You may have heard of Teachable before and are wondering if it is a popular enough platform to justify the price and to use for your project. So, is Teachable popular?
Rest assured Teachable is one of the leading and most popular platforms for creating online courses.
On top of this, Teachable offers plenty of unique features which make it stand out from its competition, and is a worthwhile product to work with because of this.
Why Is Teachable Popular?
Since choosing to use an online course platform for an online course is a big decision and not something that can be changed without a massive hassle, we are dedicating this page to explaining why Teachable is so popular, and what makes it a tool that you should use.
On top of the good parts of working with Teachable, we will also make sure that you are informed of all the drawbacks which come from working with Teachable.
So, if you were worried about Teachable not being popular enough to justify working with, this is not something you should be worried about.
However, if you want to know more about Teachable to see what its qualities are that make it a popular choice, as well as what is holding it back, we are going to do a Teachable review of the service so you know what you are getting into!
Teachable Overview
If you want a quick overview of what Teachable actually is before making a Teachable account, this is a service that is cloud-based, and lets you make and then sell online courses from your own website.
The features which Teachable offers to make this happen are the tools for creating a course, as well as those needed to sell it.
The service is well-liked for how easy it is to use the course creator, but also for its scalable pricing options which makes using the service accessible.
Pros And Cons Of Using Teachable
With Teachable, we love how simple and easy it is to use and have your courses up and running.
It is unique in how it supports 1:1 coaching, and the reporting tools it uses are above average when compared to competitors.
The checkout page used by Teachable is also very well designed, and the service also handles everything to do with sales tax as a native service.
There are also plenty of financial as well as administrative tools you can tinker with, and if you are not sure about the service, it also has a free option.
However, this is not a perfect service, for example, we do not like how the quizzing tool used by Teachable is pretty basic in how limited it is, and these limitations are also reflected in the site builder not being the best.
There are also no community-building features present, as well as a lack of custom payment gateway options.
Teachable also charges a transaction fee for the lower plans which are offered which is a bit of a turn-off.
What Actually Is Teachable?
As mentioned above Teachable is a course-building and selling platform that has all the features needed which are essential for both making the course, as well as selling online courses.
So, by using Teachable, you have the tools necessary to create courses, as well as host the course content online, and deliver it to users.
Most course creators can easily keep their students engaged, and sell to them natively.
Compared to a more generic content management tool like WordPress, Teachable stands out with its more unique and specific features.
An example of this is that to make an online course with WordPress, you would need to use a lot of third-party tools like; a theme, a hosting service, a plugin for the LMS, as well as an eCommerce plugin if you want to make money from it, as well as video hosting too.
On something more generic you would need to stay on top of security, as well as deal with a lot more technical details.
Instead of having to deal with all of this chaos, on Teachable, all of these features are centralized, as well as simplified.
This means that it makes building courses as well as selling them incredibly simple, and you will not need to have any technical skills either to make a successful online course business.
It is worth noting that Teachable is not a service used like a marketplace for courses, like Udemy for example.
The promotion or marketing for the course will not be done for you.
This is instead replaced with the tools to build the website on which your course will be hosted.
This means that you own the data on the website, and you are in full control of the Teachable pricing and marketing of your service.
How Easy Is It To Use Teachable?
It is quite common with course builders like Teachable, that you will have to spend a significant amount of time learning to use the Teachable platform, and this can be seen as a big waste of time and a turn-off from using the service.
This can be even more challenging if you want the course to be simple and easy to use.
This is not the case for Teachable, however, and one of our favorite things about the service is just how simple and easy using it is.
The interface you are working with on Teachable is incredibly clean and simple to use. The options and tools you are working with are well organized so getting familiar with using them will not be too hard.
The main menu is all organized on the left panel of the builder and organizes features based on simple categories.
This simplicity is matched in all the tools which are offered by Teachable, shown in the course builder, as well as the website builder too.
The system is a simple drag and drop, and you can bulk upload and import from the cloud, all features which make the creation of your product simple and easy.
And modifying content is simple since all pages are dynamically linked.
How Good Is Teachable’s Course Creation And Engagement?
We love how high quality the course builder is on Teachable, with the tools being simple and easy to use, as well as the options for video hosting being unlimited.
There are some drawbacks that can put off some people, like the quizzes being simple, the lack of a mobile app, live classes, and community-building features.
However, the use of certificates, coaching, and course compliance, as well as the simple copyright protection features, make it an impressive offering.
Teachable’s Course Builder
Luckily, the course builder on Teachable will help you with using all different formats and file types, whether this is videos, audio, images, basic quizzes, as well as text from PDFs, or even HTML coding.
The hosting which is offered on Teachable, as previously mentioned, is unlimited and covered under the cost of the service, so you do not have to worry about paying for more storage for your course tools. (See ‘Teachable Prices: How Much Does It Cost To Publish A Course Online?‘)
Your course can be easily organized into different sections, as well as lectures, with sections being an organized unit, while lectures are where you keep your content.
These lectures can be added one at a time, or they can be bulk uploaded depending on preference.
You can reorder your lessons whenever you want to, and editing is as simple as dragging and dropping.
You can also add new content to your lessons whenever you want, which is a level of flexibility that is not offered by all competitors.
With the course builder, files can be imported directly from online file storage systems like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive which saves a lot of time on your end.
Lesson management is also made simple with bulk selecting as well as changing settings.
By balancing ease of use with flexibility, Teachable offers a very high-quality service.
Learning With Teachable
Of course, when it comes to using an online course builder, you want options that will give your course meaningful engagement, so the course is more effective.
While the options offered by Teachable are not limitless, they are worth noting here.
Using Quizzes On Teachable
There is a quizzing tool that you can use on Teachable which lets you create an unlimited number of quizzes and put them wherever you want in your course lesson.
You can make these quizzes either multi-select or multiple-choice.
You have the option to set a specific passing grade, as well as limit retakes.
But unfortunately, this service does have some noticeable limitations.
For example, you can only use text in quizzes, so no images or videos, you can not import files for quizzes, and there are no further features for quizzing making it quite a simple feature.
Using Certificates
One feature of Teachable which is also offered natively which we are a fan of is being able to send your student’s course completion certificates.
This feature is quite simple to use but effective. You are able to choose from three templates that are offered by Teachable, or instead, you can make your own one completely from scratch.
The builder for certificates is just as simple as the other builders with options to customize your Teachable branding, your colors, and other details.
Once you have designed the certificate, all you need to do is activate it, and then it will be sent to students upon completing the course.
Dripping And Locking Content
Another useful feature which is offered by Teachable is being able to drip your content, so certain modules can be released at certain times.
An example of this is a module being dropped a set amount of time after a student has enrolled in your course, or at a preset date and time.
These modules can be paired with emails which will be dripped out to students automatically, so your students will know when the section is available for them to access.
There are also features which are offered by Teachable which aid in course compliance, for example, ensuring that your students watch lessons in a specific order, or complete prerequisites before accessing certain materials.
There are three different versions of this.
There is lecture order compliance which ensures that previous lessons have been completed, there is video watching compliance which ensures that over 90% of a video has been watched, and finally quiz completion compliance which needs students to pass a quiz before moving on.
These are useful features to have access to, however, some users find them pretty restrictive and do not love having to work around them.
An example of this is the lecture order compliance getting automatically activated if you have other compliances turned on as well.
This makes more flexible use of compliances not possible using Teachable, unfortunately.
This is where it is worth pointing out that while students can comment on lessons, there are no community builder features included with Teachable, however, there are some integration options available like using the Circle plugin.
Coaching On Teachable
There is another product type you can work with while using Teachable which is coaching which is great if you want to offer a 1 on 1 option with your online course on Teachable.
This lets you create specific milestones, as well as agendas, and set assignments.
You can also use this feature to schedule sessions with members and send private messages, and share files.
This feature also makes it so you can control the intake flow of clients, as well as sell your coaching by using a sales page.
This coaching feature is pretty handy if you are looking to manage 1 on 1 sessions, and want more options to keep your students engaged, and boost income.
Designing And Customizing Sites
There are some clear positives and negatives when it comes to the customization and building options with your site on Teachable.
For example, we love how the hosting service is unlimited so you do not have to worry about managing storage, and the allowance for more advanced customization options, and a custom domain name.
However, there are some clear setbacks, like the limited site themes, and the lack of blogging, podcasts, and language options.
Theming On Your Websites
One of our main issues with Teachable is the lack of real options when it comes to any website theming.
There is simply a single default template to work with, and this is applied to all of the courses which are built using Teachable.
There is the option with the theme section to add custom features like your logo, change colors, or the font, but other than this, that is all there is to work with.
For example, you cannot change the style of the header or the footer, you cannot adjust the page width, or adjust the buttons.
So, while this default theme is clean and aesthetically pleasing, it is limited.
There is the option to use the power editor to override some of this, but this will require modifying code which of course has a niche high skill barrier that most users of this simple tool are trying to avoid.
Building Your Page
To build pages using Teachable, you are going to be working with the page builder.
This builder is simple to use with the drag and drop options, and the use of the live editor lets you demo your changes as they are being made which is a useful option.
This builder also uses page blocks which are akin to content sections that can be added to your page easily.
You can also use default templates for these sections like a hero section, or a pricing section.
Unfortunately, there is not a massive selection of these available, but it is enough to work with.
As was referenced in the previous section, this builder is not the most flexible and does not let you do much to customize the layout.
So, if you are not happy working with the template you see, then Teachable may not be the service for you.
Selling And Marketing Your Page
We love the different pricing options which are available when working with Teachable, as well as the option to work with coupons too.
Teachable offers some different payment gateways, as well as features like checkout pages, sales taxes, 1 click upsells, as well as referral and affiliate marketing. (Check out ‘How To Get Paid On Teachable [Payment Gateways Explained].’)
However, there are no options when it comes to marketing funnels, landing pages, or popups, as well as automations and webinars, the use of email marketing is also very simple.
Pricing Options
When it comes to the pricing options which are available when using Teachable, you can make it, so students can buy your product as a one-time purchase, or instead give access to a subscription-style product.
This is great for making it, so your Teachable course is valued properly.
For example, if your course features a lot of content that is constantly updating, then a subscription plan will be the best option, whereas if it is more limited and static, then a one-off payment will work best.
You can even make your course free if you want.
Teachable also offers the option to have multiple different options for pricing with the same product.
This means you can have a one-time payment or a subscription option for the same course.
You can also limit access for a one-time payment, for example, one payment for a year of access, or instead, make it unlimited.
You also have the option with Teachable to edit how often you charge students, for example from weekly, all the way to annually.
There is also the option to offer free trials as well.
Payment And Checkout
When it comes to payment processing on Teachable, there are 2 main options which are available to you.
The first of these is the native Teachable Pay which means that Teachable will collect the payments for you and then pays you on a schedule.
This schedule can be set to be as regular or irregular as you want.
This is an option that is available in Northern America, Australia, Europe, and some other countries as well.
If your country does not support this option natively, then you can instead use the Monthly Gateway which pays you after a delay which is usually between 30 to 60 days.
Both of these options through Teachable are managed and have advantages, like being able to use multiple payment methods like a credit or debit card, as well as Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal.
The service also natively calculates the sales tax within all compatible countries it supports.
Teachable also provides aid with BackOffice, the financial and admin services offered where you can manage Teachable payments to staff or affiliates.
This service can also collect and file forms as well.
However, there are some clear drawbacks when it comes to how the payments on Teachable work, for example, the lack of a custom payment gateway, like a Stripe or PayPal account being used, the PayPal option is also not offered by default and requires a small extra fee.
Integrating Third-Party Resources
While Teachable is not an all in 1 platform, it does let you use some third-party tools to make your Teachable coursework better.
For example, you can add scripts to your site’s head, and you can integrate analytics features like Google Analytics and FB Pixel.
There is also the option to use tools like ConvertBox, and Deadline Funnel, as well as direct support for email marketing for MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, and ConvertKit.
Teachable’s Pricing Plans
There is the Teachable free plan which has the typical limitations, but other than this there is a $39 basic plan which is a monthly payment and gives you most features, but you can only make 5 Teachable courses, and you have a 5% transaction fee.
The Pro plan is $119 a month and does not feature this course limit or transaction fee, it also has some bonus features.
And finally, there is the advanced plan, which has a custom pricing structure and is more suited for bigger, more established teams.
