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Want me to name one platform you should choose to build your online course?
Thinkific is my first choice by a mile across all types of online course platforms.
It’s the best all-around option for beginners and even experienced course creators who want to jump right into selling their product without getting bogged down in the tech.
Thinkific shines with its abundance of features, yet remains remarkably user-friendly and affordable.
You can get one month free by clicking the button below, or keep reading for an in-depth review of Thinkific.
I’ll dissect the best platforms for selling online courses in detail later in this post. But first, let me give you a bird’s eye view of what they offer.
Standalone online course platforms are geared toward small business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals looking to monetize their expertise.
They are cloud-hosted course platforms with advanced course creation and content management features.
Here are the online course tools we’ll cover in this section.
They typically offer a course website, online community features, landing pages for signing up customers, student management, engagement and evaluation features, and basic notifications.
However, for advanced automation, you’ll need to integrate these tools with your marketing software.
Thinkific is an excellent online course platform for professionals with limited technical expertise. Its balance of robust course creation features, ease of use, and competitive pricing makes it the top choice for over 60,000 course creators.
It is a full-featured platform for online courses that lets you build structured learning experiences, sell coaching, offer subscriptions, host communities, and sell digital products—all from one place.
It also comes with built-in marketing, automation, and AI tools that help you grow your audience and make more sales.
I recommend Thinkific to most of my clients, especially if you want to stay focused on your content and not get stuck with tech headaches.
It’s ideal for solo creators, coaches, and small teams who want to build a serious online course business without needing a developer.
Phil Hynes’ story is a great example of how Thinkific empowers non-technical users to monetize their expertise.
Phil runs a fitness membership program and an online course hosted on Thinkific. Collectively, these programs help him earn over six-figures a year, serving thousands of customers worldwide.
Thinkific’s biggest strength is its course creation features. You can build multi-layered courses with modules, lessons, PDFs, videos, quizzes, assignments, and even prerequisites or drip content.
Here’s a screenshot from my Thinkific account where I created a new lesson to show you the content types it supports.
You also get progress tracking, certificates, and surveys, giving you everything you need to structure a real learning experience.
Thinkific also has a clean AI-powered drag-and-drop website and landing page builder that comes with customizable templates.
It’s not super flashy, but it’s perfect if you want a simple site to showcase your offerings without getting lost in design decisions.
On the engagement side, Thinkific lets you build private communities under your brand, connect course discussions to lessons, and even host live events. Some creators use it just to run memberships and community programs.
What really makes Thinkific stand out now is its native marketing. You can run sales emails, segment audiences, and even send abandoned cart reminders without paying for another tool.
While its marketing features ae still not as advanced as a dedicated platform, it’s sufficient for most course creators.
This is precisely why I believe Thinkific offers the best overall value among all course platforms when it comes to ease of use, course creation tools, and marketing capabilities.
It also handles payments globally, including payment plans and subscriptions, and now offers Buy Now, Pay Later options like Klarna and Afterpay.
A big vote of confidence for Thinkific is bestselling author Dorie Clark – who has been a guest on the Learning Revolution podcast and is generally a brilliant and business-savvy person – has used it for her online courses.
Thinkific discontinued its free plan in . However, you still get a 30-day free trial if you sign up using our referral link.
Here’s a quick look at its premium plans
Thinkific doesn’t charge any transaction fees, but payment processors like Stripe or PayPal will still charge standard fees.
To go deeper, here’s our full Thinkific review.
LearnWorlds is a top-tier course platform built for creators who care about structure, student engagement, and professional polish. It’s especially great for those creating educational programs that go beyond just uploading a few videos (think assessments, learning paths, and interactivity.)
What really sets LearnWorlds apart now is how deeply it has embedded AI into the platform. From the moment you start building your school, AI guides you, helping you generate course outlines, improve lesson flow, write engaging titles, and even optimize your sales pages.
It takes a lot of guesswork out of the setup and makes the whole process faster and more user-friendly, even if the platform itself has a steeper learning curve than something like Thinkific.
LearnWorlds offers top-notch course creation features. You can drip content, require students to finish certain lessons before moving on, and even enforce full video views.
It also supports SCORM, which is a must-have for corporate and professional training. You can build live sessions, modules, quizzes, assignments, surveys, and certificates, everything needed for a structured learning experience.
Its site builder is powerful too. You can pick from beautiful templates, customize every page, and now, thanks to AI, generate full sales pages or course layouts with a few inputs.
Add in in-video quizzes, clickable CTAs, and automatic video transcripts, and you’ve got a platform that makes learning feel active, not passive.
Tim Stevenson’s School of Calisthenics is a great example of what LearnWorlds can help you achieve.
Tim offers multiple courses, embedded videos, HD images, and all the other elements you expect to see on a professional website.
In short, if you’re the kind of creator who wants full control, interactive learning, and a bit of handholding from AI along the way, LearnWorlds is one of the best choices available.
You can try LearnWorlds free for 30 days (no credit card required).
It offers three paid plans:
Use code LEARNREV at checkout for 20% off your first 6 months of the Pro Trainer plan or higher.
To learn more, read our full LearnWorlds Review.
Teachable is one of the easiest tools to use if you just want to upload your content, set a price, and start selling.
It’s perfect for solo creators, coaches, and subject-matter experts who want a clean, no-fuss way to launch their first course or coaching offer without dealing with tech headaches.
You can create full video-based courses, drip lessons, offer completion certificates, and track student progress, all with minimal setup.
It’s flexible enough for selling coaching, memberships, and digital downloads too.
What’s new and helpful is Teachable’s AI assistant, which guides you through setting up your course or sales pages step-by-step, making it easier to launch even if you’ve never built a website before
Learn more about Teachable’s coaching features, Teachable communities, or Teachable membership sites.
You can find numerous examples of live Teachable courses here.
Teachable’s course builder supports multiple content types, including text, quizzes, PDFs, video, and even code snippets—something not all platforms support.
You can structure your program using prerequisites or drip schedules, and upsells are easy to add at the lesson level to boost revenue.
It also now offers dedicated communities that you can connect to your course or coaching products. These communities are hosted on Teachable and allow for a more direct interaction between you and your students, helping increase engagement and retention.
But here’s the tradeoff.
Teachable still falls short when it comes to built-in marketing. It doesn’t offer much in terms of automation, segmentation, or behavior-based triggers. If you already use ConvertKit or MailerLite, this might not be a big deal, but it’s a gap compared to platforms like Thinkific or Kajabi.
So, if your priority is creating polished, structured content without needing to be a tech pro—and you’ve already got an system in place—Teachable is a strong contender.
Teachable is among the few platforms for online courses that offer a free plan. You can also upgrade to any of its paid plans.
Teachable pricing offers a 33% discount when paying annually vs. monthly for each of its plans.
With the lowest-level paid plan, you still pay a 5% transaction fee on all sales. Transaction fees disappear once you jump up to the next level. All plans include unlimited courses and students.
Read the full Teachable Review for more information.
Mighty Networks gives you everything you need to create and grow your online courses.
But what makes it truly stand out is how it combines a top-notch course builder with powerful community features.
This combination keeps your students engaged and turns your course into something much bigger than just lessons and videos.
Its course builder is simple to use and lets you design and organize your content without needing technical skills. You can upload videos, text, and other materials, and it all comes together in a professional-looking package.
But the real magic happens when you pair this with Mighty Networks’ community tools.
With features like live events, direct messaging, live streaming, groups and individual spaces, and rich member profiles, your students learn, connect and grow together.
What makes this experience even more unique is its People Magic personalization feature. This AI-powered tool matches students with content and even with each other based on their interests and engagement.
It ensures that every member of your community sees content that’s relevant to them and connects with others who share their goals.
This level of personalization adds a whole new layer of value and keeps students coming back for more.
The community you build becomes the engine for your course’s growth. As members engage with your content and each other, they’re more likely to recommend your course to others.
Mighty Networks even helps you leverage this momentum with its Ambassador program, where you can reward students who bring in new members. This creates a powerful cycle of engagement and growth for your e-learning business.
Mighty Networks doesn’t offer a free plan. But you do get a 14-day free trial with each of its premium plans.
Since Mighty Networks offers a wide range of features, its premium plans are designed for different end users.
The following plans are relevant for course sellers
Both plans allow you to host unlimited courses with unlimited students. However, the Business Plan offers more customization and automation features.
Still, The Courses Plan offers the best value for money, in my opinion.
Read our MightyNetworks Review for more details.
All-in-one course platforms are complete solutions for creating, marketing, and selling online courses.
Here are the platforms we’ll cover in this section.
These are advanced course selling platforms that not only offer the best content creation capabilities but also come with extensive marketing and automation features.
However, they’re usually more expensive than standalone platforms and have a steeper learning curve.
Still, if you’re looking for a complete solution for your online course business, these are excellent platforms to consider.
When I say Kajabi is an all-in-one platform, I mean it has everything you need to build, market, and sell online courses or any other digital products, all in one place.
More than just a course creator, Kajabi is your website builder, marketing and newsletter tool, payment processor, and more, designed to help you focus on growing your business instead of juggling multiple platforms.
You can call it a complete audience-building and monetization platform.
In , we sent Jackie, one of our team members, to Kajabi Hero Live to see what it’s like to use Kajabi in real life.
She came back blown away. Meeting creators like Justin Welsh and Graham Cochrane, who’ve built thriving businesses using Kajabi, gave us a firsthand look at what’s possible.
Hearing their stories was inspiring and proved how much Kajabi empowers creators to transform their knowledge into a sustainable business.
Kajabi lets you create everything from courses and memberships to coaching programs and digital downloads.
You can build beautiful websites and landing pages, set up marketing funnels to bring in leads, and even automate campaigns to nurture your audience.
It’s the kind of platform that grows with you. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling to the next level, it eliminates the need for piecing together different tools.
If you want to spend less time dealing with tech headaches and more time creating great content and connecting with your audience, Kajabi gives you the tools to make it happen.
However, since it replaces several tools in your tech stack, it’s at a higher price point than your standard course platform. Which means it might not be a great fit if you’re on a tight budget.
Kajabi Pricing
Kajabi offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. But you can get a 30-day free trial with our referral link.
No transaction fees on any plan. Every plan includes unlimited landing pages and marketing emails, Kajabi AI, and Creator Studio.
For a more in-depth look at Kajabi, read our full Kajabi Review.
If you’re a coach or course seller looking for a user-friendly all-in-one platform, you must check out Podia.
Podia started as “WithCoach,” a platform aimed primarily at coaches. Later, the company repositioned itself as a full-featured but easy-to-use platform for selling online courses, memberships, and digital downloads all in one place – and it has been gaining a lot of momentum.
Podia still has solid features for coaches. For example, you can easily schedule paid coaching sessions from within the system through pre-established integrations with Calendly, Acuity, and other popular scheduling tools.
Podia’s user-friendliness immediately stands out when you start using it for building your online course. It walks you through the whole process of creating and selling online courses, webinars, digital downloads, and product bundles.
Plus, it gives you some super attractive and fully customizable templates for your course website and landing pages.
Its course creator supports video, audio, text, PDF, and embedded content. Plus, it offers a student experience comparable with Teachable and Thinkific.
Native marketing features and its built-in blogging feature also make Podia an attractive choice at this price point. It is probably the cheapest all-in-one course selling platform with unlimited subscribers in all subscription plans. However, every plan has a separate -sending limit.
Overall, Podia is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a robust course builder with impressive marketing features on a limited budget.
Podia’s premium plans differ mainly in transaction fees and product usage limits. Both plans come with a 14-day free trial.
Read our full Podia review for details.
Kartra is a powerful training platform that helps you create, sell, and grow your online learning business.
It provides all the tools you need to build a professional website without hiring a designer or knowing how to code.
Think of it as a powerful sales tool with decent course creation features.
With a variety of templates for different types of pages—like squeeze pages, sales pages, thank you pages, and long-form sales pages—you can set up your site quickly and easily.
What sets Kartra apart is its fully integrated system designed to boost your sales.
It includes an platform, membership sites, sales funnels, video hosting, lead capture forms, a help desk for customer support, and a calendar for managing appointments.
Plus, it comes with a drag & drop automation builder that allows you to scale your marketing campaigns.
This integration allows you to monitor your audience’s activity throughout the sales process and tailor your marketing messages based on their behavior.
If your course relies heavily on video content, Kartra is especially beneficial. It offers in-video calls to action (CTAs), sign-up forms, and user tagging features that make your videos more engaging and help increase conversions.
You can choose from various pre-designed CTAs, such as opt-ins, banners, buttons, and social unlocks, to enhance your videos.
However, if your course requires extensive student management or assessment tools, Kartra’s offerings may be less comprehensive compared to platforms dedicated solely to course creation.
Kartra has three paid plans with its lowest tier program starting from $119 per month. (Complete Kartra review here.)
Zenler is one of the most complete all-in-one course platforms I’ve seen, especially if you want to run your whole business from one dashboard without stitching together a bunch of tools.
It’s a solid choice for creators who need powerful course creation, built-in marketing, marketing funnels, live webinars, and even private communities, all in one place.
If you’re coming from something like Kajabi but don’t want to pay Kajabi prices, Zenler is probably the closest match in terms of features.
What stands out the most for me is how they’ve built the entire platform around sales and marketing.
You get done-for-you funnels, automation tools, sequences, segmentation, and prewritten high-converting scripts so you can actually sell your courses instead of just launching them and hoping for the best.
Its course builder supports everything from video and audio to PDFs, PowerPoint-style slides, quizzes, and assignments. You can drip content, enforce lesson completion, or build out entire programs with tiered pricing and certificates.
Zenler also lets you assign multiple instructors per course, which is a nice bonus for collaborative programs.
It even covers community and engagement with its built-in forums and member spaces. You can host your own branded community, run live classes and webinars directly inside Zenler (no Zoom needed), and use their “Zenler AI” to speed up site design and streamline content creation.
Now, the design side isn’t as flexible as something like LearnWorlds or Webflow, but Zenler still gives you drag-and-drop page blocks, countdown timers, popups, blog support, and custom code access for those who want it.
If you want a one-stop shop where everything lives under one roof—from landing pages to emails to course delivery, Zenler is a very strong contender.
Zenler has a free plan with no time limit, which is great for testing things out. But keep in mind, it comes with a 10% transaction fee on all sales and limited features.
Once you’re ready to go pro, there are two paid plans:
Both plans include unlimited students, courses, marketing funnels, broadcasts, and communities, with no extra tool costs or transaction fees.
Read the full Zenler Review.
If you are wondering how to create an online course with WordPress – and, of course, sell it – there are plenty of WordPress plug-ins and themes available to help you out.
Here are the platforms we’ll cover in this section
These can be a particularly good option if you want to sell online courses from your own website, though keep in mind that you will need more technical skills if you go this route.
If you already have a WordPress site (or plan to build one), LearnDash is hands-down the best LMS plugin to turn it into a full-featured online course business.
It gives you complete control over your content, your student data, and your revenue, without relying on a third-party platform.
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I recommend LearnDash to creators who want more ownership and customization, especially those already familiar with WordPress.
It’s perfect if you need flexibility around design, pricing models, or plugin integrations and don’t mind doing a bit of setup.
LearnDash lets you create structured online courses with video, audio, PDFs, quizzes, assignments, drip content, and certificates.
You can build courses linearly, require prerequisites, or open them all at once. The built-in drag-and-drop builder is smooth, and for a WordPress plugin, it’s surprisingly easy to use—even if you’re not super tech-savvy.
What really makes it shine are the quiz and evaluation tools. You get more quiz types than most platforms, plus timers, randomization, question banks, and detailed grading options.
For teams or schools, you can even assign students to groups and manage their access collectively.
Unlike hosted tools, LearnDash gives you full design control with any WordPress theme or page builder. You can build custom landing pages, use templates, or plug in your favorite design tools.
For creators who want a branded site with advanced layout control, that’s a huge win.
It also supports gamification features, with built-in badges, points, leaderboards, and certificates. And with integrations like Zoom, WooCommerce, Mailchimp, and Zapier, you can run a full learning business on your own terms.
marketing isn’t built-in, but that’s expected with WordPress tools. Pair it with something like ConvertKit or FluentCRM, and you’re all set.
If you’re the kind of creator who wants more flexibility, total ownership, and deep customization, LearnDash is one of the best tools out there.
Read our in-depth LearnDash Review.
LearnDash offers two pricing options:
There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee. Add-ons like ProPanel, group management, or instructor roles are available separately or in discounted bundles.
We recommend using LearnDash in combination with BuddyBoss to build a powerful online course and membership/community solution. Full BuddyBoss review here.
If you want to run an advanced membership program alongside your courses, without stitching together multiple tools, AccessAlly is one of the best WordPress-based solutions out there.
It’s a premium plugin designed for creators who sell coaching, group programs, certifications, and memberships… not just courses.
I usually recommend AccessAlly to creators who want a more personalized experience for their students.
You’re not just dropping in videos and quizzes—you’re building a branded space where people feel like they’re part of something bigger.
Marc Wayshak’s membership site is an excellent example of what’s possible with AccessAlly.
Powered by AccessAlly, Marc’s Sales Insights Lab is a full-fledged membership program with a professional website and all the necessary backend management tools.
You can’t tell from the outside if it’s built with WordPress or a dedicated course hosting platform like Kajabi or Thinkific.
AccessAlly has flexible course creation features, letting you build drip courses, self-paced modules, or cohort-based programs.
You can embed audio, video, PDFs, and interactive quizzes. You also get powerful teaching tools like assignment submissions, private notes, bookmarks, and progress checklists.
One feature I really like is the ability to generate personalized course certificates.
But where AccessAlly really shines is in its engagement tools. You can build full-fledged communities with searchable directories, custom member profiles, and even leaderboards or gamified points systems.
Want to give students badges or trigger follow-up emails when they stop logging in? All possible.
Marketing and sales are tightly integrated, too. You can create one-click upsells, order bumps, limited-time coupons, affiliate dashboards, and bulk course enrollments.
It works natively with Stripe and PayPal, and integrates with tools like ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Ontraport, and Keap.
Plus, if you’re using a CRM, AccessAlly can pass custom data back and forth for powerful automations.
Bottom line—this is a tool for serious creators who want complete control and scalability inside WordPress, without the usual plugin chaos.
It’s not the cheapest or the simplest, but if you’re building a long-term education business, it’s worth every penny.
AccessAlly Pricing
AccessAlly offers annual pricing with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
There are no transaction fees, and you can run unlimited courses, memberships, and users on every plan.
Read our Complete AccessAlly Review here.
LifterLMS is a powerful WordPress plugin that turns your site into a full-blown course and membership platform.
If you want control, flexibility, and zero platform fees, it’s a great option. You can build everything on your own terms, from individual courses to group coaching programs to complex membership sites.
It’s especially good for creators who like the WordPress ecosystem but don’t want to get tangled in a dozen different plugins.
Compared to LearnDash, it offers a smoother all-in-one experience out of the box, and while it’s not as automation-heavy as AccessAlly, it still gives you a solid mix of power and simplicity.
The drag-and-drop course builder makes it easy to create content-rich modules with videos, PDFs, assignments, quizzes, and drip schedules.
You can track student progress, offer completion certificates, and use things like leaderboards or badges to boost engagement.
It even supports cohort-style learning and private coaching areas if you want to get more hands-on with students.
For selling courses, you get flexible payment options—one-time, recurring, bundles, trials—and integrations with Stripe, PayPal, and WooCommerce.
And the best part? You pay no transaction fees and own everything you build.
If you’re a solo creator or small team that wants to grow on WordPress without paying more as you scale, LifterLMS is a fantastic pick.
Just know that while it’s easier to set up than AccessAlly, you’ll still need some WordPress know-how.
LifterLMS has the solid selling point of being free for the base version. You can search and install it using the usual plug-in screen in WordPress.
You pay only if you decide to use any of the various add-ons available for the system. These range from e-commerce to various marketing tools and integrations.
You can also try out the premium Infinity Bundle for $1
One last note for this section: if you are going to go the WordPress route, be sure to check out 11 Best Web Hosting Services for Creators and Experts.
Online course marketplaces get millions of visitors every month, giving creators the opportunity to publish their courses to an existing audience.
The two leading marketplace platforms we’ll cover in this section are:
The downside is that these sites tend to turn courses into commodities and drive prices way down. That’s great if you are a learner looking for a course, but not so great if you want to create online courses that generate a reasonable level of income.
Still, they are popular and they do have their place.
The folks at Udemy say, “Our goal is to disrupt and democratize education by enabling anyone to learn from the world’s experts.”
With 250K+ courses, 75 million+ customers, and $250 million+ in annual revenues in , Udemy has certainly made its mark in the global learning landscape.
The Udemy platform gives subject matter experts a simple, straightforward way to assemble content like PowerPoint slides, PDF documents, and YouTube videos into a coherent course experience.
Udemy courses aren’t limited to creative skills only and cover a wide range of topics.
However, creative and technical skills are still the most popular categories on its platform. You can publish courses in the Udemy marketplace and use various tools to promote your masterpieces.
Since Udemy is a marketplace, its course pages follow the same design template. Similarly, its courses are structured the same way – multiple modules containing bite-sized lessons, assessments, exercises, and study material.
Here’s an example of a Udemy course page.
Udemy is free to start for instructors and anyone can create and sell courses on the platform.
Udemy makes its money by keeping 50% if it sells your course. If you make the sale, you keep 97% (Udemy takes a 3% transaction fee).
Keep in mind that you are currently required to price your courses in $5 increments between $20 and $200 on Udemy (source) – which can be quite restrictive.
This is why it’s always good to list your course on multiple Udemy alternatives as well.
Even so, ThinkTraffic reports that some instructors have been having quite a bit of success.
That’s probably because Udemy gets millions of monthly visitors to its platform and regularly runs promotions to attract students. However, remember that most Udemy courses aren’t full-scale programs. Instead, think of them as short courses with a limited scope.
When you consider these factors, the course pricing limitations make sense.
In short, if you’re looking to start a course business without worrying about anything but content creation, Udemy is the ideal place to start.
Skillshare is one of the world’s most popular eLearning platforms where anyone can register to access its library of thousands of online courses.
You can sign up as a Skillshare Teacher, create and upload your video courses, and earn from course sales.
Skillshare specializes in courses for creators. Some of its most popular courses are illustration, design, photography, video, freelance, etc. But you can also create courses on other topics like marketing, consumer behavior, psychology, etc.
Skillshare provides instructors with tools to create courses composed of video lessons and a “class project.” Classes are normally 10-25 minutes long, broken down into short videos, and they are all pre-recorded and self-paced.
It doesn’t offer a course builder like dedicated course platforms. Instead, all the course pages follow the same design template. Similarly, every course consists of multiple modules, lessons, and practical exercises.
Here’s an example of what a Skillshare course page looks like.
Once you have enrolled more than 25 learners in a class, you become eligible for participation in Skillshare’s Partner Program.
You can earn money through the royalty pool managed by the company – usually $1-2 per enrollment, according to the company.
Unlike Udemy, Skillshare sells subscriptions to all of its content rather than individual courses.
Once you are a partner, you’ll also get compensated for new Premium Members ($10 per) you bring to Skillshare through your Teacher Referral link. The Skillshare site reports that “Top teachers make up to $40,000 a year.”
Skillshare gets millions of website visitors every month who search the platform for different courses. So if you create courses on popular topics and optimize them using the right keywords, you have a pretty strong chance of attracting students regularly.
Skillshare also recommends relevant courses via Facebook ads and emails to its users based on their interests. But you all need to promote your courses individually to drive traffic and generate sales.
In short, if you’re a creative professional looking to sell courses without building your own course platform, Skillshare is an ideal option for you.
If you haven’t already, grab the free selection guide for online learning platforms. It’s completely free and designed to help you make the best choice quickly and confidently.
You can also explore detailed reviews of top platforms right here on Learning Revolution.
Start with the big picture: What are you trying to achieve with your course? Are you testing the waters with a single course, or are you planning to launch a membership program or even an entire online school?
For example, I’ve worked with creators who just needed a straightforward platform for their first course.
Platforms like Thinkific were the perfect fit—it’s simple, beginner-friendly, and grows with you.
On the other hand, if you’re thinking bigger, like building a community around your courses, Kajabi offers tools that boost interaction and engagement.
Knowing your goals upfront will save you from wasting time and money on platforms that don’t align with your vision.
Understanding who you’re creating your course for is non-negotiable. People buy courses for different reasons. They can be casual learners, busy professionals, and even corporate clients.
Each group has different needs.
Your audience influences everything from the features you need to how you price your courses.
Think about what your course absolutely needs to deliver the best learning experience.
Having a clear list of must-haves ensures you focus on platforms that align with your needs and don’t get sidetracked by shiny features you’ll never use.
The budget is always a concern, especially if you’re just starting out. The good news is, there’s a platform for every budget.
But here’s what I’ve learned:
Figure out what you can afford now, but also think about scalability—will the platform grow with your business?
Here’s something I always recommend: Try before you buy. Most online training platforms offer free trials. Use this opportunity to get a feel for the platform.
Pay attention to:
You’ll never know if a platform is the right fit until you try it out for yourself.
One mistake I’ve seen creators make is choosing a platform that can’t scale. Your business may be small now, but if you plan to grow, your platform should grow with you.
Thinkific is a fantastic choice here—it supports everything from single courses to massive multi-course setups.
For creators looking to build communities, MightyNetworks stands out with its social learning features.
And if you’re working with WordPress, LearnDash integrates beautifully with plugins like BuddyBoss, helping you scale while maintaining complete control over your site.
I’ve repeatedly seen how valuable it is to tap into other creators’ experiences. Join online communities, ask fellow course creators for advice, and read in-depth reviews.
For example, some of the most successful course creators I know like Dorie Clark, swear by Thinkific for its balance of ease and functionality.
Others prefer platforms like Kajabi or LearnWorlds for their marketing features and deep customization options.
Firsthand feedback will help you see past the marketing hype and understand what it’s like to use the platform day-to-day.
Finally, make sure your platform works with the tools you already use. If you’re building your course on WordPress, LearnDash is the go-to option.
For marketing, platforms like Thinkific and LearnWorlds integrate seamlessly with tools like Mailchimp or ConvertKit, saving you time and effort.
The easier it is to connect your tools, the more you can focus on creating great content.
It’s always wise to pause for a moment and ask yourself if you even need an online course platform.
I explain why I say this in this video I recently recorded.
One of the more impactful “courses” I’ve purchased used nothing other than and unlisted YouTube links.
This was a year-long subscription series from someone well-known in the consulting field. I’ll call him Bob simply because I’m not sure whether he would want his approach broadcast along with his real name.
Bob provided information about the series on his website (which is built on WordPress).
He took orders through a standard shopping cart (1ShoppingCart in his case).
Then, every week, Bob would send out a link to a new five-minute video he had recorded – basically, him talking to a single camera to provide his view and actionable tips on a topic highly relevant to your average consultant.
If you happened to sign up after the series had started, the welcome simply included links to the videos already released.
I paid about $500 for this, and it was more than worth every penny.
When we ran our first online learning platform selection boot camp at my company, Tagoras, we opted to use a simple course platform, but that was only because we are in the platform selection business and find it valuable to try things out.
Truth is, we did not really need one. (We used LearnDash – the best WordPress LMS plug-in, in my experience.)
We had MemberPress installed to control who could access what (and also to run e-commerce) and we used the BuddyBoss theme to provide for discussion forums that we use as part of the course.
Otherwise, we delivered the majority of the content through a combination of Zoom and various templates we provided using Word and Excel.
The biggest benefit of an online training platform is the time it saves. It lets you create world-class learning experiences without knowing how to code or design websites.
And if you can do everything yourself with multiple plugins and tools, why not put that time into creating more value for your customers?
However, if all you are doing is providing access to recorded videos and downloadable documents to a limited set of people, there may not be a benefit.
Again, a membership plugin will do.
Or, you can just set up a password for the pages you want to protect on your website.
A true online training platform will add value if:
Stay focused on what you really need to accomplish, and if it just providing limited access to a relatively small, simple body of content, you probably don’t need a true course creation platform.
If you’re still not sure, take my word and choose Thinkific or a WordPress plug-in like LearnDash.
This isn’t a life decision.
Use the free trial period to test a course platform before purchasing it. Even then, you can easily switch to another software if you’re not satisfied.
Put your time, effort, sweat, and stress into the value of your course – not the technology.
Do what makes sense to get started, but by all means, get started – whether that means with your first course or your next one.
As you probably realize – having a course platform doesn’t do you a lot of good if you don’t know how to create an online course – just follow the link to get my guidance on how to design an online course.
And then, of course, there is the whole issue of how to launch your online course successfully and continue to market it over time.
Be sure to check out the free Learning Revolutionary miToolbox. It’s chock full of tools and tips to help entrepreneurs with all aspects of creating and growing a successful online course business.
Reviews of the best online learning platforms on the Learning Revolution site are overseen by the site’s founder, Jeff Cobb, an e-learning industry expert with more than 20 years of experience working with online course platforms. All evaluations are conducted by a team of analysts who have extensive experience using, testing, and writing about these types of platforms. We dedicate numerous hours to researching each platform, ensuring each aligns with the needs of online course sellers, and vetting specific areas like core features, usability, pricing, and customer satisfaction. Our reviews are unbiased, and while we will participate in affiliate programs, if available, we do not accept payment for placement in our articles or links to external websites.
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