"If you're under £3K MRR, Thinkific Basic (£39/mo, 0% fees) will run you for nine months without forcing a re-platform. If you're between £5K–£15K MRR with email + community needs, Kajabi Growth (£127/mo) starts earning its keep. The full math is below."
Take 60 seconds →Best for first-time creators and scaling businesses under £5K MRR who want 0% transaction fees and a real free plan to validate demand.
The realism floor — read this before picking a platform
Typical month-1 result if you execute seriously: £0–£400 in course sales for most creators. Most don't cross £3K MRR until month 4–6 with paid traffic or a warm audience of 500+. We say this once on the homepage and again on every commercial page. It is not a disclaimer — it is the floor you should plan against. Don't buy Kajabi Growth on the assumption you'll hit £10K MRR in month two.
* Real yr-1 cost includes Stripe processing. Teachable Starter total assumes £3K/mo average revenue. LearnWorlds Starter assumes 50 sales/mo at £50 average.
| Platform | Entry price | Real yr-1 cost | Txn fee | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific | £0/mo (Free) | £468/yr (Basic) | 0% | 8.6 |
| Kajabi | £71/mo | £1,400–£1,800/yr | 0% | 8.2 |
| Teachable | £31/mo | £700–£4,872/yr* | 7.5% Starter | 7.4 |
| Podia | £31/mo | £680–£900/yr | 0% | 7.8 |
| LearnWorlds | £23/mo | £600/yr + $5/sale* | $5/sale Starter | 8.0 |
| Mighty Networks | £39/mo | £830/yr | 0–3% | 7.5 |
Teachable Starter total = £31 subscription + 7.5% of revenue. Thinkific Basic = £39 flat, 0% fees. Stripe processing not shown (applies to both).
Read the full analysis →You pick a course platform once and pay the switching cost forever. The three costs that flip a "cheap" platform into the expensive one: transaction fees that scale with your revenue, community-data lock-in that makes migration a hard restart, and annual billing that renews without a monthly off-ramp. The platform you can afford on day one is rarely the one you can afford on month nine.