Kohortly vs Podia
Podia sells courses and downloads in one store. Kohortly runs cohorts and takes nothing from what learners pay.
Podia is an all-in-one store for creators: courses, digital downloads, coaching, a community, events, email and landing pages, with its own checkout. Plans cost $49, $99 or $179 a month, or $42, $84 and $150 billed yearly. The Mover plan takes 5% of each sale, and card processing comes on top on every plan. Kohortly takes 0% and is built for organisations running cohort programmes rather than a creator's store.
The short answer
Choose Podia if
- You're a solo creator selling courses, downloads and coaching by card.
- You want a store, email and landing pages in one simple tool.
- You don't need admissions, intakes or attendance.
Choose Kohortly if
- You run cohorts with applications, seats and class times.
- You don't want a percentage taken from what learners pay.
- Learners pay offline, in instalments or through an employer.
- You need attendance, certificates and reports for funders.
Podia and Kohortly at a glance
- Price
- Podia: $49, $99 or $179 a month; $42, $84 or $150 billed yearly
- Kohortly: From $49 a month ($41 billed yearly). Every feature on every plan, 0% on what learners pay.
- Fee on payments
- Podia: 5% on Mover, none on Shaker and Earthquaker, plus Stripe or PayPal fees
- Kohortly: 0%
- Best for
- Podia: Solo creators selling digital products
- Kohortly: Organisations running cohorts
- Community
- Podia: Community spaces (25 on Mover)
- Kohortly: Feed, chats, squads and channels
Feature by feature
| Feature | Kohortly | Podia |
|---|---|---|
| Community feed, categories and polls | Community spaces | |
| Courses, lessons and progress | ||
| Points, levels and leaderboards | ||
| Live sessions | Live rooms in the browser, with breakout groups and recording | Live events |
| Admissions | Application forms with a review queue | |
| Cohorts | Intakes with seats, dates and class times | Drip and scheduled course content |
| Attendance | Online and in person, with QR check-in | |
| Certificates | Issued on completion, with a public check page | Course certificates |
| Small groups | Squads inside each cohort | |
| Impact reporting | Impact reports and follow-up surveys | Sales analytics |
| Payments made outside a card checkout | Bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix, card and cash recorded, with receipts and balances | Card and PayPal checkout only |
| One payer for many learners | An employer or sponsor pays for several learners | |
| WhatsApp and SMS | WhatsApp and SMS reminders and announcements | |
| Email broadcasts and automatic sequences | Email marketing (100 to 1,000 subscribers by plan) | |
| Phone app | Installable web app under your own name and logo, plus the Kohortly phone app | |
| Web address | kohortly.com/yourname, or your own domain | |
| Developer access | Public API, MCP server and CLI | Limited |
| Fee on what learners pay | 0% | 5% on Mover |
Podia details as of November 2026, from Podia pricing and published reviews. Prices and fees change, so check Podia's site before you decide.
What Podia really costs
The plan price is only part of the bill. Here is what each platform costs a month when 200 learners each pay $50 ($10,000 a month), on the cheapest plan that can sell memberships, billed yearly where offered: the plan, the platform's fee, and card processing where it is charged separately.
| Platform | Monthly cost | How it adds up |
|---|---|---|
| Skool Pro | $372 | $82 plan (yearly) + 2.9% Skool fee |
| SchoolMaker | $386 | $36 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| Thinkific | $386 | $36 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| LearnWorlds Pro Trainer | $429 | $79 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| Podia Shaker | $434 | $84 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe (Mover adds 5%) |
| Kajabi Basic | $493 | $143 plan (yearly) + 0% + Kajabi Payments |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $629 | $79 plan (yearly) + 2% + Stripe |
| Whop | $630 | $0 plan + 3% community fee + 2.7% + $0.30 |
| Circle Professional | $639 | $89 plan (yearly) + 2% + Stripe |
| Disco | $749 | $399 Create plan (yearly, up to 250 active members) + 0% + Stripe |
| Teachable | $889 | $39 plan + 5% Teachable fee + card processing |
| Skool Hobby | $1,008 | $7.50 plan (yearly) + 10% Skool fee |
| Maven | $1,350 | $0 to list + 10% of each sale + Stripe |
| Patreon | $1,350 | 10% platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Discord | $1,600 | 10% fee + about 6% desktop processing |
| Udemy | $6,300 | Free to publish; Udemy keeps 63% of marketplace sales |
| Kohortly | $56–$406 | Starter billed yearly ($41) plus 100 more learners ($15), and 0% on learner payments. $406 if all 200 pay by card through your own provider; $56 when they pay by bank transfer or mobile money. |
Worked from each vendor's published prices in November 2026. Fees change and card rates vary by country, so check before you decide.
What the fees and limits cost as you grow
Podia's Mover plan takes 5% of each sale on top of Stripe or PayPal's 2.9% + 30¢. At $10,000 a month in sales, that 5% is $500 a month, so Shaker at $84 a month (billed yearly) becomes the cheaper choice well before that. Plans also cap email subscribers (100, 500 or 1,000), products, videos and community spaces.
Kohortly starts at $49 a month, with every feature on every plan, and takes 0% from what learners pay, whether by card on your own account, bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix or cash.
Cohorts, not just a membership
Podia sells courses and products that people buy and take on their own. Kohortly starts from the programme: you open an intake with a start date, seats and class times, people apply, your team admits them, and they move through the cohort together until graduation.
Every learner has a record that follows them: which intake they joined, which sessions they attended, what they paid and which certificate they earned. When a funder or board asks how the last cohort went, the answer is already there.
If you only need an open membership that anyone can join with a card, Podia may be all you need. If you admit people into programmes that start and finish, that structure is what Kohortly is for.
Getting paid the way your learners pay
Podia takes payment through its own card and PayPal checkout. Many of the organisations we work with are paid by bank transfer, mobile money such as M-Pesa, UPI or Pix, a company cheque, a card on their own machine (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) or cash at the first session, often in instalments.
Kohortly records each payment against the learner's fee account, issues a receipt, shows the balance and reminds people before an instalment is due, by email, WhatsApp or SMS. Nothing is taken from what your learners pay: Kohortly charges 0%.
When an employer pays for ten staff, one payer covers all ten seats and gets one invoice, while each learner still has their own place in the cohort.
Where Podia is the better choice
No platform suits everyone. Podia does these things better than Kohortly:
- A simple store for courses, downloads, coaching and events together.
- Email marketing and landing pages built in.
- Checkout and affiliates handled for you (affiliates from Shaker up).
Moving from Podia to Kohortly
- Request a community. We set it up with your name, logo and colours, at kohortly.com/yourname or on your own domain.
- Import your members from a CSV export, with their names, emails and phone numbers.
- Recreate your programmes and courses. Lesson videos can be uploaded or embedded, and we can help with the move when we agree your plan.
- Invite members to sign in. Their history starts in Kohortly from the next intake.
Questions
How much does Podia cost?+
Podia's plans are Mover at $49 a month, Shaker at $99 and Earthquaker at $179, or $42, $84 and $150 a month billed yearly. There's a 14-day free trial. Check podia.com/pricing for current plans.
Does Podia take a percentage of sales?+
On Mover, yes: 5% of each sale, plus Stripe or PayPal processing. Shaker and Earthquaker have no Podia fee. Kohortly takes 0% of what learners pay.
What's a Podia alternative for cohort programmes?+
If you admit learners into intakes, take fees in instalments or from employers, and need attendance and certificates, Kohortly is built for that.
Other comparisons
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