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 online. This 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 related to your expertise, 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 creating 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 potential students.
With so many LMS to pick from, there is one company that has stood out for 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 rivals, it is clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Teachable Membership Site
Udemy was among the pioneers 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 classes, but they are extremely distinct in essence and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to build their own course site and market their brand, while Udemy is simply a marketplace for class creators that have existing classes. At the very surface, this means that Teachable allows you to use your custom domain while Udemy will have your clients return to Udemy.com. On another level, Teachable gives you tools to create and personalize the entirety of your site, from content building and editing to sales, which are not in any way 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 pupil’s data and information; but once you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ information is theirs alone for whatever other purpose it may serve them. And in line with that, Udemy seems to care most about selling courses, period; therefore it is not just your classes, but every other class in their listing. There have been testimonials that mentioned this, when even competitor’s courses are promoted to students that the user brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who might need the marketing, 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 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 market the courses for its own users, that responsibility is left entirely to them. In an extreme fashion, Udemy markets their consumer’s courses aggressively, but with a significant price. That price is a massive 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 seem sensible to others, especially to those whose courses were previously created for different purposes and were merely shared more openly on Udemy, but that hurt many of the instructors who were selling solely from 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. 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 thoughts. If you combine these two policies, and have a course 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 which you may choose to tap into, most of the topics which they offer are actually quite limited to largely Technology and Personal Development. Consider 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 end, nothing is more satisfying than creating your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Teachable Membership Site
If you’re searching for an LMS that’s comparable to Teachable’s cost, Thinkific is another terrific company that offers a great deal for less. Both provide their first tier programs for free, 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; but a closer look at the fine print will reveal that it charges 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 can’t go wrong with either of these two.
Beginner-Friendly
But pricing isn’t all that they have in common. Both allow their users to create and sell personalized classes on their hosted platforms, without the hassle of handling the technical aspects like website maintenance, hosting, and security.
Newbies to the biz have a tendency to gravitate toward these firms for their easy-to-use interface that allows nearly all formats of content, including video, audio, PDFs, and other multimedia. The majority 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 track the progress of their pupils.
Teachable Membership Site
Convenience
Among the benefits of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s class builder: it allows bulk changes to courses, which can be a huge time-saver, especially for those that have built quite a few on their system; and it allows multi-format content in 1 lecture. What’s more is it can be connected to cloud services, like Dropbox and Google Drive, for quicker uploads from your devices.
Concerning course delivery, Teachable has an iOS application that enables pupils to learn on their mobile devices, which is something that Thinkific doesn’t have.
Sales and Marketing
Following the content production comes the selling and promotion of your courses. This is where Teachable wins by a landslide. Both give the freedom 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 process, which reduces customer fallout (which occurs more during outdated, 2-step processes like Thinkific’s). It also includes a 1-click upsell upon checkout, raising transactions per client. Another major 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 authors (when applicable), taking care of 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 Membership Site
One of 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 can 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’s best suited to your needs.
Podia’s compact categories lets users filter out other aspects which they may not need to dip into, like e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and fairly good for novice instructors. Having said that, this is why it may not satisfy the needs of instructors who wish to do more with their website. 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 simple uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. Those that dabble in code may also explore that within Teachable. Users can easily get the slick look of a professional website by selecting from default themes that 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 trickle content attribute for the ones that would like to space the lessons provided to their clients, and prevent cramming modules in 1 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 create and send to their students 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 Membership Site
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has excellent creation and builder resources for designing a slick course site, 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 updates and user feedback, they’re certain to be a reliable company for many years to come.
