Are you leveraging the best online course platforms to sell your skills, experience, and knowledge?
You should.
The online learning market continues to grow as more people seek to access education on their terms. More online course platforms also keep cropping up with numerous competitive features that make it easy to earn from your expertise.
What’s more?
Some of the best online course platforms make it easy to get new students and collect data you can use to tailor learning experiences to your audience.
And guess what?
It’s a market that will keep growing.
Researchers expect the e-learning market to grow to USD 1 trillion by 2027 from $250 billion in 2020.
Image via Global Market Insights
However, the longer the list of the best online learning platforms, the harder it gets to choose one that suits your needs.
For this reason, we've listed some of the best online course platforms plus their key features, pricing, and pros and cons to make your job easier.
Ready to identify a platform that works for your specific needs?
Read on:
However, before we can get to the best online course platforms, we examine what you should consider before settling for one.
Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.
Even with choice overload when it comes to the best online course platforms, there will be one out there that will fit your needs.
So, what should you consider when choosing the best online course platforms? Let’s take a look.
Be very clear about why you need a platform and your goals for your online course business.
Secondly, outline the experience you want students who register for your courses to have and whether the platform can help you deliver on the outcomes you promise.
Considering your budget helps you narrow down your search to the best online course platforms within your price range.
And if working on a low budget, choose from the list of the best online course platforms that offer multiple pricing to pay more as you grow. This way, you start with one of the low-priced options then upgrade as your online course business grows.
There are three ways to tackle hosting when identifying the best online course platforms:
Leverage software like WordPress to set up your own course website, then integrate plugins, set up payment, etc.
This option requires technical knowledge and the ability to quickly fix issues if your site breaks down.
On these sites, you upload your course, and the marketplace takes care of everything else. They host your course, help you promote, ensure students can access it, and collect payments.
However, even the best online course platforms control everything, take a percentage of your sales, and you have to work under certain restrictions.
There are different options for this, but they give you control over how you handle your courses. They include:
Standalone Platforms
The best online course platforms in this category cater to small businesses looking for a simple way to brand their own website and have hosting catered for.
These kinds of platforms are ideal for people who want to build a turnkey branded online course without worrying about creating funnels or leveraging email marketing services.
WordPress Plugin Online platforms
These are tools you leverage to sell courses if you have an existing WordPress site.
However, you do need technical skills and knowledge on what plugins to leverage to get all the required features. These include form plugins, security plugins, redirect plugins, WordPress backup plugins, etc.
It's also important to buy these plugins only from the best online course platforms to avoid instances where your entire business shuts down.
All in One Online Course Platform
The best online course platforms in this category provide you with all you need – from tools for online course creation, hosting, email services, support, community building, etc.
They are great if you have no technical skills or want everything in one place.
The next step when choosing the best online course platforms involves identifying must-have features depending on your requirements.
But how do you identify features?
Start by knowing your ideal students' pain points and what features would help you solve them.
And most importantly?
Leverage the 14-day trial most of the best online course platforms offer to test the waters.
However, before you can do that, here are some of the crucial features to look for in the best online course platforms:
Built-in course builder: Makes it easy to create engaging online courses.
Ecommerce support: The best online course platforms should double as a marketplace that enables you to make money with your courses.
Cloud-based: A cloud-based online course creator ensures faster implementation since it doesn't require onsite installation.
Test and assessments: Most of the best online course platforms enable you to gather feedback and evaluate knowledge retention with quizzes and assessments.
Ease of use: An important attribute of the best online course platforms is that they should be simple to understand and use for course creation and sharing.
Learner experience: The best online course platforms offer tools that help you create a seamless learning experience. These features include self-paced learning, multi-lingual support, collaborations, discussions, etc.
Third-party integrations: The best online course platforms integrate with other solutions like marketing automation tools, email providers, funnel tools, list building tools, etc.
Here is a list of the best online course platforms with features, pricing, and other details to help you make an informed decision.
Image via Thinkific
Thinkific ranks among the best online course platforms because it gives you the tools you need to create, market, deliver, and sell online courses to your audiences.
Its drag and drop feature enables you to either upload predesigned online courses or create them from scratch. As expected from the best online course platforms, Thinkific also offers multiple content types, including quizzes, video, text, surveys, etc., to help you make your course interactive and engaging.
Let’s see what other features it has to be regarded as one of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Stay connected to current and prospective students from your dashboard by creating and saving customized user searches. You can then automate reminders to highly valuable prospects.
Image via LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is an end-to-end online course creation software that takes care of your course creation process, marketing, maintenance, monetization, and analytic needs.
And guess what?
This access to multiple tools for building interactive courses makes it one of the best online course platforms.
What's more?
As expected from the best online course platforms, LearnWorlds’ software enables you to build optimized landing pages, leverage a blogging tool, and create one-click course sales funnels.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Leveraging the feature “see what you are changing” can help you see how changes you make look like on your site before you leave the editor. Using it ensures that your final published version looks professional.
Image via Kajabi
Kajabi offers numerous features you can use not only to build online courses, but also to create marketing emails, landing pages, checkout pages, and so much more.
But what makes Kajabi one of the best online course platforms?
It's an all-in-one online course platform that enables you to start a website and build complex marketing campaigns.
Best of all?
As one of the best online course platforms, Kajabi offers design and promotion options that make it easy to promote and sell online.
Let’s see what other features Kajabi has to be regarded as one of the best online course platforms out there.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Kajabi offers a 14-day trial for each of these paid plans:
Pro Tip: Do not leave out the “SEO and Sharing” settings page blank for Kajabi to revert to defaults. Instead, fill in all details to increase your chances of getting on the first page of Google.
Image via Teachable
Teachable ranks among the best online course platforms because it caters adequately to non-tech savvy course creators. It's also an affordable platform with an easy learning curve.
It enables you to create a course website reflecting your brand and upload course content with ease.
What's more?
It’s one of the best online course platforms with a clean, easy-to-use interface containing only crucial customization features you need to create courses and sell them.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Leverage Teachable's bundle to group courses or products into one unit and offer them to your students at a discounted or single price.
Image via Podia
Podia sets itself apart as one of the best online course platforms since it allows you to sell courses, webinars, memberships, and digital downloads.
What's more?
It has numerous customization options that give you control of your branding and an easy drag and drop builder. Your digital products can also live on the platform, making it easy for customers to download, access, and buy them.
Read on to know if Podia belongs to the list of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Like most others in the list of the best online course platforms, Podia offers a 14-day free trial.
Pro Tip: Leverage their resources page to learn everything you need to make your online teaching business successful. As one of the best online course platforms, Podia has a great database with information on creating an affiliate program, building courses, marketing your own private membership site, etc.
Image via LearnDash
As a popular LMS plugin for WordPress, LearnDash is one of the best online course platforms for solo course creators, academic institutions, training organizations, and everyone else.
With LearnDash, you can visualize your courses as you build them with their drag and drop editor. You can also include quizzes, lessons, assignments, etc., right from the course builder.
What's more?
The plugin enables you to automate some functions as a student completes tasks. For example, when they upload an assignment, finish a lesson, fail a quiz, etc. Read on to know why we have included LearnDash in the list of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: To keep students coming back to your courses or have them learn over a period of time, leverage the built-in drip content feature. Then, make content available after a certain duration or several days after they sign up.
Image via MemberPress
Looking for the best online course platforms that integrate with WordPress? You can definitely give MemberPress a try.
The WordPress LMS plugin offers an easy way to build your online courses. Its online course platform allows you to build, create, upsell, promote, and cross-sell online courses.
That’s not all. It requires no coding skills and you can simply drag-and-drop elements to quickly and easily create courses.
Before investing in the best online course platforms such as MemberPress, it’s important to check out the features, pros, and cons.
So, let’s get started.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Create custom coupons to attract prospective customers and retain existing ones.
Image via Lifter LMS
While on the topic of the best online course platforms that integrate with WordPress, we can’t ignore Lifter LMS.
As one of the popular online course platforms designed for WordPress, Lifter LMS offers powerful tools that make creating online courses a seamless experience.
What’s more, it optimizes the online learning experience for course participants, helping you strengthen your online course business.
The flexible course builder tool enables multi-instructor training and is a comprehensive learning management system.
Here are the features that make it one of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Leverage the ‘Advanced Quizzes’ add on to create graded exams with graded essays, question types, quizzes, and much more.
Image via Ruzuku
One of the attributes of the best online course platforms tis that they are easy to use. Ruzuku claims that it makes it ‘ridiculously easy’ to build online courses.
With this platform, you can create a online course in minutes using text, PDFs, Word, PPTs, and video.
That’s not all. You can build course outlines, copy previous content, launch the course, and generate sales in quick time.
Take a look at the features to see if Ruzuku belongs to the list of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Like most others in the list of the best online course platforms, Ruzuku offers a 14-day free trial.
Pro Tip: Go to the “Manage Courses” section to create branded course content by adjusting fonts, logo, color schemes, and layout.
Image via Searchie
This is an online course platform designed by content creators to help other creators monetize their content. It aims to help creators manage all their online content from one place and monetize it.
It allows you to import all types of content from various sources and create a content hub for which you can charge a membership fee. Searchie also makes it easy to create and sell online courses by automating many tedious tasks like video transcripts and captions.
Check out its key features, pros, and cons to decide if it’s the right choice for you.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: If you buy a subscription, utilize all the features and not just course creation and distribution. Create a content hub and sell memberships to earn a steady stream of income.
Image via WizIQ
WizIQ belongs to the category of the best online course platforms on the basis of its affordability and flexibility. According to WizIQ’s website, more than 400,000 instructors used WizIQ to impart online courses across 200 countries.
As you can expect from the best online course platforms, WizIQ gives you the tools you need for live training including video streaming, discussion boards, analytics, and assignments.
Time to look at what other features it has to qualify as one of the best online course platforms.
Let’s get started.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Unlike others in this list of the best online course platforms, WizIQ has not given pricing details other than stating it starts at $25 per month. There is also a flexible pay-per-use plan.
Pro Tip: Integrate your existing website or learning management system with WizIQ’s Virtual Classroom Plugin for live class functionality.
Image via Academy of Mine
Next up in the list of the best online course platforms is Academy of Mine, which is built on the philosophy of creating a unique learning experience for every individual.
What makes it one of the best online course platforms? It takes a streamlined approach to help businesses, professionals, and educators create and deliver top-quality educational content.
And, you can use the platform for not only online professional training, but also for continuing education, employee onboarding, and certifications.
Let’s see what else makes it one of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
As expected of the best online course platforms, you can explore the features with a free trial of these subscription plans:
Pro Tip: Make improvements to your courses by using online surveys.
Image via ShowTime
ShowTime is a robust learning platform from Zoho that makes it easy for you to run and manage your online training business.
It has all the features that are common to the best online course platforms. These include virtual classrooms, collaborative learning, screen sharing, Q&A, and much more.
One of the key factors that make ShowTime one of the best online course platforms is that it offers top-notch engagement features to boost the learning experience.
Check out its features, pros, and cons to make an informed decision.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Access all your content files and session recordings in ShowTime’s Account Library or create and save polls there for future sessions.
Image via TalentLMS
If you are looking for the best online course platforms that are easy to use, feature-rich, and affordable, you can shortlist TalentLMS.
It offers advanced course-building features such as gamification and white-labeled interfaces to keep your audience engaged.
What’s more, its free version comes with no time limit, which means you have plenty of time to test out its features.
And, you get access to expert-designed, ready-made courses. How cool is that!
Read on to know what else makes us include TalentLMS in the list of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
TalentLMS is among the best online course platforms to offer a free forever plan.
Pro Tip: Use TalentLMS’s localization feature to match the time zone and language of each of your users.
Image via Graphy
Graphy has all that you want from the best online course platforms. As an all-inclusive platform, Graphy makes course-building appear seamless.
And, you can market your courses and build your tutorial business by leveraging Graphy’s marketing tools.
Like most others in this list of the best online course platforms, there are no coding or web development skills required to create courses on Graphy.
Let’s now discuss the interesting features that make Graphy one of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Like most others in the list of the best online course platforms, Ruzuku offers a 14-day free trial.
Pro Tip: Encourage your audience to promote your course by incentivizing them with a cashback reward system.
Image via Pathwright
Pathwright is one of the best online course platforms for quickly deploying learning content organization-wide.
Regarded as an excellent LMS, Pathwright helps create straightforward, user-friendly, learner-centered learning experiences with a range of tools.
Some of the features that make Pathwright one of the best online course platforms include its uncluttered user interface and the flexibility offered by “Blocks” in creating interactive learning content.
Analytics and cohorts serve to sweeten the deal. Take a look at the features, pros, and cons to make the right decision.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Add times, dates, and automatic reminders for each cohort to stay focused on imparting training.
Image via Simplero
As the name suggests, creating an online course with Simplero is quick and easy. In addition, built-in marketing tools help you promote and upsell your courses. These are the key reasons to include this platform in the list of the best online course platforms.
With just a few clicks, you'll be able to build out your curriculum and add your learning content. With its many customization options, Simplero is a great choice for anyone looking for a capable online course builder.
Simplero qualifies as one of the best online course platforms thanks to the integrated website builder, automation, and segmentation tools.
Here are the features that make it one of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Many of the best online course platforms offer a free trial and Simplero is no exception. You can explore its features with a 14-day free trial while the paid plans are in these categories:
Pro Tip: Grant free access to your course content for a limited time to entice learners to sign up.
Image via Xperiencify
Games are fun. Learning can be boring. But what if you can make learning fun with games?
Even when using the best online course platforms, course creators face the challenge of learners abandoning courses before completion. Xperiencify aims to improve this by making courses more engaging and fun.
It does this by gamfiying the learning experience that helps boost completion rates. The fact that you can easily add game elements to your courses, is why Xperiencify is one of the best online course platforms.
In addition to video content, Xperiencify also supports adding various resources including MP3 files, slides, and PDFs.
Take a look at the features that make Xperiencify one of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Keep learners motivated with customized celebrations at strategic points during the course.
Image via Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is one of the best online course platforms you need to build a vibrant community for your online courses.
As a user, you have the option to sell individual courses, membership, or a combination of these. Unlike most others in the list of the best online course platforms, Mighty Networks is built not just around the content, but an engaged community.
That means students have a place to find support and encouragement, challenge each other and share their progress. In other words, learning doesn’t end when the course ends.
Like others in this list of the best online course platforms, Mighty Networks offers members the option to share various content formats including links, images, and text.
It doesn’t end there. Mighty Networks has other capabilities that you would expect from the best online course platforms. Let’s see what they are.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Bring communities across Slack, Discord, Facebook, and other platforms into Mighty Network’s unified dedicated space.
Image via Kartra
There are many reasons why Kartra is one of the best online course platforms. Not only does it offer courses, but it also has a variety of email functions, checkouts, and the ability to create a membership site.
Additionally, Kartra can also host your own affiliate program. While it is one of the best online course platforms, its advanced marketing tools, and other capabilities are designed to help you build a successful business.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Upsell the most relevant courses to the right leads by segmenting and tagging them.
Image via Systeme.io
Systeme.io is a comprehensive marketing software solution that provides trainers, professionals, and startups all they need to succeed with their online coaching business.
It is regarded as of the best online course platforms because it makes it easy to create your courses, design enrollment pages, and manage participants. While it makes paid courses particularly easy to set up, it also allows you to offer free resources.
Wait, there’s more. The platform’s dashboard provides easy access to a range of powerful marketing tools such as a funnel builder, marketing automation, and email marketing tools.
As expected from the best online course platforms, Systeme.io helps you get the most out of your marketing efforts and maximize your results.
Let’s get started with the platform’s features.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Migrate from any online course platforms and funnels to Systeme.io with ease.
Image via Teachery
Teachery is one of the best online course platforms for beginners because it eliminates confusing functions and designs to give course creators what they need.
While most others named in this list of the best online course platforms may require a time investment to get started, Teachery offers a guided tutorial. This beginner-friendly approach helps novice course creators get their courses up and running in no time.
The best part? There are zero transaction fees, unlike many others in the list of the best online course platforms.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Pro Tip: Leverage customer analytics to know the lifetime value of your learners, average course completion rate, and time spent on each course.
Image via Yondo
Yondo makes it easy to create and sell courses from your branded store. In addition to courses, you can sell online videos, group classes, webinars, and live video consultations, all from a single interface.
It fits into the category of the best online course platforms based on its mobile-friendly design, customization options, and course-building tools.
Read on to know what else makes Yondo one of the best online course platforms for your coaching business.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Like most others in the list of the best online course platforms, Yondo offers a free trial of these paid plans:
Pro Tip: Get rich insights into your customers with detailed reports on purchase information, streaming usage, events stats and revenue.
Image via Digital Course Hive
If your course content is not dependent on videos, one of the best online course platforms that you can leverage is Digital Course Hive. It offers a course builder with easy drag-and-drop features to create custom courses as well as membership sites.
This comprehensive platform enables you to construct courses, funnels, and memberships in one place.
What’s more, you can sell physical products, automate emails, and sync your calendar. After all, these are some of the features you would expect the best online course platforms to offer.
Take a look at the features in more detail.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Like most others in the list of the best online course platforms, Digital Course Hive offers a 14-day free trial.
Pro Tip: Contact all your leads and existing customers with the email broadcasting feature.
Image via iSpring Market
The best online course platforms come with powerful features that streamline course creation and management, and iSpring Market is no different.
With iSpring’s comprehensive set of tools, you can create an online course marketplace with a few clicks, upload content, and start selling courses.
One of the reasons to regard iSpring as one of the best online course platforms is that it supports multiple content formats, including SCORM courses.
That’s not all. iSpring Market offers a top-notch analytics engine to monitor learners’ progress and revenue data.
Here are its other interesting features.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Unlike most others in the list of the best online course platforms, iSpring offers different pricing options for non-profits, academics, and businesses.
For businesses:
Non-profits and academic:
Pro Tip: Simulate real-life scenarios with pre-built templates, voice overs, characters, and locations to enrich the learning experience.
Image via Pinlearn
Based on its versatility and powerful capabilities, Pinlearn qualifies as one of the best online course platforms. The platform makes it easy to sell live classes, self-paced courses, and group webinars.
Pinlearn also goes where most others in the list of the best online course platforms don’t. It allows you to invite other tutors on to the platform to sell their courses.
And, there are multiple tools you can use such as Zoom live streaming, payment gateway, and internal chat system to build the perfect e-learning platform that meets your needs.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Unlike others in this list of the best online course platforms, Pinlearn offers a one-time payment plan in these tiers:
Pro Tip: Communicate with learners using the two-way, integrated messaging portal within Pinlearn.
Image via Zenler
As an edupreneur or course creator, you may feel stretched too thin, at times. Between researching your topic, developing online courses, to marketing them, course creators are required to don many hats.
If you are looking for the best online course platforms that can do the heavy lifting needed for all that, you can give Zenler a try.
As one of the best online course platforms, Zenler allows you to create courses and offers features for managing the marketing part of your online business. Right from the website and sales funnels to email campaigns, there’s a lot you can do with Zenler.
Let’s see what the platform’s features, pros, and cons are.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
While there is no free trial, Zenler does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Here are its paid plans:
Pro Tip: Entice and engage learners with multiple popups based on triggers such as browsing, delay, or exit.
Image via AccessAlly
There is no doubt that AccessAlly is one of the best online course platforms for educators looking for a WordPress plugin to create a membership site and sell online courses.
The platform makes full use of the flexibility and capabilities of WordPress while combining it with a learning management system(LMS) and membership features.
That’s not all. The platform is designed to enable learners to get private feedback on assignments and helps deliver a great learning experience.
What else makes AccessAlly one of the best online course platforms? Take a look.
Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
Unlike most others in this list of the best online course platforms, AccessAlly does not offer a free trial.
Pro Tip: Track progress on video content and reward learners with points they can redeem for real-world prizes.
Q1. What is the best online course platform?
A. This list contains the best online course platforms:
Q2. What is the best free online learning platform?
A. The best online course platforms with free classes and subscription plans include:
Q3. How do you create an online course and sell it?
A. These steps can help you create and sell online courses:
Q4. What is the best site to learn online courses?
A. Some of the best online learning platforms include:
Q5. What are the benefits of using online platforms in education?
A. Some of the benefits you get from teaching through the best online course platforms include:
Q6. What is the best SEO online course?
A. Some of the best SEO online courses include:
Q7. What should you look for in an online course platform?
A. Some of the crucial features to look for in the best online course platforms include:
Q8. What are the benefits of online courses?
A. These are the benefits of enrolling in an online course:
Q9. Why do students prefer online courses?
A. The following are reasons students go for online courses
When deciding between the best online course platforms, consider the ones that offer all the features you need without breaking your bank. They should also offer tools that make it easy to create brand awareness, market, and sell courses.
And most importantly?
The best online course platforms enable you to create engaging and interactive content for your students.
Do you need additional help comparing the best online course platforms and choosing the best for your needs? Comment below, and we can help you find something suitable for your courses.
Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.
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