If you're reading this, chances are you're a creator trying to figure out which platform will actually help you build a real business. Maybe you've heard about Teachable. Maybe you've stumbled across BTS. And now you're wondering: what's the difference, and which one is right for you?
Here's the thing—we're not going to pretend to be an "unbiased" review site. We're BTS. We built our platform because we saw something broken in the creator economy, and we wanted to fix it. BTS is where creators turn content and community into real businesses. That's our mission, and everything we've built reflects that.
Teachable is a solid platform. They've been around since 2014, and they've helped countless creators launch courses. We respect what they've built. But we made different choices—deliberately different choices—because we believe the future of creator businesses demands a fundamentally different approach.
In this piece, we'll walk you through exactly why we built BTS differently, where Teachable genuinely excels, where we think our approach wins, and most importantly, which platform is right for your specific situation. No marketing fluff. Just an honest breakdown from the team that built the alternative.
Quick Comparison Table
Before we dive deep, here's a snapshot of how BTS and Teachable stack up across key dimensions:
| Feature | BTS | Teachable |
|---|---|---|
| **Primary Focus** | Creator business infrastructure | Online course creation |
| **Starting Price** | Free (Starter plan) | $29/month (annual) or $39/month |
| **Transaction Fees** | From 3.5% (Pro) to 10% (Free) | 0-7.5% depending on plan |
| **Community Features** | Built-in, integrated | Limited, add-on focused |
| **Design Philosophy** | Modern, brand-forward | Functional, course-centric |
| **Setup Time** | Launch within a day | Days to weeks |
| **Content Types** | Courses, community, content, coaching | Primarily courses and coaching |
| **Custom Domain** | Yes (Pro) | Yes (Starter+) |
| **White Labeling** | Full brand control | Higher tiers only |
| **Philosophy** | Own your business | Sell your courses |
This table tells part of the story, but the real differences run deeper than features. Let's get into it.
Why We Built BTS Differently
From our experience: "We've seen countless creators struggle not because their content wasn't good enough, but because they were trying to run a business on infrastructure designed for transactions."
The Fragmentation Problem
The creator economy is fragmented. And we don't mean that as a buzzword—we mean it as a structural problem that costs creators real money, time, and sanity every single day.
Here's what we watched happen: A creator would start with one platform for courses. Then they'd need another for community. A third for email. A fourth for payments. A fifth for their website. Before long, they were spending more time managing their tech stack than actually creating.
Most creator platforms optimise for transactions, not ownership. They want you to sell something. Collect payment. Move on. But creators who build lasting businesses? They need infrastructure that grows with them. They need one place to build something they own.
Our Infrastructure-First Approach
When we designed BTS, we started with a question most platforms never ask: What does a creator need to build a real, sustainable business?
Not "how do we help them sell a course." Not "how do we take a transaction fee." But genuinely: what does the infrastructure of a creator business look like?
BTS is the creator business infrastructure. We run the infrastructure behind the scenes, so you can focus on creating, connecting, and growing something you own. Everything lives in one space, designed to scale with your audience.
This means:
- Your community, content, and commerce exist in one unified system
- Your audience data stays with you—not locked in someone else's database
- Your brand looks like your brand, not like another Teachable school
- Your business can evolve without migrating to new platforms every year
What "Owning Your Business" Actually Means
BTS's take: "Ownership isn't about features. It's about control over your audience, your data, your pricing, and your future."
When you build on most platforms, you're essentially renting space. They own the customer relationship. They control the data. They can change their terms, raise their prices, or shut down features—and you're stuck.
We built BTS so creators own their businesses in a meaningful way:
- Audience Ownership: Your members are your members. You have direct access to communicate with them, understand them, and serve them.
- Data Ownership: Your analytics, your insights, your understanding of what works—it all belongs to you.
- Brand Ownership: Your space looks like you. Not like a Teachable school, not like a Kajabi site, but like a genuine extension of your brand.
- Future Ownership: As your business grows, you're not locked into someone else's roadmap. You scale on your terms.
The Specific Problems We Saw
We built BTS because we kept seeing the same problems:
Problem 1: Creators cobbling together 5-7 tools that never quite integrated properly. Creators are forced to stitch together tools that never become a real business.
Problem 2: Platforms that looked outdated the moment you shared them with your audience. Design that screamed "online course" instead of "premium brand."
Problem 3: Fees that only made sense when you were small, but became punishing as you grew.
Problem 4: Community as an afterthought—bolted on instead of built in.
Problem 5: Setup processes that took weeks of configuration before you could even launch.
Every decision we've made at BTS has been aimed at solving these specific problems. Not adding more features. Not copying competitors. Actually solving the problems that hold creators back from building real businesses.
Where Teachable Shines
Let's be real: Teachable is a well-established platform with genuine strengths. We'd be doing you a disservice if we pretended otherwise. Here's where they've built something solid:
Course Creation Tools
Teachable has spent nearly a decade refining their course builder. It shows. Their drag-and-drop interface for structuring courses is intuitive. Their quiz and assessment tools are comprehensive. If your entire business model is delivering structured educational content in a traditional course format, their tools are battle-tested.
Our honest assessment: "Teachable's course creation experience is mature and functional. They've had years to refine it, and for pure course delivery, it works."
Established Ecosystem
With years in the market, Teachable has built integrations, templates, and a knowledge base that new platforms simply can't match overnight. They have:
- Extensive third-party app integrations
- A large community of users sharing strategies
- Documented solutions for common problems
- Reliable uptime and established payment processing
Enterprise-Level Features
For larger education businesses with multiple instructors, complex permission needs, and high-volume requirements, Teachable's Advanced plan offers enterprise-grade capabilities. Multi-seat admin access, advanced API features, and bulk student management have been refined over time.
Student Experience for Traditional Courses
If your students expect a traditional "log in, watch videos, take quiz" experience—the kind they'd get from Coursera or LinkedIn Learning—Teachable delivers that familiar format reliably. For some audiences, that familiarity is an advantage.
Marketing Foundations
Teachable offers affiliate programs, upsells, cart recovery, and course completion certificates. While not as robust as dedicated marketing platforms, these tools exist and function within their ecosystem.
What we've learned: "Being confident in our approach doesn't mean ignoring where others have built something solid. Teachable's course tools are their strength—and that's fine, because we're not trying to be a course platform."
Where We Think We're Better
Now for the part you're probably here for. Where does BTS genuinely outperform Teachable? We'll be specific.
Design and Modern UX
This matters more than most platforms admit. When a potential member lands on your creator business, they make snap judgments. Does this look professional? Does this feel premium? Does this seem like someone who has their act together?
Unlike Teachable's classroom-style interface, BTS is designed to look and feel like a modern brand—not an online course portal from the early 2000s. Your BTS space is your brand, not a generic template with your logo slapped on top.
From our experience: "We've seen creators increase conversion rates simply by moving to a platform that looks like they take their business seriously."
Our design philosophy:
- Modern, brand-forward aesthetic that you'd be proud to share
- Customization that goes beyond changing colors and uploading logos
- Mobile-first design that looks great on any device
- Consistent branding across your entire creator business
Getting Started Quickly
Teachable's strength in course tools comes with a cost: complexity. Building a proper Teachable school can take days or weeks of configuration, structuring, and testing.
Most BTS creators launch within a day. Not because we lack features—but because we focus on structure and momentum, not complexity.
Our onboarding is designed around one principle: get you to your first dollar as quickly as possible. We believe that momentum matters more than perfect configuration. You can refine as you grow. You can't build momentum if you're stuck in settings for weeks.
Creator Ownership Philosophy
We've covered this above, but it's worth emphasizing: our entire platform architecture is built around the idea that BTS gives creators one place to build something they own.
This isn't just marketing language. It's reflected in:
- How we handle data
- How we structure payments (your money, your timing)
- How we build features (unified, not bolted-on)
- How we design our pricing (aligned with your growth)
Our Fee Structure
Let's talk money. Teachable's current pricing:
- Free plan: $1 + 10% per sale
- Starter: $29/month + 7.5% transaction fee
- Builder: $69/month + 0% transaction fee
- Growth: $139/month + 0% transaction fee
- Advanced: $309/month + 0% transaction fee
BTS pricing:
- Starter (Free): 10% transaction fee
- Pro: 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction + $149/month
Here's why our structure makes sense for serious creators: If you're earning $10,000/month in revenue, Teachable's Builder plan costs you $828/year in subscription fees. BTS Pro costs $1,788/year in subscription fees—but you're paying 3.5% instead of 0%.
Do the math: $10,000/month = $120,000/year. At 3.5%, that's $4,200 in transaction fees. Total BTS cost: ~$5,988/year.
On Teachable Builder at $69/month, you're paying $828/year in subscriptions with 0% fees. Teachable wins on pure cost at this level.
But here's what we've found: creators who grow with BTS tend to build more valuable businesses faster because of the unified infrastructure. That Growth plan at $1,668/year, or Advanced at $3,708/year, starts looking different when you factor in the 3-5 other tools Teachable creators often need to add.
Specific Feature Comparisons
| Capability | BTS Approach | Teachable Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Community | Built-in, integral to the experience | Basic, community features limited |
| Content Formats | Flexible—courses, posts, resources, coaching | Primarily structured courses |
| Member Experience | Modern, app-like feel | Traditional LMS interface |
| Monetization Options | Subscriptions, one-time, PPV, tips, custom | Courses, coaching, subscriptions |
| Branding | Full white-label, your brand everywhere | Teachable branding on lower tiers |
| Setup Time | Hours to launch | Days to weeks |
| Support Philosophy | Creator success partners | Tiered support based on plan |
Who Should Choose Teachable
We genuinely believe some creators are better served by Teachable. Here's who:
You Should Consider Teachable If:
You're building a traditional online course business with a catalog of standalone courses. If your model is "create course → sell course → create next course," Teachable's architecture makes sense. They've optimized for that specific workflow.
Your audience expects a traditional LMS experience. Some niches—particularly corporate training, professional certification, and academic-adjacent education—have audiences who expect that Coursera-style interface. If that's your market, Teachable delivers it.
You need enterprise-level course management. If you're running a multi-instructor operation with complex permission requirements, Teachable's Advanced tier has features we simply don't offer because they're not relevant to our core creator.
You're cost-optimizing at scale with pure course sales. If you're doing high volume with a simple course catalog and don't need integrated community, Teachable's 0% transaction fee on higher tiers can win on pure economics.
You want maximum third-party integrations. Teachable's years in market mean more integrations with more tools. If you have a specific martech stack you're committed to, check compatibility.
Our recommendation: "Be honest with yourself about your model. If it's purely 'sell courses,' Teachable might genuinely be better. If you're building something bigger, keep reading."
Who Should Choose BTS
If a creator has an existing audience but no structure, BTS is the answer.
You Should Choose BTS If:
You're an education-focused creator with a clear niche and 10,000+ audience. This is our sweet spot. You have the audience. You have the expertise. You need the infrastructure to turn that into a real business.
You're tired of the fragmentation. If you're currently running your business across Patreon + Teachable + Circle + ConvertKit + Calendly + whatever else—and you're exhausted by it—BTS consolidates everything into one unified space.
You want to own your business, not rent it. If the idea of building your creator empire on someone else's platform feels wrong, if you want control over your data, your audience, and your future—that's exactly why we built this.
You value design and first impressions. If you cringe at the idea of sending your audience to something that looks like every other online course, if your brand matters to you, BTS lets you build something that actually represents who you are.
You want to launch quickly and iterate. If you've been "planning to launch" for months because setup seems overwhelming, our approach gets you live faster. Momentum beats perfection.
You're building more than courses. If your vision includes community, content, coaching, and commerce—not just a course catalog—BTS is designed for that integrated approach.
Our Core Creator Profile
Our primary persona at BTS: Education-focused creators in a clear niche with an existing audience of 10,000+ and a digital product offering (content, course, coaching, or community).
Our secondary persona: Entertainment-focused creators with 100,000+ audience providing digital access to their behind-the-scenes lives.
Our data shows: "The creators who thrive on BTS share common traits: they have an audience, they have something valuable to offer, and they want to build a real business—not just sell some courses."
Making the Switch
If you're currently on Teachable and considering BTS, here's what the migration looks like:
What Transfers Easily
- Your content: Course videos, PDFs, resources—all of it comes with you
- Your members: We help migrate your existing members with minimal friction
- Your domain: Point your custom domain to your new BTS space
- Your pricing: Recreate your offers, often with more flexibility
The Migration Process
- Consultation: We walk through your current setup and plan the transition
- Content Transfer: We help you move your materials efficiently
- Member Migration: We coordinate member transitions to minimize confusion
- Launch: Go live with your new BTS space
What we've learned: "Most creators who switch tell us the migration was easier than they expected. The bigger challenge is usually deciding to make the move in the first place."
How We Help
Unlike platforms that leave you to figure it out, we provide hands-on creator success support. Real humans who understand your business and want to see you succeed. We're not just processing tickets—we're partners in your growth.
For creators migrating from Teachable specifically, we have dedicated guides and support pathways. Check our migration resources for the full breakdown.
Our Honest Take
We built BTS because we believe most creator platforms optimise for transactions, not ownership. We saw talented creators struggling—not because their content wasn't good enough, but because their infrastructure was working against them.
Teachable is a solid choice for traditional online course businesses. They've earned their place in the market. If your model is straightforward course sales and that's all you need, they'll serve you well.
But if you're building something bigger—if you want to turn your content and community into a real business you actually own—that's why BTS exists.
BTS is not a social network or a marketplace. We don't have feeds or algorithms. We don't promise to find you an audience. You bring your audience. We help you turn them into a real business.
We focus on structure and momentum, not gimmicks. Everything runs behind the scenes in one space. Your brand. Your audience. Your business.
We've paid out over $1,400,000 to creators on our platform. We're working with 1,600+ creators who chose to build differently. We're not the biggest platform—but we might be the right one for you.
Try our free Starter plan. See how it feels. Compare it honestly to what you have now or what you're considering. Then decide based on what's actually right for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: How much does BTS cost?
BTS offers a free Starter plan to get you started with a 10% transaction fee. Our Pro plan is $149/month with just 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction—designed for serious creators ready to scale. Check our pricing page for the full breakdown and to calculate which plan makes sense for your revenue level.
Q2: Is BTS free to use?
Yes! Our Starter plan is completely free with no monthly fees. You only pay when you earn—a 10% transaction fee. This lets you launch, test, and start building without any upfront investment. Upgrade to Pro when you need more features and want lower fees.
Q3: What makes BTS different from other creator platforms?
BTS is the creator business infrastructure. While other platforms focus on specific functions—courses, community, or payments—we've built one unified space where everything works together. We focus on helping you own your business, not just process transactions. Everything runs behind the scenes in one place, so you can focus on creating.
Q4: Can I migrate my existing members to BTS?
Absolutely. We help creators migrate from platforms like Teachable, Patreon, Kajabi, and others every week. Your members can transfer seamlessly, and we provide dedicated support throughout the process. Most migrations take less time than creators expect.
Q5: How long does it take to set up BTS?
Most creators launch within a day—some within hours. Our onboarding is designed to get you earning quickly, not buried in configuration settings. We believe momentum beats perfection, so we prioritize getting you live fast and iterating as you grow.
Q6: Does BTS take a percentage of my earnings?
Yes, we use a transparent fee structure. Starter (free) has a 10% transaction fee. Pro ($149/month) has just 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction. We believe in growing together—the more you earn, the more sense Pro makes for you.
Q7: What kind of support does BTS offer?
We provide hands-on creator success support—real humans who understand creator businesses, not just ticket systems. Our team has helped thousands of creators build and grow. We're partners in your success, not just tech support.
Q8: Can I use my own domain with BTS?
Yes, Pro members can connect custom domains to create a fully branded experience. Your audience visits your domain, sees your brand, and never knows what's powering it behind the scenes.
Q9: Is BTS better than Teachable?
It depends on what you're building. If you need a traditional course platform with a deep course builder, Teachable is solid. If you want to build a complete creator business—with community, content, courses, and coaching in one owned space—we built BTS for exactly that. Be honest about your model, and choose accordingly.
Q10: Can I use both BTS and Teachable?
Some creators do run multiple platforms, especially during transitions. But most find BTS handles everything they need in one place—which is kind of the point. The fragmentation problem is real, and adding more platforms rarely solves it.
Q11: How does BTS compare to Patreon?
Patreon monetizes content. BTS helps creators build real businesses. If you want a tip jar with tiers, Patreon works. If you want infrastructure for courses, community, and content you actually own, that's us.
Q12: Does BTS work for coaching businesses?
Yes. Our platform supports one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and hybrid models that combine coaching with courses and community. Many of our most successful creators run coaching-centered businesses.
Q13: What payment methods does BTS support?
We process payments globally through established payment infrastructure with 1-5 day payouts (same-day in the US). We support major cards, and payments work in most countries worldwide—excluding Africa, Spain, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran, and Russia currently.
Q14: Can I sell subscriptions, one-time products, and pay-per-view?
Yes to all three. Plus free trials, tips, custom requests, and bundles. Creator-controlled pricing across all monetization types. We believe you should have options, not constraints.
Q15: Is BTS good for beginners?
We're designed for creators who already have an audience and something to offer. If you're still building your first following, you might want to focus on that first. We don't solve audience discovery—you bring your audience, we help you build with them.
Q16: How is BTS different from Skool?
Unlike Skool's classroom-style interface, BTS is designed to look and feel like a modern brand. Skool is essentially a community platform with course features. BTS is creator business infrastructure—a different category entirely.
Q17: What content types does BTS support?
Courses, community posts, gated content, coaching, digital downloads, live content—we're flexible by design. We're not locked into one format because real creator businesses aren't one-dimensional.
Q18: Does BTS have a mobile app?
Your BTS space is fully mobile-responsive, giving members a great experience on any device. We focus on making the web experience feel app-like rather than forcing downloads.
Q19: What if I need help deciding between BTS and Teachable?
Reach out to our team. We'll give you an honest assessment—even if that means telling you Teachable might be the better fit for your specific situation. We'd rather you choose the right platform than the wrong one.
Q20: How do I get started with BTS?
Sign up for our free Starter plan. You can launch your first offer today, start earning, and see how the platform feels before committing to Pro. No credit card required to start.
Key Takeaways
- Teachable is solid for traditional course businesses—if that's your model, they're a reasonable choice
- BTS is creator business infrastructure—designed for those building something bigger than a course catalog
- The fragmentation problem is real—stitching together tools costs creators time, money, and momentum
- Ownership matters—consider who controls your audience, data, and future when choosing a platform
- Design and speed to launch matter more than most platforms admit—first impressions and momentum drive growth
- Be honest about what you're building—choose the platform that matches your actual model, not your aspirations
About the Author
The BTS Team is the Product Team at BTS, the creator business infrastructure platform. We built BTS because we watched too many talented creators struggle with fragmented tools and platforms that prioritized transactions over ownership.
We're creators ourselves. We've felt the frustration. And we've spent years building something different. With $1.4M+ paid out to creators and 1,600+ creators building on our platform, we're just getting started.
This article reflects BTS's perspective and experience as of January 2026. We've aimed to be honest about both our strengths and where Teachable excels. If you have questions, reach out—we're happy to help you figure out what's right for your business.
Ready to see the difference? [Start free with BTS](/get-started) and launch your creator business today.