One of the most effective ways to make money online is by sharing knowledge, teaching others, coaching, or any other similar activities. There are a lot of things to go about this.
First and foremost, there is blogging, which is almost as old as the Internet itself. While some do think that it’s younger cousin, vlogging has replaced it, there are still those who prefer to read what they want to study and not just videos.
And speaking of videos, another angle into which you can learn from is through video essays. These short video presentations can offer a lot of insight into certain topics especially when talking about music, literature, film, or arts in general.
Video lectures and tutorials are also gaining popularity in terms of education. I remember back in school, especially when Math is the subject, my classmates and I would often search tutorials on youtube to solve specifically confusing word problems.
Growing up, it was such a novel way to educate and learn. It seemed like once again, the knowledge was able to spread wider and was more accessible to a lot more audience.
It was only a matter time before formal education and education would also be available online.
Then there it was, the Course building websites have come.
For those of you who prefer a more visual experience, here is a video review from Legit Marketing Reviews’ YouTube channel. To get a comprehensive overview of Podia, you may still want to check out our article below.
Sites for Course Construction Membervault Vs Podia
Course building websites or to refer to them in their proper name: Learning Management Systems are platforms, services, or websites that deliver digital content, especially educational ones to a desired audience.
One could even say that these websites allow for learning to be delivered remotely. LMS is capable of remote and distance learning. However, it’s not the only one that can do this. Distance learning is a reality since 1924. Membervault Vs Podia
LMS, or distance learning via the internet, is therefore, more precise. LMS can either be hosted locally or via a vendor. Cloud hosting is a common method used by most vendors to host learning materials and courses. These vendors usually follow a SaaS (Software as a service) model.
Learning Management Systems especially gained popularity during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as face-to-face and regular school learning became impossible and impractical due to isolation and social distancing measures put in place by different governments across the world.
Ever since then, LMS websites and vendor sites seem to be here for good. A lot of these websites that have long existed are now becoming household names due to their popularity and usage during the pandemic.
New websites are also popping up, creating buzz and trying their hand at being the next big thing.
While these sites mostly share a common goal (to be the preferred platform of learning and creating courses) more or less, some of them specialize in certain areas.
Podia an Overview
Podia is an online Learning Management System. It claims to be all-in-one. You can either sell individual courses, coaching, webinars or digital downloads online, or all of them together.
Among all LMS, it probably is one of the most affordable price plan. It is a great choice for course creators who are searching for an affordable LMS solution. At its economical price, it offers to allow you to create unlimited products and courses, perfect for markets who want to sell digital products.
Podia website builder is very simple and there is no coding required. It is ideal for people who want to quickly get their digital courses or products online. That said, this simplicity sacrifices customization.
Many users feel that Podia can be too restrictive when it comes to designing websites. It is only expected as its website builder does not need coding.
Podia has many integration options for those features that are not available. From Zoom to Zapier, it allows for various email service providers, payment gateways, and analytics tools to be added to your website.
Podia Features
Podia provides many features that enable users to create websites and personalize them in their own way. It also offers enough tools to conduct your business.
Podia is probably the most affordable LMS website. It has the best integration and membership communities. It even comes available on all Podia plans.
Talking about plans, except for the free one, every tier on Podia’s subscription doesn’t take transaction fees from any of your purchases. This means that you own the money no matter what you sell. Membervault Vs Podia
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
- Interface – Podia’s interface is a minimalistic and sleek UI that greets you when you log in. It is very simple and intuitive that you can access most features mostly within just three clicks. Podia’s interface is simple and intuitive.
- Course Creation – Podia’s course creation supports text, quiz, coaching, files, as well as embeds. However, it does not have all lesson types and may fall behind the competition.
This is where Podia’s Embed feature comes in clutch, with over 1900+ platforms to embed from like Youtube, Soundcloud and even TikTok. Podia also allows you to drip your content/lesson, so you can pace them in whatever way you want.
It has a great course creation feature. However, the absence of retention reports keeps it from being perfect.
- Marketing – Podia’s marketing features allows for email marketing, however it is a very basic email marketing tool that allows you to send broadcasts and email campaigns. It does not have email templates, and it doesn’t offer automation or personalization options.
Podia also offers other marketing features such as the ability to upsell your products, to giveaway coupons to potential customers, and even to pre-launch courses to drum up interest before really going all in.
All in all, Podia’s marketing platform is more than enough to boost the potency of your sales. The only thing that really lets it down is the absence of advanced automation. This is to be expected from a basic platform such as Podia.
- Podia is most vulnerable in this area. Although they have a lot of customization options available, it is not very “customizable”. Most of the things you can do are only about the texts and colors. Membervault Vs Podia
It also only has a very few templates to offer. It lacks HTML/Custom CSS customization. Although this may sound like a problem, some people would prefer it that way. {Non-techies would probably not notice and would prefer the ease of use.|The ease of use would be preferred by non-techies.
- Payment Processors – For Payment Processors, Podia integrates Stripe and Paypal for collecting payment from your students. Podia does not charge transaction fees for any sales or transactions you make through your website.
However, Stripe and Paypal might charge additional fees. You still need to pay them. Usually these fees are very low so you probably won’t have a problem with them.
Podia Price
Podia offers four types of plans. Each plan has its own unique features. This include:
| Free ($0 per month) | Mover ($33 per month) |
|
|
| Shaker Plan ($75/month) | Earthquaker Plan ($33 per month) |
|
|
Podia Pros and Cons
Pros
- Podia’s UI/UX has been refined so that even non-techies can easily understand it. It is easy to set up and users will be satisfied.
- You can sell a variety of digital products through Podia, including courses, webinars, memberships and digital downloads. These products can be sold together.
- In all their plans, Podia supports unlimited courses and products.
- Their unlimited offer also applies to storage and bandwidth where you can host your videos. While you have the option, you don’t need to use Vimeo, Wistia or other video hosting sites.
- To increase your reach, you can use Podia’s integrated affiliate program. This function can only be used if you are on the Shaker or Earthshaker plans.
- You can send broadcasts and campaigns through their built-in email marketing. You can even add entrance and exit conditions for these campaigns.
- Podia offers over 1900+ integrations across various apps, email service providers and payment gateways. Zapier is an integration that can be used by those who don’t have native integration.
- The pre-launch mode of Podia is helpful for testing the waters and analysing interest before committing to a course.
- Podia markets itself as creator-centric, as such, they take 0% transaction fee on all of your sales
- Podia also provides built-in quizzes, community, certificates, and community. For memberships, you can use the community page.
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
Cons
- The Email Composer lacks more option for personalization. It even lacks pre-made templates, a drag and drop editor and split-testing.
- Podia’s system does not have a course-compliance feature. The most common report that you will get is the number of people who have completed a course. It lacks details.
- Podia has very limited customization options. Podia does not support custom CSS/HTML customizations
- You might need to use third-party apps and services to really create landing pages and sales funnels such as WordPress, or ClickFunnels
- Only a handful of lesson types are supported. Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline are not supported. HTML 6 Content, assessments, and other lessons may be missing.
- The affiliate program is also missing. There is no affiliate commission tiers and affiliate-specific commissions.
- Podia does not have a mobile application.
Podia versus Kajabi
Kajabi an Overview
Kajabi is a Learning Management System. It allows users to create products and courses while simultaneously hosting them.
The platform is very sophisticated, and has many features like automation. This makes it ideal for marketers and course creators who have previous experience in this field. Of course, to make use of its full potential, users must have the technical know-how to utilize all of Kajabi’s offerings.
Kajabi allows you to also sell memberships, coachings, communities and podcasts along with other digital products.
Kajabi offers a mobile app that is different from other LMSs. This is because smartphones have quickly become the most preferred device for almost everyone. It really gives the company a boost in terms of the market.
Kajabi Features
Kajabi offers many features that will make it worth the extra cost. Kajabi’s website builder and many other features are highly customizable.
Probably where Kajabi shines the most is in its marketing tools. It offers all the standard bells and whistles but what investors and Kajabi’s rivals really envy is its automation system. Yes that’s right! Kajabi offers automation in lots of its features, especially their emails.
One more thing that is unique to Kajabi is its Pipelines. Kajabi’s Pipelines offer many benefits that can be used to replace ClickFunnel or other website funnel-building tools.
- Interface – Logging into Kajabi will bring you to the dashboard. It is clean and minimalistic with minimal clutter. Overall it gives off a very modern aesthetic. The accessibility is also satisfactory. You can get to all of Kajabi’s features within 3 to 5 clicks.
Kajabi’s homepage also includes a search assistant that can help you navigate the site whenever you are lost or just too lazy to click on stuff. This will redirect you to the Kajabi App’s features and tools.
Kajabi’s page load times are very fast and provide you a smooth experience.
- Course Creation – Kajabi’s course creation is very robust. It allows you to create different categories. This flexibility allows you to choose the best option depending on which course you are presenting to students.
There are many options: online courses, mini-courses and drip courses. You can also create your own custom course. To help in creating your courses, Kajabi provides you blueprints or templates for each product. It already gives you a “skeleton” of the course, and all you have to do is fill it up with content.
Kajabi also allows you to structure your course in categories and subcategories. That way, you can decide how you present these courses to your students. This is particularly useful if you are slowly introducing your content.
As for content, Kajabi allows you to use the following to make your courses: text, audio, vidoe, assessments, images and files. You can even combine these content and add them on a single course. At the moment, Kajabi doesn’t offer live lessons.
The student’s side. Kajabi’s course delivery offers a sleek and minimal design. There is no clutter that can serve as a distraction to your students.
- Marketing – At its most basic, Kajabi offers all of the expected products to make your products enticing to buyers. You can sell upsells and order bumps using Kajabi. You can even customize this stuff to ensure more value for your money.
Kajabi’s strongest point is email marketing. You can send broadcasts and email sequences using this tool. Kajabi’s email marketing offers a variety of email templates. Membervault Vs Podia
Depending on what type of email you want to send, Kajabi has got it covered. However, Kajabi’s email marketing really gets powerful when you combine it with an automation function.
Not only does it make your job faster and easier. You have many options. WIth Kajabi, you also don’t need to avail of 3rd party sales funnels. They got you covered with their pipelines that you can customize as well.
It can be used effectively and correctly to increase customer conversion rates, which will lead to increased sales. Membervault Vs Podia
- Design and Customization – Kajabi’s design options are among the most customizable in the market. Even the lowest plans offer a variety of themes you can choose to match your brand or course. These themes have a very professional look.
You can even upload your own theme if you want to. You can access their code editor if you purchase the top Kajabi plan. This allows you to customize even the smallest details.
Kajabi’s Page Builder allows you to create course pages, membership sites, checkout pages, landing pages, and many other pages. They also utilize a block system and each block can be customized. They are page-specific and function-specific.
- For Payment Processing, Kajabi unfortunately does not have its own native payment gateway. It integrates Stripe and PayPal as well as other third-party integrations. Some regions even have more gateways available.
As for those regions who don’t have integration, you can use third party integration through Webhooks or Zapier.
Kajabi provides the checkout page on one page. This page can be personalized to include testimonials and sales videos to increase your product sales.
Kajabi price
It is robust and features-rich. Kajabi has the highest rates among all the LMS services found on the internet. They also do not offer a free trial. It is also a standard practice to name the different plans they offer.
In the case of Kajabi they have the Growth, Basic, and Pro. All plans also give you access to Kajabi University. This knowledge base is Kajabi’s own and can be used to assist users with its functionality.
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
| Basic ($149/month) | Growth ($199 per month) |
|
|
| Pro ($319 per month) | |
|
Kajabi Pros & Cons
Pros
- Kajabi offers various types of courses for you to make
- Helps you get started with Blueprints and Templates
- With their automations, their email marketing solutions are some of the best on the market.
- This program allows you to use built-in assessments to help you grade and evaluate your students. These can also be automated
- A mobile app is available that allows students to access the courses from their phones.
- Also comes with a membership feature where you can sell or give exclusive products to members with different tiers
- Automation and advanced automation (with conditional filter) helps you finish tasks in your website easily and swiftly
- It has a powerful theme builder that can be customized to suit your needs. You can also access a code editor by paying more. This will allow you to truly flesh out your website.
- Comes with a blogging feature for promoting your brand
- This eliminates the need to use third-party funnels that have their own version. There are even many different pipeline templates available for use. Membervault Vs Podia
Cons
- It is more expensive. The lowest plan is $149 per Month
- They have no available plans that support unlimited products. The lowest plan offers only 3 products and 3 pipelines, the highest offers 100 products and 100 funnels.
- Kajabi lacks course completion certificates and course compliance features
- There are no page templates available for thank you pages, landing pages, or other pages. You will need to edit the default page templates as needed
- There are no guarantee badges available on the checkout page
- Kajabi doesn’t have their own payment gateway
- Kajabi’s community is missing some features that make it as interesting as the rest.
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
Podia versus Teachable
Teachable an Overview
Teachable is among the best online course platforms currently in the market. This LMS is used by course creators, teachers, professionals, coaches, entrepreneurs for business as well as teaching. These courses and coaching can be sold together.
Teachable’s greatest strength is its course compliance feature. This feature is mostly missing from most LMS and online course platforms. If they do have this feature, it will probably be lacking or not as advanced or robust.
Teachable’s course compliance even gives out advanced reports on student progress, and video analytics to show student engagement.
Teachable does not require integration to access its payment gateways. Instead, they can choose their own system. It also handles EU/VAT, making your life easier and that of your European Students.
Teachable is also one of the most affordable LMSs available. It even offers a free plan that allows you to sell one course only. Though it does come with its own limitations. However, this free plan can be very useful when you just want to test out the waters.
Teachable Features
- Interface – Teachable’s interface is actually very neat and brings about a modern feel. Most features can be accessed through the right sidebar. It may take three to four clicks to get to sub-features.
Although it does not include a search function, this is due to how easy it is for users to navigate from one option to the next.
Lastly, Teachable seems to load its pages slower compared to other LMS, however this lag is negligible and I would have not noticed if I was not actively comparing websites.
- Course Creation – As for course creation proper, Teachable does not provide templates or pipelines for you to use. This setup can be difficult, especially for newbies in web design.
Courses or Content are also divided into sections and lectures found inside each section. Content type can be text, video, files, quizzes, code examples, custom codes, and upsells.
These files can be combined into one lecture. For example, you could add a quiz to a video lecture. Although this may seem like a difficult task, Teachable offers a bulk upload option that makes it easier to upload your files quicker.
These files can be uploaded once they are saved.
Teachable allows you to schedule drip delivery. This means that your content can be dripped depending on the time your student enrolled. That said, this feature only drips sections and not lectures. Membervault Vs Podia
There is also the course player. This allows students to add notes to their learning experience. One downside however, is that to customize this player, you need to use the power editor.
In which case, people who do not know how to code might find themselves lost.
Teachable’s Course Compliance feature is also worth noting. This is the area where Teachable stands out from the rest. This feature allows you to control the way students see and consume your lectures.
They can decide the order of the lectures and make sure they have watched the entire lecture. You can even use quizzes as a checkpoint before they can proceed or pass a lecture.
You can then pass the results on to Teachable for detailed reports. This is yet another tool you can use in order to teach students effectively.
- Marketing – Teachable provides basic marketing features like free previews, coupons and pre-selling courses. They function like the other LMS marketing features and they serve the same purpose of enticing others to buy your products.
As for email marketing, Teachable has the basic features that can get you what you need, however it does lack some features like, templates, sequences, and automations.If you think you want better options, you can integrate popular email services like MailChimp and ConvertKit as needed.
Teachable does not have an affiliate program. Because of this, you need to make affiliates on your own. That said, it does allow you to make affiliates for your product.
These affiliates will be paid through the website’s own payment gateways by Teachable. Membervault Vs Podia
- Design and customization – Teachable is not very customizable in terms of the overall theme. You can only choose one theme. The only thing you can customize is the logo, branding, fonts, background color, and theme.
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
That said, paying for the business plan will give you access to its power editor wherein you can use custom code that allows you to further modify the theme of your page.
The page builder itself is much more customizable than you might expect. They provide you with several building blocks depending on your needs. They even include block layouts for banners, images with text, email. You can even get pricing for your products.
Like the themes, you can also use CSS/HTML to code in stuff to personalize your website more.
- Payment Processors – Teachable is among the only LMS services that has their very own Payment Gateway. There are two payment options: Monthly Payment Gateway and Teachable Payments. The former is a godsend to EU students as they can handle EU/VAT calculations.
Teachable also has “Back Office” which is a service that will handle all affiliate payout. Sadly, if you want to use the good old Stripe and PayPal services, you would need to be on their professional plan or higher.
Overall, Teachable Payment Processors make it easier for your students and customers to easily make payments and checkouts.
Teachable Price
If we include the free plan, Teachable has four plans total. Like the others, these plans differ in accessibility and features. To ensure which plan is for you, we have placed what they offer in each price point. That said, you can try the free plan, which acts as a free trial to test Teachable’s environment.
| Free ($0 per month) | Basic ($39/month) |
|
|
| Pro ($119 per Month) | Business ($299 per Month) |
|
|
Teachable Pros and Cons
Pros
- It’s paid plans allows you to host unlimited courses
- It has the best course compliance features making it the best option if your focus is on teaching
- It’s built-in course completion certificates can be combined with the course compliance giving you the ability to host academic courses
- The course player lets your students take notes and listen to your lectures, promoting active learning. It even has a subtitle feature
- HTML/CSS scripts are easily embedded in lectures to open up many interesting and engaging possibilities.
- You can use it for unlimited video hosting
- It has a robust membership feature to allow for exclusive content depending on membership tiers
- The bulk upload feature makes your workflow more comprehensive
- You can opt in for a comment feature in your courses
- Has an ios App to allow your students consume the content whenever or wherever
- Payment processing platforms has an ability to handle EU/VAT sales
- It has its own native payment gateways bypassing the need to integrate other services
- Its native payment gateways also has “Back Office’ that process payouts for affiliate commission and other complex payment
- Has an in-depth student reports and video analytics, Membervault Vs Podia
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
Cons
- Their free plan lacks a lot of feature to even call it a plan
- Your sales are subject to a 5% commission under the Basic Plan
- They do not use a drag and drop builder. Instead, they use custom CSS and power editors. This is bad news to non-techies
- A lack of a community feature
- You would need to know how to code in order to fully customize their course player
- You will need third-party services to issue refunds
Thinkific versus Podia
The Overview of Thinkific
Thinkific is another LMS service that puts course building at the forefront. You can create a website and then start building your courses.
It is easy to use, making it one of the best online course creators. It is so user-friendly that Thinkific offers a free plan which allows you to create up to three courses with no investment. Granted, they do take a transaction fee.
Thinkific is the “go to platform” for online courses.
Thinkific’s core focus is on its curriculum creation capabilities. This is why the course creation features are the most important.
However, this means that their marketing and selling aspects are not that good.
Useful Features
- Interface – Logging in to Thinkific will take you to the admin area. This is your central point for all things Thinkific Platform.
The sidebar allows you to access every feature that Thinkific has to offer. Usually, these features are found and arranged in a logical manner. There are some features though that might be found in places you don’t think that they should be in.
Overall, the thinkific interface may be decent, but there are parts where it feels clunky and unoptimized.
- Course Creation – Thinkific’s greatest strength is found on its course creation mechanism. Even its free plan offers a lot of options to make your course as enjoyable as it can be.
Thinkific’s platform allows you to use different types of media such as videos, pdf, audio, Google docs, captivates, storylines, among others. Thinkific also allows you to bulk upload your contents. You will need to organize each lesson separately to make the bulk upload work.
Thinkific also allows for drip-feeding your content to easily pace out and manage your course. Membervault Vs Podia
Although it doesn’t have a course compliance option, Thinkific lets you incentivize students using leaderboards, awards and scoring to motivate them to complete your course.
You can also manage your course with Thinkific in many different ways. You can manage discussions, answer questions from students, and even approve or hide discussions.
Thinkific also allows you to manage quizzes and assignments as much as possible.
- Marketing – This is where Thinkific is weakest. Their marketing features are limited to the essentials. What’s worse is that it might only be limited to a certain tier or higher.
Thinkific allows for course bundles which can also be used for creating a membership site.
Thinkific also lacks a sales funnel builder and as such, you will need to use integration. Even then, the whole checkout is a bit clunky with limited customization.
Thinkific’s email marketing is also severely limited. You can only send your marketing emails to students who are already enrolled in your courses. As such, the best you can do is to tell them about new courses or products as well as send the email updates.
Thinkific also allows you to add affiliates to promote your courses and products. It allows you to choose how much commission you want.
Affiliates will have their own dashboard that allows them to track the performance of each unique affiliate link. The affiliate tracking pixel can’t be modified and remains in place for 30 days.
- Design and Customization – Thinkinfic’s level of customizability is fairly decent. They offer three themes to choose from. Then, you can choose from the three themes to create your theme styles. These styles can be thought of as presets that allow you to choose your site’s aesthetic.
That said, their level of customizability is not as good as Kajabi. Thinkific also allows you to import developer coded themes. If you have the technical know-how, you can also customize your themes using code.
Thinkific also uses a drag and drop page builder. In this builder, each block is called a section and there are 20 of them. It is very easy to use and you can add a section to your page with only just 1 click. Membervault Vs Podia
- Payment Processors – Thinkific has its own payment processor, Thinkific Payments. This tool is part of the TCommerce suite. This tool offers seamless shopping, subscriptions and payment plans.
This is not available in Canada, the UK and the USA. Other than those countries, Stripe integrations and Paypal integrations can be used.
Thinkific Price
Thinkific offers four basic plans which includes a free plan. Their free plan is one of the best as it give you the most features only being limited to the number of courses you can make and sell with them.
That said, Thinkific also offers a Growth feature that gives more powerful tools in their Pro plan. Thinkific Plus is also available for enterprise clients.
| Free ($0 per month) | Basic ($39 per month) |
|
|
| Pro ($79 per month) | Premier ($399 per month) |
|
|
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
Thoughtific Pros and Cons
Pros
- Thinkific’s free package is permanently free
- Different course payment options available for different students and schools
- There are no transaction fees on payments made by learners
- The premium packages gives you an unlimited number of online purses
- The page builder is simple to use and can be customized with coding knowledge.
- It comes with a strong course builder that will make your course engaging.
- Thinkific allows you to put incentives like leaderboards, awards and scores as a way to motivate your students.
Cons
- Most of their features are not exactly user friendly.
- Beginners would probably be disappointed with the lack of custom options, and they might be lost in the sea of code
- Marketing features are very weak.
- Checkout page very clunky
- Does not have chat support. For a prompt response, email support can take up to one working day. This includes time zones.
The Verdict Membervault Vs PodiaMembervault Vs Podia
With all those laid out in hand, we can finally see how Podia compares to other Learning Management Systems. Through this, I hope you can find the right platform to host your products, courses and businesses.
Verdict: Podia versus Kajabi
Both Kajabi and Podia function very similarly, as they both offer all-in-one solutions. Choosing one or the other comes down to two factors: price and customizability. Membervault Vs Podia
Podia is the best choice if you are looking for an all-in-one platform that’s affordable and doesn’t require much customization. Podia is affordable and allows unlimited course uploads.
If you don’t have the budget but still want a personal touch, Kajabi is the right choice. Kajabi offers advanced automation and automation for marketing that will make it easier to update your customers and market to them.
Verdict: Podia versus Teachable
This matchup is much more difficult to compare to the one above. Teachable and Podia specialize in different things and as such, your choice would depend on your business’ direction.
If you are looking to sell digital products such as memberships, coachings and courses, Podia is the right choice. Podia is more suited to your needs.
Teachable is the best choice if you are looking to concentrate more on the “course” rather than “teaching”. Teachable has a more robust course building platform compared to Podia. Teachable’s most distinctive feature is its course compliance, which allows you to monitor the progress of your students.
Verdict: Thinkific versus Podia
There is nothing really much to say here except for the fact that Thinkific is basically like a cheaper version of Teachable, as such picking between these two would be basically the same as picking between Podia and Teachable
If you want to sell your digital products, Podia is the right choice. Podia has a stronger marketing tool than Thinkific. This would be a benefit for some.
If you prefer to make courses than pay Teachable’s high prices, Thinkific is the right choice. Thinkific is also a good platform to get used to making online courses with, as their free plan requires little to no investment, despite being more limited. Bear in mind, Thinkific has no course compliance feature and puts focus on a more positive and incentivized motivation. Membervault Vs Podia
