The current trend of consumer behavior moving into online media is quickly becoming the new standard for many industries. It’s not surprising that the same is true for non-traditional education via the multitude of online courses now available online. It has opened more avenues of learning beyond 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 expertise, 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 finding which one can transfer 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 for its balance of reasonable pricing, customizability, ease of use, and marketing control. Teachable is the leading choice of creative entrpreneurs, and after pitting it against its rivals, it’s clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Price Of Teachable vs Thinkific
Udemy was one of the leaders of LMS, which explains why and how their audience is still among the largest markets in the industry: they were there . Udemy and Teachable are currently two of the most popular options 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 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 customers return to Udemy.com. On another level, Teachable gives you tools to create and customize the entirety of your course, from content building and editing to sales, which are not at all 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 pupil’s data and information; but as soon as you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ data is theirs exclusively for whatever other purpose it may serve them. And in accordance with that, Udemy seems to care most about selling courses, period; therefore it is not just your courses, but every other class on their list. There have been testimonials that mentioned this, when even competitor’s courses have been promoted to students that the user brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who might use the marketing, 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 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 doesn’t 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 massive chunk of control and earnings.
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 revenues may still look sensible to others, especially to those whose classes were previously created for other purposes and were merely 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 put a cap on its costs, 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 is natural for some to turn away and look for better outlets for their ideas. If you combine both of these policies, and have a class priced at $20 and a 50% instructor revenue, selling on Udemy becomes nearly impossible as a dependable source of primary income.
So while it’s true that Udemy has a massive audience which you might choose to tap into, the majority of the topics which they offer are really quite limited to mostly 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 creating your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Price Of Teachable vs Thinkific
If you’re looking for an LMS that’s 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 for 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 which 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.
Beginner-Friendly
But pricing is not all they have in common. Both allow their users to create and sell personalized courses on their hosted platforms, without the hassle of handling the technical aspects like website maintenance, hosting, and security.
Newbies to the biz tend to gravitate toward these firms for their easy-to-use interface that 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 pupils.
Price Of Teachable vs Thinkific
Convenience
One of the benefits 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 few on their system; and it allows multi-format content in one lecture. What’s more is it can be linked to cloud providers, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for faster uploads from your devices.
In terms of course delivery, Teachable has an iOS app that permits pupils to learn on their mobile devices, which is something that Thinkific doesn’t 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 liberty to sell one-time or recurring goods, offer discounts and bundles, or add affiliate programs, but Teachable has more options. The real clincher is Teachable’s 1-step checkout process, which decreases customer fallout (which happens more during obsolete, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). It also includes a 1-click upsell upon checkout, raising transactions per client. Another significant advantage 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), 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 prices. That definitely gives you more value for your own content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Price Of Teachable vs Thinkific
One of the online course platforms with the most affordable 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 focus on Online Course Hosting, Membership or Email Marketing, and Digital Downloads. Those will immediately help you narrow down your choice to what is best suited to your needs.
Podia’s compact classes lets users filter out other aspects which they might 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 site. 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 easy uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. Those that dabble in code may also experiment with that within Teachable. Users can easily get the sleek look of a professional site by selecting from default themes that 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 the ones that want to space the lessons provided to their students, and avoid cramming modules in 1 go. What is unique to Teachable is advanced control over course compliance, like keeping tabs on students’ completion of lessons and quizzes. Additionally, it has built-in certification that users can make and send to their students at the end of the lessons. In terms of integrations, Teachable has improved autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to marketing and sales.
Recommendation Price Of Teachable vs Thinkific
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has exceptional creation and builder resources for designing a slick course website, gives you control over your marketing and sales, has attributes that reduce 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 many years to come.
