The Short Answer
Quick answer: Chessly is one teacher, GothamChess, and one membership that opens all 70+ of his courses. Chessable is a store of 1,000+ courses by many authors, sold one by one, with a PRO plan that cuts every course price by at least 30%. Pick Chessly if you like Levy's style and want one simple bill. Pick Chessable if you want a specific author, a deep repertoire, or a phone app.
Both teach openings by making you play the moves, not just watch them.
The rest of this post compares them on price, method, apps and refunds, as of October 2026.
Who Makes Each One
Chessly belongs to Levy Rozman, better known as GothamChess. Chessly's own FAQ calls it a chess learning platform he created. The home page says his YouTube channel has 7+ million subscribers.
Chessable is the bigger library. I checked its Google Play listing, and the developer shown there is Chess.com.
That difference shapes everything else. Chessly is built around one teacher's voice. Chessable is built around a method, and many authors fill it with courses.
Neither is better by default. It depends on whether you want one guide or a library.
How Chessly Works
A Chessly course mixes video with practice on the board.
I opened one of Levy's courses on the old Chessly site, The Gotham Scandi, to see the structure. It listed 3 hours of video, 12 studies, 162 drills and 155 quizzes.
The drills are the core. You play the moves of each line yourself until you know them.
Chessly also adds game elements. The home page lists experience points, achievements and leaderboards, plus a chess bot called Levi.
On that old site, courses were sold one at a time. Chessly 2.0 moved to a single membership that opens every course.
How Chessable Works
Chessable is built on a training system it calls MoveTrainer.
It's spaced repetition. Chessable's science page explains the rule simply. Get a move right, and you won't see it for a while. Get it wrong, and it comes back soon.
So you don't decide what to review. The schedule decides for you, based on what you keep forgetting.
The Play listing says Chessable has 1,000+ courses. Authors include Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri and Judit Polgar.
That range is Chessable's biggest strength. Whatever opening you play, someone has probably written a course on it.
What Chessly Costs
Chessly is one membership. Members get every course, which the home page puts at 70+ openings and skills courses.
The exact price is harder to see. When I opened Chessly's membership page without logging in, it sent me to the login screen.
So you'll see the number after you make a free account.
Chessly's FAQ page gives the terms that matter most. There's a 7 day free trial, and a 7 day money back guarantee after you pay.
That's enough time to test it properly. Use the trial to finish a few drills, not just to watch videos.
What Chessable Costs
Chessable has two layers of cost: the courses themselves and the optional PRO plan.
I checked the PRO page on October 3, 2026. It showed these prices in US dollars:
| Plan | Price | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| PRO monthly | $11.99 a month | recurring, cancel any time |
| PRO yearly | $74.99 | one payment, 6 months free |
The yearly offer was marked as a limited time deal, so it may change.
PRO doesn't include paid courses. It gives at least 30% off every paid course, plus access to 300+ short courses. There's a 14 day money back guarantee.
Membership or Buying Courses
This is the real difference between the two.
On Chessly, you pay once and get everything. Want to try the London System this week and the Caro-Kann next week? There's no extra cost.
On Chessable, you build a library. Each course is its own purchase. PRO makes them cheaper, but it doesn't make them free.
So think about how you study. If you jump between openings, a single membership fits better.
If you pick one repertoire and stay with it for a year, buying two or three good courses can work out fine. You keep what you buy.
One Teacher or Many
Chessly courses come from one coach, so the style stays the same from course to course.
That's a real plus for beginners. You learn one way of explaining, and you don't have to adjust every time you switch topics.
Chessable gives you choice instead. You can study an opening from a grandmaster who plays it at the top level.
The tradeoff is consistency. Two Chessable courses can feel very different, even on the same opening.
If you already watch GothamChess videos and like them, Chessly will feel familiar. If you don't connect with his style, Chessable has hundreds of other voices.
Memory and Review
Learning an opening once is easy. Remembering it in a real game is the hard part.
Chessable's MoveTrainer is built for exactly that. The review schedule is the product.
Chessly's course page lists a Drill Shuffle tool and a Quiz Shuffle tool. Those mix lines together so you can't just play them in order.
Whichever you use, the habit matters more than the site. Short reviews every day beat one long session a week.
Our guide on how to learn chess openings by training, not memorizing explains why the practice part matters so much.
Phone Apps
This one has a clear winner today.
Chessly doesn't have an app yet. Its FAQ answers the question directly: not yet in 2026, though the team wants to build one.
Chessable does. The Chessable app on Google Play showed a 4.6 star rating from 16.9K reviews and 500K+ downloads when I checked.
Chessable PRO also adds an offline mode, so you can download courses and review without internet.
If you study on the bus or before bed on your phone, that matters. Without an app, Chessly isn't built for offline review.
Free Trials and Refunds
Both let you test before you commit.
| Chessly | Chessable PRO | |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial | 7 days | basic account is free |
| Money back | 7 days after paying | 14 days |
| Cancel | from your settings page | by emailing support |
Chessable's free basic account gives 10 variation preview tokens a month. That lets you try parts of paid courses before buying.
Chessly's trial is simpler. You see the whole library for a week.
Write the refund deadline in your calendar the day you pay. It's easy to forget.
Which Fits Your Rating
Your level changes the answer:
| Where you are | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New to openings, under 1000 | Chessly | one teacher, simple courses, game style rewards |
| Building a first repertoire, 1000 to 1600 | either | Chessly for variety, Chessable for one deep course |
| Serious repertoire, 1600+ | Chessable | courses by grandmasters such as Carlsen and Giri |
| Mostly phone study | Chessable | it has an app |
If you're in the middle, our repertoire guide for 1200 to 1500 helps you pick the openings first. Then pick the site that teaches them well.
What Neither Replaces
No course plays your games for you.
Opening study pays off only when you use the lines in real games, then check where you left the course.
You also don't need to pay to start. Lichess studies are free, and our guide to building a repertoire in Lichess studies shows how.
CheckmateX, the app behind this site, has opening drills too. They work on the same idea of repeating lines until they stick.
Paid courses add structure and a teacher. Free tools add practice. Most improving players need both.
How to Decide in One Week
Don't pick from a review. Pick from a week of real use.
Start Chessly's free trial and finish a full chapter of one opening course, drills included.
Then make a free Chessable account and spend your preview tokens on the same opening from another author.
At the end of the week, ask one question. Which one did you open without forcing yourself?
That's your answer. The site you actually use beats the site with better features.
If you also pay for Chess.com, our Chess.com plans guide shows which tier you need, so you don't pay twice for training.