Podia Competitors & Alternatives
Podia is a course creation tool with around a thousand instructors. However, Podia belongs in a competitive market. We recommend comparing it against its top competitors before purchasing.
There are roughly seven course creation platforms worth considering. They primarily differentiate based upon the richness of their features, the level of control they provide over your course and website designs, and the marketing tools offered. As you can see below, Podia is a basic, affordable solution.
In this guide, we analyze Podia’s features and pricing, and compare these factors against alternatives. To gain a better understanding of Podia as a platform, you can read our in-depth Podia review. You can also read more of our course creation software comparisons.
All of the information in this article is based upon research, discussions with course creators, and dozens of hours spent hand-testing the leading course creation software platforms. The details of our research process can be found on our article covering the best online course platforms.
Table of Contents
Podia Features
Before we examine Podia’s competitors, it’s important to understand Podia’s own features. As a basic platform, Podia does not come with the extra features often found in advanced tools like Kajabi and LearnWorlds.
The 10 most important features that Podia does offer are described in the table below.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Course Builder | Podia includes a course builder that lets you create and publish courses in different multimedia formats – including images, video, audio, and PDFs. Course elements in Podia are automatically centered and layered top to bottom. Unlike other course tools, Podia does not let you align text to the left or right of the screen. |
| Website Builder | Podia lets you build your website from scratch, and host it on your custom domain. While its site builder is overall basic, for Podia’s price, its customization capabilities are above average. Podia offers templates of content sections such as your biography, FAQs, testimonials, text, and images. |
| Email Marketing | Podia offers its own email marketing tool that comes with common features found in email marketing software. This includes lead capture forms, segmentation, a text email editor, newsletters, drip campaigns, and email analytics. |
| Affiliate Management | In Podia, your affiliates can either earn a fixed-dollar or percentage commission. However, you cannot individualize commission terms for different affiliates. |
| Coupons | Podia lets you create coupons that can be applied storewide, to certain products, or to certain plans. When creating a coupon, you can set the discount amount as dollars or as a percentage, limit how many times a coupon can be used, and set an expiration date. |
| Course Bundles | Podia lets you bundle your courses that can be sold together at a discounted price. You can title your bundle, generate its URL, add a social image, and choose when it’s available. |
| Student Messaging | Podia offers an in platform messaging feature that lets you and your students directly communicate with each other. With it, you can give your recommendations, answer any questions, and recommend products without having your students leave your site. |
| Student Discussions | Podia offers a feature that lets students and instructors comment and reply to one another. As an instructor, you can choose if comments are visible, hidden, or locked. Students can also like comments and edit them after they’ve been posted. |
| Live Classes | Podia lets you host live classes without any code – you can use YouTube or Zoom. Some of the settings you can customize include replaying the video once your webinar has ended and setting webinar reminders 10 minutes before it starts, when it starts, and when it ends. |
| Sales Tracker | Podia’s sales tracker is basic, but does let you monitor how your courses are performing and how marketing tools like coupons and affiliates affect your sales. You can view your totals sales, your monthly recurring sales, overall revenue, and pending revenue. |
Podia Competitor Overview: Features
Below, we have a chart that compares each solution’s features. Almost every competitor offers the same standard course creation features. The primary factor that sets them apart is how advanced each platform is, sets and the audience each solution is best for. For example, Podia is best for those who are just beginning their course creation journey, whereas Kajabi is best for more experienced creators.
We also recommend looking into the marketing tools each solution offers because the quality ranges widely. For example, Podia offers tools commonly found in email marketing software including lead capture forms, a text email editor, newsletters, and email analytics. Teachable only offers an email text editor. In contrast, Kajabi comes with advanced marketing features including automated campaigns and pipelines.
Podia Competitor Overview: Pricing
Podia’s pricing begins at $39 per month. It;s most popular and expensive plan is priced only at $79. You can also save ~17% if you pay for the annual subscription upfront. Overall, Podia customers pay 50% less than Teachable or Thinkific customers. Podia also charges 0% transaction fees for both plans.
Here are some pricing comparisons between Podia and its top competitors:
| Online Course Platform | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Podia |
|
| Kajabi |
|
| Thinkific |
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| LearnWorlds |
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| Teachable |
|
Top Podia Competitors
The course creation market is filled with solutions that best support different course creator types. As we mentioned above, Podia is best for beginner course creators and Kajabi and LearnWorlds are best for experienced course creators who want full control over their course and website design. We’ve ranked Podia’s top six competitors based on their features, pricing, and usability.
1: Kajabi
Kajabi is an advanced course creation solution that we’ve ranked the highest. Its platform is much more advanced and robust in features than Podia. However, Kajabi is currently the most expensive solution in the market, and has a much steeper learning curve than Podia.
For a direct comparison, check out our Kajabi vs. Podia article.
- You want a simpler, more affordable tool that is better for beginners
- You prefer use external software to market your courses – e.g. Aweber or Mailchimp
- You value an in-platform student messaging feature
- You want a single platform to manage your course building, marketing, and selling
- You want advanced marketing tools like automated campaigns, and pipelines
- You want a mobile app that your students can use
2: Thinkific
Thinkific is a popular, mid-tier online course platform with over 50,000 instructors. Thinkific is more feature-rich than Podia and also has the capability to support beginner course creators. However, Podia is more user-friendly and offers superior email marketing tools.
- You want a more affordable and user-friendly solution
- You want higher quality email marketing tools – including lead capture forms, an email text editor, and email analytics
- You want an in platform student messaging feature
- You want a basic, free plan simply to host your content online
- You want an in platform student feedback feature
- You want course templates that make it easier and faster to make courses
3: LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is a newer, advanced online course platform with over a thousand instructors. It offers higher quality design capabilities that let you design a professional looking website. While Podia is not as feature-rich, it does offer superior email marketing features compared to LearnWorlds, and is more user-friendly.
- You want a more affordable and intuitive platform
- You want an in platform student messaging feature
- You want higher quality email marketing tools – including lead capture forms, an email text editor, and email analytics
- You want the best website design capabilities
- You want a wider range of multimedia uploads – including ebooks, SoundCloud, and YouTube videos
- You want to include gamification elements in your courses – i.e. badges
4: Teachable
Teachable is the most popular online course platform with over 120,000 instructors. Unlike Podia, Teachable is a mid-tier tool that can support more established course creators. However, some of Podia’s features are more fleshed out than Teachable’s – including live classes and email marketing tools.
- You want to host live classes without the need for code
- You want an in platform student messaging tool
- You want higher quality email marketing tools – including lead capture forms, an email text editor, and email analytics
- You want a tool that can work for more established course creators
- You want a mobile app
- You want to create in-platform certificates to give to students who complete your courses
5: Heights Platform
Heights Platform is a newer, basic online course platform that supports creators who want to build courses and sell digital products. Overall, Podia is a superior basic platform in terms of features and intuitiveness. However, Heights Platform customers have more influence over the product’s roadmap.
- You want a more affordable, user-friendly platform
- You want an in platform student messaging tool
- You want to host live classes without the need for code
- You want high quality student discussion tools – including message boards and student messaging
- You want above average customer support
- You want to include gamification elements in your courses – i.e. badges
6: Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is a course creation solution that allows you to build a community around your content. Podia is more feature-rich and affordable than Mighty Networks. However, Mighty Networks offers a higher quality student discussion feature.
- You want a more affordable, user-friendly tool
- You want an affiliate management feature
- You want email marketing tools – including lead capture forms, an email text editor, and email analytics
- You want an advanced, in-platform student discussion tool
- You want to customize the language used in your online school – for example, you can refer to yourself as a professor, or teacher
- You want a mobile app
Bottom Line
Podia is a basic course creation solution available in the market. Its tools are not as advanced as those found in competitor solutions. However, Podia’s platform lets you create effective courses without worrying about the technology involved.
Before you make your purchase though, we suggest comparing Podia to other highly ranked platforms:
- Kajabi is best for experienced course creators who need advanced marketing tools and high-level design capabilities
- LearnWorlds is best for experienced course creators who want advanced design capabilities at a more affordable price
- Thinkific is best for those who want a powerful mid-tier platform that’s also user-friendly
- Teachable is ideal for beginner and more established course creators who want an effective platform
You can also use our course creation quiz to figure out which solution works best for you.