Teachable is an online learning platform that allows you to create and sell your own digital products.
Skillshare is a learning community. You can apply to post content on the community and are paid based on how well your content performs compared to other creators.
- Teachable has a free plan
- Teachable is rated as the #8 platform on SupplyGem
- Teachable has a rating of 2.6/5 on Trustpilot
- Teachable is the winner of this comparison
- Skillshare is free for creators
- Skillshare is not ranked in the top 10 platforms on SupplyGem
- Skillshare has a rating of 1.5/5 on Trustpilot
- Skillshare is a great alternative if you don’t have an existing audience and don’t want to advertise
Teachable allows you to build your own school with courses, coaching programs, and digital downloads.
You can set the payment method for your products and sell them to customers.
In contrast, Skillshare is an online community where users pay for a subscription to access the entire course library.
As a creator, you can apply to publish your content and are paid based on your engagement and watch time compared to other creators.
Key Takeaways:
- Teachable is the winner of this comparison for its versatility and ability to create your own brand, products, and school.
- Skillshare is a good alternative if you only want to monetize your knowledge and don’t want to build a brand.
Teachable has a free plan that allows you to create and sell your first course, coaching program, and digital download.
Skillshare is free to teach on. However, you need to complete an application and wait for a decision from Skillshare to begin using the platform.
| Teachable | Skillshare | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 Overall Rank | #8 | Unranked on SupplyGem | Teachable |
| ⭐ Customer Rating | 2.6/5 | 1.5/5 | Teachable |
| 💵 Starting Price | Free | Free | Tie |
| 🔥 Discount | 33% on annual plans | No paid options | It depends, but we prefer Teachable |
| 💸 Transaction Fees | $1 + 10% on the Free plan 5% on the Basic plan 0% on the Pro and Business plans | Earn based on engagement and referrals | It depends, but we prefer Teachable |
| 💡 Demo or Free Trial | Free plan | Free | It depends, but we prefer Teachable |
| 💻 Build a Website | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Teachable |
| 👩🏫 Create Courses | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | Teachable |
| 🧑🏫 Offer Coaching | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Teachable |
| ✉️ Marketing Features | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Teachable |
| 💰 Sell Digital Products | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Teachable |
| 📈 Analytics | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Teachable |
| 🏆 Affiliate Program | ✅ Yes, on the Pro plan | ❌ Referrals only | Teachable |
| 🔗 Integrations | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Teachable |
| 🤝 Customer Support | ✅ Yes, email support for all plans and live chat for Professional and Business plans | ✅ Yes, email support | Teachable |
Teachable and Skillshare both allow you to monetize your knowledge and teach users with online courses.
However, the way they operate would suit different teachers and creators.
What Is Teachable and Who Is It for?
Teachable was built for creators, entrepreneurs, and influencers.
It’s an easy-to-use platform that allows you to share and get paid for your knowledge.
You can build courses, digital downloads, and coaching products.
Teachable puts you in charge of payments, marketing your content, and building your brand.
What Is Skillshare and Who Is It for?
Skillshare is a learning community.
You can apply to become a teacher and post your content to the community.
Community members pay a membership fee and can access all of the content available in the community.
You are paid based on your content’s engagement compared to other creators.
If you want to share your knowledge but are not interested in building a brand or marketing your products, Skillshare would work for you. This is because Skillshare has existing students willing to learn.
Teachable and Skillshare both have benefits and limitations.
Understanding these can help you decide which best suits your business.
Teachable and Skillshare Pros
| Teachable Pros | Skillshare Pros |
|---|---|
| Free to launch and sell your first course | Free to create courses |
| Ability to create your own brand | Risk-free for new creators |
| Can control how much you charge for your products | Can have unlimited students |
| Can create a variety of digital products | Existing community of students ready to learn |
Teachable and Skillshare Cons
| Teachable Cons | Skillshare Cons |
|---|---|
| High transaction fees compared to other digital course creation platforms | Must apply to join as a teacher |
| No marketing features included | Can only create online courses |
| Not able to create a community for your course | Payments are based on content engagement compared to other creators |
| Need a Pro or Business plan to remove Teachable branding | Reliant on the Skillshare platform |
Teachable and Skillshare both allow you to create courses and generate revenue.
But the way they do so is different. Here, we’ll compare similar features so you can decide which platform will work for you.
Teachable does offer some additional features, including the ability to build a website and market your products.
We won’t be comparing these features since Skillshare does not offer them.
Memberships and Signing Up
Winner for Memberships and Signing Up: Teachable
Anyone can join Teachable. There are four plans available:
| Free | Basic | Pro | Business | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per Month | Free | $59/month | $159/month | Not available |
| Price When Paid Annually | Free | $39/month when paid annually | $119/month when paid annually | $499/month when paid annually |
| Discount | N/A | 33% on annual plans | 33% on annual plans | N/A |
In contrast, Skillshare requires teachers to complete an application to join.
It is free to teach on Skillshare, and there are no plan options.
The application form includes ten questions and covers the following:
- What type of courses you plan on creating
- What your lessons will cover
- Projects you will set
- A video sample of you teaching
Skillshare looks for teachers that provide content that is unique and impactful.
It can take up to two weeks to receive a response to your application. If you aren’t approved on your first application, you can reapply.
It’s great that Skillshare carefully vets its teachers to ensure that the content created is valuable to its members. However, as a teacher, it is frustrating to wait for approval to start creating courses.
Course Creation and Delivery
Winner for Course Creation and Delivery: Teachable
You can create courses on both platforms. The course builders are both easy to navigate and use.
However, Teachable gives you far more control over your course content and topics, as well as your course’s look, feel, and ability to assess your students.
| Teachable | Skillshare | |
|---|---|---|
| Topics Available | Almost anything you want (as long as you abide by the terms and conditions) | Far more restrictive than Teachable. Topics allowed include the following: creativity, arts, design, freelance, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, and personal development |
| Course Content Available |
|
|
| Quizzes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Analytics | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Drip-Feed Content | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Certificates | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Payment Choices | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
Teachable Course Creation and Delivery
Teachable allows you to create courses on almost anything you want, as long as you abide by their terms and conditions.
Your course can be structured using sections and lessons.
The lessons can include a variety of content, including quizzes, to engage users and test their knowledge.
You can alter the course compliance settings to force users to watch the lessons in order, watch the complete videos, and complete quizzes.
You can also reward users who complete your course with a certificate.
Teachable has detailed analytics so you can monitor your student’s performance and progression in your course. If you see your student struggling with a quiz or section, you can reach out to help them. The analytics can also help you identify areas of your course that aren’t engaging students to help you build a better course.
Skillshare Course Creation and Delivery
Courses are far more limited and restricted on Skillshare.
Skillshare bans several course topics, some of which include the following:
- Courses on other educational platforms
- Mathematics
- Religion
- Fitness
- Pet care
- Beauty routines
- And many more
You can only upload video content to your courses, and the videos need to be over 10 minutes.
Skillshare allows you to set projects, which you can review. However, there is no requirement for students to upload their projects in order to proceed.
Also, no analytics tools are available, so it’s difficult to monitor how your course is performing.
Digital Products
Winner for Digital Products: Teachable
Skillshare only allows you to create and generate income from online courses.
Teachable is more versatile than Skillshare. It allows you to create courses, digital downloads, and coaching programs.
For coaching programs, you can integrate your Teachable account with Calendly, so users can easily schedule coaching sessions with you.
You can sell digital downloads, such as PDFs, e-books, audio files, guides, podcasts, and much more.
You can also bundle and sell your products together.
For example, you could create a bundle that includes a course with a digital download (e.g., a cooking course with an e-book of recipes) or a course with a 1-to-1 coaching session (e.g., a fitness course with a 1-to-1 personal training session).
Audience and Learners
Winner for Audience and Learners: Skillshare
How you find an audience for your digital content varies on each platform.
Skillshare has an existing community of learners, but Teachable requires you to market your products and find your own learners.
Skillshare Audience and Learners
Skillshare is an online learning community, meaning your content is published straight to the community and millions of eager users.
You don’t need to do any marketing to get your course in front of learners.
You can also share your course referral link with your own community to increase your course engagement and income. There is more information about the referral link and payments below.
Teachable Audience and Learners
You need to find your own audience to generate sales on Teachable.
Teachable would work well if you have an existing audience on social media or in person (e.g. if you’re a yoga instructor and run in-person classes but want to offer online courses and coaching).
Teachable integrates with several marketing platforms, so you can create campaigns to promote your course:
- AWeber
- MailerLite
- Mailchimp
- ConvertKit
- Sumo
- Active Campaign
Teachable also integrates with Zapier, so you can connect your Teachable account with an alternative marketing platform if it isn’t available already.
Sales, Payments, and Earning
Winner for Sales, Payments, and Earnings: Teachable
You can monetize your content on both platforms.
However, the way you do so is very different.
Teachable Payments and Earnings
You can create a website on Teachable with a sales page that lists your available products.
You can also create checkout pages and thank you pages for each product. They are all customizable to suit your brand.
Teachable allows you to set your own prices, add order bumps, create product bundles, and create custom coupons for customers.
You can also choose your payment method. Teachable offers the following options:
- Free
- One-time purchase
- Payment plan
- Subscription
Teachable has two native payment gateways, Teachable:pay and Monthly Payment Gateway.
To use Teachable:pay, you need a Stripe account; to use Monthly Payment Gateway, you need a PayPal account.
There are transaction fees charged on both the Free and Basic plans. Teachable’s transaction fees are considered some of the most confusing of any course creation platform.
| Free Plan | Basic Plan | Pro Plan | Business Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction Fees | $1 + 10% | 5% | 0% | 0% |
Skillshare Payments and Earnings
Skillshare doesn’t allow you to create a website, set prices, or choose your own payment method for your courses.
Instead, users subscribe to the Skillshare platform on a paid membership.
Your earnings are then calculated based on your courses’ engagement and watch time compared to other teachers.
This does mean that your monthly payouts can vary greatly from month to month.
Skillshare also allows you to generate revenue through the referral program. We’ll cover this next.
Affiliate and Referral Program
Winner for Affiliate and Referral Program: It depends.
The referral and affiliate programs work differently on Teachable and Skillshare.
As a teacher on Skillshare, you can share links with your followers to earn money. In contrast, Teachable allows you to create your own affiliate program.
Teachable Affiliate Program
You can create a team of affiliates that earn money by promoting and selling your products.
Teachable allows you to set the commission percentage and decide whether they are limited by product.
You can create an affiliate application that those who are interested in joining the program can use to apply. You can also decide whether you need to approve the application or if they are approved automatically.
The affiliate dashboard makes it super easy to manage your affiliates and see who is helping you generate the most sales.
Skillshare Referral Program
Skillshare provides both class and channel referral codes for teachers.
You can share the code with your audience, and when they sign up for Skillshare, you will earn 60% of the student’s first subscription payment.
Mobile App
Winner for Mobile App: Skillshare
Both Skillshare and Teachable have generic mobile apps allowing users to access courses on the go.
Users can download the apps, log in to their accounts, and pick up where they left off.
A generic app makes sense for Skillshare, as users subscribe to Skillshare to access the library of courses.
However, most users who subscribe to your Teachable school won’t know that the school is built on Teachable. This can confuse users, as it’s a generic Teachable app that they need to download rather than a branded app for your school.
Skillshare and Teachable App Differences:
- Skillshare allows students to download content on the app to watch offline. This isn’t possible on Teachable.
- As a Skillshare teacher, you have no control over the content that appears on the app. Everything you create will be visible through the app.
On Teachable, you can decide whether or not your content is available on the app. To make your content visible on the app, you need to enable Teachable Accounts.
When Teachable Accounts is enabled, Teachable branding will appear on the school. It also allows students to connect multiple Teachable school accounts and access them from one central dashboard.
Training
Winner for Training: Teachable
Both platforms offer a comprehensive and easy-to-navigate help center with articles on every aspect of the platform.
However, we prefer Teachable’s articles as they include images of the platform, which makes it easier to follow along.
Both platforms also offer blogs with tons of helpful tips. Teachable’s blog focuses more on teaching, whereas Skillshares’ blog is aimed at learners.
Teachable has a few additional training tools, such as a podcast, a community, and a resource called Teachable:U.
Teachable:U has tons of training courses created by other creators to help you build your business.
Teachable also has the Launch Accelerator Challenge. The challenge can help you develop and launch your course in 30 days.
| Teachable | Skillshare | |
|---|---|---|
| Help Center | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Blog | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Community | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Podcast | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Training Courses | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
Support
Winner for Support: Teachable
As a teacher, you can contact Skillshare by email.
The support you have on Teachable depends on your plan. All the plans include email support, and if you have a Pro or Business plan, you can use the live chat. The Business plan also includes priority support.
Each platform will suit a different business. But Teachable is our preferred platform since it’s more flexible and versatile.
You can create courses, digital downloads, and coaching programs, build a website, and choose how you get paid. You can also manage your advertising and build your own brand.
Skillshare is a good alternative if you are looking for a free platform to share your knowledge and generate revenue. You also don’t need an audience, as Skillshare has millions of existing members.
However, it doesn’t give you the same flexibility as Teachable, and you have to rely on the platform to retain its members to make money.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Teachable or Skillshare Cheaper?
Skillshare is free. You can create unlimited courses and have unlimited students.
Teachable does offer a free plan. However, you can only have ten students and will need to upgrade to a paid plan to accept more users.
Will I Make More Money on Teachable or Skillshare?
It depends on your audience size and engagement.
With Skillshare, you can earn from referral links and for the minutes watched compared to other Skillshare teachers.
Teachable gives you more control over generating income. You can set your own prices and create payment plans and subscriptions.
However, Skillshare gives you an existing audience, whereas you need to generate your own audience and customers on Teachable.
What Does Teachable Offer That Skillshare Doesn’t?
Skillshare only allows you to offer content on their platform and pays you based on your performance compared to other teachers.
In comparison, you can create more products on Teachable, build a website, choose your payment methods, and more.
