Systeme.io vs Podia — which is a better digital platform to build your online business?
In this comparison, I’m going to put two well-known — but quite different — online course marketing platforms to the test.
Going on, we will consider their key marketing features, pros and cons, pricing option, mobile application compatibility, free course migration, value for money and the best alternatives, and more.
Let’s start with a key question…
What are Podia and Systeme.io?
Podia and Systeme.io are online course hosting platforms for digital entrepreneurs who want to build and sell online courses, host membership sites & webinars, and sell digital downloads.
(Podia Homepage)
Both platforms allow users without any coding knowledge to create engaging sales funnels, send email campaigns, multi-payment systems, and different marketing integrations to grow your online business.
(Systeme.io Homepage)
Podia and Systeme.io Summary
Both Systeme.io and Podia offer Stripe and PayPal payment integrations, coupon codes, discounts, and dead funnel marketing strategies. Podia supports online chat support, but Systeme.io does not. Systeme.io offers better marketing automations and workflows than Podia.
Podia vs Systeme.io Usage Statistics
Of the two platforms, Podia is the oldest online course builder with over 100,000 paying customers around the world — it was created in 2014.
Systeme.io was launched in 2017 with over 200,000 digital entrepreneurs using it. It also has a creator community of over 20,000 members.
So that’s the history of the two platforms — let’s now consider the pricing plans.
Pricing Plans
Podia Pricing
Podia offers you FOUR plans — and the good news is, one of them is entirely free – although it offers basic functions plus a whopping 8% transaction fee.
The USD prices for the plans are as follows:
- Free — $0 per month
- Mover — $33 per month
- Shaker — $75 per month
- Earthquaker — $166 per month
- Free — $0 per month
- Mover — $33 per month
- Shaker — $75 per month
- Earthquaker — $166 per month
(Podia Pricing)
- Free Plan: Podia does not charge processing/transaction fees on any of their paid plans. Meaning, that when you subscribe to a premium plan, you are done with all micro or unwanted charges.
- Mover Plan: with no transaction fees, you get an email marketing system, Live chat, Unlimited downloads, Unlimited Course uploads, Webinars, and Community.
- Shaker Plan: with the same options as on the Mover Plan, it goes further to allow Unlimited Webinar hosting and Affiliate marketing integration.
- Earthquaker Plan: with the same options as on the “Shaker plan”, it further allows priority support in case you need instant assistance, specialized on-boarding calls, and an exclusive monthly creator program where you are open to the best tips and secret strategies to increase your online business revenue through explosive sales.
Systeme.io Pricing
Systeme.io, like Podia, offers 4 pricing plans:
- Free — $0 per month
- Startup — $27 per month
- Webinar — $47 per month
- Unlimited — $97 per month
- Free — $0 per month
- Startup — $27 per month
- Webinar — $47 per month
- Unlimited — $97 per month
(Systeme.io Pricing)
- Free Plan: Interestingly, Systeme.io does not charge transaction fee even on its free plan, unlike Podia. Only 2,000 contacts can receive your emails + 1 campaign allowed and 1 workflow.
You can only create 1 online course. Also, you have an unlimited number of students, file storage space, and unlimited assistant accounts.
- The Startup Plan: about 5,000 contacts can receive your emails with up to 10 campaigns plus 5 workflows.
You can create up to 5 online courses. The number of students, file storage space, and assistant accounts remains unlimited.
- The Webinar Plan: up to 10,000 contacts can receive your emails with up to 100 campaigns plus 20 workflows. You can create up to 20 online courses.
The number of students, file storage space, and assistant accounts remains unlimited. Additionally, you can create up to 10 webinars.
- The Unlimited Plan: unlimited contacts can receive your emails with up to unlimited campaigns plus unlimited workflows. You also have the freedom to create unlimited online courses.
The number of students, file storage space, and assistant accounts remains unlimited. Additionally, you can create unlimited marketing webinars.
Free Trial
Podia Free Trial
Apart from its free basic plan, a free trial of Podia lets you test the product and get a sense of your requirements — this normally lasts 14 days.
The best plan for a free trial on Podia is the “Shaker” because it gives you a typical representation of robust platform facilities to build your online business.
(Podia “Shaker Plan”)
You can access this free trial via this link.
A quick note about ‘Podia’s Earthquaker plan: this is designed with ‘enterprise’ users in mind — i.e., those with very particular needs regarding instant support and increasing sales to 6/7 figures.
For most online entrepreneurs, however, the Shaker plan works fine.
Systeme.io Free Trial
With no free trial, Systeme.io’s free plan lets you test the platform and get a sense of the basic options to build your online business.
So, unless you go for the paid plans, you can’t make use of the advanced options available.
Best Pricing plan on Systeme.io – if you are a solo entrepreneur, you can get started with the “Startup plan” since it gives unlimited access to most essentials with 5,000 contacts + 5 workflows.
And unless you need a webinar, then you go for “the Webinar Plan”. And lastly, if you want a free online course migration to Systeme.io, “the Unlimited Plan” is the best.
Discounts
Both Podia and Systeme.io offer discounts if you pay upfront for a year’s service.
- For Podia, if you are paying yearly, you get up to a 17% discount.
- Systeme.io offers a discount of up to 30% when you pay annually.
Let’s now drill down into the core-specific online course platform features you get with Podia and Systeme.io.
Course Hosting Platforms Features
Both Podia and Systeme.io provide the basic features and functionality that you’d expect from an online course builder.
They both give you the ability to:
- Host and sell online courses
- Build Membership site.
- Host Webinars and Live stream
- Sell Digital Downloads
- Build Sales Funnels
- Upsell Courses for more money.
- Drip content delivery option.
- Free course content migration
- Third-party integrations
However, there are some key differences that you need to know to help you in deciding the best platform for your online business.
Podia vs Systeme.io Comparison, Key Pros, and Cons
Let’s explore these options with the winner for each platform comparison.
Email Contacts on Systeme.io vs Podia
While you can add an unlimited number of subscribers on both Podia and Systeme.io, however, the number of subscribers that can get emails on Podia’s free plan is 250 vs 2,000 on Systeme.io.
- 5,000 contacts on Podia’s Mover plan vs 5,000 on Systeme.io. Startup plan
- 15,000 contacts on Podia’s Shaker plan vs 10,000 on Systeme.io. Startup plan
- 50,000 contacts on Podia’s Earthquaker plan vs Unlimited on Systeme.io. Unlimited plan.
Winner – Systeme.io [with an unlimited reach].
Transaction fees on Systeme.io vs Podia
Both platforms do not charge transaction fees on their paid plans, however, if you are considering the free plan, Podia charges 8% fees.
Winner – Systeme.io
Payment Gateways and Checkouts
A payment gateway is a software that processes your customer’s transactions securely.
There are lots of companies that offer payment gateway services — popular ones include PayPal, Stripe, and Payoneer.
Podia and Systeme.io offer Stripe and PayPal for your audiences/students’ payments, however, you can do more with Systeme.io.
(Podia checkout)
As we said, with Systeme.io, you can further add 2 more payment methods which are iDEAL and BanContact using Stripe.
- iDEAL — is an online payment method that enables consumers to pay online through their own bank.
- BanContact— helps customers pay small and larger amounts in stores using their Bancontact card.
To make this work, all you need to do is enable SEPA Direct Debit and also integrate the account with Systeme.io.
(Systeme.io payment platform)
Winner – Systeme.io
Selling Physical Products
Both Podia and Systeme.io allow you to sell physical products, but Systeme.io does it better with everything done inside the platform while on Podia, you will need to use a third-party tool like Shopify to enable it.
(Podia integration for physical product)
On Systeme.io, all you need to do to enable this option is to go to your Products/Sales section >> then choose Funnels and select “Physical Product”.
Finally, choose the price of your product by clicking on the + of the Offer price plans.
(Physical Product Sales integration on Systeme.io)
With everything done and set, after publishing, in your systeme.io account, you can closely find all the orders of your customers.
Overall, Systeme.io is more robust than Podia here.
Winner – Systeme.io
Multi-Currency Selling
You generally get more online sales if you sell in the currency used by your audiences. So, if you’re selling your products in a lot of different countries, it’s a good idea to let your potential customers buy in their own currency.
Both platforms allow Multi-Currency Selling.
Podia lets you sell products in up to 30 different currencies. And you do this out of the box (so long as you are using its built-in payment gateway, Stripe Payments).
(Podia currency settings)
Using payment options on your dashboard, Podia displays a prompt to pick the most appropriate country /currency.
Like Podia, Systeme.io lets you sell products in up to 27 different currencies. You can easily change the currency type from the default by going to your Profile, and to Settings.
(Systeme.io currency settings)
Winner – both platforms.
Offering Different Language
As a creator, you can choose the language you’d like for your site, pages, checkout, and everything else your customers will see.
Both Podia and Systeme.io facilitate multilingual selling.
For Podia, you can create versions of your online course in up to 12 different languages, while Systeme.io supports up to 8 different languages.
(Podia example site in German)
To do this on Podia, all you need to do is go to Settings > general and select the preferred language.
(Podia language settings)
Winner – both platforms.
Collecting Sales Taxes
As a digital entrepreneur running a paid community or course, you are responsible for the taxes on your business, which may include taxes where you live as well as where your members are purchasing from.
Also, with proper setup, you can detect your audience locations automatically and apply the relevant tax rate at checkout.
Both Podia and Systeme.io give this option, but Podia does more by heavy-lifting to collect order taxes for you. Let’s see how.
To enable tax on Podia, from your dashboard, go to Settings > and to Payments.
In the Taxes section, you’ll find a checkbox labeled Collect taxes. Check the box and you’re there.
(Podia Tax Sales settings)
From here on, you can configure your tax behavior and add the jurisdictions which include both Inclusive and exclusive options for your taxes.
- Choose inclusive if your product prices already include tax.
- Choose exclusive if your product prices do not include tax.
Note: A tax jurisdiction is an area subject to its own tax regulations.
I recommend you go through the jurisdictions supported by Podia if you are to enable this option.
Systeme.io does this by giving you the option to manage vat charges on customers. That is, you can select “charge or don’t VAT to customers on payment pages”.
Winner – both platforms.
Furthermore, if you need a third-party tax collection service, then I recommend Quaderno’s service.
Quaderno can integrate with your Stripe account and your Mighty Network. Once you set up Quaderno, you can control the decisions about what taxes are charged to members in your purchase flow on the web.
(Note: All iOS purchases and taxes are directly handled by Apple, so you don’t need to worry about these purchases).
Embedding Files on Podia and Systeme.io
Both platforms allow creators to embed multiple files in various formats including audio files, videos, and forms.
Podia alone has over 1,000 embedded functions.
Winner – both platforms.
SEO Features
A good way to improve your website’s visibility across the internet is through SEO optimization!
Search engine optimization in Podia is generally very strong: it’s easy to tweak all the major SEO components — headers, page titles, URLs, meta data, Title Tags & Meta Configuration + Page optimizations.
(If you’re new to SEO, we’ve covered part of it on how to start a blog).
Title Tags & Meta Descriptions are usually shown each time a page appears in search engine results. It helps search engines understand the content of a page.
With proper optimization and page setup, your online course and community will be seen online. See one below as hosted on Podia.
(Online Course hosted on Podia ranked on the Search Engine)
With Podia, you can easily edit it using Site editor and search for Site Settings.
In summary, Podia is better as it gives you more control over more SEO components.
On Systeme.io, there are no options to fine-turn Search Engine Optimization for your course blog.
Winner – Podia
Analytics and Course Insights on Podia vs Systeme.io
Both online course platforms offer Data and Course analytics.
On Systeme.io, the only notable option is Google Analytics, and this is enabled via Zapier – a third-party tool.
Podia offers Google Analytics for insights and event tracking without a third-party integration.
(Analytics Settings on Podia)
Other reporting options include:
- HotJar
- Facebook Pixel,
- Third-party apps,
- Pinterest Tag & tracking
- JavaScript API tracking.
You also get advanced analytics where you can smoothly track course “thank-you” pages, or sometimes called “success” pages, Products & Courses, and Memberships when someone subscribes.
Winner – Podia.
Integration Options
Podia also offers multifaceted and independent integrations with the following platforms:
- ThriveCart,
- Zoom
- GetResponse
- AWeber
- MailChimp
- ConvertKit
- Drip
- ActiveCampaign
- MailerLite
- Unsplash,
- WordPress
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Weebly
- 1900+ Embeds
- and other thousands of integrations with Zapier.
Systeme.io has independent software that executes the task and commands you need such as newsletters, email campaigns, and more.
Notwithstanding, you can integrate more options using the Zapier tool.
Winner – Podia
Email Marketing on Podia and Systeme.io
Both digital platforms offer an all-in-one tool for creating an online business. That is, they give you the power of an email marketing platform such that you don’t need to pay extra fees on independent services.
Both platforms allow you to consolidate your workflow and pay just one flat fee for everything you need, including Email capture, Broadcast emails, Automated campaigns, Segmentation, Engagement analytics, and more.
(Email Analytics on Podia)
(Email Analytics on Systeme.io)
Winner: both platforms
Mobile Application
Both platforms do not have a mobile application to manage your online course like on Mighty Networks or Course Player on Thinkific.
Interface and Ease of Use – Dashboard
Podia and Systeme.io have simple content management systems.
On Systeme.io, after creating your account, you meet a clean dashboard where you can choose any task your want from the menu bar.
It is from here that you manage your marketplace including:
- Contacts and tags
- Funnels
- Emails and Campaigns
- Blogs
- Automation and Workflows.
- Product/Sales, and more.
(Systemee.io Dashboard)
Looking at your bottom right, you can find helpful resources should you need any assistance.
Overall, Systeme.io offers a friendly interface to control and tweak other things within your dashboard.
Podia offers a very simple “get started” navigation to achieve your best purpose with the platform.
For instance, as soon as you get started with Podia, you will be asked what are you hoping to accomplish on the platform.
At this point, you have a simple dashboard to pick the options that best resonate with your business as you are starting out. These options include:
- Send email
- Launch a website
- Start a community
- Sell online courses
- Sell digital downloads
- Sell webinars and more.
(Interface and ease of use on Podia)
With your selection above, you will be presented with a handful of goals based on what you have chosen.
(Podia Dashboard walk through)
From there, you select what you want to do and go ahead.
To start editing and adding a new site, you can make use of the Podia site Editor.
Going on, you can click on the edit site and start adding New Sections, editing, and creating different section types.
For instance, to add new sections, all you need to do is click on the “+” symbol to start adding and editing your online course.
And what if you want to add Text? Check your left-hand side and click on “Text”.
(Podia Dashboard walk through)
From there, you start adding words.
Also, from the site editor, you can brand your course with options to change fonts and add logos, Newsletter capture form, Columns, categories, favicon, Testimonials, FAQ, Bio, and other advanced options and settings you deem fit for your online course.
In all of these, when done, click on “Publish”.
Overall, I’d say that both platforms are easy to use and anyone with modest experience in computing shouldn’t expect too much of a learning curve from either.
Well, I still prefer Podia’s intuitiveness and ease of use to Mighty Networks, maybe because I am used to Podia.
Winner – based on user preferences.
Deadline Sales Funnel Option
Should you want to create scarcity for your online course, and to push your prospects to opt-in to your offers, Podia and Systeme.io offer a special deadline funnel feature that automatically creates and closes time-limited offers.
With the deadline funnel set up, you have the option to define a time frame after your contact has opted into a funnel and at the end of this period, all the pages of the funnel will redirect to the page of your choice. [Smart marketing option if you ask me].
Winner – both platforms.
A/B Testing on Systeme.io vs Podia
Systeme.io allows you to create an A/B test between two pages “Variant A” and “Variant B” of your sales funnel while this option is not available on Podia.
Winner – Systeme.io
Course Certificate Issuance
Should you want to issue certificates to your students after completing all of the lessons from your online courses, then you can do this out of the box with Podia.
For now, Systeme.io does not offer this feature.
Winner – Podia
Customer Support Options
Systeme.io offers customer support via:
- Submitting a request.
- Creators ‘community on Facebook.
- 1-hour Priority Support of coaching if you are on the “Enterprise subscription plan.
That said, if you wish to invest to benefit from a personalized offer, you can contact Systeme’s team to receive a personalized proposal according to your budget.
Additionally, you can make use of the various online resource materials and video tutorials.
Podia does more with the following:
- Onsite instant live chat support
- Email support
- Phone support
- Podia creators’ community.
(Podia Customer Support Options)
All the above are available on both Podia’s “Mover and Shaker” plans.
And it’s important to note that if you want to get top-notch priority support and onboarding calls, you have to be subscribed to Podia’s Earthquaker pricing plan.
(Podia Earthquaker pricing plan)
Additionally, you can make use of the various online support materials and video tutorials indefinitely.
It’s good to see phone support included on Podia’s plans; not all competing online course tools provide it.
Winner – Podia (based on online chat).
Online Course Migration on Podia and Systeme
Both digital platforms offer FREE content and customer migration – but with a condition.
For Podia, they’ll migrate your content and customers for free when you choose a yearly subscription.
On Systeme.io, they’ll migrate your content and customers for free when you choose the “Enterprise subscription plan”
Winner – both platforms.
➡ Choose Systeme.io Enterprise plan
Final Thoughts on Podia vs Systeme.io
The truth is if you’re a small business including a blogger/vlogger, teacher/tutor, freelancer, or an influencer with a following or not, that’s building an online course site entirely from scratch, then either Podia or Systeme.io is not a bad option as they offer 93% of the same digital platform options.
However, Systeme.io does provide more advanced and inbuilt marketing options than Podia.
To wrap up, the only and few reasons you would choose one above the other are stated below.
Reasons to choose Systeme.io over Podia
- Systeme.io offers more business automation systems and workflows which saves you time and energy.
- There are no transaction charges/fees on any plan (Podia charges on their free plan).
- Systeme.io offers more payment options for your customers (with iDeal and Bancontact enabled).
- Workflows can be created without a third-party tool. (Possible with a third-party tool on Podia).
- A/B testing option is enabled (none on Podia).
- You can run your affiliate program on any of Systeme.io’s free plans (only possible from the Podia Shaker plan).
Reasons to choose Systeme.io over Podia
- Systeme.io offers more business automation systems and workflows which saves you time and energy.
- There are no transaction charges/fees on any plan (Podia charges on their free plan).
- Systeme.io offers more payment options for your customers (with iDeal and Bancontact enabled).
- Workflows can be created without a third-party tool. (Possible with a third-party tool on Podia).
- A/B testing option is enabled (none on Podia).
- You can run your affiliate program on any of Systeme.io’s free plans (only possible from the Podia Shaker plan).
Reasons to choose Podia over Systeme.io
- Podia offers instant online chat support (Systeme.io does not).
- Offers 14 days trial on any of its paid plans (Systeme.io only allows a free or paid plan).
- Offers more and better out-of-the-box integrations (as Systeme.io integrates mostly with a third-party tool).
- Issuance of Course certificates after successful completion of a course is enabled on Podia (not yet integrated on Systeme.io).
- Podia offers the best facility for SEO which helps rank your online school organically on the internet (Systeme.io does not offer this setting).
Reasons to choose Podia over Systeme.io
- Podia offers instant online chat support (Systeme.io does not).
- Offers 14 days trial on any of its paid plans (Systeme.io only allows a free or paid plan).
- Offers more and better out-of-the-box integrations (as Systeme.io integrates mostly with a third-party tool).
- Issuance of Course certificates after successful completion of a course is enabled on Podia (not yet integrated on Systeme.io).
- Podia offers the best facility for SEO which helps rank your online school organically on the internet (Systeme.io does not offer this setting).
Comparison Table and Difference between Systeme.io and Podia
Feature
Systeme.io
Podia
User Friendliness
A
A+
Free Plan
Yes
Yes
Free Trial on Paid Plans
No
Yes
Pricing plans
- $27 /mo
- $47 /mo
- $97 /mo
- $33 /mo
- $75 /mo
- $166 /mo
Transaction fees
No
No (only free plan)
Currencies
27
30
Payment Options
Up to 4
2
Sell physical products
Yes
Yes
Course Certificates
No
Yes
Workflow
Yes
Yes (with 3rd-party)
A/B Testing
Yes
No
Inbuilt Integrations
C
A+
Online Chat Support
No
Yes
Creators’ community
Yes
Yes
Course Migration
Yes
Yes
Yearly Discount
30%
17%
Comparison Table and Difference between Systeme.io and Podia
User Friendliness
A
A+
Free plan
Yes
Yes
Free Trial on Paid Plans
No
Yes
Pricing
- $27 /mo
- $47 /mo
- $97 /mo
- $33 /mo
- $75 /mo
- $166 /mo
Transaction fees
No
No (only free plan)
Currencies
27
30
Payment Options
Up to 4
2
Sell physical products
Yes
Yes
Course Certificates
No
Yes
Workflow
Yes
Yes (with 3rd-party)
A/B Testing
Yes
No
Inbuilt Integrations
C
A+
Online Chat Support
No
Yes
Creators’ community
Yes
Yes
Course Migration
Yes
Yes
Yearly Discount
30%
17%
Alternatives to Podia and Systeme.io
If you’re looking for a course hosting solution for your online school, we’d recommend Thinkific as an excellent alternative to Podia and Systeme.io with other advanced options, app integration, and educational facilities.
You can check out Thinkific Rise & Fall Program here or its comparisons.
Other good online course hosting solutions for instructors and digital entrepreneurs include LearnWorlds, SamCart, and Gurucan.
Podia vs Systeme.io FAQ
Are Podia and Systeme.io good for beginners?
Yes. Both digital platforms are designed for a ‘non-coding’ audience, so both are pretty easy for online course novices to use.
Can I use Podia and Systeme.io for free?
Yes. Both platforms offer a FOREVER basic free plan. But on Podia, you can test out its advanced digital platform facilities using its 14-day free trial offer.
Which is better for SEO, Systeme.io or Podia?
Podia offers the best facility for SEO as you have more control over more SEO components, and importantly you can tweak the configurations. Systeme.io has no option for this.
Which is better for business automation – out of the box?
Systeme.io, of course, with robust marketing options and workflow.
Over to you.
We tested these products via independent research. So, this comparison is based on deep research on each of them.
Although our work is supported by affiliate advertising commissions, we believe in an ethical approach to product reviews and strive to be 100% impartial at all times. If you have any queries about our approach, do feel free to contact us anytime.
Thank you for your time and support.
Got any views on Systeme.io or Podia? Thinking about using a different digital course builder?
Just leave a comment below. We read all user comments and will do our very best to help answer any queries you may have.
- See our top 9 online study platform reviews for more information on these digital product builders.
- Also, see Podia and Mighty Networks comparison.
