Podia Review 2023 – Is This The Best Online Course Platform for You?

The e-learning market continues to grow each year as more and more people discover the benefits and flexibility of online education.

There’s no better time than now to start a business based on your expertise and if you’re interested in creating or selling online courses, then you need a reliable platform with all the tools to help you succeed.

Podia is an all-in-one online learning solution that lets you create and sell courses and memberships. You can easily host, market, and deliver your content with built-in tools that don’t require any technical skill.

The software is ideal for coaches, speakers, consultants, authors, and other educational entrepreneurs seeking to share their knowledge with their audience.

It’s designed to simplify the entire process from the initial design and packaging of your knowledge to the delivery of your content, and beyond.

Read the rest of this Podia review where we take a closer look at the platform’s features and functionality to give you a better idea of whether or not this is the right online course platform to present your educational offerings.

Who is Podia Good For?

Podia lets you sell online courses, coachings, digital downloads, webinars, communities, and memberships, which means the platform is good for any type of edupreneur who wants to make money from their educational offering, including:

• Authors: Sell your books and other digital downloads like PDFs, guides, checklists, and other resources to help your readers.
• Coaches: Create webinars and charge for either one-to-one or one-to-many coaching sessions.
• Consultants: Use built-in marketing tools to package and sell your consulting services to a global audience without breaking the bank.
• Instructors/Trainers: Manage every aspect of your business from one dashboard, including your website, services, digital products, and emails.
• Speakers: Build communities (free and paid) to spark conversation around your topic as a speaker.

Podia Functionality

1. Easy to Use

Podia is easy to use when compared to other e-learning platforms like Kajabi and Thinkific.

The dashboard is modern, clean, and intuitive. To create your course, website, storefront, or sales pages, you can use the simple page builder which requires zero coding knowledge or design experience.

Even if you’ve never built a website before, you’ll be able to use this page builder to create stunning pages that are fully optimized for search.

You can sign up for a free Podia account by filling out a form on the website. No credit card is required.

You’ll be taken to a page where you can add a few more details about what you hope to achieve with the platform.

Here are some of the things you can do with Podia: 

• Send Email: Set up an email list to start sending broadcasts and campaigns.
• Launch a Website: Build a custom site to represent your brand and sell your products.
• Start a Community: Connect and offer paid content to your community.
• Sell Online Courses: Build a complete online course using premade templates.
• Sell Digital Downloads: Upload your ebooks, PDFs, and other digital files to sell online.
• Sell Webinars: Connect a webinar platform to offer webinars through Podia.
• Sell Coaching Sessions: Set up a calendar app to sell coaching sessions.
• Affiliate Program: Create and manage an affiliate program to get more sales.

Choose one or multiple options to get started creating your educational offering.

If you value ease and simplicity, you’ll find this platform ideal for building your expertise-based business.

You can watch a tutorial to see how everything works on Podia and how you can get the most from all the different tools available to you. 

There’s even a goals checklist that you can use to stay on track toward building a successful course business. 

2. Website Creation on Podia

Podia has a simple site editor that is designed to be easier than drag and drop. You don’t need technical skill to create your website.

You can build a full website or set up sales pages for your products in a matter of minutes. All you have to do is click any type of section you want to add to your page (e.g. text, images, videos, buttons, signup forms, etc.) and customize colors, fonts, and styles.

Add calls to action to any page to draw attention to specific offers. No matter what you want to create, you’ll have full access to Podia’s vast library of sections and design elements.

One of the best things about this website creator is that it also enables you to optimize your design for desktop, tablet, and mobile. This is a particularly important feature since many of your learners will be accessing your course content on different devices.

You can preview your new website before going live to make sure every pixel is in place.

A huge benefit of using Podia for your online course website is that you don’t have to purchase separate web hosting and SSL certificates or worry about the technical nitty-gritty normally associated with running a website, such as updates, security, backups, or maintenance.

You don’t even have to get your own domain (unless you want to, of course). Podia provides you with a free subdomain – YourSite.podia.com – for each online course website you build.

3. Podia Product Creation

On Podia’s “Products” page, you can create, manage, and track all your products. The platform facilitates the process of hosting and marketing your products to an engaged audience and all the tools you need are readily available on your dashboard.

To get started, choose a type and name for your new product. You can then choose from the following options:

• Online courses
• Digital downloads
• Coaching sessions
• Webinars

Online Courses

The course creation feature lets you host unlimited videos and upload PDFs. You can also add links and quizzes to your lessons.

You can also embed content to enhance or supplement your information product from over 1,900 platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and GoogleForms.

The entire process is intuitive and simple – from creating new lessons and sections to adding details, pricing, and course availability.

You’re guided every step of the way until your course is ready to sell.

You can try Podia for free to test out these features for yourself.

Digital Downloads

With Podia, you can sell so much more than just online courses. You can also create, market, and sell a range of one-off digital downloads, such as:

• eBooks
• PDFs
• Checklists
• Cheat sheets
• Presets
• Templates
• Reports
• Whitepapers
• Music
• Podcasts

…and any other downloadable content.

This gives you a lot of flexibility as an information entrepreneur. You can package your knowledge in whatever way works best for your audience.

You also have the ability to create a simple sales funnel that allows your learners to purchase a range of other digital products together with your online course or coaching.

You can even bundle products together, such as adding additional resources like guidebooks or checklists in PDF form as part of your online course.

Webinars

Another way to make money if you run an information-based business is to offer webinars. You can charge for online coaching sessions (one-to-one or one-to-many) using Zoom or YouTube Live integrations on Podia.

You can create evergreen webinars and monetize the replays long after your first airing.

Of course, if it’s part of your marketing strategy, then you can offer webinars for free.

Coaching Sessions

To sell coaching services on Podia, you must first integrate a scheduling tool. There are many to choose from, including:

• Calendly
• Acuity
• SavvyCal
• YouCanBookMe

The platform has no limit to the number of coachings you can sell. You can even include coaching modules within your courses. This will allow clients to book sessions quickly and easily through your Podia website.

4. Building Memberships and Communities on Podia

Creating a community around your digital product comes with a lot of benefits. It allows you to understand your customers’ needs and it can also help you increase leads, attract new members, and boost the customer lifetime value.

Podia doesn’t have a membership feature, but you can build a community around your topic with up to 1,600 members.

This can serve as a membership site where you can offer free content or sell premium content with monthly or annual subscriptions to earn recurring income.

You can bring all your products, members, and discussions together in a single, convenient place.

The Community feature supports:

• Posts: Create posts relevant to different groups.
• Topics: Create various topics for your learners to interact with.
• Comments: Users can talk to you and each other via the comments system.
• Likes: Anyone can leave “likes” on content, just like on social media.

As a consultant, coach, or instructor, can create different access levels and offer free or paid products or a hybrid combination of both.

You can also connect individual memberships to Slack, Facebook, and other similar apps to ensure that only paying members can join a particular group.

5. Podia Marketing Features

The US e-learning market is set to increase by $12.81 billion by 2024. As an educational entrepreneur, you can carve out a piece of this pie for yourself. But, your success will largely depend on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.

Podia has a range of essential marketing and e-commerce tools to sell your courses and process payments. 

There’s also a built-in email marketing tool (albeit a basic one), and sales pages that are optimized to help you sell more courses.

Here’s a closer look at Podia’s marketing, lead generation, and sales features:

• Pre-launch: This feature allows you to pre-launch your offer so you can start making sales even before you create your core content.
• 1-Click Upsells: You can use one-click upsells and OTO (one-time-offer) discounts to increase each customer’s order value.
• Coupons: Entice customers to purchase your digital products by offering coupons and discounts on your products and community plans.
• Affiliate Marketing: There are built-in tools to run your affiliate program. Get raving fans to help promote your products. Drive sales and manage commissions from your dashboard.
• Email Marketing: Create and send both email broadcast and campaigns. Manage and track your emails from the same place you host. Take a closer look at the updates to the email campaign builder on Podia.

Podia Sales Features

There’s a built-in sales funnels feature that lets you build custom pages and add upsells to encourage more visitors to buy.

You can create custom sales pages to match your branding. Add your logo and sections like FAQs, author bio, and testimonials for social proof. 

Embed products built on Podia on your own website using a simple embed code and sell them with offsite buy buttons.

Other sales features include:

• Payments: Set up payments using PayPal or Stripe. Podia doesn’t deduct any transaction fees from your product sales (except on the free plan).
• Tax: Another plus for this platform is that it simplifies tax collection for your online course and other products. There’s support for over 200 tax jurisdictions.
• Optimized Checkout Process: Podia streamlines the checkout process to reduce abandoned carts and increase your conversions.

These and other tools make for effective marketing on Podia. These options are available for all products, but different plans may have varying levels of complexity.

6. Learner Experience

Podia has a range of learning and engagement tools to keep learners interested in your content, help them achieve the desired transformation, and boost your course completion rates.

Here’s a look at some of the most prominent learner experience tools available to you:

Quizzes

You can create multiple-choice quizzes to include in your online course.

Quizzes are not only great for maintaining engagement among your learners and determining how well they understand your content, but you can also use them to market your course and generate new leads.

Content Drip

The content drip feature in Podia enables you to drip course modules so your learners can learn at the right pace.

Your course will be delivered section by section over a set period of time to prevent learners from jumping ahead before they complete previous sections.

You can set it so that they can preview the title of the content in the upcoming sections, but they won’t be able to access the content until the section is unlocked.

You can keep learners posted by sending automated emails whenever a new section is unlocked.

Embed Content

This feature lets you embed content from over 1,900 platforms, allowing you to add helpful resources to keep learners glued to your course.

Supported platforms include:

• YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo
• Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest
• Spotify, Soundcloud, Podbean
• Google Forms, Typeform, Paper Form
• Speaker Deck, Slide Share, Google Slides
• Behance, Github, Codepen

…and many others.

Course Player

Podia has a well-designed course player that is not only aesthetically attractive but also offers a great user experience.

Here’s how it looks:

The course player has a full-screen mode which makes for distraction-free learning.

Learners can watch your content on the right-hand side of the page, and in the left sidebar, there is a table of contents that they can navigate easily to move to the next or previous lessons.

If you have comments turned on for your course, you’ll see the comments area at the bottom. Users can ask questions or leave comments on each lesson.

7. In-Depth Reporting and Analytics

Podia has basic reporting and analytics features. You get course, learner, and sales reporting capabilities that are somewhat limited.

However, for creators who are just getting started and aren’t looking at a lot of data, these features are adequate.

Of course, as your site grows, you can integrate Google Analytics to get more in-depth reports, such as demographics and interests, e-commerce reports, sales funnels, and site content reports.

Podia lets you track user progress for each individual course and see completion rates for each learner.

You’ll be able to see which lessons they have completed and how far they have progressed with the content.

You can also see an overview of all your sales and you can filter your sales reports by specific products or community/membership plans.

Podia Pros and Cons

Like any other online course platform, Podia has its perks and drawbacks. The software may or may not work for you depending on the features you value in this type of software.

To help you decide, here are the platform’s most prominent benefits and drawbacks.

Pros: What We Like About Podia

1. Easy to Use: Podia is designed for simplicity and ease which makes it ideal for beginners and non-tech-minded users.
2. Unlimited Courses: Podia offers unlimited online courses, products, and bandwidth on premium plans.
3. Digital Downloads: The platform lets you sell almost any type of digital product through your Podia website.
4. Payment Options: You can offer monthly payment plans for higher-priced products.
5. Membership Model: Podia lets you charge a monthly recurring fee for ongoing access to any of your courses.
6. Built-In Email: The integrated email marketing feature lets you communicate with your audience without the need for a third-party email subscription.
7. No Transaction Fees: Podia doesn’t collect any transaction fees on any of the premium plans.
8. Robust Customer Support: You can get assistance at any time of day or night thanks to the platform’s 24/7 live chat.

Cons: What We Don’t Like About Podia

1. Lack of Pre-made Templates: Podia does not offer pre-designed course/website templates.
2. Limited Customization: The course builder isn’t as flexible as some of its competitors when it comes to customizing your online course. Some customization options are sacrificed for the sake of simplicity and ease of use.
3. No Backend Access: Although the platform’s ease of use is a “pro” for most users, advanced users may find this limiting if they need to access the website’s backend to add CSS code.
4. No Mobile App: Podia doesn’t have mobile app functionality which might be a deal-breaker for some instructors.

Podia Alternatives

Podia is an affordable online course platform that is perfect for educators who want to make money from selling their knowledge.

However, it’s far from the only online course platform available and its features may not tick all the boxes for you.

In that case, there are other learning platforms with unique features that you might find more appealing.

Here’s a quick look at four of Podia’s top competitors.

Podia vs Kajabi

Kajabi is a powerful all-in-one platform that provides you with no-code tools to turn what you know into an online course, coaching program, or membership.

In comparison to Podia, Kajabi offers a lot more features, such as an app, complex sales funnels, and advanced automations.

However, these features come with an equivalent price tag. The basic plan costs $149, which is almost five times the Podia cost.

Of course, you get significantly more customization options with Kajabi, which means you can build a truly unique content offering with the exact functionality you need.

Your choice of which platform to use will depend largely on what your needs are. For instance, if you are just starting out, then Podia has everything you need to create and manage your business.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking to grow and scale your expertise-based business, then you may find Kajabi to be the better option.

Read a full Podia vs. Kajabi comparison here.

Podia vs Teachable

Teachable is one of the market leaders in the area of online course creation. The platform is similar to Podia in a lot of ways, but there are also a lot of differences.

For instance, while both platforms have a flexible course builder, and built-in marketing and payment tools, Teachable offers more granular control over how you create your courses and the way you deliver them. 

Another difference is that Podia offers basic quizzes whereas Teachable offers more complex options, including graded quizzes.

Teachable also has more robust course analytics, which gives you greater insights into how your content is performing with your target audience.

Read a full Podia vs. Teachable comparison here.

Podia vs Thinkific

Thinkific is yet another popular Podia alternative to consider if you want more advanced features.

As previously mentioned, the Podia platform is perfect for anyone who wants a quick and affordable way to package their knowledge and get it in front of their target learners as quickly as possible. The platform has virtually no learning curve, making it perfect for beginners and non-tech-savvy users.

Thinkific, on the other hand, has many more features and advanced functionality, which means there’s a bit of a learning curve to get through if you want to get the most from the platform.

With regard to course creation and delivery, Thinkific supports significantly more lesson types, including assessments, HTML5 content, and custom codes.

You can create advanced quizzes, learning paths, and assignments. You can also offer custom certificates of completion, another feature that is not available on Podia.

Read a full Podia vs. Thinkific comparison here.

Podia vs LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is an online course platform that lets you build professional courses and websites without the need to learn web design.

Unlike Podia, which uses a single theme for all its creator websites, LearnWorlds comes with over 400 customizable templates to ensure that you can build truly unique course sites.

Another differentiating factor is that LearnWorlds offers one-click sales funnels designed to increase conversions whereas Podia only offers basic sales funnels that you must build from scratch.

On the flip side, LearnWorlds doesn’t offer email marketing at the basic level, but Podia does.

Both platforms work to help you increase your growth, but LearnWorlds has significantly more base features compared to Podia.

The platform also makes it easier for you to scale your online business from 10 learners to 10,000 learners and more.

With that said, it’s important to note that what Podia lacks in advanced features, it more than makes up for in affordability and ease of use.

Read a full Podia vs. LearnWorlds comparison here.

Podia Pricing

Podia offers a free plan and two premium plans, the Mover, and the Shaker. Here’s what each plan entails:

• Free Plan: $0/Month: The free plan allows you to build a full website, add 1 download, 1 coaching product, and draft courses and webinars. You also get email marketing and community features. The platform charges 8% fees on all your transactions.
• Mover Plan: $33/Month: There are no transaction fees on the Mover plan which includes everything on the Free plan, as well as unlimited downloads, coaching, and courses. You also get chat support on this plan.
• Shaker Plan: $75/Month: This plan has everything on the Mover plan. It also comes with unlimited webinars, affiliates, and third-party codes. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial (no credit card required) to test out the features before committing to the paid plan.

Product Support

Podia provides timely and reliable support in a number of ways, including the following:

• 24/7 Live Chat: If you want to get instant answers to your questions, then you can reach out to the support team via live chat on the website.
• Email: Alternatively, you can email the friendly and responsive support team on the Contact page, or open a ticket on your dashboard.
• Help Center: If you’re someone who likes to figure out processes on your own, then you can find all the answers you need in the help center.
• Support Resources: There are tons of support documents, YouTube videos, Q&As, and weekly demos covering every aspect of the software to help customers get up and running as quickly as possible.

Users on the higher-tier plan get priority support, as well as onboarding calls and creator calls to learn how to leverage the platform to grow their business.

Can Users Integrate Other Software With Podia?

On Podia, different tools work seamlessly together, from payment gateways to marketing, data analysis, and everything in between. There’s a list of integrations available on the integrations page.

Here’s a quick look at some of the main platforms and apps you can add to Podia.

• Certificates: Accredible
• Email Marketing: MailChimp, Drip, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit
• Accounting Software: FreshBooks
• Sales Funnels: ClickFunnels
• Checkout: ThriveCart
• Streaming: Zoom, YouTube Live
• Payments: PayPal, Stripe
• Scheduling: Calendly, Acuity, SavvyCal, YouCanBookMe
• File Management: Google Sheets, Trello, Slack

You can integrate hundreds of other apps using Zapier. Podia even allows you to add third-party scripts to your site, which enables you to integrate with additional sales, marketing, and business management tools like:

• Google Analytics
• Facebook Pixel
• HotJar
• Deadline Funnel
• ConvertBox

Wrapping Up – Is Podia Worth it?

Podia is certainly worth the investment for any course creator who wants a quick, reliable, and affordable way to package their knowledge and get it in front of their target audience online.

The software comes with all the features you need to design, build, market, and sell your product, whether it’s an online course, digital download, subscription, or webinar.

You can also build a community around your product, and add features to interact effectively with your learners.

The best part about Podia is that it’s free to use, and you only have to upgrade as your business grows and you need to unlock more features.

Thanks to its range of built-in tools, it will save you a lot of time and money on third-party subscriptions that can drain your budget each month.

All in all, Podia is a great alternative to platforms like Kajabi, Thinkific, and Teachable for anyone who wants an affordable online course platform that is easy to use – even for beginners.

You won’t be paying for any advanced features that you don’t need. However, if you’re an experienced entrepreneur with a more established business, you may find the lack of advanced features limiting.

If you think Podia is for you, then sign up for free to start creating your digital product right away.

FAQ

What is Podia?

Podia is an online learning platform that lets you create and sell courses, subscriptions, training, and digital products like webinars, music, templates, or any other digital files. It’s perfect for authors, coaches, instructors, consultants, and other edupreneurs who want to make money from their knowledge and experience.

What are the uses of Podia?

Podia offers a range of features that allow you to create and sell all types of digital products, including online courses, subscriptions/memberships, webinars, workshops, coaching sessions, and digital downloads such as PDFs, e-books, and audio files.

Is Podia a website builder?

Yes. Podia is a free website builder designed to be easier than drag-and-drop. It comes with pre-designed, 100% customizable sections that you can use to build your website and landing pages.

Is Podia better than Teachable?

Teachable focuses mainly on online courses, whereas Podia lets you sell everything from courses and coachings to digital downloads and memberships (using the Community feature). Of course, Teachable offers more advanced features compared to Podia’s more basic, yet easy-to-use selection.

Is Podia better than Kajabi?

Podia makes a great Kajabi alternative thanks to its affordability and ease of use. Kajabi costs significantly more as it has more advanced features, but Podia has everything you need to get your online course off the ground.

Is Podia good for blogging?

Podia doesn’t have a blogging feature. For that, you’ll have to use an external blogging platform like WordPress. So, for example, you might use WordPress to set up a blog and then use Podia for product fulfillment.

Can I sell services on Podia?

You can sell services like coaching, consulting, and mastermind groups on your Podia website. The platform handles everything from hosting to sales pages and checkout.

Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution

Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.