The present 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 outside the classroom setting, and has enabled nearly anyone with an idea to share their knowledge.
Whether you wish to teach your hobbies, or something related to your experience, there are lots of online course platforms (OCP) or learning management systems (LMS) that may help you get started. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like creating your site, 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 potential students.
With so many LMS to choose from, there’s 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 is clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Moodle vs Teachable
Udemy was among the leaders of LMS, which explains why and how their audience is still among the largest markets in the business: they were there . Udemy and Teachable are currently two of the most popular choices in selling online classes, but they are very distinct in essence and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to build their own course site and sell their brand, while Udemy is simply a marketplace for course creators that have existing courses. 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 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 pupil’s data and information; but once you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ information is theirs exclusively for whatever other purpose it might serve them. And in line with that, Udemy seems to care about selling classes, period; therefore it’s not just your classes, but every other course in their listing. There have been testimonials that mentioned this, when even competitor’s classes have been promoted to clients that the user 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 potential users. They appear to be aware of 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 users, that responsibility is left entirely to them. In an extreme fashion, Udemy markets their user’s courses aggressively, but with a substantial price. That price is a huge chunk of control and earnings.
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 classes were previously created for different purposes and were merely shared more openly on Udemy, but that hurt many of the instructors that were selling solely in the company’s site. In addition to this, what have driven people over the edge are the limitations on pricing. In 2016, Udemy put a cap on its prices, and all courses on the system had 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 both of these policies, and have a course priced at $20 and a 50% instructor revenue, selling on Udemy becomes nearly impossible as a dependable source of primary income.
So while it is true that Udemy has a massive audience which you might choose to tap into, most of the topics which they offer are really very limited to largely Technology and Personal Development. Consider that and their dog-eat-dog marketing strategies and absorption of your brand’s identity, I would say Teachable is the answer to many of Udemy’s shortcomings. In the long run, nothing is more satisfying than building your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Moodle vs Teachable
If you’re searching for an LMS that is comparable to Teachable’s price, Thinkific is another terrific company that offers a lot for less. Both provide their first tier programs 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; however a closer look at the fine print will show that it costs extra for certain features that are already included in Teachable’s monthly flat rates. 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.
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 have a tendency to gravitate toward these companies for their easy-to-use interface which allows nearly all formats of content, such as video, audio, PDFs, and other multimedia. The majority of these can be uploaded to the courses by a simple drag and drop builder. They can host unlimited videos, create quizzes, send certificates, and monitor the progress of their students.
Moodle vs Teachable
Convenience
One of the advantages of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s course builder: it allows bulk changes to classes, which may be an enormous time-saver, especially for the ones that have built quite a number on their system; also it allows multi-format content in 1 lecture. What’s more is it can be connected to cloud providers, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for faster uploads from your computer.
In terms of course delivery, Teachable has an iOS application that permits students to learn on their mobile devices, which is something that Thinkific does not have.
Sales and Marketing
Following the content production comes the selling and promotion of your classes. This is where Teachable wins by a landslide. Both give the liberty to sell one time or recurring goods, offer discounts and packages, or add affiliate programs, but Teachable has more choices. The real clincher is Teachable’s 1-step checkout procedure, which reduces customer fallout (which occurs more during obsolete, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). Additionally, it includes a 1-click upsell upon checkout, raising transactions per customer. Another major benefit is Teachable’s payment gateway that accepts credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay payments. Another service included is the automatic payout to affiliates and authors (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 rates. That definitely gives you more value to your own content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Moodle 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 a result of the vastly different things they each offer. On the one hand, Teachable is a fully customizable class creator and vendor, and on the other, Podia decided to focus on Online Course Hosting, Membership or Email Marketing, and Digital Downloads. Those will instantly help you narrow down your choice to what is best suited for you.
Podia’s streamlined classes lets users filter out other aspects which they may not need to dip into, like e-commerce. Its interface is easy, clean, and pretty great for novice instructors. That said, this is also why it may not satisfy the needs of creators who wish to do more with their website. Since the variety isn’t much, more advanced users may find it lacking.
Course Creation and Control
Teachable defeats Podia in design and customization tools, with choices 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 satisfaction. 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 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 lessons and quizzes. Additionally, it has built-in certificates that users can make and send to their students at the end of the course. Concerning integrations, Teachable has improved autoresponders and analytics, both of which are extremely important to marketing and sales.
Recommendation Moodle vs Teachable
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has exceptional creation and builder tools for designing a sleek course website, gives you control over your marketing and sales, has features that cut time and effort on backend paperwork, and provides the best value for money. With more updates and user feedback, they’re guaranteed to be a trusted choice for years to come.
