15 Best Online Course Platform in 2024

How to Choose an Online Course Platforms?

It might be difficult to decide which platform is ideal for you with so many options available. Here I List some of the useful points where you can decide what you are looking for when you up for buying an Online Course Platform.

Types of Platforms

Self-Hosted Platforms

Only Online course: Platforms focused solely on the creation and sale of online courses.

All-in One Experience: Enables you to establish online communities, email sequences, and webinars in addition to online courses.

Plugins

LMS plugins: These plugins add online course tools directly to your WordPress website. They are Online Course creation and selling purpose only.

Marketplaces

Membership sites: These provides a platform with access to thousands of online courses from various authors, and students often pay a membership fee to use everything. You get your fees minus platform commissions.

What to Look for before Buying Online Course Platform:

User-Friendly Interface:

A platform with a user-friendly interface will make it easier for you to create and manage your courses, and for your students to navigate and access the content.

Customization Options:

Look for a platform that allows you to customize the design and branding of your course to make it unique and attractive to your target audience.

Mobile Responsiveness: Make sure the platform is mobile responsive so your students can access your course from any device.

Integrated Tools:

Look for a platform that offers integrated tools for course creation, content delivery, and student engagement, such as quizzes, surveys, and discussion forums.

Secure Payment System: Make sure the platform has a secure payment system that accepts multiple payment methods.

Marketing Features:

Look for a platform that offers marketing features such as email marketing, social media integration, and affiliate marketing to help you reach a larger audience and promote your courses.

SEO Optimization:

Make sure the platform is optimized for SEO to help your courses rank higher in search engine results.

Analytics and Insights:

Look for a platform that offers analytics and insights to help you track your course performance and student engagement, and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Cost:

Consider the cost of the platform, including any upfront fees, transaction fees, and monthly or yearly subscription fees.

Payment Structure:

Look for a platform that offers flexible payment structures, such as pay-as-you-go or revenue-sharing models, to help you manage your finances.

Scalability:

Make sure the platform is scalable so you can add more courses and students as your business grows without incurring additional costs.

Built-in Course Builder:

A course builder makes it easy to create engaging online courses. There should ease of creating Modules, sections Lessons. The Layout formatting of your course such as Text or video.

Test and assessments:

With quizzes and evaluations, the majority of the top online course platforms let you collect feedback and gauge knowledge retention.

Ecommerce support:

A great platform for online learning should also help you can sell your courses with easy payment gateway integrations supporting Cards and other payment related instruments.

Best Online Course Platforms in 2023

I’ve reviewed over 20 Online Course Platforms service plans and selected the 15 best ones. Each SEO tool has its own unique features and strengths that may work best for a variety of specific uses.

The best SEO tool provides reliable keyword research, site audit, rank tracking, ease of use, and reliability that your website needs.

1. THINKIFIC

Thinkific was founded in 2012 and has over 100 employees serving over 36,000 course creators. One of the most widely used platforms for developing and selling online courses is Thinkific.

This platform not only offers an intuitive layout but also pre-designed themes that you can use to create your own original website.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: No
• Starter Pricing: $149 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 1
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: 1
• Custom Domain: YES
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Email & Live Chat

By far the most customising options are available on Thinkific. The number of options is endless, but some examples include branding your courses and storefront to resemble your website, offering quizzes, surveys, student conversations, required lessons, completion certificates, and more.

Though Thinkific allows you full access to edit HTML and CSS, the customization capabilities are straightforward for non-technical users as well.

2. LearnWorlds

Learnworlds was Founded in 2014 in Cyprus but now has its headquarters in London. LearnWorlds offers all the tools required to create, sell, and market online courses to over 1000 businesses and entrepreneurs in more than 70 countries.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: No
• Free Trial: 30 days
• Starter Pricing: $24 / Month
• Transaction fee: $5
• Users: 1
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: 1
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: 3 Pages
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Basic
• Support: 24/5 e-mail support

LearnWorlds is a powerful online course building tool with many interactive elements that can assist you in selling online courses. For instance, the platform’s interactive movie player and E-Book reader offer a distinct experience in comparison to other platforms.

3. Kajabi

Kajabi was founded in Irvine, California, in 2010. It is a top all-in-one platform for knowledge entrepreneurs to create, promote, and sell instructional content. Kajabi is a platform used by tens of thousands of entrepreneurs to create and run their online businesses.

Till now, the company has assisted these entrepreneurs in generating over $2 billion in sales from almost 50 million clients.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: No
• Free Trial: 14 days
• Starter Pricing: $119 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 1
• Courses: 3
• Students: 1000
• Community: 1
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: 3 Pages
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat Support

One of the greatest platforms for creating and selling online courses is Kajabi, which has strong features like automation to facilitate your work.

The platform is an entire cloud-based system with numerous customizable site themes that you can use to design stunning and one-of-a-kind online learning courses.

4. Teachable

Ankur Nagpal founded the platform in 2013, but it was then known as Fedora. Ankur developed the platform with other course developers in mind since he is was self-taught instructor.

Teachable launched more than 183,000 new courses and more than 17,000 coaching items as of 2020 with the help of over 100,000 instructors.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: NO
• Starter Pricing: $29 / Month
• Transaction fee: 5%
• Users: 2
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: YES
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: NA
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Intermediate
• Support: Email Support

Teachable uses a pretty straightforward approach when building school websites. They do provide the capability, but they keep to a single, straightforward theme so that teachers may create from it.

You have the option to add a logo, thumbnail, and favicon using this platform. In addition, you can modify your font and colour scheme.

5. Podia

Podia was founded in 2014 by Spencer Fry who also serves as its CEO. The platform Podia puts the creator first. It’s intended to give creators the confidence to showcase their skills and earn money doing so. And the platform makes this very apparent on its “about” page.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: YES
• Starter Pricing: $33 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 2
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: YES
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: NA
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat Support

With Podia, you can organise webinars, produce downloadable content, build a membership community, and even provide live chat so that you can easily communicate with your students and raise their engagement levels.

The actual advantage of Podia is that it has access to a webinar platform, which can be a very effective tool when used properly and has all the facilities that other platforms have.

6. Teachery

Teachery the online Cource platform was created in 2014 by co-founders Gerlando Piro and Jason Zook and focuses on simplifying every aspect of the course-building process.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: YES
• Starter Pricing: $49 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 2
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: YES
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: NA
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat Support

You can able to sell an unlimited number of courses, each with an unlimited number of lessons, to an unlimited number of students using Teachery.

Most other online course sites have a restricted selection of courses and charge extra for more.

However, Teachery doesn’t base its fees on the quantity of your courses, lessons, or students.

You can alter the design and feel of your course using Teachery’s drag-and-drop course editor, which is flexible and completely customizable.

7. Kartra

Kartra was founded in 2018 by Genesis Digital LLC which is based in La Jolla, California. Kartra is one of the finest platforms for online courses because it offers more than just courses.

Its offerings are intended for website development, lead generation, payment management, email marketing, video hosting, appointment scheduling, web analytics, affiliate management, and customer support.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: No
• Free Trial: 14 Days
• Starter Pricing: $99 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 1+1
• Courses: 20
• Students: 2500
• Community: YES
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: YES
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat Support

Software developers, agencies, membership websites, and online retailers that sell both physical and digital goods are among the companies that use Kartra.

Kartra can be used for more than just educational websites and online courses, but since that is how it integrates with Kajabi the best, we’ll concentrate on how it can be used by online course proprietors.

Overall, Kartra provides a single platform with all the tools you require to create an online course. Using slick videos, quizzes, and surveys, you can create a membership website, roll out courses and landing pages, collect leads, process payments, and manage lessons.

8. Zenler

Zenler was founded by Rakesh Vallil and is headquartered in New York, New York, United States. It is an e-learning company that develops tools for creating and managing high-end interactive educational content.

The company crossed $55.9K Revenue with 1K customers in 2022.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: NO
• Starter Pricing: $67 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 10
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: N/A
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: YES
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat/Email/Priority Support

For online creators who wish to create, promote, and advertise online courses and memberships, New Zenler serves as a one-stop shop.

The major objective is to create a virtual learning environment that is comparable to a classroom for teachers, professionals, and students.

It also intends to eliminate the need for designers, developers, or marketers by allowing you to manage your entire online education business from a single platform.

9. Ruzuku

Ruzuku, a platform for creating online courses that your students would enjoy, was developed in 2012 by Abe Crystal and Rick Cecil. According to Ruzuku, it must be very simple to build online courses.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: NO
• Starter Pricing: $99 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 2
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: YES
• Custom Domain: No
• Site Builder: NA
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat Support

The capability to record and host webinars is one of Ruzuku’s primary features (and teleconferences). Digital entrepreneurs and course developers can greatly benefit from hosting webinars and live streaming for their students.

It also makes course designers stand out by creating a vibrant student body.

10. Systeme.io

At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Aurélien Amacker, a French Web marketer released System.io for solving some of his own personal problems faced during his journey of Blogging and marketing.

The product systeme.io has reached $5M Revenue with 8K customers in 2022.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: No
• Starter Pricing: $27/ Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 2
• Courses: 5
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: YES-2
• Custom Domain: YES-3
• Site Builder: NA
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat Support

Systeme.io is an all-in-one marketing and sales solution that costs a fraction of what you would typically pay for all of its components.

Don’t worry if you are a beginner; the Systeme.io platform offers a tonne of in-depth lessons that cover a wide range of topics regarding the software and how to utilise it.

For those who are just starting their online business and need an affordable marketing and sales software solution, Systeme.io is fantastic.

11. GuruCan

Gurucan was founded by Dmitry Ponomarev and Yuliya Chernenko on 2019, San Fransisco , USA.

This platform offers SaaS based content management solutions for Digital product and service sellers. The platform provides webinars, landing pages, analysis, integrations, course builder options, and more.

Both Android and iOS mobile devices can use its mobile app.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: NO
• Free Trial: 14 days
• Starter Pricing: $99 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 1
• Courses: 5
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: YES
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: NA
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat Support

Using the five-in-one mobile platform GuruCan, you can design, market, and sell online courses. These days, this is one of the most helpful tools because it can be utilised by teachers, students, and even business owners.

12. TalentLMS

TalentLMS was founded in 2012 by CEO Thanos Papangelis and is head quartered in headquarters is located in San Francisco, California.

If you want a straightforward yet cutting-edge solution and are fresh to the e-learning business, this is the best choice. It still has a wealth of customisable capabilities for more seasoned e-learning gurus, though.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: YES
• Starter Pricing: $69 / Month
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 40
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: N/A
• Custom Domain: N/A
• Site Builder: N/A
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Basic
• Support: Email Support

Everything you require to produce and market top-notch e-learning content is provided by TalentLMS. You can get through the learning barrier without being particularly tech-savvy.

Both the course author and the learner will find its interface to be simple, user-friendly, and enjoyable!

To increase engagement and student interaction, it is fully loaded with teaching tools and diverse multimedia features.

13. Pinlearn

Pinlearn was founded in 2016 by  and is Headquartered in Bangkok Thailand. This is a Software Bundle that you Install in your Server, and Out of the Box this provides a Online course Management Solution, same as Udemy or Coursera.

There is a Live demo in their Website that shows you thorough guide How it may look in your server.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: NO
• Free Trial: YES
• Starter Pricing: $699 / Lifetime
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: Unlimited
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: YES
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: Free Installation & Setup
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: NO
• Support: 1Year support & updates

Put your own brand on the website. Since it is self-hosted instead of SaaS, you are free to host the website on any servers you choose. Your own domain, logo, and email signup form should be added.

You can take over the platform thanks to the open, unencrypted source code. As a result, Pinlearn won’t be held accountable for any alterations you make to the website.

14. Payhip

Payhip was launched in 2012 by founders Abs Farah, Kahin Farah in London UK. Payhip is used and trusted by over 130,000 people worldwide.

It is a One of a Kind solution for Solo Entrepreneurs and Edupreneurs to Launch their own digital Business and sell to their customers and audience.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: YES
• Free Trial: YES
• Starter Pricing: $29 / Month
• Transaction fee: 2%
• Users: 2
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: YES
• Custom Domain: YES
• Site Builder: YES
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Chat Support

If you want to keep expenses down and have digital goods to sell, Payhip seems like a wise choice. There are many effective affiliate marketing strategies, as well as simple social media buy buttons and ways to use promo codes to draw in your customers.

There are enough marketing and sales elements in Payhip, despite a few limitations, to get any small business owner started on the road to success.

However, when business grow, we certainly advise switching to a price package that has a negligibly little transaction cost, if any at all.

15. iSpring Suite

Founded in 2001 ispring Solutions is one of the  Long Lasting e-authoring services founded by Chairman Yury Uskov. Till now  59,000 clients worldwide choose iSpring to create and deliver eLearning courses.

Most of the iSpring clients are Businesses, but recently they have revamped their Offerings to suite Individual clients as well.

FEATURES

• FREE plan: No
• Free Trial: YES
• Starter Pricing: $970 / year
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Users: 2
• Courses: Unlimited
• Students: Unlimited
• Community: No
• Custom Domain: No
• Site Builder: No
• Course Builder: Advanced
• Marketing Tools: Advanced
• Support: Email/Chat/Phone Support

iSpring Suite is a All-in-one authoring toolkit that enables users to create professional-looking eLearning content quickly without the need for technical expertise or an IT background, including interactive courses, quizzes, video tutorials, role-plays, and interactions.

FAQ’s

Wrapping Up:

As someone who has extensively researched and tested various online course platforms, I can confidently say that the options available to creators and students are more robust than ever before.

Each platform offers its unique set of features and benefits, making it crucial to choose one that aligns with your specific goals and needs.

Whether you’re looking for a platform that offers comprehensive course creation tools or one that provides an interactive learning experience, there is a platform out there that fits the bill.

With the growth of e-learning, the online course platform landscape will continue to evolve, giving creators and learners even more options to choose from.