Best Online Course Platforms to Sell Freelance Expertise

Last updated: October 2026 · Reading time: about 14 minutes

A few years ago, “selling your expertise” as a freelancer mostly meant one thing: trading hours for money. You billed a client, delivered the work, and started hunting for the next project. That model still pays the bills for most of us. But more and more freelancers I talk to are adding a second layer on top of client work: a course, a live workshop, a paid cohort, or a mini-training they sell again and again.

The hard part isn’t recording videos. It’s picking the right place to sell them. Some platforms keep 63% of a sale. Others charge nothing per sale but cost $150+ a month. And a few quietly changed their pricing in 2025 and 2026, which makes a lot of older “best platform” lists flat-out wrong.

This guide compares the best online course platforms to sell freelance expertise in 2026, with fees checked against official pages and filings where possible. I’ve also included one option that isn’t a course platform at all, but which many freelancers use alongside one: a commission-free marketplace where you can sell the hands-on version of what you teach.

Important notice – please verify before you decide: Prices, fees and revenue shares in this article were checked in October 2026 using official pricing pages, help centers and public filings where available, and reputable secondary sources where they were not. Course platforms change plans often (several did so in 2025 and 2026), prices can differ by country, currency and billing cycle, and taxes are usually extra. This article is for general information only and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Always confirm current figures directly with each platform before signing up or making business decisions.

Quick answer: the best course platforms for freelancers in 2026

• Best for reaching a built-in audience: Udemy (now part of Coursera)
• Best for high-ticket live teaching: Maven
• Best for creative skills on a subscription model: Skillshare
• Best all-rounder for your own branded school: Teachable or Thinkific
• Best all-in-one (courses + email + funnels): Kajabi
• Best simple storefront for courses, coaching and downloads: Podia
• Best for selling your expertise as paid services, commission-free: jobbers.io

How I evaluated these platforms

I’ve spent years around freelancers and the tools they use to get paid, and the same mistake keeps coming up: people compare monthly subscription prices and ignore everything else. So for this list, I looked at five things that actually decide how much money ends up in your pocket:

1. What the platform keeps per sale – revenue share, transaction fee, or 0%.
2. Fixed monthly cost – and what happens to it on annual vs. monthly billing.
3. Who brings the students – a marketplace that sends you traffic, or a hosted school where marketing is on you.
4. Who owns the customer relationship – can you get student emails and take them with you?
5. Fit for freelancers – does it support coaching, live sessions and premium pricing, not just pre-recorded video?

Fee data comes from each platform’s own pricing page, help center or investor filings where I could access them, cross-checked with at least one independent review when official pages were ambiguous. Where sources disagreed, I say so.

Marketplace vs. hosted platform: the choice that matters most

Before comparing brands, it helps to know which of two very different models you’re choosing.

Marketplaces (Udemy, Skillshare, Maven) already have learners browsing. You upload or schedule your course, and the platform can put it in front of people who’ve never heard of you. In return, they take a larger cut, control pricing to some degree, and usually keep the customer relationship.

Hosted course platforms (Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia) are software. You get your own branded school, set your own prices and keep your student list. But nobody shows up unless you bring them, through your newsletter, LinkedIn, YouTube, SEO, or your existing clients.

Honestly, most successful freelance educators end up using both at different stages: a marketplace to get discovered, then their own platform once they have an audience that trusts them.

1. Udemy – biggest audience, smallest cut on organic sales

Udemy is still the default name in online courses, and 2026 brought a big change: Coursera completed its combination with Udemy on May 11, 2026. According to Coursera’s quarterly SEC filing, each Udemy share was converted into 0.800 shares of Coursera, and Udemy now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary. The combined company says it reaches over 290 million learners and around 95,000 instructors.

How instructors get paid: Udemy’s instructor revenue share policy splits sales by how the student arrived:

• Organic marketplace sales: you receive 37%, Udemy keeps 63%.
• Sales through your own coupon or referral link: you receive 97%, Udemy keeps 3%.
• Subscription (Personal Plan / Udemy Business): paid from a shared pool based on consumption. Independent reviews citing Udemy’s announcements report the instructor pool has been cut in steps to 15% as of January 2026 – verify the current rate in your instructor dashboard.

Good for: freelancers in tech, data, marketing or design who want exposure without an existing audience.

Watch out for: frequent sitewide discounts, a price cap on course listings, and limited access to student contact data. You’re building on rented land.

2. Maven – premium live cohorts for experienced practitioners

If you’re a senior freelancer (a product consultant, a fractional CMO, an engineering lead) and you’d rather teach live than record 40 videos, Maven is worth a serious look. It’s built around cohort-based courses and short workshops taught by practitioners.

Fees: Maven’s help center states that its fee is 10% on each paid student enrollment, with Stripe processing on top. Their own example: on a $1,000 enrollment, Maven takes $100, Stripe takes $26.40, and $873.60 goes to the instructor (for a US card paying a US-based instructor).

Pricing reality: Maven’s own pricing guidance says courses on the platform typically range from $800 to $2,500. That’s the appeal for freelancers: a handful of students can equal a decent client project.

Good for: experienced professionals with real case studies and a reputation in their niche.

Watch out for: live teaching takes calendar time, and premium pricing only works if your credibility is obvious on the landing page.

3. Skillshare – subscription royalties for creative skills

Skillshare works differently from Udemy. Students don’t buy individual classes; they pay a membership, and teachers are paid from a monthly fund. According to Skillshare’s help center, approximately 20% of total subscription revenue is allocated to teacher payments each month, mostly based on minutes watched, with a smaller share tied to engagement.

Good for: illustrators, designers, photographers, video editors and writers who can produce short, project-based classes and promote them to an existing social following.

Watch out for: income is variable and not tied to a price you set. Skillshare’s terms allow it to change the payment model, and it has done so several times.

4. Teachable – a solid branded school, but mind the Starter fee

Teachable is one of the longest-running hosted course platforms and is now owned by Hotmart. It restructured its plans in 2025 and no longer offers a free plan to new users. Based on its pricing page as reported by several reviews in mid-2026:

• Starter: $39/month ($29/month billed annually) + a 7.5% transaction fee
• Builder: $89/month ($69/month billed annually), 0% transaction fee
• Growth: $189/month ($139/month billed annually), 0% transaction fee
• Higher tiers and custom pricing are also available

Payment processing fees apply on every plan. The practical takeaway: once you’re selling more than a few hundred dollars a month, the 7.5% Starter fee usually costs more than upgrading.

Good for: freelancers who want a clean, low-maintenance course site and plan to drive their own traffic.

5. Thinkific – strong course builder, no free plan in 2026

Thinkific has long been a favorite for its course-building experience. In 2026 it no longer offers a permanent free plan; instead, paid plans come with a free trial. Published prices for the entry Basic plan vary between reviewers (roughly $36–$40/month billed annually, or about $49–$54 billed monthly), so check the official pricing page for your region.

The fee detail most people miss: there’s no platform transaction fee when you use Thinkific Payments, but if you connect your own Stripe account instead, Thinkific adds a surcharge (reported as 5% on Basic, 2% on Start and 1% on Grow).

Good for: freelancers who care about course structure, quizzes, certificates (on higher plans) and a professional student experience.

6. Kajabi – all-in-one, priced like it

Kajabi bundles courses, a website, email marketing, funnels and community into one subscription. It doesn’t charge a platform transaction fee on any plan, but it’s the most expensive option here. Current pricing reported for 2026:

• Basic: about $179/month (around $143/month billed annually)
• Growth: about $249/month (around $199/month billed annually)
• Pro: about $499/month (around $399/month billed annually)

Some sources still mention a cheaper “Kickstarter” tier, but its availability for new customers appears limited. Confirm on Kajabi’s pricing page before budgeting.

Good for: freelancers who’ve validated demand and want to replace three or four separate tools with one.

Watch out for: paying $150+ a month before you’ve sold a single seat. I’d only recommend Kajabi once you already have an audience.

7. Podia – simple storefront for courses, coaching and downloads

Podia is popular with solo freelancers because it treats courses, coaching sessions, digital downloads and community as products in one storefront. It restructured its plans in 2026 and added a new top tier. According to Podia’s pricing page, the Mover plan carries a 5% transaction fee, while Shaker and Earthquaker have no Podia fees; your payment processor (Stripe or PayPal) charges its own standard fee, typically 2.9% + 30¢ depending on location.

Reported 2026 prices are about $49/month for Mover ($42 annual), $99/month for Shaker ($84 annual) and $179/month for Earthquaker ($150 annual). There’s a free trial but no permanent free plan.

Good for: freelancers who sell a mix of 1:1 coaching and small courses and want everything in one simple place.

8. Jobbers.io – sell the “done-with-you” version of your expertise, commission-free

Here’s something most course roundups skip: a course is only one way to package expertise. Plenty of students who buy a course eventually want help applying it. They want a consultation, an audit, a custom workshop for their team, or a freelancer to just do the work. That’s where a freelance marketplace fits alongside your course platform.

jobbers.io is an international freelance marketplace that does not take commissions on completed work. Freelancers and clients discuss and agree on payment terms directly, so the rate you negotiate is the rate you keep (minus whatever your own payment method charges). Submitting proposals uses paid credits rather than being free, which helps filter out low-effort bidding.

How freelance educators typically use it:

• Offering paid consultations or implementation help to people who took their course elsewhere
• Selling custom corporate training or private workshops
• Finding freelance jobs that double as case studies for their next course
• Building a portfolio and client reviews that make premium course pricing more credible

Good for: freelancers who want their teaching and their client work to feed each other, without a platform taking a percentage of each project.

Worth knowing: because payment is arranged directly between freelancer and client, it’s up to you to put clear terms in writing (scope, milestones, deposits) and use a payment method you trust.

Comparison table: fees and models at a glance (October 2026)

Platform	Model	What the platform keeps	Starting cost	Who brings students
Udemy	Marketplace	63% organic / 3% via your coupon	Free to publish	Mostly the platform
Maven	Cohort marketplace	10% per paid enrollment + Stripe	Free to start	Shared (you + platform)
Skillshare	Subscription royalties	~20% of subscription revenue goes to teachers (pool)	Free to publish	Mostly the platform
Teachable	Hosted school	7.5% on Starter, 0% on higher plans	$29–$39/month	You
Thinkific	Hosted school	0% with Thinkific Payments	~$36–$54/month (varies)	You
Kajabi	All-in-one	0% platform fee	~$143–$179/month	You
Podia	Storefront	5% on Mover, 0% on higher plans	~$42–$49/month	You
Jobbers.io	Freelance marketplace	0% commission; payment agreed directly	Paid credits for proposals	Clients post projects

Payment processing fees (for example Stripe’s standard card fees) and taxes are generally extra. Figures can vary by country and billing cycle – check each official page.

Which platform should you pick? A practical path

If you’re a freelancer with no audience yet, I’d start small and cheap. Test a short course on Udemy or a Skillshare class, or run a live workshop, and see which topics people actually pay for. Keep taking client work in parallel, because that’s where your best teaching material comes from.

Once you have a mailing list of a few hundred people or a strong LinkedIn following, move your flagship course to your own hosted school (Teachable, Thinkific or Podia) so you control pricing and keep student data. Kajabi makes sense later, when you’re paying for several separate tools and want to consolidate.

If you’re already senior and well known in a niche, skip straight to Maven or a live cohort on your own platform. And whatever you choose, give course buyers a clear next step for hands-on help. A commission-free marketplace like jobbers.io lets you turn that demand into client projects without handing over a percentage.

Legal and tax points freelancers often overlook

• Testimonials and income claims: In the US, the FTC’s guidance on endorsements and reviews applies to course marketing. Don’t promise earnings you can’t substantiate.
• VAT on digital courses in the EU: Pre-recorded courses are generally treated as electronically supplied services, taxed where the buyer lives. The EU’s VAT One-Stop Shop (OSS) explains how sellers report this. Some platforms handle VAT for you; many hosted ones don’t on every plan.
• Payment processing: Check Stripe’s pricing (or your processor’s) for your country, since international cards and currency conversion often cost more.
• Content ownership: Read each platform’s terms on licensing, AI training use and what happens to your content if you leave.

For context on how big the independent workforce has become, MBO Partners’ State of Independence research reported 72.9 million independent workers in the US in 2025. Plenty of them are competing on client work alone, which is exactly why a second income stream from teaching can help you stand out.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best online course platform for freelancers in 2026?

There is no single best option. Udemy suits freelancers who need a built-in audience, Maven suits experienced professionals running premium live cohorts, and Teachable, Thinkific or Podia suit freelancers who already have an audience and want their own branded school. Many freelancers also pair a course platform with a commission-free marketplace like jobbers.io to sell consultations and hands-on services.

How much does Udemy take from instructors?

According to Udemy’s instructor revenue share policy, Udemy keeps 63% of organic marketplace sales (instructors receive 37%) and 3% of sales made through the instructor’s own coupon or referral link (instructors receive 97%). Subscription earnings come from a separate shared pool. Always check Udemy’s official support page for the current rates.

Did Udemy merge with Coursera?

Yes. Coursera announced that it completed its combination with Udemy on May 11, 2026, and Udemy became a wholly owned subsidiary of Coursera. Existing instructor terms may evolve over time, so instructors should watch for official updates.

Which course platforms have no transaction fees?

Kajabi charges no platform transaction fee on its plans. Teachable charges 0% on plans above Starter, Podia charges 0% on Shaker and Earthquaker, and Thinkific charges no platform fee when you use Thinkific Payments. Payment processing fees from providers like Stripe or PayPal still apply in every case.

Are there still free plans on Teachable, Thinkific or Podia?

As of 2026, Teachable, Thinkific and Podia no longer offer permanent free plans to new users and instead offer free trials on paid plans. Marketplaces such as Udemy, Skillshare and Maven are free to publish on but take a share of revenue.

How much can I charge for a course as a freelancer?

It depends on the platform and your experience. Udemy routinely discounts courses, while Maven’s own guidance says courses on its platform typically range from $800 to $2,500. On your own hosted platform, you set the price freely, usually based on the outcome students get and the amount of live support included.

Is Skillshare worth it for teachers?

Skillshare can work for creative freelancers with an existing social following. Teachers are paid from a monthly fund that Skillshare says represents approximately 20% of total subscription revenue, distributed mainly by minutes watched. Income can vary from month to month, and Skillshare can change its payment model.

Can I sell my expertise without creating a course?

Yes. You can sell consultations, audits, custom training and project work as freelance services. On jobbers.io, freelancers and clients agree on payment terms directly and the platform does not take commissions on completed work, although submitting proposals uses paid credits.

Do I need to charge VAT on online courses sold in the EU?

In most cases, pre-recorded online courses sold to EU consumers are treated as electronically supplied services and VAT is due in the buyer’s country. The EU VAT One-Stop Shop explains how sellers can declare this. Check whether your platform collects VAT for you and consult a tax professional for your specific situation.

Should I use a marketplace or my own course platform?

Use a marketplace when you need discovery and have no audience yet, and move to your own hosted platform once you have a mailing list or following that trusts you. Your own platform means lower fees and ownership of student data, while marketplaces trade a larger revenue share for built-in traffic.