Should you build your own Teachable?
Online course platform for creators to sell lessons, coaching, and digital products
A basic course site with Stripe can be built, but student apps, tax/payments, course compliance, certificates, upsells, affiliates, and support make full parity hard.
ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.
Build me a single-course sales site to replace Teachable, for one course of mine. Requirements:
- Node + Express + better-sqlite3 on my VPS behind Caddy. Course content is Markdown
in content/: one folder per module, one file per lesson, front matter points at an
optional video file.
- Public landing page: course outline, price, and a Buy button that goes to Stripe
Checkout (keys in .env). The Stripe webhook marks the buyer's email as enrolled.
- Student login by magic link: enter email, receive a signed login link via SMTP
creds in .env. No passwords, no OAuth.
- Lesson pages are gated by enrollment; videos are MP4s served through the app with
short-lived signed URLs so direct links expire.
- Progress: a mark-complete button per lesson and a progress bar per module, stored
per student in SQLite.
- Receipts come from Stripe; do not build invoicing or tax logic (turn on Stripe Tax
if needed).
- Out of scope: multiple courses, affiliates, certificates, upsells, coupons, and
mobile apps. This sells and delivers one course.
- README: Stripe webhook setup, Caddy snippet, where videos live on disk, and an
honest note that a VPS handles a small audience fine but a big launch needs real
video hosting like Bunny.net.The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running. · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR
What would building your own look like?
Build lessons/modules, student login, progress tracking, Stripe checkout, and gated course pages.
What you will need
- auth
- payment processor
- course CMS
- video/file hosting
- email receipts
- hosting
They pay because course businesses need checkout, access, progress, and support to just work.
xstudent apps
xpayments/tax workflows
xcertificates
xupsells
xaffiliates
xsupport
xcourse compliance features
Prefer something ready-made?
View all 6 alternatives to Teachable →· Licença, instalação e limitações em cada alternativa.
How much does Teachable cost?
- Monthly billing
- $39/mo$39/mo
- Per year
- $468/yr$468/yr
- Annual billing
- $348/yr26% cheaper than paying monthly
- On a Brazilian card, with 3.5% IOF
- R$204/moR$1,819/yr
Saved to My list. You will see a notice on this site when the price changes.
You complete the purchase on Teachable’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| starter | $39/workspace≈ $39 | $29/workspace≈ $29 | 5 published products; 1 admin; 100 active students; 5 imported students; 1 TB video storage |
| builder | $89/workspace≈ $89 | $69/workspace≈ $69 | 10 published products; 1 admin; 1,000 active students; 50 imported students; 1 TB video storage |
| growth | $189/workspace≈ $189 | $139/workspace≈ $139 | 50 published products; 5 admins; 5,000 active students; 1,000 imported students; 1 TB video storage |
| custom | custom | - | Custom product, student, admin, support, and service limits |
Free tierno free tier; 7-day trial only
Billing termsmonthly + annual (annual prices shown as effective monthly rates; about 22% lower)
Additional costsStarter adds a 7.5% platform fee; payment processing is 2.9%+$0.30 US cards, 3.9%+$0.30 international cards, 3.49%+$0.49 US PayPal, and 4.99%+$0.49 international PayPal; $15 chargebacks; optional BackOffice adds 2%–2.8%. Student caps are removed only after $10,000 in direct annual sales.
verified 2026-08-10 · source ↗
Is it cheaper to build or buy Teachable?
Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.
Over 24 months, subscribing is cheaper.
Starting hours estimated from the analysis (multi-day). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).
Can I rebuild Teachable?
Kinda. The core of Teachable is buildable in a weekend with the prompt on this page, but there are real gaps: student apps, payments/tax workflows. Read the honest list above before committing.
How much does Teachable cost?
Teachable costs about $39/mo (Starter, checked 10/20/2026), which is $348 per year.
What do I lose by replacing Teachable?
Honestly: student apps; payments/tax workflows; certificates; upsells; affiliates; support; course compliance features. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Teachable?
Yes: Odoo Community (A website, course catalog, forums and payments inside an ERP; subtle it is not.) Moodle (The most complete free LMS here, with the least creator-friendly first impression.) Frappe Learning (Courses, cohorts, assignments, quizzes, certificates and payments in a modern UI; coaching workflows are lighter.) All 6 curated free alternatives are at https://viberadar.si/teachable/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.