Short answer: course platforms charge fees that aren't on their public pricing pages. After auditing 12 platforms against their own help center documentation in April 2026, I found five fees that almost no review article documents — and they hit the platforms most course creators are evaluating: Kajabi, Skool, Mighty Networks, Patreon, and Teachable. If you're comparing total cost rather than headline price, these are the numbers that change the math.
1. Kajabi: The 0.7% subscription surcharge
Kajabi's pricing page advertises a flat 2.9% + 30¢ payment processing rate on the Basic plan, dropping to 2.7% + 30¢ on Pro. That number is in every Kajabi review you'll read. It's also incomplete.
Per Kajabi's own help center (article 12695456), Kajabi Payments adds 0.7% on every subscription or payment plan transaction, and another 1.5% on international cards. For a course business running on memberships — which is most course businesses — the real effective rate on Basic is 3.6% + 30¢, not 2.9% + 30¢. International subscription sales hit 5.1% + 30¢. Buy Now, Pay Later via Afterpay or Klarna runs 6%.
The math at $5,000/month in subscription revenue: $35/month in surcharge alone (~$420/year) on top of the $143/month plan and the standard processing fee. Most reviews quote the headline 2.9% and stop there.
Kajabi also documents a $15 dispute fee per chargeback (regardless of outcome), 0.80% ACH fees, $1.50 per bank verification attempt, and $4 per failed payment. These are buried in the same help center article. If your course business depends on subscription billing and you're modeling Kajabi against alternatives, the 3.6% effective rate is the number to use — not the 2.9% headline.
2. Skool: The Pro fee tier above $899
Skool's Pro plan is widely described as "0% platform fees" — and for sales under $899, that's true. Skool passes through Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30¢ rate without adding a markup, and they actually absorb Stripe's 1.5% international card surcharge and 0.5% subscription surcharge that Stripe normally charges separately. For mid-priced subscription sellers, Skool Pro is genuinely fair.
But Skool's own help center (article 86) documents a tiered Pro fee structure: 2.9% + 30¢ on transactions up to $899, then 3.9% + 30¢ on transactions above $899. Above the $899 threshold, Skool adds a 1% platform fee on top of Stripe's standard rate.
The math at a $1,500 cohort sale: $58.80 in fees instead of the $43.80 you'd expect at the headline 2.9% rate. For a high-ticket coaching creator selling 10 cohort seats per month, that's $150 in extra fees you didn't budget for. Skool's own example math confirms it: a $999 sale yields a $959.74 payout (3.93% effective), not the $969.41 the headline rate would suggest.
I want to be fair: Skool's fee story is more nuanced than most reviews give them credit for. The Stripe surcharge absorption is real and benefits international and subscription sellers. The trap is the $899 tier — and it hits exactly the high-ticket coaching audience that high-revenue creators belong to.
3. Mighty Networks: Fees that never reach zero
Mighty Networks is the only major platform in this category that charges a transaction fee on every plan — including its most expensive tier. Per their current public pricing page, the fee structure is: 2% on Launch ($79/mo), 1% on Scale ($179/mo), 0.5% on Growth ($354/mo), and 0.5% on Mighty Pro (custom pricing).
The math at $20,000/month revenue on the Growth plan: $354 plan + $100 transaction fees = $454/month. Compare that to a flat-fee platform with 0% transaction fees at $199/month: $255/month savings. Over a year, that's $3,060. The "never reaches zero" structure is unusual enough that it's worth asking: is it justified by what Mighty Networks delivers? For community-first businesses with engaged member networks, the answer is sometimes yes. For course-first businesses, it's usually no.
One important update most reviews miss: Mighty Networks rebranded their plans in 2025. The old Community/Courses/Business/Path-to-Pro structure (with 3%/2%/2%/1% fees) is gone. The current Launch/Scale/Growth/Mighty Pro plans actually lowered the fees by 1 percentage point across the board. Any review still quoting "3% on Community" is using prices and plan names that don't exist anymore.
4. Patreon: The 2.5% currency conversion fee
Patreon's standard fee structure for new creators (those who published after August 4, 2025) is well-documented at 10% platform fee plus payment processing. What's not in most reviews: a 2.5% currency conversion fee applied to any payment where the member pays in a different currency than the creator's payout currency.
Per Patreon's Creator fees overview in the support center, this fee is calculated on the full payment including tax and shows up in the Payment Fees column of the Earnings dashboard. For US creators with predominantly US members, it doesn't apply. For creators with international audiences — which is most established Patreon creators — it adds another layer to an already multi-fee structure.
The math for a creator with $5,000/month in international revenue: $125/month in currency conversion alone, on top of the 10% platform fee ($500/month), payment processing (~$145/month), and payout fees. Total combined fees can hit 15-18% of gross revenue when currency conversion stacks with everything else.
Patreon also has legacy creator plans (5%/8%/11%) for accounts published before August 4, 2025, which are grandfathered. If you're evaluating Patreon today, you're on the standard 10% plan unless you have a legacy account.
5. Teachable: The 1% international card surcharge
Teachable's Builder plan ($69/month annual) and above are advertised as "0% transaction fees" — and on the Teachable platform side, that's accurate. Teachable doesn't add a percentage cut on top of payment processing for those plans. But the payment processing rate itself isn't quite what most reviews quote.
Per Teachable's pricing page, the standard payment processing rate is 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards, and 3.9% + 30¢ for international cards. That extra 1% on international cards isn't on the headline pricing card most reviews screenshot. For creators with global audiences, the international rate applies on a meaningful portion of sales. Plus the standard $15 chargeback dispute fee per disputed transaction.
Teachable also has wrong product limits in most older reviews: 5 products on Starter, 10 on Builder, 50 on Growth. Many reviews still cite 1/5/25 — those numbers are out of date. If you're evaluating Teachable based on a review that says "Starter limits you to 1 published product," check the live page first.
Bonus: Circle's add-on costs
Circle's transaction fees are clearly disclosed (2% on Professional, 1% on Business, 0.5% on Circle Plus). What's less obvious is the add-on structure that can double your effective monthly cost on the Professional plan: Email Hub at $99/month for 10K contacts, branded emails at $40/month, custom profile fields at $49/month, extra admin seats at $10/month each, additional spaces at $20/month per 10 spaces.
A Professional plan creator who needs branded emails, custom profile fields, and the Email Hub pays $89 + $40 + $49 + $99 = $277/month, not the $89 headline price. None of those add-ons are required, but most established communities end up needing at least some of them. Worth modeling honestly.
The real cost comparison
Here's what the same revenue scenario looks like on each platform when you include the fees that aren't on the public pricing page. Assumes $5,000/month in subscription revenue from a domestic US audience (so no international surcharges):
| Platform | Plan | Headline rate | Real effective rate | Monthly cost (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi | Basic $143/mo | 2.9% + 30¢ | 3.6% + 30¢ (with sub surcharge) | ~$330/mo |
| Skool Pro | $99/mo | 0% platform fee | 2.9% + 30¢ on sales ≤$899 | ~$245/mo |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $79/mo | 2% transaction fee | 2% + 2.9% + 30¢ Stripe | ~$324/mo |
| Circle Professional | $89/mo | 2% transaction fee | 2% + 2.9% + 30¢ Stripe | ~$334/mo |
| Teachable Builder | $69/mo | 0% transaction fee | 2.9% + 30¢ US, 3.9% intl | ~$214/mo |
| Patreon | No monthly fee | 10% + processing | 10% + 2.9% + 30¢ + 2.5% conv | ~$675/mo |
| Ruzuku Core | $99/mo | 0% platform fee | 2.9% + 30¢ Stripe (your account) | ~$244/mo |
Estimates assume domestic US subscription revenue at $5,000/mo. Add-ons excluded. International revenue, high-ticket sales, BNPL, and product mix all change the math. The point isn't that one platform is universally cheapest — it's that the headline rate isn't the rate you actually pay on most platforms.
Why most reviews miss these fees
I want to be honest about why this matters and why I wrote this article at all. Most platform reviews online — including some of the highest-traffic ones — copy each other's data without verifying. The headline pricing page is easy to screenshot and quote; the help center articles where the real fee structure lives take extra clicks most reviewers don't make.
I noticed this pattern when I audited our own platform comparison content against each platform's primary source documentation. We had errors too — Mighty Networks transaction fees that were 1 percentage point too high because we'd never updated after their 2025 rebranding, missing the Skool Pro fee tier above $899, no mention of Kajabi's subscription surcharge. Once I started reading the platforms' own KB articles, the gap between "what reviews say" and "what the platform actually charges" was bigger than I expected.
The fees in this article aren't conspiracy theories. Every one of them is documented in the platform's own help center. They're just behind one extra click than most reviewers bother making. If you're evaluating a course platform, the most useful 30 minutes you can spend is reading each candidate's payment processing FAQ directly.
How to actually compare costs
A few principles I've found useful from talking to thousands of course creators over fourteen years building Ruzuku:
- Model your real revenue mix. Subscriptions, one-time sales, BNPL, international, high-ticket cohorts — each one has different fee implications on different platforms. The "average creator" comparison most reviews use isn't your business.
- Read the help center, not just the pricing page. Every fee in this article is in plain text on the platform's own documentation. The platforms aren't hiding it maliciously — they're just not putting it on the marketing page.
- Watch for "starting at" framing. Plans that "start at" a low price usually mean the actual plan you'll need is one or two tiers up. The headline price gets you in the door; the real cost is the plan that has the features you need.
- Compare 12-month total cost, not monthly. Annual billing discounts, fee compounding, and add-on creep all distort monthly comparisons. The honest unit is total cost per year at your actual revenue level.
Bottom line
The five hidden fees in this article add up to real money for course creators — sometimes hundreds or thousands of dollars per year that aren't in any of the comparison articles you'll read. None of them are secret. They're all in the platforms' own help centers. They're just not where most reviewers look.
If you're evaluating a platform, do yourself the favor of reading its payment processing FAQ directly. Five minutes there will tell you more than a dozen affiliate review articles. And if you're already on a platform charging fees you didn't know about, at least now you know what you're actually paying.
For deeper dives on each platform's full cost structure, see our reviews: Skool, Kajabi, Mighty Networks, Circle, and Patreon. Or compare every platform's fees side-by-side in our platform comparison hub.