27 Best Online Course Platforms in 2022 and Their Features
Are you struggling to find the best online course platforms to market your expertise? Check out 27 of the best options to create, launch, and sell your courses.
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.
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.
Best Online Course Platforms: Considerations When Choosing the Right One
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.
Start With Why
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.
Consider Your Budget
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.
Choose Your Hosting
There are three ways to tackle hosting when identifying the best online course platforms:
Self-Host
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.
Online Course Marketplace
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.
Learning Management Systems
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.
Identify Crucial Features
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.
27 Best Online Course Platforms
Here is a list of the best online course platforms with features, pricing, and other details to help you make an informed decision.
1. 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
- Drag and drop course builder
- Unlimited courses
- Ability to create and sell online private courses
- Numerous themes and customization options
- Secure cloud hosting
- Full e-commerce
- Instant funds access
Pros
- Free trial available
- User-friendly interface
- Unlimited students and high-quality courses
- Numerous payment options
Cons
- Although it’s one of the best online course platforms, the learning curve for course creation may be difficult for first-time creators.
Pricing
- Free test-drive: $0
- Basic plan: $39 per month
- Pro: $79 per month
- Premier: $399 per month
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.
2. 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
- Unlimited courses
- Video library access
- Numerous interactive content features
- Ready-made templates
- Marketing tools, including landing pages, one-click sales funnel, blogging, etc
- Marketing and management of your own affiliate program
- Constant support
- Flexible pricing options including subscription courses and membership sites
Pros
- Advanced course creation
- Interactive learning tools like tests, assignments, quizzes, etc
- Interactive video feature
- Marketing tools including landing pages, blogging tools, etc.
Cons
- Complicated learning curve for beginners
- Limited course payment options
- Cluttered user interface
Pricing
- Starter: $29 per month
- Pro Trainer: $84.15 per month
- Learning center; $254.15/month
- High volume and corporate: Contact support for 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.
3. 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
- Beautifully designed themes that require no coding
- Intuitive interface
- Numerous integrations options including email, Google Analytics, accounting software, etc.
- Landing page builder
- Drag and drop marketing funnel builder
- Marketing automation tools
- Custom domain and numerous customization options
- In-depth data and reports
Pros
- Numerous course sales and marketing features under one roof
- Built-in capability to build a search engine friendly course website
- Numerous engagement tools, including assessments, Community, etc
- Clean and intuitive interface
Cons
- High starting price
- Steep learning curve
- Need a third party integration for certificates
Pricing
Kajabi offers a 14-day trial for each of these paid plans:
- Basic plan: $149 per month
- Growth: $199 per month
- Pro: $399 per month
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.
4. 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
- Unlimited students and members-only Community
- Unlimited video bandwidth and hosting
- Third-party integrations
- Advanced reports
- Integrated payment processing
- Sales pages creation feature
- Course certificates
- Flexible student pricing options
Pros
- Ease of use. Your course can be up in few minutes
- Allows you to create simple funnels
- Numerous integration options
- Affiliate marketing tools
Cons
- Unlike most others in the category of the best online course platforms, Teachable offers just a few course customization options
- 5% transaction fee for their Basic plan
Pricing
- Basic plan: $39 per month
- Pro: $119 per month
- Business: $299 per month
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.
5. 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
- Customizable branding
- Live previews
- Pre-launch, pre-sell, and upsell marketing features
- Unlimited students, courses, earnings, bandwidth, and emails
- Integrated email marketing
- Ease of use and great support
- Live-chat widget
- Products bundle feature
Pros
- Ease of use and simple interface
- Numerous customization options
- Good student experience
- Built-in online chat option
Cons
- Limited automation options
- Limited reporting
- Limited design options, especially if you need total control
Pricing
Like most others in the list of the best online course platforms, Podia offers a 14-day free trial.
- Mover: $39 per month
- Shaker: $79 per month
- Earthquaker: $179 per month
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.
6. LearnDash
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.
Originally published at Attrock.com.
About The Author
Gaurav Sharma is the Founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. Grew an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years.
