The current trend of consumer behaviour moving into online media is fast becoming the new normal for many industries. It’s not surprising that the same is true for non-traditional education via the multitude of online courses now available online. It has opened more avenues of learning beyond the classroom setting, and has enabled nearly anyone with an idea to share their knowledge.
Whether you want to teach your hobbies, or something related to your experience, there are many online course platforms (OCP) or learning management systems (LMS) that may help you get started. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like making 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 prospective 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 instructors, and after pitting it against its rivals, it is clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Teachable vs Mindvalley
Udemy was one of the leaders of LMS, which explains why and how their audience remains among the largest markets in the business: they were there . Udemy and Teachable are currently two of the most popular choices in selling online classes, but they are extremely different in nature and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to build their own course website and market their brand, while Udemy is simply a market for course 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 course, from content editing and building to sales, which are not 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 giving you access to student’s data and information; but once you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ data is theirs exclusively for whatever other purpose it may serve them. And in accordance with that, Udemy seems to care about selling courses, period; so it’s not just your classes, but every other class 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 might use the marketing, but from the viewpoint of a user, that business sense could seem overly spammy and unnecessary.
Marketing at a Price
It is Udemy’s cut-throat policies that have turned off several 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 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 huge chunk of control and revenue.
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 reasonable to others, particularly 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 in the company’s site. In addition to that, 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. 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 both of these policies, and have a course 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 massive audience that you may choose to tap into, the majority of the topics that 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 would say Teachable is the answer to many of Udemy’s shortcomings. In the long run, nothing is more satisfying than building your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Teachable vs Mindvalley
If you’re searching for an LMS that’s comparable to Teachable’s price, Thinkific is another terrific company that offers a lot for less. Both offer 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 costs extra for certain options that are already included in Teachable’s monthly flat rates. But, 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 is not all that they have in common. Both enable their users to create and sell personalized classes on their hosted platforms, without the bother of handling the technical aspects like website 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, including video, audio, 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 pupils.
Teachable vs Mindvalley
Convenience
One of the benefits of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s class builder: it allows bulk changes to courses, which may 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 linked to cloud providers, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for faster uploads from your PC.
In terms of course delivery, Teachable has an iOS app that enables pupils to learn on their mobile devices, which is something which Thinkific does not 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 goods, offer discounts and packages, or add 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 obsolete, 2-step processes like Thinkific’s). Additionally, it comes with a 1-click upsell upon checkout, raising transactions per customer. Another significant benefit 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), taking care of tax forms and similar documentation. If you 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 vs Mindvalley
One of the online course platforms with the most affordable 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 a result of 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 concentrate 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 classes lets users filter out other aspects that they might not need to dip into, such as e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and pretty good for novice instructors. That said, this is why it may not satisfy the needs of instructors who want to do more with their website. Since the variety isn’t much, more advanced users may find it lacking.
Course Creation and Control
Teachable defeats Podia in design and personalization tools, with choices for simple 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 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 drip content feature for those that want to space the lessons offered to their clients, and avoid cramming modules in 1 go. What is unique to Teachable is advanced control over course compliance, like keeping tabs on students’ completion of quizzes and lessons. Additionally, it has built-in certificates that users can create and send to their students at the end of the course. Concerning integrations, Teachable has better autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to marketing and sales.
Recommendation Teachable vs Mindvalley
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has excellent creation and builder tools for designing a sleek course website, gives you control over your advertising and sales, has features that cut 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 trusted choice for years to come.
