Teachable is a general course platform with strong customisation; Virgoul is music-specific with built-in audience discovery. Teachable suits teachers with an existing audience; Virgoul suits those building one.
Teachable and Virgoul both allow music teachers to sell online courses, but their models and audiences differ in ways that matter significantly for your music teaching business.
Teachable is a general-purpose online course platform used by educators across all subjects — from fitness to finance to music. Its strengths are deep customisation (branded school pages, custom domains, flexible pricing), a mature feature set (bundles, subscriptions, coaching products, certificates), and strong analytics. The weakness for music teachers is that Teachable has no built-in audience — you must bring your own students through your own marketing.
Virgoul is music-specific. Students come to Virgoul looking for music education, which means a listing on Virgoul provides audience discovery that Teachable cannot. For a music teacher starting without a large existing audience, this inbound traffic is valuable and differentiating.
Pricing structures differ. Teachable's free plan takes 10% transaction fees; paid plans start at around £29/month (Basic) and reduce fees. The Pro plan at ~£99/month has 0% transaction fees. Virgoul's structure is designed to favour music educators specifically.
In terms of features, Teachable has a more mature product for purely course-based businesses — more templates, more customisation, more third-party integrations. Virgoul is more focused on the music education ecosystem, which means it includes features relevant to music teachers (profile pages, community, teacher discovery) that Teachable does not.
The key question: if you have an existing audience of 1,000+ engaged followers or email subscribers, Teachable gives you more control and customisation. If you are building your audience from scratch, Virgoul's built-in music student community gives you a significant head start.
| Feature | Teachable | Virgoul |
|---|---|---|
| Platform focus | General online courses (all subjects) | Music education specifically |
| Built-in audience | None — you bring your own | Music students actively seeking education |
| Transaction fees | 0–10% depending on plan | Music-educator-friendly rates |
| Monthly fees | Free–£99+/month for paid plans | Music-focused pricing |
| Customisation | Full branded school, custom domain, templates | Optimised for music teacher profiles |
| Community features | Basic (via third-party integrations) | Native music community and discovery |
| Best for | Teachers with an existing audience wanting full control | Music teachers building their audience on a dedicated platform |
Virgoul is the only major platform built specifically for music teachers and music education. A Virgoul profile puts your courses in front of students actively searching for music instruction — giving you inbound discovery that general course platforms like Teachable cannot provide.
Join VirgoulYes — Teachable is technically capable of hosting any type of online course, including music courses. The limitation is that Teachable has no built-in audience of music students. You must generate all your own traffic through social media, email, advertising, or other channels. For music teachers with an established following, this is manageable. For those starting out, it is a significant challenge.
Teachable offers a free plan with 10% transaction fees. The Basic plan is approximately £29/month with a 5% transaction fee. The Pro plan is approximately £99/month with 0% transaction fees and adds features like graded quizzes, certificates, and advanced reporting. Pricing may vary by region and is subject to change — check Teachable's website for current pricing.
Teachable is primarily designed for pre-recorded video courses. It does not have native live lesson booking or scheduling. Live teaching through Teachable requires integrating with a separate video conferencing tool (Zoom, Google Meet) and a separate scheduling tool (Calendly, Acuity). Platforms built for live music teaching have these features natively.
Teachable is generally considered beginner-friendly for setting up and publishing a course. The challenge for beginner music teachers is not the platform setup but the audience — Teachable provides no built-in discovery or students. If you have no existing audience, you will need to invest significant time in marketing before generating any sales, regardless of how good your course is.
The best platform depends on your situation. If you have an established audience (1,000+ engaged followers or subscribers), Teachable or Thinkific give you maximum control and better margins. If you are building your audience from scratch, a music-specific platform like Virgoul provides built-in discovery and better positioning within a community already looking for music education. Many successful music educators use both — a music-specific platform for discovery and their own site for premium or advanced courses.