The Top 3 Best Podia Alternatives You Need to Know About

Launch Your Online Business in Just 7 Days

Starting a new online business or launching a course is an exciting venture, and when it comes to picking the right platform — you want to make sure it really is the right fit.

The latest report from eMarketer projects that retail ecommerce sales will increase by 13.7% to a whopping $908.3 billion in 2021.

With the lightning-fast growth in the digital marketing world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

That’s why we’ve devised an in-depth Podia alternatives review, so you can determine whether Podia really is the right tool to get you on the road to success.

Well, let’s get into it!

1. What is Podia?

Podia's homepage

Podia is an online platform focused on selling memberships, online courses, and digital downloads.

Podia’s main selling point is its simple and efficient online course creator, and its target audience is digital creators.

So even if you’re not a business owner just yet and you want to start selling digital products you’ve created, Podia does the job effectively.

1.1. Podia's features

Podia’s features include:

Online course creator
Memberships
Downloads
A website builder
Email marketing
Ecommerce functionality

1.2. Podia's pricing

These tools seem to be an attractive feat, but we have to ask, what’s Podia’s pricing like?

Podia's pricing plans

Podia offers a 14-day free trial (no credit card details required), thereafter you have 2 plans to choose from:

The Basic plan called “The Mover” comes at $39 per month, and it includes:

Online course creator
Digital downloads
Email marketing

The Shaker plan is $79 per month, and it includes everything the Mover plan offers, plus some useful extras:

Instructors membership offers
Embedded checkouts
Affiliate marketing opportunities
Third-party integrations

While Podia’s design is simple and clean, it’s been dubbed as far too basic, so if you’re looking for something with a little more extras, it may be worth shopping around.

1.3. Podia's pros and cons

Some of the pros and cons of Podia include:

Pros

It’s simple and easy to use

Unlimited hosting, storage, and bandwidth

No fees for transactions

Users receive instant payouts

The platform allows third-party integrations

Cons

It has limited customization options for storefront and product pages

Course creation is too basic, users can only create one-tiered courses

Users can’t create learning paths

The platform doesn’t allow for built-in quizzes

There are no course completion certificates

1.4. Recommended if …

You plan on selling simple, one-tiered online courses, memberships, and digital products
Paying zero transaction fees is a must
You’re not looking to create extremely customized designs of courses but rather want to keep it as simple as possible
You don’t mind a very basic email campaign feature

1.5. Not recommended if ...

You need access to an email marketing tool that allows personalization tags
A course certification feature is part of your requirements
You like a wide choice of design flexibility, as Podia’s themes are quite limited
You’re looking for a platform that provides a sales funnel builder — Podia doesn’t provide this, so you’d have to integrate with another tool

Still not sure if you’ve found what you’re looking for with Podia?

Luckily, we have some suitable alternatives lined up before you make the leap.

Let’s take a look.

2. Systeme.io

systeme.io's logo

If you’ve got simplicity, affordability, and streamlined success in mind, you’re in luck — so does systeme.io!

Launching an online business, creating your own course, and building sales funnels is effortless with our simple interface.

As an all-in-one platform that’s built and optimized for entrepreneurs, systeme.io makes sure you’ve got all the tools you need at your fingertips.

2.1. Systeme.io's features

When it comes to features, you’re getting the whole package:

Sales Funnels — Build your business faster and easier than ever before. You’ll be able to build a sales funnel in 30 seconds with just 3 clicks
Email Marketing — You can stay in touch with your customers without breaking a sweat. Set up email campaigns and send unlimited emails
Online Courses — Build your course site without tech developers. Become an authority on your topic, and share your expertise with the world
Website Builder — Effortlessly create your website using our proven templates and drag-and-drop interface. You’ll be live in minutes
Affiliate Program Management — Build an army of affiliates to sell for you. We use systeme.io to power our own affiliate program and generate over $400,000 in affiliate sales every month
Marketing Automation — Make your business grow faster with minimal effort. Save time and energy by automating your marketing
Evergreen webinars — Quickly and efficiently run evergreen (pre-recorded and automated) webinars without the hassle of integration

What’s more? These features don’t come with a hefty price tag — in fact, we’ve even got a Free plan with no price tag at all!

2.2. Systeme.io's pricing

systeme.io's pricing

Choose between our different price plans to cater to your specific needs:

Free — $0 per month
Startup — $27 per month
Webinar — $47 per month
Enterprise — $97 per month

All of our plans include the features listed above, as well as:

Unlimited emails
Unlimited blog posts
Unlimited file storage space
Unlimited membership site members
Access to run your own affiliate program
Payment integrations
24/7 email support

Whether you want to start your online business or launch your own course, systeme.io can get you into gear, for a fraction of the price!

3. Kartra

Kartra's logo

Kartra markets itself as an all-in-one online business solution.

Because Kartra doesn’t require a ton of technical experience to get started with the platform, it poses an attractive solution to new business owners.

From hosting your website to setting up product carts, Kartra’s got it covered.

3.1. Kartra's features

Some of the features Kartra offers include:

Website hosting
Email marketing and automation
Landing pages
Product carts
Affiliate marketing
Membership site builder to build online courses
Funnel builder

3.2. Kartra's pricing

Kartra’s pricing is pretty straightforward. Interested users have the option to choose a 14-day trial for $1.

Thereafter, if you’re pleased with the trial version, you can choose from 4 different packages ranging in price and features.

Kartra's pricing plans

Kartra’s packages come with varying benefits according to their price.

The number of leads, emails per month, and the bandwidth allowed differ with each package and increase as you pay more.

Kartra’s packages consist of:

Starter — $99 per month
Silver — $149 per month
Gold — $299 per month
Diamond — $499 per month

With $99 per month being the cheapest package, we’d have to dig a little deeper to see if you’re really getting your money’s worth.

3.3. Kartra's pros and cons

So, what are some of the pros and cons that come along with choosing Kartra?

Pros

It’s easy to use for beginners

Users get access to a helpdesk with a tracking system

Built-in autoresponder, marketing automation, CRM, and affiliate system

Behavioral Adaptive Marketing (BAM)

30-day money-back guarantee

Many explanatory videos are available

Cons

It’s expensive for small business owners

Some of Kartra’s integrations require a lot of effort

There’s no evergreen webinar feature available (only through integrations)

Not ideal for businesses that sell physical products

There’s a cap on how many emails users can send

There’s a steep learning curve — creating funnels on this platform takes a lot of getting used to

As a whole, Kartra does boast an array of eye-catching features and integrations.

However, if you aim to use Kartra to host online courses, its course builder simply doesn’t make the cut when it comes to efficiency and ease of use.

3.4. Recommended if ...

You’re a beginner with a willing outlook to learn more about the platform
Ready-made sales funnels and campaigns are convenient for you
You have quite a bit of spare time to set aside for setting up your online business
Internal video hosting is a preferred feature

3.5. Not recommended if ...

Integrations with other tools aren't on your agenda, you’d have to use another tool to add an evergreen webinar feature since Kartra doesn’t have one
You want unlimited bandwidth, Kartra has storage limitations on video playing
Time is a limiting factor — you’d need quite a bit of time to fully know how to use their tools
You own a business that sells physical products

4. ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels' logo

ClickFunnels is an online platform that provides online entrepreneurs with the tools they need to sell, advertise, and deliver their products to their customers.

It promises top-of-the-range sales funnels, but does it deliver?

4.1. ClickFunnels' features

ClickFunnels offers a host of different features to optimize and design your sales funnels:

Hosting and domain services
Funnel templates
A drag-and-drop editor
Backpack affiliate program
Membership site functionality
Webinar funnels
Email service integrations
Analytics on funnels
A/B split testing on pages
Email support and documentation

Although ClickFunnels doesn’t advertise itself as a course creator, if you’re looking to sell an online course with ClickFunnels, you definitely can.

By using ClickFunnels’ password-protected "membership area", you’re able to host online course videos and other materials to deliver to your customers.

4.2. ClickFunnels' pricing

ClickFunnels' pricing

ClickFunnels proposes 3 different pricing plans for users:

The Basic plan — $97 per month
The Platinum plan — $297 per month
The TwoCommaClubX plan — $2497 per month

To determine which pricing plan would suit your needs, you’d need to ask yourself some important questions:

How many custom sites do you need?
How many contacts do you have?
Do you need to manage affiliates?
How many emails do you want to send?
What about membership sites?

All of the above features vary, depending on what plan you go for.

If you’re not ready to commit to the platform just yet, ClickFunnels does offer a 14-day free trial to give their tool a test run.

4.3. ClickFunnels' pros and cons

Let’s see how ClickFunnels’ pros and cons stack up:

Pros

Speedy implementation. You can launch your business ideas without having any coding experience

ClickFunnels integrates with most other tools on the market

The interface is quite straightforward and simple

You can easily edit and customize the mobile design of your building pages

You get access to a two-tier affiliate program

Cons

ClickFunnels uses a shared server, so it significantly slows down their page load speed

The tool to upload images gets a little buggy, forcing you to refresh the page

There’s only email support available, and the support team may take a few days to get back to you

Their “actionetics” email autoresponder is clunky

The plans are on the pricey side, especially if you’re a small business owner just starting out

Needless to say, ClickFunnels doesn’t score very high on the affordability scale, and we’re not completely convinced that the features offered in their standard plan live up to the price.

4.4. Recommended if ...

You want a platform that allows a quick set-up process to launch your business
You want to convert your web pages to mobile-responsive pages. ClickFunnels offers support for different screen solutions
You want access to a wide variety of design customization
Integration with many different tools is important

4.5. Not recommended if ...

You’re a small business owner just starting out — ClickFunnels has extremely pricey plans
Access to 24/7 online support is a must — ClickFunnels doesn’t always respond to support requests right away
Slow page loading speed is a dealbreaker for you
Clunky email autoresponders might slow down your email marketing