So you’re ready to launch an online course. Congratulations! It’s so exciting when you have something you’re ready to teach the world.
And it’s often at this point that creators run up against one of the biggest questions they’ll face. Where do you actually host this thing? There are SO MANY course creation platforms out there, with a new one being created every week. How the heck are you supposed to pick? What if you pick wrong and it hurts your course sales?
In this article, we’re going to take a deep dive into comparing two of the most common course platforms out there: Teachable and Udemy. While they both have a lot to offer, they each have different advantages and disadvantages, and neither one does it all.
Let’s compare.
Teachable Overview
Teachable is a platform for creating and selling online courses. When you use Teachable, you have a dedicated space to design and sell your courses without distractions. Users who visit your course page won’t see other courses, which can help you focus on your product.
Teachable Features:
- Customization: You can personalize the look and feel of your course with various design options, templates, and color choices. You can even use your own domain name.
- Marketing Tools: Teachable lets you create your own sales pages and run affiliate programs to help promote your course. Affiliates can earn a commission for selling your course, which can help you reach a broader audience.
- Teachable offers a range of features designed to enhance both the appearance and marketing potential of your course. With its customization options, you can tailor the look and feel of your course to align with your brand’s identity. You have access to various design options, including templates and color choices, which allow you to create a visually appealing course experience. You can further personalize your course by using your own domain name, making it easier for your audience to find and remember your course’s web address.
- In terms of marketing, Teachable provides powerful tools to help promote your course effectively. You can create custom sales pages to highlight your course’s unique selling points and drive conversions. Additionally, Teachable supports affiliate programs, enabling you to recruit affiliates who can earn commissions by selling your course. This not only incentivizes others to promote your course but also extends your reach to new audiences through their networks. These features work together to help you create a professional course experience and boost its visibility and sales potential.

Udemy Overview
Udemy is also a platform for creating and hosting online courses, but it functions as a marketplace. Your course will be listed alongside thousands of other courses, which has both pros and cons.
Features:
- Marketplace Exposure: Udemy has a large user base searching for courses. This means your course is more likely to be seen by new students if you don’t have an existing audience.
- Flexible Course Formats: You can deliver your course in various formats, including video, audio, and text. Udemy also offers tools for quizzes, Q&As, and reviews, although it lacks the extensive branding options of Teachable.
- Udemy provides significant marketplace exposure due to its large and diverse user base actively searching for courses. This broad reach increases the likelihood that new students will discover your course, especially if you don’t already have an established audience. In addition to its marketplace advantage, Udemy supports flexible course formats, allowing you to deliver content in various forms, including video, audio, and text. The platform also includes tools for quizzes, Q&As, and reviews to enhance the learning experience. However, it’s worth noting that Udemy’s branding options are not as extensive as those offered by Teachable, limiting your ability to fully customize the look and feel of your course.
Comparing Teachable and Udemy
1. Creating Your Course
- Teachable: Offers extensive tools for creating and customizing your course. You can design your course with video lectures, live coaching, and quizzes. The platform allows for a high level of branding, including custom domain names and flexible design options.
- Udemy: Provides a range of delivery methods for your course, including video, audio, and text. While it offers good support features like quizzes and reviews, it doesn’t offer as much customization for branding since your course will be part of the Udemy marketplace.
2. Marketing Your Course
- Teachable: You create and market your course independently. The platform provides tools for custom sales pages and affiliate marketing, where you can partner with others to promote your course and share revenue.
- Udemy: Acts as a marketplace where your course is visible to its large user base. You get to keep most of the revenue if you bring students to Udemy yourself. However, Udemy takes a larger cut if it finds students for you.
3. Selling Your Course
- Teachable: Offers a “free” plan with transaction fees. You’ll pay a fee per sale on the free plan, but you can switch to a paid plan to keep more of your revenue. Higher-tier plans offer additional features like affiliate programs.
- Udemy: Free to create and host courses, but Udemy takes a percentage of each sale. You keep most of the revenue if you bring your own students, but Udemy takes a larger cut for students it attracts.
4. Pricing and Features
- Teachable: Offers various plans. The basic plan costs $29/month, but you’ll get more features, including the affiliate program, with the $90/month Pro plan. Teachable can be costly compared to other platforms offering similar features.
- Udemy: Free to use, with revenue sharing. No monthly fees, but Udemy takes a portion of your sales, which can be a downside if you don’t drive your own traffic.

5. Mobile Apps and Access
- Teachable: Has an iOS app but no Android app, which limits accessibility for a significant number of users.
- Udemy: Offers apps for both iOS and Android. Students can download course content for offline access and use features like Chromecast and Apple TV streaming.
6. Building Community
- Teachable and Udemy: Both platforms have limited options for building a community around your course. Most course creators use separate platforms or tools to create engaging communities.
Conclusion
Teachable is best if you want a high level of customization, branding, and control over your course and sales. It’s ideal if you’re ready to handle marketing and can benefit from tools like affiliate programs.
Udemy is a good choice if you want to reach a large audience without much effort in marketing. It’s great if you’re starting out and don’t have an existing following, though you might end up sharing a bigger slice of your revenue with Udemy.
Teachable Vs Udemy: FAQs
Q1: What is Teachable?
Teachable is a cloud-based platform that allows you to build and sell online courses. It provides many customization options for course creation, pricing, and branding.
Q2: What is Udemy?
A: Udemy is an online learning marketplace that connects students with instructors who create and sell courses.
Q3: How do Teachable and Udemy differ?
A: Teachable is a platform for creating and selling your courses, while Udemy is a marketplace where you can sell your courses alongside other instructors. Teachable gives you more control over your course, branding, and pricing, while Udemy has a larger audience and handles marketing and customer support.
Q4: Which is best, Teachable Vs Udemy?
Let me give my perspective here on what I would do if I wanted to create a course. If I have an existing audience, I will choose Teachable over Udemy to create a course. It provides many course creation tools and better designing tools, and I can also create one-on-one sessions with any audience—all of this I can do conveniently at a reasonable price.
But if I don’t have an audience or am new to the course creation process, I would choose Udemy to get started. I have to pay nothing to create the course; I can use their marketing features and feature my course in their highlighted course library, so many visitors can watch my course, and I get some audience views and conversions.
Q5: Is Udemy free?
No. They may not have set prices like Teachable, but you pay a charge to sell your course on their platform.
Q6: Can you create a coaching session on Udemy?
No. Currently, you can only upload your recorded videos as course videos. You cannot teach live on Udemy.
Q7: Can you create a coaching session on Teachable?
Yes, you can create both courses and coaching sessions on Teachable.
Q8: Which platform is better for students?
It depends on the learners’ preferences. Udemy has a wider variety of courses, and one instructor creates Teachable courses that offer focused content.
Q9: Can I use both Teachable and Udemy to sell my courses?
Yes, you can sell your courses on both platforms. However, remember that Udemy has strict guidelines for courses available elsewhere, so you may need to adjust your pricing or content if you want to sell on both platforms.
Q10: How do I decide which platform to use?
Consider your goals, budget, and the level of control you want over your course. Also, research the audience and competition on both platforms to see where your course may have the best chance of success.