Course Platform Fee Calculator
Most platforms advertise low monthly prices, but skim 0.5% to 10% on every student transaction or force unexpected tier upgrades. See exact platform fees and take rates side-by-side.
How We Calculate This
Subscription costs are based on current published pricing, verified against each platform's official pricing page in April 2026. Transaction fees are calculated against the monthly revenue you enter. Plan selection is automatic — the calculator picks the cheapest plan that accommodates your course count, student count, and contact count.
Year 2 and 3 projections apply documented price increase patterns from user reports on Trustpilot and Reddit (2020-2026). These are not predictions — they show what costs could look like if the documented patterns continue. Ruzuku shows stable costs because we have no documented price increases to model.
What's not included: Standard payment processing fees (Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30) apply equally to all platforms and don't affect the comparison. Feature differences, migration costs, and platform quality are not captured here — see our review articles for those dimensions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate are the price projections?
Year 1 costs are based on current published pricing, verified against official pricing pages. Year 2-3 projections apply documented price increase patterns from user reports on Trustpilot and Reddit (2020-2026). These are projections based on historical patterns, not predictions — actual future pricing may differ.
Does this calculator include all fees?
This calculator includes platform subscription fees, platform transaction fees, and platform surcharges. It does not include standard payment processor fees (Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30) since those apply equally to all platforms and don't affect the comparison.
How does the plan auto-selection work?
The calculator selects the cheapest plan on each platform that accommodates your course count, student count, and contact count. If your usage exceeds a plan's limits, it automatically selects the next tier — which is often how creators discover forced upgrades.
Why isn't my platform included?
This calculator covers the four most-discussed platforms in our customer conversations: Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific, and Ruzuku. We include Ruzuku because we built the calculator and can verify our own pricing. For other platforms, see our pricing comparison hub.
When was the pricing data last updated?
Pricing data was last verified against official pricing pages on April 5, 2026. We verify pricing quarterly. If you notice a discrepancy, contact us at [email protected].
What does the Kajabi Payments warning mean?
If you use Kajabi's built-in payment processor (Kajabi Payments), your subscription customers' payment relationships are tied to the platform. Multiple long-term users report that leaving Kajabi means losing recurring subscription revenue because those relationships don't transfer.