The current trend of consumer behaviour moving into online media is quickly becoming the new normal for many industries. It’s not surprising that the same is true for unconventional education via the multitude of online courses now available online. This has opened more avenues of learning beyond the classroom setting, and has empowered nearly anyone with an idea to talk about their knowledge.
Whether you want 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 creating your website, while others focus mainly on helping you achieve your target audience. The 1st step is finding which one can transfer your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your potential students.
With so many 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 leading choice of creative entrpreneurs, and after pitting it against its rivals, it is clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Teachable or Udemy
Udemy was among the pioneers of LMS, which explains how and why their audience is still among the largest markets in the industry: they were there . Udemy and Teachable are now two of the most popular options in selling online courses, but they’re extremely distinct in nature 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 courses. At the surface, this means that Teachable lets you use your custom domain while Udemy will have your clients keep coming back 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 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 giving you access to pupil’s data and information; but once you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ data is theirs alone for whatever other purpose it might serve them. And in accordance with that, Udemy seems to care most about selling classes, period; so it is not only your classes, but every other course in their list. There have been testimonials that said this, when even competitor’s classes are promoted to clients that the user brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who might use the advertising, but from the viewpoint of a user, that business sense could seem too self-serving and unnecessary.
Marketing at a Price
It is Udemy’s cut-throat policies which have turned off several former or possible users. They seem to know the very value of their following, and have taken advantage of it, much to the detriment of the lecturer. True, Teachable does not market the courses for its own 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 began 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 look 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 many of the instructors that were selling solely in the company’s site. On top of 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 needed to be within the $20-$50 range. That is regardless of the uniqueness or skillfulness of a program, and it is 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 almost impossible as a reliable source of primary income.
So while it is true that Udemy has a massive audience which 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 that and their dog-eat-dog marketing strategies and absorption of your brand’s identity, I’d say Teachable is the response to many of Udemy’s shortcomings. In the end, there is nothing more satisfying than building your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Teachable or Udemy
If you’re searching for an LMS that’s comparable to Teachable’s cost, Thinkific is another great company that offers a lot for less. Both provide their first tier programs for free, and start charging for each higher tier thereafter. Many beginners choose Thinkific for its generous waiving of transaction fees on all of its plans; but a closer look at the fine print will reveal that it charges extra for certain features that 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 two.
Beginner-Friendly
But pricing isn’t all that they have in common. Both enable their users to create and sell personalized courses on their hosted platforms, without the hassle of handling the technical aspects like site 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 monitor the progress of their students.
Teachable or Udemy
Convenience
Among the advantages of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s class builder: it allows bulk changes to classes, which may be a huge time-saver, especially for the ones that have built quite a few on their system; also it allows multi-format content in 1 lecture. What’s more is it can be linked to cloud providers, like Dropbox and Google Drive, for faster uploads from your computer.
Concerning course delivery, Teachable has an iOS app that enables pupils 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 promotion of your courses. This is where Teachable wins by a landslide. Both give the liberty to sell one time or recurring goods, offer discounts and packages, or 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 outdated, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). Additionally, it comes with a 1-click upsell upon checkout, increasing transactions per customer. 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 authors (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 content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Teachable or Udemy
One of the online course 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 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 class 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 that they might 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 meet 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 personalization tools, with options for easy uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. Those that dabble in code can also explore that within Teachable. Users can easily get the slick look of a professional site by choosing from default themes that can be customized to satisfaction. 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 the ones that would like to space the lessons offered to their students, and avoid cramming modules in 1 go. What is unique to Teachable is innovative control over course compliance, such as keeping tabs on students’ completion of lessons and quizzes. It also has built-in certificates that users can create and send to their clients at the conclusion of the lessons. In terms of integrations, Teachable has better autoresponders and analytics, both of which are extremely important to sales and marketing.
Recommendation Teachable or Udemy
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 advertising and sales, has features that cut time and effort on backend paperwork, and gives the best value for money. With more updates and user feedback, they’re guaranteed to be a trusted choice for years to come.
