Selling online courses is a great way to demonstrate your expert knowledge, generate leads, or build a new revenue stream. But in an industry that’s was valued at 30 billion in 2021 and is project to grow to 300 billion by 2030, it can be overwhelming to find the best of many platforms and get started.
You’ll have to make a choice based on your business goals, platform features, integrations, tech support, budget, and more. So we’ve put together a list of everything you should consider in the decision-making process and gathered key features, pricing info, reviews, and a brief breakdown of the 9 best online course platforms. Here’s all that we cover:
- What is an online course platform?
- How to choose the best online course platform
- 9 Best online course platforms
What is an online course platform?
There is significant overlap between online teaching platforms, online learning platforms, learning management systems (LMSs), and online training platforms. But what’s important for you to know is that an online course platform is a place where digital courses can be created, hosted, and distributed to students. If a platform has these basic characteristics, you can consider it an online course platform or online course software.
How to choose the best online course platform
Choosing the perfect platform is not an easy task. And even though you can change online course platforms, it’s not an easy process and can cause issues for your business. So it’s important you make the right choice the first time.
To help you determine how to navigate the selection process, we’ve gathered 6 questions to ask yourself as you shop for the right online course platform.
Perfectly put in our Keys to Picking the Right Online Course Platform post, picking the platform should not be the first step in your process of building an online course. It’s all too easy to get lost in the sea of choices and lose track of your most important goals. That’s why it’s critical that you take the time to identify your goals before you start shopping.
Once you’ve thought about your goals and have a better understanding of your purpose in building an online course, you can begin to think about what features will help you build the best course and accomplish those goals. Here are 5 things you should consider when thinking about what features you’ll need in a platform.
- How will you deliver content? Incorporating a collection of videos, graphics, presentations, discussion boards, and PDFs can help diversify how your students engage with the course and keep it engaging.
- Will you build community? If so, how? Synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid models can all affect community building, but each requires a different amount of work on your part too. And, not every platform offers all models, some only offer 1 or 2.
- How will potential students hear and learn more about you? Will you build a website, just a landing page, and/or use affiliate marketing? Each of these significantly impact your online presence and customer journey.
- How will you engage your learners? You can incorporate videos, webinars, quizzes, points and rewards, progress tracking, and more to keep your students engaged and excited about the course. Which features will help you create happy students who progress, complete, and share your course with others?
- How would you like student data measured? Online courses collect and present tons of data like progress metrics, completion rates, and conversion rates for your landing page. What data would you like to collect? And how can it be presented in a helpful way?
Every platform addresses a specific set of needs with platform-specific features. Understanding which features you need the most will help you determine which platforms are right for you and which can be ruled out.
Online course platforms can be great at what they do, but they can’t do everything, so you might need to lean on integrations, plug-ins, and apps to meet all your needs.
For example, Thinkific offers a MailChimp integration, which is an email marketing tool. If you’re an established creator with a long email list with MailChimp, all you have to do is add this integration, saving you the hassle of moving data between platforms.
Each course platform has different offerings. Some offer a full range of integrations and apps (like Thinkific) while others offer only a limited amount, or even none.
Processing payments is a big deal if your online course is going to drive any sort of revenue. Will you use Stripe? PayPal? Will your payment process be accepted internationally? Answer these questions first, as they’re most important.
Once you’ve answered the basic payment questions, you can begin to think about various features that affect or alter how you collect payments over time. These could include payment plans, monthly payments, or one-time purchases. The cost or length of your courses will heavily influence what kind of payment features you need. For example, a $2,000 course will likely benefit from a payment plan, whereas a $50 course is probably best with a one-time payment feature.
There are so many course platforms because building a course all on your own is difficult; they do the super technical stuff for you behind the scenes and (hopefully) deliver an easy-to-use platform. That doesn’t mean you won’t run into issues.
Would you like a chatbot, chat, phone, or face-to-face support? Determine what amount of technical support you need before you begin shopping for a course platform. You may find some companies don’t offer the support you need or that you’ll need a more expensive plan, all of which can influence the platform you choose.
Money matters, especially if you’re a solopreneur with a tight budget. This list of the best online course platforms features sites with plans ranging from $0 all the way to $799.
Take some time to look at your business’s financial goals, and determine how much you can afford to spend on an online course platform…if anything at all. Your financial goals might eliminate some platforms on your list, and that’s okay. But it’s better to know that upfront than to fall in love with a platform that doesn’t fit your business plan.
9 Best online course platforms
Ready to take a look at the top 9 online course platforms? This article is overflowing with all the information you could possibly need to make the right decision. But to take it all in, we’ve created this table with key features and pricing information for each platform. Click the platform name in the table or scroll and find out more about pricing plans, additional key features, customer reviews, and what the platform offers.
| Platform | Details |
| Thinkific | Key features
Price Range
|
| Kajabi | Key features
Price Range
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| LearnWorlds | Key features
Price Range
|
| Podia | Key features
Price Range
|
| Xperiencify | Key features
Price Range
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| LearnDash | Key features
Price Range
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| Mighty Networks | Key features
Price Range
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| Ruzuku | Key features
Price Range
|
| Teachable | Key features
Price Range
|
Best for
- Small businesses and new course creators
- Creators in need of a free plan to start with the ability to scale over time
- Users who plan to or currently rely on a range integrations
Key features
- Unlimited courses on all paid plans
- Unlimited students on all plans
- Drag and drop course builder
- Included website themes
- 24/7 support
- Advanced Security
- Wide range of available apps and integrations
- Coupons, discounts, memberships, and payment plans on all paid plans
- 0% transaction fee on all plans
- Thinkific Academy for course creators
Thinkific is a dedicated online course platform designed to be efficient and easy to use for both new and experienced creators of any sized business. With a free plan full of high-quality features, it’s simple to start slow and scale as you grow.
The platform allows you to create self-paced, scheduled, and cohort-based courses. If you need to go live or host a webinar, Thinkific can do that too. You’ll also be able to quiz, test, and gamify your content while tracking your student’s progress.
Thinkific is known to be easy to use for both creators and their students. And if the platform doesn’t have the features you need, they offer tons of integrations through the Thinkific app store. This allows you to continue using your favorite tools like HubSpot, Zapier, MailChimp, and Zoom.
Price range:
Thinkific offers 4 monthly plans: Free ($0), Basic ($49), Start ($99), and Grow ($199). Choose annual billing, and you’ll save 25%. If you opt for Thinkific Plus, you’ll receive a custom quote tailored to your specific needs.
It’s also worth noting that Thinkific’s free plan is the most generous compared to other platforms in this list. It included community features, email and chatbot support, and no transaction fees.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.7 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“Thinkific is very user-friendly. It allows for a quick start and easy management, includes easy-to-follow tutorials for getting started, and offers a limited free version to test out the LMS before committing. It helps me to run an online course business easily. And its main benefit is that it makes it very easy to create a course that looks good and a digital business that is easy to manage.” – Brett, CEO, 04/20/2022
“Thinkific is an intuitive and easy-to-use platform. Building classes to respond in an agile manner to the learning needs has been seamless. Thinkific’s support team is helpful and responsive. Registering participants and managing student needs is also easy. After using the platform for close to a year, I have not yet found anything I dislike.” – Bruce, Director of Membership Engagement, 02/17/2022
Bad reviews
“As a small business that does not use all the features, I find it fairly expensive. I would appreciate it if there were more flexible payment plan options, like a sliding payment scale and coupon code options, to provide exclusive discounts. Overall, Thinkific is an excellent platform for delivering teaching material and courses. However, I’m not sure this is the best option for small businesses that care about providing different payment plan options and discounts.” – Alex, Small Business Owner, 06/07/2022
“I greatly appreciate the added features, such as being able to email people directly. The interaction was the key to getting Thinkific Plus. We just cannot afford to continue to use it. We have actively sought alternatives. We wanted to host a multitude of classes. We need the ability to hide them, and we need to be able to contact the people who were directly involved in the courses.” – Thomas, Small Business President, 09/01/2022
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Best for
- Online course creators and podcast hosts, membership sites, and coaches
- Users that need plenty of built-in marketing features
- Accounts with multiple administrators
Key features
- Marketing tools like email campaigns and funnels
- Users can create podcasts and coaching programs
- Stripe and Paypal integrations
- Kajabi mobile app for on-the-go users
- Custom domains
- Built-in customer relationship manager (CRM)
- Website and landing page builder with included templates
- 24/7 customer support
- Kajabi University for course creators
- No transaction fees
Kajabi offers tools that allow online course creators and businesses to create, host, sell, and manage their courses. Within the course builder, you can develop typical online courses, mini-courses, and drip programs. You’ll be able to track critical marketing metrics and student progress, assign quizzes, and award certifications.
The platform allows you to build landing pages, websites, and courses from scratch or by using their library of free templates. You can also utilize coupons, sales, discounts, and affiliate programs to sell more. And while the most popular feature is the course builder, they also boast podcast, coaching, membership, and community features.
Price range:
Kajabi offers 3 monthly plans: Basic ($149), Growth ($199), and Pro ($399). Unfortunately, they do not offer a free plan at this time, but users can save 20% by opting for annual billing. Kajabi also provides custom plans and pricing if their 3 plans don’t address all of your needs.
Need 1-on-1 support? You can also opt for Kajabi Access. By adding this $99 feature to any plan, you’ll receive individual support, a custom code editor, and exclusive weekly customer support office hours.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“Kajabi has everything, and it’s really easy to use. It makes connecting pipelines, landing pages, and email sequences easy because it’s all in one place. Even within an email, since my landing pages are already in Kajabi, it’s really easy to link a page inside an email with a button that stands out rather than just a hyperlink.” – Katie, Small Business Owner, 01/27/2022
“For my business, the best advantage of Kajabi was the centralization of several essential functionalities for selling and distributing online courses. The functionalities for creating pages and domains make all the difference. We use Kajabi to promote events, webinars, free and paid courses, paid membership areas, and all the marketing actions involved in the process.” – Jean, Marketing and Sales Board Member, 02/11/2022
Bad reviews
“Kajabi can be pretty expensive per month if you want to use some of the features that differentiate them from other website hosts. The support team does its best but cannot answer in-depth questions. And the built-in analytics don’t make much sense, so I don’t trust the numbers. The code is not editable (except for adding code to the top of all the pages – useful for adding a cookie disclaimer), so make sure that you don’t need to edit the code before going with Kajabi.” – Erica, Business Analyst Consultant, 09/16/2021
“I love the idea behind Kajabi. It also has nice templates and professional-looking layouts. But it’s difficult to implement. Customer service didn’t respond to my questions after a full week. It’s more complicated than what I need at this point. It’s great if you need all the bells and whistles, but a lot of people would probably do better to have something easier to implement “out of the box” – Verified User, Small Business, 09/07/2019
Best for
- Users who need to educate a large audience
- Creators that want mobile app customization
- Courses that heavily rely on video content
Key features
- Marketing tools like forms and conversion tracking
- Customizable no-code mobile app on certain plans
- Unlimited paid courses
- Custom domain on all plans
- 24-hour support, 5-7 days a week
- Interactive videos
- Ready-made course templates
- Built-in community for networking and group learning
- 1-1 and group sessions available
LearnWorlds is an all-in-one online learning platform that delivers high-tech white-label services to a general audience. Course creators can access a library of templates when building their websites, marketing materials, and courses. Standard integrations like Google Analytics, HubSpot, ZenDesk, Calendly, and MailChimp are also available.
The LearnWorlds platform is an excellent choice for course creators with any size audience in any niche. They position the course platform as a solution for clients with customer training and enterprise LMS needs, all the way down to personal trainers and art teachers. And their tech-savvy video implementation and metric visualizations make content engaging and accessible for you and your students.
Price range:
LearnWorlds offers 3 plans: Starter ($29), Pro Trainer ($99), and Learning Center ($299). You can save up to 39% by opting for annual payments. They do not offer a free plan, but they offer a free trial for all plans. It’s worth noting that the Pro Trainer plans and above do not include transaction fees, but the Start plan includes a $5 fee per course sale.
The Learning Center & mobile apps plan ($598) is a fourth plan only available for annual payments. This is essentially the Learning Center plan with the added ability to create branded iOS and Android apps in a click & edit builder, use targeted push notifications, offer in-app purchases, and more.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.6 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“Every time I click a different button I had not used before, I find its functionality outstanding and highly useful! This platform is probably the most powerful I’ve used. LearnWorlds can provide me with all the tools other platforms require for higher and higher priced levels. So this is an outstanding platform with an abundance of tools, some still yet to be discovered, at the right price!” – Gilbert, Private Practice LPC, 10/24/2022
“LearnWorlds is easy to work with once you begin using it regularly. The support team is very responsive and uses all the tools available to provide you with an answer. They tell you if the software is incapable of doing something, which is very much appreciated. I don’t waste their time, and they don’t waste mine. As I work with this product, I constantly think of other ways to utilize it. This application has been a Godsend for me.” – Leonard, CEO, 02/11/2022
Bad reviews
“Quality is terrible. It randomly deletes lesson activities, and there’s no way to backup or copy to save your work, so it’s just gone. Since we launched, the platform has deleted our content twice and locked us out of making changes. Both times we were up against deadlines with affiliate partners. This destroyed our credibility with our partners and led to potentially tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.” – Jim, 10/05/2022
“I enjoy the course builder’s functionality. However, I’ve had issues changing fonts and colors on the learning pages. I also dislike customer service! It’s been a pain to deal with LearnWorlds. As an eLearning Designer, I suggest choosing an LMS company with A+ customer service. In this case, I am giving up some of LearnWorld’s tools for another company that can answer my questions.” – James, Freelancer, 01/18/2022
Best for
- Creators looking to produce a wide variety of online products
- New and experienced course creators
- Users looking for affordable plans with a competitive range of features
Key features
- Comprehensive product list includes webinars, ebooks, workshops, and more
- Dedicated community features
- Multimedia discussions
- Upsell and bundle courses
- Customizable pricing plans for students
- Basic integrations available with optional coding for unavailable integrations
- Integrated website builder
Podia is a robust online course platform that provides creators with everything they’ll need to create a successful online course and launch their course business. The platform allows creators to sell standalone, drip, cohort-based, and bundled courses. Expanding that customization, creators can custom-build websites to sell their courses.
Creators can begin building their course’s site on the free plan and upgrade as needed. They can also pre-sell and pre-launch courses, effectively generating hype and revenue before the course is even available. Available Podia marketing tools like integrated lead magnets, affiliate marketing, and email marketing help you generate leads and close sales.
Price range:
Podia offers 4 plans: Free ($0), Mover ($39), Shaker ($89), and Earthquaker ($199). Opt for the annual payment plan and save 17% on each. The Free plan generously includes chat support and community features but has a relatively high 8% transaction fee. Luckily, this fee only applies to the free plan.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“I enjoy Podia for its simplicity and beauty. I appreciate the entrepreneurial smartness in creating such a precise and lean product, ease of use, very fast and thorough support, and balanced functionalities outweigh the frustrations. From many angles, it’s obvious that it wasn’t just designed to be the next average thing, but it was carefully planned and optimized to solve specific problems and really make a difference.” – Giuseppe, Entrepreneur, 07/01/2022
“I am no professional at figuring out how to navigate online platforms. I found the Podia site pretty easy to navigate, and not only is their help menu super helpful, but hands down, they have the most wonderful support staff who respond to any questions you have that you haven’t been able to figure out.” – Mary, Juried Artist Member, 04/04/2022
Bad reviews
“Great at first, until many features were added that changed the workflow of our business, and there was no way around it. Customer support understood our issue and said there was no way to reconcile the changes as that was the direction the company decided to go, which is fine, but it felt like an unnecessary change.” – Nic, Director of Operations, 10/05/2022
“I’ve been a user of Podia for almost a year but ended up very disappointed with their customer support. A customer filed a fraud dispute for a product she bought through my Podia account. I requested help from Podia, but they refused, saying this isn’t what they help with. Podia doesn’t request that people provide their mailing addresses or conduct scam verification before a purchase is made, thus leaving space for scams.” – Egle, Head of Marketing, 06/10/2022
Best for
- Creators looking to boost student retention
- Course content that can benefit from and utilize heavy gamification features
- New and experienced course creators
Key features
- Unlimited courses
- Unlimited students
- Built-in customer relationship manager (CRM)
- 7 gamification “triggers”
- 24/7 Support
- Available for “every” language
- Integrated page builder with customizable site themes and templates
Xperiencify is an excellent online course platform for those looking to gamify their courses, improve student retention, and have fun! The platform emphasizes the use of what they call gamification “triggers.” These include points, variable rewards, urgency (FOMO), social proof, community, celebrations, and personalization.
Xperiencify also focuses on how students feel throughout their learning process, highlighting the onboarding process and retention practices. The platform allows you to create one-click log-in links for an easy start process and automate custom retention emails and notifications. Once they’re in, they can start learning and engaging with the website you built using their drag-and-drop editor.
Price range:
Xperiencify offers 2 pricing plans that are ready out of the box: Launch ($49) and Growth ($149). Their Enterprise plan begins at $500 a month, but you’ll have to contact them to use it.
Opt-in for annual instead of monthly payments, and the Launch plan shrinks to $42 and the Growth plan to $125. Xperiencify will also take care of your migration to their platform when you opt for annual payments.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“I like Xperiencify’s simplicity and the points system for completing certain tasks related to each training module. This helps to keep the user engaged – personally, I have added 42 daily pieces of training (one for each of the 6 weeks that my course lasts), and I know my users will appreciate this constant contact and interaction.” – Anthony, Owner, 07/02/2021
“Love the concept that this is to support the student experience of learning – makes the whole experience for student and teacher more rewarding. Innovative; always looking for ways to improve for teachers wanting to develop an online course and excellent customer service. Just love the whole philosophy of this platform.” – Shona, Owner, 06/27/2021
Bad reviews
“We signed up for Xperiencify, and the first few weeks were great. After that, it was ALL downhill. I’m talking about constant spinning wheels of death, 404 errors, they “accidentally” deleted my account, which caused DOZENS of payments to fail (losing LOTS of money), and the “cancel” button doesn’t work for customers. I can’t count how many ways I have lost time and money because of Xperiencify.” – Verified Reviewer, Owner, 09/02/2022
Best for
- Creators with an established website
- Tech savvy users or users comfortable with plug-ins and integrations
- Creators offering multiple online courses
Key features
- Drag and drop course builder
- Advanced quiz options
- Includes drip-feed lessons, video requirements, and linear-open requirements
- Discussion forums
- Open API
- Unlimited Courses
- Unlimited students/members
- Gamification methods like badges, certificates, leaderboards, and points
- Subscriptions, one-time, bundles, membership options for students
- Easy customization and branding
- Built-in student management systems
Unlike the other online course platforms on this list, LearnDash isn’t a “true” platform; it’s a WordPress plug-in that allows creators to build online courses right on their own websites, giving you an unmatched level of customization and ownership. . This lets you create courses with your own branding without paying more for such a premium-level feature.
Creators can build their course using the drag-and-drop builder. The builder lets you create quizzes, award points, and even require students to complete assignments linearly. When it comes to payment, you can create subscriptions, memberships, or single-payment courses. You can also provide bundles and bulk access to students. Collecting payment is easy with standard integrations like Paypal and Stripe. Even though integrations are available, it’s worth noting that because this is self-hosted, security is the creator’s responsibility.
Price range:
LearnDash also features pricing unlike the true platforms on this list. Rather than paying for the number of courses you can create or how many members you’d like to enroll, you pay based on how many websites will be using the plug-in.
For 1 site, the cost is $199 a year, use on 10 sites is $399 for a year, and unlimited sites are $799 per year. Paying for the plug-in gives you unfettered access to all of the available features and tools the plug-in has to offer. There’s also no limit on the number of courses you can build or students you can enroll.
If these options don’t quite work for you, you can also opt for their Full Site plan at $299 per year. This plan includes a ready-to-go website with LearnDash automatically plugged in, templates, and customization tools that let you match your brand.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.3 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“I like everything about LearnDash. I would say that I like the drag-and-drop builder functionality the most, as it is by far the most useful feature. It allows my team to see how their course will look as they construct it so that everything is perfect when it is released. This allows you to see how your courses will look before they go online, allowing you to connect everything in real-time.” – Ashkay, Web Developer, 03/03/2022
“LearnDash has many superb features, but if I were to pick a couple, I’d say firstly, the speed with which you can deploy a Course complete with Lessons, Topics, Quizzes, and Assignment uploads is a huge time saver. The second feature I like best is the recent design upgrade that turned LearnDash from being a fully functional e-learning platform into a slick learning environment that presents an extremely clear and pleasant experience for students.” – Alistair, CEO, 04/26/2022
Bad reviews
“LearnDash is probably a good product when it is working properly, but, in our case, re-login for students was impossible. Students could easily purchase the product and register. Yet once trying to log back in, the whole process needed to be repeated, sometimes including payment. The support team has been trying to get the issue fixed for 2 weeks. Every 2 or 3 days, we have a status report, and all we get is a ‘Thank you for our patience.’” – Richard, CEO, 11/03/2019
“You pay once for the software and can use it for unlimited courses. You have to host this on WordPress, so if you’re not comfortable using WordPress, it will be a challenge. Knowing how to put things in the right order can be a bit complicated, but if you take the time to learn it, it becomes easy. Because it is self-hosted, you must keep your website very secure.” – Verified User, 07/30/2018
Best for
- Creators focusing on synchronous learning and online events
- Courses that rely on community features
- Creators and businesses able to pay for added functionality
Key features
- Unlimited members
- Unlimited hosts and moderators
- Group, 1-on-1, and all-member messaging is available on all plans
- Custom domain and navigation links
- Subscription and one-time payments
- Native live streaming & video
- International currencies accepted
- Available white-label web and mobile app experience
Mighty Networks is a great choice for online creators looking to build online communities, create digital events, and foster online networking. This platform lets you create 3 different kinds of courses: a live cohort-based course, a content-only course, or a community-based course. Truly focused on community, they give creators tools like student profile building, member badges, and live streaming integration so they can encourage engagement and bring creators right to their community in real time.
It’s worth noting that most course creators will find the most value in the Business plan, which is Mighty Networks’ more expensive choice. There, creators can use email marketing and CRM integrations like MailChimp, Zapier, and ConvertKit. Because the platform is so event and community-driven, solopreneurs may find it to be more hands-on than other platforms. But user reviews suggest it works well for those who want a community-driven platform for their courses.
Price range:
Like Xperiencify, Mighty Networks only offers 2 plans that are ready out of the box: The Community Plan ($39) and The Business Plan ($119). Opting for annual payments brings those down to $33 and $99, respectively. A third option, the Mighty Pro plan, is available for creators or brands with even more needs, but you’ll have to contact them for the specifics on pricing.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“I chose Mighty Networks several years ago for a few reasons: it offered a safe, private alternative to running groups and events; it offered a way to identify common geographic locations with its “near you” feature; and over the last 6 years, they have been asking us what we want and making changes to the platform in response to what the hosts, our communities, and our members need.” – Kelly, Founder, 11/15/2022
“I love that Mighty Network provides a space where I can house my community, courses, and other resources. They are solving the problem for digital creators in which we need so many different software to run a single course/business. They are always so responsive, and being part of their Mighty Community is super helpful as a host. They are real humans who actually care and are constantly working to improve their software.” – Jess, Founder, 11/15/2022
Bad reviews
“Our community grew to over 350 members despite issues with the platform. Since last year we have been constantly under spam attacks. Mighty Network left us to deal with this issue alone. Repeatedly I have reached out to their Support and received no help. One of their representatives point-blank told me that Spam Protection for Public Communities is not a priority.” – Dimitar, Founder, 06/06/2022
“In my experience, it is very difficult to get people to join and engage in the community. I switched to a Facebook group, and it instantly was FAR better. I think that because most people are already on Facebook, they are far more willing to join and engage in the group. In my experience, most people were not willing to join something unfamiliar to them, download another app, and visit a site that they weren’t using otherwise.” – Verified User, 06/11/2022
Best for
- First-time or new course builders
- Creators looking to engage in real-time with students
- Users that need minimal integrations
Key features
- Student social profiles with bios and photos
- Tech support on all plans, accessible through phone, Skype, email, Facebook, and more
- Unlimited students
- Unlimited courses and video hosting
- Built-in live video/audio meetings and conferences
- Students have access to tech support
- Simple registration, with payment through Stripe or PayPal
- Landing/Sales page builder with included templates
Offering top-notch customer service and a super simple course-building interface, Ruzuku is a quality platform for new and experienced online course creators. Although integrations are limited, Ruzuku allows you to integrate PayPal, Stripe, and MailChimp. As for payment options, you’ll be able to offer students one-time payment or structured payment plans.
Creators can utilize video and audio content for things like webinars and live streams, seamlessly connecting creators to their community. The platform also includes course templates to help you quickly build anywhere from 1 to unlimited courses. Designed for first-time or new course builders, this platform is an excellent choice for creators who don’t need or want all the customizations more complex platforms have to offer.
Price Range:
Ruzuku offers 3 pricing plans: Free ($0), Core ($99), and Pro ($199). Paying for these plans annually will save you $191 for the Core plan and $391 for the Pro plan.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“I help small to mid-sized business owners build courses and automate their businesses. Ruzuku gives me a platform for my courses, complete with a community to interact and engage with my students. Aside from how clean and professional it looks, there are a ton of resources inside that help you set up and launch your course(s). I’ve used at least 7 different LMS platforms, and Ruzuku was one of the easiest to set up.” – Rick, Founder and CMO, 11/10/2022
“I like that it is a very user-friendly platform. It takes the daunting task of creating a course and breaks it down into very simple steps. I also love the flexibility and great customer support. Just shop around and compare the different course creation platforms. Ruzuku was my hands down winner.” – Brian, 10/14/2022
Bad reviews
“I dislike the actual design of the course; it’s the most complex and time-consuming component. The teacher-facing side can be pretty tedious, but once created, the virtual classroom is relatively easy to navigate for the student.” – Courtney, Fellow, 09/10/2021
Best for
- Entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses
- Users with tax and business management needs
- Teachers and educational institutions in search of online teaching platforms
Key features
- Built-in business management and tax tools
- Unlimited students on all plans
- Integrated website builder
- Email support
- Custom domain on paid plans
- Upselling and course bundling features
- Easy-to-use email marketing features
- Developer friendly API on Pro plan
Teachable is a straightforward online course platform. Their courses can follow a self-paced, cohort-based, or live coaching model. And creators can use features like quizzes, certifications, and comments to keep their students engaged. Integrations like MailChimp, Zapier, ConvertKit, and Google Analytics are available, and you can add even more if needed.
Where Teachable really shines is in its tracking features. Teachable offers built-in compliance, tax, and business management automation to make handling and tracking these processes much easier for course creators.
Price range:
Teachable offers 3 simple plans: Free ($0), Basic ($39), and Pro ($119). Opting to pay annually can save you up to 25%.
Notably, only the most expensive paid plan is free of any transaction fees. The Free plan includes a $1 and 10% fee for each transaction, and the Basic plan includes a 5% fee per transaction. The Free and Basic plans are also missing common features like unlimited courses, affiliate marketing, chat support, and resources for launching your course.
Ratings
G2 score: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Good reviews
“What I love about Teachable is its easy interface and assistance in collecting taxes from customers worldwide. It also allows bulk importing of lessons which is very helpful. I love the feature Order bump, and it has given me more sales.” – Rajvir, Development Engineer, 08/19/2022
“I love Teachable because I use it as both a student and a teacher. With the Teachable free plan, it’s easy to create multiple Beta Courses, launch them on the market, and then get reviews on each to create better courses. This way, I could understand what specific niche I should choose (what has the best market) and choose a paid plan for that. So that’s very generous of the platform.” – Verified User, 12/02/2021
Bad reviews
“Usability is dying a slow death and customer service is atrocious. We’ve been a customer for 6 years and have about 5 schools with Teachable. In the last year, we’ve had many issues with the platform. Saying the customer service has been poor is a huge understatement. Things are getting worse here day by day. After the last couple of years of watching this company flail around, unable to improve its product or provide anything resembling customer service, I can’t recommend a competitor strongly enough. Pick any of them over Teachable.” – Mark, CEO, 08/29/2022
“The Teachable interface is very confusing; I always struggle to find a particular setting. It is also super expensive. Initially, it helped us set up our online school, but later on, we found that they have designed their product so that the user is bound to use their inbuilt tools. For example, third-party payment integration is next to impossible hence you end up paying them more in terms of transaction fees or higher plans.” – Manish, Growth Marketer, 09/24/2022
Final thoughts
And there you have it! Our 9 top choices for online course platforms. As you continue your search, don’t forget to consider:
- Your goals
- Features you need
- Integrations you need
- How you’ll process payments
- The amount of technical support you’d like
- And, your budget
Let these 6 things serve as a compass on your journey to finding the right platform.
Looking for a free online course platform? We have another list of the best free online course platforms. Check it out here!
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