Podia Review

Podia is an online course platform with the ability to integrate email campaigns, memberships and more. I switched to Podia for my online fertility awareness courses and wanted to share my experience of using Podia in my business. Before we get into the review, you should know that I pay for Podia in full. This post contains affiliate links which means that when you purchase with my links you can support my work at no extra cost to you.

Context: Why I switched to Podia

I used to host fertility awareness courses on my Squarespace website with a Mailchimp drip campaigns, but as my business grew I needed something more efficient. I wanted to spend more time supporting my clients and less time making sure all of my various systems “talked” to each other. I also wanted an experience that was more streamlined for my clients.

My signature course, Cycle Love, is unique in that it contains self-paced material but it is not an evergreen course - that means that the course is not open all the time, instead I have several enrolment periods throughout the year. Cycle Love includes live group calls and 1:1 sessions (I have a module in the Cycle Love course where I can upload group call recordings and another with a link where clients can book their 1:1 call).

I also have courses and downloads that are evergreen. Having a flexible and beautiful service was important to me.

I was debating between several course hosting platforms like Teachable, Kajabi, Skillshare - in the end it was the email marketing that sold me. I was reaching a point where I would have to pay for Mailchimp so I switched everything over to Podia’s all-in-one service at once. I was going to have to pay for Mailchimp as my business grew and I was already paying for video hosting on Vimeo. Now I just pay for one service: Podia.

Here’s a snapshot of the customer view for Cycle Love. In the course builder you can integrate videos, PDF’s, text, audio or other media to round out your course. There is no limit to the content you can upload which is a huge plus!

Here’s a snapshot of the customer view for Cycle Love. In the course builder you can integrate videos, PDF’s, text, audio or other media to round out your course. There is no limit to the content you can upload which is a huge plus!

Pricing

“Mover” plan is $39/month

“Shaker” plan (includes features like memberships, zoom integration, offisite buy buttons) is $79/month

What I like about Podia

  • The basic “Mover” plan includes unlimited email subscribers, courses and course customers.

  • Beautiful and minimalist user experience, the customer works through modules and can see where they are in relation to the material, what they have completed etc.

  • Drip campaigns integrate with courses. This is huge for me and saves a lot of steps. I can set up emails to send when new modules open up or I can contact everyone who has signed up for a particular course.

  • Podia customer service is incredibly helpful and available.

  • Clients can sign up for payment plans which are automated through Stripe - this in and of itself has saved me so much time and follow up with clients.

  • Podia has a site builder feature, so if you are someone who doesn’t have a website, you can have your own name.podia.com website where people can sign up for your courses and learn more about how to work with you.

  • Customers can message you directly through the Podia course site.

  • I personally use and love the ‘pre-launch’ feature for Cycle Love. I can gather email addresses and notify potential customers when registration opens for a course that they’re interested in.

  • I do have to say, that my open rate has increased since switching to Podia from Mailchimp. I’m not exactly sure why, but inboxes must like Podia more.

Downsides of Podia

  • The email marketing feature is fairly new to Podia, and there is some room for improvement. Coming from someone used to the customizability, analytics and targeted email features in Mailchimp, the flexibility of Podia’s email marketing is limited. For example, I am unable to remove or move customers in audiences - this has to be done by Podia customer support. I have also had issues with opt-ins where there are customers on an email list that are not receiving emails because they unsubscribed somewhere else.

  • No option to add tax based on customers location on courses or digital products.

  • Paypal is not available for payment plans, payment plan purchases must be done through Stripe.

  • No option for a form to gather information, like an address or basic information, when a customer signs up for a course.

    Podia is constantly improving with user feedback, and there are plans to roll out new features down the road as well, so these things may improve.

    See for yourself

    Before I switched to Podia I took a course with someone who hosts their courses on Podia, so I could get a sense of the client experience. If you’d like to try it out for yourself, you can sign up for my free FAM Fundamentals course which is hosted through Podia.




Nathalie Daudet