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Teachable Vs Udemy: Which Online Course Platform Wins? (2023)
Are you looking to create and sell online courses? Trying to decide between Teachable vs Udemy?
Your first step is to choose the right online course platform, and while Teachable and Udemy are both excellent options, each one is very different and has its own pros and cons.
This article is going to compare the features of each online course platform to help you make an informed choice.
Specifically, we’ll look at the key differences between them in marketing, course presentation, branding, customer support, and other important features for those selling online courses.
Read on for our full Teachable vs Udemy comparison.
Table of Contents
What are Teachable And Udemy?
Teachable is an online platform that allows you to create and sell your courses through your own website whereas Udemy is an online marketplace where you can list your courses and sell them.
You can read more about each feature of the popular online course platform in our Teachable review.
You can imagine Teachable to be your own website through which you sell your products while Udemy is like Amazon.com where you list and sell your product, and share the revenue with that platform.
Each of these offers its own advantages and disadvantage for those selling online courses, which we’ll dive into below.
Key Differences
Let’s now look at the key differences between the two platforms.
Custom Domain
Having a custom domain is a key difference between the two platforms. In Udemy, you list and sell your courses through Udemy.com only.
In Teachable, you can create a custom domain and sell courses through it.
So, how does this impact your course offering? The simple answer is competition.
On Udemy, your course is listed along with many others who offer similar courses, so the chances for potential students to take your course goes down. There are tens of thousands of online courses on Udemy, so this can make selling online courses difficult and highly competitive.
Worse, you have no control over the listing and your Udemy course could rank low for certain keywords, thereby reducing the chances for a student to find your course and enroll in it.
Teachable, on the other hand, allows you to create and host your courses on a custom domain, so you’re the only one selling this course and hence, no competition.
In all, Teachable is the winner as it gives you complete control on how you list and the price you set for it, without worrying about competing with other course creators on the same platform. The freedom and flexibility that comes with having your own course website can be very beneficial, especially as you start to build an audience and learn how to market your products.
Course Presentation and Customization
Both Teachable and Udemy offer a dashboard for course presentation and customization.
In both the dashboards, you can see your published and unpublished courses, track the revenue earned, manage communication, create the course content, decide when to publish your courses, and more.
Udemy’s dashboard is highly intuitive and simple to use, But the downside is you can’t customize your page layout or make any other changes. In fact, you’ll have to go with Udemy’s branding and layout structure.
Also, Udemy lays down certain conditions that your course has to meet to get listed and this could be quite arduous at times.
Teachable gives you complete control over the layout, branding, and other design aspects. The dashboard is also much larger and comes with more options to meet your needs.
With Teachable, you can even choose to release content over time or share it with only a certain group of users.
Overall, Teachable scores over Udemy because of the flexibility and control it offers for customization and presentation.
Marketing
Marketing is one area where Udemy scores over Teachable as this is its biggest selling point.
As a course creator, you can focus just on providing top-quality content to your students while the marketing side is handled by Udemy completely. Of course, you can also market your Udemy course to bring in more students, but it is not something that falls completely on your plate.
This eases a lot of pressure as Udemy is a popular platform and has a wide student base.
With Teachable, you have to handle the end-to-end process, starting from course creation to marketing, building, managing student lists, analytics, maintaining your course website, and more.
This could prove to be too much for someone who is just starting off or for those who are better at creating courses than marketing them.
That said, Teachable integrates with many third-party apps to give you a lot more functionality. You can also create your own affiliate program with some Teachable plans, which can put others to work promoting your course for you in exchange for a commission.
Which of the two is better?
Udemy has a good brand name in the market and has the resources to actively promote your course to the world. So, it is better purely from a marketing standpoint.
That said, you can’t customize your sales pages or upsell your courses on Udemy, but you can do all of that on Teachable.
Branding
If you’re looking to establish yourself as a top content creator, branding is important.
With Udemy, you have to use the templates and layouts it offers which means all courses will feel and look similar. Also, when you sell a course, you’re contributing to furthering Udemy’s brand and not yours.
In other words, you’re selling your work as Udemy’s course and not as “Your branding” course and this can impact your business and the relationship you have with your customers.
On Teachable, you can customize your course layout to reflect your brand. When you have your own domain name and branding, you can sell the courses under your banner, so your potential students will be able to associate your courses with your brand.
With Teachable, you can also have your own blog and add content that will provide value to your readers and potential students, all of which add to your brand value.
This difference can be huge in the long-run, especially if you plan to have a career as an online course creator.
Due to these reasons, Teachable is your best bet if you want to have a custom branding for your company and want to communicate with your current and future students more effectively.
Student Data
Ownership of student data is another key difference between the two platforms.
On Teachable, you own the student data and you can use it to offer personalized and custom courses, thereby increasing the chances of a sign-up.
Also, you can have your own mailing lists, segment them, and use email marketing effectively to reach out to more students.
None of this possible with Udemy.
It owns your student’s data and all the details go into Udemy’s mailing list. So, effectively it uses your students’ data to market all the related courses that are published on its platform, thereby increasing your competition and reducing the chances for your sign-ups.
Due to these reasons, Teachable is the outright choice if you want to own student data and use it effectively to reach out to more students.
Course Pricing
Course pricing is a thorn in the flesh for course creators on Udemy as this site offers a restriction on the maximum price you can set for a course and this keeps changing as well.
Worse, it takes a 50% commission on sign-ups that came through organic listings on its site. For example, let’s say you have a course called “Learning Java.” A student searches for “Java courses” on Udemy, sees your course on its search results, and signs up for it.
For such sign-ups, you get only 50% of the amount as the remaining goes as commission to Udemy. On the other hand, if a student signs up directly for your course through your marketing efforts, you get 97%.
Due to these restrictions and the lack of control over pricing, Udemy is not a great choice for those looking for a regular income through online courses.
Teachable, on the other hand, has no such restrictions on course pricing and you’re free to determine the right price based on competition, uniqueness, your efforts, and other pertinent factors.
Customer Support and Community
Teachable has a good knowledgeable database to help you learn about creating and selling courses. You can also send an email if you have any questions or schedule to talk to a rep in the higher plans.
There is no live chat or phone support at the time of writing this piece.
Udemy, on the other hand, also has a huge database and FAQ section where you can find answers to most questions.
There is also a ticketing system to raise complaints, but no direct phone support.
Overall, both the platforms are the same in customer support and community.
Ease of Use
Both platforms are simple and easy to use and for the most part.
In Udemy, all that you have to do is sign-up and start uploading your content to the existing template. Your content can include videos, audio, text, and more. You can also include closed captioning when needed.
Since everything is already set, you’re good to start signing up students right away.
Teachable, on the other hand, requires more effort before you start getting students. The good news is that it comes with an advanced drag and drop builder that makes it easy to build your landing pages and courses the way you want. No prior coding experience is needed.
You may have to start marketing your course to get more students as Teachable doesn’t do it for you automatically.
However, there are other features on Teachable that greatly enhance the learning experience for students.
For example, students can bookmark your course, you can give out certificates of completion, create quizzes and assignments, show promotional videos, and more.
So, in terms of ease of use, both platforms are equally good. But Teachable has more features to enhance the student experience.
Teachable vs Udemy Pricing
Teachable and Udemy are completely different business models, hence the pricing differs greatly.
Since Udemy is more of a listing and marketing platform, it works on a commission basis.
If you bring students on your own to Udemy, you get 97% of the revenue but if a student signs up for your course because of Udemy’s marketing, you get only 50%.
Teachable pricing, on the other hand, offers three pricing tiers, namely,
- Basic ($39/month) – Good for your first online course
- Pro ($119/month) – Ideal for a seasoned course creator
- Business ($299/month) – Best suited for companies with many course creators
Key Issues for Course Creators on Udemy
Though Udemy is easy to use and handles the branding and marketing, it may not be the right choice for experienced course creators who want to earn a steady income through it.
And here’s why.
- No control – You have no control over the pricing, communication, or policies and have to simply accept whatever Udemy offers.
- No data ownership – You don’t own any student data and it goes into Udemy’s mailing list that helps to market all its courses and not just yours.
- Low price – With growing competition, Udemy has a cap on its course pricing and some are even sold as low as $10. This means you make $5 per course which makes it impossible to earn a living.
- Focus on certain areas – Most courses on Udemy are focused around technology and personal development and there aren’t many takers for courses in other areas.
Conclusion
To conclude, Teachable and Udemy allow you to sell your courses to potential students, and that’s where the similarity ends.
Instead of choosing one over the other, you should use both to drive traffic to your online courses. Use Teachable to create top-notch courses and Udemy as a sales channel for your online content business.
In other words, use Udemy to test your online course and to build a reputation as a top online course creator. Eventually, use it to drive traffic to your own domains created on Teachable. That’s the best way to make a full-time income from online course creation. In the process, you may also make some quick revenue through Udemy.
Also, if you’re trying to build an online course for the first time and don’t want to invest too much money, try Udemy. In all other situations, Teachable should be your hands-down choice.
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