Getting ready to build a business around digital products? One of the most important steps is to secure a great platform that can help you create, sell, and grow with top-performing tools. Let’s dive into one well-known platform, Podia, and see how it compares to other leading digital product selling platforms available including Thinkific, Kajabi, and more.
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- What is Podia?
- Top course creation platform features
- Overview of Podia competitors
- Podia vs. Thinkific
- Conclusion
What is Podia?
Podia is an online platform for selling digital products. Users have loved that the platform is easy to use for new content craters and that it can tie a lot of tech (like Facebook Groups) into one space to make it easy to sell materials online.
Some of Podia’s core features include:
- The ability to create and sell digital products like courses, downloadables, consultation sessions, webinars, and live workshops
- Built-in website and email builder tools
G2 score: 4.6/5
Pricing plans for selling:
- Free plan – $0 per month and collects 10% fees on all revenue
- Starter plan – $9 per month and collects 8% fees
- Mover plan – $39 per month and collects 5% fees
- Shaker plan – $59 per month and doesn’t collect fees
Why are some creators turning away from Podia?
Podia has a bit of room for improvement as some users reported a bit of lag time in the product and slow product creation processes. Plus, Podia’s Free and Starter plans only allow creators to launch one coaching product and one downloadable product at a time. Other materials like courses and webinars can also only be drafted and not published until a higher subscription level which makes it hard to start monetizing quickly or for lower costs.
Top 5 things to look for in an online education platform
Online education platforms come in many shapes and sizes, with different pricing and features to help differentiate them from each other. To help you sort through what is available on the market today, make sure to keep an eye out for these five features that will be the most important when it comes to selling digital products online.
Easy to sell a variety of products
You want to have the flexibility to sell a variety of digital education products like courses, templates, eBooks, podcasts, videos, coaching sessions, and more. Ensure that the platform you sign onto has a marketplace that can enable distribution of different media types. A good place to check is the email sender or marketing tools that are tied into the online education platform as that’s where more restrictions come into play.
Built-in marketing tools
Marketing tools like email builders, website builders, and integrations to social media, CRMs, and content distribution platforms help make growing your online business easy. It’s important to check that your digital product solution of choice has the ability to support your preferred tools directly from within the platform so that you don’t need to navigate around multiple tabs and risk losing productivity.
Supports multiple monetization strategies
Different products need different monetization strategies. Some options for monetization include subscriptions, paying on demand, and offering free trials or bundles. Check out this article for more options on ways to earn revenue through digital products and make sure that your selected platform supports your preferred approaches.
Can scale with your business
As your business grows, your technologies should be able to scale with you. Some things like the pricing model, number of supported users or downloads, and internationalization options are factors that might look good now but create challenges later if they’re not set up to support both small and large operations.
Prioritizes data security
Data security protects both you and your customers. This feature is even more important when your platform of choice is also hosting a payment processing tool to either collect or payout your revenue. Look for the platform’s security page to find this information, like this one from Thinkific.
11 Other digital education platforms to try besides Podia
| Platform Name | Stand-out feature | Best for |
| AI course building tools | Getting help with fast & easy course creation | |
| Built-in marketing tools | Highly customized branding options | |
| Member management | Running a membership program | |
| Community management | Selling access to digital events | |
| Unlimited course creation | One low-cost pricing plan | |
| Built-in SEO | Advanced digital product sales | |
| Integrations with websites and payment tools | Connecting to an existing WordPress site | |
| AI landing page builder | Selling coaching or consulting sessions | |
| Community course marketplace | Posting skills lessons in a marketplace | |
| Tailored course planning & support | Getting recognized as a celebrity in your niche | |
| Learning communities | Coding together in an open source community |
Thinkific is a course creation platform that makes building and launching your own online education business easy. They even host their own training site on the platform as an example of how to leverage new features to educate customers.
What can you sell on Thinkific?
- Courses
- Digital downloads
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Exams and quizzes
- Webinars and livestreams
G2 Score: 4.6/5
Pros:
- All plans (including the free plan) have zero transaction fees!
- Leverages AI to make it easy to create new digital products quickly and pain-free
- Supports a wide variety of monetization options like subscriptions, on-demand, and bundling
- Has built-in marketing tools like a website builder and learning communities to grow your business
- Prioritizes data security and customer support
Cons:
- More expensive compared to competitors
- Limited themes and branding colors within the course builder app
Pricing plans for selling:
- Free plan – 1 course, 1 digital download, and 1 community
- Basic plan – $49 per month for unlimited courses, 5 digital downloads, and 1 community
- Start plan – $99 per month for unlimited courses, unlimited digital downloads, and 1 community
- Grow plan – $199 per month allows 2 extra communities & bonus features
- Thinkific Plus – custom pricing for businesses that want to educate at scale
Kajabi is an online education platform that specializes in offering great built-in marketing tools like an email builder, website builder, and sales funnels. It’s ideal for anyone looking to utilize or sell marketing and sales assets.
What can you sell on Kajabi?
- Courses
- Digital downloads
- Videos
- Podcasts
G2 Score: 4.3/5
Pros:
- All plans have zero transaction fees
- Easy for users to set-up and start creating material
- Offers ability to create a lot of landing pages and emails to target new customers
- Includes sales funnels to track where potential customers are at in the buying journey
Cons:
- There is no free plan to test drive the platform
- Poor reviews on customer support available
- Is missing some integrations like Zapier to help with automation
Pricing plans for selling:
- 14-day free trial available
- Kickstarter – $69 per month
- Basic – $149 per month
- Growth – $199 per month
- Pro – $399 per month
- Enterprise – custom pricing for large businesses
Many indie creators and small businesses start out using Patreon because it focuses on helping sell products like games, music, and books. The platform is geared towards helping artists build a community following, so they offer strong membership growth tools.
What can you sell on Patreon?
- Podcasts
- Music
- Video
- Art
- Books
- Games
G2 Score: 4.1/5
Pros:
- Great membership management tools that make it easy to control subscriptions and new releases
- Fast multimedia uploading support in the platform
- Ability to post digital products in a Patreon marketplace to gain awareness from new potential customers
Cons:
- Doesn’t have a focus on selling educational tools like courses or quizzes
- Fees are high and will be a growing cost as you sell more
Pricing plans for selling:
- Free to get started
- Pro plan – 8% fees on all income earned through Patreon
- Premium plan – 12% fees on all income earned through Patreon
MightyNetworks is focused on building and growing online communities, where you would be able to sell digital products through. It’s a unique approach to sales that prioritizes relationship building, mentorship opportunities, and referrals from loyal customers.
What can you sell on Mighty Networks?
- Courses
- Community memberships
- Digital events
- Videos
- Assessments
G2 Score: 4.6/5
Pros:
- Offers a wide range of templates to make initial set-up and course creation easy
- Has an accompanying mobile app to offer learning on the go
- More options for privacy and data security for users than apps like Facebook Groups
Cons:
- No free version available to test drive the platform
- Community chats are not searchable which makes finding user insights or questions more difficult
Pricing plans for selling:
- 14-day free trial available
- Courses plan – $99 per month
- Business plan – $179 per month
- Path-to-Pro plan – $399 per month
- Mighty Pro – custom pricing for large businesses
Teachery is an online course creation platform that focuses on making it easy for small businesses to get started, regardless of the size of their budget. The platform also includes plenty of opportunities to customize courses through CSS coding to make it more like your own branding.
What can you sell on Teachery?
- Courses
G2 Score: N/A
Pros:
- Collects 0% transaction fees and has one single plan price which makes it easy to scale your business for a lower cost
- Supports affiliate marketing as a method of selling digital products
- Supports unlimited landing pages, courses, custom domains, and students
Cons:
- Built-in marketing tools are fairly weak compared to competitors
- Less awareness and reputation online make it more difficult to assess
- Doesn’t support sales for many different types of digital products
Pricing plans for selling:
- 14-day free trial available
- $49/month for unlimited access to the platform
LearnWords allows creators to design and sell online courses from a custom built website. One important thing to note is that it does offer more complex design and set-up features which allows for a higher degree of customization but won’t work well for beginners.
What can you sell on LearnWords?
- Courses
- Videos
- E-books
- Assessments
- Coaching sessions
G2 Score: 4.7/5
Pros:
- Online web pages factor in search engine optimization (SEO) to help generate new leads on digital downloads
- Drag-and-drop website builder makes it easy to create new pages
- Ability to easy translate course pages into other languages which allows creators to sell in global markets
Cons:
- Difficulty categorizing separate types of digital products in the platform
- Has a higher learning curve than competing platforms
- 99.95% server uptime is only guaranteed in the High Volume and Corporate plans which could affect student and teacher access to the product
Pricing plans for selling:
- Starter plan – $29 per month plus $5 per course sale
- Pro Trainer plan – $99 per month and no transaction fees
- Learning Center plan – $299 per month
- High Volume and Corporate plans – custom pricing required
The LearnDash system is made up of multiple components that all connect into your existing website to facilitate the sales of courses and digital downloads. The three major components that the company sells are: LearnDash, which allows course creation; MemberDash, which enables monetization and community building; and LearnDash Cloud, which also provides the website hosting abilities if needed.
What can you sell on LearnDash?
- Courses
G2 Score: 4.2/5
Pros:
- Connects to many different eCommerce tools such as PayPal, Stripe, WooCommerce, and 2Checkout
- Does not take additional fees from course profits
- Easily integrates into existing WordPress sites so there is no need to rebuild content
Cons:
- Complex pricing plan makes it difficult to assess if you are getting exactly what you need for the lowest cost
- Ability to see analytics, track student progress, and communicate with students are all paid add-ons
Pricing plans for selling:
- LearnDash plugin starts at $199 per year for 1 site
- MemberDash plugin starts at $199 per year for 1 site
- LearnDash Cloud starts at $29 per month
- Many add-ons available
Kartra is another platform that helps creators sell content through online audiences. It’s a great way for thought leaders, coaches, and consultants to build industry reputation while also generating some revenue.
What can you sell on Kartra?
- Membership access
- Coaching and consulting sessions
- Videos
G2 Score: 3.9/5
Pros:
- Offers built-in lead management tools to help see where buyers are at in their sales journey
- Leverages AI to help design and launch new landing pages quickly
- Includes a Calendars feature so consultants and coaches can book new client sessions directly from the platform
Cons:
- Considerably expensive product
- Some reported issues with course website domain redirects for visitors that don’t allow browser cookies
Pricing plans for selling:
- Starter plan – $119 per month
- Growth plan – $229 per month
- Professional plan – $549 per month
Skillshare is an online marketplace where creators can post their own content that teaches others how to master a specific skill. In some ways, it’s a lot like Masterclass but for creators that don’t have a ton of industry recognition yet.
What can you sell on Skillshare?
G2 Score: 3.3/5
Pros:
- Courses are shared into a communal library for all subscribers to access, which allows creators to get more attention
- If you have a community following, you can generate referrals to your courses for extra income
- Skillshare provides the course templates so there is less design work needed
Cons:
- Most pricing information and user reviews online come from students, so it’s hard for content creators to do background research on the product
- Creates need to take a set of prerequisite courses to be able to start sharing material on the platform
- Teachers aren’t reported to make a ton of money off Skillshare
Pricing plans for selling:
- There is no cost to sell through Skillshare.
- Teacher earnings are calculated by minutes watched and student engagement activities such as positive reviews. All earnings go into a Teacher fund that is divided amongst all teachers proportionately.
- There are additional rewards of $250 for Top Teachers or $100 for Rising Teachers based on a nomination process each month.
Masterclass is infamously known for hosting celebrity talent like Gordon Ramsey, Rupaul, Bobbi Brown, and many others. It’s where the top industry experts go to share their insights and experience so that others can follow in their footsteps.
What can you sell on Masterclass?
- Courses for everyday consumers
- Courses for training business teams
G2 Score: 4.3/5
Pros:
- Highly sought out by millions of students around the world as it brings in famous experts
- Brings a high degree of credibility to your content to be selected as a Masterclass instructor
- Wide variety of course categories to sell through
Cons:
- Very difficult to get to the level of expertise to be invited to sell on the platform
- Not possible to create your own courses without the help and approval of Masterclass staff, and you can’t monetize on your own accord
- Most instructors only get one course and can’t promote learning content on other platforms
Pricing plan for selling
- There is no cost to the creator to use Masterclass. Most contracts with Masterclass are created uniquely based on who the partnering celebrity is, so payout information is not publicly available but guessed to be a flat rate that pays from $100,000 up to millions of dollars.
The Odin Project is a not for profit community where developers can share their own experience and help beginners learn to code. Since it’s an open source community project, there are no direct monetization options available. But you can leverage it for building your digital selling knowledge early in your course building career!
What can you sell on The Odin Project?
- Coding lessons
- Mentorship to young students
G2 Score: N/A
Pros:
- Prioritizes community building and already has a strong mentorship program built out
- Smaller team of contributors makes it easy to stand out for thought leadership
- Ability to support niche coding topics and all experience levels
Cons:
- Does not have a built-in payment processing tool so revenue would need to be generated via affiliate links or by sending leads to another website for payment
- Isn’t highly recognized so it may lack credibility if using experience on here to leverage future community building activities
- Requires working with The Odin Project team and collaborators to create a new course offering
Pricing plan for selling:
- N/A
Difference between Podia vs. Thinkific
Thinkific and Podia are two of the leading platforms for selling digital products. While they have plenty of similarities when it comes to creating and marketing content, there are a few key differentiators.
- Thinkific leverages more AI in course building and management tools
- Both platforms allow you to create courses for free but Podia requires creators to pay before they can publish courses
- Both support automated tax collections on revenue generated through the platform and accept multiple payment methods
- Both have a high degree of customization on product landing pages and learning communities
View the full Thinkific vs. Podia comparison guide here.
Conclusion
There are so many great options to choose from when it comes to finding the best platform for selling digital products. While Podia is well known, it’s important to spend time reviewing the alternatives before making your final decision. As it takes a long time to get familiar with an online education platform and it will make a big impact on your success, so you want to look for factors like long-term scalability, security, onboarding support, and built-in marketing tools that will help your business grow sustainably.
