The world of education is now led by digital technologies. As per stats, the global online learning market has grown more than 900% since its launch in 2000. It is also the fastest-growing market in the education industry. Conventional modes of learning have been revamped with hybrid and online models. Online learning has also widened the horizon for learners, and people across the globe can pursue their choice of education without worrying about geographical barriers.
The emergence of technology in education has introduced a new paradigm in knowledge transmission and the ease of access to information. The internet has ushered in the era of online learning, a revolution making education more accessible, engaging, and impactful than ever before. Stats reveal that online learners are expected to increase to 57 million by 2027, and 70% of students say online learning is better than traditional classroom learning.
Several advantages, such as flexibility, global reach, engagement, and community-based learning, have surfaced for students. For teachers, it is easier to impart education and tap potential students in the online world.
Online course creation platforms act as a bridge between educators and their target audience. These platforms include extensive features and toolkits intended to streamline the process of creating courses and handle other functions that come with selling online courses.
With the surge in online course creation, the number of platforms that help creators create courses is rising. These course-building platforms are there to empower you and help you deliver courses that speak about your art. But with so many options, choosing the right platform can feel like picking a colour in a rainbow aisle.
To cater for the creators, we have compared five industry titans: TrainerCentral, Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, and LearnWorlds.
This post explores their features, pros, cons and pricing to help you pick the perfect platform to launch your course and share your magic with the world.
TrainerCentral: The All-in-One Course Commander
TrainerCentral, a product by Zoho Corp, is a one-stop solution for all online training needs. The platform is ideal for aspiring and established course providers and can help them meet their course production needs through its diverse features. The platform can automate learning content distribution, student assessment, live teaching, student communications, and other administrative functions. It ensures that students remain active and motivated through their learning journey and can easily fulfil the diverse training requirements of individual online coaches, training institutes, and businesses looking to train employees.
Some of its standout features are drip content for controlled learning, live sessions for deeper connections, community building for healthy discussions and community building and multilingual support for global reach. These features are essential to creating a holistic training program that engages students, allows control over the learning journey, has a global reach, and ensures students can connect with the training provider. Additionally, the platform has a plethora of features that make it easy for the provider to create interactive courses and help students achieve their learning goals.
The platform offers the following core features:
Course Creation with Drip Content Mastery: Build media-rich, engaging courses to help learners achieve their goals. The platform offers built-in tools to create rich and engaging courses and native support for drip content delivery, allowing for complete control over the flow of information and keeping students engaged, delivering an optimal learning experience.
Live Sessions: It is easy to host interactive webinars and workshops with its built-in services and tools to connect with your audience in real time.
White-label friendly: The platform supports a custom domain for your website and email communications. As an add-on, you can also get a custom-branded mobile app
Flexibility for All: The scalable features are apt for seasoned instructors as well as passionate hobbyists with just an introductory course idea, ensuring they can create courses aligned with their respective audiences.
Community Building Tools: Community features are essential to foster a sense of belonging among students. The platform offers built-in discussion forums and community features to help students engage with each other.
Multilingual Support: The platform supports course creation in different languages or uploading translated versions of course materials, helping creators overcome language barriers and expand their creative impact.
Actionable Analytics: Their comprehensive dashboard offers detailed analytics on subscription trends, learner progress, and course feedback, giving you complete control of your business to refine your content and improve learning outcomes and course performance.
User-Friendly Interface: Platform’s intuitive design makes it easy for creators to build engaging courses. Even those new to course creation can use TrainerCentral to create engaging courses.
Monetisation: Sell your courses directly through TrainerCentral or integrate with third-party payment gateways. The platform offers various payment options.
Pros:
- User-friendly solution that manages everything from course creation to learner engagement. The platform streamlines course creation, management, and community building all in one place, automating multiple tasks for you and allowing time to focus on your creative magic.
- Add engaging elements throughout the course by incorporating quizzes, assignments, and polls to break up video lectures.
- In-built live classrooms
- Tailor assignments based on your course objectives.
- It supports mobile learning through a white-labelled mobile app available in all plans.
- It supports live quizzes, polls, and breakout rooms.
- Country-wise pricing allows trainers to sell courses based on learner purchase power and market standards.
- The platform does not charge revenue commission and comes with built-in marketing and sales tools, such as a sale page builder, coupons and discounts, and more, to help you sell your courses.
Cons:
- The extensive feature set might take some time to master.
- It comes with a standard mobile app and doesn’t offer app customisation.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plan starting from USD 20/month (Rs. 1400/month)
Here’s an in-depth review of the platform.
Teachable: The Blog-Turned-Course Powerhouse
Growing from being a platform for bloggers to monetising their knowledge, Teachable has come a long way. Currently, the platform caters to a wide range of creators, including artists, musicians, and photographers. Here’s what it offers:
Course Creation: Quick course creation with drag-and-drop functionality.
Community Building: Community features allow for fostering engagement with discussion forums and student communities.
Custom Landing Pages: Allows to design custom landing pages, showcase courses and attract students.
Marketing: The platform can manage email lists and send targeted campaigns promoting courses.
Pros:
- User-friendly interface
- Flexible pricing options, including subscriptions and coupons
- Built-in marketing tools
Cons:
- Limited design customisation for courses can be a bit restrictive for some content creators.
- Limited integrations
- It doesn’t support the assignment feature
- It doesn’t offer the feature to make part payments
- Much more expensive
- Has a limit on the number of courses, coaching, downloads, etc., even with a paid subscription.
- Takes as high as 10% transaction fee on course sales in entry plans
Pricing: Offers free plan with paid plan starting at USD 59/month
Thinkific: The Customization King
This creator-centric platform is popular for its focus on customisation and control. Key features include:
Drag-and-Drop Course Builder: Allows users to build visually stunning courses with complete control over layout and branding.
Customisable Certificates: Design certificates that align with a unique style and brand voice.
Membership Sites: Offer ongoing memberships alongside your courses for recurring revenue.
Analytics: The platform uses analytics to help creators track student progress and engagement in detail.
Integrations: The platform supports a wide range of third-party tools to enhance course delivery.
Pros:
- It is highly customisable and apt for creators who want their courses to stand out visually.
- The membership site capabilities are ideal for building a loyal community around your creative expertise.
- Detailed analytics help creators gain valuable insights, track progress and analyse how students interact with the content.
- Supports zero transaction fees, just like TrainerCentral
Cons:
- Limited marketing tools that’d require the creator to integrate third-party tools for email marketing.
- Limited
- It doesn’t support the feature to make part payments.
- The platform is pricier compared to other options
- A whitehanded mobile app is an expensive add-on feature priced at USD 199/month
- Doesn’t support live quizzes, polls or breakout rooms.
Pricing: USD49/month
Kajabi: Powerhouse for Creative Entrepreneurs
Kajabi is known for the comprehensive suite of tools it offers. The platform is designed to help creative entrepreneurs launch and manage their online businesses and goes beyond just course creation. Key Features include:
Course Creation: Users can build engaging courses using multimedia content, quizzes, assignments, and powerful landing pages.
Email Marketing: The platform manages your email list, creates targeted campaigns, and can automate email sequences.
Landing Page Builder: This tool allows creators to design beautiful landing pages, capture leads, and convert visitors into paying students.
Website Builder: The platform allows users to create a complete website to showcase their brand, host their courses, and sell merchandise, making it ideal for artists.
Membership Sites: The platform offers ongoing memberships alongside courses or as a standalone product, increasing options for students.
Analytics: Track your progress with detailed website and sales analytics.
Pros:
- The solution is ideal for creators who want a platform to manage everything from course creation to marketing and sales.
- The platform has powerful marketing & sales tools that help creators market courses and convert leads into customers effectively.
- The membership site capabilities allow creators to build a loyal community and offer recurring revenue streams.
Cons:
- Kajabi is one of the priciest options on this list, making it a less ideal choice.
- Compared to other platforms, the platform’s customisation options for course design might be slightly more limited.
- Doesn’t support country-specific pricing.
- Doesn’t offer a free plan. It only comes with a 14-day trial.
Pricing: Starts at USD 149 /month
LearnWorlds: The White-Labeled Powerhouse for Scalable Courses
LearnWorlds is ideal for creators who want complete control over their brand and learning experience. It offers a robust set of features, including:
Course Creation: Build engaging courses powered with multimedia content, quizzes, assignments, and drip content features.
White-Labeling: Allows creators to customise the look and feel of courses matching brand identity.
SCORM & xAPI Compliance: Deliver courses compatible with Learning Management Systems (LMS) for corporate training needs.
E-commerce Platform: Creators can directly sell courses, memberships, and other digital products through LearnWorlds.
Marketing and Sales Tools: The platform can manage email marketing, create coupons, and design sales funnels to promote your courses.
Detailed Analytics: The platform uses analytics that can help creators track student progress, engagement, and sales performance.
Pros:
- Extensive customisation offers complete control over course creation, branding and learning experience.
- Offers a branded mobile app for on-the-go learning.
- Advanced features like SCORM/xAPI compliance caters to enterprise-level needs.
- Competitive pricing for entry-level plans
Cons:
- Extensive features might require a steeper learning curve and some technical know-how compared to other user-friendly platforms.
- Geared more towards corporate training needs and may not meet other course creators’ requirements.
- It doesn’t offer a free plan.
- It starts with a transaction fee in the entry-level plan.
- The mobile app is an expensive add-on purchase.
Pricing: No free plan; USD 24/month
The list above compiles the features, pros, cons, and pricing for the top five platforms (not in any order) to help you determine which platform suits your needs better. Recognising your needs will steer you towards your ideal match. A few reflective questions that may help are:
- Are you a course veteran or a curious newbie?
- Do you crave a simple interface or a feature-packed powerhouse?
- Do you need app availability and customisation, or is the website enough?
- Does transaction fees and commissions matter to you or not?
Answering these questions will guide you towards your ideal match. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific needs and budget.
Our post above gives a clear idea around all the essential features which matter to you.
In conclusion, considering the pricing to features value and brand reputation and trust, Zoho Corp’s TrainerCentral is our recommendation for you. The platform lets you use its services for free at no additional cost or hidden charges, which, in today’s time, is the right way to let users assess the usability.
Also, read this review.
