Best Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses

Posted 23 August By Hanju Lee—Goals, Inspiration, Self Improvement—No Comments

Best Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses

Now that you’ve taken your steps to turn your knowledge into a course, what’s next? Well, you’ll need to choose a platform to help create, upload and sell your course as well as market it. If you are not super tech savvy or not too familiar with what’s out there, you came to the right place. I am going to do all the heavy lifting for you. So to start, here are the top 8 online platforms to create and sell online courses.

Udemy: Udemy is one of the largest online learning platforms, allowing instructors to create and sell courses on a wide range of topics. It provides a vast user base and a relatively straightforward course creation process. However, Udemy often runs promotions and discounts, which can impact your course pricing.
Teachable: Teachable is a user-friendly platform that lets you create and customize your own branded online school. It offers various features for course creation, marketing, and student engagement. Teachable also provides the ability to have more control over your pricing and branding.
Thinkific: Thinkific is another platform that offers course creation, customization, and marketing tools. It provides a flexible pricing structure and supports different types of content, including videos, quizzes, and assignments.
Skillshare: Skillshare is more focused on creative and hands-on classes. It operates on a subscription model where students pay a monthly fee to access the entire library of courses. Instructors receive royalties based on the number of minutes watched by premium students.
Podia: Podia is a platform that lets you create and sell online courses, digital downloads, and memberships. It’s known for its simplicity and all-in-one approach, making it suitable for solo entrepreneurs.
Kajabi: Kajabi is a comprehensive platform that includes tools for course creation, marketing, and sales funnels. It’s often chosen by professionals looking to create a full online business, including courses, membership sites, and more.
Coursera: Coursera partners with universities and institutions to offer more structured and academically-oriented courses. If you’re looking to create content with a more formal and academic approach, Coursera could be a good fit.
EdX: Similar to Coursera, edX partners with universities to offer a wide range of courses. If you have an educational background and want to offer more in-depth, university-style courses, edX might be worth considering.

To take it one step further, I chose the best 3 (in my opinion) and listed them in order.

Coming in at #3 is Thinkific – here’s the breakdown:

Thinkific is a popular online course platform that allows individuals and businesses to create, market, and sell their own online courses. It offers a range of features for course creators and provides a platform for hosting and delivering your content. Here’s a detailed overview of Thinkific:

Course Creation: Thinkific provides an intuitive course builder that allows you to create courses using videos, audio files, PDFs, quizzes, surveys, and more. You can organize your content into sections and modules to create a structured learning experience.
Customization: Thinkific offers customization options to help you brand your course site. You can choose from various themes, customize colors, fonts, and upload your own logo to create a consistent look and feel.
Sales and Marketing: Thinkific allows you to create customizable sales pages to effectively showcase your courses. You can set up pricing options, payment gateways (such as Stripe and PayPal), and offer coupons and promotions to attract students.
Student Engagement: Thinkific offers features like discussions, comments, and assignments to encourage student interaction and engagement. You can create assignments for students to complete and submit for assessment.
Quizzes and Assessments: The platform allows you to create quizzes and assessments to gauge student understanding. You can choose from various question types and set passing grades.
Certificates: Thinkific enables you to issue completion certificates to students who successfully complete your courses. This can provide a sense of accomplishment and value to your students.
Analytics and Insights: Thinkific provides analytics and reporting tools to track enrollment, completion rates, revenue, and other metrics. These insights help you understand the performance of your courses and make informed decisions.
Membership and Subscription Models: In addition to individual courses, Thinkific allows you to create membership and subscription-based models for ongoing access to content. This is useful for creating recurring revenue streams.
Pricing: Start Package at $74/month and Grow Package at $149/month
Customer Support: Thinkific offers customer support to assist you with technical issues, questions, and concerns as you set up and manage your courses.
Ease of Use: Thinkific is designed to be user-friendly, with a straightforward interface that simplifies the process of creating and managing courses. It provides step-by-step guidance to help you get started.

Coming in at #2 is Teachable – here’s the breakdown:

Teachable is a popular online course platform that empowers individuals, entrepreneurs, and businesses to create, market, and sell their own online courses. It’s known for its user-friendly interface, customization options, and a range of features tailored to course creators. Here’s a more detailed overview of Teachable:

Course Creation: Teachable provides a straightforward course creation process that allows you to structure your content using lectures, sections, and modules. You can add various multimedia elements such as videos, PDFs, quizzes, and more. The platform supports both video hosting and embedding from external sources like YouTube and Vimeo.
Customization: Teachable offers customization options to ensure your course site aligns with your branding. You can choose from various themes, customize colors, fonts, and even use your own domain name for a professional look.
Sales and Marketing: Teachable provides tools for creating compelling sales pages to showcase your courses. You can add pricing options, set up payment gateways (such as PayPal or Stripe), and offer discounts and promotions. The platform also allows you to implement affiliate marketing programs to encourage others to promote your courses.
Student Engagement: Teachable offers engagement features like discussions and comments within course modules. This helps foster a sense of community and interaction among your students.
Quizzes and Assessments: You can create quizzes and assessments to gauge your students’ understanding of the material. Teachable’s quiz builder allows you to create multiple-choice questions and other question types.
Completion Certificates: Teachable enables you to issue completion certificates to students who finish your courses, which can add value to their learning experience.
Analytics and Insights: The platform provides insights into your course’s performance, including enrollment rates, completion rates, revenue, and more. These analytics can help you refine your courses and marketing strategies.
Pricing: Free Version, Basic $39month, Pro $119/month and Pro+ $199/month
Customer Support: Teachable offers customer support to help you navigate any technical issues or questions you might have while setting up and managing your courses.
Ease of Use: Teachable is designed to be user-friendly, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced course creators. Its drag-and-drop interface and step-by-step guides simplify the course creation process.

And finally, coming in at #1 is Kajabi – I heard the online course guru I respect the most (Amy Porterfield) say that if she was to start her business all over again, she would use Kajabi. Here’s why…

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for creating, marketing, and selling online courses, memberships, and digital products. It’s designed to offer a seamless and integrated solution for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to build and grow their online presence. Here’s a detailed overview of Kajabi:

Course Creation: Kajabi offers a robust course creation tool that allows you to create engaging and interactive courses. You can incorporate videos, quizzes, assignments, downloadable resources, and drip content to deliver a structured learning experience.
Website and Branding: Kajabi provides website building capabilities, enabling you to create a fully branded online presence. You can customize templates, colors, fonts, and more to match your branding.
Sales and Marketing: Kajabi offers advanced sales and marketing features, including customizable landing pages, sales funnels, and email marketing campaigns. It allows you to set up pricing options, offer upsells, and implement affiliate marketing programs.
Membership and Community: In addition to courses, Kajabi allows you to create membership sites and communities. You can offer tiered access to different content and provide a space for students to interact and engage.
Automation: Kajabi includes automation features that allow you to set up workflows and sequences. This can help automate tasks like sending welcome emails, delivering content, and following up with customers.
Analytics and Insights: Kajabi provides detailed analytics and reporting to track your business performance. You can monitor metrics such as sales, revenue, engagement, and more to make informed decisions.
Integrations: While Kajabi aims to be an all-in-one solution, it also offers integrations with popular tools such as email marketing platforms, payment gateways, and third-party apps.
Pricing: Basic Package $149/month, Growth Package $199/month, Pro Package $399/month
Customer Support: Kajabi offers customer support to assist you with technical issues, questions, and concerns as you set up and manage your online courses and digital products.
Ease of Use: Kajabi is known for its user-friendly interface and the ability to consolidate multiple tools into one platform. Its intuitive design allows users to create and manage their online business without needing extensive technical skills.

I know that’s a lot of information, so let me sum it all up for you: you were born at the perfect time in history to create an online course. Literally everything you need to make it happen has been built for you. To paraphrase an old coach’s words when he was ready to fight, “There’s nothing between you and your course but air and opportunity.” In other words, LET’S DO THIS!!!