The present trend of consumer behavior moving into online media is quickly becoming the new standard for many industries. It’s not surprising that the exact same is true for unconventional education through the multitude of online courses now available online. 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 wish to teach your hobbies, or something associated with your expertise, there are many online course platforms (OCP) or learning management systems (LMS) which may help you begin. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like creating your website, while others focus mainly on assisting you to reach your target audience. The 1st step is discovering which one can transfer your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your prospective students.
With so many LMS to choose from, there is one company that has stood out for its balance of reasonable pricing, customizability, ease of use, and marketing control. Teachable is the leading choice of instructors, and after pitting it against its competitors, it’s clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Fedora vs Teachable
Udemy was one of the pioneers of LMS, which explains how and why their audience remains among the biggest markets in the business: they were there first. Udemy and Teachable are currently two of the most popular options in selling online courses, but they are extremely distinct in essence and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to construct their own course site and sell their brand, while Udemy is merely a marketplace for course creators that have existing classes. At the surface, this means that Teachable lets you 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 editing and building to sales, which are not at all possible on Udemy. One of the more immediate consequences of this is that Teachable lets you 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 accordance with this, Udemy seems to care about selling courses, period; therefore it’s not only your classes, but every other class in their listing. There have been testimonials that said this, when even competitor’s classes have been promoted to clients that the instructor brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who might use the advertising, but from the point of view of a loyal user, that business sense could seem overly spammy and unnecessary.
Marketing at a Price
It is Udemy’s cut-throat policies which have turned off several former or potential 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 promote the courses for its users, that responsibility is left entirely to them. In an extreme manner, Udemy markets their consumer’s courses aggressively, but with a significant 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 earnings may still look 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 a number of the instructors who were selling solely from 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 classes 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 these two policies, and have a course priced at $20 and a 50% creator revenue, selling on Udemy becomes nearly impossible as a reliable source of primary income.
So while it is true that Udemy has a massive audience that you may choose to tap into, the majority of the topics which they offer are actually quite limited to largely Technology and Personal Development. Consider their dog-eat-dog marketing strategies and absorption of your brand’s identity, I’d 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 Fedora vs Teachable
If you’re looking for an LMS that is comparable to Teachable’s cost, Thinkific is another terrific company that offers a great deal for less. Both provide their first tier plans at no cost, and start charging for every higher tier thereafter. Many beginners choose Thinkific because of its generous waiving of transaction fees on all of its plans; but a closer look at the fine print will show that it costs extra for certain options that are already included in Teachable’s monthly flat prices. However, those deviations are somewhat negligible, and with a range from $0-$499 per month, you can’t go wrong with either of these two.
Beginner-Friendly
But pricing isn’t all that they have in common. Both allow their users to create and sell personalized courses on their hosted platforms, without the bother of handling the technical aspects like site maintenance, hosting, and security.
Newbies to the biz have a tendency to gravitate toward these firms for their easy-to-use interface which allows nearly all formats of content, including audio, video, 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 students.
Fedora vs Teachable
Convenience
One of the benefits of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s class builder: it allows bulk changes to classes, which can be a huge time-saver, especially for the ones that have built quite a number on their system; and it allows multi-format content in 1 lecture. What’s more is it can be linked to cloud services, like Dropbox and Google Drive, for quicker uploads from your PC.
In terms of course delivery, Teachable has an iOS app that permits pupils to learn on their mobile devices, which is something which Thinkific does not have.
Sales and Marketing
Following the content production comes the selling and marketing of your courses. This is where Teachable wins by a landslide. Both give the freedom to sell one-time or recurring products, offer discounts and packages, or add affiliate programs, but Teachable has more options. The real clincher is Teachable’s 1-step checkout procedure, which decreases customer fallout (which occurs more during outdated, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). Additionally, it includes a 1-click upsell upon checkout, increasing transactions per customer. Another significant benefit 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. For those who have users from the EU, it even goes as far as including EU VAT on top of course rates. That definitely gives you more value for your own content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Fedora vs Teachable
One of the online class 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 could be due to the vastly different things they each offer. On the one hand, Teachable is a fully customizable course creator and seller, and on the other, Podia decided to concentrate 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 to your needs.
Podia’s streamlined classes lets users filter out other aspects that they may not have to dip into, such as e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and fairly good for novice instructors. That said, this is 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 beats Podia in design and personalization tools, with options for simple uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. The ones that dabble in code may also explore that within Teachable. Users can easily get the sleek look of a professional website by selecting from default themes which can be customized to liking. 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 provided to their students, and prevent cramming modules in one go. What’s unique to Teachable is advanced control over course compliance, such as keeping tabs on students’ completion of quizzes and lessons. It also has built-in certificates that users can create and send to their students at the conclusion of the course. In terms of integrations, Teachable has better autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to sales and marketing.
Recommendation Fedora vs Teachable
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has exceptional creation and builder resources for designing a sleek course site, gives you control over your advertising and sales, has features that cut time and effort on backend paperwork, and gives the best value for money. With more updates and user feedback, they’re certain to be a trusted company for many years to come.
