8 Best Platforms to Sell Online Courses

In this article I am going to tell you which are the best platforms to sell online courses, but I will also give you a personal opinion on what tools to use.

Because it is not the same to want to sell your first online training than to already have several courses for sale with recurring income.

When it comes to choosing the best tools, it will depend above all on the budget you have, the stage you are in and the level of technical knowledge you have.

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The best platforms to sell free and paid online courses

Where you can sell online courses?

Before giving you more information about the different programs I think it is essential that I explain the four main types that exist.

As I will tell you at the end of the post, the choice of one type and another will depend on the situation you encounter with your project.

1. All-in-one platforms

Ideally, if all you want is to worry about online sales strategies and the technical part scares you.

They are programs that allow you to have all your training hosted. They even have really cool funnels and marketing options.

Normally depending on your needs they have a monthly payment plan or they keep a commission for each sale you get.

2. Own management

Ideal when you already have more than one training or you plan to create your own school or academy and do not want to depend on external platforms.

The main drawback is that you will need to have a series of technical knowledge to do all the integrations with other essential tools.

You will have total freedom to do what you want but you will not have technical support, you will have to host the videos in tools such as Vimeo and you will also have to pay for hosting and other types of programs.

3. Marketplace

Platforms like Udemy that already have a very powerful brand behind them and where you will only have to create the content.

The main drawback is that they have quite high commission percentages and you lose control over your course.

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The best platforms to sell online courses

Hotmart

Hotmart is one of the best platforms to sell online courses, ebooks, online conferences and subscriptions.

In fact, it is the tool that I would use if I had to sell my own trainings online because it allows me to completely forget about the technical part.

Hotmart features that you should know:

• Integration with your email marketing tool.
• A very powerful affiliate network.
• Tools for directing.
• Resources to create sales funnels.
• Different payment options.
• Delivery of bonuses for students.
• Sale of tickets for face-to-face events.
• Possibility of making discounts or special offers.
• Purchase recovery systems.
• Checkout focused on conversion.

Prices: You do not have to pay monthly to sell online training at Hotmart. You will only have to pay a percentage of 10% for each course sold.

I would also highlight the support that Hotmart has and the training itself to help you get more sales.

Kajabi

The good thing about Kajabi is that you can sell online courses, but also memberships or training programs without having to have technical knowledge or having to connect various tools.

Because in the same place you can have the content, the marketing, and focus only on the sales part.

Thanks to Kajabi, depending on the plan you choose you will be able to:

• Create lead capture pages.
• Create sales pages.
• Email Marketing.
• Webinars.
• Events.
• Evaluations.
• Have support.
• Create automations.
• Affiliate programs.

Pricing: Kajabi has three pricing plans:

• Basic from $119 per month if you choose the annual plan or $149.
• Growth from $159 per month if you choose the annual plan or $199.
• Pro from $319 per month if you choose the annual plan or $399.

If you want to forget about the technical part, it is certainly an alternative that I would seriously value.

LearnWorlds

Another tool that allows you to create, sell and promote online training (even your own school) is Learn Worlds.

Depending on the plan you choose, with LearnWorlds you can:

• Custom domain.
• Page builder.
• Creator of Pop Ups.
• Subscriptions and Memberships.
• Customizable payment pages.
• Live classes and webinars through Zoom and Webex.
• Affiliate management.
• Mail support.

Pricing: LearnWorlds has three pricing plans:

• Starter from $24 per month if you choose the annual plan or $29.
• Pro Trainer from $79 per month if you choose the annual plan or $99.
• Learning Center from $249 per month if you choose the annual plan or $299.

An all-in-one tool that also allows you to create marketing funnels and cross-sell.

Udemy

Possibly one of the best known platforms due to the large number of courses it has, as it has more than 155,000 programs.

It is one of the most interesting options if you want to get your own training to get extra income because you don’t have to worry about the technological part.

Prices: Udemy earns money for each sale that occurs from your training and they are usually these percentages:

• 3% of sales through instructor coupons.
• 50% commission if the course is found organically on Udemy or through a company promotion.

I would take this into account if you are going to sell a training that does not have a high ticket and you want to not worry.

Tutellus

Tutellus is a collaborative online education platform that has more than 60,000 video courses.

As in the previous case, you only have to record the training and upload it.

It also allows you to create coupons, promos and affiliates.

Prices: As indicated on the page, the creators keep up to 70% of the income generated by the sale.

If you want to have full control of your program, I do not recommend using a marketplace like Tutellus, Udemy or Domestika.

Learndash + ThiveCart

It is likely that you want to create your own online academy or that you want to sell your training without having to host them on external platforms.

In this case, you can use the combination of WordPress with Learndash to create your own platform.

It is quite simple, intuitive and also if you use Elementor PRO you can customize practically everything so that it is to your liking.

The only problem is that you are going to need a tool that acts as an intermediary between your sales pages and the WordPress where your training is hosted.

A software that acts as a connection so that when a person makes the payment for the course, they automatically connect with WordPress and the user is created.

You can do this with Thrivecart, which also allows you to create really powerful checkouts and with which you can also:

• Do A / B testing
• Checkouts in different formats.
• Carts with video.
• Automatic receipts.
• Create affiliates.
• Create coupons.
• Create sales funnels.
• Do upsells.
• Create bump offers to increase the average ticket.

In addition, it integrates seamlessly with other tools such as Active Campaign, Infusionsoft, clickfunnels, etc.

WordPress + WooCommerce

Another option to sell online training is to use the WooCommerce plugin that is commonly used to create online stores.

It is an alternative if you do not want enough budget to invest in other types of tools such as ThriveCart, but it also has a series of drawbacks.

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Tools to sell online courses

Depending on the budget you have and the price you want to sell it at, there are a series of tools to sell online courses that can be really interesting, such as:

The best tools to sell online courses:

• Email marketing: Active Campaign, Mailchimp or MailerLite.
• Graphic design: Canva and PhotoShop.
• Presentation creation: Google Slides and Genially.
• Video hosting: Vimeo and YouTube.
• Automated webinars: Demio, EverWebinar, EasyWebinar, WebinarNinja, ClickMeeting.
• Live Webinars: Zoom, StreamYard + YouTube, Webinar Jam.

Now, if this is the first time you want to sell an online course, I recommend that you use the fewest tools possible.

Focus on creating a good product, validating it and then you will think about improving it and adding more tools to your list.

What is the best platform to sell online courses?

In the article I have already shown you which are the best platforms to sell online courses, but I also want to give you my personal opinion on this.

My opinion is that if this is the first time you want to sell online training, the first step would be to validate the course.

There are different ways to validate it (in fact, this would make for a complete article) but I do not recommend paying for expensive tools without first knowing that your course will be in demand.

In fact, the ideal would be (whenever you can) that you do a pre-sale to be able to check it.

Once you have generated your first income, you can consider creating your own academy or school in WordPress.

But initially, it wouldn’t be the first option I’d contemplate.

Now, the ideal is that you have full control in each of the sales phases of the course, but depending on the situation in which you find yourself, some formulas may be more interesting than others.

In either case, start by creating a single course.

When you have managed to sell it, when you have the number of students that you had set and the estimated income, you will be able to think about creating and selling more courses.