7 Great Podia Alternatives for Course Creation and Selling

earning needs, curriculum, delivery, business budget… That’s only half of the list to consider when finding an appropriate software for your course creation.

Thus, a solution like Podia, an all-in-one platform to build AND sell courses, seems like a great deal. But what if you are ready to scale your programs or develop them into an online academy?

In that case, you may need more features related to engagement, collaboration, management, and reporting. And Podia definitely lacks some of them.

We created a list of the best Podia alternatives that offer more functionality. Join us to learn more about them and what benefits they can bring.

Why Look for a Podia Alternative?

First of all, let’s have a clear picture of what Podia is, as finding the right alternative starts with an understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. 

So, what exactly are they?

Podia is an intuitive and comprehensive platform offering straightforward course creation and marketing tools. With it, you can sell bundles, digital products, and courses. 

What else? 

• Podia provides a decent course or product editor and website builder, while its email and affiliate marketing tools are on point as well. 
• Moreover, it brings a simple community option and integrated membership options to the table, enhancing engagement and monetization. 
• Lastly, it offers powerful integration capability adding to functionality, especially in terms of sales funnels and marketing. 

However, what's the catch? Despite its array of features, Podia falls short in certain aspects: 

Does all but not great

Podia covers a wide range of different features, it’s true. Yet, its performance, especially in course creation, is rather mediocre. Its website builder and email marketing are effective, and somewhat ahead of competitors. 

Nonetheless, Podia surely lacks optimization and advanced features that a proper LMS can offer, as well as customization that, for instance, Shopify provides.

Lacks solid collaborative features

Podia offers a simple community and collaborative features like discussion threads. Yet, although present, they are not as deep or advanced. 

They lack functions for assignment collaboration, multimedia upload (in comments), and peer review options. With all that, the learner engagement and interaction won’t be as diverse and effective. 

Offers subpar course management and reporting

Unfortunately, Podia's course management and reporting tools may not meet the advanced needs of educators and businesses for proper analytics and management features. 

Even though there is a good and intuitive system, you will need to rely significantly on integrations or have simple courses.

💡Highlight: That way, the course creators usually apply the following strategies: either sacrifice marketing to build a better learning experience or seek similar all-in-one solutions but with a different balance of features.

Podia Alternatives For Better Course Creation and Engagement (Not Sales)

• #1. EducateMe: Best alternative for course creation with a focus on collaboration
• #2. Mighty Networks: Great platform for communitybuildingg with some marketing features
• #3. Circle: Community-based learning software with flexible space editor

Let’s imagine you pick the first strategy. 

If you're looking for a platform that would compensate for the lack of advanced course creation features, we have a list of powerful LMS solutions. These software have a set of solid tools to meet diverse learning needs, enforcing collaboration and allowing decent reporting.

Note: be ready that they are not so supportive in terms of marketing or sales. 

#1. EducateMe: Best Podia alternative for course creation and management

EducateMe is likely the best Podia alternative concerning course creation, management, and collaborative features. Why? EducateMe has an extremely versatile system that underlines smooth operation, organization, and peer interaction. 

Compared to Podia, the drag-and-drop course editor, backed by AI, is more intuitive and supports various content formats. They are also applicable to lessons, quizzes, peer reviews, and assignments. Also, it offers an in-built messenger, insightful student analytics, and decent integration capabilities.

Even though this alternative to Podia has no marketing and sales tools, it is mobile-friendly and offers email notifications and custom links for bundle promotion or coaching booking.

Key features of this Podia Alternative

• Management tools. The Kanban approach and scheduling options are particularly effective for monitoring assignments and managing multiple courses or cohorts.
• Engagement tools. In addition to in-built messenger, there are comment sections, Slack-like channels, and live session hosting to support your online classroom.
• White label LMS. EducateMe allows you to customize such course design elements as colors, fonts, logos, and shapes, add personalized sign-up or log-in forms, and create custom menu for learners.
• Student analytics. Thanks to the dashboard, instructors can track attendance, leave notes, identify “red flags,” and gather valuable insights.
• Powerful integrations. Apart from crucial collaborative tools like Google Docs, it offers great integrations with Loom, Notion, Zoom, Slack, Figma, etc.

Pricing: a 14-day free trial; Starter Plan starts at $2.5 per learner; Enterprise Plans are available upon consultation with the sales team and bring tailored solutions.

💡Best for: course creators wanting to develop an academy or offer deeper learning experiences

Further reading: How Projector Institute Accelerated Course Launches with EducateMe

#2. Mighty Networks: Great platform for community building

If you want to focus on community, then Mighty Networks would be a good Podia alternative. Mighty Networks is a comprehensive solution that focuses on engagement and provides versatile community space for the course creation. 

Its design is appealing and pretty intuitive. At the same time, there are powerful community features, like customizable activity feeds, event tabs, and interactive posts. Notably, it supports different formats contributing to content production.

Comparing Podia vs Mighty Networks, the latter puts community-based learning at the center. It also offers some marketing tools, allowing you to sell bundles, create hidden plans, and connect such tools as Clickfunnels. 

However, the significant drawback is that it lacks organization and reporting capabilities; and can be pricey. 

Key features of this Podia alternative

• AI content support. Mighty Networks offers a decent AI tool to generate ideas, posts, and messages.
• Mobile App. Under the most advanced plan, you can create an app to support your community-based learning.
• Checklist for students. There is a separate feature to create a custom checklist to help your students with a learning journey.

Pricing: a free trial is available; Courses Plan starts at $119/mo (crucial integrations, live streaming, content options); Business Plan costs $219/mo (white label emails and 2TB storage); Mighty Pro is available upon call with sales (iOS and Andriod Apps; advanced customization).

💡Best for: businesses applying community-based and membership learning models and significantly relying on engagement

Further reading: Best Mighty Networks Alternatives and Eduflow vs Might Networks.

#3. Circle: Community-Based Software with Flexible Space Editor

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Circle.so is another Podia alternative that puts community creation at the center of the learning process. Circle is a decent community-based learning platform, providing a flexible and straightforward approach to the development of online learning spaces.

Compared to Podia, it offers great course and space editors, a mobile app, and solid community features. There, you can create a separate space for real-time discussion, write DMs, or launch live events. It is backed by an AI co-pilot, interactive elements, and the ability to publish videos and voice messages.

Regarding marketing support, Circle allows cross- and up-selling and has some features for business growth, including teasers and payment management. Yet, the reporting and assignment options are quite limited.

Crucial features of this Podia alternative

• Leaderboards and gamification. Importantly, you can use leaderboards and badges to encourage students to participate in the learning. 
• Automated workflows. Under Business Plan, you can use workflows to add or remove students, send messages and notifications, or reward them upon certain events or activities.
• Search bar. You can search for the content within the community posts via keywords, allowing you to quickly find a necessary topic. 

Pricing: there is a free trial; Professional Plan costs $99/mo (basic community and live streaming features); Business Plan is $219/mo (workflows, API access, AI support); Enterprise Plan is $399/mo (unlimited workflows, up to 10 admins and 100 moderators)

💡Best for: course creators, experts, and academies seeking community or using a membership model 

Further reading: Best Community Learning Platforms 

Podia Alternatives with Excellent Marketing and Sales Features

• #4. Kajabi: The most popular all-in-one solution for course creators
• #5. Kartra: A membership-centered platform with a focus on sales
• #6. Teachable: Best alternative for beginners and course creators
• #7. LearnWorlds: Comprehensive software for self-paced learning

From the previous part, you know that there are decent solutions that can compensate for the lack of advanced course creation tools, poor community features, and reporting. It is a common issue with all-around platforms that help with many aspects, including marketing and sales. 

However, are there any Podia competitors that are as universal but offer a bit more in certain areas (in case you do not want to sacrifice the sales funnel or marketing support)? 

Yes! Check the best Podia alternatives for selling courses below.

#4. Kajabi: Most Popular All-in-One Solution for Course Creators

Let’s start with one of the most famous Podia alternatives - Kajabi. 

Kajabi is a popular all-in-one solution, offering simple course creation tools and marketing support. It is pretty similar to Podia, especially regarding cross-selling, membership, and product types. Yet, Podia provides more powerful email marketing tools and is cheaper than Kajabi. 

In contrast, Kajabi offers simple and efficient course and website builders, a decent community, and great sales funnel support. 

Even though the community option comes from the Vibely acquisition, it appears as a separate product costing extra and can break the learning flow.

Disadvantages of this Podia alternative

• Reporting and management options are far from being advanced.
• It may be not enough for deep or quality collaborative learning. 

Pricing: A free trial is available; Basic Plan costs $149/mo (3 products, 3 funnels, 1 admin); Growth Plan is $199/mo (15 products, 15 funnels, 10 admins); Pro Plan costs $399/mo (100 products, 100 funnels; 25 admins).

💡Best for: course creators that seek powerful marketing and are okay with shallow course creation tools

Further reading: Best Kajabi Alternatives

#5. Kartra: Membership-Centered Platform with a Focus on Sales

Kartra is one more Podia alternative that puts marketing before course creation. Kartra is rather a lead-generation solution rather than a learning platform.  

Nevertheless, it has a solid drag-and-drop membership portal builder to deliver content, launch webinars, and develop simple courses. Besides, it allows the creation of quizzes and assignments. 

Compared to Podia, it brings more to the sales table. Among the best features of this solution are lead generation and management tools, including lead tagging, lead scoring, affiliate marketing, pop-ups, and banner creation. Also, the sales page builder offers a variety of templates and proper customization. 

Disadvantages of this Podia alternative: 

• It offers no community feature. 
• The shift towards marketing and sales leaves less room for student engagement and communication.
• Course creation tools are not suitable for developing advanced courses.

Pricing: 30-day money-back guarantee; Starter Plans is $119/mo (2 membership sites, 20 products); Silver Plan is $229/mo (unlimited products and sites); Platinum Plan is $559/mo (10 custom domains).

💡Best for: course creators with a need to sell digital products and membership programs with webinars and videos in the center, not engagement and group work

#6. Teachable: Best Alternative for Beginners and Course Creators

Teachable is another recognized platform that many course creators pick because of its flexibility and solid content creation capabilities. The significant focus of this platform is on content and marketing support.

Unlike Podia, Teachable’s course builder is more versatile and intuitive, offering a greater number of formats. For instance, you can add quizzes to the courses and subtitles for the uploaded videos.  At the same time, the platform provides a handy Teachable: pay tool, helping you automate processes related to taxes, payouts, and checkouts. 

In addition, Teachable offers good integrations and offers an App. Also, there are decent marketing and sales options, like the creation of bundles, pages, referrals, and lead magnets.

Yet, some marketing tools are not as good as the Podia provides. 

Disadvantages of this Podia alternative

• The community features are at the beta stage, not as developed, and there is a lack of engagement features.
• Teachable offers limited branding and reporting options. 
• The fees associated with specific plans are rather high, particularly the Basic and Free plans.

Pricing: a free plan is available (product; 1 admin); the Basic Plan is $59/mo( 5 products; community; 5% transaction fee); the Pro Plan is $159/mo (no transaction fees, 50 published products; 5 admins seats; API access; Pro+ Plan is $249/mo (200 published products of each type); Business Plan costs $499/mo (unlimited courses; advanced customizations)

💡Best for: for individual creators and experts starting their journey, needing payment support, or focusing on content-rich courses.

Further reading: Best Teachable Alternatives

#7. LearnWorlds: Comprehensive Software for Self-paced Learning

The last platform in our list of Podia alternatives is LearnWorlds. So, this software is a universal platform that offers robust tools for course creation and selling. 

Just like Teachable, LearnWorlds focuses on course creation, bringing diverse content formats, different activities, and interactive elements. You can add to the videos texts, polls, and images; and upload SoundCloud audio, Ebooks, and different assignments. It makes it much more flexible than Podia. 

Besides, LearnWorlds allows its users to boost their marketing and sales operations with multiple options. For example, you can develop bundles, build webpages, set payments, launch affiliate programs, use pop-ups, and gather feedback.

Moreover, there are powerful integrations and the ability to use an app to support the learning experience.

Disadvantages of this Podia alternative  

• The design is a bit outdated, and the platform can be difficult to use.
• Email marketing tools are pretty basic.
• Lack of engagement tools and no community option.

Pricing: A free trial is available; Starter Plan is $29/mo (unlimited paid courses, exams and quizzes, 3-page website, 1 admin); Pro Trainer costs $99/mo (assessments and certificates, app, unlimited landing pages, unlimited free courses, 5 admin); Learning Center Plan is $299/mo (interactive content, advanced assessments, 25 admins); High Volume & Corporate Plan is available via the call.

💡Best for: course creators and academies that often use pre-recorded content and apply a self-paced learning model.

Conclusion: Which Podia alternative to choose?

Before giving any alternative a go, you should first consider the teaching and learning needs of your business. 

If you need a space for engagement or community, or robust management and reporting tools, Podia is not the best option, nor are other similar all-in-one solutions. In this regard, a flexible LMS with powerful collaborative learning tools or community can be a great solution. 

EducateMe is one of the best tools for cohort and collaborative course creation, backed by management and reporting tools. Why not give it a try or book a demo to know more?

At the same time, Mighty Networks and Circle.so are excellent community platforms if you're looking for advanced space for your members.

However, if you are not ready to sacrifice the marketing and sales tools, then you should consider other Podia alternatives. Kajabi and Teachable offer more engagement; Kartra brings more lead gen opportunities, while LearnWorlds provides better content and activity variety.