Teachable
By Teachable, Inc.
Setting up Teachable is designed to be intuitive and streamlined, allowing creators to launch their online school or course with minimal friction. Here's a step-by-step breakdown of the typical implementation process:
Create Your Teachable Account and School
After signing up, you begin by creating your “school,” which acts as your central hub. This is where all your courses, coaching products, and digital downloads will live. You’ll name your school, choose a subdomain (or connect a custom domain later), and access the admin dashboard.
Customize Your Site
Teachable offers a wide range of customization options to reflect your brand. You can upload a custom logo, favicon, and background image, choose fonts and color schemes, and set up navigation menus. You can also create custom pages (like About, Contact, or Blog), embed buy buttons, and modify the checkout experience.
Build Your First Course or Product
Using Teachable’s drag-and-drop course builder, you can upload videos, PDFs, quizzes, and other content. You can organize lessons into sections, set pricing tiers, and configure access rules. For coaching products, you can schedule sessions and manage client interactions directly from the dashboard.
Set Up Payment and Integrations
Teachable supports Stripe and PayPal for payments, and you can configure payout settings easily. You can also integrate with tools like ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Zapier, and Google Analytics to streamline marketing and analytics.
Launch and Promote
Once your course or product is ready, you can publish it and start promoting. Teachable provides SEO tools, customizable sales pages, and email marketing features to help you reach your audience. You can also use affiliate marketing tools to incentivize others to promote your offerings.
Manage Students and Track Performance
After launch, you’ll use the dashboard to monitor student progress, manage enrollments, and view transaction history. You can send email updates, offer certificates of completion, and engage with students through comments or integrated communities.
Typical Timeline:
For most users, setting up a basic course and launching it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on how much content is ready and how deeply you want to customize your site. More advanced setups with multiple products, custom domains, and integrations may take 1–2 weeks.
Teachable is highly customizable, making it suitable for a wide range of business models and branding needs. Here are key data points on its flexibility:
Visual Branding: You can fully personalize your school’s appearance with custom logos, background images, fonts, and color schemes.
Domain Control: Use Teachable’s subdomain or connect your own custom domain (e.g., courses.yourwebsite.com).
Navigation and Pages: Customize your homepage, add custom links to headers and footers, and create/edit pages using the Page Editor. You can also embed HTML blocks and use custom text for buttons and messages.
Advanced Code Access: For developers or tech-savvy users, Teachable offers a Power Editor that supports custom CSS, Liquid templating, and code snippets (e.g., Facebook Pixel, Google Tag Manager).
Product Flexibility: Beyond courses, you can sell coaching sessions, digital downloads, and memberships. Each product type has its own customization options for pricing, access, and delivery.
Author Management: Add multiple authors or contributors to your school, each with their own permissions and branding.
Teachable’s pricing is tiered, and while there are no setup fees, there are several additional costs to be aware of depending on your plan and usage:
Starter: $29/month (billed annually) with a 7.5% transaction fee
Builder: $69/month (0% transaction fee)
Growth: $139/month (0% transaction fee)
Advanced: $309/month (0% transaction fee)
Custom: Tailored pricing for enterprise-level needs
Transaction Fees
Only the Starter plan includes a 7.5% transaction fee on sales. All other plans have 0% transaction fees.
International PayPal: 4.99% + $0.49
Chargeback Fee: $15 per incident.
BackOffice Fee (Optional): 2–2.8% for services like tax filing and fraud protection.
Buy Now Pay Later Fee: 6.99% + $0.30 per transaction.
Custom Payment Gateway Integration Fee: 2% per transaction for U.S.-based schools using Stripe.
There are no mandatory setup or maintenance fees, and support is included depending on your plan level.
Teachable provides a suite of training and support resources to help new users get started, optimize their courses, and grow their online businesses:
Extensive library of articles, tutorials, and step-by-step guides covering account setup, course creation, sales, marketing, and troubleshooting. Accessible at any time to all users.
New interactive Messenger feature (since May 2025) allows users to message the support team directly, receive responses within posted hours (10am–8pm EST, 7 days a week), track open conversations, and access platform status updates. The Messenger also includes Sage, a virtual agent that provides instant answers from the Help Center.
Users can contact support via email at [email protected], available to all schools.
24/7 access to self-serve support options, including Help Center articles and platform status updates, all available within the Messenger
Exclusive training and live-streamed workshops for Primary Owners on all plans, offering expert guidance on course building, business growth, and best practices.
Mini-courses, blog posts, video tutorials, and creator interviews are designed to help users build, market, and scale their online businesses.
Opportunities to join webinars, live events, and virtual workshops for hands-on learning and networking with other creators.
Access to Teachable-approved experts for hire, offering specialized help with course content, SEO, marketing, and more.
Teachable implements a set of security measures to protect user data and ensure the safety and privacy of both creators and students:
Every Teachable school automatically receives an SSL certificate, encrypting all data transmitted between users’ browsers and Teachable’s servers. This ensures that sensitive information remains confidential and secure.
Teachable uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for data storage and infrastructure, benefiting from AWS’s robust security standards and reliability.
Creators can control whether students can download course files, helping prevent unauthorized distribution of content. Free previews of lectures are available to all visitors, but full access requires enrollment.
Teachable applies a range of safeguards, including physical, technical, and organizational measures, to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
The platform is assessed against the OWASP Top 10 security risks, and third-party penetration tests are performed annually to identify and address vulnerabilities.
Teachable maintains an incident response plan, tested periodically, with defined procedures for detection, analysis, remediation, and recovery in case of a security incident.
Teachable is committed to GDPR, CCPA, and other data protection regulations. Users can request access to or the deletion of their personal data through the Privacy Center.
All platform and infrastructure changes are managed through a structured change control process, ensuring that updates are reviewed, approved, tested, and monitored for security impact.
Teachable releases updates to its platform regularly, with both major feature rollouts and ongoing incremental improvements throughout the year. Here’s how updates are managed:
Teachable introduces new features and enhancements regularly, as evidenced by major updates in 2024 (such as the refreshed mobile app, advanced reporting tools, and AI-driven content creation) and significant plan and feature changes in 2025.
The platform undergoes continuous behind-the-scenes updates for stability, performance, security, and reliability. For example, fall 2024 saw platform stability upgrades, performance optimizations, and improved email systems.
Teachable performs maintenance and resolves bugs as needed, often with little to no disruption for users. These updates are managed through a structured change control process to ensure security and stability.
Users are informed of major updates, new features, and changes to plans or policies through blog posts, in-app notifications, and Help Center announcements.
Major updates, such as new pricing plans or significant feature changes, are rolled out over a defined period to minimize disruption. For example, the transition to new 2025 plans occurred between June 16 and July 15, 2025, with users receiving new features immediately but not paying new prices until their next renewal.
Teachable’s policy on data ownership and portability is clearly outlined in its platform terms and privacy documentation:
Data Ownership:
Creators: You (the course creator or school owner) retain ownership of all content you upload to Teachable, including course materials, videos, and downloadable resources. Teachable does not claim ownership of your content but requires a license to display and distribute it through the platform.
Students: Students own their personal data and progress information, but as the creator, you have access to their enrollment, course completion, and transaction data for the purpose of delivering and managing your courses.
Platform: Teachable owns the software and platform features but not the user-generated content or personal data uploaded by creators and students.
Data Portability:
Export Capabilities: Teachable provides robust export tools, allowing creators to download user data (names, email addresses, enrollment dates), course reports (lesson completion, quiz scores, progress), and transaction history (sales, payment methods, amounts) in CSV format for easy transfer or analysis.
Privacy Rights: Both creators and students can request access to or deletion of their personal data through Teachable’s Privacy Center, in compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other data protection regulations.
Teachable’s terms for scaling up or down as organizational needs change are designed for flexibility, allowing creators and businesses to adjust their use of the platform as their requirements evolve:
Flexible Upgrade and Downgrade Options:
Teachable offers a tiered pricing structure with four main plans (Starter, Builder, Growth, and Advanced), each supporting different levels of published products and student numbers. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time to match your current business scale or needs.
All plans allow for unlimited drafts, so you can create and prepare content without restriction, regardless of your current plan’s published product limit.
As you scale up, higher plans unlock advanced features such as more published products, unlimited students, and enhanced sales and marketing tools. These features are available immediately upon upgrading.
Teachable operates on a subscription basis, so you are not locked into long-term contracts. You can change plans or cancel at any time, with changes taking effect at your next billing cycle or immediately for some features
When new plan structures are introduced, Teachable automatically migrates existing schools to the most suitable plan based on their current usage, ensuring a smooth transition and continued access to all features.
Teachable allows you to add team members and assign different roles and permissions, supporting organizational growth and collaboration.
As you scale, Teachable’s built-in tools for payments, tax handling, and student management continue to adapt, reducing administrative overhead.
All plans include community and membership features, making it easy to scale engagement and recurring revenue as your audience grows.
Teachable’s terms and conditions for contract renewal and cancellation are designed for clarity and flexibility. Here are the key data points based on official documentation and current practices:
Teachable plans automatically renew at the end of each billing period (monthly or annually) unless you cancel before the renewal date.
You can change your plan at any time from your school’s admin. The new plan price and features will take effect at your next billing cycle.
You can cancel your plan at any time. Cancellation must be done before your next billing date to avoid being charged for another period.
Standard payment processing fees (such as credit card or PayPal charges) apply regardless of plan or cancellation status.
A $15 chargeback fee applies per disputed payment, regardless of plan or cancellation.
If you use BackOffice for payouts, a 2–2.8% fee per payout applies.
Students can cancel their course subscriptions directly within Teachable at any time. Cancellation is confirmed via email, and access to the course ends at the end of the current billing period.
Some creators may offer refunds according to their own policies. Teachable itself may offer a 7-day money-back guarantee on certain plans, but this is subject to change and may not apply to all schools or plans.
When Teachable introduces new plans (e.g., June 2025 updates), your school may be migrated to a new plan automatically. You receive all new features immediately, but your new plan price takes effect at your next renewal.
Teachable may update its terms and conditions at any time. Continued use of the service after changes are posted means you accept the new terms.
As a creator, you are required to have your own Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for your school. Teachable provides templates, but you must ensure your terms align with Teachable’s requirements.
Teachable software meets and supports several important compliance standards relevant to online education, data protection, and business operations. Here are the key compliance standards and practices:
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
Teachable is fully committed to GDPR compliance, implementing tools and procedures to protect the personal data of EU residents. This includes providing users with rights to access, correct, delete, and restrict the processing of their personal data, as well as offering a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) for school owners123.
Teachable’s privacy policy and data management practices are designed to align with CCPA requirements, allowing California residents to request access to or deletion of their personal data through the Privacy Center.
Teachable’s Privacy Policy outlines strict procedures for collecting, using, and sharing personal data, with clear guidelines for data retention, user rights, and data security.
Teachable assesses its applications against the OWASP Top 10 security risks and conducts annual third-party penetration tests to identify and address vulnerabilities. All schools are automatically provided with SSL certificates to encrypt data in transit.
On Professional plans and above, Teachable offers course compliance settings that allow creators to enforce lesson order and completion requirements, supporting internal and industry-specific compliance needs.
