99% of Teachable reviews are complete garbage.
The reason is that either people didn’t use the product or they just simply want to sugarcoat it so that you’ll buy Teachable with their affiliate link.
I’ve been a Teachable customer since 2021.
Spent my own hard-earned money with them. Paid thousands of dollars in fees:
And I recently decided to give this platform the middle finger.
Here’s my brutally honest review.
What is Teachable & how does it work?
Teachable is an online learning platform.
You can:
- Host your courses
- Create checkout pages
- Build sales pages for your digital products
Essentially, Teachable positions itself as an all-in-one solution for course creators who want to sell their knowledge online without dealing with technical headaches.
The platform handles all the backend infrastructure, payment processing, and student management so you can focus on creating content.
But as you’ll see, there’s a big gap between their marketing promises and the actual user experience.
Why Teachable sucks
I’m going to be very blunt about the fact that you should not use Teachable.
Not because it’s not legit, but simply because…
It’s a shitty product.
One of the reasons why Teachable sucks is because it has been built by someone who’s actually not selling courses.
When Teachable’s founder Ankur Nagpal exited the business in 2024, he openly admitted that he wasn’t passionate about courses, just enjoyed building the business.
I usually don’t call out people on their crap by names.
But hey, he admitted that openly.
Now comes the question
How can you build something good when you don’t care about the problem your product is supposed to solve?
And this is the problem with most software out there.
Most of them are built by people who actually don’t use their f*cking product.
But before talking about all the downsides, let me be honest.
There are things I loved about the product.
How easy is it to create your online course
So how easy is it to upload your online course?
What I really love about Teachable is the bulk upload feature. You only have to select all your files and directly drag them in, and it will make each video a separate lesson.
This has been one of the best features ever.
The course builder itself is relatively intuitive. You can organize your content into sections and lectures, add various types of content (video, text, quizzes, downloadable files), and arrange everything with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
For beginners who have never created an online course before, this simplicity is definitely a plus. You don’t need any technical skills to get your course up and running.
Student progress
Another incredibly useful feature in Teachable is that you can track student progress:
You can also see how many times people have watched your lessons:
This is a great feature.
The interesting thing is that with the API, you can actually trigger actions based on course completion to send a testimonial request email.
This is also something that is a really great feature.
Teachable pricing
The pricing is just stupidly high for what? The slow interface? The crappy support? I don’t have a freakin’ clue.
Teachable currently offers several pricing tiers:
- Free Plan: $0/month + $1 + 10% transaction fees (virtually unusable)
- Basic Plan: $39/month + 5% transaction fees
- Pro Plan: $119/month + no transaction fees
- Business Plan: $299/month + no transaction fees
These prices might seem reasonable until you realize that you’re paying premium rates for a subpar product. The transaction fees on the lower tiers are especially painful when you’re just starting out.
When you compare this to other platforms that offer similar or better features at lower price points, it becomes clear that Teachable is overcharging for what they deliver.
Teachable support is one of the worst I’ve ever seen
Complete crap and garbage.
Many times they won’t actually reply, and when they do reply, they usually don’t provide a real solution.
The support team seems trained to send generic responses that barely address your issues. If you’re facing a critical problem that’s affecting your business, good luck getting timely help.
Everything is handled through email tickets. And there isn’t even a direct email that you can use. You actually need to log in and create a specific ticket.
On average, you’ll need to wait 3 days to get a response.
For a platform that’s supposed to be the backbone of your online course business, this level of support is simply unacceptable.
Payments not going through
I had numerous clients who always face the same issue when actually paying.
They get an error like this:
Or this one:
But then when you reach out to support, they will ask for the credit card number and a bunch of different things.
You can’t expect your students to waste their time because your freakin’ checkout is not working properly.
So not only do you lose your client, but you also come off as not trustworthy. It’s just stupid.
And don’t think this is an isolated case. I’ve got… more tickets like that.
On the other hand, I got a lot of fraud payments from people who are actually pirating my courses that went through without any issues and then issued chargebacks.
This inconsistency in payment processing is maddening.
A platform that’s primarily designed to help you sell digital products should have rock-solid payment processing. Instead, Teachable’s system seems to block legitimate customers while letting fraudsters slip through.
The Teachable app is a joke
This app is total crap as a student.
First of all, the offline mode doesn’t work properly.
There are always issues with the sound. It doesn’t remember where you left off, so it’s a complete waste of time.
The playback speed doesn’t’ work.
As a course creator, you want your students to have a seamless learning experience. The Teachable mobile app fails spectacularly at providing this.
Many students end up watching your course directly in their browser instead, which defeats the purpose of having an app in the first place.
LOL.
The app feels like an afterthought rather than an integral part of the platform.
Teachable page builder
The Teachable page builder is a page builder that just feels like it’s from 2010.
In an era where we have intuitive drag-and-drop builders like Elementor, Divi, and even the native WordPress block editor, Teachable’s page builder feels archaic and limiting.
You’re restricted to a handful of pre-built sections and limited customization options. Want to create something unique that stands out from other Teachable courses?
Good luck with that.
The design limitations mean that most Teachable course sales pages end up looking nearly identical.
Which kills your efforts when you’re trying to establish a unique brand identity.
The painfully slow dashboard
One of the big things that pisses me off about Teachable is how slow the dashboard is.
When you’re searching for a student or an email, first of all, it just takes roughly 10 seconds to load the students list.
And then it takes another 10 seconds to actually find the student.
Once you find the student, you still need to click on additional tabs to actually get the purchase history or the enrollments.
This sluggishness becomes incredibly frustrating when you’re managing hundreds or thousands of students.
Simple tasks like issuing refunds, checking on a student’s progress, or updating enrollment information become unnecessarily time-consuming.
Other Teachable Alternatives You Might Want To Check Out:
- Kajabi
- Thinkific
- Podia
- Systeme.io
- Thrivecart
Each of these alternatives offers its own set of advantages over Teachable. For instance, Kajabi provides a more comprehensive all-in-one solution including email marketing. Thinkific offers better customization options, and Podia gives you similar functionality at a lower price point.
Systeme.io is an emerging player that includes not just course hosting but also email marketing and funnel building at a very competitive price.
Thrivecart Learn is relatively new but impresses with its one-time payment model (instead of monthly subscriptions) and tight integration with its powerful cart system. But it has its own limitations like if you’re using a third-party checkout system.
Final verdict: Should you use Teachable – Is It worth it?
After spending thousands of dollars and countless hours on the platform, my answer is a resounding NO. Teachable is not a good platform.
Unless you enjoy:
- Overpaying for basic features
- Dealing with unreliable payment processing
- Waiting days for support responses
- Fighting with a clunky, slow interface
- Disappointing your students with a terrible mobile experience
Your knowledge deserves a better home. Take the time to explore the alternatives I’ve mentioned above. Your future students (and your sanity) will thank you.
If you’ve had a similar experience with Teachable or want to share which platform you’ve found success with, let me know in the comments below.