Systeme.io vs Thinkific vs Teachable (2026) for UK course creators

The short verdict

Pick Systeme.io if you're a UK sole trader launching your first course and want to start free, with funnels, email and checkout in the same account. Paid plans start at $17 a month. Pick Thinkific if courses are the whole business and you want unlimited courses, quizzes, certificates and live cohorts on every plan, and you can justify $82 to $109 a month. Pick Teachable if you want ready-made iOS and Android student apps and a mid-priced plan with 0% transaction fees (Builder, from $69 a month billed yearly). Avoid its Starter plan if you expect real sales volume, because of the 7.5% fee.

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Systeme.io vs Thinkific vs Teachable at a glance

	Systeme.io	Thinkific	Teachable
Free plan	Yes, free forever: 2,000 contacts, 1 course (up to 500 students), 3 funnels	No. 30-day free trial	No. 7-day free trial plus 30-day money-back guarantee
Entry paid plan	Startup: $17/month (5,000 contacts, 5 courses)	Start: $109/month, or $82/month billed annually	Starter: $39/month, or $29/month billed annually (5 products)
Mid plan	Webinar: $47/month (10,000 contacts, 20 courses)	Grow: $219/month, or $164/month annually	Builder: $89/month, or $69/month annually (10 products)
Higher plan	Unlimited: $97/month (unlimited contacts and courses)	Expand: $499/month, or $374/month annually	Growth: $189/month, or $139/month annually (50 products)
Courses	1 / 5 / 20 / unlimited by plan	Unlimited on every plan	Counted as "products": 5 / 10 / 50
Platform transaction fee	0% on all plans	No platform cut on Thinkific Payments; extra fee if you use a third-party gateway (varies by plan)	7.5% on Starter; 0% on Builder and Growth with Teachable Payments
Email marketing	Unlimited email sends on all plans	Email automation on all plans; bulk email to students from Grow	Built-in email marketing listed
Sales funnels	Yes, core feature (3 / 10 / 50 / unlimited)	Landing pages, order bumps, upsells	Upsells, order bumps, cart recovery
Student mobile app	Not listed	Branded app as a $199/month add-on	iOS and Android student apps on all plans
Our rating	9.2/10	Not currently ranked	Not currently ranked

All three platforms let you host a video course, take payments and email your students. They differ a lot in what you pay before your first sale and what each one is built around. Thinkific and Teachable are course platforms that have added marketing tools. Systeme.io is a marketing platform (funnels, email, automations) that includes courses. Which one suits you depends mostly on how many courses you plan to sell and how much you want to spend while you're still testing the idea.

We haven't run a course business on all three, so this comparison is based on each vendor's official pricing page and plan details, read in October 2026. Prices are in US dollars, as each vendor lists them.

Sources: Systeme.io pricing, Thinkific pricing and Teachable pricing, all checked 22 October 2026 (prices checked October 2026). All prices in US dollars, excluding any VAT. Systeme.io prices are monthly; it advertises "2 months free" on annual billing.

Price: what you pay before your first sale

This is the biggest difference for a sole trader. Systeme.io is the only one of the three you can use indefinitely without paying. Its free plan has no end date and doesn't need a card, but it has limits: 2,000 contacts, one course with up to 500 students, three funnels, one automation rule, and payments are capped at $10,000 in total sales. After that you have three days to upgrade. Systeme.io also says it deactivates free accounts with no login or activity for six months. Our Systeme.io free plan review covers every limit.

Thinkific used to be known for a free plan. Its pricing page now says plainly that there isn't one. You get a 30-day free trial instead, and then Start costs $109 a month, or $82 a month billed annually. Teachable has no free plan either. It offers a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and Starter is $39 a month, or $29 billed annually.

At list prices, a year on each entry plan works out as follows (simple arithmetic, before exchange rates and VAT):

Systeme.io Startup: $17 × 12 = $204 a year (or $0 on the free plan).
Teachable Starter (annual): $29 × 12 = $348 a year, plus the 7.5% transaction fee on sales.
Teachable Builder (annual): $69 × 12 = $828 a year, with no Teachable transaction fee.
Thinkific Start (annual): $82 × 12 = $984 a year.

Transaction fees: the hidden cost on Teachable Starter

Every platform passes on card processing fees from Stripe, PayPal or its own payments service. The question is whether the platform takes an extra cut.

Systeme.io lists "no transaction fees" on all plans, including Free. You connect Stripe or PayPal and pay only their fees.
Teachable charges a 7.5% transaction fee on Starter. Builder, Growth and Custom have 0% transaction fees when you use Teachable Payments. As an illustration, £3,000 of course sales on Starter would cost £225 in Teachable fees alone. Once you sell more than a few hundred pounds a month, Builder can work out cheaper overall.
Thinkific says its own processor, Thinkific Payments, is priced "in line with other processors" at 2.9%. If you use Stripe or PayPal instead, an extra third-party gateway fee applies that varies by plan. Its pricing page doesn't give the percentage, so check Thinkific's fee page before you commit. PayPal isn't available on Start.

Course features: where Thinkific and Teachable lead

If the course itself is the product, the two specialist platforms give you more teaching tools.

Thinkific includes unlimited courses, quizzes, assignments, completion certificates, drip content, in-lesson discussions, Zoom lessons and one community on every plan. Grow adds exams and question banks, bulk email to students, Thinkific branding removal, API access and B2B invoicing. It lists 10,000 current students on Start, Grow and Expand.
Teachable counts each course, coaching offer or digital download as one "product" (5 on Starter, 10 on Builder, 50 on Growth). Memberships, bundles and unpublished drafts don't count. All self-serve plans include AI course creation tools, iOS and Android student apps, global payments and taxes, upsells and cart recovery. Course certificates and branding removal start on Growth.
Systeme.io covers the basics: hosted courses, a set number of courses per plan and, on its pricing page, a communities section. It's built more for selling than for complex teaching, so if you need graded exams or SCORM, it isn't the right fit.

Marketing and sales: where Systeme.io leads

Systeme.io bundles tools that you would otherwise pay for separately alongside Thinkific or Teachable: multi-step sales funnels, unlimited email sends, automation rules and workflows, evergreen webinars (from the Webinar plan), A/B tests, a blog and your own affiliate programme, which is included on every plan. Every plan also allows unlimited sub-accounts with the same limits. That's handy if you run more than one brand.

Thinkific and Teachable both have landing pages, coupons, order bumps and abandoned-cart reminders. Many course creators still connect a separate email tool as their list grows. If you're comparing email-first options, see our Systeme.io vs MailerLite vs Kit guide.

UK-specific points

Dollar pricing. All three bill in US dollars, so your cost in pounds moves with the exchange rate, and your bank may add a foreign transaction fee.
VAT. According to GOV.UK, you must register for VAT once your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in a rolling 12 months. Selling to customers abroad can bring other obligations. Teachable lists "global payments & taxes" on all self-serve plans, and Thinkific mentions automated sales tax tools in its checkout. Systeme.io's pricing page doesn't make the same claim. None of this replaces advice from an accountant.
Consumer rights. UK buyers of digital content have cancellation rights unless they agree to immediate access and acknowledge that they lose the right to cancel. Make sure your checkout and terms handle this, whichever platform you pick.

Who should pick which?

Choose Systeme.io if…

You're validating your first course and want to spend £0 until it sells.
You want funnels, email and checkout in one tool rather than three.
You plan a handful of courses, not a large catalogue.

Choose Thinkific if…

Courses are the core business and you want unlimited courses on every plan.
You need quizzes, certificates, cohorts and, later, exams or B2B seat sales.
You can budget around $82–$109 a month from day one.

Choose Teachable if…

Native iOS and Android student apps matter to you.
You want a mid-priced plan without a platform transaction fee (Builder).
You sell a mix of courses, coaching and downloads within the product limits.

Bottom line

For most UK sole traders, the cheapest sensible route is to build and test on Systeme.io's free plan. Move to Startup ($17 a month) when you outgrow it, and only switch to a specialist course platform if you find you need features Systeme.io doesn't have. Thinkific is the strongest pure course platform of the three, but it's now a paid-only product starting at $82 a month on annual billing. Teachable is a reasonable middle ground on its Builder plan. Just watch the 7.5% fee on Starter. If you're also weighing premium options, read Systeme.io vs Kajabi or our wider guide to the best course platforms for UK sole traders.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Thinkific still have a free plan?

No. As of October 2026, Thinkific's pricing page says it doesn't have a free plan and offers a 30-day free trial instead. Paid plans start at $109 a month, or $82 a month billed annually.

Does Teachable charge transaction fees?

Only on the Starter plan, which has a 7.5% transaction fee. Builder, Growth and Custom have 0% transaction fees when you use Teachable Payments. Standard payment processing fees still apply (checked Oct 2026).

Is Systeme.io cheaper than Thinkific and Teachable?

Yes, at list prices. Systeme.io has a free-forever plan, and its paid plans cost $17, $47 or $97 a month. Teachable starts at $29 a month on annual billing, and Thinkific starts at $82 a month on annual billing.

Which platform is best for a first online course in the UK?

If you're testing your first course on a small budget, Systeme.io's free plan lets you launch one course with up to 500 students at no cost. Thinkific suits course-only businesses that need richer teaching tools, and Teachable suits creators who want student mobile apps.

Can I move from Systeme.io to Thinkific or Teachable later?

Yes, you can rebuild your course on another platform at any time, but expect to re-upload videos and reconnect payments and email. Teachable's Custom plan lists migration assistance, and Thinkific mentions migration support on its Plus tier.

Prices and plan limits change frequently. We note the date we checked each fact; always confirm on the vendor's official pricing page before buying. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.