Podia vs. Kajabi – Two All-In-One Course Platforms

Overview of Podia

Podia is one of the most known online course platforms available today. Both course creators and students love it as a learning management system.

The simple interface allows creators to easily create digital products. Podia is notable for being one of the only platforms to let you create three kinds of digital products.

You can sell online courses, digital downloads, and memberships when you’re subscribed to Podia.

And for every digital product you create, you can upload images, videos, and audio files as supporting content.

Podia’s assessment features are also helpful for course creators. Since they’re customizable, they can be adjusted to the type of lesson a student is taking.

And after you’ve finished creating your digital products, you can already sell them on Podia. You can even use affiliate and email marketing to help reach new audiences.

There are two paid plans that you can avail of on Podia after your free trial expires. The best part is that there are absolutely no transaction fees for every payment you make.

Standout Features of Podia

Digital Products

There are three types of digital products that creators can market on Podia. These are online courses, digital downloads, and memberships.

First, online courses are the typical online lessons that students can enroll in. Course creators design them right on the Podia platform and they can create an unlimited number of courses as well.

Second, digital downloads are content that creators prepare offline before uploading to Podia. They can be eBooks, audiobooks, or PDFs, among other file types.

Third, memberships are subscriptions to websites that the course creators make. These websites will contain digital content like digital downloads and online courses as well. They’re somewhat of a hybrid between the two products but housed on one page.

Podia’s drag-and-drop builder allows creators to add and rearrange elements to their products. It also simplifies the customization process for their websites.

The platform also has unlimited bandwidth so creators can upload as many files as they want. Usually, online courses are accompanied by visual aids like images and videos.

Drip Content

The content you upload to Podia can also be set to drip to your students and subscribers. For online courses, you can set a new lesson to only accessible once a student has completely finished his previous one.

The same goes for digital downloads and memberships. You can opt to only make new content available after a certain number of days or on a specific date.

Email Marketing

Marketing your digital products is much easier on Podia because of the email marketing tools. With these, creators can send group emails to subscribers. They can quickly update them on a new online course or digital download.

With Podia, you can also monitor which step of the sales funnel a user is at and then send an email based on that. One example is if Podia sees that a user failed to complete his sign-up form. An email reminder to complete the form will then be sent to him.

After an email is sent, the course creator can also view analytics on it. Podia allows you to check the conversion rates, unsubscribe rates, and click-through rates of every email you send.

Knowing the analytics of your emails can help you figure out how to improve them. Some users tend to respond better to certain templates and you can test them out through email marketing.

Affiliate Marketing

Adding to the email marketing tools on Podia are affiliate marketing tools. This is a clever strategy to gain new students and subscribers.

Course creators can coordinate with affiliates to promote their digital products. A standard commission rate can be set for each product.

The affiliates will be able to view the links they’ll be using to advertise the products right on their Podia dashboards. They’ll also get access to their own commission rates, click rates, and total revenue per cutoff.

With affiliate marketing, creators can reach out to audiences that they normally wouldn’t be able to. The affiliates will usually post the links on their blog, website, or social media accounts.

There’s also an option to view how well your affiliates are doing. Analytics like click-through and conversion rates can be viewed on the creator’s dashboard. If you notice that a particular affiliate isn’t doing well, you can even choose to dissolve your partnership.

Page Customization

Going back to Podia’s drag-and-drop builder, it proves to be effective for quick customization. All it takes is a few clicks to enhance the look of your page.

First, you can easily rearrange the elements and sections on your site by dragging them.

Second, colors and themes can be adjusted on Podia. You can either use pre-made templates that are already on the platform or choose specific shades for your buttons and fonts.

Speaking of fonts, you can alter the official font sizes, colors, and types for your website. Other elements like banners and descriptions can also be added to the different sections.

In-App Messaging

Communication between instructors and students is key to a good learning experience. With Podia, you don’t have to worry about how to reach out to your students because there’s a messaging feature right on the platform.

Students can easily message their teacher whenever they have questions about a certain lesson. In turn, the teacher can also ask for feedback from the students in real-time.

Plus, if there are any edits to the modules or new lessons posted, then the teachers can simply send messages to the students.

Customer Support

Podia offers 24/7 customer support to all of its users. There are two ways to reach out to the Podia team, either via live chat or email.

For more urgent problems, it’s best that you use the live chat for an immediate response. For other queries, you can send an email to the team and expect a reply in as fast as 5 minutes.

For added support, Podia also has a database of articles on its official website. They answer frequently asked questions and discuss helpful tips for navigating the platform.

There are even video tutorials and trainings on the website if you’re more of a visual learner. Many users like to view them for help on how to use the Podia page builder.

Podia Pricing

Podia has two paid plans that you can choose from after your 14-day free trial ends. The free trial gives you access to all of Podia’s premium features for a limited time.

When you do eventually avail of one of the paid plans, there will be no extra charges or transaction fees for either.

Podia Mover Plan

The Podia Mover Plan costs $39 per month. For those who want to get billed annually, it will only cost $32.50 per month or $390 per year.

With this Podia plan, creators can market two kinds of digital products, an online course, and a digital download. They’re also free to customize the look of the main website.

Podia offers unlimited bandwidth with this plan so you can upload as many files as you want for each digital product. Video lessons and webinars can also be hosted for a better e-learning experience.

The digital products will eventually be marketed on Podia once the creator is done setting them up. For better reach, email marketing tools are available for perusal.

Podia’s Mover Plan also gives users access to the platform’s messaging feature to give way for easy communication. And if you encounter any issues, the 24/7 live chat and email teams are available to help out.

Podia Shaker Plan

The Podia Shaker Plan costs $79 per month. For those who want to get billed annually, it will only cost around $65.84 per month or $790 per year.

With the Shaker Plan, subscribers get access to all the same features of the Mover Plan but with more advanced benefits and tools.

The reason why the Shaker Plan is pricier is that you get to create a third type of digital product.

Creators can design memberships with this plan. As mentioned, a membership is a subscription to a website with exclusive content like eBooks, audiobooks, and other files.

You can also host webinars by integrating your Zoom account when you’re subscribed to the Shaker Plan. Plus, a customizable “Buy” button can be added to your website when marketing your digital products.

Shaker Plan subscribers can even create their own blog to enhance their marketing strategy. And they can do affiliate marketing to expand their reach.

Lastly, Podia lets you install third-party codes from Olark, Pixel, and Facebook when you’re subscribed to this plan.

SEE MORE: Podia Pricing Plans and Packages

Overview of Kajabi

If you’ve been following our site for a while, then you surely know how much we love Kajabi. This all-in-one platform continues to impress us because of its helpful features.

Kajabi has a user-friendly interface that speeds up course creation and marketing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-time creator or an expert because the platform is easy to navigate.

The course creation tools let you customize your modules with different types of content. You can also personalize your landing pages.

After everything is set up, you can immediately start selling your online course on Kajabi as well.

Plus, if you’re a student, you’ll be glad to know that there is a diverse range of topics and courses to choose from on Kajabi.

Standout Features of Kajabi

Course Creation

Kajabi’s course creation tools stand out from all the other platforms because of advanced options. You can create subsections and categories for your modules.

A variety of file types can be uploaded as well. You can add PDFs, video files, and audio files as extra resources for your students. Creators can even host webinars and interactive videos on Kajabi.

You can choose to upload your files from your computer or from file-sharing apps like DropBox and Google Drive.

Kajabi also has Product Blueprints which serve as templates for organizing your page and products. When you use a blueprint, all you’ll have to do is type your information into the spaces and you’ll be good to go.

And when you create an online course on Kajabi, you can optimize it to rank high on search engines using SEO tools. You simply have to enable the SEO and sharing settings on your account.

Quiz and Drip Options

To assess your students’ progress, you’ll obviously want to add quizzes to your lessons. Kajabi’s Assessment feature lets you create different quiz types, depending on the complexity of the course.

You can design identification, multiple-choice, and essay quiz types. There’s also an option to set the required answer to a certain type of file that the student will upload.

Plus, there’s an automatic grading feature on Kajabi that speeds up quiz-checking. You’ll know immediately how your student did once they finish the quiz.

Another feature that Kajabi has is Drip Content. This means that course creators can set when they want new content to be released to their students.

They can set a specific date or time that the students can access a certain online course or module. An interval time between the release of new content can also be set.

Email and Affiliate Marketing

It’s not difficult to sell online courses on Kajabi because of the built-in marketing tools. Kajabi offers both email and affiliate marketing options when you’re subscribed.

The email marketing tools let you send emails to a group of users. You can market your new courses and digital products to both your current students, as well as users who aren’t enrolled yet.

Plus, there’s an option to do automated emailing for your enrolled students. Course creators can send out updates on new lessons, deadlines, and important content via email.

The students on Kajabi can even reply to the emails. This enhances communication between the instructor and the learners. Any questions on the lessons and modules can also be asked via email.

What we love the most about Kajabi’s email marketing feature is that it can discern a user’s behavior. Kajabi can monitor which step of the sign-up process a user is on and then send an email based on it.

Usually, Kajabi notices that a user hasn’t completed the sign-up process so it’ll send a reminder to the user to finish their sign-up sheet.

As for Kajabi’s affiliate marketing tools, they allow creators to run an affiliate program. They can partner up with affiliates to promote an online course.

In turn, the affiliate will receive a standard commission rate for every user that successfully subscribes.

Kajabi has a dashboard dedicated to the affiliate program and you can view progress reports from there. The affiliates will also be able to view their own payout reports and commission rates.

Sales Funnels and Landing Pages

Another marketing feature available on Kajabi is the creation of sales funnels and pipelines. These help creators keep track of the progress of their marketing campaigns.

Kajabi lets you create steps to take for every campaign you make. These are what make up the sales funnel.

And for every step on the funnel, you can create landing, home, and sales pages. If you want a more personalized website, you can even add a thank-you page for new subscribers.

Analytics

Apart from the affiliate analytics that we mentioned earlier, creators can also view other reports on Kajabi. The platform lets you monitor your students’ overall progress in real-time.

Plus, you can also access the engagement rates for all the content you upload on Kajabi. Things like page views, revenue reports, and conversion rates can be viewed.

The analytics feature that Kajabi has is helpful for deciding how to improve your content. You can discern what content gives better results and then just start using that.

Integrations

Kajabi also allows creators to integrate third-party applications.

The apps that you can sync to your account include email marketing tools like MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, and Aweber. They have great options for large-scale email lists.

Analytics tools like Zapier, ClickFunnels, and Google Analytics can also be integrated into your page. They help you monitor conversion rates, click-through rates, and other analytics.

Google Analytics, in particular, is one of the most commonly used third-party apps on Kajabi.

Finally, you can also integrate third-party design software to create certificates for your students. They’ll help with personalizing the look of your online certificates.

Online Discussion Board

Kajabi encourages user interaction via an online discussion board. Students and subscribers can ask questions by posting on it.

They can even discuss the current lessons that they’re taking on the discussion board. It will help enrich their knowledge of the courses.

The discussion board is also not limited to student use. Even the instructors can use it. They can post about new updates and lessons for their students.

Customer Support

One last thing we love about Kajabi is that it has a good customer support team. The live chat feature is available 24/7 so you can resolve urgent concerns fairly quickly.

There is also an email response team that you can reach out to if your concern isn’t too urgent.

While you’re using the platform, there’s also something called the Kajabi Assistant. It’s found on your dashboard and you can click on it for guidance on how to navigate the site.

The assistant is smart enough to even recommend tutorials that will help you learn a particular process on the site.

Kajabi Pricing

There are three paid plans that you can avail of on Kajabi, depending on your budget, needs, and level of course creation expertise.

Upon registration though, you’ll first be given a free trial that lasts for 14 days. You can use all of Kajabi’s basic features for free.

Just remember to cancel your subscription before your trial ends since the plan automatically renews once it’s over. In short, your credit card will get charged for the new subscription if you fail to cancel early.

There’s also another free trial that lasts for 28 days and it’s geared more for serious course creators. It’s called the 28-day Kajabi Hero Challenge.

Kajabi Basic Plan

The Kajabi Basic Plan costs $149 per month. For those who want to get billed annually, it will only cost $119 per month or $1,428 per year.

With this Kajabi plan, you get to create 3 digital products and 3 sales pipelines. Kajabi offers unlimited bandwidth, marketing emails, and landing pages as well.

Each course creator can also add 1,000 active members and 10,000 contacts to their account. These are also the users that they can send bulk emails to eventually.

You can also own 1 website and have 1 admin user when you choose to subscribe to this Kajabi plan.

And if you’re worried about hidden charges, you don’t have to. Kajabi won’t ask for a transaction fee.

We highly recommend this Kajabi plan for those on a tight budget or who are just starting out with their online business. This is the most affordable plan on Kajabi but it still guarantees premium features.

Kajabi Growth Plan

The Kajabi Growth Plan costs $199 per month. For those who want to get billed annually, it will only cost $159 per month or $1,908 per year.

With this Kajabi plan, subscribers will receive all the same features from the Kajabi Basic Plan. The added benefits are that they can design 15 digital products and 15 sales pipelines.

The number of active users that they can enroll can also go up to 10,000. Creators can also add up to 25,000 contacts and have 10 admin users for their account.

This is also the Kajabi plan wherein you can begin running an affiliate program for your products. Email marketing features are also unlocked when you avail of the Kajabi Growth Plan.

We recommend that you avail of this Kajabi plan if your online business is more established and stable. It’s a fairly-priced mid-tier plan.

Kajabi Pro Plan

The Kajabi Pro Plan costs $399 per month. For those who want to get billed annually, it will only cost $319 per month or $3,828 per year.

With this plan, you’ll have access to all the same benefits you’d get with the Kajabi Basic and Growth plans but with added features.

You can create 100 products and 100 sales pipelines with the Kajabi Pro Plan. You can also make unlimited landing pages and 2,000,000 marketing emails.

Course creators can add up to 20,000 active members and 100,000 contacts to their account. Plus, they can manage 3 websites and have a total of 25 admin users.

And like the Kajabi Growth Plan, you can also run an affiliate program and do email marketing with this plan.

We highly recommend that you subscribe to the Kajabi Pro Plan if you’re planning to enroll in big teams and classes.

Podia vs. Kajabi

Now, we move on to the main agenda of this Podia vs. Kajabi article. This section puts Kajabi vs. Podia to determine what their similarities and differences are.

Similarities

Going through the features of Kajabi and Podia, the most blatant similarity they have is that each has a user-friendly interface.

Whether you’re a first-time creator or an experienced instructor, it won’t take much for you to figure out how to use the page builders on both platforms.

One more similarity between them is their marketing features. You can send out bulk emails to users and run an affiliate program on Kajabi. Podia lets you do the same.

Both platforms are also capable of doing drip content. Creators can release new updates and lessons at a set interval on Podia and Kajabi.

In terms of customer support, both platforms are capable of email responses and live chat. They’re also known for their quick reply rates.

Course creators can also access analytics on Podia and Kajabi. Conversion rates, click rates, and total revenue can be monitored in real-time.

And as for payment concerns, both platforms don’t ask for transaction fees. Podia and Kajabi also offer free trials upon registration.

Differences

Though we know that both Kajabi and Podia have competent standout features, there still are distinct differences between the two platforms.

When putting Kajabi vs. Podia in terms of course creation features, we find that there are slightly more advanced tools on Kajabi. Podia allows you to make a fully working course but the options are pretty basic compared to Kajabi.

Kajabi has SEO-optimization tools and ready-to-use templates for creating courses. Students can also submit certain files as their answers to the quizzes.

Also, we noticed that Kajabi lets you customize your landing pages and sales funnels. Podia doesn’t have a specific feature that does that.

If we’re pitting Kajabi vs. Podia in terms of digital product creation though, we think Podia is superior.

On Podia, you can create three types of products: online courses, memberships, and digital downloads. Kajabi only lets you create one kind of digital product which is an online course.

Podia also has its own messaging feature on the platform. It simplifies communication between the instructor and students because they can just converse as often as they want.

But Kajabi’s answer to Podia’s messaging feature is its online discussion board which Podia doesn’t have. Users can also interact with one another other but it’s through the digital forum.

And when you set Kajabi vs. Podia in terms of pricing, Kajabi is more expensive. Podia’s cheapest plan costs only $39 per month while Kajabi’s costs $149 per month. If you’re on a budget, you’ll obviously choose Podia.

But if you’re thinking about Kajabi vs. Podia in terms of the variety of subscription plans, then Kajabi is more competent. This is since Podia only offers two plans while Kajabi has three.

Conclusion

As platforms, both Podia and Kajabi have their own strengths. And the thing about these platforms is that despite their respective limitations, they still come out as effective learning management systems.

We honestly believe that the result of this Kajabi vs. Podia review would have to be a tie. Whichever platform you choose will give you a competent website and fully functional online course.

Perhaps the only thing you should think about when deciding which one you’ll ultimately subscribe to is your budget. Go for Podia if you’re planning to save and go for Kajabi if you’re willing to spend.

And if you enjoyed this Kajabi vs. Podia article, then check out our other comparison articles:

• Kajabi vs. Teachable
• Podia vs. Teachable
• Kajabi vs. Thinkific