How we compare online course platforms
We list 10 online course platforms available to Australian creators, and a published rate card exists for 9 providers. Every figure was read at the vendor's own pricing page from an Australian connection, at the true monthly rate rather than the discounted annual view many pricing pages open on. Circle publishes annual billing only, and its row says so.
The calculator takes your monthly course revenue, your active students and your number of courses, and works out each platform's monthly cost from its plan price, its transaction fee at your revenue and the plan its caps require. Commission does not change the order.
Two limits. LearnWorlds charges per paid enrolment rather than a share of revenue, listed as $6.97 per paid enrollment (Starter), none above; the calculator does not collect enrolments, so its estimate is a floor. GetResponse can only sell courses from the plan shown, not from its cheaper email-only tiers.
The cut an online course platform takes from every sale
Several platforms charge a percentage of every sale on their entry plan and remove it one plan up. That creates a crossover: below some monthly revenue the cheap plan wins, and above it the same plan becomes the expensive choice.
| Provider | Entry plan /mo | Transaction fee |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | $124/mo (Professional) | 2% (Professional), 1% (Business), 0.5% (Circle Plus) |
| Coursera | By application | N/A (revenue share instead) |
| GetResponse | $96/mo (Creator) | 0% (Creator and above) |
| Kajabi | $249/mo (Basic) | 0% (Kajabi Payments; 2%, 1% or 0.5% via a third-party gateway) |
| LearnWorlds | $40/mo (Starter) | $6.97 per paid enrollment (Starter), none above |
| Podia | $68/mo (Mover) | 5% (Mover), 0% (Shaker and above) |
| Skool | $13/mo (Hobby) | 10% (Hobby), 2.9% (Pro) |
| Teachable | $54/mo (Starter) | 7.5% (Starter), 0% (Builder and above) |
| Thinkific | $75/mo (Basic) | 0% (Thinkific Payments; a per-plan gateway fee applies via Stripe or PayPal) |
| Udemy | Free to publish | N/A (revenue share instead) |
You can find any crossover yourself: 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 entire saving, and it usually lands lower than people expect.
A platform's cut is not card processing. You still pay a processor on every sale whether the platform takes a cut or not. And where a vendor offers no cut only on its own payment rail, routing to your own gateway can reintroduce a fee, which is what Kajabi's and Thinkific's fee lines say.
Every online course platform here bills in US dollars
No platform in this roster publishes an Australian rate card. Teachable lists No, billed in US dollars, and so does every other subscription row. The figures here are the vendor's US dollar prices converted, so they are directionally right and they are not what will appear on your statement.
The amount changes month to month with the exchange rate even when the vendor never touches its price. Your card or PayPal account may add an international transaction fee, which sits outside every figure in this table. A plan that looks a few dollars apart from a rival can swap places on a bad month, so compare on the ranking rather than the last dollar, and let the caps and the transaction fee break a tie.
Student and course caps on an online course platform
Most platforms cap active students or published courses on the entry plan, and crossing either forces an upgrade regardless of what you earn.
| 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 |
A cap can be crossed by a free lead magnet, a launch that filled a waitlist, or a second course that has not sold anything yet. Some vendors count every enrolled student or contact rather than only paying ones, so free students can consume the allowance you are paying for.
On platforms without caps, plans differ by feature rather than capacity: live cohorts, certificates, communities, branding and video bandwidth. The calculator does not collect any of those, so if you need what a higher plan carries, price the plan you would really buy.
Marketplace or your own audience: two things an online course platform can be
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.
| Provider | Revenue share | Custom domain |
|---|---|---|
| Coursera | Not published; partnership terms are negotiated | No, courses live on coursera.org |
| Udemy | 63% on sales Udemy sources, 3% on sales you bring through your own coupon or referral link | No, courses live on udemy.com |
At very low revenue a share of very little is less than any subscription. At real revenue the share is a large bill. The real trade is who owns the student: on a marketplace the platform sets the discounting, holds the email address and decides what to show the learner next. If you already have an audience, switch on the "Use my own audience" filter above and the marketplaces drop out. Our estimate uses the marketplace rate rather than the referral rate.
Community, email and the subscriptions an online course platform replaces
Comparing plan prices alone flatters whichever platform does least. One clear split is between platforms built around courses and platforms built around a community that happens to contain courses.
| 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 |
If a recurring membership is what you are really selling, the community row matters more than the entry price. Where email is a separate bill, add it before you compare. 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.
Trials, billing basis and leaving an online course platform
Free plans are rare here, and what each vendor offers instead is a trial on its own terms.
| Provider | Free plan | Billing basis |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | No, 14-day trial with no card required | Annual only |
| Coursera | Not applicable, partnership is by application | True monthly |
| GetResponse | Free plan for email tools only, courses need Creator or above | True monthly |
| Kajabi | No, 30-day trial | True monthly |
| LearnWorlds | No, 30-day trial | True monthly |
| Podia | No, 30-day trial with no card required | True monthly |
| Skool | No, free trial only | True monthly |
| Teachable | No, 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee | True monthly |
| Thinkific | No, 30-day trial | True monthly |
| Udemy | Yes, no fee to create, host or publish | True monthly |
Annual billing is often the right choice, but it is a different question from which platform is cheapest. Decide the platform on the monthly figures, then take the annual discount on whichever one you picked. Paying a year of a US dollar subscription up front also fixes one exchange rate for the year.
The self-hosted platforms put the school on a domain you control, which is what the "Use my own audience" filter selects for. The marketplaces do not. That is the difference between changing a supplier later and starting the audience again.