The current trend of consumer behavior moving into online media is quickly becoming the new normal for many industries. 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 want to teach your hobbies, or something associated with your experience, there are many online course platforms (OCP) or learning management systems (LMS) which can help you begin. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like making your website, while others focus mainly on helping you achieve your target audience. The 1st step is finding which one can move your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your prospective students.
With all these LMS to choose from, there is 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 instructors, and after pitting it against its competitors, it is clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Teachable Competitors
Udemy was among the pioneers of LMS, which explains why and how their audience is still among the largest markets in the industry: they were there first. Udemy and Teachable are now two of the most popular choices in selling online courses, but they’re very distinct in nature and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to construct their own course site and sell their brand, while Udemy is merely a marketplace for class creators that have existing classes. At the very 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 customize the entirety of your site, from content building and editing to sales, which aren’t in any way possible on Udemy. Among 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 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 this, Udemy seems to care most about selling classes, period; so it’s not only your classes, but every other class on their listing. There have been testimonials that said this, when even competitor’s classes are promoted to students that the instructor brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who could need 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 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 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 substantial 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, particularly 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 that were selling solely from the corporation’s site. On top of that, what have driven people over the edge are the restrictions on pricing. In 2016, Udemy set 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’s 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% creator revenue, selling on Udemy becomes almost impossible as a reliable source of primary income.
So while it’s true that Udemy has a massive audience that you might choose to tap into, the majority of the topics which they offer are actually very limited to mostly Technology and Personal Development. Consider their dog-eat-dog advertising strategies and absorption of your brand’s identity, I’d say Teachable is the answer to many of Udemy’s shortcomings. In the long run, there is nothing more satisfying than building your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Teachable Competitors
If you’re searching for an LMS that is comparable to Teachable’s cost, Thinkific is another great company that offers a great deal 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 reveal that it charges extra for certain options which 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 two.
Beginner-Friendly
But pricing isn’t all that 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 tend to gravitate toward these firms for their easy-to-use interface which allows nearly all formats of content, such as video, audio, PDFs, and other multimedia. Most of these can be uploaded into 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.
Teachable Competitors
Convenience
One of the benefits of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s course builder: it allows bulk changes to classes, which can be a huge time-saver, especially for those 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 connected to cloud providers, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for faster uploads from your PC.
Concerning course delivery, Teachable has an iOS application that permits pupils to learn on their mobile devices, which is something which Thinkific doesn’t have.
Sales and Marketing
After the content creation comes the selling and promotion of your classes. 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 choices. The real clincher is Teachable’s 1-step checkout process, which reduces customer fallout (which occurs more during outdated, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). Additionally, it comes with a 1-click upsell upon checkout, raising transactions per customer. Another major 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), 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 Teachable Competitors
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 offered 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 chose 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 compact categories lets users filter out other aspects that they may not need to dip into, like e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and fairly great for novice instructors. Having said that, this is why it may not satisfy the needs of creators who want to do more with their site. Since the variety is not 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. Those that dabble in code can also experiment with that within Teachable. Users can easily get the sleek look of a professional site 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 offered to their clients, and prevent cramming modules in 1 go. What’s unique to Teachable is innovative control over course compliance, like keeping tabs on students’ completion of lessons and quizzes. It also has built-in certificates that users can make and send to their clients at the conclusion of the lessons. In terms of integrations, Teachable has improved autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to sales and marketing.
Recommendation Teachable Competitors
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 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 company for years to come.
