in sales the 7.5% fee on Starter ($40) exceeds the $40 monthly price difference to Builder ($69 against $29). Month to month the crossover is $667. The Starter plan only makes financial sense below that — and at that revenue level, the 5-product and 100-student limits are likely already constraining you. See our complete Teachable comparison | Teachable pricing.
Thinkific — 0% only if you use Thinkific Payments
Thinkific is a zero-fee platform on one condition: you take payments through Thinkific Payments. Connect your own Stripe account instead and Thinkific adds a third-party payment gateway fee of 5% on Basic, 2% on Start and 1% on Grow. That fee is live in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU, and it stops only after your first $1M in sales each year. Courses are unlimited on every plan, but current students are capped at 10,000 on Basic, Start and Grow. There's no permanent free plan — just a 30-day trial, after which Basic is $40/month and Start, the first plan with certificates, quizzes and live cohorts, is $82/month (both annual).
So the number to check first is which processor you'll run. At $50K a year on Start, the 2% own-Stripe fee is $1,000 — more than the subscription. If you're happy on Thinkific Payments, the platform fee really is zero; if you need your own gateway for tax, payout or accounting reasons, price Thinkific as a fee platform. See our Thinkific comparison | Thinkific pricing.
Kajabi — 0% platform fees, but watch the processing surcharges
Kajabi charges zero platform transaction fees on all plans, which sounds straightforward. But Kajabi's own help center documents two processing surcharges most reviews miss: an additional 0.7% on every subscription or payment plan transaction, and 1.5% on international cards. For a course business running on memberships (which is most of them), the real effective rate on Basic is 3.6% + 30¢, not 2.9%. The Kickstarter plan was eliminated in 2025; the cheapest option is now Basic at $143/month (annual) — making Kajabi the highest entry-price platform on this list. If you need email marketing, funnel building, and course hosting bundled, Kajabi delivers those — but verify the processing math against your sales mix before committing.
The question is whether you need those bundled tools. If you already have an email provider (Mailchimp, ConvertKit) and just need a course platform, paying $143/month for Kajabi's all-in-one approach means you're subsidizing features you may not use. See our Kajabi comparison | Kajabi pricing.
Podia — 5% on Mover, 0% on Shaker and Earthquaker
Podia retired its free plan in October 2024 and restructured in 2026, so there are three plans now. Mover is $42/month on annual billing ($49 month to month) and takes 5% of every sale. Shaker is $84/month on annual billing ($99 month to month) and takes nothing. Both prices below are the annual ones. The math is simple: Mover costs $42 + 5% of revenue, Shaker costs $84 flat, and the two still meet at $840/month in revenue — the 2026 price rise moved both plans by the same $9 a month, so the crossover did not move. Above $840/month, Shaker is cheaper: at $5,000/month you pay $292 on Mover against $84 on Shaker. A third tier, Earthquaker, arrived in 2026 at $150/month annual ($179 monthly). It is also 0%, so you go there for the caps rather than the fee — Mover allows 50 products, Shaker 150, and only Earthquaker is unlimited.
Mover makes sense while you are testing or selling at low volume. Once you have recurring revenue, the 5% fee grows faster than the $42/month gap between the plans. There's a 30-day free trial on both, but no free plan. See Podia pricing.
LearnWorlds — $5 per enrollment, not per transaction
LearnWorlds Starter ($29/month) charges a $5 fee per enrollment — not per transaction. This is an important distinction: the fee applies whether the student pays or not. If you offer a free course and 50 people enroll, that's $250 in fees on $0 revenue. For creators who use free courses as lead magnets, this can be a costly surprise. The Pro Trainer plan ($79/month) removes the per-enrollment fee entirely.
Mighty Networks — transaction fees on every plan
Mighty Networks charges transaction fees on all plans (per their current public pricing page): 2% on Launch ($79/mo), 1% on Scale ($179/mo), 0.5% on Growth ($354/mo), and 0.5% on Mighty Pro (custom). These stack on top of Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢, resulting in combined fees of 3.4-4.9% per transaction. There's no Mighty Networks plan that reaches 0% platform transaction fees. For community-focused creators who process payments, this is a recurring cost with no workaround. See Mighty Networks pricing.
The hidden cost analysis
Transaction fees are the most visible hidden cost, but they're not the only one. When comparing platforms, also consider:
- Student and product caps. Teachable Starter limits you to 100 students and 5 products. Kajabi Basic limits you to 2,500 contacts. Hitting a cap forces an upgrade that changes your cost calculation.
- Fees attached to your choice of processor. Thinkific is 0% on Thinkific Payments but charges 5%, 2% or 1% by plan if you bring your own Stripe, in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU. Check which gateway you'll actually use before you price the plan.
- Feature gating. Some platforms reserve core features (certificates, custom domains, priority support) for higher tiers. You may avoid transaction fees only to pay more for the features you need.
When transaction fees are acceptable
Transaction fees aren't inherently bad — they're a trade-off. There are situations where a platform with fees makes sense:
When the platform bundles tools you would pay for separately. Kajabi includes email marketing, landing pages, and funnel building. If you would otherwise pay $50-100/month for a separate email provider and landing page tool, Kajabi's higher base price (with 0% fees) may be cheaper in total. The calculation is: Kajabi subscription vs. cheaper course platform + email tool + landing page tool.
When you're testing at very low volume. If you're selling your first course and expect fewer than $500/month in revenue, a lower- subscription plan with fees (Podia Mover at $42/month annual plus 5%, for example) may cost less in total than a higher-subscription plan with no fees. At $300/month, 5% is $15 — well under the $42/month you'd pay to move up to Shaker at $84/month annual.
When the fee percentage is small and capped. Mighty Networks' 1% fee on the Scale plan ($179/month) adds up more slowly than larger percentages. At $50K revenue, that's $500/year — meaningful but not dramatic compared to the subscription cost.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between transaction fees and payment processing fees?
Payment processing fees (typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction via Stripe) go to the payment processor and are unavoidable on any platform. Transaction fees are an additional percentage charged by the course platform itself on top of processing fees. For example, Teachable Starter charges 7.5% platform fee plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing — a combined 10.4% + $0.30 per sale.
Which course platforms charge zero transaction fees?
Ruzuku charges 0% on all plans ($99/month Core, $199/month Pro). Thinkific charges 0% when you take payments through Thinkific Payments, but 5%, 2% or 1% by plan if you use your own Stripe (Start is $82/month annual, 2%). Kajabi charges 0% on all plans ($143+/month on annual billing). LearnWorlds charges 0% on Pro Trainer ($79/month) and above. Podia charges 0% on Shaker ($84/month annual, $99 month to month) and 5% on Mover. See the full comparison table above.
When do transaction fees start to matter?
They matter immediately, but the impact becomes significant as revenue grows. At $1,000/month, a 5% fee costs $600/year. At $5,000/month, it's $3,000/year. Over three years at $5,000/month, you would pay $9,000 in transaction fees alone. Use our revenue calculator to model your specific numbers.
Is it worth paying a higher subscription to avoid transaction fees?
Almost always, once your revenue exceeds a few hundred dollars per month. Teachable's breakeven is $533/month on annual billing ($667 month to month) — above that, the Builder plan ($69/mo annual, 0% fees) costs less than the Starter plan ($29/mo annual, 7.5% fees). Podia's Mover-to-Shaker breakeven is $840/month on annual billing. The higher subscription pays for itself quickly.
Do transaction fees apply to free courses?
Generally no — if no money changes hands, there's no transaction to charge a fee on. The exception is LearnWorlds Starter, which charges $5 per enrollment regardless of price. If you plan to offer free courses as lead magnets or community resources, check the specific platform's fee structure carefully.
Your next step
Calculate your expected annual revenue and multiply it by the platform's transaction fee percentage. Add the annual subscription. That's your true platform cost. If the transaction fees exceed the subscription price difference to a zero-fee plan, you're paying more than you need to.
For a zero-fee platform with a free tier to test on: start free on Ruzuku. For a detailed comparison of Ruzuku against specific platforms, see our comparison hub.