Many SaaS companies can provide the tools you need to create, market, and sell online courses. Podia and Teachable are two such services. As a result, in this Podia vs Teachable comparison, we’ll look at both providers in depth. By the end of this article, you should have a clear answer to the question: which tool is best for creating and selling online courses?
Teaching is frequently the logical next step in any career, regardless of the field. In addition, others in your niche will often be willing to pay for your advice and consultation once you’ve reached a certain level of expertise.
That is why a growing number of industry leaders are developing online courses.
Selling these digital products is a lucrative business opportunity. If you’re thinking about doing something similar, you may be wondering, “How do I create educational content and market it online?”
Fortunately, the answer is simpler than you would expect.
Let’s get started!
Podia vs Teachable: Who’s Podia?
Podia was launched in 2014, and while being the smaller platform of the two, it is unquestionably one of the most creator-friendly tools on the market, with over 25,000 creators using its services. In addition, building and selling online courses, digital downloads, membership subscriptions, and other digital products is a breeze with Podia!
Their objective is to prioritize artists by providing an open platform that anybody may use. In addition, they want to be approachable, entertaining, and innovative, leading the way for future content makers.
Podia gives course designers the tools to make their sales process more efficient.
They include features from website construction to blogging to creating and selling online courses. Podia also includes a slew of marketing options, such as off-site buttons, email marketing tools, and affiliate marketing tools, which are useful for spreading the word about your business.
As you may have guessed, Podia’s platform is extremely simple to use. You simply add images, rich text, videos, and testimonials to your pages (as and when needed) and edit away until everything looks just right.
You can preview web pages in Podia before publishing them live on the web, so you don’t have to publish anything until you’re completely satisfied.
Podia vs Teachable: Who’s Teachable?
Teachable is a tool that will assist you in creating and launching an online school. Its features allow you to create and distribute engaging content for your students, such as webinars, video tutorials, step-by-step guides, quizzes, and more.
More than 83k instructors sell over 275k active courses on the platform today. In addition, there are over 23 million students in their whole student body!
Teachable provides cross-platform access, allowing your students to participate in your online courses from any device. Smartphones, tablets, laptops, and computers are all included. A useful tool for any course creator who wants to ensure their material is accessible to everyone.
Teachable customization tools are nearly identical to Podia’s. You can create and edit your website and blog, brand your content, and design courses using a simple drag-and-drop editor.
Teachable also has a code power editor that allows you to change any aspect of your website. So, if you’re a programmer who wants to put your skills to use, there’s room for you too!
Podia vs Teachable: All the Pros at a Glance
Podia: The Pros
Person-to-Person Customer Support
Podia isn’t a fan of customer service tickets. Instead, they guarantee that you will be connected to a genuine person every time you visit the live chat window on their website.
There is no automated system or sophisticated phone re-routing; instead, exceptional customer service is provided. This is a significant benefit for anyone who dislikes interacting with machines and believes they will require assistance in their course-building endeavour.
Simple Pricing, No Transaction Fees
Podia keeps more of your revenues because there are no transaction costs for a lower monthly subscription than Teachable’s Basic plan ($119 a month), which has a 5% transaction fee. In short, Podia has the potential to increase your earnings.
Podia’s pricing is simple, straightforward, and capped at a low price, allowing you to grow your business without worrying about monthly subscription payments.
Selling Memberships
If you have several courses, your students may opt to purchase a membership that allows them to access all of them. This course bundling strategy and a subscription-based pricing mechanism are great ways to generate recurring monthly income. To put it another way, Podia allows you to do just that.
Immediate Payouts
Podia pays you immediately for the money you earn from selling courses — there is no waiting time. Simply link your Stripe or PayPal account to Podia, and the payments will be transferred automatically. On the other hand, Teachable only guarantees immediate reimbursements if you utilize Teachable Payments; all other payment methods take a month to reach your account.
Hassle-Free Migration
Podia offers hassle-free migration with its annual plan or by pre-paying $249 for your podia account. Additionally, if you wish to switch from another service, they’ll help you migrate your content and audience to Podia. For example, if you’re already utilizing an online course provider but want to switch, this makes the transition much easier.
Teachable: The Pros
A Free Plan
Teachable has a fantastic free package where you can try out the platform and see how it works, which is excellent if you’re not sure it’s right for you.
On the other hand, the free plan limits you to ten pupils and charges a $1 + 10% processing fee on all sales, which is a steep price. However, this is a useful aspect to consider if you want to play with the tools.
The Explore-Courses Beta
Teachable’s website’s ‘explore-courses’ section is currently in beta. Thanks to this functionality, teachable is progressively transforming from an independent course development platform to a digital course marketplace.
Creators now have the opportunity to promote their courses on Teachable’s platform, gaining exposure and traffic. Of course, it remains to be seen whether or not this feature will be around and how much value it will bring to users. But it’s safe to say that we’re looking forward to seeing how this plays out!
Course Completion Certificates
Teachable has more expensive pricing tiers, which could be due to Teachable’s inclusion of a few capabilities that Podia does not. Nevertheless, these tools are frequently useful for established brands and educational institutions.
Teachable, unlike Podia, provides course completion certificates. This is especially significant if you’re teaching in a formal setting because students can use these credentials to prove their efforts.
Teachable also has higher standards for course compliance. As a result, your pupils will be able to meet milestones and meet particular requirements to complete the course. This is a must-have for any organization that offers officially recognized credentials.
You Can Create a Great Learning Experience
As we’ve already said, you can provide students with quizzes and course completion certificates, but that’s not all. Teachable has many different tools to help you create a positive learning environment, especially if you’re creating content for more traditional students.
For example, you can include a discussion forum in your online school where students can interact with you. Collecting student feedback is also simple, thanks to Teachable’s integration with Google Forms, which makes creating and evaluating student surveys a breeze.
Not to add, you can use various forms of media to engage your students, including audio, PDFs, videos, and text files.
Advanced Customization
Teachable, like Podia, has a drag-and-drop editor that is simple and intuitive to use. In addition, however, you can use its power editor to delve further into the code (providing you have the know-how to do so). This is a handy asset if you have web development experience and need to work around any of Teachable’s modification constraints.
Teachable’s more expensive business plan permits additional developer customization.
Students Can Access Your Courses on All Devices
Thanks to Teachable’s mobile app, students may access your course content from anywhere and on any device, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and PCs. This is a great way to entice students to enrol because you’ll be able to provide a more flexible learning environment.
You Can Handle EU VAT
Taxes are never fun, and Teachable’s ability to calculate EU VAT for you is a handy feature that few other platforms offer.
Now for the Drawbacks. What Are the Cons of Using Podia vs Teachable?
Podia: The Cons
Podia Doesn’t Offer Course Completion Certificates
Podia provides memberships and digital downloads but does not allow you to create a graded quiz or provide course completion certificates. This makes it difficult to give your courses an official appeal, and it could be a stumbling block for students who wish to demonstrate their commitment to professional growth.
There are Limited Customization Options
Podia’s customization capabilities, both in course creation and website creation, are fairly limited. Some users also criticize Podia’s templates as being too similar. Podia may be too limiting for those with specific brand requirements; for complete creative freedom, explore elsewhere.
Even simple adjustments like removing blank spaces between parts and adjusting font sizes have proven problematic for some customers with Podia.
Limited Email Marketing Tools
Podia has a good email marketing function that allows you to drip-feed your email campaigns to an unlimited number of users and subscribers, but it’s a limited tool. You’ll need to combine Podia with third-party applications to design and operate more complex campaigns.
There’s No Course Marketplace
The lack of an online course marketplace isn’t a deal-breaker in and of itself, but it does mean you’ll have to work more to promote yourself and bring visitors to your website. When you can list your course on a marketplace, you quickly boost your chances of getting discovered by a larger audience, something Podia, unfortunately, does not provide.
Teachable: The Cons
The Transaction Fees
Podia is a superior option if saving money is your top goal. Teachable charges a 5% transaction fee on top of the subscription fee, even though both platforms charge the same for their initial paid-for plan.
That means you lose $5 for every $100 sale you make. This could potentially eat into your revenues, so do the arithmetic before deciding which SaaS best meets your requirements.
Limited Product Options
Podia has a Teachable beat when it comes to offering variety.
You can’t sell memberships on Teachable. Digital downloads are likewise not for sale. Depending on your specialisation, this may limit your possibilities and prevent you from earning a recurring monthly income.
Customer Support Comes with a Price Tag
Teachable provides live web chat assistance, and many of its clients are pleased with it. On the other hand, live chat is only available if you upgrade to the Professional subscription (or higher). Live chat support will cost $99 per month as a result of this. In addition, Teachable can only be contacted through support tickets and emails.
Value for Money
Compared to Podia, at least, Teachable seems to provide less value for money.
However, when you consider the high transaction costs that come with Teachable’s most basic paid-for plan, Podia is a far better deal.
Podia’s Mover and Shaker plans provide you access to all of Podia’s capabilities at a fraction of the cost of Teachable. Podia’s $79 Shaker tier, for example, includes affiliate marketing, whereas Teachable’s Professional plan costs $99 per month and doesn’t include it.
Branded Websites
Another aspect of the Professional plan is the ability to remove Teachable’s branding from your website – this means you’ll have to pay $99 per month to construct an online school and website that isn’t covered in Teachable’s adverts.
Pricing Comparison: Podia vs Teachable
Plans for Podia Pricing
With only two flat-fee plans: Mover and Shaker, Podia maintains its pricing simple and obvious. These are charged monthly, but if you pay for a year in advance, you can save two months’ fees. A 14-day free trial is also available.
Mover
The Mover plan from Podia is $39 per month. It’s for creators who are just getting started with designing and launching digital items. This bundle grants you access to your digital storefront, where you can sell online courses and digital downloads generated with Podia’s software. You may also host webinars, and email marketing campaigns, use a live-chat feature to communicate with your students, and perform painless migrations.
Shaker
Podia’s Shaker plan is available for $79 per month. This is specifically for entrepreneurs that are ready to expand their business. You’ll get an on-site blog, off-site buy buttons, affiliate marketing tools, the ability to integrate third-party snippets of code, and the ability to develop and sell membership packages in addition to all the capabilities included in the Mover plan.
Both options provide limitless everything, including service seven days a week and no limits on the number of products you can list, customers, emails, sales, or hosted files.
It’s also worth noting that neither plan has any transaction fee. So whether you make $5 or $5000 monthly, you pay the same monthly fee. Isn’t it cool?
Teachable Pricing Plans
Teachable has a couple of additional pricing options that scale up to bigger amounts than Podia. You will, however, receive a discount if you pay annually, similar to Podia.
As previously mentioned, there is a free plan with a restriction of 10 students.
Unlimited courses, video, and hosting are included in all plans. This is in addition to the incorporated payment processing and student administration features.
They also allow you to create simple quizzes, and there are no costs associated with free seminars. VAT in the EU has already been calculated for you.
Free — a one-time fee of $0 for unlimited courses with a maximum of 10 students. However, all your paid courses will be subject to a $1 + 10% transaction fee.
Basic ($39 per month on a month-to-month basis or $29 per month on an annual basis)
As previously stated, the Basic plan levies a 5% transaction fee on every sale you make. You can, however, hire two admin-level users, get product support, set up your web domain, create and manage coupon codes, and produce drip course content. Email marketing tools, third-party integrations, and course developer training are all included in the plan.
Professional ($119 per month on a month-to-month basis or $99 per month every year)
Everything in the Basic package is included in the Professional plan. You can, however, register up to five admin-level users, and you won’t be charged transaction fees if you sell something. In addition, you get an unbranded website that can generate advanced reports, grade quizzes, award course completion certificates to students, set course compliance criteria, and access affiliate marketing tools.
Business ($299 invoiced monthly or $249 billed annually)
You can have up to 20 admin users with the Business program. You can assign user responsibilities to customers, enrol students in bulk, and customize the theme. You can also have group coaching calls and input students manually. You’ll also get first-class product support.
Fees for Transactions
Teachable’s free plan allows you to start selling immediately; however, paid courses to incur a transaction cost of $1 + 10% on each sale. This drops to 5% on the Basic plan, and on the Professional and Business plans, there are no transaction costs.
There are also credit card fees in addition to transaction fees. This is 2.9 per cents Plus 30 cents on all plans in the United States. This is 3.9 per cent + 30 cents for overseas credit and debit card sales.
Sales and Marketing Features of Podia versus Teachable
Aside from building excellent online schools, any digital course builder worth its salt should include a comprehensive set of sales and marketing tools. These are critical for increasing your audience and income.
So, with that in mind, here’s what sales and marketing feature both SaaS companies have to offer:
Promotions and Coupons
Teachable and Podia allow you to create coupons, as we’ve already mentioned.
You can set them to offer monetary amounts or percentage discounts and specific expiration dates. These are fantastic for encouraging students to enrol in your class!
Pricing Alternatives
Teachable gives you the option of charging one-time fees or selling subscriptions.
You can also offer individual or bundled courses and payment schemes.
Podia also allows you to create payment plans, bundle digital products to offer as a bundle, and create membership-based subscriptions.
Sales Features
Podia gives you everything you need to make and market a lead magnet. For example, giving prospective students and customers a freebie (such as an ebook) is simple in exchange for their names and email addresses. This type of personal information is essential for nurturing and developing relationships with a long list of potential consumers.
You may also upsell to students when they’re checking out, which is useful for increasing the order value.
Teachable offers a variety of sales page templates that are both flexible and high-converting. So, make the most of them! They’re designed to bring in as many leads as possible, so use them! Teachable shines when it comes to its very configurable design possibilities.
Integrated Live Chat
Podia is the only course platform on the market with a built-in live chat feature.
When it comes to communicating directly with consumers and pupils, this capability is priceless. This personal touch not only aids in the development of rapport with your audience, but when employed to its maximum potential, it may also increase your sales rate.
It’s a safe and easy way for prospects to contact you no matter where they are.
While unavailable, you can capture client queries, provide comments, make requests, or respond right away when you (or someone from your customer care team) are manning the live chat. It’s entirely up to you.
Email Marketing
You can deliver newsletters and drip email campaigns using Teachable and Podia. You’ll be better positioned to advance your prospects through your sales funnel if you do it well.
Both solutions also allow you to segment your email list and measure and analyse the efficacy of your email marketing campaigns.
Neither platform, however, has extensive email marketing capabilities. As a result, you’ll need to integrate with another email service provider if you want to run more elaborate campaigns.
Affiliate marketing
Both Podia and Teachable allow you to create your affiliate programs. This is useful if you want students to recommend your course to others – or if you have industry colleagues or friends who can promote your e-course to their audience.
For those unfamiliar with affiliate marketing, it’s when someone promotes your products on your behalf, sells them, and then pays you a commission (a portion of the sale(s) they make).
Podia, however, allows you to set up an affiliate program for a lower cost than Teachable. Affiliate marketing is included in the Shaker plan, costing $79 per month, whereas Teachable’s Professional plan costs $99 per month.
Marketing Integrations
Teachable’s Zapier integration allows it to connect to an infinite number of third-party apps.
This can involve marketing tools like:
- Mailchimp
- AWeber
- Infusionsoft
- Mixpanel
- ConvertKit
- Segment
- Google Analytics
Podia, on the other hand, has the following native integrations and also works with Zapier:
- Convert kit
- Mailchimp
- Drip
- AWeber
- ActiveCampaign
- MailerLite
Podia versus Teachable: A Quick Comparison of Their Key Similarities and Differences
Differences:
- Teachable charges 5% on its Basic package and 0% on its more expensive subscriptions, but Podia does not charge transaction fees on either of its plans.
- Podia offers live chat customer service with all of its plans, whereas Teachable only does so with the Professional subscription (and upwards).
- Teachable is a restricted free plan that allows you to work with up to ten students, but Podia only has a 14-day free trial.
- Teachable does not allow you to sell memberships, although Podia’s Shaker plan does.
- Teachable gives you more control over the look and feel of your online classroom. You have more control over the spacing between each element, for example, and the overall appearance of your brand. This is especially true if you know how to code and use the Power editor. While Podia also allows you to enter snippets of third-party code and install widgets, its total customization capabilities are significantly limited.
- Teachable allows you to create several admin-level accounts, whereas Podia does not.
- Teachable lets you give students course completion certificates and create course compliance criteria; they’ll even handle the EU VAT on your sales. Podia, unfortunately, does not provide these functions.
Similarities:
- Podia and Teachable both have email and affiliate marketing tools that are similar.
- Both Podia and Teachable allow you to create a website and blog to promote and sell your online courses.
- Both platforms allow you to use your domain or a subdomain to start.
- Customer service is available via email and live chat on both SaaS platforms.
- With any of their subscription plans, you can offer an infinite number of courses and items to as many students as you desire.
- Teachable and Podia both have a drag-and-drop editor that allows you to customize the structure of your online course and website.
What’s the Difference Between Podia and Teachable? Which Online Course Platform is Right for You?
Now that we’ve looked at Podia and teachable offers, it’s time to choose which service is best for you.
Each platform is highly regarded, has a robust collection of tools and capabilities, and is reasonably priced. As a result, it may come down to personal preference and a few other possible deciding criteria.
If you’re looking for a better option, go with Podia.
- You want to get the most bang for your buck. Podia’s straightforward pricing lets you understand precisely what you’re getting for your money at a glance. Plus, with Podia, you gain access to capabilities that Teachable only makes available with its more expensive plans. Podia also doesn’t charge transaction costs, so if you’re just getting started and want a low-cost plan that allows you to offer an infinite number of courses with no additional expenses, Podia is the way to go.
- You’ve decided to change platforms. Migrating your course content and client data from other platforms is simple with Podia. Podia claims to be able to move everything in under 24 hours! This painless transition is a huge plus if you’re migrating from another digital course platform.
- You want to make money by selling memberships. Memberships are a terrific approach to engaging and keeping your audience if you have a huge audience that is likely to stick around to receive your new material. Teachable can not provide this, so if you need to create and manage membership-based products, Podia is the way to go.
- You’re an independent instructor who works on your own. Podia isn’t designed to be used by several instructors. The platform is intended for single instructors and businesses rather than larger schools and groups.
Teachable, on the other hand, is a great option if:
- You’d like additional customization options. Teachable has a larger selection of themes and customization options than Podia. This may be a better platform for you if you have special branding demands.
- You’re pitching to more traditional pupils. Teachable allows you to award course certifications and set graded quizzes if you’re a more traditional teaching institution.
- You’re a large company with a more flexible budget that wants to collaborate with other educators. Teachable’s pricing escalating into higher tiers is no secret (compared to Podia). As a result, people on a tighter budget may not require its more advanced features. However, if you’re managing an online school with a group of teachers, their multi-admin-level user assistance is a must-have.
As you can see, each platform has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. However, as far as online course creation tools go, these two are comparable. Either option will assist you in starting to sell instructional information online and displaying it attractively.
Remember that Podia has a 14-day free trial, and Teachable has a free plan where you can try out the basic features. As a result, there’s no excuse not to try them both! Following that, you’ll better understand which platform you prefer to use.
In the end, which of these platforms would you choose? If neither Podia nor Teachable has piqued your interest, other SaaS choices such as Udemy, Thinkific, or Kajabi are accessible. Let us know which platform you’ll use in the comments section below.
