10 best Podia alternatives – free and paid (detailed comparison)

Podia is an eCommerce platform built for creators looking to sell anything digital—memberships, online courses, or digital downloads.

The platform is very beginner-friendly and has a pretty straightforward interface. But most importantly, it allows you to build a landing page for your online courses and other digital products.

However, not everyone will find Podia perfect for starting an online business. Here’s why:

• The list of built-in marketing tools is relatively poor.
• Product pages are barely customizable.
• It’s almost impossible to integrate any external services.
• The pricing is quite steep.

Whatever is the reason you’re looking for a Podia alternative—we’ve got you covered. We’ve not only made a list of the best possible options but also created a detailed comparison to help you choose the best service.

So, here’s our list of top Podia alternatives:

1. Sellfy
2. Kajabi
3. Teachable
4. Thinkific
5. Kartra
6. Udemy
7. Mighty Networks
8. Squarespace
9. SamCart
10. Gumroad

It’s quite a list, so let’s dig in.

1. Sellfy

Sellfy is an all-in-one eCommerce platform for creators, artists, and anyone in between looking to start an online business. You can sell anything with Sellfy—digital and subscription products (including online courses), physical goods, and even custom print-on-demand products. In addition to that, Sellfy also has a set of powerful marketing tools, beautiful pre-made store themes, an easy-to-use store customizer, built-in store analytics, and a host of useful app integrations.

Podia vs. Sellfy: Features

• More customization

Podia’s page builder appears to be quite basic when compared to Sellfy’s advanced store customizer. With Sellfy, you can either choose one of the pre-made themes (they all are free) or build a brand new online store from scratch—no coding, just drag and drop.

• Better marketing features

Even though Podia seems like a great service, it offers just the bare minimum of eCommerce features. Especially when it comes to marketing tools that are essential for generating leads. Sellfy, on the other hand, has everything you need to launch and grow your online business, including email marketing, discounts & coupon codes, upselling, cart abandonment, and even pay-what-you-want pricing.

• Effortless setup

With Sellfy, setting up a website for your courses or digital products is really a matter of minutes. The best part is that you don’t need any previous experience whatsoever to build a brand-new home for your lessons and educational materials.

• Fantastic customer support

There’s nothing more important than good customer support when it comes to launching your online store. Unlike Podia, Sellfy’s customer support team is available 24/7, and it’s really helpful too).

Sell online with Sellfy

Start free trial

Podia vs. Sellfy: Pricing

With everything that Sellfy has to offer it still is more affordable than Podia:

• The Starter plan is $22 per month.
• The Business plan is $59 per month.
• The Pro plan is $119 per month.

2. Kajabi

Similar to Podia, Kajabi is an all-in-one solution for creating and marketing courses online. It offers a great set of course-building tools that allow you to turn various content types into educational materials. The best part about Kajabi is that it offers an awesome selection of customizable product blueprints that help you better structure your course. Moreover, it allows you to create and customize your own landing page.

Podia vs. Kajabi: Features

• Powerful eCommerce features

When compared to Podia, Kajabi has a slightly better selection of different eCommerce features. Such as SEO optimization tools, sales funnels, marketing features, bundling options, etc. Plus, Kajabi’s page builder appears to be more advanced too. 

• Better automation

Kajabi offers advanced features that can help you streamline your business, especially if you choose the Pro plan.

• Steep learning curve

Even though Kajabi offers some great course-building tools, there’s truly a lot to learn about when it comes to using them. Therefore, it might not be the best option for beginners.

Podia vs. Kajabi: Pricing

Unfortunately, all of the Kajabi’s great features come at a cost as its pricing plans are way more expensive than Podia’s:

• The Basic plan is $119 per month.
• The Growth plan is $159 per month.
• The Pro plan is $319 per month.

3. Teachable

Teachable is another Podia alternative that allows creators to sell courses and other digital content including downloads, and recurring memberships. Just like Podia, Teachable is very easy to use—you can easily create as many courses as you need as well as build a basic landing page from scratch. There’s also an option to embed your educational content into an existing website or blog.

Podia vs. Teachable: Features

• Better course-building features

For example, Teachable offers a unique set of features for coaches. It allows you to build coaching-specific pages, share assignments, and organize 1:1 video sessions.

• Better page customization

When compared to Podia, Teachable offers better customization for sales pages. Teachable has a simple drag-and-drop page builder to create landing pages, organize pricing packages, and more. Plus, there are many customizable templates to choose from.

• Transaction fees

It’s great that Teachable offers a free plan. What’s not great is that you’ll have to pay a crazy $1 + 10% for each transaction. And even if you decide to switch to a paid plan, there’s still a 5% fee for each transaction.

Podia vs. Teachable: Pricing

Teachable’s pricing plans are somewhat similar to Podia’s (except for transaction fees):

• Free plan with $1 + 10% transaction fee.
• The Basic plan is $29 per month with a 5% transaction fee.
• The Pro plan is $99 per month.
• The Business plan is $249 per month.

4. Thinkific

Thinkific is another Podia alternative that was developed specifically for building and selling courses. The platform markets itself as a solution for those who are looking for full control over their course design and a way to provide a better user experience for students at every step. 

Podia vs. Thinkific: Features

• Better customization

Thinkific offers a great selection of page templates. You also get access to HTML and CSS code for more freedom in customizing your landing page.

• No digital products

All you can do with Thinkific is create and sell courses. Unlike Podia, Thinkific doesn’t support digital products or any other types of products for that matter.

• No built-in email marketing

Thinkific’s built-in email marketing possibilities are even more limited than Podia’s. You’ll have to integrate and pay for an additional service in order to run any type of email campaign or automation.

Podia vs. Thinkific: Features

One of the best benefits Thinkific has over Podia is a life-long free plan:

• A free plan with no transaction fees.
• The Basic plan is $39 per month.
• The Pro plan is $79 per month.
• The Premier plan is $399 per month.

5. Kartra

Kartra is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps digital creators run their online businesses. Therefore, it’s a service that clearly stands out among other solutions on the list. Nevertheless, Kartra offers a perfect set of features to sell and promote your products and memberships: shopping cart and landing page builder, email marketing, list building, funnels, surveys & quizzes, and more.

Podia vs. Kartra: Features

• Pre-designed marketing campaigns and advanced email marketing

Not everyone is great at marketing, that’s why Kartra offers various ready-made marketing campaigns. Moreover, Kartra has a great built-in email marketing feature with tons of customizable templates and the possibility to create automation. 

• Professional help

In case you need support in launching your online courses, you can turn to Kartra Experts—active Kartra users who offer their skills and expertise to other creators.

• Steep learning curve

There’s no doubt that Kartra offers more useful eCommerce features than Podia does, but it comes at a cost. With all the tools available, there’s a lot to learn.

Podia vs. Kartra: Pricing

Kartra beats Podia on almost all counts, except pricing:

• The Starter plan is $99 per month.
• The Silver plan is $199 per month.
• The Gold plan is $299 per month.
• The Platinum plan is $499 per month.

6. Udemy

Udemy is one of the most popular online course marketplaces in the online learning industry. Unlike Podia, Udemy doesn’t ask you to create a website or figure out an outline for your online course. Instead, it provides you with a ready-made template and lets you sell directly on their marketplace among thousands of other educators.

Podia vs. Udemy: Features

• Effortless setup

The fact that you can simply upload your file to a pre-designed template makes the setup process effortless. Plus, Udemy offers free tutorials for those who’ve never created an online course before.

• Huge community with even bigger competition

Udemy helps you market your course by running seasonal campaigns and ads on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. But, you need to take into account that Udemy is a marketplace, which means that you’ll have to withstand huge competition at all times. 

• No marketing or branding tools

With Udemy, you won’t be able to sell digital downloads or memberships. It is also lacking some essential marketing tools like email marketing. Moreover, you won’t be able to customize your course as you’ll be working with a pre-approved template.

Podia vs. Udemy: Pricing

Unlike Podia, Udemy is free to set up. But, you must remember that Udemy will take 37% of each sale that did not come through one of your referral links or coupons.

Sell online with Sellfy

Start free trial

7. Mighty Networks

Initially, Might Networks was developed as a social media platform to help online creators build and manage communities (something similar to Facebook Groups, but on your own website). But with time, it became more than just an online community builder as they’ve added tools for selling online courses and creating membership sites. 

Podia vs. Mighty Networks: Features

• Community builder

Without a doubt, Mighty Networks offers some great community-building features. Unlike Podia, it allows you to create a real community of followers and fans around a particular course. Moreover, you can get tons of valuable insights and follow how your followers engage with your brand.

• Online course creator

With Might Networks, you can easily create online courses and promote them directly to your existing community. However, there are no tools to create quizzes, assignments, and course completion certificates that a lot of creators are looking for.

• No digital products

Unlike Podia, Mighty Networks doesn’t support digital products, therefore you won’t be able to use this platform as a checkout solution.

Podia vs. Mighty Networks: Pricing

Even though Mighty Networks offer just two pricing plans, the online course creator is available only on the most expensive one:

• The Community Plan is $33 per month.
• The Business Plan is $99 per month.

8. Squarespace

Apart from being a well-known website builder, Squarespace offers a simple way to launch an online store. In essence, it’s a fully hosted eCommerce platform that supports any type of product, including digital products, video courses, and memberships. 

Podia vs. Squarespace: Features

• Great website builder

Thanks to beautiful store templates, even those who don’t have a single design muscle in their body can create a truly stunning store.

• Steeper learning curve

Generally speaking, Squarespace is a solid eCommerce platform for both beginners and advanced users. Even though it comes with a learning curve, you can expect to build a professional online store relatively easily.

• Better app integrations

Squarespace offers a great selection of third-party extensions to help you manage, grow, and optimize your online business.

Podia vs. Squarespace: Pricing

Squarespace Commerce is available on two separate pricing plans:

• The Basic Commerce plan is $24 per month.
• The Advanced Commerce plan is $36 per month.

9. SamCart

SamCart is a web-based checkout solution. Even though it’s not an all-in-one platform like Podia, it allows creators to build product pages for digital downloads, online courses, and memberships. Thanks to the drag-and-drop editor SamCart is very beginner-friendly. Plus, there’s a host of premade page templates for different types of products. 

Podia vs. SamCart: Features

• No website builder

Yes, SamCart allows you to create a product page for your online course, but you won’t be able to build a complete online store or a membership site.

• High-converting checkout templates

When compared to Podia, SamCart’s product pages are more conversion-optimized—the checkout process is seamless. Plus, features like one-click upsells help boost conversion rates even more.

• Better app integrations

Truth be told, Podia is incompatible with most third-party app integrations. SamCart, on the other hand, offers a rich list of apps that can help you automate your tasks and save you a lot of time. 

Podia vs. SamCart: Pricing

There’s nothing much to say here as SamCart’s pricing is pretty similar to Podia’s:

• The Launch plan is $49 per month.
• The Grow plan is $99 per month.
• The Scale plan is $199 per month.

10. Gumroad

Gumroad is an easy-to-use tool developed to help creators sell digital products like online courses, memberships, eBooks, etc. Similar to Sellfy, it’s a hosted eCommerce platform, which means that you can build a hosted online store—payment integrations, and other eCommerce tools are included.

Podia vs. Gumroad: Features

• Straightforward setup

Creating a website for your courses with Gumroad is pretty easy and doesn’t require any previous experience—the setup is pretty straightforward.

• More eCommerce tools

The fact that Podia lacks some key marketing tools makes even the most basic checkout solutions like Gumroad look much better. Gumroad offers a solid set of built-in features to help you create sales funnels and run marketing campaigns. 

• Limited Payment Options

Gumroad recently discontinued PayPal as a payout method, creating a setback for creators who relied on it to receive their earnings. This change has added an extra layer of inconvenience for many users.

Podia vs. Gumroad: Pricing

The best thing about Gumroad is that it doesn’t have a subscription fee. The worst thing about Gumroad is the transaction fees—a crazy 9% + 30 cents is deducted from your income each time someone buys your product.

Conclusion: The best alternative to Podia

Sellfy is by far the best Podia alternative out there for everyone who’s looking to sell courses online. Sellfy is a perfect platform not only for selling digital content and memberships but also for scaling up your online business.

But, if for some reason you won’t find Sellfy a great fit, there are plenty SendOwl alternatives to choose from. Just look through our list, and pick one!

FAQ: Podia alternatives

What is the best alternative to Podia?

When considering alternatives to Podia, Sellfy stands out as an excellent choice. Sellfy offers a user-friendly platform for selling digital products, including online courses, ebooks, and more. It provides seamless payment processing, customizable online stores, and powerful marketing features to help creators reach a wider audience and increase sales.

Is Podia good for selling online courses?

Yes, Podia is a platform designed specifically for selling online courses. It offers course hosting, payment processing, and email marketing capabilities. However, it’s essential to compare Podia’s features, pricing, and user experience with other eCommerce platforms to determine which one best suits you and your business needs.

Why is Sellfy the best alternative to Podia?

Sellfy offers several advantages that make it a superior alternative to Podia. It provides a wider range of product selling options, including online courses, ebooks, and even print-on-demand products. With zero transaction fees, customizable storefronts, and built-in marketing features, Sellfy allows creators to maximize their revenue potential and offers a more flexible and user-friendly experience for both creators and customers.