Online learning was something everyone was hesitant to try the digital way from the traditional method of classroom teaching. This is the story of the pre-Covid era, now online content creation is the new normal accepted by everyone from kindergarten to professional courses, and demand for online course creators also increased.
According to recent statistics, online learning had grown 900% from when the idea started and it is estimated that by 2025 this industry will grow by 200%. Hence teaching is going to the next level in the upcoming decade and you need some hassle-free software or platforms to be a successful content creator for your favorite topic.
Podia is one such tool that helps you create a website, learn digital content, host communities, and much more. Podia pricing is also very affordable but One of the major drawbacks of this platform was email marketing, tracking of the performances of the students, and tedious task with templates.
Online course creators are looking for the best podia alternatives to overcome these drawbacks.
Here are the top Podia alternatives
| S.NO | Platform Name | Starting Price |
| 1 | FreshLearn | $25/mo |
| 2 | Send Pulse Edu | $21/mo |
| 3 | Teachable | $29/mo |
| 4 | Kajabi | $119/mo |
| 5 | LearnDash | $29/mo |
| 6 | Udemy | Contact Sales |
| 7 | LearnWorlds | $24/mo |
#1. FreshLearn
Rahul Mehta the CEO of FreshLearn founded the company in 2020. FreshLearn is a Texas-based company that provides all the features required for online content creators. It is the fastest-growing company in the market. It has 15000+ creators in less than 2 years. And also the biggest thing is Freshlearn team will migrate the courses to FreshLearn from any other platform within a week.
Some of the best features are appreciated by most of the users who were seeking for podia alternative.
- Good user interface
- Usability
- The learning curve has decreased with time
- Video hosting within the platform
- LMS tool for better course management.
- Personal attention
- Quick responsiveness that doesn’t go more than 24 hours
- Its affordability
- Beginner friendly
The main happiest thing is that FreshLearn is much appreciated for the customer support they are providing which is an essential feature for most beginner online content creators.
Pros:
- Absolute beginner friendly
- Simple interface
- No coding knowledge is required
- Best integrations like Hubspot for smooth email marketing
- Good payment gateways are favorable for most countries.
- Unlimited digital products
- 25 enrollments can be paid or free.
- Easy account migration.
Cons:
- Customization needs to be improved.
- Video loading speed.
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Pro Plan: $25/m
- No Brainer plan: $41/m
#2. SenPulse Edu
A lesser-known platform in the eLearning niche, SendPulse offers a surprisingly powerful online course builder with lots of extra features that can help promote and sell your course.
This platform can also be interesting for HR specialists and corporate training agencies as SendPulse also provides an LMS for employee training and onboarding.
SendPulse Edu featurs
- visual online course creator that requires no prior experience
- CRM can help store and manage students’ data
- course instructor roles to help manage your course and gather feedback
- customizable certificates of completion
- various marketing channels (email, messenger chatbots, SMS)
- payment system integration
Pros:
- you can create your online course for free
- intuitive interface
- you can incorporate various types of media into your course
- detailed analytics and progress reports
Cons:
- to sell your course you need a paid plan
- 1GB of storage available on the free plan
- only 200 students on the free plan
SendPulse Edu pricing
- Paid Pro plan starts at $21 per month with a limit of 1000 students.
- Paid Pro plan for 2000 students is $39 per month + additional storage space.
#3. Teachable
I have used Teachable in the past. It is the most popular platform for online course creators in the world.
Ankur Nagpal the CEO of Teachable founded the company in 2014. By 2019 This podia alternative has hit a revenue of $21 million. The features offered by Teachable have made it stand in this position in the market.
Here are the features offered by Teachable for online content creators
- Drag and drop feature to create courses.
- Page builder which is customizable and for sales.
- Automation of workflow with good third-party integrations.
- Student referral features for better reach.
- Seamless migration of student information and courses from another platform.
- Intuitive reports based on the engagement of students and sales.
Pros:
- Appreciable UI
- Multiple payment gateways
- Creation of discount/special codes according to your needs
- Good third-party integrations.
- Direct video hosting
Cons:
- It might be expensive for beginners with no prior experience as online content creators and seeking for podia alternative.
Teachable Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Basic: $29/m – (Billed annually) $348/year
- Pro: $99/m – (Billed annually) $1,188/year
- Business: $249/m – (Billed annually) $2,988/year
#3. Thinkific
Thinkfic has around 400+ dedicated employees and represented around 35+ countries. It is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, and was founded in 2012 by the Smith brothers, Greg Smith, and Matt Smith.
Thinkific is a similar course-only platform and also has a free tier if you’re seeking an alternative to Podia to deliver only your online courses. Till now Thinkific course creators have earned $650 million+. Thinkific platform has 100M Online Courses.
Here are the features offered by Thinkific
- You can create communities for students in the course for better conversions.
- Cohort-based learning with student communities, drip scheduling, and conducting live lessons.
- Industry-standard support team with a community of 20,000+ knowledge entrepreneurs.
- Membership with the subscription-based site for students, which students pay for monthly subscriptions for access.
- Drag and drop course builder with no coding.
- Third-party applications for better management of your courses.
Pros:
- Quiz creator is simplified
- A lot of formatting options
- Different types of media integration
- Affordable pricing plans for beginners
- No transaction fees.
Cons:
- Coding snippets are not available.
- Support only in form of calls, emails no live chat.
- Advance plans have high prices.
Thinkific Pricing:
- Start: Monthly -$99/mo, Yearly-$74/mo
- Grow: Monthly -$199/mo, Yearly-$149/mo
- Business: Monthly-$499/mo, Yearly-$374/mo
#4. Kajabi
Kajabi is one of the best alternatives to Podia for creating and selling online courses. If awards impress you then kajabi will win your heart. It won the best place to work by the orange County business journal in 2021.
Kajabi was founded in 2010 and since then it has been a go-to platform for those serious online content creators who want to achieve success online. It is well known for providing the best robust features ever.
Here are the main features provided by Kajabi
- Strong security for your website at the backend.
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage limitations for all the videos, photos, and other files.
- Built-in funnel templates to generate marketing sequence templates.
- Auto- Scaling technology for better performance of your site irrespective of the visitors on your site.
- SEO-optimized for better ranking on search engines.
- Fast publishing of your website.
- Visitors’ contact information is captured well for a better sales funnel.
- Payment gateways are implemented with PayPal and stripe.
- Automation of emails with a personal touch and follow-up emails.
Pros:
- Ease of usability.
- Good third-party app support like ClickFunnels and ActiveCampaign.
- Better customer support.
- End-to-end content creation.
- Smooth community interaction.
- Analytics to trace the performance is well implemented.
Cons:
- Direction to different platforms might be a little tedious.
- Kajabi Pricing is high especially for beginner online content creators.
- Analytics doesn’t show a clear picture of where the problem can be fixed.
- Dynamic email sequences are a bit complicated to set up and have too simple features.
Kajabi Pricing:
- Basic Plan: $149/m
- Growth Plan: $199/m
- Pro Plan: $399/m
#5. Podia Alternative: LearnDash
LearnDash is one of the biggest alternatives to Podia because it is a plugin for WordPress. WordPress has made website development easier the content creation on the website is made even more powerful by this Podia alternative, LearnDash.
You can add course functionality with this LearnDash without starting over if you already have a WordPress website.
Learndash was founded in 2013 by Justin Ferriman, whose parent organization is liquid web.
Here are the features which make it the best alternative to Podia
- Zero distraction for learners.
- You can customize the courses as you will be having around eight types to choose from.
- Content delivery is dynamic.
- Prerequisites are flexible and give access to courses, lessons, and quizzes.
- Automation of creative rewarding of learners by providing badges and certificates, discussion forums, course points, leaderboards, and assignments.
- Robust functionality in customization through developer docs.
- Support of multiple media like SWF files, HTML5, xAPI, and more.
Pro
- It’s a fine LMS plugin for WordPress
- User friendly
- A sample looks before publishing alone.
- Impressive speed in uploading a complete course.
- Quick customer support.
Cons:
- Might not be suitable for small businesses.
- Login-based issues for students and customers.
- Not beginner friendly, prerequisite knowledge of WordPress and webmaster is required.
LearnDash Pricing:
- 1 site: $199/year
- 10 sites: $399/year
- Unlimited: $799/year
#6. Podia Alternative: Udemy
Udemy is a go-to place for most people who wants to learn some unique and not-so-known courses at totally affordable price. You will get a course cheaper than your Mcdonald’s meal!.
Udemy has 71,000 instructors and courses which has more than 75 languages. This diversity encourages many online content creators to come forward and share their knowledge.
The following are the main features offered by this podia alternative
- Guidance in the creation of content.
- Marketplace insights of Udemy will help you understand which core topic you must focus on.
- You can choose your target audience through the insights provided by Udemy for better reach and students are willing to learn your subject.
- The process of being an online content creator is way simple and takes around 2 business days to complete.
Pros:
- If you are just trying your hands on online content creation for the first time then Udemy will be helpful for you.
- It is free of cost under some terms for online content creators.
Cons:
- Limited insights about how your course is performing
- You might have to face the commission cuts.
#7. Podia Alternative: LearnWorlds
Founded by Panos Siozos in 2014, the founder is himself an author LearnWorlds. LearnWorlds too have made it to the top companies by winning some prestigious awards in 2022.
LearnWorlds is one of the best Podia Alternatives in the creators’ world. To educate people, train your staff, or simply design your own course and make money by selling it to the right clients, you can use an effective online training platform.
The following are the features that make it one of the top alternatives to Podia
- Transcription will be available for your videos and navigation is accessible.
- Post-production is not the need anymore if you want to add much more to your videos like quizzes, titles, pointers, overlay links, and a lot more.
- The video content hosting is done LearnWorld.
- Statistics about the learners will be presented to you.
- Question banks are more improved and you can connect them to multiple courses and tests.
- You can personalize your course digital certificates.
- Integrated social networks for a better connection with your students.
Pros:
- Many built-in functionalities in the learning platform.
- Quick and responsive customer service.
- Reasonable cost
- Designing and personalization are appreciable.
- Recommended for schools too.
Cons:
- If you are a non-English speaker then it might be a problem.’
- Copy-pasting snippets is difficult.
- The student community needs a bit more upgrades.
LearnWorlds Pricing:
- Starter Plan: $24/m
- Pro Trainer Plan: $79/m
- Learning Center: $249/m
- High Volume corporate: Contact sales Team
Conclusion:
Being online creators ourselves we have mentioned the top Podia alternatives. Keeping in mind the above-mentioned Alternatives of Podia, Thinkific remained the expensive platform to afford, LearnDash is a plugin for WordPress. Apart from the features provided by the companies, customer support has been a crucial point for most of the customers.
In this case, FreshLearns stands out best in terms of customer support and the prices are also very competitive and highly recommended. Hope you find the information useful.
Also Read: Top 11 Teachable Alternatives for Course Creators
