Teachable and Udemy are the two most popular online course platforms. And if you’re interested in selling online courses, you’ll need to answer the Teachable vs Udemy question.
In this guide, I’ll help you understand their differences and, thus, choose between the two platforms.
We’ll start with an infographic that compares the two course platforms based on specific criteria. And then, I’ll explain the pros and cons of using the two platforms.
Share the infographic on your site:
<p><strong>Please include attribution to sellcoursesonline.com with this graphic.</strong><br /><br /><a href='https://sellcoursesonline.com/teachable-vs-udemy'><img src='https://sellcoursesonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/udemy-vs-teachable-min.png' alt='Teachable vs Udemy for Selling Online Courses' width='800px' border='0' /></a></p>Teachable vs Udemy Summary
The fundamental difference between the two platforms is that Teachable is an online course platform that allows you to sell online courses from your own website.
It lets you build a website, host your content, create a course curriculum, engage learners, build sales pages, accept payments, run your affiliate program, etc.
At the same time, Udemy is an online marketplace that allows you to list and sell your courses. When you create a Udemy course, it gets added to their catalog and becomes available for selling through the platform.
While Teachable provides you the infrastructure to sell your courses, it doesn’t market them. It is you who is entirely responsible for marketing your courses.
The upside of using a platform like Teachable is that it gives you complete control over every aspect of creating and selling online courses and is thus ideal for running an online course business.
For access to the platform, Teachable charges a monthly fee. On lower plans, you also pay a small transaction fee.
If you would like to read a more in-depth breakdown of the platform, you should check this Teachable review guide on this blog.
In Udemy’s case, it provides you the infrastructure to host your course content and actively promotes them to its audience as well.
It requires you to share a certain percentage (67%) of your course sales with them, which is a bit high. And it puts all sorts of restrictions and control on pricing, promotions, access to student data, etc.
As far as I’m concerned, Udemy is a great platform, and it is where I made my first dollar as a course creator. It was easy to use, helped me get started quickly, and most importantly, helped me market my courses.
However, I am not a fan of using marketplaces as your primary strategy to sell online courses. I will share a couple of examples that explain why.
Udemy reduced the instructor revenue share on the platform from 70% to 50% in 2013 and from 50% to 37% in 2021. In fact, the revenue share at the start used to be 90%.
Now imagine being a seller on Udemy at such a point; your revenue would have come down by a significant %, and you could do nothing about it.
In 2016, they decided to cap the prices of the Udemy courses in the range of $20 to $50. As a result, many instructors, including me, were severely hit, but it wasn’t in our control.
This was the point when I realized the importance of having my own email list, my own audience, and my own business. So, I decided to move to Teachable and launch my own online school.
Why Selling Solely on Udemy Is a Bad Idea?
Here are a few specific reasons why I think selling solely on Udemy (marketplaces) is a bad idea:
- The biggest drawback of selling on Udemy is a lack of control. You don’t control its policies, course pricing, student communication, etc. Basically, you don’t control anything on Udemy except what course you want to create.
- With Udemy, you neither own the brand nor the email list. It’s their brand that’s being marketed, and it’s their list that’s getting built. So for some reason, if you can’t sell on Udemy, you’ll have no business and no income.
- Udemy has become a race to the bottom, with most courses selling in the range of $5 – $10. So, you effectively get $2 – $4 per course sale. With this type of pricing, most instructors can’t make a full-time income.
- While Udemy has a huge audience base for certain niches like Technology and Personal Development, it has a small user base for most niches.
- Udemy is now extremely competitive. Gone are the days when you’d upload a course on the platform, and sales would start rolling in. Now, you need to put in a lot of marketing efforts at your end before you see any significant traction on the platform.
We cover this in more detail in our Udemy review. It’s a must-read if you’re interested in selling courses on Udemy.
Teachable vs Udemy – The Final Verdict
So, is Udemy worth it for course creators? It depends.
I’ll suggest you try Udemy only if you’re in one of those popular niches. It has a huge audience base, and you can leverage it.
However, you should use Udemy only as one of the sales channels for your course business. You can also use it to generate leads and test course ideas.
Otherwise, you should build an audience and use a hosted online course creator to launch a course website and sell courses from day one.
If you want to try the Teachable platform, you can start a free trial by clicking on the button below.
If you have any questions regarding Udemy vs Teachable, post them in the comments below, and I will get back as soon as possible.
