MiloTree vs Teachable: Why Big Online Courses Are Dying (And What to Sell Instead)
If someone is telling you to build a big online course, they are lying to you.
They’re selling you a fantasy from 2019, and they want you to pay $69 or $100 or $150 a month for expensive software to do it.
Here is the truth: course completion rates are between 5 and 15%. For every hundred people who buy your course, maybe 10 finish it. The rest feel guilty, ask for refunds, and never buy from you again.
That is not a business model. That is a trap. And platforms like Teachable? They’re built for that trap.
Watch the full video:
Short answer: Teachable is a course platform with no free plan. It starts at $29 a month billed annually ($39 monthly) with a 7.5% transaction fee, and 0% fees start at $69 a month billed annually. MiloTree is free to start (5% per sale), and its Grow plan is $25 a month billed annually ($37 monthly) with 0% fees and unlimited products. Choose Teachable if you need quizzes, drip content, and student progress reports. Choose MiloTree to sell digital downloads, workshops, coaching, and memberships simply, and to grow your email list and social following.
Table of Contents
Inside the MiloTree Dashboard
Here’s what you see when you log in: your link-in-bio store, your products and freebies, AI product ideas, and your website pop-up, all in one place.
Show Notes:
- MiloTree
- Sign Up for MiloTree
- FREE: 16 AI Prompts to Help You Sell Digital Products
- Join The Blogger Genius Newsletter
Subscribe to the Blogger Genius Podcast:
The “Build a Course and Get Rich” Era Is Over
There’s so much free content on YouTube now. Why would anyone pay hundreds of dollars for pre-recorded videos?
So when someone tells you to spend months building a big course, ask yourself: who benefits from that advice? You, or the platform charging you monthly while you build something nobody finishes?
Here’s what people actually pay for now:
- A $27 guide that solves a real problem today
- A $97 workshop where you show up live
- A $150 coaching call where you actually talk to someone
Quick wins. Real humans. Not 12-week video libraries.
Teachable’s Problem: Built for a Dying Model
Teachable’s entire platform is built around the big course model (modules, lessons, quizzes), all supporting a format fewer and fewer people want to buy.
And their pricing? There’s no free plan, and the cheapest plan takes a cut of every sale:
- Starter: $29/month billed annually ($39 monthly), 5 products, 7.5% transaction fee
- Builder: $69/month billed annually ($89 monthly), 10 products, 0% transaction fee
- Growth: $139/month billed annually ($189 monthly), 50 products, 0% transaction fee
- Custom: contact sales for more than 50 products
Teachable prices from its pricing page, checked October 2026. The 0% fee applies when you use Teachable’s own payment processing, and card processing fees still apply on every plan.
Every time you add products, you move up a plan. Go past 5 products on Starter and you’re paying $69 a month or more. Stay on Starter and Teachable keeps 7.5% of every sale, on top of card processing.
MiloTree: Built for What’s Actually Working
MiloTree is built for the products creators are actually selling right now: digital downloads, workshops, coaching, memberships, subscriptions, and templates.
MiloTree is free to start with 3 products, 3 freebies with tripwires, and 1 pop-up, plus a 5% fee per sale. When you’re ready, the Grow plan is $25 a month billed annually ($37 monthly) for unlimited products, unlimited customers, unlimited freebies, and 0% MiloTree fees. You only pay Stripe’s standard processing.
(Note: In the video I say $19/month. MiloTree’s paid plan is now $25 a month billed annually, or $37 monthly, and you can start free.)
| Feature | MiloTree | Teachable |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | ✅ Free to start (5% per sale) | ❌ No free plan (7-day trial) |
| Paid plans | $25/month billed annually ($37 monthly) | $29 to $139/month billed annually ($39 to $189 monthly) |
| Transaction fees | 0% on Grow | 7.5% on Starter, 0% on Builder and up |
| Products | Unlimited on Grow | 5, 10, or 50, depending on plan |
| Link-in-bio storefront | ✅ Included, even on Free | School website |
| AI tools | AI sales pages, AI Product Finder, AI Product Roadmap | “Create with AI” course-building tools |
| Coupons, order bumps & upsells | ✅ Coupons on Free; order bumps and upsells on Grow | ✅ Built in |
| Coaching with calendar booking | ✅ Calendly & Acuity | ✅ Calendly |
| Email marketing | Connects to 24 email services | Built-in email marketing |
| Social Media & Email Pop-ups | ✅ Grow followers on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest, or grow your email list, from your own website (1 pop-up on Free) | Email lead forms; no social media pop-ups |
| Quizzes, drip content, student reports | ❌ | ✅ Built in |
| Sales tax & VAT | You handle it | Collected and remitted with Teachable payments |
How we compared: We built MiloTree, so we’re not neutral. To keep this fair, we took Teachable’s prices and features from its own website and help pages, checked in October 2026, and we point out where Teachable is the better choice. Prices change, so check Teachable’s pricing page before you decide.
No credit card needed. Compare plans
How to Set Up and Sell a Product in 15 Minutes
Here’s how easy this is with MiloTree:
- Choose what kind of product to sell: digital download, workshop, coaching, membership
- Give your product a name, price, and description
- Upload your digital file
- Click one button, and MiloTree’s AI writes your sales page
- Tweak the text, swap in images. The heavy lifting is done
- Share your sales page link everywhere: Pinterest, emails, Facebook groups, DMs
When someone buys, MiloTree handles the payment and delivers the product automatically.
Build a Product Ladder (This Is Where the Real Money Is)
With MiloTree, you can turn a $27 customer into a $150 customer:
- Add an order bump at checkout: a small complementary product
- Add an upsell on the thank-you page: a bigger product that increases your average order value
- Offer a freebie to build your email list, then hit them with a tripwire on the thank-you page
- Create a coupon code for a launch, a holiday sale, or your email list (coupons are on the Free plan)
Freebie → paid customer in one click. That’s the digital product ladder strategy in action.
If You’re a Coach
Create a coaching product, connect your Calendly or Acuity account, and when someone buys, they book their call right on the thank-you page. No back-and-forth emails. No scheduling headaches.
AI That Helps You Decide What to Sell
AI Product Finder: Not sure what to sell yet? MiloTree’s AI Product Finder asks you three questions: what you’re good at, who you help, and what kind of product you want to create. It hands back three product ideas personalized for your niche, each with what to include, a suggested price, and how long it will take to build.
AI Product Roadmap: Once you’ve picked an idea, the AI Product Roadmap breaks the build into about six steps. Every step comes with an AI prompt to create that piece fast, plus a “Make It Yours” prompt so it sounds like you, not a robot.
Teachable’s “Create with AI” tools help you build course content, like a curriculum outline. MiloTree’s AI starts earlier: it helps you pick a product people will buy, then writes the sales page for it.
A Link-in-Bio Storefront in Minutes, Free
Your MiloTree store lives at milotree.bio/yourname, and it comes with every plan, including Free. Add your profile, social links, and a featured product, set your brand color and font, and add links to your blog, YouTube, or anything else. Every product and freebie you create shows up in your shop automatically. Put one link in your bio, and followers can buy, grab a freebie, or find the rest of your content in one place.
Teachable builds you a school website for your courses. MiloTree’s storefront is made for the one link in your Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest bio, and it comes free.
Grow Your Email List and Social Following
MiloTree connects to 24 email services, including Kit, Mailchimp, MailerLite, Flodesk, and ActiveCampaign, so subscribers land in the list you already use. Add a pop-up to your blog to turn readers into email subscribers or social media followers. Teachable has its own built-in email marketing instead.
No credit card needed. Compare plans
To Be Fair: When Teachable Makes Sense
Teachable does offer structured course hosting with modules, quizzes, and completion certificates, plus student progress tracking and a built-in community.
It also has built-in email marketing, and if you use Teachable’s own payment processing, it collects and remits US sales tax and EU and UK VAT for you.
If you genuinely need a full learning management system, like a certification program or corporate training, Teachable can do that.
But ask yourself honestly: do you need that? Or did someone tell you that you needed that?
MiloTree vs. Teachable: FAQ
Yes. MiloTree is free to start, with a 5% fee per sale. Its Grow plan is $25 a month billed annually ($37 monthly) with 0% MiloTree fees and unlimited products. Teachable has no free plan. Its Starter plan is $29 a month billed annually ($39 monthly) with a 7.5% transaction fee and 5 products, and 0% fees start on Builder at $69 a month billed annually ($89 monthly).
No. Teachable offers a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, then you pay for a plan. MiloTree has a free plan with 3 products, 3 freebies with tripwires, and 1 pop-up, plus a 5% fee per sale.
If you sell guides, templates, workshops, coaching, or memberships instead of long video courses, MiloTree is the simpler choice. AI writes your sales page, buyers book coaching calls through Calendly or Acuity, and every product shows up in your free link-in-bio storefront. If you need quizzes, drip content, and student progress reports, Teachable is the better fit.
No. Current Teachable plans include unlimited students. The limits are on products: 5 on Starter, 10 on Builder, and 50 on Growth. MiloTree’s Grow plan includes unlimited products and customers.
Yes. Add your products in MiloTree, which takes a few minutes each, connect your Stripe account, and share your new links. Your email list stays with your email provider, since MiloTree connects to 24 email services, and payments go straight to your own Stripe account.
Teachable does, if you use its own payment processing: it calculates, collects, and remits US sales tax and EU and UK VAT. MiloTree doesn’t. As the seller, collecting and paying any sales tax or VAT is your responsibility.
Start Small. Sell Something Today.
This is my best advice: test your ideas fast. Sell something today. See what your audience actually wants before you invest months into something most people won’t finish.
MiloTree does what most creators actually need:
- ✅ Sell your stuff easily
- ✅ Collect payments
- ✅ Test ideas fast
- ✅ Book your coaching calls
- ✅ Grow your email list
MiloTree is free to start, and Grow is $25 a month billed annually for unlimited products. You could set this up this afternoon.
No credit card needed. Compare plans
Other Episodes You Will Like:
- MiloTree vs Kajabi: Which Platform Is Right for Creators?
- MiloTree vs Stan Store: The Real Comparison for Creators
- This AI Prompt Turns $0 Into $10,000/Month (Digital Product Stack Strategy)
- How a $27 Product Leads to $2,000 Customers (Digital Product Ladder)
- How to Double Your Revenue with Order Bumps and Upsells
Compare MiloTree to Other Platforms
- MiloTree vs. Kajabi
- MiloTree vs. ThriveCart
- MiloTree vs. Gumroad
- MiloTree vs. Stan Store
- MiloTree vs. SendOwl
- MiloTree vs. Payhip
About the author: Jillian Leslie is the co-founder of MiloTree and Catch My Party. She teaches more than 12,000 YouTube subscribers how to create and sell digital products, and has a BA and MBA from Stanford.