Teachable vs. Udemy — Which Is Better for Selling Online Courses?

(The following pros and cons were gathered from both Capterra and G2.)

Starting with Teachable:

Next, Udemy:

Now that their pros and cons have given you an idea of what to expect from these platforms, let’s compare their features to see which one is ideal for your course content, sales pages, and marketing strategies.

With a market size expected to reach $1 trillion by 2028, now is the perfect time to share your knowledge and create online courses.

Let’s see how Teachable and Udemy can help you do just that.

When it comes to the course content itself, you can:

After you’ve submitted these details, Udemy will review them and either approve it or indicate areas that need improvement.

Plus, Udemy has a special ace up its sleeve: It’s localized in 15+ different languages, which is awesome for instructors looking to engage local markets.

One of the last things Udemy offers is messages to students . . .

You can write optional “Welcome” or “Congratulations” messages to your students that will be sent automatically when they join or complete your course.

Verdict:

Both Teachable and Udemy have plenty of diversified course-creation features and get the job done for thousands of instructors every day.

So we’ll give each platform a point for that.

Teachable gets an extra point for having coaching features that simply don’t exist on Udemy.

Teachable vs Udemy: 2 — 1

If you don't have the right strategy to sell your course online, you'll lose money, no matter how good the content is.

So in this stage of the Teachable vs Udemy saga, we’ll look into the experience of how instructors sell courses on each platform.

Speaking of pricing options, course creators on Teachable are able to offer these ones to their students:

For student management purposes, payment details of students are automatically saved if they sign up using one of the recurring payment options (like subscriptions).

Students can also check the “Save my billing info for future purchases" box in the payment section to save their payment details for their next purchase.

Here are the ways your students will be able to pay when signing up:

Furthermore, when it comes to eating the fruits of the revenue generated by your course, this is how it plays out:

You’ll want coupons and referral links of your courses to be integrated into your marketing efforts at all times.

On the plus side, Udemy provides a wide range of payment options. Your students can pay using:

Also, depending on your course reviews, it may end up showing on the front page of the course marketplace which could skyrocket your course sales.

Unfortunately, you can't offer different ways to pay for your course, like subscriptions and memberships, as you can with Teachable.

Verdict:

On the one hand, Teachable simply offers more customizability when it comes to making your online course business.

On the other hand, Udemy takes a more active role when it comes to marketing your courses with its 1-size-fits-all approach.

Considering what marketing plans you have for your course business, both platforms might present a good option for you. We’ll call this one a tie.

Teachable vs Udemy: 3 — 2

According to Statista, the number of email users is set to increase to around 4.6 billion by 2025.

On top of that, 59% of respondents’ purchase decisions are influenced by marketing emails.

What do these numbers tell you?

Not only is email an incredibly important means of communication, but you can also become a successful course creator with the right emailing tools by your side.

Do these course platforms deliver on this? Let’s find out.

You can also send test emails, segment, manage and filter your email list to send emails to specific groups using the previously mentioned integrations.

To stay GDPR compliant, Teachable provides the option for new account users to opt in/out of promotional emails on your checkout page.

They can also opt out at a later stage by editing their profile information.

One of the last things to mention is that Teachable also offers plenty of email notification templates (that can be disabled) for:

In terms of emailing features, Udemy doesn’t offer a lot.

Their marketing tools include:

Other than the Bonus Lecture — where you can market other courses and related products to students — they offer no other real email marketing features like a template editor or running full email campaigns.

You can only send up to 2 promotional emails and 4 educational emails per month, each with a slew of rules (here are a few below):

On top of that, Udemy doesn’t directly integrate with platforms that can help your email marketing efforts.

Verdict:

Teachable is the better option for pursuing your email marketing efforts.

Teachable vs Udemy: 4 — 2

It looks like that Teachable has won the battle of features by simply offering course creators more ways to customize the appearance of their online course businesses.

But don’t discount Udemy just yet. One of the reasons Udemy is so popular is its pricing compared to Teachable or anything else out there for that matter.

Let’s take a look at the pricing plans for Teachable first.

The Free plan will let you set up unlimited courses, unlimited coaching services, basic quizzes, product bundles, product support, and a few integrations.

Note that you have a $1 + 10% transaction fee on each sale.

The Basic plan includes everything in the Free plan with access to the email admin section in your dashboard, a single student community, drip course content, and more integrations.

And a 5% transaction fee on each sale.

Teachable's professional plan, it includes everything in the Basic plan with a 0% transaction fee.

It has access to more features like affiliate marketing, advanced theme customization, course completion certificates, and advanced reports.

Has access to all the features Teachable has to offer.

So, what makes Udemy so popular and the go-to option for more than 65k instructors?

The answer is pretty simple, it’s free for all instructors on Udemy to upload as many courses as they want — including both free and paid ones.

Granted, you’ll need to become a premium instructor to offer paid courses on Udemy, but it’s fairly easy to obtain that title.

Just go through the application process where you fill out personal data like payout methods and billing addresses — and that’s it, no fees are needed.

So here’s our final recommendation for the Teachable vs Udemy saga:

Teachable is right for you if . . .

You’re someone who’s looking to invest time and money into building an online course business that matches a unique brand.

Udemy is better for you if...

You’re someone who’s starting out and looking to focus on the actual content that’ll be put out. And you don’t mind your students having the same viewing experience as the rest of the students on Udemy.

But there’s something better than both Teachable and Udemy if you want to run an online course business.

What is that? — you may ask.

The last one is how you really blow both Teachable and Udemy out of the water.

Think about how amazing would it be if your online course business is 100% automated with full email marketing features, drip content, segmentation, seamless checkout pages, and more!

But why stop there? Tap into advanced features like A/B testing, deadline funnels, upsells, assistant accounts, and evergreen webinars.

As a course creator with systeme.io, you’ll truly be in full control when it comes to marketing and managing your online business.

And if you thought Teachable was even remotely affordable, you’re going to love this one...

The Free plan offers you all of the 6 essential features you need to get your online course business fully up and running — and it’s free forever.

You can save 30% on an annual subscription.

You also get a free migration if you sign up for the Unlimited plan or any annual billing plan.

It’s a risk-free deal for you—literally nothing is stopping you from signing up right now to see if all our claims are true!

So to close this post, here’s what we’ve learned today:

And of course, the cherry on top — if you’re looking to create and grow a sustainable online course business, then systeme.io is your best option as we have all the tools you’ll need in one place.

We don’t ask for any card info when you first sign up, so go give us a go!

Cheerio!