Top 5 Best Online Course Platforms

Online course industry has seen a surge in the past few years with the rise of technology and the growing popularity of e-learning.

In fact, the online course market is currently estimated to be worth $126.19 billion and is projected to grow to $352 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 18.66%.

There are a variety of online course platforms available, each with its own set of features and benefits.

In this article, we will take a look at the top 5 best online course platforms for 2022.

• Thinkific: Thinkific is a powerful yet easy-to-use platform that makes it easy to create, market, and sell your own online courses.
• Teachable: Teachable is a comprehensive platform that allows you to create, market, and sell online courses.
• Gurucan: Gurucan is a simple and flexible platform that makes it easy to create and sell online courses.
• LearnWorlds:  LearnWorlds is a complete solution for creating, marketing, and selling online courses.
• ClickFunnels: ClickFunnels handles both your sales and online course management.

They offer various features and benefits that make them stand out in the online course platform market.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these platforms.

What Is The Best Online Course Platforms?

Thinkific

Turn your expertise into revenue with online courses.

Thinkific.com

Thinkific aims to help you with – an easy to use platform that helps you create, market, distribute and sell your own online courses.

Thinkific is so easy to use and comes with amazing user experience which leads to Fiverr Learn using Thinkific to host their online course content. (You can check it with Builtwith)

Getting started with Thinkific is pretty simple and straightforward. You can either start from scratch or use one of the ready-made course templates.

If you want to start from scratch, Thinkific provides you with a drag-and-drop course builder that makes it easy to create and customize your courses.

You can also add quizzes, surveys, and assignments to your courses to make them more interactive and engaging.

Once you’re done creating your course, Thinkific provides you with a variety of tools and features to help you market and sell your courses.

Even Spencer Mecham from Buildaprenuer hosted his Affiliate Secrets 3.0 course with Thinkific.

Key Features:

• Interactive Content: You can increase your customer engagement by adding quizzes, surveys, and assignments to your courses.
• Gamify Your Course: You can add badges and points to your courses to make them more engaging and fun.
• Drip Content: You can release your course content over time so that your students can absorb it better. (Avoid overwhelm)
• Easy To Use: With its drag and drop course builder, Thinkific makes it easy to create and customize your courses.
• Wistia By Default: Thinkific hosts your files with Wistia which ensures that your videos are delivered without any buffering.

Pros of Thinkific:

• Easy to use with a drag and drop course builder
• Can add quizzes, surveys, and assignments to courses for increased customer engagement
• Has a built-in drip content feature to release course content over time
• Hosts your files with Wistia which ensures that your videos are delivered without any buffering
• You can build your communities within the Thinkific platform

Cons of Thinkific:

• There is a slight learning curve involved in using the platform
• You can’t use all the features on the Free plan.

Pricing:

You can test drive Thinkific with their Free plan first and upgrade it anytime you want. 

The paid plans start from $49/month. You can get started with the Thinkific free plan here.

Teachable

Transform your knowledge into a thriving business with the best online course platform for creators everywhere.

Teachable.com

Teachable is one of the best online course platforms that help you create, market, and sell your courses with ease.

With Teachable, you can easily create beautiful and professional-looking courses with their easy-to-use course builder.

You can also add quizzes, surveys, and assignments to your courses to make them more interactive and engaging.

Once you’re done creating your course, Teachable provides you with a variety of tools and features to help you market and sell your courses.

Key Features:

• Personalized Content Experience: You can create your content around your customer’s needs and preferences to avoid overwhelm.
• Expand Creativity: With Teachable course builder, you can easily create beautiful and professional-looking courses.
• Interactive Content: You can increase your customer engagement by adding quizzes, surveys, and assignments to your courses.
• Build-in Checkout: Teachable provides you with a build-in checkout feature so that you can start selling your courses right away.

Pros of Teachacble:

• Expand creativity with professional-looking courses
• Interactive content features to increase customer engagement
• Build-in checkout feature to start selling courses right away
• You can start your business even with the free plan.

Cons of Teachacble:

• There is a slight learning curve involved in using the platform
• Unable to try all the features with a free plan.

Pricing:

Teachable has a Free plan that you can use to test drive the platform. The paid plans start from $39/month. 

You can get started with the Teachable free plan here.

Gurucan

Everything a successful knowledge business needs: online courses, memberships, emails, push-notifications, private label mobile apps & more

Gurucan.com

Gurucan is the only online course platform that offers webinar features. 

With its easy-to-use interface, you can create stunning courses that are sure to engage your students.

Plus, with its many features like automated quizzes and tests, you’ll be able to keep track of your student’s progress effortlessly.

And if that’s not enough, Gurucan also comes with a responsive landing page builder so you can create a beautiful storefront for your courses.

Interesting right? Let’s check out some more of its features.

Key Features:

• Online Courses: You can create various kinds of online courses that match any type of online business.
• Quizzes and Tests: You can check the progress of your students by running automated quizzes and tests.
• Landing Page Builder: You can create a beautiful and converting landing page for your courses.
• Webinar Functionality: You can host webinars directly on the Gurucan platform.
• Chat Functionality: You can engage with your students in real-time with the chat functionality.

Pros of Gurucan:

• One-stop-shop for everything you need to create a successful online business
• Easy-to-use interface for creating stunning courses
• Many features for tracking student progress and engagement

Cons of Gurucan:

• Gurucan is relatively new and still  has some room for improvement

Pricing:

Unlike Teachable and Thinkific, Gurucan doesn’t have a free plan.

However, you can get started with their 7-day free trial. After that, the paid plans start from $99/month. You can sign up for the Gurucan free trial here.

LearnWorlds

The best online course platform for creating, selling and promoting your online courses. Start monetizing your skills, experiences and your audience.

LearnWorlds.com

If you’re looking for a comprehensive online course platform that will allow you to create and sell courses from your own website, then look no further than LearnWorlds.

This platform is incredibly easy to use, versatile, and beautifully branded. You’ll be able to capture leads and sell courses with advanced pricing options, and optimize your school for conversions with powerful integrations.

Plus, you’ll get all the support you need to succeed as an online trainer or edupreneur with 24/7 360° support.

There is more to this powerful platform, but let’s take a look at some of its key features.

Key Features:

• Fully Customizable Platform: You can customize every aspect of your LearnWorlds school to perfectly match your brand.
• Advanced Pricing Options: You can sell courses with one-time payments, subscriptions, or even offer free courses.
• Integrations: You can integrate your LearnWorlds school with popular email marketing platforms, payment processors, and more.
• 24/7 360° Support: You’ll get all the support you need to succeed with your online courses.

Pros of LearnWorlds:

• Fully customizable platform to perfectly match your brand
• Advanced pricing options for selling courses
• Integrations with popular email marketing platforms, payment processors, and more
• 24/7 360° support
• Get access to all features during the 30-day free trial period.

Cons of LearnWorlds:

• The interface can be a bit overwhelming at first

Pricing:

LearnWorlds doesn’t have a free plan, but you can get started with their generous 30-day free trial to try out all their features.

After that, the paid plans start from $29/month. You can sign up for the LearnWorlds free trial here.

ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is the perfect platform for anyone who wants to sell online courses and membership programs.

With ClickFunnels, you can create beautiful sales funnels that are optimized for conversions. 

You’ll be able to capture leads, sell courses and memberships, and track your results with ease.

Plus, you’ll get access to a community of like-minded entrepreneurs who are ready to help you achieve your online business goals.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use platform that will allow you to sell online courses and memberships, then ClickFunnels is the perfect choice for you.

Get started with ClickFunnels today and get access to all the features you need to succeed with your online courses and membership programs.

Key Features:

• Easy-to-use sales funnel builder: You can easily create beautiful sales funnels that are optimized for conversions.
• A/B Testing: You can test different sales funnels to see which one performs the best.
• Integrations with popular payment processors: Need not worry  about setting up payment processors. ClickFunnels integrates with popular payment processors such as Stripe and PayPal.
• Drag and drop editor: You can easily create and edit your membership area with the drag and drop editor.
• Unlimited Product Bundles: You can sell unlimited courses and membership programs with ClickFunnels.

Pros of ClickFunnels:

• You can easily sell online courses and membership programs
• The sales funnel builder is easy to use
• You can test different sales funnels with A/B Testing
• Integrations with popular payment processors
• You can custom code your membership area to your liking
• Irresistible offer if you sign up with Your First Funnel offer

Cons of ClickFunnels:

• Membership area is kinda “Old School” if  you don’t custom code it

Pricing:

ClickFunnels doesn’t have a free plan, but you can get started with their 14-day free trial to try out all their features.

After that, the paid plans start from $97/month. You can sign up for the ClickFunnels free trial here.

What Features To Look For In The Best Online Course Platform?

Now that we’ve looked at some of the best online course platforms, it’s time to take a look at what features you should be looking for when choosing a platform for your online courses.

Here are some of the key features to look for:

• Fully Customizable Platform: You want a platform that you can customize to perfectly match your brand.
• Advanced Pricing Options: You should be able to sell your courses for the price you want, and have a variety of pricing options such as subscription plans, one-time payments, payment plans, etc.
• Integrations with Popular Email Marketing Platforms: You want to be able to integrate your courses with popular email marketing platforms such as AWeber, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, etc.
• Integrations with Popular Payment Processors: You also want to be able to integrate your courses with popular payment processors such as Stripe, PayPal, 2Checkout, etc.
• File Uploads and Downloads: You’ll need to be able to upload and manage files such as PDFs, images, videos, etc.
• Drip Content: You should be able to release your course content gradually over time (drip it out to your students).
• Course Forums: It’s helpful if the platform has a built-in course forum so that your students can interact with each other and ask questions.
• Customer Support: You want to be able to get help from the platform’s customer support team if you run into any problems.

How can an online course platform help your business?

An online course platform can help your business in many ways.

Some of the ways an online course platform can help your business are:

• It can help you attract more customers and clients: A well-designed and branded online course platform can help you attract more customers and clients to your business.
• It can help you sell more courses and products: A good online course platform will help you sell more courses and products by making it easy for your customers to find and purchase your courses.
• It can help you deliver your courses more effectively: A good online course platform will help you deliver your courses more effectively by providing features such as drip content, file uploads/downloads, course forums, etc.
• It can help you save time and money: A good online course platform can help you save time and money by automating some of the tasks involved in selling and delivering courses.
• It can help you change more people’s lives: Ultimately, an online course platform can help you change more people’s lives by making it easier for you to sell and deliver your courses.

I think you already know the potential of an online course platform, but let’s look at the types of products you can sell with an online course platform.

Types of Products You Can Sell With An Online Course Platform

I’m a big fan of Frank Kern’s teaching. He’s one of the most successful online marketers out there.

In one of his training, “Info Business Blueprint“, he said that there are only 5 types of products you can sell online:

1. The Liquidator(Tripwire):  A low-priced product that’s designed to get customers into your sales funnel.
2. The Bread-N-Butter(Core Offer):  Your main product or course that you sell.
3. Modulated Course: This is a course that’s broken up into smaller modules or lessons that you release over time (drip content).
4. High Ticket: A high-priced product or course that’s designed for your most loyal customers. Usually involves some sort of coaching or mentorship.
5. Continuity: A subscription-based product or service that customers pay for on a monthly basis.

These are the 5 types of products you can sell with an online course platform.

As you can see, there’s a lot of potential with an online course platform. You can use it to sell all kinds of courses and products.

All you need is a good online course platform and a little bit of creativity.

If you are still unsure about how to craft your courses, you can try using “The Escape and Arrival Framework”.

It’s a simple framework that I personally use to craft my courses. (Thanks, Frank Kern!)

Here’s how it works:

• Escape: The first part of your course is designed to help your students escape their current situation. This could be a problem they’re facing, a goal they want to achieve, or something else.
• Arrival: The second part of your course is designed to help your students arrive at their desired destination. This could be a solution to their problem, achieving their goal, or something else.

The Escape and Arrival Framework is a simple but effective framework that you can use to craft your courses.

You can get access to “Info Business Blueprint” for free within Your ClickFunnels account.

Best Online Course Platform – Conclusion

Online course platforms continuously improve their interface and functionality.

This is good news for you as a business owner because it means that you can focus on your content and marketing, and not worry about the technical details.

But that shouldn’t be an excuse for you to keep searching for the “perfect” platform.

If you spend too much time searching, you’ll never get started.

The best online course platforms are always changing and improving. 

So, my advice is to just choose one and get started.

I personally use and recommend ClickFunnels because it’s the platform that I’m most familiar with.

But there are other great platforms out there as well.

Do your research and choose the best platform for your needs. Then, get started creating and selling your courses!

Happy course creation!