Canvas LMS vs Teachable
Canvas LMS and Teachable are both online courses & LMS tools. Canvas LMS is aimed at enterprise, while Teachable is aimed at creators. Only Canvas LMS has a free plan.
Instructure's LMS for universities, schools and professional learning
Sell courses, coaching and digital downloads
| Pricing | Open source | Paid · $39 |
| Starting price | Not published | $39/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | — | 7 days |
| Built for | Enterprise | Creators |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web |
| Country | US · 2011 | US · 2014 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Canvas LMS if
Universities, schools and education providers that want a widely adopted LMS with strong grading tools and a large app ecosystem.
- Clean, modern interface that students and faculty adopt quickly
- Huge LTI integration ecosystem and community
- Open source core under AGPLv3
Look elsewhere if: Companies running employee or customer training (Docebo, TalentLMS, 360Learning, Absorb LMS).
Choose Teachable if
Course creators who want a dependable platform and tax handling, and will reach the Builder tier.
- Mature, reliable platform
- Tax handling via Teachable Payments
- Good checkout conversion features
Look elsewhere if: Those wanting community-first learning (Skool, Circle) or all-in-one marketing (Kajabi).
Canvas LMS vs Teachable pricing
Canvas LMS
- Open source$0Self-hosted under AGPLv3 from GitHub
- Canvas Lite$0Free hosted account for individual educators teaching own class
- Canvas (hosted)CustomInstitutional license by quote from Instructure sales
Teachable
- Starter$39/mo$29/mo yearly; 5 products, 7.5% transaction fee
- Builder$89/mo$69/mo yearly; 10 products, 0% transaction fee
- Growth$189/mo$139/mo yearly; 50 products, 5 admins
- CustomCustomFlexible seats, success manager, priority SLA
Canvas LMS · Key features
- Course and module builder with prerequisites and mastery paths
- SpeedGrader for fast annotated grading with rubrics
- New Quizzes with question banks and multiple item types
- Outcomes and standards tracking across courses
- LTI 1.3 app ecosystem for Turnitin, Zoom, Panopto and more
- Free Student, Teacher and Parent mobile apps
Cons
- No public pricing; institutional contracts only
- Studio, Catalog and Career are sold as separate products
- The April 2026 breach and May outage raised security concerns
Teachable · Key features
- Course builder with video, quizzes, certificates and drip
- Coaching products with scheduling and milestones
- Checkout with upsells, order bumps and payment plans
- Teachable Payments handles sales tax and payouts
- Affiliate program and coupons
- Student analytics, email and AI curriculum tools
Cons
- Transaction fees on the Starter plan
- Site design customization is limited
- Email marketing is basic
Canvas LMS vs Teachable: FAQ
Do Canvas LMS and Teachable have a free plan?
Canvas LMS has a free plan. Teachable has no free plan, a 7-day free trial.