We make Drry, one of the alternatives below, so read accordingly. The best Podia alternatives are Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Stan Store, Payhip, Skool and Drry, and which one fits depends on why you are leaving: a fee on the entry plan, no free plan, or a product that has outgrown a store. Our section is last, and each of the others is described for what it genuinely does better.
Podia deserves its reputation. It makes selling courses, downloads, coaching and webinars feel simple, its built-in email tool is genuinely strong, and a community is included on every plan. What sends people looking is usually the shape of the bill: there has been no free plan since October 2024, and the entry plan takes a percentage of every sale on top of its subscription. The figures, and what they add up to, are in Podia pricing; the current numbers are below.
Kajabi: the all-in-one marketing suite
Kajabi is the heavyweight: courses, funnels, email sequences, podcasts and websites in one product. If what you miss on Podia is marketing machinery, this is the upgrade.
- Best for: established course businesses that want funnels and automation in the same tool and can absorb a suite-level bill.
- Pricing structure: notably pricier than Podia, with no free plan. Its 0% headline runs through its own payment processor; bring your own and a platform percentage is added.
- What you give up: a lot of money every month, and community depth, which is limited next to courses and marketing. See Kajabi alternatives.
Teachable: the course specialist
Teachable is built for selling courses and does it well, with quizzes, certificates and a mature student experience. For a creator whose downloads have become a curriculum, it is a natural step.
- Best for: course-first creators who want a specialist tool rather than an all-rounder.
- Pricing structure: paid plans only after a short trial (the free tier ended in June 2025), with a transaction fee on the entry plan, much like Podia's.
- What you give up: community, which is limited, and escaping the entry-plan fee, since it has the same shape. See Teachable alternatives.
Thinkific: the strongest course builder
Thinkific is one of the best course platforms there is, and its 0% transaction fee is real rather than marketing, as long as you keep your billing on Thinkific Payments.
- Best for: serious course businesses that want depth in the course builder above everything else.
- Pricing structure: no free plan, a trial, then monthly plans. 0% on its own processor; bring your own Stripe or PayPal and a per-plan gateway fee applies.
- What you give up: a free start, and a community that sits beside the courses rather than at the centre. See Thinkific alternatives.
Stan Store: the bio-link store
If most of your Podia sales start from an Instagram or TikTok bio, Stan Store is built for exactly that: a phone-first storefront for digital products and bookings.
- Best for: social-first creators selling downloads and calls from one link.
- Pricing structure: a monthly plan, no free plan (a trial instead), positioned around 0% platform fees, with email and funnels on the upper plan.
- What you give up: depth. Courses and community are not what it is organised around, and the buyer gets a product rather than a place to return to. See Stan Store alternatives.
Payhip: if you mostly sell downloads
If your Podia store is mostly ebooks, templates and files, Payhip does the same job for less up front, with courses, memberships and coaching as well. Gumroad is the other option in this lane; we compare both in Gumroad alternatives.
- Best for: download sellers who want a free plan and EU and UK VAT on digital products handled for them.
- Pricing structure: a free plan that takes a percentage of each sale, then paid plans that lower the percentage and then remove it. Its help centre says every plan includes every feature.
- What you give up: Podia's email depth and its community: a Payhip membership is a feed of posts members can comment on, and we could not find a forum or chat where members talk to each other.
Skool: community and courses, simply
Skool is one feed, one course area and one calendar, with strong gamification that keeps members coming back. If the community is the reason people pay you, it is the simplest home for one.
- Best for: coaches running a paid community with courses inside it, who value simplicity over options.
- Pricing structure: paid only, no free plan. Its cheaper plan takes a percentage of every member payment on top of the monthly fee; the pricier plan drops that cut on ordinary payments.
- What you give up: Podia's store and email, since selling downloads and sending broadcasts are not what Skool is built around, and your community lives on skool.com. See Skool alternatives.
Drry: the free, community-first one (ours)
Our product, so treat this as a pitch with numbers you can check. Drry puts a community feed at the centre and keeps the rest of what you sell on Podia around it: video courses, digital downloads from your own bio link, member email, funnels and bookings. Where Podia starts at a monthly price with a fee on the entry plan, Drry starts free and takes 0% of member payments and sales on every plan.
- Best for: coaches whose customers should become members: people who join, talk to each other and work through your courses rather than buy one file and leave.
- Pricing structure: a genuinely free plan (100 members, 5 GB, unlimited courses, no card), then flat plans at $29 (Creator) and $99 (Growth) a month. Money runs through your own Stripe account.
- What you give up: some of Podia's email depth on the free plan, where email automations are not included (they are available on the Creator plan), and any marketplace traffic, since we send you no buyers. See Drry vs Podia for the full side-by-side.
How do you choose a Podia alternative?
For the direct comparisons, see Drry vs Podia, or our comparison hub, which covers each of these platforms against Drry in detail.
Questions coaches ask
What is the best alternative to Podia?
It depends on what you are leaving for. For deeper courses, Thinkific or Teachable. For a full marketing suite with funnels, Kajabi. For a bio-link store, Stan Store. For downloads with a free plan, Payhip. For a community at the centre, Skool or Drry (we make Drry, so weigh that). Most people leave Podia over the fee on the entry plan or the missing free plan, so check both on whatever you shortlist.
Is there a free alternative to Podia?
Yes. Payhip has a free plan that takes a percentage of each sale instead of a subscription. Drry's free plan carries 100 members, 5 GB, unlimited courses and the community feed, with no card, and takes 0% of member payments on that plan and every plan above it. Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Stan Store and Skool have no free plan.
Does Podia have a free plan?
No free plan. The free tier was removed in October 2024. 14-day trial, no card required. As checked September 2026 against podia.com/pricing.
Does Podia charge a transaction fee?
On its entry plan, Mover, Podia charges 5% of every paid sale, on top of the $42/mo subscription (billed annually). On the plans above it the platform fee is 0% platform fee. Payment processing of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction applies on every plan. As checked September 2026.
Does Drry take a cut of my sales?
No, on every plan including the free one. Member payments and product sales run through your own Stripe account, so only Stripe's processing applies. We charge a flat subscription instead: $0, $29 or $99 a month.