Best Online Course Platforms of 2023
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In 2023, there are plenty of online course platforms to choose from — which is a good thing. And they all have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Make sure you choose a platform that’s able to address all of your needs and is perfect for your Online Course.
If you want to create an Online Courses that are high quality money-making assets, you have to figure out the platform that makes the most sense for your business.
Choosing the right platform out of all the online course platforms in 2023 can be time-consuming and involve a lot of trial and error.
In my opinion, Thinkific is an excellent online course platform to use. You can call it an industry leader when it comes to online course platform capabilities. Another awesome tool is Podia that has more than just standard features.
After reading the comparison below, you should be able to decide which among the featured tools is the most suitable for your business.
Let’s get started!
What Are The Best Online Course Platforms 2023?
Here’s our list of the best online course platforms for 2023:
1. Thinkific
Best Overall Online Course Platform
I personally prefer Thinkific to create my courses and manage my students. It is on the top of my list because of its robust features and affordable pricing. I started on Thinkific with its free plan, but as soon as my student list started growing, I upgraded to one of its premium plans. The free plan has its own limitations, but it is the best way to get started with Thinkific.
Suitable for:
Overall Online Course Creation Software
Support:
Online
Price:
Free or $39/mo
Value for Money:
Yes
Annual Discount:
Save 20%
Mobile App:
Unavailable
Promotion:
30-day free trial, free forever plan
Training:
Webinars, Live Online, Documentation
Bandwidth and Hosting
EXCELLENT
Analytics
EXCELLENT
Interface
EXCELLENT
- Total control: Thinkific gives you complete control over every aspect of your knowledge-based business, from the look and feel of your Thinkific school to the course data, pricing, and revenue. This allows you to give your students exactly what they want without limitations.
- Powerful site builder: Thinkific comes with a powerful drag-and-drop site builder that allows you to design your course website without having to write a line of code. You don’t need any technical expertise to build your Thinkific website. The site builder also offers dozens of elegant website themes.
- Custom domain: Unlike some platforms where you have to use the platform’s domain name, Thinkific allows you to add your own domain name. Having your own domain makes it easier for you to build your brand.
- Multiple content types: Thinkific allows you to use various content types in your courses, from text and PDFs to videos, surveys, and quizzes. You can also create self-paced courses, give assignments, hold live classes, issue certificates to your students, and so much more.
- Selling tools: Thinkific gives you access to essential selling tools that will help you boost your sales, including affiliate marketing options, coupons, multiple payment methods, 1-click upsells, membership sites, and course bundling.
- Thinkific App store: You also get access to an app store containing hundreds of third-party apps that you can integrate with Thinkific to give your students an even better experience.
- Data analytics: Thinkific gives you access to all the data from your students. You can then use this data to gain insights that will help you develop better courses in the future and make better marketing decisions.
- Thinkific Academy: Once you subscribe to Thinkific, you get access to the Thinkific Academy, which contains premium courses and webinars that will teach you how to grow and scale your online courses business.
Thinkific is the top player in the online course platform space.
They have an incredible easy to use product perfect for beginners who are just getting started with their online courses.
They are also geared to support veterans in the space who are looking for a better all in one solution for their course business.
Like
- Only course platform with a free option and no transaction fees. Thinkific’s free option is really good. The main limitation I see is that you are limited to 1 free course.
- Phone support. Thinkific is the only platform to offer phone support. They also offer priority phone support on higher plans.
- Ability to customize. You can match the look and feel of your business or website
- Custom domain. While Thinkific will host your course, you can set the domain to make it appear as part of your website.
- Voice over PowerPoint presentation tool that makes video production easy.
- You can offer students payment options like a monthly payment plan for more expensive courses.
- You can offer a monthly recurring subscription for ongoing access to a course through a membership model.
Dislike
- No course marketplace to market your course.
- No integrated email marketing, however, you can easily tie into 3rd party email providers like MailChimp and Aweber
- No integrated sales funnel builder, however, you can easily tie into 3rd party sales funnel builders like Clickfunnels and LeadPages
- There is no chat support, although they are only platform to offer phone support
Who Is Thinkific For?
Thinkific is a great online course platform for all kinds of businesses who need to manage their whole online course funnels in one place.
Thinkific Course Examples
Thinkific Online Course Software Key Features:
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Thinkific’s feature list is extremely vast.
Check out their full set of features.
Thinkific Integrations
You can integrate various third-party apps/tools with Thinkific:
- ActiveCampaign, Convertkit, Constant Contact – Email marketing and automation
- eWebinar, Salesforce – Selling and Conversion
- Zoom – Live lessons
- Keap – CRM
- Shopify – eCommerce
- Zapier – Advanced automations
Thinkific Pricing:
Thinkific offers multiple pricing plans for their online course service in 2023:
- Free – $0/per month – maximum 3 courses, very limited features.
- Basic – $39/per month – Unlimited courses and students, email integrations, drip content, affiliate reporting
- Pro – $79/per month – 5 course admins, private and hidden courses, advanced customization features, membership site builder.
- Premier – $399/per month – All of the features in the Pro plan, plus 50 course admins/authors and onboarding package.
| Free | Basic | Pro | Premier |
| $0 | $39 | $79 | $399 |
| 1 Site Admin Account | 1 Site Admin Account | 2 Site Admin Accounts | 15 Group Analysts |
| Easy Drag and Drop Course Builder | Coupons & Promotions | Advanced Course Building | 5 Site Admin Accounts |
| Easy to Use Website Templates | Custom Domain | Completion Certificates | API Access |
| Email and Phone Support | Drip (Scheduled) Content | Live Lessons | Basic and Pro Features |
| Full E-Commerce | Includes All Free Features | Priority Support | Brillium Exams Integration |
| Limited Courses and Unlimited Students | Live Chat Support | Private & Hidden Courses | Groups |
| Thinkific App Store | One-to-One Student Email | Single Communities | Includes All Free |
| Students and Content | Students and Content | Onboarding Package | |
| Thinkific Academy Basic Courses | Subscription & Flexible Pricing | Students and Content | |
| Unlimited Courses | Thinkific Academy Pro Courses | Unlimited Communities | |
| Unlimited Courses | Unlimited Courses | ||
| White Labelling |
Thinkific does a great job of having multiple price tiers for every sort of business imaginable.
From soaking wet beginners all the way to enterprise level customers, they have you covered.
Right now Thinkific is offering their PRO plan at a 20% annual discount for only $79 per month. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all their plans which makes it totally risk-free for you.
Thinkific is my number one recommendation for all types of online course creation. It is the perfect solution if you are just getting started out or if you have a full fledged course business already up and running.
2. LearnWorlds
Best Course Creation Software for Interactive Learning
I love how focused they are on interactivity. So if you want to build a highly interactive course, LearnWorlds is your best option. I also love their managed service, which takes care of the hard stuff, such as creating your online course for you and setting up your LearnWorlds school.
Suitable for:
Interactive Learning
Support:
4/5
Price:
$24-249/month
Value for Money:
4/5
Annual Discount:
Yes – Save 20%
Customization:
Yes
Promotion:
30-Day Free Trial
Features:
4/5
Bandwidth and Hosting
EXCELLENT
Analytics
GOOD
Interface
EXCELLENT
- Highly interactive: Make your course engaging and allow your students to interact with your course material by adding overlay images, questions, links, pointers, titles, surveys, and so much more to your course content. LearnWorlds also supports the gamification of courses.
- Beautiful, customizable course player: LearnWorlds comes with a simple and elegant yet powerful course player with multiple learning pathways, such as free navigation or sequential course navigation. The course player also allows your students to highlight key points and take notes.
- Powerful page builder: Build beautiful pages for your online course website with LearnWorlds’ powerful page builder. LearnWorlds also allows you to add e-commerce features such as coupon codes, subscription plans, and payment processing to your website pages.
- Managed service: LearnWorlds has a premium managed service that takes care of complex tasks, such as customizing your LearnWorlds school, developing courses, uploading and converting your course content, and so on. With these activities taken care of, you can focus on the one thing that brings money into your pocket – your course sales.
- Synchronized transcript: To make your video lessons easier to understand, LearnWorlds automatically extracts the words from your video content and overlays them on the videos as synchronized, interactive transcripts.
- Sophisticated testing engine: LearnWorlds advanced testing engine allows you to test your students’ knowledge with various kinds of assessments, including assignments, tests, and quizzes. Once your students have demonstrated their competence, LearnWorlds even allows you to award them branded digital certificates.
- Video interaction stats: LearnWorlds gives you access to data and statistics showing how your students interact with your course content. You can then use insights gained from this data to develop better course content in the future.
LearnWorlds is one of the best online course platforms for creating, selling, and promoting your online courses.
This platform falls under the all-in-one solution category because it offers features such as course hosting, course marketing, analytics, landing page templates, and more.
It is a robust platform that might have a bit of a learning curve, but one I think is well worth it.
Like
- Unlimited Video Hosting
- Zero Transaction fees (Pro plan)
- Unlimited Landing Pages
- Subscription and membership options
- Affiliate Management
Dislike
- Basic Course Analytics and Reporting
- Very little flexibility overall
- No pre-made themes
- Checkout process needs improvement
LearnWorlds is a hosted online course platform that just like Podia has been getting a lot of attention lately.
It stands out in many ways, mainly due to the very advanced student-engagement devices it employs, all of which put a big emphasis on interactivity.
Course videos are fully interactive (you can even show a synchronized transcript as the video plays); you can hand students interactive ebooks and the overall ‘community’ aspect of the platform is very strong.
However, customization options and flexibility are a little lacking in LearnWorlds, and its overall marketing capabilities are a little thin compared to some of its competitors.
Learnworlds Course Examples
Who Is LearnWorlds For?
LearnWorlds can be a good choice if you are looking for an online course builder that does its job and doesn’t offer many other ‘bells and whistles’.
If you plan on engaging with your student community a lot and value interactivity, this is definitely an option you should consider.
Learnworlds Online Course Software Key Features:
LearnWorlds has a ton to offer from a feature standpoint. I can’t even begin to get into the level of detail for everything they offer as an online learning platform.
Check out the full list of features for yourself.
Learnworlds Integrations
You can connect Learnworlds with some of the best marketing and sales tools:
- Zapier – Marketing automation
- Zoom – video conference and webinars
- Mailchimp, Activecampaign, Aweber – email marketing
- Google Analytics and Search Console – for analytics
- Intercom, Sumo, Hubspot – Growth tools
- ReferralCandy – for affiliates
- Zendesk, Freshchat – customer service
- and more…
Learnworlds Pricing:
LearnWorlds offers a 30-day free trial. Plans are billed monthly or annually (up to 20% discount).
There are three main pricing tiers. The entry-level “Starter” plan has a $5 fee per course sale, which all other plans don’t have.
The main difference between plans lies in the number of admins/instructors that are supported and in various features you can have access to (summarized below).
Learnworlds offers multiple pricing plans for their online course service in 2023:
- Starter Plan – Only $24/month which is perfect for someone getting started out. $5 fee per course sale. 1 admin allowed and unlimited paid courses.
- Pro Trainer – Only $79/month with no transaction fees which is pretty hard to beat.
- Learning Center – Only $249/month with the ability to run a massive online school. No fees. 20 admins/instructors. Unlimited paid courses. Full white-label option and advanced affiliate management
LearnWorlds pricing is tough to beat for an all-in-one course creation platform. They have you covered from day one at only $24/month while still enabling your business to grow with their larger plans.
| Starter | Pro Trainer | Learning Center | High Volume and Corporate |
| $24 | $79 | $249 | contact |
| 1 Admin | 20 Scorms / Html5 | Mobile & Tablet Ready | 99.95% Server Uptime |
| 24/5 E-Mail Support | 24/5 E-Mail Support | Multilingual UI | Additional Admins |
| 4 Payment Gateways | 4 Payment Gateways | Premium Onboarding | Branded Corporate Academy |
| $5 Fee Per Course Sale | 5 Admins | Ready-Made Templates | Branding & Theme Editor |
| Automated Newspaper | Automated Newspaper | Scheduled Automated Reports | Custom Bulk Enrollments |
LearnWorlds also offers “Custom Services” such as the development of a custom mobile app for your course. All these services come at an extra price.
You can get access to a special 30-day free trial of LearnWorlds below to see if it’s for you.
3. Podia
Best All-In-One Online Course Platform for Webinars and Memberships
I recommend Podia for entrepreneurs who want to incorporate online coaching into their knowledge business and those who want to build a community of engaged students.
Suitable for:
Online Coaches
Support:
4/5
Price:
Free- $33/mo
Value for Money:
4.5/5
Annual Discount:
Save up to 398 per year
Customization:
Yes
Promotion:
14-day free trial
Features:
3/5
Bandwidth and Hosting
EXCELLENT
Analytics
EXCELLENT
Interface
EXCELLENT
- Robust features for coaches: Podia provides powerful features that make life easier for online coaches, from managing bookings to accepting payments. The platform also integrates with popular calendar applications like Calendly and Acuity for easy session scheduling.
- Multiple product options: Podia does not limit you to courses and coaching services. You can also host webinars, sell digital downloads like eBooks and audiobooks, or build a community.
- Multiple course options: Podia supports various types of courses, including standalone courses, structured online courses, self-paced courses, bundled courses, pre-launch courses, and cohort courses with specific start dates. Supported file types include text, images, videos, PDFs, quizzes, audio files, links, certificates, PSD files, and many more.
- Robust membership features: Building online communities is a breeze with Podia’s comprehensive set of membership features. You can create communities where members can interact, offer tiered pricing plans for different groups, create product bundles exclusive to specific groups, and connect your online community to Slack and Facebook groups.
- Email marketing: With Podia, you don’t need a subscription to expensive email marketing software tools. Podia has an email marketing feature that you can use to send email broadcasts and set up automated email campaigns.
- Affiliate marketing: Boost exposure for your course by running your own affiliate program and partnering with your students and other online marketers. You can set your own custom commission terms through the affiliate marketing feature, view all your affiliates, invite new affiliates, make commission-based payouts to affiliates, and generate reports showing how your affiliate program is performing.
- Live chat widget: Podia also allows you to add an on-page chat widget to your online course website. This provides a great way to engage with your customers and turn site visitors into paying students.
Podia claims to have “everything you need to sell online courses, webinars, downloads, and memberships without worrying about the tech.”
This is for sure a bold claim but one that I think they can back up.
Podia falls into the category of being an all-in-one platform. Their strength is in creating a top-notch student experience while making it easy to manage for the course creator.
Like
- Pricing options
- Zero transaction fees
- Student experience
- Ease of setup
- Unlimited hosting (and video)
- Webinars (paid and free)
- Email marketing
- Affiliate management
- Conversion focused checkout process
Dislike
- Sales and landing page builder
- Course environment design options
- Student experience lacks features like quizzes and certificates
Podia (previously Coach) has been gaining a lot of attention lately and has become the preferred solution for many online marketers and businesses.
It’s a hosted online course platform that also lets you manage membership sites and digital downloads, such as ebooks.
Its main focus is on ease-of-use and simplicity, but great design also plays a big part in the platform’s overall success.
Plus, it’s got no shortage of interesting features, such as unlimited video hosting, a very interesting pricing structure and a pretty solid email marketing tool built-in.
Overall, Podia’s ‘ready to go’ platform comes with some limitations when it comes to flexibility and customization options, but if you don’t need any fancy mods, this might be a good solution.
Podia Course Examples
Who Is Podia For?
Podia is great for those who are just starting out and need something that can be setup fairly quickly and with little-to-no hassle.
If you also plan on creating a membership site and/or selling info products, this could be a great option.
Podia Online Course Software Key Features:
Podia is jammed full of useful features which gives it a high ranking on my best online course platforms list.
If you want to see a full list of features that Podia has to offer check out their features page here.
Podia Integrations
Podia is one of the platforms that offer the most integrations with third-party tools.
- GetResponse, Mailchimp, Mailerlit, Drip and more – email marketing services
- Calendly, Acuity Scheduling – scheduling
- Zapier – connect with more than 1000 other apps
- Deadline funnel, Sumo – lead capturing
Podia Pricing:
Podia offers multiple pricing plans for their online course service in 2023:
- Mover – Starting at only $33 per month – (doesn’t include membership sites, blogs, embeddable checkouts, affiliates management)
- Shaker – Starting at only $75 per month – (includes all features).
- Earthquacker – Starting at $166 per month
If you are brand new to online courses, the Mover plan allows you the ability to create your online course business quickly.
The great part apart the Podia pricing plans are simplicity.
| Mover | Shaker | Earthquaker |
| $33 | $75 | $166 |
| Customer Messaging | Customer Messaging | Customer Messaging |
| Custom Website | Custom Website | Custom Website |
| Email Marketing | Email Marketing | Email Marketing |
| Free Community | Paid Community | Monthly Creator Call and Unlimited Webinars |
| Unlimited Courses | Unlimited Coaching Products Affiliates and Unlimited Webinars | Onboarding Calls |
| Unlimited Downloads and Unlimited Webinars | Unlimited Courses | Paid Community |
| Unlimited Downloads | Priority Support | |
| Unlimited Coaching Products Affiliates | ||
| Unlimited Courses | ||
| Unlimited Downloads |
Podia is best for someone who needs an all-in-one solution with an “okay” marketing feature set. It’s solid online course software allows you to build a basic online course business, but unlike Thinkific or LearnWorlds, you will run into roadblocks building it out at scale.
You can save up to 20% if you pay yearly instead of monthly.
4. Teachable
Best Online Course Platform for Beginners
I love Teachable’s simplicity and ease of use, which is why it is my top recommendation for those who are just starting with online courses and don’t want to get embroiled with technical details.
Suitable for:
Startup Business
Support:
3/5
Price:
$0-$249/mo
Value for Money:
4/5
Annual Discount:
Yes – Save 17%
Customization:
Yes
Promotion:
Get Started with a Free Plan
Features:
4.1/5
Bandwidth and Hosting
EXCELLENT
Analytics
EXCELLENT
Interface
EXCELLENT
- Multiple content types: Teachable supports different kinds of course content, including videos, text, PDFs, and quizzes. You can also host live one-on-one coaching sessions, create drip content, and award certificates to your students.
- Powerful sales features: Get access to tons of valuable tools that will help you increase your sales conversions. These include 1-click upsells, a highly optimized one-click checkout, coupon codes, sales tax handling, affiliate marketing tools, and so on.
- Custom domain: Teachable schools use a subdomain of Teachable.com by default. For instance, if we had a Teachable school named Abdalslam, our default address would be Abdalslam.teachable.com. However, paid plans allow you to add your own domain and turn off all Teachable branding on your online course website.
- International payments: For those offering their courses and coaching services to students from across the globe, Teachable makes it easy for you by supporting payments in 130+ currencies. You don’t have to worry about where your students are.
- Multiple pricing plans: Teachable supports numerous pricing options, allowing you to offer pricing plans that work best for your students. Some of the available options include subscriptions, one-off payments, memberships, bundled payments, and so on.
Teachable is one of the original online course platforms that offers tons of value for the price.
They solve some huge pain points course creators face:
- Easy to use course builder.
- Payment processing and student account management.
- An e-commerce store for creators to sell their courses.
From my own experience, these three pain points are massive hurdles for first-time course creators to overcome. A lot of content creators on YouTube don’t even have a proper business entity set up, making it impossible to get a merchant account in order to receive payments. And on top of that, I know very few niche content creators that would know how to build it from scratch with a WordPress LMS plugin or some other custom platform.
Their product is really built around serving content creators and experts in their field.
They offer limited marketing features (that convert anyways) and are not focused on things like order bumps, up-selling, or having a customized student experience.
Like
- Unlimited Video Hosting
- Easy to use no matter experience level.
- Unlimited courses
- One-click upsells
- Conversion focused checkout process
Dislike
- Marketing page templates are weak.
- Lack of customization within the course environment.
- Lacking integrations with other marketing tools.
When it comes to online course platforms, Teachable is my #4 recommendation.
It’s a hosted course platform that’s extremely easy to use right off the bat, and does not require you to have prior ‘expert’ knowledge to get started right away.
You’ll need to create your ‘school’ and do a little customization when you first join, but once you’ve got content for your course ready, it’s as easy as ‘drag and drop’.
What’s even better is that Teachable can do everything you need in your online course business, all in one place.
It hosts your videos, it can take payments, it can let you communicate and engage with your students. It’s the true definition of an ‘all-in-one’ tool.
However, and this is another great thing, Teachable does allow for various integrations. If you prefer to use another payment processor (ThriveCart, for example), you can do so with very little ‘work’ needed.
Overall, I definitely recommend Teachable for both those who are just starting out, and for more advanced users alike.
Who is Teachable For?
If you are looking for an easy-to-use platform that works great right out of the box, then look no further than Teachable.
It’s an all-in-one solution that’s perfect for both beginners and more experienced marketers, provided you don’t need a lot of ‘control’ and a ton of customization.
Teachable Course Examples
Teachable Online Course Software Key Features:
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Teachable’s feature list is extremely vast.
Check out their full set of features.
Teachable Integrations
- Google Analytics – Web analytics
- Sumo – Email marketing and lead capture
- Segment – Collect user data
- Zapier – Automation
- Convertkit, Mailchimp – email marketing
- Circle.so – a community platform
Teachable Pricing:
Teachable offers multiple pricing plans for their online course service in 2023:
- Free – $0/per month
- Basic – $29/per month
- Pro – $99/per month
- Business- $249/per month
| Free | Basic | Pro | Business |
| $0 | $29 | $99 | $249 |
| 1 Admin-Level Users | 2 Admin-Level Users | 5 Admin-Level Users | Students |
| Basic Quizzes | Access to Training Courses in Teachable | Admin Users Include Primary Owner | Unbranded Website |
| Course Design Templates | Admin Users Include Primary Owner | Advanced Reports | Videos and Upsells |
| Includes Google Analytics | Convertkit | Course Completion Certificates | 20 Admin-Level Users |
| Product Bundles | Coupon Codes | Course Compliance | Admin Users Include Primary Owner |
| Product Support | Course Creator Training | Graded Quizzes | Advanced Reports |
| Sumo and Segment | Custom Domain Support | Group Coaching Calls | Advanced Theme Customization |
| Third-Party Integrations | Drip Course Content | Instant Payouts | Bulk Student Enrollments |
| Unlimited Coaching Services | Google Analytics | Integrated Affiliate Marketing | Course Completion Certificates |
| Unlimited Courses | Includes Facebook | No Transaction Fees | Course Compliance |
| Integrated Email Marketing | On Courses | Custom User Roles | |
| Mailchimp | Owners and Authors | Graded Quizzes | |
| Members-Only Community | Priority Product Support | Group Coaching Calls | |
| Owners and Authors | Students | Instant Payouts | |
| Private Student Community | Unbranded Website | Integrated Affiliate Marketing | |
| Product Support | Videos and Upsells | Manual Student Imports | |
| Segment | No Transaction Fees | ||
| Sumo | On Courses | ||
| Third-Party Integrations | Owners and Authors | ||
| Zapier Triggers and Circle | Priority Product Support |
Teachables monthly plans start at only $29 which is an incredibly low price for you to create online courses. The great part about Teachable’s pricing plan is that the Pro option eliminates the transaction fees which make Teachable even better for someone selling courses for the first time.
On top of that, if you want to scale out your course sales you will never need to jump up to a higher plan. In very rare cases would you need the extra features that the Business tier adds.
Comparing Teachable’s pricing versus other course tools like Thinkific or Podia is extremely fair and in my opinion a steal for someone getting started with online courses for the first time.
Overall Teachable has a lot to offer for people who consider themselves content creators. If you are a YouTuber, Blogger, or social media influencer Teachable is the perfect online course platform for you.
If you are looking for a way to rapidly get a course live, Teachable is the route to go. Launch your course with a free trial of Teachable.
5. Kajabi
Best High-End Online Course Platform for Professionals
Kajabi comes with all the tools you need to create, market, and sell online courses, making it an excellent option for professionals looking to scale their knowledge business. I also love the fact that you are not limited to courses. You can also sell other kinds of digital products through the platform.
Suitable for:
Professionals
Support:
Live chat and email
Price:
$119-$319/mo
Marketing Emails:
Unlimited
Annual Discount:
Yes – Save 30%
Website Builder:
Yes
Promotion:
14-Day Free Trial
Landing Pages:
Unlimited
Bandwidth and Hosting
EXCELLENT
Analytics
EXCELLENT
Interface
EXCELLENT
- All-in-one platform: Kajabi gives you access to all the tools you need to build and sell highly successful courses. You get a course creation platform, a website builder, a landing page builder, an email marketing platform, marketing automation tools, payment tools, and data analytics, all wrapped in one powerful platform.
- Multiple product types: Courses are not the only products you can sell on Kajabi. You can also use Kajabi to sell membership programs, coaching programs, newsletters, podcasts, bundled products, file downloads, training portals, and many other types of digital products.
- PayPal and Stripe integration: Kajabi comes with native PayPal and Stripe integrations, allowing you to get paid quickly and seamlessly. It also supports different payment options, including one-time payments, trial plans, recurring subscriptions, and one-click upsells.
- Elegant course player: Kajabi has an elegantly designed course player, which gives your courses a premium look and feel.
- Pre-built templates: Choose from 6 professionally designed templates to quickly build a good-looking online course website. The templates are highly customizable, which means you’ll still be able to achieve a unique look for your website.
- Powerful email builder: Kajabi comes equipped with a robust email editor that allows you to design beautiful emails that lead to more conversions. What’s more, Kajabi will enable you to set up email marketing campaigns that run on autopilot, thus boosting your conversions and helping you build stronger audience relationships.
- Pipelines: The Pipelines feature allows you to build fully-automated lead generation campaigns with custom triggers and conversion-optimized pre-written copy. This will enable you to give your audience personalized experiences and attract more customers without extra effort.
Kajabi is truly an all-in-one platform that can do pretty much everything you need for your online course business.
This platform has had many changes over the years. They started out in 2010 as a platform mostly for internet marketers and were ahead of the curve for the time.
But since then they have completely overhauled their product making it one of the best online course platforms on the market today.
Like
- Provides in-depth course insights that gives you better insight into student progress
- Offers unlimited video hosting allowing you to create as many courses as you want
- Courses can be SEO-optimized to make sure it ranks high on search engine results
Dislike
- Kajabi is priced higher than average–nearly double than other platforms
- Custom certificates are not supported
- Assessment customization is limited
Kajabi is another hosted online course platform that is an all-in-one solution, much like Teachable and Thinkific.
Unlike them, though, Kajabi puts a lot of focus on marketing and automation tools, which makes them stand out quite a bit from the competition.
Their integrated email marketing platform and sales pipeline builder can really take promoting your course to the next level: your entire course ‘funnel’ can be created and managed inside Kajabi, something another tool might need a lot of integrations to perform.
All of Kajabi’s features, however, do come at a price. But considering all the capabilities it has and its overall flexibility, you’ll probably find the cost to be well worth it.
Who Is Kajabi For?
Though essentially similar to Teachable and Thinkific, Kajabi is best suited to more advanced users who need a bit more flexibility, customization options and have slightly larger budgets.
Kajabi Course Examples
Kajabi Online Course Software Key Features:
Kajabi is jammed full of features! In my opinion, it’s the most solid all-in-one platform from a marketing point of view. It rivals true funnel builders like Clickfunnels while also still serving as a course hosting platform.
Kajabi Integrations
Kajabi offers the possibility to integrate with other important and popular marketing and sales platforms like Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Calendly and more.
Kajabi Pricing:
Kajabi offers a 14-day free trial. There are 3 plans to choose from, which can be paid-for on a monthly or annual basis (30% discount).
Plans differ quite a bit from one another, mainly when it comes to the number of products you can create, the maximum number of sales pipelines you are allowed and the total amount of contacts and members you can have.
Kajabi offers multiple pricing plans for their online course service in 2023:
- Kajabi Basic – Starting at only $119 per month paid annually. Limits: 3 products, 3 pipelines, 10,000 contacts and 1,000 active members
- Kajabi Growth – Starting at only $159 per month paid annually. Limits: 15 products, 15 pipelines, 25,000 contacts and 10,000 active users
- Kajabi Pro – Starting at only $319 per month paid annually. Limits. 100 products, 100 pipelines, 100,000 contacts and 20,000 active members.
From my perspective, Kajabi is well worth the money because it is one of the few online course platforms that actually has useful marketing features. If your course business is based around sales funnels, paid traffic, email marketing, and affiliate partners you barely even need a WordPress website if you use Kajabi.
When you compare the prices versus Teachable it feels expensive but you are paying for quality marketing features that can really move the needle for your course business.
| Basic | Growth | Pro |
| $119 | $159 | $319 |
| 0% Transaction Fee | 0% Transaction Fee | 0% Transaction Fee |
| Advanced Automation | Advanced Automation | Advanced Automation |
| Affiliate Program | Affiliate Program | Affiliate Program |
| Chat Support | Chat Support | Chat Support |
| Preloaded Templates | Preloaded Templates | Code Editor |
| Remove Kajabi Branding | Remove Kajabi Branding | Preloaded Templates |
| Survey Assessment | Survey Assessment | Remove Kajabi Branding |
| Webinars & Events | Webinars & Events | Survey Assessment |
| Webinars & Events |
Kajabi is in the top tier for online course platforms in my book because they have next-level marketing features. This is where most online course tools fall short and Kajabi has nailed it. If you want an all-in-one online business solution Kajabi is for you.
You can save up to 30% if you sign up for their annual subscriptions. All plans have a 14-day free trial to give you time to toy with it first.
6. Learndash
Great Online Course Software LMS for WordPress Users
LearnDash is a WordPress plugin and the one platform you need to sell courses with a WordPress site.
Suitable for:
WordPress Users
Price:
$29/mo
Annual Discount:
$40 Discount
Promotion:
30-day money-back guarantee
Bandwidth and Hosting
EXCELLENT
Analytics
EXCELLENT
Interface
EXCELLENT
- Drag and drop course builder: Building courses and adding them to your WordPress site is a snap, thanks to the intuitive drag and drop builder that comes with LearnDash.
- Focus mode: Distractions are one of the biggest challenges for online students. To make it easier for your students, LearnDash has a “Focus Mode,” which provides a distraction-free environment so your students can concentrate on the course.
- Superior quizzing capabilities: LearnDash has an advanced quizzing engine that allows you to keep your students engaged with up to 8 different quiz types and automation sequences for questions. LearnDash even has Gradebook technology that grades students based on their performance on quizzes and assignments.
- Multiple pricing models: Whether you want to sell your online courses as one-time purchases, monthly subscriptions, course bundles, or memberships, LearnDash supports all these different pricing models. The plugin even comes with automatic renewal notifications for pricing models that require recurring payments.
- Multiple payment gateways: LearnDash comes with WooCommerce integration, which allows you to accept payments from Stripe, PayPal, 2Checkout, and hundreds of other popular online payment gateways.
- Integrations: Want to add some external functionality to LearnDash? By integrating LearnDash with popular third-party platforms and apps, you can easily do this. Examples of apps that can integrate with LearnDash include Mailchimp, Slack, WooCommerce, ConvertKit, Zapier, Gravity, GamiPress, and SamCart.
- Robust user management: LearnDash allows you to form groups and subgroups of learners, enroll specific groups into a course, automatically withdraw course access for particular groups, define different membership levels for learners, and so on. You can also create forums to encourage discussions between learners within the same group or subgroup.
- Engagement triggers: You can also set up automated actions triggered by learners’ engagements with your course. For instance, if a student is lagging, the platform can trigger an email to ask whether the student requires some assistance with the course content.
LearnDash provides a gold standard experience for those who intend to run a learning management system on WordPress. It is a feature-rich option that is developed for people who are professionally into e-learning.
If you have WordPress and you want to create a website with CMS, it is good to spend on online courses. With LearnDash you can have this opportunity to use all the features to create an online business.
The core plugin of LearnDash is highly robust and has important features such as student notifications, badges, certificates, prerequisites, dripping, assignments, exams, quizzes, drag and drop builder.
Moreover, LearnDash provides millions of premium and free add-ons to help to enhance the functionality of your course.
Like
- Their ‘Focus Mode’ feature helps block distractions
- Comes with full integrations that supports third party tools to help you promote your online courses
- Unlike other platforms, Learndash doesn’t take a cut from your course sales
Dislike
- Because it runs on WordPress, you’re expected to manage your own site
- Content access controls aren’t as robust
LearnDash is a little different from both Thinkific and Teachable, in that it’s essentially a WordPress Plugin.
But don’t be mistaken: LearnDash is an extremely powerful tool that can match or sometimes even surpass the capabilities offered by some of its more ‘famous’ competitors.
As a matter of fact, as my business has grown over time, I have switched from Teachable to LearnDash for added flexibility.
I use LearnDash in combination with BuddyBoss and Memberium, plus I integrate the whole ‘package’ with ActiveCampaign to manage my email.
Mine is definitely a more ‘advanced’ solution, but if you use LearnDash on its own, you’ll be surprised at how many tasks it can take care of.
It’s basically all there: a powerful course builder, quizzes, membership sites, payment processing, and the list goes on.
It’s no surprise then that LearnDash is trusted by big names in the online business world such as ProBlogger and DigitalMarketer, but also by top level institutions such as the University of Florida.
Who Is LearnDash For?
If you are looking for something a little more customizable and flexible than solutions like Teachable or Thinkific, LearnDash is definitely recommended.
LearnDash Online Course Software Key Features:
LearnDash Integrations
LearnDash provides various extensions to add extra functionalities to your online course. For example:
- Zapier integration
- ThriveCart, Samcart and more.
- Mailchimp, ConvertKit
Also, you can find custom build integrations from the community.
LearnDash Course Examples
LearnDash Pricing:
LearnDash has three pricing plans. The only available option is to pay annually (there is a discount running at the time of writing this).
The main difference between plans is the number of websites on which you are allowed to use the plugin. All plans offer unlimited courses and unlimited users.
Let’s have a closer look at LearnDash’s pricing structure:
LearnDash offers multiple pricing plans for their online course service in 2023:
- 1 site – $199 per year
- 10 sites – $399 per year
- Unlimited sites – $799 per year
The features are essentially the same across plans.
You can get started today with a $40 discount and a full 30-day money-back guarantee on their annual plans.
7. Academy of Mine
Best Online Course Platform For Professional Training, Continuing Education, And Certifications
If there’s a platform dedicated to the creation of internal training materials for organizations, the Academy of Mine is it. Arguably the most robust among the list, it can deliver the most advanced features that meet the demands of B2B companies.
Suitable for:
B2B Online Learning Platform
Price:
$599/ month
Annual Discount:
2 months free
Promotion:
30-day free trial.
Bandwidth and Hosting
EXCELLENT
Analytics
EXCELLENT
Interface
EXCELLENT
- Drag and drop course builder: Creating your course is a simple affair with Academy of Mine’s easy-to-use drag and drop course builder. Everything is easy and intuitive, from adding modules to your course curriculum to defining how to deliver the course content.
- Flexible website builder: If you already have a website, you can easily connect it to Academy of Mine with a few clicks. If you don’t have one, Academy of Mine has a flexible website builder that allows you to build a beautiful website with a powerful WYSISYG editor. They also have dozens of pre-built templates that you can use to speed up the process of setting up your website.
- Powerful exams and quizzes: Academy of Mine allows you to create different types of exams and quizzes, including short answer questions, fill in the blank questions, multiple-choice questions, and true/false questions. You can also set the minimum percentage for a pass, give a provision for retakes, provide explanations to answers, and so much more.
- Multiple content types: Create online courses with varying content types, including text, audio, PDF, video, quizzes, SCORM, webinars, and live streaming.
- 100% white label: Take control over your branding and student experience by removing all Academy of Mine branding and adding your own logos, colors, and other branding elements.
- Software integrations: Academy of Mine integrates with several third-party web apps, including Webhooks, Custom JavaScript, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixels, Google OAuth Single Sign-On, Zoom Meetings, GoToWebinar, and many more.
- Translations: Targeting students who speak a different language? Academy of Mine offers multiple language translations, including English, German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
- Analytics and reporting: Academy of Mine gives you detailed students and course analytics, which you can use to gain ideas on how to design better courses and market your courses better. You even have the option of exporting your reports as Excel files.
Academy of Mine is a dedicated platform for the development of internal training materials, especially for organizations. It is the most robust platform on this list.
Academy of Mine can provide the most advanced features that are needed for B2B companies.
It is a sophisticated and complete e-learning platform that sells and teaches online courses. It also focuses on corporate clients and certifications.
Academy of Mine provides an all-in-one solution that enables you white-label to match your courses with brands. Also, you can build a completely functional website to help you market your training program.
Like
- Ideal for businesses with a global reach as it allows you to create courses in other languages
- Great security–customer information is protected by TLS 2.0 encryption and SSL
- Provides a built-in grade book that lets you track student progress efficiently
Dislike
- Insufficient LMS specific templates which requires your to build pages on your own
- Customization is difficult, especially if users have little knowledge about CSS
Academy of Mine is a hosted online course platform that offers an all-in-one solution, much like many of its competitors.
But there are some key differences that set Academy of Mine apart.
Overall, it is a more flexible platform with lots of customisation options.
It is entirely built on WordPress, which means it lets you create a completely personalized website to showcase your course.
Plus, it has a ton of high-end systems that boost learning and student engagement such as certificates, gamification, discussion forums, a ”GradeBook“ and much more.
All of the above, however, comes with two downsides.
First of all, getting the platform to fit your specific needs might require some help from a developer, and the learning curve when using Academy of Mine might be steep.
Lastly, the software comes with a fairly high entry-level pricing, which could be a problem with someone just starting out or with a low budget.
Who Is Academy Of Mine For?
Academy of Mine is more suited to higher-end clients and organizations.
Their aren’t cheap, and although it has a ton of customization options, it might be a little overkill for beginners
Academy Of Mine Online Course Software Key Features:
Academy Of Mine Integrations
- Hubspot, Infusionsoft, Salesforce and more – CRM integrations
- Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento – e-commerce store
- Flexible API included
Academy Of Mine Course Examples
Check out a detailed page of Academy of Mine use cases.
Academy Of Mine Course Pricing:
Academy of Mine offers a 30-day free trial.
There are two pricing plans, with either monthly or yearly billing. Both plans offer unlimited courses and unlimited users.
The main difference between the two plans is in the features you get (discussed below).
Essentials Plan: $599/month (2 months free). Unlimited courses and users, 2TB storage, no webinars, basic reporting and analytics, limited 3rd party integrations, no custom servers and hosting.
Professional Plan: $999/month. This plan essentially removes the limitations found in the Essentials plan. It offers 5TB storage space, but does not include custom servers and hosting.
Academy of Mine also offers a custom “Enterprise” plan (price upon request), which includes all features and also offers custom servers and hosting.
The company also provides “Optional Service Packages” such as Website Design, Course Creation and Platform Migration. All of these services have an extra cost.
| Essentials | Professional | Enterprise |
| 599/ month | 999/ Month | Custom Pricin |
| Custom Domain | Everything in Essentials and: | 1,000 or more Active Users |
| 250 Active Users (AUs) | 1,000 Active users (AUs) | Build your Own LMS |
| 500 GB Storage (SCORM files upto 75 GB) | 1 TB Storage (SCORM Files upto 150 GB) | Unlimited Custom Features on Demand |
| 25 B2B/Groups Portal (Popular if you sell to Organizations) | Advanced Custom User Profile Fields | Full Scale Migration from Existing LMS |
| Quizzes, Assignments, Surveys & Evaluations | Unlimited B2B/Group Portals | Dedicated Account Manager |
| Integrated eCommerce | SSO (Single Sign-On) | Custom Contracts and Service Level Agreements (SLA) |
| SCORM 2004 and SCORM 1.2 compliant | Request Custom Features (*Limits Apply) | Custom Hosting and Servers as needed |
| Advanced LMS, eCommerce Reporting | API & Developer Access | |
| Flexible Webpage Builder | ||
| Live Webinar Integrations | ||
| Bulk Import and Export Data | ||
| CRM, Analytics and other Integrations | ||
| Detailed Activity & Audit Log | ||
| Translate in non-English Languages |
If this sounds like the eLearning solution you’re looking for, you can get started today with their 30-day free trial.
What Are The Best Online Learning Platforms 2023?
Many online learning platforms are available on the internet, and I have listed the best online learning platforms here:
What Are The Types of Online Course Platforms?
How to Choose The Best Online Course Platforms?
How to Create my Online Courses in 2023?
Summary – Best Online Course Platforms 2023
Choosing the best online course platform for your business can be complicated, because there is much that goes into picking out the best learning management system, design features, and pricing. But creating your online course business can be extremely rewarding once you’ve made the right choice.
If you’re ready to launch your online course, you can’t go wrong with any of the platforms above.
However, your choice for an online course platform will depend on your needs and requirements to truly benefit from it.
Among the online course platforms above, Thinkific walks the fine line between premium features and usability at affordable prices to help you create your online course with relative ease.
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