7 the best online course platforms

In the latest review, we were discussing the best online courses marketplaces. There is huge competition in the market of online courses marketplaces, which may deter some of the creators of courses to make their products. But there is an alternative in the form of services that give their users more freedom concerning the creation, distribution, and sales of online products. Therefore, in the following text, we are going to present the 6 best online course platforms that feature functionalities that allow you to start your own business.

Best online course platforms – table of contents:

Thinkific
Teachable
Kajabi
LearnDash
LearnWorlds
LifterMS

Thinkific

Thinkific is one of the most popular platforms that allow the creation of the own online course and subsequent introduction to the market and sales. The origin of the service dates back to the events in the life of the founder, Greg Smith, who has decided to create an online course to reach a larger audience. The amount of participants in his course has risen and his income has increased.

Thinkific offers four plans: free option, Basic plan for 49$, Pro plan for 99$ and Premier plan for 499$. When we choose a yearly plan, the rates are calculated with a 20% discount. The free version is an ideal solution for beginning instructors. By contrast, the Premier package allows you to build your own business without concern about the limits.

Functions:

free plan – contains many useful functions that are available free,
“drag and drop” creator,
0% of transactional fees,
the ability to choose of the sales model – packages, memberships, digital files to download, independent courses
flexibility in prices – the price of the offer is set individually, and there is an option for the selection of one-off payments, subscriptions, and coupons,
intuitive creation of the domains without knowledge about coding – a great number of available templates, advanced personalization options, integrations with the existing website (mailing list or CRM).

Thinkific - Best online course platforms

Teachable

The next popular platform – Teachable, has its history related to the decision of one person. The founder Ankur Nagpal has been working on the other separate service when he decided to create his very own, better project. In two years, he has developed his platform and expanded his team with individuals with substantive expertise. By 2020 the number of Teachable instructors was more than 100 000 people, and their courses have earned more than 500 million US dollars.

Teachable, similarly to Thinkific, has 4 packages: free, Basic (29$/m) Pro (99$/m), and Busines (249$/m). All rates enlisted apply in the yearly settlement. The most popular Pro plan has many functions that allow building the business and increase the commitment of the course participants.

Functions:

non-standard domain – combining the domain with the Teachable domain,
analytics and marketing tools,
security – 2048 SSL certificate and 24/7 monitoring,
sales – payment accepted in 130 currencies.

Teachable - Best online course platforms

Kajabi

The next platform has also an impressive number of already created products available for customers in the offer (more than 300 thousand). As we can check on the official site of the company it is an “all-in-one” service. This means, that the creators can use the platform to create, sell and distribute their online courses, and then receive remuneration. All this with one great program – Kajabi.

The users have a choice between three pricing plans: Basic for 149/m, Growth for 199$/m, and Pro for 399$/month. Customers, who choose to settle once a year receive a 20% of discount. In contrast to the other previously discussed platforms, Kajabi has no free package. Clients can use a 14-day free trial.

Functions:

tools to build internet website – creator, non-standard domain, SEO optimization,
tools that allow reaching greater audience – e-mail list building, ready-made landing pages templates,
sales tools – PayPal integration or/and Stripe integration, free trial, subscriptions,
tools for marketing automation.

LearnDash

LearnDash is a WordPress plug-in, that allows the creation and sales of online courses through the website. Among the key features of this software are: a simple online “drag and drop” course creator, numerous functionalities that help to increase the involvement of course participants (automated notification, discussion boards for example), and complex tools for marketing and sales of products. The plug is integrated with many popular applications such as Woocommerce, PayPal, MailChimp, and Slack.

The users may choose between three available packages: Basic (159$/m), Plus (189$/m), and Pro (329$/m). All the given prices are valid for the yearly payment. What is important, regardless of the chosen plan, is that internet users receive a 15-day money-back guarantee. LearnDash renews the license automatically after one calendar year at a time. The user can cancel the service at any moment.

Functions:

“drag and drop” course creator,
a variety of quizzes,
an increase of course participants’ involvement through automated notifications, discussion boards, tasks, points, badges, and certificates,
sales and marketing tools – subscriptions, one-time purchases, course packages, etc.,
integration with popular applications,
course and students management – grade book, reports, tasks, and group management.

LearnDash - Best online course platforms

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is the next all-in-one platform that facilitates the creation, sales, and promotion of online courses. The instructors can increase the involvement of their students thanks to the available tools such as interactive movies, grades, or questionnaires. The most useful convenience of the program is the option that allows building the website without any knowledge of programming. It is possible with the simple and intuitive creator that presents many different templates.

LearnWorlds offers 4 price plans: Starter (29$/m), ProTrainer (99$/m), Learning Center (299$/m) and High volume & Corporate package. The cost of the last package is set individually. Users can use the 30-day trial version and they receive 20% of the discount with the yearly payment.

Functions:

course building – transcription display, interaction adding (links, titles for example), statistics,
website creation without the knowledge of programming,
access to analytics and reports,
custom user roles – ascribing roles to the individual users, cooperation with team members,
e-commerce solutions with marketing tools and sales tools,
mobile applications creator – the creation of mobile applications for Android and iOS.

LearnWorlds - Best online course platforms

LifterMS

LifterMS is another plug-in for WordPress. The course creator can offer in his course: multi-media lessons, quizzes, tasks, and downloadable files. The creator uses a “drag and drop” function, which makes the process of course creation easy and intuitive. The course participants gain access to their desktop that allows activity and progress tracking. In case of concerns, the participants can use a few available discussion outlets: comments or boards.

LifterMS has three pricing plans: Individual Add-Ons (approximately 120$/year), Universe Bundle (360 $/year), and Infinity Bundle (1200 $/year). The first package allows the user to purchase individual additives while using the basic plug-in version during this time.

Functions:

“drag and drop” online course creator
multi-media lessons
tasks and quizzes
discussion panels
course import and export
student’s dashboard
course reviews

Best online course platforms – summary

The creators of the online courses usually have different goals for their business activities. Some of them concentrate on profit others aim to increase the number of students, the others experience the fun of teaching. No matter the group, you see yourself in, there is a service on the market that can help you to reach your goals. The above rank of the best online course platforms is only the tip of an iceberg of opportunities offered by the Internet.

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Author: Martin Sparks
E-commerce enthusiasts which constantly digs around the internet in order to make sure he hasn’t missed any important information on the topic of starting and scaling profitable online stores.
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