Welcome to our complete Podia review for 2024. Podia is an all-in-one platform for selling digital products and courses online. But with so many ecommerce platforms out there, how does it compare?
In this 5000+ word review, we‘ll cover everything you need to know:
- What is Podia and how does it work?
- Podia‘s key features for ecommerce, courses, email marketing and more
- Podia pricing plans and costs
- Pros and cons of using Podia
- Podia competitors and alternatives
By the end of this expansive review, you‘ll know if Podia is right for your business. Let‘s dive in…
What is Podia? A Complete Overview
Podia started out as a platform focused specifically on hosting and selling online courses back in 2014. Despite competition from giants like Teachable and Thinkific, Podia carved out a solid niche for itself in the market.
But over the years, Podia has expanded into a more versatile all-in-one platform for digital commerce. Now you can use it to sell all kinds of digital products – not just online courses.
For example, you can sell:
- PDF guides and ebooks
- Video tutorials
- Software and app access
- Coaching and consulting services
- Memberships and communities
- Webinars and virtual events
Podia aims to provide everything an online entrepreneur needs in one place:
- Website builder
- Shopping cart
- Course creator
- Email marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Analytics
- And more…
Having an integrated platform for digital commerce can save you time and money over piecing together separate tools.
But how does Podia actually work on a practical level?
It‘s a software as a service (SaaS) platform that runs in the cloud. So there‘s no software to download or install.
To get started, you simply sign up for a Podia account, choose a plan (pricing covered shortly), and build out your online storefront using the provided website builder.
You can then use the backend tools to add products like digital downloads, courses, memberships etc.
Customers can purchase your products directly through your Podia-powered website. And you can market to them using the built-in email marketing and affiliate tools.
Now let‘s take a closer look at some of Podia‘s key features…
Podia Features For Selling Online
Podia packs a ton of features into a single platform. Let‘s explore the main ones:
Website Builder
Every Podia account comes with a drag-and-drop website builder to create your online storefront.
While fairly basic, it‘s easy to use. And you can build a professional looking website in under 10 minutes even with no design experience.
To get started, just select one of Podia‘s pre-made templates such as:
- Sales page
- Squeeze page
- Full website
Then customize it by adding your own sections, images, videos and text content with the WYSIWYG editor.
Your site is also fully responsive so it looks good on mobile and tablets too.
However, one downside is you don‘t get much customization freedom compared to platforms like WordPress and Squarespace. The grid-based editor limits where you can place elements.
But for simple sites to sell digital goods, it gets the job done.
eCommerce Tools
A core part of Podia is its digital commerce tools for selling all types of digital products.
Let‘s explore some of the main ecommerce features…
Digital Downloads
To sell digital files like ebooks, audio, videos, software etc, navigate to Products > New Product > Digital Download.
Then upload your file and customize the product name, description, pricing etc.
Customers can purchase and download products directly from your site. Podia also handles payment processing seamlessly.
Online Courses
One of Podia‘s most popular features is its online course builder. You can create a full curriculum complete with multimedia lessons.
We‘ll cover the course features more in a dedicated section shortly.
Memberships
You can also sell recurring access to premium memberships. This could be for an online community, content library or other gated content.
Set up different membership tiers at various price points with automatic recurring billing.
Webinars
In addition, Podia integrates with Zoom and YouTube Live so you can host and sell access to live webinars.
You can use webinars as a monetization stream or as a lead magnet to grow your email list.
Coaching / Services
If you offer coaching or consulting services, you can sell those through Podia too.
It integrates with popular scheduling tools like Calendly so customers can book calls directly on your site.
No matter what you sell, Podia aims to provide the ecommerce functionality you need.
Now let‘s explore some of the other non-commerce tools…
Email Marketing
Podia comes packed with email marketing features to market to your customer base.
You can send regular broadcast emails to segmented groups of subscribers. For example, targeting customers who purchased a specific product.
In addition, you can set up automated email sequences based on triggers. Such as sending a 5 day onboarding sequence when someone signs up to your email list.
While useful for basic email marketing, Podia lacks some more advanced features like dynamic content, complex automations and advanced analytics.
But it covers the basics well for most online businesses.
Affiliate Marketing
You can also recruit affiliates to promote your products in exchange for a commission on each sale.
This can be a powerful driver of passive sales, allowing you to leverage other people‘s audiences.
Simply create an affiliate program and approve affiliates who apply. You can then track visits, clicks and sales per affiliate.
Affiliates also get access to special links and creatives to share your products across their channels.
Community Building
Podia comes with community forum software built-in. You can create public or private community spaces for members to interact.
Organize your forums into topics and categories to streamline discussions. And members can create posts and reply with comments.
If you sell a membership site or online courses, creating a community enhances customer engagement and retention.
Integrations
While Podia wants to provide an all-in-one solution, it also offers integrations with various third party platforms:
- Email marketing: MailChimp, ConvertKit, Drip etc
- Payment processors: Stripe, PayPal
- Scheduling: Calendly, AcuityScheduling
- Analytics: Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel
- Advertising: Google Ads, Facebook Ads
So you can connect other tools you use to extend functionality.
It also allows you to embed content from sites like YouTube and Vimeo using iframes.
Next let‘s take a closer look at one of Podia‘s most popular features…
Podia‘s Online Course Builder
One area where Podia excels is its course creator. As an early course platform, online courses remain one of its core offerings.
Podia aims to make it as easy as possible to put together a professional online course.
To create a course, head to Products > New Product > Online Course.
You assemble your curriculum through a simple editor interface. First break it down into core sections, like chapters. For example:
- Introduction
- Getting Set Up
- Basic Techniques
- Advanced Lessons
Within each section, add individual video or text lessons. Podia supports all types of multimedia like:
- Text
- Images
- Documents
- Video
- Audio
- YouTube embeds
- Vimeo embeds
You can mix and match content formats across different lessons to keep things engaging.
Students access courses directly through your Podia-powered website. And their progress is tracked across lessons.
Courses can also be downloaded for offline access, which is a neat bonus.
For assessments, you can add Quizzes at the end of sections or courses with multiple choice questions. Students are graded automatically.
However, one downside is you can‘t create other quiz formats like open-ended questions or essays. So assessment functionality is limited.
There‘s also no way to review work and provide individual feedback. But this may not matter depending on your course model.
Overall, it provides more than enough functionality for most basic online courses. But lacks some advanced features provided by specialized LMS platforms.
Now let‘s take a look at Podia‘s pricing…
Podia Pricing & Plans
Podia offers several pricing plans to suit different needs and budgets:
Free
- 8% transaction fee
- Full website builder
- 1 product listing
- Basic email marketing
Basic
- $29/month
- 0% transaction fees
- Unlimited products
- Advanced email marketing
- More integrations
Pro
- $99/month
- Unlimited webinars
- Affiliate marketing
- Priority support
Premium
- $249/month
- For growing agencies
- Bulk features
- 5 team member logins
The free plan is extremely generous. You can build a full website and experiment with selling digital goods without paying a cent.
Paid plans unlock additional features, lower transaction fees, and higher usage limits.
They represent excellent value given everything you get in a single platform. Costs are very competitive compared to buying separate tools.
But how does Podia perform overall? Let‘s summarize the pros and cons:
Podia Pros & Cons
Podia Pros
- Extremely easy to use interface
- Generous free plan to get started
- Built-in website builder included
- Sell and market all types of digital goods
- Great value for money "all-in-one" platform
- Helpful customer support
Podia Cons
- Website builder lacks advanced customization
- No support for physical product sales
- Limited quiz options for courses
- Email marketing missing some advanced features
- Can‘t edit HTML/CSS code directly
Podia isn‘t perfect. But it achieves its core goal very well – making digital commerce as easy as possible.
For beginners without tech skills, Podia provides an intuitive way to sell online courses, memberships, downloads and services.
And it bundles useful marketing features like email marketing and affiliate programs in one place.
However, more advanced users may want greater design control or more sophisticated functionality in certain areas.
Now let‘s compare some alternatives…
Podia Alternatives & Competitors
So how does Podia stack up against popular competitors? Here are the main alternative platforms for selling online:
1. Teachable
Teachable focuses purely on online courses. So it offers more advanced and robust course features.
However, you‘d need other tools for emails, affiliate marketing etc.
2. Thinkific
Thinkific concentrates on courses too. It provides sophisticated course creation tools for assessments, drip content and video hosting.
Plus has a content-focused website builder for course businesses.
3. LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is another course platform strong on beautiful course website design and multimedia content features.
It also offers some online community capabilities.
4. Kartra
Kartra is the closest all-in-one alternative to Podia. It bundles a website builder, email marketing, membership portals, affiliate tools and more.
However, Kartra uses a more complex interface which has a steeper learning curve.
5. ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels provides sales funnel building and automation tools for marketing digital products.
You can create high converting sales pages and checkouts backed by analytics. It connects easily to payment processors and email providers.
So which platforms suits you best depends on your specific business needs…
For online course creators focused purely on eLearning, platforms like Teachable and Thinkific are fantastic.
But they lack built-in tools for email marketing, affiliates, analytics etc.
And course builders often over complicate things for total beginners.
This is where Podia shines…
It simplifies the technology behind selling online into a single intuitive platform.
So whether you want to sell courses, memberships, downloads or services, Podia provides the essential commerce and marketing tools needed.
Sure there are more advanced or specialized platforms. But they come with steeper learning curves that intimidate first-timers.
Podia hits the sweet spot of providing powerful digital commerce features through an easy-to-grasp interface.
Now let‘s wrap up with some final thoughts…
Podia Review – The Final Verdict
That sums up our monster 5000+ word Podia review!
There‘s no question Podia provides an impressive all-in-one platform for selling digital products online.
It bundles the core tools online entrepreneurs and small business owners need:
- Professional website builder
- Shopping cart
- Email marketing
- Course creator
- Affiliate program
- Analytics
And delivers them through a clean intuitive interface that just about anyone can grasp.
You can literally set up an entire online business and starting making money in under an hour.
Ultimately, Podia succeeds in its main goal – simplifying online commerce technology for non technical entrepreneurs.
It cuts out needless complexity without sacrificing too many advanced functionalities. Finding the right balance.
And with a forever free plan, you can test drive Podia risk-free to see if you like it.
So if you want to start selling courses, memberships or downloads online, we strongly recommend giving Podia a look.
It provides tremendous value with one of the most beginner-friendly interfaces around.
Ready to try Podia for yourself?
Head to Podia.com to get started and unlock their 14-day free trial.
