Podia

Pros

The easy setup and all in one services allowed me to set up my business in a week and make several sales in my first month of launching. I'm really pleased with how I could set up my entire business including email marketing and an affiliate program!

Cons

I honestly have no complaints right now. I wish Merch could be listed but I'm very satisfied with the design capability and features.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Podia

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

I cannot say enough good things about Podia - It's so easy to use, their tutorials are SO good, their customer service is amazing, their website/email marketing/blogging features are incredible, and my website has never looked better.

Cons

I wish there were a way to customize automated certificates within Podia. Unfortunately I had to pay for a third party service to get my needs met, which is frustrating.

Pros

easy visual to look at as a customer and navigate

Cons

I have had customers complain to me because when they click my products (coaching sessions specifically), they are being required to enter their email address and "sign up" before even being able to view my calendar availability. This feature should be optional for products. I am finding that podia is not as "user friendly" as I was led to believe. Also, the staff work from 9-5 but more often than not they are unavailable and I'm met with an automated response to send an email. Again, not very convenient for paying customers such as myself.

Pros

Definitely the ease of use and very intuitive interface. In addition, there is really nothing missing to create your own infobusiness! All this at a very affordable price compared to other competitors.

Cons

The free plan is very cool, however, it does not allow full access to all the features of Podia in order to use it. It also still lacks a number of customizations on checkout, and the translations into other languages are less than perfect.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

Podia is so easy to use. I cannot overemphasize how important this feature is when setting up and supporting online courses. There are so many plates to spin that it's nice to have one thing not to worry about. Podia's customer support is like no other. Responsive and thorough until the issue is resolved. I really appreciate that.

Cons

I have found it very confusing to see what customers see. Especially when they are having trouble. I wish they had a chat to get customer service directly instead of going through me. Or maybe if there were screenshots (and a video) so I could see how they log on and then what their dashboard looks like to be better able to help them.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Podia

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

Ease of use, support, and the fact that I can pay an annual fee and avoid having Podia take a percentage of my sales revenue.

Cons

I can't delete archived Coupons! Please fix this. Coupons are critical to the way I run my company, and I'd like the ability to clean up clutter. For example, if someone decides to make a bulk purchase, they would pay for X quantity of a course via Stripe externally to Podia. At that point, I would generate a coupon code with a 100% discount and X use limit so they could then "redeem" their licenses. This has worked very well for me, and saves me the time of having to pre-create accounts for people who bulk purchase -- instead, they can self-enroll.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

The design looks nice and modern, and the UX is so intuitive. It literally takes you less than an hour to launch your first course, and that's unheard of for other platforms.

Cons

I would like a little bit more options to use my own branding, but Podia's design is so nice and neutral, it's not bugging me.

Pros

Podia has become my absolute favorite all-in-one platform not just because of its continued growth and feature development over the past few years…but because of the way they actively engage with the Podia user community! The team genuinely listens to the user base and wants to create a product that is easy to use and still competitive in the industry.

Cons

Though Podia is always actively searching for ways to improve the platform, I do think the website editor could use a little more work. I’d love to be able to copy and paste blocks and sections across different pages. I’d also like to see a drag and drop feature to reorder those sections on the page.

Pros

PODIA fits all stages of business from a beginner with absolutely no prior or tech experience to someone who has been working successfully online and wants to simplify their work. That is why I recommend my creator students use it.

Whichever category a CREATOR falls into, she is going to find all the features she needs with PODIA. And features that are valuable time savers.

The best part is the time and money saved by having an all-in-one platform, everything in one place, ALL the features to create and run an online business. BUT, if you feel the need to replicate and complicate, you can use thousands of apps and services that interface with Podia.

Me? I stick with ONLY PODIA for my business including MY WEBSITE, EMAIL MARKETING AND BLOGGING and more! I love it! That’s saying a lot because I have been working online for 20+ years! Podia simplifies a creator’s life!

Know that whatever is created with PODIA looks great, has a huge variety of easy-to-use and functional features and reporting stats – no matter what your level of online app skill or NONE! Yup, you heard that right! It’s great for everyone! AND, everything you do in Podia is flexible! You are in control!

Cons

Over the 3 years I have been a Podia customer, if I felt something was lacking at any point, shortly after it was released as a key feature. Podia always has listened to customer comments and responded with a solution.

Pros

Great tool to create and deploy learning content

Cons

I have not found any inconvenience using Podia

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Podia

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

I chose the Podia platform for its ease of use and value. Creating a wealth-building program, I could not see spending double or triple the amount of Podia on another platform when I teach others how to build their wealth by being frugal.

Cons

I'm not good at creating websites or doing the backend programming, so I would like to see Podia have the option of hosting my URL and blog or partner with a company that provides those services. As it stands now I do not have a blog because I do not have the time to learn how to add the blog feature to the company that hosts my site.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

Podia is a simple platform wher I can teach online easily. Just have to customise a skin and that's it !

Cons

All the PLAN part. It was difficult to me to set up it correctly .

Alternatives Considered

Pros

Podia offers all the tools I need to efficiently run my business.

Cons

At this time I haven't run into any problems. The step by step guides and help section answered all of my questions.

Pros

I love the ease of creating courses, ebooks, online events, memberships, and my website with Podia software. I'm creating more fun products and courses on a daily basis! Podia makes it so easy to get started, create products, and make them available. Sometimes I can make products within minutes and have them available instantly with the simple straightforward platform. I like the way Podia looks and feels. Also, Podia's customer service is exceptional.

Cons

I honestly don't have anything negative to say about Podia.

Pros

There are a few features I really like about Podia.

Firstly, there's the overall platform design (dashboard, course pages, etc.) and user interface. At first, it may take you a moment to familiarize yourself with the different things Podia does but each section is quite straightforward, making the onboarding process a smooth one.

Additionally, I like the fact that Podia gives its users unlimited hosting of video content through one of the premium video platforms: Wistia. This means that you can upload all kinds of videos, as well as PDF and other types of learning materials, without having to worry about potentially "running out of storage".

Some course platforms limit themselves to enabling users to create and sell courses, while Podia can be leveraged to offer other things such as memberships, challenges, and digital workshops, just to mention a few.

Cons

While I like the overall Podia concept and design, I feel that the landing and sales page customization power is quite limited. That's something I wouldn't mind seeing it change in the future.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Pros

So simple to set up. So accommodating of their clients' needs: Think subscribers that are segmented from the get-go, newsletters and email drip campaigns that are as easy to write, beautify and send as an email, a pretty and sleek storefront, fully implemented with your website.
Also think ZERO cut from your earnings, NO restriction on your content. You pay the monthly fee and that's it!
One more thing: Podia takes care of invoicing, VAT - depending on where you are and where your buyers are ... a constant hassle to get that right and Podia just takes that load of your shoulders!

Cons

The only thing that bugged me was that I couldn't personalize the emails, like address them to a person by name - - and Podia has that on their agenda.

When you find a platform where that's the ONLY thing that bugs you? Feels like I finally found my online home.

Pros

As a non-technical, almost all software is a dangerous activity. Producing online courses is not my strength and I've gone the gamut of wanting to chuck it to being grateful that Podia continues to accommodate and meet the needs of its many & varied creators.

Cons

Probably what would have helped me from the beginning is a tour of where to find information/definitions/options within the course development without having to spend hours on YouTube videos/with support staff. From what I know right now, the software works well...the onboarding (for me) is wonky.

Pros

Podia makes it possible for a one-man shop to launch a course to the world and offer features that usually only a big shop would be able to.

This wasn't why we went with Podia. We were already an established e-learning company with thousands of customers around the world. Switching to Podia allowed us the ability to concentrate on the quality of our course content and less on the labor of launching new courses. Their system and interface is quite elegant and simple, with just the right of customization to differentiate your site from other Podia sites, but not enough customization options to paralyze you in development.

Their team is very responsive. They assisted with migrating over a thousand videos/lessons and thousands of customers.

They are consistently adding new features to the platform.

Cons

The reporting is a bit underwhelming, albeit we have been able to cobble together some reporting using third party software/services. But I have a feeling that they will enhance the reporting sooner than later.

Pros

Love it! Love the simplicity of ease and design! Love the support! Love the constant growth and innovation by the developers. So happy and always recommend to others.

Cons

Not one. The things I had been wanting, they have recently updated and included in their features… the ability to customize the Thank You Page.

Pros

The simplicity. It feels like it will be a lot faster & easier to get a new product/course in there without it being very complicated or having to run through a ton of testing prior to launching.

Cons

There doesn't appear to be a way to add Pinterest tracking tags (super important, possibly a deal breaker).
Lack of customization options on pages (even some simple things like changing font size or reducing the huge amount of white space between sections).
Inability to direct to a custom thank you page instead of just taking them straight into their product. This makes it impossible to have a true sales funnel with a thank you video & tripwire offer and lead into a bigger upsell. This could mean a huge loss of potential income. The ONLY thing you can virtually guarantee someone will see when they opt into your freebie is the thank you page. It's the biggest opportunity to sell to someone new.
There are "upsells" in Podia but they appear to work more like an order bump.
Not a true back & forth integration with ConvertKit.

Pros

The simplicity for doing action what ever it is in podia.
Almost no need of help, it is no intuitive that i have needed a little time to stop making simple things become complicate like before using podia.

Cons

Nothing for the moment.
The first days, i was asking question like “why can’t we do this or that with podia? It was things i was able to do before with the other but very complicate system...
But then, i realize that podia helps me simplify my job and that i work well without all the other options i had in the past.

Pros

It's super easy to use and fairly affordable

Cons

There are some features that aren't available like different size font and button sizes

Pros

Podia looked like a good potential solution for my business as a platform for the teaching and content work I’ve been doing with small businesses and social impact organizations in learning more quickly and to become more innovative as a matter of everyday practice.

Cons

After paying Podia for 2 years after a one-time sign-up, I got autobilled the $390 for a year when I have not used the software AT ALL for at least a year. It is customary with courteous customer service, *ESPECIALLY* for small business, to do a courtesy refund when the product has not been used.

A $390 small mistake for your small business could cost you everything if you do business with Podia. NOT WORTH THE RISK.

Pros

Probably the thing that I appreciate most from Podia is their customer support. I trial tested a few different platforms, and even though Podia doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the others, their unbelievably fast and friendly customer service was way ahead of the pack! It's really important to me that my students are able to get the help they need with the software or any issues that I can't handle on my end.
Podia is also just incredibly easy to use, you can get a course up and running in a matter of hours. I've really enjoyed creating on their platform.

Cons

So far, the only thing I dislike is the inability to categorize products. Having everything on your storefront in a big, long list isn't the most user-friendly way to show things.

Pros

Where do I start? Podia is unlike any other site out there that's made for creators so creators can easily build a community and make money. Email marketing, online courses, digital downloads, even a blog, and website - you can do ALL of that easily on Podia. You keep what you make. AND the price is very affordable too. Great customer support with tons of tutorials.

Cons

It can be a little overwhelming at first but their support is amazing!

Pros

I love that Podia is simple to use but extremely powerful. If you are looking for a do it all platform for your website, course, email and more, look no further.

Cons

Not much to complain about! My number one wishes were email (which they recently added) and a blog (which is coming soon it seems).

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Podia

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

Podia was easy to set up and get started earning through selling online services. They also dont take a commision from sales which makes selling a little more profitable.
There are simple and easy to follow help guides for every step of the set up and management.

Cons

There is nothing that I dislike, I find Podia simple and straightforward to use

Pros

I love Podia! I am grateful to have found this platform. It's user-friendly, allows me to consolidate multiple services in one place (and for one payment), Podia's team is incredible, and customer service is always exceptional.

Cons

After more than two years of use, absolutely nothing has been lacking for me on the platform. I consider it perfect in every way.

Pros

Everything talks to eachother. For our sleep consulting business, it's very educational, coaching, and B2C focused. This means that we have an email list, sales, general CRM, website, promo codes, that all need to talk to each other. Before we were duct taping Stripe, zapier, Monday, calendly, and it was a mess

Cons

I would just like a few more features built out for the community section so it compares to palyers like Circle and Tribe (customization, different layouts, etc.)Also, a little more customization around segments and reporting. Like if I want to know "Give me all the people that have signed up for the free lead magnet and also purchased Product X within 7 days" so we can be more targetted

Pros

Podia is very easy to use and like the design featuers. I also love to have my e-Mails on one page.

Cons

I launched a new product and for the users is absolutely easy to use. The payment options are also very variable.

Pros

Loved building my website and programs in Podia. I’ve been able to figure out many things on my own, so I appreciate the simplicity and the video tutorials etc. I’ve recently been trialing their new email platform and so far, it’s another user friendly win!!I feel like Podia offers everything in one place (courses, email, website, community)

Cons

Nothing really. I think the only thing that slows me down is “me” haha …and I’m constantly learning.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Podia

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

I enjoy how simple Podia is to upload and create different types of products!

Cons

There’s nothing that I don’t like about Podia.

Pros

I was looking for an easy way to start creating courses and found Podia was the perfect balance of affordable and easy to use.

Cons

There needs to be an automated email platform included. I can’t see why I should pay extra to implement this.

Pros

Easy to use, good enough UI and enough features for the price to be really really valuable for our business.

Cons

Some limitations with certain features. An integration with Hubspot would be super helpful as well.

Pros

I love the support, ease of use, features & continual improvements

Cons

There isn’t really anything I don’t like.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Podia

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

Easy to use. Many tools all in one place. Free platform to help you get started.

Cons

There are some limitations in design and lack of live help.

Pros

Podia is very easy to use. The integration of my content (videos, audios, files...) is simple and fast.

Cons

I would like to able to create some "title" which can include two or more sections.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

Fairly easy to use and set up as a content creator.

Cons

For small scale business (like mine) with infrequent use, Podia is a bit more expensive than some other options.

Pros

I loved the overall "look" and "feel" of podia. Everything was fresh and modern. Their landing pages are also super nice!

Cons

I didn't like the fact that it was hard to add freebies. It was also annoying that I couldn't place quizzes in between modules to make sure students weren't understanding the information.

Pros

The email broadcasting is great, especially for campaigns

Cons

it is quite a slow website and it's very difficult to pull reports it doesn't show anything specific, just general sales

Pros

As a software guy, I'm used to spending a lot of time fine tuning features, fixing bugs, and troubleshooting issues for customers. Thankfully with Podia all of these tasks are non-issues. Within a few minutes of opening our first of 2 schools in 2019, we had Stripe and Paypal payment gateways configured and were already making money with the simple presale landing page feature. Over the last few years we've done multiple six figure revenue through Podia, and enjoy the "all in one" nature of the product -- email newsletters, community, courses. The referral program has also been a great avenue for us, as we've shared Podia with enough creators to now essentially have a free account for life. This means I can focus more on making good content, and less on weighing the pros and cons of a monthly bill vs our enrollment traction at the time. I've used a couple Podia competitors as well over the years, but overall this is my #1 recommendation for no-code LMS.

Cons

There are several features (both big and small) that would make me rate Podia a 10/10 instead of ~8.5 / 10. For starters, an open API. Currently the Zapier integration is too limited to help us achieve what we want, namely trigger based emails linked to specific lectures in the course. I'd also like better analytics, such as seeing which students are in a given "cohort" (e.g. who finished Module 1 vs Module 3), so we can better nudge them along toward completion. Lastly, there are a few improvement opportunities to the course editor itself. For us this would include more rich text options, as well as embedded code snippets.

Pros

PODIA hands down is SIMPLE to use. No muss, no fuss, SIMPLE.

I have created WordPress websites for YEARS for myself and customers. Once you get to a certain point, being overwhelmed with tons of WP updates, crashes, plugin failures, and band width issues, it just makes you want to throw in the towel.

I have used OTHER solutions to try get OFF the WP UPDATE HELL Induced Headache Train, you know, you log in to do something that you expect to take 10 mins and 3 hours later, you are still messing with something broken on WordPress.

In my search for solutions I researched most of the well known LMS's out there. Some how I found Podia, I think on YouTube. I compared it to Thinkific in a side by side trial.. and Podia WON.. it didn't help that Thinkific changed their pricing structure to THEIR benefit in the middle of my test, so PODIA won by being totally INTO giving me MY money for MY Students. No Fees.. YAY..

Yes, I have tried other LMS's too. but you don't have all day to read about that.

Cons

I have been on line since 1999, so I have played with a lot of software in my day, from hand coding HTML websites , Dreamweaver and Front Page to the Drag and Drop ease of use we have today.

While Podia is hands down far far easier then WP to use to set up a membership and sales page, it isn't perfect, but the PODIA staff are RESPONSIVE to suggestions.. and they implement them too.

With WP.. good luck..unless you are a coder and want to make your own plugins, it can take years for WP to implement change.

Sure Podia is not as "Flexible" as WordPress, but I also know that if I need to do something that takes 10 mins on Podia, it really will ONLY take me that long, and there are no surprise updates waiting for me, and dozens of Plugins that then also need to be updated along with it.

Time is MONEY in my book and WP was COSTING me Money.. more than it was MAKING me money.

Pros

The fact that Podia hosts your videos and content for you is a huge win and savings. When I used Wishlist Member, I was stuck with Vimeo Pro and it's a lot of back and forth between softwares. Podia is all-in-one in that regard.

Cons

Say you offer a Coaching Call / Mentorship package for a 30 minute call, 1 hour, or a 3 month bundle of calls. Instead of creating one product, one sales page with 3 simple pay options... you have to create 3 full separate products and then create a separate, custom page as your sales page using columns. You can't have a simple dropdown menu to select the simple option.

Want to create a membership with a startup fee? i.e. $75 join fee, then $29/mo. You can't.

Want to add a countdown timer to your sales page? Great! Go spend another $49/month with Deadline funnel (that's legit their solution or make a video gif of a timer). No custom embed codes can be added to your sales pages.

Have multiple email lists like I do? You can only integrate with one, so be sure to get Zapier at another $20/mo so your people can get on the right list.

Want to put something on sale and have see the higher price crossed out so your customer sees the price difference? You can't cross out pricing and you can't put things on sale - you must create a coupon code.

Pros

Podia makes it easy to launch a course, a landing page, or a lead magnet for list building. I also love the subscription/membership capability.

Cons

They are definitely working on this and continuously improving it, but the community feature is still lacking a bit. I still use Facebook groups or other tools to compensate, but over the past couple years the capacity is trending in the right direction.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

I am new setting up a paid membership community & I have asked tons & tons of questions & I always get a quick, friendly & helpful response! I am blown away & it's probably the best customer service experience I've ever had! Thank you Podia! The product is also fairly simple to setup & it looks great on mobile devices!

Cons

Theres some not so pretty looking aspects on desktop but it's not that big of a deal. The videos I uploaded are extremely zoomed in for some reason... but I was able to fix that by putting my videos on youtube unlisted first then pasting the links in the content section of the posts I create & it looks awesome!

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Podia

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

Yes, it's easy to use and customer support is fantastic...but that's where the pros end

Cons

Horrible horrible functionality. Some BASIC website features aren't included, period:

1) No website backup functionality
2) No ability to have SKUs/units tracking
3) They sell you "coaching", but there's no way to track when someone books.
4) No way for a customer to book a coaching session twice (really?)
5) No way for a customer to book a "bundle" of coaching sessions (all you can do is "title" it 3 sessions)
6) No way to have dynamic settings for affiliates...all affiliates get the same kick-back
7) 0 ability for bulk updates of ANYTHING
8) No expiry date on courses
9) No ability to size images (what you upload is what you get)
10) No "contact us" form
11) Super rigid text/page design (i.e. don't even have Elementor)
12) No CSS customization
13) No dynamic course creation (as in, you can't create "pieces" and move them around)
14) Editing courses is SO painful. They default an image/thumbnail and to change it you have to manually upload. If you have a long course, then ANY update you make scrolls you all the way back to the top. No quick editing of titles. No ability to set title preference (they insist on defaulting to .mp4).
15) You need to pay $100 EXTRA a month JUST to get conversion tracking installed

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Podia

Pros

- Beautiful design
- Wonderful support
- Incredibly easy to use
- Great for my conversion rates

Cons

I've sat here for 5 minutes and can't actually think of a con, imo. :)

Pros

Easy to use, great customer support, chat feature, integrated quizzes, coaching and other features like coupons and integrated email (for example, I used MailChimp and I can utilize a MailChimp tag to add customers to my email list).

Cons

Quizzes are not previewable for potential customers, so I would like this to be available, and Ithere is no marketing assistance, so course promotions would be a bonus.

Pros

Everything.
The price, super affordable and simple. No complications like others.
No transaction fees on matter what plan you are in.
Super intuitive to use, requires almost no tutorial. Although they have excellent documentation for any possible question.
Support is super helpful and responsive. 10 out of 10 in helpfulness.
It is so easy to use it makes you want to create courses and make good use of it.
I made my monies worth on the investment within the first week.

Cons

The only con is that the software is not feature rich. This is NOT a con for me. To me it is a plus. They made it so dead-simple that literally anyone can use it. I feel that is the right use-case for most people and I am glad Podia chose to accomodate extreme simplification.
Well known competitors (which I won't name), have a ton of features but makes it a lot more complicated, not as intuitive and a bit more difficult to use it. Podia is almost "too simple", but that's a good thing.
I anticipate using Podia for years to come.
I wrote extensive blog on my website about how I use it, how you can use it, and also a full walkthrough video on my youtube channel to show all the insides.

Pros

Ease of use both for administrator and course/community members.

Cons

At first, I wanted more flexibility in the builder but once I got into it, I just knew that anything more would not add to the experience. It's such an easy platform to use.