Ruzuku Review (2020): An Extensive and Unbiased Review of Ruzuku

Ruzuku is a simple and easy-to-use online course platform. Since its launch in 2011, Ruzuku has helped entrepreneurs and course creators launch and sell their courses with ease and speed. 

I created this extensive Ruzuku review to help you answer some questions to evaluate the platform:

• What is Ruzuku?
• What can you use Ruzuku for?
• Which Ruzuku Plan is most suited for you?
• How does Learnworlds compare to some of the other online course platforms (Learnworlds, Teachable, and Podia)?

I will also discuss some of Ruzuku’s best features, some things I like about Ruzuku, and some areas where the platform can potentially improve.

After reading this Ruzuku review — you will have the necessary information to decide if it’s the best platform for your courses and also which plan to choose when launching your first or next online course. 

Let’s get started.

An Introduction to Ruzuku

Ruzuku is an online course platform that doesn’t usually get a lot of attention like other platforms. Still, the simplicity and ease make it a compelling contender in the online course platforms space. 

Ruzuku platform’s straightforward interface and setup is excellent for newbie course creators with limited technical knowledge. Let’s say you have an information marketing business, or you are a coach or a creative professional, and you want to create a course to share your knowledge — then Ruzuku is simple. 

One of Ruzuku’s key features is the ability to record and host webinars (and teleconferences). Hosting webinars and live streams are an excellent way for digital entrepreneurs and course creators to add value to their students. It also helps course creators stand out by building a highly engaged student community. I will discuss more of the platform’s webinar features in detail in this extensive Ruzuku review.

You will learn about Ruzuku’s support, pricing plans, and the platform’s pros and cons in this review. Finally, I will cover the differences between Ruzuku and some of the other competing online course platforms — Teachable, Learnworlds, and Podia.

After reviewing this Ruzuku review, you will have a clearer idea of whether it’s an ideal course platform. 

Ruzuku Pricing

Ruzuku has 3 different pricing plans; and the differentiating factors between the three plans is the type of features you would require — creating online courses, webinars, quizzes, installment payment plans, etc. 

• Bootstrapper  —— $99/month.
• Up-and-comer  —— $149/month.
• University   —— $199/month.

Ruzuku provides a 14-day free trial (no credit card required). They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you want to cancel after you activate your account.

All Ruzuku Plans include the following:

• Unlimited students.
• Unlimited courses. 
• Unlimited hosting (audio and video).
• Unlimited data storage.
• Global Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Daily backups of all course data.
• Integration with PayPal and Stripe. 

A key differentiator between Ruzuku and some of the other online course platforms (Teachable, Learnworlds) is that they charge no translation fees, so all the fees you collect go directly to your bank account.

Ruzuku Support

Ruzuku primarily offers email support (support@ruzuku.com), and they promise a response time of 4 business hours for emails. 

Ruzuku’s support hours are Monday to Friday (9 am to 5 pm EST).

You can also book a 30-minute call with their support team to discuss your onboarding or any technical issues you face. 

The University Plan ($199/month) provides a dedicated account manager for 1-on-1 support.

There’s also extensive documentation that can be found in their knowledgebase.

Ruzuku Integrations

• Payment Gateways — Stripe, PayPal.
• Email Marketing — MailChimp.

Ruzuku Features

1. Build Courses

Ruzuku’s admin dashboard looks similar to that of any CMS like WordPress or Wix. So, it’s really simple and easy to create a course on the platform.  I like how simple and clear the back-end (Admin dashboard) is. The minimalistic interface helps you find everything you need to find in one place. 

You can also see the listing of all your courses, with the creation date, the modified date, and also how many students have enrolled for each course.

To start building a course, simply click on the “Create a Course” button, and it will launch the course builder. 

The course builder for each of your courses is also laid out in a simplistic format. Everything you need to set up — course lessons, students information, notifications,etc., can all be accessed in one place.

To add a course lesson — simply click on the “Create Lesson” button. It will allow you to add the different sections, add information for the sections, and also choose when they should receive it (if it is a drip-feed course)

Adding content (text, images,etc.) to each of your course lessons is also simple. The editor allows you to add a course lesson heading and the contents of the lesson. The editor allows you to set up formatting (font alignment, add URLs, add images,etc.) 

For adding images, there are multiple options — choose an image from your local drive, or by connecting to other digital channels (Flickr, Instagram, Google Drive)

Once you have added all the course content, you can set up a question (or mini-quiz) for the lesson. However, there’s only an option to set up multiple-choice questions using Ruzuku.

You can also add messages (emails) for your course, and you can choose when (day and time) your students will receive that message.

Once you have added all your course lessons, quizzes, messages — you can preview how the course will look on the front-end for your students.

You can also edit and personalize the other aspects of your course:

• The Course welcome screen.
• Pricing.
• Payment options.
• Sales Pages.
• Coupons.
• Schedule, etc.

Setting up a price point for your courses is also simple on Ruzuku. You can set up the standard price, and also the other pricing options. Installment and subscription plans are possible (however, not on the Bootstrapper Plan).

Each of your course’s styles can be customized, and so can the notification settings, enrollment settings, etc.

In short, Ruzuku offers a simple and easy-to-use course building platform for non-tech-savvy course creators. You can have your course up and running in minutes.

2. Build a Student Community

One of the sure-fire ways to enhance your student engagement is by enabling discussions amongst your students. If you can show that your courses have high student engagement, then it can attract more students to join and consume your course content. Think of a subreddit or a Facebook group; the more engagement you see on the group, the more likely you are to join and participate.

Ruzuku allows you to choose which courses you want to enable students’ profiles and discussions.

All the discussions in the forums are visible to all students. Also, the community moderation options allow you to control the interaction quality. For instance, you can delete a student’s post directly, or ask the student to edit/remove their post.

3. Run Teleconferences or Webinars

Have you ever participated in a Livestream session on one of your favorite social media sites (Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn)? Almost everyone has at one point, whether it’s from your favorite celebrity or a sporting event. 

It is a growing trend, wherein you see digital entrepreneurs and course creators also hosting their own webinars or livestream to continually engage with their audiences (students of customers). 

However, if your audience and students are completely on your course platform, then inviting them to another platform a webinar or live stream can be a challenge. Ruzuku is an exception in this case; the ability to host and run webinars on Ruzuku has to be one of its unique features. 

Please note the webinar feature is not available on the Bootstrapper Plan ($99 per month).

To create a webinar within your course — simply click on the “Create a webinar” button, and set up the details (scheduled start time, the title, the duration).

You have the option to choose either a pre-recorded webinar or a live webinar (live stream). There’s also an option to do teleconferences using Ruzuku. In all cases, you can choose between hosting your webinars/teleconferences either on Ruzuku or another platform (Zoom, Webex,etc.) of your choice. If choosing an external platform, you just need to add the meeting credentials. 

You can set up a description of the webinar, so students can know what to expect by attending the session.

You can also upload relevant files for the students to view or download after the webinar.

Ruzuku creates automated webinar notifications scheduled to go to your students 2-days prior to the event. You have the option to remove the notification as well.

If you choose to host the webinar/teleconference using Ruzuku — you also have the option to record that particular event (90-minute limit). You can also add your webinar slides/presentation in advance.

During the event, the experience of using the platform is similar to any Livestream or webinar platform. You can share your video and your presentation. Your students can follow along with your presentation, and also post comments.

Students can log in much longer before the webinar starts, and the chat option is open an hour earlier by default.

If your course content includes a lot of webinars, then you can list all your webinars in one place. Your students can then view and enroll in advance. 

Ruzuku (Pros)

1. Easy Learning Curve

One of Ruzuku’s best differentiator is its minimalistic and simple UI. 

It’s set up so that anyone can start creating courses and webinars in record times. If you have used any CMS (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace) before — then building a course on Ruzuku is a breeze.

Everything you need to build a course – course builder, pricing setup, notifications, sales pages can be easily found and customized. 

All of this is extremely valuable for course creators who are not designers or developers. 

2. Add Video Content With Ease

Ruzuku takes care of your video hosting; all you need to do is upload it to your courses. Similar to adding images, uploading videos is simple. Go to your course, choose the course lesson to add the video, and upload your video. 

There’s also an option to embed videos or audio from other sources (YouTube, Soundcloud,etc.). All you need is the embed code, and you can easily add those to your course lessons.

3. Webinars

The ability to host and record webinars (and teleconferences) is a fantastic feature. Not many course platforms offer this feature. Alternatively, you will have to pick another webinar or live streaming platform and go through the headaches of managing multiple platforms. Ruzuku eliminates that headache. 

The webinar player also offers the ability to interact live with your students —  host presentations, engage in discussions, etc. You also can record all your webinars so students who didn’t attend the live session can review them in the future.

4. Schedule a Course

If you want to control when your course lessons are released to your students, you can easily use Ruzuku.

When adding a new course lesson, there is an option to choose when that lesson is available (the number of days after enrollment). 

5. Review Student Course Progress

One of the challenges that course creators face is ensuring student engagement,—encouraging students to review course material and participate. Yes, email notifications are useful; however, everyone receives tons of emails, and your reminders might get lost in the mix.

In Ruzuku, you can review the progress of all your students in the dashboard. It allows you to monitor how far along your students are, and if you need to send them a notification.

Image Source: Ruzuku (Review student progress and engagement in my course)

6. Email Announcements

Using the custom announcement feature, you can send emails to everyone enrolled in the course. The editor allows you to control the email format (fonts, colors, text alignment, images, links, etc.). 

If you have a special announcement or have uploaded a new course section — this feature will come in handy.

Image Source: Ruzuku (Custom email announcements)

Ruzuku creates an email to be sent at the start of the course. You have the option to personalize the message going out to new students enrolled. 

Also, you can control if you want an email going to your students for each course lesson.

Since the email announcement feature is in-built, it removes the need to export your emails to another email marketing system. 

7. Coupons and Discounts

You can also create coupons to help boost your course sales. The coupons feature can be found under the Sales section of your course settings. 

You have the option to set up a discount either based on dollar amount or percentage. You can also limit how many coupons can be redeemed and even set expiration dates.

8. Daily Course Content Backup

Ruzuku automatically backs up all your course information and course content daily. It’s set up by default for all Ruzuku customers. 

As you expand your course library and add more information (lessons, files, webinars, recordings) — this daily backup feature will give you peace of mind knowing that there is worry about data loss.

9. No Transaction Fees

Whether you sell your courses using a single payment or subscription plans, Ruzuku doesn’t charge you a transaction fee. You keep 100% of all your course sales. The only fees you will incur is direct with the payment gateways (Stripe and PayPal).  

However, note that subscription and installment payments are not available on the Bootstrapper plan.

Ruzuku (Cons)

1. Pricing Model

Ruzuku has a higher price point than many other solutions in the marketplace (Learnworlds, Podia, Teachable). 

The starting point is the Bootstrapper ($99 per month), and that plan does not include student engagement (quizzes, polls) and memberships (or subscription plans). 

The pricing model for Ruzuku is similar to that of Kajabi. However, for the same price point, Kajabi offers more features (email campaigns, marketing, etc.). 

To run a full-blown course marketing program, with Ruzuku, you would need other email marketing (ConvertKit, Aweber) or landing pages (Unbounce, HubSpot) software. And this means additional spending on softwares.

It is a significant drawback that can discourage a lot of new course creators from choosing Ruzuku.

2. Limited Integrations

It’s rare to find any digital or online business that uses A single software. 

Today, most course creators and entrepreneurs use many tools to maintain and grow their businesses — CMS, email marketing, CRM, marketing automation, etc. 

Ruzuku’s limited integrations will be a significant limitation that discourages many course creators from choosing the platform. Currently, there’s only integration with MailChimp.Also, there’s no Zapier integration. 

You can run two systems in parallel; however, you have to manually download the student information from Ruzuku, and upload it to your email marketing or marketing automation platform.

3. Limited Design Customization

There are limits to how much customization you can do for your course website, individual course lessons, etc. Unlike other platforms such as Learnwrodls, Kajabi, there is no CSS/HTML editor. So, it becomes a challenge to make your Ruzuku course website match your exact branding guidelines. 

You are limited to 14 color schemes (only 7 of the color schemes are mobile-ready). The typography options are limited to five options — friendly, scholarly, Lato, modern, or professional. 

4. Limited Sales Page and Enrollment Page Customization

The course editor allows you to add, edit, and customize your sales page. There are options to add images, links, edit text format, etc. however, it is a manual process. If you are technically-savvy, then you can edit the source code. If you are not tech-savvy, this can be a limitation.  

Other platforms, such as Kajabi or Learnworlds, allow you to build custom sales pages, checkout pages, and landing pages with pre-made templates and blocks.

It’s also not directly possible to add social proof (testimonials, badge,etc.) to your sales pages on Ruzuku.

5. Limited Marketing Options

The quality of your content will play a huge factor in attracting more students. However, if you are not able to continually market your courses, it becomes a challenge. 

In the Ruzuku platform, you are limited to using coupons and discount codes.  There are no options for upsells (or order bumps), and also to bundle courses.  

6. No WordPress (or other CMS) Integration

Ruzuku does not allow you to build a full-blown (website pages, blog, etc.). So you will have to use a CMS like WordPress or HubSpot COS or Wix to build a website and host your blog content. 

Also, there is no direct integration between WordPress and Ruzuku. So both platforms have to run independently of each other.

Alternatively, LearnDash or AccessAlly can quickly be connected with your WordPress site. Other platforms such as LearnWorlds, Podia, Kajabi also have limited integration with WordPress. 

7. Limited Student Engagement (Not an LMS)

Currently, Ruzuku only offers polls and quizzes (however, not for the Bootstrapper plan). Also, the quizzes are limited to only multiple-choice questions. There’s also no possibility of grading the quizzes or creating assignments for students. Finally, there’s no option to generate certificates. All of this disqualifies Ruzuku from being a Learning Management System (LMS). 

Other platforms such as Learnworlds or LearnDash offer more student engagement options — certificates, enhanced quizzes, etc. 

Ruzuku Alternatives

1. Ruzuku vs Learnworlds

Ruzuku and Learnworlds are both online course creation platforms that allow digital and creative entrepreneurs to create, launch, and sell courses.

However, Learnworlds comes with extensive course engagement (quizzes, certificates), eCommerce capabilities (coupons, upsells, bundles, etc)., and extensive website building capabilities — compared to Ruzuku.  

Though Learnworlds lowest-tiered plan does not offer unlimited courses like Ruzuku, it does allow course creators to get experience building courses at a relatively low price (Learnworlds Starter plan — $29 per month)

Let’s review the differences between Ruzuku and Learnworlds in detail:

For more information on LearnWorlds read my LearnWorlds review here.

2. Ruzuku vs Teachable

Teachable is an online course creation platform that allows digital entrepreneurs to create, market, and sell their courses.

Learnworlds and Teachable are similar — both allow you to  create courses, sell courses, accept payments, etc.

Teachable offers a free version (allowing you to create one course) while Ruzuku doesn’t. Teachable might be well-suited for beginners or first-time course creators, while Learnworlds is ideal for coaches and creators who want to keep their students engaged with ongoing courses and webinars.

Let’s review the differences between Learnworlds and Teachable in detail: 

3. Ruzuku vs Podia

Podia is an online course creation platform that allows new course creators to quickly create, launch, and sell online courses, membership programs, and digital downloads.

There are many basic similarities between Ruzuku and Podia — create courses, sell courses, sell digital downloads, accept payments, etc.

One of the biggest differences between Podia and Ruzuku would be their pricing model — Podia’s plans are more affordable for most course creators. Also, Podia offers extensive support via Live chat (7 days a week)

Let’s review the differences between Learnworlds and Podia in detail:

Ruzuku Review: Conclusion

Ruzuku offers many benefits that makes it a good choice for coaches, creative entrepreneurs, artists to build, launch, and sell courses. 

As mentioned a few times in this Ruzuku review —one of the most compelling features is Ruzuku’s ability to help host and run webinars and teleconferences (both pre-recorded and live).

The biggest differentiator between Ruzuku and the other online course platforms (Learnworlds, LearnDash) is the lack of an extensive learning center or student engagement features — quizzes, assignments, exams, custom certificates, etc. 

If you are looking for an extensive LMS that allows enhanced student engagement — you should look at Learnworlds, Thinkific or Teachable.

If you want to keep everything (email marketing, landing pages) under-one-roof and want an all-in-one course marketing platform  — Kajabi is a better option.

Ruzuku is an excellent online course platform option for newbie course creators or entrepreneurs who don’t require extensive designing requirements, but rather want a simple course interface.