The current trend of consumer behaviour moving into online media is fast becoming the new standard for many industries. It’s no surprise that the same is true for non-traditional education via the multitude of online courses now available on the Internet. It has opened more avenues of learning outside the classroom setting, and has empowered nearly anyone with an idea to share 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) that can help you get started. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like making your site, while others focus mainly on helping you achieve your target audience. The 1st step is discovering which one can move your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your potential students.
With so many LMS to pick from, there is one company 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 Optimize Press vs Teachable
Udemy was among the leaders of LMS, which explains how and why their audience is still among the largest markets in the business: they were there . Udemy and Teachable are now two of the most popular choices in selling online courses, but they are very different in essence and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to construct their own course site and sell their brand, while Udemy is simply a market 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 customers return to Udemy.com. On another level, Teachable gives you tools to create and personalize the entirety of your site, from content editing and building to sales, which are not in any way possible on Udemy. Among the more immediate consequences of this is that Teachable lets you communicate more directly with your clientele, by providing you with access to pupil’s data and information; but as soon as you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ data is theirs alone for whatever other purpose it might serve them. And in line with this, Udemy seems to care about selling courses, period; therefore it is not only your courses, but every other class in their list. There have been testimonials that mentioned 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 point of view of a user, that business sense could seem too self-serving and unnecessary.
Marketing at a Price
It is Udemy’s cut-throat policies that have turned off several former or possible users. They seem 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 manner, Udemy markets their consumer’s courses aggressively, but with a substantial price. That price is a massive chunk of control and revenue.
Udemy started 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 seem sensible to others, particularly to those whose courses were previously created for other purposes and were merely shared more openly on Udemy, but that hurt a number of the instructors that were selling solely from the company’s site. On top of that, what have driven people over the edge are the limitations 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. That 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 thoughts. If you combine these two policies, and have a course priced at $20 and a 50% creator revenue, selling on Udemy becomes almost impossible as a reliable source of primary income.
So while it is true that Udemy has a large audience which you may want to tap into, most of the topics which they offer are really quite limited to mostly Technology and Personal Development. Consider that and 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 Optimize Press vs Teachable
If you’re looking for an LMS that is comparable to Teachable’s price, Thinkific is another great company that offers a lot for less. Both offer their first tier programs at no cost, and start charging for each higher tier thereafter. Many beginners choose Thinkific because of its generous waiving of transaction fees on any of its plans; however 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 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 on 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 that allows nearly all formats of content, such as audio, video, 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 track the progress of their pupils.
Optimize Press 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 those that have built quite a few on their system; also it allows multi-format content in one lecture. What’s more is it can be linked to cloud services, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for quicker uploads from your computer.
Concerning course delivery, Teachable has an iOS app that enables students to learn on their mobile devices, which is something that Thinkific doesn’t have.
Sales and Marketing
Following the content creation comes the selling and marketing of your courses. This is where Teachable wins by a landslide. Both give the liberty to sell one-time or recurring products, offer discounts and packages, or add affiliate programs, but Teachable has more choices. The real clincher is Teachable’s 1-step checkout procedure, which decreases customer fallout (which occurs more during obsolete, 2-step processes like Thinkific’s). Additionally, it comes with a 1-click upsell upon checkout, increasing transactions per client. Another major 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 own content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Optimize Press vs Teachable
One of the online class platforms with the cheapest 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 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 instantly help you narrow down your choice to what is best suited to your needs.
Podia’s streamlined categories lets users filter out other aspects which they might not have to dip into, such as e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and pretty good for novice instructors. Having said that, this is why it may not satisfy the needs of instructors who want to do more with their site. 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 options for easy uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. The ones 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 liking. Teachable’s editor makes it effortless to create changes and push upsells, maximizing both user’s time and profitability.
Both have a trickle content attribute for those that want to space the lessons provided to their clients, and prevent cramming modules in 1 go. What is unique to Teachable is innovative control over course compliance, such as keeping tabs on students’ completion of quizzes and lessons. It also has built-in certification that users can create and send to their clients at the end of the course. In terms of integrations, Teachable has improved autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to sales and marketing.
Recommendation Optimize Press 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 site, 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 upgrades and user feedback, they are guaranteed to be a trusted choice for years to come.
