The present trend of consumer behavior moving into online media is quickly becoming the new standard for many businesses. It’s no surprise 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 related to 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 website, 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 all these LMS to choose from, there is one firm that has stood out for 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 is clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Teachable Free vs Paid
Udemy was among the pioneers of LMS, which explains how and why their audience is still among the biggest markets in the business: they were there first. Udemy and Teachable are currently two of the most popular options in selling online courses, but they’re extremely different in essence and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to build 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 course, from content editing and building to sales, which aren’t at all possible on Udemy. One of the more immediate consequences of this is that Teachable lets you 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 this, Udemy seems to care about selling courses, period; so it is not just your classes, but every other class in their listing. There have been testimonials that mentioned 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 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 possible 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 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, especially to those whose classes were previously created for different purposes and were merely shared more publicly on Udemy, but that hurt a number of the instructors that were selling solely from the corporation’s site. On top of this, what have driven people over the edge are the restrictions on pricing. In 2016, Udemy put a cap on its prices, 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 these two policies, and have a class priced at $20 and a 50% instructor revenue, selling on Udemy becomes nearly impossible as a reliable source of primary income.
So while it’s true that Udemy has a large audience that you may choose to tap into, the majority of the topics which they offer are really quite limited to mostly Technology and Personal Development. Consider their dog-eat-dog marketing 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, nothing is more satisfying than creating your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Teachable Free vs Paid
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 provide 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 any 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 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 isn’t all that they have in common. Both allow their users to create and sell personalized courses in their hosted platforms, without the hassle of handling the technical aspects like site maintenance, hosting, and security.
Newbies to the biz tend 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 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 Free vs Paid
Convenience
One of the advantages of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s class builder: it allows bulk changes to classes, which can be an enormous time-saver, especially for those 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 services, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for faster uploads from your devices.
Concerning course delivery, Teachable has an iOS application that permits students to learn on their mobile devices, which is something which Thinkific doesn’t have.
Sales and Marketing
Following 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 products, offer discounts and packages, or affiliate programs, but Teachable has more options. The real clincher is Teachable’s 1-step checkout procedure, which decreases customer fallout (which happens more during outdated, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). It also includes a 1-click upsell upon checkout, raising transactions per customer. Another major advantage 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 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 Teachable Free vs Paid
Among the online class 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 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 seller, 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’s best suited for you.
Podia’s compact classes lets users filter out other aspects which they may not need to dip into, such as e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and pretty good for novice instructors. Having said that, this is also why it may not satisfy the needs of creators who want to do more with their website. Since the variety is not much, more advanced users may find it lacking.
Course Creation and Control
Teachable beats Podia in design and customization tools, with choices for simple uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. Those that dabble in code may also explore that within Teachable. Users can easily get the sleek look of a professional site by selecting from default themes that 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 trickle content attribute for those that want to space the lessons provided to their students, and prevent cramming modules in one go. What is unique to Teachable is innovative control over course compliance, such as keeping tabs on students’ completion of lessons and quizzes. Additionally, it has built-in certification that users can make and send to their clients at the end of the lessons. In terms of integrations, Teachable has better autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to sales and marketing.
Recommendation Teachable Free vs Paid
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has exceptional creation and builder tools for designing a slick course website, gives you control over your advertising and sales, has features that cut time and effort on backend paperwork, and gives the best value for money. With more upgrades and user feedback, they’re guaranteed to be a trusted company for many years to come.
