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LMS · head to head

Podia vs Sana

Podia logo

Podia

LMS

Sell online courses, memberships, and digital downloads

From
$42/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sana logo

Sana

LMS

AI-native learning and knowledge assistant, acquired by Workday in 2025

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Podia mover tier charges 5% transaction fees on all sales; higher tiers offer fee-free processing; Sana workday completed its acquisition on 4 November 2025, so Sana is now an HCM vendor's capability; if you do not run Workday, the roadmap will be shaped around a platform you do not use and standalone availability is not guaranteed long term.
  • They diverge on capability: Podia covers Course hosting, Sana covers Sana Agents.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Podia and Sana actually diverge.

Attributes where Podia and Sana differ
AttributePodiaSana
Starting price$42/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWebWeb, iOS, Android
Founded2014Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (LMS).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Podia

  • Course hosting
  • Digital downloads
  • Memberships
  • Email marketing
  • Webinars
  • Community
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Custom website

Only in Sana

  • Sana Agents
  • Sana Learn
  • Enterprise search
  • Live collaborative sessions
  • Content generation
  • Permission-aware retrieval
  • Analytics
  • Workday integration

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Podia

  • Content creators selling digital courses with email marketing integrationnot Sana
  • Coaching businesses managing memberships and community spacesnot Sana
  • Newsletter publishers monetising subscriber base with events and digital productsnot Sana

Sana

  • An organisation whose employees repeatedly ask the same policy and process questions in Slack and where the answer already exists in a document nobody findsnot Podia
  • A Workday customer wanting learning and an internal assistant on the same employee record rather than a separate LMS contractnot Podia
  • Onboarding at a fast-growing company where content goes stale faster than the training team can rewrite coursesnot Podia
  • Sales enablement where reps need an answer about a product or a contract term during a call, not a course to complete next weeknot Podia

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Podia

  • Mover tier charges 5% transaction fees on all sales; higher tiers offer fee-free processing
  • Mover plan capped at 50 products maximum; Shaker at 150 products; only Earthquaker offers unlimited
  • Video storage limited by plan: 500 videos (Mover), 1,000 (Shaker), unlimited (Earthquaker)
  • Email subscriber limits tiered: 100 (Mover), 500 (Shaker), 1,000 (Earthquaker); overage model not stated
  • Annual billing required for all plans with 72-hour refund window; partial refunds excluded

Sana

  • Workday completed its acquisition on 4 November 2025, so Sana is now an HCM vendor's capability; if you do not run Workday, the roadmap will be shaped around a platform you do not use and standalone availability is not guaranteed long term.
  • Answer quality depends entirely on the state of your internal content, so an organisation with contradictory or outdated documents gets a confident assistant citing the wrong version, which is worse than not having one.
  • Permission-aware retrieval across many source systems is difficult to get exactly right, and a misconfigured connector can surface content to employees who should not see it, which makes the security review substantial.
  • Compliance-heavy training needs, such as certification tracking, regulator-mandated evidence and SCORM-based external content, are handled less thoroughly than in traditional learning management systems built for that purpose.
  • Pricing is unpublished and now negotiated in the context of a Workday relationship, which reduces a non-Workday buyer's leverage and makes a like-for-like comparison against a standalone LMS difficult.

Pricing, plan by plan

Podia

$42/month
  • Mover$42/month
    • Up to 100 email subscribers
    • 5% transaction fees
    • 50 products
  • Shaker$84/month
    • Up to 500 email subscribers
    • No Podia fees
    • 150 products
  • Earthquaker$150/month
    • Up to 1,000 email subscribers
    • No Podia fees
    • Unlimited products

Sana

On request
  • Sana$undefined/year
    • Per-employee annual subscription
    • Agents and Learn licensed together or separately depending on the agreement
    • Connector scope affects pricing

Which should you pick?

Choose Podia if

  • You need course hosting.
  • You also want digital downloads.
Podia review

Choose Sana if

  • You need sana agents.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want sana learn.
Sana review

Questions people ask

Is Podia or Sana better?
Neither clearly leads. Podia starts at $42/month and Sana at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Podia or Sana?
Podia starts at $42/month and Sana at On request.
Does Podia or Sana run on more platforms?
Podia runs on Web. Sana runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Podia best used for?
Podia is most often used for content creators selling digital courses with email marketing integration, coaching businesses managing memberships and community spaces, newsletter publishers monetising subscriber base with events and digital products. Of those, content creators selling digital courses with email marketing integration and coaching businesses managing memberships and community spaces are not what Sana is typically brought in for.
What can Podia do that Sana cannot?
Podia covers Course hosting, Digital downloads, Memberships, Email marketing. Sana covers Sana Agents, Sana Learn, Enterprise search, Live collaborative sessions.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Podia: How much does Podia cost?

Podia offers three plans: Mover at $42/month, Shaker at $84/month, and Earthquaker at $150/month. All plans include a 30-day free trial and can be billed monthly or annually with cost savings on annual billing.

Source
Sana: Is Sana still an independent company?

No. Workday completed its acquisition on 4 November 2025 for approximately $1.1bn; the integrated experience begins rolling out in 2026.

Podia: Does Podia charge transaction fees?

Yes, the Mover plan charges 5% Podia transaction fees. Higher tiers (Shaker and Earthquaker) include no Podia fees. However, all plans are subject to payment processor fees of 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction.

Source
Sana: Is it an LMS or a search tool?

Both, but the emphasis is on answering questions from your existing content. Traditional course delivery and completion tracking are secondary.

Podia: Is there a free trial for Podia?

Yes, Podia offers a 30-day free trial. No credit card is required to start the trial, allowing you to explore all features before deciding on a plan.

Source
Sana: Does it work if we are not a Workday customer?

Currently yes, but the product direction now serves Workday's platform strategy, so weigh that in a multi-year commitment.

Sana: How is it priced?

Per employee per year, unpublished, and increasingly negotiated as part of a Workday agreement.

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