• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Find Your Market
  • Find a Platform
  • Create a Course
  • Launch

Learning Revolution

Teach. Train. Conquer Your Market.

  • TOOLBOX
    • ONLINE COURSE PLATFORMS
    • PLATFORM GUIDE
    • COURSE CREATION TOOLS
    • SCREEN RECORDING TOOLS
    • REVIEWS
    • BROWSE ALL TOOLS
  • BLOG
  • NEWSLETTER
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • Search

Mobile Menu

  • TOOLBOX
    • ONLINE COURSE PLATFORMS
    • PLATFORM GUIDE
    • COURSE CREATION TOOLS
    • SCREEN RECORDING TOOLS
    • REVIEWS
    • BROWSE ALL TOOLS
  • BLOG
  • NEWSLETTER
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • Search

15+ Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses (and Counting)

You are here: Home / Technology / 15+ Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses (and Counting)
Image of hand holding credit card, other typing on computer keyboard

Last updated December 14, 2019 – Looking to sell online courses, but confused by all of the platform choices?

In this post I draw on my two decades of eLearning industry experience to highlight the best online course platforms and help you narrow your list. It’s a great companion to my free platform selection guide.

(Psst. If you already have a platform, be sure to check out the next steps at the end of this post.)

Why is choosing an online course platform so hard (and what makes it easier)?

One of the most important things to know about choosing the best online course platform is that most platforms out there are not designed to sell online courses. They are made to deliver internal corporate training or to support academic programs.

And here’s another important fact:

Even those that will work for selling online courses come in a lot of different flavors. Pick the wrong flavor for your online course business needs and you will have headaches.

So, to help narrow your field of choices (and avoid headaches!), I’ve organized this post into the following categories.

  • Standalone Platforms (Great for solo edupreneurs, small businesses)
  • All-In-One Platforms (Run your Web site and course site together)
  • WordPress Plug-Ins/Themes (For those who want to keep it all in WordPress)
  • Marketplace Platforms (Get a pre-made market for to sell courses online)
  • Small Business-Extended Enterprise (For more complex needs)
  • Moodle Plug-Ins/Add-Ons (Make Moodle into a selling machine)

It may seem like a no-brainer, but just having a clear idea of which of the categories above you fall in – along with knowing that only a  small  subset of online course platforms are meant for selling course – will make your life MUCH easier.

Keep in mind that I think all of these are strong choices.

I have my preferences, but depending on your specific needs, any of these could be a good fit. Also, if a company offers an affiliate program, I will usually participate (here’s my affiliate disclaimer) – that doesn’t cost you anything, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t get at least a little benefit from sending some business to a company.

I have more experience with some of the online course platforms listed here than others, but I have vetted them all at a high level to make sure – based on my decades of experience – that they seem like a good fit for edupreneurs and smaller education and training businesses that want to sell online courses.

I encourage you to use the comments area to share any experiences you have had with these platforms – good or bad. (And, be sure to check them out for what others have said.)

Now, let’s move on to the list.

Thinkific banner - "Easily create & sell courses on your own site. Start free."All of the platforms listed here are strong choices, but I know it can be helpful for an expert to just say “look at this one, it’s a top choice” if you want to sell online courses. So, here’s my all around top choice: Thinkific.

Check it out. You can create a free course right away, they are very upfront about how their different plans compare, and most importantly, I hear consistently from readers that that they have had a good experience with Thinkific. – Jeff

Don’t just take it from me. Here is what Thinkific reviews currently look like on ReviewMyLMS.com, a source for LMS reviews from actual users:

Screenshot of Thinkific Reviews on ReviewMyLMS.com
Thinkific’s customer service is one reason it is my top choice for a standalone platform.

Finally, if you decide you are interested in Thinkific, use this link to get a special package that includes a free 3-month pro+growth plan trial, $744 in training, and exclusive support.

Standalone Platforms to Sell Online Courses

These are hosted platforms geared toward solo edupreneurs or small businesses that want a turnkey way to create their own branded site to sell online courses. (Also, unlike Udemy, which is discussed below in a different category, they allow you full control over your user data.)

While the feature sets are relatively similar, they can be very different in their “look and feel” as well as in how focused they are on helping course entrepreneurs succeed – e.g., by providing good resources, educational content, strong support. Be sure to check out the free trial options, where available, so that you have a chance to kick the tires before committing.

Thinkific

Thinkific provides a truly full-featured software solution to help you create, deliver, and market and sell online courses. A big vote of confidence for this platform is that my friend Dorie Clark – a bestselling author multiple-times over, guest on the Learning Revolution podcast, and generally very smart and business-savvy person – has used it for her online courses. Similar to Teachable below, there is a free plan, but …

… get this …

… Thinkific does not charge transaction fees on any of its plans, paid or free. (You still don’t quite get to sell online courses for free because your payment processor – e.g., PayPal, Stripe – will always charge you a transaction fee.)

The Basic paid plan – which comes with a bump in the features you get access to – starts at $49 per month ($39, if paid annually). Definitely worth checking out. (Here’s my full Thinkific review.)

Link: https://www.thinkific.com

Thinkific banner - "Easily create & sell courses on your own site"If you decide you are interested in Thinkific, use this link to get a special package that includes: a free 3-month pro+growth plan trial, $744 in training, and exclusive support.

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds seems to have a lot of momentum right now. The company positions itself as a “premium” option that provides for high interactivity, social learning tools to complement standard course content, and white labeling.

The company also puts a lot of emphasis on its tools for building sales pages for courses – and these do indeed look impressive. You can even test them out without signing up through a simulator that LearnWorlds provides.

You can try LearnWorlds free for 30 days (no credit card required), then pricing starts at $29 per month ($24, if billed annually). The company charges $5 per sale on its starter plan, but no additional fees on its other plans.

Unlike many of the company’s here, LearnWorlds also offers services for uploading and converting your content, developing courses, and customizing your LearnWorlds school. And, it is one of the few platforms on this page that supports SCORM. All in all, it looks like a very good option, deserving of the “premium” label.

Use the code LEARNINGREVOLUTION50 when checking out at LearnWorlds and you will get 50% off for the first month of a Pro plan or higher. (Full Learnworlds review here)

Link: https://www.learnworlds.com/

Screen shot of LearnWorld's custom services to help modify the online course platform and sell online courses
LearnWorlds offers a range of services to help you create and sell online courses using its online course platform.

Teachable

Teachable got started out of frustration with Udemy (listed below) – in particular, with the way in which Udemy controls information about and access to students. In response, the Teachable team has created a platform that enables you to offer online courses “on your website and control your branding, student data, and pricing all from one place.”

I like the pricing model Teachable offers. You can use the platform for free and pay $1 + 10% for all transactions.  (You’ll need to click on the Compare Plans link on their pricing page to see this option.) Or, you can choose to pay a monthly fee, which eliminates the $1 per transaction fees and also reduces the percentage paid to Teachable based on what level of monthly fee you choose.

The basic plan is $39 per month ($33.25, if paid annually + a 5% transaction fee). (Here’s my full Teachable review.)

Link: https://teachable.com/

Teachable rocket iconIf you are ready to sell online courses and just want to get started fast (or already have, but are looking for new technology), be sure to check out the free Teachable Quickstart Webinar (offered weekly on Thursdays).

Podia

Podia started out as “WithCoach” and a platform that was aimed primarily at coaches. More recently, the company has repositioned as a full-featured, but easy-to-use platform for selling online courses, memberships, and digital downloads in one place. Some of its key selling points are:

  1. no transaction fees (other than whatever you pay to your payment processor – i.e., Paypal or Stripe),
  2. no limits on courses or users, and
  3. a strong focus on supporting affiliate marketing of your products.

With its basic plan starting at $39 per month (two months free with an annual plan), Podia seems to be rapidly gaining a lot of momentum. (Full Podia review here.)

Link: https://www.podia.com

Ruzuku

One of the things I really like about Ruzuku is that they put a LOT of effort into helping subject matter entrepreneurs use their platform successfully to sell online courses – including everything from designing a great course, getting it online, and marketing it effectively. Their “Up and Comer Plus” plan also includes unlimited Webinars.  Their Bootstrapper plan is $99 per month ($74.75, if billed annually) and includes unlimited students and courses.

If you are looking for an easy-to -use platform combined with a soup-to-nuts  approach to helping you be successful with it, this is a great option. I recommend you sign up for their free trial today to give you an idea of what the platform can do.

Link: http://ruzuku.com/

Click4Course

One of the newer additions to this list of online course platforms, Click4Course compares well with well-established platforms like Teachable and Thinkific and seems strong in its testing, survey, and certificate capabilities. It also offers the interesting feature of being able to configure whether a site is displayed for internal training – in which case a login screen is presented – or selling courses – in which case a catalog is presented.

There’s a 30-day free trial (no credit card required) and the month fee is $79 ($65, if paid annually), for unlimited learners plus a 10% processing fee per course sold.

Link: https://www.click4course.com/

Digital Chalk

Digital Chalk offers a variety of plans for getting courses online. Also worth noting is the fact that the platform supports the Shareable Content Object Reference Model, or SCORM, meaning you can create standards-compliant online courses outside of the platform and import them.

(Note: As far as I can tell, Digital Chalk  is the only only platforms listed in this section that offers true off-the-shelf support for SCORM. This may ore may not be an important consideration in your plans to sell online courses. Learn more here.)

The company’s lowest price plan starts at $15 per month ($10, if paid annually) plus $4.99 per registration.

Link: http://www.digitalchalk.com

Pathwright

I had the pleasure of interviewing Pathwright co-founder Paul Johnson on the Learning Revolution podcast, and he also connected me with Jason Blumer, who has used the Pathwright platform with great success.

The starter plan – which allows for 1000 active learners and unlimited courses – is $99 a month ($89, if paid annually), and Pathwright does not charge any e-commerce fees (though your gateway – e.g., Stripe – still does, as usual).

Link: http://www.pathwright.com/

Zippy Courses

Originally developed as WordPress plug-in, Zippy Courses is now a standalone platform. The person behind it is Derek Halpern, who is a well-known and respected marketer who certainly knows a thing or two himself about how to create and sell online courses.

I’ve participated in a couple of courses that use Zippy Course (one was Derek’s own course, another was by a well-known course development coach who pitches Teachable in the program, but is actually using Zippy Courses to deliver it!). All in all, a very solid platform that will get you up and running – and, of course, selling online courses – quickly.

Pricing starts at $99 per month with no transaction fees.

Link: https://zippycourses.com

All-In-One Platforms

Photo of Swiss Army Knife for All-in-One Online Course Platform Concept

This category of online course software provides everything you need not just to create and sell online courses, but also to manage your full Web presence. They combine elements of a Web content management system (CMS) with marketing and customer relationship management tools (CRM). I plan to do a round-up post on this type of platform soon, but for the time being, I can say that choice I would most seriously consider in this category is:

Kajabi

Kajabi describes itself as “the one system you need to market, sell, and deliver your knowledge online.” As it happens, selling online courses is a big part of the equation. Along with courses, you’re able to sell memberships, training portals, file downloads, and pretty much any other digital product you can come up with.

For many people who just want to sell an online course – and who are already set with a Web site and marketing tools – this may be overkill. Then again, if you don’t have those things or simply want to get everything under one roof, Kajabi may be just the ticket. (The company has also massively upgraded its Web page builder capabilities recently, making it more powerful than ever for creating Web sites and courses.)

You can grab a special 28-day free trial here – or, better yet,  get free access and jumpstart your course creation by joining the Kajabi 28-Day Challenge. Once a paid plan kicks in, pricing starts at $149 a month ($119 if paid annually). (Full Kajabi review here.)

Link: https://newkajabi.com/

Kajabi Banner - "Stop Trading Your Time for Money, Start Your Dream Business"
Kajabi is one of the best choices for an “all-in-one” online course platform. Check out the Kajabi 28-Day Challenge to get your course up and running in 28 days.

Academy of Mine

While Kajabi (above), is a great all-in-one choice for solopreneurs, Academy of Mine is a better bet for small businesses and organizations that want an all-in-one option. The platform supports SCORM courses, sophisticated quizzing and assessment, and issuance of continuing education credit. And, because it is built on top of WordPress, it has top notch capabilities for building out a full-featured Web site.

Academy of Mine is also the only company on this page that offers full-managed plans that include customizations and support for getting your courses built. (Feel free to contact me if you want more information about how the managed plans work.)

Link: https://www.academyofmine.com

Overwhelmed? Confused?

Subscribe. Get the Guide. Get It Right.

Why not benefit from my two decades of experience with course platforms?  Subscribe to Learning Revolution below and you'll get my free guide with the most critical points to consider, a time-tested worksheet to help you choose right, and my shortlist of top picks.

Personal data submitted through this form will be processed
in accordance with this site's Privacy Policy.

WordPress Plug-Ins /Themes to Sell Courses Online

If you are wondering how to create an online course with WordPress – and, of course, sell it – there are plenty of WordPress plug-ins and themes available to help you out.  These can be a particularly good option if you want to sell online courses from your own website, though keep in mind that you will need more technical skills if you go this route. The following are my current top choices.

LearnDash

LearnDash, in my opinion, is pretty much the gold standard for serious WordPress learning management system (LMS) plug-ins and the recent release of version 3.0 has made it even better. It is a very feature rich platform that was clearly developed by people serious about e-learning (and the founder, Justin Ferriman, does have a long background in e-learning).

Pricing starts at $159 for the basic version and tops out at $329 for the Pro version.  Note: These are one-time, not monthly fees and they represent an insane amount of value for what you  get. To continue getting updates and support, there is an annual renewal fee that is half of the initial license fee.

Once you’ve got a license, LearnDash offers a range of integrations and add-ons –WooCommerce, bbPress, Stripe, and Zapier, among many others – for free. And there are also a number of premium add-ons – including a connection to the GrassBlade LRS (for you e-learning geeks out there) – that look quite useful.

Overall, this is serious e-learning at a very reasonable price. (BTW – If you are going  to go with LearnDash,  I suggest using it in combo with BuddyBoss to add great membership/community capabilities.)

Link: http://www.learndash.com/

Screenshot of BuddyBoss for LearnDash
A recommend using LearnDash in combination with BuddyBoss to get a powerful online courses and membership/community solution.

AccessAlly

If you want to combine the ability to sell online courses with the ability to manage a full-featured membership site – a powerful combination for edupreneurs – then AccessAlly is arguably the best choice there is.

The platform really leverages the full capabilities and flexibility of WordPress while also adding in great membership features and a learning management system (LMS) plug-in that includes notable features like the ability for students to submit homework assignments and get private feedback.

You get all of this without having to be a WordPress whiz. It’s basically plug-n-play, but there is also a comprehensive “done for you” option is you want to get up and running with a course and  membership site quickly.

The Pro plan is $129 per month / $108 with a yearly subscription. If you are serious about a membership model, this is definitely one to check out. (Full AccessAlly Review here.)

Link: https://accessally.com/

Course Cats

David Siteman Garland, the guy behind Course Cats, definitely knows what he is talking about when it comes to online courses. He has created quite a few successful ones himself and has taught many others how to do it.

Course Cats was born out of his own frustration with trying to make WordPress – which is great for so many things – into an easy-to-use platform for hosting online courses. Now you get to benefit from his efforts. As the Garland puts it, Course Cats gives you “everything you need to create your own amazing course Web site without needing a web developer, a graphic designer, a psychiatrist and a team of 1,000 nerds!”

A subscription is $59 per month or $497 a year – and either includes a “concierge” service to get you up and running. If you use, or plan to use WordPress, definitely take the 30-day free trial for a spin. (Full Coursecats review here.)

Link: http://coursecats.com

Course Cats banner/logo
Course Cats turns your WordPress site into a powerful online course platform. Take the free trial for a spin today!

LifterLMS

LifterLMS has the very strong selling point of being free for the base version: you can search for and install it using the usual plug-in screen in WordPress. This means you can easily try out the system within your WordPress site before deciding whether it is right for you.

You pay only if you decide to use any of the various add-ons available for the system. These range from e-commerce to various marketing tools and integrations.  These are $99 each, or you can purchase a Universal Bundle for $299 that includes all of the standard add-ons. (You can actually try out the Universal Bundle for a month for $1.)

Link: https://lifterlms.com/

Marketplace Online Course Platforms

Photo of farmers market for marketplace course platform concept

These are online course platforms that, in addition to providing ways to author/assemble courses, also provide an existing marketplace in which to sell online courses. I’ve only included what I consider to be the top contenders here. For more extensive list of options in this category, see Looking for an Alternative to Udemy?

OpenSesame

If you happen to be an expert, or manage experts (e.g., if you represent a training firm or association) that is developing offerings at this level of sophistication,OpenSesame might be the first place you want to check out. You can also upload video, and the company claims that courses published in its system can be accessed by any learning management system (LMS). So, for example, if you know there are businesses out there that would want your content, but are going to want it on their own LMS, this could be a very powerful option. The company takes 40% of any sales you make through its platform.

Link: https://www.opensesame.com/sell-online-elearning-training-courses

Skillshare

Skillshare provides instructors with tools to create courses composed of video lessons and a “class project.” (All classes are have these two elements.) Classes are normally 10-25 minutes long, broken down into short videos, and they are all pre-recorded and self-paced. Once you have enrolled more than 25 learners in a class, you become eligible for participation in Skillshare’s Partner Program and can earn money through the royalty pool managed by the company – usually $1-2 per enrollment, according to the company. (Unlike Udemy – discussed below – Skillshare sells subscriptions to all of its content rather than to individual courses.) Once you are a partner, you’ll also get compensated for new Premium Members ($10 per) you bring to Skillshare through your Teacher Referral link. The Skillshare site reports that “Top teachers make up to $40,000 a year.”

Link: https://www.skillshare.com/teach

Udemy

The folks at Udemy say “Our goal is to disrupt and democratize education by enabling anyone to learn from the world’s experts.” From what I can tell, they have been doing a pretty good job at it. The Udemy platform gives subject matter experts a simple, straightforward way to assemble content like PowerPoint slides, PDF documents, and YouTube videos into a coherent course experience. You can then publish into the Udemy marketplace and use a variety of tools to promote your masterpieces. Udemy is free for instructors – the company makes it’s money by keeping 50% if it sells your course. If you make the sale, you keep 97% (Udemy takes a 3% transaction fee). Keep in mind that your are currently required to price your courses in $5 increments between $20 and $200 on Udemy (source) – quite restrictive, in my opinion. Even so, ThinkTraffic reports that some some instructors have been having quite a bit of success.

Link: http://www.udemy.com/teach

(Again, see my post Looking for an Alternative to Udemy? for other options in this category.)

Small Business – Extended Enterprise Platforms

Conceptual keyboard - Learning Management System (blue key)

Most of the online course platforms listed on this page are geared towards solopreneurs or small, start-up businesses. While they can work for larger businesses, I’ve found over time that more established training and education companies may want to jump up to a different level if they:

  • Sell business-to-business and may need to set up separate portals for each customer
  • Need to award continuing education credit learners
  • Already have an extensive catalog of courses built out in SCORM or TinCan-based authoring tools like Articulate, Captivate, Lectora, or iSpring
  • Plan to build out a catalog of courses and don’t want to be “trapped” by using proprietary LMS tools
  • Need to manage online and classroom-based courses in the same system
  • Need complex assessment capabilities (creating questions and answer pools, randomizing questions, ability to analyze the performance of individual questions – i.e., item analysis)

Because many course sellers do have these needs, I decided to create a separate “learning management system for small business” page.

On my short list in this category are platforms like LearningCart (full review) and TalentLMS (full review). For a full range of options, check out Learning Management System for Small Business.

(Note: The online course platforms listed on that page are not out of the question for solo entrepreneurs, but they are probably a better fit, in most instances, for small-to-mid-sized businesses that are doing/planning a relatively high-volume of course sales (or big businesses, but those aren’t really a target for this site).

Also, if you happen to represent a trade or professional association, be sure to check out the LMS reviews on ReviewMyLMS.

Moodle Plug-Ins /Add-ons to Sell Online Courses

These will tend to apply more in academic or academic-oriented markets where platforms like Moodle and Canvas have a big foothold, but they will also be helpful to commercial edupreneurs who have adopted these platforms. Also, if you need a platform that can handle multi-byte (e.g., Chinese) or right-to-left (e.g.,  Arabic) language, Moodle  may be your best bet.

CourseMerchant

If you happen to have already gone down the Moodle path (widely used open source LMS) for your course delivery needs, then you may want to check out CourseMerchant. While Moodle itself provides a very basic e-commerce option, CourseMerchant helps you take things to a much more sophisticated level – including the ability to bundle courses, offer discounts, and sell multi-seat licenses that allow for the seats to be easily allocated to learners. The CourseMerchant folks are also behind CourseIndex.com, a network that enables you to promote and sell online courses through affiliate marketers.

Link: http://www.coursemerchant.com/ Link: http://www.courseindex.com

LMS Checkout

LMS Checkout is another option for selling Moodle or Totara courses. You can set up an account easily on the LMS Checkout Web site, download the plugin to install into your Moodle or Totara site, and connect to Paypal or Authorize.net to as your payment gateway. You get quite a bit of control over modifying the the theme for you e-commerce site so that it will look as much like your Moodle site as possible and you can even integrate with Salesforce in just a few clicks. All-in-all, a very good option for getting a level of e-commerce functionality that just isn’t available in Moodle itself.

Link: https://www.lmscheckout.com/

Next Steps for Choosing a Platform

What now?

If you haven’t already, definitely grab the free selection guide for online course platforms. It costs nothing, and it will help you make the right choice faster and smarter.

You may also want to check out the individual reviews of top course platforms that have been published here on Learning Revolution.  This also includes comparison of online course platforms like Teachable vs Thinkific. The LMS reviews on ReviewMyLMS are also very helpful  as these come from actual users.

As you are considering your options, be sure that you are clear about what type of online course business you are. It really does matter when selecting a platform.

Next Steps Once You Have a Platform

As you probably realize – having a platform doesn’t do you a lot of good if you don’t know how to create an online course – just follow the link to get my guidance on how to design an online course.

And then, of course, there is the whole issue of how to launch your online course successfully.

Finally, be sure to check out the free Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox. It’s chock full of tools and tips to help edupreneurs with all aspects of creating and growing a successful online course business.

See you at the Revolution!

Jeff

P.S. – If you have used/had success with any of the online course platforms covered on this page, or have others you would like to see on the list, please comment and share below. Also, if you found it useful, please share this page with others by using the social buttons below.

Join My Tribe of Course Entrepreneurs!

Get a regular dose of high-value resources along with access to the course platform selection guide and worksheet!  Just sign-up below to start growing your education business & training business today!

Personal data submitted through this form will be processed
in accordance with this site's Privacy Policy.

1.1k
SHARES
ShareTweetLinkedInReddit

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: learning management systems, platforms, sell online courses

You May Also Be Interested In:

Screen shot of add new content in WordPress

How to create content for membership sites

Woman in middle of bar graph with anchor for limit course sales concept

The 3 Factors That Will Limit Your Course Sales

Roll of tickets printed with "Members Only" for membership concept

10 Key Elements of Successful Membership Sites

membership concept with hand pressing social icons on blue world map background.

5 Reasons You Should Build a Membership Site

Photo of toy man at podium on keyboard

7 Keys to Make Money from Webinars

Hand reaching out of laptop for money

Avoiding Online Course Scams

Photo of woman teaching online

How to take your seminar business online

Photo of Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele recording a Leading Learning Podcast episode

The Top 7 Ways To Monetize A Podcast

Podcasting Microphone

Is it Worth Starting a Podcast in 2019?

Previous Post: «dropped ice cream cone at child's feet Will your online course platform still be here tomorrow?
Next Post: The Key to Avoiding Online Course Failure Image of frustrated man at laptop - online course failure»

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sebastien

    December 12, 2019 at 10:56 am

    Hi Jeff,

    Thanks for the great info! What do you think of MOOC’s (like edX or Moodle)?

    Thanks,

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      December 12, 2019 at 3:56 pm

      edX is great, but it’s not a platform most people are going to be able to publish on. I don’t think of Moodle as a MOOC, just an open source course platform. It has a lot going for it, though not always easy for non-technical people to use. I cover a couple of plug-ins above to add e-commerce capabilities to Moodle (the native ones are not so hot). – Jeff

      Reply
  2. Faustine

    December 5, 2019 at 10:35 am

    I have a WIX site, how would I find information on building a course on a site I already have? …with full control and selling through the WIX site.

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      December 12, 2019 at 3:59 pm

      I don’t have a great answer for you on that one. You can sell some video content on Wix, but it really just isn’t made for creating courses. You’d be better off using one of the platforms here and linking out to it. – Jeff

      Reply
  3. Bruce

    December 3, 2019 at 1:29 pm

    Do you have or will you have a review of Thrive Apprentice? (https://thrivethemes.com/apprentice/)

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      December 4, 2019 at 10:55 am

      I’m a fan of Thrive, in general, but have not yet managed to review Apprentice. I expect to be able to publish a review by end of this year or January 2020 at latest. – Jeff

      Reply
  4. Rachel

    November 18, 2019 at 3:42 pm

    Hi, Jeff! Thank U for this great selection. I’m looking for a platform that supports online courses, memberships, and at least 2 languages (English + French). Can U help?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      November 24, 2019 at 7:11 pm

      Try LearnWorlds, Rachel – Jeff

      Reply
  5. Hamza Hajeir

    October 29, 2019 at 4:47 pm

    Thanks for this valuable content.

    I’m looking for a platform that performs all-in (as Udemy) , and supports courses in other languages than English.

    I’ve designed a course in Arabic and it’s up to recording now. I need a guidance for a better choice, As Selling and Marketing isn’t my preferred area.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      October 29, 2019 at 4:57 pm

      I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for this one – at least not in the Udemy model. Your best bet would be to contact each of the companies I list at https://www.learningrevolution.net/alternative-to-udemy/ to see if they support Arabic. – Jeff

      Reply
  6. Will Schulz

    September 27, 2019 at 7:35 pm

    Hi! We just released our platform https://www.golearna.com ! Please take a look and let us know what you think 🙂

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 28, 2019 at 8:10 am

      Thank, Will – I’ll have a look. – Jeff

      Reply
  7. ali

    September 16, 2019 at 2:07 pm

    Hi Jeff, thanks for the article. 2 questions for you. Where does Kartra fit in here? I’m social media based craft business looking for a landing spot to direct customers to video tutorials for purchase. I cannot tell what is right for me. I would only be selling 1 large/master course that i would like to have broken down into several chapters. Possibly some subsequent courses as advanced learning to the original mastercourse. I just want them protected and not shared. I like the idea of a login, or a landing page to collect the email but not entirely necessary. I could do the payment processing and send customers a link or have the platform collect the payment- not really particular just a bit lost. Really small business, small budget.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 19, 2019 at 12:21 pm

      Hi, Ali – Kartra will enable you to sell digital products, and assuming you are using mainly just video, that can include online courses. So, it may work just fine for your needs. It is not really really a full-featured course platform, though. Kartra itself doesn’t list “online course platform” as one of the platforms and services it replaces. Again, that may not matter if you don’t really care about things like tracking course progress, incorporating quizzes and test, awarding credit and certificates, etc. – jeff

      Reply
  8. James

    September 11, 2019 at 2:09 pm

    This list is not comprehensive and needs to be updated. Vonza is the best all-in-one platform in 2019. I have used several others and didnt like it. With Vonza you can Easily Create A Profitable Online Business.
    Vonza is an all-in-one platform to create and sell online courses, products, build funnels, design a beautiful website without needing 20 different apps and spending thousands of dollars. Try it out at http://www.vonza.com

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 19, 2019 at 12:15 pm

      Thanks, Uyi – It’s not meant to be comprehensive (it’s purposely selective based on my experience and expertise, both of which are extensive) and I update it regularly. Will take a closer look at Vonza. – Jeff

      Reply
  9. Bill

    September 9, 2019 at 2:17 pm

    Hey Jeff!

    Thanks so much for putting this incredible guide together! Have you also heard of Virtually (https://vrtlly.me/build)?

    It’s the only online courses platform that I’m familiar with that takes place live and requires minimal effort to put together. All the video editing and PDF creation is done on your behalf.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 11, 2019 at 1:26 pm

      Thanks, Bill – I was not aware of that one, so thanks for alerting me. Seems like there is a new platform every day at this point! – Jeff

      Reply
  10. Denise C Allen

    September 9, 2019 at 2:05 pm

    Hi. Would you add LinkedIn Learning to this list now? Why or why not? Thanks for the info!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 11, 2019 at 1:29 pm

      Hi Denise – I do mention it (well, Lynda.com – basically the same thing) here https://www.learningrevolution.net/alternative-to-udemy/ – which is where I list more marketplace options. Even there, though, it is only a mention because getting accepted to do a LinkedIn/Lynda course is a good bit more difficult than participating in most of the other marketplace platforms. – Jeff

      Reply
  11. Shaunte McFarland

    July 31, 2019 at 4:05 am

    I just wanted to say thank you!!!

    Reply
  12. Christie Ramsey

    July 1, 2019 at 8:47 am

    I teach for a large, well known (ahem, orange) online company. Many of my most advanced students (who will run out of content soon) need other options. I do not need to market and attract large numbers of students as I teach 70-90 classes weekly; I simply want to supplement and further their skills (I have three classes to offer that parents and students both ask about regularly) as they progress out of the current curricula. As they are all in China, could you possibly narrow down which of these options will work there? If by chance I can grow my own business, that would be fine, but it is not currently my short-term goal. The option to expand is certainly one I want to keep available as a possible long-term goal. TIA. 🙂

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      July 2, 2019 at 9:04 am

      Christie – “which of these options will work there” depends on what you are looking for. Do you mean that all the content will need to be in Mandarin? – Jeff

      Reply
  13. Chris

    June 12, 2019 at 12:41 pm

    Hi Jeff,
    Thanks for this article. Have you ever stumbled upon a platform that combines physical and digital sales? We have a course made up of digital videos and a physical book. (For reasons I won’t go into here, the book cannot be digitized and needs to remain physical.) Currently, we provide it only through our wordpress site, which requires us to manually fulfill each order through KDP (the same POD provider used by Amazon) and then grant member-only access to the videos, streamed via Vimeo. Currently low-volume sales, but I’d still love to find a solution that packages both for me.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      June 18, 2019 at 8:49 am

      Chris – There are higher end platforms that would do this. On the lower end, though, WooCommerce would be able to handle this. Since you are using WordPress already, you may want to consider using a WordPress LMS plugin like LearnDash in combination with WooCommerce.

      If others reading here use or offer another solution that would help Chris, please comment.

      – Jeff

      Reply
  14. Carl

    June 5, 2019 at 7:25 pm

    Hey Jeff!

    I’ve looked through this list twice and it is absolutely brilliant. It is up-to-date and listed according to its type. I’d love to see you include Plantoost, it is worth a look!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      June 18, 2019 at 8:50 am

      Thanks, Carl – I’ll have a look. – Jeff

      Reply
  15. Sudheer M

    May 28, 2019 at 5:11 am

    Nice, Article and list. In 2019 USA based startup, Simpliv – http://www.simpliv.com is best online teaching and learning platform. It will provide all courses over the world. Compare to other platforms Simpliv is the best at any kind like courses quality, customer support, mainly Price and other areas as well.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      May 28, 2019 at 9:48 am

      Thanks for commenting. I’ll have a look. – Jeff

      Reply
  16. Frida Renlund

    March 15, 2019 at 5:24 am

    Starflow’s plattform is great! 🙂

    Reply
  17. Jacqueline Litvak

    March 8, 2019 at 2:09 pm

    How does TalentLMS.com measure up to these systems? What is the difference? I work for a mid-size company that wants to start a certification program. We already have a web presence and a marketing group.

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      March 8, 2019 at 2:22 pm

      TalentLMS is a good platform. It’s just in a different class than these – will give you more capabilities in a number of areas like tracking, reporting, SCORM compliance, multi-tenancy. I cover it and similar platforms here: https://www.learningrevolution.net/learning-management-system-for-small-business/. These platforms are probably a better fit for your needs. – Jeff

      Reply
  18. Don Peterson

    February 14, 2019 at 10:25 am

    Do any of these offer a screen sharing option for one-on-one or group training?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      February 14, 2019 at 10:52 am

      Don – None of these are Webinar/virtual meeting platforms, which is what you would need to do what you describe. The exception is Ruzuku, which does have those abilities built in. The rest integrate with common platforms like Zoom and GoToWebinar. – Jeff

      Reply
  19. Discourse

    January 19, 2019 at 5:57 pm

    Looking for real time teaching solutions with significant scalability. Let’s look into Coursables

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 20, 2019 at 9:30 am

      Thanks – I’ll check it out. – Jeff

      Reply
  20. Alix B Reed

    January 19, 2019 at 12:56 pm

    I’ve gone around and around 1st deciding on 3rd party .. then build my own with wp/ LMS and back AGAIN. I really prefer a 3rd party all-in-one solution.. as I am just starting out and it’s just “me” The biggest challenge that I have found is the SEO I am not sure how that works without an independent wp site or how it works with a website you build inside a 3rd party. it seems to be the big elephant in the room that no one wants to talks about. Thanks, Alix

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 20, 2019 at 9:38 am

      Alix – Once you go outside of a true Web site CMS like WordPress, you are bound to loose a certain amount of control over SEO. WordPress, in particular, is just really strong at that. So, you can either stay with WordPress for your main Web site and link out to a separate course platform. Most of the big ones are going top allow you to style your course site to closely reflect the branding of your main Web site, and some – like Thinkific – have some good widget tools that makes it easier to drop code into your Web site for linking out (not rocket science, but still handy).

      Another option is a platform like Academy of Mine, which is built on WordPress and, as a result, retains most of its strong SEO capabilities.

      Finally, platforms like LearnDash and LifterLMS enable you to plug the LMS capabilities right into WordPress. There are trade-offs on all of these, of course. It most depends on the degree of control you want (first option has the least, third option the most – Academy of Mine is a nice middle position). – Jeff

      Reply
  21. Tracy Goorde

    January 14, 2019 at 9:53 pm

    This is a good review. I think there is a really awesome platform to help people teach online and sell online courses that you should add to this list. Check out, review and add http://www.teachslate.com to this list.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 14, 2019 at 10:38 pm

      Thanks, Tracy – I’ll check it out. – Jeff

      Reply
  22. Jerry Neece

    January 14, 2019 at 3:51 pm

    Just to put cost in some context, when I designed and built one of the very first eLearning platforms for Sun Microsystems in 1996 to train my sales force, I had to hire 23 web page creators and instructional designers to build my site. Sixty hours of on-line training cost me $1.34 million dollars. Of course, at that time, no alternatives existed and Saba, Blackboard and Moodle all came by to see SunTAN (Sun Training Access Network) to see my learner-centric model. I used Java to create custom pages on the fly depending on the audience (salespeople want just the basics and sales engineers wanted everything possible). But within 2 years I was able to show the CEO a >125% ROI (increased sales and getting them trained faster than in the classroom) and I never had any problem keeping my content updated from that point on when execs understood eLearning’s importance. Of course we didn’t call it eLearning then, Cisco’s John Chambers coined that word a year later. Today I am using LearnDash to create a site for my 4000-person active senior community and the cost will be more like $15,000.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 15, 2019 at 9:40 am

      Thanks for commenting, Jerry. I have followed a similar path. It is amazing how much things have changed! – Jeff

      Reply
  23. Andrew Morrow

    January 3, 2019 at 10:00 am

    Is there a program listed in which you can assign minimum time that the student needs to remain in the course? I provide training that requires the student to complete a minimum amount of hours so I needed training in which the student cannot move to the next section until a certain amount of time has passed.

    Reply
  24. Maycee

    October 29, 2018 at 10:55 am

    Thanks for providing resources, Jeff! I just wanted to provide an additional source for people who, once they find the right source for them, can get some tips on actually making the course. I just found it while googling, same way I found this one 🙂
    https://www.freelancermap.com/freelancer-tips/12434-create-course-sell-freelance-knowledge
    Not gonna lie, I had no idea there was so much money in course creation! This is something I’m definitely looking at working on in the future when I can finally have time for personal projects.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      October 29, 2018 at 10:58 am

      Thanks for providing that resource, Maycee. – Jeff

      Reply
  25. Bibhash Roy

    October 28, 2018 at 11:33 am

    Is an LMS like “Adobe Captivate Prime” designed and meant to sell online courses? If the answer is “no” (which it seems so), why such LMS is not designed to sell online courses?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      October 28, 2018 at 4:33 pm

      Bibhash – The main distinction between Prime and the types of systems listed here is that Prime does not have built in capabilities for e-commerce and marketing. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it for selling courses, it just isn’t really set up to do that out of the box. You would need to integrate it with an external e-commerce system at a minimum. – Jeff

      Reply
  26. Marco

    October 27, 2018 at 1:27 pm

    Hi Jeff,
    Very interesting article! I still have a question bugging me though: in your research were you also able to identify if there is any platform that allows to sell courses where the instructor is different than the account owner? I would like to set up a little business where I instruct the Instructors, shoot the course, direct and produce the videoclips, follow any marketing activity around the course. Then, I would get right to use and eploitat the results from them, sharing revenue with them. In this model, I would need to be the Owner-Administrator of the accounts on the platform. I’ve checked Teachable and there seems to be some limit in doing so, in how they define the “instructors”. Any indication from you ? Thanks in advance. Marco.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      October 28, 2018 at 9:43 am

      Marco – At least based on the way you explain it here, Teachable (or Thinkific) should be able to handle that. Can you provide more detail on how it is falling short? – Jeff

      Reply
  27. Amy Olivieri

    September 25, 2018 at 10:27 pm

    Here’s a new one to add to your list: http://www.TakeAClass.com. Just launched in June 2018, but set to disrupt the industry by offering a marketplace for local classes.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 26, 2018 at 8:04 am

      I’m not sure this is in the same category as the types of platforms on this page, but a very interesting offering nonetheless. Thanks for sharing. – Jeff

      Reply
  28. karisma

    September 24, 2018 at 6:18 pm

    Hi.. I am looking to build online courses and a monthly subscription service. I would also like to be able to have affiliates be able to sell the courses and make a commission. I have been looking at kajabi but was wondering if there were other less expensive routes.

    Reply
  29. Florian Selch

    August 8, 2018 at 7:35 pm

    Jeff, thank you for the summary! One question: which platforms do you recommend that allow students to upload completed assignments (content such as docs, scans, photos,…) so they are accessible for review to me as well as accessible to the student? Thank you

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 14, 2018 at 11:47 am

      Florian – For that type of interaction, you are probably going to best off going with an academically oriented platform like Moodle – to which you could add one of the e-commerce plug-ins I cover in the post. – Jeff

      Reply
  30. Nada

    July 10, 2018 at 10:01 am

    Hey Jeff.
    Amazing post, and pretty useful list for online course creators. Also appreciate the time and effort you put into making people’s lives easier and answering everyone’s comments around here.

    Passing by, I wanted to drop here another platform that fits the all-in-one category. It’s https://kyvio.com and it’s the perfect match for people with a low budget and high expectations. I would highly appreciate it if you could review and maybe add it to your list.

    Cheers

    Reply
  31. Liam Dalriada

    July 8, 2018 at 11:47 am

    Several of these tout the ‘marketing’ background of the founder of the website. But then the platform requires YOU (the teacher) to do the marketing of your course. It seems what they are ‘marketing’ is the platform, which is absolutely worthless to me: I’m a teacher, not a salesman. I don’t have a “web presence”; I don’t have a ‘following’; I have content knowledge and an ability to teach. It would seem that the best venue for someone like me would be one that relieved me of the responsibility and need to do something I can’t do (market/sell).

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      July 8, 2018 at 12:27 pm

      Liam – These are technology platforms, plain and simple. If you want something that is going to help (at least some) with marketing, then go with Udemy or a similar platform. Even on those platforms, though, you are going to have to put some effort into marketing if you expect to make any real money. Basically, you have two choices: hire or contract with someone to do marketing for you or learn to do it yourself. If you aren’t willing to do one or the other, then you either need to go to work for someone who is, or just accept that being in the course business is not for you. – Jeff

      Reply
  32. Ben Cryer

    July 4, 2018 at 2:12 am

    One of the most exciting developments in the tech world is the number of people who are learning to write code. Simpliv allows students to select their goal/learning objective and then recommends the proper course for that student.
    Simpliv works because it makes coding accessible to any interested student, provides practical recommendations for students who want to learn how to code but doesn’t understand how these new skills might apply to their current job.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      July 4, 2018 at 11:44 am

      Thanks for commenting, Ben. I’ve also added Simpliv to my post on alternatives to Udemy at https://www.learningrevolution.net/alternative-to-udemy/

      Reply
  33. Ana

    June 28, 2018 at 8:22 am

    Although only in Spanish http://www.classonlive.com is a good all in one option platform for e-leanirng.

    Reply
  34. Diana Navarro

    June 11, 2018 at 10:58 pm

    I too like many of you am overwhelmed. I have course almost ready to go with supplemental materials (pdf worksheets, audio, short video) has anyone tried Course Craft? I am finding Thinkific a bit complex when trying to choose a theme.I have a website but am not sure how to implement it with the platform. I’m also considering DailyOm since it is of a spiritual/self-help nature. Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Reply
  35. Alice Williams

    June 4, 2018 at 3:10 am

    thank you for sharing such a wonderful information on online courses. IgmGuru is also an online training platforms that offers various courses. You may check their website at https://www.igmguru.com

    Reply
  36. Mike

    May 18, 2018 at 4:26 am

    Hi, Jeff, informative review! What do you think about http://www.bitdegree.org ? They came with the revolutionary idea, where online education is going to be based on blockchain technology – interactive-gamified courses experience, sponsored courses – token utilized to reward students by achievement tracking. BitDegree have cut a fine figure in the ICO, where attracted lots of token holders attention. For a limited time they are offering free lessons, and there’s a demand for teachers who can present a proper content.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      May 19, 2018 at 6:38 pm

      I haven’t checked this out yet, Mike, but thanks for mentioning it. I think block chain could have a very natural role to play in certification/credentialing paths – a possibility no one in that industry seems to have tuned into yet. – Jeff

      Reply
  37. Dainis Graveris

    May 4, 2018 at 6:38 am

    I also started with Teachable and eventually got into the dilemma of picking between Thinkific vs Teachable.
    –
    There are so many options available – am I the only one getting overwhelmed?
    Still there must be a reason why Thinkific vs Teachable keyword is being searched on Google 800 TIMES every month.
    –
    These two are heavyweights and I would say in 90% of cases these options will be far better than all the small solutions.

    The thing is there is NO BEST online course platform – everything depends on your specific case! And that’s why a lot of people I see in comments have questions.

    But please just pick between Thinkific or Teachable and in most cases you’ll be better off in Long Term. Long term solution is what matters.

    I have been involved in online course market for years, I would love to help others get unstuck, as I remember how confusing it was when i started.

    Just ask, and if curious check out the website by clicking on my name (all site has been dedicated to helping you pick the best Online Course Platform).

    Hope that helps!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      May 10, 2018 at 8:49 am

      Dainis – Thanks for commenting. I agree – mostly. Aspiring course entrepreneurs tend to put WAY too much emphasis on the technology. In most cases, simply getting on with it and going with a major, established platform like Teachable or Thinkific is the right move. Still, there can be reasons for going with other options. I get e-mails from people every day asking for advice on platforms, and I am struck by the number of times that they have specific needs for which Teachable or Thinkific are really not the right fit. It pays, I think, to take just a bit of time to think it through, apply a reasonable process, and arrive at a choice you feel confident about (which is the point of my free platform selection guide). – Jeff

      Reply
      • Dainis Graveris

        May 13, 2018 at 5:16 am

        Yeah, true..I also come by cases – where people just have one specific unique need, which you could never imagine..Like translating course platform to Latvian language…

        It’s super specific, though still surprised that you found a LOT of cases where these two options are not a good fit.

        Can you make one common example, Jeff – please?

        Reply
        • Jeff Cobb

          May 18, 2018 at 1:59 pm

          A LOT may be over stating it, but an easy example is just around issuing and managing continuing education credit – i.e., if you want to associated a certain amount of credit with a course and then award that amount of credit upon successful completion of the course. Neither of these platforms handle that. – Jeff

          Reply
  38. Sue

    March 25, 2018 at 12:17 pm

    Hi Jeff: Great article. Do you offer consultation? I’d like to share our course requirements and would like your recommendation of the best product. Thanks so much.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      April 19, 2018 at 3:18 pm

      Sue, I’m available on a limited basis at https://clarity.fm/jeffcobb. – Jeff

      Reply
  39. Alice

    February 16, 2018 at 9:31 am

    Hi Jeff and everyone!
    I am developing learning materials directed to patient education (ie drugs side effects, appropriate use etc). So, I expect a high heterogeneity of learning materials and many learners who will likely pick very different course choices. Course bundles would apply, such as “diabetes learning bundle” or “breast cancer learning bundle” etc, but also with a huge variety.
    The question is: in your opinion, would any of the platforms or plugins be better than others for such purpose?
    Thanks a lot!

    Reply
    • Jonathan Turkle

      March 5, 2018 at 3:51 pm

      Hi Alice. Have you considered LMScheckout? I usually don’t use these forums to self-promote, but I came across this post, and I noticed that we provide the same service you are asking for to several organizations that are marketing to similar types audiences with varying learning interests. We have an anesthesiologist selling certification for nurses though LMscheckout and many other organizations who want to create customer specific training to a wide variety of users. We use a similar concept to course bundling and have a means to promote recommended and related course through your custom e-commerce site. If you are interested, we are running a series of webinars to introduce our e-commerce solutions for selling and marketing courses online.
      Check us out if you like: https://envisiontel.lmscheckout.com/Course/view/1266240
      Our check out my blog on the top 5 e-commerce considerations for selling courses online.
      http://bit.ly/2BStDxG

      Reply
  40. Jose

    January 15, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    Great…
    Looking for fitness/gym video online course platform with socialising.
    Looking into Uscreen and Muvi… but I might be wrong.
    Any thoughts/directions on this please?
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Mikhail

      March 26, 2018 at 5:14 pm

      Hey Jose,
      You may consider SubscribeStar.com as a standalone platform for your subscription-based (or donation based) courses business. We have transparent pricing, flexible business flow, customizable page layout and friendly staff. Please, drop me a line and I will help you with anything in regard to your online course platform.

      Reply
  41. Ivar

    January 2, 2018 at 12:13 am

    Hi thanks for the very useful post. The big issue we are having is to reduce password sharing. None of the LMS’s seem to address this adequately. Are you aware of any that have in built 2FA or forced social login with Facebook. It may not stop it completely but would definitely reduce the amount of password sharing and loss of revenue. Thanks Ivar

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 3, 2018 at 4:34 pm

      Ivar – I haven’t come across any that do this, but if anyone else here has, please chime in. – Jeff

      Reply
      • Peter S

        February 1, 2018 at 2:39 am

        Talentlms has some functionality in that area:
        https://www.talentlms.com/blog/a-way-to-prevent-cheating-in-elearning/

        Reply
  42. Gourav Kakkar

    December 18, 2017 at 6:08 am

    Very well written and explained Jeff. Beside comparing pricing and other features, one thing you can add here is the security of the content on any platform. It’s a very important factor when deciding to go for any course platform. For the content creators, the most important asset is content. The course platform should be able to secure the content from downloading, copying or sharing user accounts after purchase. This will have a direct impact on the business. We have developed an online course platform at Spayee, where we take the security of content very seriously beside having all other necessary features like Integrated Payment gateways, Videos, Reports & Analytics, Multiple Distribution Models, In-built Marketing tools. You can request a demo here – http://www.spayee.com

    Reply
  43. Tom @ We Create Online Courses

    December 7, 2017 at 10:19 pm

    This is an amazing resource. We’ve actually been researching all the different platforms ourselves since we create online courses for clients. Great starting point although we did locate some other ones. LearnUpon and lightspeed for example. One is more an enterprise model and the other used by some celebrities. For now we’ve stuck with teachable but time will tell.
    https://wecreateonlinecourses.com/

    Reply
  44. gurvinder kaur

    November 24, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    hi..i recently came across one more alternative..(withcoach), a modern standalone platform…i have been using it and it appears to good enough!!!

    Reply
  45. Jacqueline Zaleski Mackenzie, Ph.D.

    November 18, 2017 at 6:37 am

    There’s nothing wrong with making a fortune selling courses on using a hula hoop, but I’ve been professional field researcher outside the USA for nearly 13 years.

    I have five professional degrees in subjects that I am passionate about to my core. I want to attract self-directed students. All the other online hosts that I thoroughly researched or used focused on what I call “recreational learning.” My courses are serious investigations to make a sizable income.

    LearnWorlds has so many professionals on staff that they understood that concept and are helping me to attract those who need CPD credits as an ESL teacher or a respectable career as an English Tutor in as little as a week.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      November 22, 2017 at 8:11 am

      Thanks or sharing your experience, Jacqueline. I am sure other readers here will find it helpful. I will note, though, that in my experience whether the learning is “recreational” or not has a lot more to do with the instructional quality of the content and how the platform is used than the platform itself (or the topic). And, the amount of support that individual course producers get, even from the same platform company, can vary pretty widely. Just additional points for readers here to keep in mind. – Jeff

      Reply
    • Kathie-Jo Arnoff

      February 12, 2018 at 6:08 pm

      Hi, Jacqueline and Jeff,

      Thanks for sharing your comment about LearnWorlds and similar tools. We were planning to use a full-blown LMS (quite costly) to deliver courses for professional development. Per your suggestion, I checked out LearnWorlds and was quite impressed. Do you have any updates on how it’s going? Have you used the drip marketing? –Kathie-Jo

      Reply
  46. Tina

    October 28, 2017 at 9:12 am

    Hi, Jeff. I just wanted to say thanks for this post. I want to create my first online program with videos and power point presentations and PDF files. I’m doing my research now and found your post. It is by far the most helpful one I have read! Thank you so much!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      November 2, 2017 at 8:28 am

      So glad you found it helpful, Tina! – Jeff

      Reply
  47. siva

    October 27, 2017 at 4:42 am

    Hi Jeff,
    Good comprehensive list, and hats off for your effort.

    I want to create a technical course ( having mostly PPTs and screen-cast videos).
    I thought of creating the same in Udemy because they will market the courses.

    Do other sites do market sellers content? Or Is it seller to market by themselves?

    Thanks
    siva

    Reply
  48. Linda Taylor

    October 18, 2017 at 4:19 pm

    Hi Jeff,
    Your Learning Revolution is so informative. Thank you. I’m wanting to create a website for Enrolled Agents to earn their annual CPE credits. The material is going to be a self-study course using a downloaded written course to their computer. After they have studied the material, they go back to my website and take a test, it they pass with 70% I submit the credits to the IRS and then I send the student a certificate of completion that they can download and keep in their file. The students need 72 credits every 3 years so the site needs to keep their information so when they come back and open their profile the completed courses with be there. I will also need for the site to accept credit card payments and be able for the student to go online and take a test and receive an instant percentage grade so they will know if they need to take the test again something like “congratulations, you passed’! There will not be any videos or webinars and anything live just a list of all the courses available, a cart for them to pay and a student profile for the course to be downloaded to their computer. (they can study off-line that way) What do I need to buy to get this started? I’m so excited about doing this and your site it so informative I’m so glad to have met you. Please let me know when you get a chance, Thank you again, Take care, Linda.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      October 19, 2017 at 7:17 am

      Hi Linda – What you describe will require a more sophisticated solution than anything covered in this post. I will e-mail you to discuss. – Jeff

      Reply
  49. Peter

    October 5, 2017 at 5:48 pm

    Wow, thank you for compiling this list and putting all of these great resources together! Anyone looking to create online courses will surely be lucky to stumble upon this piece. For more tips on how to create an online course, take a look at How to Create an Online Course in 5 Easy Steps – https://www.schoolkeep.com/blog/how-to-create-an-online-course-in-5-easy-steps

    Reply
  50. Shannon Zarb

    September 22, 2017 at 10:15 am

    So much to choose from! I’m shopping for a platform to run a writing course and am looking for something that can do the following:
    1. I’d like to be able to run both prerecorded instructional videos and live presentations.
    2. I’d like to have the ability for real-time student engagement.
    3. It needs to be intuitive, easy for the user, and not cost a bundle. I’d also like to retain ownership of the materials but have some “marketing” support from the platform to sell the course.
    Thanks and any suggestions?

    Reply
  51. Lisa

    September 10, 2017 at 2:36 am

    Hi Jeff
    Thank you for a comprehensive post. There is so much choice out there, the more you read the more confusing things become. I am hoping you can simplfy and point me in the right direction.
    I am setting up an education website, where I will primarily sell recorded webinars. I have a wordpress site and purchased webinar ignition (WI) under the assumption that I could record webinars and offer them through WI. I have just found out that this isn’t the case. So now I am looking for software that I can integrate into my website and allow me to sell recorded webinars multiple times to different people. I hope this information makes send! Could you tell me the top 3 platforms you would recommend.
    Thank you.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 19, 2017 at 3:22 pm

      Lisa – A recorded Webinar is just a video and pretty much all of the platforms listed here will enable you to set up a video as a course and selling as many times as you want to whoever you want. Just to help you narrow the choices, I would recommend starting with Teachable or Thinkific (both listed above) – Jeff

      Reply
  52. Rita S

    August 30, 2017 at 12:14 pm

    Can you recommend a reputable company that creates scorm compliant elearning videos for LMS platforms?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 19, 2017 at 3:26 pm

      You might want to try a service like ScormFly: https://www.scormfly.com. Alternatively, I would just find a contractor on a site like Upwork who knows how to put a simple SCORM wrapper around a video file. – Jeff

      Reply
  53. Robert

    August 28, 2017 at 3:28 pm

    Ugh! Still confused as ever…I’m not sure if I need a website, a platform, or both. I’m very leery of the “simple drag/drop features”, etc. as they always seem to be anything but easy unless you’re tech savvy. I have books to sell, as well. I also teach LIVE seminars. I’m basically needing to offer online classes to companies so they can have their employees watch them, and I simply charge the employer either a flat fee or a per-employee fee. They also will want some type of monthly or weekly “tip” that can be sent as a video, email or possibly text. Any other suggestions you might have? Thank you!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 19, 2017 at 3:30 pm

      Bob – It sounds like you probably do need a platform (and I always recommend having a Web site in addition to whatever platform you use) You might be better off with one of the companies I cover at the following link (LearningCart, in particular, could be a good choice, based on the little bit I know about your situation – https://www.learningrevolution.net/learning-management-system-for-small-business/

      Reply
  54. Barbara

    August 23, 2017 at 11:58 am

    The fees quoted for LearnDash are not a once-only fee – they are for a one-year subscription. Renewable price = half the original price.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      August 24, 2017 at 5:03 pm

      Barbara – Thanks for noting that. Note, also, that you don’t actually lose use of the software if you don’t review – you just don’t get upgrades and support. In any event, I’ve updated the entry to reflect this. – Jeff

      Reply
  55. Bob Galivan

    August 22, 2017 at 1:53 pm

    I work with a non-profit arts and crafts group. We want to create courses for our members. We have multiple instructors who will create the content, but our group will actually present the courses. All of these platforms seem to be focused on a direct relationship between course and instructor. I need something that will allow (for lack of a better term) a middle-man to manage the process. All the classes are pre-build, on-demand. Some might have a weekly live broadcast. All courses are 4-6 lessons, and are presented over the course of a month.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      August 23, 2017 at 10:51 am

      Bob – I would nee to know a bit more about the content and process you have in mind – i.e., when you say “create,” would the instructors be providing finished course pages, or just documents/slides that you would convert into course pages. Does there need to be any sort of approval/review process? – Jeff

      Reply
  56. Marjory

    August 5, 2017 at 10:46 am

    I have read all of the posts but continue to have questions regarding my desire to create training modules, with testing and online completion for businesses. I want to sell customized courses to businesses, perferbaly small businesses. My idea is to find their training needs and create the module based on their business. What type of platform, and what LMS should I purchase that allows me to create the course and then allow my client to purchase and/or use it for their access. I am assuming it will need to be cloud based. I am a retired technology and business instructor and looking to fulfill my creative outlet and make some extra money if possible. I have used educational platforms but not the current offerings that are overwhelming me when trying to make this decision. I want to be sure I am not overlooking valuable information. Any suggestions? Thanks and great posts and information!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      August 18, 2017 at 3:16 pm

      Marjory – I can’t really answer this without more information. Any of the platforms here could, in theory, do what you describe. It will depend on how you need the purchase and access to happen. Will the clients always come to your site, for example, or do some need to be able to run the courses on their own platforms? Do you want to provide clients with their own, branded entrance into purchasing your courses? How much control do you want to provide clients for enrolling and managing their own learners? If you need to jump up to any of the more sophisticated scenarios suggested here, consider the platforms listed in this post: https://www.learningrevolution.net/learning-management-system-for-small-business/

      Jeff

      Reply
  57. Robert Junis

    August 4, 2017 at 7:00 am

    I forgot to put the URL for HoneyCoach. Here it is:
    http://honeycoach.com

    Reply
  58. Robert Junis

    August 4, 2017 at 6:59 am

    There’s a missing tool in the list.
    HoneyCoach allows you to sell without fixed costs, and allows you to sell single videos, online classes and coaching programs. It’s worth to check it, folks.

    Reply
  59. Do My Essays

    August 2, 2017 at 6:59 am

    The CourseMerchant folks are also behind CourseIndex.com, a network that enables you to promote and sell online courses through affiliate marketers.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      August 3, 2017 at 7:19 am

      Thanks for noting. CourseIndex is already linked to under the Course Merchant entry above. – Jeff

      Reply
  60. Mike

    July 28, 2017 at 3:57 pm

    Hi nice job with this comprehensive write-up,
    I tried still cannot really figure the difference between LMS and authoring tools.
    Is authoring tool a part of an LMS ?
    I actually thought authoring tools are just platforms used to link texts, pictures, videos and audios to form a flow in a presentation… so not so sure how that was independently used for elearning in the past

    Thanks very much
    F.Mike

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      July 29, 2017 at 8:07 am

      Mike – Good question. This has become a somewhat confusing area as more and more LMSes have added/improved their authoring capabilities. In the “old days” an LMS was mostly just a database that handled enrolling learners into courses, presenting a “menu” to enable them to launch/access the courses, and tracking their progress through the course based on communication between the course and the LMS. Eventually, though, LMSes started including tools to do just what you describe – i.e., link texts, pictures, video, etc together into a flow. The main issue with this is that every LMS does it a bit different, So, if you build your courses in the LMS, you will almost certainly have to re-build them when you move to a new LMS. Authoring tools are LMS-independent. You build your course in the authoring tool and then can import it into any LMS. There are standards that have been developed to support this – SCORM being the main one historically. For some additional info on all of this see:

      https://www.learningrevolution.net/move-my-online-course/
      https://www.learningrevolution.net/does-scorm-matter-selling-online-courses/

      I also discuss authoring tools more at:
      https://www.learningrevolution.net/tools/create-an-online-course/

      Jeff

      Reply
      • mike

        July 31, 2017 at 9:30 pm

        Hi jeff,

        Thanks very much for your nice reply

        Reply
  61. Joseph

    July 20, 2017 at 2:08 pm

    Am I able to use any one of these platforms to:
    Sell courses AND individual lessons?

    IE. 50 videos…
    50$ for entire course. 1$ Per video lesson.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      August 2, 2017 at 7:26 am

      Joseph – This will probably come down to how you define things like “course” and “lesson.” A number of these will allow you to bundle multiple courses together into a single package. So, if you treat your lessons as courses, and then also sell packages that bundle multiple courses together, you can achieve what (I think) you are talking about. – Jeff

      Reply
  62. Tiffany

    July 16, 2017 at 3:46 am

    These are some good options. However, where can we find partners to help create the content or build courses for us?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      July 16, 2017 at 1:18 pm

      That’s a very different topic, but stay tuned – I plan to publish something on it very soon and will update this response when I do. – Jeff

      Reply
      • Jeff Cobb

        July 29, 2017 at 8:08 am

        See https://www.learningrevolution.net/help-creating-online-courses/

        Reply
  63. Tal

    July 2, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    Ivexe Video is the best for selling videos including a series, attachments, call to action and more; and, you get a 100% royalty!

    Reply
  64. Jody

    June 28, 2017 at 2:21 am

    Just wondering, does anyone know of any new online course software packages similar to LearnDash [but not Learndash] that are more like a stand-alone program with a one time fee?

    thanks!

    Reply
    • Mark

      November 20, 2017 at 6:53 pm

      Jody, our agency just completed a client project that used a similar plugin:

      https://flyplugins.com/wp-courseware/

      I wasn’t the lead on that project, but the developer who was evaluated several of the WordPress LMS options and it came down to LearnDash and WP Courseware. I believe the pricing model may be similar though. You may want to contact them.

      Reply
  65. Oliver Pascual

    June 13, 2017 at 12:19 pm

    Hi Jeff,
    I was looking for some useful Online Courses online and suddenly found your post. You have shared very useful information about the online course platforms which will surely make the process of choosing easier for everyone.

    Each platform is described in detail and I also appreciate that you’ve encouraged everyone to share their online platforms at your blog post. This way, people looking for online training can get an excellent and wide selection of the latest platforms that provide online courses. Also, big thanks for keeping this useful list updated.

    Here, I want to share a platform which provides useful business, computer, safety, banking, management, leadership and several other useful courses.

    The link for the website is https://www.knowledgecity.com/

    Hope you check it out!

    Reply
  66. Lindsey Mercer

    June 12, 2017 at 10:40 am

    This is a wonder post and has truly crystallized everything for me. I will be creating some video based courses and just need a “no frills” platform that enables me to enter this territory without breaking the bank. I was originally thinking of setting up everything through WordPress but am now gravitating towards Thinkific. My question is this…
    Let’s say I start with Thinkific but a year from now ultimately decide to shift over to another platform like WordPress / Learndash or Kajabi. What are the potential risks and repercussions of doing this? Is it not that big of a deal or is it not advisable? My thoughts are this. As long as you can export the customer list from the old system (with their passwords) and then import it into the new system you are fine. But I am not sure if most systems support this. Any input is appreciated.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      June 13, 2017 at 3:34 pm

      Lindsey – I actually just published a post related to your question: https://www.learningrevolution.net/move-my-online-course/

      Really, it comes down to the nature of your content and how much you rely on the tools contained within any specific platform to create your courses. If you rely on those tools heavily, then you will have to redo quite a bit when you go to a new platform. Maybe not a big deal if you don’t have a lot of courses and the courses you have aren’t all that large. But it could be a big deal if that is not the case.

      As far as dat goes, with most platforms you will be able to export the names and e-mail addresses of your customers, but there is a very good chance you would not be able to simply export passwords and import them into your new system. This would require a more complex level of migration (unless you have the tech skills) will probably require some help. That said, it is often possible to import the names and e-mails and then have people reset their passwords to simply establish a new password in the new system.

      Jeff

      Reply
  67. Ally

    May 22, 2017 at 2:58 pm

    Re: All-in-one platforms
    (eg Rainmaker, Academy Mine…)

    After taking a subscription of any type of these platforms – what will happen to the website, domain and contents upon cancellation? Are they easily transferable?

    E.g. because I’ve learnt to make my own website and features and can do so without paying expensive subscription fees? Or I find cheaper prices else where?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      May 24, 2017 at 2:34 pm

      Ally – The domain remains in your control always. You would just point it to your new site. Content is a bigger question. The ones that are WordPress-based would technically have an export functionality for all of the content and you should be able to get a copy of the database – all of which would you allow to set most if it back up in another WordPress installation. But there is definitely a lot of devil in the details – so, be sure to ask about this up front and make sure you feel confident you will be able to get your content out in a usable form. (Keep in mind that, when you build courses in a proprietary delivery platform, as opposed to in a separate authoring tool, you are almost always going to have to do some re-constructing when you switch to a new site.) – Jeff

      Reply
  68. Terry Jarrell

    May 18, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    Very glad to have found this post! I am an Apple consultant and instructor for legal professionals and I teach tech courses for which the students/viewers receive CLE credits for completing. My courses are pre-recorded videos, 1 – 4 hours in length and ready to upload. I have been scouring around trying to find a good platform that can do a few things I need:

    1: Collect payment at registration
    2: Provide on-demand viewing 24/7
    3: Confirm the course was completed prior to delivering a closing email or certificate with accreditation number
    4: Integrate with my existing website (optional but desired)

    Does anyone know of anything that might be a good fit? I have sold on Udemy before for consumer level, non-credentialed courses and I have been tinkering with Thinkific which I like very much, but they do no limit the ability for the viewer to simply skip to the end of the video as pretend they completed it. Otherwise, Thinkific might be ideal but without that sort of control over content consumption, it’s a deal breaker for me.

    Reply
    • Lisa

      September 10, 2017 at 2:56 am

      Hi Terry

      Did you get a response to your post. Your situation is very similar to mine and I would be interested in the answer.

      Reply
    • Diane Richards

      February 9, 2018 at 12:36 am

      I think they have added that feature this year, if I remember correctly.

      Reply
  69. Isabelle

    May 17, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    I wanted to set up all our courses with Academy Mine a couple of years ago. We have one large 12 part course and 15 smaller (4 part) courses and over 200 students. I paid someone else to set it all up and learn how to use it as I just didnt have the time myself. It took 6 months of paying this person a wage of $500 per week (around 2 grand a month) and around $200 a month for the platform. Six months and over $13,000 spent setting it up , on the day we launched the whole platform crashed as it turned out out courses and resources were just too big. Now I use online classrooms I create myself using web pages and downloadable PDF content. Students email their course work submissions to me. It works and costs nothing but I often wish for a more streamlined way to complete assessments.

    Reply
  70. Camila Alvarez

    April 5, 2017 at 2:36 pm

    Hi guys! I can’t believe you haven’t cross with TEACHLR.COM it would be great if you can add it to the list!
    For any questions please write us to [email protected]

    Reply
    • Kellie

      April 23, 2017 at 12:27 am

      Hi! There are plenty of marketplaces for recorded courses but does anyone have leads for live, realtime courses marketplace. Meaning where you can offer/sell “live”-not recorded-courses?

      I’ve found Currclick and Outschool so far and I think Teachable is one as well.

      Any others any of you could provide would be appreciated.

      Thanks!

      Reply
      • Jeff Cobb

        April 24, 2017 at 2:18 pm

        Kelli – You can do this on https://www.wiziq.com/ (I don’t think Teachable has a marketplace at all.) – Jeff

        Reply
  71. Kay

    March 20, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    Hi, looking for advice on which site to list a Personal Development course – we sell the course via our website and its all set up and ready to go so we don’t need Course Creation tools like quite a few of the sites seem to want you to use. So we are looking for new places to sell our ready made course online to gain a wider audience and sales. Any recommendations and wise words for us?

    Many thanks in advance!

    K

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      March 21, 2017 at 5:33 pm

      Kay – I don’t know of any place where you can simply list a course that is for sale, and I’m not sure how effective that would actually be. It sounds like what you really need are good ways to drive traffic to a sales page for your course on your Web site. The best way, by far, is through your own e-mail list. To the extent that you don’t have that, or in addition to that, consider the suggestions at https://www.learningrevolution.net/best-way-to-market-online-courses/ as well as https://www.learningrevolution.net/build-an-audience-for-selling-courses/ – Jeff

      Reply
  72. Thomas

    March 18, 2017 at 12:22 pm

    Hi Jeff,

    Great list! Thanks! I was wondering if you could add / review our platform as well for the creation of mobile courses: https://www.guidiance.com

    Highly appreciated! Thanks

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      March 20, 2017 at 9:22 am

      Thanks – I’ll have a look. – Jeff

      Reply
  73. Phillip Dacus

    March 12, 2017 at 3:42 pm

    Jeff,
    You will want to update your content here, if you are not already working on this. In your review of Udemy, you say that classes must be priced between $20 and $50. According to the information on the check list for classes; “Courses must be priced in $5 increments between $20 and $200”

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/udemy-images/support/Quality+Checklist+EN.pdf

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      March 14, 2017 at 2:07 pm

      Thanks for chiming in with the update info – Udemy changes often enough that it can be hard to keep up. The post has been updated to reflect this info. – Jeff

      Reply
  74. Phillip Dacus

    March 12, 2017 at 12:01 pm

    I am brand new to this. I did not even know there were such platforms. I have looked at some of the reviews here, but no idea which to try. There are a lot of them. The one that jumped out at me is called Teachable. mainly because of their pricing structure. Since I am just starting out, I have no idea how many classes I might sell, so I cant afford to pay a monthly and they just take a percentage of my sells. What I am looking for though are suggestions and recommendations. I dont want to invest lots of time and money into developing classes on Teachable, if its not a good platform.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      March 14, 2017 at 2:09 pm

      Phillip – Hopefully some other will chime in hear with their comments. Teachable is certainly a solid platform, and I have had a number of readers give it good reviews – though some have also commented that the level of service/support could be better. In any event, I don’t think there is any doubt that they are in it for the long haul. What it really comes down to is whether they have everything you feel you really need to support both your learning and business model. If it appears they do, I’d say go for it. – Jeff

      Reply
  75. Fulton Smith

    March 5, 2017 at 1:57 am

    We use the Academy of Mine platform for our site – http://www.gravitasacademy.com.au. We’ve found support from the AoM staff to be brilliant. They are very responsive and will make changes where possible that the big players would never make for us. Highly recommend.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      March 7, 2017 at 4:15 pm

      Glad to hear that. Thanks for sharing your experience. – Jeff

      Reply
  76. Pascall

    February 27, 2017 at 10:48 am

    Thanks for this great list, and keeping it updated as well. Would you say there are any platforms better suited than others for offering courses about professional skills development?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      March 7, 2017 at 4:16 pm

      Not really – it depends on the nature of the material, the learning objectives, and the audience. In theory, any of the platforms listed here could support professional skills development. – Jeff

      Reply
  77. Tom Whalen

    February 20, 2017 at 3:53 pm

    I’ve been using http://www.withcoach.com for several months now and really loving it. I tried other platforms first, but theirs is easier to use.

    Reply
    • Pamela Young

      May 16, 2017 at 8:22 pm

      I am checking out withcoach as well. It is the brainchild of a couple of Canadians, and all other features being equal (or better), I’d like to keep my support with my fellow Canucks.

      Reply
  78. Sell Online Courses - Free Signup and Setup Now

    February 17, 2017 at 2:41 pm

    Sell Courses (External / E-commerce) Start 30 Day Trial Free
    All plans come with free custom branding, which includes your logo, a welcome banner/message area, and a background color/image. Click here for an example.

    Reply
  79. Dylan Jorgensen

    February 13, 2017 at 9:53 pm

    Thanks for outlining all of these options. I started with Udemy just 2 months ago and It has been good but I don’t want to limit myself and https://www.udemy.com/1032110/ is not bringing in enough income that I could sustain a living off it yet. I am curious to know if any others have a community building around them where the instructors can help share students?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      February 17, 2017 at 4:18 pm

      Good question. I know both Teachable and Ruzuku have strong Facebook groups for people authoring in their systems. I’m sure there would be possibilities in those for developing relationships with other instructors and promoting each others offerings. – Jeff

      Reply
  80. Rodolfo Siles

    January 25, 2017 at 9:19 am

    How about Alison, anybody had an experience with this company? I see they offer free courses but make some profit from the certificates

    Reply
  81. BigmusBlog

    January 12, 2017 at 11:00 am

    Hi Carol, please tell us about your experiences with online course platforms. I’m actually researching which platform to start with. Thanks

    Reply
  82. Abey

    January 10, 2017 at 4:42 am

    Hi, thanks, this is very helpful! One question: Here in Holland people use IDEAL instead of Paypal to make payments online. Do you have any suggestions on high quality e-learningsoftware that has IDEAL payments integrated?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 12, 2017 at 9:30 am

      Abey – I don’t know of any offhand – just not something I really track. Hopefully someone else here will have some input, though. – Jeff

      Reply
    • Jay

      January 23, 2017 at 3:29 pm

      Hi Abey
      We do have an integration with IDEAL at Academy Of Mine. Please send us an email at [email protected] and someone will reach out to discuss.
      Thanks
      Jay

      Reply
  83. Greg

    December 30, 2016 at 5:00 am

    I’m just going to throw my two cents in here after seeing so much negative stuff about Udemy. While I understand the criticism related to such aspects of the platform as controlling user data and communications with students as well as some difficulties with the review process, I have had an excellent experience with them. The bottom line is, Udemy courses sell. For those of us who don’t like to do a lot of marketing or aren’t very good at it, Udemy has a huge user base and very effective marketing.

    I have tried other platforms with mixed success, but once you get their system down, which I think isn’t too complicated, you can create a good course and get it approved pretty quickly. They just have some specific requirements for your video files that they use to manage quality and standardize the service bit. I think that’s reasonable. At any rate, I just wanted to say that I have 19 courses on Udemy, with one more in the works right now, and I make more money on there per course than any other platform that I have tried BY FAR.

    Reply
    • Greg

      December 30, 2016 at 5:03 am

      Oh, and also I have recently discovered two newer marketplaces similar to Udemy that market the courses for you and do a profit share: CyberU, and On-Ed. I am in the process of testing them, I will return to the thread to let you know my experience.

      Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 12, 2017 at 9:29 am

      Thanks for chiming in, Greg. Definitely good to have diverse perspectives on this! – Jeff

      Reply
  84. Bob Oliver

    December 8, 2016 at 8:33 am

    Your blog was really helpful 🙂 Online Learning is much easy and it saves a lot of time, well you can study as well as do other things
    Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply
  85. nathan

    December 5, 2016 at 5:04 pm

    Hey Jeff Cobb, you done a great job at providing a well rounded list of online education websites.
    Here is another that is a great website which has allot ot offer for people starting to develop there business skills and help get there business started in just 3 days. head to the website and check it out http://bit.ly/2eYWwwz
    if you would like to do a article about this site or add it to your list that would be great. Some of the leaders in this program are Adam Cheyer Co-Founder of SIRI, Elliot Chapple Co-founder of Pozible and more.

    If you want to help grow the mentorship and community which is startupacademy.org then check it out and spread the love.

    cheers and thanks for such great content

    Reply
  86. Heidi

    November 28, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    What about moodle?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      December 6, 2016 at 3:01 pm

      Moodle’s a good platform, but out of the box, it’s just not something I recommend for most course entrepreneurs – the interface leaves a lot to be desired and the native sales and marketing capabilities are weak. – Jeff

      Reply
      • Vincent Mateljan

        December 15, 2016 at 3:07 am

        Completely agree – I’ve heard many stories about people using Moodle and then finding that they either don’t have the time/expertise to configure things themselves, or don’t have the budget to engage a consulting firm to do it for them. Out of the box solutions are much better for small businesses as they can get started easily themselves at a relatively low pricepoint.

        Reply
  87. Bill Bernhardt

    November 21, 2016 at 6:00 pm

    I used Teachble to build my first school where I presently have ten courses available with ten more yet to upload. However, while I do like the way that their software makes my school look, it was pretty steep learning curve to figure out how to use it to create a school and courses since their website is not at all intuitive. In addition, I found numerous small annoyances with their software which made the process more cumbersome.

    But, the main problem with Teachable is that their advertising leads you to believe that all you have to do is build the school and students will flock to sign up! However, nothing could possibly be further from the truth!!! Fortunately, I have over twenty-five years of retail experience and thus, I knew that going in.

    However, while they do provide some learning resources with their blog and their free webinars, they do not have single resource that provides you with a complete step-by-step process for marketing your courses. Also, they fail to make it clear that marketing an online course is very different from marketing a standard web site. Thus, I had to spend numerous hours on YouTube watching instructional videos to discover that, unlike a standard web site where you build, and then publish, the site and then vie with competitors for top ranking on Google and Bing, you instead have to build a permission based e-mail list to market to. But, they also fail to provide you with the resources to accomplish that task and thus, you have to turn to other service providers such as Mail Chimp and Timer Monkey to launch an e-mail marketing campaign. Plus, while they do have some resources on building an e-mail list, it is woefully inadequate and far less than clear.

    In addition, on the few occasions I have contacted their customer service for clarification, I have gotten a couple of good answers from one technician and half-assed answers from others. For instance, I read an article on their blog about how to implement an evergreen e-mail sequence but, it was poorly written and left out quite a bit of pertinent information. But, when I contacted their customer service to ask for clarification, they had no idea what I was talking about and repeatedly gave me half-assed answers to my questions! Thus, I had to turn to a video on YouTube to learn how to implement an evergreen e-mail marketing sequence.

    But, what has really set me off is that when I first signed up with them, they sent me e-mails on a regular basis but, suddenly stopped doing so. Then, the other day, I got a pop up window at the bottom of my screen informing me that their Teachable Summit was starting right then! So, I followed the link and signed up for their summit. But, not only did not receive notice of the impending summit via e-mail, I did not receive a confirmation e-mail that I had signed up for the summit! Thus, I contacted their customer service again to ask why I received neither notice of the summit nor a confirmation e-mail and that is when the run around started! First, I was told to check both of my e-mail addresses and my Spam folder. But, after my reply to that message, I was then told that their e-mails had bounced back to me too many times and that I had been removed from their e-mail list! Thus, they told me to add their e-mail address to my safe sender’s list and they would send me a confirmation e-mail. But, that was complete bull because, when I checked my safe sender’s list, their e-mail address was listed on both e-mail accounts! So, I sent them a reply stating that their e-mail address as well as their domain name was on my safe sender’s list and that I did not appreciate being lied to!!!

    However, I find all of this very suspicious since their e-mails to me suddenly stopped after I received a survey from them where I left poor feedback for them because their advertising is misleading, they only provide half of the solution for marketing an online course, and very little of the information needed to do so. But, after informing the customer service agent of this, I have not had reply from them of any sort whatsoever! Thus, I am now searching for a new home for my online outdoor academy!

    Reply
    • Brandon

      January 16, 2017 at 2:11 am

      Bill Bernhardt,

      I’m honestly not sure what you expect from Teachable. I’m not a customer of theirs, as I built my courses with Thinkific. However, they’re a courses site. they don’t do mailing lists, nor as far as I know is there a courses provider who does also do mailing lists. They are two totally different products.

      Also, you can’t expect their customer support to give support for something written in one of their blog posts. They support their product, and that’s it.

      I recommend going with ConvertKit for your mailing list provider, incidentally. But, I hope you can have some more reasonable expectations of your service providers.

      Reply
  88. Daniela

    October 26, 2016 at 2:43 pm

    You may also like this e-Learning platform which allows you to create your own e-shop – marketplace and there sell your courses for FREE and with no extra effort! This e-shop function can be switched on by one click in the platform settings. You only need to select the courses you want to display. Personalizing your e-shop by using your company’s logo and colors, so that the visitors would recognize the e-shop as yours, is a question of only a minute. so lets try and get more profit!

    Reply
  89. Rodney Waterman

    September 30, 2016 at 2:10 pm

    Learning Cart has been fantastic for me! I entered the field on Teachable because they provide a lot of guidance on how to get your course(s) noticed. But, I soon felt the technology was lacking and I didn’t get much from their guidance. So, I moved to Thinkific who has a little bigger feature set, but their tools for creating the home and landing pages were not very flexible and did not offer much for customizing, unless you are a coder. After researching over 50 LMS I chose Learning Cart. Their tools for customizing their template are much better and they have all the features I need. Most of all, their support is fantastic! With that said, our business model is to provide training on a wide range of business topics, from technical to management. I do not teach any of the courses. Instead, I find experts who have a course or idea and want to make some money, I market the courses and manage the site. You just teach!

    Reply
  90. Nilesh

    September 27, 2016 at 6:19 am

    Yes this is great content but now we have many more other option.there is lot of other platform provider who provide same features with whitelable solution. You can create and manage your own UDEMY, Lynda etc.

    With same platform you can conduct live classes and can provide recorded one.

    You guys should try http://www.edugyaan.com

    EduGyaan is another company who provide better platform at low cos.

    Reply
  91. Marie

    September 23, 2016 at 4:02 pm

    Dis anyone try Versal?

    Reply
  92. Andrea Hope

    September 21, 2016 at 10:29 pm

    Hi, I have already built an on-line course on wix which took many, many months, so I don’t want to re-write it and generally happy with the features. I just want to leverage off an e-Learning site for marketing purposes. Any suggestions? thanks

    Reply
  93. Freida

    September 20, 2016 at 1:01 pm

    Hello Jeff..thanks for this information. My needs seem to be a little different, and I hope you can be able to guide me. I work for a non-profit organization and we offer elearning courses for business owners at no charge. Our approach is to develop the content, have someone produce it as an ecourse — and we own it. I don’t understand the monthly fees that all of the platforms you mentioned seem to have. Wondering if you have suggestions of elearning developers that produce the courses without any ties into monthly fees and revenue sharing. Thank you!

    Reply
  94. Sasi

    September 20, 2016 at 6:38 am

    There is an another very good online teaching platform called Learnyst Teach Online.They help you build your own branded school.
    You can visit and can signup to it from here http://www.learnyst.com

    Reply
  95. Daniel B

    September 16, 2016 at 1:39 pm

    Anyone use Wedemic?

    Reply
  96. Divine Valentin

    September 11, 2016 at 9:32 pm

    I have created a performance arts workshop online and was looking for a platform. Thank you.

    Reply
  97. Anthony Miller

    September 4, 2016 at 5:25 pm

    Check out http://247digitalclassrooms.com. Their online learning platforms are affordable, simple to use, and cater to educators, tutors, coaches, and people looking to start a virtual school.

    Reply
  98. tom cruise

    August 23, 2016 at 5:30 am

    Thanks for the excellent article. Atbetterce continuing education courses are designed to provide the much needed workforce skills needed to acquire professional caliber for a lot of in-demand occupations and all our courses are state approved in many professions.

    Reply
  99. Farouk

    July 29, 2016 at 5:24 am

    Hi everyone!
    Just find out Thinkific using stripe , for 0 payment term but sadly stripe doesn’t recognise Malaysia. So sad ????

    Great post Jeff. Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  100. Raf

    July 20, 2016 at 3:15 pm

    Thanks for the Article Jeff. I was considering Teachable cause I heard it in the SPI podcast. But I like the way you described Ruzuku. My first course so I want as much help as possible. Will teachable be as supportive, why did you them the especial nod?

    Reply
  101. David Garcia

    July 14, 2016 at 6:02 pm

    Great information thank you very much is there a platform that offers a subscription based pay I am a success coach and work with a lot of companies that would rather pay by the month and have access for all of their employees then by the course.
    Thank you for your help

    Reply
  102. David Garcia

    July 14, 2016 at 4:24 pm

    is there a subscription for clients with your website?

    Reply
  103. Carson

    July 12, 2016 at 11:48 am

    I started using teachable and really like the functionality, UI, and ease of setting up the course. The problem I ran into is that files cannot be larger than 2GB. A lot of our training videos are 3GB and more, so we cant upload them.

    Reply
  104. Lawrence

    July 10, 2016 at 9:31 am

    If you have a course on Udemy, does Udemy restrict you to put up the same course elsewhere?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      October 2, 2016 at 11:15 am

      I’m not aware of any restriction on this. You own the content that you put into Udemy. The issue, though, is that Udemy is providing the tools to “structure the content” – i.e., providing the menu/links for a student to move from lesson to lesson. Still, if you course is mostly video – which it would be on Udemy – simply posting those videos on a different site or platform shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

      Reply
  105. Mohdy MS

    June 13, 2016 at 2:34 pm

    Hi can I publish my course in udemy and my website in same time ?

    Reply
  106. Amy

    June 8, 2016 at 4:14 pm

    I realize this is a few years old now… but I am looking simply for an online platform that I can publish the course and not charge any money for. Is there anything like that out there?

    Reply
  107. Chanel

    June 1, 2016 at 8:28 am

    Thanks Jeff for the info. If i create a course on teachable can I use social media to market the Teachable course? I.e. link from social media ads/posts straight to course

    Reply
  108. Olivia

    May 17, 2016 at 2:36 am

    Hi Jeff, great job you did on this post (it’s been going on for quite a while now ). Did you ever tried MATRIX LMS? What’s your thought on it? It looks very user friendly (feels like a social media platform) and it has a lot of great features.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      June 25, 2016 at 10:49 am

      I haven’t used it, but will have a look. – Jeff

      Reply
    • Phil Spokes

      June 29, 2016 at 4:29 am

      Hi – We (Spokes Education) are just in the process of launching a new learning platform, http://WWW.LURNMI.COM, which is a white labelled version of MATRIX LMS.
      You get the benefit of all the MATRIX features, but without having to commit to monthly fees – you only pay a small percentage of what you sell. We also give you full support, free of charge.

      We are offering some fantastic deals for early adopters, or if you want to get your own branded version of MATRIX, we can also help with that too.

      Thanks
      Phil

      Reply
  109. Fr. Lev

    May 16, 2016 at 2:05 pm

    In a bit of a quandary w/ LMS. We are a small religious order with a newly formed seminary wherein we would like to offer an eLearning option. Most of the sources described above are either web-based/ clud based platforms. We would like something more like an authoring tool platform, like Moodle, to create our courses and track everything from our own website.

    We tried Moodle and were OK w/ it except that there were security issues. We wound up being hacked and our webhost didn’t much appreciate that!

    Is there something along the Moodle line that you could recommend that might meet our needs?

    Much appreciated.

    Fr. Lev

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      May 20, 2016 at 4:50 pm

      You might give Educadium a shot – it is Moodle-based, but much friendlier to use, and they deal with the security. – Jeff

      Reply
  110. Paco de Onís

    May 12, 2016 at 1:17 pm

    Hi Jeff – thanks for this great blog and the lists of online course platforms! I’m just curious as to why you don’t include SkillShare in your lists of platforms.

    Reply
  111. Bob

    May 12, 2016 at 5:35 am

    Is Academy of Mine a real concern? It offers four apparently spoof course about cherries and a single 1hr 17min explanatory video (their understanding of an online course?).

    Reply
  112. Shane

    May 5, 2016 at 12:47 pm

    What do you think is the best platform to import an existing powerpoint presentation and convert it to an online course?

    Reply
    • Lisa Denke

      January 15, 2017 at 8:27 pm

      EZ LCMS is not free, but it looks like a serious answer to this question.

      Reply
  113. Catherine

    April 5, 2016 at 4:55 pm

    As if March 2016 New Kajabi is now available and definitely a platform worth checking out! Not only can you create online courses and membership sites you can bike your entire business on it. Includes website, hosting, video hosting, landing pages, affiliate tracking and (soon) email marketing. For a list of all features go to http://www.NewKajabiFeatures.com.
    This is the platform many online marketers like Brendon Burchard use!

    Reply
  114. Karen

    April 1, 2016 at 9:23 am

    I must admit, most of these websites are too expensive or offer little features for small start-ups. I was thinking about going with Udemy because they’ll help promote the course if you split the profits, but then I got greedy and thought about using wordpress to start my own, but it would be a pain in the butt to have to constantly update all those plugins. So I’m leaning towards Udemy and ValueAddon. I hate that I have to pay a monthly fee for VAO, but i like their platform set-up. I may try both and see which one performs best. Most likely it’ll be Udemy because they’ll do the marketing. We shall see though.

    Reply
  115. Olivia

    March 30, 2016 at 4:19 am

    Hi Jeff, great job you did on this post (it’s been going on for quite a while now ). Did you ever tried MATRIX LMS? What’s your thought on that platform? looks very user friendly (feels like a social media portal) and has a lot of great features.

    Reply
  116. Mark Gill

    March 16, 2016 at 7:45 am

    Give your customers on demand access to courses and leverage your core brand in minutes, not months.Create unlimited courses consisting of ‘Sections’, ‘Lectures’, ‘Assignments’, ‘Exams’ and ‘Certificates’ where contents of any format can be very easily inserted by you. https://www.createonlineacademy.com/features/

    Reply
  117. Tim Andersen

    March 7, 2016 at 10:38 am

    Great list!! We just launched a couple days ago and our online course marketplace niche is Man Skills or courses targeting men. We are using Teachable to build our marketplace because they are awesome. So anyone with skills in Hunting, Preparedness and tons more are welcome in!!!

    Reply
    • Ed Lamaster

      February 9, 2018 at 8:57 am

      How do I find your site?

      Reply
  118. Denise DeLuca

    March 2, 2016 at 6:20 pm

    I created a course on Udemy last . It was easy and they provide support. BUT I just learned they changed thier pricing structure, which suddenly knocks my course out. This is putting me in a terrible position. Be warned!!

    Reply
  119. Sophie

    February 27, 2016 at 8:55 am

    2nd time I visit this page and it keeps growing with useful info;)
    Tthe difference is choosing between bigger promoted sites like Udemy where you might get more visibility for your online course, or a smaller platform where you basically do your own promo.
    For a starter, price is also key factor. Thanks for sharing , now checking all these links

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      February 27, 2016 at 10:27 am

      Yes, how you promote/what kind of support you get is a significant factor. At a site like Udemy, you at least know there are many people showing up looking for courses. (Of course, there is still no guarantee your course will get a lot of visibility.) To be honest, if you can be effective promoting yourself on Udemy, then you can probably be successful promoting through your own site – and even if you have a course on Udemy, you will almost certainly still want to have your own site to support promoting the Udemy course (and – very important – collecting e-mail addresses). – Jeff

      Reply
  120. Tyler Basu

    February 24, 2016 at 6:16 pm

    Hey Jeff, great post! Have you checked out Thinkific? Curious to hear what you think of their platform.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      February 26, 2016 at 12:56 pm

      Haven’t checked it out yet, but will be sure to. Thanks for mentioning it. – Jeff

      Reply
  121. Marc

    February 1, 2016 at 11:42 am

    Hello Jeff
    Great article. Do you have any knowledge of platforms specifically targeting creators and consumers of learning courses for children, k-8? My company produces engaging, video animation educational/earning programs for kids (and their parents) covering core foundational subjects such as language arts, science, history, etc. They are available on our own company site as well as Udemy, Gumroad, Teacherspayteachers, but for the most part these sites are not specific to children.

    Reply
    • Marc

      February 1, 2016 at 11:45 am

      Our company is FutureSoBrite (https://www.futuresobrite.com).

      Reply
      • Nick

        December 6, 2016 at 10:52 pm

        Hello Marcs,

        We are an online courses platform in China (http://www.pbsedu.com/). We have more than 1 million registered users. My email address is [email protected]

        Cheers,
        Nick

        Reply
  122. Karan Brar

    January 25, 2016 at 11:25 pm

    My two courses are published on Udemy. It does not give a customized brand. So I decided to launch my own academy http://www.kblearningacademy.com
    Is there any way that I keep using my own domain but integrate with multiple platforms listed above?
    I do not want to use their hosting but keep my domain at one place.

    Regards,
    Karan

    Reply
  123. Myschoolbase.com - No.1 student online platform

    January 22, 2016 at 11:45 pm

    can use. If you’re interested in selling your own courses online, you should take a look at this list of 15 platforms to publish and sell online courses to find one that will suit your

    Reply
  124. Dave Mitchell

    January 18, 2016 at 8:45 am

    http://www.keeplearningforward.com

    Reply
  125. Dave Mitchell

    January 18, 2016 at 8:44 am

    Check out Keeplearningforward.com you can blog, upload your own courses, and they will even host live workshops and seminars for you. They do all the work at the live events, you just have to do the teaching – they book it, promote it, provide staff, etc.

    Reply
  126. Yiannis Panagopoulos

    January 13, 2016 at 8:44 am

    TalentLMS is yet another missing item on this great list http://www.talentlms.com/

    Reply
  127. Malak Sedra

    January 11, 2016 at 11:18 pm

    you should checkout http://www.e-sky.ca, its easy to host, you can sell directly on their site and their sales folks can offer your content to businesses (whenever applicable of course) and there is always the possibility to do a revenue sharing model without upfront cost for hosting. 1-855-MYESKY-1

    Reply
  128. Frances

    December 30, 2015 at 11:27 am

    I would not recommend Udemy. Their support is horrible. No one answers emails or support tickets. Can’t get approved for the Facebook group. They may be making a ton of money, but won’t last long if their support doesn’t improve. I’m looking for another website that has good support.

    Reply
  129. Christina O.

    December 5, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    You also need to check out Learnexa. http://www.learnexa.com

    Reply
  130. Jess

    December 5, 2015 at 5:51 pm

    Great article; the new one on the block is MNU http://marketingandnetworkinguniversity.com It is niche for entrepreneurs, digital marketers and sales. They pay 90%commision to course makers and they offer marketing tools like email autoresponders, blog, click trackers and others.

    Reply
  131. Chris Wilson

    November 12, 2015 at 5:35 pm

    I just started some courses on Udemy and love the platform. I think the most prevalent instructors probably make a ton, funny that Udemy sells for $10 every other week (I thought I was special). I’d be interested to see how others work. I think I have a technology that we just created that could be really helpful for course creators if you’d like to chat more I’d love to meet virtually. It’s patent pending and has never been done, we are backed by the CEO of LifeLock and just presented to the CMO of Facebook but looking to get it into the hands of course creators that do video. Let me know if you’d like to connect.

    Reply
    • Lawrence

      July 10, 2016 at 9:33 am

      Sure. let me know details

      Reply
  132. tariq ahmad

    October 11, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    udemy is the best platform. recently i published my first course “Learn & build a modern responsive website for themeforest”
    https://www.udemy.com/learn-build-a-modern-responsive-website-for-themeforest/

    Reply
  133. Robert

    October 10, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    I’d like to create a site that offers hundreds of my courses for free – and monetize the site through advertising, referrals, etc. Any ideas on the best platform for this typos of model?

    Reply
  134. Amjad Judeh

    September 21, 2015 at 4:27 am

    There’s also a new platform which allows you to sell training courses and also to write articles and keeps them all in your personal page… Also it allows anyone to advertise to sell used books they have for free… It is called http://www.Ecoursebox.com

    Reply
  135. Cliff Krahenbill

    September 16, 2015 at 2:22 am

    The article glazes over a lot of hard facts about some of the platforms. All I can say is let the buyer beware. Many of these sites have hidden charges they don’t spring on you until you go do do something, anything.

    For instance, you are led to believe that using your on domain name is a feature but once when you go to use it, you are going to be charged $99.00 and be sold an SSL cert that has a reoccurring monthly fee of $25.00.

    You need to ask about hidden charges and fees and understand what it is your doing. Some of these platforms have no information on how to opt out or cancel once you sign up. Some of these sites have no point of contact and telephone number and emails that are truly bogus.
    emails addresses like [email protected]

    With one of these well known platforms, I had to do a whois to find the real owner of the company and email him directly to cancel my account.

    Do not sign up for any reoccurring payment using your credit card. You will find that your bank cannot stop the payment and the provider will not allow you to remove your credit car or cancel.

    If you sign up either use PayPal or offer to pay month to month.

    I see a lot of slick advertising with pictures of the supporting staff shown as all being young, very diverse, affluent, and attractive and they only have a first name. I would suspect that a lot if not all the claims of endorsements on most of these sites are bogus.

    Watch yourselves!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      September 16, 2015 at 6:21 am

      Cliff – Thanks for your comments. And, I agree – do your homework and buyer beware. This was never meant to be a comprehensive buyer’s guide – merely a brief overview of some of the major available options. And, as I state clearly at the beginning, I do not endorse any of these products. This is starting point for doing the work that will – I hope – land you on the platform that is right for your needs. But the “doing the work” part is critical. – Jeff

      Reply
  136. JB

    September 11, 2015 at 7:55 pm

    They all, except for UDEMY, want money up front to host your courses. UDEMY does not and they have a great platform and process. But as I have noticed of late, they seem into be getting to big for their proverbial britches and are turning some off now because they aren’t as friendly as they once were and they are doing some strange stuff

    Reply
  137. Mark Smith

    September 9, 2015 at 7:25 am

    Jeff you forget to mention EH ACADEMY, people who are interested in learning hacking they should enroll in this academy. Academy.ehacking.net

    Reply
  138. Amanjot

    August 27, 2015 at 12:28 am

    Hi Jeff,

    WizIQ has come a long way during last few months. We all know about its much loved Virtual Classroom. Now, it’s spreading wings in a direction. It recently launched Online Academy Builder – A DIY platform that allows users to create their own online teaching website in a few minutes. A lot of other improvements have also been made. You can find more details on the website – http://www.wiziq.com/

    Regards,
    Amanjot

    Reply
  139. Phil

    August 26, 2015 at 8:05 am

    Hi Jeff
    Great list thanks. Do you know of any particular LMS that offers interactive video with one or many students in the same way that Adobe Connect does? The standard webinar format is OK but most seem to only have a text chat option for the students which can be limiting in terms of teaching.

    Thanks
    Phil

    Reply
  140. Nikki

    August 20, 2015 at 5:50 pm

    Hi, Jeff.

    I have one question, being a real novice. I want to use a platform for on-line learning that not just allows for pre-taped videos, slide shows with audio, and other “static” mediums. I want a platform that allows for live teaching where I can either see the individuals (as I teach self-care/body work), hear the individuals and their questions (but they see me), and/or get their chats (latter being less desirable – other two being more as they create a real live classroom feeling). Which on this list does provide that live video teaching/ “conferencing” option. Or alternatively – do people mix and match platforms.

    Thanks, Nikki the Novice (even so dinosaur that I’m just now updating my own site to mobille)

    Reply
  141. Natasha

    August 17, 2015 at 3:44 pm

    If I’m planning to have 100 of teachers or more tutor several hundreds of students, which platform should I choose? I saw e-lecta offers such classrooms where several teachers can have their own virtual room for teaching. Anybody else?
    I also want to be able to sell webinars and other courses on the same platform. Any suggestion?

    Reply
    • Lokesh Sahal

      October 5, 2016 at 5:53 am

      Hi Natasha,

      I’ve just launched a platform: https://trainingalley.com. It will allow you to sell Webinars and have a personal chatroom, social group for your students. Also, it will support Interactive Classes created with authoring tools like Articulate, Captivate, etc. You can contact me through the site.

      Regards,
      Lokesh

      Reply
  142. Rajiv Sathian

    August 10, 2015 at 9:52 am

    Hi All,
    To sell courses online you can use Moodle as the LMS wherein you can create any number of courses and add course content related to them.
    Moodle has a robust system which can be used by site owners to manage and maintain courses.

    To sell them online you can use WordPress as the CMS wherein due to its simple and easy to use interface will help you to create a great user-interface for buyers on your site.

    We have come up with a plugin which integrates both Moodle and WordPress which helps in sync of courses created in Moodle with WordPress.
    Edwiser has its own payment gateway which can be used by you to sell course individually, but if you wish to sell courses as products you could get the WooCommerce Integration extension which would help you in selling courses as products, sell one or bundle more than one course into product, set subscription for the product along with many WooCommerce features.

    To get more information regarding this click on this link https://edwiser.org.

    Regards.
    Rajiv

    Reply
  143. Jeremy

    July 31, 2015 at 4:59 pm

    Hi Jeff. First off, excellent guide! My question really pertains to pricing model. Are you aware if most of the successful sites go with the standard monthly membership fees or do they go with a one-time purchase to get lifetime access? It is an odd conundrum and one I have been thinking about while I am putting together my content. Thanks in advance for your response!

    Reply
  144. Rajiv Sathian

    July 31, 2015 at 9:08 am

    Hi,

    Since the discussion is related to creating and selling courses online.
    With the experience we have in this field, I recommend Moodle to be the best place to create courses online, you may find Moodle to be tedious but trust me once you start using it you will find it to be very handy.
    But when the plan comes to sell courses in Moodle, yes it is not easy so I would recommend use WordPress as front-end to create a dedicated site to sell your courses online.
    Looking into these requirements we came up with Edwiser Bridge which integrates Moodle with WordPress, syncs courses created in Moodle to WordPress, along with the WooCommerce extension site owner can sell courses as products, even bundle more than one course as products.

    Looking forward to your view regarding Edwiser.

    Reply
  145. Eric

    July 26, 2015 at 11:21 am

    Thanks for posting this list! I googled and thought I’d have to search on my own, and your list was first in line. (recently updated, too!) You saved me countless hours of work finding and investigating these options. We’d like to offer some of our safety classes online. As a small business, your first paragraph resonated with me. I can’t afford to license an LMS, authoring tools, and do the development to connect them to our website. I need an affordable SAAS solution. You rock!

    Reply
  146. Roz Bahrami

    July 8, 2015 at 11:07 am

    Great list! Thanks for including SkyPrep!

    Reply
  147. John

    July 2, 2015 at 2:58 pm

    Hi Jeff. Thank you for this information. I was building a driver safety course on Udemy, but since I am basically a writer not a videographer, could not meet their requirements. Is there a place you would recommend for someone wanting to open a course solely based on writings? Thanks, John

    Reply
  148. webeasystep

    June 27, 2015 at 12:37 pm

    thanks man i am boring from udemy platform thay take over 50% from my course revenue and i want to try alternatives for my Courses

    Reply
  149. Susan

    June 23, 2015 at 11:27 am

    Hi, I was wondering if you had any information on yescourse.com. I keep getting advertisements from them, but haven’t seen anything reviewing them (except from them) online. Thanks in advance.

    Reply
  150. Melanie

    June 16, 2015 at 1:26 pm

    Have you checked out Jasper / Refined Data? Their platform is built on Moodle and integrates with Adobe Connect, and is used by many respected companies and universities, as well as Kaplan test prep etc.

    http://www.refineddata.com

    I’m curious which platforms you most highly recommend for their use of open-source code and value? Thank you for this post!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      June 17, 2015 at 2:53 pm

      Melanie – Refined Data has a nice solution, and I have included them in selection processes I have run before, but I think of them as more appropriate for larger organizations – rather than the individual subject matter entrepreneurs and small firms that are the main audience here. Am I off the mark in thinking that? – Jeff

      Reply
  151. Panos Siozos

    June 7, 2015 at 4:34 pm

    This is a great list! Yet new powerful solutions appear every day.

    For a fresh approach I suggest you have a look at http://www.learnworlds.com, a white-label platform for creating your own online school and full-fledged professional training community (disclosure: I am a co-founder there)

    With LearnWorlds you have everything you need to easily create rich online courses (that combine videos, texts/images, formal and informal assignments and tests, certificates etc.). On top of that you get the opportunity to convert your videos into interactive experiences (with titles, bookmarks, definitions that you can add on the fly, without the need for expensive post-production) and your texts into interactive ebooks (with personalized notes, highlights etc.)

    More importantly, you get a set of tools that will help you create a vibrant learning community for your learners, like:
    – Personal profiles for your clients to present their skills and experiences
    – Social networking and People Search for your clients to be connected and form teams
    – Daily newspaper for your clients to be informed about the topic from the best relevant sources,
    – Gamification, with custom badges, for your clients to be motivated (e.g. an “Android Guru” badge)

    Of course LearnWorlds is fully white-label so it can blend with your existing site/blog

    hope that helps:)

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      June 17, 2015 at 2:54 pm

      Panos – Thanks for commenting. Looks like a nice solution. I will get it added in above. – Jeff

      Reply
      • Panos Siozos

        October 4, 2016 at 5:56 am

        Sad that LearnWorlds.com wasn’t included in your latest update:(
        It would definitely be a very interesting choice for your audience

        Looking forward to the next update:)

        Reply
  152. Stephan Pineau

    May 29, 2015 at 7:51 am

    Once your Training company has sold its best content thanks to one of those great platform, you have to manage it !
    Training Orchestra provides an “ERP for Training Companies” to manage the back end (orders, invoice, schedule, profitability…). Our training management software for training companies bring the experience of more than 250 clients, and just received the Brandon All Gold award.

    http://www.training-orchestra.com/

    Reply
  153. el mustapha ben bihi

    May 16, 2015 at 7:38 pm

    I think Udemy is the best since they are providing a powerfull course creation tool for free and also their review process in term of quality is better that other websites. and the best advantage that the registration is free of fees!!!

    Reply
  154. Peter

    April 26, 2015 at 3:48 pm

    Hey Jeff,

    Don’t forget Eventase! It’s a fully customizable platform just like the one you mentioned, but with some more advantages. Check it out – http://www.eventase.com

    Cheers,
    Peter

    Reply
    • Kevin

      December 13, 2015 at 3:04 am

      Perhaps Eventase.com ahould actually say somewhere what their pricing structure is?

      Reply
  155. Darlynn

    April 25, 2015 at 11:16 am

    Wondering what you think of CourseCraft?

    Reply
  156. Conrad

    April 23, 2015 at 2:31 pm

    Quite a few on the list! I’d certainly add http://UseFedora.com/features which is the solution for closing in on 10,000 teacher entrepreneurs out there.

    If you’re trying to find your profitable idea or grow your course, check out our free course on the subject here: http://profitablecourseidea.com

    Reply
  157. Rob

    April 22, 2015 at 3:30 pm

    Hi, i’m part of a startup LMS company called Aktiv Mind LMS. Our platform allows businesses to create courses and tests in order to train their employees. Our platform runs on all devices such as PCs/Macs, as well as tablets and mobile phones. We are offering a free 1 month subscription for new subscribers.
    Thank you

    Reply
  158. Istvan Holczer

    April 21, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    Hi Jeff, Hi All,
    thank you Jeff for the listing of the platforms!
    Is it possible to upload and try to sell the course on different and several sites?
    Ad absurdum: is it possible to upload them to ALL learning sites / platforms?

    Thank you and bye
    Steven

    Reply
  159. PJ

    March 31, 2015 at 4:44 pm

    This is a great list. There is a company called http://www.uscreen.tv they also have an easy to use platform which enables you to sell courses online and setup a video subscription website, I know a few companies that use them.

    Reply
  160. Jimmy Donnellan

    March 10, 2015 at 12:20 pm

    Bit late to the party but maybe http://www.scormlms.com should be added to the list?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      June 17, 2015 at 2:50 pm

      The focus here is on platforms that make it easy to sell courses. As far as I can tell, ScormLMS isn’t really focused on that, but let me know if I am missing something. – Jeff

      Reply
  161. scott cochran

    February 18, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    Don’t forget the popular flextraining complete learning framework. It lets you author complete courses – from simple to complex – and use e-commerce to gain revenue for them.

    Reply
  162. Christopher Perrin

    January 14, 2015 at 3:54 pm

    Jeff,
    What if I want to sell over 20 online LIVE courses as part of a growing K-12 online academy? Mainly, I want a clear means of offering and selling the courses and registering new students.

    Is Canvas Catalog a decent option?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 15, 2015 at 8:11 am

      Christopher – Depends on you budget and how confident you are in enrollments/growth. The pricing I have seen on the Catalog option for Canvas is quite hefty – though, I have to say it is very nice. Keep in mind that many less expensive options will offer the registration and e-commerce options you need while also offering options for plugging into common Webinar tools like GoToWebinar. Alternatively, consider an option like WizIQ, which is really geared toward supporting the sales and delivery of live online courses. – Jeff

      Reply
  163. Nick

    January 9, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    This one has been real popular lately:
    usefedora.com

    Reply
  164. neri Life Choma

    January 7, 2015 at 3:14 pm

    Hi Jeff,

    Thanks for this comprehensive article. I already built my Elearning program and website with wishlist plugin, and all my videos are hosted on Vimeo. I would like to know about platforms to market my training program.
    are there platforms that let me list my program for a marketing fee?
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      January 9, 2015 at 4:06 pm

      Neri – It’s a good question. If I am understanding your need and set-up correctly, I don’t know of specific site to recommend. Depending on the field/industry you are targeting, though, there may be publications, associations, etc, that would provide the opportunity for listings. If I find other options, I’ll let you know. – Jeff

      Reply
      • Char

        June 9, 2015 at 6:02 am

        Neri,

        Try:
        http://www.courseindex.com

        Reply
  165. Greg Jeffries

    January 3, 2015 at 1:43 pm

    Great list. Thanks for putting it together.

    Reply
  166. Matt

    December 18, 2014 at 7:24 pm

    I didn’t end up getting the chance to work with Learning Cart due to issues with our client, but overall, the people at Learning Cart were awesome to work with. Learning Cart not only offers the ability to create and sell online courses, but you can also create a fully functioning shopping cart for selling items other than courses!

    Reply
  167. Miranda

    December 4, 2014 at 12:49 pm

    To add another to the list: http://www.Thinkific.com is definitely another option!

    – Create and sell courses on your own site, under your own brand
    – Content importer allows easy import of videos & pdfs in bulk
    – Create courses out of multiple file types (video, PDFs, MP3s, Text, Quizzes, Surveys, and tonnes of outside sites like typeform forms, Articulate, Storyline… the list goes on!)
    – Full e-commerce, student tracking, and so on
    – Robust integrations with tools like Segment.io, Mailchimp and Mixpanel
    – $0/month to start, 10% transaction fee or less. Only pay when you start selling.

    I could go on and on, but it’s worth checking out! Disclaimer: I work with Thinkific 🙂

    Reply
  168. Jimmy Newson

    December 3, 2014 at 1:16 pm

    Hey Jeff,

    Thanks for the great article. I have a question for you or anyone here. My company is preparing a number of training programs for 2015. In reviewing all the platforms available, what do you think about putting a single course on multiple platforms. Can that be done? My thinking is some of these platforms have built in (huge) audiences who are accustomed to purchasing online courses, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have access to as many potential students as possible by being on multiple platforms. Any thoughts.

    Best,
    Jimmy

    Reply
    • Ton Bil

      November 26, 2015 at 11:58 am

      Great idea, and I ‘m wondering how you did. Please give us a little update!

      Reply
      • Chris du Plessis

        September 26, 2016 at 9:53 am

        It is my question exactly. Could one run the same course on multiple platforms? Have you had an answer yet?

        Reply
  169. James Ashford

    November 28, 2014 at 9:07 am

    Great article, thank you.

    Do you think it’s better to sell courses on your own website or to sell them on another. For example, Tony Robbins has his website, but then he sells his courses on Business-Mastery. Brendon Burchard has a website but then sells his courses on HighPerformanceAcademy.

    Just wondered what your thoughts were.

    Cheers

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      November 29, 2014 at 10:09 am

      James – It really depends on what your overall business goals are and how that impacts how you manage your brand and segmenting of your market. The main thing, from my perspective, is that you want to be be selling from a site that you own (Brendon, for example, owns HighPerformanceAcademy.com) rather than relying entirely totally on a third-party market place like Udemy – at least if you are really serious about being in the education/training business. I, for example, decide a while back that I wanted to develop business brands that were distinct from my personal brand. I have a range of reasons for wanting to do that, but one key one is that I would like to have the potential (whether I ever take advantage of it or not) of selling off those brands/businesses. Not having them tied too tightly to my personal brand makes that possible. Hope that helps. – Jeff

      Reply
  170. PharmPsych Team

    November 27, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    Jeff:

    Hey! We enjoyed reading your article. But, the majority of the companies listed on this page are for long term courses/classes. At PharmPsych Sites we cater mostly to Continuing Education professionals in the medical field, many of whom just need a short term solution. In the medical field information changes quickly, and most of our users do not want to have a long term course. We make it easy and simple to do that.. In fact, our prices are below the range of what you listed; we also have some free packages. We would appreciate it if you would take a look at what we have to offer and provide us with some feedback: https://pharmpsych.com/sites/

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      November 29, 2014 at 10:10 am

      Thanks – I’ll take a look. (Though I’m not sure there is anything particularly long term or short term about the platforms highlighted here. It comes down to how you use them.)

      Reply
  171. Tarun Rai

    October 15, 2014 at 10:42 am

    Hi Jeff,

    I would like to share our WordPress plugin with your readers especially the ones who would like to sell their Moodle courses online. This plugin works with your WordPress website and integrates WordPress and Moodle with WooCommerce to sell Moodle Courses online.
    You can take a look at the details here. http://wisdmlabs.com/woocommerce-moodle-integration-solution/

    Hope to get added to your list soon. 🙂

    Reply
  172. Leslie Edelman

    September 23, 2014 at 3:04 pm

    Hi Jeff,

    Thanks a ton for these resources. Im looking specifically for a user controlled (interactive) video platform for training people on how to use a specific product, reviewing features and troubleshooting. We dont need to sell anything, but would love to track which video’s get watched most so that we know where the interest or pain points are for the product. I’ve looked at Engajer as a platform, and some of the training platforms here seem like a good fit, but not sure about the ‘self guided’ aspect of the video. Any additional thoughts/insights since you’ve posted this list?
    Thanks again, Leslie

    Reply
  173. Roy Nelson

    September 5, 2014 at 1:45 am

    While looking for some other providers I came across this one.
    https://www.apnacourse.com/tutoring
    They have decent enough platform, have gone through their own MOOCs hosted on platform.
    Some points about them i liked,
    – course can be completely private, with my own audience. (download restricted)
    – no revenue sharing (pay as you go model, charged per consumption hour at the month end)
    Has anybody tried it and have anything to share about pros and cons of it?

    Reply
  174. Alina

    September 4, 2014 at 8:54 am

    How about MATRIX LMS? I thin they definitely should be included in the list, they have e-commerce integration with Stripe, Paypal and Authorize.net, not to mention that the platform looks amazing

    Reply
  175. Martin Broughton

    September 3, 2014 at 6:22 am

    Hi Jeff, just wanted to say many thanks for mentioning Course Merchant on the list.

    We would love to show you a demo some time if you had a spare hour or so, be great to get your detailed thoughts.

    Once again, many thanks for the mention.

    All the best and I look forward to hearing from you.

    Martin Broughton
    [email protected]

    Reply
  176. Ryan

    August 13, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    Out of the gate your first resource is simply a version of WPLMS theme found on theme forest. There is not even a business behind the associated link to academy of mine. I find that really odd. Their demo video talks about the unique platform and marketing presence, yet they have no product, or classes. I just find that strange.

    Reply
  177. Jacob Bradley

    July 26, 2014 at 3:39 pm

    Hi Jeff,

    We sent a note to you in May about adding Click 4 Course to this list, but we’re not sure if you got it. Would you be able to at it? Based on services you’ve listed, it would be a great addition to this list. We hope to hear back from you, and also see our service on your list!

    Thanks,

    Jacob Bradley
    Support Team
    [email protected]
    http://www.click4course.com

    Reply
  178. Ruth Collis

    July 25, 2014 at 5:31 pm

    I’ve had my course at Udemy for awhile, but now they are starting to delete legitimate reviews due to their “spam review filter.” How does that make you feel to work hard for your reviews as well as your course, then have a system work against you?

    Reply
  179. Ann Mary

    July 20, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    Great info!! We also provide a platform for instructors to promote their online courses. http://WWW.crunchadeal.com

    Reply
  180. Michael

    July 7, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    Pathright catalog seems to be dead.

    Reply
  181. Jeff

    June 26, 2014 at 4:37 pm

    Don’t forget Lightspeedvt.com. They specialize in creating interactive video training courses for speakers, consultants, and other experts. They’re based out of Las Vegas and have done work with Bravo (Top Chef’s Cooking Courses), GM, and countless speakers. They’re start-up fees are a little steep for most people, but it’s definitely what you’re talking about in the article.

    Jeff

    Reply
  182. Keegan

    June 25, 2014 at 6:15 pm

    Hi Jeff, I know you are planning to update this list soon. When you do please add Skilljar to the list – (www.skilljar.com).
    Thanks! Keegan

    Reply
    • Indigo

      February 6, 2015 at 11:47 am

      Skilljar is what I was going to suggest too, but see it was already suggested. Still not on list though. It is the best, IMHO. Low fees, highly responsive, host all the files and process all the payments, many types of content allowed, coupons, etc. etc.

      Reply
      • David Garcia

        July 14, 2016 at 3:56 pm

        do they offer a subscription model for my clients ? that is the big thing I am looking for thank you in-advance

        Reply
  183. John Nyquist

    June 19, 2014 at 2:02 pm

    Thanks for the post, Jeff! The info on Udemy is not current, late last year the pricing structure changed. Right now, instructors get 50%. And depending on other factors, you might only get 25%.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      June 19, 2014 at 2:41 pm

      Thanks for the update, John. The downside of this kind of post is the need to keep up with changes like that! – Jeff

      Reply
  184. Edvance360

    June 13, 2014 at 6:01 am

    Great resources Jeff. It will make it easy for Selling online courses in various platform.

    Reply
  185. steve

    May 31, 2014 at 11:26 pm

    If you are looking to sell videos from your website take a look at http://www.HostStreamSell.com, they even have wordpress plugins for easy integration.

    Reply
  186. Sean Power

    May 26, 2014 at 3:38 pm

    Good list Jeff, its missing us though, Firmwater LMS has been built specifically for training companies to sell, deliver, track and report their online training courses. Here is a link to our patnership with Shopify – http://www.firmwater.com/lms/features/sell-courses-online.php – let me know what you think, I hope to see us added to the list.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      May 26, 2014 at 3:44 pm

      Thanks, Sean – I’ll check it out. Planning to update the list soon.

      Jeff

      Reply
    • Kevin

      December 13, 2015 at 12:24 am

      Just running down this list as well as the comments, I’d be interested to know why FirmWater.com feels entitled to charge so much more than their competitors. If you’re offering unique features that others dont, perhaps you should highlight that on your website so that it justifies the exponential price increase.

      Reply
  187. Bob Berry

    May 16, 2014 at 4:36 pm

    Hello, Jeff – great list, thanks for the detailed insights. A question for you: do you know which of these companies and systems will provide sales and distribution of my existing courses in my existing LMS? It appears that most (all?) required the content to be converted to or loaded into their LMS/CMS.

    thanks!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      May 26, 2014 at 3:44 pm

      Bob – Apologies for the delay in responding. I was not notified of the comment for some reason. As far as I know, none of these support pulling content from another LMS. That has always been somewhat tricky territory – hopefully something that will be addressed as emerging standards (Tin Can) gets more broadly adopted and implemented. – Jeff

      Reply
  188. Morgen

    May 13, 2014 at 2:16 pm

    Many good solutions out there – I’m adding ours to the pile – worldclass.io is a platform with built in quizzing, MOOC, gamification and commerce modules + rich analytics and user mgmt.
    We’re 100% customisable and you can configure the front-end to go with any design or hosting service you’re currently using.

    Reply
  189. Jacob

    May 13, 2014 at 12:15 am

    Hi Jeff, this is a great list. Click 4 Course is another relevant one to add… especially for companies looking for a very cost-effective platform (starting at just $19 per month). It also includes a company-branded website for students to access the course. It’s super easy to use as well. http://www.click4course.com

    Thanks! Jacob

    Reply
  190. stephane caron

    May 2, 2014 at 7:42 am

    Hey Jeff,

    Thanks so much for those great infos. That should most definitely help me with my plans to start up a training platform. Thanks to your infos, I can now narrow my search for the best tool to use.

    I wish to put online downloadable checklists, videos and emit certificates. And one thing also that I wish to be able to do is allow my trainees to download mobile device friendly version of my lists and videos.
    Any obvious suggestions ?

    Reply
  191. Mary

    April 25, 2014 at 9:14 am

    I was wondering if you have specific recommendations for platforms suitable for teaching language courses. I’ve looked at several on this list so far and they look very interesting, but it’s not immediately clear to me how well they would integrate with a webinar tool for live meetings/discussions. It’s also not clear which has the most powerful quiz/testing/tracking capabilities.

    Reply
  192. Jeff Cobb

    April 11, 2014 at 8:28 am

    Not sure Udacity is really a fit for the type of thing I’m talking about here. I’m not aware that you can create/deliver whatever you want on Udacity – you basically have to be selected by them or one of their partners to do a course. Correct me if I am wrong, though. – Jeff

    Reply
  193. Rupali

    April 9, 2014 at 7:45 pm

    Is the platform at iteachers.com (which forwards to http://www.myonlinecampus.org/) something that you’ve looked at, Jeff?

    How does it compare to these others?

    Mahalo for this fine information!

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      April 11, 2014 at 8:28 am

      Haven’t checked that one out, but will have a look. – Jeff

      Reply
  194. Matt Craig

    March 27, 2014 at 6:40 pm

    amazing article. There’s another company I just found while searching on the web. They take away 30% better than udemy’s 50/50.

    it’s called scooltv. https://scooltv.com

    Reply
  195. Kunjan

    February 24, 2014 at 2:08 am

    Hi Jeff,

    I have one question, if you can help. Security is always a challenge in e-learning content. Any suggestions to ensure that viewers can not download the video.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      April 11, 2014 at 8:30 am

      Most of the video oriented services (e.g., Udemy, MindBites) are going to present the video in a way that it cannot be downloaded. Or you can use something like JPlayer in WordPress, or Vimeo with the download capability turned off. Of course, there’s pretty much nothing you can do to prevent someone from making a screen recording if they really are determined to.

      Reply
  196. Mattia Toso

    February 20, 2014 at 4:16 pm

    Thanks for the excellent article.

    For the pretty angry instructors on Udemy pricing model, i’d like to suggest Kunerango (http://www.kunerango.com/en/landing).

    Thanks

    Reply
    • gwen

      January 22, 2015 at 9:38 am

      i agree i had a terrible experience with UDEMY, wish i searched other places first!!!

      Reply
      • Jeff Cobb

        January 22, 2015 at 11:00 am

        Thanks for that input, Gwen. Udemy does seem to get pretty mixed reviews at best. – Jeff

        Reply
  197. Bharat

    January 15, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    Jeff — I am the Publisher at Siminars. I’d love to get your feedback on our platform. Please check out siminars.com and email me if you have any ideas or questions. Thanks and have a great year ahead!

    Reply
  198. William

    January 13, 2014 at 3:57 pm

    Before rushing off to Udemy….you should read this. Not as great as everyone says.

    http://www.planningforfailure.com/post/63542124884/udemy-takes-more-from-instructors-censors-critics

    Some pretty angry instructors in the comments area.

    Hope this helps

    Reply
  199. Katie Hurst

    December 6, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    Jeff —

    Thank you for including OpenSesame on your list. If you or any of your readers have questions or would like to know more, please let me know!

    Reply
    • libby

      May 15, 2015 at 1:54 pm

      Can anyone help in suggesting ways in which we can sell our courses with discount websites, such as amazon.local and places like that? I have been suggested to use affiliate marketers, but am unsure really of what this means?

      Reply
  200. Abe Crystal

    December 2, 2013 at 5:58 pm

    Thanks, Jeff for the great list! I know this will be a valuable resource for many folks.

    Reply
  201. Dinesh Takyar

    November 26, 2013 at 7:48 am

    Thanks for the excellent info.
    I feel that nowadays it isn’t difficult to build your own training website using Paypal as the payment gateway.
    What do you think could be the disadvantages of going your own way?

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      December 3, 2013 at 11:26 am

      Dinesh –

      Just using Paypal as a payment gateway and one of any number of approaches to managing access to content (like, for example, a membership plugin) can work just fine. The platforms listed here all manage access rights as an integrated part of the software and have done a good bit to streamline the e-commerce process. Many of them also streamline authoring of educational content and make it easier to integrate content, assessments, and social interaction (e.g., discussion boards) into a single educational experience. It all depends on what learning models you plan to use and how adept you feel at taking a more DIY approach. – Jeff

      Reply
  202. Ashley

    November 20, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    BrainCert Makes E-Learning And Passive Earning Painless. BrainCert allows instructors to create courses and upload tests easily and quickly. Once that’s done, the platform integrates with PayPal and Stripe, allowing you to profit from the information you’ve provided. BrainCert is generous with that, too, giving you 90% of the sales revenue from whatever you sell. – https://www.braincert.com/

    Reply
  203. Sohail Khan

    November 14, 2013 at 1:10 pm

    Late to the party but AT the party is DojoLearning! http://www.DojoLearning.com 🙂

    Reply
  204. Lindsey H

    November 4, 2013 at 5:07 pm

    Don’t forget DigitalChalk from Asheville, NC as well! http://www.digitalchalk.com 🙂

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      November 4, 2013 at 5:37 pm

      Thanks, Lindsey – I’ll be sure to add it. Had a very nice visit to Asheville recently. – Jeff

      Reply
  205. Carol

    October 29, 2013 at 3:22 pm

    Thanks so much for these awesome resources. Some of the very best, clean and easy to use I have found in my research. Cost is always a factor since I am an independent trainer. I have started on Udemy. Will see how it goes. I am also exploring pathwright at the moment. Clean interface, still have to see how it works.

    Reply
    • Jeff Cobb

      October 29, 2013 at 5:15 pm

      Thanks for commenting, Carol – If you have a chance, drop back by at some point, please drop back by and let folks know how your experiences went with Udemy and Pathwright. – Jeff

      Reply
      • Jane

        December 2, 2015 at 2:22 pm

        Udemy have given me nothing but grief over the last 3 months. Nit-picking re my courses and I have degrees in 2 different subject areas! Udemy has severely wasted my time – around 400 hours worth.

        Reply
        • Bernadette Carter

          April 16, 2016 at 8:00 pm

          Thank you for posting this Jane and saving me the horror!

          Reply
        • Alberta

          August 16, 2016 at 2:11 pm

          Hello Jane,
          I have a course available on Udemy that needs to be updated. Udemy is great for those who want to offer free courses that have high video and audio quality. Udemy knows what interest their customers. Most of their customers are other Udemy instructors.

          They are redoing their pricing and have finally stopped providing free previews of courses. Mine and some other instructors courses were copied and sold to rip-off companies that repackage portions of your video and charge $5.00 or less for your content. I found that Russian and Indian customers were most interested in my course and every day a Russian person would visit my course and copy it. Several of the Indian customers just contacted me to set up the course for their students.

          I am offering my course for free now. I will leave a smaller modified version of the course free and add a series of small courses for a fee. There are several Udemy Instructors who are making over a million dollars per year using Udemy. A few of the ones who are making less money offer paid courses to explain how they have been successful, which of course attracts a large number of Udemy Instructor students.

          Currently, this is one of the only platforms that I have used. You need to have knowledge about the course(s) that you want to sell and you need to know how to sell your courses online. In my opinion, is does not matter which platform you use or can afford if you do not know how to sell your courses online then you will waste your time/money.

          Good luck!

          Reply
        • Mike

          September 9, 2016 at 7:39 am

          I have to agree with this post. I also tried Udemy, I have advanced degrees in Computer Science and Computer Engineering and got hung up with what they called audio quality for over 3 months. I just gave up and continued to sell through my own site.

          What amazed me is that I am using a professional recording setup and have been delivering courses for over 7 years with excellent comments from my students.

          I would like to grow my audience but will find another way.

          Reply
    • Ton Bil

      November 26, 2015 at 11:43 am

      Hi Carol, please tell us about your experiences with online course platforms. I’m actually researching which platform to start with. I’ll be teaching some pretty different topics, and I’m just like you that independent teacher/trainer. Thanks a ton! – Ton

      Reply
    • Stephanie Tanner

      January 26, 2016 at 11:30 pm

      I just saw your comment and I thought you might be interested in Gumroad. It is similar to Udemy, but they take a smaller slice.

      Reply
      • Em

        March 31, 2016 at 11:55 pm

        Hi people! I’m an ex high school teacher & have run a biz as a Dread Loctician & Trainer for over 10 years. I have 3 online courses teaching people how to make & maintain dreads naturally & how to run small home based biz as Locticians. I use gumroad. They have a few glitches, but all in all, I’m very happy with it. I sell them via my ems & website though, I haven’t yet began using their tools to sell via them as a course market place.

        Reply
    • Joan

      December 17, 2016 at 2:15 am

      Hi there,

      Recently I tried http://www.emagister.co.uk and I had a good results.

      Reply
    • Stephen

      March 21, 2017 at 5:00 pm

      We offer An Easy, Entertaining Approach to Online IT Training. http://ittrainingonline.net

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Want Help?
Subscribe to
Get the Free
​ Course Platform
Selection Guide

Overcome the overwhelm. Cut through the confusion. Get going now.  Subscribe and get the Guide!

Personal data submitted through this form will be processed in accordance with this site's Privacy Policy.

Most Shared Posts

  •  
    15+ Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses (and Counting)...
    Last updated December 14, 2019 – Looking to sell online courses, but confused by all of the pl
    1.1k Shares
  •  
    How to Create and Sell an Ecourse...
    While definitely not the only reason, one very big reason that there is a learning revolution afoot
    103 Shares
  •  
    LearningCart Review...
    As e-learning becomes evermore mainstream, the market is being flooded with a variety of LMS systems
    73 Shares
  •  
    10+ True Alternatives to Udemy for Selling Online Courses in 2020...
    Last updated October 31, 2019 – News: Teachable has introduced a course marketplace option tha
    60 Shares
  •  
    Free: Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox – Completely New Ed...
    Shortly after Leading the Learning Revolution was published, I also published a free eBook to compli
    58 Shares
  •  
    How To Price Online Courses – 10 Tips from 20+ Years of Experien...
    Updated February 3, 2019 – I get a lot of questions about pricing in my line of work. That
    48 Shares
  •  
    How to Create an Online Course to Sell...
    There is a lot information out there about how to market online courses and about the various online
    40 Shares

Tags

adult learning adwords affiliate marketing Alan Weiss associations audience building authoring blogging brand business models community content marketing course platforms e-mail edupreneur free content home base impact landing pages launch learning management systems lifelong learning listening massive membership Michael Stelzner P2 platforms podcasting pricing promotion search sell online courses seminars SEO social proof Thinkific tools Udemy value video virtual conferences virtual events webinars WordPress

Platform Reviews by Users

Logo for ReviewMyLMS - Online Course Platform Review site

Affiliate Disclaimer

Privacy Policy

Footer

Legal Stuff

  • Affiliate Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy

Our Offices

LEARNING REVOLUTION

c/o Tagoras, Inc.
711 Rosemary Street
Carrboro, NC 27510

Contact Us

Have a suggestion for how we can serve you better? A resource you want us to highlight? Need a speaker?
Drop Us A Line →

Follow Us

On Twitter

On Facebook

On LinkedIn

Site Footer

In case you are wondering, this site was built using a StudioPress theme and is hosted at WPEngine – the best WordPress hosting there is, in our opinion.

Copyright © 2019 · Jeff Cobb

1.1k SHARES

Free Guide. Expert Help.
Subscribe to get both!

Tap my two decades of experience to  choose the right course platform for your business. Just subscribe to Learning Revolution below to get access to the free guide!

Personal data submitted through this form will be processed
in accordance with this site's Privacy Policy.

x