Living in the digital age means you don’t need to go to a traditional classroom in order to learn something new. With the creation of online courses, you can learn a variety of exciting subjects all from the comfort of your own home – all you need is an internet connection!
Selling and creating online courses is a great way to earn a healthy income while offering your students flexibility and a modern method of learning.
But which platforms are best for creating and selling online courses if you’re looking to get involved? Fear not – we’ve compiled a list of the top 4 platforms for creating and selling online courses so you can turn your expert knowledge into a stream of income in no time. Keep reading on to find the best online course builder for you.
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The benefits of creating and selling courses online
Online courses are big business – and their popularity keeps growing. The online learning market is projected to reach $325 billion by 2025, and it doesn’t look like this booming industry is going to slow down any time soon.
Believe it or not, many people are willing to pay for your expertise in a particular subject. This could be about starting a blog, learning French, understanding the stock market and more! Basically, anything can translate into an online learning course.
But not all online courses are created the same. While some platforms create the content for you, we’ve compiled a list of the top 4 courses that let you create and deliver the content yourself.
This puts you in the driver’s seat of your online course and lets you tailor it exactly how you want. If you’re looking to make money selling online courses, take a look at these leading online course builder platforms.
Thinkific
Thinkific is one of the best platforms for selling and creating online courses, and for good reason. With four different packages to choose from, there is something suitable for every type of business or person looking to capitalize on their expertise and knowledge base.
– Thinkific Packages
Thinkific offers you four different plans to choose from, ranging from a completely free package to $499 per month. These different packages offer you varying features and tools and can be used for complete beginners or people who have been in the e-learning game for a while. Depending on your needs, there’s a package that will work for you.
– Thinkific Self hosted vs. SAAS
Thinkific is a self-hosted platform. This means you don’t have to trust a third party and can rest assured that your data is in your control. It also lets you customize the servers for your own individual needs.
– Thinkific Payment gateways supported
As a general rule of thumb, Thinkific only supports PayPal and Stripe for creating and selling online courses. There is always the option to integrate with another payment gateway, but users note that it’s kind of a hassle.
– Thinkific Number of courses that can be hosted
With Thinkific’s basic plan and above, you can create as many courses as your heart desires on your website. If you opt for their free plan, you are limited to just one course.
– Thinkific Admin dashboard
Thinkific has a very intuitive admin dashboard that makes managing your course a breeze. Things like revenue, new accounts and enrolments are listed directly on your homepage, with a sidebar containing information about designing your website, marketing and selling, account info and more.
Thinkific summed up
Thinkific is a great platform to work with whether you’re a complete beginner or have already dipped your toes into the online course field. With so many packages available depending on your needs and requirements, you’re bound to find something that will work for you. If you’re looking to sell your course online, Thinkific is a great starting point.
Teachable
Over 100,000 people currently use Teachable to create and sell online courses. Featuring self-paced courses, cohort-based courses and live coaching options, Teachable gives users plenty to work with when it comes to designing and selling courses.
– Teachable Packages
Similar to Thinkific, Teachable has four different packages to choose from ranging from a completely free option to a Business account which sets you back $249 per month. With features included such as unlimited students, website builder and more, users can find something that works for them to make an online course.
– Teachable Self-hosted vs. SAAS
Teachable is a self-hosted learning management system.
– Teachable Payment gateways supported
Teachable supports PayPal and Stripe payments. They also accept customized payment gateways but users note that this can be tedious to set up.
– Teachable Number of courses that can be hosted
Teachable lets you build as many courses as you’d like, although there are limits on the number of students you can take on depending on your package.
– Teachable Admin dashboard
While Teachable’s admin dashboard isn’t as user-friendly as Thinkific, it’s still quite easy to use for someone who’s digitally savvy. It has similar themes to a WordPress homepage and contains a dropdown menu for various items such as earnings, sales, course completions and more.
Teachable summed up
While Teachable has many similarities with Thinkific, it’s generally known as the better option for building courses and has a more user-friendly experience. This course creator is perfect for beginners who need a platform that’s easy to work with.
Kajabi
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that not only lets you create and sell courses but it also lets you sell memberships and other digital products too. Kajabi is best suited for people who want much more than just a course-selling platform as it lets users go the extra mile with marketing campaigns and more.
– Kajabi Packages
Kajabi only offers users a free trial rather than a completely free option. They also offer 3 other packages ranging from $149 per month to $399 per month. The better package you have, the more products, pipelines, contacts and active members you can have.
– Kajabi Self-hosted vs. SAAS
Kajabi is a SAAS learning management system which means their customers can access courses anywhere they like as long as they have a computer or mobile phone.
– Kajabi Payment gateways supported
Kajabi supports Stripe and PayPal payments.
– Kajabi Number of courses that can be hosted
Depending on your package, you can create from 3 to 100 online courses with Kajabi.
– Kajabi Admin dashboard
Kajabi has an admin dashboard similar to Teachable. It has a menu bar on the left-hand side, letting you view important information such as email campaigns, events, products and more on the main page.
Kajabi summed up
Kajabi is a great platform for users who want it all. Coupling course creation with all things marketing, this platform is useful for people looking to keep all of their online course/product information under one roof.
CreativeMinds Online Course Catalog Platform
If you’re looking for an online course builder that can be built specifically for you and your needs, look no further than CreativeMinds Online Course Catalog platform. Beneficial for entrepreneurs, businesses, universities and more, this platform is hugely beneficial for users looking for a solution they can customize.
– CreativeMinds Course Catalog: Self-hosted vs. SAAS
CreativeMinds is a self-hosted platform. It can run on a local internal network as well on a cloud platform.
This way you don’t depend on third-party services for that can limit your possibilities for sharing publishing courses. You have full control on your course catalog.
– CreativeMinds Course Catalog: Payment gateways supported
Unlike other platforms that have limited payment gateways, CreativeMinds supports more than 200 different payment gateways to ensure your customers are able to pay you with ease.
The CreativeMinds Course Catalog solution works with the cart system Easy Digital Downloads (EDD), which out of the box supports payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe and Amazon and many more.
– CreativeMinds Course Catalog: Number of courses that can be hosted
If you’re looking to create multiple courses, CreativeMinds lets you create as many as you’d like. This is a far cry from other platforms that limit you to very few courses depending on your package.
The solution support lots of tools for organizing and classifying courses, such as categories, tags and customizable taxonomies.
– CreativeMinds Course Catalog: Admin dashboard
When it comes to creating an admin dashboard that’s responsive, easy to use and contains everything you need to know, CreativeMinds takes the cake. The admin dashboard lets you generate reports, track payments, track courses and stay on top of student enrolment.
You can check detailed information about each course and its periods: how many students are registered, amount of sold tickets, way of the payment, the sum of current and total payments and more.
The same is about the participants – you can see the list of registered students. The dashboard provides detailed info about each student – which courses he is registered for, the amount of money that he’s spent in total for courses, how many seats he has bought. You can also see and edit the information that the user provided during the registration.
– CreativeMinds Course Catalog: Use cases
Working with CreativeMinds for your online course is great for various industries. These include:
- Online college classes
- Online entrepreneur classes
- Online baking class
- Online stock market class
- Online school classes
- Online language classes
- And more!
CreativeMinds Course Catalog summed up
CreativeMinds lets you decide how you want your online course catalogue to look. We provide unbeatable options like granting exclusive videos to students that have already registered or completed certain courses and let you invite visitors to register or charge them easily.
CreativeMinds stands heads and shoulders above the rest for the customizable option students love.
Platforms at a glance
While all of these platforms can be useful for creating and selling online courses, some are better suited for individual needs.
| Company | Packages | Platform | Payment | Courses | Dashboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific | 4 | Self-hosted | Paypal & Stripe | Unlimited | Okay |
| Teachable | 4 | Self-hosted | Paypal & Stripe | Unlimited | Good |
| Kajabi | 3 | SAAS | Paypal & Stripe | 100 | Good |
| CreativeMinds | Custom | Self-hosted | 200+ | Unlimited | Great |
The 4 Best Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses
You already know that selling online courses is big money. But choosing the right platform for you can either make or break your overall business journey. That’s why it’s so important to choose a platform with features and tools that suit you and your business needs. A strong platform will help you make money selling online courses.
If you’re looking for the best online course creator and seller around, look no further than CreativeMinds. CreativeMinds lets you be in charge of the content creation process and lets you design course pages that are unlike all the carbon copies available elsewhere. Find out more about our online course catalog management platform by clicking here.
