Technology and current events have ushered in a new era of learning. According to Statista, the global eLearning market will exceed $243 billion by 2022.
Further research shows that the online education market will reach $350 billion by 2025, with much of it driven by advancements in artificial intelligence-powered platforms.
With the meteoric rise of online learning, it’s not surprising to see an abundance of online learning platforms to bring knowledge to learners. Some of them provide free access to curated content, while others boost their capabilities as all-in-one platforms for educators and learners.
But, one thing is certain: no two online learning platforms are alike.
While anyone can easily upload an educational video on YouTube, it cannot provide a deep dive into any particular topic. And one video certainly cannot build a community of learners. YouTube’s platform is not an effective way to grow your business by selling your online courses.
If you want to explore your options, read on for some Podia alternatives to consider. But, first, let’s dissect Podia’s offerings.
What is Podia?
Podia markets itself as a one-stop shop that provides various ways to market your expertise without the need for any technical skills.
You can sell online courses, offer downloadable resources, provide coaching sessions, and build a community all in one place. On top of its online course creator, Podia also provides a website builder, email marketing, and eCommerce functionality.
In short, Podia is a creator-centric platform that provides a host of marketing features, so it’s easier for users to offer their courses to learners all over the world.
Beyond the 14-day free trial, which you can avail of without providing any credit card details, the platform offers two plans that you can choose from. The Mover, or its basic plan, has a monthly fee of $39, which gives you access to its online course creator, digital downloads, and email marketing features.
If you want to take it up a notch higher, Podia’s Shaker plan comes at $79 monthly. It includes the Mover plan offerings plus membership offerings, embedded checkouts, affiliate marketing, free migrations, and third-party integrations. Both plans come with 24/7 customer support.
Podia is great for beginners who plan to offer simple, single-tiered online courses and digital products and those who dislike the idea of paying transaction fees. If you create highly personalized courses and use advanced email campaign features, this platform is not for you.
Pros
- Best for beginner content creators
- Unlimited features (hosting, bandwidth, and storage)
- Zero transaction fees
- Host of third-party integrations
Cons
- Only supports one-tiered courses
- No learning path creation
- Cannot add built-in quizzes
- No course completion certificates
Best Podia Alternatives
Podia is, by far, the best option for those who want a simple and neat interface. However, if it’s too basic for you, it’s not the only one out there that you can explore.
Here are some of the best alternatives to Podia:
Teachable
Teachable is an online course and coaching software designed to support content creators. Its host of features helps just about anyone launch an online school that offers video tutorials, webinars, and quizzes.
It’s also great if you’re into analytics. Teachable offers insights into the courses you sell, track their sales, and even gather learner feedback through surveys, all in one platform.
It also allows you to receive payments without worrying about taxes and other charges. The platform accepts various currencies and supports PayPal and mobile pay.
Teachable is excellent because it is accessible via different platforms, providing students with multiple ways to engage with your online courses. When it comes to customization, Teachable is highly similar to Podia. It features a Drag and Drop editor that allows you to build and customize your website and create branded content.
What sets it apart from Podia is its code power editor. This feature allows tech-savvy users with programming knowledge to design and develop their websites. Furthermore, unlike Podia, Teachable follows strict course compliance standards that learners have to comply with to earn their course completion certifications.
Pricing
- Free – $0
- Basic – $29/month
- Pro – $99/month
- Business – $249/month
Pros
- Free plan up to ten students
- Accepts international payments in over 130 currencies
- Offers course completion certificates
- Available for multiple devices
Cons
- Hefty transaction fees
- Limited selling variety – no memberships and digital downloads
- Live chat support only available for Pro plan or higher
- Premium offerings come with a hefty price tag
Kajabi
Kajabi is an online content marketing platform that allows digital creators and entrepreneurs to leverage customizable templates to design and market highly engaging courses and coaching programs.
Most users of Kajabi are influencers who build websites, run marketing campaigns, and curate theme-based landing pages. You can take advantage of its automated targeted marketing efforts to gain the benefits of creating personalized customer experiences.
Compared to Podia, Kajabi segments its offerings into different categories—website, product, people, and marketing.
If you wish to build a website, Kajabi allows you to migrate your content, work on a fully customizable website and URL, work on your logo, images, and other content, populate the blog, and create as many static pages as you want.
When it comes to products, you can use themes that work well with different devices. Its Wistia-powered automatic encoding makes it a breeze to upload video content.
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Kajabi’s member dashboard is where you can monitor customer lists, add new members, moderate comments, track customer journeys, and post announcements to members.
On the marketing front, Kajabi has tons of sales pipelines and blueprints that you can use to capture leads. You can build your own landing page or use pre-made templates. It’s also equipped with email broadcasting, analytics tools, student assessments, and the ability to host live or pre-recorded webinars.
Compared with Podia, Kajabi is a bit more expensive. But you get more value for your money since you will have access to various features to help you grow and scale your business.
Kajabi’s platform is excellent for those with advanced website knowledge since it’s pretty complex and not as user-friendly as Podia.
Pricing
- Basic – $119/month (from $149/month)
- Growth – $159/month (from $199/month)
- Pro – $319/month (from $399/month)
Pros
- Offers customizable branding and templates
- Provides engagement tracking
- With website and promotions management
Cons
- Pricey monthly plans
- Limited integration with third-party software
- No community feature for members and students
Thinkific
Thinkific brands itself as an all-in-one course platform empowering users to build and deliver courses to learners. The platform provides various features for content creators, from educating learners and engaging their audience, to growing their brand and earning revenue from their efforts.
With more than a decade of history under its name, Thinkific has built a roster of beautiful templates and professional-grade layouts. It has also made considerable improvements in its site editor to make it more intuitive to use, even for beginners.
Aside from allowing you to drip feed existing content and create evergreen content, it also allows multiple instructor registrations and expiration dates on published materials.
Perhaps the most noteworthy feature that makes Thinkific stand out from the competition is its holistic offerings. The platform provides you with everything you need to build everything you want, from curating your courses, marketing your offerings, selling your products, to managing your students.
One important thing to note is that courses won’t be on your website. Hosting is within the Thinkific platform, so you can have complete control of how your website will look.
Compared with Podia, Thinkific has more integration options. Both have seamless Zapier integrations, but the latter can also work well with Google Analytics, Discus, MailChimp, Accredible, Sumo, Stunning, Segment, AWeber, ConvertKit, and ActiveCampaign. This allows for a top to bottom content delivery and marketing.
Moreover, Thinkific allows course reviews, greatly enhancing your social proof.
Pricing
- Free – $0
- Basic – $39
- Pro – $79
- Premier – $399
Pros
- Good track record
- Social proof availability
- Trusted by big brands
Cons
- No course certificate functionality
- Images are limited to JPEG files
- Outdated layouts
LearnDash
LearnDash is a WordPress plugin that allows you to convert your site into an online learning management system (LMS) with only a few clicks. With this plugin, content creators can easily develop lessons, write topics, and design quizzes.
Like many online learning platforms, it comes with a drip feed content function, allowing users to schedule content as needed. Its basic offerings provide users with detailed reporting, user management, email notifications, and Zapier integrations.
It also has payment integrations with PayPal and supports third-party integrations with eCommerce and membership plugins, giving you more flexibility when offering subscriptions and discounts.
For premium memberships, users can take advantage of the ProPanel that comes with highly detailed reporting and access to real-time activity monitoring.
What’s noteworthy about LearnDash that most online learning platforms don’t really have is the lesson timers. Another advantage over Podia is the certificates and badges offered to course completers.
Pricing
- Basic – $159/month (from $199/month)
- Plus – $189/month (from $229/month)
- Pro – $329/month (from $369/month)
Pros
- A wealth of online resources for capability expansion
- Professional customer support
- Offers both basic and professional features
Cons
- Complex URL structure, a disadvantage for SEO purposes
- Frequent plugin bugs
- Integration with customized websites requires technical knowledge
Invanto
Another Podia alternative to consider is Invanto. Like Podia, this platform is a one-stop-shop that offers a host of applications, such as:
- Allyhut: for affiliate program training courses and digital product promotions
- CartFog: for digital product creation and marketing
- CoachRank: for online course creation and upselling
- MemberFactory: for membership site creation and management
- Testnia: for assignment and test setup and course certifications
These integrated apps are fantastic options for beginner content creators who wish to automate their offerings in one centralized dashboard. The different applications within Invanto can be used together or individually, depending on which you think is best suited for your goals.
Invanto also allows users to track and manage customer insights, customize websites to create engaging content, and manage integrations with other software like Zapier. Users can also widen their reach by creating translations in membership sites and checkout pages, and this is on top of the customizable email templates.
When subscribing to Invanto, take note of their terms and conditions. The platform is notorious for changing its pricing structure without notice.
Pricing
Invanto pricing depends on the number of contacts you wish to work with. It can range from $10 per month for up to 100 contacts to as much as $891 for a whopping 45,000 contacts.
Pros
- A roster of integrative products
- Translation feature
- Centralized creation and management of coupons
Cons
- New products added without improvements in current offerings
- Poor built-in video streaming
- Frequent price changes
Key Takeaways: Explore Podia Alternatives
Committing to an online learning platform shouldn’t be done without proper research. You must first consider your goals and what you want to achieve as a content creator.
Once you know what you want, it will be easy to narrow down your choices. List down your plans for sales and marketing and assess them based on what each platform offers.
For beginners who want simple courses and basic features, Podia is an excellent option since it offers easy-to-navigate and intuitive applications. This online platform is also perfect if you have a limited budget and wish to first become familiar with selling online courses.
If, however, you think you can take your business further and wish to invest more in your online courses, Kajabi’s marketing offerings are an excellent place to start. The platform provides a host of marketing resources you can leverage for your campaigns.
Both Thinkific and Teachable are excellent choices for more advanced users. They have made their marks in the industry as they have big-name brands as their members. Invanto may be the one for you if you need its translation option.
We hope this list of excellent Podia alternatives has relieved you from the burden of comparing thousands of online learning platforms in the market today.
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