Sharing knowledge, teaching people, coaching, and similar other things has become one of the best ways to earn money on the Internet. 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.
And speaking of videos, another angle into which you can learn from is through video essays. These videos can provide a lot more insight than just a short presentation, especially when it comes to music, literature or film.
Education is also becoming more popular thanks to video lectures and tutorials. 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.
It was a new way to learn and educate growing up. 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.
Course Building Websites Podia Vs Until Dawn
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 has been a thing since 1924. Podia Vs Until Dawn
Therefore, to be more precise, LMS is basically distance learning through the internet. LMS can be either hosted locally or through a vendor. Most vendors usually use the cloud to host courses or learning materials. This is 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.
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 an online Learning Management System. It claims to be all-in-one. It enables you to sell online courses, coaching, webinars, digital downloads, or you can sell all of them in a bundle.
It is probably the most affordable LMS 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.
It is for this reason that there are a lot of users who think that Podia is a bit too rigid and restricting when 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.
Among the more affordable LMS websites, Podia probably has the best Membership and integration communities. It even comes available on all Podia plans.
Speaking of plans, with the exception of the free plan, all tiers on Podia’s subscription does not take any transaction fees from all your purchases. That means, whatever you sell, the money is all yours. Podia Vs Until Dawn
> > Click Here to Check Out Podia < <
- Interface – A sleek and minimal UI greets you upon logging in to Podia. 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 supports course creation with text, quiz, coaching and files. It does not support all lesson types, so it may be slower than 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. But that is to be expected of a basic platform like Podia.
- Design and Customization – This is probably where Podia falls the hardest. Although they have a lot of customization options available, it is not very “customizable”. The majority of what you can do is limited to the colors and texts. Podia Vs Until Dawn
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 – 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.
That said, there might be additional fees that come from Stripe or Paypal, as such, you still have to pay for them. These fees are usually very low, so they shouldn’t cause any problems.
Podia Price
Podia offers four types of plans. Each plan has its own unique features. These include:
| Free ($0 per month) | Mover ($33 per month) |
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| Shaker Plan ($75 per 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. It is easy to set up and users will be satisfied.
- Podia allows you to sell various digital products, from the usual courses, to memberships, webinars, and community or 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. You don’t have to use Vimeo, Wistia, or any other video hosting site.
- 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. These campaigns can be customized with exit and entrance conditions.
- Podia has over 1900+ integration across different apps, email service providers, payment gateways, and analytic tools. For those without native integration, you can use the Zapier integration along with its many triggers and actions.
- Podia’s pre-launch mode is useful for testing out the waters and analyzing interest before going all in and full effort on 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
- Email Composer does not offer personalization options. It even lacks pre-made templates, a drag and drop editor and split-testing.
- Podia’s system doesn’t 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 is very basic in terms of customization. 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 few 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. Affiliate-specific commissions are not available.
- 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 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 also offers a lot of features to ensure that their higher price point is worth every cent that you pay for. Kajabi’s website builder and many other features are highly customizable.
Marketing tools are probably the best area where Kajabi shines. 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 provides automation in many of its features, including their email.
Kajabi’s Pipelines are another unique feature. Kajabi’s pipelines offer a lot to eliminate the need for funnel-building tools like ClickFunnel and other websites.
- 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. It is also easy to use. 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 loads very quickly and provides a smooth experience.
- Course Creation – Kajabi’s course creator is extremely robust. First of all, it allows you to make different types of 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. 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. As of the moment, Kajabi does not 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 – Kajabi provides all the products you need to sell your products. 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. Podia Vs Until Dawn
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.
It makes your job easier and faster. You have many options. WIth Kajabi, you also don’t need to avail of 3rd party sales funnels. You can also customize their pipelines.
When used properly and effectively, it will increase your customer conversion rate leading to more sales. Podia Vs Until Dawn
- 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.
If you wish, you can upload your own theme. 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. Each block can also be customized using a block system. Even then, they are already page-specific and function specific.
- Kajabi does not have a native payment gateway for Payment Processing. 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
It is robust and features-rich. Kajabi has the highest rates among all the LMS services found on the internet. You cannot also get 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 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 per month) | Growth ($199 per month) |
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| Pro ($319 per month) | |
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Kajabi Pros and Cons
Pros
- Kajabi offers various types of courses for you to make
- Provides Templates and Blueprints to help you get started
- 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. By paying more, you can even access a code editor to really flesh out your website
- It comes with a blog feature to promote your brand
- Removes the need for third-party funnels with their own version of a pipeline. There are even many different pipeline templates available for use. Podia Vs Until Dawn
Cons
- It is more expensive. Their lowest plan costs $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 can edit the default templates for your pages as you need.
- Does not offer guarantee badges 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 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. It does have its limitations. However, this free plan can be very useful when you just want to test out the waters.
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.
It does not have a search function but that is primarily because of how easy it is to get from one option to another.
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 – Teachable doesn’t provide any templates or pipelines to help you create courses. Such set-up can be very difficult especially for those newer at designing websites.
Courses or Content are also divided into sections and lectures found inside each section. You can choose to use text, video, files or quizzes.
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.
Once uploaded, these files will become individual lectures themselves.
Teachable allows you to schedule drip delivery. This means that your content can be dripped depending on the time your student enrolled. This feature does not drip lectures, but sections. Podia Vs Until Dawn
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.
Teachable’s Course Compliance feature is also worth noting. This feature is where Teachable really shines among the competition. 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.
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. Because of this, you need to make affiliates on your own. It does however allow you to create affiliates for your product.
The website will handle the commissions of these affiliates through Teachable’s very own payment gateways. Podia Vs Until Dawn
- Design and Customization – In terms of overall theme, Teachable is really not that customizable. You can only choose one theme. You can only customize very few things like the logo and branding, the fonts, as well as the theme and background color.
> > 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. You can choose from a variety of building blocks to suit your needs. They even include block layouts for banners, images with text, email. And even 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. They have Teachable Payments and the Monthly Payment Gateway. 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. Unfortunately, to access the old Stripe or PayPal services, you will need to be on their professional plans.
Teachable Payment Processors simplify the payment and checkout process for customers and students.
Teachable Price
If we include the free plan, Teachable has four plans total. These plans are similar to the others in terms of 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) |
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| Pro ($119 per Month) | Business ($299 per Month) |
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Teachable Cons and Pros
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.
- You can use it for unlimited video hosting
- It offers a strong membership feature that allows for exclusive content depending upon membership levels
- Bulk upload makes your workflow easier
- You can choose to have comments added to 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 have a “Back Office” that processes payouts for affiliate commissions and other complex payments.
- Has an in-depth student reports and video analytics, Podia Vs Until Dawn
> > 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 do not use a drag and drop builder. They use custom CSS and power editors. This is bad news to non-techies
- A lack of a community feature
- To customize the course player, you would need to be able to code
- When issuing refunds, you would need to avail of third-party services.
Thinkific versus Podia
Thinkific an Overview
Thinkific is another LMS service that puts course building at the 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 is the “go to platform” for online courses.
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.
However, this means that their marketing and selling aspects are not that good.
Thinkific Features
- Interface – Logging into Thinkific brings you to the admin area. This is your central point for all things Thinkific Platform.
You can access all features that Thinkific offers via the sidebar. These features are usually found and organized in a logical way. You might not be able to find certain features in the places you think they should be.
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. Thinkific also allows you to bulk upload your contents. 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 also allows for drip-feeding your content to easily pace out and manage your course. Podia Vs Until Dawn
While it does not have a course compliance option like that of Teachable, Thinkific allows you to incentivize your students by using awards, leaderboards as well as scoring to motivate them in finishing 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.
You can also manage assignments and quizzes with Thinkific.
- 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 so, the checkout process is somewhat cumbersome and offers limited customization.
Email marketing at Thinkific is also very 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. The best part of it is that it allows you to select how many percent commission you can offer.
Your affiliates will also receive their own private dashboard to monitor the performance of the unique affiliate links. The affiliate tracking pixel can’t be modified and remains in place for 30 days.
- Design and Customization – Thinkinfic has a decent level of customizability. First of all, they give you a choice of three themes. You can then select from these three themes, your theme styles. These styles are like presets which allow you to select your preferred site aesthetic.
However, they are not as customizable 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 is very easy to use and you can add a section to your page with only just 1 click. Podia Vs Until Dawn
- 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.
This is not available in Canada, the UK and the USA. Outside of those regions, Stripe and Paypal integrations are the other alternatives.
The Thinkific Price
Thinkific offers four basic plans which includes a free plan. The best plan, the free one, is the best. It gives you the most features and limits the number of courses that you can create or sell.
Thinkific also offers a Growth option that provides more powerful tools to their Pro plan. Thinkific Plus is also available for enterprise clients.
| Free ($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 permanent free offer is the Thinkific Free Package
- Has different course payment options for different types of 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
- Many of the features they offer are not user-friendly.
- The lack of custom options would be disappointing for beginners, and it could lead to them getting lost in the ocean 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 includes time zones.
Verdict Podia Vs Until DawnPodia Vs Until Dawn
We can now see how Podia compares with other Learning Management Systems. This will help you find the best platform for your courses, products, and businesses.
Verdict: Podia versus Kajabi
Podia and Kajabi function pretty similarly as they are both all-in-one platforms. Choosing one or the other comes down to two factors: price and customizability. Podia Vs Until Dawn
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 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.
You should choose Teachable if you want to focus more on the “course” and “teaching” part. Teachable has a more robust course building platform compared to Podia. Also, Teachable’s greatest and most unique feature is its course compliance which helps to properly monitor your student’s course completion.
Verdict: Podia versus Thinkific
This is a simple statement that Thinkific is essentially a cheaper version Teachable. As such, picking between the two would be the same as choosing between Podia or 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.
You should choose Thinkific if you would rather focus on making courses, but you don’t want to pay Teachable’s high prices. 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. Podia Vs Until Dawn