If you are here, we are guessing that you are also a course creator.
As an online course creator, the perfect online program for doing so can make a massive difference.
Teachable is one of those platforms that helps you do what you do best: create courses.
In the marketplace for online education, Teachable has to be one of the most popular, and most widely known options, with plenty of users using it every day.
This is why we decided to dive deep and headfirst into the Teachable platform and dig up all the information on it and its learning curve, we possibly could.
And, we found plenty!
But, the biggest question of all was: “Is Teachable legit?”
You see, we agree that when something is so good, we are often suspicious, it just seems too good to be true sometimes.
But, we can confirm that teachable is indeed a legitimate program, and there is nothing ‘shady’ about it at all.
Although we can understand why you would have your concerns.
We covered every inch of this program to make sure we got all the information we could on it, and make sure that it is indeed legitimate.
All the way from onboarding, cost, and the actual process of creating a course and outcome!
So, are you ready to know everything there is about using Teachable and feel safe doing so?
Let’s get our teeth into it!
What Is Teachable?
Okay, so, let’s start easy, what exactly is Teachable?
Well, it is an online program that helps you to craft and then sell online courses and classes.
When you use this platform, you are able to customize and create your own online school, including introducing quizzes and even certificates of completion!
You can also use Teachable to market your courses as they are outfitted with marketing tools such as affiliate programs, conversion-optimizing landing pages, and even integrations just for marketing!
Who Uses Teachable?
Okay, but who is Teachable for? Well, it is actually used by a wide variety of people.
Business experts, coaches, and instructors alike use it, with a total of 68,000 or more users, who have collectively made $338 million!
A great deal of course sellers on this platform will teach a very specific niche, which allows them to have a more specific audience as well, increasing their earnings.
There are even people such as artists who use the platform to offer artistic courses and can gain a massive amount of earnings in a short span of time just by doing so.
There are also experts in things such as VR game design, helping people who aspire to this career get ahead.
These are very niche areas of expertise, and this is a big part of what draws people in.
Earning so much from this can also be very ideal, and well worth the effort of choosing something like Teachable, but more on that later.
Is Teachable A Legitimate Program?
So, is Teachable legit? Yes, it is. Teachable is a legitimate program for those with a specific area of expertise to share knowledge and educate.
Schools, businesses, and so on, use this tool to build learning websites, courses, and more.
You can use this program to design school websites, communicate with students, develop an online class or two, and even process site payments as well!
It is legitimate and many online teachers view Teachable as one of the best programs for doing so, thanks to its usability, great customer support, and incredible features.
Speaking of the Teachable features, let’s talk about why it is so popular…
What Are The Features Of Teachable?
So, now that we know Teachable is legitimate and very popular with teachers we should probably make ourselves familiar with exactly why this is.
You see, it has some really epic features that help those creating courses to create the Teachable courses, sell them, manage them, and more.
So, let’s delve deeper into exactly how this happens….
Building & Branding
When you use Teachable you will be essentially building an entire online school, you do this by using a series of customization features.
You can fit the entire theme of your website around your specific band, adding in logos, creating a unique background, including links, adjusting the font, revising your navigation, adding languages, and so on.
You can also create your own unique, custom domain, and any tech-savvy person will know that having good quality content and blog posts can be a critical promoting and marketing tool.
Crafting Online Courses/Learning
When you use the program, you may be surprised to know just how easy it can be to create a course.
You will even be able to organize your classes into different sections with different lectures, you can also add in tests, PDF files, and audio clips, and if you are good with technology, you can even include webinars or a live stream.
You can also optimize your course for SEO, add in an SEO ideal URL, meta description, page title, and so on. Include thumbnail images and promotional video content too.
All of this and more is exactly why Teachable is a favorite when it comes to selling courses!
Sell & Market Your Courses
Teachable is already outfitted with all of the tools that you need to market and make sales in your classes.
Teachable’s blog is also jam-packed with tips and resources to help to better expand your audience and get more students on your courses.
Selling online courses is also easy, as you can create offers using coupons to draw people in.
You could also set up affiliate marketing plans or subscription plans to gain more income from your courses.
When you have more than one or two courses, you can also put them together into a bundle, and then start selling all of them, or some of them as a bundle deal!
Design Quizzes
It can be very beneficial to watch the progress of your students, and thankfully with Teachable, you have a way to do this.
Teachable enables you to make multiple-choice quizzes, better helping you to track how your students are progressing.
You could add as many different answers as you want, or you could indicate you want just one answer.
The quiz can be graded, and you will be able to see the score in the reports.
It is a great tool, but it does have limitations, you won’t be able to provide feedback on their results, and you cannot randomize the questions either.
Sadly, this is one area in which Teachable could do with some improvement.
Generate Certificates Of Completion
Being able to offer your students course completion certificates is quite awesome.
You will have 3 templates on which you can put your signature, and logo, and then alter any texts or colors.
The program will auto-add your school’s name, the course title, and the name of the student.
Sadly, you will not be able to take any of these automatically generated sections off of the certificates, but, you could always make customized ones with HTML if you are able.
Easy Use
Any Teachable review will tell you just how easy it is to navigate and use.
The dashboard is so easy to use and has the main tasks right in front of you for easy use.
You can upload files for your courses, check reports, communicate with students, monitor payouts, and give refunds all just from the main taskbar.
There is also an in-app editor where you can manage the content of your courses, and a drag-and-drop option that allows you to organize aspects without issues.
Let’s not forget the easy customization too!
Handling Of Files
Teachable also has advantages in just how easy it is for you to upload different files and file types.
Using this platform, you can upload a vast majority of file types, from PDFs to videos, and also imagery.
You needn’t be a pro in HTML, no coding or embedding is needed, just plain and simple uploading.
With Teachable, videos will be optimized well, and e-learning software helps to support playback in high quality across various devices for your students.
So, your students will be able to play your video content at various speeds if they want to.
Which can be ideal for some subject matters, and students who may need extra course material.
Student Communication
Teachable also benefits in how it allows you to better communicate with students, letting you give feedback to students and see if they are happy with your course, even asking for feedback yourself.
You can keep tabs on the progress of your students too, all this allows you to adequately build up connections with those you are teaching.
So, when a student signs up for your classes, the program collects their email address and name, and then you will be able to communicate with them via the platform.
You can also allow comments per lecture, so they can leave comments and feedback.
There are also integrations such as Zapier, MailChimp, and so on, which are popular and highly beneficial for many teachers and learners alike.
Fees
There are three subscription plans you can get, you can pay monthly or annually for these, there is also a free option, although it is not as ideal as you might hope for, and lacks some features.
| Plan Type | Fees | What’s included |
| Free | $0 | Gain unlimited courses, students, and coaching services. There are transaction fees of $1 plus 10% for each transaction. |
| Basic | $29 pcm/ $348 pa | Gain unlimited students, courses, and coaching products. Only 5% per transaction fee, and join the members-only community. Instant payouts, product support, custom domain support, and coupons. Two-admin-level users allowed, with course curator training, integrated email marketing, plus 3rd party integrations too! |
| Pro | $99 pcm | Gain all the benefits of the basic plan, as well as no fees for transactions, five admin-level users, graded quizzes, an unbranded website, course compliance, and also integrated affiliate marketing. Benefit from the member-only community, priority product support, advanced reports, and course competition certificates for your students. |
| Business | $249 pcm | Gain access to everything included in the pro plan, but also benefit from bulk student enrollments, group coaching calls, 20 admin-level users, custom user roles, manual student imports, advanced theme customizing, and more. |
Teachable also offers a money-back guarantee, so, if it turns out that Teachable just is not for you, you get a 100% refund within 20 days of the purchase or renewal!
The basic plan does offer you quite a lot for nothing, okay, there are still the transaction fees, taking 10% of your earnings, but, considering you pay no subscription this is still pretty tame.
It is the ideal price to pay if you are unsure whether Teachable is for you or not. However, if you are simply switching over from another program and already have an audience and a sizable customer base, then going for one of the paid plans is probably the better option.
The basic plan is good, but you still pay a couple of hundred dollars a year for it, and they still take a hefty 5% of your earnings on top of that as well.
However, you do get a lot for such a low price, with coupon access, your own domain, and no limit on students, there is plenty that is positive about the basic plan.
When you get to the pro plan it does jump up quite a bit in costs, but you don’t face pesky fees anymore, and the advanced reporting is a great tool if you want to benefit from statistics.
A majority of people will be trying to choose between basic and pro, the business plan is only really there for those hardcore professionals who are already knee-deep in teaching and is probably most sought after by active businesses, rather than individuals, who are more likely to take on a basic plan.
The business plan is also extremely expensive in comparison to the others, but it does help you add more roles and manage your students more, which is much more ideal for those who are migrating from other platforms and want to migrate quickly.
Some may wonder if Teachable is legit just because of the vast difference in the pricing plans, however, they are so different due to the number of tools each plan has, the pro and business plans have significantly more than the basic plan, so while the cost is massively different, it makes sense. It is not a scam, do not worry.
App Integration Technology
Teachable also has some integrations that contribute to making it worthwhile for courses.
These are not all available on every plan either, so those who will benefit from the app integration should take this into consideration when it comes to which plan they intend on paying for.
Some of the apps that are integrated include:
- ConvertKit
- Google Analytics.
- MailChimp.
- Segment.
- Sumome.
- Zapier.
You will only get access to the apps ConvertKit, MailChimp, Segment, and Zapier if you purchase the Pro plan or the Business plan subscriptions.
Also, due to how limited the integrations are, Teachable actually happens to rely quite heavily on Zapier.
When you get Zapier integrated with Teachable, you also gain access to some other integrations such as Drip, Google Sheets, and AWeber as well.
This does make it very worthwhile!
Which Is Best? Teachable Or Udemy?
Another platform for teachers to make courses on is Udemy, and much like Teachable, many ask if Udemy is legit as well, and, yes it is, although probably not as beneficial as Teachable, but, let’s consider this for a moment!
Both Teachable and Udemy are some of the most popular options for those who want to sell courses.
They both have pros and cons, so, for some Udemy might be better, for others Teachable may be better.
Remember, both of these programs are legit, one may just be more suitable for you than the other.
Teachable will allow you to sell and create courses on the platform, but Udemy does not actually aid in course creation, you just upload them and then sell them.
When it comes to domains, Teachable allows you to create your own domain and customize it, but Udemy only lets you list your course on their platform.
Teachable can also allow you to customize your school brand, but Udemy does not support this feature.
In marketing, Udemy will promote your course for you, especially as the platform has its own very extensive audience of students, which does attract many students to courses.
However, this does mean all courses get the same amount of attention, so there is a lot of competition.
With Teachable, you are responsible for your own marketing.
There is no limit on how much you can charge for your courses with Teachable, and you can also set your own discounts, and the platform will only take a maximum of 10% of your revenue even with the free plan.
Alternatively, with Udemy, you have to price your course between $20 and $200, and the platform will automatically put a discount on your courses and will automatically take 50% of revenue from organic sales.
So, Udemy lacks a lot and has only about ¼ of the features Teachable does, takes a bigger cut of your profits, and gives you less control, but for some this may be ideal. (Check out ‘How To Add PayPal To A Teachable Course.’)
Security, Compliance & Privacy
Now, when people worry about the legitimacy of a program like this, there is a lot of concern around security, but Teachable is definitely heavy on security.
It is no wonder that people are concerned, it is your business, and you don’t want external factors impacting its functionality, and you certainly do not want defamation or for someone to defraud you.
This is why there is some of the best safety you could ask for in a program like this.
It has 24/7, round-the-clock monitoring, so there is no concern over outages.
The upgrades are also instant, so there is no need to worry about the latest features coming into action, or missing out on the latest updates.
There is also a 2048-bit SSL certification when it comes to Teachable, thus keeping the information of your students 100% secure and safe when they log in and check out.
Teachable is also well known to only work with payment providers that are compliant with PCI level-1.
So, any information and data that you share with your students are also 100% secure and safe as well!
What is even better is how you, yourself can make use of their compliance features to make sure that you are in keeping with national, international, and even state laws that govern education.
If you want to sell your course in a country that needs you to disclose particular information, you can use the compliance feature to add disclaimers to your course pages for course sales!
Is It Worth It?
There is no surprise that people often question if platforms like this are legitimate, the prospect of being able to make a living from something as simple as online course selling sometimes seems too good to be true.
However, teachable is probably one of the most in-depth education-building tools there is, and while some of its payment plans might seem extortionate it is for a reason.
These costs are not a scam, but just cover the costs of some incredible tools that will make your courses sell better.
Overall, being able to teach in this way is a genius innovation.
Teachable allows us to sell and teach online courses, sell unlimited video, PDF, audio, and ZIP files, and you can even live stream.
There is so much you can do.
Teachable is indeed a legitimate platform, and it has so much to offer teachers and students, alike.
