CourseLit vs Teachable (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Teachable grades higher than CourseLit: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
CourseLit grades higher on value for money. Teachable grades higher on ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan and features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
CourseLit
Open-source course, download and community platform
Teachable
Online course, coaching and membership platform with its own checkout
Which one is for you
Pick CourseLit if
- Fits if you want an open-source course platform
- Works for developers happy to self-host
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need finished features, as communities and email automations are beta
- Tight if you self-host, as there is no chat or email support and no automatic updates
- Watch out: self-hosting limits you to one school, and unlimited storage needs your own S3
- Watch out: single sign-on and API access are Enterprise cloud only
Pick Teachable if
- Fits if your students are in many countries and you don't want to deal with VAT yourself
- Works for schools whose students learn on their phones, with apps on every plan
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if an active community is the point, since it's a student community on Builder at most
- Tight if you want certificates or a second admin, which need Growth at $139 a month
- Pricey if you stay on Starter once sales pick up, as 7.5% of every sale goes to Teachable
- Watch out: products are capped at 5, 10 and 50 by plan
- Watch out: there's no free plan, only a 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee
How we grade them
| 2.2GPACourseLitFair | 2.4GPATeachableFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPro is $12 a month billed yearly ($15 monthly), about 60% of the cheapest quarter's $20. The free Self-Hosted plan needs your own server. | CStarter is $29 a month billed yearly, but its 7.5% fee adds $150 on $2,000 of sales, making $179. Builder at $69 takes no fee with Teachable Payments, so $69 a month is what you'd pay: above this category's dearer quarter ($59), well short of its dearest tenth. |
| Free plan and trial | CA 14-day trial of the hosted plans with no card, per the docs. The self-hosted version is free but you run it. | CNo free plan. There's a 7-day free trial, and the listing doesn't say it needs a card, then a 30-day money-back guarantee once you've paid. |
| Features | CCourses, downloads, a website and blog, email automations, communities, quizzes and payments. Communities and automations are beta. | CCourses with drip, quizzes and graded short answers, coaching, downloads, memberships, upsells, cart recovery and email. The course job is covered; the gap is community, which is a student community on Builder rather than the spaces and events rivals offer. |
| Ease of use | CThe hosted plan needs you to build the school; self-hosting adds server work. No store rating is on record. | B4.62 from about 9,400 App Store ratings, a little under the 4.7 an A needs. The AI course starter drafts a curriculum, so you're not starting from a blank page. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with no integrations listed on the vendor pages. | BWeb, iPhone and Android for students, with Zapier and webhooks on every plan and a public API on Growth. No desktop app, which an A needs. |
| Best for | open-source courses and a site | selling courses to students around the world |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: CourseLit and Teachable. How we grade
Price against what you get
CourseLit starts at $12 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Teachable starts at $29 a month and scores 2.7.
Teachable scores higher, and starts $17 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other course and community platforms on the chart, 8 score higher than CourseLit for less, and none scores higher than Teachable for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- CourseLit is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- CourseLit also covers community and digital downloads.
At a glance
| CourseLit | Teachable | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $12 per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly) | $29 per month, billed annually ($39 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of the hosted plans; the docs say no credit card is required. | 7-day free trial, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | CodeLitDev Pvt Ltd | Teachable, Inc. |
| Price read from | courselit.app | teachable.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
CourseLit
- Communities and email automations are labeled beta on the vendor's site.
- The self-hosted plan has no chat or email support and no automatic updates or maintenance.
- Self-hosting limits you to one school, and unlimited file storage needs your own S3-compatible storage.
- Single sign-on and API access are only on the Enterprise cloud plan.
Teachable
- Starter takes 7.5% of each sale on top of processing fees: 2.9% + 30 cents for US cards, 3.9% + 30 cents for international cards.
- There is no free plan, only a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Certificates, removing Teachable branding and more than 1 admin user all need Growth at $139 a month billed annually.
- Products are capped at 5, 10 and 50 by plan; memberships, bundles and drafts do not count.
Key features
CourseLit
- Courses and downloads
- Build courses with images, videos and files, offer them free or paid, and sell ebooks and other downloads from your own site.
- Website and blog
- A free website with a no-code page builder and an integrated blog for articles.
- Email automations
- Send marketing emails to your audience from inside the platform. The vendor marks this feature as beta.
- Communities
- Free or paid communities where members share text, images and video. The vendor marks this feature as beta.
- Graded quizzes and payments
- Graded quizzes, payment gateway integration and custom domains are listed on every plan, including self-hosted.
- Self-hosting
- The source is open, and the docs say server costs run about $5 to $20 a month on AWS or DigitalOcean.
Teachable
- Courses, coaching and downloads
- Video and text courses with drip content, auto-graded quizzes and short-answer assessments, plus 1:1 or group coaching, digital downloads and memberships.
- Teachable Payments
- Built-in checkout with 35+ local payment methods that collects and remits sales tax, VAT and GST in 45+ countries, with daily payouts.
- Sales tools
- Coupons, upsells, order bumps, bundles, abandoned cart emails and built-in email marketing. The affiliate program starts on Builder.
- AI course tools
- An AI course starter drafts a curriculum, a generator turns lessons into quizzes, and videos get subtitles translated into 70+ languages on Growth.
- Student apps
- Students reach their courses on the web or in Teachable's iOS and Android apps, which are included on every plan.
- Integrations and API
- Zapier and webhooks on every plan, and a public API on Growth with 10,000 requests a month.
Plans
CourseLit
Self-Hosted$0
Run CourseLit on your own server: one school, unlimited products, no support or automatic updates.
Pro$12
per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly)
Hosted by CourseLit: unlimited schools, products, communities, pages and file storage, with chat and email support.
Enterprise$20
per month, billed yearly ($25 billed monthly)
Everything in Pro, plus single sign-on, API access and premium support.
Teachable
Starter$29
per month, billed annually ($39 billed monthly)
5 products, 1 admin user, AI tools, student apps, upsells and cart recovery. Teachable takes a 7.5% transaction fee on each sale.
Builder$69
per month, billed annually ($89 billed monthly)
10 products, 1 admin user, no transaction fee with Teachable Payments, a student community, an affiliate program and real-time support.
Growth$139
per month, billed annually ($189 billed monthly)
50 products, 5 admin users, certificates, no Teachable branding, student imports, custom admin permissions, subtitles and translations.
CustomCustom
For high-volume schools: flexible product and admin seats, a sandbox school, a success manager, priority support and migration help.
Ways to pay less
CourseLit
- Annual discount
Lower monthly price on yearly billing
The pricing section shows Pro at $12 a month billed yearly instead of $15, and Enterprise at $20 instead of $25.
Teachable
- Annual discount
Save 22% with yearly billing
Teachable's pricing page says yearly billing saves 22%: Starter $29 a month instead of $39, Builder $69 instead of $89, Growth $139 instead of $189.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, CourseLit or Teachable?
As of Nov 13, 2026, CourseLit is cheaper to start with: $12 a month, against $29 a month for Teachable. CourseLit starts at $12 per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly), and Teachable starts at $29 per month, billed annually ($39 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, CourseLit or Teachable?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither CourseLit nor Teachable has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
Which platforms do CourseLit and Teachable run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Teachable lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.