23 Best Online Course Platforms

The concept of the education and learning process has changed greatly over the years. This transition is enhanced by the rapid development of the internet and new technologies.

Online learning (e-learning) is taking over the world by storm and is replacing the traditional method of education that requires physical presence. Owing to the incidents and restrictions imposed by the government during the Covid-19 pandemic, e-learning has become even more popular.

This factor presents itself as a reasonable substitute for physical learning methods because the online learning industry is increasingly growing with over $176 billion been generated in global revenue in 2017. These figures are expected to rise to over $375 billion by 2026.

That's a positive development for online instructors, trainers, authors, and edupreneurs who are looking to capitalize on the increasing market trend and the increase in the adoption of online learning platforms as a tool for both learning and teaching purposes.

There are lots of online learning platforms out there and that makes it difficult to choose the right one. To help you narrow down the list, I studied and examined a lot of online learning platforms and came up with a list of the 23 best online course platforms that you can use for a high-quality learning experience.

A List Of Some Of The Best Online Learning Platforms You Can Find

#1. Teachable

Teachable is a well-known course creation management solution and boasts a user base of over 68,000 active course creators including big companies like Shopify, Penn Law, The New York Times, Intuit, and more. Perhaps one of the big players if not the biggest in its league of platforms.

This e-learning platform is utilized by over 18 million active online learners and has made over $338 million in sales. It is a simple to use, reliable platform with an intuitive interface and easy navigation system that allows learners to find and use your course materials with ease.

Teachable has a variety of niche-specific themes that you can choose from and with the option to brand your website. The platform also offers a lot of essential tools that aid the selling of courses, is video-inclined and promotes visual content more than written ones.

Teachable gives course creators more customization and branding options to their e-learning website and offer gives code experts the freedom to add custom CSS. It also features blogging functionalities that allow you to post blogs on your e-learning site.

Another perk of teachable is that it also comes with a custom domain option across all its paid plans. Perhaps its best feature is its ability to seamlessly integrate with third-party software like Articulate, Storyline and Adobe Captivate.

Pricing Plans

Teachable offers their clients a free plan and three different paid plans. It has its payment processor (Teachable Payment), so you don't have to worry about adding another payment gateway.

The core features of Teachable that are available across all plans including the free plan include: no transaction fees on free courses, basic quizzes, discussion forums, integrated payment processor, and unlimited courses, students, and hosting.

Free Plan: This plan can be a great way to test the waters of Teachable and get used to the platform's interface before opting in for their paid plans. Like other free versions, Teachable's free version comes with some limitations when it comes to selling your online courses.

Basic Plan: This plan costs $39/month when paid monthly or $29/month when billed annually. It comes with some extra features like a reduced transaction fee of 5%, allows up to two admin users, custom domain, third party integration, email marketing tools, and other features.

Professional Plan: This plan costs $119/month or $99/month when billed annually and you get everything on the basic plan. You also get the removal of transaction fees, course completion certification, more advanced analytics, advanced themes customization, and many other things.

Business Plan: This plan is priced at $299/month or $249/month when billed annually, and here you'll get all the features that Teachable offers in its professional bundle. You'll also get additional features like custom users, bulk student enrollment, manual student imports, and up to 100 admin users which is best for large companies with lots of staff.

Teachable's ideal clients are those with little or no tech experience as it offers an easy-to-use course builder with lots of important features and functionalities. Its payment plans give you a lot of value for your money.

#2. Thinkific

Thinkific is one of the top leading cloud-based LMS solutions in its industry. The platform claims to have all you will ever need to create, market, and sell your branded online courses from scratch to publishing.

Thinkific features a drag and drops customizable themes editor to give your online learning site the look and feel of your brand. It also provides tech experts full access to edit the website's HTML and CSS to their preferences.

The number of features available in the free version of the platform is astonishing. Perhaps, its most exceptional feature is its automated promotional and marketing tools whose automation feature reduces the amount of input required from you to save you time.

With Thinkific, you can choose to drip feed your course content and control when your students access your courses. You can also schedule, automate emails being sent to your students, and receive payment directly the moment someone enrolls for your course.

This e-learning platform can be used for many purposes including online course modules, internal training of staff in an organization, and also by universities who want to create their online courses. Thinkific has been tested and trusted by many big companies and universities including Hootsuite and York University.

Pricing Plans

Free plan: This plan is good for people who are looking looking for very basic features, and with it, you get access to everything you'll need to create, market, and sell your courses. Some of these essential features include instant access to your funds, Stripe/PayPal payment gateways, basic integrations, and content hosting.

Basic Plan: Thinkific's basic plan costs around $36/month and has all its core features plus additional course prices, bulk emailing, up to three-course admins, basic Zapier integration, analytics, intermediate integrations, course bundles, custom domain, among other features.

Pro Plan: This plan is priced at $99/month and gives you unrestricted access to a lot of services. Some of these services include source code editing, direct Infusion, Soft integration, priority support, 5-course admins, 3 site admins, support for 2 site administration accounts, and many more.

Premier Plan: This is the most expensive option of Thinkific's payment plans and costs about $99. This plan gives you access to lots of important features including up to 50-course admins, 5 site admins, advanced marketing and sales tools, and allows you to create exam/quizzes for your course.

It has a lot of advantages in its pricing model even with the free plan.

#3. LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is an online learning platform that gives companies, instructors, trainers, and solopreneurs the capability to create and sell online courses. This online course platform has an array of sales tools, advanced analytics, and tons of integrations to the third-party marketing tools.

LearnWorlds' unique factor would be the flexibility it gives instructors to engage and interact with their students. It also simplifies the course-building process with its intuitive drag and drops editor and content import tool so you don't have to worry about having any coding background.

It features a suite of amazing pre-made templates for you to choose from explicitly designed for sales pages making the creation process seems easy.

Pricing Plans

LearnWorlds has three packages. And the price you pay and the features you get depends on the package you opt-in for.

Its core features that you can have access to when subscribing for any of its plans include the following. Conversion tracking, analytics, lead capturing tools, theme editor, access to over 400 pre-made responsive templates, and unlimited courses.

Starter Plan: This plan costs $29/month or $24 when billed annually plus a transaction fee of $5 every time you sell a course. Here, you'll get the following features 24/7 email support team, the ability to drip-feed your course content, a free SSL certificate, a custom domain, and many more.

Pro Plan: This plan costs $99/month, and $79 if billed annually, removes the transaction fee and has all the features that come with the starter pack. It also has additional features like priority support, onboarding calls, affiliate marketing tools, a custom certificate, a complete website with a blog, and many more.

Learning Center Plan: That's the peak of what LearnWorlds offers and it's priced at $299/month or $249 when billed annually and with this plan, you get to enjoy everything that LearnWorlds has to offer. These include 24/7 support, 2 hours of premium onboarding, single sign-in, custom iOS, and Android app, automatic customer insight, Webhooks integration, advanced affiliate management, full white-label options, and others.

NB: You should note that big companies whose requirements are more than the pricing model can cater to can contact LearnWorlds to get a custom quote.

#4. Teachery

Although Teachery is a newbie in the course building arena, it is quickly gaining its ground in this ever-advancing industry. The platform purportedly gives clients the ability to create, market, and sell amazing online courses within minutes and doesn't require any transaction fee.

One thing of note is their wonderful tech support that you can rely on when things get sour technically.

Pricing Plans

Teachery offers a two-week free trial for new clients and afterward, requires a monthly payment estimate of $49 or $470 if you choose to pay yearly. With this, you get all Teachery features including email integration with MailChimp and ConvertKit, promo code, membership site, payment gateway, and unlimited , lessons and students.

You also get a beautiful course editor, custom styling, wide range of sales tools, sales pages, landing pages, payment gateway, membership, promo code, email integration like MailChimp and CovertKit.

#5. Podia

Podia was reviewed by its users to be a great all-around online learning platform where you can sell courses, digital products, and membership programs. For a large number of features present in this e-learning platform, it's surprisingly easy to use and has a very intuitive navigation system.

Major features present on Podia across all payment plan include customer-centric 24/7 live chat support, powerful e-mail marketing tools, intuitive design tools, and seamless integration with Zapier.

Pricing Plans

Unlike what many other e-learning platforms offer, Podia doesn't include a free version or trial period. However, it offers users two payment options:

The Mover Plan: This plan comes with all the major features that Podia offers including important ones like embedded checkout option, membership site, and affiliate program. What''s more? You can access this plan with a monthly payment of $39.

The Shaker Plan: This the highest version of Podia you can get. With this plan comes unrestricted access to all that Podia has to offer. This plan costs $79 and it's billed monthly.

Some of the reasons why Podia is considered as one of the best is because of its great customer support service that users have come to appreciate plus its fairly affordable prices that's worth the money.

#6. Systeme.io

Systeme.io is a type of learning management system that lays more emphasis on the marketing aspect and aims to be a one-stop marketing platform. System.io is a complete platform that enables you to create membership sites, webinars, sales funnels.

The platform has all the fundamental tools and features you will need to run your entire online business easily and effectively in this super-competitive digital world.

Systeme.io is created to cater to the needs of businesses of all types, small, medium, and large enterprises. It also lets you sell physical products, send bulk emails to your audience, and create affiliate programs.

Some of the key features that make system.io special include affiliate management, blogging tools, automation, contact management system, and sales funnels. It's got a "what you see is what you get" type of drag and drop editor that allows you to customize pre-made beautiful templates that convert. It also offers a powerful funnel builder to help you build beautiful, high-converting sales pages.

Pricing Plans

You get a free 14 trial period to test run system.io features and to determine whether it is a perfect fit for you. System.io offers 3 paid payment options.

Startups Plan: As its name implies, this plan is suitable for small businesses and startups. It currently costs $27/month and with this plan you'll get all the core features of system.io plus 3 membership sites, unlimited members, storage space, funnels, and an email sent, and up to 5000 email subscribers.

Webinars Plan: The difference between this plan and the startup plan that it includes all the features in the Startups Plan plus A/B testing, coupon codes, 3 webinars, 2 custom domains, 5 membership sites, and 10,000 email subscribers.
This plan costs $47/month.

Enterprise plan: This plan is priced at $97/monthly. You get all the features that System.io has to offer plus an additional one-hour 1 on 1 coaching session, 5 custom domains, unlimited membership sites and webinars, and 15,000 email subscribers.

#7. Kartra

Katra is one of the prominent figures in the e-learning industry. The cloud-based LMS is self-hosted which means you don't need to host your course on an external site.

Katra claims to have everything you'll ever need to create your online business. And some of its amazing features include AB testing, a cart checkout option, great email marketing tools, and more. You can even create and manage your webinars on the platform.

Katra was developed with both tech-savvy and newbies in mind. That's why it boasts an extensive suite of highly customizable templates that you can choose from.

Pricing Plans

Kartra's Starter plan: This is the cheapest price that Katra offers its user. You can assess this plan for a reoccurring payment of $99 billed monthly.

This payment option is better suited for small to mid-sized businesses whose email list contains fewer than 2,500 subscribers. And some of the benefits that come with this plan include two membership sites, custom domain, automation for up to 100 emails, 50GB bandwidth space every month, and many more.

Kartra's Silver Plan: This plan offers users more features than the previous plus an increment of the number of custom domains allowed to three, 125GB bandwidth space every month, 12,500 email subscribers, unlimited membership sites, and email automation. You can opt-in for this plan for a monthly payment of $199.

Kartra's Gold Plan: There isn't much difference between the features in this plan and the previous but that this plan allows the addition of up to 25,000 email subscribers. Other upgrades that accompany this plan are increased bandwidth space to 200GB and 5 custom domains.

This is best suited for larger businesses. Currently, the price for this plan stands at $299 billed monthly.

Kartra's Platinum Plan: This plan accommodates a bigger email list of up to 50,000 subscribers, up to ten custom domains, and 500GB bandwidth space. You can opt-in for this plan for a monthly fee of $499.

Karta Enterprise Plan: This is Kartra's provision for big companies and corporations. Here, you'll have to consult with their company to get a custom quote.

#8. Ruzuku

Ruzuku is perhaps one of the best online learning platforms around. This e-learning platform showcases many features for both the student and the teacher.

Ruzuku simplifies the process of creating a course with amazing tools to help teachers, online tutors, and trainers.

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