The current trend of consumer behaviour moving into online media is quickly becoming the new standard for many businesses. It’s no surprise that the exact same is true for unconventional education through the multitude of online courses now available on the Internet. This 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 want to teach your hobbies, or something related to your experience, there are many online course platforms (OCP) or learning management systems (LMS) which may help you begin. Some OCPs will offer services from scratch, like making your site, while others focus mainly on helping you achieve your target audience. The 1st step is discovering which one can move your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your prospective students.
With so many LMS to pick from, there is one company that has stood out because of 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 Website Examples
Udemy was one of the pioneers of LMS, which explains why and how their audience remains among the largest markets in the business: they were there first. Udemy and Teachable are now two of the most popular choices in selling online courses, but they are extremely different in essence and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to construct their own course website and market their brand, while Udemy is merely a market for class creators that have existing courses. 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 aren’t at all possible on Udemy. One of the more immediate consequences of this is that Teachable allows you to 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’ information 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 just your classes, but every other class on their listing. There have been testimonials that said this, when even competitor’s classes have been promoted to clients that the instructor brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who could use the advertising, but from the point of view 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 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 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 significant price. That price is a huge chunk of control and revenue.
Udemy began 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 look sensible to others, particularly to those whose classes were previously created for other purposes and were merely shared more openly on Udemy, but that hurt many of the instructors who were selling solely from the corporation’s site. In addition to this, what have driven people over the edge are the limitations on pricing. In 2016, Udemy set a cap on its prices, and all classes on the system had to be within the $20-$50 range. That is regardless of the uniqueness or skillfulness of a program, 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 course priced at $20 and a 50% creator 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 that you might want to tap into, the majority of the topics which they offer are actually quite limited to mostly Technology and Personal Development. Consider their dog-eat-dog advertising strategies and absorption of your brand’s identity, I’d say Teachable is the answer to many of Udemy’s shortcomings. In the end, nothing is more satisfying than creating your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Teachable Website Examples
If you’re searching for an LMS that is comparable to Teachable’s price, Thinkific is another terrific company that offers a great deal for less. Both offer their first tier programs for free, and start charging for every higher tier thereafter. Many beginners choose Thinkific for 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 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 is not all 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 companies for their easy-to-use interface which allows nearly all formats of content, such as audio, video, PDFs, and other multimedia. Most of these can be uploaded to the site with a simple drag and drop builder. They can host unlimited videos, create quizzes, send certificates, and monitor the progress of their students.
Teachable Website Examples
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 the ones 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 connected to cloud services, like Dropbox and Google Drive, for quicker uploads from your PC.
Concerning course delivery, Teachable has an iOS app that permits students to learn on their mobile devices, which is something that Thinkific does not 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 freedom to sell one-time or recurring goods, offer discounts and bundles, or 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 obsolete, 2-step processes like Thinkific’s). It also includes 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. If you 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 to your own content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Teachable Website Examples
One of the online class 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 could be due to the vastly different things they each offer. On the one hand, Teachable is a fully customizable class creator and vendor, and on the other, Podia decided 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 that they may not have to dip into, like e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and fairly great for novice instructors. That said, this is why it may not meet 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 choices for easy uploads of files, texts, and quizzes. Those that dabble in code may 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 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 those that want to space the lessons offered 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. It also has built-in certification that users can make 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 Website Examples
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has excellent creation and builder resources for designing a slick course website, gives you control over your advertising and sales, has attributes that reduce time and effort on backend paperwork, and provides the best value for money. With more upgrades and user feedback, they’re certain to be a reliable company for years to come.
