13 of the best online courses platforms for creators
Discover the most effective online course platforms to build exciting e-learning courses and expand your online business.
You've got an idea for the perfect online class. You're just looking for a place to build the course.
Through an online platform for courses it is possible to design your course, add images and videos or even add interactivity elements such as quizzes or certificate of completion for your course. You can also create sales pages, accept payments, and manage your students all in the same place.
In this guide will discuss the things to look for when choosing the best course software, and we'll also review 13 of the most popular online course platforms for entrepreneurs, small-business entrepreneurs, and owners.
All pricing is accurate as of the date of publication but subject to change over time.
What to search for in choosing an online training platform
Before we get started, here are some factors to take into consideration when selecting an online learning tool to help your business.
UnlimitedBusinesses alter over time which is a great factor. Using platforms that let you sell unlimited courses means there's no need to worry about outgrowing your e-learning software in the future as your product's needs change.
Multiple file types: You shouldn't be constrained by the kind of content you're able to include within your class. Look for platforms that make it possible to include audio, video texts, embedded modules.
Support for creators:Don't go it alone. Consider online educational platforms first. accessible customer support and sources such as chat rooms, live chat, knowledge bases, and videos to assist you on your journey.
Price:Most creators have a small budget, which is why selecting a low-cost platform is key. You don't need to pay for the most expensive option when you can find budget-friendly alternatives that get the job done.
With this in mind Here are 13 resources that will help you create and sell your course.
13 top online learning platforms for entrepreneurs and creators
#1
Making a course with e-Learning can be done in a matter of minutes. It is possible to add text, videos or audio files, questions as well as coaching sessions and file downloads to your lessons and modules.
Additionally, with the help of Google Forms, you are able to integrate elements from a variety of sources such as YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Slides, TikTok, Instagram, GitHub as well as Google Forms.
Once you've added your course material, use its easy-to-use page creator to build a course's website or sales webpage for your offering. If you require assistance, offers best-in-class chat and help via email throughout every day of.
According to expert bladesmith Ben Abbot , "I've always had a dream of creating online classes that aid bladesmiths at all skill levels improve their craft. This has been made possible with their simple and powerful platform."
What are 's features?
Unlimited customers
Payment integrations that work with Stripe and PayPal
Coupons, payment plans and subscriptions
pros: has a free plan where you can develop your site, set up communities, and write your online course before spending your money. 's paid plans include unlimited courses and content hosting. The courses can be launched in advance or packaged into bundles. Additionally, it's possible to organize your materials as a drip, or self-paced program.
scores 90.91 percent on the Creator Friendliness Index . Creator-friendly platforms offer resources as well as pricing structure, along with policies to empower the creatorsand give you greater control over running your company. There are no transaction costs on any paid plan.
Cons: is a turnkey solution, so if you prefer to build your site and your course entirely from scratch, with the help from a professional developer, this will not be the ideal choice.
How much does cost?
Free (8% transaction fee)
Mover: $39/month
Shaker: $89/month
Earthquaker: $199/month
#2 Kajabi
Kajabi offers designs for self-study, drip, and membership courses. It is possible to add any number of modules or lessons as you want using videos assessment, audio files Text, and other downloadable materials. If you're stuck you can reach Kajabi support through live chat, or by email.
What are the Kajabi's capabilities?
Unlimited content and website hosting
Upsells, coupons, subscriptions, and installment plans
Abandoned cart recovery
Analytical and Course-specific insights
Campaigns, email broadcasts pipelines, automatizations and sequences
Payment processing gateways include: Stripe and PayPal
Score for creator friendliness: 68.83/100
Kajabi pros: Kajabi has a pipeline tool that allows users to create sophisticated sales funnels. There are also website templates which you can utilize to kickstart your creativity. Kajabi doesn't charge any transaction charges on any of their paid plans.
Kajabi cons: Kajabi is one of the costlier online courses platforms that allow creators to create, and there's no no-cost plan. There are limits to how many products you are able to create, as well as how many active users you are able to enroll in all plans.
Kajabi's product and its customer limitations:
Basic: 3 products, 3 funnels, 1,000 active members
Growth: 15 products, 15 funnels, 10,000 active members
Pro: 100 products, 100 funnels, 20,000 active members
How much does Kajabi cost?
Basic: $149/month
Growth: $199/month
Pro: $399/month
#3 Thinkific
Within the course builder, Thinkific creators can add downloadable content, quizzes, survey powerpoints with voiceovers. Plans with higher tiers let you add the creation of prerequisite courses and make it mandatory for students to complete each module in the proper sequence.
Thinkific also offers a free plan to make three courses as well as establish your site. The free plan doesn't have any transaction costs as well as all plans have unlimited students. If you have any questions, Thinkific offers phone and email assistance.
What are the features of Thinkific?
Sell bundles of courses, bundles as well as memberships
Unlimited video and content hosting with all plans
Students can leave course reviews
Exam integrations with higher plans
Course compliance tools
Score for creator friendliness: 87.01/100
Thinkific advantages:With Thinkific, you can offer unlimited courses as well as provide unlimited content to every paid plan. You can connect tools from the Thinkific application store to add more features if you require extra capabilities.
Thinkific Cons:Thinkific is a popular online course option, but there's no easy method to sell other digital products including ebooks, downloads as well as coaching sessions. Furthermore, many popular features, such as the basic community, memberships, product bundles payments plans, and subscriptions can only be found with the Pro plan or higher.
What is the price Thinkific Cost?
Free (No transaction fees)
Basic: $49/month
Pro: $99/month
Pro+Growth add-on: $149/month
Premier: $499/month
#4 Teachable
Teachable's free plans include the course with unlimited students. Paid plans come with unlimited self-paced classes and cohort courses, as well as coaching products, and video bandwidth. The templates for course design are there that can help you start with your course, as well as adding questions, videos, audio texts, as well as customized CSS to your modules for courses.
Support for Teachable is accessible via email on every plan. Chat support via live chat is offered on the professional plan and higher.
What are the Teachable's capabilities?
Unlimited classes and coaching with the paid plan
Quizzes, certificates of completion, and lecture comments
Trials and subscriptions for free or memberships as well as payments plans
Create a storefront that is custom-designed and sale pages to promote your courses
Affiliate center that offers automatic payments
Basic email marketing features
Score for creator friendliness: 77.92/100
Teachable pros:Teachable offers course compliance tools like lesson order enforcement to make sure students are able to move through your material in the correct method. Additionally, there are integrated with affiliate tools as well as a student refer option.
Teachable's cons: Teachable doesn't come with a built-in social feature. If you want a community for your students, you'll have to use third-party software to join at an additional cost. Teachable has hefty charges for transactions on its Basic and free plans.
How much does Teachable cost?
Plan for free: ($1 plus 10% transaction fee on paid products)
Basis: $39/month (5% transaction fee)
Pro: $199/month
Business: $299/month
#5 LearnWorlds
Creators may include video transcripts with overlay buttons as well as hyperlinks. Students are able to highlight and make notes inside the course viewer. Additionally, instructors may add assessments, randomized tests and certificates for completion of the course. LearnWorlds support is available through telephone, email or ticketing, and live chat.
What is it? LearnWorlds Features?
Sell courses, memberships products, subscriptions, or courses bundles
Make your own website
Tools for video editing integrated into the system as well as transcripts
Marketing via affiliate
Mobile app (for an additional charge)
Unlimited SCORMs / HTML5
Creator friendliness score: 76.62/100
LearnWorlds pros: LearnWorlds users can manage affiliates, manage membershipsand conduct promotions on their course. It is also possible to make a white label iOS or Android application for an additional fee.
LearnWorlds Cons: LearnWorlds is heavily geared towards course creators, which means it's not the best fit for you if you provide online downloads, webinars or coaching, or communities.
If you're on the LearnWorlds Starter plan, you cannot offer courses that are paid (no no-cost courses) in addition, LearnWorlds will charge you $5 per course sale. You can create a simple site, but it's limited to 3 pages. You'll need the cost of $99 per month Pro Trainer plan to get more options.
How much does LearnWorlds cost?
Starter: $29/month (+$5 fee per course sale)
Pro Trainer: $99/month
Learning Center Learning Center: $299/month
Corporate: Custom pricing
#6 LearnDash
With LearnDash it is possible to create courses that have prerequisites, drip content memberships, and subscriptions. You can also send automated notification to students, allow course discussion forums, and award certificates to students who have done well.
They can also be subscription-based memberships, or one-time purchase. If you need to get in touch, you can get in touch with LearnDash customer support Monday through Friday.
What is LearnDash's feature?
WordPress LMS plugin
Students can be enrolled in unlimited courses and can also sell unlimited classes
Works with most WordPress themes
Subscriptions, one-time purchases enrollments, bundles of courses as well as large licenses
Student incentives, quizzes as well as evaluations, certificates, and incentives
Send students notifications
LearnDash pros:LearnDash offers student engagement instruments like leaderboards, quizzes games, assignments, and gamification. LearnDash does not charge transaction fees, and you are able to use it with the majority of WordPress themes, making it extremely adaptable.
How much does LearnDash cost?
Basic: $199/year
Plus package: $229/year
Pro package: $369/year
Costs for hosting your WordPress website and the domain registration
#7 Uscreen
Uscreen is video membership software that includes course-making features as well as community tools. It's best for creators with the vast collection of video content they want to house in one location.
All Uscreen customers get high-quality video player, a website and unlimited streaming bandwidth. To create courses, you can tag your video content by subject and organize them in a catalog. You can offer one-time purchases, tiered subscriptions, free trials, and rentals on all plans.
Uscreen users are able to access customer support through email.
What is Uscreen's feature?
Create a site that is a member-based platform for your video content
Make your own site and app
Livestreaming events
Uscreen disadvantages: Uscreen is on the costly side, and it doesn't have a free plan. It's only suitable for video-based courses, so should you provide other offerings like downloads, live coaching or interconnected communities, you'll want to use a different tool.
How much does Uscreen cost?
Basic: $79/month plus $0.50 per subscription
Growing: $159/month plus $0.50 per subscriber
Uscreen Plus Uscreen Plus: Custom pricing (This plan comes with the white-label mobile application and the TV streaming app)
#8 Mighty Networks
In addition to the courses, Mighty Networks has advanced community services like live streaming customized feeds, profile pages for members Direct Messaging virtual events, as well as calendar functionality. Mighty Networks customers can access support through a ticketing system, or by clicking the "Host Help" button.
What are Mighty Network's features?
Make unlimited courses with the Business plan as well as up
Communities are able to have unlimited members and moderators
Private chat and group messaging
The community of creator support
Member referral program
The score for Creator-Friendliness is 59.74/100
Mighty Networks pros:With Mighty Networks, you can develop courses that include a community element. Mighty Networks supports video courses drip-courses, drip courses and livestreaming. You can also add unlimited instructors or moderators.
Mighty Networks cons: Mighty Networks is, in the first and foremost, a community platform. There's no integrated way to offer services, such as coaching or digital downloads. There's a storage limit on the Community and Business plans and transaction fees on all tiers.
Additionally, you are able to export your list of members as well as their email addresses using the Business plan. This can make it hard to move from Mighty Networks to a new platform.
How much does Mighty Networks cost?
Community plan monthly cost of $39 (3 percent transaction fee)
Business plan 119 USD per month (2 per cent transaction cost)
Mighty Pro: Pricing that is custom
#9 Academy of Mine
An all-in-one solution for online learning, Academy of Mine is an application that allows you to develop, market the online training course on an own white-label system. It's an excellent choice when you're within the B2B industry and require the ability to sell large licences to a single customer.
As per their site, Academy of Mine is often used for:
Education for the future
Safety training
Employee development
Training and certifications for professionals
Training in compliance
Employee onboarding
Help to Academy of Mine users is available through email and a ticketing system.
What do you think of some of the Academy of Mine features?
Offer self-paced classes with tests as well as surveys and tests.
Create sales and marketing pages
Customized branding and site builder
Bulk import and export features
Flexible ecommerce reporting and analytics
Integrations from third parties
Academy of Mine pros:Academy of Mine works excellent for the development of teams or corporate business courses for training. The software allows you to develop self-paced and live classes and then create your own website.
Academy of Mine cons: Academy of Mine is a costly option that was designed for big businesses but not individuals who want to create. There are also limits on the amount of storage space available and the monthly active users.
How much will Academy of Mine cost?
Essentials: $599/month
Professional: $899/month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
#10 Teachery
Teachery is an easy but efficient software designed specifically for course creators and course creators. It's not stuffed full of bells and bells however, it's an easy choice if you only want to start an online course business.
Teachery includes a course creator using two different templates. For your courses and modules, you can embed audio and video as well as slide slides. You can create unlimited selling, payment as well as email capture pages for promoting your courses. The Teachery help desk via email.
What are the features of Teachery?
Unlimited courses, lessons, and students
Sell memberships and bundle products
Integrations with Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and Zapier
Affiliate program
Recurring, non-recurring, and free payments
Teachers pros:Teachery is a white-label course platform which you can modify to suit your branding and design. They have two straightforward pricing plans, which include every feature of the platform.
Teachery pros:Teachery is not optimized for the sale of digital downloads, or other services. There's no community feature, and they don't provide video or audio hosting, so you'll need to embed videos hosted by third party providers such as YouTube as well as Vimeo.
What is the cost of Teachery price?
Monthly plan: $49/month
Annual plan: $470/year
#11 Ruzuku
Ruzuku is an educational management system that lets you build an interactive online course complete with student forums and Q&A sections. With Ruzuku, you can teach either live, evergreen or self-directed online classes that include a user-friendly student monitor.
What are the Ruzuku's capabilities?
Students can create profiles on social media including bios and pictures within the community of course
Replicate a prior course and repeat it several times
Email announcements to course participants
Subscriptions or one-time payments
Course completion data
Student discussions
Ruzuku pros: Ruzuku gets good ratings for customer service, and they have comprehensive training courses, tutorials, assistance documents, as well as an online group on Facebook. Ruzuku allows Ruzuku to make unlimited course All plans are equipped with video and audio hosting.
Ruzuku negatives: Ruzuku is not suitable if you provide digital downloads, communities, as well as coaching and consultation services. While sending email announcements can be done, there are none of the advanced features for email marketing. It also does not have a fully-featured site builder.
How much does Ruzuku cost?
Bootstrapper: $99/month
Up and Comer 149$/month
University: $199/month
#12 Udemy
Features:
Course builder that is user-friendly and easy to use.
Learners can leave course reviews
Marketing tools built-in
Instructors are able to be part of the site-wide offers to increase the number of students
Score for creator friendliness: 52.78/100
Udemy pros: Udemy promotes your classes on their platform, which means that your marketing is much more efficient. Udemy is also an established platform with brand recognition and an extensive users, which make it much easier for students to come across the course.
Udemy negatives:On Udemy, you can't control the quality of your content, branding as well as your income. You don't own your audience as well as you aren't able to transfer your student list off of the platform in the future. Additionally, you aren't able to run cohort courses, live courses, or even membership-based courses.
How much does Udemy cost?
It's completely free to join Udemy for a creative but it's a requirement to be part of Udemy's revenue-sharing plan.
Revenue sharing plan:
The instructor keeps 97% of the time when a student utilizes the code of referral provided by the instructor.
The instructor is paid 37% of the amount if there is there is no referral code used
#13 Skillshare
Students pay a monthly cost to have unlimited access to all courses on the platform, and teachers earn money on the amount of time students spend watching their video. Teachers earn their money through sending students to Skillshare. Creators are able to access help via email.
What are the Skillshare features?
Profit from royalty payments or through the Skillshare affiliate program.
Creators may be found through students who are already on the platform
Upload one class every seven days
Video lessons can be created.
Creator-friendliness Score: 44.78/100
Skillshare advantages:Because Skillshare is an online learning library There's no need for marketing on your end. Skillshare already has an community, which can bring more attention to your class. Also, it's free for designers to begin.
Skillshare disadvantages: When students watch your lessons via Skillshare it doesn't mean you own your audience. There is no way to build an email list for your students. Nor will you be able to contact them at a later time.
Each lesson must adhere to the Skillshare guidelines. This means you have less creative control on your own work. There isn't a community feature, and you can't offer downloads of digital content or live courses with cohorts, memberships, or different formats other than videos of lectures.
What is the cost of HTML0? Skillshare price?
Free for creators
Selecting the most suitable online course platform to launch your business
Making online-based courses is an excellent way to grow the scope of your company as well as spread information. In selecting the right learning site online, ask yourself the following questions:
Does the platform come with all-in-one features so that I can handle my company all in one location?
Can the platform restrict my number of items I'm able to make?
Is it easy to contact assistance if I require help?
Can my course include videos, audio, texts or other forms of information?
Are the costs reasonable for this stage in my business?
Your skills and experiences are highly valuable. If you create an online course, you'll be well in the process of sharing your enthusiasm with other students. Have fun sharing your knowledge!