The current trend of consumer behaviour moving into online media is quickly becoming the new normal for many businesses. It’s not surprising that the exact same is true for non-traditional 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 share their knowledge.
Whether you wish to teach your hobbies, or something associated with your experience, there are lots of online course platforms (OCP) or learning management systems (LMS) which can help you get started. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like making your website, while others focus mainly on assisting you to achieve your target audience. The 1st step is discovering which one can move your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your prospective students.
With so many LMS to choose from, there’s one firm that has stood out because of its balance of reasonable pricing, customizability, ease of use, and marketing control. Teachable is the top choice of creative entrpreneurs, and after pitting it against its competitors, it’s clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Hotmart vs Teachable
Udemy was one of the pioneers 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 options in selling online classes, but they are extremely different in essence and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to build their own course site and market their brand, while Udemy is merely a marketplace for class creators that have existing courses. At the very surface, this means that Teachable allows you to use your custom domain while Udemy will have your customers return 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 aren’t 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 providing you with access to student’s data and information; but once you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ data is theirs alone for whatever other purpose it may serve them. And in accordance with that, Udemy seems to care most about selling classes, period; therefore it is not just your classes, but every other class on their listing. There have been testimonials that said this, when even competitor’s courses are promoted to students that the user brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who could use the advertising, but from the viewpoint of a loyal 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 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 does not promote the courses for its own users, that responsibility is left entirely to them. In an extreme manner, Udemy markets their user’s courses aggressively, but with a substantial price. That price is a huge chunk of control and revenue.
Udemy started with a 90% instructor 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 look sensible to others, especially to those whose courses were previously created for other purposes and were only shared more openly on Udemy, but that hurt a number of the instructors who were selling solely from the company’s site. In addition to that, what have driven people over the edge are the limitations on pricing. In 2016, Udemy set a cap on its prices, and all courses on the system needed to be within the $20-$50 range. That is regardless of the uniqueness or skillfulness of a program, and it’s natural for some to turn away and look for better outlets for their thoughts. If you combine these two policies, and have a class priced at $20 and a 50% creator revenue, selling on Udemy becomes nearly impossible as a dependable source of primary income.
So while it’s true that Udemy has a large audience which you might choose to tap into, most of the topics which they offer are actually quite limited to largely Technology and Personal Development. Consider their dog-eat-dog advertising 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, there is nothing more satisfying than creating your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Hotmart vs Teachable
If you’re searching for an LMS that’s comparable to Teachable’s price, Thinkific is another great company that offers a great deal 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 any of its plans; but a closer look at the fine print will show that it charges extra for certain features 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 really can’t go wrong with either of these two.
Beginner-Friendly
But pricing is not all they have in common. Both enable their users to create and sell personalized classes in 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 companies for their easy-to-use interface that allows nearly all formats of content, including video, audio, PDFs, and other multimedia. Most of these can be uploaded to the site by a simple drag and drop builder. They can host unlimited videos, create quizzes, send certificates, and monitor the progress of their pupils.
Hotmart vs Teachable
Convenience
Among the benefits of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s class builder: it allows bulk changes to classes, which may 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 providers, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for faster 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
After 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 goods, 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 happens more during outdated, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). It also comes with a 1-click upsell upon checkout, increasing transactions per customer. Another significant benefit is Teachable’s payment gateway which accepts credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay payments. Another service included is the automated payout to affiliates and writers (when applicable), taking care of 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 own content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Hotmart vs Teachable
One of the online course platforms with the most affordable top tier is Podia. Though it does not 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 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 categories lets users filter out other aspects that they may not have to dip into, such as e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and pretty great for novice instructors. Having said that, this is why it may not meet the needs of creators who wish to do more with their site. Since the variety isn’t much, more advanced users may find it lacking.
Course Creation and Control
Teachable beats Podia in design and customization tools, with options for easy uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. The ones that dabble in code may also experiment with that within Teachable. Users can easily get the sleek look of a professional site by choosing from default themes which can be customized to liking. Teachable’s editor makes it effortless to create changes and push upsells, maximizing both user’s time and profitability.
Both have a drip content feature for the ones that want to space the lessons provided to their clients, and avoid cramming modules in 1 go. What is unique to Teachable is innovative control over course compliance, like keeping tabs on students’ completion of lessons and quizzes. It also has built-in certification that users can make and send to their clients at the end of the lessons. Concerning integrations, Teachable has better autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to sales and marketing.
Recommendation Hotmart vs Teachable
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has excellent creation and builder resources for designing a sleek course site, gives you control over your advertising and sales, has attributes that cut time and effort on backend paperwork, and gives the best value for money. With more upgrades and user feedback, they’re certain to be a trusted choice for many years to come.
