You know the subject — these tools do the honest maths and planning around turning it into a course. Course pricing that covers your costs without the hype, module time estimates from the content you actually plan, launch cost budgets, cohort-versus-evergreen decisions, quiz and assessment basics, student support load, platform fee comparisons, outline structure, niche validation, pilot and beta launch plans, marketing your course, refund and guarantee policy basics, free-to-full upsell paths, accessibility basics, budget recording setups, student engagement, keeping content current — and an honest when-not-to-make-a-course check. Encouraging, never hype: no income guarantees, no get-rich promises — just clear numbers and kind next steps — and the full detailed report costs less than a coffee: $2.95.

Choosing a course platform on marketing claims is how teachers discover the fee truth at their first payout. This calculator compares two platforms on the only numbers that matter for your situation: the per-sale percentage each takes, the monthly fee each charges, your course price, your honest first-year student count, and how many months the course will live there. It returns the total each platform costs you over that period and the gap between them, and the verdict explains what the more expensive option would need to deliver for the difference to be worth it. The guidance underneath covers the two shapes of platform fees — percentages that dominate at scale and monthly fees that dominate when you are small — plus the hidden third row of payment processing that often sits outside the quoted percentage. Re-run it as your numbers change, because the cheaper platform can flip as you scale.
Compare two course platforms honestly — transaction percentages, monthly fees, and the real total at your price and student count — so the platform choice is a maths decision, not a marketing one.
Most platforms charge roughly 5-15 percent of each sale plus payment processing, with wide variation and with many adding a monthly subscription on top. Always compare the total cost at your own price and student count, not the headline percentage.
Because the two fee shapes scale differently: the monthly fee is fixed while the percentage grows with every sale. At fifty students a year the flat fee dominates; at a thousand students the percentage dominates, so the verdict flips at your scale.
Yes — payment processing typically takes another few percent per transaction, and some platforms add per-sale or per-student charges. Ask for the full fee schedule and enter the real combined number into the comparison.
Every tool answers instantly from our own knowledge and calculators — no AI wait, no account. Honest maths and plain-language guidance, always educational and never a substitute for professional advice: course platform pricing, student numbers, taxes and consumer rules change and differ by country and platform, so each answer tells you what is generally true, what to check locally, and what your next step should be — never hype, never income guarantees. Results are estimates and reflection aids, not financial, tax or legal opinions, and nothing you type is stored. Want the deeper, personalised version? Each has a $2.95 full report.