With the rise of online education, more and more creators are looking to sell online courses. But you need the right tools to have a successful online course business. Samcart and Teachable are two of the most popular options in this arena. But which is better for selling online courses in 2023?
This in-depth Samcart vs Teachable comparison will examine each platform’s key features, pricing, and ideal user. You’ll know the best choice to launch and grow your online course business this year.
Why Does Your Online Course Business Need a Platform Like Samcart or Teachable?
To sell courses online, you need more than just a course curriculum. An online course platform handles all the backend functionality needed to get your course in front of students and collect payments. This includes:
- Course hosting and delivery
- Marketing tools like landing pages
- Shopping cart and checkout capabilities
- Payment processing and collection
- Coupons and discounts
- Subscription management and drip content delivery
- Sales tax calculations
- Analytics and reporting
Without a platform like Teachable or Samcart, you’d have to piece together all these capabilities yourself. The right platform makes it effortless to create, market, sell, and analyze your online courses, all in one place.
Samcart vs Teachable At a Glance
Before diving into the details, here’s a high-level overview of how Samcart and Teachable stack up for selling online courses:
- Samcart maximizes conversions and sales through its shopping cart and landing page builder. It seamlessly integrates with other platforms like Teachable for hosting courses.
- Teachable is an all-in-one online course platform for creating, marketing and selling your courses. Everything is handled in one place.
- Samcart has lower transaction fees at 2.9% + 30 cents per sale. Teachable’s lowest plan charges 5% per sale.
- Teachable offers native course creation tools. With Samcart, you need a separate course-building platform.
- Both integrate with email services, Zapier, and webinar software. Teachable offers deeper analytics.
Now, let’s explore each platform in more detail.
A Closer Look at Samcart
Samcart is a shopping cart software built for selling digital products online. While it doesn’t offer native course creation tools, Samcart makes connecting your online course platform to its world-class checkout and payment processing capabilities easy.
Here are some key features that make Samcart a top choice for maximizing conversions and customer value:
- Intuitive drag-and-drop landing page builder to convert course signups
- High-converting checkout and payment pages purpose-built for online course sales
- One-click integrations with platforms like Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific, and more
- Advanced payment options, including subscriptions, payment plans, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more
- Powerful automation for personalized checkout, drip content delivery, abandoned cart recovery, and more
- Top-notch analytics on sales, revenue, conversions, engagement and more
- Reliable PCI-compliant payment processing and security for transactions
- Ability to seamlessly sell both digital and physical products
For online course creators, Samcart delivers the exceptional checkout experience needed to maximize sales. And with transaction fees as low as 2.9%, it’s an affordable option as your business scales.
If you already have an online course platform like Teachable set up, Samcart seamlessly integrates to provide best-in-class order bumps, payment processing, and sales optimization.
A Closer Look at Teachable
As a dedicated online course platform, Teachable offers an all-in-one solution for creating, marketing, selling, and analyzing your online courses.
Here are the key benefits Teachable provides for online course creators:
- Intuitive course builder with website themes to create professional online courses
- Marketing tools like landing pages, email campaigns, affiliate marketing, and coupons
- Built-in e-commerce functionality for payments, subscriptions, bundles, and more
- Support for selling both digital and physical products
- Powerful analytics dashboards for course sales and engagement
- Membership site capabilities for ongoing access and drip content
- Zapier integration to connect with marketing & sales tools like Mailchimp
- Mobile apps so students can access courses on iOS and Android devices
With Teachable, everything you need to build, sell, and analyze online courses is handled seamlessly in one platform. You don’t need to integrate multiple tools. The tradeoff is higher transaction fees, starting at 5% per sale.
For course creators who value simplicity and convenience, Teachable provides excellent end-to-end functionality for your online course business.
Samcart vs Teachable: Key Feature Comparison
To help summarize the differences, here’s a side-by-side look at some of the key features for selling online courses:
| Feature | Samcart | Teachable |
|---|---|---|
| Course creation tools | No – Requires 3rd party platform | Yes |
| Landing page builder | Yes | Yes |
| Shopping cart | Yes | Yes |
| Payment processing | Yes | Yes |
| Subscription management | Yes | Yes |
| Discount coupons | Yes | Yes |
| Drip content delivery | Yes | Yes |
| Physical product sales | Yes | Yes |
| Email marketing integration | Yes | Yes |
| Zapier integration | Yes | Yes |
| Native mobile apps | No | Yes |
| Analytics dashboards | Yes | Yes |
Both platforms provide excellent sales enablement and management for online courses, but Teachable offers a more all-in-one approach. Samcart requires integrating a separate course tool.
However, Samcart specializes in maximizing conversion rates through its landing page builder and checkout process. Teachable provides more overall features, but Samcart excels at boosting sales.
Samcart vs Teachable Pricing
Pricing is an important factor when choosing an online course platform. Here’s how the costs compare:
Samcart Pricing
- Basic Plan – $49/mo (up to 75 orders/month)
- Standard Plan – $199/mo (up to 150 orders/month)
- Professional Plan – $299/mo (unlimited orders)
Transaction fees are 2.9% + $0.30 per sale
Teachable Pricing
- Basic – $29/mo (5% transaction fee)
- Pro – $99/mo (0% transaction fee)
- Business – $249/mo (0% transaction fee)
So, while Teachable seems more affordable at first glance, the transaction fees mean you pay a lot more on the lower plans as your sales increase.
With lower transaction fees, Samcart becomes much more cost-effective at higher monthly order volumes.
For example, with 100 sales at a $200 order value each month:
- On Teachable’s Basic plan, you’d pay $29/month + $1000 in transaction fees = $1029 total
- On Samcart’s Standard plan, you’d pay $199/month + $580 in transaction fees = $779 total
As you can see, Samcart provides significant savings for high-volume online course businesses. For lower volumes, Teachable is more affordable.
Is Samcart or Teachable Better for Your Online Course Business?
With this comparison in mind, here are some key factors to help you choose the best platform:
If you want:
- To have everything (course creation, marketing, sales, analytics) in one place → Teachable
- The easiest and most seamless course platform → Teachable
- Built-in course authoring tools → Teachable
- Easy mobile course access for students → Teachable
- Max conversion rates and sales optimization → Samcart
- Advanced subscriptions and payment plan capabilities → Samcart
- Lower transaction fees as you scale → Samcart
- To integrate a course platform like Kajabi with better checkout → Samcart
For most course creators, I recommend Teachable as the easiest all-in-one platform to get started. The course creation tools, templates, and integrated sales and marketing capabilities make launching your first course a breeze.
However, as your course business grows, Samcart’s lower transaction fees can save you hundreds per month. Its landing page builder and conversions optimization features are excellent for scaling your sales.
So consider starting with Teachable and then integrating Samcart’s checkout capabilities once established to maximize revenue. Many successful online course entrepreneurs use this combined approach.
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
Congratulations – you know how the top online course platforms stack up for creating and selling courses and memberships in 2023!
Here’s a quick recap of the key points:
- Teachable provides an all-in-one course platform, while Samcart specializes in maximizing conversions and sales.
- Samcart charges lower transaction fees of 2.9% + $0.30 per sale compared to Teachable’s 5% fee on the basic plan.
- Teachable’s course creator is easy to use, while Samcart offers advanced landing pages and payment options.
- Consider starting with Teachable for simplicity, then integrating Samcart later to optimize revenue.
- Pricing is affordable on both platforms, with Samcart providing more value at higher sales volumes.
Ready to get started creating and selling online courses? Try out free trials of both Samcart and Teachable to see which platform you like better. And use this comparison as a guide as your course business grows.
FAQ
Q: What payment options are available with Teachable?
A: Teachable allows you to accept payments through multiple options, including credit/debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. This gives your students the flexibility to choose the payment method that suits them best.
Q: How does Samcart boost conversions?
A: Samcart offers features like one-click upsells, order bumps, and A/B testing, which are designed to increase conversions and maximize revenue. These features allow you to offer additional products or services to your customers during the checkout process, improving the overall value of your offering.
Q: Can I create and sell unlimited courses with Teachable?
A: Yes, Teachable allows you to create and sell unlimited courses. This means you can create as many courses as you want and offer them to your students without any limitations.
Q: How easy is it to create courses using Teachable?
A: Teachable is known for its easy-to-use course-building platform. It offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it simple to create and customize your courses without any coding or technical skills required.
Q: Can I use Teachable for other types of digital products besides courses?
A: Yes, Teachable also supports the sale of other digital products besides courses. You can use Teachable to sell ebooks, membership subscriptions, coaching programs, and more.
Q: How does Teachable compare to Kajabi and Thinkific?
A: Teachable, Kajabi, and Thinkific are all popular course creation platforms. Each platform has its own unique features and strengths. To compare Teachable to Kajabi and Thinkific, you can use a comparison chart or try their free trials to see which platform best fits your needs.
Q: Can I customize the pricing plans for my courses with Teachable?
A: Yes, Teachable allows you to set up custom pricing plans for your courses. You can offer different payment options, create tiered pricing plans, or offer discounts and promotions to attract more students.
Q: Can I run my business without a separate checkout page with Teachable?
A: Yes, Teachable provides a built-in checkout page feature, allowing you to sell your courses without needing a separate checkout page. This streamlines the purchasing process for your students and improves their overall experience.