Teachers Pay Teachers alternatives in 2026

On October 1, 2026, Teachers Pay Teachers retired its Premium Seller membership. For many teacher-authors that was the plan they had built a store on: a yearly fee in exchange for a higher payout. It has been replaced by Exclusive Seller, which pays a little less and adds one condition that changes the decision: your digital educational resources have to be sold only on TPT.

That makes this a good moment to look at the alternatives, and at the arithmetic. The TPT facts below were checked on TPT's help center on 22 October 2026. The Getly numbers were measured on our catalogue in October 2026.

What TPT offers sellers now

Two dates matter. Sellers who join Exclusive between October 1 and December 31, 2026 get an introductory 80% payout until January 1, 2027. And former Premium sellers who do not opt in to Exclusive convert to Basic on January 1, 2027.

The fee math at two prices

Worksheet packs are cheap, so fixed fees matter. Here is what reaches the seller from one sale, before any taxes or payout costs:

We used $2.99 rather than $3.00 on purpose: the Exclusive transaction fee applies to orders under $3, so a $2.99 resource pays it and a $3.00 one does not. On Basic, the $0.30 fee takes about a tenth of a $2.99 sale on top of the 45% commission, which is why low-priced packs hurt most on that plan.

The table leaves out the membership fees. Basic's $29 is paid once. Exclusive's $59.95 is paid every year, so at $10 per resource the yearly fee equals about eight sales.

The real question: exclusivity

The payout gap between Exclusive and the alternatives is small. The bigger difference is what Exclusive asks you to give up. If you sell your worksheets anywhere else (your own site, Etsy, a school district platform, Getly), you cannot be an Exclusive seller for those resources.

For some authors that is fine: TPT is where teachers search, and one store is simpler. For others, especially anyone who already sells to parents and homeschoolers outside TPT, exclusivity means choosing between a better rate and a broader audience. Basic keeps you free to sell elsewhere, at 55%.

Alternatives for teacher-authors

Getly

Getly is a marketplace for digital products of every kind, education included. There is no listing fee, no membership fee and no exclusivity. Sellers keep 80% by default, 90% of sales that come through their own link, Pay Widget or Telegram store, and 90% during a new store's first 90 days. Prior-month sales of $500, $2,000 or $10,000 raise the default to 83%, 85% or 88%. Rates are on the pricing page.

On supply, measured October 2026: three education shelves (Printable Educational Materials, Worksheets & Workbooks, Education Templates) hold 326 active listings with a median price of $3.99, and 55.5% of them deliver a PDF. It is a general marketplace, so the audience is broader than teachers alone: parents and homeschoolers are a large part of it, and 24.5% of listings on those shelves mention homeschool.

Two honest limits. Getly is far smaller than TPT as a place where teachers search. And buyers currently pay in USDT or USDC stablecoins: PayPal is no longer accepted, and card payments are expected to return. Teachers who buy with a school card should know that today. Sellers are paid on the 1st and 15th in USDT or USDC on BNB Smart Chain (from $5) or USDT on Tron (from $15). Every new listing is reviewed before it goes live, usually within minutes.

Etsy

Etsy sells printables in large numbers, including classroom decor, planners and worksheets. It charges a fee per listing and a percentage per sale, plus payment processing. Its audience is broad and mostly parents and gift buyers, not teachers searching by standard or grade.

Payhip and Gumroad

Both are store builders more than marketplaces: you get a checkout and a product page, and you bring the visitors. Payhip has a free plan with a per-sale fee and paid plans that lower it. Gumroad takes a percentage of each sale plus a fixed fee. They suit authors who already have an audience through a blog, newsletter or social account.

Your own site

A shop on your own domain gives you the customer email list and full control, and costs a hosting plan plus payment processing. You also do all the marketing. Many teacher-authors use their own site alongside a marketplace rather than instead of one.

How to decide

• Most of your sales come from TPT search, and you sell nowhere else: Exclusive pays more than Basic, and the yearly fee pays for itself after a handful of sales.
• You sell, or want to sell, in more than one place: stay off Exclusive. Keep TPT on Basic for its search traffic, and put the same resources on platforms that keep a larger share and do not ask for exclusivity.
• You sell mostly to parents and homeschoolers: a general marketplace or your own site may fit better than a teacher-only platform.
• Your resources are priced under $3: fixed per-resource fees matter most to you. Do the math per sale before choosing.

To try Getly, create a store. Listing a resource costs nothing, and you can keep selling it wherever you already do.