As you’re planning and developing your digital e-course, one of the things you also need to consider is what platform to use to deliver it successfully. Today’s post provides an insight on what platforms are available, listing pros and cons for each. I don’t have a favorite that I’ll lean towards in my post, but I want you to decide which one is best based on my experience and findings below.

Online Course Platforms Defined

Online course platforms are a type of learning management systems (LMS) providing users access to digital classes. Among these, there are a few different types of online platforms for teaching.

Each platform works best for specific needs and should be chosen based on your requirements.

• Self-Hosted WordPress LMS plugin online course platforms provide you the tools and infrastructure to sell your course from your website. These offer unlimited flexibility in the features and how it will function. The downside is you will have to take care of maintenance, security and the performance of the software. Example: LearnDash plugin

• Platforms hosted by third parties offer a combination of easy to set up and ability to share your course all in one place. You can build your course website without a lot of different plugins or worrying about the techy stuff. Example: Teachable

• Online Independent course platforms present your course via an e-commerce market along with many other courses. The platform manages most of the process including sales and marketing with some restrictive conditions Example: Udemy

Each platform has advantages and disadvantages. Look at all the options before deciding on one.

Online Course Platform Choices

Let’s look at a few of the top platform choices in each category.

Hosted Online Course Platforms

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that allows you to create a course website, host any type of content, market, and sell your course while delivering your content in a professional way.

Pros:

• Website building tools including hosting, themes and design with flexible options.
• Customizable site themes to make your website look like you imagined.
• Automated email marketing allows you to build email marketing campaigns quickly, send email broadcasts and be able to see your email analytics
• Easy One Click log-in for your customers
• Custom URLs
• Built-in Blog to give updates to your customers and subscribers
• Pipelines so you can connect all the landing pages, email sequences and offers.
• Upsell ability
• Landing page builder where you can create stunning landing pages quickly.
• Automated marketing tools
• Payment processing and gateway
• Affiliate marketing suite
• Membership software
• Zero transaction fees

Cons:

• Pricing plans are expensive: Kajabi offers yearly or monthly plans. The basic plan is $129 /month while the pro plan is $389 month.
• Support is only offered through live chat or email support.

Teachable is a popular choice for beginners. Teachable has more than 3 million students, 7500 instructors and over 2000 courses. Teachable lets you create and sell your online training or course under your own brand.

Pros:

• It offers a variety of pricing plans from free to $399 a month.
• Allows you to add multiple content types including videos and quizzes to your course
• Can drip your course content
• Easy to get started with and to maneuver with drag-and-drop features
• Active blog and community for finding useful tips and advice
• Handles EU Vat payments
• Designed for focusing on creating and selling your course
• SSL certificates
• Seamless hosting
• Instant automatic upgrades
• Allows for you to brand and use your own images
• Ability to monitor student numbers and other analytics

Cons:

• Page design options are minimal
• No email marketing features are included

Thinkific allows you to create sell and manage your course and the sales pages that go with them. They are a platform with a healthy set of user-friendly features and marketing tools. Thinkific is a good option if you want to reduce the technological headaches of many platforms.

Pros:

• Pricing is reasonable, especially for new course creators. Free or $49 per month. Also has higher priced plans for more advanced users up to $499 a month
• Good for those with little or no experience in online business management
• Easy creation of course materials. Easy to load and organize your course
• The site builder creates beautiful sales pages
• Easily add icons from the site creator
• Course templates to help you design your course
• Ability to download any files created with eLearning tools such as iSpring and Captivate
• Accepts Stripe and PayPal payment options for your students
• Excellent support
• Unlimited Students and Content

Cons:

• 2-step check-out pages
• Media can’t be mixed
• Not native comments feature
• Courses are rougher looking than other platforms

Podia is a good alternative to Kajabi. It allows users to create, host and sell their trainings all on one easy-to-use platform. With not transaction fees and a simple three-step process, you can have your course website ready to go quickly.

Pros:

• Is reasonably priced with 0% transaction fees. Pricing is $39/month or $79/month
• Ability to add coupons
• Ability to have memberships which enable you to
  • Interact with members
  • Bundle products for specific groups
  • Offer tiered plans
  • Create individual posts for one-off content
  • Connect with Facebook Groups and Slack
• Can pre-launch courses
• Sales page options
• Ability to leverage “drip” courses
• Has the capability to run your own affiliate program inside Podia
• Free 14-day trial
• Content delivery including videos, audio, PDF, text and more

Cons:

• Their payment processors charge transaction fees of 2.9% plus 30 cents
• No free plan to try it out
• Doesn’t support graded quizzes, certificates, content locking
• Only supports building sales pages for you products. Can’t build other pages
• Doesn’t allow you to create a fully-fledged website
• Course builder is inflexibly
• Doesn’t support cloud import

Academy of Mine is an all-in-one platform that offers white label e-learning platforms with the option to have a website and course built for you by their team in a “done for you” way.

Pros:

• Variety of customization options
• 24/7 customer service
• Done-for-you or drag-and-drop
• Inbuilt support for Certificates, gamification, discussion forums, gradebooks for student engagement

Cons:

• Higher end pricing $199/month and $299/ month
• Steep learning curve

WordPress LMS Plugins

LearnDash is a powerful WordPress LMS plugin with loads of features for total control over your course delivery. Design the course to your standards and easily engage with students.

Pros:

• Can engage with students
• Ability to create forums
• Awards and certificates can be given out
• Reasonably priced at $199/year or $369/year
• Drip-feed content
• Drag-and-drop course builder for organizing
• Email/Zapier trigger functionality for automation
• Built-in video progression support for video courses
• Validation triggers
• Visual path generator makes it easier to design your course and visualize how everything works together

Cons:

• Must purchase add-ons for some features
• Deep functionality can be difficult for casual users
• Steep learning curve

Online Course Marketplaces

Udemy is a popular platform to both users and students. It offers one of the largest marketplaces to find e-courses. They also provide instructors guidance on creating their own courses and market them.

Pros:

• Free to use
• Access to a large user base
• Substantial revenue share for tuition fees, 100% for new users, 50% for existing users
• You set your course price
• Ability to participate in their marketing promotions
• Reliable technology and support
• Retargeting ads
• Action-based email campaigns
• Course quality checklist
• Assignments
• Training videos

Cons:

• Intense competition with other courses
• Strong competition with other course publishers
• Lenient return policies for any reason for students

Skillshare is a large marketplace platform focused on creative education. Skillshare allows you to create, host and sell video courses.  

Pros:

• Affiliate program to earn $10 for everyone who signs up
• Free to use
• Good support
• Instructions on making an online course
• Large marketplace of people who can find your course

Cons:

• Must enroll 25 students before you get paid
• Low earnings pool
• No website building functionality
• No marketing function
• You don’t control or own your course
• Not allowed to determine your price
• Can’t be marketed outside Skillshare

What next?

Choosing a platform for your course begins with exploring the different options available online. With so many, and new ones being added every day, it’s important to weigh all your options first.

We’ve looked at the different types of platforms available. The self-hosted WordPress LMS plugin option works with your website. Third party platforms are easy to set up and share all in one place. The independent course platform is an ecommerce marketplace.

The choices of each platform each have their own advantages and disadvantages. It’s up to you to determine which ones will work for your needs. Ask yourself what you need and what your goals are for the course.

Then choose the online course platform that will fit those needs, help you grow your course success and fit within your budget.

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Aletha McManama

Aletha is a "Digital Marketing Maven" who specializes in online marketing using WordPress, social media and email marketing to assist her clients in marketing their business. She is a WordPress pro that designs websites and blogs. Plus, she trains business owners to create and maintain their own WP site and blog.

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