In today’s world, anyone who wants to share tips or knowledge can quickly create a video and upload it to YouTube. With advanced technology, devices like iPhones have high-quality cameras for recording. You can use video editing software on your desktop or mobile to add music, text, or subtitles to your piece. And then just upload it to YouTube and watch those views grow!
So, the real question is, why would you need a top online course builder to teach people your skill?
The key point is:
Whether your goal is to teach adolescents or adults, you need a robust online learning platform to teach, test, monitor, and monetize your materials.
Online learning software acts as an alternative to colleges that operate online. These platforms are more flexible than online colleges and offer some unique classes that you may not find in more traditional colleges.
Now that we’ve discussed why online course platforms are pivotal to your success, the next question we need to ask is, ‘Which is the best online learning platform to use?’
This is a bit more complicated to answer. This is because there are hundreds of online course builders out there today. They all offer varied features, and their monthly subscription costs also fluctuate drastically.
In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best online course platforms in 2022. But first, let’s chat a bit more about what you should be looking for in your platform before you choose one over another.
What Should You Look for in an Online Course Platform?
Here are a few criteria you should look for in your online course software. These points will vary across platforms, and they may be a good guideline to look at alongside your teaching needs. Remember, if your platform ticks these boxes, you will be able to build higher-quality courses and grow your teaching business from strength to strength.
Course features
When you are looking to purchase a new smartphone, you first read about its features and compare it to other smartphone options. Course builder platforms are no different. Whether you’re looking for online learning platforms for schools or individuals, features matter!
Here’s an example: Your courses may need quizzes built into them to ensure that your students retain the learning material. But some platforms don’t offer quiz functionality. Or some platforms may provide a limited quiz feature, where you can create a quiz but can’t grade it.
Flexibility
This is a big one – flexibility is more important than you think. Remember, an online course platform isn’t used only in the course building phase. It is used to maintain and monetize your courses too. Each platform has its terms and conditions.
It’s important to understand if you’re locked into a contract or if your subscription plan limits your number of users or video hosting. Customization is also a feature you should look out for. You want your online school to look like yours – branding is vital!
Ease of use
As a freelancer, you must choose a platform that is easy to use, preserve, and improve over time. Customizable templates (as mentioned above) are vital to your brand’s success in the online learning world. But you need to be able to customize themes effortlessly.
Remember, having the feature is one thing. Being able to use it without having to struggle is just as important. If you have any issues – make sure you have a support team to help you. We’ll discuss support in more detail later on.
Payment structures
Payments – the most defining, and, sometimes, the most painful part of choosing a platform. Firstly, payment solutions need to be clearly defined and affordable for you.
Some online course platforms charge transaction fees or a percentage of revenue that you receive from your courses. These amounts can all add up so take the time to do the Math and see if it’s reasonable for your business.
Third-party integrations
Whether you need marketing automation tools or third-party integrations, both are essential to your business’s success. You may already be using things like MailChimp or Google Analytics and want this integrated within your platform. This way, you can control everything from one space.
You should also check if the platform integrates with your CRM software or social media marketing platforms. These can be useful as your business grows over the years.
Support
This last key point is one that many creators forget about. Having a solid support team is essential to ensuring your courses run smoothly. There are many components to an online school – from the course builds to analytics and everything in between. If something goes wrong with your website or course, you should be able to immediately contact support and have your problem dealt with quickly and professionally.
Now that we’ve looked at these criteria in more detail, let’s review the best online course platforms that are out there today:
Best Online Course Platforms
Let’s look at the top online course platforms for 2022:
- Mastera
- iSpring Market
- Teachable
- Invanto
- Kajabi
- Sellfy
Mastera
Mastera is a premium online learning and creation platform that is one of the most affordable and flexible solutions today. If you’re looking for a course builder with many features – Mastera is one of the best on this list. It offers you the ability to host live classes, live stream, host an on-demand library, and monetize more than just your course (yes, subscribers can purchase merchandise from the platform too!)
Mastera is also known for its ease of use. You can use their templates and customize them to your company brand colors. This way, students can familiarize themselves with your brand and get to know you a bit more. Communication is key with Mastera too. The platform allows you to engage your students with text messages from anywhere, at any time.
But the biggest pro for Mastera is that their pricing plans are entirely flexible.
For students:
Your students can use a pay-as-you-go plan that will help them choose and define their learning experience.
How does it work? Learners can sign up for free and only pay for the classes or training hours they want to complete.
For creators:
Mastera does not draft up a contract with its freelancers. You can cancel at any point. What you see is what you get – zero hidden fees. A big up for Mastera on that one!
Key Features:
- Customizable templates
- Live streaming using Zoom
- Unlimited classes and content
- Unlimited customers
- Class scheduling software
- Communication hosting between instructors and learners
- Contract-free pricing plans for creators
- Flexible pay-as-you-go plans for students
- Monetizes more than courses
- Payment integrations (PayPal, Stripe, Razorpay)
Pricing:
Starts from $39/month after a 14-day free trial.
iSpring Market
iSpring Market is a platform that helps you market your training by providing creators with professional-looking online storefronts. This way, you can present your courses to students with a slick design and good user experience.
You can divide your courses into various categories so that your potential customers can find relevant content. If you have a course that you want to emphasize, promote that featured course to attract more traffic to it.
The multilanguage and multi-currency features are where iSpring Market stands out. They offer courses in a range of languages. The platform also accepts payments from multiple currencies. They do this by using payment solutions like PayPal, Authorize.net, and Stripe, to name a few.
The online course platform also offers a coupon system to offer potential students various discount coupons for your courses.
Overall, iSpring Market is a good platform to use. It is more expensive than others out there and would be good if you’re looking for specific features like their coupon system.
Key Features:
- Video hosting
- Unlimited courses
- Payment integrations (PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net)
- Coupons
- Multiple languages
- Multiple currencies
Pricing:
Starts from $77/month after a 14-day free trial.
Teachable
You may have heard of this one before – Teachable is one of the most popular online course platforms out there right now. They have been around since 2013 and tend to evolve as technology does over the years.
Teachable is a highly savvy platform that focuses on its creators. It’s all about the user experience when building courses and lectures. The platform does a good job of sharing a user-friendly dashboard where you can drag and drop files into the software or even do bulk uploads.
Courses are categorized, and Teachable also tracks student progress. This way, you can use analytics to see who is progressing or struggling.
If you happen to know how to code, you can use its Power Editor to customize some elements further. Teachable’s pricing is also flexible and quite competitive. Although, it’s vital to watch out for transaction feeds and see how many admin-level users you get per tiered plan.
Key Features:
- Customizable templates
- Custom domain
- Course and video hosting
- Video heat mapping
- Analytics and progress tracking
- Native email marketing tool
- Coupon codes
- Third-party integrations
- Drip course content
- Instant payouts
Pricing:
Starts from $29/month billed annually.
Invanto
Invanto isn’t a new player in the game. In fact, it has been trusted by many entrepreneurs over the past few years. Invanto is known (more than anything else) for its customization ability.
You can customize your course player as well as email marketing templates. Over and above this, Invanto lets you customize your theme to match it to your branding guidelines.
The content editor helps creators edit the layout of their sites and attach additional files where needed. The content editor is user-friendly and has nifty additions like an auto-save feature.
Invanto can also track your student’s progress so that you are fully aware of where they are at any time. This may not be as advanced as Teachable’s progress tracker, but the indicators do a good job of letting you know where someone is within their training. The platform also offers a translation feature which is very handy for many teachers globally.
Invanto is a fair online course platform, but some feel that it needs to offer more pricing options to its customers. Invanto’s starter plan also has limitations that you should consider before signing up.
Key Features:
- Unlimited videos
- Theme editor
- Interactive video learning
- Promotions to help upsell and cross-sell
- Customizable course player
- Customizable email templates
- Progress tracking
Pricing:
Starts from $29/month after a 14-day free trial.
Kajabi
If you’re looking for something on a larger, enterprise-scale, Kajabi is probably one of the better platforms to choose. It is known to be a good course builder, but it also offers many other high-end features.
One of these features is offering sales funnel marketing within the platform. Kajabi has marketing blueprints, which they call Pipelines. These help you build entire marketing funnels for your business, including landing pages, email opt-ins, and course checkouts. As you can see, Kajabi is more complex and focuses on marketing in a big way.
You can automate emails to your students and even choose what message each email should have. For example, you could send an automated email to a student to say, ‘Thank you for signing up for this course.’ Another email could remind them about a special offer that you’re running. The theme here is to automate more so that you have to worry about less.
Third-party integration with apps like Zapier is also available. You can track a student’s progress and, like Teachable, view video heat mapping.
All in all, Kajabi is a worthy platform to go with if you want advanced marketing techniques for your business – and are willing to pay a premium monthly price for it.
Key Features:
- Custom domains
- Quizzes and assessments
- Progress tracking
- Email marketing automation
- Pipelines
- Webinars
- Affiliate programs
Pricing:
Starts from $119/month (billed annually) after a 14-day free trial.
Sellfy
Sellfy is a cloud-based e-commerce platform designed for anyone who wants to create and sell digital products. This includes anything including eBooks, courses, music, and illustrations.
Similar to iSpring Market, Sellfy lets you customize your storefront to make it more attractive to potential customers. Another thing to note is that the platform sells itself as one that enables you to create your store in just ‘five minutes.’ So, if you want a quick and easy solution – this is a good option.
In addition, you can host a website on Sellfy or sell your products through social media. The platform offers marketing tools and analytics features that help you reach potential customers effectively.
The one thing to remember about Sellfy is that it isn’t the strongest online course builder on this list. But if you want something that sells more than courses, consider looking at Sellfy. If you want a platform that sells both courses and merchandise, Mastera is your best bet.
Key Features:
- Product hosting
- Online web store
- Two payment options (PayPal or Stripe)
- Embedding options
- Third-party tool integration
- Built-in analytics
- Built-in marketing tools
Pricing:
Starts from $19/month after a 14-day free trial.
Top Online Course Platforms – Which Should You Choose?
As we can see – there are more online course-building platforms than ever before. And they’re all so different. Each platform has its unique selling points and choosing one can be pretty challenging.
So, how do you boil it down to one?
Each platform is aimed at audiences looking to either gain specific skills or explore a personal interest. Some offer flexibility and good monetization tactics, while others focus more on the user experience and branding. Either way, when you choose a platform, you should consider going with more expansive offerings.
Mastera earned our top contender title because of its fluidity and no-fuss attitude. You can do many things all in one platform for a reasonable fee – host classes, pre-recorded lessons, host videos, live stream with Zoom integration, and have an on-demand library. You can also customize your templates and monetize merchandise on the platform – it’s a win-win situation.
The bottom line:
These six platforms have shown us that there are many ways to make your online school special for your students. All you have to do is match their features to your desires.
If you want a platform that caters to your specific needs, speak to one of our Mastera experts today.
Co-Founder, Gleantap & Mastera