Podia vs Teachable: Which is Better for Creators to Build a Community?

Ultimate Guide Table of Contents

Whether you’re looking to create courses, offer coaching, host webinars, or simply build a community, you’ll find two platforms that are often compared and contrasted: Podia vs Teachable. What are the differences, and which is better - if either? 

Below, we’ll help you discover the ideal platform to grow your community and build your business - no matter what your goals are. We’ll highlight all the intricacies that separate these two platforms and help you gain a better understanding of which is more advantageous for you. By the time you finish reading this short article, you’ll feel clear and confident in starting to build your community on one of these two platforms. 

Podia vs Teachable: An Introduction to Each Platform

If you’re considering leveraging your leverage and expertise online, you need to carefully consider the platform you use to reach, grow, and monetize your community. Before we start comparing and contrasting Teachable vs Podia, we want to fully educate you on what each of these entails. We’ll start by introducing you to Podia.

All About Podia

Podia claims they are the easiest platform on the planet for creators looking to build online courses. A bold statement, no doubt. But is it true? Well, we haven’t seen a platform that can really hold a light to Podia’s simplicity yet. No tech expertise needed!

One of the most important takeaways should be that with Podia, courses are just the beginning of what’s possible. Here, you can create and sell digital products beyond courses. You can also sell memberships, digital downloads, and webinars. It’s truly an all-in-one platform for digital creators.

In fact, you can replace up to five tools/software with a single Podia membership. You can create & customize your storefront, manage your products, process payments, communicate with your customers, and host your content from the seamless dashboard. 

You’ll also gain access to built-in marketing tools, such as email marketing and affiliate marketing, to help you promote and sell your products, maximizing the results you get through your offers. And if you have other software you love, you can likely integrate it with Podia - including Zapier, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, and more.

In terms of pricing, you’ll choose between two plans: Mover ($390 annually) or Shaker. Both of these are unlimited plans and include everything we’ve listed above along with:

  • Zero-transaction fees
  • 7-days-a-week live chat support
  • Free migrations (with annual plan)
  • Integrated payment processing
  • Instant payouts
  • Custom domain

With a Mover plan, you also get quizzes, drip course content, and the ability to pre-sell or create product bundles. The Shaker Plan is more expensive at $790 annually, but you also gain access to memberships, blog functionality, embedded purchase buttons, affiliate marketing offers, and support for 3rd party code.

Adding team members to your plan is affordable no matter which plan you have - its just $20/month per member. If you’d like to try Podia for free, you can get a 14-day free trial plan with unlimited access to get a taste of what it has to offer. 

All About Teachable

Now - how does the other side of the Podia vs Teachable fit into the mix? First, understand that Teachable is a platform specifically designed for the creation of digital courses - and that’s really it. With that said, it’s incredibly easy to use and is generally seen as a better learning experience for your students. So - if you know that you’re only going to create and sell courses, this is something to keep in mind.

Part of what makes Teachable’s courses a better learning experience is how interactive they can be made. You can effortlessly add quizzes throughout your courses and offer certifications for course completion. At one point, the fact that Teachable offered quizzes within courses made it unique. But now that this feature is available on Podia, it’s not as big of a draw. 

With that said, Teachable does have one unique feature that Podia lacks - and that’s the free plan offered. They also offer Basic, Pro, and Business level plans. Across all four of these plans you get:

  • Unlimited video
  • Unlimited courses
  • Unlimited hosting
  • Payment processing
  • Student management
  • Quizzes
  • Instant payouts
  • No transaction fees on free courses

Now - it’s worth noting that if you have a free plan, you’re still charged a fee of $1 +10% transaction fee per purchase (so, a $30 sale would cost $4 in fees). And on this plan, you’re limited to just 10 students. This is a great way to get your information product business off the ground, but hopefully, you grow out of the plan quickly.

At that point, you’ll move on to the Basic Plan - which is $348 annually. You are only charged a 5% transaction fee for this plan and can teach an unlimited amount of students. What’s more, you get a custom domain, coupon codes, email marketing, drip course content, third-party integrations (Aweber, Mailchimp, InfusionSoft), and 2 admin-level users.

On the Pro Plan, you’ll pay $1,188 annually - which sounds steep until you realize that you’ll enjoy zero transaction fees whatsoever on this plan. At a certain scale, this is the more profitable choice. You also get live chat support, the ability to grade quizzes, offer course completion certificates, access to an affiliate program, and up to 5 admin level users. 

For $2,988 annually you can set up a business-level account. This includes everything in the previous plans along with advanced developer customizations, custom user roles, group coaching calls, and 20 admin-level users.

Podia vs Teachable: Key Differences Between the Community Platforms 

Now that you have a better understanding of what Podia and Teachable are, let’s compare and contrast them to help you set off on the right foot in building your info product business. Because each of these platforms offers a variety of plans, we’ll compare the plans that are most similar - starting with Podia’s Mover plan vs Teachable’s Basic plan. 

Podia’s Mover Plan vs Teachable’s Basic Plan

Cost

Both of these are $39 per month. But if you bill annually, Teachable ends up being more affordable at $348 per year compared to Podia’s $390 annual cost. 

Teachable’s Basic plan comes with 2 admin users. If you wanted to add another user to your Podia Mover plan, it’d cost you another $20/month.

Transaction Fees

With your Podia Mover plan, you don’t have to pay any transaction fees. You’ll pay 5% transaction fees on Teachable’s Basic plan. So in the end, your Teachable plan may end up costing more as it eats into your margins. 

Features

You get unlimited everything in both Podia and Teachable plans at this price point - email marketing, coupon codes, custom domains, quizzes, drop course content, and more. 

But on Podia’s Mover plan, you gain the ability to sell digital downloads and webinars. You also get live chat support along with the ability to message your students and really build a sense of community. Finally, migrating your content from a different hosting provider over to Podia is free.

All things considered, Podia’s Mover plan has a slight edge over Teachable’s Basic plan in terms of earning potential because there are no fees at all. And, the potential to do more on Podia vs Teachable may entice some creators. 

Podia’s Shaker Plan vs Teachable’s Pro or Business Plan

Cost

The Podia Shaker Plan is the most affordable of these three at just $79/month ($790 annually). The Teachable Pro plan comes in at $119/month or $1,188 annually, while the business plan is $299/month or $2,988 annually. 

While you still just get the 1 admin user with Podia’s Shaker plan, you get access to 5 and 20 admin users under Teachable’s Pro and Business plans respectively. 

Transaction Fees

As with Podia’s Mover plan, the Shaker plan has no transactional fees. Where things get interesting though is that in comparing the Pro and Business plans, there are no transaction fees either.  In the end, it will come down to a matter of scale in figuring out which plan is the more cost-effective choice for your needs.

Features

All three of these plans are very inclusive, allowing you access to unlimited everything. That includes email marketing, coupon codes, custom domains, quizzes, drip course content, affiliate programs, and access to live chat customer support. Most of these features are available in Podia’s Mover Plan as well at a lower price point. 

Where things differ is in Teachable’s more advanced plans. Both the Pro and Business plans feature a high level of course compliance features, unbranded websites, and course completion certificates. You also get advanced developmental customization capabilities through Teachable’s business plan and access to group coaching calls.  

Now, in Podia’s Shaker plan, you gain the ability to sell membership access to content - which will serve as another way to monetize your community. And, you gain access to blog functionality - which can play a role in the content you end up monetizing. You also can integrate with zoom to sell webinars. While the Shaker plan doesn’t do away entirely with the Podia branding in the footer, you can still embed purchase buttons on your own website. With all that said, we’re going to provide you with our take below on which is better: Teachable vs Podia.

So, Which is Better Podia or Teachable?

Now that we’ve compared and contrasted the two platforms, which is better: Podia or Teachable? As you should be able to see, there is not a clear-cut answer in the Teachable vs Podia debate. It depends on you as a creator. Do you have an existing community you’re bringing with you - and courses to migrate over? What do you plan to create for your community? What scale are you hoping to achieve?

Answering these questions will help you narrow down the Podia vs Teachable debate and arrive at a clear choice. If you’re just starting out and want to earn your first few customers, you may be better off with Teachable’s free plan. But you’ll likely outgrow it quickly. 

Then, you’ll have to determine whether you want the ultimate course creation platform (Teachable) or a more all-in-one digital creator platform where you can monetize your community with more versatility (Podia). Podia is a more affordable option for most creators because even at a small scale there are no transaction fees. 

In the end, if we had to give a recommendation as to which platform we feel is better, it would be Podia. The reason why is simple - you can expand your offerings to your community and do a whole lot more on the platform.

Final Thoughts on the Teachable vs Podia Debate for Creators

We hope this comparison of Teachable vs Podia cleared up any confusion you had as to which platform is right for you. Digital creators can rely on either one to build and grow a community - but each platform has its pros and cons, which you should be fully aware of by now. And before you pull the trigger one way or another, read our other comparison post on Podia vs Kajabi.

If you want to learn more about how to use your digital writing skills to earn income online, read our guides on becoming a Substack writer, how to make money on Quora, crafting viral tweets, how to become a freelance writer with no experience, how to write an ebook and make money, or how to start writing on Medium.

Otherwise, at this point, it’s time to get to work and choose between Podia vs Teachable yourself. Whatever you do, the sooner you start the better - don’t waste another day of inaction, claim your piece of digital real estate through a community platform today!

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