The present trend of consumer behaviour moving into online media is quickly becoming the new normal for many businesses. It’s no surprise that the exact same is true for unconventional education through the multitude of online courses now available on the Internet. It has opened more avenues of learning beyond the classroom setting, and has empowered nearly anyone with an idea to talk about their knowledge.
Whether you want to teach your hobbies, or something associated with your experience, there are lots of online course platforms (OCP) or learning management systems (LMS) which may help you get started. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like making your website, while others focus mainly on helping you achieve your target audience. The 1st step is finding which one can move your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your prospective students.
With so many LMS to pick from, there’s one firm that has stood out for its balance of reasonable pricing, customizability, ease of use, and marketing control. Teachable is the top choice of instructors, and after pitting it against its rivals, it’s clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Canvas vs Teachable
Udemy was among the leaders of LMS, which explains how and why their audience is still among the biggest markets in the business: they were there . Udemy and Teachable are currently two of the most popular choices in selling online courses, but they are extremely distinct in nature and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to construct their own course website and market their brand, while Udemy is merely a marketplace for course creators that have existing courses. At the surface, this means that Teachable allows you to use your custom domain while Udemy will have your clients keep coming back to Udemy.com. On another level, Teachable gives you tools to create and customize the entirety of your site, from content building and editing to sales, which are not in any way possible on Udemy. One of the more immediate consequences of this is that Teachable allows you to communicate more directly with your clientele, by giving you access to student’s data and information; but as soon as you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ information is theirs alone for whatever other purpose it may serve them. And in line with that, Udemy seems to care most about selling courses, period; therefore it’s not only your courses, but every other class on their list. There have been testimonials that said this, when even competitor’s classes have been promoted to students that the instructor brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who might use the advertising, but from the viewpoint of a user, that business sense could seem too self-serving and unnecessary.
Marketing at a Price
It’s Udemy’s cut-throat policies that have turned off many former or possible users. They seem to know the very value of their following, and have taken advantage of it, much to the detriment of the lecturer. True, Teachable doesn’t market the courses for its own users, that responsibility is left entirely to them. In an extreme fashion, Udemy markets their consumer’s courses aggressively, but with a substantial price. That price is a huge chunk of control and earnings.
Udemy began with a 90% creator revenue share, but they slashed those percentages to 70%, and then again quite suddenly to 50% throughout the years. A 50% share of the course revenues may still seem reasonable to others, especially to those whose classes were previously created for different purposes and were merely shared more publicly on Udemy, but that hurt many of the instructors that were selling solely in the company’s site. On top of this, what have driven people over the edge are the restrictions on pricing. In 2016, Udemy set a cap on its prices, and all courses on the system had to be within the $20-$50 range. This is regardless of the uniqueness or skillfulness of a course, and it’s natural for some to turn away and look for better outlets for their ideas. If you combine both of these policies, and have a course priced at $20 and a 50% creator revenue, selling on Udemy becomes almost impossible as a dependable source of primary income.
So while it is true that Udemy has a massive audience which you may choose to tap into, the majority of the topics which they offer are really quite limited to mostly Technology and Personal Development. Consider their dog-eat-dog advertising strategies and absorption of your brand’s identity, I would say Teachable is the response to many of Udemy’s shortcomings. In the long run, nothing is more satisfying than building your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Canvas vs Teachable
If you’re searching for an LMS that’s comparable to Teachable’s cost, Thinkific is another great company that offers a lot for less. Both offer their first tier programs for free, and start charging for every higher tier thereafter. Many beginners choose Thinkific for its generous waiving of transaction fees on all of its plans; however a closer look at the fine print will reveal that it costs extra for certain features which are already included in Teachable’s monthly flat rates. But, those deviations are somewhat negligible, and with a range from $0-$499 per month, you can’t go wrong with either of these.
Beginner-Friendly
But pricing is not all that they have in common. Both allow their users to create and sell personalized classes in their hosted platforms, without the bother of handling the technical aspects like website maintenance, hosting, and security.
Newbies to the biz tend to gravitate toward these companies for their easy-to-use interface that allows nearly all formats of content, such as video, audio, PDFs, and other multimedia. The majority of these can be uploaded to the courses with a simple drag and drop builder. They can host unlimited videos, create quizzes, send certificates, and track the progress of their pupils.
Canvas vs Teachable
Convenience
One of the advantages of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s class builder: it allows bulk changes to classes, which may be an enormous time-saver, especially for the ones that have built quite a few on their system; also it allows multi-format content in 1 lecture. What’s more is it can be linked to cloud providers, like Dropbox and Google Drive, for quicker uploads from your devices.
Concerning course delivery, Teachable has an iOS application that enables students to learn on their mobile devices, which is something which Thinkific does not have.
Sales and Marketing
After the content production comes the selling and marketing of your classes. This is where Teachable wins by a landslide. Both give the freedom to sell one time or recurring products, offer discounts and bundles, or affiliate programs, but Teachable has more options. The real clincher is Teachable’s 1-step checkout procedure, which reduces customer fallout (which occurs more during outdated, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). Additionally, it comes with a 1-click upsell upon checkout, increasing transactions per customer. Another significant advantage is Teachable’s payment gateway that accepts credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay payments. Another service included is the automated payout to affiliates and authors (when applicable), focusing on tax forms and similar documentation. If you have users from the EU, it even goes as far as including EU VAT on top of course prices. That definitely gives you more value to your content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Canvas vs Teachable
One of the online course platforms with the cheapest top tier is Podia. Though it doesn’t have a free plan, and its basic plan comes at $39/month (with Teachable at $29/month), its top and only remaining plan is provided at $79 (with Teachable at $399). This price gap can be a result of the vastly different things they each offer. On the one hand, Teachable is a fully customizable course creator and vendor, and on the other, Podia chose to focus on Online Course Hosting, Membership or Email Marketing, and Digital Downloads. Those will immediately help you narrow down your choice to what’s best suited for you.
Podia’s compact categories lets users filter out other aspects that they may not have to dip into, like e-commerce. Its interface is easy, clean, and fairly great for novice instructors. Having said that, this is also why it may not satisfy the needs of creators who wish to do more with their website. Since the variety is not much, more advanced users may find it lacking.
Course Creation and Control
Teachable defeats Podia in design and personalization tools, with choices for easy uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. Those that dabble in code can also explore that within Teachable. Users can easily get the slick look of a professional site by selecting from default themes which can be customized to satisfaction. Teachable’s editor makes it easy to create changes and push upsells, maximizing both user’s time and profitability.
Both have a drip content feature for those that want to space the lessons offered to their students, and avoid cramming modules in one go. What is unique to Teachable is advanced control over course compliance, such as keeping tabs on students’ completion of quizzes and lessons. Additionally, it has built-in certificates that users can create and send to their students at the conclusion of the lessons. In terms of integrations, Teachable has improved autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to marketing and sales.
Recommendation Canvas vs Teachable
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has excellent creation and builder tools for designing a slick course website, gives you control over your advertising and sales, has features that cut time and effort on backend paperwork, and provides the best value for money. With more upgrades and user feedback, they’re certain to be a trusted choice for years to come.