7 July 2026 · Anakin Pagaling
Course Platform Fees: What You Actually Keep When You Sell an $18 Course
Every course platform advertises a number. "Only 10%." "0% transaction fees." "Keep more of what you earn."
None of those numbers is what lands in your bank account.
Between the platform's cut, payment processing, payout fees, and currency conversion, the real number is always lower — sometimes much lower. And it's spread across enough pricing pages, FAQ tabs, and fine print that almost nobody assembles it in one place.
So we assembled it. Here's the honest math on selling an $18 course across four platforms, all the way to your bank account.
The Four Fees Every Creator Pays
Before the comparison, know what you're looking for. Every platform charges some mix of:
- Platform cut — the percentage the platform takes from each sale.
- Payment processing — what Stripe/PayPal/the card networks charge, typically ~2.9% + $0.30. Some platforms absorb this; most pass it to you (sometimes without saying so clearly).
- Monthly subscription — a flat fee charged whether you sell or not. This is the silent killer for small creators: it converts to a huge per-sale cost at low volume.
- Payout and currency fees — moving money from the platform to your bank. If you live outside the US, add currency conversion (often ~3%) and international payout fees. Almost no pricing page mentions these.
The Comparison: $18 Course, Real Take-Home
Assumptions: one $18 sale, creator paid out to their own account. Monthly fees amortized at two sales volumes to show how much starting volume matters. All figures approximate — check current pricing pages, links below.
Selling 10 courses/month ($180 revenue)
| Platform | Monthly fee | Platform cut | Processing | Approx. take-home per $18 sale | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gumroad | $0 | 10% ($1.80) | ~2.9% + $0.30 (~$0.82) | ~$15.38 | ~85% |
| Patreon | $0 | ~8% ($1.44) | ~$0.82 + payout fees | ~$15.30 | ~85% |
| Kajabi | ~$149 -> $14.90/sale | 0% | ~$0.82 | ~$2.28 | ~13% |
| Shelf | $0 | 7% ($1.26) | ~$0.85 (PayPal, paid by you) | ~$15.89 | ~88% |
Selling 100 courses/month ($1,800 revenue)
| Platform | Monthly fee | Per-sale monthly cost | Approx. take-home per $18 sale | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gumroad | $0 | $0 | ~$15.38 | ~85% |
| Patreon | $0 | $0 | ~$15.30 | ~85% |
| Kajabi | ~$149 | $1.49 | ~$15.69 | ~87% |
| Shelf | $0 | $0 | ~$15.89 | ~88% |
Two things jump out:
Flat fees are a tax on starting. Kajabi at 10 sales/month costs you 87% of your revenue. At 100 sales/month it's competitive. The flat-fee model only works after you have volume — which is exactly when you least need help.
Everyone's percentage looks similar at the top line. Gumroad, Patreon, and Shelf land within a few points of each other on a single US-based sale. The real differences are in what the table can't show:
What the Table Hides
Bandwidth and hosting charges
Some platforms bill you for video hosting and delivery on top of their cut — either directly or through required third-party hosting (Vimeo, Wistia, etc.). The more students watch, the more you pay. A popular course means a growing bill.
Shelf hosts and streams your videos at no charge, permanently. Delivery costs are our problem, not yours. (Why we can afford this: the bandwidth trap.)
The international double-dip
If you're a creator outside the US, you often pay fees twice: once when the money comes into the platform, again when it's paid out to your bank — plus ~3% currency conversion in between. This can quietly take another 3–5% and appears on no pricing page.
We publish this number because our founder is a creator-economy worker in the Philippines and pays it himself. At Shelf on PayPal international rails today, real take-home is ~83% — lower than the table's US figure, and we'd rather tell you that than let you discover it. (When we move to Stripe, that number rises to ~90%.)
The "0% transaction fee" trick
"0% transaction fees" always means "we charge a monthly fee instead, and you still pay payment processing." It is a framing device, not a discount. Always ask: what is the total of ALL fees, in one sentence?
Shelf's one sentence: $0/month, 7% per sale ($1 minimum), you pay standard payment processing, everything else is included.
Which Platform Actually Fits You
- Selling under ~$1,500/month: avoid flat monthly fees entirely. The math is brutal at low volume.
- Selling mostly to non-US audiences or living outside the US: ask every platform about payout and conversion fees before signing up. Get the answer in writing.
- Growing watch-time on video courses: check whether bandwidth/hosting is included or metered. This is the fee that scales against you.
- Want someone to do the setup for you: that's the specific thing Shelf adds that the others don't — a human who takes your raw videos and builds the storefront. No platform fee buys that elsewhere at any tier.
The Honest Summary
There is no platform where you "keep 100%." Anyone claiming it is hiding a fee somewhere in the stack. The winning move is not finding a magic zero-fee platform — it's knowing all four fee types and picking the structure that matches your volume.
At low volume with a video course and a non-US bank account — the situation most new course creators are actually in — a $0-monthly, single-percentage platform that eats bandwidth is the structure that loses you the least.
That's not a coincidence. We built Shelf's pricing from this math.
Shelf is a course platform with concierge service: email us your videos, we build your storefront. $0/month, 7% per sale. Own your shelf.