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Over the last five years, the landscape of online learning has drastically changed, expanding well beyond simple ebooks and short videos. Now, online courses serve as comprehensive educational tools across virtually every industry. As their popularity has surged, so too have the number of online course platforms, like Teachable, which continue to innovate and improve.
In this review, I will guide you through all the essential details you need to know about Teachable, so let’s dive in.
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links through which I may earn a small commission at no extra cost if you choose to purchase a paid plan. I personally recommend Teachable as a powerful tool for creating, launching, and hosting online courses. For more details, review my full affiliate disclosure in the privacy policy.
Understanding Teachable
Teachable is an online course platform, also known as a Learning Management System (LMS), designed to help instructors create subscription-based courses. It simplifies the entire process of publishing content, growing an audience, and delivering lessons seamlessly. It’s known for being very accessible—even those without coding skills or a personal website can easily set up and run courses. If you can explain something clearly in plain language, you can build a successful course with Teachable.
The platform takes care of many aspects of course creation, including:
- Web hosting and video hosting
- WordPress plugin integration
- Payment processing
- Scheduling drip content delivery
- Setting up membership sites
- Building sales pages and landing pages
- Marketing and promoting your courses
- Engaging with students and more
Thanks to these features, over 100,000 creators worldwide rely on Teachable to share their knowledge and skills with learners everywhere.
Who Should Use Teachable?
Teachable is an excellent choice for small businesses and anyone new to course creation because of its affordability and user-friendly interface. You won’t need to navigate complicated settings or advanced technical options, making it accessible to beginners and non-technical educators. It’s also well-suited for professionals aiming to strengthen their brand and grow their audience.
While platforms like Kajabi and Thinkific offer more advanced features, Teachable remains an excellent starting point for those just entering the online course world. New users also benefit from an introductory 40-minute quickstart workshop immediately after signing up, which further simplifies the onboarding process.
The workshop covers:
- How to build your course using Teachable
- Organizing your content into modules
- Setting your pricing structure
- Configuring payment options and publishing your course
- Designing an effective sales page and marketing materials
Managing your online courses is straightforward—set up and update your content, organize your homepage, customize themes, and more, all from your dashboard. The platform guides you through each step with helpful prompts and easy navigation, making the process smooth and beginner-friendly.
Key Features of Teachable
In this review, I’ll walk you through the main features that make Teachable stand out.
1. User-Friendly Course Building Tool
Teachable offers a powerful yet simple platform for creating, editing, and launching online courses. Its drag-and-drop interface is designed to be intuitive, allowing anyone to build a course without technical hassle. To start, head over to the “Products” tab on your dashboard.
The platform provides three main options:
- Courses – Create a curriculum designed for self-paced learning or guided instruction directly by you.
- Coaching – Engage with your students via scheduled video calls for personalized coaching sessions.
- Bundles – Combine your courses and coaching into bundled packages to sell multiple products at once.
Starting with “Courses,” you’ll be prompted to enter basic details such as the course title and subtitle.
You can also assign a specific author to your course, allowing collaboration with team members by assigning roles and permissions. The platform even supports paying authors separately and distributing revenue shares.
Once the course details are set, click “Create Course” to be taken to the Curriculum page. Here, you can duplicate existing courses, add new content, and organize your lectures.
You begin by creating a “New Section.”
In Teachable, sections are collections of lectures, which themselves are detailed content units that can include text, files, videos, images, and quizzes. You can add multiple lectures within each section, creating a comprehensive learning experience.
Here’s everything you can add to your course:
- Files – Upload videos, audio files, PDFs, or other document types using the file uploader.
- Text – Use the built-in text editor to add and format content within your lecture.
- Quiz – Create multiple-choice quizzes directly within your lecture using the quiz builder. Remember, only one quiz is permitted per lecture.
- Upsell – Incorporate an upsell block into your lecture to promote additional products or courses.
You can also add code snippets or embed custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into your lecture content. Comments can be enabled for each lecture, allowing students to interact, and you can preview your lecture to see how it will appear to students before publishing. When you’re happy with everything, click the publish button to make your lecture live.
The flexibility of adding multiple media types including quizzes and custom code makes it easy to deliver comprehensive content to your students. Teachable also supports bulk content uploads and integrations with third-party services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, simplifying the content management process. Its intuitive interface ensures you can add materials without hassle, moving seamlessly from creating lectures to developing your sales page, setting pricing, and customizing your course website. Now, let’s look at how to bundle courses for better sales.
Creating Course Bundles.
One of Teachable’s powerful features is the ability to combine multiple courses or coaching products into a bundle. This feature enables you to sell several courses as one package, which can be especially appealing to students interested in a comprehensive learning program. You can also offer discounts on these bundles to incentivize bulk purchases. To create a bundle, navigate to the “Bundles” section under the Products menu and click on the “Create New Bundle” option. Next, you will be prompted to give your bundle a name and select the courses or coaching services you want to include, making it easy to organize and promote your bundled offerings.
You can build your bundle by selecting the services you wish to include. You are allowed to add up to 50 courses and coaching services into a single bundle.
Next, choose a pricing plan suitable for your bundle. Teachable offers four options: free plan, one-time purchase, subscription (recurring payments), and payment plan.
Review your bundle and pricing setup carefully before clicking “Save and continue.” Remember, you can always update your bundle details later.
Finally, input your bundle’s main details, such as the name, subtitle, and thumbnail image. After completing these steps, your bundle will be ready to appear to your students.
2. How to Create Course Pages for Your Online Courses
By default, each course includes three pages: a sales page, a thank you page, and a checkout page. You can customize or set up these pages through the Courses > Pages section, located just above the “Curriculum” area.
Your platform also distinguishes between site pages and product pages. Site pages include important informational pages like the homepage, terms of use, and privacy policy. These are the first pages visitors will see when they access your school or course. You can manage these pages via the Site > Pages section.
All these pages come pre-designed, and each is linked to specific parts of your course or school. For example, clicking a link in your school directory can lead students from the sales page to the checkout, and then to the thank you page. This user flow is built-in by default, guiding your students seamlessly through their journey.
All pages within your course platform are customizable using Teachable’s intuitive page editor, except for the checkout page. This drag-and-drop editor allows you to modify existing templates and add new content specifically tailored to your business needs. Besides editing pre-made pages, you can also create unlimited additional pages for your site.
For example, take a look at the sales page. It’s organized into various content blocks like Banner, Image with Text, Text, Image Grid, Course Curriculum, and more. With the editor, you can remove, add, or rearrange these blocks by using the left-side navigation bar. You can also select any block to modify its content and style, adjusting padding, colors, borders, fonts, and other design elements easily.
As you customize your pages, the editor provides a live preview to see changes instantly and automatically saves your work as a draft so that no progress is lost. Additionally, if you include an intake process for screening clients, the platform creates a dedicated post intake page for qualifying prospects.
Building your online course website is a crucial step after creating your course content. A well-designed, high-converting website significantly increases your chances of success. Thankfully, Teachable simplifies this process by offering customizable design templates.
There are three main templates available: Teachable Classic, Colossal, and Simple. All of these are optimized for both desktop and mobile devices, ensuring a seamless experience across platforms. You can find and select these templates under the Courses section, specifically in the Design Templates area.
Teachable Classic is ideal for those eager to jump straight into creating lectures. Colossal offers your students a comprehensive view of your entire curriculum, course details, and instructor bio. Conversely, the “Simple” template delivers a streamlined, minimalist experience for users.
It’s possible to preview any template across both mobile and desktop devices before deciding to activate it.
Customizing the Website Theme
While the process of customizing your website’s look with Teachable is quite simple, the platform does have some limitations regarding advanced customization options. You can, however, align your site’s theme and pages with your branding elements, such as colors, logos, and fonts.
Branding customization options include:
- Your logo
- Custom fonts
- Brand color schemes
- Course thumbnail images
- Your favicon
To modify fonts, colors, and imagery, navigate to the Site > Theme section. There, you can also adjust the color schemes applied to buttons, page elements, or the entire course, or select from preset color palettes.
To change the text on your website, visit the Site > Custom Text section. This area allows you to edit various parts of your site, including header, footer, checkout pages, course descriptions, lecture titles, comments, blog pages, and more.
Although this feature consolidates website text editing into one place, the interface can feel cluttered. Alternatively, you can modify specific pages directly from the Site > Pages or Courses > Pages sections. Additionally, Teachable supports the inclusion of custom CSS or HTML/JavaScript scripts across your entire site.
They also offer a Power Editor that enables advanced customization of your school’s templates and the addition of custom code, including HTML, Liquid, and CSS.
Access to certain advanced features, like the Power Editor, is only included with the Business plan, which costs $249 per month.
Configure Your Domain
Teachable allows you to either stick with the default subdomain or connect a personalized domain or subdomain.
By default, your school will have a URL like https://yourschoolname.teachable.com, which is accessible via the Site > Domain area. You can change your subdomain any time you wish.
All plans, including free ones, come with a free hosting domain, so there’s no need to buy an external domain unless you want to maintain your branding. To keep your branding consistent, you can purchase and link your own domain, but this feature is only available with paid plans. The free trial uses only the automatically generated domain.
Navigation and Site Pages
Teachable automatically creates navigation links for your site, such as linking students directly to your homepage. However, you can customize these links.
Navigate to the Site > Navigation section where you can select which page serves as your school’s homepage. You have the flexibility to set different homepages for visitors who are logged in and those who aren’t.
You can also add custom links to your site’s navigation bar and footer to better direct visitors to important pages.
Besides, Teachable provides built-in site pages like the Homepage, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Use. These can be accessed and edited in the Site > Pages area. You can also create new pages using the Page Editor, which offers various content blocks, image upload options, and customization features such as padding and width adjustments.
As you build your pages, the editor provides live previews and auto-saves your progress as drafts. This makes editing more efficient and prevents accidental data loss. You can create as many pages as needed and connect them through your header or footer navigation. Simply create pages in the Site > Pages section and set up navigation in the Sites > Navigation area.
Setting Up Payment Options for Your Courses
Teachable has an integrated payment system, allowing students to pay for your courses easily. You can choose from four payment models:
– Free Plan: Offer your course freely.
– One-time Purchase: Set a single payment amount for access.
– Payment Plan: Allow students to pay in installments over a fixed period.
– Subscription: Set recurring payments—weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual.
Configuring payments is simple and done via the Course > Pricing tab. After selecting a payment type, enter key details such as the price (with a broad range of currency options, minimum $0.99), a unique plan name, a brief subtitle, and a detailed description of what students will receive.
You can also define a limited access period for your course, giving students access only for a set duration. This setup ensures control over how long students can participate in the course content, enhancing your flexibility in course management.For a predetermined period, access to your content will be restricted, and students will lose their ability to view it once the time expires.
Teachable supports multi-tiered pricing options, but setting them up isn’t straightforward. You need to take specific steps, such as duplicating courses and bundling them, to create a layered payment structure. Luckily, Teachable offers detailed instructions through their knowledge base to guide you in setting up different pricing levels.
When it comes to processing payments, Teachable accepts credit and debit card transactions, as well as payments through PayPal and Stripe. However, you can only choose to accept either credit/debit card payments directly or restrict yourself to payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.
Finally, Teachable automatically displays VAT-inclusive pricing on your sales pages. Your students will also see the VAT amount as a separate line item during checkout. To set this up, simply add your VAT ID in the Settings under the Taxes section in your dashboard. Teachable will then apply this VAT ID when handling EU VAT submissions related to your school’s subscription payments.
Email marketing is another useful feature offered by Teachable. You can embed email lead capture forms directly on your sales pages to gather contact details from potential students. When building your page, look for the “Email leads form” block that you can easily add. Once the form is set up, visit the Emails section in the Settings tab to activate or deactivate the Double Opt-in option, which controls whether a confirmation email is sent to validate email addresses.
Managing your leads is simple via the Users section under Lists, where you can see and organize all collected contacts. Teachable also has an integrated email sender, enabling you to communicate directly with individual users, those enrolled in specific courses, or your entire student base. To do this, simply navigate to the Emails > Compose section and write your message, then send it out accordingly.
You can customize your emails further by disabling HTML templates, writing custom code, or sending test messages to preview your email content. Additionally, you can review your entire email history from the Emails > History tab. While Teachable’s email features are quite basic, they are sufficient for beginners. For more advanced email marketing automation and pipelines, it’s recommended to use integrations like MailChimp or ConvertKit, which Teachable supports natively.
If your marketing needs are more complex, or if you want more comprehensive automation tools, Kajabi might be a better fit. For detailed insights, check out my in-depth Kajabi review and compare Teachable and Kajabi to determine which platform best aligns with your goals.
Marketing Features
Teachable’s marketing tools are designed to help you attract new students, expand your email list, and turn visitors into paying customers.
Below are the key features available to boost sales and keep students engaged:
Drip Content
Drip content involves releasing small portions of your course material gradually over time, creating a steady flow of engagement. Teachable enables you to schedule the release of lecture sections on predetermined dates or after a set number of days following a student’s enrollment. You can set up and manage your drip schedule within the Courses > Drip section. This approach not only maintains student interest but also allows you to strategically nurture leads with email notifications about new content releases, keeping learners informed and engaged throughout their journey.
Order Bumps
Order bumps are additional offers that appear during the checkout process, encouraging customers to add related products to their purchase. Teachable’s platform allows you to easily add order bumps to any course checkout page to boost your revenue. These bumps enable customers to buy products related to their original purchase—products that are typically delivered first—thus increasing your overall sales. To set up an order bump, visit the Course > Order Bumps section on your dashboard, click “Create Order Bump,” then select the pricing plan and the product you wish to promote as the bump. The price for an order bump can be a one-time payment or a recurring subscription, giving you flexibility in how you offer these upsells.
For example, Teachable’s own knowledge base provides an illustration of how order bumps can be effectively utilized to increase sales. These bumps can be offered as one-time purchases or as subscription plans, giving you flexibility in presenting your upsell options.
Upsells
Upselling allows you to promote additional or related courses during the checkout process, encouraging students to consider other valuable offers. With this feature, you can easily introduce students to supplementary courses or premium services and generate extra income. If you prefer to offer a separate add-on during checkout, the order bump feature is suitable. However, upsells are ideal for promoting a dedicated product that complements the initial purchase, helping you expand your revenue streams while providing extra value to your students.You can initiate sales during or after a lecture, or even after the purchase through a Thank You page.
To add an upsell, go to Courses > Curriculum > Add Upsells within the admin dashboard.
In addition to specifying product details, you can add a description for your upsell and include a call-to-action button to motivate customers to purchase.
Teachable also offers a convenient way to create coupons, which can be applied to individual courses or across your entire school. You can generate discounts as fixed amounts or percentages to attract potential buyers.
Pre-selling your course allows you to promote, sell, and even deliver the content before it’s fully completed, effectively generating early interest and revenue. You can set up a pre-sell page with a special pricing structure, enabling you to gauge demand and gather feedback from your audience—this process is similar to creating a standard sales page.
You might find it helpful to follow Teachable’s official guide on pre-selling to learn how to configure your pre-sell sales page and set appropriate prices. Doing so can boost perceived value and help build anticipation for your course launch.
Teachable includes a “Comments” section which fosters interaction between students and instructors, making the learning experience more engaging. You can activate comments for individual lectures via the curriculum editor and manage moderation settings through Settings > General on your dashboard. Here, you can choose to enable comment moderation, multi-threaded replying, and the ability for users to attach images to their comments, all of which help in creating a lively, structured community where students feel encouraged to ask questions and participate actively.
The certification feature allows instructors to issue completion certificates to students who finish a course. You have access to three preset certificate templates, or you can customize your own with HTML or LIQUID code for a more personalized design. The course certificate editor lets you modify colors, layouts, and text to match your branding. Only one certificate can be active at any time, and it is automatically awarded once a student completes the course. This feature enhances the professionalism of your offerings and recognizes your students’ achievements, helping ensure that those enrolled are genuinely interested in the subject matter.
Teachable also supports live classes, giving you the opportunity to interact with students in real-time for better engagement and personalized feedback. While the platform doesn’t natively support live streaming, you can connect to third-party services for live sessions, thereby enriching your teaching experience and creating a more dynamic learning environment.Popular streaming platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and Vimeo.
7. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing remains one of the most effective ways to generate income online. Using Teachable for affiliate marketing is straightforward, adaptable, and doesn’t require complicated setup. It allows you to add affiliates individually or import multiple affiliates at once through a CSV file. You can also assign a student as an affiliate and create referral codes for your courses to monitor their performance.
However, note that Teachable only supports paying affiliates based on percentage commissions rather than fixed payments.
8. Monitoring Sales and Student Data
Data analysis through reports is crucial for understanding your business growth and identifying areas for improvement. Teachable offers built-in tools to track sales and student activities without extra plugins or software, providing you with valuable insights into your progress.
There are two main report categories: one focuses on student activity and engagement, while the other provides sales data. To view student reports, navigate to the Courses > Reports section, where you’ll find simple metrics like lecture completion rates, video engagement statistics, quiz scores, course leaderboards, and overall video interaction metrics. These reports help you gauge student participation and course effectiveness easily.
Sales reports can be viewed from your dashboard’s “Sales” tab, which includes details such as transactions, statements, daily and monthly sales breakdowns, affiliate and author revenues, and earnings summaries. While Teachable provides a broad overview of sales and student metrics, it does not currently offer insights into login frequency or conversion rates unless you upgrade to a higher-priced plan.
9. Integrations with Third-Party Tools
Teachable supports integration with various external platforms to streamline your course management. These include popular tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, MailChimp, ConvertKit, Sumo, Segment, Circle.so, and Zapier, enabling you to automate and optimize your marketing and analytics processes.
Additionally, Teachable supports Webhooks, allowing you to send data from your online school to other applications seamlessly. The platform also works well with major website builders such as WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace, making it easier to embed your courses into your existing sites.
Teachable Pricing Options
Teachable offers three paid subscription plans along with a 14-day free trial, helping you choose the right features for your needs.
The available paid plans are:
- Basic – $29/month when billed annually, supporting up to two administrators
- Pro – $99/month when billed annually, supporting up to five administrators
- Business – $249/month when billed annually, supporting up to twenty administrators
All plans include essential features like:
- Unlimited video hosting for your courses
- Unlimited courses and storage
- Built-in payment processing system
- Student management tools
- Options for course comments
- Basic quiz functionalities
- No charges for hosting free courses
- VAT handling for European Union countries
However, features differ depending on your selected plan. For instance, the Basic plan incurs a 5% transaction fee, while the Pro and Business plans have no transaction fees. The Pro plan adds advanced options such as graded quizzes, detailed reports, course completion certificates, affiliate marketing integration, and group coaching calls, which are not available in the Basic package. The Business plan includes additional features like manual and bulk student imports, custom user roles, and options for more flexible theme customization.
Customer Support
Teachable offers a comprehensive knowledge base filled with guides covering all their features. These step-by-step articles make the process of setting up and managing your courses straightforward. Although including video tutorials would enhance their resource library, the current written guides are generally sufficient. If needed, you can contact their support team through several channels: submitting a support ticket (available seven days a week from 8 AM to 8 PM ET), live chat, or email.
Pros and Cons of Using Teachable
Teachable is a reliable platform for anyone looking to create and sell online courses or start an online business. Like any platform, it has advantages and disadvantages worth considering:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| The user-friendly dashboard makes course creation accessible for beginners. | The platform offers limited options for customizing website themes. |
| Features an integrated affiliate marketing program. | The blog feature has recently been phased out. |
| Includes marketing tools such as upsells, drip content, order bumps, and coupons to boost sales. | Payouts can sometimes take up to two months to process. |
| Offers unlimited and free video hosting. | The student interface may not be as intuitive as some other platforms. |
| Built-in tools for creating certificates to recognize student achievements. |
Summary Overview
Teachable is a comprehensive platform ideal for online course creators who want a straightforward solution to build, market, and sell courses. Its ease of use makes it accessible even for those without technical skills. The platform excels at supporting multimedia course content, including videos, documents, and quizzes, along with offering step-by-step guidance through the setup process. It provides unlimited hosting, customization options, and affordability, making it appealing for those starting out or on a tight budget.
This platform is especially suitable if you want to create engaging courses with diagnostic quizzes, student comments, or live class features. It’s also great for video-heavy courses and those who wish to leverage marketing features like order bumps and affiliate programs to increase sales. Moreover, it’s an excellent choice if you lack your own website to host your courses.
In conclusion, Teachable offers a balanced set of features for new and experienced course creators alike.
Further insights available at StepThroughThePortal.com include detailed reviews of alternative platforms like LearnWorlds, which I explore in my comprehensive review here.