We regularly survey our customers and people who participate in our free trainings. 

I also get hundreds of emails from people in these programs.

Consistently we hear that many of you are seeking momentum on your course idea.

Momentum is that secret ingredient which propels your course idea from idea to reality. 

Yet momentum can be elusive.

Too many course creators are in the “idea stage” of the course for weeks… 

Months… 

Even years.

The idea stage is where you keep thinking about your course — but never actually move forward to making it happen. 

Getting stuck in the “idea stage” impacts a lot of course creators, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

There is a proven process to get into flow and momentum with your course.

Here’s what has worked for me, and many course creators I’ve advised:

Step 1: Create a course people want

Um… paging Captain Obvious? Isn’t the whole point to create a course that people want?

Well, yes. But just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s easy to pull off.

What I commonly see is course creators who jump into developing a course based on their ideas and passions…

Without talking to potential customers about what their needs are — and if they would invest in the course.

Which is why the next step is so important…

Step 2: Sell before you create

The only way to really know if you’re creating a course people want, is to try to sell it.

I know – scary!

But remember: “selling” doesn’t always mean money needs to change hands.

It could be as simple as asking 5 people to join a free pilot version of your course (making clear that it’s not ready to start tomorrow, and what the timeline will be).

(Where do you find those people? If you don’t have your own mailing list, start with personal networks: friends, family, colleagues in your field, and social media connections).

The important thing is you’re talking to real people and getting them to commit time, money (or both!) to your course. 

When people commit, you know your course idea is worth pursuing…

And, you’re accountable to those people to deliver a course!

Step 3: Start with just enough

Now you’re off to the races.

Get your course started by teaching a very small, focused bit of material…

And challenging your participants to take action.

Then continue to build out the course based on what they find most engaging, what questions they are asking, and where they need the most help from you.

A great way to do this is through live interactions: 

• webinars
• online discussions
• and private 1:1 calls with participants.

Step 4: Use tech to speed you up(not slow you down)

Finally, of the most helpful mindset shifts, you can make is to think of online course technology as an ally, not a barrier.

Starting to lay out your course in a visual platform can actually be fast, fun…

And incredibly motivating – as you see your course take structure and life before your eyes.

Remember, too, that you don’t have to master every bit of a new platform to get started –

You can figure out the bare minimum needed to get your course going, and then learn a little more each day from there.

Now, this process can be straightforward – 

But only if you have the right “inner game” (mindset, approach, perspective).

• Intro to Jigsawbox
• Intro to Ruzuku
• Feature breakdown
• Step-by-step decision guide
• Detailed visual checklist

Ruzuku and JigsawBox are two options for coaches, authors, bloggers, speakers and other independent experts who are creating online courses.

JigsawBox is a coaching and content delivery platform that is hosted for you at jigsawbox.com. JigsawBox was founded in 2009 by Nicola Bird.

Ruzuku is a course and online community platform that is hosted for you at ruzuku.com. Ruzuku was designed by user experience consultants Rick Cecil and Abe Crystal, Ph.D., and launched in 2011.

Let’s take a look at the similarities and differences between the two platforms.

Last updated: December 27, 2022

Who is JigsawBox for? Who uses it?

JigsawBox is designed to support the one-on-one practices of coaches (such as life, executive, and career coaches). According to the JigsawBox website, “JigsawBox is the online coaching platform for coaches, consultants and trainers.”

Coaches use JigsawBox to create “modules” of online content that relate to their core coaching. For example, a career coach might create modules about identifying an ideal career path, developing networking skills, and so on. She would provide these modules to clients who sign up for one of her 1:1 coaching packages.

Who is Ruzuku for? Who uses it?

Ruzuku is designed to support online courses or group programs in which many people go through a structured, step-by-step program together.

For example, a blogger who has written popular posts about using LinkedIn to find new career opportunities might create a 6-week course on “Using LinkedIn to Take Your Career to the Next Level.”

Here’s an example of an online course hosted on Ruzuku: 5 Steps to Your Online Course

Ruzuku is commonly used by experts and companies who offer courses in the areas of art & design, crafts, health & wellness, creative business, entrepreneurship, personal development, and professional skills, among many other areas.

Course platform capabilities

When considering any online course platform, you’ll want to examine several factors:

• Ease of setup and ease of use
• Registration and Payment
• Scheduling and Content Delivery
• Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
• Learning Community and Discussion Forum
• Progress Tracking
• Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

We’ll go over each of these areas in more detail.

Ease of Initial Setup & Use

A key factor in moving forward with your online course is ease of use — how easy it is to set up and manage your online program?

JigsawBox emphasizes ease of use for coaches who want to create standardized coaching packages and modules, and creative passive income over time. Their website states that coaches can use JigsawBox to “get more clients, scale up and make more money.”

Ruzuku focuses on ease of use for initial course creation. You set up your first course by registering for a trial account on ruzuku.com, then select a template for your first course or create one from scratch.

Registration and Payment

Both ruzuku and JigsawBox enable you to set a price for your online program and charge for access.

JigsawBox supports PayPal as a processor, while Ruzuku supports several processors:

• PayPal
• Stripe

Scheduling and Content Delivery

JigsawBox is designed to host “evergreen” coaching modules. A JigsawBox program is always available for registration, and a client begins accessing the content immediately upon signup. JigsawBox also supports “One Off Launch” programs, which are released on a set schedule.

Ruzuku is designed to host both “scheduled” and evergreen courses.

A scheduled course starts on a specific date and allows a cohort of participants to go through the course together, on the same schedule. This model facilitates peer-to-peer learning and community for “live” courses and group coaching programs.

Ruzuku’s visual outline tool makes it straightforward to plan out your course, and choose the dates on which lessons are released.

The same visual outline can also be used to structure evergreen courses, as well.

Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content

JigsawBox hosts MP3’s (using a Flash player), but does not directly host any video content. It is up to the course creator to identify the best way to host media such as video files, and incorporate these media into JigsawBox-protected pages.

Typically, creators would use a professional video hosting service such as Wistia (starts at $1,200/year) to host their media because using a public video service such as YouTube has important limitations for private courses. For example, YouTube may display ads in the videos, which can distract participants from the learning experience and hurt your brand.

Ruzuku includes professional audio and video hosting service as part of its course delivery platform, at no additional cost.

You can upload unlimited audio and video files directly to the Ruzuku online course platform. You also have the option to embed videos from 3rd-party services.

All of Ruzuku’s plans include a global Content Delivery Network (CDN), to support students around the world.

Learning Community and Discussion Forum

Ruzuku is designed around the importance of community and peer-to-peer support in online courses.

Participants have profiles with their name, a short biography, and a photo. As they participate in the course, a “learning journal” of all their work is automatically created:

The Ruzuku online course platform provides integrated discussion forums for each lesson, as well as optional discussion prompts for specific activities. You can pose questions — and give students a space to reflect and share as they move through the course.

Participants can respond with both text comments, as well as documents, images, or even videos. For example, in an art course, a participant could upload a photo of one of her artworks to share with the community:

The “Notifications” stream makes it easy to see what others are posting and contributing in the course:

In addition, automatic email notifications keep participants engaged. For example, if Alice posts a comment and then Bob replies to her, Alice will receive an email notification.

Finally, Ruzuku can send daily and weekly emails to participants with summaries of the most recent posts and comments in the course. These emails help remind people to return and contribute to the course discussion, making for a more vibrant online discussion and community.

JigsawBox offers general forums for discussion, as well as direct teacher-client communication, something that Ruzuku does not currently support.

Progress Tracking

Ruzuku’s “Course Progress” feature gives instructors insight into how students are progressing and interacting in the course.

You can view analytics for the course as a whole, or drill down and view data for a specific step in your course. You can use the information found in Course Progress to help determine who is staying on track, and who might need a little more encouragement.

JigsawBox offers “reports” that summarize a large number of client responses in a single report for instructors to review.

Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

Live calls or webinars are a critical component for many online courses.

This is especially true with group coaching programs. The ability to meet in a “live” setting and share progress is what keeps your participants on track and motivated.

Ruzuku offers four forms of live events and interaction:

• Video conference where the host and participants can stream their audio/video
• Presentation where only the host streams audio/video
• Zoom integrated meetings
• Any other externally hosted platform

You can easily create an event and run these live events directly through Ruzuku without having to purchase or learn an external service:

Your students receive customized email reminders about the event and attend the webinar directly inside their course.

Teleconferences and webinars can be recorded automatically for later access.

JigsawBox does not currently offer any conferencing or webinar features.

Pricing

JigsawBox offers subscriptions starting at $37/month. Complete JigsawBox pricing can be found here: JigsawBox Pricing » 

Ruzuku’s plans start at $0 for up to 5 students. View Ruzuku’s pricing here: Ruzuku Pricing »

Both Ruzuku and JigsawBox allow unlimited participants and courses (or “packages”) with a paid subscription.

How to choose the right platform for you

Use our visual decision guide (below) to help you choose the right platform for your needs. Here are some considerations to take into account…

First, review what types of online courses/programs you plan to offer.

Are you intending to offer “live,” scheduled courses? For example, a 6-week course that starts on a specific date, with a group of people all going through the course together.

Do you also want to offer “On Demand” courses that are always available for registration?

Ruzuku supports both models.

Next, review what types of live events and interaction you’d like to have within your programs.

Do you want to offer group conference calls or video webinars as part of a course? Ruzuku integrates these types of live events directly into your courses. With JigsawBox, you would research and purchase a separate conferencing and/or webinar system.

Finally, test out each platform by participating in a sample program and creating a test program of your own.

Ruzuku provides free, sample courses you can join:

• 5 Steps to Your Online Course
• 30 Day Course Creation Challenge

… as well as a free account for up to 5 students (no credit card required for sign up).

JigsawBox offers a 14 day free trial to sign up.

Your Next Step: Start a Free Trial

We hope this comparison guide has been helpful to you so far!

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, zero-risk instructor account (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your unlimited-use free instructor account at Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

Ruzuku vs. JigsawBox: Complete Feature Comparison
Category / Feature	JigsawBox	Ruzuku
Platform category	Managed (cloud) service, hosted on JigsawBox.com.	Managed (cloud) service, hosted on ruzuku.com.
Technical knowledge required	No specific technical knowledge is assumed.	No specific technical knowledge is assumed.
Registration & Payment
Charge for course access (single payment)
Charge for subscriptions to course access (recurring/continuous payments)	✘
Create free ($0) courses
Invite or remove participants from courses
Coupon codes/discounts	✘
Supported payment processors	Direct integration: PayPal. Other processors supported via link/redirect.	Direct integration: PayPal, Stripe. Other processors supported via link/redirect.
Supported email marketing providers	MailChimp, InfusionSoft, 1ShoppingCart, and others.	MailChimp
Scheduling and Content Delivery
Live (scheduled calendar-based) courses with automatic email notifications
Copy a previous course and run it again on a new schedule
Self-study courses
Self-study courses with drip content
Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
Host and stream video	✘
Host and stream audio	(Flash playback only; not supported in mobile browsers)
Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast audio & video delivery	✘
Word documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PDF documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PowerPoint slides	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
Learning Community and Discussion Forum
Students have social profiles, bios, and photos in the course community	✘
Discussion questions/prompts for specific activities/content
Students can post images, PDFs, and videos in their responses	✘
General course-wide Q&A and forum
Receive email notifications when a student posts a question
Send email announcements to all participants in course	✘
Participants receive daily/weekly email updates to keep them engaged	✘
Progress Tracking
Students can mark each activity as complete, and track their own progress	✘
Course Progress feature shows students’ activity completion and comment rates, with data for the whole course or by lesson	✘
Live Calls or Webinars with Recording
Host teleconferences with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Host video broadcasts with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Customer Service & Support
Instructor support (supporting you as you create and run your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email
Private Facebook group	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base
“101” online training course	✘
Tutorial videos
Student/participant support (supporting your participants as they register, pay, and access your courses)
Phone/Skype
Email
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base
Tutorial videos
Pricing
Free trial (no credit card required to sign up & try the platform)	not available	free account for up to 5 students with no expiration
Initial setup fee	free	free
Ongoing hosting/support fee	Starts at $37/month	Starts at $0/month

Ready to try Ruzuku?

We hope this comparison guide was useful to you.

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, no-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

We regularly survey our customers and people who participate in our free trainings.

I also get hundreds of emails from people in these programs.

Consistently we hear that many of you are seeking momentum on your course idea.

Momentum is that secret ingredient which propels your course idea from idea to reality.

Yet momentum can be elusive.

Too many course creators are in the “idea stage” of the course for weeks… months… even years.

The idea stage is where you keep thinking about your course but never actually move forward to making it happen.

It’s something that impacts a lot of course creators, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

There is a proven process to get into flow and momentum with your course.

I’ll share that with you here:

Step 1: Create a course people want

Um… paging Captain Obvious? Isn’t the whole point to create a course that people want?

Well, yes. But just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s easy to pull off.

What I commonly see is course creators who jump into developing a course based on their ideas and passions…

Without talking to potential customers about what their needs are and if they would invest in the course.

Which is why the next step is so important…

Step 2: Sell before you create

The only way to really know if you’re creating a course people want, is to try to sell it.

I know – scary!!

Now, selling doesn’t always mean money needs to change hands.

Could be as simple as asking 5 people to join a free pilot version of your course (making clear it’s not ready to start tomorrow, and what the timeline will be).

(Where do you find those people? If you don’t have your own mailing list, start with personal networks: friends, family, colleagues in your field, and social media connections).

The important thing is you’re talking to real people and getting them to commit time, money or both to your course.

When people commit, you know your course idea is worth pursuing…

And, you have accountability to those people to deliver a course to them!

Step 3: Start with just enough

Then you’re off to the races.

Get your course started by teaching a very small, focused bit of material –

And challenging your participants to take action.

Then continue to build out the course based on what they find most engaging, what questions they are asking, and where they need the most help from you.

A great way to do this is through live interactions: webinars, teleconferences, and private 1:1 calls with participants.

Step 4: Use tech to speed you up (not slow you down)

Finally, of the most helpful mindset shifts you can make is to think of online course technology as an ally, not a barrier.

Starting to lay out your course in a visual platform can actually be fast, fun…

And incredibly motivating – as you see your course take structure and life before your eyes.

Remember, too, that you don’t have to master every bit of a new platform to get started –

You can figure out the bare minimum needed to get your course going, and then learn a little more each day from there.

Now, this process can be straightforward –

But only if you have the right “inner game” (mindset, approach, perspective).

More on that, soon.

We’ve spoken with with artists, lawyers, healers, coaches, fitness experts, authors… all creating courses and programs on Ruzuku.

Each conversation has been inspiring, and full of insight.

These calls have fired us up to understand your challenges more deeply, and deliver more value to you.

In addition to our own interviews, we’ve sent out feedback forms in our courses, and analyzed industry surveys of over 1,000 online entrepreneurs and course creators.

We dug into the responses to identify the #1 challenge many course creators face…

The drumroll please…

The biggest challenge that independent course creators struggle with is:

Time.

Finding the time to plan, create, and market an online course.

We saw quotes like these over and over again from people sharing their biggest challenges:

• “Finding the time to get this up and running”
• “Time to make it happen”
• “Time management in writing & marketing the course”

Does this sound familiar for you? Are you also wondering how you can find the time to create your course?

There’s no question that this is a big big challenge.

But there are some practical things you can do to get more out of the limited time you do have.

Some of these we’ve picked up through hard-won experience.

Others we learned from experts in time management, such as Elizabeth Saunders, author of How to Invest Your Time Like Money.

Tip #1: It’s not about “having more time,” it’s about making the best use of the limited time you do have.

Remember that creating a course is… creative! And when you’re engaged in a creativity activity, you need to get into a creative mindset.

It’s almost a meditative state of mind, in which you have higher-level awareness.

To achieve this state, you need to block out longer periods of time and really devote yourself to this work — perhaps once or twice a week.

You should also be as “disconnected” as possible — disable interruptions like email or Facebook, and consider shifting into a different environment such as a coffee shop.

Tip #2: Finding time to create your course starts with making choices.

We want to be very intentional about how we invest our time. The first step is to really stop and reflect on what’s most important to you.

If you’re having trouble finding time to create your online course, a first step would be to review all the activities on which you’re currently spending your time. Then ask how your course truly fits into your set of priorities and projects. If you say your course is a top priority, yet other activities are taking more of your time, then you can start to figure out how to spend less time on the lower-priority activities.

Tip #3: Replace time debt with time investments.

Many solopreneurs are in “time debt,” meaning you have committed (internally or externally) to more meetings and projects than you could possibly handle.

A great first step is to reduce this debt by reducing meetings with clients or partners, or phasing out projects that are “nice to haves” rather than crucial to your business.

Next, you can create “automatic time investments” through consistent scheduling. An automatic time investment could look something like this: “Every Wednesday afternoon from 1pm to 3pm, I’ll focus on my course.” When the time comes, you know that’s what you need to focus on in the moment.

To make the most of this creative time, get really clear on what you’re going to do in a specific block of time. For example, “I will outline the first 3 modules of my course using Workflowy, and then email the outline to my partner to get feedback.”

Now it’s your turn. How can you apply these tips to make time for your course creation efforts?

This is a critical first step to get moving on your course idea if you’ve been feeling stuck.

It will also help you get the most out of any training program you follow to design a successful course.

Now that we’ve tackled the #1 challenge of course creators…

Get ready for our upcoming 30 Day Course Creation Challenge program.

This training and community is completely free to join, and we’ll help you work through the “I never have enough time” challenge by providing short, do-able action steps.

So you can make consistent progress on your course, every day.

Get notified when the program launches by signing up here.

What’s in this Guide:

• Intro to Wishlist Member
• Intro to Ruzuku
• Feature breakdown
• Step-by-step decision guide
• Detailed visual checklist

Ruzuku and Wishlist Member are two options for coaches, authors, bloggers, speakers and other independent experts who are creating online courses.

Wishlist Member is a WordPress plugin designed to be installed on a website that you set up and manage. Wishlist was founded in 2010 by Stu McClaren. Learn more at WishListMember.com.

Ruzuku is a course and online community platform that is hosted for you at ruzuku.com. Ruzuku was designed by user experience consultants Rick Cecil and Abe Crystal, Ph.D., and launched in 2011.

Let’s take a look at the similarities and differences between the two platforms.

Last updated: December 20, 2017

Who is Wishlist Member for? Who uses it?

Wishlist Member is designed to support “online communities and membership sites.” According to the Wishlist website, you can “quickly protect your content with WishList Member.”

You can use Wishlist to protect specific pages of a WordPress website.

For example, you could post an article to your website and then “protect” it so that only people who have paid to join your course or membership program can access the article.

Wishlist is commonly used by experts who specialize in internet marketing, blogging, and business creation, among other areas.

Who is Ruzuku for? Who uses it?

Ruzuku is designed to support online courses or group programs in which many people go through a structured, step-by-step program together.

For example, a blogger who has written popular posts about using LinkedIn to find new career opportunities might create a 6-week course on “Using LinkedIn to Take Your Career to the Next Level.”

Here’s an example  of an online course hosted on Ruzuku: 5 Steps to Your Online Course

Ruzuku is commonly used by experts and companies who offer courses in the areas of art & design, crafts, health & wellness, creative business, entrepreneurship, personal development, and professional skills, among many other areas.

Course platform capabilities

When considering any online course platform, you’ll want to examine several factors:

• Ease of setup and ease of use
• Registration and Payment
• Scheduling and Content Delivery
• Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
• Learning Community and Discussion Forum
• Progress Tracking
• Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

We’ll go over each of these areas in more detail.

Ease of Initial Setup & Use

A key factor in moving forward with your online course is ease of use — how easy it is to set up and manage your online program?

Wishlist Member emphasizes ease of use for people who are experienced with WordPress. Their website states, “Unzip, upload, and within minutes you’ll have your own membership site!”

This process assumes that you are familiar with how to unzip, upload, and configure WordPress plugins.

In contrast, Ruzuku provides a hosted service, which is separate from your own WordPress site.

Ruzuku focuses on ease of use for initial course creation. You set up your first course by registering for a trial account on ruzuku.com, then select a template for your first course or create one from scratch.

Registration and Payment

Both Ruzuku and Wishlist enable you to set a price for your online program and charge for access.

Wishlist focuses on registering people into an ongoing membership program or community. For example, a career coach might create a $99/month membership program that provides new content and resources each month.

Wishlist also supports features for more complex membership models, such as multiple levels of memberships with different prices.

Ruzuku supports registering people and collecting payment to enroll in a course. For example, a career coach might create a 6-week course for $499. The course would combine videos, worksheets, and group coaching calls. She might run this course several times throughout the year. The course platform would handle registration and payment for people signing up for sessions of this course.

Ruzuku can also be used with ongoing membership or continuity programs. You can charge participants a recurring monthly or annual fee.

Ruzuku allows you offer coupons (discount codes) for your participants, to offer special deals or to track partner purchases.

With Ruzuku, payment flows through a payment processor or shopping cart of your choice.

For either platform, payment flows through a payment processor or shopping cart of your choice.

Both ruzuku and Wishlist support payment processors and shopping carts, such as:

• PayPal
• Stripe

Scheduling and Content Delivery

Wishlist and Ruzuku are both designed to host either “scheduled” or evergreen courses.

A scheduled course starts on a specific date and allows a cohort of participants to go through the course together, on the same schedule. This model facilitates peer-to-peer learning and community for “live” courses and group coaching programs.

Ruzuku’s visual outline tool makes it straightforward to plan out your course, and choose the dates on which lessons are released.

The same visual outline can also be used to structure evergreen courses, as well.

Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content

As a WordPress plugin, Wishlist does not directly host any streaming media content. It is up to the course creator to identify the best way to host media such as audio/video files, and incorporate these media into Wishlist-protected pages.

Typically, creators would use a professional video hosting service such as Wistia (starts at $1,200/year) to host their media because using a public video service such as YouTube has important limitations for private courses. For example, YouTube may display ads in the videos, which can distract participants from the learning experience and hurt your brand.

Ruzuku includes professional audio and video hosting service as part of its course delivery platform, at no additional cost.

All of Ruzuku’s plans include a global Content Delivery Network (CDN), to support students around the world.

Learning Community and Discussion Forum

As a WordPress plugin, Wishlist Member does not include support for a learning community or discussion forum. Course creators would need to research and integrate an external forum or community tool alongside their Wisthlist Member sites.

Ruzuku is designed around the importance of community and peer-to-peer support in online courses.

Participants have profiles with their name, a short biography, and a photo. As they participate in the course, a “learning journal” of all their work is automatically created:

The Ruzuku online course platform provides integrated discussion forums for each lesson, as well as optional discussion prompts for specific activities. You can pose questions — and give students a space to reflect and share as they move through the course.

Participants can respond with both text comments, as well as documents, images, or even videos. For example, in an art course, a participant could upload a photo of one of her artworks to share with the community:

The “Notifications” stream makes it easy to see what others are posting and contributing in the course:

In addition, automatic email notifications keep participants engaged. For example, if Alice posts a comment and then Bob replies to her, Alice will receive an email notification.

Finally, Ruzuku can send daily and weekly emails to participants with summaries of the most recent posts and comments in the course. These emails help remind people to return and contribute to the course discussion, making for a more vibrant online discussion and community.

Progress Tracking

Ruzuku’s “Course Progress” feature gives instructors insight into how students are progressing and interacting in the course.

You can view analytics for the course as a whole, or drill down and view data for a specific step in your course. You can use information found in Course Progress to help determine who is staying on track, and who might need a little more encouragement.

Wishlist Member does not track how participants are progressing in a course.

Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

Live calls or webinars are a critical component for many online courses.

This is especially true with group coaching programs. The ability to meet in a “live” setting and share progress is what keeps your participants on track and motivated.

Ruzuku offers two forms of live events and interaction:

• teleconferences with slide presentations and group chat
• video webinars with slide presentations and group chat

You can easily create an event and run these live events directly through Ruzuku without having to purchase or learn an external service:

When someone includes a question mark with their comment, their chat will be highlighted automatically:

Your students receive customized email reminders about the event and attend the webinar directly inside their course.

Teleconferences and webinars can be recorded automatically for later access.

Wishlist does not currently offer any conferencing or webinar features.

Pricing

Wishlist offers a license for a plugin on unlimited domains for a single payment of $297, plus $77/year for ongoing upgrades and customer support. Complete Wishlist Member pricing can be found here: Wishlist Member Pricing »

Ruzuku’s plans start at $74/month (pre-paid annually). View Ruzuku’s pricing here: Ruzuku Pricing »

Both Ruzuku and Wishlist allow unlimited participants and courses with a paid subscription.

How to choose the right platform for you

Use our visual decision guide (below) to help you choose the right platform for your needs. Here are some considerations to take into account…

First, review what types of online courses/programs you plan to offer.

Are you intending to offer “live,” scheduled courses?

An example would be a 6-week course that starts on a specific date, with a group of people all going through the course together.

Do you also want to offer “On Demand” (self-study or “evergreen”) courses that are always available for registration?

Or do you want to create an ongoing membership or “continuity” site with recurring billing?

Ruzuku supports both models.

Next, review what types of live events and interaction you’d like to have within your programs.

Do you want to offer group conference calls or video webinars as part of a course?

Ruzuku integrates these types of live events directly into your courses. With Wishlist Member, you would research and purchase a separate conferencing and/or webinar system.

In addition, consider your technical skills and resources. Are you comfortable installing and configuring WordPress plugins (or do you have a team that can handle this technical implementation)?

These skills are important for making the most of Wishlist Member. In contrast, Ruzuku is designed to be used directly by the content expert or coach who is creating and teaching the program, and doesn’t assume any specific technical skills.

Finally, test out each platform by participating in a sample program and creating a test program of your own.

Ruzuku provides free, sample courses you can join:

• Ruzuku 101
• Your Best Self
• 5 Steps to Your Online Course

… as well as a 14-day free trial (no credit card required for sign up).

Wishlist doesn’t offer a demo or free trial.

Your Next Step: Start a Free Trial

We hope this comparison guide has been helpful to you so far!

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, zero-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

Ruzuku vs.Wishlist: Complete Feature Comparison
Category / Feature	Wishlist	Ruzuku
Platform category	Self-hosted WordPress plugin.	Managed (cloud) service, hosted on ruzuku.com.
Technical knowledge required	Upload, install and configure WordPress plugins.	No specific technical knowledge is assumed.
Registration & Payment
Charge for course access (single payment)
Charge for subscriptions to course access (recurring/continuous payments)
Create free ($0) courses
Invite or remove participants from courses
Coupon codes/discounts
Supported payment processors	Intergration with Stripe, Paypal, 1shoppingCart, InfusionSoft	Direct integration: PayPal, Stripe. Other processors supported via link/redirect.
Supported email marketing providers	Intergration with WP email marketing plugins such MailChimp, IContact and ActiveCampaign	MailChimp
Scheduling and Content Delivery
Live (scheduled calendar-based) courses with automatic email notifications	✘
Copy a previous course and run it again on a new schedule	✘
Self-study courses
Self-study courses with drip content
Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
Host and stream video	✘
Host and stream audio	✘
Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast audio & video delivery	✘
Word documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PDF documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PowerPoint slides	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
Learning Community and Discussion Forum
Students have social profiles, bios, and photos in the course community	✘
Discussion questions/prompts for specific activities/content	✘
Students can post images, PDFs, and videos in their responses	✘
General course-wide Q&A and forum	✘
Receive email notifications when a student posts a question	✘
Send email announcements to all participants in course
Participants receive daily/weekly email updates to keep them engaged	✘
Progress Tracking
Students can mark each activity as complete, and track their own progress	✘
Course Progress feature shows students’ activity completion and comment rates, with data for the whole course or by lesson	✘
Live Calls or Webinars with Recording
Host teleconferences with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Host video broadcasts with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Customer Service & Support
Instructor support (supporting you as you create and run your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email
Private Facebook group	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base
“101” online training course	✘
Tutorial videos
Student/participant support (supporting your participants as they register, pay, and access your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base	✘
Tutorial videos	✘
Pricing
Free trial (no credit card required to sign up & try the platform)	None	14 days free
Initial setup fee	$197 single/297 multi-site	free
Ongoing hosting/support fee	$77 a year	Starts at $74/month (pre-paid annually)

Ready to try Ruzuku?

We hope this comparison guide was useful to you.

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, no-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

Many people ask us, “Is Thinkific any good? Can I teach an engaging, successful online course using Thinkific?”

You should take our opinion with a healthy pinch of salt, since we develop a competing online course platform.

That said, we’ll try to be as fair as we can. We’ve written an in-depth Thinkific review here — it includes a complete Thinkific feature comparison and decision guide.

Why use Thinkific?

Thinkific has useful features for selling your course.

For example, you can create discount codes and set up affiliate tracking.

This can be helpful if you’re setting up a complex launch sequence and bringing in affiliate partners to promote your course.

Teachable also offers solid video hosting capabilities and nicely-designed landing pages for your courses.

Possible concerns about using Thinkific

Thinkific’s biggest limitation is limited support for discussion and online community. This can make it challenging to run a scheduled course with an active, engaged community.

Thinkific also does not offer any conferencing or webinar features for running teleclasses or webinar classes within your course. You would need to research, purchase, and manage a separate conferencing tool.

For further details about each of these concerns, please check out our in-depth Thinkific review here. The article includes an extensive Thinkific feature comparison and decision guide.

Alternatives to Thinkific

Here are some alternatives to Thinkific you could consider:

• Ruzuku (read the complete Ruzuku review as compared to Thinkific)
• Pathwright (read the complete Pathwright review and comparison)
• Wishlist Member (read the complete Wishlist Member review and comparison)
• Jigsawbox (read the complete JigsawBox review and comparison)
• Kajabi (read the complete Kajabi review and comparison)
• Teachable (read the complete Teachable review and comparison)

What’s in this Guide:

• Intro to LifterLMS
• Intro to Ruzuku
• Feature breakdown
• Step-by-step decision guide
• Detailed visual checklist

Ruzuku and LifterLMS are two options for coaches, authors, bloggers, speakers and other independent experts who are creating online courses.

LifterLMS is a WordPress plugin designed to be installed on a website that you set up and manage. LifterLMS was founded by Chris Badgett and Thomas Levy. Learn more at LifterLMS.com.

Ruzuku is a course and online community platform that is hosted for you at ruzuku.com. Ruzuku was designed by user experience consultants Rick Cecil and Abe Crystal, Ph.D., and launched in 2011.

Let’s take a look at the similarities and differences between the two platforms.

Last updated: December 20, 2017

Who is LifterLMS for? Who uses it?

LifterLMS is designed to build and sell online courses with WordPress. According to the LifterLMS website,  the platform allows for “online courses made easy. Complete control.”

You can use LifterLMS to protect specific pages of a WordPress website.

For example, you could post an article to your website and then “protect” it so that only people who have paid to join your course or membership program can access the article.

LifterLMS is commonly used by health, business, and marketing instructors.

Who is Ruzuku for? Who uses it?

Ruzuku is designed to support online courses or group programs in which many people go through a structured, step-by-step program together.

For example, a blogger who has written popular posts about using LinkedIn to find new career opportunities might create a 6-week course on “Using LinkedIn to Take Your Career to the Next Level.”

Here’s an example of an online course hosted on Ruzuku: 5 Steps to Your Online Course

Ruzuku is commonly used by experts and companies who offer courses in the areas of art & design, crafts, health & wellness, creative business, entrepreneurship, personal development, and professional skills, among many other areas.

Course platform capabilities

When considering any online course platform, you’ll want to examine several factors:

• Ease of setup and ease of use
• Registration and Payment
• Scheduling and Content Delivery
• Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
• Learning Community and Discussion Forum
• Progress Tracking
• Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

We’ll go over each of these areas in more detail.

Ease of Initial Setup & Use

A key factor in moving forward with your online course is ease of use — how easy it is to set up and manage your online program?

LifterLMS emphasizes ease of use for people who are experienced with WordPress. Their website states that their focus is on, “For the educational entrepreneur who wants complete control.”

To use LifterLMS, you should be familiar with how to unzip, upload, and configure WordPress plugins.

In contrast, Ruzuku provides a hosted service, which is separate from your own WordPress site.

Ruzuku focuses on ease of use for initial course creation. You set up your first course by registering for a trial account on ruzuku.com, then clicking the “Create a new course” button.

Registration and Payment

Both Ruzuku and LifterLMS enable you to set a price for your online program and charge for access.

LifterLMS includes a built-in shopping cart. However, additional features, such as credit card and Paypal options require premium add-ons.

Ruzuku supports registering and payment people into a course. For example, a career coach might create a 6-week course for $499. The course would combine videos, worksheets, and group coaching calls. She might run this course several times throughout the year. The course platform would handle registration and payment for people signing up for sessions of this course.

Ruzuku can also be used with ongoing membership or continuity programs. You can charge participants a recurring monthly or annual fee.

Ruzuku allows you offer coupons (discount codes) for your participants, to offer special deals or to track partner purchases.

With Ruzuku, payment flows through a payment processor or shopping cart of your choice.

Ruzuku supports  major payment processors and shopping carts:

• PayPal
• Stripe

Scheduling and Content Delivery

LifterLMS and Ruzuku are both designed to host either “scheduled” or evergreen courses.

A scheduled course starts on a specific date and allows a cohort of participants to go through the course together, on the same schedule. This model facilitates peer-to-peer learning and community for “live” courses and group coaching programs.

Ruzuku’s visual outline tool makes it straightforward to plan out your course, and choose the dates on which lessons are released.

The same visual outline can also be used to structure evergreen courses, as well.

Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content

As a WordPress plugin, LifterLMS does not directly host any streaming media content. It is up to the course creator to identify the best way to host media such as audio/video files, and incorporate these media into LifterLMSe-protected pages.

Typically, creators would use a professional video hosting service such as Wistia (starts at $1,200/year) to host their media because using a public video service such as YouTube has important limitations for private courses. For example, YouTube may display ads in the videos, which can distract participants from the learning experience and hurt your brand.

Ruzuku includes professional audio and video hosting service as part of its course delivery platform, at no additional cost.

All of Ruzuku’s plans include a global Content Delivery Network (CDN), to support students around the world.

Learning Community and Discussion Forum

LifterLMS does not include native support for a learning community or discussion forum. However, it does allow for personalized emails based on the student’s interaction with the LMS and gamification badges as students unlock different achievements.

Ruzuku is designed around the importance of community and peer-to-peer support in online courses.

Participants have profiles with their name, a short biography, and a photo. As they participate in the course, a “learning journal” of all their work is automatically created:

The Ruzuku online course platform provides integrated discussion forums for each lesson, as well as optional discussion prompts for specific activities. You can pose questions — and give students a space to reflect and share as they move through the course.

Participants can respond with both text comments, as well as documents, images, or even videos. For example, in an art course, a participant could upload a photo of one of her artworks to share with the community:

The “Notifications” stream makes it easy to see what others are posting and contributing in the course:

In addition, automatic email notifications keep participants engaged. For example, if Alice posts a comment and then Bob replies to her, Alice will receive an email notification.

Finally, Ruzuku can send daily and weekly emails to participants with summaries of the most recent posts and comments in the course. These emails help remind people to return and contribute to the course discussion, making for a more vibrant online discussion and community.

Progress Tracking

Ruzuku’s “Course Progress” feature gives instructors insight into how students are progressing and interacting in the course.

You can view analytics for the course as a whole, or drill down and view data for a specific step in your course. You can use information found in Course Progress to help determine who is staying on track, and who might need a little more encouragement.

LifterLMS also tracks student progress through the course. The course outline will display both the student’s overall progress through the course and which individuals’ lessons have been completed in the course.

Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

Live calls or webinars are a critical component for many online courses.

This is especially true with group coaching programs. The ability to meet in a “live” setting and share progress is what keeps your participants on track and motivated.

Ruzuku offers two forms of live events and interaction:

• teleconferences with slide presentations and group chat
• video webinars with slide presentations and group chat

You can easily create an event and run these live events directly through Ruzuku without having to purchase or learn an external service:

When someone includes a question mark with their comment, their chat will be highlighted automatically:

Teleconferences and webinars can be recorded automatically for later access.

LifterLMS does not currently offer any conferencing or webinar features.

Pricing

LifterLMS offers a four-tier pricing system based on the number of sites using the plugin and the add-ons purchased. The recommended package (the “Universe Bundle”), costs $299 per year and includes access to all the LifterLMS add-ons. However, additional LifterLMS third party add-ons must still be purchased separately.

For continued support and updates, the license must be renewed each year. Complete LifterLMS pricing can be found here: LifterLMS  Pricing »

Ruzuku’s plans start at $74/month (pre-paid annually). View Ruzuku’s pricing here: Ruzuku Pricing »

Both Ruzuku and LifterLMS allow unlimited participants and courses with a paid subscription.

How to choose the right platform for you

Use our visual decision guide (below) to help you choose the right platform for your needs. Here are some considerations to take into account…

First, review what types of online courses/programs you plan to offer.

Are you intending to offer “live,” scheduled courses?

An example would be a 6-week course that starts on a specific date, with a group of people all going through the course together.

Do you also want to offer “On Demand” (self-study or “evergreen”) courses that are always available for registration?

Or do you want to create an ongoing membership or “continuity” site with recurring billing?

Ruzuku supports both models.

Next, review what types of live events and interaction you’d like to have within your programs.

Do you want to offer group conference calls or video webinars as part of a course?

Ruzuku integrates these types of live events directly into your courses. With LifterLMS, you would research and purchase a separate conferencing and/or webinar system.

In addition, consider your technical skills and resources. Are you comfortable installing and configuring WordPress plugins (or do you have a team that can handle this technical implementation)?

These skills are important for making the most of LifterLMS. In contrast, Ruzuku is designed to be used directly by the content expert or coach who is creating and teaching the program and doesn’t assume any specific technical skills.

Finally, test out each platform by participating in a sample program and creating a test program of your own.

Ruzuku provides free, sample courses you can join:

• Ruzuku 101
• Your Best Self
• 5 Steps to Your Online Course

… as well as a 14-day free trial (no credit card required for sign up).

LifterLMS offers you access to a free Demo hosted on their site. This Demo offer sample courses for you to enroll and use. They also offer a ‘lite’ version of the plug-in for free for you to download and try with your own content.

Your Next Step: Start a Free Trial

We hope this comparison guide has been helpful to you so far!

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, zero-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

Ruzuku vs. LifterLMS: Complete Feature Comparison
Category / Feature	LifterLMS	Ruzuku
Platform category	Self-hosted WordPress plugin.	Managed (cloud) service, hosted on ruzuku.com.
Technical knowledge required	Upload, install and configure WordPress plugins.	No specific technical knowledge is assumed.
Registration & Payment
Charge for course access (single payment)
Charge for subscriptions to course access (recurring/continuous payments)
Create free ($0) courses
Invite or remove participants from courses
Coupon codes/discounts
Supported payment processors	Intergration with Stripe, Paypal, WooCommerce	Direct integration: PayPal, Stripe. Other processors supported via link/redirect.
Supported email marketing providers	Intergration with WP email marketing plugins such MailChimp, WPFusion	MailChimp
Scheduling and Content Delivery
Live (scheduled calendar-based) courses with automatic email notifications
Copy a previous course and run it again on a new schedule
Self-study courses
Self-study courses with drip content
Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
Host and stream video	✘
Host and stream audio	✘
Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast audio & video delivery	✘
Word documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PDF documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PowerPoint slides	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
Learning Community and Discussion Forum
Students have social profiles, bios, and photos in the course community
Discussion questions/prompts for specific activities/content	✘
Students can post images, PDFs, and videos in their responses	✘
General course-wide Q&A and forum	✘
Receive email notifications when a student posts a question	✘
Send email announcements to all participants in course
Participants receive daily/weekly email updates to keep them engaged
Progress Tracking
Students can mark each activity as complete, and track their own progress
Course Progress feature shows students’ activity completion and comment rates, with data for the whole course or by lesson
Live Calls or Webinars with Recording
Host teleconferences with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Host video broadcasts with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Customer Service & Support
Instructor support (supporting you as you create and run your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email
Private Facebook group	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base
“101” online training course	✘
Tutorial videos	✘
Student/participant support (supporting your participants as they register, pay, and access your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base	✘
Tutorial videos	✘
Pricing
Free trial (no credit card required to sign up & try the platform)	Demo on plugin site/Free to download basic version of addon	14 days free
Initial setup fee	$99	free
Ongoing hosting/support fee	same price as initial setup fee for contuining support and updates	Starts at $74/month (pre-paid annually)

Ready to try Ruzuku?

We hope this comparison guide was useful to you.

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, no-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

What’s in this Guide:

• Intro to LearnDash
• Intro to Ruzuku
• Feature breakdown
• Step-by-step decision guide
• Detailed visual checklist

Ruzuku and LearnDash are two options for coaches, authors, bloggers, speakers and other independent experts who are creating online courses.

LearnDash is a WordPress plugin designed to be installed on a website that you set up and manage. LearnDash was founded by Justin Ferriman and Kloe Ferriman. Learn more at learndash.com.

Ruzuku is a course and online community platform that is hosted for you at ruzuku.com. Ruzuku was designed by user experience consultants Rick Cecil and Abe Crystal, Ph.D., and launched in 2011.

Let’s take a look at the similarities and differences between the two platforms.

Last updated: December 20, 2017

Who is LearnDash for? Who uses it?

LearnDash is designed to build and sell online courses with WordPress. According to the LearnDash website, you can quickly create your course “in minutes and even sell your online courses.”

You can use LearnDash to protect specific pages of a WordPress website.

For example, you could post an article to your website and then “protect” it so that only people who have paid to join your course or membership program can access the article.

LearnDash is commonly used by educational institutions, non-profits, CEU training organizations and WordPress website developers.

Who is Ruzuku for? Who uses it?

Ruzuku is designed to support online courses or group programs in which many people go through a structured, step-by-step program together.

For example, a blogger who has written popular posts about using LinkedIn to find new career opportunities might create a 6-week course on “Using LinkedIn to Take Your Career to the Next Level.”

Here’s an example of an online course hosted on Ruzuku: 5 Steps to Your Online Course

Ruzuku is commonly used by experts and companies who offer courses in the areas of art & design, crafts, health & wellness, creative business, entrepreneurship, personal development, and professional skills, among many other areas.

Course platform capabilities

When considering any online course platform, you’ll want to examine several factors:

• Ease of setup and ease of use
• Registration and Payment
• Scheduling and Content Delivery
• Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
• Learning Community and Discussion Forum
• Progress Tracking
• Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

We’ll go over each of these areas in more detail.

Ease of Initial Setup & Use

A key factor in moving forward with your online course is ease of use — how easy it is to set up and manage your online program?

LearnDash emphasizes ease of use for people who are experienced with WordPress. Their website states that their focus is on, “WordPress LMS, made easy.”

To use LearnDash, you should be familiar with how to unzip, upload, and configure WordPress plugins.

In contrast, Ruzuku provides a hosted service, which is separate from your own WordPress site.

Ruzuku focuses on ease of use for initial course creation. You set up your first course by registering for a trial account on ruzuku.com, then clicking the “Create a new course” button.

Registration and Payment

Both Ruzuku and LearnDash enable you to set a price for your online program and charge for access.

Through an addon, LearnDash, supports Stripe, PayPal and 2Checkout integrations.  It also allows for shopping cart plugins such as WooCommerce.

Ruzuku supports registering and payment people into a course. For example, a career coach might create a 6-week course for $499. The course would combine videos, worksheets, and group coaching calls. She might run this course several times throughout the year. The course platform would handle registration and payment for people signing up for sessions of this course.

Ruzuku can also be used with ongoing membership or continuity programs. You can charge participants a recurring monthly or annual fee.

Ruzuku allows you offer coupons (discount codes) for your participants, to offer special deals or to track partner purchases.

With Ruzuku, payment flows through a payment processor or shopping cart of your choice.

Ruzuku supports major payment processors and shopping carts:

• PayPal
• Stripe

Scheduling and Content Delivery

LearnDash and Ruzuku are both designed to host either “scheduled” or evergreen courses.

A scheduled course starts on a specific date and allows a cohort of participants to go through the course together, on the same schedule. This model facilitates peer-to-peer learning and community for “live” courses and group coaching programs.

Ruzuku’s visual outline tool makes it straightforward to plan out your course, and choose the dates on which lessons are released.

The same visual outline can also be used to structure evergreen courses, as well.

Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content

As a WordPress plugin, LearnDash does not directly host any streaming media content. It is up to the course creator to identify the best way to host media such as audio/video files, and incorporate these media into LearnDash-protected pages.

Typically, creators would use a professional video hosting service such as Wistia (starts at $1,200/year) to host their media because using a public video service such as YouTube has important limitations for private courses. For example, YouTube may display ads in the videos, which can distract participants from the learning experience and hurt your brand.

Ruzuku includes professional audio and video hosting service as part of its course delivery platform, at no additional cost. You also have the option to embed videos from 3rd-party services.

All of Ruzuku’s plans include a global Content Delivery Network (CDN), to support students around the world.

Learning Community and Discussion Forum

As a WordPress plugin, LearnDash does not include native support for a learning community or discussion forum. It does offer an integration with BuddyPress, a WP forum plugin.

Ruzuku is designed around the importance of community and peer-to-peer support in online courses.

Participants have profiles with their name, a short biography, and a photo. As they participate in the course, a “learning journal” of all their work is automatically created:

The Ruzuku online course platform provides integrated discussion forums for each lesson, as well as optional discussion prompts for specific activities. You can pose questions — and give students a space to reflect and share as they move through the course.

Participants can respond with both text comments, as well as documents, images, or even videos. For example, in an art course, a participant could upload a photo of one of her artworks to share with the community:

The “Notifications” stream makes it easy to see what others are posting and contributing in the course:

In addition, automatic email notifications keep participants engaged. For example, if Alice posts a comment and then Bob replies to her, Alice will receive an email notification.

Finally, Ruzuku can send daily and weekly emails to participants with summaries of the most recent posts and comments in the course. These emails help remind people to return and contribute to the course discussion, making for a more vibrant online discussion and community.

Progress Tracking

Ruzuku’s “Course Progress” feature gives instructors insight into how students are progressing and interacting in the course.

You can view analytics for the course as a whole, or drill down and view data for a specific step in your course. You can use information found in Course Progress to help determine who is staying on track, and who might need a little more encouragement.

LearnDash also tracks student progress through the course. The course outline will display both the student’s overall progress through the course and which individuals’ lessons have been completed in the course.

Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

Live calls or webinars are a critical component for many online courses.

This is especially true with group coaching programs. The ability to meet in a “live” setting and share progress is what keeps your participants on track and motivated.

Ruzuku offers two forms of live events and interaction:

• teleconferences with slide presentations and group chat
• video webinars with slide presentations and group chat

You can easily create an event and run these live events directly through ruzuku without having to purchase or learn an external service:

When someone includes a question mark with their comment, their chat will be highlighted automatically:

Teleconferences and webinars can be recorded automatically for later access.

LearnDash does not currently offer any conferencing or webinar features. You will need to use an external third-party program.

Pricing

LearnDash offers a three-tier pricing system based on the number of sites using the plugin. The smallest plan, covering one site, starts at $159 for the first year. Afterward, you may continue to use the plugin without renewing, but lose access to support and updates. For continued support and updates, you will need to renew your license each year. LearnDash offers customers renewing a 50% discount on their unexpired license. Complete LearnDash pricing can be found here: LearnDash Pricing »

Ruzuku’s plans start at $74/month (pre-paid annually). View Ruzuku’s pricing here: Ruzuku Pricing »

Both Ruzuku and LearnDash allow unlimited participants and courses with a paid subscription.

How to choose the right platform for you

Use our visual decision guide (below) to help you choose the right platform for your needs. Here are some considerations to take into account…

First, review what types of online courses/programs you plan to offer.

Are you intending to offer “live,” scheduled courses?

An example would be a 6-week course that starts on a specific date, with a group of people all going through the course together.

Do you also want to offer “On Demand” (self-study or “evergreen”) courses that are always available for registration?

Or do you want to create an ongoing membership or “continuity” site with recurring billing?

Ruzuku supports both models.

Next, review what types of live events and interaction you’d like to have within your programs.

Do you want to offer group conference calls or video webinars as part of a course?

Ruzuku integrates these types of live events directly into your courses. With LearnDash, you would research and purchase a separate conferencing and/or webinar system.

In addition, consider your technical skills and resources. Are you comfortable installing and configuring WordPress plugins (or do you have a team that can handle this technical implementation)?

These skills are important for making the most of LearnDash. In contrast, Ruzuku is designed to be used directly by the content expert or coach who is creating and teaching the program and doesn’t assume any specific technical skills.

Finally, test out each platform by participating in a sample program and creating a test program of your own.

Ruzuku provides free, sample courses you can join:

• Ruzuku 101
• Your Best Self
• 5 Steps to Your Online Course

… as well as a 14-day free trial (no credit card required for sign up).

LearnDash offers you access to a free Demo hosted on their site. This Demo offer sample courses for you to enroll and use. However, to try your own content you have to purchase and download.

Your Next Step: Start a Free Trial

We hope this comparison guide has been helpful to you so far!

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, zero-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

Category / Feature	LearnDash	Ruzuku
Platform category	Self-hosted WordPress plugin.	Managed (cloud) service, hosted on ruzuku.com.
Technical knowledge required	Upload, install and configure WordPress plugins.	No specific technical knowledge is assumed.
Registration & Payment
Charge for course access (single payment)
Charge for subscriptions to course access (recurring/continuous payments)
Create free ($0) courses
Invite or remove participants from courses
Coupon codes/discounts	(with integrated shopping cart plugin)
Supported payment processors	Intergration with WooCommerce, Stipe and others	Direct integration: PayPal, Stripe.Other processors supported via link/redirect.
Supported email marketing providers	With free notification addon	MailChimp
Scheduling and Content Delivery
Live (scheduled calendar-based) courses with automatic email notifications
Copy a previous course and run it again on a new schedule
Self-study courses
Self-study courses with drip content
Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
Host and stream video	✘
Host and stream audio	✘
Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast audio & video delivery	✘
Word documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PDF documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PowerPoint slides	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
Learning Community and Discussion Forum
Students have social profiles, bios, and photos in the course community
Discussion questions/prompts for specific activities/content	✘
Students can post images, PDFs, and videos in their responses	✘
General course-wide Q&A and forum	(only with integration to a WP forum plugin like bbPress)
Receive email notifications when a student posts a question	✘
Send email announcements to all participants in course
Participants receive daily/weekly email updates to keep them engaged	✘
Progress Tracking
Students can mark each activity as complete, and track their own progress
Course Progress feature shows students’ activity completion and comment rates, with data for the whole course or by lesson	✘
Live Calls or Webinars with Recording
Host teleconferences with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Host video broadcasts with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Customer Service & Support
Instructor support (supporting you as you create and run your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email
Private Facebook group	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base
“101” online training course	✘
Tutorial videos	✘
Student/participant support (supporting your participants as they register, pay, and access your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base	✘
Tutorial videos	✘
Pricing
Free trial (no credit card required to sign up & try the platform)	Demo on plugin site	14 days free
Initial setup fee	$156	free
Ongoing hosting/support fee	$78 a year for continued access to support and updates	Starts at $74/month (pre-paid annually)

Ready to try Ruzuku?

We hope this comparison guide was useful to you.

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, no-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

What’s in this Guide:

• Intro to Thinkific
• Intro to Ruzuku
• Feature breakdown
• Step-by-step decision guide
• Detailed visual checklist

Ruzuku and Thinkific are two options for coaches, authors, bloggers, speakers and other independent experts who are creating online courses.

Thinkific is a course and content delivery platform that is hosted for you at thinkific.com. Thinkific was founded in 2012 by Greg Smith and Matt Smith.

Ruzuku is a course platform that is hosted for you at ruzuku.com. Ruzuku was designed by user experience consultants Rick Cecil and Abe Crystal, Ph.D., and launched in 2011.

Let’s take a look at the similarities and differences between the two platforms.

Last updated: December 20, 2017

Who is Thinkific for? Who uses it?

Thinkific is designed to help create, market and sell online courses. According to the Thinkific website, the product “gives you everything you need to easily create, market, and sell your own online courses”

Thinkific allows you to structure and post the content of your online program (such as videos, audio recordings, articles, and downloadable files.)

Thinkific is commonly used by experts who specialize in internet marketing, blogging, and business creation, among other areas.

Who is Ruzuku for? Who uses it?

Ruzuku is designed to support online courses or group programs in which many people go through a structured, step-by-step program together.

For example, a blogger who has written popular posts about using LinkedIn to find new career opportunities might create a 6-week course on “Using LinkedIn to Take Your Career to the Next Level.”

Here’s an example of an online course hosted on Ruzuku: 5 Steps to Your Online Course

[This self-study course is free, and you can register to see a live example of how the ruzuku platform can be used in practice].

Ruzuku is commonly used by experts and companies who offer courses in the areas of art & design, crafts, health, creative business, personal development, and professional skills, among other areas.

Course platform capabilities

When considering any online course platform, you’ll want to examine several factors:

• Ease of setup and ease of use
• Registration and Payment
• Scheduling and Content Delivery
• Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
• Learning Community and Discussion Forum
• Progress Tracking
• Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

We’ll go over each of these areas in more detail.

Ease of Initial Setup & Use

A key factor in moving forward with your online course is ease of use — how easy it is to set up and manage your online program?

Thinkific emphasizes ease of use for people who want to “create & launch courses on your own site.” Their website states, “[Thinkific has] everything you need to create & launch courses on your own site.”

Ruzuku focuses on ease of use for structured online courses. You set up your first course by registering for a trial account on ruzuku.com, then clicking the “Create a new course” button.

Registration and Payment

Both Ruzuku and Thinkific enable you to set a price for your online program and charge for access.

Ruzuku focuses on registering people into a course. For example, a career coach might create a 6-week course for $499. The course would combine videos, worksheets, and group coaching calls. She might run this course several times throughout the year. Ruzuku would handle registration and payment for people signing up for specific sessions of this course.

For either platform, payment flows through a payment processor or shopping cart of your choice.

Both Ruzuku and Thinkific support Stripe and PayPal as a payment processor.

Scheduling and Content Delivery

Thinkific offers both “immediately available” and scheduled content with start and release dates, with content released over time based on when a participant signs up.

For example, a new participant might get immediate access to a certain set of resources upon signing up, and then receive new content 30 days later, and so on.

Ruzuku is designed to host both “scheduled” and evergreen courses.

A scheduled course starts on a specific date and allows a cohort of participants to go through the course together, on the same schedule. This model facilitates peer-to-peer learning and community for “live” courses and group coaching programs.

Ruzuku’s visual outline tool makes it straightforward to plan out your course, and choose the dates on which lessons are released.

The same visual outline can also be used to structure evergreen courses, as well.

Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content

Both Thinkific and Ruzuku include professional audio and video hosting service as part of their course delivery platforms, at no additional cost.

You can upload unlimited audio and video files directly to either platform. You also have the option to embed videos from 3rd-party services.

All of Ruzuku’s plans include a global Content Delivery Network (CDN), to support students around the world.

Learning Community and Discussion Forum

Ruzuku is designed around the importance of community and peer-to-peer support in online courses.

Participants have profiles with their name, a short biography, and a photo. As they participate in the course, a “learning journal” of all their work is automatically created:

The Ruzuku online course platform provides integrated discussion forums for each lesson, as well as optional discussion prompts for specific activities. You can pose questions — and give students a space to reflect and share as they move through the course.

Participants can respond with both text comments, as well as documents, images, or even videos. For example, in an art course, a participant could upload a photo of one of her artworks to share with the community:

The “Notifications” stream makes it easy to see what others are posting and contributing in the course:

In addition, automatic email notifications keep participants engaged. For example, if Alice posts a comment and then Bob replies to her, Alice will receive an email notification.

Finally, Ruzuku can send daily and weekly emails to participants with summaries of the most recent posts and comments in the course. These emails help remind people to return and contribute to the course discussion, making for a more vibrant online discussion and community.

Thinkific includes limited support for discussion.  A general discussion board is available for each course, but instructors cannot create structured discussions that are tied to a specific piece of content, such as a video in the course.

Limitations of this model include:

• inability to organize discussions around specific course activities
• lack of a “recent activity” page or “news feed” to see what’s new in the community
• inability to track and view how active different participants are in the community

Progress Tracking

Ruzuku’s “Course Progress” feature gives instructors insight into how students are progressing and interacting in the course.

You can view analytics for the course as a whole, or drill down and view data for a specific step in your course. You can use information found in Course Progress to help determine who is staying on track, and who might need a little more encouragement.

You can also download a spreadsheet of video viewing activity in a course, including which participants have viewed specific videos and what percentage of the video they have viewed.

Thinkific includes a “member progress” view which shows what percentage of a course a participant has completed. However, there is no overall view into engagement and progress completion for particular lessons or activities. There is also no way to view participant contributions to the online discussion/community.

Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

Live calls or webinars are a critical component for many online courses.

This is especially true with group coaching programs. The ability to meet in a “live” setting and share progress is what keeps your participants on track and motivated.

Ruzuku offers two forms of live events and interaction:

• teleconferences with slide presentations and group chat
• video webinars with slide presentations and group chat

You can easily create an event and run these live events directly through Ruzuku without having to purchase or learn an external service:

When someone includes a question mark with their comment, their chat will be highlighted automatically:

Teleconferences and webinars can be recorded automatically for later access.

Thinkific does not currently offer any conferencing or webinar features.

Pricing

Thinkific offers subscriptions ranging from $49/month to $279/month. Complete Thinkific pricing can be found here: Thinkific Pricing » 

Thinkific’s plans charge transaction fees, based on your account type. For example, on the entry-level “Essentials” tier you would pay 5% of your course revenue in transaction fees. For example — if you had $10,000 in online course revenue, you would pay an additional $500 to Thinkific in transaction fees.

Ruzuku’s plans start at $74/month (pre-paid annually). View Ruzuku’s pricing here: Ruzuku Pricing »

Ruzuku allows unlimited participants and courses with any paid subscription.

How to choose the right platform for you

Use our visual decision guide (below) to help you choose the right platform for your needs. Here are some considerations to take into account…

First, review what types of online courses/programs you plan to offer.

Are you intending to offer “live,” scheduled courses? For example, a 6-week course that starts on a specific date, with a group of people all going through the course together.

Do you also want to offer “On Demand” courses that are always available for registration?

Ruzuku supports both models.

Next, review what types of live events and interaction you’d like to have within your programs.

Do you want to offer group conference calls or video webinars as part of a course? Ruzuku integrates these types of live events directly into your courses. With Thinkific, you would research and purchase a separate conferencing and/or webinar system.

Finally, test out each platform by participating in a sample program and creating a test program of your own.

Ruzuku provides free, sample courses you can join:

• Ruzuku 101
• Your Best Self
• 5 Steps to Your Online Course

… as well as a 14-day free trial (no credit card required for sign up).

Thinkific also offers a free trial to evaluate the platform.

Your Next Step: Start a Free Trial

We hope this comparison guide has been helpful to you so far!

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, zero-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14-day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

Ruzuku vs. Thinkific: Complete Feature Comparison
Category / Feature	Thinkific	Ruzuku
Platform category	Managed (cloud) service, hosted on Thinkific.com.	Managed (cloud) service, hosted on ruzuku.com.
Technical knowledge required	No specific technical knowledge is assumed.	No specific technical knowledge is assumed.
Registration & Payment
Charge for course access (single payment)
Charge for subscriptions to course access (recurring/continuous payments)
Create free ($0) courses
Invite or remove participants from courses
Coupon codes/discounts
Supported payment processors	Direct integration: Stripe, PayPal, InfusionSoft (on “Advanced” plan only). Other processors supported via link/redirect.	Direct integration: PayPal, Stripe. Other processors supported via link/redirect.
Supported email marketing providers	MailChimp, InfusionSoft, 1ShoppingCart, and others.	MailChimp
Scheduling and Content Delivery
Live (scheduled calendar-based) courses with automatic email notifications
Copy a previous course and run it again on a new schedule
Self-study courses
Self-study courses with drip content
Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
Host and stream video
Host and stream audio
Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast audio & video delivery
Word documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PDF documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PowerPoint slides	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
Learning Community and Discussion Forum
Students have social profiles, bios, and photos in the course community	✘
Discussion questions/prompts for specific activities/content	✘
Students can post images, PDFs, and videos in their responses
General course-wide Q&A and forum
Receive email notifications when a student posts a question
Send email announcements to all participants in course
Participants receive daily/weekly email updates to keep them engaged	✘
Progress Tracking
Students can mark each activity as complete, and track their own progress
Course Progress feature shows students’ activity completion and comment rates, with data for the whole course or by lesson	✘
Live Calls or Webinars with Recording
Host teleconferences with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Host video broadcasts with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Customer Service & Support
Instructor support (supporting you as you create and run your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email
Private Facebook group
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base
“101” online training course
Tutorial videos
Student/participant support (supporting your participants as they register, pay, and access your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base
Tutorial videos	✘
Pricing
Free trial (no credit card required to sign up & try the platform)	available (with limited features)	14 days free
Initial setup fee	free	free
Ongoing hosting/support fee	$49 – $279/month	Starts at $74/month (pre-paid annually)

Ready to try Ruzuku?

We hope this comparison guide was useful to you.

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, no-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

What’s in this Guide:

• Intro to WP Courseware
• Intro to Ruzuku
• Feature breakdown
• Step-by-step decision guide
• Detailed visual checklist

Ruzuku and WP Courseware are two options for coaches, authors, bloggers, speakers and other independent experts who are creating online courses.

WP Courseware is a WordPress plugin designed to be installed on a website that you set up and manage. WP Courseware was founded by Ben Arellano and Nate Johnson. Learn more at Flyplugins.com.

Ruzuku is a course and online community platform that is hosted for you at ruzuku.com. Ruzuku was designed by user experience consultants Rick Cecil and Abe Crystal, Ph.D., and launched in 2011.

Let’s take a look at the similarities and differences between the two platforms.

Last updated: December 20, 2017

Who is WP Courseware for? Who uses it?

WP Courseware is designed to build and sell online courses with WordPress. According to the WP Courseware website, you can quickly create your course and it “is as easy as drag and drop.”

You can use WP Courseware to protect specific pages of a WordPress website.

For example, you could post an article to your website and then “protect” it so that only people who have paid to join your course or membership program can access the article.

WP Courseware is commonly used by companies and universities.

Who is Ruzuku for? Who uses it?

Ruzuku is designed to support online courses or group programs in which many people go through a structured, step-by-step program together.

For example, a blogger who has written popular posts about using LinkedIn to find new career opportunities might create a 6-week course on “Using LinkedIn to Take Your Career to the Next Level.”

Here’s an example of an online course hosted on Ruzuku: 5 Steps to Your Online Course

Ruzuku is commonly used by experts and companies who offer courses in the areas of art & design, crafts, health & wellness, creative business, entrepreneurship, personal development, and professional skills, among many other areas.

Course platform capabilities

When considering any online course platform, you’ll want to examine several factors:

• Ease of setup and ease of use
• Registration and Payment
• Scheduling and Content Delivery
• Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
• Learning Community and Discussion Forum
• Progress Tracking
• Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

We’ll go over each of these areas in more detail.

Ease of Initial Setup & Use

A key factor in moving forward with your online course is ease of use — how easy it is to set up and manage your online program?

WP Courseware emphasizes ease of use for people who are experienced with WordPress. Their website states that their focus is on, “Building and Selling Courses with WordPress.”

To use WP Courseware, you should be familiar with how to unzip, upload, and configure WordPress plugins.

In contrast, Ruzuku provides a hosted service, which is separate from your own WordPress site.

Ruzuku focuses on ease of use for initial course creation. You set up your first course by registering for a trial account on ruzuku.com, then clicking the “Create a new course” button.

Registration and Payment

Both Ruzuku and WP Courseware enable you to set a price for your online program and charge for access.

However, WP Courseware doesn’t come with a built-in shopping cart.

To process payments, you would need to integrate WP Courseware with another plugin such as WooCommerce.

Ruzuku supports registering and payment people into a course. For example, a career coach might create a 6-week course for $499. The course would combine videos, worksheets, and group coaching calls. She might run this course several times throughout the year. The course platform would handle registration and payment for people signing up for sessions of this course.

Ruzuku can also be used with ongoing membership or continuity programs. You can charge participants a recurring monthly or annual fee.

Ruzuku allows you offer coupons (discount codes) for your participants, to offer special deals or to track partner purchases.

With Ruzuku, payment flows through a payment processor or shopping cart of your choice.

Ruzuku supports major payment processors and shopping carts:

• PayPal
• Stripe

Scheduling and Content Delivery

WP Courseware and Ruzuku are both designed to host either “scheduled” or evergreen courses.

A scheduled course starts on a specific date and allows a cohort of participants to go through the course together, on the same schedule. This model facilitates peer-to-peer learning and community for “live” courses and group coaching programs.

Ruzuku’s visual outline tool makes it straightforward to plan out your course, and choose the dates on which lessons are released.

The same visual outline can also be used to structure evergreen courses, as well.

Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content

As a WordPress plugin, WP Courseware does not directly host any streaming media content. It is up to the course creator to identify the best way to host media such as audio/video files, and incorporate these media into WP Courseware-protected pages.

Typically, creators would use a professional video hosting service such as Wistia (starts at $1,200/year) to host their media because using a public video service such as YouTube has important limitations for private courses. For example, YouTube may display ads in the videos, which can distract participants from the learning experience and hurt your brand.

Ruzuku includes professional audio and video hosting service as part of its course delivery platform, at no additional cost.

You can upload unlimited audio and video files directly to the Ruzuku online course platform. You also have the option to embed videos from 3rd-party services.

All of Ruzuku’s plans include a global Content Delivery Network (CDN), to support students around the world.

Learning Community and Discussion Forum

As a WordPress plugin, WP Courseware does not include native support for a learning community or discussion forum. It does offer an integration with BuddyPress, a WP forum plugin, however you will need to purchase the premium version this plugin to work with WP Courseware.

Ruzuku is designed around the importance of community and peer-to-peer support in online courses.

Participants have profiles with their name, a short biography, and a photo. As they participate in the course, a “learning journal” of all their work is automatically created:

The Ruzuku online course platform provides integrated discussion forums for each lesson, as well as optional discussion prompts for specific activities. You can pose questions — and give students a space to reflect and share as they move through the course.

Participants can respond with both text comments, as well as documents, images, or even videos. For example, in an art course, a participant could upload a photo of one of her artworks to share with the community:

The “Notifications” stream makes it easy to see what others are posting and contributing in the course:

In addition, automatic email notifications keep participants engaged. For example, if Alice posts a comment and then Bob replies to her, Alice will receive an email notification.

Finally, Ruzuku can send daily and weekly emails to participants with summaries of the most recent posts and comments in the course. These emails help remind people to return and contribute to the course discussion, making for a more vibrant online discussion and community.

Progress Tracking

Ruzuku’s “Course Progress” feature gives instructors insight into how students are progressing and interacting in the course.

You can view analytics for the course as a whole, or drill down and view data for a specific step in your course. You can use information found in Course Progress to help determine who is staying on track, and who might need a little more encouragement.

WP Courseware also tracks student progress through the course. The course outline will display both the student’s overall progress through the course and which individuals’ lessons have been completed in the course.

Live Calls or Webinars with Recording

Live calls or webinars are a critical component for many online courses.

This is especially true with group coaching programs. The ability to meet in a “live” setting and share progress is what keeps your participants on track and motivated.

Ruzuku offers two forms of live events and interaction:

• teleconferences with slide presentations and group chat
• video webinars with slide presentations and group chat

You can easily create an event and run these live events directly through Ruzuku without having to purchase or learn an external service:

When someone includes a question mark with their comment, their chat will be highlighted automatically:

Teleconferences and webinars can be recorded automatically for later access.

WP Courseware does not currently offer any conferencing or webinar features.

Pricing

WP Courseware offers a three-tier pricing system based on the number of sites using the plugin. The smallest plan, covering two sites, starts at $99 for the first year. Afterward, you may continue to use the plugin without renewing, but lose access to support and updates. For continued support and updates, you will need to renew your license each year. WP Courseware offers customers renewing a 30% discount on their license. Complete WP Courseware pricing can be found here: WP Courseware Pricing »

Ruzuku’s plans start at $74/month (pre-paid annually). View Ruzuku’s pricing here: Ruzuku Pricing »
Both Ruzuku and WP Courseware allow unlimited participants and courses with a paid subscription.

How to choose the right platform for you

Use our visual decision guide (below) to help you choose the right platform for your needs. Here are some considerations to take into account…

First, review what types of online courses/programs you plan to offer.

Are you intending to offer “live,” scheduled courses?

An example would be a 6-week course that starts on a specific date, with a group of people all going through the course together.

Do you also want to offer “On Demand” (self-study or “evergreen”) courses that are always available for registration?

Or do you want to create an ongoing membership or “continuity” site with recurring billing?

Ruzuku supports both models.

Next, review what types of live events and interaction you’d like to have within your programs.

Do you want to offer group conference calls or video webinars as part of a course?

Ruzuku integrates these types of live events directly into your courses. With WP Courseware, you would research and purchase a separate conferencing and/or webinar system.

In addition, consider your technical skills and resources. Are you comfortable installing and configuring WordPress plugins (or do you have a team that can handle this technical implementation)?

These skills are important for making the most of WP Courseware. In contrast, Ruzuku is designed to be used directly by the content expert or coach who is creating and teaching the program and doesn’t assume any specific technical skills.

Finally, test out each platform by participating in a sample program and creating a test program of your own.

Ruzuku provides free, sample courses you can join:

• Ruzuku 101
• Your Best Self
• 5 Steps to Your Online Course

… as well as a 14-day free trial (no credit card required for sign up).

WP Courseware offers you access to a free Demo hosted on their site. This Demo offer sample courses for you to enroll and use. However to try your own content, you have to purchase and download.

Your Next Step: Start a Free Trial

We hope this comparison guide has been helpful to you so far!

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, zero-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!

Ruzuku vs. WP Courseware: Complete Feature Comparison
Category / Feature	WP Courseware	Ruzuku
Platform category	Self-hosted WordPress plugin.	Managed (cloud) service, hosted on ruzuku.com.
Technical knowledge required	Upload, install and configure WordPress plugins.	No specific technical knowledge is assumed.
Registration & Payment
Charge for course access (single payment)
Charge for subscriptions to course access (recurring/continuous payments)	(with integrated shopping cart plugin)
Create free ($0) courses
Invite or remove participants from courses
Coupon codes/discounts	(with integrated shopping cart plugin)
Supported payment processors	Intergration with WooCommerce, EExchange and others	Direct integration: PayPal, Stripe. Other processors supported via link/redirect.
Supported email marketing providers	Intergration with WP email marketing plugins such as OptimizePress	MailChimp
Scheduling and Content Delivery
Live (scheduled calendar-based) courses with automatic email notifications
Copy a previous course and run it again on a new schedule
Self-study courses
Self-study courses with drip content
Audio and Video: Hosting & Streaming Content
Host and stream video	✘
Host and stream audio	✘
Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast audio & video delivery	✘
Word documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PDF documents	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
PowerPoint slides	(as a link/attachment)	(can be displayed directly in the web browser for students to view easily)
Learning Community and Discussion Forum
Students have social profiles, bios, and photos in the course community
Discussion questions/prompts for specific activities/content	✘
Students can post images, PDFs, and videos in their responses	✘
General course-wide Q&A and forum	(only with integration to premium version of WP forum plugin)
Receive email notifications when a student posts a question	✘
Send email announcements to all participants in course
Participants receive daily/weekly email updates to keep them engaged	✘
Progress Tracking
Students can mark each activity as complete, and track their own progress
Course Progress feature shows students’ activity completion and comment rates, with data for the whole course or by lesson	✘
Live Calls or Webinars with Recording
Host teleconferences with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Host video broadcasts with slides, group chat, and automatic recording	✘
Customer Service & Support
Instructor support (supporting you as you create and run your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email
Private Facebook group	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base
“101” online training course
Tutorial videos
Student/participant support (supporting your participants as they register, pay, and access your courses)
Phone/Skype	✘
Email	✘
Searchable FAQ/knowledge base	✘
Tutorial videos	✘
Pricing
Free trial (no credit card required to sign up & try the platform)	Demo on plugin site	14 days free
Initial setup fee	$99	free
Ongoing hosting/support fee	$70 a year for continued access to support and updates	Starts at $74/month (pre-paid annually)

Ready to try Ruzuku?

We hope this comparison guide was useful to you.

Now it’s your turn.

To sign up for your free, no-risk trial (no credit card required), just click here.

Start your 14 day unlimited-use free trial of Ruzuku

Give Ruzuku a spin. And let us know what questions you have – we love to help!