Some links in this article are affiliate links. Automated Wealth Lab may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link to Kit, mentioned once as an email tool for selling to your list. If you sign up through it, Automated Wealth Lab earns a commission at no extra cost to you. None of the course platforms compared — Teachable, Thinkific, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy — is an affiliate partner, and every fee below is taken from their published pricing as checked in October 2026.
A $49 course does not earn $49. Between the buyer’s click and your bank account sit up to four separate tolls — a platform transaction fee, card processing, a monthly plan amortized across your sales, and refunds that claw back revenue while keeping their processing fees. Stack them differently and the same $49 sale nets anywhere from about $34 to $47 before refunds, and under $31 in the worst modeled route after them.
This article computes it properly. One course, one price ($49), four selling routes — Teachable, Thinkific, Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy — with every fee taken from published pricing, refund scenarios labeled as planning assumptions (no platform publishes a universal refund rate, and neither will we), and plan costs amortized at two real sales volumes. It’s the natural sequel to our guide to making money online for the product most beginners build second: the course.
Short answer: On a $49 sale, you keep about $47.28 on a 0%-fee course platform plan (Teachable Builder / Thinkific Basic via its own payments), $46.05 on Lemon Squeezy (no monthly fee), $43.60 on Teachable’s cheapest plan (7.5% fee), $41.88 on Gumroad direct, and $34.30 on a Gumroad Discover sale. Model a 10% refund rate and each figure drops roughly $3.60–$4.90 per sale averaged across all sales — refunds cost more than most platform fees.
The four tolls inside a $49 sale
- Platform transaction fee. A percentage (sometimes plus a fixed charge) the platform takes for existing. Ranges from 0% (paid course-platform tiers) to 30% (Gumroad’s Discover marketplace). This is the toll everyone advertises.
- Card processing. Typically 2.9% + $0.30 on a US card — $1.72 on a $49 sale. Merchant-of-record platforms (Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy) bundle this into their headline fee; course platforms charge it on top via their payment systems.
- The monthly plan. $0 on Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy; $29–$69/month on the course platforms’ relevant tiers. Whether it matters depends entirely on your sales volume — at 20 sales a month a $69 plan is $3.45 per sale; at 100 it’s $0.69.
- Refunds and chargebacks. The silent toll. A refunded sale returns the $49 but — on Stripe-based processing — the $1.72 processing fee is not returned to you. A chargeback additionally carries a dispute fee ($15 on Stripe). Section 4 models this properly.
The fee schedules (published pricing, October 2026)
| Platform / plan | Monthly cost (annual billing) | Platform fee | Processing | Tax handling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter | $29/mo ($39 monthly) | 7.5% per sale | On top (~2.9% + $0.30 via Teachable Payments) | Included in its payment system |
| Teachable Builder | $69/mo ($89 monthly) | 0% | On top | Included |
| Thinkific Basic | $40/mo ($54 monthly) | 0% via Thinkific Payments | On top (~2.9% + $0.30) | Via its payment system |
| Thinkific Basic (own Stripe/PayPal) | $40/mo | 5% surcharge | On top | Yours to configure |
| Gumroad (direct sale) | $0 | 10% + $0.50 | On top (2.9% + $0.30) | Merchant of record — handled |
| Gumroad Discover | $0 | 30% flat | Included | Merchant of record — handled |
| Lemon Squeezy | $0 | 5% + $0.50 | Included | Merchant of record — handled |
Three reading notes. First, Teachable retired its old free/Basic structure: current plans are Starter/Builder/Growth, and only Starter carries the 7.5% fee — some older comparison articles still quote the legacy “$1 + 10%” free plan, which no longer exists. Second, Thinkific raised prices roughly 10% in August 2026 and its “0% transaction fee” headline holds only when you route payments through Thinkific Payments; connecting your own Stripe adds a 5%/2%/1% surcharge on Basic/Start/Grow. Third, Gumroad’s fee halves to 5% + $0.50 on direct sales after $20,000 sold in a calendar month — irrelevant for a first course, noted for completeness.
Net per $49 sale, before refunds and plan costs
Pure per-sale arithmetic on the schedules above (processing computed at 2.9% + $0.30 = $1.72):
| Route | Platform fee | Processing | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Builder | $0 | $1.72 | $47.28 |
| Thinkific Basic (Thinkific Payments) | $0 | $1.72 | $47.28 |
| Lemon Squeezy | $2.95 (all-in) | included | $46.05 |
| Thinkific Basic (own Stripe) | $2.45 surcharge | $1.72 | $44.83 |
| Teachable Starter | $3.68 | $1.72 | $43.60 |
| Gumroad direct | $5.40 | $1.72 | $41.88 |
| Gumroad Discover | $14.70 (all-in) | included | $34.30 |
The two traps visible in this table: the cheapest plan is not the cheapest route (Teachable Starter’s 7.5% costs $3.68 on every sale, forever), and the simplest route is not cheap either (Gumroad’s zero-setup direct sale quietly takes $7.12 all-in). The merchant-of-record premium shows up honestly too: Lemon Squeezy’s $46.05 buys you never touching sales-tax registration — a real service, priced at $1.23 per sale versus the 0%-fee platforms.
Refunds: the toll nobody models
The assumption problem, stated plainly: no course platform publishes a universal refund rate, and rates vary enormously by niche, price and guarantee policy. So we model three planning scenarios — 5%, 10% and 15% of sales refunded — labeled as assumptions, not data. Model mechanics: a refunded sale returns the full $49; we assume percentage platform fees are returned, but card processing ($1.72) is retained by the processor (Stripe-based processors stopped refunding it years ago); for the all-in MoR routes we retain the same $1.72 processing equivalent for comparability.
Net averaged across 100 sales, by refund rate:
| Route | 0% refunds | 5% refunds | 10% refunds | 15% refunds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Builder / Thinkific (TCommerce) | $47.28 | $44.83 | $42.38 | $39.93 |
| Lemon Squeezy | $46.05 | $43.66 | $41.27 | $38.89 |
| Teachable Starter | $43.60 | $41.33 | $39.07 | $36.80 |
| Gumroad direct | $41.88 | $39.70 | $37.52 | $35.34 |
| Gumroad Discover | $34.30 | $32.51 | $30.70 | $28.88 |
Two lessons. Refunds swamp platform choice: moving from 5% to 15% refunds costs you ~$4.90/sale on the best route — more than the entire gap between Teachable Builder and Gumroad direct. A clearer guarantee, better course-page honesty and a working first lesson are worth more margin than any platform migration. And the fixed $0.30 inside processing is why refunds sting more at low prices: on a $49 course it’s a rounding issue; on a $9 mini-course it’s a structural one.
Now add the plan: net per sale at real volumes
Plans are monthly; sales are per-sale. Amortizing the plan (annual-billing monthly equivalent) across volume, before refunds:
| Route | Plan/mo | Net/sale at 20 sales/mo | Net/sale at 100 sales/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter | $29 | $42.15 | $43.31 |
| Teachable Builder | $69 | $43.83 | $46.59 |
| Thinkific Basic | $40 | $45.28 | $46.88 |
| Gumroad direct | $0 | $41.88 | $41.88 |
| Lemon Squeezy | $0 | $46.05 | $46.05 |
The crossovers, computed: Teachable Builder beats Starter from ~11 sales/month (the $40 plan difference ÷ $3.68 saved per sale). Lemon Squeezy beats everything at low volume — no plan to amortize — and Thinkific Basic edges ahead at volume ($46.88 at 100 sales/month). Gumroad direct never wins on math; it wins on being live in ten minutes with tax handled, which for a first course testing whether anyone buys at all is a legitimate trade — switch once you pass roughly 17 sales a month (~$830 in sales), where even the cheapest course-platform plan’s total cost drops below Gumroad’s per-sale take.
One cost sits outside the platform entirely: the audience. A course with no list sells to whoever a marketplace sends (Discover’s 30% is the price of that traffic). A course sold to your own email list — through a tool like Kit — keeps the direct-sale rate on every launch. The cheapest fee schedule in this article is the one attached to traffic you own.
So which route for a first $49 course?
- Testing whether anyone buys (0–10 sales/month): Lemon Squeezy or Gumroad direct. Zero fixed cost, tax handled, and the per-sale premium is tuition for information.
- Selling steadily to your own audience (10–100/month): Thinkific Basic on its own payments, or Teachable Builder — both net $47.28/sale before plan amortization; pick on course-player features, not fees, because the fees are now identical.
- Never: Teachable Starter beyond your first ~11 sales a month (the 7.5% quietly out-costs the upgrade), your own Stripe on Thinkific Basic (the 5% surcharge buys nothing), and any route where you haven’t modeled refunds — a 30-day guarantee at a 15% refund rate turns your $49 course into a $39.93 course on the best platform in this table.
FAQ
How much do I actually keep from a $49 course sale?
Between about $34.30 and $47.28 depending on route, before your plan cost and refunds: $47.28 on 0%-fee course-platform tiers, $46.05 on Lemon Squeezy, $43.60 on Teachable Starter, $41.88 on Gumroad direct, $34.30 via Gumroad Discover. Full arithmetic is in the tables above.
Which course platform has the lowest fees in 2026?
On pure fee math: Thinkific Basic (0% platform fee via Thinkific Payments, $40/month annual billing) and Teachable Builder (0%, $69/month) tie per sale; Lemon Squeezy (5% + $0.50, no monthly fee) is cheapest at low sales volumes because there’s no plan to amortize. Teachable Starter (7.5%) and Gumroad direct (10% + $0.50 + processing) are the most expensive mainstream routes per sale.
How do refunds affect course earnings?
A refunded sale returns the price but not the card processing (about $1.72 on $49). Modeled across 100 sales, moving from 0% to a 10% refund rate cuts the average net per sale by roughly $3.60–$4.90 on every platform we computed — a bigger effect than most platform fee differences. Chargebacks cost more again, adding a dispute fee ($15 on Stripe).
Is Gumroad too expensive for courses?
For a proven course, yes — at $41.88 kept per $49 sale (direct) it trails 0%-fee platforms by $5.40 per sale, and Discover sales keep only $34.30. For a first course, its zero monthly fee and merchant-of-record tax handling can still be the right trade until sales volume makes a plan cheaper — around 17 sales a month (~$830 in sales) versus the cheapest course-platform tier.
Does Teachable still have a free plan?
No. Teachable’s current lineup (checked October 2026) is Starter ($29/month billed annually, 7.5% transaction fee), Builder ($69/month, 0%) and Growth ($139/month, 0%), with a 7-day trial. Older articles citing a free plan with “$1 + 10%” fees describe the retired structure.
Should I price my course higher to offset fees?
Fees argue for it weakly (percentage fees scale with price; the fixed $0.30 and $0.50 components shrink in relative terms), but price is set by the buyer’s alternative, not your cost stack. The stronger levers are cutting refunds through honest sales pages and selling to your own audience instead of paying a marketplace 30% for traffic.
Methodology
What we did: Took every fee from published pricing checked in October 2026 — Teachable’s own pricing page (Starter $29/mo annual with 7.5% fee; Builder $69 and Growth $139 at 0%), Thinkific’s post-August-2026 schedule ($40/$82/$164 annual-billing; 0% via Thinkific Payments; 5%/2%/1% own-gateway surcharges), Gumroad’s current fee documentation (10% + $0.50 direct plus processing; 30% Discover all-in; 5% tier after $20K/month), Lemon Squeezy’s 5% + $0.50 — and computed every table arithmetically on a single $49 sale, with standard US card processing at 2.9% + $0.30 where processing is charged separately.
What we did NOT do: We did not sell a course on any platform for this article, and no earnings here are observed. Refund rates (5/10/15%) are labeled planning assumptions — no platform publishes a universal rate. Our refund mechanics assume percentage platform fees are returned on refund and processing is retained; Gumroad’s treatment of its fee on refunds is described inconsistently across current secondary sources, so we modeled the retained-processing equivalent and flag the uncertainty rather than resolving it. Teachable’s legacy free/Basic plan structure still appears in older comparisons; we used the vendor’s live pricing page over third-party trackers wherever they conflicted.
Conflict disclosure: None of the four compared platforms is an affiliate partner. Kit, the only affiliate link in the article, is an email tool mentioned for audience ownership — it takes no part in the fee comparison.
AWL verdict
The $49 on the sales page is a gross number in a net world. Run the full stack — platform fee, processing, plan amortization, refunds — and the honest ranking is: 0%-fee course platforms and Lemon Squeezy cluster within a dollar of each other at $46–$47 per sale, Teachable’s entry tier and Gumroad trail at $42–$44, and marketplace traffic costs you $13 a sale for the privilege. But the verdict inside the verdict is the refund table: your refund rate moves your income more than your platform does. Pick the route that matches your volume, write a sales page that undersells slightly, and spend the saved fee-anxiety on the first lesson — it’s the one that decides whether the other $49 sales stay sold.
Sources
- Teachable pricing (official) — Starter $39/mo monthly / $29 annual with 7.5% transaction fee; Builder $89/$69 at 0%; Growth $189/$139 at 0%; no free plan, 7-day trial: https://teachable.com/pricing (verified October 2026)
- Thinkific pricing 2026 — Basic $40/mo annual ($54 monthly), Start $82 ($109), Grow $164 ($219) after the August 2026 increase; 0% via Thinkific Payments; own-Stripe surcharges 5%/2%/1%: https://freshlearn.com/blog/thinkific-pricing/ and https://zanfia.com/blog/thinkific-pricing/ (verified October 2026)
- Gumroad fees 2026 — direct 10% + $0.50 plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing; Discover 30% all-in; 5% + $0.50 after $20,000 in a calendar month; merchant of record since January 2025: https://www.swell.is/content/gumroad-pricing (verified October 2026)
- Gumroad fee analysis — direct-sale effective formula 12.9% + $0.80; per-price take-home examples; refund-fee treatment discussion: https://omidsaffari.com/blog/gumroad-review (verified October 2026)
- Lemon Squeezy pricing — 5% + $0.50 per transaction, merchant of record (as also used in our billing comparisons): https://www.swell.is/content/lemon-squeezy-pricing (verified October 2026)
- Stripe fee stack — standard processing 2.9% + $0.30 and dispute-fee structure: https://flexprice.io/blog/stripe-pricing-breakdown-2026 (verified October 2026)
