Compared honestly on the four things that actually matter: what it costs to start, what it takes from every sale, whether features are gated behind higher tiers, and — the one most guides skip — who ends up owning your brand and your audience. Every figure is verified for 2026.
Free plan · no card needed · every feature included
*Kajabi advertises “0% transaction fees” but adds a ~2% surcharge on the Basic plan when you use your own Stripe account. Every figure verified for 2026 — always check each provider for the latest.
The only platform here that turns your courses into real pages of your own site — your brand, your domain, your design. Every feature ships on every plan, even Free, and the transaction fee falls from 5% to 0% as you grow. The honest catch: it's Webflow-native, so it's the wrong pick if you don't want a Webflow site.
The most polished all-in-one — funnels, email, courses, and a site builder in one place — but the priciest here at $179/mo after it dropped its entry plan, and its “0% fees” hide a ~2% surcharge when you use your own Stripe. Custom code, affiliates, and multiple sites sit on higher tiers.
Easy to start at $39/mo, but the Starter plan takes 7.5% of every sale and there's no free plan anymore. Fees only reach 0% once you're on the pricier Builder tier — so it's best for testing an idea, not scaling one.
Solid and course-focused, with no US transaction fee and unlimited students on every plan. But it removed its free plan in 2026, and your courses live on Thinkific's platform rather than on your own site.
Bundles courses, digital downloads, and email nicely, but it removed its free plan in 2024 and charges 5% on the $39 Mover plan, with email-subscriber caps on the lower tiers.
The simplest way to run a paid community, with gamification members genuinely love. But it's community-first — course tools are basic, everything lives on skool.com, and the $9 Hobby plan takes 10% of every sale.
A strong, polished community platform with courses attached, but automations and its API are gated to the $199 Business plan, and members live inside Circle's app rather than on your site.
There's no single “best” — it depends on what you're optimizing for. Want the cheapest possible start? Skool at $9 or Teachable at $39. Want the deepest all-in-one and have the budget? Kajabi. Selling seriously and hate transaction fees? Thinkific. But if you already have (or want) a Webflow site and care about owning your brand, your audience, and your design, CourseKit is the only option here that runs your entire course business as native pages of your own site — starting free.
Launch your first course today on the site you already own — every feature included, and a transaction fee that falls all the way to 0%.