Podia Vs Thinkific 2024– Which eLearning Platform Is Legit?

Are you a student but also passionate about teaching? Are you a teacher but have lost your job due to this pandemic?

Do you have a lot of knowledge and want to share it? Are you a learner wishing to adopt new courses? Don’t worry.

I am here with the best article on Podia vs Thinkific. Basically, these both are platforms that allow you to sell and purchase content and courses online. 

Confused about choosing?

Glance through this review once.

Podia

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Thinkific

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Pricing 39 49
Best for

Podia is a digital platform that is developed to sell online courses, membership,  and several other digital data. It helps you create intuitive content easily and efficiently.

Thinkific is a free online course hosting platform. It has some great elements to it. Thinkific is good for those who want a good value option, one that doesn’t cost too much but still offers all the features they need.

Features
  • Pricing
  • Great Value Potential
  • Free trial
  • Automation
  • Affiliate Program
  • Ease of Use
  • Integrations
  • Pricing
Pros/Advantages
  • It has integrated eMail marketing
  • It is the only platform that has fully integrated live chat
  • It has affordable pricing plans
  • Excellent customer support
  • It has a built-in affiliate system
  • Start for free and grow
  • Courses are entirely focused on marketing and sales campaign
  • It is highly recommended
  • Quick and easy to use
Cons
  • Its platform is bit difficult to use
  • It is not great for those looking to sell physical products
Ease of Use

Podia platform is bit difficult to use.

Thinkific is quick and easy to use

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In this comparison, we will talk about:

  • A basic overview of Podia and Thinkific
  • Some of the best features of Podia vs Thinkific 
  • Benefits of using Podia and Thinkific 
  • Customer support provided by each 
  • Which is easy to use, Podia or Thinkific? 
  • Customer reviews regarding each platform 
  •  Which offers the best Pricing, Podia or Thinkific?
  • Pros and cons of Podia vs Thinkific 
  • Finally, we will see which one is better for you.

After going through this article, you will be able to understand what podia and Thinkfic have to offer on our table and then make the best choice according to it. So, let us not waste a second more and tune in. 

Podia vs thinkific

Bottom line: Podia and Thinkific are all about creators and learners who wish to sell and learn online and also develop a source of revenue or income. Thinkific is a free online course hosting platform. Podia helps to build a website for a brand or product. Also, it helps to create online courses and upload them in any form like pdfs, videos, and so on. Try Out Podia here.

Overview: 

Podia:

Podia vs thinkific- podia review

The initialization of Podia platform began as a coach. It was a site to sell online courses and content that could be sold digitally.

Even today, this site allows sellers to sell content directly to consumers. It also allows creators to sell memberships so that they could earn profits without any interruption or fall.

It is not yer a crowdfunding platform. With podia, you can provide your consumers with professional content, and also build a store for selling content as well as accepting payments through sites from customers there only.

It is all about paying less and getting more. However, it was launched in 2014. Through podia, you can offer online courses, memberships, subscriptions, webinars, and digital content too in the form of pdfs, ebooks, and workbooks.

It is good for creators, developers, and people who wish to reach millions by selling their courses, downloads, or specific content. It has less number of users to date.

The training here is taken in person, live, through webinars, and through thorough documentation too.

Thinkific:

thinkific review

 It is a platform where you will need to worry less about technical knowledge. However, it is an online platform for creating and selling courses and content online. Creation of pages differently for sales and courses can be done.

You can also sell these courses with different coupons and price ranges. The affiliate program here helps us to get more sales.

This platform is best for beginners in the business field or for creators with no experience at all. You can also direct your domain name to your name. It has all the features available that you will ever need to design and sell your course efficiently.

It is good for everyone especially including small scale businesses, authors, speakers, trainers who wish to earn profits and revenues through their content by video or site hosting. It has 1000+ users till now and the number is increasing. The training here is taken live, through webinars or documentation.

 Battle of Features:

  • Platform type:

Podia:

Podia is basically not a crowdfunding platform. It is a normal platform for selling content online but has a  lot to offer in a wide range of varieties.

Thinkific:

It is a cloud-based LMS platform. It means that it directly assures the hosting for all your content and pages on their own.

  • Email Marketing:

Podia:

Podia has an inbuilt email marketing system that is very basic. It is of great help for new people who do not wish to involve themselves in this platform with any investments.

But, this mail system won’t allow you to create campaigns that are attached to a purchase. All you could be benefited from is basic analytics that is who received and opened your emails.

Thinkific:

Once you signup on to this platform, it sends friendly emails to encourage you to start up with the activities. It does have integrations with many email marketing platforms. 

  • Integrations:

Podia:

It integrates with a great number of email marketing platforms such as  ConvertKit, Drip, AWeber, MailerLit, and many more.

It also has an active built-in affiliate marketing system. One of the integration may allow you to connect with Thrivecart too for affiliate marketing. You can use Zapier to fir other tasks such as for google sheets, as it is also one of the integrations of podia.

Thinkific:

Thinkific integrates for email marketing with Constant Contact, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, AWeber, Mixpanel, and some more.  It also integrates with most of the google based tools for analytics and statistics.

  • Course Creation:

Podia:

There is no limit on course creation in Podia. You can sell content and courses all at a time and also drip them over time.

Unlike others, it does not make us compulsory to choose a category of content, all we have to do is simply signup and sell the content of our choice in the form of courses, videos, audios, quizzes, and much more.

Thinkific:

It allows you to create content unlimitedly. You can create videos, courses, and much more on Thinkific. It allows unlimited video and site hosting 

  • Digital product:

Podia:

Podia makes the selling of digital downloads easier. Creators can simply sell their content digitally which is in the form of pdfs, short guides, ebooks, or simply created short posts or templates. Audio files can also be sold or you can use Canva to create workbooks. 

Thinkific:

You can sell digital products on Thinkific too without any hassles or shipping worries. You can sell any form of digital content here without any limits.

  • Customization:

Podia:

Its robust editor is pretty customizable and it has more options too.

Thinkific:

It has customization options but they are limited.

Verdict

When I observed the features quite closely, I found that they too differ only in some context at a minor rate.

Once you go through all the features and have made a comparison, you would surely observe that almost most of the features are the same and differ only to a certain limit.

However, choosing among these two in terms of features completely depends on the viewer, his criteria, and needs.

Both the platforms offer their best in each plan, it is up to us what features we need and choose to have kept in mind the targeted reach of our revenues and content display.

Benefits of Podia Vs Thinkific

Podia:

sell online courses

The benefits of podia are multiple. When I used Podia, I was able to pay in monthly installments for a course that I had opted which I found to be the most amazing benefit any website could ever offer to a customer.

We can also create a number of varieties of content such as audios, videos, pdf, ebooks, and a lot more with different prices, memberships, subscriptions, and duration.

There is no necessity for any prior technical knowledge as well as it converts subscribers into consumers.

It is easy to use and does not categorize content unlike different platforms and does not charge any extra royalties on the sold content except the prior subscription or membership fees to be paid.

Thinkific:

Using Thinkific, I can assure you that it is very simple to add a course to the menu, upload and organize it in a well-planned manner.

You can also add up many things in collaboration with the content such as quizzes, surveys, query forms, and a lot more. With the help of a site builder, you can make your pages look more beautiful and attractive to the customers.

Also, you don’t need to have a specific URL for logging in or signing up for an account.

You can add logos, templates, and many more exciting things. Upsells can also be set up on your pages but they are not primarily one-click upsells. It offers a variety and us an all in one platform for selling and creating content.

podia integrations

Customer Support at Podia & Thinkific

Podia:

It lacks phone support. However, we can use email for our queries or required help or can use the live chat option that is available 24/7, Different plans provide different assistance and support.

Thinkific:

It offers tutorials with a great depth in knowledge, The customer service is good and is available through emails. Response emails are receives within 24 hours.

They do have Facebook pages that are very interactive along with a number of group members associated with the page. However, there is no phone support or live chat support available.

Verdict:

However, the clear winner here is podia as it also avails customer support through live chat that is not available in  Thinkific. Whereas, support through emails is common in both, and both lack of providing support for phones.

Ease of use Of Podia vs Thinkific

Podia:

As it offers a free trial too, you can try its tools in the beginning days. However, for using podia there is no need for any prior technical knowledge.

All primary buttons such as to add files are easily displayed, usable and understandable.

It, however, has some limited options I creative designing but leaves back every platform in the ease to use because of its easy displayed features and contexts.

Thinkific:

This is an intuitive and easy to use platform. However, tutorials with deep knowledge are also provided for easy usage.

You may require some knowledge and technical skills but not to a very deep extent. There are also many features that are primarily designed to be used in single clicks. You can try all the tools in the free days trial.

Verdict:

The clear winner here is podia according to my personal experience because it was much simple and content was being organized within very few clicks with all displayed bars and menus according to their specific functions.

Customer Reviews:

Podia:

podia customer reviews

Customers and creators think that Podia is a great and easy to use platform that gives more benefits compared to the prices accepted.

Customers are already satisfied with the digital content available online but creators too are satisfied with the increase in incomes and that with unstoppable revenues.

Here, creators can sell content in a bundle or can design membership and Subscription plans according to the type of content that they will provide.

Thinkific:

thinkific customer review

The customers for these platforms are pretty neutral in terms of their views on Thinkific. Some find it easy and fully supporting while some find it tough to get support saying there were no answers to our query mails.

While the grass is also greener on the other side with the customers saying that the platform is much user friendly and easily manageable.

Verdict:

The clear winner observed here is Podia as it has more positive reviews than negative ones, while I believe that each one’s perspective is different and it may completely depend on as well had the platform served them.

Pricing of  Podia vs Thinkific:

While buying a small or a big thing, platform, plan, or course, all you enquire about on a prior basis is the pricing to check and compare and suit it according to your budget. So, let us have an outlook on the pricing of podia and Thinkific.

Podia:

podia vs thinkific- pricing

Actually, Podia offers a free 30-day trial without actually asking for credit card details. The point that is more interesting here is that if you upgrade with their plan in five days of their free trial. You get a 15% discount for a lifetime.

However, it has two basic pricing plans. They are:

  • The Mover plan: $ 33 monthly for basic features and content of drip course
  • The Shaker plan: $ 67 monthly for basic features of podia along with the addition of organic traffic attraction, assistance for migration, memberships, affiliate, and much more.

Both the plans come with the following benefits for consumers and creators:

  1. Limitless courses and  downloads digitally
  2. Tracking of customers
  3. Integrations with different progressive parties
  4. Payouts security and direct transfers to banks
  5. Personal and individual domains to sell items on your website
  6. No  transaction fees and much more

Thinkific:

podia vs thinkific

It offers four plans:

  • The Free Plan: You can try all tools here in the free plan and that too without any transaction fees
  • The Basic Plan: It costs $49 monthly. In this plan, you can get all the extra added features such as being able to add in coupons, content that is scheduled, having a custom domain, integration with Zapier, and much more.
  • The Pro Plan: It costs $ 99 monthly. Along with the needed features, the extra benefits that you get into this plan are completion certificates, advanced prices of course, and HTML or CSS editings and memberships along with the privilege for using bundles.  One of the necessary mentionable points is the growth package. In this, once you cross 100 active users while using the pro plan, you are charged extra. You get some extra benefits here too that include Zapier actions, and segmenting that is an advanced level, white labeling, integration with Infusionsoft, Brillium exams, and more.
  • The Premier Plan: It costs $ 499 monthly. It is specifically designed for large communities or organizations. Once you purchase this plan, you get the basic features but you are also benefited from a growth package for an unlimited number of students. It also includes 5 site admin accounts and 50-course admin accounts.

Verdict:

Here, the difference between the actual prices of both is minor but when compared to the benefits available in each pricing plan, I think Thinkific has much more to offer every time.

Therefore, Thinkific with more variety in benefits and also in the availability of plans is the clear winner here.

However one may choose according to their budget, criteria, needs, and also according to the context of the size of business they wish to run in the form of courses or content.

Also, there is a variety in each plan of Thinkific and with each plan, its level and quality of features provided increases.

podia vs thinkific- email marketing

Pros and Cons of Podia vs Thinkific

Pros

Podia:

  • It is an easy to use platform
  • It has a wide range of varieties in customization options
  • It has a user interface that is very well created and designed
  • It offers a free trial too
  • It has pricing options that are comparable according to different plans and the availability of quality content that they provide.
  • You can even sell webinars here
  • It is constantly updated with new features
  • I had a good practical experience while using Podia
  • It does not categorize the content
  • It does not take any extra royalties received by the creators of courses from consumers.

Thinkific:

  • It is an easy to use and intuitive platform
  • It has customization features but only up to a specific limit
  • It supports and avails integrations with outsiders.
  • It has good creating and designing features
  • It also supports Bulk im[ortation for different file types
  • It is a good platform with an average experience.

Cons

Podia:

  • It is not so appropriate for low volume sellers
  • You should know to sell products on your websites
  • There are limited options for automation
  • It provides us only with basic analytics
  • It is not so supportive to manage members on the back end.
  • It lacks phone support

Thinkific:

  • There is no inbuilt platform for hosting videos
  • A low amount of quality and interactive content found here.
  • You will not be able to mix media here.
  • There is no feature for native comments.
  • The checkout pages are two-step.

Quick Links

FAQs | Podia vs Thinkific

🤷‍♀️ What are Podia and Thinkific?

These are platforms that are designed to sell and also purchase digital content and courses online. They keep updating the offers and also avail discount coupons timely on each course.

🙋‍♂️ Are courses and content categorized here?

On podia, there is no such segmentation of courses according to any category, while on Thinkific, it is also not mentioned specifically.

🙎 What are the alternatives of Podia and Thinkific?

While, there are many alternatives such as Udemy, teachable, and Kajabi too. These are some of the best alternatives that I always personally suggest to any of my friends, teacher or colleague.

🤩Why should I choose Thinkific?

People use Thinkific to teach all types of courses from learning to play guitar, to flying a drone, to enhancing your digital marketing skills!

👉Why should I choose Podia?

Podia is one of the leading platforms for selling courses and digital products online. It proves to be a great competitor for online learning.

✅ Is Podia Certification worth?

Podia does not offer online certifications but it has different automation tools connected with Podia for generating online certificates.

Conclusion | Podia vs Thinkific

Well, let me tell you which platform I liked the most. As every story has its flipping sides, I would say so does any platform have to.

When I was running and selling lower volume courses or content, I used Podia, but as my reach started increasing among the knowledge acceptors across the world, I started using Thinkific as my organization was becoming larger and was excelling at a higher pace.

I just switched platforms according to my needs and both were satisfactory for me according to the size of my organization.

Well, this again highlights the point that using and choosing a platform between both of them, would completely depend on the user whether what they want to avail, the key features that suit their criteria, and most importantly the budgets and targeted reach of consumers they wish to have.

It has been a part of my personal experience and I was amazed to see that they offered so much on individual levels, that you won’t even need to look for alternatives once you start using the one from these two.

I am sure you too will love the features of both these and will be astonished to see what they offer at minimum prices.

Podia vs Thinkific

OVERALL VERDICT

Podia and Thinkific are all about creators and learners who wish to sell and learn online and also develop a source of revenue or income. Thinkific is a free online course hosting platform. Podia helps to build a website for a brand or product. Also, it helps to create online courses and upload them in any form like pdfs, videos, and so on. Try Out Podia here.
8.5

Out of 10

Pros

Cons

RATING:

Price: $

Harshit Baluja

Harshit is a seasoned writer specializing in online courses and eLearning. With 7 years of experience, he has the ability to craft engaging content that seamlessly integrates technology with learning. His expertise lies in simplifying complex topics, ensuring a seamless learning experience for learners of all levels. Connect with Harshit on Linkedin to get in touch with latest eLearning trends.