Choosing a digital business platform is one of the most important steps that any course creator will make. Great software makes your life easier and helps you succeed.
In this article, we'll compare two popular course platforms: Mighty Networks vs. Teachable. We'll show you what each does best, and how they compare on things like course delivery, monetization tools, and apps.
Try building a course and/or community on Mighty Networks! It's free for 14 days (no credit card required).
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Teachable vs. Mighty Networks: Who are they?
Before we start comparing Mighty Networks vs. Teachable, here's a quick overview of each platform:
Teachable
Teachable is an online course platform that allows creators to build asynchronous courses (mostly video first). It has a focus on customization and it's easy for creators to get up and running.
Teachable creators can share what they know in formats like lectures, presentations, coaching sessions, and surveys that members can interact with. Teachable also has the features to build a course website and some useful course marketing tools.
Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is G2's top-rated community platform. It hosts more $1 million communities than any other platform.
And Mighty integrates courses and community together. You can use Spaces to blend any combo of features you want, these can include an LMS, discussion forums, livestreaming, chat & messaging, events, and long-form written content.
Mighty lets you do all this under your own brand, with apps for every device -- and even has the option to add totally branded apps!
Mighty Networks unlocks a new era for independent communities creating and mastering something interesting or important together.
Teachable vs. Mighty Networks: Judgment Criteria
These are the key factors that should be on every creator’s list for choosing an online teaching platform:
Customization and features. On a basic level, there are a few similarities between Mighty Networks vs. Teachable. But the design philosophies behind each one impact the type of online course you can create. We'll compare how each one ranks on features like live and recorded teaching, polls, Q&As, discussion boards, direct messaging, events, and subgroups.
Monetization. Most course creators also want a sustainable business from their online course. We'll compare how each platform lets you build and the options for monetization and making money selling your online course.
Native mobile app experience. Apps help course members stay engaged AND improves accessibility. Choosing a platform that does have an awesome native mobile app is important.
For most creators, comparing these criteria will help you see whether Mighty Networks vs. Teachable is right for you.
Teachable vs. Mighty Networks
Features
Teachable
Teachable has some great features for delivering an online course, but it specializes in one kind of course.
Pre-recorded Courses
Building an online course on Teachable will give you access to their “power editor,” which is software designed to help build video lectures or progression-based coaching programs. You’ll also have options for quizzing your students, unlimited access to video bandwidth, unlimited students and courses. Teachable also has some useful third party integrations in their "app store" for connecting to other software.
Live courses and communities
The place Teachable really struggles is with live engagement features. Since it's a legacy course platform, Teachable hasn't prioritized adding live features. For example:
- There's still no native livestreaming feature (you'd need to use a third-party software like YouTube).
- There are no community features like discussion forums or events, which are super important for online course success.
The fact that Teachable is missing these features adds up to a platform that is good for asynchronous courses (which it was built for), but really hasn't caught up to the way online learning is going with engagement tools and a thriving community.
Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks lets you build courses in at least three ways:
- With a course table of contents (LMS) that works for a pre-recorded course.
- A course + community to bring courses and engagement together.
But really, you can teach courses in about 20 different ways. That's because Mighty uses Spaces; these are containers that can hold almost any features you want: Activity Feed, Chat, Members, Table of Contents (LMS), Discovery, Events, a Page, and more.
Mixing and matching these lets you include what you think your students need, not what your platform allows. For example, if you want a pre-recorded course with weekly office hours, a course discussion, and a livestream webinar, you can do that.
It's your choice.
Courses on Mighty:
Asynchronous courses
- Build pre-recorded courses with audio, video, PDFs, and discussions or questions under each module.
Synchronous courses
- Integrated events with native livestreaming (up to 9 speakers), running chat, pre-selling features, RSVPs, and Zoom integration.
But the really important thing is that courses on Mighty are totally integrated within Mighty's top-rated community platform (#1 on G2).
For those building a virtual community, Mighty is designed to introduce members to each other--we call this people magic. It has features like profile assist, custom welcome sequences, and you can browse by "members near you" or interests. And Mighty has integrated AI power for helping members see similarities with others, and even starting a conversation.
Which is better?
In short, Mighty can do pre-recorded courses as well as Teachable.
But the real difference comes in when you compare the engagement and community tools. Mighty has so many advantages with member engagement, livestreaming, events, and chat and messaging features Teachable doesn't have.
Monetization
Teachable
So what do these platforms give you to run a course business?
First, Teachable does responsive websites. It's a no-code website builder with different choices for themes, colors, fonts, etc. And you can add custom CSS for a higher level of control.
There are marketing tools integrated to Teachable too, which includes email capture tools that can integrate into your landing page. And these useful features extend to the checkout, which can use up- and down-sells, coupons, abandoned cart recovery, and an affiliate program. All this wrapped around payment processing for one-time sales, bundles, or subscriptions.
Teachable also offers some analytics so you can make the best decisions possible for your online course business. And one more cool feature is the option to appoint members into leadership or moderation roles, and even pay them for their work.
Mighty Networks
Mighty has instant community building with Mighty Co-Host™, AI tools for building a Big Purpose, landing page, community, and even a basic brand identity.
Landing pages in Mighty are customizable, you can reorder and add sections. But once members are logged in, Mighty's UX revolves around a space--much like a social media platform.
As a business, Mighty gives you more ways to monetize than Teachable. With spaces, you can sell sync- and asynchronous courses, events, private groups, livestreams, coaching, masterminds, and pretty much anything else you can think to offer. These can be sold individually or bundled with 135 currencies to choose from.
Mighty also has built-in mobile and email notifications to keep members engaged. And Mighty is integrated into ConvertKit, so you can add community and course segments and updates into ConvertKit emails. Finally, Mighty has powerful insights to help you understand what's selling and why, where members spend time, and where your business is going.
Which is better?
The right business case will depend on your goals. The platforms have similar features for monetization and marketing. There's really one big-picture difference:
- Teachable is better at creating static, multi-page, traditional websites. This can be good for selling an asynchronous course.
- Mighty is better at replicating the experience you'd get from a social media platform, with activity feeds and community features as the central UX.
Native mobile app experience
Teachable
iOS-only App
Teachable offers a mobile app, but it is exclusive to iOS. Without Android – which has 85%+ global market share – this eliminates app access for many of your students. Additionally, their app is designed for students to use as a supplemental tool instead of a main access point.
Mighty Networks
If you build your course on a Mighty Network, it comes with a great app that works across web, iOS, and Android devices. Mighty's app is intuitive, well-rated, and has the same UX that the web platform does.
And if you’d like to take your business to the next level, Mighty Pro gives you your own white-label mobile app.
Mighty has built branded course and community apps for over 400 brands and creators, including names like Tony Robbins, Jim Kwik, Mel Robbins, Inc., Marie Forleo, TED, and Matthew Hussey. The Mighty team can support you through both strategy and launch, and we take care of migration.
You can learn more about Mighty Pro here.
Which is better?
Teachable does not have complete app coverage for all devices, since it's missing an Android app.
Mighty has an app for every device and even does branded apps with Mighty Pro. And only Mighty lets you start on our platform and grow into a branded app when you're ready--without switching platforms.
Many successful course creators find themselves with the headache of switching a thriving course and/or community to a different platform with a branded app (here’s how to migrate from Teachable to Mighty Networks). So if you're just starting out, it's worth thinking about now.
Ready to start?
If you want the power to mix any kind of course with community, engagement everywhere, and a set of AI tools to make a thriving course and community easier than ever, come try Mighty! It's free for 14 days--no credit card required.
