How does Podia compare to Teachable vs Thinkific?
At the beginning of this article, we compared Teachable to Thinkific; now, we’ll compare Teachable to Podia and Thinkific to Podia to show you how the platforms truly stack up against each other.
Teachable vs Podia
How does Teachable compare to Podia? Below we get to the core points that make these platforms different.
Podia has advanced, built-in tools for community, webinars, and digital downloads — Teachable does not
While Teachable is laser-focused on online courses and coaching products, Podia is focused on all types of digital products, which means we have robust, built-in features for online courses, plus community, webinars, digital downloads, and coaching products.
If you’re only selling online courses and coaching products, maybe Teachable is for you, but if you’re selling (or plan to sell) a variety of digital products, Podia could be the ideal choice.
Podia offers advanced, built-in email marketing tools
With Teachable, you can send one-time emails to students, but that’s about it. If you want to send more advanced email sequences like a drip or nurture sequence, you’d have to use one of their email integrations with ConvertKit or Mailchimp, which is another potential added expense.
In contrast, Podia has much more advanced email marketing tools built directly into the product, allowing you to send one-off emails and automated drip sequences. Podia also offers segmentation tools and detailed analytics for each email. Plus, Podia tracks revenue for every email you send, allowing you to clearly see which emails are paying off.
Podia offers chat support for all plans, 7 days a week — Teachable does not
While Teachable offers email support on all plans, they only offer live chat support on their “Pro” and “Business” plans, which means you’d have to pay at least $159/mo to access a real, live person. Podia, on the other hand, offers world-class chat (and email) support on every paid plan, every day of the week.
Teachable’s “Basic” plan is more expensive than Podia’s “Mover” plan, and Teachable has transaction fees
Teachable charges a 5% transaction fee in addition to their monthly rate while Podia doesn’t charge any transaction fees on paid plans.
Teachable offers more advanced customization options
Like Thinkific, Teachable also offers more advanced customization options so you can adjust the code and achieve the look you’d like. However, it comes with a hefty $665/mo price tag plus the cost of a designer/developer if you don’t have technical or design skill.
While Podia does not currently offer advanced customization options, we believe you can still build beautiful, modern, and sleek-looking websites, pages, and products with the built-in customization tools available, no design or technical skills required.
Teachable offers more flexibility with team/admin seats
Each Teachable plan includes a set number of team/admin seats for your account (1, 5, and 20, depending on which plan you’re on). This can be helpful if you have a small or large team or multiple people who need account access.
If you want to add team/admin seats to your Podia plans, it will be an additional $20/mo per team member, or an additional $50/mo for five teammates, but you can have as many as you like.
Teachable offers advanced course compliance features on their “Pro” plan and above
If you upgrade to Teachable’s Pro ($159) or Business ($665/mo) plan, you’ll get access to course compliance features, which means you can require your students to complete certain modules, watch certain videos, or take quizzes before moving on.
In comparison, Podia does not have any course compliance features on any plan, which means if you have strict requirements for your students, Teachable is likely the better fit for you.
Teachable offers course templates — Podia does not
If you want to tweak the look of your course, Teachable offers three course templates you can use to change up the basic structure and appearance. At this time, Podia does not offer course templates, though we do believe our course viewer offers a clean, modern, and easy-to-use learning experience.
Podia offers instant payouts for all payment methods — Teachable does not
While Podia offers instant payouts for every single sale you make, Teachable does not.
In order to get instant payouts, you must be eligible for Teachable’s payment gateway known as “Teachable Payments.” But even if you are eligible, you will still be charged a 2% transaction fee unless you are on the most expensive plan ($665/mo) and NOT using BackOffice.
If you are not eligible for Teachable’s payment gateway, you will have to use a custom payment gateway or Teachable’s “Monthly Payment Gateway,” which will hold payments for a full 30 days before being paid to you via PayPal.
Podia offers far more native integrations than Teachable
Teachable offers integrations with Circle, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Sumo, Segment, Zapier, Webhooks, and Vizia.
But Podia offers integrations with Mailchimp, ConvertKIt, AWeber, Drip, ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, GetResponse, Stripe, PayPal, Google Analytics, Hotjar, YouTube Live, Zoom, Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, YouCanBook.Me, SavvyCal, Leadpages, and so many, many more.
If you need a bunch of different tools to make your business work, Podia is likely the better option, as there are more integrations available and more coming every day.
Podia offers embeddable purchase buttons on your own website — Teachable does not
If you want to offer a fast, secure, and seamless checkout experience on your website, sales pages, or on any page you have control over, you can use Podia to do exactly that with our embeddable checkout buttons.
Podia’s checkout is fast and secure, and only requires the minimum amount of customer information required to close the sale (plus, it all happens within the user experience, which minimizes drop off, confusion, and increases the chance of conversion).
In contrast, Teachable does not offer this type of functionality and the checkout is not as fast or seamless.
Podia is easier to learn and use
On Capterra, Podia is rated 4.6/5 stars for “ease of use” while Teachable is rated 4.3/5 stars for the same category. While it’s close, Podia seems to have a slight edge in this area, which may be important for creators who want to save time and minimize frustration/headache.
Podia offers free migrations with any paid, annual plan — Teachable does not
If you’re coming to Podia from another online course platform, Podia will migrate your content for free with any paid annual plan so you can skip the headache and get back to business.
In contrast, Teachable does not offer a migration service of any kind, which means you’ll have to make the sometimes frustrating and time-consuming transition on your own.
Thinkific vs Podia
How do Thinkific and Podia compare when stacked up against each other? Below we compare the two platforms pros and cons.
Podia supports ALL digital products, not just courses
Similar to Teachable, Thinkific is really an online course platform that can support other types of digital products (like a membership, for example), but only with specific workarounds. Once you get inside the Thinkific product, it’s very clear that the focus is on online courses and creating anything outside of that box is not very clear or easy to do.
Podia, on the other hand, is built for all types of digital products, including online courses, communities, webinars, digital downloads, and coaching services, and all of these are clear, easy-to-create options within the Podia product. As soon as you click “New product” you are immediately presented with a menu showcasing all of the different products you can sell, making the creation process fast and easy.
Podia has a more feature-rich community feature than Thinkific
Thinkific does have limited communities, but they’re only available on the $99/month Pro plan. Podia, on the other hand, offers a built-in community on the free plan. Create free or paid communities with unlimited membership plans and unlimited members.
Podia has a built-in messaging feature between creators and students — Thinkific does not
Having live chat on your website, sales pages, and within your online course platform means answering questions, getting feedback, and closing sales becomes faster and easier than ever before.
With Podia, that live chat feature is built directly into the product, so you don’t need to use an integration, workaround, or pay for expensive live chat software. In contrast, Thinkific does not offer this type of feature at all, making communication with leads impossible and communication with customers less straightforward.
Podia offers advanced email marketing tools — Thinkific does not
With Thinkific, you can send one-off messages to your students, but if you want to send more complex email sequences, you would need to use an integration with an email service provider as Thinkific does not have robust, built-in email marketing tools.
In comparison, Podia offers robust, built-in email marketing tools that allow you to send one-off emails or complex drip sequences to your audience. You can also segment your list and track performance (including revenue per email, which is unique to Podia).
If you prefer to use your own email service provider, Podia also offers native email integrations with ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Drip, AWeber, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, and MailerLite.
Thinkific offers affiliate marketing tools on their Basic plan — Podia only offers affiliate tools on their “Shaker” plan and above
If affiliate marketing is important to you, it may be helpful to know that you can get those tools through Thinkific’s “Basic” plan ($49/mo). In contrast, you would have to upgrade to Podia’s “Shaker” plan ($89/mo) to get access to similar features.
Thinkific offers more robust course customization on Pro plan and above
Because Thinkific is so focused on online courses, they offer a good amount of customization options for your course/student experience.
For example, you can offer different types of courses and lessons (i.e. - self-directed, group, hybrid, evergreen, scheduled, etc), prerequisite lessons or courses, you can require video completion, control the visibility of your courses (public, private, hidden), and more.
While Podia does offer some of the above (such as self-directed, evergreen, dripped, and scheduled courses) Podia does not yet offer prerequisites, multiple course creators, or revenue sharing options (though they’re coming).
Thinkific has a few more student engagement tools than Podia
Similar to the above, Thinkific has a slight edge over Podia when it comes to student engagement tools. With Thinkific, you can include quizzes, assignments, exams (requires integration), student course reviews, surveys, automated check-ins, and more — all of which are great for keeping students engaged and motivated.
In contrast, Podia does offer some of the above (quizzes, ability to comment/like content within the course, progress indicators, and the ability to set up drip sequences for onboarding, check-ins, etc), but we do not currently offer assignments, exam integrations, student course reviews, or student surveys (though we do offer survey integration tools).
Thinkific offers phone support — Podia offers chat + email support
If you want to be able to speak to someone on the phone when you have questions or need help, Thinkific is the ideal choice, as they offer phone and email support every day. They also offer live chat support on their Basic plan and above.
However, if you don’t care as much about the phone and would rather speak to a reliable and helpful person via chat, Podia is the better choice, as we offer chat support 7 days a week on all plans.
Thinkific offers more flexibility with team/admin seats on Pro plan and above
Similar to Teachable, Thinkific includes a set number of team/admin seats for your account (1, 2, or 5, depending on which plan you’re on).
If you want to add team/admin seats to your Podia plans, it will be an additional $20/mo (per team member), or an additional $50/mo for five teammates, but you can have as many as you like.
Podia offers VAT processing — Thinkific does not
Hate worrying about VAT tax? Podia automatically calculates the amount of VAT due from each customer, adds the VAT to the customer’s bill, collects the money, and stores all the tax data you need to make an accurate VAT return.
In contrast, Thinkific does not offer built-in VAT tax processing, which means you’ll have to use a workaround or a third-party tool to help you do that.
Podia offers free migrations — Thinkific does not
If you’re moving online course platforms, we’ll move your contacts and content into Podia for free, saving you time and headache (requires paid annual plan). Thinkific, on the other hand, does not offer a migration service of any kind, which means you have to make the transition on your own.
Let’s compare all 3 online course platforms (Teachable vs Thinkific vs Podia) across every feature and offering
Now that we’ve showcased each platform in depth and compared them to each other, check out the chart below which will help you quickly and easily compare the three options across every feature and offering.