For edupreneurs and course creators, the first steps in launching a course can be a real challenge. Besides developing a curriculum, they should think about a landing page, course management, and sales.
From this perspective, Teachable is a solution, putting simplicity before other things. It offers an intuitive course builder and exciting options for marketing and sales.
However, what if you are not a beginner anymore, want to turn your business into an academy, or see ways to provide much more profound and quality learning?
Then, the need for proper reporting, management, and cooperation software becomes blatant. Unfortunately, Teachable features may be limited in this regard. That’s why we designed a list of the 10 best Teachable alternatives worth your attention.
Read on to learn more about platforms like Teachable and how they can add to the online course creation.
Teachable Overview: Pros and Cons
Let’s briefly remind you what Teachable is and its main features.
Teachable is a popular platform for course creators, especially those starting their online education journey.
Its intuitive design, flexibility, and, community, solid content options are great for course creation, while decent sales and marketing features make it attractive for eduprenuers, and small educational institutions.
Pros of Teachable
- Simple and intuitive course creation and editing.
- Payment system with tax support.
- Content variety due to comprehensive course builder.
- In-built marketing and sales tools.
Cons of Teachable
- Lack of engagement tools.
- Transaction fees under Free and Basic plans can be significant.
- Limited options for branding and advanced design.
Pricing Overview
- Free Plan: limited features with a high transaction fee.
- Basic Plan: $59/mo with a 5% transaction fee; 5 products of each type; community.
- Pro Plan: $159/mo, advanced features, no transaction fees; 50 products of each type; 5 admin seats.
- Pro+ Plan: $249/mo, course offerings and advanced tools; 200 products of each type.
- Business Plan: $665/mo; unlimited courses and admin seats.
Why to Look for Teachable Alternatives?
Finding the software to replace Teachable comes with a significant portion of the research. So, let’s first identify what a Teachable alternative should compensate for,, in particular, features for quality learning and high prices.
Lack of advanced options to create and manage online courses
The lack of advanced options is the main disadvantage of Teachable.
- In particular, Teachable offers no messenger or channels to handle collaborative or cooperative learning.
- it lacks assignment management, despite the excellent quiz option, and reporting features.
- Also, the community feature is rather basic, even though it is a great improvement
- Ultimately, this learning management software offers limited design options that may be crucial for the academies with the developed brand.
Learning providers may seek for more control over the course and higher immersion for the students.
High pricing and limited Free and Basic Plans
Teachable reviews underline that the app has a high transaction fee: 1-10% fee under a free package and 5% under the Basic Plan. In comparison, Stripe takes only 2.5%, while some Teachable alternatives take no fee.
Additionally, the Free and Basic Plans are somewhat limited. Only Pro and higher Plans offer Teachable brand removal and upselling and enough admins seats, while advanced customization is only possible under the Business Package.
As a result, if you take the marketing options out, Teachable is a good but not great LMS, while some of the products can offer more flexibility and be less costly.
Best Teachable Alternatives to Create Online Courses or/and Sell Them
This first part of the section will offer the best Teachable alternatives focusing on course creation and peer interactions, rather platforms with marketing tools.
Sure, marketing matters. However, when choosing the path of quality education provision, you should ensure that your students are immersed in the online learning process and engaged.
So, let's start the LMSs that allow deep learning and proper peer interaction and then switch to other alternatives to Teachable with great apps for sales and promotion.
#1. EducateMe: Best Teachable Alternative for Collaborative Learning
EducateMe is a solid Teachable alternative that allows building and handling online courses due to its rich and diverse features.
Why is it so good for collaborative learning? Above all, EducateMe has a well-developed architecture that ensures flexibility. Secondly, there is a defined focus on learner engagement and course management.
It has multiple integrations to affect cooperation, organize live classes, and set discussions in a virtual classroom (Zoom, Notion, Loom, etc). Moreover, EducateMe offers solid automation options to better the learning flow and incorporates exciting branding options.
Who uses it? Middle and large online academies, schools, creative and non-tech learning providers, and corporate actors.
Key features of this Teachable alternative
- Intuitive course-builder. Develop programs by adding Webinar or Lesson blocks, where you can upload various course content, embed links or apps, and create diverse assignments. Notably, there is an AI assistant to help develop the course structure.ucture.
- In-built messengers. Allows you to send direct messages, and organize Slack-like groups and channels. It is ideal for a greater immersion of students.
- Strong assignment management. EducateMe offers the Kanban assignment tracker and tag system to manage tasks, student enrollment, and assignment flow. In particular, you can use a calendar to plan and control sessions and assign tasks based on learners’ statuses.
- White label LMS. With EducateMe, you can select the colors, shapes of elements, and even fonts and upload the company logo.
Best for: collaborative and deep learning programs; creators with established marketing and sales funnels.
Pros of EducateMe
- Ease of use and intuitiveness.
- Collaborative features, including comments, in-built messengers, channels, and peer reviews.
- Powerful course and student management toolkit.
- Great reporting capabilities.
Cons of EducateMe
- Limitations related to SCORM.
- No mobile app despite mobile-optimized desktop version.
- Lacks features for marketing.
#2. Disco: Interactive Platform for Communities of Learners
Disco is a great community learning platform with organized dashboards and an easy-to-use interface. As an instructor using it, you will first create a community and then merge learning experiences into the space you created.
How? With the help of separate feeds, virtual events, experiences, and channels within the community space. This Teachable alternative allows sending direct messages to members, even without third-party tools.
So yes, Disco pays much attention to communication and collaboration between students. Thus, the reporting and assignment are far less advanced. At the same time, the app's flexibility and organization are still on point, thanks to the segmentation based on the type of experience.
Who uses it? Creators, experts, training businesses, and bootcamps for community learning.
Key features of this Teachable alternative:
- Product builder. Create a course, either self-paced or cohort-based, using templates or your imagination. For instance, one can create a curriculum, upload content, and add virtual events there.
- White labeling options. Change the default colors and upload logos so the dashboard reminds learners of your brand. Also, you can add community banners and pick colors for navigation.
Pros of Disco
- Great interactive elements and tools for engagement.
- App for mobile learning.
- Offers great features for cohort learning.
Cons of Disco
- A bit steep learning curve.
- Reporting is not advanced.
Pricing: 14 days free plan; Pro Plan costs $99/mo (10 learning products and 1000 members); Organization Plan costs $449/mo(100 learning products and 10,000 members); Max Plan is $1249/mo (200 learning products and unlimited number of members).
Best for: online academies and schools putting social and community learning in the center.
#3. Teachfloor: Simple LMS for Teaching Cohorts and Communities
Teachfloor is an adaptable learning management software that pays significant attention to course structure and a variety of assignments.
It has a solid course builder and great engagement possibilities. Compared to other Teachable alternatives, this platform offers excellent assignment diversity and integrations.
Yet, its customization options are pretty average, while Pro and Free plans are too limited. If using them, you can only upload no more than 5MB files and get no API access, Zapier integration, data export, and advanced branding options.
Who uses it? Learning providers, middle-sized academies, schools, nonprofits, and corporate actors.
Key features of this Teachable alternative
- A decent course builder. It is pretty straightforward; with it, you can add various activities and course content. It offers a helpful ability to upload SCORM files.
- Assignment tasks diversity. With Teachfloor, you can insert submissions, instructor and peer reviews, quizzes, and surveys into the online courses.
- Solid tools for engagement. Organize 1:1 and discussions between students, ask them to do peer reviews, and support community learning via posting in a separate section.
Pros of Teachfloor
- It is a flexible, intuitive, and user-friendly platform.
- Compatible with SCORM files and offers great support.
- Offers decent integrations.
Cons of Teachfloor
- No mobile app and marketing options.
- Lacks reporting and marketing features.
- Customization is not advanced.
Pricing: free trial is available; Pro Package costs $49/mo (up to 4 team members and unlimited courses); Business Package is $299/mo (up to 15 team members, unlimited courses and basic branding options); Advanced Custom Package (advanced white labeling options) price can be known after the call with the sales team.
Best for: collaborative learning for groups of creators, middle academies or schools, and companies with diverse needs.
#4. Mighty Networks: Exciting Solution for Communities and Memberships
Like Disco, Mighty Networks takes a dynamic chat and feed approach to setting up the community or membership site. There are significant design and customization features for online course creation.
The most significant advantage of this Teachable alternative is built-in social tools and the ability to handle live classes. It may lack the reporting and assessment features compared to other LMSs. Thus, with the focus on communication, it has inadequate organization, while the preliminary plan is somewhat limited.
Who uses it? Creators, experts, and businesses to create their community.
Key features of this Teachable alternative:
- Interactive and engaging elements. An exciting part about Mighty Networks is how interactive communication may be. For instance, you can ask questions and offer interactive polls to handle surveys, assignments, and feedback. Besides, it provides mobile app support.
- Tools for community learning. Mighty Networks do have different ways to engage with the members. In this regard, use feeds and threads, organize a discussion on each page or within each post, or start live streaming and wait for the reactions.
Pros of Mighty Networks
- Great engagement features.
- Significant design and customization features.
- Provides mobile app.
Cons of Mighty Networks
- No mobile app.
- Lacks advanced reporting and assessment features.
- Poor organization.
Pricing: free trial available; Community Plan is $39/mo (chat and messaging and Zoom integration); Business Plan is $119/mo (online course creation, integrations and analytics) Mighty Pro Plan (mobile app and advanced branding options) pricing is available only via the call.
Best for: single creators and community builders focusing on membership model and lifelong learning.
#5. LearnWorlds: Effective Alternative to Teachable for Self-Paced Courses
LearnWorlds seems to be a powerful LMS with many different features for course management and promotion and a certain level of complexity.
LearnWorlds is almost an all-around solution having tools for marketing, site and app creation, and course management. Also, this platform provides decent reporting functions.
Because of so many functions, it can be a bit complex to operate at first. Moreover, with complexity, there comes a lack of focus. It may look like a content platform rather than a learning one. Besides, its design is not as smooth as other Teachable alternatives.
Who uses it? Creators, large online schools and academies, and corporate actors.
Key features of this Teachable alternative:
- Multifunctional course manager. Has multiple options for managing courses, from setting the layout and its design to creating virtual events via meeting links and adding tasks or lessons.
- Resourceful page builder. Offers multiple blocks and customization options for developing your school website and course design. One of the exciting features is the blog.
- Reports Center. Has many sections related to monitoring student enrollment, activities, exams, and course sales. Even though some reporting features are basic, you can provide certifications.
- Marketing and sales tools. Despite lacking email marketing software, LearnWorld offers support with payment gateway, affiliate marketing, product bundles, promotion, and feedback.
Pros of LearnWorlds
- A comprehensive tool for online course management and selling.
- Multiple blocks and customization features.
- Certification options.
Cons of LearnWorlds
- Can be complicated to use at first.
- Overfocus on content, leaving less room for learning options.
- Not very intuitive.
Pricing: free trial available; Starter Plan is $29/mo (1:1 and group communication, payment gateways, exams and quizzes); Pro Trainer is $99/mp (assessments and quizzes, unlimited web pages, live classes and webinars); Learning Center Plan is $299/mo (interactive videos, mobile app, advanced assessments, branding options); High Volume & Corporate Plan is available upon the call.
Best for: setting hybrid learning model or sell online courses and digital products.
#6. Thinkific: Teachable Alternative that is Indeed an All-Round Solution
If you are not ready to give up the marketing support Teachable provides, we have great Teachable alternatives that can offer you even more. Let's start with Thinkific.
One can say Thinkific is indeed an all-in-one solution for learning providers, offering robust course-building and website creation features and supporting them with promotion tools to scale business.
Compared to Teachable, Thinkific is a slightly more universal software. It has an excellent variety of content and integrations that can be used for shaping the curriculum.
Nonetheless, some reviews underline the steep learning curve and outdated user interface. Also, the reporting and communication features are not as great, while decent customization and advanced options are available only under the advanced plans.
Who uses it? Academies and content creators with a need for marketing tools.
Key features of this Teachable alternative:
- Decent content editor. With Thinkfiic, you can create diverse products, in particular, online courses, basic communities, and bundles of products. One can add audio, video, live links, presentations, etc, or create tests. The platform offers cool integrations, for instance, quiz mapping or chatbots.
- Marketing tools. Thinkific brings diverse marketing support to the table. With it, you may promote your course with coupons, sales widgets, and affiliating marketing. Also, you can use email notifications to send notifications and prepare them for the course.
- Website builder and customization. You can customize the look of your online courses and community pages. In particular, add and change the blocks, and footers, determine categories, and set the appropriate branding elements.
Pros of Thinkific
- Pretty flexible in regard to customization.
- Great variety of content options and cool integrations.
- Diverse marketing support.
- Offers a mobile app.
Cons of Thinkific
- Can be basic in terms of engagement tools.
- Reporting is not as advanced.
Pricing: free plan is available; Basic Plan costs $34/mo (unlimited courses, 1 community and 5 spaces, email and live chat support, custom domain, affiliates); Start Plan is $74/mo (1 community and 10 spaces, support, live sessions, assignments); Grow Plan costs $149/mo (3 communities, 20 spaces per each, advanced branding, API access).
Best for: academies and creators that develop diverse and complex online courses yet, focus on quality rather than quantity.
#7. Podia: Teachable Alternative with Powerful Email Marketing Tools
Podia is another universal learning platform that allows creating online courses, designing a website, and marketing learning products. If we compare it with Teachable, Podia has some advantages in terms of email marketing. Yet, it still puts selling in the center.
It offers good content and community development builders for online course creation, even though they are not advanced. However, regarding marketing and sales, it grants solid email campaign options and good functionality for building a website or making an affiliate program.
Who uses it? Mainly experts, single creators, and educators, artists.
Key features of this Teachable alternative:
- Basic course builder. You can add basic content types, simple quizzes, and embed links. Simultaneously, there are different products to create and sell: a webinar, digital download, or course bundles.
- Strong email marketing. Podia offers an inbuilt email marketing software, allowing building emails, segmenting audiences based on course or sales data, and tracking or automating campaigns.
- Page builder. Provides several templates for the creation of landing pages, depending on their goal. It has multiple ways to customize a website and its look on various devices, including colors, fonts, logos, banners, and popups.
Pros of Podia
- Strong inbuilt email marketing software.
- Very simple and easy-to-use.
- Optimizes sales funnel a lot.
Cons of Podia
- Puts more emphasis on selling than on learning.
- Limited content types.
Pricing: free plan is available; Maker Plan is $39/mo (no transaction fees, community, websites, unlimited courses, downloads, coaching); Shaker Plan costs $89/mo (unlimited webinars, affiliates, API access).
Best for: single creators and groups of creators selling education digital products online.
#8. Kajabi: Extremely Popular Alternative to Teachable
Sure, it would be a crime to miss one of the most popular all-around options for course creators ― Kajabi. Thanks to significant marketing backing, Kajabi is a pretty expensive platform that allows single creators to sell their various digital products.
Kajabi has a strong product builder to create online courses, online training or coaching sessions, podcasts, and communities. Its interface is intuitive and easy to use. In addition, it has excellent branding templates to customize the look of the products and landing pages and requires no additional transaction fees.
Who uses it? Single creators and experts, groups of creators, small academies, or coaching agencies.
Key features of this alternative to Teachable
- Decent product builder tool. With the builder, you will need to choose an appropriate template (course, session, or community). In terms of course building, primary content types and quizzes are available. Notably, you can determine each product type's subscription, customization, email sequence, and coupons.
- Marketing and sales functions. You can adjust intuitive marketing solutions at the stage of product development. Besides, its course sales section allows upselling and providing unique offers, coupons, and affiliates. The marketing section allows for setting up email campaigns, funnels, events, and forms.
- Website builder. In addition to many templates for website creation and customization, you can improve the navigation menu and develop checkout pages, for instance, by adding testimonials.
Pros of Kajabi
- You can create different types of products, from courses to communities.
- Outstanding tools to improve sales and marketing and upsell products.
- Lots of elements to customize landing pages
Cons of Kajabi
- Lack of in-built communication and management features.
- Community counts as a product.
- Reporting is quite basic.
- Expensive compared to other platforms.
Pricing: free plan (credit card required); Basic Plan is $149/mo (3 products, 3 funnels, 1000 active customers); Growth Plan is $199/mo (15 products, 15 funnels, 10 000 active customers); Pro Plan is $399/mo (100 products, 100 funnels, 20 000 active customers).
Best for: creating, marketing and selling coaching sessions, webinars, courses and knowledge products.
#9 LearnDash: Teachable Alternative that is a WordPress LMS Plugin
Unlike other Teachable alternatives, LearnDash is an LMS plugin that allows for building courses on your WordPress website. It has a drag-and-drop course builder with which you can:
- Organize quizzes
- Create and manage assignments
- Use various types of content, from text and videos to SCORM types.
Besides, it has multiple integrations, meaning you can handle communication via Slack or other collaboration platforms. In the end, with it, you can adjust your e-commerce strategy by setting subscriptions and selling memberships or running promos.
Who uses it? Institutions and businesses that have WordPress websites.
Pros of LearnDash
- Multiple integrations for communication and course management.
- Support for subscriptions, memberships, and promos.
Cons of LearnDash
- Extra add-ons are needed for complete functionality.
- May be complex for non-WordPress users.
Pricing: it has no free plan; the LearnDash Plugin and MemberDash Plugin (to create communities) both cost $199/year for 1 website and $399/year for 10 websites. Additional add-ons for communication or course management, like Notes or Gradebook, cost $49/year each.
Best for: setting communities, online courses, and academies as the next part of your online business.
#10 Gumroad: A Standalone Platform for Selling Online and Digital Downloads
Lastly, Gumroad is a platform different from the Teachable alternatives described before. Gumroad is rather a marketplace where people sell their digital products. This platform allows you to create a page or space to sell online courses and other products.
For it, you will need to write the description of the product and upload the content. Also, you can engage with the audience by posting and commenting or even sending emails. In terms of sales, it offers analytics as well as upselling and discount features.
Who uses it? Single content creators, artists, and experts to sell their knowledge.
Pros of Gumroad
- Very straightforward platform.
- Great ways to engage with leads.
- Good upselling features.
Cons of Gumroad
- Commission from every sale.
- It is not a learning platform.
Pricing: 10% commission from every sale.
Best for: content creators, specialists, and coaches that want to sell content pieces, e-books, recorded courses, etc.
Conclusion: Which Teachable alternative to use?
Teachable is a worthy option for beginners. However, if you create learning experiences around the concept of collaboration, it won’t be the best solution. You will need tools for higher engagement between peers and solid management tools.
That’s why we believe EducateMe is the best Teachable alternative, due to its flexible system, in-built messengers and Kanban approach. Even though it has no promotion tools, it is something you need to handle quality learning. Interested? Try a free trial or book a demo.
Simultaneously, the great Teachable alternatives for the community of learners are Disco and Mighty Networks. And If you seek tools with promotion tools, pick Kajabi, Podia and Thinkific, depending on what you need more: cross-selling, email support in promotion, or decent content.