How we compare online course platforms
We list 10 online course platforms available to UK creators, and a published rate card exists for 9 providers. Every price was read at the vendor's own pricing page from a British connection, at the true monthly rate rather than the discounted annual view most of these pages open on. Where a vendor negotiates instead, the table says so.
The calculator takes your monthly course revenue, your active students and how many courses you run. Each platform is costed at the cheapest plan whose caps cover those numbers, with its cut of revenue added, and the table sorts by the result. Commission does not change the order.
The cut an online course platform takes, and where it flips the answer
Several platforms charge a percentage of every sale on the entry plan and cut or remove it one plan up. That creates a crossover: below some monthly revenue the cheap plan wins, and above it the same plan is the expensive choice.
| Provider | Entry plan /mo | Transaction fee |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | £66/mo (Professional) | 2% (Professional), 1% (Business), 0.5% (Circle Plus) |
| Coursera | By application | N/A (revenue share instead) |
| GetResponse | £51/mo (Creator) | 0% (Creator and above) |
| Kajabi | £134/mo (Basic) | 0% (Kajabi Payments; 2%, 1% or 0.5% via a third-party gateway) |
| LearnWorlds | £25/mo (Starter) | £4.32 per paid enrolment (Starter), none above |
| Podia | £37/mo (Mover) | 5% (Mover), 0% (Shaker and above) |
| Skool | £7/mo (Hobby) | 10% (Hobby), 2.9% (Pro) |
| Teachable | £29/mo (Starter) | 7.5% (Starter), 0% (Builder and above) |
| Thinkific | £46/mo (Basic) | 0% (Thinkific Payments; a per-plan gateway fee applies via Stripe or PayPal) |
| Udemy | Free to publish | N/A (revenue share instead) |
To find the crossover, take the gap between the two plan prices and divide it by the difference between their fee rates. That is the monthly revenue at which the fee has eaten the whole saving, and it usually lands lower than people expect. The calculator does this for every provider at once, so set your real revenue.
A platform's cut is not card processing: every row still leaves you paying a processor, so a zero here means the platform's cut is zero, not that selling is free. Where a vendor offers zero only on its own payment rail, routing to your own gateway can reintroduce a fee, and the Kajabi and Thinkific cells say so. LearnWorlds charges a flat amount per paid enrolment rather than a share; the calculator does not collect enrolments, so its estimate is a floor.
Which online course platforms price in pounds
Nothing on the vendors' own pages tells you which group you are in.
| Provider | Local pricing | Billing basis |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | No, billed in US dollars | Annual only |
| Coursera | Not applicable | True monthly |
| GetResponse | Yes, genuine GBP rate card | True monthly |
| Kajabi | No, billed in US dollars | True monthly |
| LearnWorlds | No, billed in euros | True monthly |
| Podia | No, billed in US dollars | True monthly |
| Skool | No, billed in US dollars | True monthly |
| Teachable | No, billed in US dollars | True monthly |
| Thinkific | Yes, genuine GBP rate card | True monthly |
| Udemy | Not applicable, no subscription | True monthly |
For a converted row, the figure in our table is directionally right and not what appears on your statement: it moves month to month even when the vendor never touches its price, and your card will usually add an international transaction fee that sits outside every number here.
VAT sits outside every figure too. Software bought from a supplier outside the UK, which is most of this table, is usually handled under the reverse charge when you are VAT registered. That is a question for your accountant rather than a pricing page.
Circle publishes annual billing only, so its row is the monthly equivalent of a year paid up front. Decide the platform on the monthly figures and take the annual discount afterwards.
Student and course caps on an online course platform
The second bill nobody quotes is a limit. Crossing a student or course cap forces an upgrade regardless of what you earn, and a cap can be crossed by a free lead magnet or a second course that has not sold yet. Check whether a vendor's cap counts every enrolled student or only paying ones.
| Provider | Students included | Courses included |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | Unlimited members on every plan | Unlimited on every plan |
| Coursera | Unlimited | Agreed with Coursera as part of the partnership |
| GetResponse | 500 students (Creator) | Unlimited (Creator+) |
| Kajabi | 2,500 contacts (Basic), 25,000 (Growth), 100,000 (Pro) | 5 (Basic), 50 (Growth), Unlimited (Pro) |
| LearnWorlds | 1,000 active learners (Starter), 2,000 (Pro Trainer and above) | Unlimited (Pro Trainer+) |
| Podia | Unlimited customers on every plan | 50 (Mover), 150 (Shaker), Unlimited (Earthquaker) |
| Skool | Unlimited members on both plans | Unlimited on both plans |
| Teachable | 100 (Starter), 1,000 (Builder), 5,000 (Growth) | 5 (Starter), 10 (Builder), 50 (Growth) |
| Thinkific | 10,000 on every paid plan | Unlimited on every plan |
| Udemy | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Where a vendor's plans share one allowance and it takes no cut, its estimated cost holds steady as you move the inputs. What separates its plans is then features the calculator does not collect, so price the plan you would really buy.
Marketplace or your own audience: what an online course platform sells
Udemy and Coursera are marketplaces. You list on their site, they bring the students, and they keep a share of each sale instead of charging a subscription. Udemy's share is 63% on sales Udemy sources, 3% on sales you bring through your own coupon or referral link. Coursera's is Not published; partnership terms are negotiated, which is why its cost cell shows a quote.
We rank both on the same arithmetic as everything else. The trade is really about who owns the student: on a marketplace the platform sets the discounting, holds the email address and decides what to show them next.
| Provider | How it hosts | Custom domain |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | Self-hosted community on your own domain | Yes, on every plan |
| Coursera | Marketplace, courses hosted and promoted by Coursera | No, courses live on coursera.org |
| GetResponse | Self-hosted courses within your marketing site | Yes, free custom domain on annual plans |
| Kajabi | Self-hosted school on your own domain | Yes |
| LearnWorlds | Self-hosted academy on your own domain | Yes, on every plan |
| Podia | Self-hosted storefront on your own domain | Yes |
| Skool | Self-hosted community on your own URL (Pro) | Yes (Pro only) |
| Teachable | Self-hosted school on your own domain | Yes |
| Thinkific | Self-hosted school on your own domain | Yes |
| Udemy | Marketplace, courses hosted and promoted by Udemy | No, courses live on udemy.com |
If you already have an audience, switch on the "Use my own audience" filter above and the marketplaces drop out. If you do not, the share a marketplace keeps is buying distribution you would otherwise fund yourself. On your own platform you are the controller of your students' personal data under UK GDPR, with PECR consent for the email side; on a marketplace far less of that is yours.
Community, email and the subscriptions an online course platform replaces
Comparing plan prices alone flatters whichever platform does least. Some of these are built around courses, and some around a community that happens to contain courses. Email is metered separately from students on some, and on Circle it is a separate bill stacked on the plan.
| Provider | Built-in community | Email marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | Native, and the core of the product | Paid add-on, Email Hub priced separately by contacts |
| Coursera | Course discussion forums | No, Coursera owns the learner relationship |
| GetResponse | No | Native, and the core product, with unlimited monthly sends |
| Kajabi | Yes, 1 community (Basic and Growth), 3 (Pro) | Native, unlimited marketing emails on every plan |
| LearnWorlds | Yes, built-in community and social network on every plan | Yes, built-in email |
| Podia | Yes, community spaces | Native, with email contacts metered separately from students |
| Skool | Native, and the core of the product | Basic broadcasts to members |
| Teachable | Yes, student discussions and comments | Yes, basic broadcasts to students |
| Thinkific | Yes, 1 community (Basic and Start), 3 (Grow) | Yes, email automation included |
| Udemy | Q&A and announcements within each course | Limited announcements only, Udemy owns the student relationship |
Price the stack, not the platform. A dearer plan that removes an email subscription and a community subscription can be the cheaper answer once all three bills are on the table.
What you commit to before an online course platform has earned anything
Free plans are rare here. What each vendor offers instead is a trial on its own terms, and the Free plan row states them. Udemy is the exception: nothing to pay until something sells, and a large share taken when it does. A course is not a quick thing to move, so check the custom domain column above before you build. That is the difference between changing a supplier later and starting the audience again.