What’s in this Guide:
- 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:
… 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 | ✘ | ✔ | |
| ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 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 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 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!
