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The Best 15 Online Course Platforms you need to know before staring your first Online Course
This is your ultimate Guide for 2023
Which online Course Platform suits you best?:
You want to offer online courses and are looking for the best online course platform?
Maybe you’ve been thinking about creating an online course for a while and don’t have a clear idea of the many different platforms out there.
To give you an idea of what quality online course platforms are out there, I’ve put together a short, easy-to-read list of the 15 Great Online Course Platforms in 2022.
You’ll love this list if you are living in Europe (especially Germany), because I have not only added the american giants but also popular leading European Online Course platforms as well, so you can get a good overview and decide for yourself which online course platform might be right for your online business.
You can sell online courses, coaching services, digital products, webinars and much more.
The Pricing starts at Freemium ($0/month), Basic ($39/month), Pro $119/month and Business $299/month. You can save up to 25% on annual contracts.
Of note: Teachable charges, collects, and deducts value-added tax (VAT) in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom.
👍🏽 In addition, you can design an unlimited number of courses, (with an unlimited number of participants) with the paid plans. This is a huge plus, because with many providers that I have checked (especially the German ones), there is always a specified limit per Plan, which could limit you greatly.
You can use Podia as a digital storefront for online courses, digital downloads, paid webinars, membership sites, and even coaching sessions.
Pricing-wise, Podia should be interesting, especially for beginners, since you have no transaction costs on the paid plans:
There’s a Freemium plan ($0 for 1 product), Mover $39/month, Shaker $89/month, and Earth Quaker for $199/month. All paid plans offer unlimited downloads/coaching.
The biggest advantage are the interfaces to payment systems, email marketing providers and online marketing tools.
The plugin is under continuous development and offers great support.
The great thing about Thinkific is that there are no transaction fees here compared to many other providers.
I love the fact that you can create an unlimited number of courses (with an unlimited number of participants) with the paid plans. The same applies here as with Teachable: the sky is the limit.
What’s special about Memberspot is that your students also have their own app, so they can access their course area on their phone or tablet.
Prices: Essential €39/month. Pro 89 €/month and 159 €/month.
🙁 I notice right away that you are severely limited. With the basic plan you can only take up to 500 members, with the pro plan the limit is 5000 active members and with the most expensive plan 10,000 members are the maxium (with max. 20 courses).
But what if you want to scale your business and aim for more than 20 courses and 10,000 students? I personally don’t like that…
Coachy is a young, German company where you can host your online courses and coachingservices.
However, Coachy does not serve you as a payment provider. For this you would need an additional service like . Digistore24 or Elopage.
Digistore24 offers you the possibility to sell digital products and partner programs – and takes care of the payment processing and accounting.
If you live in Germany (or in the EU) it’s a good idea to set up your business on a european platform right from the start, because then you don’t have to worry about important aspects like GDPR compliance, taxes and all those things that match the laws of your country.
Coachy has three pricing models: Premium 37€/month , Deluxe 67 €/month , Enterprise 197 €/month.
The number of courses and members is limited in each case. You can find more info on the homepage.
If you are looking for a All-in-one tool (which is comparable to Kajabi by hte way), this would be the perfect solution, especially if you are already registered with Digistore24.
Similar to other platforms, they offer three models: Light 47€/month, Premium 97€/month and Platinum 297€/month.
Udemy is the world’s leading marketplace for instructors to sell courses and make them available to students from all over the world.
The advantage for instructors is that there is already an ecosystem of interested, registered students looking for specific topics.
As an instructor, you don’t have to do any marketing and can trust Udemy to promote your courses.
However, since the courses are offered side-by-side with your competitors’ courses and you also have no control over pricing, your success is not guaranteed.
Compared to the online platforms already mentioned, Udemy is free, which means that you can earn money with Udemy without any startup capital.
However, you must be aware that you have to factor in high fees to Udemy.
I too have been a passionate lecturer on Udemy for years (yes!go ahead and check out my page!). So my advice to you is: yes, put some of your courses on Udemy! Why not? But secure more control over your business by also offering your services on a selfhosting platform.
Kajabi is an all-in-one solution that lets you create all kinds of content to showcase what you do best: including online courses, coaching programs, podcasts, memberships, and more.
Kajabi is popular with renowned coaches because of its automated email marketing tool and easy-to-use funnel system.
Kajabi has three pricing plans (not including a free plan), so it already stands out extremely from the other providers:
Basic- $149/month
Growth – $199/month
Pro – $399/month
Personally, I haven’t tested Kajabi yet, but I know it from the student perspective since I once bought a coaching program. Therefore, I can say that my user experience as a student was extremely positive.
Generally speaking, you pay more for Kajabi but you get what you pay for, because it has more integrated tools like email marketing and funnels, that you might pay extra for when using another Online Course Platform.
From all hosting platforms that I have mentioned today, Kajabi can be compared most to Coachannel.
Membership Vault
Member Vault is basically a membership site where you can put all your offers, courses, downloadables, PDFs, and even coaching or membership programs in one place.
I’ve bought several courses on MemberVault up to this date and love the overall appearance and functionality of the platform.
I absolutely KNOW for certain that their upsell and sales page convert, because I have made spontaneous purchases with MemberVault in the past- any more questions?😆
MemberVault has 4 plans: Starter Monthly, Base Monthly, Pro Monthly, or Pro+ Monthly Plan. Their cheapest plan starts at 39$/m and if you pay $99/m it includes unlimited people, products and storage .
Below are examples of how some of the courses that I purchased look from the inside:
As a teacher, you have limited control over your own business though. For example, you can’t view your students’ emails. Also, Skillshare can remove your courses whenever they want.
To grow on Skillshare, you’d have to do a lot of advertising, and that’s where you might consider putting in the same effort to promote your own self hosted course website.
If you’re looking for an online learning platform that focuses on community and sharing with other members, though, Skillshare might be the right platform for you to start with.
Some entrepreneurs would like to offer their courses and coaching offers directly on the website so that they have more control and to ensure that their content is not on a third-party platform. If you are this type of entrepreneur, you’ll need a plugin for it.
LearnDash turns your WordPress website into a powerful learning management system (LMS). In a matter of minutes, you can create and sell courses, track user progress, issue certificates, award points and badges, and much more!
Since Learndash doesn’t offer an integrated payment system, you could link it to Elopage or Digistore24 and have two powerful systems connected.
Price: 199$/year
LEARNWORLDS
Learnworlds offers a starter plan that costs $24 per month. With the starter plan, you can create an unlimited number of paid courses and have the option to create an integrated community.
Unlike the other platforms, Learnworlds enables you to automatically create an interactive video transcript with just one click.
A transcript can help improve accessibility, increase audience understanding, and generally make it easier to navigate your material. I think that’s pretty cool!
Online Course Platform Quiz
Discover the perfect online course platform for your needs! Answer the following questions:
