A hosted course platform bills monthly, and Teachable's cheapest plan also takes a cut of every sale. A licence means a yearly fee and your own hosting. A custom platform is quoted once, for the scope of courses and roles, with no per-student fee or platform cut.
Three routes to a course platform
| Route | Cost per the price list | What limits you |
|---|---|---|
| Teachable | from USD 39 a month, USD 29 billed annually | the Starter plan allows 5 products and takes a 7.5% transaction fee; the fee goes only from the USD 89 Builder plan up, with payments through Teachable Payments |
| Kajabi | from USD 179 a month, USD 143 billed annually | the Basic plan allows 5 products, 2,500 contacts and 2 admin users |
| LearnDash | from USD 399 a year | a WordPress plugin: the licence renews yearly, and WordPress hosting and updates are yours |
| A custom platform | quoted once the scope of courses and roles is set | the running costs are hosting, video and the payment provider's fee |
What goes into a custom platform
A learner picks a course, a level and a date, pays in one go or in instalments, keeps lessons, materials, assignments and progress in their own panel, and gets a certificate generated from the panel at the end. We build the platform as SaaS, with accounts, recurring payments, an admin panel and a REST API, and the code is yours once the work is accepted and paid for.
Video is a running cost of its own. Bunny Stream charges nothing for encoding, storage starts at USD 0.01 and delivery at USD 0.005 per GB, so 1,000 GB of watched lessons starts at USD 5.
Modules, roles and how we quote are on our platforms and SaaS page.
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