Looking to sell online courses, but confused by the huge number of online course platforms? You’re not alone. There seems to be a new platform popping up almost monthly, so it can be challenging to sift through them all to determine which is right for your course creation, marketing, and selling needs. Well, worry no more!
In this post I draw on my two decades of e-learning industry experience to highlight the best online course platforms and help you narrow your list. It’s a great companion to my free course platform selection guide.
(Psst. If you already have a course platform, be sure to check out the next steps at the end of this post.)
Table of Contents
Make choosing an online course platform easier
One of the most important things to know about choosing the best online course platform is that most course software out there is not designed to sell online courses. They are made to deliver internal corporate training or to support academic programs.
And here’s another important fact:
Even platforms that will work for selling online courses come in a lot of different flavors. Pick the wrong flavor for your online course business needs and you will have headaches.
So, to help narrow your field of choices (and avoid headaches!), I’ve organized this post into the following:
Categories of Online Course Platforms
- Standalone Course Platforms (Great for solo edupreneurs, small businesses)
- All-In-One Course Platforms (Run your Web site and course site together)
- WordPress Course Options (For those who want to keep it all in WordPress)
- Marketplace Course Platforms (Get a pre-made market for to sell courses online)
- Video Course Platforms (If your main focus is on selling videos)
- Small Business-Extended Enterprise (For more complex needs, selling business-to-business)
- Moodle Plug-Ins/Add-Ons (Make Moodle into a selling machine)
It may seem like a no-brainer, but just having a clear idea of which of the categories above you fall in – along with knowing that only a small subset of online course platforms are meant for selling courses – will make your life MUCH easier.
Keep in mind that I think all of these course platforms are strong choices.
I have my preferences, but depending on your specific needs, any of these could be a good fit. Also, if a company offers an affiliate program, I will usually participate (here’s my affiliate disclosure) – that doesn’t cost you anything, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t get at least a little benefit from sending some business to a company.
I have more experience with some of the online course platforms listed here than others, but I have vetted them all at a high level to make sure – based on my decades of experience – that they are a good fit for edupreneurs and smaller education and training businesses that want to sell courses online.
I encourage you to use the comments area to share any experiences you have had with these course platforms – good or bad. (And, be sure to check them out for what others have said.)
Now, let’s move on to the list.
All of the online learning platforms listed here are strong choices, but I know it can be helpful for an expert to just say “look at this one, it’s a top choice” if you want to sell courses. So, here’s my all around top choice: Thinkific.
Check it out. You can create a free course right away, they are very upfront about how their different plans compare, and most importantly, I hear consistently from readers that that they have had a good experience with Thinkific.
Just use the button below to get one month free of Thinkific’s Pro + Growth Plan.
Standalone Online Course Platforms
These are hosted course platforms geared toward solo edupreneurs or small businesses that want a turnkey way to create their own branded site to sell online courses. (Also, unlike Udemy, which is discussed below in a different category, they allow you full control over your user data.)
While the feature sets are relatively similar, they can be very different in their “look and feel” as well as in how focused they are on helping course entrepreneurs succeed – e.g., by providing good resources, educational content, strong support. Be sure to check out the free trial options, where available, so that you have a chance to kick the tires before committing.
Thinkific
Thinkific provides a truly full-featured software solution to help you create, deliver, market and sell online courses. A big vote of confidence for this platform is that my friend Dorie Clark – a bestselling author multiple-times over, guest on the Learning Revolution podcast, and generally a very smart and business-savvy person – has used it for her online courses. Similar to Teachable below, there is a free plan, but …
… get this …
… Thinkific does not charge transaction fees on any of its plans, paid or free. (You still don’t quite get to sell online courses for free because your payment processor – e.g., PayPal, Stripe – will always charge you a transaction fee.)
I’ll also mention that the Thinkific App store really stands this platform apart from most of its competitors. With the app store, you’re able to easily integrate a wide range of other platforms to help you create more impactful learning experiences and market your courses much more effectively. And Thinkific’s own Spaces feature makes it possible to run compelling cohort-based courses.
Thinkific’s Basic paid plan – which comes with a bump in the features you get access to – starts at $49 per month ($39, if paid annually). Definitely worth checking out. (Here’s our complete Thinkific review.)
Link: https://www.thinkific.com
Thinkific Review: Thinkific Review
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds seems to have a lot of momentum right now. The company positions itself as a “premium” option that provides for high interactivity, social learning tools to complement standard course content, and white labeling.
The company also puts a lot of emphasis on its tools for building sales pages for courses – and these do indeed look impressive. You can even test them out without signing up through a simulator that LearnWorlds provides. LearnWorlds is also getting closer to an “all-in-one” than other platforms in this category with the full website builder capability it introduced in 2020.
You can try LearnWorlds free for 30 days (no credit card required), then pricing starts at $29 per month ($24, if billed annually). The company charges $5 per sale on its starter plan, but no additional fees on its other plans.
Unlike many of the company’s here, LearnWorlds also offers services for uploading and converting your content, developing courses, and customizing your LearnWorlds school. And, it is one of the few platforms on this page that supports SCORM. All in all, it looks like a very good option, deserving of the “premium” label.
Use the code LEARNINGREVOLUTION50 when checking out at LearnWorlds and you will get 50% off for the first month of a Pro plan or higher. (Complete Learnworlds review here)
Link: https://www.learnworlds.com/
LearnWorlds Review: LearnWorlds Review
Teachable
Teachable was one of the first online course platforms to launch in this category and remains one of the most popular. It was started out of frustration with Udemy (listed below) – in particular, with the way in which Udemy controls information about and access to students. In response, the Teachable team has created a platform that enables you to offer online courses “on your website and control your branding, student data, and pricing all from one place.”
In my opinion, Teachable offers one of the cleanest, most straightforward administrative out of any platform on this page. If you are looking to get pretty straightforward, on-demand courses up and running quickly, it’s a great option.
Teachable pricing starts at $39 per month ($29 if paid annually) for its basic plan. With the lowest level paid plan you still pay a 5% transaction fees on all sales. Transaction fees disappear once you jump up to the next level. All plans include unlimited courses and students. (Here’s my complete Teachable Review.)
Link: https://teachable.com/
Teachable Review: Teachable Review
Ruzuku
One of the things I really like about Ruzuku is that they put a lot of effort into helping subject matter entrepreneurs use their platform successfully to sell online courses – including everything from designing a great course, getting it online, and marketing it effectively. Their “Up and Comer Plus” plan also includes unlimited Webinars. Their Bootstrapper plan is $99 per month ($74.75, if billed annually) and includes unlimited students and courses.
If you are looking for an easy-to-use platform combined with a soup-to-nuts approach to helping you be successful with it, this is a strong option. I recommend you sign up for their free trial today to give you an idea of what the platform can do.
Link: https://www.ruzuku.com/
Teachery
Teachery claims to be “the only online course platform that helps you craft the content inside your online course.” Seems to me most course platforms do that, but I will give Teachery props for making their course creation interface especially user friendly. Particularly if you are just getting started out, I’m not sure there is an easier, more straightforward course development platform to use.
Basically, Teachery provides you with two rock-solid course templates – a “minimal” template and a sidebar template – and guides you through every step of the process for getting your content into the template and getting set up to sell effectively. While it does not have as rich a feature set as some of the options here, that may be exactly what many course creators need to stop dreaming about having a course and imply get started.
There’s a 14-day free trial (no credit card required) and then the paid plan is either $49 per month or $470 per year. (Complete Teachery review here.)
Link: https://www.teachery.co
Teachery Review: Teachery Review
Other Standalone Course Platform Options
The course platforms listed above are my current top picks, but other you may want to check out include:
Click4Course
Click4Course compares well with well-established platforms like Teachable and Thinkific and seems strong in its testing, survey, and certificate capabilities. It also offers the interesting feature of being able to configure whether a site is displayed for internal training – in which case a login screen is presented – or selling courses – in which case a catalog is presented.
There’s a 30-day free trial (no credit card required) and the month fee is $79 ($65, if paid annually), for unlimited learners plus a 10% processing fee per course sold.
Link: https://www.click4course.com/
Pathwright
Pathwright is a company that is clearly focused on making learning experiences effective. The course platform reflects that as does the fact that is it one of the only companies listed here that provides learning experience design services (at additional cost, of course).
The starter plan – which allows for 1000 active learners and unlimited courses – is $99 a month ($89, if paid annually), and Pathwright does not charge any e-commerce fees (though your gateway – e.g., Stripe – still does, as usual).
Link: https://www.pathwright.com/
Zippy Courses
Originally developed as WordPress plug-in, Zippy Courses is now a standalone platform. The person behind it is Derek Halpern, who is a well-known and respected marketer who certainly knows a thing or two himself about how to create and sell online courses. All in all, a very solid platform that will get you up and running – and, of course, selling online courses – quickly.
Pricing starts at $99 per month with no transaction fees.
Link: https://zippycourses.com
All-In-One Course Platforms
This category of online course software provides everything you need not just to create and sell online courses, but also to manage your full web presence and sell other digital products. They combine elements of a web content management system (CMS) with marketing and customer relationship management tools (CRM). I cover others here as well, but the course platform I would most seriously consider in this category is:
Kajabi
Kajabi describes itself as “the one system you need to market, sell, and deliver your knowledge online.” As it happens, selling online courses is a big part of the equation. Along with courses, you’re able to sell memberships, training portals, file downloads, and pretty much any other digital product you can come up with.
For many people who just want to sell an online course – and who are already set with a Web site and marketing tools – this may be overkill. Then again, if you don’t have those things or simply want to get everything under one roof, Kajabi may be just the ticket. And Kajabi has done a lot in the past year or so to add new features – like a full-fledged e-mail marketing system and the ability to support scheduling coaching sessions.
The company massively upgraded its web page builder capabilities in 2019, making it more powerful than ever for creating websites and online courses. And, in early 2020, Kajabi released Kajabi Email, featuring a powerful visual editor to to create attractive, high-converting e-mails fast. The web page builder and e-mail capabilities are included with every plan.
You can try Kajabi for 30 days for free. Once a paid plan kicks in, pricing starts at $149 a month ($119 if paid annually). (Complete Kajabi review here.)
Link: https://kajabi.com/
Kajabi Review: Kajabi Review
Kartra
If you are really serious about running a digital products business – one that goes beyond just offering courses – then Kartra is a powerful solution. The platform gives you everything you need to build out a professional looking, feature rich website without having to hire a designer or know coding. Integrated capabilities include an e-mail platform, memberships, sales funnels, video hosting, management, and tracking, lead capture, a help desk platform for your customers, and a calendar capability for booking and managing customer appointments.
From a course standpoint, Kartra will work best if your focus is on video content – it does not have the level of course creation, student management, or assessment capabilities that the more course-focused platforms covered here have. But if video is your thing, and you want a ton of marketing muscle, Kartra is hard to beat. Plans start at $99 per month. (Complete Kartra review here.)
Link: https://home.kartra.com
Kartra Review: Kartra Review
New Zenler
New Zenler describes itself as “the first ever online course platform built around sales & marketing.” That seems like a bit of a stretch, but it is definitely positioned as an alternative to Kajabi at a significantly lower price point. In other words, you can create courses with it, but also run just about every other aspect of your online business – from your website to e-mail campaigns and sales funnels to online communities.
This is definitely one you are going to want to check out. The course platform seems to be in perpetual “beta” right now, but use the link provide here and you can skip having to wait for an “invitation” – you’ll be able to try New Zenler for free right away. New Zenler pricing seems to be discounted during the beta so it might be a good idea to sign up prior to the launch to test out all the features and see if it is the best online course platform for your needs. (Complete New Zenler review here)
Link: https://www.newzenler.com
New Zenler Review: New Zenler Review
Podia
Podia started out as “WithCoach” and a platform that was aimed primarily at coaches. More recently, the company has repositioned as a full-featured, but easy-to-use course platform for selling courses, memberships, and digital downloads all in one place – and it has been gaining a lot of momentum. Some of its key selling points are:
- no transaction fees (other than whatever you pay to your payment processor – i.e., Paypal or Stripe)
- no limits on courses or users
- a strong focus on supporting affiliate marketing of your products
And, Podia does still have strong 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.
With its basic plan starting at $39 per month (two months free with an annual plan), Podia seems to be rapidly gaining momentum. (Complete Podia review here.)
Link: https://www.podia.com
Podia Review: Podia Review
WordPress for Selling Courses Online
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. 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. The following are my current top choices.
LearnDash
LearnDash, in my opinion, is pretty much the gold standard for serious WordPress learning management system (LMS) plug-ins and the recent release of version 3.0 has made it even better. It is a very feature rich platform that was clearly developed by people serious about e-learning (and the founder, Justin Ferriman, does have a long background in e-learning).
Pricing starts at $159 for the basic version and tops out at $329 for the Pro version. Note: These are one-time, not monthly fees and they represent an insane amount of value for what you get. To continue getting updates and support, there is an annual renewal fee that is half of the initial license fee.
Once you’ve have a license, LearnDash offers a range of integrations and add-ons –WooCommerce, bbPress, Stripe, and Zapier, among many others – for free. And there are also a number of premium add-ons – including a connection to the GrassBlade LRS (for you e-learning geeks out there) – that look quite useful.
Overall, this is serious e-learning at a very reasonable price. (BTW – If you are going to go with LearnDash, I suggest using it in combo with BuddyBoss to add great membership/community capabilities.) (Complete LearnDash review here.)
Link: https://www.learndash.com/
LearnDash Review: LearnDash Review
AccessAlly
If you want to combine the ability to sell online courses with the ability to manage a full-featured membership site – a powerful combination for edupreneurs – then AccessAlly is arguably the best choice there is.
The platform really leverages the full capabilities and flexibility of WordPress while also adding in great membership features and a learning management system (LMS) plug-in that includes notable features like the ability for students to submit homework assignments and get private feedback.
You get all of this without having to be a WordPress whiz. It’s basically plug-n-play, but there is also a comprehensive “done for you” option is you want to get up and running with a course and membership site quickly.
The Pro plan is $129 per month / $108 with a yearly subscription. If you are serious about a membership model, this is definitely one to check out. (Complete AccessAlly Review here.)
Link: https://accessally.com/
AccessAlly Review: AccessAlly Review
Course Cats
David Siteman Garland, the guy behind Course Cats, definitely knows what he is talking about when it comes to online courses. He has created quite a few successful ones himself and has taught many others how to do it.
Course Cats was born out of his own frustration with trying to make WordPress – which is great for so many things – into an easy-to-use platform for hosting online courses. Now you get to benefit from his efforts. As the Garland puts it, Course Cats gives you “everything you need to create your own amazing course website without needing a web developer, a graphic designer, a psychiatrist and a team of 1,000 nerds!”
A subscription is $59 per month or $497 a year – and either includes a “concierge” service to get you up and running. If you use, or plan to use WordPress, definitely take the 30-day free trial for a spin. (Complete Coursecats review here.)
Link: http://coursecats.com
Course Cats Review: Course Cats Review
LifterLMS
LifterLMS has the very strong selling point of being free for the base version: you can search for and install it using the usual plug-in screen in WordPress. This means you can easily try out the system within your WordPress site before deciding whether it is right for you.
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. These are $99 each, or you can purchase a Universal Bundle for $299 that includes all of the standard add-ons. (You can actually try out the Universal Bundle for a month for $1.)
Link: https://lifterlms.com/
Marketplace Online Course Platforms
These are online course platforms that, in addition to providing ways to author/assemble courses, also provide an existing marketplace in which to sell courses online. I’ve only included what I consider to be the top contenders here. For more extensive list of options in this category, see Looking for an Alternative to Udemy?
OpenSesame
If you happen to be an expert, or manage experts (e.g., if you represent a training firm or association) that is developing offerings at this level of sophistication, OpenSesame might be the first place you want to check out. You can also upload video, and the company claims that courses published in its system can be accessed by any learning management system (LMS). So, for example, if you know there are businesses out there that would want your content, but are going to want it on their own LMS, this could be a very powerful option. The company takes 40% of any sales you make through its platform.
Link: https://www.opensesame.com/sell-online-elearning-training-courses
Skillshare
Skillshare provides instructors with tools to create courses composed of video lessons and a “class project.” (All classes have these two elements.) Classes are normally 10-25 minutes long, broken down into short videos, and they are all pre-recorded and self-paced. Once you have enrolled more than 25 learners in a class, you become eligible for participation in Skillshare’s Partner Program and can earn money through the royalty pool managed by the company – usually $1-2 per enrollment, according to the company. (Unlike Udemy – discussed below – Skillshare sells subscriptions to all of its content rather than to 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.”
Link: https://www.skillshare.com/teach
Udemy
The folks at Udemy say “Our goal is to disrupt and democratize education by enabling anyone to learn from the world’s experts.” From what I can tell, they have been doing a pretty good job at it. 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. You can then publish into the Udemy marketplace and use a variety of tools to promote your masterpieces. Udemy is free for instructors – the company makes it’s 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 your are currently required to price your courses in $5 increments between $20 and $200 on Udemy (source) – quite restrictive, in my opinion. Even so, ThinkTraffic reports that some some instructors have been having quite a bit of success.
Link: http://www.udemy.com/teach
(Again, see my post Looking for an Alternative to Udemy? for other options in this category.)
Video Course Platforms
To be clear, pretty much all of the platforms covered on this page enable you to upload video and create video-based courses. But most of them don’t offer true app-based delivery of those courses on mobile devices and none, other than the ones listed in this section, support delivery into “over the top,” or OTT, channels like Apple TV, Roku, and FireTV.
It costs more to distribute through OTT apps, but if you have the type of content that is likely to be consumed through a TV screen – e.g., health and fitness training, musical and artistic instruction – it could be well worth spending a bit more to be an early mover in the OTT space. Here are some options that work well for instructional content.
Uscreen
Uscreen gives you everything you need to upload, organize, brand, publish, and monetize your videos and is a great option even if you have no interest in OTT distribution. But if you want to go that route, it’s a powerful option. Once you’ve got your videos uploaded and configured, you can launch your own branded OTT apps with zero coding skills. Uscreen also enables HD live streaming and provides a range of tools – discussion, avatars and profiles, commenting – to help you build a community around your videos.
After a two-week free trial, Uscreen starts at $149 per month ($99 if paid annually). You have to jump up to higher level plans to get the full range of features, and the company doesn’t make its pricing for OTT distribution (Apple TV, Roku, etc.) clear on the site. (It’s not cheap, but if you have that kind of audience, it’s worth it, IMHO). (Full Uscreen review here.)
Link: https://www.uscreen.tv
Muvi
If you plan to get serious about OTT and livestreaming, Muvi is a platform you will definitely want to consider. It really is about as comprehensive as you can get – from serious tech infrastructure to host and stream your content, to an easy-to-use interface for setting up and managing your site, to capabilities for monetizing in a variety of ways.
Like any good OTT platform, Muvi enables you to distribute your content through apps like Apple TV, Roku, FireTV and more, but Muvi is also focused on providing features that support e-learning. And, the platform also has strong digital rights management (DRM) capabilities to help protect your intellectual property.
You can try Muvi for free for 14-Days. After that, monthly fees start at $399 per month. That may seem pricey compared to some of the other options on this page, but this is a different breed of platform – serious infrastructure for those who are serious about the OTT opportunity. (Full Muvi review here)
Link: https://www.muvi.com/
Small Business – Extended Enterprise Platforms
Most of the online course platforms listed on this page are geared towards solopreneurs or small, start-up businesses. While they can work for larger businesses, I’ve found over time that more established training and education companies may want to jump up to a different level if they:
- Sell business-to-business and may need to set up separate portals for each customer.
- Need to award continuing education credit learners.
- Already have an extensive catalog of courses built out in SCORM or TinCan-based authoring tools like Articulate, Captivate, Lectora, or isEazy.
- Plan to build out a catalog of courses and don’t want to be “trapped” by using proprietary LMS tools.
- Need to manage online and classroom-based courses in the same system.
- Need complex assessment capabilities. (creating questions and answer pools, randomizing questions, ability to analyze the performance of individual questions – i.e., item analysis)
Because many course sellers do have these needs, I decided to create a separate “learning management system for small business” page.
On my short list in this category are platforms like LearningCart (full review) and TalentLMS (full review). For a full range of options, check out Learning Management System for Small Business.
(Note: The online course platforms listed on that page are not out of the question for solo entrepreneurs, but they are probably a better fit, in most instances, for small-to-mid-sized businesses that are doing/planning a relatively high-volume of course sales (or big businesses, but those aren’t really a target for this site).
Also, if you happen to represent a trade or professional association, be sure to check out the LMS reviews on ReviewMyLMS.
Moodle Plug-Ins /Add-ons to Create, Build, Market & Sell Online Courses
These will tend to apply more in academic or academic-oriented markets where platforms like Moodle and Canvas have a big foothold, but they will also be helpful to commercial edupreneurs who have adopted these platforms. Also, if you need an online teaching platform that can handle multi-byte (e.g., Chinese) or right-to-left (e.g., Arabic) language, Moodle may be your best bet.
CourseMerchant
If you happen to have already gone down the Moodle path (widely used open source LMS) for your course delivery needs, then you may want to check out CourseMerchant. While Moodle itself provides a very basic e-commerce option, CourseMerchant helps you take things to a much more sophisticated level – including the ability to bundle courses, offer discounts, and sell multi-seat licenses that allow for the seats to be easily allocated to learners. The CourseMerchant folks are also behind CourseIndex.com, a network that enables you to promote and sell online courses through affiliate marketers.
Link: https://www.coursemerchant.com/
Link: https://www.courseindex.com
LMS Checkout
LMS Checkout is another option for selling Moodle or Totara courses. You can set up an account easily on the LMS Checkout website, download the plugin to install into your Moodle or Totara site, and connect to PayPal or Authorize.net to as your payment gateway. You get quite a bit of control over modifying the the theme for your e-commerce site so that it will look as much like your Moodle site as possible and you can even integrate with Salesforce in just a few clicks. All-in-all, a very good option for getting a level of e-commerce functionality that just isn’t available in Moodle itself.
Link: https://www.lmscheckout.com/
Next Steps for Choosing the “Best Online Course Platform” (for you)
What now?
If you haven’t already, definitely grab the free selection guide for online course platforms. It costs nothing, and it will help you make the right choice faster and smarter.
You may also want to check out the individual reviews of top course platforms that have been published here on Learning Revolution. This also includes comparisons of online course platforms like Teachable vs Thinkific and New Zenler vs Kajabi and Kajabi vs. Thinkific.
The LMS reviews on ReviewMyLMS are also very helpful as these come from actual users.
As you are considering your options, be sure that you are clear about what type of online course business you are. It really does matter when selecting an online course platform.
Next Steps Once You Have a Course Platform
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’s Toolbox. It’s chock full of tools and tips to help edupreneurs with all aspects of creating and growing a successful online course business.
Other Ways to Monetize Your Expertise
Finally, keep in mind that while online courses are very popular right now, they are only one of many ways to monetize your expertise. I’ve always maintained that you should aim to create a value ramp – a portfolio of offerings designed to address the needs of different audience segments at different price points. Here are just a few of the articles you’ll find on different ways to generate income through your expertise-based business:
- The Complete Guide to Building a Successful Membership Site
- The Virtual Conference Business Model
- The Top 7 Ways to Monetize a Podcast
- How to Monetize Your Email Newsletters
- How to Make Money Blogging
- A Guide to Expert-Curated Affiliate Marketing
For more ideas, see our section on monetization.
That’s all for now. See you at the Revolution!
Jeff
P.S. – If you have used/had success with any of the online course platforms covered on this page, or have others you would like to see on the list, please comment and share below. Also, if you found it useful, please share this page with others by using the social buttons to the left or at the bottom of this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are questions I get asked frequently about online course platforms.
What is the best online course platform?
There is no single best platform for online courses, there is only the best platform for you. To find it, make sure you understand which type of online course business you are and get very clear about your critical business objectives and the types of learning outcomes you aim to help your students achieve. This will help you identify the platform features that are truly most important for you and help you narrow your choices dramatically. The spreadsheet I include with my free platform selection guide can then help you go through a clear process to make your choice.
How do I create an online course?
Most online course platforms feature tools that you can use to author online courses. These are usually pretty intuitive and make it possible to use a combination of text, images, and videos to create courses. Most also include the ability to add quizzes and tests, discussion forums, and other interactive features. If you are going to create a large number of courses or if you really need your courses to follow e-learning standards like SCORM, you may want to be careful about using the tools in an online course platform. Most do not follow e-learning standard, and you may find it very hard later to get your courses out of the platform. So, you may want to consider using an online course authoring tool separate from the platform.
Keep in mind, too, that having the tools is only the starting point. You will need to follow a good process for creating your online course.
Will your online course platform still be here tomorrow?
Hey Jeff! This is a great list, thank you!
I would love to introduce you to our Teachfloor platform (https://teachfloor.com/). It’s an LMS for cohort-based courses in order to create, manage and monetize an online live academy effortlessly.
Thanks Jeff for this list but what’s up with Skillshare? I just can’t seem to get my courses approved there. They always reply back saying I am putting promotional content inside them even though all I’m mentioning is my line of work. Anyone else having the same issue?
Thanks for sharing that, Kush. I haven’t heard of anyone else having problems, but if anyone reading this has, please comment and share. – Jeff
Thanks Jeff for the article. Very useful it is. I am new to online teaching. The experience I have learned is just awesome at Thinkific. The other platform one should try is
https://graphy.com
This is largely for the Indian Subcontinent market – which is mega huge.
Is there an online course shopping mall for Moodle courses? I have a course all built, I want to make it available online for free initially to get some feedback and then charge for access.
The closest thing I know of offhand is https://www.courseindex.com/course-marketing. – Jeff
Hi all, quick correction. Thinkific does NOT have a free version. They have a free TRIAL. At the bottom of the page it says the monthly cost is 99$, not 49$. Maybe this article is out of date?
Not true. There is a free version. Details here: https://www.learningrevolution.net/goto/compare-plans/. Not sure what you mean by the $99/$49 comment – looks like you just need to read more carefully, in general. This post is updated regularly – it is NOT out of date. – Jeff
Hello Maureen,
I have taken the free plan at Thinkific. Very recently published my course – Nov 2021.
wingsofcreativity-rozario.thinkific.com
I am all set to market my course. The support I received from Thinkific team is fantastic. Surely will take the paid plan once I start seeing small results.
-Patric Rozario
GrassBlade xAPI Companion integrates with LearnDash as well as LifterLMS, LearnPress, and WP Courseware too. It is really an awesome plugin that you do some awesome things on WordPress. I’m a longtime user and support is super helpful.
It allows you to track add xAPI, cmi5, SCORM content support as well as Video Tracking support too.
Late to the party but https://www.telligent.com/ is great for an online community
Have you checked out Udutu? (udutu.com) I have been on and off their site over the years and I like their workflow and they have lots of free storage and use. You can even build your training on their platform and export it all for free (SCORM and other options); they hope to have your business by helping you so much you will use them as the LMS hosting platform.
We’ve had Udutu listed on the Course Creation Tools page for a long time. The focus on this page is platform for selling courses and I think Udutu is a little weak in that are – i.e., it lacks goor catalog/e-commerce/promotion feature. – Jeff
Hi,
You can also try http://prodicallearning.com/ platform if you want to creat and sell courses with your branded name at very affordable price.
Thanks
Hey! Just thought I would leave a note about my experience… I’m creating my first online course and decided to try the first 2 you recommended: Thinkific and Learnworlds and I have to say Learnworlds dashboard is horrible! Thinkific is much more intuitive and attractive. Just thought I would throw that in and save someone else the time.
Great article btw
Thanks, Corrine – I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. – Jeff
Good Article covering all essential platforms. love this article.
I’m wondering why you didn’t cover YesCourse in this article.
A reasonable question. I think I did have then in there years ago, but can’t remember now why I removed them. I think it was because, when I polled readers, no one seemed to be using them or have much to say about them. Will review and possibly re-list. – Jeff
I love reading your article and I hope that I will read some more about this stuff, it’s really informative and very entertaining. Recently I tried expertlearn.com and I had a good results.
Thanks for sharing this list with us, I have introduced a platform where you can create your own online Learning Management System where you can create and sell online courses and many more that help you to manage your online Learning or eLearning
Hi Jeff,
Selling online courses as I understand it could be about how a professional training business like say the guys who bring you GTD (VitalSmarts) required a “customer” training LMS to scale the business of learning. They use the Thought Industries platform, which is similar to others like Skilljar, LearnUpon or Docebo? I’m sure each has their areas of expertise, benefits, etc. But curious if there is value in expanding on this post with a quick write up about how platforms like Thought Industries help sell online courses as well? Thank you for your consideration.
Best,
Alex
Hi Alex – I covered this long ago in https://www.learningrevolution.net/learning-management-system-for-small-business/, which is linked to in this post. Thought Industries is covered there. – Jeff
You didn’t mention learnpress that is the only wordpress plug in that allow to create a marketplace like udemy for free…
I cover Udemy alternatives at https://www.learningrevolution.net/alternative-to-udemy/. To say that LearnPress is one is more than a bit of a stretch. – Jeff
Hi Bruno, very interesting,
I am busy setting up a LearnPress site and would like for small local colleges/clients to create their own branded section with pre-loaded courses that they can choose from or load their own to sell, similar to Thinkific with a bonus of pre-loaded courses. I have a multivendor site where clients can create their own e-commerce shop and would like to have the same for e-learning. Is this really possible with learnPress and if yes do you know of any documentation/guides on how to set it up?
I would really appreciate your input
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the great info! What do you think of MOOC’s (like edX or Moodle)?
Thanks,
edX is great, but it’s not a platform most people are going to be able to publish on. I don’t think of Moodle as a MOOC, just an open source course platform. It has a lot going for it, though not always easy for non-technical people to use. I cover a couple of plug-ins above to add e-commerce capabilities to Moodle (the native ones are not so hot). – Jeff
I have a WIX site, how would I find information on building a course on a site I already have? …with full control and selling through the WIX site.
Thank you!
I don’t have a great answer for you on that one. You can sell some video content on Wix, but it really just isn’t made for creating courses. You’d be better off using one of the platforms here and linking out to it. – Jeff
Do you have or will you have a review of Thrive Apprentice? (https://thrivethemes.com/apprentice/)
I’m a fan of Thrive, in general, but have not yet managed to review Apprentice. I expect to be able to publish a review by end of this year or January 2020 at latest. – Jeff
Hi, Jeff! Thank U for this great selection. I’m looking for a platform that supports online courses, memberships, and at least 2 languages (English + French). Can U help?
Try LearnWorlds, Rachel – Jeff
Thanks for this valuable content.
I’m looking for a platform that performs all-in (as Udemy) , and supports courses in other languages than English.
I’ve designed a course in Arabic and it’s up to recording now. I need a guidance for a better choice, As Selling and Marketing isn’t my preferred area.
I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for this one – at least not in the Udemy model. Your best bet would be to contact each of the companies I list at https://www.learningrevolution.net/alternative-to-udemy/ to see if they support Arabic. – Jeff
Hi! We just released our platform https://www.golearna.com ! Please take a look and let us know what you think 🙂
Thank, Will – I’ll have a look. – Jeff
Hi Jeff, thanks for the article. 2 questions for you. Where does Kartra fit in here? I’m social media based craft business looking for a landing spot to direct customers to video tutorials for purchase. I cannot tell what is right for me. I would only be selling 1 large/master course that i would like to have broken down into several chapters. Possibly some subsequent courses as advanced learning to the original mastercourse. I just want them protected and not shared. I like the idea of a login, or a landing page to collect the email but not entirely necessary. I could do the payment processing and send customers a link or have the platform collect the payment- not really particular just a bit lost. Really small business, small budget.
Hi, Ali – Kartra will enable you to sell digital products, and assuming you are using mainly just video, that can include online courses. So, it may work just fine for your needs. It is not really really a full-featured course platform, though. Kartra itself doesn’t list “online course platform” as one of the platforms and services it replaces. Again, that may not matter if you don’t really care about things like tracking course progress, incorporating quizzes and test, awarding credit and certificates, etc. – jeff
This list is not comprehensive and needs to be updated. Vonza is the best all-in-one platform in 2019. I have used several others and didnt like it. With Vonza you can Easily Create A Profitable Online Business.
Vonza is an all-in-one platform to create and sell online courses, products, build funnels, design a beautiful website without needing 20 different apps and spending thousands of dollars. Try it out at http://www.vonza.com
Thanks, Uyi – It’s not meant to be comprehensive (it’s purposely selective based on my experience and expertise, both of which are extensive) and I update it regularly. Will take a closer look at Vonza. – Jeff
Hey Jeff!
Thanks so much for putting this incredible guide together! Have you also heard of Virtually (https://vrtlly.me/build)?
It’s the only online courses platform that I’m familiar with that takes place live and requires minimal effort to put together. All the video editing and PDF creation is done on your behalf.
Thanks, Bill – I was not aware of that one, so thanks for alerting me. Seems like there is a new platform every day at this point! – Jeff
Hi. Would you add LinkedIn Learning to this list now? Why or why not? Thanks for the info!
Hi Denise – I do mention it (well, Lynda.com – basically the same thing) here https://www.learningrevolution.net/alternative-to-udemy/ – which is where I list more marketplace options. Even there, though, it is only a mention because getting accepted to do a LinkedIn/Lynda course is a good bit more difficult than participating in most of the other marketplace platforms. – Jeff
I just wanted to say thank you!!!
I teach for a large, well known (ahem, orange) online company. Many of my most advanced students (who will run out of content soon) need other options. I do not need to market and attract large numbers of students as I teach 70-90 classes weekly; I simply want to supplement and further their skills (I have three classes to offer that parents and students both ask about regularly) as they progress out of the current curricula. As they are all in China, could you possibly narrow down which of these options will work there? If by chance I can grow my own business, that would be fine, but it is not currently my short-term goal. The option to expand is certainly one I want to keep available as a possible long-term goal. TIA. 🙂
Christie – “which of these options will work there” depends on what you are looking for. Do you mean that all the content will need to be in Mandarin? – Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for this article. Have you ever stumbled upon a platform that combines physical and digital sales? We have a course made up of digital videos and a physical book. (For reasons I won’t go into here, the book cannot be digitized and needs to remain physical.) Currently, we provide it only through our wordpress site, which requires us to manually fulfill each order through KDP (the same POD provider used by Amazon) and then grant member-only access to the videos, streamed via Vimeo. Currently low-volume sales, but I’d still love to find a solution that packages both for me.
Chris – There are higher end platforms that would do this. On the lower end, though, WooCommerce would be able to handle this. Since you are using WordPress already, you may want to consider using a WordPress LMS plugin like LearnDash in combination with WooCommerce.
If others reading here use or offer another solution that would help Chris, please comment.
– Jeff
Hey Jeff!
I’ve looked through this list twice and it is absolutely brilliant. It is up-to-date and listed according to its type. I’d love to see you include Plantoost, it is worth a look!
Thanks, Carl – I’ll have a look. – Jeff
Nice, Article and list. In 2019 USA based startup, Simpliv – http://www.simpliv.com is best online teaching and learning platform. It will provide all courses over the world. Compare to other platforms Simpliv is the best at any kind like courses quality, customer support, mainly Price and other areas as well.
Thanks for commenting. I’ll have a look. – Jeff
Starflow’s plattform is great! 🙂
How does TalentLMS.com measure up to these systems? What is the difference? I work for a mid-size company that wants to start a certification program. We already have a web presence and a marketing group.
Thanks!
TalentLMS is a good platform. It’s just in a different class than these – will give you more capabilities in a number of areas like tracking, reporting, SCORM compliance, multi-tenancy. I cover it and similar platforms here: https://www.learningrevolution.net/learning-management-system-for-small-business/. These platforms are probably a better fit for your needs. – Jeff
Hey Jeff, thanks for the great article.
If I want to run everything in one ( to simplify things) and less integration. Say creating a course and then having to integrate it into my website to sell or have students use.
I assume the all in one platform would be most useful? If so, Which all in one platform would you suggest? Where one can have a website, charge memberships , email and etc ?
My courses are generally youth education based- in 3 different categories. I’ve done some research(will do more) but curious to know what you would do if you were in that position.
Hi, Arthur – Yes, all in one would be best for this. My top pick in this area is Kajabi, but I’d also suggest taking a close look at Podia. – Jeff
Do any of these offer a screen sharing option for one-on-one or group training?
Don – None of these are Webinar/virtual meeting platforms, which is what you would need to do what you describe. The exception is Ruzuku, which does have those abilities built in. The rest integrate with common platforms like Zoom and GoToWebinar. – Jeff
Looking for real time teaching solutions with significant scalability. Let’s look into Coursables
Thanks – I’ll check it out. – Jeff
I’ve gone around and around 1st deciding on 3rd party .. then build my own with wp/ LMS and back AGAIN. I really prefer a 3rd party all-in-one solution.. as I am just starting out and it’s just “me” The biggest challenge that I have found is the SEO I am not sure how that works without an independent wp site or how it works with a website you build inside a 3rd party. it seems to be the big elephant in the room that no one wants to talks about. Thanks, Alix
Alix – Once you go outside of a true Web site CMS like WordPress, you are bound to loose a certain amount of control over SEO. WordPress, in particular, is just really strong at that. So, you can either stay with WordPress for your main Web site and link out to a separate course platform. Most of the big ones are going top allow you to style your course site to closely reflect the branding of your main Web site, and some – like Thinkific – have some good widget tools that makes it easier to drop code into your Web site for linking out (not rocket science, but still handy).
Another option is a platform like Academy of Mine, which is built on WordPress and, as a result, retains most of its strong SEO capabilities.
Finally, platforms like LearnDash and LifterLMS enable you to plug the LMS capabilities right into WordPress. There are trade-offs on all of these, of course. It most depends on the degree of control you want (first option has the least, third option the most – Academy of Mine is a nice middle position). – Jeff
This is a good review. I think there is a really awesome platform to help people teach online and sell online courses that you should add to this list. Check out, review and add http://www.teachslate.com to this list.
Thanks, Tracy – I’ll check it out. – Jeff
Just to put cost in some context, when I designed and built one of the very first eLearning platforms for Sun Microsystems in 1996 to train my sales force, I had to hire 23 web page creators and instructional designers to build my site. Sixty hours of on-line training cost me $1.34 million dollars. Of course, at that time, no alternatives existed and Saba, Blackboard and Moodle all came by to see SunTAN (Sun Training Access Network) to see my learner-centric model. I used Java to create custom pages on the fly depending on the audience (salespeople want just the basics and sales engineers wanted everything possible). But within 2 years I was able to show the CEO a >125% ROI (increased sales and getting them trained faster than in the classroom) and I never had any problem keeping my content updated from that point on when execs understood eLearning’s importance. Of course we didn’t call it eLearning then, Cisco’s John Chambers coined that word a year later. Today I am using LearnDash to create a site for my 4000-person active senior community and the cost will be more like $15,000.
Thanks for commenting, Jerry. I have followed a similar path. It is amazing how much things have changed! – Jeff
Is there a program listed in which you can assign minimum time that the student needs to remain in the course? I provide training that requires the student to complete a minimum amount of hours so I needed training in which the student cannot move to the next section until a certain amount of time has passed.
Thanks for providing resources, Jeff! I just wanted to provide an additional source for people who, once they find the right source for them, can get some tips on actually making the course. I just found it while googling, same way I found this one 🙂
https://www.freelancermap.com/freelancer-tips/12434-create-course-sell-freelance-knowledge
Not gonna lie, I had no idea there was so much money in course creation! This is something I’m definitely looking at working on in the future when I can finally have time for personal projects.
Thanks for providing that resource, Maycee. – Jeff
Is an LMS like “Adobe Captivate Prime” designed and meant to sell online courses? If the answer is “no” (which it seems so), why such LMS is not designed to sell online courses?
Bibhash – The main distinction between Prime and the types of systems listed here is that Prime does not have built in capabilities for e-commerce and marketing. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it for selling courses, it just isn’t really set up to do that out of the box. You would need to integrate it with an external e-commerce system at a minimum. – Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Very interesting article! I still have a question bugging me though: in your research were you also able to identify if there is any platform that allows to sell courses where the instructor is different than the account owner? I would like to set up a little business where I instruct the Instructors, shoot the course, direct and produce the videoclips, follow any marketing activity around the course. Then, I would get right to use and eploitat the results from them, sharing revenue with them. In this model, I would need to be the Owner-Administrator of the accounts on the platform. I’ve checked Teachable and there seems to be some limit in doing so, in how they define the “instructors”. Any indication from you ? Thanks in advance. Marco.
Marco – At least based on the way you explain it here, Teachable (or Thinkific) should be able to handle that. Can you provide more detail on how it is falling short? – Jeff
Here’s a new one to add to your list: http://www.TakeAClass.com. Just launched in June 2018, but set to disrupt the industry by offering a marketplace for local classes.
I’m not sure this is in the same category as the types of platforms on this page, but a very interesting offering nonetheless. Thanks for sharing. – Jeff
Hi.. I am looking to build online courses and a monthly subscription service. I would also like to be able to have affiliates be able to sell the courses and make a commission. I have been looking at kajabi but was wondering if there were other less expensive routes.
Jeff, thank you for the summary! One question: which platforms do you recommend that allow students to upload completed assignments (content such as docs, scans, photos,…) so they are accessible for review to me as well as accessible to the student? Thank you
Florian – For that type of interaction, you are probably going to best off going with an academically oriented platform like Moodle – to which you could add one of the e-commerce plug-ins I cover in the post. – Jeff
Hey Jeff.
Amazing post, and pretty useful list for online course creators. Also appreciate the time and effort you put into making people’s lives easier and answering everyone’s comments around here.
Passing by, I wanted to drop here another platform that fits the all-in-one category. It’s https://kyvio.com and it’s the perfect match for people with a low budget and high expectations. I would highly appreciate it if you could review and maybe add it to your list.
Cheers
Several of these tout the ‘marketing’ background of the founder of the website. But then the platform requires YOU (the teacher) to do the marketing of your course. It seems what they are ‘marketing’ is the platform, which is absolutely worthless to me: I’m a teacher, not a salesman. I don’t have a “web presence”; I don’t have a ‘following’; I have content knowledge and an ability to teach. It would seem that the best venue for someone like me would be one that relieved me of the responsibility and need to do something I can’t do (market/sell).
Liam – These are technology platforms, plain and simple. If you want something that is going to help (at least some) with marketing, then go with Udemy or a similar platform. Even on those platforms, though, you are going to have to put some effort into marketing if you expect to make any real money. Basically, you have two choices: hire or contract with someone to do marketing for you or learn to do it yourself. If you aren’t willing to do one or the other, then you either need to go to work for someone who is, or just accept that being in the course business is not for you. – Jeff
One of the most exciting developments in the tech world is the number of people who are learning to write code. Simpliv allows students to select their goal/learning objective and then recommends the proper course for that student.
Simpliv works because it makes coding accessible to any interested student, provides practical recommendations for students who want to learn how to code but doesn’t understand how these new skills might apply to their current job.
Thanks for commenting, Ben. I’ve also added Simpliv to my post on alternatives to Udemy at https://www.learningrevolution.net/alternative-to-udemy/
Thank you very much Jeff.
Although only in Spanish http://www.classonlive.com is a good all in one option platform for e-leanirng.
I too like many of you am overwhelmed. I have course almost ready to go with supplemental materials (pdf worksheets, audio, short video) has anyone tried Course Craft? I am finding Thinkific a bit complex when trying to choose a theme.I have a website but am not sure how to implement it with the platform. I’m also considering DailyOm since it is of a spiritual/self-help nature. Any help is greatly appreciated.
thank you for sharing such a wonderful information on online courses. IgmGuru is also an online training platforms that offers various courses. You may check their website at https://www.igmguru.com
Hi, Jeff, informative review! What do you think about http://www.bitdegree.org ? They came with the revolutionary idea, where online education is going to be based on blockchain technology – interactive-gamified courses experience, sponsored courses – token utilized to reward students by achievement tracking. BitDegree have cut a fine figure in the ICO, where attracted lots of token holders attention. For a limited time they are offering free lessons, and there’s a demand for teachers who can present a proper content.
I haven’t checked this out yet, Mike, but thanks for mentioning it. I think block chain could have a very natural role to play in certification/credentialing paths – a possibility no one in that industry seems to have tuned into yet. – Jeff
I also started with Teachable and eventually got into the dilemma of picking between Thinkific vs Teachable.
–
There are so many options available – am I the only one getting overwhelmed?
Still there must be a reason why Thinkific vs Teachable keyword is being searched on Google 800 TIMES every month.
–
These two are heavyweights and I would say in 90% of cases these options will be far better than all the small solutions.
The thing is there is NO BEST online course platform – everything depends on your specific case! And that’s why a lot of people I see in comments have questions.
But please just pick between Thinkific or Teachable and in most cases you’ll be better off in Long Term. Long term solution is what matters.
I have been involved in online course market for years, I would love to help others get unstuck, as I remember how confusing it was when i started.
Just ask, and if curious check out the website by clicking on my name (all site has been dedicated to helping you pick the best Online Course Platform).
Hope that helps!
Dainis – Thanks for commenting. I agree – mostly. Aspiring course entrepreneurs tend to put WAY too much emphasis on the technology. In most cases, simply getting on with it and going with a major, established platform like Teachable or Thinkific is the right move. Still, there can be reasons for going with other options. I get e-mails from people every day asking for advice on platforms, and I am struck by the number of times that they have specific needs for which Teachable or Thinkific are really not the right fit. It pays, I think, to take just a bit of time to think it through, apply a reasonable process, and arrive at a choice you feel confident about (which is the point of my free platform selection guide). – Jeff
Yeah, true..I also come by cases – where people just have one specific unique need, which you could never imagine..Like translating course platform to Latvian language…
It’s super specific, though still surprised that you found a LOT of cases where these two options are not a good fit.
Can you make one common example, Jeff – please?
A LOT may be over stating it, but an easy example is just around issuing and managing continuing education credit – i.e., if you want to associated a certain amount of credit with a course and then award that amount of credit upon successful completion of the course. Neither of these platforms handle that. – Jeff
Hi Jeff: Great article. Do you offer consultation? I’d like to share our course requirements and would like your recommendation of the best product. Thanks so much.
Sue, I’m available on a limited basis at https://clarity.fm/jeffcobb. – Jeff
Hi Jeff and everyone!
I am developing learning materials directed to patient education (ie drugs side effects, appropriate use etc). So, I expect a high heterogeneity of learning materials and many learners who will likely pick very different course choices. Course bundles would apply, such as “diabetes learning bundle” or “breast cancer learning bundle” etc, but also with a huge variety.
The question is: in your opinion, would any of the platforms or plugins be better than others for such purpose?
Thanks a lot!
Hi Alice. Have you considered LMScheckout? I usually don’t use these forums to self-promote, but I came across this post, and I noticed that we provide the same service you are asking for to several organizations that are marketing to similar types audiences with varying learning interests. We have an anesthesiologist selling certification for nurses though LMscheckout and many other organizations who want to create customer specific training to a wide variety of users. We use a similar concept to course bundling and have a means to promote recommended and related course through your custom e-commerce site. If you are interested, we are running a series of webinars to introduce our e-commerce solutions for selling and marketing courses online.
Check us out if you like: https://envisiontel.lmscheckout.com/Course/view/1266240
Our check out my blog on the top 5 e-commerce considerations for selling courses online.
http://bit.ly/2BStDxG
Great…
Looking for fitness/gym video online course platform with socialising.
Looking into Uscreen and Muvi… but I might be wrong.
Any thoughts/directions on this please?
Thanks
Hey Jose,
You may consider SubscribeStar.com as a standalone platform for your subscription-based (or donation based) courses business. We have transparent pricing, flexible business flow, customizable page layout and friendly staff. Please, drop me a line and I will help you with anything in regard to your online course platform.
Hi thanks for the very useful post. The big issue we are having is to reduce password sharing. None of the LMS’s seem to address this adequately. Are you aware of any that have in built 2FA or forced social login with Facebook. It may not stop it completely but would definitely reduce the amount of password sharing and loss of revenue. Thanks Ivar
Ivar – I haven’t come across any that do this, but if anyone else here has, please chime in. – Jeff
Talentlms has some functionality in that area:
https://www.talentlms.com/blog/a-way-to-prevent-cheating-in-elearning/
Very well written and explained Jeff. Beside comparing pricing and other features, one thing you can add here is the security of the content on any platform. It’s a very important factor when deciding to go for any course platform. For the content creators, the most important asset is content. The course platform should be able to secure the content from downloading, copying or sharing user accounts after purchase. This will have a direct impact on the business. We have developed an online course platform at Spayee, where we take the security of content very seriously beside having all other necessary features like Integrated Payment gateways, Videos, Reports & Analytics, Multiple Distribution Models, In-built Marketing tools. You can request a demo here – http://www.spayee.com
This is an amazing resource. We’ve actually been researching all the different platforms ourselves since we create online courses for clients. Great starting point although we did locate some other ones. LearnUpon and lightspeed for example. One is more an enterprise model and the other used by some celebrities. For now we’ve stuck with teachable but time will tell.
https://wecreateonlinecourses.com/
hi..i recently came across one more alternative..(withcoach), a modern standalone platform…i have been using it and it appears to good enough!!!
There’s nothing wrong with making a fortune selling courses on using a hula hoop, but I’ve been professional field researcher outside the USA for nearly 13 years.
I have five professional degrees in subjects that I am passionate about to my core. I want to attract self-directed students. All the other online hosts that I thoroughly researched or used focused on what I call “recreational learning.” My courses are serious investigations to make a sizable income.
LearnWorlds has so many professionals on staff that they understood that concept and are helping me to attract those who need CPD credits as an ESL teacher or a respectable career as an English Tutor in as little as a week.
Thanks or sharing your experience, Jacqueline. I am sure other readers here will find it helpful. I will note, though, that in my experience whether the learning is “recreational” or not has a lot more to do with the instructional quality of the content and how the platform is used than the platform itself (or the topic). And, the amount of support that individual course producers get, even from the same platform company, can vary pretty widely. Just additional points for readers here to keep in mind. – Jeff
Hi, Jacqueline and Jeff,
Thanks for sharing your comment about LearnWorlds and similar tools. We were planning to use a full-blown LMS (quite costly) to deliver courses for professional development. Per your suggestion, I checked out LearnWorlds and was quite impressed. Do you have any updates on how it’s going? Have you used the drip marketing? –Kathie-Jo
Hi, Jeff. I just wanted to say thanks for this post. I want to create my first online program with videos and power point presentations and PDF files. I’m doing my research now and found your post. It is by far the most helpful one I have read! Thank you so much!
So glad you found it helpful, Tina! – Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Good comprehensive list, and hats off for your effort.
I want to create a technical course ( having mostly PPTs and screen-cast videos).
I thought of creating the same in Udemy because they will market the courses.
Do other sites do market sellers content? Or Is it seller to market by themselves?
Thanks
siva
Hi Jeff,
Your Learning Revolution is so informative. Thank you. I’m wanting to create a website for Enrolled Agents to earn their annual CPE credits. The material is going to be a self-study course using a downloaded written course to their computer. After they have studied the material, they go back to my website and take a test, it they pass with 70% I submit the credits to the IRS and then I send the student a certificate of completion that they can download and keep in their file. The students need 72 credits every 3 years so the site needs to keep their information so when they come back and open their profile the completed courses with be there. I will also need for the site to accept credit card payments and be able for the student to go online and take a test and receive an instant percentage grade so they will know if they need to take the test again something like “congratulations, you passed’! There will not be any videos or webinars and anything live just a list of all the courses available, a cart for them to pay and a student profile for the course to be downloaded to their computer. (they can study off-line that way) What do I need to buy to get this started? I’m so excited about doing this and your site it so informative I’m so glad to have met you. Please let me know when you get a chance, Thank you again, Take care, Linda.
Hi Linda – What you describe will require a more sophisticated solution than anything covered in this post. I will e-mail you to discuss. – Jeff
Wow, thank you for compiling this list and putting all of these great resources together! Anyone looking to create online courses will surely be lucky to stumble upon this piece. For more tips on how to create an online course, take a look at How to Create an Online Course in 5 Easy Steps – https://www.schoolkeep.com/blog/how-to-create-an-online-course-in-5-easy-steps
So much to choose from! I’m shopping for a platform to run a writing course and am looking for something that can do the following:
1. I’d like to be able to run both prerecorded instructional videos and live presentations.
2. I’d like to have the ability for real-time student engagement.
3. It needs to be intuitive, easy for the user, and not cost a bundle. I’d also like to retain ownership of the materials but have some “marketing” support from the platform to sell the course.
Thanks and any suggestions?
Hi Jeff
Thank you for a comprehensive post. There is so much choice out there, the more you read the more confusing things become. I am hoping you can simplfy and point me in the right direction.
I am setting up an education website, where I will primarily sell recorded webinars. I have a wordpress site and purchased webinar ignition (WI) under the assumption that I could record webinars and offer them through WI. I have just found out that this isn’t the case. So now I am looking for software that I can integrate into my website and allow me to sell recorded webinars multiple times to different people. I hope this information makes send! Could you tell me the top 3 platforms you would recommend.
Thank you.
Lisa – A recorded Webinar is just a video and pretty much all of the platforms listed here will enable you to set up a video as a course and selling as many times as you want to whoever you want. Just to help you narrow the choices, I would recommend starting with Teachable or Thinkific (both listed above) – Jeff
Can you recommend a reputable company that creates scorm compliant elearning videos for LMS platforms?
You might want to try a service like ScormFly: https://www.scormfly.com. Alternatively, I would just find a contractor on a site like Upwork who knows how to put a simple SCORM wrapper around a video file. – Jeff
Ugh! Still confused as ever…I’m not sure if I need a website, a platform, or both. I’m very leery of the “simple drag/drop features”, etc. as they always seem to be anything but easy unless you’re tech savvy. I have books to sell, as well. I also teach LIVE seminars. I’m basically needing to offer online classes to companies so they can have their employees watch them, and I simply charge the employer either a flat fee or a per-employee fee. They also will want some type of monthly or weekly “tip” that can be sent as a video, email or possibly text. Any other suggestions you might have? Thank you!
Bob – It sounds like you probably do need a platform (and I always recommend having a Web site in addition to whatever platform you use) You might be better off with one of the companies I cover at the following link (LearningCart, in particular, could be a good choice, based on the little bit I know about your situation – https://www.learningrevolution.net/learning-management-system-for-small-business/
The fees quoted for LearnDash are not a once-only fee – they are for a one-year subscription. Renewable price = half the original price.
Barbara – Thanks for noting that. Note, also, that you don’t actually lose use of the software if you don’t review – you just don’t get upgrades and support. In any event, I’ve updated the entry to reflect this. – Jeff
I work with a non-profit arts and crafts group. We want to create courses for our members. We have multiple instructors who will create the content, but our group will actually present the courses. All of these platforms seem to be focused on a direct relationship between course and instructor. I need something that will allow (for lack of a better term) a middle-man to manage the process. All the classes are pre-build, on-demand. Some might have a weekly live broadcast. All courses are 4-6 lessons, and are presented over the course of a month.
Bob – I would nee to know a bit more about the content and process you have in mind – i.e., when you say “create,” would the instructors be providing finished course pages, or just documents/slides that you would convert into course pages. Does there need to be any sort of approval/review process? – Jeff
I have read all of the posts but continue to have questions regarding my desire to create training modules, with testing and online completion for businesses. I want to sell customized courses to businesses, perferbaly small businesses. My idea is to find their training needs and create the module based on their business. What type of platform, and what LMS should I purchase that allows me to create the course and then allow my client to purchase and/or use it for their access. I am assuming it will need to be cloud based. I am a retired technology and business instructor and looking to fulfill my creative outlet and make some extra money if possible. I have used educational platforms but not the current offerings that are overwhelming me when trying to make this decision. I want to be sure I am not overlooking valuable information. Any suggestions? Thanks and great posts and information!
Marjory – I can’t really answer this without more information. Any of the platforms here could, in theory, do what you describe. It will depend on how you need the purchase and access to happen. Will the clients always come to your site, for example, or do some need to be able to run the courses on their own platforms? Do you want to provide clients with their own, branded entrance into purchasing your courses? How much control do you want to provide clients for enrolling and managing their own learners? If you need to jump up to any of the more sophisticated scenarios suggested here, consider the platforms listed in this post: https://www.learningrevolution.net/learning-management-system-for-small-business/
Jeff
I forgot to put the URL for HoneyCoach. Here it is:
http://honeycoach.com
There’s a missing tool in the list.
HoneyCoach allows you to sell without fixed costs, and allows you to sell single videos, online classes and coaching programs. It’s worth to check it, folks.
The CourseMerchant folks are also behind CourseIndex.com, a network that enables you to promote and sell online courses through affiliate marketers.
Thanks for noting. CourseIndex is already linked to under the Course Merchant entry above. – Jeff
Hi nice job with this comprehensive write-up,
I tried still cannot really figure the difference between LMS and authoring tools.
Is authoring tool a part of an LMS ?
I actually thought authoring tools are just platforms used to link texts, pictures, videos and audios to form a flow in a presentation… so not so sure how that was independently used for elearning in the past
Thanks very much
F.Mike
Mike – Good question. This has become a somewhat confusing area as more and more LMSes have added/improved their authoring capabilities. In the “old days” an LMS was mostly just a database that handled enrolling learners into courses, presenting a “menu” to enable them to launch/access the courses, and tracking their progress through the course based on communication between the course and the LMS. Eventually, though, LMSes started including tools to do just what you describe – i.e., link texts, pictures, video, etc together into a flow. The main issue with this is that every LMS does it a bit different, So, if you build your courses in the LMS, you will almost certainly have to re-build them when you move to a new LMS. Authoring tools are LMS-independent. You build your course in the authoring tool and then can import it into any LMS. There are standards that have been developed to support this – SCORM being the main one historically. For some additional info on all of this see:
https://www.learningrevolution.net/move-my-online-course/
https://www.learningrevolution.net/does-scorm-matter-selling-online-courses/
I also discuss authoring tools more at:
https://www.learningrevolution.net/tools/create-an-online-course/
Jeff
Hi jeff,
Thanks very much for your nice reply
Am I able to use any one of these platforms to:
Sell courses AND individual lessons?
IE. 50 videos…
50$ for entire course. 1$ Per video lesson.
Joseph – This will probably come down to how you define things like “course” and “lesson.” A number of these will allow you to bundle multiple courses together into a single package. So, if you treat your lessons as courses, and then also sell packages that bundle multiple courses together, you can achieve what (I think) you are talking about. – Jeff
These are some good options. However, where can we find partners to help create the content or build courses for us?
That’s a very different topic, but stay tuned – I plan to publish something on it very soon and will update this response when I do. – Jeff
See https://www.learningrevolution.net/help-creating-online-courses/
Ivexe Video is the best for selling videos including a series, attachments, call to action and more; and, you get a 100% royalty!
Just wondering, does anyone know of any new online course software packages similar to LearnDash [but not Learndash] that are more like a stand-alone program with a one time fee?
thanks!
Jody, our agency just completed a client project that used a similar plugin:
https://flyplugins.com/wp-courseware/
I wasn’t the lead on that project, but the developer who was evaluated several of the WordPress LMS options and it came down to LearnDash and WP Courseware. I believe the pricing model may be similar though. You may want to contact them.
Hi Jeff,
I was looking for some useful Online Courses online and suddenly found your post. You have shared very useful information about the online course platforms which will surely make the process of choosing easier for everyone.
Each platform is described in detail and I also appreciate that you’ve encouraged everyone to share their online platforms at your blog post. This way, people looking for online training can get an excellent and wide selection of the latest platforms that provide online courses. Also, big thanks for keeping this useful list updated.
Here, I want to share a platform which provides useful business, computer, safety, banking, management, leadership and several other useful courses.
The link for the website is https://www.knowledgecity.com/
Hope you check it out!
This is a wonder post and has truly crystallized everything for me. I will be creating some video based courses and just need a “no frills” platform that enables me to enter this territory without breaking the bank. I was originally thinking of setting up everything through WordPress but am now gravitating towards Thinkific. My question is this…
Let’s say I start with Thinkific but a year from now ultimately decide to shift over to another platform like WordPress / Learndash or Kajabi. What are the potential risks and repercussions of doing this? Is it not that big of a deal or is it not advisable? My thoughts are this. As long as you can export the customer list from the old system (with their passwords) and then import it into the new system you are fine. But I am not sure if most systems support this. Any input is appreciated.
Lindsey – I actually just published a post related to your question: https://www.learningrevolution.net/move-my-online-course/
Really, it comes down to the nature of your content and how much you rely on the tools contained within any specific platform to create your courses. If you rely on those tools heavily, then you will have to redo quite a bit when you go to a new platform. Maybe not a big deal if you don’t have a lot of courses and the courses you have aren’t all that large. But it could be a big deal if that is not the case.
As far as dat goes, with most platforms you will be able to export the names and e-mail addresses of your customers, but there is a very good chance you would not be able to simply export passwords and import them into your new system. This would require a more complex level of migration (unless you have the tech skills) will probably require some help. That said, it is often possible to import the names and e-mails and then have people reset their passwords to simply establish a new password in the new system.
Jeff
Re: All-in-one platforms
(eg Rainmaker, Academy Mine…)
After taking a subscription of any type of these platforms – what will happen to the website, domain and contents upon cancellation? Are they easily transferable?
E.g. because I’ve learnt to make my own website and features and can do so without paying expensive subscription fees? Or I find cheaper prices else where?
Thanks
Ally – The domain remains in your control always. You would just point it to your new site. Content is a bigger question. The ones that are WordPress-based would technically have an export functionality for all of the content and you should be able to get a copy of the database – all of which would you allow to set most if it back up in another WordPress installation. But there is definitely a lot of devil in the details – so, be sure to ask about this up front and make sure you feel confident you will be able to get your content out in a usable form. (Keep in mind that, when you build courses in a proprietary delivery platform, as opposed to in a separate authoring tool, you are almost always going to have to do some re-constructing when you switch to a new site.) – Jeff
Very glad to have found this post! I am an Apple consultant and instructor for legal professionals and I teach tech courses for which the students/viewers receive CLE credits for completing. My courses are pre-recorded videos, 1 – 4 hours in length and ready to upload. I have been scouring around trying to find a good platform that can do a few things I need:
1: Collect payment at registration
2: Provide on-demand viewing 24/7
3: Confirm the course was completed prior to delivering a closing email or certificate with accreditation number
4: Integrate with my existing website (optional but desired)
Does anyone know of anything that might be a good fit? I have sold on Udemy before for consumer level, non-credentialed courses and I have been tinkering with Thinkific which I like very much, but they do no limit the ability for the viewer to simply skip to the end of the video as pretend they completed it. Otherwise, Thinkific might be ideal but without that sort of control over content consumption, it’s a deal breaker for me.
Hi Terry
Did you get a response to your post. Your situation is very similar to mine and I would be interested in the answer.
I think they have added that feature this year, if I remember correctly.
I wanted to set up all our courses with Academy Mine a couple of years ago. We have one large 12 part course and 15 smaller (4 part) courses and over 200 students. I paid someone else to set it all up and learn how to use it as I just didnt have the time myself. It took 6 months of paying this person a wage of $500 per week (around 2 grand a month) and around $200 a month for the platform. Six months and over $13,000 spent setting it up , on the day we launched the whole platform crashed as it turned out out courses and resources were just too big. Now I use online classrooms I create myself using web pages and downloadable PDF content. Students email their course work submissions to me. It works and costs nothing but I often wish for a more streamlined way to complete assessments.
Hi guys! I can’t believe you haven’t cross with TEACHLR.COM it would be great if you can add it to the list!
For any questions please write us to [email protected]
Hi! There are plenty of marketplaces for recorded courses but does anyone have leads for live, realtime courses marketplace. Meaning where you can offer/sell “live”-not recorded-courses?
I’ve found Currclick and Outschool so far and I think Teachable is one as well.
Any others any of you could provide would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Kelli – You can do this on https://www.wiziq.com/ (I don’t think Teachable has a marketplace at all.) – Jeff
Hi, looking for advice on which site to list a Personal Development course – we sell the course via our website and its all set up and ready to go so we don’t need Course Creation tools like quite a few of the sites seem to want you to use. So we are looking for new places to sell our ready made course online to gain a wider audience and sales. Any recommendations and wise words for us?
Many thanks in advance!
K
Kay – I don’t know of any place where you can simply list a course that is for sale, and I’m not sure how effective that would actually be. It sounds like what you really need are good ways to drive traffic to a sales page for your course on your Web site. The best way, by far, is through your own e-mail list. To the extent that you don’t have that, or in addition to that, consider the suggestions at https://www.learningrevolution.net/best-way-to-market-online-courses/ as well as https://www.learningrevolution.net/build-an-audience-for-selling-courses/ – Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Great list! Thanks! I was wondering if you could add / review our platform as well for the creation of mobile courses: https://www.guidiance.com
Highly appreciated! Thanks
Thanks – I’ll have a look. – Jeff
Jeff,
You will want to update your content here, if you are not already working on this. In your review of Udemy, you say that classes must be priced between $20 and $50. According to the information on the check list for classes; “Courses must be priced in $5 increments between $20 and $200”
https://s3.amazonaws.com/udemy-images/support/Quality+Checklist+EN.pdf
Thanks for chiming in with the update info – Udemy changes often enough that it can be hard to keep up. The post has been updated to reflect this info. – Jeff
I am brand new to this. I did not even know there were such platforms. I have looked at some of the reviews here, but no idea which to try. There are a lot of them. The one that jumped out at me is called Teachable. mainly because of their pricing structure. Since I am just starting out, I have no idea how many classes I might sell, so I cant afford to pay a monthly and they just take a percentage of my sells. What I am looking for though are suggestions and recommendations. I dont want to invest lots of time and money into developing classes on Teachable, if its not a good platform.
Phillip – Hopefully some other will chime in hear with their comments. Teachable is certainly a solid platform, and I have had a number of readers give it good reviews – though some have also commented that the level of service/support could be better. In any event, I don’t think there is any doubt that they are in it for the long haul. What it really comes down to is whether they have everything you feel you really need to support both your learning and business model. If it appears they do, I’d say go for it. – Jeff
We use the Academy of Mine platform for our site – http://www.gravitasacademy.com.au. We’ve found support from the AoM staff to be brilliant. They are very responsive and will make changes where possible that the big players would never make for us. Highly recommend.
Glad to hear that. Thanks for sharing your experience. – Jeff
Thanks for this great list, and keeping it updated as well. Would you say there are any platforms better suited than others for offering courses about professional skills development?
Not really – it depends on the nature of the material, the learning objectives, and the audience. In theory, any of the platforms listed here could support professional skills development. – Jeff
I’ve been using http://www.withcoach.com for several months now and really loving it. I tried other platforms first, but theirs is easier to use.
I am checking out withcoach as well. It is the brainchild of a couple of Canadians, and all other features being equal (or better), I’d like to keep my support with my fellow Canucks.
Sell Courses (External / E-commerce) Start 30 Day Trial Free
All plans come with free custom branding, which includes your logo, a welcome banner/message area, and a background color/image. Click here for an example.
Thanks for outlining all of these options. I started with Udemy just 2 months ago and It has been good but I don’t want to limit myself and https://www.udemy.com/1032110/ is not bringing in enough income that I could sustain a living off it yet. I am curious to know if any others have a community building around them where the instructors can help share students?
Good question. I know both Teachable and Ruzuku have strong Facebook groups for people authoring in their systems. I’m sure there would be possibilities in those for developing relationships with other instructors and promoting each others offerings. – Jeff
How about Alison, anybody had an experience with this company? I see they offer free courses but make some profit from the certificates
Hi Carol, please tell us about your experiences with online course platforms. I’m actually researching which platform to start with. Thanks
Hi, thanks, this is very helpful! One question: Here in Holland people use IDEAL instead of Paypal to make payments online. Do you have any suggestions on high quality e-learningsoftware that has IDEAL payments integrated?
Abey – I don’t know of any offhand – just not something I really track. Hopefully someone else here will have some input, though. – Jeff
Hi Abey
We do have an integration with IDEAL at Academy Of Mine. Please send us an email at [email protected] and someone will reach out to discuss.
Thanks
Jay
I’m just going to throw my two cents in here after seeing so much negative stuff about Udemy. While I understand the criticism related to such aspects of the platform as controlling user data and communications with students as well as some difficulties with the review process, I have had an excellent experience with them. The bottom line is, Udemy courses sell. For those of us who don’t like to do a lot of marketing or aren’t very good at it, Udemy has a huge user base and very effective marketing.
I have tried other platforms with mixed success, but once you get their system down, which I think isn’t too complicated, you can create a good course and get it approved pretty quickly. They just have some specific requirements for your video files that they use to manage quality and standardize the service bit. I think that’s reasonable. At any rate, I just wanted to say that I have 19 courses on Udemy, with one more in the works right now, and I make more money on there per course than any other platform that I have tried BY FAR.
Oh, and also I have recently discovered two newer marketplaces similar to Udemy that market the courses for you and do a profit share: CyberU, and On-Ed. I am in the process of testing them, I will return to the thread to let you know my experience.
Thanks for chiming in, Greg. Definitely good to have diverse perspectives on this! – Jeff
Your blog was really helpful 🙂 Online Learning is much easy and it saves a lot of time, well you can study as well as do other things
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hey Jeff Cobb, you done a great job at providing a well rounded list of online education websites.
Here is another that is a great website which has allot ot offer for people starting to develop there business skills and help get there business started in just 3 days. head to the website and check it out http://bit.ly/2eYWwwz
if you would like to do a article about this site or add it to your list that would be great. Some of the leaders in this program are Adam Cheyer Co-Founder of SIRI, Elliot Chapple Co-founder of Pozible and more.
If you want to help grow the mentorship and community which is startupacademy.org then check it out and spread the love.
cheers and thanks for such great content
What about moodle?
Moodle’s a good platform, but out of the box, it’s just not something I recommend for most course entrepreneurs – the interface leaves a lot to be desired and the native sales and marketing capabilities are weak. – Jeff
Completely agree – I’ve heard many stories about people using Moodle and then finding that they either don’t have the time/expertise to configure things themselves, or don’t have the budget to engage a consulting firm to do it for them. Out of the box solutions are much better for small businesses as they can get started easily themselves at a relatively low pricepoint.
I used Teachble to build my first school where I presently have ten courses available with ten more yet to upload. However, while I do like the way that their software makes my school look, it was pretty steep learning curve to figure out how to use it to create a school and courses since their website is not at all intuitive. In addition, I found numerous small annoyances with their software which made the process more cumbersome.
But, the main problem with Teachable is that their advertising leads you to believe that all you have to do is build the school and students will flock to sign up! However, nothing could possibly be further from the truth!!! Fortunately, I have over twenty-five years of retail experience and thus, I knew that going in.
However, while they do provide some learning resources with their blog and their free webinars, they do not have single resource that provides you with a complete step-by-step process for marketing your courses. Also, they fail to make it clear that marketing an online course is very different from marketing a standard web site. Thus, I had to spend numerous hours on YouTube watching instructional videos to discover that, unlike a standard web site where you build, and then publish, the site and then vie with competitors for top ranking on Google and Bing, you instead have to build a permission based e-mail list to market to. But, they also fail to provide you with the resources to accomplish that task and thus, you have to turn to other service providers such as Mail Chimp and Timer Monkey to launch an e-mail marketing campaign. Plus, while they do have some resources on building an e-mail list, it is woefully inadequate and far less than clear.
In addition, on the few occasions I have contacted their customer service for clarification, I have gotten a couple of good answers from one technician and half-assed answers from others. For instance, I read an article on their blog about how to implement an evergreen e-mail sequence but, it was poorly written and left out quite a bit of pertinent information. But, when I contacted their customer service to ask for clarification, they had no idea what I was talking about and repeatedly gave me half-assed answers to my questions! Thus, I had to turn to a video on YouTube to learn how to implement an evergreen e-mail marketing sequence.
But, what has really set me off is that when I first signed up with them, they sent me e-mails on a regular basis but, suddenly stopped doing so. Then, the other day, I got a pop up window at the bottom of my screen informing me that their Teachable Summit was starting right then! So, I followed the link and signed up for their summit. But, not only did not receive notice of the impending summit via e-mail, I did not receive a confirmation e-mail that I had signed up for the summit! Thus, I contacted their customer service again to ask why I received neither notice of the summit nor a confirmation e-mail and that is when the run around started! First, I was told to check both of my e-mail addresses and my Spam folder. But, after my reply to that message, I was then told that their e-mails had bounced back to me too many times and that I had been removed from their e-mail list! Thus, they told me to add their e-mail address to my safe sender’s list and they would send me a confirmation e-mail. But, that was complete bull because, when I checked my safe sender’s list, their e-mail address was listed on both e-mail accounts! So, I sent them a reply stating that their e-mail address as well as their domain name was on my safe sender’s list and that I did not appreciate being lied to!!!
However, I find all of this very suspicious since their e-mails to me suddenly stopped after I received a survey from them where I left poor feedback for them because their advertising is misleading, they only provide half of the solution for marketing an online course, and very little of the information needed to do so. But, after informing the customer service agent of this, I have not had reply from them of any sort whatsoever! Thus, I am now searching for a new home for my online outdoor academy!
Bill Bernhardt,
I’m honestly not sure what you expect from Teachable. I’m not a customer of theirs, as I built my courses with Thinkific. However, they’re a courses site. they don’t do mailing lists, nor as far as I know is there a courses provider who does also do mailing lists. They are two totally different products.
Also, you can’t expect their customer support to give support for something written in one of their blog posts. They support their product, and that’s it.
I recommend going with ConvertKit for your mailing list provider, incidentally. But, I hope you can have some more reasonable expectations of your service providers.
You may also like this e-Learning platform which allows you to create your own e-shop – marketplace and there sell your courses for FREE and with no extra effort! This e-shop function can be switched on by one click in the platform settings. You only need to select the courses you want to display. Personalizing your e-shop by using your company’s logo and colors, so that the visitors would recognize the e-shop as yours, is a question of only a minute. so lets try and get more profit!
Learning Cart has been fantastic for me! I entered the field on Teachable because they provide a lot of guidance on how to get your course(s) noticed. But, I soon felt the technology was lacking and I didn’t get much from their guidance. So, I moved to Thinkific who has a little bigger feature set, but their tools for creating the home and landing pages were not very flexible and did not offer much for customizing, unless you are a coder. After researching over 50 LMS I chose Learning Cart. Their tools for customizing their template are much better and they have all the features I need. Most of all, their support is fantastic! With that said, our business model is to provide training on a wide range of business topics, from technical to management. I do not teach any of the courses. Instead, I find experts who have a course or idea and want to make some money, I market the courses and manage the site. You just teach!
Yes this is great content but now we have many more other option.there is lot of other platform provider who provide same features with whitelable solution. You can create and manage your own UDEMY, Lynda etc.
With same platform you can conduct live classes and can provide recorded one.
You guys should try http://www.edugyaan.com
EduGyaan is another company who provide better platform at low cos.
Dis anyone try Versal?
Hi, I have already built an on-line course on wix which took many, many months, so I don’t want to re-write it and generally happy with the features. I just want to leverage off an e-Learning site for marketing purposes. Any suggestions? thanks
Hello Jeff..thanks for this information. My needs seem to be a little different, and I hope you can be able to guide me. I work for a non-profit organization and we offer elearning courses for business owners at no charge. Our approach is to develop the content, have someone produce it as an ecourse — and we own it. I don’t understand the monthly fees that all of the platforms you mentioned seem to have. Wondering if you have suggestions of elearning developers that produce the courses without any ties into monthly fees and revenue sharing. Thank you!
There is an another very good online teaching platform called Learnyst Teach Online.They help you build your own branded school.
You can visit and can signup to it from here http://www.learnyst.com
Anyone use Wedemic?
I have created a performance arts workshop online and was looking for a platform. Thank you.
Check out http://247digitalclassrooms.com. Their online learning platforms are affordable, simple to use, and cater to educators, tutors, coaches, and people looking to start a virtual school.
Thanks for the excellent article. Atbetterce continuing education courses are designed to provide the much needed workforce skills needed to acquire professional caliber for a lot of in-demand occupations and all our courses are state approved in many professions.
Hi everyone!
Just find out Thinkific using stripe , for 0 payment term but sadly stripe doesn’t recognise Malaysia. So sad ????
Great post Jeff. Thanks a lot!
Thanks for the Article Jeff. I was considering Teachable cause I heard it in the SPI podcast. But I like the way you described Ruzuku. My first course so I want as much help as possible. Will teachable be as supportive, why did you them the especial nod?
Great information thank you very much is there a platform that offers a subscription based pay I am a success coach and work with a lot of companies that would rather pay by the month and have access for all of their employees then by the course.
Thank you for your help
is there a subscription for clients with your website?
I started using teachable and really like the functionality, UI, and ease of setting up the course. The problem I ran into is that files cannot be larger than 2GB. A lot of our training videos are 3GB and more, so we cant upload them.
If you have a course on Udemy, does Udemy restrict you to put up the same course elsewhere?
I’m not aware of any restriction on this. You own the content that you put into Udemy. The issue, though, is that Udemy is providing the tools to “structure the content” – i.e., providing the menu/links for a student to move from lesson to lesson. Still, if you course is mostly video – which it would be on Udemy – simply posting those videos on a different site or platform shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
Hi can I publish my course in udemy and my website in same time ?
I realize this is a few years old now… but I am looking simply for an online platform that I can publish the course and not charge any money for. Is there anything like that out there?
Thanks Jeff for the info. If i create a course on teachable can I use social media to market the Teachable course? I.e. link from social media ads/posts straight to course
Hi Jeff, great job you did on this post (it’s been going on for quite a while now ). Did you ever tried MATRIX LMS? What’s your thought on it? It looks very user friendly (feels like a social media platform) and it has a lot of great features.
I haven’t used it, but will have a look. – Jeff
Hi – We (Spokes Education) are just in the process of launching a new learning platform, http://WWW.LURNMI.COM, which is a white labelled version of MATRIX LMS.
You get the benefit of all the MATRIX features, but without having to commit to monthly fees – you only pay a small percentage of what you sell. We also give you full support, free of charge.
We are offering some fantastic deals for early adopters, or if you want to get your own branded version of MATRIX, we can also help with that too.
Thanks
Phil
In a bit of a quandary w/ LMS. We are a small religious order with a newly formed seminary wherein we would like to offer an eLearning option. Most of the sources described above are either web-based/ clud based platforms. We would like something more like an authoring tool platform, like Moodle, to create our courses and track everything from our own website.
We tried Moodle and were OK w/ it except that there were security issues. We wound up being hacked and our webhost didn’t much appreciate that!
Is there something along the Moodle line that you could recommend that might meet our needs?
Much appreciated.
Fr. Lev
You might give Educadium a shot – it is Moodle-based, but much friendlier to use, and they deal with the security. – Jeff
Hi Jeff – thanks for this great blog and the lists of online course platforms! I’m just curious as to why you don’t include SkillShare in your lists of platforms.
Is Academy of Mine a real concern? It offers four apparently spoof course about cherries and a single 1hr 17min explanatory video (their understanding of an online course?).
What do you think is the best platform to import an existing powerpoint presentation and convert it to an online course?
EZ LCMS is not free, but it looks like a serious answer to this question.
As if March 2016 New Kajabi is now available and definitely a platform worth checking out! Not only can you create online courses and membership sites you can bike your entire business on it. Includes website, hosting, video hosting, landing pages, affiliate tracking and (soon) email marketing. For a list of all features go to http://www.NewKajabiFeatures.com.
This is the platform many online marketers like Brendon Burchard use!
I must admit, most of these websites are too expensive or offer little features for small start-ups. I was thinking about going with Udemy because they’ll help promote the course if you split the profits, but then I got greedy and thought about using wordpress to start my own, but it would be a pain in the butt to have to constantly update all those plugins. So I’m leaning towards Udemy and ValueAddon. I hate that I have to pay a monthly fee for VAO, but i like their platform set-up. I may try both and see which one performs best. Most likely it’ll be Udemy because they’ll do the marketing. We shall see though.
Hi Jeff, great job you did on this post (it’s been going on for quite a while now ). Did you ever tried MATRIX LMS? What’s your thought on that platform? looks very user friendly (feels like a social media portal) and has a lot of great features.
Give your customers on demand access to courses and leverage your core brand in minutes, not months.Create unlimited courses consisting of ‘Sections’, ‘Lectures’, ‘Assignments’, ‘Exams’ and ‘Certificates’ where contents of any format can be very easily inserted by you. https://www.createonlineacademy.com/features/
Great list!! We just launched a couple days ago and our online course marketplace niche is Man Skills or courses targeting men. We are using Teachable to build our marketplace because they are awesome. So anyone with skills in Hunting, Preparedness and tons more are welcome in!!!
How do I find your site?
I created a course on Udemy last . It was easy and they provide support. BUT I just learned they changed thier pricing structure, which suddenly knocks my course out. This is putting me in a terrible position. Be warned!!
2nd time I visit this page and it keeps growing with useful info;)
Tthe difference is choosing between bigger promoted sites like Udemy where you might get more visibility for your online course, or a smaller platform where you basically do your own promo.
For a starter, price is also key factor. Thanks for sharing , now checking all these links
Yes, how you promote/what kind of support you get is a significant factor. At a site like Udemy, you at least know there are many people showing up looking for courses. (Of course, there is still no guarantee your course will get a lot of visibility.) To be honest, if you can be effective promoting yourself on Udemy, then you can probably be successful promoting through your own site – and even if you have a course on Udemy, you will almost certainly still want to have your own site to support promoting the Udemy course (and – very important – collecting e-mail addresses). – Jeff
Hey Jeff, great post! Have you checked out Thinkific? Curious to hear what you think of their platform.
Haven’t checked it out yet, but will be sure to. Thanks for mentioning it. – Jeff
Hello Jeff
Great article. Do you have any knowledge of platforms specifically targeting creators and consumers of learning courses for children, k-8? My company produces engaging, video animation educational/earning programs for kids (and their parents) covering core foundational subjects such as language arts, science, history, etc. They are available on our own company site as well as Udemy, Gumroad, Teacherspayteachers, but for the most part these sites are not specific to children.
Our company is FutureSoBrite (https://www.futuresobrite.com).
Hello Marcs,
We are an online courses platform in China (http://www.pbsedu.com/). We have more than 1 million registered users. My email address is [email protected]
Cheers,
Nick
My two courses are published on Udemy. It does not give a customized brand. So I decided to launch my own academy http://www.kblearningacademy.com
Is there any way that I keep using my own domain but integrate with multiple platforms listed above?
I do not want to use their hosting but keep my domain at one place.
Regards,
Karan
can use. If you’re interested in selling your own courses online, you should take a look at this list of 15 platforms to publish and sell online courses to find one that will suit your
http://www.keeplearningforward.com
Check out Keeplearningforward.com you can blog, upload your own courses, and they will even host live workshops and seminars for you. They do all the work at the live events, you just have to do the teaching – they book it, promote it, provide staff, etc.
TalentLMS is yet another missing item on this great list http://www.talentlms.com/
you should checkout http://www.e-sky.ca, its easy to host, you can sell directly on their site and their sales folks can offer your content to businesses (whenever applicable of course) and there is always the possibility to do a revenue sharing model without upfront cost for hosting. 1-855-MYESKY-1
I would not recommend Udemy. Their support is horrible. No one answers emails or support tickets. Can’t get approved for the Facebook group. They may be making a ton of money, but won’t last long if their support doesn’t improve. I’m looking for another website that has good support.
You also need to check out Learnexa. http://www.learnexa.com
Great article; the new one on the block is MNU http://marketingandnetworkinguniversity.com It is niche for entrepreneurs, digital marketers and sales. They pay 90%commision to course makers and they offer marketing tools like email autoresponders, blog, click trackers and others.
I just started some courses on Udemy and love the platform. I think the most prevalent instructors probably make a ton, funny that Udemy sells for $10 every other week (I thought I was special). I’d be interested to see how others work. I think I have a technology that we just created that could be really helpful for course creators if you’d like to chat more I’d love to meet virtually. It’s patent pending and has never been done, we are backed by the CEO of LifeLock and just presented to the CMO of Facebook but looking to get it into the hands of course creators that do video. Let me know if you’d like to connect.
Sure. let me know details
udemy is the best platform. recently i published my first course “Learn & build a modern responsive website for themeforest”
https://www.udemy.com/learn-build-a-modern-responsive-website-for-themeforest/
I’d like to create a site that offers hundreds of my courses for free – and monetize the site through advertising, referrals, etc. Any ideas on the best platform for this typos of model?
There’s also a new platform which allows you to sell training courses and also to write articles and keeps them all in your personal page… Also it allows anyone to advertise to sell used books they have for free… It is called http://www.Ecoursebox.com
The article glazes over a lot of hard facts about some of the platforms. All I can say is let the buyer beware. Many of these sites have hidden charges they don’t spring on you until you go do do something, anything.
For instance, you are led to believe that using your on domain name is a feature but once when you go to use it, you are going to be charged $99.00 and be sold an SSL cert that has a reoccurring monthly fee of $25.00.
You need to ask about hidden charges and fees and understand what it is your doing. Some of these platforms have no information on how to opt out or cancel once you sign up. Some of these sites have no point of contact and telephone number and emails that are truly bogus.
emails addresses like [email protected]
With one of these well known platforms, I had to do a whois to find the real owner of the company and email him directly to cancel my account.
Do not sign up for any reoccurring payment using your credit card. You will find that your bank cannot stop the payment and the provider will not allow you to remove your credit car or cancel.
If you sign up either use PayPal or offer to pay month to month.
I see a lot of slick advertising with pictures of the supporting staff shown as all being young, very diverse, affluent, and attractive and they only have a first name. I would suspect that a lot if not all the claims of endorsements on most of these sites are bogus.
Watch yourselves!
Cliff – Thanks for your comments. And, I agree – do your homework and buyer beware. This was never meant to be a comprehensive buyer’s guide – merely a brief overview of some of the major available options. And, as I state clearly at the beginning, I do not endorse any of these products. This is starting point for doing the work that will – I hope – land you on the platform that is right for your needs. But the “doing the work” part is critical. – Jeff
They all, except for UDEMY, want money up front to host your courses. UDEMY does not and they have a great platform and process. But as I have noticed of late, they seem into be getting to big for their proverbial britches and are turning some off now because they aren’t as friendly as they once were and they are doing some strange stuff
Jeff you forget to mention EH ACADEMY, people who are interested in learning hacking they should enroll in this academy. Academy.ehacking.net
Hi Jeff,
WizIQ has come a long way during last few months. We all know about its much loved Virtual Classroom. Now, it’s spreading wings in a direction. It recently launched Online Academy Builder – A DIY platform that allows users to create their own online teaching website in a few minutes. A lot of other improvements have also been made. You can find more details on the website – http://www.wiziq.com/
Regards,
Amanjot
Hi Jeff
Great list thanks. Do you know of any particular LMS that offers interactive video with one or many students in the same way that Adobe Connect does? The standard webinar format is OK but most seem to only have a text chat option for the students which can be limiting in terms of teaching.
Thanks
Phil
Hi, Jeff.
I have one question, being a real novice. I want to use a platform for on-line learning that not just allows for pre-taped videos, slide shows with audio, and other “static” mediums. I want a platform that allows for live teaching where I can either see the individuals (as I teach self-care/body work), hear the individuals and their questions (but they see me), and/or get their chats (latter being less desirable – other two being more as they create a real live classroom feeling). Which on this list does provide that live video teaching/ “conferencing” option. Or alternatively – do people mix and match platforms.
Thanks, Nikki the Novice (even so dinosaur that I’m just now updating my own site to mobille)
If I’m planning to have 100 of teachers or more tutor several hundreds of students, which platform should I choose? I saw e-lecta offers such classrooms where several teachers can have their own virtual room for teaching. Anybody else?
I also want to be able to sell webinars and other courses on the same platform. Any suggestion?
Hi Natasha,
I’ve just launched a platform: https://trainingalley.com. It will allow you to sell Webinars and have a personal chatroom, social group for your students. Also, it will support Interactive Classes created with authoring tools like Articulate, Captivate, etc. You can contact me through the site.
Regards,
Lokesh
Hi All,
To sell courses online you can use Moodle as the LMS wherein you can create any number of courses and add course content related to them.
Moodle has a robust system which can be used by site owners to manage and maintain courses.
To sell them online you can use WordPress as the CMS wherein due to its simple and easy to use interface will help you to create a great user-interface for buyers on your site.
We have come up with a plugin which integrates both Moodle and WordPress which helps in sync of courses created in Moodle with WordPress.
Edwiser has its own payment gateway which can be used by you to sell course individually, but if you wish to sell courses as products you could get the WooCommerce Integration extension which would help you in selling courses as products, sell one or bundle more than one course into product, set subscription for the product along with many WooCommerce features.
To get more information regarding this click on this link https://edwiser.org.
Regards.
Rajiv
Hi Jeff. First off, excellent guide! My question really pertains to pricing model. Are you aware if most of the successful sites go with the standard monthly membership fees or do they go with a one-time purchase to get lifetime access? It is an odd conundrum and one I have been thinking about while I am putting together my content. Thanks in advance for your response!
Hi,
Since the discussion is related to creating and selling courses online.
With the experience we have in this field, I recommend Moodle to be the best place to create courses online, you may find Moodle to be tedious but trust me once you start using it you will find it to be very handy.
But when the plan comes to sell courses in Moodle, yes it is not easy so I would recommend use WordPress as front-end to create a dedicated site to sell your courses online.
Looking into these requirements we came up with Edwiser Bridge which integrates Moodle with WordPress, syncs courses created in Moodle to WordPress, along with the WooCommerce extension site owner can sell courses as products, even bundle more than one course as products.
Looking forward to your view regarding Edwiser.
Thanks for posting this list! I googled and thought I’d have to search on my own, and your list was first in line. (recently updated, too!) You saved me countless hours of work finding and investigating these options. We’d like to offer some of our safety classes online. As a small business, your first paragraph resonated with me. I can’t afford to license an LMS, authoring tools, and do the development to connect them to our website. I need an affordable SAAS solution. You rock!
Great list! Thanks for including SkyPrep!
Hi Jeff. Thank you for this information. I was building a driver safety course on Udemy, but since I am basically a writer not a videographer, could not meet their requirements. Is there a place you would recommend for someone wanting to open a course solely based on writings? Thanks, John
thanks man i am boring from udemy platform thay take over 50% from my course revenue and i want to try alternatives for my Courses
Hi, I was wondering if you had any information on yescourse.com. I keep getting advertisements from them, but haven’t seen anything reviewing them (except from them) online. Thanks in advance.
Have you checked out Jasper / Refined Data? Their platform is built on Moodle and integrates with Adobe Connect, and is used by many respected companies and universities, as well as Kaplan test prep etc.
http://www.refineddata.com
I’m curious which platforms you most highly recommend for their use of open-source code and value? Thank you for this post!
Melanie – Refined Data has a nice solution, and I have included them in selection processes I have run before, but I think of them as more appropriate for larger organizations – rather than the individual subject matter entrepreneurs and small firms that are the main audience here. Am I off the mark in thinking that? – Jeff
This is a great list! Yet new powerful solutions appear every day.
For a fresh approach I suggest you have a look at http://www.learnworlds.com, a white-label platform for creating your own online school and full-fledged professional training community (disclosure: I am a co-founder there)
With LearnWorlds you have everything you need to easily create rich online courses (that combine videos, texts/images, formal and informal assignments and tests, certificates etc.). On top of that you get the opportunity to convert your videos into interactive experiences (with titles, bookmarks, definitions that you can add on the fly, without the need for expensive post-production) and your texts into interactive ebooks (with personalized notes, highlights etc.)
More importantly, you get a set of tools that will help you create a vibrant learning community for your learners, like:
– Personal profiles for your clients to present their skills and experiences
– Social networking and People Search for your clients to be connected and form teams
– Daily newspaper for your clients to be informed about the topic from the best relevant sources,
– Gamification, with custom badges, for your clients to be motivated (e.g. an “Android Guru” badge)
Of course LearnWorlds is fully white-label so it can blend with your existing site/blog
hope that helps:)
Panos – Thanks for commenting. Looks like a nice solution. I will get it added in above. – Jeff
Sad that LearnWorlds.com wasn’t included in your latest update:(
It would definitely be a very interesting choice for your audience
Looking forward to the next update:)
Once your Training company has sold its best content thanks to one of those great platform, you have to manage it !
Training Orchestra provides an “ERP for Training Companies” to manage the back end (orders, invoice, schedule, profitability…). Our training management software for training companies bring the experience of more than 250 clients, and just received the Brandon All Gold award.
http://www.training-orchestra.com/
I think Udemy is the best since they are providing a powerfull course creation tool for free and also their review process in term of quality is better that other websites. and the best advantage that the registration is free of fees!!!
Hey Jeff,
Don’t forget Eventase! It’s a fully customizable platform just like the one you mentioned, but with some more advantages. Check it out – http://www.eventase.com
Cheers,
Peter
Perhaps Eventase.com ahould actually say somewhere what their pricing structure is?
Wondering what you think of CourseCraft?
Quite a few on the list! I’d certainly add http://UseFedora.com/features which is the solution for closing in on 10,000 teacher entrepreneurs out there.
If you’re trying to find your profitable idea or grow your course, check out our free course on the subject here: http://profitablecourseidea.com
Hi, i’m part of a startup LMS company called Aktiv Mind LMS. Our platform allows businesses to create courses and tests in order to train their employees. Our platform runs on all devices such as PCs/Macs, as well as tablets and mobile phones. We are offering a free 1 month subscription for new subscribers.
Thank you
Hi Jeff, Hi All,
thank you Jeff for the listing of the platforms!
Is it possible to upload and try to sell the course on different and several sites?
Ad absurdum: is it possible to upload them to ALL learning sites / platforms?
Thank you and bye
Steven
This is a great list. There is a company called http://www.uscreen.tv they also have an easy to use platform which enables you to sell courses online and setup a video subscription website, I know a few companies that use them.
Bit late to the party but maybe http://www.scormlms.com should be added to the list?
The focus here is on platforms that make it easy to sell courses. As far as I can tell, ScormLMS isn’t really focused on that, but let me know if I am missing something. – Jeff
Don’t forget the popular flextraining complete learning framework. It lets you author complete courses – from simple to complex – and use e-commerce to gain revenue for them.
Jeff,
What if I want to sell over 20 online LIVE courses as part of a growing K-12 online academy? Mainly, I want a clear means of offering and selling the courses and registering new students.
Is Canvas Catalog a decent option?
Christopher – Depends on you budget and how confident you are in enrollments/growth. The pricing I have seen on the Catalog option for Canvas is quite hefty – though, I have to say it is very nice. Keep in mind that many less expensive options will offer the registration and e-commerce options you need while also offering options for plugging into common Webinar tools like GoToWebinar. Alternatively, consider an option like WizIQ, which is really geared toward supporting the sales and delivery of live online courses. – Jeff
This one has been real popular lately:
usefedora.com
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for this comprehensive article. I already built my Elearning program and website with wishlist plugin, and all my videos are hosted on Vimeo. I would like to know about platforms to market my training program.
are there platforms that let me list my program for a marketing fee?
Thanks!
Neri – It’s a good question. If I am understanding your need and set-up correctly, I don’t know of specific site to recommend. Depending on the field/industry you are targeting, though, there may be publications, associations, etc, that would provide the opportunity for listings. If I find other options, I’ll let you know. – Jeff
Neri,
Try:
http://www.courseindex.com
Great list. Thanks for putting it together.
I didn’t end up getting the chance to work with Learning Cart due to issues with our client, but overall, the people at Learning Cart were awesome to work with. Learning Cart not only offers the ability to create and sell online courses, but you can also create a fully functioning shopping cart for selling items other than courses!
To add another to the list: http://www.Thinkific.com is definitely another option!
– Create and sell courses on your own site, under your own brand
– Content importer allows easy import of videos & pdfs in bulk
– Create courses out of multiple file types (video, PDFs, MP3s, Text, Quizzes, Surveys, and tonnes of outside sites like typeform forms, Articulate, Storyline… the list goes on!)
– Full e-commerce, student tracking, and so on
– Robust integrations with tools like Segment.io, Mailchimp and Mixpanel
– $0/month to start, 10% transaction fee or less. Only pay when you start selling.
I could go on and on, but it’s worth checking out! Disclaimer: I work with Thinkific 🙂
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the great article. I have a question for you or anyone here. My company is preparing a number of training programs for 2015. In reviewing all the platforms available, what do you think about putting a single course on multiple platforms. Can that be done? My thinking is some of these platforms have built in (huge) audiences who are accustomed to purchasing online courses, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have access to as many potential students as possible by being on multiple platforms. Any thoughts.
Best,
Jimmy
Great idea, and I ‘m wondering how you did. Please give us a little update!
It is my question exactly. Could one run the same course on multiple platforms? Have you had an answer yet?
Great article, thank you.
Do you think it’s better to sell courses on your own website or to sell them on another. For example, Tony Robbins has his website, but then he sells his courses on Business-Mastery. Brendon Burchard has a website but then sells his courses on HighPerformanceAcademy.
Just wondered what your thoughts were.
Cheers
James – It really depends on what your overall business goals are and how that impacts how you manage your brand and segmenting of your market. The main thing, from my perspective, is that you want to be be selling from a site that you own (Brendon, for example, owns HighPerformanceAcademy.com) rather than relying entirely totally on a third-party market place like Udemy – at least if you are really serious about being in the education/training business. I, for example, decide a while back that I wanted to develop business brands that were distinct from my personal brand. I have a range of reasons for wanting to do that, but one key one is that I would like to have the potential (whether I ever take advantage of it or not) of selling off those brands/businesses. Not having them tied too tightly to my personal brand makes that possible. Hope that helps. – Jeff
Jeff:
Hey! We enjoyed reading your article. But, the majority of the companies listed on this page are for long term courses/classes. At PharmPsych Sites we cater mostly to Continuing Education professionals in the medical field, many of whom just need a short term solution. In the medical field information changes quickly, and most of our users do not want to have a long term course. We make it easy and simple to do that.. In fact, our prices are below the range of what you listed; we also have some free packages. We would appreciate it if you would take a look at what we have to offer and provide us with some feedback: https://pharmpsych.com/sites/
Thanks – I’ll take a look. (Though I’m not sure there is anything particularly long term or short term about the platforms highlighted here. It comes down to how you use them.)
Hi Jeff,
I would like to share our WordPress plugin with your readers especially the ones who would like to sell their Moodle courses online. This plugin works with your WordPress website and integrates WordPress and Moodle with WooCommerce to sell Moodle Courses online.
You can take a look at the details here. http://wisdmlabs.com/woocommerce-moodle-integration-solution/
Hope to get added to your list soon. 🙂
Hi Jeff,
Thanks a ton for these resources. Im looking specifically for a user controlled (interactive) video platform for training people on how to use a specific product, reviewing features and troubleshooting. We dont need to sell anything, but would love to track which video’s get watched most so that we know where the interest or pain points are for the product. I’ve looked at Engajer as a platform, and some of the training platforms here seem like a good fit, but not sure about the ‘self guided’ aspect of the video. Any additional thoughts/insights since you’ve posted this list?
Thanks again, Leslie
While looking for some other providers I came across this one.
https://www.apnacourse.com/tutoring
They have decent enough platform, have gone through their own MOOCs hosted on platform.
Some points about them i liked,
– course can be completely private, with my own audience. (download restricted)
– no revenue sharing (pay as you go model, charged per consumption hour at the month end)
Has anybody tried it and have anything to share about pros and cons of it?
How about MATRIX LMS? I thin they definitely should be included in the list, they have e-commerce integration with Stripe, Paypal and Authorize.net, not to mention that the platform looks amazing
Hi Jeff, just wanted to say many thanks for mentioning Course Merchant on the list.
We would love to show you a demo some time if you had a spare hour or so, be great to get your detailed thoughts.
Once again, many thanks for the mention.
All the best and I look forward to hearing from you.
Martin Broughton
[email protected]
Out of the gate your first resource is simply a version of WPLMS theme found on theme forest. There is not even a business behind the associated link to academy of mine. I find that really odd. Their demo video talks about the unique platform and marketing presence, yet they have no product, or classes. I just find that strange.
Hi Jeff,
We sent a note to you in May about adding Click 4 Course to this list, but we’re not sure if you got it. Would you be able to at it? Based on services you’ve listed, it would be a great addition to this list. We hope to hear back from you, and also see our service on your list!
Thanks,
Jacob Bradley
Support Team
[email protected]
http://www.click4course.com
I’ve had my course at Udemy for awhile, but now they are starting to delete legitimate reviews due to their “spam review filter.” How does that make you feel to work hard for your reviews as well as your course, then have a system work against you?
Great info!! We also provide a platform for instructors to promote their online courses. http://WWW.crunchadeal.com
Pathright catalog seems to be dead.
Don’t forget Lightspeedvt.com. They specialize in creating interactive video training courses for speakers, consultants, and other experts. They’re based out of Las Vegas and have done work with Bravo (Top Chef’s Cooking Courses), GM, and countless speakers. They’re start-up fees are a little steep for most people, but it’s definitely what you’re talking about in the article.
Jeff
Hi Jeff, I know you are planning to update this list soon. When you do please add Skilljar to the list – (www.skilljar.com).
Thanks! Keegan
Skilljar is what I was going to suggest too, but see it was already suggested. Still not on list though. It is the best, IMHO. Low fees, highly responsive, host all the files and process all the payments, many types of content allowed, coupons, etc. etc.
do they offer a subscription model for my clients ? that is the big thing I am looking for thank you in-advance
Thanks for the post, Jeff! The info on Udemy is not current, late last year the pricing structure changed. Right now, instructors get 50%. And depending on other factors, you might only get 25%.
Thanks for the update, John. The downside of this kind of post is the need to keep up with changes like that! – Jeff
Great resources Jeff. It will make it easy for Selling online courses in various platform.
If you are looking to sell videos from your website take a look at http://www.HostStreamSell.com, they even have wordpress plugins for easy integration.
Good list Jeff, its missing us though, Firmwater LMS has been built specifically for training companies to sell, deliver, track and report their online training courses. Here is a link to our patnership with Shopify – http://www.firmwater.com/lms/features/sell-courses-online.php – let me know what you think, I hope to see us added to the list.
Thanks, Sean – I’ll check it out. Planning to update the list soon.
Jeff
Just running down this list as well as the comments, I’d be interested to know why FirmWater.com feels entitled to charge so much more than their competitors. If you’re offering unique features that others dont, perhaps you should highlight that on your website so that it justifies the exponential price increase.
Hello, Jeff – great list, thanks for the detailed insights. A question for you: do you know which of these companies and systems will provide sales and distribution of my existing courses in my existing LMS? It appears that most (all?) required the content to be converted to or loaded into their LMS/CMS.
thanks!
Bob – Apologies for the delay in responding. I was not notified of the comment for some reason. As far as I know, none of these support pulling content from another LMS. That has always been somewhat tricky territory – hopefully something that will be addressed as emerging standards (Tin Can) gets more broadly adopted and implemented. – Jeff
Many good solutions out there – I’m adding ours to the pile – worldclass.io is a platform with built in quizzing, MOOC, gamification and commerce modules + rich analytics and user mgmt.
We’re 100% customisable and you can configure the front-end to go with any design or hosting service you’re currently using.
Hi Jeff, this is a great list. Click 4 Course is another relevant one to add… especially for companies looking for a very cost-effective platform (starting at just $19 per month). It also includes a company-branded website for students to access the course. It’s super easy to use as well. http://www.click4course.com
Thanks! Jacob
Hey Jeff,
Thanks so much for those great infos. That should most definitely help me with my plans to start up a training platform. Thanks to your infos, I can now narrow my search for the best tool to use.
I wish to put online downloadable checklists, videos and emit certificates. And one thing also that I wish to be able to do is allow my trainees to download mobile device friendly version of my lists and videos.
Any obvious suggestions ?
I was wondering if you have specific recommendations for platforms suitable for teaching language courses. I’ve looked at several on this list so far and they look very interesting, but it’s not immediately clear to me how well they would integrate with a webinar tool for live meetings/discussions. It’s also not clear which has the most powerful quiz/testing/tracking capabilities.
Not sure Udacity is really a fit for the type of thing I’m talking about here. I’m not aware that you can create/deliver whatever you want on Udacity – you basically have to be selected by them or one of their partners to do a course. Correct me if I am wrong, though. – Jeff
Is the platform at iteachers.com (which forwards to http://www.myonlinecampus.org/) something that you’ve looked at, Jeff?
How does it compare to these others?
Mahalo for this fine information!
Haven’t checked that one out, but will have a look. – Jeff
amazing article. There’s another company I just found while searching on the web. They take away 30% better than udemy’s 50/50.
it’s called scooltv. https://scooltv.com
Hi Jeff,
I have one question, if you can help. Security is always a challenge in e-learning content. Any suggestions to ensure that viewers can not download the video.
Most of the video oriented services (e.g., Udemy, MindBites) are going to present the video in a way that it cannot be downloaded. Or you can use something like JPlayer in WordPress, or Vimeo with the download capability turned off. Of course, there’s pretty much nothing you can do to prevent someone from making a screen recording if they really are determined to.
Thanks for the excellent article.
For the pretty angry instructors on Udemy pricing model, i’d like to suggest Kunerango (http://www.kunerango.com/en/landing).
Thanks
i agree i had a terrible experience with UDEMY, wish i searched other places first!!!
Thanks for that input, Gwen. Udemy does seem to get pretty mixed reviews at best. – Jeff
Jeff — I am the Publisher at Siminars. I’d love to get your feedback on our platform. Please check out siminars.com and email me if you have any ideas or questions. Thanks and have a great year ahead!
Before rushing off to Udemy….you should read this. Not as great as everyone says.
http://www.planningforfailure.com/post/63542124884/udemy-takes-more-from-instructors-censors-critics
Some pretty angry instructors in the comments area.
Hope this helps
Jeff —
Thank you for including OpenSesame on your list. If you or any of your readers have questions or would like to know more, please let me know!
Can anyone help in suggesting ways in which we can sell our courses with discount websites, such as amazon.local and places like that? I have been suggested to use affiliate marketers, but am unsure really of what this means?
Thanks, Jeff for the great list! I know this will be a valuable resource for many folks.
Thanks for the excellent info.
I feel that nowadays it isn’t difficult to build your own training website using Paypal as the payment gateway.
What do you think could be the disadvantages of going your own way?
Dinesh –
Just using Paypal as a payment gateway and one of any number of approaches to managing access to content (like, for example, a membership plugin) can work just fine. The platforms listed here all manage access rights as an integrated part of the software and have done a good bit to streamline the e-commerce process. Many of them also streamline authoring of educational content and make it easier to integrate content, assessments, and social interaction (e.g., discussion boards) into a single educational experience. It all depends on what learning models you plan to use and how adept you feel at taking a more DIY approach. – Jeff
BrainCert Makes E-Learning And Passive Earning Painless. BrainCert allows instructors to create courses and upload tests easily and quickly. Once that’s done, the platform integrates with PayPal and Stripe, allowing you to profit from the information you’ve provided. BrainCert is generous with that, too, giving you 90% of the sales revenue from whatever you sell. – https://www.braincert.com/
Late to the party but AT the party is DojoLearning! http://www.DojoLearning.com 🙂
Don’t forget DigitalChalk from Asheville, NC as well! http://www.digitalchalk.com 🙂
Thanks, Lindsey – I’ll be sure to add it. Had a very nice visit to Asheville recently. – Jeff
Thanks so much for these awesome resources. Some of the very best, clean and easy to use I have found in my research. Cost is always a factor since I am an independent trainer. I have started on Udemy. Will see how it goes. I am also exploring pathwright at the moment. Clean interface, still have to see how it works.
Thanks for commenting, Carol – If you have a chance, drop back by at some point, please drop back by and let folks know how your experiences went with Udemy and Pathwright. – Jeff
Udemy have given me nothing but grief over the last 3 months. Nit-picking re my courses and I have degrees in 2 different subject areas! Udemy has severely wasted my time – around 400 hours worth.
Thank you for posting this Jane and saving me the horror!
Hello Jane,
I have a course available on Udemy that needs to be updated. Udemy is great for those who want to offer free courses that have high video and audio quality. Udemy knows what interest their customers. Most of their customers are other Udemy instructors.
They are redoing their pricing and have finally stopped providing free previews of courses. Mine and some other instructors courses were copied and sold to rip-off companies that repackage portions of your video and charge $5.00 or less for your content. I found that Russian and Indian customers were most interested in my course and every day a Russian person would visit my course and copy it. Several of the Indian customers just contacted me to set up the course for their students.
I am offering my course for free now. I will leave a smaller modified version of the course free and add a series of small courses for a fee. There are several Udemy Instructors who are making over a million dollars per year using Udemy. A few of the ones who are making less money offer paid courses to explain how they have been successful, which of course attracts a large number of Udemy Instructor students.
Currently, this is one of the only platforms that I have used. You need to have knowledge about the course(s) that you want to sell and you need to know how to sell your courses online. In my opinion, is does not matter which platform you use or can afford if you do not know how to sell your courses online then you will waste your time/money.
Good luck!
I have to agree with this post. I also tried Udemy, I have advanced degrees in Computer Science and Computer Engineering and got hung up with what they called audio quality for over 3 months. I just gave up and continued to sell through my own site.
What amazed me is that I am using a professional recording setup and have been delivering courses for over 7 years with excellent comments from my students.
I would like to grow my audience but will find another way.
Hi Carol, please tell us about your experiences with online course platforms. I’m actually researching which platform to start with. I’ll be teaching some pretty different topics, and I’m just like you that independent teacher/trainer. Thanks a ton! – Ton
I just saw your comment and I thought you might be interested in Gumroad. It is similar to Udemy, but they take a smaller slice.
Hi people! I’m an ex high school teacher & have run a biz as a Dread Loctician & Trainer for over 10 years. I have 3 online courses teaching people how to make & maintain dreads naturally & how to run small home based biz as Locticians. I use gumroad. They have a few glitches, but all in all, I’m very happy with it. I sell them via my ems & website though, I haven’t yet began using their tools to sell via them as a course market place.
Hi there,
Recently I tried http://www.emagister.co.uk and I had a good results.
We offer An Easy, Entertaining Approach to Online IT Training. http://ittrainingonline.net