The present trend of consumer behavior 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 online. It has opened more avenues of learning beyond 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 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 assisting you to reach your target audience. The 1st step is discovering which one can transfer your ideas seamlessly onto the screens of your potential students.
With all these LMS to pick from, there’s one company that has stood out because of 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’s clear why.
Teachable vs Udemy Thinkific vs Teachable vs Learndash
Udemy was one of the leaders of LMS, which explains how and why their audience is still among the biggest markets in the business: they were there first. Udemy and Teachable are currently two of the most popular options in selling online courses, but they are extremely distinct in essence and progressiveness.
Differences
Teachable allows users to build their own course website and market their brand, while Udemy is simply a market 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 keep coming back 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. Among 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 as soon as you’re on Udemy’s platform, your students’ information is theirs alone for whatever other purpose it might serve them. And in line with this, Udemy seems to care most about selling classes, period; therefore it is not only your classes, but every other class on their listing. There have been testimonials that said this, when even competitor’s courses have been promoted to students that the instructor brought in. Sure, that may work in favor of newer users who could use the marketing, but from the point of view of a user, that business sense could seem overly spammy and unnecessary.
Marketing at a Price
It’s Udemy’s cut-throat policies which 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 does not promote 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 huge chunk of control and earnings.
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 revenues may still look reasonable to others, especially to those whose classes were previously created for other purposes and were only shared more openly on Udemy, but that hurt a number of the instructors who were selling solely in the corporation’s site. On top of this, what have driven people over the edge are the restrictions on pricing. In 2016, Udemy put a cap on its costs, 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 is natural for some to turn away and look for better outlets for their thoughts. 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 dependable source of primary income.
So while it’s true that Udemy has a massive audience that you might want 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 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 building your own following.
Teachable vs Thinkific
Pricing Thinkific vs Teachable vs Learndash
If you’re searching for an LMS that is comparable to Teachable’s price, Thinkific is another terrific company that offers a lot for less. Both offer their first tier plans at no cost, 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 show that it charges extra for certain features 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 two.
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 bother of handling the technical aspects like site maintenance, hosting, and security.
Newbies to the biz tend to gravitate toward these companies for their easy-to-use interface which allows nearly all formats of content, such as video, audio, PDFs, and other multimedia. The majority of these can be uploaded into the courses with a simple drag and drop builder. They can host unlimited videos, create quizzes, send certificates, and monitor the progress of their pupils.
Thinkific vs Teachable vs Learndash
Convenience
One of the advantages of Teachable over Thinkific is the former’s class builder: it allows bulk changes to classes, which can be a huge time-saver, especially for those that have built quite a number on their system; also 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 computer.
In terms of course delivery, Teachable has an iOS application that permits students 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 bundles, or affiliate programs, but Teachable has more options. The real clincher is Teachable’s 1-step checkout process, which reduces customer fallout (which happens more during obsolete, 2-step procedures like Thinkific’s). Additionally, it includes a 1-click upsell upon checkout, increasing transactions per customer. Another major advantage 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. 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 to your content. Click here to check out pricing for Teachable.
Teachable vs Podia Thinkific vs Teachable vs Learndash
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 seller, and on the other, Podia chose to concentrate on Online Course Hosting, Membership or Email Marketing, and Digital Downloads. Those will immediately help you narrow down your choice to what is best suited for you.
Podia’s compact categories lets users filter out other aspects that they might not have to dip into, such as e-commerce. Its interface is simple, clean, and pretty great for novice instructors. That said, this is also why it may not meet the needs of creators who wish to do more with their site. Since the variety isn’t much, more advanced users may find it lacking.
Course Creation and Control
Teachable defeats Podia in design and customization 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 site by selecting from default themes that 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 trickle content attribute for those that would like to space the lessons provided to their clients, and avoid cramming modules in one go. What’s unique to Teachable is advanced control over course compliance, like keeping tabs on students’ completion of lessons and quizzes. It also has built-in certification that users can make and send to their clients at the conclusion of the course. In terms of integrations, Teachable has improved autoresponders and analytics, both of which are very important to sales and marketing.
Recommendation Thinkific vs Teachable vs Learndash
To summarize, Teachable‘s interface is approachable even to the most inexperienced users, has excellent creation and builder resources for designing a sleek course site, gives you control over your advertising and sales, has features 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 trusted choice for many years to come.
