Online learning is a booming industry, expected to hit $350 billion by 2025, with 90% of companies already providing online training to their employees. If you’re considering launching an online course to expand your business, now is the perfect time. Start by gathering all the knowledge and experience you plan to share. Then, the next crucial step is to select the right online teaching platform. This article will help you compare the top online teaching platforms, helping you find one that fits your needs so you can start earning quickly.
What’s an online teaching platform?
Online teaching platforms offer various tools to help you build full courses online. These best online teaching platforms vary significantly:
- Some work as independent platforms, while others can be integrated into your existing website.
- Some let you design courses that students can take at their own pace, whereas others are geared towards live teaching sessions.
- Some platforms are free, and others charge a monthly fee.
- Some feature easy drag-and-drop editors, while others need custom coding.
What are the best online teaching platforms?
Online teaching platforms are perfect for course creators, giving you the freedom to work when and how you want while reaching unlimited students. You can create a course once, sell it many times, and even expand from a single course to an entire academy. These platforms often include features for building communities. Here are the top online teaching platforms available:
Skillshare
Skillshare is a popular online course marketplace ideal for creatives like designers, photographers, and entrepreneurs, with over 35,000 paid courses covering everything from marketing to illustration. On Skillshare, anyone can create a course for free, but to earn money, your course needs to be part of Skillshare’s premium catalog. The platform is known for its short lessons, typically around five minutes each, with classes generally not exceeding two hours.
Skillshare emphasizes practical skills and community interaction. It operates on a subscription model, where students pay a monthly fee to access all premium content, and creators get paid based on the number of minutes their courses are watched.
Thinkific
Thinkific is highly regarded as a top platform for online teaching, offering an all-in-one solution for creating courses, building communities, and monetizing memberships. It supports your entire teaching business, providing everything from a free plan where you can create a website and sell courses through various payment methods to a simple drag-and-drop course builder that lets you get your first course ready in less than a day. Thinkific also offers excellent customer support and access to the Thinkific Studio, a community of expert creators who offer guidance and support.
Podia
Podia is a versatile platform ideal for anyone looking to create and sell courses or operate a digital store. It serves as a central hub for all your content, including courses, downloads, webinars, and more. The platform offers easy-to-use templates, simplifying the process of selling a variety of digital products. Creating a course on Podia is straightforward, allowing immediate publishing or the setup of a pre-launch campaign.
You can also bundle other digital products with your courses for sale. Additionally, Podia enables you to enhance your business by starting a brand community with a membership section for premium content offerings to subscribers.
Teachable
If you’re an experienced creator looking to build a successful course, consider using Teachable as your online teaching platform. Ranked fourth among the top platforms for earning money, Teachable offers extensive customization features that let you align the appearance of your course with your brand without needing coding skills. However, those who can code have the option to make custom changes with the Power Editor.
Teachable allows you to set up courses independently and charge in various ways, including a one-time fee, payment plans, or subscriptions. Additionally, its powerful marketing tools can help you gather feedback, email specific audience segments, and notify students about new courses.
Udemy
Udemy is one of the largest online teaching platforms, hosting over 40 million students and aiming to provide high-quality education globally. However, unlike other platforms, Udemy requires approval before you can charge for your courses, and your course must include at least five video lectures totaling 30 minutes or more.
Udemy supports new course creators with extensive guidance on everything from video equipment to course content. Additionally, there’s a chance to be featured in Udemy’s marketing campaigns, potentially reaching a broader audience. The platform also provides detailed analytics to help you track your course’s performance.
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is an effective platform for anyone looking to start a digital school from the ground up. It combines various features that simplify creating and managing multiple courses and instructors all in one place. Each school on LearnWorlds can build its own digital community to foster student interaction, and it provides different permission levels for instructors to teach and engage without altering the course content.
Students get personal profiles to display their learning progress. Additionally, LearnWorlds supports mobile learning by offering tools to create your own branded iOS and Android apps, complete with in-app purchases and custom push notifications, though this comes with an extra fee.
Kajabi
Kajabi is a versatile platform that integrates eCommerce and online teaching, allowing you to create, develop, and manage various digital products like courses, podcasts, and communities. It stands out for its ease of use and speed in setting up a new business, offering powerful templates to quickly build marketing funnels—from landing pages to sales emails—using straightforward tools. Kajabi also includes built-in analytics to help you track your marketing efforts and make necessary adjustments.
Choose the Right Online Teaching Platform Today
Ready to take your expertise online and start earning? Choose the right online teaching platform that fits your goals and begin shaping the future of learning today. With options tailored for various needs—from course creation to community building and everything in between—transform your knowledge into a thriving digital education business now.