Teachable vs Podia: Battle Of The Online Course Platforms

Teachable and Podia are two of the best online course platforms. But, which comes out on top?

In this Teachable vs Podia post, I will compare both platforms to help you decide the best option for you.

• Related: Teachable Review: The Best Online Course Platform?
• Related: Podia Review: A Worthy Online Course Platform?

Overview

Before I dive into the nitty-gritty Teachable vs Podia details, I thought I would provide you with an overview of the comparison.

Pricing

When it comes to deciding if an online course platform is superior to the other, pricing plays a bit part.

Teachable has four pricing options ($29 to $299 per month; annual billing) including a Free plan.

Podia has two price plans ($32.50 to $65.83 per month; annual billing), with no free option. There is, however, a 14-day free trial.

💪 Winner = Teachable
With a Free plan, Teachable comes out on top here.

Transaction fees

A transaction fee is the cut the platform takes for each course sale. Obviously, the lower the transaction fee, the better.

Depending upon what price plan you take out, Teachable’s transaction fees range from 10% + $1 (Free plan) to 0% (Professional and Business plans).

Both Podia price plans have zero transaction fees. So, you will not pay additional fees to the platform for each sale.

💪 Winner = Podia
Podia comes with zero transaction fees as standard.

Hosting

In terms of hosting, I’m referring to the amount of storage space you receive from the platform to store your content, such as videos, images, PDFs.

Both Teachable and Podia provide unlimited hosting as standard. So, you can upload as much as you want.

💪 Winner = Tie
Both platforms have unlimited hosting.

Payouts

The term payouts refers to the method and schedule in which you will be paid your online course sales.

Teachable has three payout routes available (Teachable Payments, Monthly Payment Gateway and Custom Payment Gateway).

For those on the Professional plan and above, payouts can be made instantly into a PayPal or Stripe account via their Custom Payment Gateway.

The most common payout option is the Monthly Payment Gateway, where payouts are received every 30-days into a PayPal account.

Podia payments are made instantly through either a PayPal or Stripe account; there are no difference between plans.

💪 Winner = Tie
Both platforms allow you to have instant payments into a PayPal or Stripe account.

Lecture editor

The lecture (Teachable) or lesson (Podia) editor is the interface used to create the content for your online course.

Teachable’s editor allows you to enter five pieces of content to your lectures, including files (eg, videos), text, quizzes as well as code examples.

The coding example feature is really useful for those creating an online course that teaches coding.

You can also add different types of content within the same lecture.

In Podia, you can have lessons that are either files (eg, videos), text, links or quizzes.

There is no way to have multiple types of content within the same lesson in Podia.

💪 Winner = Teachable
Teachable offers more variety of content types within lectures and allows different types of content to be added within the same lecture.

Checkout pages

Next up in this Teachable vs Podia post are the checkout pages.

Checkout pages for online products can come in the form of multiple pages or a simple one-page window.

In Teachable, the checkout process is a simple one-page process. This means that the customer just has to enter their payment and billing details and that’s it.

The checkout page in Teachable is also customizable. You can use the Teachable page editor to add in student testimonials, key points about the course and a money-back guarantee image.

On the other hand, Podia has settled for a two-page checkout process through a pop-up window.

The first window collects the customer’s email address, while the second window deals with the payment process.

The benefit here is that you can collect email addresses for those that didn’t complete the purchase. Therefore, you can follow-up with them through an email campaign to increase conversion.

💪 Winner = Tie
This was a tough battle to call simply because one-and two-page checkouts have their own pros and cons.

Acceptable payments

Here, I am referring to the different payment types that the platform can use to accept payments on your school.

In Teachable there are four different payment options that can be added to your store:

• Credit/debit card
• PayPal
• Google Pay
• Apple Pay

Google Pay and Apple Pay are both enabled when customers are using the checkout on their mobile devices.

It’s also worth noting that the PayPal option is only available to those who opt-in to the BackOffice, which comes with an additional 2% transaction fee.

Podia only accepts two payment methods: credit/debit card and Paypal.

Unlike Teachable, Podia does not add additional charges for enabling PayPal as a payment method.

💪 Winner = Teachable
In my view, the more payment options a customer has, the better.

Quizzes

Most online course platforms give you the ability to add in quizzes to your course. Quizzes are a great way to add interactivity and test your student’s knowledge.

Both Teachable and Podia only support multiple-choice quizzes. It is also possible to specify multiple correct answers.

On the Professional plan in Teachable, there is the added feature of course compliance where you can force students to retake the quiz if they do not achieve a certain grade.

Podia’s quiz feature is very similar to Teachable’s; however, there is no course compliance equivalent.

💪 Winner = Teachable
It’s a close call, but Teachable have it with their course compliance option.

Course completion certificate

Many online course creators love to have the option to hand out certificates to students once they complete the course.

In Teachable, the course completion certificate option is available on their Professional plan and up.

You can choose between three templates, or you can create a custom certificate through Liquid/HTML.

Unfortunately, Podia does not support integrated course completion certificates.

💪 Winner = Teachable
Simple. Teachable has the feature, Podia does not.

Coupon codes

Coupon codes are another great marketing tool when it comes to selling your online course.

Both platforms support the creation of coupon codes. This feature is available on the Basic plan and up on Teachable and on both Podia plans.

The creation of coupon codes works exactly the same for Teachable and Podia.

You can create your own code, define the value (percentage off or dollar amount), set a limitation and expiry date.

In Teachable, you are forced to set a limit on the number of coupons available and an expiry date.

There is also the option to create various single-use coupon codes through the bulk coupon code generator. Again, you will need to specify an expiry date and the number of coupons, then you can download them in a CSV file format.

In Podia, you get a bit more flexibility since there is no requirement to set a limit on the coupon numbers and the expiry date.

There is also the ability to generate a random coupon code by clicking on the Generate button.

💪 Winner = Tie
It’s too close to call for the coupon code feature, so I’m calling this a tie.

Email marketing

Many online course creators swear by email marketing. If done correctly, email marketing can be one of the best routes to sell an online course.

Teachable has a very limited internal email marketing feature that is available to all creators on a paid plan.

You can send an unlimited amount of one-off emails to students based on different criteria, such as the course they are enrolled on.

If you want more email marketing capabilities, then you can connect your school to your external email service provider, such as EmailOctopus, via Zapier.

On the other hand, Podia has one of the best email marketing capabilities among online course platforms – there is no need to use third-party tools.

Again, you can send an unlimited amount of emails.

The best bit is that you can also set up email campaigns, which is a super useful strategy.

💪 Winner = Podia
Podia has a rich email marketing set-up, including email campaigns.

White labelling

White labelling is when you can remove any branding of the online course platform, so that your school looks independent. It basically makes your school look more professional.

Teachable supports custom domains on any of their paid plans. So, if you purchase a custom domain from a provider, such as SiteGround, you can use this instead of the yourschool.teachable.com domain.

Those on their Professional plan and up also have the option to remove any Teachable branding from their school, such as the ‘Powered by Teachable’ statement in the footer.

Podia also has custom domain support on all of their plans.

However, there is no way to remove the Podia branding from your school. So, you will always have the ‘Powered by Podia’ statement, as well as other placements, in your footer.

💪 Winner = Teachable
Teachable gives you the option to remove their branding; Podia does not.

Affiliate marketing

Next up in this Teachable vs Podia post is affiliate marketing capabilities.

Affiliate marketing is another useful way that you can increase the sales of your online courses. If enabled, you can get other people (affiliates) to promote your course for you, in return for a commission of any sales.

To be able to do this, the online course platform needs an affiliate marketing feature. Luckily, both Teachable and Podia have this.

Creators on the Professional Teachable plan and up have access to their integrated affiliate marketing feature.

With Teachable, you can set individualized commissions. So, one affiliate could have a commission value of 40%, while others could have a commission of 20%.

You can also change the length of the cookie period (up to 365 days) for the affiliate links.

Podia’s affiliate program is only available on their most expensive plan (Shaker).

It’s quite similar to Teachable’s affiliate marketing feature, however, you cannot change the length of the cookie period (15 days).

Some affiliates may be put off by the relatively short cookie period.

💪 Winner = Teachable
Teachable’s affiliate feature has more capabilities than Podia’s.

Student contact

Another important feature of an online course platform is the ability of students to contact you should they have any questions.

In Teachable, the main way students can contact you is through their integrated email system.

Here, students can fill out a contact form, and the message will be emailed directly to you.

This works quite well since the students do not have to leave your online school to reach you.

Podia, on the other hand, are doing things slightly differently with their novel live messaging feature.

With live messaging, a small chat window can be popped up at any time. Students can see if you’re online and ask any questions.

You can even have this feature available to those on your sales page to answer any pre-sale questions.

Similar to Facebook Messenger, this live messaging feature adds another dimension to your online school.

💪 Winner = Podia
The live messaging feature is awesome and is the future of online course platforms!

Support

Before wrapping up this Teachable vs Podia post, let’s go over the level of support you will receive.

If you’re going to be paying >$300 per year for something, then you want to be sure you are going to get adequate support should you need it.

The level of support you get from Teachable depends on what price plan you are on.

All plans get access to their online Knowledge Base and an email support ticket system (7 days a week).

Creators on a paid plan also have access to TeachableU, which is a selection of online courses to help you create and market your own online course.

If you’re on their Professional plan or up, you also have the option to use a live chat system.

Podia does not tailor their support based on their price plans; everyone is treated the same.

Like Teachable, Podia also has its own online Help Centre containing common FAQs and guides.

Live chat support (5 days a week) also comes as standard, so responses during the week are instant.

💪 Winner = Tie
Both Teachable and Podia have ample support means and resources to help you succed as an online course creator.

Teachable vs Podia: The Winner

Overall, I have Teachable come out on top over Podia.

But, that’s not to say Podia is worse than Teachable.

In fact, I think it has many things going for it such as zero transaction fees as standard, live messaging and email marketing capabilities.

Now, it’s one thing reading this Teachable vs Podia post. But, I strongly recommend giving both platforms a try before you decide to buy.

You can create an account with Teachable for Free, so there are no excuses. If you do, be sure to check out my step-by-step guide on creating an online course with Teachable.

There is also a 14-day free trial of Podia, which is ample time to see what it is capable of.

Are you using Teachable or Podia to create your online course? If so, let me know in the comments below what you like about the platform.