Every time you sell a coaching session or package on certain platforms, a percentage goes to the platform before you see a rupee. This is called a platform fee — and for most coaching businesses, it's unnecessary.
How much are platform fees actually costing you?
Let's do the maths. Say you earn ₹1,50,000 per month from coaching:
- At 5% platform fee: ₹7,500/month gone → ₹90,000/year
- At 10% platform fee: ₹15,000/month gone → ₹1,80,000/year
- At 15% platform fee: ₹22,500/month gone → ₹2,70,000/year
That's the cost of not choosing the right platform.
Platforms that charge platform fees (and how much)
Some popular coaching platforms take a meaningful cut of your revenue:
- Thinkific: 0% on paid plans, but monthly fees are high
- Teachable: 5% on the free plan, 0% on paid plans
- Some marketplaces: 20–30% of every sale
- Patreon: 5–12% depending on plan
Platforms with zero platform fees
You only pay your payment processor (Stripe at ~2%, Razorpay at ~2%), not a separate platform fee:
- Swanky Tools™ Booking: 0% platform fees (guaranteed for your first year)
- Gumroad: Now 10% — moved away from zero-fee
- Lemon Squeezy: 5% + 50c per transaction
Why Swanky Tools™ charges 0% platform fees
Swanky Tools™ Booking charges a flat monthly subscription (₹0 on Free, ₹1,299 on Pro, ₹1,999 on Business). No percentage of your revenue — ever. You pay your payment processor (Stripe or Razorpay) their standard 2% rate, and that's it.
At ₹1,50,000/month in revenue, the difference between a 5% platform fee (₹7,500/month) and a flat ₹1,299/month is ₹6,201 in your pocket every single month. Over a year: ₹74,412 saved.
The principle: own your business infrastructure
Platform fees are a feature of marketplaces — where the platform brings you clients. When you bring your own clients to a booking platform, paying a revenue share is paying twice. Your marketing brought the client; the platform just processed the booking.
Choose infrastructure tools that charge for what they provide — storage, hosting, software — not a tax on your success.