Online course creators face a critical decision when selecting between Teachable and Udemy, as each platform offers dramatically different approaches to monetizing educational content. The revenue potential, pricing flexibility, and business model of each platform can significantly impact your long-term success as a course creator. Understanding these fundamental differences will help you make an informed choice that aligns with your content strategy and financial goals.
What Makes These Platforms Fundamentally Different
Course creators often struggle to understand why Teachable and Udemy produce such different financial outcomes for instructors. The answer lies in their core business models, which create entirely different ecosystems for selling educational content. Teachable operates as a course creation platform where you build your own branded online school, complete with custom domains, personalized branding, and direct student relationships. This approach gives you complete control over your pricing strategy, marketing efforts, and customer experience.
Udemy functions as a massive educational marketplace where your courses compete alongside thousands of others for student attention. While this provides immediate access to millions of potential students, it also means surrendering significant control over pricing, promotions, and student relationships. The platform handles all marketing and discovery, but instructors must accept Udemy’s terms regarding discounts, revenue sharing, and promotional strategies.
Platform Control vs Marketplace Exposure
The platform versus marketplace distinction creates profound implications for your long-term business strategy. When you choose Teachable, you’re essentially starting your own online education business with all the responsibilities and rewards that entails. You’ll need to drive your own traffic, build your email list, and create your own marketing campaigns, but you’ll also own the student relationships and maintain complete pricing freedom.
Udemy offers the opposite trade-off by providing built-in audience exposure while requiring you to follow their marketplace rules. Your courses become part of their catalog, subject to platform-wide promotions and algorithmic visibility decisions. This can generate sales without extensive marketing efforts, but it also means your business success depends heavily on Udemy’s promotional strategies and search algorithms.
How Much Does Teachable Actually Cost
Teachable’s pricing structure reflects its positioning as a professional course creation platform rather than a simple hosting service. The platform offers multiple tiers designed to accommodate creators at different stages of their business journey. Each tier provides increasingly sophisticated tools and reduces the financial barriers that can limit your profitability as your course business grows.
The key factors that determine your actual Teachable costs include your chosen plan level, sales volume, and whether you pay monthly or annually:
Free Plan: Zero monthly cost but includes $1 plus 10% transaction fee on every sale
Basic Plan: $39 monthly with 5% transaction fees and essential marketing tools
Professional Plan: $119 monthly with no transaction fees and advanced features
Business Plan: $299 monthly with premium customization and priority support
When Transaction Fees Become Expensive
Transaction fees can quickly erode your profits if you’re selling high-priced courses on lower-tier plans. A $500 course sold on the Basic plan would incur a $25 transaction fee, effectively reducing your revenue to $475 per sale. This makes the Professional plan particularly attractive for creators selling premium courses, as eliminating transaction fees can save hundreds or thousands of dollars monthly depending on your sales volume.
The break-even point between plans depends on your course pricing and sales frequency. Creators selling courses priced above $200 who make more than six sales monthly typically find the Professional plan more economical than paying transaction fees on the Basic plan. Annual billing provides additional savings of approximately 20-25% across all paid plans, making it an attractive option for committed course creators.
What Does Udemy’s Revenue Share Really Mean
Udemy’s “free” platform comes with a complex revenue-sharing structure that significantly impacts your actual earnings per sale. Unlike Teachable’s transparent monthly fees, Udemy’s costs are hidden within their revenue split, which varies dramatically based on how students discover and purchase your courses. This variable structure creates unpredictable income streams that can make financial planning challenging for course creators.
The revenue share percentages depend entirely on the source of each sale, creating three distinct earning scenarios for instructors:
Organic Discovery: 37% instructor share when students find courses through Udemy’s search, promotions, or recommendations
Instructor Referrals: 97% instructor share when students purchase through your direct promotional links
Affiliate Sales: 25% instructor share when students buy through Udemy’s affiliate program partners
Why Most Sales Generate Lower Revenue
Most Udemy instructors discover that the majority of their sales come through the platform’s internal promotion and discovery mechanisms rather than their own marketing efforts. This means earning the lower 37% revenue share on most transactions, significantly reducing the effective price of your courses. A $100 course sold through Udemy’s promotions nets you just $37, while the same course sold through your referral link would generate $97 in revenue.
Udemy’s frequent platform-wide sales further complicate revenue calculations. The marketplace regularly discounts courses by 50-90%, often reducing prices to $9.99 or $14.99 regardless of your original listing price. While these promotions increase sales volume and platform visibility, they dramatically reduce your earnings per student, making high-volume sales essential for meaningful income generation.
Recent changes to Udemy’s revenue sharing model have made the situation even more challenging for instructors. In 2024, Udemy reduced instructor payouts by approximately $30.7 million compared to what they would have earned under the previous policy, effectively pushing total instructor earnings back to 2022 levels.
How Platform Pricing Limits Affect Your Strategy
Pricing flexibility represents one of the most significant differences between these platforms and directly impacts your potential revenue streams. Teachable provides complete pricing freedom, allowing you to set courses at any price point that reflects their value and your market positioning. You can create tiered pricing structures, offer payment plans, implement subscription models, or price individual courses anywhere from $10 to $10,000 based on your content and audience.
Udemy imposes strict pricing constraints that limit your strategic options. All courses must be priced between $19.99 and $199.99, preventing both ultra-low-cost lead magnets and high-value premium offerings. Additionally, the platform’s promotional culture means courses rarely sell at full price, with most transactions occurring during sales events when prices drop to $9.99-$19.99.
Premium Pricing vs Volume Sales Models
These pricing differences create fundamentally different business models for course creators. Teachable’s flexibility enables premium pricing strategies where you can sell fewer courses at higher price points, focusing on delivering exceptional value to a smaller, more committed audience. This approach works particularly well for specialized expertise, comprehensive training programs, or courses that include personal coaching elements.
Udemy’s pricing constraints push creators toward volume-based strategies where success depends on selling many courses at lower price points. This model favors creators who can produce multiple courses quickly, target broad audiences, and optimize for Udemy’s search algorithms and promotional opportunities. The platform rewards instructors who can generate high enrollment numbers and positive reviews across multiple course offerings.
Hidden Costs That Impact Your Bottom Line
Beyond the obvious pricing structures, both platforms include additional costs that affect your actual profitability. These hidden expenses can significantly impact your financial projections and should be factored into your platform decision. Payment processing fees, refund policies, and additional service costs all contribute to your total cost of doing business on each platform.
Teachable charges standard payment processing fees of approximately 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction when using their integrated payment system. While you can connect your own Stripe or PayPal accounts on higher-tier plans, similar processing fees still apply. The platform also offers optional services like custom domains, advanced integrations, and priority support that may require additional monthly investments as your business grows.
Processing Fees and Payment Delays
Udemy handles all payment processing internally, eliminating the need for separate payment gateway accounts or additional processing fee calculations. However, the platform maintains control over payment timing, typically holding funds for 30-60 days after sales to account for potential refunds. This cash flow delay can impact your ability to reinvest in marketing or course development, particularly for newer creators who depend on course revenue for business operations.
Both platforms have policies regarding refunds and chargebacks that can affect your net revenue. Teachable allows you to set your own refund policies within reasonable limits, giving you more control over customer service situations. Udemy maintains standardized refund policies across all courses, which may sometimes conflict with your preferred approach to customer satisfaction and retention.
Marketing Investment Requirements
The marketing requirements for success on each platform create different cost structures that extend beyond platform fees. Teachable requires you to build your own audience through content marketing, paid advertising, social media engagement, and email marketing campaigns. While this demands significant time and financial investment, it also creates owned marketing assets that benefit your business long-term.
Successful Teachable creators typically invest in the following marketing tools and strategies:
Email Marketing Software: Platforms like ConvertKit or Mailchimp for nurturing leads and promoting courses
Social Media Advertising: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn ads to reach target audiences
Content Creation Tools: Video editing software, graphic design tools, and course creation resources
Analytics and Tracking: Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and conversion tracking systems
Affiliate Management: Software to manage and track affiliate partnerships and commissions
Organic Reach vs Paid Promotion
Udemy provides built-in marketing through their marketplace visibility, search algorithms, and promotional campaigns. The platform’s 40+ million student base offers immediate audience access without requiring you to build your own following. However, standing out among thousands of competing courses requires optimization skills and often benefits from understanding Udemy’s promotional preferences and algorithmic factors.
Competition on Udemy can be intense, particularly in popular categories like business, technology, and personal development. Success often depends on creating compelling course titles, professional thumbnails, and descriptions that appeal to both students and Udemy’s search algorithms. While this doesn’t require the same marketing budget as building your own audience, it does demand significant time investment in platform optimization and competitive analysis.
Student Experience and Value Perception
The learning experience you can provide directly influences the pricing you can command and the student satisfaction you achieve. Teachable offers comprehensive customization options that allow you to create branded, professional learning environments. Students access your courses through your own website, complete with custom domains, personalized certificates, and learning paths that reflect your brand and teaching style.
Advanced features like drip content scheduling, prerequisite requirements, graded assignments, and integrated coaching tools enable you to create premium educational experiences. These capabilities support higher pricing by delivering more value and creating more engaging learning journeys. Students perceive greater value when they’re participating in a structured, branded educational program rather than simply watching video content.
Standardized vs Customized Learning
Udemy provides a standardized learning experience across all courses, which creates consistency for students but limits your ability to differentiate through the learning environment. While the platform includes basic features like quizzes, discussion areas, and mobile access, you cannot customize the interface, create unique learning paths, or add advanced interactive elements that might justify premium pricing.
Course certificates on Udemy use standardized templates that cannot be customized to reflect your brand or specific achievement levels. This standardization can make it difficult to create the premium feel that supports higher pricing, as students receive the same basic experience regardless of course price or content quality.
Building Long-Term Business Value
The long-term value creation potential differs significantly between these platforms and should influence your decision based on your business goals. Teachable enables you to build an owned educational business where you control student relationships, collect email addresses, and can cross-sell additional products or services. Each student becomes part of your owned audience, creating compound value over time.
Your Teachable-based business becomes a genuine asset that could potentially be sold, licensed, or expanded into other revenue streams. The email lists, brand recognition, and student relationships you build have value beyond individual course sales. This asset-building approach requires more upfront investment but creates sustainable competitive advantages and multiple revenue opportunities.
Platform Dependency vs Business Ownership
Udemy maintains ownership of all student relationships, preventing direct communication outside their platform and limiting your ability to build an independent audience. While this reduces your marketing responsibilities, it also creates platform dependency that can limit your long-term growth and business flexibility. Changes to Udemy’s policies, algorithms, or fee structures directly impact your business without your input or control.
The platform’s terms of service prohibit attempting to move students to external platforms or collect contact information for independent marketing. This means each sale exists in isolation, requiring ongoing platform visibility to generate consistent revenue. Your success remains tied to Udemy’s promotional decisions and marketplace performance rather than your own audience-building efforts.
Transform Learning with Learniverse's Smart Platform
While traditional platforms like Teachable and Udemy serve different market segments, forward-thinking educators are discovering how modern AI course generator technology can revolutionize the entire course creation process. Learniverse combines the customization flexibility that makes Teachable attractive with the user-friendly approach that draws creators to marketplace solutions, while adding powerful artificial intelligence that streamlines course development from any source material—whether you're working with existing text documents, PDF resources, or web content.
The platform's adaptive learning paths and interactive engagement tools address the key limitations that creators face on both Teachable and Udemy. Rather than spending countless hours manually structuring content or accepting standardized templates, Learniverse provides intelligent course architecture with built-in analytics and learner tracking that rivals enterprise solutions. The drag-and-drop customization capabilities appeal to educators, corporate trainers, HR teams, and independent course creators who need professional results without technical complexity, while gamification features and dynamic quizzes create the engaging experiences that drive completion rates and student satisfaction across any subject matter.
Revenue Potential Comparison
Successful creators on each platform typically achieve different revenue patterns that reflect their distinct business models. Teachable creators often generate higher revenue per student by selling comprehensive courses at premium prices, typically ranging from $200-$2,000 per course. Even modest sales volumes of 50-100 monthly purchases can generate substantial revenue when courses are priced appropriately for their value.
Top Teachable creators frequently report six-figure annual incomes, with some achieving seven-figure revenues through strategic pricing, course bundles, subscription offerings, and complementary services. The platform’s flexibility enables multiple revenue streams beyond individual course sales, including coaching programs, mastermind groups, and done-for-you services.
Volume vs Premium Revenue Models
Udemy’s revenue patterns reflect its volume-based approach, where success depends on selling many courses at lower effective prices. With most sales occurring during promotional periods at $9.99-$19.99, instructors need substantial enrollment numbers to generate meaningful income. Platform data suggests average instructors earn $30-$60 monthly, while successful creators with multiple popular courses can earn $3,000-$5,000 monthly.
The platform’s revenue distribution follows a winner-takes-most pattern, with the top 10% of instructors earning approximately 75% of all instructor revenue. This concentration suggests that success on Udemy requires either exceptional course quality, strong optimization skills, or the ability to create multiple courses that appeal to broad audiences.
Best Practices for Platform Selection
Choosing the right platform requires honest assessment of your content, audience, and business goals. Consider these essential factors when making your decision:
Evaluate your course content’s natural price point based on the value it provides and your target audience’s spending capacity
Assess your current marketing capabilities and willingness to invest in audience building versus relying on marketplace exposure
Determine whether you prefer building a branded educational business or generating supplementary income through course sales
Consider your long-term goals for course creation and whether you plan to develop multiple revenue streams beyond individual courses
Analyze your available time and resources for marketing, as Teachable requires more active promotion while Udemy depends on platform optimization
Many successful creators strategically use both platforms by placing introductory courses on Udemy to capture students, then directing them to premium offerings on Teachable or their own websites. This hybrid approach leverages Udemy’s discovery capabilities while building an owned audience for higher-value offerings.
Choose Your Course Platform for Maximum Profit
Your platform choice should align with your content value, marketing capabilities, and long-term business vision rather than simply minimizing upfront costs. Teachable typically offers greater revenue potential for creators with specialized expertise, established audiences, or strong marketing skills who can justify premium pricing through exceptional value delivery. The platform’s flexibility and ownership benefits make it ideal for building sustainable educational businesses.
Udemy provides an excellent starting point for new creators, those with broad-appeal content, or instructors seeking supplementary income without extensive marketing investment. The platform’s built-in audience and promotional capabilities can generate sales quickly, though at lower revenue per student. Success on Udemy requires understanding marketplace dynamics and creating content that appeals to their promotional preferences and search algorithms.
The most successful course creators often evolve their platform strategy as their expertise and audience grow. Start where you can gain traction most effectively, then expand your presence to maximize revenue and build the educational business that aligns with your long-term goals and expertise.
For creators seeking a modern alternative that combines AI-powered efficiency with engagement-driven design, Learniverse represents the evolution of online learning platforms. This adaptive approach to course creation eliminates many traditional barriers while providing the flexibility and analytics needed to build truly impactful educational experiences.
