If you’ve spent hours polishing online courses, recorded more takes than Netflix releases shows, and still wonder, “Who’s actually making money here?”—you’re not alone. The life of an online instructor isn’t all fancy microphones and pings from PayPal. There’s real money to be made, but only if you know where to list your magic. Some platforms hand you peanuts for months of effort. Others? A single, well-performing course might pay off your student loan (if only).

How Different Platforms Pay Instructors: Who’s Got the Best Deal?

Platforms love to trumpet big numbers, but when you scratch beneath the glossy user interface, you find wildly different payout models. There are three main types: revenue share (think Udemy, Skillshare), upfront payment/honorarium (like MasterClass, sometimes Coursera’s enterprise deals), or subscription-based income (Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning). Let’s dissect what those really mean for your bank account.

Udemy, for example, says it has over 75,000 instructors and 64 million students as of August 2025. But most instructors make less than £500 a year. Why? Udemy has a revenue-share model. If you bring in the student yourself, you keep 97% of the sale; if Udemy ‘acquires’ the learner, you get only 37%. The average course price is just £20, and heavy discounting is rampant. That means unless you’re driving traffic, your earnings may disappoint.

Coursera is different. If you’re part of a university or enterprise offering, you’ll likely get a fixed contract (sometimes six-figure for large institutions, but peanuts for independent teachers, since only a tiny handful get on board without university backing). For independent instructors, Coursera’s new Creator Program has been trialing fixed payments plus bonuses, but it’s still largely closed-door. Even then, unless your course goes viral, extraction rates remain modest.

Skillshare has a subscription pool model: every premium subscriber pays a monthly fee, and you get a cut based on how many minutes your courses are watched. The payout per thousand minutes fluctuates but is often around £0.05–£0.10 as of 2025. So, to make £1,000, your classes need to rack up 10,000–20,000 minutes each month. That’s a lot of eyeballs. Still, Skillshare is friendly to creative types—think design, photography, writing—so if you can produce highly watchable, niche content, you may do well.

Teachable and Thinkific let you run your own course portal. No gatekeepers, and you set the price. They just take a cut—5% on Teachable’s basic plan, £23/month fixed if you want premium. Here, you control marketing, pricing, and data. The sky’s the limit if you have an audience; the floor’s a cold slap if you don’t.

Let’s see how real numbers stack up. Here’s a side-by-side for 2024–2025, including hard reference points from popular public forums, interviews, and platform-published data:

Notice how the averages are modest, yet the high-end numbers are eye-popping. It’s “winner takes all” in online teaching. Most instructors make coffee money. The stars take home luxury holidays.

Platforms That Actually Pay: Cutting Through the Hype

No one likes empty promises. Let’s talk about where real instructors are finding real income. For self-paced, general topics, Udemy has the sheer volume. If your subject is a hot seller—coding bootcamps, Excel wizardry—you can rake it in, but you’ll need a marketing game.

For creative types, Skillshare and Domestika lead the charge. Skillshare teachers in top categories earn up to £3,500 a month, but the median is much lower. Domestika, huge in art and animation circles, pays through royalties—sometimes 10–20% per class sold, plus upfronts for major creators. You’ll want a standout portfolio to get noticed.

Teachable, Podia, and Thinkific put you in the driver’s seat. Have an email list, social media following, or a niche blog? These platforms let you control pricing, bundles, and even upsell coaching and community access. Many top earners clear six figures mostly thanks to their audience, not the platform itself. For example, Sarah Cordiner reported in May 2025 that she passed £700,000 in cumulative course sales between Teachable and Thinkific, mostly through direct marketing.

Corporate learning platforms like Coursera, Udacity, Pluralsight, or LinkedIn Learning are harder to break in. LinkedIn pays a flat fee, usually £2,000–£6,000 per new course (paid out over milestones), and some royalties if your courses perform well in their catalog. Most of these programs are invite-only, and your subject matter needs to be trending (cloud computing, cybersecurity, generative AI—stuff that big companies want to upskill).

Live teaching? Don’t sleep on platforms like Outschool, italki, or Preply if you’re into language or school tutoring. Top teachers regularly report £3,000–£6,000/month, especially for in-demand subjects and students in the US, the UK, and Asia. You’re trading time for money, but it’s steady—no months of waiting for course reviews.

Here’s an interesting hack if you’re multilingual or teach STEM: bundle content on more than one platform. People like “The Math Sorcerer” or “Polyglot Pablo” double-dip, posting course versions on Udemy and Skillshare and doing private coaching on Teachable. Diversifying outweighs sticking to one basket.

What Factors Make a Platform More Profitable for Instructors?

The best-paying platform for one person can be a dead end for someone else—it’s all about your topic, marketing skills, and target audience. High-volume platforms (Udemy, Coursera) give you reach, but you’re a needle in a haystack unless you rank or go viral. Niche or private platforms (Teachable, Thinkific) offer maximum control but expect you to hustle for every sale.

Course topic is king. Tech, business, and investing perform best on Udemy, while art and creative skills rule on Skillshare and Domestika. Personal development and wellness? Try Thinkific or Teachable, paired with a strong personal brand and social proof (testimonials, press, awards).

Marketing leverage makes or breaks your earnings. Do you have a social following, or will you rely on platform discovery? Udemy instructors like Rob Percival ($4.5m+ in earnings) drive traffic from YouTube, LinkedIn, and their own mailing lists for consistent sales. Same for Skillshare’s top teachers—they don’t leave it to algorithm luck.

Look out for platform fees and payout minimums. Udemy has a £50 threshold before payout; Skillshare pays around the 16th of every month, but only if you’ve reached £50. Teachable pays monthly, but your earnings can be eaten by payment gateway fees if not careful. Read the fine print; some platforms delay initial payouts by 30–60 days for new instructors.

Don’t ignore bonuses, too. Skillshare runs regular teacher challenges—win, and you bag £100–£500 extra. LinkedIn Learning sends token bonuses for top courses. Domestika offers upfront payments for select instructors, especially if you’re bringing a unique voice or established reputation.

Summing up: The more you treat it like a business—testing pricing, adding bonuses, upselling consulting calls—the more you make. Those who treat it like a passive income magic bean almost always bail in a year. There’s no secret sauce, but plenty of repeatable recipes.

Tips for Maximising Your Earnings as an Online Instructor

Want to climb the earnings charts? Start by going multi-platform—don’t put your course in just one marketplace. If you can, use Udemy or Skillshare for broad reach, but drive traffic to your own page on Teachable. Capture email leads and offer support or coaching upsells. Bundle courses at a discount when selling direct. That way, you build an asset while also riding the big platforms’ algorithmic waves.

Invest in production. No need for movie-quality, but crystal-clear audio and lighting beat shaky phone recordings every time. According to a survey on Course Creator Hub in April 2025, 76% of top earners used an external mic and DSLR or Logitech webcam—production value directly correlated with student reviews and sales.

Specialise—niche pays. Instead of “learn Python,” try “Python for finance professionals” or “Excel pivot tables for ecommerce rookies.” Udemy’s own stats show that 80% of their best-selling courses target specific problems instead of generic skillsets.

Collect feedback and iterate. Ask your early students for testimonials, reviews, and constructive criticism. Every 0.1 boost in your average course rating can lift you a few pages higher in search—more views, more sales. Platforms reward engagement: higher ratings, updated content, active discussions, and new lessons all improve your ranking.

Don’t ignore community. Start a Facebook group, Discord server, or private forum for your students. Offer live Q&As, monthly office hours, or bonus materials. Strong communities mean higher course completion rates, repeat sales, and raving reviews (which attract new buyers).

Keep learning. Many top instructors spend at least 10 hours each month in competitor research—joining other courses, watching webinars, or reading industry news—to stay ahead of trends. If you’re only building once and coasting, you’ll be overtaken by creators who listen and adapt.

The gold rush hasn’t dried up on online learning, but the easy money days are gone. The highest paying learning platforms reward hustle and smart strategy, not just content uploads. Stack the odds in your favor: diversify, build an audience, aim high with your prices, and keep refining your material. Build once, sell forever? Sure, but only if you keep showing up.