One of the most effective ways to make money online is by sharing knowledge, teaching others, coaching, or any other similar activities. This can be done in many ways.
First and foremost, there is blogging, which is almost as old as the Internet itself. Although some believe that vlogging is its younger cousin, blogging has not lost its appeal. However, there are still people who love to read the content they’re interested in and not just videos.
Video essays are another way to learn about videos. These videos can provide a lot more insight than just a short presentation, especially when it comes to music, literature or film.
Video lectures and tutorials are also gaining popularity in terms of education. Back in school, Math was a subject that I loved, and my classmates and me would search YouTube tutorials to find solutions to 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 Podia Vs Below The Line
Learning Management Systems, also known as course building websites, are platforms, services or websites that provide digital content to a targeted audience.
These websites even allow learning to be done 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. Podia Vs Below The Line
LMS, or distance learning via the internet, is therefore, more precise. LMS can be either hosted locally or through a vendor. Most vendors usually use the cloud to host courses or learning materials. These vendors usually follow a SaaS (Software as a service) model.
Learning Management Systems were especially popular during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, when face-to-face school learning was impossible due to social distancing and isolation measures taken by different governments around the globe.
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.
Then new websites have also come out, generating buzz and trying to be the next big thing.
These sites all share the same goal of creating and learning courses on the best platform, but some specialize in specific areas.
Podia an Overview
Podia is a Learning Management System that markets itself as an all-in-one platform. 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. As such, it is best suited for course creators that are looking for an inexpensive 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. Thus, it is a perfect fit for those who are in a rush and just want to get their courses or digital products out there. However, it does not sacrifice customization.
Many users feel that Podia can be too restrictive when it comes to designing websites. This is because Podia’s website builder doesn’t require coding.
For some features that are lacking, Podia offers a wide range of integrations. 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. You can even get it 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. Podia Vs Below The Line
> > 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 simply far from overwhelming.
- Course Creation – Podia supports course creation with text, quiz, coaching and files. However, it does not have all lesson types and may fall behind the competition.
Podia’s Embed feature is a game changer. There are over 1900+ platforms you can embed from, including Soundcloud, Youtube, and TikTok. Podia allows you to drip content/lessons, so that you can move them around in any way you like.
Overall, it has a superb course creation feature, but the lack of retention reports keep 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. What really brings it down however is the lack of advanced automation. But that is to be expected of a basic platform like Podia.
- Design and Customization – This is probably where Podia falls the hardest. While they offer a decent number of customization options, It really isn’t that “customizable”. Most of the things you can do are only about the texts and colors. Podia Vs Below The Line
There are very few templates available. It does not allow for 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: Podia integrates Stripe with Paypal to collect payment from 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
There are four plans available from Podia. Each with their own features. This include:
| Free ($0 per month) | Mover ($33 per month) |
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| Shaker Plan ($75/month) | Earthquaker Plan ($33/month) |
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Podia Pros and Cons
Pros
- Podia’s UI/UX has been refined so that even non-techies can easily understand it. Users will find themselves satisfied when setting it up.
- You can sell a variety of digital products through Podia, including courses, webinars, memberships and digital downloads. You can even sell these things in a bundle.
- Podia offers unlimited products and courses in all of their plans.
- 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 campaigns and broadcasts through their integrated email marketing. These campaigns can be customized with exit and entrance conditions.
- 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. The Email Composer lacks pre-made templates and a drag-and-drop editor. Split-testing is also not available.
- Podia’s system doesn’t have a course compliance feature. Most of the time, the only report you can get is how many have finished a course. It lacks details.
- Podia has very limited customization options. There is no support for 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.
- Affiliate program is also lacking. 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 that provides the user an all-in-one platform to create courses and products while at the same time 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. To fully utilize Kajabi’s capabilities, users need to have technical knowledge.
Kajabi also allows you to sell coachings, memberships, communities, podcasts as well as 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. Most of Kajabi’s features, such as their website builder, are extremely 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 correct! Kajabi provides automation in many of its features, including their email.
Kajabi’s Pipelines are another unique feature. 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. It has a modern, minimalist aesthetic. It is also easy to use. All of Kajabi’s features can be accessed in as little as 3 to 5 clicks.
Kajabi’s homepage includes a search assistant. This can be used to help you navigate the site if you get lost or are too lazy to click on things. 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.
You can choose from: mini-courses, online courses, drip courses, or do a custom one of your own. Kajabi offers templates or blueprints to help you create your courses. Kajabi already provides a “skeleton” for your course. All you need to do is add content.
Kajabi allows you to organize your course in categories or 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.
Kajabi lets you use text, audio, video, assessments, images, and files to create your courses. These content can be combined and added to a single course. At the moment, Kajabi doesn’t offer live lessons.
As for the student’s side. Kajabi’s course delivery offers a sleek and minimal design. Your students will not be distracted by clutter.
- Marketing – At its most basic, Kajabi offers all of the expected products to make your products enticing to buyers. It allows you to sell coupons, upsells, and order bumps. You can even customize this stuff to ensure more value for your money.
Email marketing is probably where Kajabi stands out the most. You can send broadcasts and email sequences using this tool. Kajabi’s email marketing offers a variety of email templates. Podia Vs Below The Line
Kajabi can send any type of email, no matter what it is. 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. It opens up a lot of options too. Kajabi makes it easy to use third-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. Podia Vs Below The Line
- Kajabi offers a wide range of design and customization options. Even the lower plans provide you with various themes that you can use to fit your course or brand. These themes look professional.
If you wish, you can upload your own theme. If you pay for the highest plan Kajabi offers, then you will be given access to their code editor where you can even customize the most minute details.
As for the Page Builder, Kajabi allows you to design course pages, membership site, checkout pages, landing pages and even more. Each block can also be customized using a block system. Even then, they are already 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 have even more gateways.
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
Because of its robust and feature-rich nature. Kajabi has the highest rates among all the LMS services found on the internet. They also do not offer a free trial. It has also become a common practice to include names for the different tiers that their plans have.
In the case of Kajabi they have the Growth, Basic, and Pro. All plans include 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 per month) | Growth ($199 per month) |
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| Pro ($319 per month) | |
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Kajabi Pros & Cons
Pros
- Kajabi offers a variety of courses that you can choose from
- Provides Templates and Blueprints to help you get started
- Their email marketing solutions are the most advanced in the market with their automations
- Provides you with built-in assessments that allows you to grade and assess 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
- Automating and advanced automation (with conditional filter), allows you to complete tasks quickly and easily on your website.
- Has a very powerful theme builder that you can customize according to your needs. You can also access a code editor by paying more. This will allow you to truly flesh out your website.
- It comes with a blog feature to promote your brand
- This eliminates the need to use third-party funnels that have their own version. You can even choose from many different templates for your pipeline. Podia Vs Below The Line
Cons
- Is more on the expensive side. 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 does not have course completion certificates or course compliance features
- There are no page templates for your landing pages, thank you pages, and some others. You will need to edit the default page templates as needed
- There are no guarantee badges available on the checkout page
- Kajabi does not own 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 one of the most popular online courses platforms. This LMS is used by course creators, teachers, professionals, coaches, entrepreneurs for business as well as teaching. You can even sell these courses, and coaching in a single bundle
Teachable’s greatest strength can be found in its course compliance feature. This feature is mostly missing from most LMS and online course platforms. This feature is not usually available on most LMS and online course platforms.
Teachable offers advanced reports about student progress and video analytics to demonstrate student engagement.
Teachable also does not depend on integration for its payment gateways, opting for their own system instead. 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. Teachable even has a free plan that allows one course to be sold. Though it does come with its own limitations. This plan is free and can be extremely useful if you are just starting out.
Teachable Features
- Interface – Teachable’s interface looks very modern and is quite neat. Most features can be accessed through the right sidebar. Getting to the sub-features may need three to four clicks.
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.
Teachable’s pages load slower than other LMSs, but this is not noticeable and I wouldn’t have noticed it if I wasn’t actively comparing websites.
- Course Creation – Teachable doesn’t provide any templates or pipelines to help you create courses. 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.
You can even combine these types into one lecture, like adding a quiz after a video lecture in the same course. 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.
As for delivery, Teachable also allows for drip scheduling, meaning you can drip your content depending on when your student enrolled. This feature does not drip lectures, but sections. Podia Vs Below The Line
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.
People who don’t know how to code could find themselves in this situation.
Also something to take note is Teachable’s Course Compliance Feature. This is the area where Teachable stands out from the rest. With this feature, you are able to control how the students view and consume your lectures.
From deciding the lecture order to making sure they watch the whole video lecture. You can even use quizzes as a checkpoint before they can proceed or pass a lecture.
The results can then be passed on the various detailed reports you can get from Teachable, which is another tool that you can use to effectively teach your students.
- 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.
One thing that Teachable lacks is a dedicated affiliate program. You will need to create affiliates by yourself. It does however allow you to create affiliates for your product.
These affiliates will be paid through the website’s own payment gateways by Teachable. Podia Vs Below The Line
- Design and Customization – In terms of overall theme, Teachable is really not that customizable. The service only gives you 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 proper is more customizable than expected. You can choose from a variety of building blocks to suit your needs. You can even find block layouts to make banners, images with text and 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 the only LMS service that has its 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 has a “Back Office”, which handles all affiliate payouts. 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
Teachable offers four plans in total if we count the free one. These plans are similar to the others in terms of accessibility and features. We have listed the features and prices of each plan to help you choose which plan is right for you. That said, you can try the free plan, which acts as a free trial to test Teachable’s environment.
| No cost ($0 per Month) | Basic ($39 per month) |
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| Pro ($119 per Month) | Businesses ($299 per month) |
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Teachable Pros and Cons
Pros
- You can host unlimited courses with the paid plans
- It is the best choice if you are a teacher and want to focus on teaching.
- It’s built-in course completion certificates can be combined with the course compliance giving you the ability to host academic courses
- Its course player allows your students to take notes while watching or listening to your lecture, thus promoting a pro-active learning environment. You can even add subtitles to the program.
- HTML/CSS scripts can be embedded to lectures, opening up a lot of interesting and engaging opportunities.
- It has unlimited bandwidth for 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
- Use an ios app to let your students access the content wherever they are.
- Payment processing platforms can handle EU/VAT transactions
- 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
- Includes video analytics and student reports. Podia Vs Below The Line
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
Cons
- The free plan does not have enough features to be called a plan.
- Basic plan charges a 5% fee for your sales
- They don’t 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, another LMS service, puts course building at its forefront. It has everything you need to create a web page and start building your courses.
Thinkific is also very easy to use and as such, it is one of the most beginner friendly online course creators on the market. In fact, it is so beginner friendly that Thinkific’s very own free plan allows you to create three courses, with no investment required. They do charge a transaction fee.
Thinkific flaunts itself as the “go-to platform for running an online course business”.
As such, Thinkific puts its core focus on it’s curriculum creation capabilities. As such, most of the best features in this service can be found on the course creation.
This means their selling and marketing aspects are poor.
Useful Features
- Interface – Logging in to Thinkific will take you to the admin area. This will be your hub that allows you to navigate the whole 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. You have many options to make your course enjoyable, even if you don’t pay for it.
Thinkific’s platform allows you to use different types of media such as videos, pdf, audio, Google docs, captivates, storylines, among others. You can also bulk upload your content to Thinkific. However, this bulk upload is limited and you will have to look at and organize each lesson individually in order to fully customize them.
Thinkific allows you to drip-feed your content, allowing you to manage and pace your course. Podia Vs Below The Line
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.
Thinkific also allows you to manage your course in 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 probably where Thinkific is at its weakest. Most of their marketing features only include the essentials. Worse, it may only be available for a specific tier or higher.
Thinkific offers course bundles that can be used to create a membership website.
Thinkific does not have a sales funnel builder. You will also need integration. Even so, the checkout process is somewhat cumbersome and offers limited customization.
Email marketing at Thinkific is also very limited. Your marketing emails can only be sent to students already enrolled in your courses. You can only send marketing emails to students who are already enrolled in your courses.
Thinkific allows you to add affiliates for your products and courses. The best part of it is that it allows you to select how many percent commission you can offer.
Affiliates will have their own dashboard that allows them to track the performance of each unique affiliate link. However, the affiliate tracking pixel cannot be changed and is permanently set to 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 allows you to import themes that have been developed by developers. You can customize your themes with code if you have the technical knowledge.
Thinkific also uses a drag and drop page builder. Each block in this builder is called a “section” and there are 20. It’s very simple to use, and you can add sections to your page in just one click. Podia Vs Below The Line
- Payment Processors – Thinkific has their own payment processor called Thinkific Payments. This tool is part of the TCommerce suite. This tool provides for a seamless experience especially for one time purchases, subscriptions, and payment plans.
However, it seems like this is only available for the USA, UK, and Canada. Other than those countries, Stripe integrations and Paypal integrations can be used.
The 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.
Thinkific also offers a Growth option that provides more powerful tools to their Pro plan. Thinkific Plus is also available for enterprise clients.
| No cost ($0 per Month) | Basic ($39/month) |
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| Pro ($79 per month) | Premier ($399 per month) |
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> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
Thinkific Pros and Cons
Pros
- Thinkific’s free package is permanently free
- Has different course payment options for different types of students and schools
- There are no transaction fees on payments made by learners
- Premium packages give you unlimited online purse options
- Their page builder is easy to use, and it can be further customized if you have the coding know-how
- It comes with a strong course builder that will make your course engaging.
- You can use Thinkific to give incentives such as leaderboards, awards, and scores to motivate your students.
Cons
- Many of the features they offer are not 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.
- Very clunky checkout page
- Does not have chat support. For a prompt response, email support can take up to one working day. This also includes time zones.
The Verdict Podia Vs Below The LinePodia Vs Below The Line
We can now see how Podia compares with 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. Podia Vs Below The Line
You should choose Podia if you want an affordable all in one platform and you don’t need much customization for your product. 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. Also, if you would want an easier time in marketing and updating your customers, Kajabi’s automation and advanced automation has got you covered.
Verdict: Podia versus Teachable
It is more difficult to compare this matchup to the one mentioned above. Teachable and Podia are experts in different areas. Your business’s direction would determine your decision.
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 offers a stronger course-building platform than Podia. Also, Teachable’s greatest and most unique feature is its course compliance which helps to properly monitor your student’s course completion.
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
You should choose Podia if you wish to focus on selling your digital products and you would prefer an all in one digital platform. 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. Though their plan is more limited, Thinkific can be used to learn how to make online courses. Bear in mind, Thinkific has no course compliance feature and puts focus on a more positive and incentivized motivation. Podia Vs Below The Line