Picking your first course platform, without overthinking it

Hey

We talked about this in the Office hours and I told you I'd come back with a clearer breakdown.

Sharing here so the rest of the community can use it too.

Quick truth before we go in: the platform matters less than you think.

The offer matters 10x more. Pick something good enough, launch, then optimize. You can always migrate later. Most people never need to.

⚠️ Skip self-hosted WordPress setups for now.

Save yourself 3 months of plugins and headaches.

The platforms split into 3 useful families. Pick the family first.

👉 1. Course-first (the course IS the product) Clean lesson experience, simple checkout, that's it.

Thinkific ($49/mo, no transaction fees). Cleanest builder. Best balance for most people starting out.
Teachable ($39/mo with 7.5% fees, or $89/mo with zero fees). Easiest setup, very mature.
Podia ($39-89/mo). Good if you also want to sell PDFs and run basic email from one tool.

👉 2. All-in-one (replaces 4 tools with 1) Course + email + funnels + community in a single dashboard.

Kajabi ($179/mo Basic). The most complete platform on the market. Only worth it if you're already making consistent revenue.
Systeme.io (free plan, paid from $17/mo). Genuinely free to start, no transaction fees. Best zero-risk option.
ClickFunnels ($97/mo Launch). Only if your strategy is paid ads.

👉 3. Community-first (engagement is the real product) The course is the entry point, the community is the value.

Skool ($99/mo Pro, what we use here). Also has a $9/mo Hobby plan but it takes a 10% cut on every sale, so Pro pays for itself fast. Dead simple, built-in gamification.
Circle ($89/mo Professional, 2% fee). More polished, more complex. Note: fees only drop to 0% on the Circle Plus custom plan, all paid tiers have a transaction fee.
Mighty Networks (Launch $79/mo + 2% fee, Scale $179/mo + 1% fee). Native mobile app, good for cohorts. They never go to 0% fees.

👉 4. Marketplaces (someone else's audience)

Udemy. You get 97% when you bring the buyer (your link, your coupon), but only 37% when Udemy brings them. On their Business subscription, instructors get just 15% of revenue. Race to the bottom on pricing, no real brand control.
Skillshare. Revenue share based on watch time. Animator-friendly audience but unpredictable income.

The honest decision tree:

No audience yet, want to test the idea: Systeme.io free plan, or Udemy if you really have nobody to sell to.
Small audience, selling one course $49 to $297: Thinkific or Teachable Builder.
Want a community wrapped around your course: Skool or Circle.
Selling multiple products, want everything in one tool: Kajabi if you can afford it, Systeme.io if you can't.

What I'd actually do in your shoes:

Start on Thinkific or Systeme.io.
Launch the course in 4 to 6 weeks max.
Don't tweak the platform for months. Your students will not care if your buttons are pretty, they care if the lessons help them.

You can always migrate later. All these platforms let you export your videos and your students.

The platform you launch on is almost never the platform you scale on, and that's fine.

Enjoy! 💪

1 comment

skool.com/freelancing-for-animators-6042

I help animators starting an animation freelance business and stop waiting for studios to call back.

Bring people together around your passion and get paid.