The present trend of consumer behavior moving into online media is quickly becoming the new standard for many industries. It’s no surprise that the 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 outside the classroom setting, and has empowered nearly anyone with an idea to talk about 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) which can help you begin. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like creating your site, while others focus mainly on assisting you to achieve your target audience. The 1st step is finding which one can transfer your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your potential students.
With all these LMS to choose from, there’s 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’s clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Teachable South Dakota vs Wayfair
Udemy was one of the leaders of LMS, which explains how and why their audience remains 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’re very distinct in nature and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to build their own course site and sell their brand, while Udemy is simply a marketplace 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 clients 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 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 giving you access to student’s data and information; but once you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ information is theirs alone for whatever other purpose it might serve them. And in accordance with that, Udemy seems to care most about selling courses, period; so it’s not just your classes, but every other course in their list. There have been testimonials that mentioned this, when even competitor’s classes are promoted to students that the user brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who could need the marketing, but from the viewpoint of a loyal 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 many 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 users, that responsibility is left entirely to them. In an extreme manner, Udemy markets their user’s courses aggressively, but with a substantial price. That price is a huge 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 look 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 a number of the instructors who were selling solely in the company’s site. On top of this, what have driven people over the edge are the limitations on pricing. In 2016, Udemy put a cap on its prices, and all classes on the system needed 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 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’s true that Udemy has a large audience which you may want 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 advertising strategies and absorption of your brand’s identity, I would 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 South Dakota vs Wayfair
If you’re looking for an LMS that’s comparable to Teachable’s cost, Thinkific is another terrific company that offers a lot for less. Both offer 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 any of its plans; but 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 prices. But, those deviations are somewhat negligible, and with a range from $0-$499 per month, you 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 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 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.
Teachable South Dakota vs Wayfair
Convenience
One of the advantages 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 few on their system; also it allows multi-format content in one lecture. What’s more is it can be connected to cloud services, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for faster uploads from your devices.
In terms of course delivery, Teachable has an iOS application that permits students 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 promotion of your classes. This is where Teachable wins by a landslide. Both give the freedom to sell one-time or recurring products, offer discounts and bundles, or add affiliate programs, but Teachable has more options. 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). Additionally, it includes a 1-click upsell upon checkout, raising transactions per customer. Another significant benefit is Teachable’s payment gateway which 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 rates. That definitely gives you more value for your content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Teachable South Dakota vs Wayfair
One of the online course 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 can 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 immediately help you narrow down your choice to what’s best suited for you.
Podia’s compact categories lets users filter out other aspects which they might not have 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 meet the needs of instructors 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 choices for simple uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. Those that dabble in code may also experiment with that within Teachable. Users can easily get the slick look of a professional website by selecting from default themes which 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 drip content feature for the ones that want to space the lessons offered to their clients, and avoid cramming modules in one go. What is unique to Teachable is innovative control over course compliance, such as keeping tabs on students’ completion of quizzes and lessons. It also has built-in certification that users can create and send to their clients at the conclusion of the course. Concerning integrations, Teachable has better autoresponders and analytics, both of which are extremely important to marketing and sales.
Recommendation Teachable South Dakota vs Wayfair
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has excellent creation and builder tools for designing a slick course website, gives you control over your marketing and sales, has attributes that cut time and effort on backend paperwork, and provides the best value for money. With more updates and user feedback, they’re guaranteed to be a reliable company for many years to come.
