Top 10 Platforms for Creating and Selling Online Courses In 2023

Choosing the right course creation platform can be daunting for many entrepreneurs and creators. Select the wrong one, and you are considerably behind your competitors.

One of the biggest pain points is finding a platform that offers the necessary tools to create and sell immersive and interactive course content while also providing the ability to engage your audience effectively.

With so many options available online with their unique features and pricing plans, we’ve tried to declutter the information and help simplify your judgment by listing below the best online course platforms.

The Best Platforms for Creating and Selling Online Courses:

1. Miho

Miho is an affordable, all-in-one platform for creating and selling courses online. With Miho, you can design branded landing pages, pick from a variety of content formats, and use powerful marketing tools to succeed in your content delivery efforts.

Course creators can enjoy features like live chat with students, cohort-based courses, and seamless integrations with payment systems like Paypal and Stripe.

The wide range of marketing features and affordable pricing make Miho the go-to platform if you want to succeed as an online course creator.

Pricing: Get started for free. Paid plan starts from $24/per month

2. Teachable

Another established course creation platform in the market, Teachable, provides you with the necessary infrastructure to create and sell courses online. It allows you to add multiple content types to your course, including videos and quizzes while offering content distribution systems like email and referral marketing.

One drawback of Teachable is their Live Chat with students feature, which is available only from the pro model ($119/month) onwards.

Pricing: You can start with a basic free plan but pay $1+10% as a transaction fee. Paid plan starts from $36/per month.

3. Thinkific

Thinkific is a popular online course platform that provides an effective solution for creating, marketing, and selling your online courses with ease. You can create a course using various lesson formats like videos, quizzes, downloadable lessons, etc.

Thinkific offers various promotion solutions such as Thinkific Coupons to offer discounts for students enrolling in your courses and affiliate sponsorships. You can use the Thinkific App Store to add advanced functionality to your course creation and delivery process.

However, a notable drawback is Thinkific does not have its own IOS or Playstore App.

Pricing: You can get started for free. Paid plan starts from $36/per month

4. Podia

Podia lets you build an online store for your digital content. You can use Podia for email marketing, website design, drip campaigns, and affiliate management. You can also sell coaching sessions on the platform using their easy integration of calendar management platforms.

While users can sign up for free without a credit card, members of the free plan will have to bear a transaction fee of 8% on every sale. This is much higher than most other platforms, which mostly do not charge any transaction fee - making Podia not so beginner friendly.

Pricing: It offers a basic free plan with an 8% transaction fee. Paid plan starts from $33/month.

5. Kajabi

Kajabi is one of the most popular all-in-one platforms for course creators. It is best known for its powerful features like sales funnel builder and advanced automation that help you further optimize your sales.

Similar to Miho, Thinkific, and Teachable, Kajabi offers solutions like live chat, a variety of course formats, etc. You can set up a website, a blog, a podcast, marketing funnels, and email marketing.

The biggest disadvantage of Kajabi is its steep entry pricing, which starts at $119/month, making it the least beginner-friendly platform for creating online courses.

Pricing: The basic plan starts at $119 per month.

6. Gumroad

Gumroad is an online platform for people to sell digital products like courses, e-books, art, etc. It is known for its simple yet intuitive interface, which serves the purpose without the added bells and whistles.

However, Gumroad does not offer advanced marketing solutions like sales funnel, email marketing, or live chat with customers.

Unlike other platforms, Gumroad does not have a monthly or annual payment plan. Instead, they charge a flat 10% fee on every transaction.

Pricing: Flat 10% fee on every transaction.

7. Skillshare

Skillshare is a great platform for creating courses to teach creative skills like photography, video editing, marketing, etc. You do not need a paid membership to create or teach on Skillshare.

Skillshare pays instructors $10 for premium membership referrals for the total number of minutes of videos watched each month.

If you have a creative bend and would like to share your skill with other interested members in your niche, you can use Skillshare to build your own online course.

Pricing: The platform takes a cut before paying creators through a royalty system.

8. Udemy

Udemy is a marketplace to sell courses online. They bring in a massive number of students on their platform, giving any beginner course creator much-needed visibility from the start. However, with this advantage, Udemy brings along the disadvantage of high competition as you will be one among the several sellers in the marketplace.

If you are starting out with creating digital products and course sales are your ultimate objective, Udemy is a good platform to start with till you want to advance further.

Pricing: Revenue sharing model - you keep 37% of the revenue if the sale is made through Udemy marketing.

9. Simplero

Simplero is a unique all-in-one platform to sell both digital and physical products, along with events and memberships. You can host your online courses and market them with effective email marketing and smart automation - both of which are provided by Simplero.

You can take your sales a level further by using their funnel builder and tracking your leads on their custom CRM software.

Simplero provides 24/7 support and a thriving community to get started with creating your online course at very flexible pricing slabs.

Pricing: Starts at $59 per month.

10. MightyNetwork

MightyNetwork lets you build communities, create courses, and sell memberships. With its elegant and easy-to-use platform, you can easily create communities in various areas of interest. Members can access your community and content through the MightyNetwork iOS and Android mobile apps.

MightyNetwork pricing starts at $33 and offers native live streaming, chat, and messaging option. However, MightyNetwork is best for people believing in the principle of community first and content later. If selling courses is your primary option, you can look at other alternatives.

Pricing: There is a free trial but no free plan. Paid plan starts from $33/month.

Factors to consider to choose the best online course-creating platform:

• Customization options - You should look for a platform that offers flexibility in branding and content format options, such as the ability to create branded landing pages and choose from multiple content formats for creating your courses.
  
• Cost structure - Before deciding on a particular platform, consider the long-term cost structure - monthly/yearly, or if there is an additional transaction fee for each sale. Compare the pricing plans of different platforms, and examine the cost of any additional features or integrations you may need.
  
• Marketing and promotion tools - Look for a platform that offers the necessary tools to market your course, such as email marketing, affiliate marketing, and analytics.
  
• Ease of use and customer support - Opt for a platform with an easy and intuitive user interface and the availability of customer support to ensure that you can easily navigate and use the platform to create online courses.
  
• Integrations - Integrations will make your workflow simpler and more effective. Look for a platform that offers integrations with other tools you may use, such as payment processors, email marketing software, and webinar platforms.
  
• Additional features - Some platforms offer additional features like membership sites, webinars, live chats, and quizzes. These are extremely helpful to drive up engagement in your courses, and you should consider if they are included in the pricing plan.
  

Which platform is the best to create and sell online courses?

If you are starting out as a creator and want to grow into an established knowledge business, you should try Miho. Miho provides a robust and reliable infrastructure to help you create and sell your courses effectively and engage with your audience.

With the ability to create your personal brand and market as you please, Miho is perfect for course creators who want to focus more on their business and scale rather than logistics and operations.

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