Your Teachable Bill Just Hit $1,847/Month. Here's Your Exit Plan.
If you're a course creator watching transaction fees eat 15% of your MRR, six proven alternatives are already running profitable cohorts on lower economics.
Mighty Networks, Circle, Podia, Substack, Gumroad, and custom Next.js builds compared. Features, pricing, and when each actually makes sense.
Your course goes live, students enroll, and Teachable clips 5% from every sale. At $20K monthly revenue, that's $1,000 vanishing each month into platform fees -- $12,000 annually you never budgeted for. Teachable alternatives aren't about chasing features or fleeing price hikes. They're about finding the pricing model, community depth, and design control your business actually needs. Mighty Networks charges flat monthly rates with 2% fees on lower tiers. Circle eliminates transaction fees entirely. Podia bundles email marketing and affiliate tracking without upselling you to higher plans. Substack and Gumroad take 10% but cost nothing upfront. Custom Next.js builds demand $8K–$25K initially, then charge zero platform fees forever. Each model trades something -- upfront cost, feature depth, migration effort -- for different long-term economics. Your revenue trajectory determines which trade-off makes sense.
What is holding your current website back?
Common gaps we find in nearly every audit.
What Your Website Could Look Like
Custom-designed for your industry. No templates. No stock photos.
How We Build This Right
Every safeguard, built in from Day 1.
Mighty Networks
Community-first platform with courses, events, and member spaces. A solid fit if engagement matters more to you than slick course delivery. Starts at $41/month with a 2% transaction fee on the Community plan.
Circle
Modern community platform that bolted on course capabilities in 2024. Clean interface, a usable API, plays nicely with tools you already have. Starts at $49/month with no transaction fees.
Podia
Courses, downloads, coaching, and email -- one platform, zero transaction fees across every plan. Starts at $39/month. Customization is limited, but it covers the basics well.
Substack
Newsletter-first, with paid content that works loosely like a course. Takes 10% but costs nothing upfront. Works best for writers and educators who already have a warm audience waiting.
Gumroad
Straightforward digital product sales with a flat 10% fee and no monthly charge. Makes sense for creators selling standalone courses who don't need drip content or community.
Custom Next.js + Supabase + Stripe
You own the platform, the data, and the revenue. You pay Stripe's 2.9% and nothing else. Higher upfront cost -- but the math changes dramatically at scale.
What We Build
Purpose-built features for your industry.
Teachable clips 5% transaction fees on Basic plans -- $12K annually at $20K monthly revenue
Compare transparent pricing: Mighty Networks $41–$360/mo, Circle $49–$399/mo, Podia $39–$89/mo, Substack/Gumroad 10% cuts, Custom $8K–$25K upfront then $0 platform fees
Template-based design locks your course site into the same visual patterns as thousands of competitors
Evaluate course limits honestly: Mighty Networks, Circle, and Podia offer unlimited courses; Substack lacks structured curricula; Custom builds impose zero constraints
Community features require the $199/month Business plan, forcing you to pay for Circle or Discord separately
Assess community depth: Circle leads, Mighty Networks follows closely, Podia offers basics, Substack limits you to comments, Gumroad provides nothing, Custom builds exactly what your students need
No native affiliate program on lower tiers blocks word-of-mouth tracking without adding third-party tools
Review email marketing integration: Podia and Substack include native tools, Mighty Networks stays basic, Circle requires third-party connections, Custom lets you choose Resend or any ESP with full control
Email marketing pushes you toward ConvertKit or Mailchimp, splitting your student data across two platforms
Check affiliate tracking availability: Podia and Gumroad include it on all plans, Mighty Networks gates it behind higher tiers, Circle lacks native support, Custom builds it via Rewardful or custom code
Teachable controls customer relationships and payment data, exposing your business to policy changes or suspensions
Understand customization limits: Mighty Networks offers branded apps at $360/mo, Circle allows custom domains without apps, Podia/Substack/Gumroad constrain design heavily, Custom builds PWAs or native apps without restrictions
Built on a Modern, Secure Stack
Our Development Process
From discovery to launch. Quality at every step.
Revenue & Requirements Audit
Week 1We look at your current revenue, growth rate, and what you actually need to run your business. Under $5K/month? A SaaS platform is probably the right call, and we'll tell you that directly instead of pitching you a custom build you don't need yet.
Platform Architecture
Week 2For custom projects: we design the data model, video delivery pipeline through Mux, payment flow through Stripe, and auth system through Supabase. Every decision is shaped around your specific course format -- not a generic template.
Core Platform Build
Weeks 3–6Course player, student dashboard, checkout flow, admin panel. We ship a working MVP with real video playback and Stripe subscriptions before we touch anything secondary.
Community & Growth Tools
Weeks 7–8Discussion forums, affiliate tracking, email sequences, analytics dashboard. These features tend to pay for themselves through better retention and higher lifetime value.
Migration & Launch
Weeks 9–10We migrate your existing students, course content, and active payment subscriptions from Teachable with no downtime. That includes 30 days of post-launch monitoring and bug fixes.
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Explore related industries
200+ employee company? Complex multi-tenant, auction, or multi-location requirement? We have a dedicated enterprise capability track.
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Tell us about your course business. We'll recommend the right path--even if it's not a custom build.
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