FileFreightFileFreight vs Teachable: 7.5% Starter fees vs $19/month flat
Teachable is a course platform: video lessons, quizzes, student progress tracking, and cohorts. If you sell actual courses, that machinery earns its keep. If you sell downloads — printables, templates, presets, ebooks — you are climbing a pricing ladder built for schools. Starter is $29/month on annual billing ($39 month-to-month) with a 7.5% transaction fee, one product, and 100 students. Builder is $69/month annual ($89 monthly) with 0% fees, five products, and 1,000 students. Growth is $139/month annual ($179 monthly), 25 products, 0% fees, unlimited students. The free plan was dropped in June 2025. FileFreight Pro is $19/month flat with 0% per-sale fees, on your own Stripe account.
The Starter fee trap
Starter's 7.5% fee is where download sellers get hurt. At $3,000 a month in sales, that is $225 a month in platform fees alone — on top of the $29 subscription and card processing. You would need to jump to Builder ($69/month) just to stop the bleeding. FileFreight Pro costs $19 flat at any volume: at $3,000 a month you keep roughly $275 more every month.
Plan by plan
| Per month (annual) | Month-to-month | Per-sale platform fee | Products | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable Starter | $29 | $39 | 7.5% | 1 |
| Teachable Builder | $69 | $89 | 0% | 5 |
| Teachable Growth | $139 | $179 | 0% | 25 |
| FileFreight Free | $0 | $0 | 5% | unlimited |
| FileFreight Pro | $19 | $19 | 0% | unlimited |
Who should stay on Teachable
- You sell video courses with lessons, quizzes, and student progress — the course machinery is the product.
- You are on Builder or Growth at 0% fees and your school is growing into the student and product limits.
- You need cohorts, certificates, and community features FileFreight will never build.
Honest caveats about FileFreight
- No courses. FileFreight delivers files and license keys; there are no video lessons, quizzes, or student dashboards.
- No tax or merchant-of-record handling. Sales run through your own Stripe account.
- No automatic importer. The first 20 sellers get a free white-glove migration; otherwise migration is manual, a few minutes per product.
- Newer than Teachable. No decade of uptime history to point at yet.
Frequently asked questions
Does Teachable charge a transaction fee?
Only on Starter: 7.5% of every sale, plus the $29-a-month plan (annual billing) and card processing. Builder and Growth charge 0% platform fees. FileFreight Pro charges 0% per-sale fees at $19 a month flat.
Can I sell digital downloads on Teachable Starter?
Starter allows one product with 100 students, but every sale costs you 7.5% on top of the monthly plan. For pure downloads with no course content, a flat-fee delivery tool is usually cheaper.
When does FileFreight beat Teachable?
When what you sell is files, not courses: printables, templates, presets, ebooks, audio, software. If you do not use video lessons, quizzes, or student tracking, Teachable Builder at $69 a month is $50 a month more than FileFreight Pro for the same delivery job.
Does FileFreight handle sales tax?
No. FileFreight is not a merchant of record. Payments go straight to your own Stripe account, so sales-tax responsibility stays with you.
Sources
Pricing last checked October 2026.
Ready to try FileFreight? The free plan is $0 a month with a 5% per-sale fee — no card required. Upgrade to Pro ($19/month, 0% fees) whenever the math says it pays for itself.