The world of online courses has exploded in recent years. According to Forbes, the total worldwide revenue generated by the E-Learning market could exceed $325 billion by 2025. If you are a professional with a specialized set of knowledge, then selling online courses is a great side gig or career transition.
There are several online business platforms designed for creating, creating, marketing, and selling courses. Teachable is one very popular platform in virtue of its large course catalog and useful learning management system (LMS) tools.
However, Teachable isn’t for everyone. If you feel that Teachable just doesn’t fit your style, then here are 7 Teachable alternatives to help grow your online business.
The Top 7 Teachable Alternatives
- Performance
- Ease of Use Comparison
- Pricing and Features Comparison
- Customer Support
- Security
- Conclusion
1. Podia
Podia is a decent digital product business platform that gives users a wide range of flexibility in setting up their site. Podia has a simple interface and is super easy to set up which makes it ideal for people who want to get a functioning website off the ground as quickly as possible.
One thing we like about Podia is it offers unlimited hosting for your course materials. Some platforms require you to link your profile to a dropbox to host materials but Podia keeps them all on your site. Podia also has membership site functionality and a fairly decent suite of email marketing tools, though it is ultimately limited for comprehensive email marketing campaigns.
Podia is extremely simple to use and features a drag-and-drop editor. The platform starts you off with a questionnaire so it can generate custom premade templates. There is enough customization even when working with the default layout for smaller business pages but the customization tools are ultimately not as powerful as other platforms.
Pros
- Simple drag-and-drop editor
- Easy setup process
- Membership site capabilities
- Uncomplicated organization
Cons
- Limited design options
- Email marketing tools are basic
- No free plan available
2. Kajabi
Kajabi is another all-in-one business solution for e-learning entrepreneurs. Kajabi distinguishes itself from its competitors in virtue of the sheer number of features it gives users. The pricing plans are a bit on the higher side and there is no free-tier option but these shortcomings are made up for by the comprehensive tools you can access.
Kajabi also uses a simple drag-and-drop editor which makes it easy to create pages. Kajabi has a lot of customization options between the large libraries of templates and elements. Kajabi is designed specifically for digital courses but there is nothing stopping you from selling physical products on the platform.
Kajabi’s best features are its marketing tools. Kajabi has some really great email automations that can create complex customer interaction sequences. The pipeline builder takes the cake though, Kajabi has a neat pipeline editor that gives a visual representation of your sales funnel. You can add in landing pages, opt-in forms, etc. wherever you want in the pipeline.
Kajabi also has a ton of other features like payment processing, contact management, quizzes/assessments, and more.
Pros
- Wide range of web building tools
- Amazing email marketing tools
- Pipeline builder is unique
- Large amount of integrations
Cons
- Expensive
- Limited native payment options
3. Thinkific
Thinkific is another alternative to Teachable. Thinkific is probably one of the more well-rounded course creation platforms out there. Thinkific features a simple drag-and-drop editor, like most course platforms, and can be worked without any coding knowledge. Thinkific also excels in its student management tools.
Thinkific also offers a free-tier pricing plan. You get access to all of Thinkific’s core features with the free plan but have to pay a relatively steep 10% transaction fee, so 10% of whatever you sell will go to Thinkific. It’s not until the Business plan at $99 a month that the transaction fees are removed.
Thinkific also has marketing and email tools built right into the platform. A lot of the tools are automated which makes it easy to set up sales or onboarding sequences. Thinkific lets you segment your user list by information so you can target specific students with your campaigns. Thinkific also has a decent affiliate marketing program so you can spread the word of your business and reward loyal customers.
One last thing; Thinkific will give you a 20% discount if you opt for annual billing rather than monthly billing. So for instance, the Business plan goes from $99 to $79 a month if you pay it all upfront.
Pros
- Free plan has a ton of features
- Great student engagement and management tools
- 20% discount for annual billing
- Great customization options
Cons
- Transaction fees on lowest two plans
- No direct customer support
4. ClickFunnels
Ok so ClickFunnels is not so much an alternative to Teachable but something that can be used in addition to Teachable to replace its marketing suite. ClickFunnels, as the name implies, is all about generating sales funnels to turn visitors into paying customers. As such, ClickFunnels who schtick is marketing, marketing, and marketing.
ClickFunnels has some incredible email marketing tools, including lists, segments, and automations. You can get extremely creative with the automations and make complex sequences to onboard new members, upsell products, and more.
ClickFunnels is a sales funnel tool at its core so its page builder is for
- Landing pages
- Squeeze pages
- Webinars
- Membership sites
- Bumps
- Upsells
- Downsells
And much, much more. ClickFunnels also has a built-in AB tester which is an invaluable tool for figuring out your market strategy and our favorite unique features of the platform. ClickFunnels also offers a 14-day trial so you can try the platform entirely risk-free.
As we said, the choice is not exclusive between Teachable and ClickFunnels.You can integrate ClickFunnels with Teachable using the Kajabi app (and a lot of other platforms as well). So you can take advantage of the course hosting power of Teachable but run your marketing suite through ClickFunnels.
Pros
- Powerful marketing and sales funnel tools
- Large amount of integrations
- Built-in AB tester
- 14-day free trial available
Cons
- Does not really have any course capabilities
- Good for marketing; lacks at other things
5. Kartra
Kartra is another online platform built specifically for marketing efforts. Kartra offers users a fully integrated automated marketing system and has powerful tools for building effective sales funnels. Kartra includes hosting, video, webinars, split-testing, checkouts, and more.
When you first log into your Kartra account you are greeted with an intro video that gives a basic tutorial on how to use the platform. Once you watch the video, you can get started building pages. Kartra’s page builder uses pre-built templates which include modern and old-school layouts. It is fairly decent, but some editing processes are a bit obtuse.
Kartra also has a pretty comprehensive checkout module. One thing we really like about Kartra is the abandoned cart rules which will follow up with a customer if they leave your site without purchasing what is in their shopping cart. Kartra also has a neat affiliate user program which gives customers a chance to promote your products, netting them a small commission and your more sales.
Kartra lastly has great email marketing tools. You can set up automated broadcasts to go out to your audience segmented by lists and there is compatibility with SMS messaging for those who want to try a more aggressive marketing campaign.
Pros
- Great video hosting
- Great onboarding process
- Checkout tools are amazing
- Good email marketing tools
Cons
- Customization without coding is limited
- Some design options are too rigid and hare to navigate
6. Teachery
Teachery is a relatively new online course creation platform but has been building a name for itself in the past few years. Teachery’s main draw is that all of their plans allow for an unlimited amount of students and an unlimited amount of courses. That means that there is no limit to how many students can sign up for your lessons and how many products you can put up for sale.
Teachery has a good course editor too. It supports all kinds of media and files including video, audio, text, PDF, and more. Unfortunately, Teachery does not host these materials so you’ll have to find another file storage service like Dropbox. Teachery also has built-in payment options and includes promo codes.
Teachery also has a very reasonable pricing structure. There are no hidden fees or transaction fees and the company won’t try to upsell you on anything. They also offer a free 2-week trial so you can learn the ropes before financially committing.
Pros
- Unlimited courses and students
- Intuitive and customizable editor
- Reasonably priced plans
- Good analytics and sales tools
- Great customer support team
Cons
- Marketing tools are not great
- No native hosting for course materials
- Editor can be a bit sluggish
7. Braincert
Last on our list is Braincert, a platform that is specifically designed for e-learning endeavors. Braincert has 4 core modules that contribute to the whole experience; course platforms, online testing platform, virtual classroom, and content management system. Each application works with the other to create a unified teaching experience.
The main draw of Braincert is its course creation tools. The course creation module is simple to use and lets you upload a wide range of file types. You can also attach quizzes and assessments to each lesson. Braincert also has an extremely useful virtual classroom setting which lets you host live lectures at any time from anywhere in the world.
Braincert also has a comprehensive online testing module which is much better than a lot of student engagement systems we have seen. The testing module lets you assign group tasks to students and keep track of their academic progress.
Overall, Braincert is a great option for businesses of any size. One thing we like about Braincert is that it is designed more like a traditional classroom than some other online course creations platforms.
Pros
- 4 core modules work together seamlessly
- Virtual classroom function is unique
- Great student management and testing tools
- Free trial and free-tier plan available
Cons
- Marketing tools are not amazing
- Some features have obtuse design choices
Conclusion
Teachable is a wonderful platform for creating, marketing, and selling online courses but it is definitely not the only one. These 7 Teachable alternatives are perfectly comprehensive platforms for launching your online course business. There has never been a better time to start an online course business, so why not give it a try? Knowledge is the most important commodity and there will always be a market for learning.
