Interesting enough, Podia has only been around since 2014, yet in a few short years it has quickly emerged as one of the leading online course software providers. Podia was originally launched under the name Coach, a website designed for tutors with online courses as well as offered digital downloads. It immediately rose to over 7,500 creators and then transformed into the current Podia model.

While it has only been operating under the Podia moniker for a little over a year now, the online course software platform has gained a lot of attention and notoriety because it is geared heavily toward entrepreneurs who have already gained a steady following.

Highlights

• Add a storefront to the online course to increase sales
• Gather a collection of email addresses to get course interest
• No transaction fees on either plan gets you 100% of profits

Features

Podia is what many consider an all-in-one package. It allows entrepreneurs to brand online courses, products, landing pages and a storefront all in one location with one of the best payment structures available.

For those already familiar with web hosting and development, it saves about three stops along the way because instead of going through one company for a domain, another for web hosting, and a third for web development — all of it is offered under one Podia subscription. With Podia, one can buy and setup a custom domain then proceed to design, build and host a website all within the platform.

The course builder is designed to work for users without a lot of technical knowledge, though it is not quite as easy to use as Thinkific or Teachable. However, if having a storefront and being able to sell products directly through the course is important, than you will definitely want to go with Podia as the other two have no storefront ability.

Another impressive highlight of Podia is the no limit on bandwidth, file size, number of courses, customers or sales. It’s “unlimited on everything” motto holds true and is really suitable for already thriving companies that require a lot of bandwidth to get off the ground. Podia also supports just about every type of file you could possibly imagine from PDF to mp3, video and text.

While Podia may be a solution for some members new to online courses, the truth is it works best for those who already have a decent following in terms of students, yet still need a place to host their course or are looking to transfer from another platform. Podia is really solid for high volume sellers yet expensive for beginners, or low volume sellers.

Podia will deliver complete control of your branding and a lot of fantastic marketing tools to help an already sturdy audience grow exponentially. Podia especially excels in email marketing (which works for some entrepreneurs better than others) and has always been a successful online marketing method.

Another way Podia helps grow an online following is the software allows you to collect email addresses before someone signs up for online course launches. The prelaunch courses enables you to gauge how many are interested compared to how many sign up for the course. Additionally, with drip course content, entrepreneurs have the option to give customers immediate access to an online course, or present it in sections over a designated period of time.

Price

Podia has two tiers of plans: Mover ($39 per month) and Shaker ($79 per month). It is possible to get a couple of months free each year by electing to get billed annually instead of monthly. Also, both plans include a 14 day free trial to allow time to make sure Podia is the right online course software platform for you.

When you compare the monthly rates to Thinkific and Teachable, they are very competitive especially since Podia charges zero percent transaction fees on BOTH plans. Though users keep 100 percent of the course, they still must eat the credit card transaction fee. That’s the norm, though, so nothing major there.

Also, unlike Teachable, Podia has instant payout so as soon as you make a sale you get your money deposited directly into a bank account within two business days. That is a very quick turnaround and yet another reason to consider for high volume businesses.

The Mover plan provides an unlimited number of online courses, digital downloads, email marketing tools and 24/7 support. The Shaker plan has all of the same as well as affiliate marketing, third-party code and free mitigation.

The Shaker is especially ideal for those seeking to move an already established following as well as content to the new platform because of the free mitigation. Also, with third-party code one can include snippets from Facebook Pixel, Sumo and Olark.

Podia has competitive rates though it should be noted that it really depends on the volume of your sales. If the sales do not remain consistent with the monthly fee, than you are more suited to look elsewhere.

Conclusion

The short time span from when Podia was launched to its current relevance among the best online course software on the web is noteworthy. It generally takes years for a platform to rise the ranks and become a legitimate contender. For that reason, Podia is definitely doing something right.

Podia has found a niche market. Despite its origins as online course software for tutors, it has evolved into one that is really best suited for entrepreneurs that have already established a decent following.

The ability to add a storefront to the course is a necessary feature if you really need to maximize profits and with zero transaction fees on both price plans, it does a great job of getting you back as much money as possible.

While not even close to the best option for instructors in the academic field, Podia is one of the best online software providers for skilled business owners that need a domain, web hosting, course builder and storefront all under one location.