As a website portfolio owner, I’ve leveraged numerous course platforms to create and sell my online courses. They handle payment and student access, course design and navigation, hosting your videos, and helping you market your courses.
All this makes it easy for you to focus on the important stuff like creating content.
After trying several myself and doing some extensive analysis of dozens of online learning providers, I’ve boiled down a list of the top solutions.
In this comparison of online course platforms, I’ll review everything you need to know to choose the best one for you.
Most Popular
Thinkific
- Tweak every possible aspect of your course and sales page
- Free option to get started with core features
- Great for new course creators, get started with quizzes, surveys, and certificates
Best All-In-One
- Intuitive drag-and-drop builder
- No need to pay extra for affiliate programs, email marketing, and communities (all included)
- Free plan offered, higher tier plans have 0% transaction fee
Table of Contents
- Best Online Course Platforms Guide
- How We Chose Our Favorites (Ranking Metrics)
- Top 5 Online Course Platforms
- 1. Teachable
- 2. Thinkific
- 3. Kajabi
- 4. Podia
- 5. Udemy
- Which Online Course Platform Is the Best?
- Best Free Online Course Software
- Different Types of Online Course Platforms
- How to Choose the Best Online Course Platform
- How to Market Your Online Course
- Frequently Asked Questions
We offer this website completely free to our visitors. To help pay the bills, we’ll often (but not always) set up affiliate relationships with the top providers after selecting our favorites. However, we do our best not to let this impact our choices. There are plenty of high-paying companies we’ve turned down because we didn’t like their product.
An added benefit of our relationships is that we always try to negotiate exclusive discounts for our visitors.
Note, this post does include some affiliate links, but that does not impact my honest recommendations. If you visit a course website through one of my links and ultimately sign up, you pay nothing extra, but I earn a small commission, which helps me provide all this content to you for free.
Best Online Course Platforms Guide
Online Course Platform Ratings |
|||||
| Course Platform | |||||
| Overall |  | | |  |  |
| Ease of Use for creators | | |  | | |
| Flexibility to customize | | | | | |
| Marketing tools | | | | | |
| Affordability | Average with good free option | Average with good free option | Most expensive, but includes many tools you'd otherwise pay for separately | Average | Free to start but very high transaction fees |
| Editor's Notes | Avoid high transaction fees on lower plan tiers. Read my full Teachable review | Most flexible platform. Best place to get started for free and upgrade later as your needs grow. Read my full Thinkific review | Robust all-in-one toolkit. No need to pay for a separate sales funnel builder or email mgmt. Read my full Kajabi review | Great customer service and affordable plans. Read my full Podia review | Main advantage is a course marketplace. Otherwise, Udemy is very limited in all regards. Read my full Udemy review |
How We Chose Our Favorites (Ranking Metrics)
We looked at a few things when choosing our list of favorites.
Ease of Use
A platform should have an intuitive interface and minimal learning curve, making it easy for beginners to create and manage courses.
Course Creation Features
The platform must support various media types and customization options, allowing for flexibility in designing and delivering courses.
Pricing & Affordability
Transparent pricing and value across different plans are essential to ensure creators can access the necessary features without hidden fees or steep costs.
Monetization & Payment Options
A good platform offers multiple revenue models and integrates with popular payment gateways, providing flexibility for course creators to monetize effectively.
Student Experience
The platform should ensure a seamless learning experience with mobile optimization, interactive community features, and student progress tracking.
Top 5 Online Course Platforms
1. Teachable
Teachable stands out as one of the best online course creation platforms due to its ease of use, built-in payment processing, AI features, and strong customization options.
It’s an ideal choice for beginners with its intuitive interface, AI-powered course starter, and no-coding-needed course builder.
- Check out our favorite AI tools to help with course creation >>
- or our favorite AI tools to use with online course platforms >>
Teachable also handles EU VAT, integrates marketing tools, and allows for monetization through subscriptions and memberships, making it a robust solution for anyone looking to create and sell courses efficiently.
Read our Teachable review, or check out how I used AI tools to create my Teachable course >>
Pros
- Built-in payment processing, eliminating the need for third-party platforms like Stripe or PayPal.
- Easy-to-use drag-and-drop course builder with no coding required.
- Custom branding and built-in marketing tools like email marketing and affiliate programs.
- Free plan available, making it accessible for new course creators.
Cons
- Limited course and site customization options compared to competitors.
- The Basic plan includes a 5% transaction fee, which can add up.
2. Thinkific
Thinkific is one of the best online course creation platforms due to its robust free plan, unmatched customization options, and intuitive course-building tools.
It’s a great choice for creators who want flexibility in branding, payment plans, and community-building features without transaction fees.
With its ability to scale alongside your business and offer personalized learning experiences, Thinkific empowers both beginner and advanced course creators.
Read our Thinkific review.
What Sets Thinkific Apart From Other Providers?
- It has the only viable and truly free price plan
- It is arguably the most customizable and flexible course platform
Pros
- The only platform with a free option that has no transaction fees.
- Offers phone support, including priority support on higher plans.
- Allows full customization to match your brand and website.
- Provides a custom domain, giving courses a professional appearance.
Cons
- No built-in email marketing, requiring third-party integrations.
- Lacks a course marketplace for promoting courses.
3. Kajabi
Kajabi is one of the best online course creation platforms because it combines robust course creation, marketing, and sales tools into a single platform, removing the need for third-party integrations.
It’s especially great for creators looking to sell high-ticket courses and leverage built-in email marketing, sales funnel builders, and automation tools.
Despite being pricier than competitors, Kajabi’s all-in-one solution justifies the cost by simplifying course creation, marketing, and sales.
Read our Kajabi review.
Pros
- Built-in email marketing and sales funnel software, eliminating the need for third-party tools.
- Customizable themes and domain, allowing courses to align with your brand.
- Offers a built-in community platform to engage with students.
- AI integration simplifies course creation with automated lesson outlines and content generation.
Cons
- Higher pricing compared to other platforms with no free option.
- The Kajabi course marketplace is small and lacks a search function for students.
4. Podia
Podia is one of the best online course creation platforms because it offers affordable plans with valuable features like integrated email marketing and recurring revenue through memberships, making it ideal for creators on a budget.
With responsive 24/7 live chat support and unlimited courses on even the lower-priced plans, Podia provides great value for new course creators looking for a simple, cost-effective solution without sacrificing functionality.
Read my Podia review.
Pros
- Affordable plans with lots of value, including unlimited courses and integrated email marketing.
- Responsive 24/7 live chat support for quick assistance.
- Ability to offer payment plans and recurring subscriptions for courses.
- Custom domain and branding options to match your business look.
Cons
- Limited customization options compared to other platforms.
- Lacks a built-in sales funnel builder, requiring third-party tools like ClickFunnels.
5. Udemy
I know this is a list of the best, but I think it's worth calling out that Udemy is our least favorite online course creation platform because, despite its large marketplace, it imposes significant limitations on pricing, revenue sharing, and customization, which can severely cap your earning potential.
With high transaction fees and strict platform control over course content and marketing, Udemy often leaves instructors with little flexibility and low profits compared to other platforms.
Read my Udemy review.
Pros
- Access to Udemy’s vast marketplace, providing exposure to millions of students.
- Built-in payment processing, eliminating the need for third-party payment platforms.
Cons
- Udemy takes 50-75% of course sales, drastically reducing earnings for instructors.
- Limited pricing options and no ability to offer payment plans or subscriptions.
- Instructors have little control over branding and customization, with no custom domain options.
Head-to-Head Course Platform Comparisons
Have you already narrowed down your options to two platforms? Check out our head-to-head online course comparisons for a granular analysis:
- Compare Thinkific vs Teachable
- Compare Kajabi vs Teachable
- Compare Kajabi vs Thinkific
Which Online Course Platform Is the Best?
The best online course platforms are intuitive and designed to help you focus on course creation rather than figuring out how to set things up.
My picks for the best platform are Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi, depending on your needs.
- Teachable is the best platform with the most affordable entry point and the most intuitive interface. It has and AI course creation helper that makes it super easy to get started creating your course, plus a free option for smaller course creators only catering to 10 students or fewer.
- Thinkific is the best all-around platform with the most flexibility to customize your course. It also enables you to easily integrate with your preferred 3rd party vendors like MailChimp, Zapier, and many more. It is one of the more affordable providers and has a quality-free option to get you started.
- Kajabi is the best high-end platform to do EVERYTHING for you. It’s priced slightly higher than the others, but that’s because it comes with a bunch of built-in tools that you’d otherwise need to pay for separately. Kajabi includes email management, a marketing funnel builder, hosting, themes, a blog function, and a course marketplace.
Best Free Online Course Software
Teachable also happens to be my pick for the best free online course platform. If you are new to selling courses or starting out on a budget, Teachable has the best free option of all the platforms.
Teachable offers an entirely free plan that allows you to create one online course, one coaching product, and one digital product entirely free.
There are a few caveats to the free plan, of course, including the class number limit as well as a limit of only 10 students in your class. There is also a $1 + 10% transaction fee tied to the free plan.
Still, this plan comes with access to Teachable’s AI course starter that will create your curriculum, lesson content, and sales page in seconds, making it ideal for beginners.
If you want to offer more classes, you can switch to the affordable Basic plan or one of the other higher tiers offered by Teachable to cater to more students when your course takes off.
Read my detailed Pricing Plan Guide that gives you a side-by-side comparison of ALL the price plans across online course platforms.
Different Types of Online Course Platforms
There are dozens of eLearning platforms to assess, each with different specialties. Let’s look at the main types.
Hosted Online Course Platforms
All of the platforms in the comparison table above are hosted for you, meaning that they provide all the infrastructure to create and sell courses. Your course content, videos, and storefront will be hosted in the cloud and maintained by the course provider.
Hosted Course Platforms Pros
- All-in-one platform: Includes payment, hosting, customizable templates, sales funnels, and email management.
- Easy setup: No technical skills needed for course and storefront creation.
- Branding options: Customize sub-domains to match your brand (e.g., course.yourwebsite.com).
- Comprehensive support: Maintenance, updates, and security handled.
- Mobile-responsive: Fast, optimized for mobile users.
- Scalable: Servers adjust for growing traffic automatically.
Hosted Course Platforms Cons
- Hosted course platforms often charge higher monthly fees, with occasional free plans and annual payment discounts.
- Platform switching can be daunting, but free migration is frequently offered at sign-up.
Self-Host Your Own Course through a WordPress plugin
There are WordPress plugins and themes available, like LearnDash (read our review), that allow you to host a course on your own website
Hosting Own Course Pros
- Self-hosted plugins like LearnDash are cheaper annually than hosted platforms, with higher costs for multiple sites but unlimited courses per site.
- Feature updates included, self-managed upgrades.
- Compatible with all WordPress themes; no custom domain needed.
- Complete control with software on your own website.
Hosting Own Course Cons
- Requires technical skills or hiring for plugin installation and configuration.
- Self-manage video/content hosting using platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia.
- Responsible for plugin upgrades, maintenance, and website security.
- Course responsiveness depends on your website's mobile compatibility.
- Manage page speed and scalability for high traffic.
- Lacks built-in tools for managing course affiliate programs.
Learning Management Systems
The term “Learning Management System” is sometimes used interchangeably with hosted course platforms. However, it is typically used to describe more sophisticated and expensive enterprise-level software used by corporate and educational institutions to train employees and classes of college students.
Course Marketplaces
Some course platforms have marketplaces where you can sell your course to students who browse a catalog of courses. Kajabi and Udemy both have online marketplaces, although the Udemy marketplace has the largest number of courses and students by far.
The downside of course marketplaces is you will have to compete with other courses in your niche, and Udemy severely limits you in terms of pricing and branding your course.
How to Choose the Best Online Course Platform
Here are some guidelines to help you understand essential components of course software as well as pitfalls to avoid. You’ll need to prioritize which of these criteria are the most important for your own situation.
Ease of Use and Support
- How easy or difficult is it to set up a new course and customize your storefront? Do you need to be tech-savvy or is it intuitive? To find out, sign-up for a free trial of any platform and spend 20 minutes trying to customize a sample course.
- Does the platform have lots of tutorials and good customer support in case you have questions?
- Are you comfortable working with a 3rd party email provider like MailChimp or Aweber to message your students? Or do you prefer a platform that has built in email marketing?
- Do you want to offer course completion certificates to students? Some platforms have these included and on others you must pay for a third-party provider like Accredible.
Flexibility to Customize
- How much can you customize your sales page and course to promote your brand?
- Can you remove platform branding and logo or specify your own sub-domain, for example, course.yourwebsite.com?
- Does the platform have existing integrations with third party systems for things like email management, sales funnels, and course completion certificates?
- Does it have Zapier integration with pre-built “zaps”? Zapier is a popular middleware tool that allows you to easily connect to almost any online tool without much tech-savvy. Read our Zapier review.
- Does the core functionality appeal to a wide variety of online educators? Is it geared more for independent learning, digital coaching, or a hybrid of both?
Marketing Tools
- Do you want to tackle course promotion yourself or want to list your course in a marketplace?
- Does the platform come with sales page templates, a marketing funnel builder, or allow integration with 3rd party marketing funnel software?
- Does the platform have marketing automation allowing you to trigger emails or offers based on things like course completion or inactivity?
- Can you run your own affiliate program and have a team of affiliates selling on your behalf for a commission?
Affordability
- Always go for a platform with zero transaction fees. If your course gains traction and starts to sell, transaction fees will quickly eat into your profits.
- Is there a discount for pre-paying annually?
- Is this your first course? If so, consider a platform with a free option to get started and learn the ins and outs. As you begin to sell and you want more options you can easily upgrade into a premium plan.
Payment Processing Capabilities
- Do you have the freedom to set your own course prices?
- Does the platform support Stripe or PayPal for payment processing?
- Do you want the flexibility to offer coupons and payment plans to your students?
How to Market Your Online Course
There are a variety of ways to promote your online course. While I could devote an entire website to course marketing, here are just a few for now.
- Do your research: One of the best forms of marketing starts before you even have a product or service ready to sell. It comes from careful planning, data and market analysis, and financial forecasting. Choosing the best online course niche to capitalize on trends and stand out from the competition is key to long term course marketing success.
- Use your existing resources: This may seem obvious, but if you are lucky enough to already have an email list, social media following, or traffic to your website, then you can simply message your followers to let them know about your course. You can also create blog posts and banner ads promoting your own course.
- Enlist a team of affiliates: Affiliate marketing is when you find website owners in relevant niches and ask them to promote your course for a share of the profit. You get to decide what percent of the sales price is offered as a commission.
Successful affiliate programs often give up 20-50% in commissions for sales they would not have gotten otherwise.
All the platforms above come with built-in affiliate management tools to handle order tracking and payouts.
- Offer coupons or time sensitive discounts: The course providers above each allow you to create coupon codes. You can give these to folks on your email list as a special offer or send them to your affiliates to help them drive more orders.
- Create sales funnels: Use sales funnel software like LeadPages, ClickFunnels, or Kajabi to nuture your prospective students with webinars, email drip series, free lead magnets, and tested sales page templates. Student don’t always buy the first time they read about your course. So you can increase your sales by engaging with them across multiple touch points to move them towards a sale.
- Place paid ads on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram: Consider making a brief video ad that leads to a longer course teaser on your sales page. Video is king these days and converts at a much higher rate than text or image ads. In any case, start out with a small advertising budget and make sure you get your cost per acquisition down to your desired profit margin before increasing your ad spend.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I setup my online course?
Course setup is very straightforward and intuitive on most platforms. First outline your course and break it down into lessons and a curriculum. Then upload videos or written content for each lesson. Once done, you can brand the course with your logo and branding and then link to it from your website. See our picks for the best online course platforms.
How long does it take to create an online course?
Setting up a course platform is the easy part and very intuitive. If you are already an expert on a given topic, you can create a curriculum, record videos, and publish content in as little as a few days. If you are researching a topic and want polished, professionally edited videos it could take you a few weeks or longer.
How much can you make selling online courses?
The sky is the limit. The very best course providers make hundreds of thousands per month and it’s reasonable for many course providers to earn a few thousand per month. Obviously, not everyone knocks it out of the park, but the nice thing about courses is you create them once and can sell them over and over again without any additional effort.
How do online courses make money?
You can sell your course for a one-time fee or use a recurring membership model. Some people will even offer an introductory course for free and then upsell with consulting services or a second high cost course.
How much should I charge for an online course?
Your pricing will vary based on your niche as well as the amount of value you deliver. People charge anywhere from free or $10 up to thousands of dollars per course. Courses that show a return on investment like Internet marketing and professional skills typically earn the most. But don’t be afraid to charge a premium and check what other courses in your niche are charging.
How can I setup online courses for free?
Some course platforms have free options to get you started. These don’t come with all the bells and whistles, but are more than enough to see if you will get traction from your course before spending money.
Geoff Cudd
Stefan Schulz
