Thinkific vs Podia: Which Is Best For You? (2024)

If you're considering Thinkific vs Podia, we've done all the analysis to help you decide which is best for you. Keep reading to get the answers you need.

Selling courses online is a great way to leverage your skills and knowledge. You can sell memberships or individual courses, but you need the platform to support your content.

Thinkific and Podia are two of the most popular course creation and management platforms on the market.

They both offer tools to develop a website, market your online courses, and host those courses. And they both offer free accounts, albeit with limited features. 

Below, we look at these two services, compare their platform offerings, and help you decide which is best for your business.

Thinkific was established in 2011 to meet CEO Greg Smith’s need for an online course creation platform. It primarily deals with the creation of courses, rather than email marketing and other elements.

Thinkific offers some smart features that make it a useful platform. You can add multiple tutors and you enjoy considerable control over course content so you can pin courses, set content as evergreen, and even drip feed content over time.

At its core, Thinkific is a course builder. It has a drag-and-drop course editor as well as the facility to import PDF, audio, and video files. 

It allows for the addition of surveys and quizzes as well as exams. Users can also schedule and host live training sessions, although this will require some integration of tools like calendars and diaries.

You can also build a storefront to sell courses, but like a lot of the more advanced features, accessing this means upgrading to one of the more expensive accounts.

Thinkific’s analytics packages do allow you to monitor progress and to find your students’ pain points, which is a useful tool in improving course content.

Thinkific has four payment plans:

• The Free package ($0/month) It only allows for the creation of a single course and, while it does allow unlimited students to participate, the features available are highly restricted. It is useful to determine whether you get along with the editor, though.
  
  The Free package has 0% transaction fees, which means you still keep the money you make from selling courses.
• The Basic package ($49/month) offers unlimited courses and comes with a custom domain and the capability to set up your own affiliate program.

• The Start package ($99/month) offers the same features as the Basic package but with unlimited spaces for communities, as well as the addition of assignments and live lessons. It also provides more advanced customization options for courses and your website.
• The Grow package ($199/month) allows more communities, spaces per community, and an extra administrator. As well as a live chat feature you also get priority email support. This package allows the removal of Thinkific’s branding as well as bulk enrolment and student email features.

All paid plans include a 25% discount for annual payments.

Podia was established in 2014 and is an all-in-one course builder that facilitates effective marketing, management, and optimization of online courses.

It can also be used to sell other digital products, and makes it easy to add sales page content and more.

Podia offers a free account and two paid plans, which are very reasonably priced, but the free plan does have an 8% transaction fee that users have to pay on every single course sale or subscription. 

As well as being able to sell course content and subscriptions, Podia offers features to help users sell digital products, and you can establish an affiliate program of your own.

A drag and drop site builder is easy to use and enables the setting up of a customized website on a custom domain. It’s easy to add courses, offer subscriptions, and set up sales pages to help market the content.

Podia is an online course platform, though, and its course creation features are thankfully easy to use, too. 

Upload content, drag and drop different elements, and set up payment and subscription options. You don’t need any coding knowledge to set up courses.

Analytics data is available, although somewhat limited. But, where Podia does stand out is in its email and list management features. 

Before you can sell courses, you need prospective students, and email marketing can be a highly effective means of marketing your content.

Podia allows you to set up a sales page to gather email list members. You can set up newsletters and even schedule the drip-feeding of email content to subscribers to build buzz. Its marketing features are where Podia perhaps stands out best.

Podi has three account plans, as follows:

• The Free plan ($0/month + 8% transaction fee) includes the creation of a single course. You can also draft additional courses and webinars so it presents a good opportunity to get to grips with the features.
• While the Free plan does not have any monthly fees, you do pay 8% of all transactions to Podia, as well as the transaction fees associated with PayPal or Stripe.
• The Mover plan ($33/month) has no transaction fees, offers a full website, and allows for the addition of unlimited courses and downloads.
• The Shaker plan ($75/month) is the full package. As well as unlimited courses and downloads, you can host unlimited webinars and set up an affiliate program.

Paid plans come with a 17% discount if you choose to pay annually, rather than monthly.

Both Thinkific and Podia are online course management platforms. They enable you to set up courses and a website to host those courses and through which to sell them.

Both platforms can also be integrated with additional services, and they both provide access to a range of services. But, while they are similar in a lot of aspects, there are areas where the two platforms differ.

Both Thinkific and Podia are online course management platforms. They enable you to set up courses and a website to host those courses and through which to sell them.

Both platforms can also be integrated with additional services, and they both provide access to a range of services. But, while they are similar in a lot of aspects, there are areas where the two platforms differ.

But, Thinkific is limited in some of its marketing options. Both services enable you to set up an affiliate program. 

Thanks to its sales page editor and email marketing features, Podia comes out on top if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution.

It is still possible to market courses via Thinkific but you will need to rely on third-party integration and external marketing sources.

Both services offer what they call a free trial service. While Thinkific’s free package is free with no monthly cost or transaction fees, Podia charges an 8% transaction fee on every single transaction. 

Initially, this kind of model can be a great way of managing costs, but once you start racking up a few sales, the costs will mount.

When it comes to paid services, Podia is cheaper than Thinkific, so if you have a restricted budget but are willing to spend a little money, Podia’s will likely be the best choice.

When considering Thinkific vs Podia, they have their pros and cons, and they will appeal to different potential users.

Beginners, those on restricted budgets, and instructors looking to concentrate on putting out high-quality content while spending as little time as possible designing websites and course layout will be better served by Podia.

More advanced users might find they benefit from the greater flexibility offered by Thinkific.

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