You need a new online course platform or software.
But which should you choose?
Truth is, when it comes to selecting the best online course platforms for your course as a new creator or entrepreneur, it can be really tough due to the vast and little add-ons each of the online learning platforms possesses, hence making it difficult for you to know your best fit.
To say the least, Teachable, Thinkific, and Podia are used by hundreds of thousands of creators who make 6 to 7 figures all around the world.
Our duty today is to help you select the most preferable for your online course needs by comparing them.
Therefore, with this online learning platform comparison featuring Thinkific vs Teachable vs Podia, at the end of the day, you would have been able to choose the best and most suitable online course site for your course(s).
Thinkifc
Offers powerful education business tools, inbuilt apps, mobile app integration, multiple media types and multiple customer service channels, zero transaction fees, and advanced educational grading systems and marketing strategies.
Podia
Offers the best options to manage their online course sales, webinars, membership/community, digital downloads, and a simple educational grading systems and marketing strategies.
Teachable
Teachable offers a simple and clean platform for online course sales and coaching, multiple payment options for students, multiple pricing currencies, and advanced educational grading systems and marketing strategies.
Review Dynamics – I took out weeks and hundreds of hours to come up with the Thinkific, Podia, and Teachable comparison reviews.
This was carried out by first hand usage of the individual online course platforms. Meaning it is an insider’s review.
Lastly, with some links being affiliated links, fact is, you don’t need to spend any money on any of them unless you believe they will help you achieve your digital business goals.
What is Thinkific?
Thinkific is a software platform that enables entrepreneurs to create, market, sell, and deliver their own online courses.
Its mission is no less than to revolutionize the way people learn and earn online by giving them the tools they need to turn their expertise into a sustainable business that impacts both them and their audiences.
Thinkific offers highly modern facilities for successful course creation and money-making routes.
Cons of Thinkific
- Limited payment integration system — just Stripe and PayPal.
- Not in-depth with data reporting for creators.
- Limited file upload size of 1GB.
- Some sections can be daunting at first to walk-through.
- Course migration can be touch unless on a higher plan.
Pros and Benefits of Thinkific
- Offers free “but limited” plan for users.
- Zero transaction fees.
- Allows multiple languages.
- It allows unlimited courses, video hosting, and unlimited users.
- It offers a simple interface for both beginners and advanced instructors.
- It offers advanced extensions via its app store & integrations through third-party tools.
- Instructors can easily send course updates and announcements.
- It integrates with mobile.
- Instructors can make recurring income via upselling to students.
- Thinkific allows for instant payouts.
- Video upload capacity allowed to 4k resolution.
- Offer multiple customer support channels.
Thinkific Pricing and Plans
Here’s a breakdown of Thinkific’s pricing plans:
- Free Plan – limited plan/facilities.
- Basic Plan – $36 per month or save up to 25% when paid yearly
- Start Plan – $74 per month or save up to 25% when you pay annually,
- Grow Plan – $149 per month or save up to 25% when you pay annually.
Thinkific’s Best Pricing Plan
If you want maximum performance for creating a powerful education business then the best plan for you is the “Start” plan.
With the “Start” plan, you make recurring income with Course Product Bundles, and your students and bloggers can sign up as affiliates and make you more money with zero transaction fee.
Going on, you get to design custom Payment plans, Unlimited downloads capacity, Unlimited courses, Webinar/Live sessions, plus 1 community, and ultimately, live Chat support.
Nonetheless, if you need phone and priority email support, the ability to remove Thinkific branding on your platform, and standard API & webhooks, then you can go for the “Grow Pricing Plan”.
Don’t forget – you get to save 25% when you chose any of Thinkific’s Annual plans. Also, you get to create and sell your course faster with Thinkific’s Accelerator Program valued at $499.00.
See below.
The Thinkific’s Accelerator Program:
- gives you Exclusive access to live guest experts and workshops throughout the year,
- rewards along your course creation journey
community of like-minded course creators - 8-weeks of hand-in-hand coaching and weekly learning sessions scheduled at a pace that drives growth
- and an overall framework for success from more than 50,000-course creators who’ve been where you are – just starting or migrating to Thinkific.
What is Podia?
Podia offers a clear, feminine-like, and clean interface online school for course instructors.
Podia is your best fit if you are looking for a simple but dynamic platform for selling an online course, webinars, course building, membership, and digital downloads.
Cons of Podia
- Not so good for core educators and institutions.
- Need for more integrations. More integrations would make it a super-flexible tool for those that love customizing their projects.
- Charges transaction fees.
Pros of Podia
- It offers an intuitive interfaced platform for both beginners and advanced course instructors.
- Offer good customer support & history.
- Allows multiple languages.
- Free course migration [on annual plans]
- Offers product bundles — for more money.
- Course instructors are allowed to collect leads per-launch as well as sell one-off digital products or membership sites.
- Unlimited emails using inbuilt Email marketing system.
- It allows unlimited courses, video hosting, and unlimited users
- The setup is easy.
- It is the go-to online course platform if you are a solo digital course entrepreneur.
Podia Pricing and Plans
Here’s a breakdown of Podia’s pricing plans:
- Free Plan – Limited plan/facilities with a transaction fee of 8%.
- Mover Plan – $33 per month or save up to 17% when paid yearly
- Shaker Plan – $75 per month or save up to 17% when you pay annually.
Podia’s Best Pricing Plan
If you want maximum performance and more than 100% ROI, then the best plan for intentional creators is the “Shaker”.
With” Shaker”, your students and bloggers can sign up as affiliates and make you more money with zero transaction fee 8-).
Going on, you get Unlimited downloads capacity, Unlimited courses, and unlimited Webinar/Live session, plus community, and ultimately, a live Chat support.
What is Teachable?
Teachable offers a simple platform for instructors to build and sell online courses.
By usage, we’ve found that Teachable is a basic and a bit advanced platform for building and selling courses.
If you’re a kind that HATES a lot of integrations and advanced extensions then you might want to go with Teachable.
Cons of Teachable
- Instant support is only available for Pro and Business users.
- Charges Transaction fees
- Language options is not clearly stated.
- Customer support history is not so good for Basic users.
- Course migration can be touch unless on a higher plan.
Pros of Teachable
- Offers free “but limited” plan for users.
- It has multiple payment options.
- Allows multiple currencies.
- It allows unlimited courses, video hosting, and unlimited users
- Video upload clarity allowed to 4k resolution.
- Instructors can easily send course updates and announcements.
- Instructors can make recurring income via upselling to students.
- The setup is easy.
- It offers a simple and clean interface for both beginners and advanced instructors.
Teachable Pricing and Plans
Here’s a breakdown of Teachable’s pricing plans:
- Free Plan – Limited plan/facilities with $1 + 10% transaction fee
- Basic Plan – $39 per month or save up to 33% when paid yearly
- Pro Plan – $119 per month or save up to 33% when you pay annually.
- Business Plan – $499/month or save 33% with annual payment.
Teachable’s Best Pricing Plan
If you want maximum performance, advanced tools, and more support to help you scale your online course business, then the best plan for you is the “Pro” plan.
I mean, if you cherish “Live chat support” when hooked, and “Zero Teachable Branding” off your business, then the pricing plan where it all begins is from the “Pro” plan.
Going on, you generate recurring income with Course Product Upsells, and your students and bloggers can sign up as affiliates and make you more money with zero transaction fee.
You also get Unlimited downloads capacity, Unlimited courses, Webinar/Live sessions, plus 1 community, and ultimately, live Chat support.
Teachable Vs Thinkific Vs Podia: Key Differences
Thinkific is the more robust platform with zero transaction fees, inbuilt apps, and multiple media types, while Podia is best for solo entrepreneurs to manage their online course business, and Teachable provides the same features as Thinkific but with lesser facilities.
Podia Vs Thinkific Vs Teachable: Features Comparison
| Properties | Thinkific | Podia | Teachable |
| User-Friendliness | B | A | A |
| Free Plan [Limited] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transaction Fees | No | Yes | Yes |
| Course Migration | from "Grow plan" | Free, "Mover plan" | only "Business" plan |
| Unlimited Courses | from "Pro" plan | from "Pro" plan | from "Pro" plan |
| Unlimited Students | from "Free" plan | from "Free" plan | from "Basic" plan |
| Webinar/Live Class | from "Start plan" | "Shaker plan" | from "Basic" plan |
| Video Resolution | up to 4K | MP4 | up to 4K |
| File Upload Limit | 1GB | 5GB | 2GB |
| Payment Options | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Price/mo | $36 per month | $33 per month | $39 per month |
| Get Started | ➽ go to THINKIFIC | ➽ go to PODIA | ➽ go to TEACHABLE |
Let’s see how Podia against Teachable and against Thinkific compete and outperforms one another 🚀.
1. Getting Started - Simplicity & Ease of Usage at First Sight”
Podia – offers a fine welcome page and an uncluttered course interface to easily navigate to the parts that interest you the most before the actual course launch.
Teachable – presents both the most uncluttered welcome dashboard and the best admin panel Dashboard. In essence, we can say that is the sexiest & attractive for most people.
Thinkific sections are kind of scattered, but at the same time evenly arranged to navigate to the section of choice.
Let’s define them below.
2. Online School Admin Dashboard
Teachable presents the admin options on the left-hand side of the dashboard to easily navigate to preferred sections.
On Teachable you will find the following sections:
✔ “Users Section” which houses sub-sections such: Students, Leads, Owners, Authors, Affiliates, Custom, and Tags.
✔ “Site” -Theme, Domains, Navigation, Coupons, Bios, Pages, Comments, Custom Text, Code Snippets, Power Editor, and Referral program.
✔ “Sales” – Transactions, Statements, Breakdown, Upsells
✔ “Emails”- Compose, History, Template Editor, and Email Settings.
✔ “Settings” – General settings (Lesson settings, Comments settings, Course event tracking settings, School status, Basic school information, Security and privacy).
✔ Payments, Taxes – (EU VAT Tax Collection, Tax ID, Include taxes in all prices),
✔ Notifications, Plan, Billing, Integrations, Webhooks, API Keys, OAuth Apps, and Roles.
✔ “Products” – you will find: Coaching, Digital Downloads, Bundles, Plans, Community, Resources, and Help
Thinkific presents the admin options on the left-hand side of the dashboard to easily navigate to preferred sections.
On Thinkific you will find the following sections:
✔ “Support Your Students” – which is focused on complimenting your course via communities for your students. This includes group discussions, live events, Spaces, and access to paid memberships.
The advantage of Thinkific’s new communities is that it takes both you/your student’s learning experience — and your business — to the next level.
✔ “Settings” – Site (Site details, Site emails, Site URL, SSL Certificate, Remove Thinkific branding). 
✔ Learning Content – (Primary Color & Font, Course Player theme, Course Player logo, social sharing, and Language settings)
✔ Payment Processors, Order/Accounts – (sign in/Sign up settings, Custom sign-up fields, Order setup),
✔ Code/Analytics – (Order tracking code, Signup tracking code, Google site verification meta tag, Webhooks, and API).
✔ “Apps” – Thinkific offers specialized applications like built-in learning notebooks and gamification features to seamlessly connect with the marketing & analytics tools you use already. Some of these tools include Zoom, Zapier, MailChimp, Google Analytics (GA4), and more.
✔ “Ad-on” – other sections include Plan Upgrade, my training, help center, and become a partner
Podia presents the admin options on the top menu dashboard navigation for easy section selections. I really like the way they are arranged. Let’s see.
Navigating through you will find the following sections:
✔ Site – (view site and Edit site).
✔ “Products” – All products.
✔ “Community” – Home, Topics, Members, and New Post.
✔ “Email” – Broadcast, Campaigns, and New Broadcast.
✔ “Audience” – Everyone, Affiliates, Tags, Imports, and Add person.
✔ “Sales” – Sales and Coupons.
✔ “Settings” – General (Site Details, Podia branding, Security verification).
✔ Email (Mailing Address, Email Tag, Email Opt-in, Email confirmation, and tracking
✔ Payments (Currency, taxes), Integrations (Video integrations, Email integrations, and Zapier), Domain (Podia Sub-domain and Custom domain)
✔ Analytics (Facebook Pixel, Pinterest Tag, Google Analytics, Third-party code, Website tracking code, Conversion tracking code), Messaging, and Team.
✔ “Ad-on” – other sections include Creator Community, Help Center, Resources, Billings, and Site examples.
3. List of Language Options
A list of language options defines the language type choices a creator has for his or her course site, pages, checkout and everything else your customers will see.
Thinkific currently supports up to 39 languages.
Podia supports up to 12 languages.
Teachable – other languages support is not stated and when checked, apart from English.
Winner – obviously Thinkific.
4. Transaction Fee on Sales
Thinkific – Thinkific does not charge any transaction fees on sales of online courses on any pricing plan.
Teachable – Teachable charges Transaction fees on sales on the “Free Plan” which is $1 + 10% and the “Basic Plan” which is 5%, while other plans are without transaction fees.
Podia – Podia charges a transaction fee of 8%, ONLY on its Free plan.
Winner – Thinkific
5. Ease of Course And Students Migration
Thinkific – Thinkific presents many options to import your students. You can do it on your own by creating a 100% coupon code for them to enroll in.
Another option is to contact Thinkific’s team to help you move.
And lastly, this option depends on your Thinkific Pricing Plan. If you are on the Grow Plan or Higher paid plan, you have the option to import your existing students, and bulk enroll them into the desired courses on your end.
Podia – migration of online courses to Podia is possible, and you can get your course moved all for FREE from any other platform (as far as you are on Podia’s annual plans of either Mover or Shaker).
Teachable – Teachable ONLY OFFERS the course migration services for creators on the Business Pricing Plan which is at $375 Per month (Billed annually).
Winner – Podia
6. Unlimited Video & Content Hosting
No doubt, adding video to your courses is a great way to engage and capture your audience’s attention.
Video & Content Hosting defines the capacity for online course videos to be uploaded directly to your Video Library for later use in either the Video Lessons, Text Lessons, or on your site landing pages.
With this upload, you can do a ton of things like preview your videos, edit video names, add video thumbnails, update the thumbnail image, view video analytics, and more.
Thinkific – hosted on Wistia, Thinkific does allow Full Video & Content Hosting with multiple settings options. And should you want to add multiple videos at once, you can use their inbuilt bulk uploader.
Also, files you have on an FTP site, or a cloud-based storage service like Dropbox, or Google Drive are allowed for upload.
Once you upload and the processing finishes, you’ll see a sign from the video as a thumbnail as well as the Size, Length, Uploaded and Modified date details.
When you see these, it means your file is ready for use!
The good thing about it is that you have editing options.
⮞ Upload Size – while all Thinkific plans have unlimited video hosting, you need to note that there is a 2GB file size limit per video.
⮞ Video Resolution – Thinkific support videos up to 4K resolution.
⮞ Supported File Type: mp4, jpeg, 3g2, webm, qt, asf, mp2, mjpg, 3gp, wm, rm, asx, mp3g, mkv, 3gpp, wmv, viv, avi, mpe, mov, 3gpp2, wmx, vivo, dv, and more.
Podia – with its Video Library, Podia allows the uploading of video content and hosting using any preferred external video hosting platforms such as Vimeo, YouTube, and alternatives to host video files.
And if you don’t want to use those, you have the choice of uploading your videos directly into your courses on Podia’s server instead.
Upon uploading the file, you can click on the file name to rename and build the rest of the lesson.
Other editing options include adding a custom thumbnail, or captions file, and entering additional text, images, or downloadable files into the content of the lesson.
Upload Size – Yes, Podia plans have unlimited video hosting and uploads, but there is a 5GB file size limit per video uploaded.
Video Resolution – Podia supports videos in Full HD; that is 1920×1080.
Supported File Type: .mp4.
Teachable – Teachable allows Unlimited video hosting. With its one-click bulk upload option, you can easily upload files to its server from any of your storage sources such as your Computer, FTP, Dropbox, Drives, and etc.
After the upload, you can tweak it to your capacity.
Upload Size – with no limits to video hosting, nonetheless, you can only upload a maximum file size of 2GB.
Video Resolution – Teachable support videos up to 4K resolution.
Supported File Type: .mp4, .mov, or .avi
Summary of Unlimited Video & Content Hosting Key Notes
| Properties | Thinkific | Teachable | Podia |
| External Files Upload | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Upload Size Limit | 1 GB | 2 GB | 5 GB |
| Video Resolution | up to 4K resolution | up to 4K resolution | 1920x1080 |
| Supported File Type | Multiple | 3 | MP4 |
7. Webinar - Online Live Stream/Class
No doubts, Live classes, and webinars are a magnificent way to teach, coach, interact with your users, personalize your educational program, and familiarize yourself with your audience.
More so, webinars and live streams are often more attractive to your audience than simple blog posts or podcasts because speaking directly to your audience live on camera feels more personal. Of course, this is for those who are not camera shy🍸.
Let’s check if you can use third-party webinar programs or direct hosting webinars through your online school platform.
Thinkific – Thinkific offers both direct Live Lessons integration with Zoom and using a native Multimedia Lesson like YouTube Live, Live Stream by Vimeo, and more.
Going forward, they give you advanced alternative livestream source options via its Thinkific App Store. The alternative platforms include using:
- Howdy – combines video, scheduling, gamification, and more to make any online course social, interactive, and engaging.
- EWebinar – allows selling your courses on autopilot 24/7, and automate your sales webinar with any video using EWebinar.
- And Invirtu Live Lessons – allows you to create live, interactive, and engaging classes directly inside your Thinkific courses.
Podia – Podia allows the optimization of your course with Webinars and Livestream using either Zoom or YouTube Live.
With your live stream ready from your admin dashboard, to go live, you click “View as Customer” to view so your audience can access your site.
Teachable – Since Teachable isn’t a webinar platform, and they don’t have a native webinar hosting feature, therefore, to host webinars on Teachable, you’ll need to choose a third-party livestream platform like LiveStream by Vimeo, Adobe Connect, YouTube or Twitch.tv to embed into your Teachable school.
With your hosting platform chosen, you can easily edit the draft and embed your live stream into your Teachable school.
When done, all you need to do is paste the embed code into the code box and click “save.”
Going live – when it’s time to start your webinar, depending on the encoder you’re using, you can either go to the live stream page on YouTube and go live or open the encoder you downloaded, authenticate your live stream, and click “stream”.
8. Course Pages Strength – Course/Landing Pages and Addons
Building and launching your course landing page is where students will learn about what you offer and enroll in your course.
All of the online course platforms allow you to create Landing and Sale Pages for your online course using both inbuilt and external tools.
On Thinkific, to access your Course landing page, from your admin dashboard, go to “Manage Learning Products” → Select “Courses” → Click on the course you want to edit → Click “Build Landing Page” on the top right → Now you are in Site Builder.
With Thinkific’s Landing Page, you can:
- add a buy button linked to your checkout
- Course Curriculum,
- Main Content
- Customize Your Theme Colors and Fonts
- Add Picture-in-Picture and Video
- Edit Your Header and Footer
- Remove Thinkific Branding
- Integrate With Your Existing Website or Blog
- Fine-Tune Your Messaging to help boost conversions,
- and of course, Share Your Course.
On Podia, to access your Course landing page, in your Podia dashboard → go to the “Products” tab → Click “Create a product,” → select “Online course” → Name your course and click “Create product”.
With Podia’s Landing Page, you can:
- Content Section
- Course Categories
- add a buy button linked to your checkout
- Customize Your Theme Colors and Fonts
- Edit Your Header and Footer
- Email Form
- Bio
- Featured images and Video
- Products & Plans
- FAQs
- Testimonials
On Teachable, to access your Course or School landing page go to the “Site” tab → Click “Pages” → select “Add New Page” → Name your Course/School and begin customizing your page.
With Teachable’s Landing Page, you can:
- Content Section.
- add a buy button linked to your checkout
- Customize Theme Colors and Fonts
- Edit Your Header and Footer
- Email Form
- Featured images and Video
- Products
- Multiple variables using Custom Text.
Verdict – Teachable provides the most robust Course page creator facilities with its “variable custom text add-ons” before Thinkific, and then Podia.
9. Best Marketing Strategies/Addons
Best Marketing Strategies/Addons here define the platform with the most-in-class marketing and sales tools combined with powerful integrations to set your business up for success in no time.
On Thinkific you get:
➸ Dedicated App Store – you extend the capabilities of your online course with a wide range of just-for-Thinkific apps and integrations.
➸ Coupons & Bundles – to Upsell and structure your products in different ways and give your customers more options.
➸ Memberships & Subscriptions – you enjoy the benefits and the convenience of recurring revenue.
➸ Multiple Seats – the choice to sell the desired number of seats to an audience and give your customers the control they expect, while reducing your administrative effort.
➸ Pre-built forms & widgets – you get dozens of pre-built forms and widgets to easily add as lead magnets𑁋email grabbers, pop ups with offers, custom forms, countdown timers, and more!
➸ Mass User Email Option – the Mass User Email feature allows you to bulk email a message to a large number of users at once, directly from the Users page.
➸ Track conversions – easily identify where your best results come from, track and improve your sales pages and funnels by adding conversion pixels.
➸ Boost your visibility – You can make your online business more visible in Google search results with SEO-friendly URLs, meta tags, keywords, clean HTML code, and more.
➸ Marketing Insights/Analytics – utilize data from LearnWorlds’ Report Center and other trusted marketing analytics sources, like Facebook Pixel & Google Tag Manager.
➸ Multiple integration Options – automate your workflow by connecting Thinkific to almost any other app you might use.
➸ Students Engagements – make use of versatile student-side features like comments, quizzes, and certifications of completion to drive learning outcomes and student satisfaction.
➸ Inbuilt Affiliate Marketing Design – Use affiliate marketing tools to recruit partners to promote your business on LearnWorlds.
On Teachable you get:
➸ Coupons & Bundles – to Upsell and structure your products in different ways and give your customers more options.
➸ Memberships & Subscriptions – you enjoy the benefits and the convenience of recurring revenue.
➸ Boost your visibility – You can make your online business more visible in Google search results with SEO-friendly URLs, meta tags, keywords, clean HTML code, and more.
➸ Track conversions – easily identify where your best results come from, track and improve your sales pages and funnels by adding conversion pixels.
➸ Multiple integration options – Teachable connects with the tools you already use and love, plus, public API to automate your workflow even more.
➸ Students Engagements – make use of versatile student-side features like comments, quizzes, and certifications of completion to drive learning outcomes and student satisfaction.
➸ Inbuilt Affiliate Marketing Design – Use affiliate marketing tools to recruit partners to promote your business on Teachable.
On Podia, you get:
➸ Coupons & Bundles – to Upsell and structure your products in different ways and give your customers more options.
➸ Memberships & Subscriptions – you enjoy the benefits and the convenience of recurring revenue.
➸ Track conversions – easily identify where your best results come from, track and improve your sales pages and funnels by adding conversion pixels.
➸ Inbuilt Email Marketing Tool – Podia gives you the power of an email marketing platform, without needing to pay extra or figure out how to “make it talk” to your digital product platform. You can send broadcast emails, build automated email funnels, and get rich email analytics down to the exact ROI of every email you send.
➸ Multi-Functional Embeds – easily embed content from over 1,900 websites with Podia’s native iFramely embed feature.
➸ Students Engagements – make use of versatile student-side features like comments, quizzes, and certifications of completion to drive learning outcomes and student satisfaction.
➸ Inbuilt Affiliate Marketing Design – Use affiliate marketing tools to recruit partners to promote your business on Podia.
➸ Multiple integration options – Podia connects with hundreds of different tools so that you don’t have to give up tools you love using — and can still keep everything you need in one platform.
Let’s go on to the financial aspect of the platforms.
10. Currency Denomination
Currency denomination here means supported currencies on each online course platform.
Podia supports up to 29 currencies, and more if available on Stripe.
Teachable supports pricing in over 120 currencies.
Thinkific supports the same currencies as available on Stripe’s list of supported currencies.
11. Payment Gateway Options
Payment gateway defines how you accept and receive payments from students.
On Teachable, Student payment options are (4) which are – [Stripe] – Credit/debit cards, [PayPal] for USD purchases, Google Pay, and Apple Pay.
On Thinkific, Student payment options are (2) which are – [Stripe] – Credit/debit cards and PayPal for USD purchases.
On Podia, Student payment options are (2) which are – Stripe – Credit/debit cards and [PayPal] for USD purchases.
12. Creators Payouts Time and Schedule
Creators’ payouts and schedule define when funds are deposited from your online course platform sales into your bank account.
On Thinkific, payouts are scheduled to occur daily to 2 days or more days depending on your country of residence, and will include all transactions processed up to that point.
On Podia, the money will go directly into your bank account within 2 business days (not stated if it is country dependent).
On Teachable, payment is dynamic on a weekly basis. That is, you can change your payout schedule at any time from the settings > Payment page.
13. Free Trial and Plans
Podia offers a FREE pricing plan to test and create a limited-in-features online school.
Thinkific offers a FREE pricing plan to test and create a limited-in-features online school.
Teachable offers a FREE pricing basic plan to test and create a limited-in-features online school.
14. Customer Support
As weird as it may sound, it is for sure that you might run into some hiccups, hence the need to ask for help with the education, insights, and inspiration to succeed in your business objectives.
Thinkific – Thinkific understands that Customer success can help drive your company’s success, therefore, they introduced premium customer support options.
Should you look for answers to your questions, one of the many resources the Thinkific team put together for you will help out. To start with, you have access to Help Centre, Chat support, Facebook Community, Fast Track online course, and email support.
For advanced users, you have Phone and priority email and the Dedicated Customer Success Team support.
Podia – Podia offers multiple customer support options. Some of the routes include Chat support, Email support, Phone Support, Community, and the Help center.
While the popular customer support on Podia is the email support at [email protected], you can likewise make use of the chat support option for onsite communication – only for the premium subscribers.
Advanced support – phone support is possible but it’s exclusive to premium creators.
Teachable – Teachable offers multiple and advanced customer support options for creators. More so, they have a list of trusted experts should you need any help to build your online course business from the ground up—or take an existing course to the next level.
On the normal, they have a community where you can connect with other creators to swap best practices, get feedback, and meet collaborators, Email support via ticket submission, and Launch Accelerator training.
Other advanced customer support channels include: Live chat, Live group coaching, a dedicated customer success manager, and Priority support.
Kindly note that the later support options are much available for the Pro and Business plan subscribers
Summary of Customer Support Chanels
| Type | Thinkific | Teachable | Podia |
| Chat | Yes | Yes, Business Plan | Yes |
| Phone | Yes, Business Plan | No | Yes, Executive |
| Community | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Dedicated Managers | Yes, Business Plan | Yes, Business Plan | No |
15. Tax-Inclusive Pricing Platform.
A tax-inclusive platform is one that taxes are included in all of the prices. That is, if you’re taking payment via built-in checkout, customers will be charged the price set in your pricing settings.
⮞ Thinkific is a tax-inclusive platform (with an option for an external Tax tool).
⮞ Teachable is a tax-inclusive platform (with an option for an external Tax tool).
⮞ Podia is a tax-inclusive platform.
16. Drip Course Content
Here is the context. Now, when you create and sell an online course, you have two options for delivering course content to your students, you can decide to:
Option #1. Give it to them all at once, and leave them to their own devices, hoping that maybe they’ll get through all the content, although it seems pretty unlikely.
Or
Option #2. Create an engaging experience that guides them through the course at a set pace, letting them take in every lesson and learn from the content you spent all that time perfecting.
The thing is, Drip content works great if you are using course Bundles, our pre-order feature, or manually enrolling students.
For instance, as soon as a student visits the Course Player for your course, they could have access to Chapter 1 lessons immediately (day 0), have access to Chapter 2 lessons 7 days after, and Chapter 3 lessons 14 days after, etc.
So, which of the online course platform offer his feature?
Fortunately, all three of Podia, Thinkific, and Teachable do.
Best Use Cases for Creators - Summary
Thinkific offers powerful education business tools, inbuilt apps, multiple media types and customer service channels, zero transaction fees, and advanced educational grading systems and marketing strategies.
If you are in for the most advanced and complete course hosting platform, then go with Thinkific ➽
Teachable offers almost the same facilities as Thinkific, but Thinkific offers more with Mobile Integration, Zero Trx fees, multiple customer support, and inbuilt App store.
With Teachable, you get a simple and clean platform for online course sales and coaching, multiple payment options for students, multiple pricing currencies, and advanced educational grading systems and marketing strategies.
If you want something near what Thinkific offers, less technical, and at the same time, with intuitive interface, then go with Teachable ➽.
Podia offers the best options for solo digital Entrepreneurs who want to manage their online course sales, webinars, membership/community, digital downloads, and a simple educational grading system with marketing strategies.
If you want a definition of simplicity for solo creators, then go with Podia ➽.
Best Thinkific vs Teachable and Podia Alternative? LearnWorlds
Clearly, LearnWorlds is the number #1 alternative to the 3 reviewed online course builders.
💡 Thinkific and LearnWorlds
Both Thinkific and LearnWorlds are sophisticated if you are looking for core advanced options with lots of customizations, plus more payment gateways. But Thinkific still trumps one step ahead of LearnWorlds with more customer support options and inbuilt app stores.
💡 LearnWorlds or Podia?
LearnWorlds still trumps Podia with more advanced options, although Podia is hot and popular for its 4 major purposes: selling online courses, webinars, members’ sites, and digital downloads.
💡 LearnWorlds or Teachable?
Like Thinkific, LearnWorlds offers more advanced builder infrastructures with more languages, multiple Supported File Type, and course settings.
All in all, if you are cool with taking some time to figure out all the advanced customization offered by LearnWorlds, then I prefer it (LearnWorlds) to Teachable and Podia. But Thinkific still matches/edges LearnWorlds.
LearnWorlds vs Thinkific Vs Teachable vs Podia vs LearnDash Comparisons Video
FAQ
Which platform offers the most complete platform for creating a powerful education business?
I would say, first, Thinkific, Teachable, and Podia – in that order.
Does Podia offer a free course Migration (Podia Migration)?
Yes, they do. The Podia migration service is free for online creators. However, to get the free migration from the Podia team, you will have to subscribe to her Shaker plan or annually with the Mover plan.
Does Thinkific offer a trial period?
Yes, Thinkific offers 30 days trial.
Does Teachable offer a trial period?
Yes, Teachable offers 14 days trial.
Does Podia offer a trial period?
Yes, Podia offers 14 days trial.
Which Platform offer free course launching course/guide?
Teachable and Thinkific Do.
Check out Thinkific’s Rise this Fall 5-day challenge and Teachable’s Launch an online course here.
How can I reduce the files upload for my online school?
You can reduce file size without compromising its quality by using a compression tool like Handbrake.
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