Teachable

Teachable's affiliate feature is the simplest in this directory and the one with the longest list of things it doesn't do. One percentage per affiliate, set by hand, tracked only on Teachable's own pages, paid by you, by hand, with the managed payouts and tax forms marked "coming soon" in a help article dated September 2026. If you sell a course on Teachable and want a few partners promoting it, it's there and it works. If you want an affiliate program, it's a placeholder.

I haven't run a program on Teachable. This is a research listing, from teachable.com's pricing and partner pages and the Teachable support centre. Third-party claims are marked.

The history

Teachable started in New York in 2014 (it was briefly called Fedora before the rename, which is the kind of fact that wins pub quizzes), built by Ankur Nagpal as a way for anyone to sell a course without building a site. It became one of the two or three default course platforms of the 2010s, and in 2020 it was bought by Hotmart, the Brazilian digital-product company that runs one of the largest creator marketplaces in Latin America (third-party on the acquisition).

That matters for affiliates because Hotmart's own business is affiliate-driven: its marketplace is built on affiliates promoting creators' products. So the parent company knows the model inside out, and Teachable's affiliate feature is still the thinnest of the course platforms. Draw your own conclusion; mine is that Teachable's roadmap has had other priorities, and the "coming soon" on payouts is the evidence.

Who it's for

Course creators on Teachable Builder or above who have a handful of partners, students or peers to pay a cut to, and who are happy to pay them manually each month.

Creators who sell from Teachable-hosted pages. The tracking only works there, so if your sales page is on Teachable and your checkout is on Teachable, attribution works.

Who should skip it

Anyone on Starter. $39 a month, a 7.5% transaction fee, and no affiliates. The affiliate feature starts at Builder, $89.

Anyone selling from an external sales page. Tracking is last-touch and only on Teachable-hosted pages; a WordPress or Carrd landing page breaks it.

Anyone who needs per-product rates. Commission is set per affiliate, 1% to 100%, and applies to every product you let them earn on. You can restrict which products, not vary the rate.

Anyone who needs fixed-amount commissions, tiers, or tax forms. None, none, and "coming soon."

Anyone who's going to remove an affiliate. Doing so kills attribution on the subscriptions they referred, so a departing affiliate takes their recurring commissions' records with them.

Pricing, decoded

• Starter: $39 a month. 7.5% transaction fee. No affiliates.
• Builder: $89 a month, or $69 on annual. Affiliates included. 0% transaction fee.
• Higher tiers add seats and features; the affiliate feature doesn't change.

So the affiliate feature costs $50 a month over Starter, and that's before you count the 7.5% transaction fee you'd be escaping. Worked example: a Starter school selling $5,000 a month pays $39 plus $375, so $414. Builder is $89. The affiliate feature is free with the upgrade; the upgrade pays for itself at about $670 a month in sales. If you're selling anything at all on Starter, you should be on Builder anyway, and the affiliate program comes along.

The thing to understand is that Teachable's affiliate feature is the cheapest in the directory and also the least. ThriveCart gives you two tiers and automatic payouts for $87. Kajabi gives you scheduled payouts for $249. Teachable gives you one percentage per affiliate and a report.

Payouts: manual, with a promise

Today: "school owners are responsible for paying affiliates directly," from the help centre. You read the earnings report, you pay people through whatever rail you like, and the admin doesn't record it; payments made off-platform aren't reflected in the dashboard.

Promised: managed monthly payouts, with W-9 and W-8BEN collection and 1099s, marked "coming soon" in a support article dated September 9, 2026, and only for schools on Teachable Payments. Never for schools on a Custom Payment Gateway. There was an older automated-payout service, BackOffice, for legacy schools, which I couldn't verify is still running.

Don't buy a roadmap. "Coming soon" has a long history in software of meaning "when we get to it," and a feature that's been coming since at least September is one I'd plan without. If managed payouts arrive, they'll be a pleasant surprise. If you need them now, they aren't here.

What it does well

Simplicity. Add an affiliate, set a percentage, give them a link. Two out of five on setup, and that's generous to the competition.

Recurring by default. Subscription and payment-plan courses pay the affiliate on each payment, which is right.

Cookie control. School-set, 1 to 365 days, last-touch. A 365-day cookie is longer than most tools allow, if you want it.

CSV import of affiliates on Builder and above, which is the one bulk operation available.

Lock-in: 4 out of 5

What gets you out: reporting with filters, and whatever you've recorded of your own payouts, since Teachable hasn't. Monthly billing.

What keeps you in: the affiliate list export isn't documented, so your partners' details may be a copy-and-paste job. Tracking only works on Teachable pages, so leaving the platform ends the program, and even moving your sales page off Teachable breaks it. Drop to Starter and the feature's gone. And the removal rule means tidying your list destroys the attribution history you'd want to carry over.

Four. Easy to set up, awkward to leave with anything.

Gotchas

• Builder or nothing. $89 a month. Starter has no affiliates and a 7.5% fee.
• Payouts are manual, and off-platform payments don't show in the admin. Keep your own ledger.
• Managed payouts and tax forms are "coming soon." Dated September 2026. Plan without them.
• Custom Payment Gateway schools will never get managed payouts, per the same article.
• One rate per affiliate, no per-product variation, no fixed amounts, no tiers.
• Tracking only on Teachable-hosted pages. External landing pages break attribution.
• Removing an affiliate kills attribution on their referred subscriptions.
• Manual add is five affiliates at a time. Use the CSV import past that.
• Affiliate list export undocumented.
• Teachable's partner program is a different thing from its affiliate feature. 30% recurring for a year, 30-day cookie, for promoting Teachable itself. Don't confuse the two when reading the docs.

Integrations

Teachable's own pages, checkout and Teachable Payments. Affiliate tracking: Teachable's only. No standalone affiliate tool in this directory lists a native Teachable integration; Zapier is the route if you need one.

Not supported: external sales pages, Custom Payment Gateway for managed payouts, per-product rates, tiers.

If you're leaving

Pull the affiliate earnings report for every period you'll need to reconcile, and reconcile it against your own payout records, because the platform has none. Copy your affiliate list with contact details before you touch anything, since removal destroys attribution and the export isn't documented. Settle what's owed. Rebuild the program on the new tool with per-affiliate rates mapped by hand, and email affiliates their new links before the Teachable pages change.

Or skip the evenings in export CSVs: I run migrations as a service.

Verdict

My opinion, labelled as such: Teachable's affiliate feature is fine for a creator with five partners and a spreadsheet, and that's the honest ceiling. Set a rate, hand out links, pay people yourself, and don't wait for the managed payouts.

If you're choosing a course platform and the affiliate program is part of the decision, Kajabi runs scheduled PayPal payouts today, ThriveCart does two tiers and automatic payouts for less than Builder, and Systeme.io includes a two-tier affiliate program with its courses on the free plan. Any of those gives you a program. Teachable gives you a percentage field and a promise.

Last verified November 4, 2026. Plan prices and the Starter transaction fee from teachable.com/pricing. Commission, cookie, tracking, payout and removal behaviour from the Teachable support centre, including the managed-payouts article dated September 9, 2026. Teachable's own partner program terms from teachable.com/partners. Founding details and the Hotmart acquisition are third-party. The author has not used Teachable. Some links on this page are affiliate links.