What is Teachable?
Teachable is a course hosting platform and possibly one of the most well-known of its kind.
Teachable has been around since 2014 and has quickly become one of the most popular platforms in the market, boasting over 100,000 users.
Features: What Can You Do With Teachable?
Teachable does the basics of helping you host, deliver, and sell an online course like:
Teachable does not have a ton of tools, as you can see, but that is not why people choose Teachable.
Most people choose Teachable because of its ease of use and its plain and simple solution to hosting an online course.
Teachable’s priority is not to offer a wide range of features (the course builder allows for only a little customization, and it has only the minimum tools needed).
That being said, let's dive into each of the core features you'll be able to use:
Page Builder
Like most course creators, if you're planning on building funnels and pages, you may be interested in seeing how Teachable can help.
The page builder offers minimum customization. It is a simple block builder with the different elements you may need to present your course.
Don't go to Teachable for fancy designs or the most conversion-oriented funnels, although a basic upsell feature is available.
Similarly, Teachable’s blog feature does the job but won't be your greatest ally if you want to optimize that content for SEO (to rank in search engines).
This is why it's probably better for you to use an external funnel builder or WordPress site to host your funnel and sales page, only using Teachable for the checkout and course building.
Click To View The Full Page Example
As a course creator it's also very likely that you will also need an email marketing tool, Teachable only provides the capability to send emails to your current student.
Course Building
Teachable's course building capabilities are relatively satisfying.
You can upload a wide range of content such as video, audio, text, embedded PDF,etc. but also an in-course upsell
You will find plenty of ways to make the learning experience richer for your students with quizzes and other smart ways to gamify your course.
All this is something you can easily manage in the back-end with the course builder where you can create your curriculum:
In terms of design you can select among of the few themes available.
There isn't too much you can change in terms of layout and this is definitely one shortcoming of Teachable compared to other popular platforms like Kajabi.
That being said, you can still change some of the text and colors to adapt this to your branding
Checkout & Affiliate Program
Teachable has one of the most robust checkout system and affiliate program of its category.
You can setup any type of payment you want: one-off, flexible subscription, split payment, free and paid trial,etc.
It connects with the standard methods: credit/debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay®, and Google Pay™
In terms of checkout design, you won't have much control over the layout of your cart beyond adding testimonials, stamps and other conversion best practices
The last thing to note on this is that Teachable allows for one-click upsells.
The affiliate system is also a strong feat of the platform.
The affiliate payout is automatic (which is almost unmatched in the industry) and allows for much more flexibility for your partners tat most other platforms such as the ability to deliver affiliate bonuses by redirecting to an external page.
Coaching Products
Teachable recently added a new feature that is unmatched on other platforms – the coaching product.
The coaching product is essentially a separate part of your Teachable platform where you can welcome coaching clients and deliver assignments, milestones, and more.
This can be super useful and a great way to upsell your services from your digital courses!
Teachable Mobile App
Teachable is also one of the only online course platform to offer a mobile app, see more about this in our dedicated article.
The bottom line is that this is a centralized app for your students only, to consume your online courses on the go
Meaning that this isn't a place for you to check your sales or make changes for your course from.
Students can do pretty much everything they can on Desktop, although this is still meant to be a complement.
Note that you can't send push notifications through the app and your design capabilities are limited.
Still, this is something rare for an online course platform to provide at no additional cost and a great value for your programs!
User Experience: Is Teachable Easy To Use?
The minimalist approach to the back-end does have some good sides. Although some all-in-one, feature-loaded platforms can be confusing to navigate, Teachable is very easy to use!
However, it is a trade-off with the customization and how much you can influence the end-user experience. The platform is designed to be used out of the box with few changes beyond your basic branding.
On the student's side, you won't find different theme options or layouts for the course, which means your course will appear basic but simple.
Pricing: How Much Is Teachable?
This is probably why the platform is so widely used. Teachable is very affordable!
Teachable offers a free plan to get you started with no limit of your course creation.
The transaction fees are high and you'll probably want to move away from it as you grow but it's a great introduction to the platform.
Note that you will need to upgrade to the Pro plan to stop paying a transaction fee and access advanced features like the affiliate program.
Teachable has increased its pricing over the years as it has grown, which has made it lose a bit of its appeal for the wide audience.
If you're wanting to understand more about how this compares to other platform, see our full pricing review.
How is the Support & Community for Teachable?
This is where things get a little dicey. Teachable has become notorious for its poor support.
The platform has seen massive growth and hasn’t had time to grow its support systems with it.
Tickets can take days or weeks to get a response, and answers are not always helpful.
You can, however, find a lot of questions answered on their knowledge base, but if it’s not there, you will have to wait for an answer.
However, because of its large number of users, you can also find many fellow Teachable course creators to get help.
In mid-2020, Teachable moved away from their Facebook Group, even though Facebook groups are widely used by online platforms as an easy-access support hub for users to ask questions to the community and/or admins.
It is too early to say if this decision will improve the support and community interaction, but this bold move is one to look closer at.
Our Overall Rate: 4
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Conclusion:
There is a good reason why Teachable is one of the most used platforms: it is easy to do just what you came for - setting up and delivering an online course.
But some users might feel frustrated with the support or the lack of customization to make their courses look even better. I guess you just need to know what you're looking for.
Teachable FAQ
Both have pros and cons. Udemy gives you more reach through its marketplace but Teachable gives you more control.
Teachable is the easiest way to get the basic tool to host and sell your online programs
Teachable does have a free plan that will only charge you a sell fee (and no recurring subscription)!
People on Teachable make anywhere from $0 to 8 figures. The platform itself doesn't help you market your courses so that's going to be up to you!
Top Teachable Alternatives
Teachable vs the Competition:
