As the creator economy continues to thrive, online course platforms are becoming essential tools for educators, entrepreneurs, and innovators. These platforms have revolutionized how knowledge is shared, enabling creators to reach global audiences while monetizing their expertise. According Forbes article, “Online learning has shown significant growth over the last decade, as the internet and education combine to provide people with the opportunity to gain new skills.” Whether you’re a seasoned course creator or just starting, the right platform can significantly impact your course’s success.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore what online course platforms are, why they matter, and how to choose the best one to meet your needs. We’ll also dive into the top 12 platforms for 2025, highlighting their unique features, cost structures, and ideal use cases to help you make an informed decision. Whether you’re looking to build a standalone course or create an entire digital learning ecosystem, this guide has you covered.
Start 14-days Free Trial
What is an online course platform?
An online course platform is software designed to create, host, and manage digital learning experiences. These platforms often provide features like quizzes, polls, community building, and live streaming to enhance course delivery. They also offer marketing tools to help creators grow their reach and connect with learners effectively.
Why Should You Use an Online Course Platform?
In the past, developing an online course required technical skills or hiring a developer, making it time-intensive and costly. Today’s online course platforms have simplified the process, allowing creators to focus on teaching instead of technology. These platforms integrate tools for content creation, delivery, marketing, and management into one seamless solution.
Key benefits include:
- All-in-one tools: Eliminate the need for multiple software subscriptions.
- Ease of use: Spend more time creating courses, not troubleshooting technology.
- Versatile content options: Deliver content through videos, audio, downloads, or live sessions.
- Business-friendly features: Platforms allow you to monetize your courses, host live events, or offer bundled packages.
- Brand building: Many platforms let you customize your course site, use your own domain, and showcase your unique style.
Modern platforms empower creators to focus on teaching while also running a successful course business.
What to Look for in an Online Course Platform
Choosing the right platform can make or break your online teaching business. Here are some critical factors to consider:
- Course Delivery Options:
Look for platforms that support diverse content formats like videos, audio, PDFs, and interactive quizzes. Ideally, it should allow both live (synchronous) and pre-recorded (asynchronous) sessions to cater to different teaching styles. - Payment Integration:
Ensure the platform includes secure payment gateways and options to sell one-time courses, memberships, or bundled packages. Advanced platforms also support multiple currencies and upsell opportunities. - Scalability:
Your platform should grow with your business. Choose one that can support additional features like live events, coaching sessions, or communities without needing a major upgrade. - Marketing Features:
A platform that integrates well with your email, social media, and sales funnels is essential. Features like landing pages, email notifications, and sales analytics can streamline your promotion efforts. - Ease of Navigation:
The platform should be user-friendly for both creators and students, with mobile-friendly interfaces.
Top 12 Online Course Platforms for 2025
Here’s a quick overview of some of the best platforms available today. Scroll down for detailed insights into each.
Choosing the Right Platform for Your Online Courses
No online course platform is perfect. It’s crucial to identify your specific needs and priorities to make an informed decision. Here are some key factors to consider:
- Your Audience: Who are you targeting with your courses?
- Course Format: Do you prefer live or pre-recorded courses?
- Technical Expertise: How comfortable are you with technology?
- Budget: What is your budget for the platform?
- Scalability: How much growth do you anticipate for your online course business?
By carefully considering these factors, you can select the platform that best aligns with your goals and the needs of your students
What are Vonza Course Features Vonza
- An LMS that builds intuitive prerecorded courses or teaches live with live streaming and connects it to the LMS. You can also turn a recording of a live course into a prerecorded course.
- Bundle and sell other benefits like live events, discussion forums, masterminds, group coaching, etc.
- Support for all types of media and external resources: file types, including video, PDF, Audio, HTML, quizzes, and surveys. But also outside resources such as Typeform, Articulate, and Storyline, which liven up your course for an amazing training experience.
- Full e-commerce and student enrollment/tracking functionality. It has reporting to keep track of your sales and student progress.
- Integrations with tools such as Segment.io that means if you want to connect the data with another system, that is easy.
- Completely white-label your course platform, so no one can see that Vonza is under the hood.
- The knowledge base is excellent. Every time you have a question, You will be able to find an answer right away.
The Best Online Course Platforms
1. Vonza
Best for course, memberships & complex marketing systems
Vonza is an all-in-one platform designed to simplify the process of creating, marketing, and selling online courses. It a user-friendly interface and a robust set of features that streamline the entire course creation process. Vonza lets you deliver live courses, pre-recorded courses, or mix and match.
Vonza hosts thousands of educators and creators, brands and individuals alike, many of whom are earning 6 figures from building course communities that people love.
Type: Hosted
Strengths: An all-in-one easy-to-navigate platform that gives you flexible Spaces to build online courses, and communities, host live streams, virtual events, and more all under your brand. It is designed for savvy marketers who value marketing pages and sales funnels that drive sales and conversion to paid online courses.
Weaknesses: No brand App.
2. Kajabi
Best complex marketing systems
Kajabi is an online course platform that gives you the ability to create and host, howver, it has very limited community functions, where Kajabi excels is in the ability to create complex marketing systems.
Type: Hosted
Strengths: It is designed for savvy marketers who value marketing pages and sales funnels that drive sales and conversion to paid online courses. They recently added a native mobile app for course content.
Weaknesses: Kajabi offers a very limited community plus is the most expensive option among the dedicated course platforms.
3. Udemy
Udemy is a course marketplace that lets creators build online courses and list them. It has a mixture of free and paid courses on the marketplace.
Type: Marketplace
Strengths: You can use Udemy for free and simply create an online course with the knowledge you want to share.
Weaknesses: Revenue share model is 37% for courses listed on their platform and you don’t get contact information for those who buy through Udemy.
Other Online Course Platforms that made the List
4. Mighty Networks
Pros:
- Strong community-building focus
- AI-generated course outlines
- Modern, user-friendly interface
Cons:
- High starting price
- Not a ton of native marketing features
Mighty Networks helps you build a vibrant, active paid community around your online course. The app focuses broadly on community-building, which includes paid groups, events, and—you guessed it—online courses.
5. Skillshare
Skillshare is where many teachers choose to get exposure and build their brand. It has a base of users and a search function with people trying to find courses all the time.
Type: Marketplace
Strengths: Set up with creatives in mind, Skillshare specializes in design, craft, and technical skills. It supports creative projects and feedback for assessment.
Weaknesses: You can’t earn money on Skillshare until you get 25 students. You can’t use these enrollees to build your own email list or wider network.
6. Teachable
Teachable is a hosted platform that lets you create your own course. While Teachable isn’t as advanced as others on this list, missing engagement features like live-streaming or community, it does have one great feature: its affiliate program.
Type: Hosted
Strengths: Teachable is strong on the course design side, allowing you to add multiple content types including videos and quizzes to your course.
Weaknesses: No Android app, no community option, which drives instructors to create a Facebook Group and have to juggle members across both platforms. Plus, it’s hard to customize the look and feel to match your brand.
Other Platforms
7. Thinkific
Thinkific is a solid online course platform that gives you good tools for teaching and distributing your course, but also some good features for running a course-based business.
Type: Hosted
Strengths: A simple website builder with easy-to-create sales pages (no code required!). Allows for advanced quizzes including randomization and question banks with bulk import.
Weaknesses: No community option or native live streaming.
8. Maven
Type: Marketplace
Strengths: Curated cohort courses that pay well for the teacher, and a lot of good support options for help.
Weaknesses: You need to apply and be accepted. Like other marketplace platforms, you don’t own your relationship with the students.
9. LearnDash
We normally think about course platforms as being self-sustaining, but we will include a few WordPress tools here. Of course, WordPress course platforms have a different set of requirements and need-to-know.
Type: WordPress course plugin
Strengths: Integration with WordPress and affordability
Weaknesses: Complicated to use and probably requires custom development time to make it look right.
10. Memberful
Type: WordPress membership and checkout plugin
Strengths: Integration with WordPress & ConvertKit
Weaknesses: Complicated to use and only works as one-half of a WordPress course software
11. Podia
Podia could be considered a Kajabi-lite. It has many of the same features, but they are more basic than Kajabi. It has an integrated calendar for booking coaching sessions (if that’s your thing).
Type: Hosted
Strengths: Podia is super easy to use, with a clean, modern design out of the box. Podia also gives you the ability to create one-off “posts” for paid content in addition to longer courses.
Weaknesses: Podia doesn’t support essential features like graded quizzes, certificates, feedback, etc.
12. Pathwright
Pros:
- Action-oriented courses
- Community-building features
- Super intuitive course and lesson builder
Cons
- Outdated aesthetics
- Prices scale quickly
Pathwright pricing: The Starter plan starts at $89/month
Conclusion
Choosing the right online course platform is crucial in building a successful e-learning business. Whether you’re a creator looking to host standalone courses or an entrepreneur aiming to build a comprehensive digital community, your chosen platform should align with your goals, teaching style, and business needs. The platforms highlighted here offer diverse features and pricing options, ensuring there’s something for every course creator.
Evaluate your priorities, such as live versus asynchronous learning, customization needs, and marketing tools, to find the perfect fit. With the right platform, you can focus on delivering exceptional value to your learners while scaling your business effortlessly. Start exploring today and take the first step toward transforming your expertise into an impactful online course.
