I’m comparing two popular course platforms that I’ve personally used for over 3 years – Podia and Thinkific.

Here’s the quick version: Podia is your all-in-one digital selling platform, while Thinkific focuses specifically on creating and selling courses.

As someone who’s spent countless hours building courses on both platforms (and helping others do the same), I’ll break down exactly what you need to know about each one.

Features	Podia	Thinkific
Pricing	$39/mo	$49/mo
Platform type	All-in-one digital selling platforms	Course-selling platform
Community	Yes	Yes
Email marketing	You can send newsletters, drip campaigns, and use audience segmentation with automation.	Limited email capabilities with basic segmentation.
Integrations	Integrates with popular tools like Google Analytics, Stripe, PayPal, and 6 email marketing platforms.	More integrations than Podia. It integrates with 7 email marketing software.

Well, Podia and Thinkific are two of the best course platforms you can use now especially if you are under tight-budget.

Overview of Podia and Thinkific

Let me break down what Podia is all about.

It’s an all-in-one platform where you can create and sell memberships, run webinars, and offer digital products.

It was founded in 2014 by Spencer Fry.

Here’s what’s cool – it started as a simple course platform but evolved into something bigger, adding features like digital product sales, email marketing, and online communities.

Now, Thinkific (founded in 2012 by Greg and Matt Smith) takes a different approach.

They’re laser-focused on making e-learning content creation super simple, kind of like what Teachable does.

Here’s the key difference: While Podia tries to be your Swiss Army knife for digital products, Thinkific sticks to what it does best – course creation. They don’t really focus on membership sites or digital product sales.

What we like about Podia over Thinkific? 👍

• All-in-one platform: Podia offers courses, digital downloads, webinars (Zoom integration), and email automation, saving costs on multiple platforms.
• Email marketing: It allows audience segmentation and automated emails based on user actions.
• User-friendly interface: Minimalistic, clutter-free design that’s easy to navigate.
• Value for money: Podia starts at $39/month, cheaper than Thinkific’s $49/month, with the Shaker plan at $89/month for extra features.

Get Podia

What we like about Thinkific over Podia? 👍

• Specialist course features: Thinkific excels in online courses with a wide range of features like enhanced course compliance, diverse formats (surveys, presentations, discussions, Brillium Exams).
• Academic use cases: =Thinkific integrates with Brillium for creating complex tests at no extra cost, a feature Podia lacks.
• Engaging learning: Thinkific better simulates live classroom experiences with interactive elements like tests, discussions, and narrated presentations.
• Course compliance and analytics: Offers superior compliance and per-student analytics, like heat maps and video retention graphs, perfect for ensuring accountability.

Get Thinkific

🏆 Bottomline: To summarize, if you need an all-in-one platform that not only comes with the ability to host courses but also community and comes with inbuilt email marketing, then you absolutely love Podia. On the other hand, if you have separate tools for email marketing and community and you need specialist course platform, Thinkific would be the right choice.

User interface

Let me show you what Podia’s dashboard looks like when you first log in.

Trust me, it’s pretty neat:

Here’s what I love about it – everything’s exactly where you’d expect it to be.

No hunting around for features or getting lost in menus.

Just clean, intuitive navigation that makes sense.

Plus, it loads fast.

Your students can hop onto their mobile devices and access their lessons without any frustrating load times.

Let me show you how Thinkific’s dashboard works.

Unlike Podia’s top menu approach, Thinkific takes a different route with a sidebar menu setup:

If you’ve used Teachable before, you’ll feel right at home – the layout is pretty similar.

But honestly? Podia’s interface just feels more intuitive.

Here’s where Thinkific gets a bit quirky:

For instance, they nested under the “Integrations” settings under the “Market and Sell” tab.

Kind of weird, right?

You’d naturally expect to find that under Settings.

🏆 Bottomline: Podia. The dashboards of both platforms provide a clean and intuitive user interface, Despite this, I find Podia to have a more intuitive UI/UX compared to the other platform.

Course creation

Let me show you how Podia’s course builder works – it’s pretty straightforward.

You organize everything into sections and lessons, just like chapters in a book.

When it comes to content, you’ve got options: text lessons, file uploads, basic multiple-choice quizzes, embedded content, and (here’s something cool) coaching sessions.

👍 Here’s what I love: You can add coaching lessons right into your course. Your students can book paid coaching sessions with you through a calendar – super convenient if they need extra help.

But let’s be real – Podia has some limitations you should know about 👎:

• Want to add custom code in your lessons? Sorry, no can do. That flexibility isn’t there.
• You can’t mix and match content types in one lesson (like having both a quiz and video). It’s one or the other.
• Cloud uploading? Nope. Though you can still embed content, which is something.

But hey, there’s good news!

Podia just rolled out a fresh text editor for lessons.

And if you’re familiar with Notion, you’ll feel right at home – it uses the same slash commands to add different content styles.

Now, let’s switch gears and talk about Thinkific:

Here’s something neat – when you’re creating a course in Thinkific, you get to pick from 4 different pre-made templates to kickstart your course.

Here’s something cool – just pick a pre-made course layout that fits your needs, and boom!

You’ve got your course structure ready to roll.

But wait, it gets better!

Thinkific is packed with different content formats to make your course super engaging.

Check these out:

• Narrated Presentations
• Webinar Content
• Live Streams
• Brillium Exams
• Surveys

And here’s a neat feature Podia doesn’t have – cloud uploading. You can upload your course videos straight from Google Drive or Dropbox.

Pretty handy, right?

🥇 Bottomline: Thinkific. It provides various content formats. Whether these formats suit your needs depends on your use-cases. Unless you’re targeting academic course creation, most of these Thinkific’s extra formats might not be essential.

Quizzes, Assessments, and Certification

Let’s talk about how these platforms handle quizzes – they’re pretty different, actually.

Podia keeps it simple and creator-friendly.

No strict rules here – students can skip quizzes if they want to, and there’s no mandatory passing score.

Perfect if you’re not running a formal academic course.

Now, Thinkific?

Students have to complete the assessments to move forward in the course – no shortcuts!

Want to make sure your students are really learning?

You can set minimum passing grades they’ll need to hit before moving on or getting their completion certificate.

Awesome, right?

Here’s what’s cool about Thinkific – it automatically grades all tests and won’t let students move forward until they hit those passing marks.

Pretty neat, right?

But wait, there’s more.

You can even make sure students actually watch your videos (not just skip through them) before marking a lesson complete.

👉 Want to create some seriously advanced exams? Thinkific’s got you covered with its Brillium integration. You can analyze everything in detail and even set up a bank of random questions. No more worrying about students sharing answers!

Now, both platforms will give your students nice certificates when they finish up.

But Thinkific takes it up a notch – it tracks everything automatically and makes sure students actually complete what they need to before getting that certificate.

🏆 Bottomline: If advanced assessment and rigorous compliance options are needed for you, Thinkific is the superior choice. Podia serves well for basic quiz creation to measure progress but lacks the depth offered by Thinkific.

Community and memberships

Let’s talk community features – both platforms keep it pretty basic to engage with your students.

With Podia, it’s straightforward.

Your students get community access, and you can organize everything into different channels (or topics, if you prefer).

The cool part?

You can lock certain topics based on subscription levels – pretty neat for creating exclusive spaces.

Thinkific? Same basic idea.

Nothing fancy here – just your standard discussion spaces that you can organize how you want.

Want to restrict access based on membership levels? You can do that too.

But that’s about it – don’t expect any bells and whistles.

Mobile access?

Thinkific has apps for both iOS and Android, but (let’s be honest) they’re not winning any awards for smoothness.

Podia? No mobile apps at all right now.

👉 If you’re serious about community building and want the good stuff (like slick mobile apps and fun engagement features), you might want to check out specialized community platforms like Circle.so or Mighty Networks. Or, if you want it all under one roof, Kajabi could be your thing – it’s got way more depth to its features (including gamified community stuff) than what Podia offers.

Design and customization

Let’s talk about design flexibility.

Here’s the deal – both platforms are pretty basic when it comes to customization.

If you’re hoping to build a full-blown website, you’ll want to stick with WordPress instead.

Podia keeps things super minimal with their page builder.

It’s great for setting up your digital storefront, but that’s about it.

If you’re a web design pro, you might find yourself wanting more creative freedom.

Thinkific?

They give you a bit more to work with – 3 different site themes to jazz up your site.

Thinkific comes with a bunch of extra modules and pre-built themes that play nice with various apps.

But here’s the thing – their page builder can feel a bit clunky and restrictive.

Not exactly what you’d want for creative freedom.

Look, both platforms give you decent tools to build your pages.

Just don’t expect to create those fancy, complex landing pages you see elsewhere – that’s not what they’re built for.

🏆 Bottomline: None, although Thinkific has a bit more features. You still need WordPress!

Marketing courses online

Let’s talk about marketing your course!

There are a few smart ways to get your Podia or Thinkific course in front of the right people.

Email marketing

Here’s the deal: Thinkific doesn’t come with its own email marketing tools.

But Podia? It’s got everything you need – from email templates to audience segmentation.

Awesome, right?

Now, Thinkific isn’t completely email-blind.

You’ll get those basic transactional emails that trigger when users do something on your site.

And yes, you can customize them.

But here’s the catch – you can’t send one-off broadcasts or set up those handy autoresponder sequences.

Not ideal if you’re big on email marketing.

The workaround?

Thinkific plays nice with the big email marketing tools like MailChimp, ConvertKit, and ActiveCampaign through their app store.

On the flip side:

Podia offers dedicated email automation abilities.

Now what makes this interesting is…you can blast out one-off emails or set up smart sequences that do the work for you.

With Podia’s shiny new Emails 2.0, you can effectively segment your audience however you want and trigger emails based on what people do on your site.

Awesome, right?

These new features shows that Podia will soon be stacking up against Kajabi when it comes to marketing automation.

But remember, these features are only available on their premium Shaker plan.

🏆 Bottomline: Podia. You don’t necessarily need external email app.

Affiliate marketing for online courses

Let’s talk affiliate marketing!

Both platforms let you build an affiliate army to spread the word about your courses.

You can either invite affiliates yourself or let them sign up on their own.

But here’s the thing with Podia – it’s got one big limitation that might bug you.

You can’t set different commission rates for different affiliates.

Want to reward your superstar promoters with better rates? Sorry, no can do.

🤔 Here’s a workaround though: you can still offer special perks based on how much they sell. But let’s be real – it’s not as smooth as just setting custom commission rates.

Now, Thinkific?

They’ve got this figured out.

Not only can you set custom commission rates for your VIP affiliates, but they’ve also thrown in partnership revenue sharing as a bonus.

Here’s something cool – if you’re teaming up with other course creators, Thinkific lets you split the revenue automatically.

Pretty handy if you’re planning to create courses with a business buddy!

Sales and checkout

Both platforms keep things simple when it comes to selling.

You can bundle stuff together and throw in some sweet discounts.

Plus, they both make checkout super easy with a one-step process.

Podia’s got this neat feature where you can add order bumps during checkout to boost your sales.

But heads up – if you’re hoping to upsell stuff on the thank you page, you’re out of luck.

Here’s something cool!

If you’re running a WordPress site, you can just drop in Podia’s checkout button.

When someone clicks it, boom!

A popup appears with the checkout form, making it super easy to complete the purchase right there.

Now, Thinkific used a two-step process to check out.

But guess what?

They’ve stepped up their game with a new performance checkout feature.

Now your customers can zip through checkout in one step.

And it gets better.

This upgrade brings some sweet perks like more payment options, order bumps, and social login to boost those conversion rates.

👎 Here’s the catch though – Podia’s still playing catch-up with payment options. Unlike Thinkific, they haven’t rolled out their own payment system yet (like Thinkific Payments or Teachable Pay), so you won’t get things like extra payment gateways, instant payouts, or EU VAT handling.

🏆 Bottomline: Tie. Thinkific comes with upsell feature along with order bump whereas Podia has checkout embed (my favorite feature)!

Integrations

Here’s the cool part.

Both platforms are a bit light on built-in features compared to heavyweight Kajabi.

That’s why integrations are super important.

Now, Podia?

They keep it pretty basic.

You get integrations with the major email marketing tools, but for everything else, you’ll need to buddy up with Zapier.

And Thinkific:

Here’s the thing – Thinkific brings more native integrations to the table than Podia.

That’s a big deal if you want things to just work without extra hassle.

🏆 Bottomline: Thinkific provides more native-level integrations than Podia. That means you can use third-party tools without leaving your Thinkific site, paying extra, or logging into separate sites to make things happen.

Pricing

Let’s break down the money stuff.

Podia offers two pricing plans – Mover and Shaker.

The Mover plan is the lowest-tier option, but it includes a 5% transaction fee.

Want to dodge that fee?

You’ll need to level up to the Shaker plan at $89 per month.

Bonus: you’ll unlock the affiliate features too.

Now, what about Thinkific?

They’re offering 3 pricing options.

Unlike Podia, Thinkific isn’t trying to be your best friend in the creator space, but hey – they don’t grab any transaction fees on ANY plan. That’s a big win!

Want the fancy stuff like assignments, live lessons, and advanced course tools?

You’ll need the Start plan at $99/month.

But honestly?

If you’re just starting out, the Basic plan works just fine.

Customer support

Let’s talk about customer support – because it matters when you’re stuck, right?

Podia’s got your back with both chat and video support on every plan.

Need help?

Just hit them up right from any page.

Thinkific?

Well, they’re keeping it old school with email support only.

No chat or video yet.

But hey, they’re usually quick to respond.

🏆 Bottomline: Podia. They offer chat and video support on all plans, while Thinkific only provides email support.

Conclusion

Looking for the better affordable course creation platform between Podia and Thinkific?

Here’s a quick summary to help you decide:

Podia is great if you are looking to:

• Build a tight-knit community
• Get serious with email marketing
• Sell both digital AND physical stuff

Thinkific is perfect if you’re after:

• Pro-level course creation features
• Solid assignments and course compliance tools
• A budget-friendly course platform with zero sneaky fees

Here’s my honest take: Despite that transaction fee, Podia gives you solid value as an all-in-one platform.

But if you’re laser-focused on creating courses? Thinkific’s your best bet.

Over to you.

What is it going to be?