17 Best Platforms To Host Online Courses in 2024

Looking for the Best Platforms To Host Online Courses as a creator or professional?

From our experience and research, we have gathered a list of the best platforms for online courses to help you as a course creator and entrepreneur.

“Whatever your goal is in life, the beginning is knowledge….”-Henry Ford.

Education is the process of getting knowledge. Education has surpassed a dedicated classroom building.

The list of the best online course platforms will help you start and build a profitable business by sharing your knowledge and skills.

Online Education creates a medium where teachers instruct while students become active participants. Online Education is often cheaper, more convenient, flexible, and more directional than traditional classrooms.

Online course platforms sustained education during COVID-19. We expect the online learning market to surpass $330 billion by 2026. Many online Course Platforms use a Learning Management system (LMS).

Table of Contents

What Are The Best Platforms to Host Online Courses in 2024?

Below is the list of the best online course Platforms for creators to create and sell their online courses. If you’re looking for the best platform for online courses, then this list will help you.

  • Thinkific
  • Teachable
  • Podia
  • Ruzuku
  • Learnworlds
  • Kajabi
  • LearnDash
  • Academy of Mine
  • WizIQ
  • Click4course
  • DigitalChalk
  • SkillShare
  • LinkedIn Learning

What makes the best online course platform?

The blog post only considers platforms for creating and selling online courses. These platforms are designed for businesses and individuals to create and sell courses to make money

There are two types of online course platforms, they are:

Course marketplace

The online course marketplace allows you to build and host courses for free, and they will be listed on the market for interested students to join. It caters for both course creators and students.

One advantage of the marketplace is that they have an existing student base, so if you’re new and without any online presence, it will help you.

They take a share of your course sales, but it is worth it if you want to start selling your course through the online course marketplace.

Online Course creation software

Online course creation software offers more customizable options than the marketplace.

Course creators can create landing pages, design and optimize checkout pages, use different content formats, etc.

They also provide all the necessary tools to manage and market your online course. One thing to note is that they charge monthly fees, while some charge a transaction fee.

However, no course platform is 100% fit for creating online courses. The platform you choose depends on the goals of your online course.

If you are creating a course that requires teaching, engaging and a practical approach, you need a robust course platform with advanced tools to deliver successfully.

Every online course platform has unique features that make it the best among the equals.

Below are the criteria for making the best online course platforms worth trying.

  • Support different content formats such as PDF, videos, audio, images, etc
  • Advanced customization options
  • Support exams, certifications, surveys, quizzes etc
  • Affordable for small businesses
  • Integrate with different payment gateways
  • Integrate with page builder and easy customization
  • Easy to use with a friendly interface

Best online course hosting Platforms In 2024

1. Thinkific

Best Platforms To Host Online Courses

Thinkific is one of the best platforms for hosting online courses; it currently has over 50,000 course creators and a presence in over 180 countries. Creators have earned over $650 million on the platform.

Thinkific is a cloud-based LMS that lets users create and sell online courses. Key features include course creation, sales, marketing, and security.

Create and Build your course.

With Thinkific, you can easily upload videos and organize all your learning content with the drag-and-drop builder. You can schedule lessons. Pricing and automating your content to build a learning experience students will love.

Some Thinkific features

  • Create and customize courses to match your brand using drag and drop, which requires no coding. Supports video, text, downloads, quizzes, surveys, discussions, type forms, Google docs, captivate, articulate
  • Make your course website your own with full customization – (Personal domain name, full access to CSS and HTML)
  • Thinkific courses include course discussions and an auto-save function, and students’ progress can easily monitor
  • You also get paid immediately for over a hundred currencies.

Thinkific Pricing

Let’s look at the Thinkific pricing to know how much it costs to host your online course. Although its free plan is enough to test its features before upgrading your account.

. The monthly pricing varies from $0 (Free), $39 (Basic), $79 (Pro), and $399 (Premier) based on some features and options are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

  • The basic plan starts from $39, which is good for beginners.
  • The Pro plan costs $79 per month
  • The premier plan costs $399 per month

There is also a free plan to test the Thinkific and see if it fits your business.

Check Thinkific Pricing

2. Teachable

teachable-online-course-platform

 

Teachable has more than 100,000 instructors and transformed their knowledge into courses that have earned more than $500 million.

Teachable is second on our list of the best online course platforms for online instructors who want to create and sell their courses.

To complete an online course, you:

  • Set up a school to represent your brand
  • Create a course within this school
  • Create modules for your course
  • Upload lesson materials for each module
  • Publish your course
  • Sell your course through a teachable sales page.

Although Teachable has limited themes, it has an excellent user interface, structured support, various upload options, and useful sales funnels.

Furthermore, teachable offers free resources sent directly to your email, clearly explaining course creation, video presentation, and launching a profitable course.

What I like about Teachable is that it has all the marketing tools to launch online courses.It is one of the best platforms to host online courses in 2024.

Teachable Features

  • Connect with other tools
  • Optimise student engagement
  • Accept payments in over 130 currencies
  • Create order bumps, upsells, bundles, memberships, and coupons
  • Affiliate marketing tools
  • Automation
  • Great support

Teachable Pricing Plans

Teachable has three pricing plans: Basic, Pro, and Business.

  • The Basic plan costs $39,
  • The Pro plan costs $119,
  • And the business plan costs $229.

Try Teachable now

3.LearnWorlds

Learnworlds has many features, including RSS feeds and an inbuilt social network. The course platform does not require credit card registration to access the 30-day test on all plans.

To start building, you provide your email and school name.

The next step is to move to a dashboard that contains many videos lined up for each category with different landing page content.

Then, you create your course; after that, you create course content and select activities which include multimedia (Such as video, SoundCloud, E-book, Audio, YouTube, SCORM/HTML5 Package),

Live Session (Zoom Meeting, Zoom Webinar), Questionnaires (Quiz, Exam, Assignment), Certificate (certificate of completion), Embed (Embed code, Embedded Slideshare)

Learnworlds also provides interactive e-books that students can highlight or jot notes from converting Word documents you upload.

Learnworlds Features

  • Learner analytics
  • Customizable and beautiful course player,
  • Responsive template and design,
  • video library,
  • conversion tracking,
  • Powerful testing engine
  • Branded Digital Certificates

The significant drawbacks, however, are the complexity, The bulk upload feature and the absence of any mobile app.

Learnworlds has won several awards, such as Quality Choice and Trusted Vendor. It also recently added a new Zoom integration.

LearnWorlds Pricing Plans

Learnworlds offers three pricing plans.

  • The starter cost $24,
  • The Pro Trainer is $79,
  • And the Learning Center costs $249.

Check the Learnworlds pricing plans

4. Podia

home website builder-hero
podia

A podium is a platform a speaker stands on to communicate to a gathering of people. A podium is higher than the crowd, so the crowd can easily see and hear the speaker. Podia is the plural of the podium.

Podia was created in 2014 by Spencer Fry; he founded Podia to enable creative entrepreneurs to build and sell various digital downloads, including courses and memberships, to their audience. Podia is also suitable for affiliate marketing.

Podia has a well-designed interface with a range of personalization based on users’ tastes; the platform also provides regular updates, and students generally testify to the good experience.

However, Podia suffers from poor back-end support and only allows simple one-tier structured courses; to create a more challenging course, you must choose another course platform.

Podia Pricing Plan

Podia offers two pricing options.

  • The Mover: It costs $39 monthly (With an opportunity to save $78 when paid yearly).
  • The Shaker costs $79 monthly (with an option to save $158 when paid annually)

Visit Podia’s official website

5. Ruzuku

Ruzuku is an online platform known for its peer-to-peer learning support. The course platform is not for you if you want high-level interactive courses since it does not support standards such as SCORM or xAPI.

The platform guides you from the first step in your course creation (giving your course a name) to adding media such as audio, images, text, and videos within a short period.

You can incorporate multiple-choice quizzes in your course activities if you have an Up-and-Comer or University subscription.

Or, if you want to add more complicated quizzes, you can create them in external apps like ProProfs and Poll Daddy and then embed them into your course on Ruzuku.

Users can also host live teleconferences and webinars that are automatically recorded and uploaded into your course.

Ruzuku gives creators the power to control how students see the course entirely. For instance, you can decide to show all the modules available to your students as soon as they enrol in your course, or you can make it stepwise in which students unlock a new module only after completing the previous module.

With Ruzuku, students can complete social profiles and discuss within the online community. Ruzuku is popular among health and wellness experts, personal development experts, art professionals, talented entrepreneurs and business people.

Ruzuku also provides live webinars and teleconferences. Some courses on Ruzuku include a vegetarian cooking class and a professional brand philosophy.

Ruzuku Pricing Plans

They classify the pricing into 3:

  • The University plan is billed at $125 per month,
  • Up and coming plan costs $83.08 per month, charged annually
  • The Bootstrapper plan is set annually at $74.75 per month.

6. Kajabi

Kajabi is another best platform for online courses. It was created in 2010 by Kenny Rueter, Travis Rosser. Kajabi has empowered over 50,000 users in 120 countries to serve 60 million students and make over $1.5 billion in sales.

Kajabi’s vision is to “empower entrepreneurs, experts, and influencers serious about their business to achieve success online.”

Kajabi offers built-in tools that help course creators build, market, and sell their courses. The features Kajabi offers are flexible for course creation, sales, and marketing.

Kajabi gives a 14-day free trial only after you provide card details.

Kajabi, however, provides analytics and over 450 third-party app integrations, including Mailchimp, Infusionsoft by Keap, Shopify, stripe, slack, Ontraport, EZ texting, OneNote, and Elastic Mail.

Kajabi supports student engagement tools, affiliate programs, blogs and a mobile app for students alone.

The online course platform has a few drawbacks, such as limited mobile app usage, especially for instructors, and offers are often vague.

Kajabi Features

  • Website Builder
  • Growing your following
  • High-converting page template
  • Selling your product: 1-click upsell, integration checkout, free trial, subscriptions etc.
  • Video hosting
  • Marketing automation

Kajabi Pricing Plans

Kajabi has THREE pricing plans: basic, growth and pro.

  • The basic plan costs $149 per month.
  • The growth plan costs $199 per month.
  • The pro plan will cost $399

Check the Kajabi pricing

Best online course tools for creating online schools

7. LearnDash

LearnDash is a learning management system (LMS) trusted by companies, universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide to create (and sell) their online courses. 

LearnDash is a trusted way to create & sell online courses with WordPress. They offer services to the University of Florida, Digital Marketer, Tony Robbins, University of Michigan, and Yoast Academy.

A cool feature that helps students is the focus mode, as it hinders distraction. LearnDash also offers email drip campaigns.

The software has many options, and you can also add functions using ad-ones that are free or paid. For excellent performance (and a decreased risk of compatibility issues), you should only install the add-ons you need.

LearnDash Modifies WordPress by adding new menu items, custom post types, and taxonomies for courses, lessons, topics, quizzes, questions, assignments, and essays.

Also, new widgets and shortcodes, database tables, and Group leader roles are available.

LearnDash converts your WordPress site into a robust LMS. Within a short time, courses can be created and sold. You can also give badges and certificates.

Integration

LearnDash integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, BuddyPress, MemberPress, PayPal, Stripe, Mailchimp, and over 250 other apps.

LearnDash also gives access to Lesson timers, forums, course points, Course prerequisites, Drip-feed content, advanced quizzing, auto-notifications, and the ability to use any WordPress theme.

They also offer Superior quizzing capabilities, Immersive Learning Experience.

LearnDash Pricing

The Basic Package costs $159, the Pro package costs $329, and the Plus package costs $189.

Another LMS that I like is New Zenler. It is a good platform for building and hosting courses online. However, its price seems higher compared to other LMS platforms.

8. Academy of Mine

Academy of Mine is high-end, and its philosophy is no matter what direction you wish to take your business, all you need to get there is the LearnDash platform.

They create Customized LMS that works on all devices. Crazy philosophy indeed, but it has brought them some big names. Famous users of the Academy of Mine include USC (University of Southern California), HarperCollins, Clemson University, Allied Behavioral Health Service, and am Health.

Are you a logistics company that requires continued training due to constant changes in a particular legal code at the national level?

Do you think your company’s staff needs to be updated? 

Then try the Academy of Mine

Academy of Mine Packages

The price is $9,997 per year, and some of the features covered are :

  • Unlimited Users & Courses,
  • quizzes & Assignments
  • Integrated eCommerce
  • SCORM and xAPI-compliant
  • Webpage Builder
  • Live Webinars
  • Integration with Marketing Site
  • 24-7 Customer Support
  • Secure Dedicated Servers & Hosting,
  • Surveys and Discussions

Academy of Mine Features

  • Custom User Fields
  • Group Onboarding
  • Advanced Reporting, SSO (Single Sign-On)
  • Custom Payment Gateways
  • API & Developer Access
  • Activity & Audit Log

Users can request the AOM demo by filling out a form or calling.

9. WIZIQ

WizIQ is another online platform for hosting online courses. The platform provides apps through the Apple App Store and the Play Store, as well as a desktop app for Windows, Mac OS, Web browser (OS agnostic), and Windows 10.

WizIQ Virtual Classroom provides a complete solution for teachers, institutes, and business organizations to deliver live classes and launch self-paced courses.

WizIQ is easy to use, cheap, and gives learners the willpower to access courses from anywhere. Businesses can launch their education portal easily.

WizIQ is best suited for Colleges, Universities, Large Enterprises, Mid-Size Businesses, Non-Profits, Public Administrations, and Small Businesses.

WizIQ features

  • Virtual classroom
  • online course creation
  • tests and assessment
  • mobile learning
  • LMS eCommerce
  • E-learning analytics
  • Tests and assessment builders
  • eCommerce, and reports

WizIQ also offers integrations such as Advanced Open Integration, Moodle, Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, and Front.

WizIQ Pricing

WizIQ Classroom pricing starts from $25/month, billed annually.

They categorize it as Pay-per-use, Enterprise, and Professional (Which vary depending on features such as many teachers, type of media sent, API access, and class duration).

They divide WizIQ LMS into elite and infinite.                           

10. Clickcourse

Click4Course also provides a 30-day free trial without a credit card. Selling a course costs $79 a month ($65 if prepaid annually). It also includes free custom branding, your logo, a welcome banner/message area, and a background colour/image.

Click4course also offers corporate training.

ClickCourse features

  • Video and PowerPoint Support
  • Course Deadlines / Restrictions
  • Add Individual Learners
  • Certificate:
  • Multiple-choice Question Types: Choose from several questions, including Multiple Choice, Multiple Select, True / False, Agree / Disagree, and short answer.
  • Randomize Question Order:
  •  Learner Report: complete download reports of your student’s learning.
  • Survey Reports: Run complete reports of tests and surveys
  • Export: You can download Reports in PDF or EXCEL and print them out.
  • Recent Activity: View recent activity by time (registration, enrolment, completion, etc.) By day, week, month, or all time.
  • Automated Learner Notifications: Customize notifications automatically for actions such as registration and course completion
  • Automated Admin Notifications

Best online course Platforms for managing your business

11. Simplero

If you’re looking for a course builder with easy customisation, then you can think of the Simplero course builder platform.

With Simplero. it only takes a few minutes to create your course outline and curriculum. The platform is very simple to use.

Simplero outperforms most online course platforms because it goes beyond just a course creation app; it is like a marketing automation tool.

It has a CRM feature, a list management feature and more. With Simplero, you can create, publish, market your course, and track sales.

Simplero Pricing

The Simplero build plan starts at $29 monthly and allows you to create courses. It comes with 1000 contacts, unlimited courses, and up to 5 products. You can upgrade to the launch plan for $99 per month.

12. Digital Chalk

Digital Chalk was founded in 2006 by Russ Stinehour and Troy Tolle.

DigitalChalk is a cloud-based learning management system for both mid and small-scale businesses.

The DigitalChalk features the following:

  • Course content,
  • Track progress
  • Library
  • And real-time analytics.

Other notable features include Multilanguage support and interactive HD video streaming. Digital Chalk provides quick registration, SCORM Compliance, Mobile learning, gamification, built-in Authoring, and eCommerce.

They offer it in a subscription pricing option. It provides support via email and over the phone. Other help options include user guides, a knowledge base, blogs, FAQs, video tutorials, and developer documentation.

The website is designed for Experts (Those willing to sell courses) or managers (those who want to train employees)

You can also schedule a live demo by filling in some details about yourself (Your name, email, company, and needs).

Digital Chalk Pricing

The pricing is unusual: You get options of 18 pounds, 25 euros, or 25 dollars.

13. Skillshare

Skillshare was created in November 2010 by Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong in New York., Skillshare offers less than 20 class options but has far over 25,000 class options.

Skillshare does not give a certificate after learning a course. You know the course to acquire skills. Some popular courses on the platform include Storytelling 101, Productivity Master Class, Digital Illustration, YouTube Success, Presentation Essentials,

Hand-lettering steps to modern calligraphy, Fundamentals of DSLR photography, and Machine learning with Python. The courses offered on SkillShare vary in specialization and complexity.

After registering an email, you are to input card details before proceeding. You get seven days of free trial and are expected to pay either $2.49 or $8

Skillshare is an online course platform that is continuously growing. It now offers many classes in different niches.

They provide members with unlimited access to courses for a monthly subscription fee, and they also offer many free courses.

Most courses on Skillshare are not accredited, and you won’t get any certificate at the end. But you will get skills.

14.LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn learning assists organizations in increasing learner engagement and the development of skills. It has over 16,000 courses taught by experts, and more than 40 new courses are added weekly.

Some popular LinkedIn learning courses are Project Management Foundations, Excel Essential training, JavaScript Essential Training, Strategic Thinking, and Body Language for Leaders.

 LinkedIn Learning is best suited for professional/ career development. It supports German, English, French, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish languages. 

LinkedIn Learning is one of the most popular online training hosting platforms due to its advanced features.

Online Course Marketplace

Best online course marketplace for launching your new course

15.Udemy.com

Udemy is a great online course marketplace with over 40 million students and over 65k Udemy instructors registered in its courses.

You can create both free and paid courses on Udemy. And if you want to create a paid course, you must apply and become a premium instructor.

After being approved, you will get access to the steps to follow to create your first online course.

The Udemy platform offers many features to support creating and marketing courses. Also, there is a lot of free training to guide you in creating successful online courses on Udemy.

In addition, the Udemy marketplace insight will help you select the best course topic and learn how it will perform against other courses.

Udemy pricing

Udemy is free to sell a premium course. They also charge a 3% revenue share on course sales generated by instructors.

The revenue share does not include the fees charged by Payoneer and PayPal.

Best Platforms for hosting paid community

16. Mighty Networks

To start a paid community, think about the Mighty Networks platform.

It helps you to build an active paid community around your online courses.

The tool focuses on community-building, including paid groups, events and online courses.

What I like about Mighty Networks is that users can take individual courses, memberships or bundle courses together.

Mighty Networks allows you to connect with your favourite apps using Zapier integration. This feature will help you automate your work, such as sync events to your calendar.

Mighty Networks price. The Mighty Networks includes online courses starting at $81 per month.

The best alternative to Mighty Networking is Skool. The Skool platform is great for building a networking community and creating and selling your course online.

17. Pathwright

Pathwright is an online course software that creates courses designed to be actionable to the learners. Its App course creator is easy, and its course curriculum is exceptional.

It allows you to choose the actions students can perform from the menu, such as take, read, submit, listen, etc.

You can integrate the app with Zapier to automate your work, such as making email lists, sending course invitations, etc.

Pathwright pricing

The Pathwright price is $99 per month for up to 1000 students, with unlimited and free courses.

Final Thoughts

Now that you can access the best platforms to host online courses, it is time to choose one that fits your needs.

One of the best ways to build a profitable business is to sell an online course, and without a platform to showcase your course to the customer, they won’t be able to join.

That is the reason you need to find the best online course platform to sell your course and program,

Most of the mentioned platforms give you everything you need to host and sell your course without issue.

If you’re a beginner, I advise you to start with any affordable platform so that you will not have any challenges if the course takes more time to generate profits.

In addition, make sure the preferred hosting platform is easy to customise and provides all the marketing tools you need to create and sell your course.

I recommend starting with the Thinkfic platform and choosing the plan that fits your online course. I don’t advise using a free platform, as it may lack many features to create and sell a profitable course.

FAQ

What are the best online course platforms?

The best online course platform is Thinkfic. It is the best overall, and if you want to start creating your online course today, you can start with the Thinkific platform.

Others that you can check are Teachable, Podia and LearnDash.

What are the best free online course platforms?

The best free platforms for online courses to create and sell courses are:

  • Coursera
  • Skillshare
  • Learning words

Are you ready to launch your product or service?

You may want to check out my friend Jeff Walker’s product launch course and learn how to launch a six-figure online course from his free masterclass training.

You can also read the digital marketing strategies for new product launches to learn how to market your products and services.

If you have any questions about the best platforms to host online courses, please let me know in the comment section.

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  • Oyundoyin Anthony

    Oyundoyin Anthony is a blogger who offers helpful contents to people and recommend different products for their needs. He enjoys helping people to achieve success in their business.

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