Podia alternatives: 8 alternatives for online course creators

Podia is an online platform designed for creators to sell digital products such as online courses, memberships, and ebooks. 

Podia combines features like website building, email marketing, and community building, which make it a good starting point for anyone who wants to make money from selling courses online. 

While some users commend Podia for its rich features and ease of use, others have aired their dissatisfaction. A Trustpilot reviewer, for example, reported security breaches that allowed course content to be downloaded and shared without permission.

Technical issues are common with any software. But problems like these often push users to look for alternatives. 

So, if you’re one of such users seeking an alternative, or are new to course creation and exploring your options, keep reading to see some Podia competitors worth considering.

[TL;DR] Top 8 Podia alternatives

Platform	Key Features	Starting Price
GetResponse	AI-powered course creator, creator profiles, email marketing, live webinars, marketing automation	$56.58/month
Teachery	Customizable templates, live course editing, and content dripping.	$49/month
Skillshare	Project-based learning, built-in community, marketing, and promotion	Free to create courses. Royalty-based earnings.
Learnyst	Content protection, SCORM support, community building, and built-in marketing tools.	$44/month
LearnDash	Automated notifications, drip content, assignment management, quizzes	$199/year
FreshLearn	Course builder, live cohorts, interactive quizzes, community building	$29/month
MemberPress	Online classroom and drip content, built-in quizzes, certification, community building	$399/year
Kajabi	Course builder, pre-built landing pages, webinars, customizable templates, memberships	$89/month

8 Podia Alternatives to Explore

Moving straight to it, here are eight great Podia alternatives to consider.

1. GetResponse

GetResponse is first on the list of the best Podia alternatives. While we’re popular as an email marketing solution, we also have the GetResponse content monetization platform. This is an all-in-one solution for content creators, influencers, and entrepreneurs to monetize their expertise. 

Within the monetization platform is an online course builder with advanced tools for selling courses and training programs. 

You also get access to advanced marketing features such as landing pages, sales funnels, live webinars, and marketing automation to promote your course and increase sales. 

As a course creator, you can also create a profile where students can see all your published courses. This way, you’re more discoverable and can easily attract more students.

Overall, GetResponse has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to build and manage your courses. We also have a mobile app for students to learn on the go.

Key features

• AI-powered course creator: Build online courses quickly and easily with the help of AI. 
• Multimedia support: Supports multiple content formats and allows you to structure your course with modules and lessons.
• Interactive quizzes and certificates: Enhance the learning experience with interactive quizzes and reward students with certificates upon course completion.
• Webinars and live sessions: Host live and on-demand webinars to engage with your audience and provide additional value.
• Community features: Build and manage communities to foster engagement and interaction among your students.

Pricing

The GetResponse creator plan gives you access to the online course builder. Pricing depends on the number of contacts. 

The plan starts at $56.58/month for 1,000 contacts and allows up to 500 active students. 

All paid plans come with free onboarding, migration, and 24/7 chat support.

2. Teachery

Teachery is another solid Podia alternative to try. The platform is designed to be user-friendly, so course creation is pretty seamless. 

Teachery offers extensive customization options. For instance, you can style your course based on your brand preferences, using your desired font, color palettes, and themes. 

It also allows you to add custom CSS for more advanced customization.

Key features

• Supports multimedia elements like videos, quizzes, digital downloads, etc.
• Live course editing
• Content dripping
• Community building
• Sales pages
• Secure payment processing with Stripe

Teachery lets you track student progress on courses. Also, you can offer courses through a one-off payment or on a recurring subscription model. 

Overall, Teachery is great for newbies who may find other platforms overwhelming.

Pricing

Teachery has only one, simple pricing plan:

• Monthly Plan: $49/month. This plan includes all features, such as unlimited courses, students, landing pages, custom domains, customer analytics, lesson drip scheduling, etc.
• Yearly Plan: $470/year. This plan offers the same features as the monthly plan but at a discounted rate. It saves you over $100 annually.

Teachery provides a 14-day free trial. Use this to explore the platform and its features before committing to a paid plan.

3. Skillshare

Skillshare is an ideal Podia alternative for course creators who want to reach a large and engaged audience. The online course platform is useful if you want to start without self-hosting your courses. 

Skillshare has a wide user base that can help you gain visibility for your course.

Also, Skillshare has a straightforward process for creating and publishing your courses online. This makes it a decent option for non-tech-savvy users. 

The online course marketplace also supports various formats like video lessons, PDFs, and audio.

Skillshare’s community features encourage course engagement through student discussions. There’s also “project-based learning,” which allows students to complete specific tasks for hands-on experience. 

Pricing

Skillshare is free for creators to use. You’ll receive earnings through Skillshare’s royalty payment structure. 

Here’s how it works.

• You can earn up to $0.05–$0.10 per minute watched. But you must get at least 75 paid minutes in a month to receive these royalties. 
• You get up to 90% of the first payment from students who join through your referral link.

The downside of Skillshare’s payment structure is that earnings vary based on student engagement. So, you’re not always sure what to expect. 

It’s also possible that you’d earn way less than selling courses directly or on other platforms.

4. Learnyst

Learnyst is a Podia alternative for educators and businesses looking for a platform with a rich combination of features for selling courses. The course creator offers various customization capabilities to help you stand out and create a more personal experience for your students. 

The platform also lets you host live classes and offers a community building tool to promote interactive learning with your students. 

Key features

• Multimedia content support
• Quizzes and assignments
• SCORM support for various content formats
• Stripe and PayPal payment integration
• Built-in marketing tools: email, landing pages, push notifications, branded app, affiliate marketing, and branded app.

Learnyst also prioritizes strong content security to ensure your course resources are well protected.

Pricing

Learnyst offers several pricing plans to suit different user needs. 

Essential plan: $44/month (billed annually). Includes custom domain, branded site, DRM protection, courses, mock tests, bundles, 3 cohorts, 3 digital products, 1 community, and a marketing hub.

Professional plan: $135/month (billed annually). Everything in Essential, plus 10 cohorts, 10 digital products, 10 communities, content dripping, 1,000 certificates, 5 sub-admins, and live chat support.

Premium plan: $225/month (billed annually). Everything in Professional, plus 50 cohorts, 50 digital products, 25 sub-admins, 5,000 certificates, learning paths, and phone support.

Plus plan: $719/month (billed annually). Includes 100 cohorts, 200 digital products, 100 communities, phone & priority support, 10,000 certificates, API support, and SCORM support.

5. LearnDash

This is another key contender among the various Podia alternatives we’ve mentioned.  

LearnDash is a plugin that helps you host your online courses on WordPress. It’s a good option for users who have a WordPress website and want to self-host courses. 

With LearnDash, you can create rich learning experiences with tools like the drag-and-drop course builder, advanced quizzes, and gamification (badges, course points, certificates, etc.). 

Key features

• Automated notifications
• Drip-feed content
• Assignment management
• Course reporting and analytics
• Multiple payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce, etc.

LearnDash also lets you offer various payment options (one-off payments, subscriptions, or memberships) to your potential learners.

Pricing

LearnDash has two core groups of pricing offers. LearnDash LMS and LearnDash Cloud:

LearnDash LMS offers a ready-to-install plugin for creating your online course. Pricing is based on the number of sites where you’ll publish the course.

• 1 site: $199/year.
• 10 sites: $399/year.
• UnlimitedsSites: $799/year. 

Each plan offers access to all the core features mentioned above, including others like video progression, focus mode, course dashboard, and AI course outline generator.

LearnDash Cloud is a more extensive solution that allows you to host your course website on WordPress.

• Starter Plan: $25/month, billed annually. 
• Growth Plan: $50/month
• Pro Plan: $75/month

Plans include all LearnDash LMS features plus website hosting, WordPress CMS, and unlimited courses. LearnDash also offers other product bundles with a more specific combination of features at various prices.

6. FreshLearn

FreshLearn is another Podia alternative you can use to sell courses and coaching programs online. There’s an intuitive course builder that allows you to create classes containing various multimedia elements. 

You can also create a branded website for selling your course. Plus, you’ll gain access to a few course marketing tools like email campaigns and automation.

Key features

• Drip content
• Live cohorts and workshop
• Community building features
• Student progress tracking
• Assessments and custom certificates

Pricing

Here’s an overview of FreshLearn’s pricing:

• Free: Allows 1 admin and up to 25 students. Includes core features like payment integrations, video hosting, a sales page builder, and email support.
• Pro: $29/month, billed annually. Allows one admin and unlimited students. Includes everything in the free plan as well as an AI website builder, email builder, community, assessment, custom domain, coupons, and drip content.
• No Brainer: $149/month. Supports up to 3 admins and unlimited students. Includes advanced features like custom roles, assignments, gamification, free migration, and premium support.

FreshLearn also has the No Brainer+ plan at $119/month. The plan offers advanced customization, automation, personalized emails, and other core features. There’s an Enterprise plan, too, for businesses that want a specific set of custom features.

7. MemberPress

MemberPress is one of the other decent alternatives to Podia for selling online courses. Just like LearnDash, MemberPress is a WordPress plugin. It includes an add-on called “MemberPress Courses,” which allows you to sell courses from your WordPress site. 

MemberPress lets you create courses and organize a thorough curriculum using WordPress’s post editor. The platform is quite versatile for both beginners and advanced users. 

Key features

• Simple drag-and-drop builder
• Online classroom and drip content
• Built-in quizzes and certification
• Community building 
• Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net integration.

MemberPress also allows you to restrict access to your course content based on various membership levels. You can protect pages, posts, and other file types.

Pricing

MemberPress offers three pricing plans:

• Basic Plan: $359/year. Includes unlimited members, unlimited courses, content protection, drip content, customizable coupons, and basic support.
• Plus Plan: $599/year. Includes everything in the Basic Plan, plus advanced marketing integrations, forums, community add-ons, and priority support.
• Pro Plan: $799/year. Includes everything in the Plus Plan, plus corporate memberships and premium support. 

MemberPress provides a 14-day money-back guarantee so you can have a risk-free trial of the platform.

8. Kajabi

Kajabi is another good Podia alternative to consider, although it’s more expensive than most other solutions. The platform has various advanced course creation tools that creators use to sell courses and coaching programs. 

It has a course builder with customizable templates that you can use to fast-track your course creation process. You can also create landing pages for specific courses. 

Besides online courses, Kajabi lets you create and manage membership sites, offer exclusive content, and provide community access to your members. 

The platform has a mobile app for students to learn at their convenience. 

Key features

• Live webinars
• Native email marketing tools
• Detailed reporting and analytics
• AI course builder

Kajabi is worth considering if you’re looking for an all-in-one platform with advanced course creation features and are okay with the steep pricing. 

Let’s look at the price tag.

Kajabi Pricing

Kajabi has four price tiers:

Kajabi Kickstarter: $89/month. Includes features like 1 website, 1 product & community, 250 contacts, unlimited landing pages, a creator studio, and Kajabi AI. You’ll notice that this plan is relatively expensive, considering it lets you publish only one product (one online course) and accommodates just 250 contacts.

Kajabi Basic: $119/month. Includes everything in Kickstarter, plus: 3 products and 10,000 contacts.

Kajabi Growth: $149/month. Includes 1 website, 15 products (courses), 25,000 contacts, 24/7 support, custom domain, and custom branding.

Kajabi Pro: $399/month. Includes everything in the Growth Plan, plus 3 websites, 100 products, 10,000 contacts, advanced automation, and webhooks.

Conclusion

Podia is a great platform for selling online courses. But, it’s okay that you’d want to explore other options for various reasons.  

As you’ve seen, various alternatives to Podia can meet your unique preferences as a course creator. For example, LearnDash and MemberPress are great Podia alternatives if you want to sell courses from an existing WordPress website. Meanwhile, Skillshare can be a great option for folks who want a platform with an existing audience.

Finally, Teachery, Learnyst, Kajabi, and GetResponse should be on your shortlist if you prefer self-hosting your courses and building an independent course business. Consider what each of these platforms has to offer and go for one that gives you the best value for your money.

That said, we’ll encourage you to check out the GetResponse course builder if you want a reliable and efficient platform for creating engaging online courses. Our platform makes it easy for anyone (including creators with no coding or design skills) to create and sell online courses. You get all course creation features plus unlimited access to our marketing tools like email marketing, autoresponders, and live webinars through one affordable plan.