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eLearning

30 Best Online Learning Platforms for 2024

33 min
These are the best online learning platforms: LearnWorlds, Coursera, Uedemy, Kajabi, Moodle, Docebo, Thinkific, Teachable, LearnDash.

Some of the best online learning platforms include LearnWorlds, Coursera, Skillshare, Udemy, Docebo, Edx, Moodle, Teachable, and Thinkific.

Those are leading a fast-growing elearning industry. An unbreakable piece of evidence is the increasing number of people becoming interested in online learning for both learning and teaching purposes–either to learn a new skill or to teach online.

Luckily there are many online learning and course platforms that offer the opportunity to learn or create, and sell online courses.

For online instructors, trainers, and aspiring edupreneurs this is great news. But the struggle of choosing the best online learning platform out of the many options out there is real.

To help make this process easier, we came up with a list of the top online learning platforms analyzed by type and category that you can use to offer high-quality learning experiences.

And, to make it easier for you to choose the right platform for your needs, we broke them down into distinct categories.

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Before we go on, it’s important to distinguish the difference between the two terms ‘online learning platforms’ and ‘online course platforms,’ which often gets blurred.

What is an Online Learning Platform?

An online learning platform is an information system that provides a safe learning environment where students can take online courses.

Such online learning platforms are often called ‘online course marketplaces’ because they give learners the opportunity to search for and pay for online courses directly.

While some of these course marketplaces are used to feature online courses, the majority are more educational-based and strictly offer university-level education.

What is an Online Course Platform in Relation to a Learning Management System?

An online course platform is a type of learning management system (LMS) that online instructors can use to create, host, deliver and sell online courses.

An LMS is the higher category usually used by enterprises for employee training, customer education, and onboarding or by academic institutions to support teaching. However, the whole category can sometimes include course platforms or even WordPress plugins being used by SMEs to create and sell online courses.

Unlike online learning platforms, online course platforms are cloud-hosted software that allows instructors to create online classes or individual lessons by uploading educational material that they have created using text, images, video, PDF files, and audio.

In essence, individuals or SMEs can use a course platform to create their own course marketplace instead of offering their courses in a popular courses marketplace like Udemy, Edx, MagnetBrains, or Skillshare. This way, they can keep all the revenue and user data that they otherwise would have no control over.

Online Learning Platforms VS Online Course Platforms

An online learning platform emphasizes and presents the learner’s perspective whereas an online course platform takes the perspective of the online instructor/ teacher.

The two titles are often used interchangeably, and the real differences come from the person using the definition and the context of the conversation. From a student’s perspective, a learning platform is a place to find educational content, search and buy courses or whole educational programs. Whereas, from an educator’s perspective, it is the place to deliver knowledge.

Online learning platforms are often used to identify marketplaces for courses or education, like Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning–formerly known as Lynda, while course platforms usually refer to the software used to create a learning environment, such as LearnWorlds, Thinkific, Kajabi, or Teachable.

Using an online learning platform takes off a lot of the hard work of building an audience, marketing, and sales, but you may not have control over pricing, user data, and branding.

With an online course platform, you have greater flexibility and freedom in managing your learning resources and course materials. Also, you get to have a say in the design and look of the entire website that hosts your online courses and in regards to the course itself – how it is being presented and promoted.

Which platform you are going to choose essentially comes down to your business’s needs.

Our Choice of the Top Course Platform: LearnWorlds

 

learnworlds-website-screenshot

 

If you choose to go with a standalone course platform, you will need to look into more specific requirements that are found in a learning management system. This is because there are many types of LMSs, and each one specializes in a certain category or serves a specific purpose better than others.

For entrepreneurs, course creators, training organizations, and SMEs, a course platform offers an all-in-one solution that fits your requirements.

LearnWorlds comes with a powerful set of eCommerce features, course authoring, user analytics, and website-building capabilities right out of the box. And it’s the platform our team has been developing and nurturing for the past 9 years, with thousands of customers in 80+ countries around the world trusting it to deliver online learning!

Whether you are looking for an internal training solution or simply to create, market, and sell your online courses or train your employees and customers, we offer the best possible solution you need at an affordable price.

Start your 30-day free trial with LearnWorlds today!

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📝 Disclaimer: Positions below are arbitrary and do not indicate any preference. Numbering is used to show the number of platforms and further differentiate one from the other. We do think that every platform comes with its own advantages and disadvantages depending on the use case they are intended for.

Best Online Learning Platforms

As we go over each learning platform, we look into its advantages and disadvantages to help you decide whether it fits your needs or not.

As we mentioned before, learning platforms are more suitable for learners looking for a subject to study. They have a massive library of courses and learning paths.

Some of them accept individual instructors to teach with varied conditions to approve the content. If you don’t want to launch a course under your own website, this is the second-best way to do it. Each has its own requirements for instructors to upload their course materials and how they monetize the content.

We have, however included pros, cons, and information for both students and instructors looking into these platforms.

Platform #1: LinkedIn Learning (formerly known as Lynda)

LinkedIn-Learning-website

LinkedIn Learning which was formerly Lynda.com is an educational platform that offers professional courses in business, digital marketing, web development, and more creative fields like design amongst other subjects, in the video lesson format.

The platform comes as a premium service for LinkedIn users and offers over 16,000 courses in 11 languages and focuses on helping individuals invest in their professional development. LinkedIn Learning also partners with top companies to provide its learners with the most in-demand professional certificates.

Pros

Cons

Who is it for?

As a course creator, you can also apply to become a LinkedIn Learning instructor here.

Pricing:

LinkedIn Learning comes with two subscription plans for learners:

*Pricing information retrieved from LinkedIn Learning on October 26, 2023.

Platform #2: Udemy

udemy-website-screenshot

Udemy is one of the most popular online course marketplaces on the web, featuring more than 213,000 online video courses. This educational platform has over 60 million students, 65 thousand instructors, and subject matter experts creating online courses.

Udemy makes course creation possible for everyone with the possibility of acquiring new skills. In doing so, it offers a range of online learning materials including PDF documents, PowerPoint, text, and video content, among many others.

Instructors can join Udemy and start teaching online, but it takes a huge piece of the pie from the revenue and has control over pricing and discounting the course.

Pros:

Cons (for instructors):

Who is it for?

Pricing / Revenue (for instructors):

To start charging students a fee for courses on Udemy, you will need to become a premium instructor. In such a case, the following conditions apply:

*Pricing adjusted on a global price tier matrix developed by Udemy.

*Pricing information retrieved from Udemy Support on October 26, 2023.

Platform #3: Coursera

coursera-website

Coursera is an online education platform with over 100 million users that is dedicated to offering high-quality online training courses worldwide. While partnering with top universities and businesses, it provides students the opportunity to receive certifications from renowned institutions upon joining their paid courses.

Coursera offers individual courses, specializations, certifications, and degree programs (for bachelor’s and master’s degrees) that support on-demand video lectures, homework exercises, peer-reviewed assignments, and community discussion forums.

With Coursera Plus, students can get unlimited access to 90 percent of the learning programs in the Coursera catalog via a yearly or monthly subscription option.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

Pricing:

Coursera offers free courses, subscriptions, and one-off payments depending on the course or program.

Platform #4: Skillshare

skillshare-website

Skillshare is another popular course marketplace that has more than 13 million users and up to 35,000 lessons in various creative fields. Course lessons last from 20 to 60 minutes and are made from a series of small videos, class projects, and a student community that encourages interaction through discussion forums.

Classes on Skillshare are taught by industry leaders, everyday creatives, and professionals and are divided into 4 categories:

Creative arts: from graphic design to fine art, cooking, and music production.
Technology: including data science, web design, and e-commerce.
Business: finance, accounting, and project management.
Lifestyle: teaching, languages, gaming, and wellness.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

Pricing:

Students: After a 7-day free trial, the pricing is $32 per month or $168 per year for access to all the courses (different regions may have different pricing).

Instructors: Free to join, but it comes with specific class quality guidelines and teaching policies you need to follow.

Skillshare pays instructors based on minutes watched from their course by students, teacher engagement, and premium referrals.

*Pricing information retrieved from Business Insider on October 26, 2023.

Platform #5: edX & Open edX

edx-website

EdX.org (course marketplace) and Open-edX are two sides of the same coin. EdX is the learning platform where students find online courses from various universities, and Open-edX is an open-source content management system.

Both were created by a team of scientists from Harvard University and MIT with the goal of providing online university-level education across the globe.

EdX.org offers over 4,000 online courses from 250 prestigious businesses and universities offering higher education in many disciplines. These mainly specialize in the sciences–engineering, computer science, data science, math, humanities, business, and management.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

Students (EdX): it has a very diverse library of courses suitable for most ages looking to learn a subject or new skills.

Instructors (Open-edX): It’s great for businesses who can afford a team or outsource the development and maintenance of the platform on their own servers.

Pricing for Instructors:

Free to join, but there may be additional costs of procuring a server and system support and getting expert help from Open-edX’s service providers or freelancers whose pricing varies according to your project’s requirements and budget.

For more information on Open-edX course creation expenses, check out this guide.

Platform #6: Udacity

udacity-website

Udacity is a learning platform that teaches learners the skills and knowledge they need, preparing them for a successful career in the technology industry.

Its training programs are known as ‘nanodegrees’ and are being offered as part of the platform’s collaboration with major tech companies like Google and Microsoft. Udacity’s mission is to transform talent at scale.

Udacity boasts a community of more than 17 million learners and 700 instructors.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

Students: It is ideal for individuals interested in updating their existing knowledge in the technology field, enterprises, and governmental organizations.

Instructors: It mainly targets industry leaders and professionals from Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies, who have shown leadership and expertise in the tech fields.

Pricing

For students: Udacity offers both free and paid courses, and prices may vary depending on the course/program itself (depending on its subject and duration). Udacity’s subscription costs $249 for a monthly plan or $2,390 with an annual payment.

For Instructors: Instructors are contracted and get paid differently depending on the contract terms. With Udacity, there are different types of instructor work, including:

An instructor gets selected to teach on Udacity after showing a demonstrated record of professional experience and expertise in a digital subject area related to Udacity schools and after passing the instructor evaluation process.

*Pricing information retrieved from Udacity on October 26, 2023.

Best Online Course Platforms

Online course platforms are the backbone of the eLearning economy, used by entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes to create their own educational academies, marketplaces, and training grounds.

If you are looking to start an online academy of your own, have full control over branding, pricing, and user data, then an online course platform is what you are looking for.

The best course platforms in the market

Platform #1: LearnWorlds

learnworlds-website-screenshot

LearnWorlds is our very own cloud-based LMS platform that comes as an all-in-one eLearning management solution offering the ability to build your online academy while creating, marketing, and selling unique, interactive, and learning experiences.

Our platform brings everything you need in one place, making the process of creating online courses easy, quick, and affordable.

LearnWorlds is designed by experts in eLearning as a modern LMS platform and includes build-in authoring tools and ecommerce capabilities. LearnWorlds also comes with a state-of-the-art mobile app, community, marketing, and educational features.

Pros:

Cons:

LearnWorlds comes with the most powerful website builder for elearning sites, with website, page, and zone templates. The platform is a 100% white-label platform with fully customizable branding. It enables you to manage who sees which zones/pages and control the navigation experience of the users.

Watch the video below for a quick preview and try it out yourself from here.

Who is it for?

It’s ideal for entrepreneurs, individual instructors, educators, small/medium businesses, professional trainers, and companies that want to train their employees or educate their customers.

Pricing:

It offers a 30-day free trial and then 4 subscription pricing plans:

*Pricing Information retrieved from LearnWorlds on October 26, 2023.

💁 Find out more about LearnWorlds’ alternatives.

Platform #2: Thinkific

thinkific-website

Thinkific is a standalone course platform that helps you build and sell online courses. Thinkific provides everything you need to create your online education business, including an easy-to-use interface to build online courses and rich multimedia to add right into your course content.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s ideal for solopreneurs, small/medium businesses – SMEs, and coaches who want to generate more income.

Pricing:

Free to join with limited functionality. It offers a 30-day free trial on the Pro plan.

Subscription plans include:

*Pricing information retrieved from Thinkific October 26, 2023.

💁 Compare Thinkific to LearnWorlds.

💁 Compare Thinkific Pricing to Teachable & LearnWorlds.

Platform #3: Teachable

teachable-website

Teachable is an online teaching platform that serves the everyday instructor, helping them transform their knowledge into a business. Teachable provides an easy and simple solution for uploading your learning content, customizing your online school, and communicating effectively with your students.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s a great option for new course creators, solopreneurs, coaches, and creative professionals.

Pricing:

Teachable has the following pricing options:

*Pricing information retrieved from Teachable on October 26, 2023.

💁 Compare Teachable with LearnWorlds

💁 Are you looking for a SCORM-compliant LMS?

Platform #4: Kajabi

kajabi-website

Kajabi is an all-in-one online platform that offers the tools to sell digital products, including online courses, coaching programs, and podcasts. Kajabi specializes in building high-converting sales pages, landing pages, and webinar pages for your online business and launching your advertising campaigns.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is for non-techy online course creators, digital entrepreneurs, small businesses, freelancers, creators, and individual instructors selling simple format courses and downloadables.

Pricing:

Offers a 14-day trial with a credit card. Then it goes to a monthly payment of the subscription plan, which includes:

*Pricing Information retrieved from Kajabi on October 26, 2023.

💁 Compare Kajabi with LearnWorlds

Platform #5: Podia

podia-website

Podia is an online learning platform that makes creating and selling online courses, memberships, and other digital products an easy task. Podia offers a rich resources library and free tools for entrepreneurs who want to build their online store, school, community, or website.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s great for content creators and artists who want to monetize their content and knowledge with simple learning activities and gated videos.

Pricing:

Subscription pricing plans include:

Pricing information retrieved from Podia on October 26, 2023.

💁 Compare Podia with LearnWorlds

💁 Find out more Podia Alternatives

Platform #6: WizIQ

wiziq-website

WizIQ is a cloud-based education platform for real-time or self-paced training that allows educators to use their own custom-branded domains. It delivers live and on-demand webinars, and it’s a very popular tool amongst online course creators who prefer live training, coaching, or a classroom-like environment.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s ideal for enterprise employees, individual teachers, trainers, colleges, universities, tutoring, and Test-Prep companies.

Pricing:

It offers a free 14-day trial and its pricing starts from $18 /month (when billed annually). Then the price varies depending on rooms and attendees, and the number of registered users for their:

For more information, contact WizIQ directly.

*Pricing information retrieved from WizIQ on October 26, 2023.

Platform #7: Academy of Mine

academy-of-mine

Academy Of Mine is an all-in-one platform that empowers you to create and sell your courses in professional training, continuing education, certifications, and B2B training. With this platform, you can customize existing features or build new features via API. On top of that, you can craft interactive content with PPT, PDF, video, and many more.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s ideal for academics, large enterprises, public administrations, and small/medium businesses interested in offering training and certifications.

Pricing:

Academy Of Mine comes with a free trial but has no free version. These are the pricing plans it offers:

*Pricing information retrieved from Academy Of Mine on October 26, 2023.

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💁 P.S.: We also have a dedicated article on the top online course platforms.

Best Traditional Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

A Learning Management System is a software application that is used to plan, manage, and deliver eLearning content. It is used widely in the eLearning industry and acts as a distribution vehicle for course content or training resources for different learning and development programs.

These are the best learning management systems in the market:

Platform #1: Docebo

docebo-website

Docebo comes with a top cloud-based LMS solution that ticks off the majority of every organization’s training needs and requirements. The platform is learner-centric and comes with L&D capabilities using learning-specific Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that help to personalize the learning experience. Docebo is trusted by notable companies, including Bloomberg and Sharp.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s aimed for use by human resource professionals, HR departments, or enterprises.

Pricing:

Pricing is based on the number of active users. Docebo’s subscription plans include:

The business doesn’t provide detailed pricing information. To find out about prices, you need to contact Docebo directly.

*Pricing information retrieved from Docebo & FinancesOnline on October 26, 2023.

💁‍♀️ Best Docebo Alternatives

Platform #2: LearnUpon

LearnUpon-website

LearnUpon is another great cloud-based option intended for educational purposes, corporate training, customer education, and partner training. This platform is well-known for its functionalities, user-friendly interface, and multilingual support it offers. Its ability to segment different teams and create unique learning paths is one of the advantages it offers, helping you support learning across every audience.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s ideal for educational institutions and businesses of all types and sizes.

Pricing:

It offers a free trial and demo. Pricing is not publicly available and is based on the number of active users available on each plan. There are 3 subscription plans:

To get detailed information on pricing, contact LearnUpon directly.

*Pricing information retrieved from LearnUpon on October 26, 2023.

Platform #3: Litmos

litmos-website

Litmos (formerly known as SAP Litmos) is a popular platform that offers a variety of eLearning solutions for businesses, including corporate, customer, partner, services, support training, and compliance training. Amongst its bigger strengths is the ability to create customized learning paths for the needs and the style of every company and its employees.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s great for businesses of all types and sizes, focusing mostly on corporate training.

Pricing:

It offers a 14-day free trial. Pricing is not publicly available on the site, but it is based on the number of active users after contacting their sales team. Various online sources mention a price range between $2-$5 per user depending on the plan and number of users.

Access to the LMS, specific courses, and add-on features comes with a quote-based plan, after making a pricing request to Litmos directly.

*Pricing information retrieved from Litmos on October 26, 2023.

Platform #4: iSpring Learn

ispring-lms

As another great LMS option, iSpring Learn can be integrated with the corporate training program of any business. Due to the large variety of pricing plans and standalone tools it offers, an organization can choose what fits with their learning needs and budget the most.

iSpring is the cheapest option for smaller businesses but is not as feature-rich as the other LMS in this category.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s suitable for organizations of all types and sizes.

Pricing:

It offers a 30-day free trial and a live demo. Pricing is based on the number of active users and starts at $2,99 per user/month for organizations with 50 users or fewer.

  • It comes with three subscription plans – Basic, Advanced, and Pro for each set number of users (50, 100, 300, 500 and 1000 users). For more details on pricing information, check the platform’s pricing here.

*Pricing information retrieved from iSpring Learn on October 26, 2023.

Platform #5: Blackboard

blackboard-website

Blackboard is an LMS solution that offers an adaptable learning environment suitable for both academic and business development purposes. As a learning platform, it provides a range of social and blended learning features that can make any type of training engaging throughout its course.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It fits well with the requirements of educational institutes, public administrations, educators, trainers, instructional designers, as well as SMEs and enterprises.

Pricing:

It offers a 30-day trial on selected products. To learn about pricing options and get your custom plan, you need to contact Blackboard directly and arrange for a demo with an expert.

*Pricing information retrieved from Anthology on October 26, 2023.

Platform #6: Moodle

moodle-website

Unlike the majority of LMSs, Moodle is a free, open-source learning management platform. Moodle was designed by a group of developers and offers a range of drag-and-drop tools and useful resources that can help the everyday user. The platform is translated into over 95 languages and powers learning environments worldwide.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It’s suitable for educators, freelancers, businesses, and public administrations.

Pricing:

Moodle comes in two variations. The first one is the original open-source Moodle which is free to use and runs most self-hosted eLearning websites. The other one is MoodleCloud, which offers a cloud-based solution, and its pricing is based on the number of users and file storage.

Subscription plans include:

For off-the-shelf hosting:

For premium hosting: Customized pricing

*Pricing information retrieved from MoodleCloud on October 26, 2023.

Platform #6: Talent LMS

talentLMS-website

TalentLMS is another popular and cloud-based LMS option and already serves 70,000+ teams worldwide. It offers online course creators and businesses the opportunity to build training programs and share them with remote teams.

The platform comes with a range of options from building to organizing and delivering course content, as well as customizing website design and scaling your business.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is for businesses and organizations of all sizes – from SMEs to enterprises that want to train their customers, employees, and partners.

Pricing:

Subscription plans include standard plans and active plans.

Standard plans (on the yearly plan) include:

Active plans (on the yearly plan) include:

Pricing changes on each plan when TalentLibrary is added to the package. See additional prices on TalentLMS.

*Pricing information retrieved from TalentLMS on October 26, 2023.

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Best WordPress LMS Plugins

If you are using a WordPress-powered website, and you want to start creating and selling courses, a WordPress LMS plugin is what you need.

With an add-on tool like a plugin, you get to increase the functionality of your site and allow yourself more control over the administration and management aspects of your online course business.

WordPress LMS plugins are usually the cheapest option for hosting a cloud LMS, but offer much less functionality and come with high maintenance costs. They usually require some experience with WordPress or a developer to customize to your exact specifications.

They are ideal if you want to combine them with other plugins to offer a unique experience and add features to your membership site, however, there is a dangerous downside to using them. Combining many WordPress plugins without a dev team to support them may come with many bugs and incompatibilities.

The following LMS plugins are recommended if you have the team and time to implement and effectively maintain them:

Plugin #1: LearnDash

learndash-webiste

LearnDash is the most popular premium WordPress LMS plugin in the market. With it, you can design, promote, and sell online courses. Currently, it is being used by Fortune 500 companies and prestigious universities. Out of the best features it offers, its speed and its drag-and-drop course builder make the process of course creation both easy and enjoyable.

LearnDash Themes: There are many themes you can choose when using Learndash. WP Mayor has collected the 12 best themes that will elevate the quality of your online courses and your school’s. Astra, Social Learner, eLumine, and Unidash are some of the most notable ones.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It can be used by individuals, authors, companies, universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide to help them create and sell their courses.

Pricing:

There are two ways to use LearnDash – either getting the plugin or launching a fully-hosted course website.

LearnDash plugin’s pricing is based on the number of site licenses:

LearnDash Cloud (full-site) comes in a monthly and yearly subscriptions in 3 plans:

Information retrieved from LearnDash on October 26, 2023.

💁 Compare LearnWorlds vs LearnDash

💁 Compare LearnWorlds vs WooCommerce

Plugin #2: LifterLMS

lifterLMS-website

LifterLMS is the leading free open-source WordPress LMS solution. It comes with content management tools that can help you offer individual courses, training-based membership websites, and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). LifterLMS allows you to build an LMS that can be enriched with add-ons and meet the unique needs of individuals, small groups, and niche markets.

LifterLMS Themes: There is a large variety of themes you can choose from with LifterLMS. Find them on the platform’s website and pick the one that works the best with your subject, industry, or business (e.g. consultancy, entrepreneurial, and more).

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is suited for businesses, teachers, and WordPress users – developers, designers, and IT professionals who build LMS websites and training portals. It is also fit for do-it-yourself innovators who are interested in creating online courses, coaching or training-based membership websites, and hosted LMS platform switchers.

Pricing:

LifterLMS has three subscription packages.

*Information retrieved from LifterLMS on October 26, 2023.

Plugin #3: LearnPress

learnpress-website

LearnPress is another popular choice amongst WordPress LMS plugins. It offers a free version which means that all the essential features are free, and you can get add-ons at a cost depending on how advanced you want your school website to be. It is rather easy to use, and it has a friendly interface.

LearnPress Themes: You will most likely need to pay around $50 (one-time) to get a theme. Choose your theme from the LearnPress theme collection wisely because the add-ons you get can only be used for the specific theme you choose.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is best suited to individuals who already have or want to build an eLearning website or online school, entrepreneurs, web development agencies, and educational institutions.

Pricing:

*Information retrieved from ThimPress on October 26, 2023.

Plugin #4: MemberPress

memberpress-website

With MemberPress as the ‘all-in-one’ membership plugin, you can create powerful WordPress membership sites. MemberPress offers a solution that allows you to protect your course by offering gated content that you can share with specific members or a closed community.

While it is not really a learning management system, many entrepreneurs use MemberPress alone or in a combination with other plugins to offer online courses.

LearnPress Themes: If you are struggling to choose a theme for your membership site, MemberPress has prepared a dedicated list of membership themes that they recommend for use.

Pros

Cons

Who is it for?

It is ideal for creators, podcasters, hobbyists, entrepreneurs of any industry (fitness, beauty, arts, etc.), tutors, teachers, writers, coaches, nutritionists, consultants, designers, religious organizations, communities, and online stores.

Pricing:

MemberPress has three subscription packages:

*Information retrieved from MemberPress on October 26, 2023.

Plugin #5: WPLMS

wplms-website

WPLMS is one of the best social learning management systems for WordPress on the market. This tool makes it easy to create and sell online courses, work with other instructors within a community and earn commissions. Some of the notable features it offers are activity tracking, course directories, course management, and a front-end course creator.

WPLMS Themes: Its biggest asset is the collection of education-specific WordPress themes it comes with that makes it easy to adjust to your school site requirements. You can get an idea of what it offers through WPLMS’s theme demos.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is suitable for training centers, businesses interested in offering corporate training, course tutors, colleges, schools or academies, universities, and MOOC platforms.

Pricing

WPLMS has two types of licenses:

*Information retrieved from Themeforest on October 26, 2023.

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Best Authoring Tools

On top of online learning platforms, standalone course platforms, and WordPress Plugins, there is also the option to use individual software to create different types of learning content. These are called authoring tools.

You can use an authoring tool to design and redesign the content and arrange it into an interactive format that makes sense and serves a learning purpose. The usual format these tools come in is SCORM, HTML5, xAPI, or TIN CAN files, and the results of an authoring tool can be exported and uploaded for hosting in an LMS that can support these formats.

Below are some of the best options to choose from:

Tool #1: Articulate Storyline 360

screenshot of articulate360

Articulate Storyline 360 is a popular course authoring tool amongst many demanding course creators and instructional designers. Many individuals and businesses are choosing it as their favorite tool because it has award-winning course creator assets, features, and useful resources and does what it promises to do.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is more suitable for newer designers because of its ease of use. Also, it is an ideal choice for freelancers, academics, and businesses of any size or industry.

Pricing:

Articulate 360 has different pricing for companies, freelancers, and academic professionals:

  • For companies: $1,399/yearly (per user)
  • For freelancers: personal plan – $1,099/yearly (one user) and teams plan – $1,399/yearly (per user)
  • For academic: personal plan – $549/yearly (one user) and teams plan – $699/yearly (per user)

*Information retrieved from Articulate on October 26, 2023.

Tool #2: Elucidat

elucidat-website

Elucidat comes with a beautiful user-friendly interface, modern and easy navigation, which makes it one of the easiest-to-use course creation tools on this list. While it doesn’t offer the flexibility to create your own course template, its 25,000 different ones are enough to compensate for that. As an authoring tool, Elucidat is designed for enterprises and L&D teams.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is ideal for large enterprises, academics, and non-profit organizations.

Pricing:

Elucidat offers a 14-day free trial and has four pricing options: Basic, Team, Enterprise, and Scale. For all plans, you need to contact Elucidat and request a price for each, depending on your requirements and the number of users.

*Information retrieved from Elucidat on October 26, 2023.

Tool #3: Adobe Captivate

adobe-website

Adobe Captivate is a popular choice for an authoring tool, and it’s one of the top premium ones in the market. Depending on what you need it for, you can use it to create immersive learning scenarios and high-quality online courses. Adobe Captivate promises to help you create stunning courses in minutes, and as one of the top rated and most recognized brands, it regularly updates its tool.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is aimed for use by freelancers, small/medium companies, large enterprises, and non-profit organizations.

Pricing:

Adobe Captivate offers a free trial and its price starts at $33.99/month.

*Information retrieved from Adobe on October 26, 2023.

Tool #4: Lectora

ELB-Learning-Lectora

Lectora – powered by ELB Learning, checks off the majority of the feature points that come with any course authoring tool. Packed up with a responsive design, automated versioning, interactivity, branching, quizzing features, and course template options, this tool will prove itself handy for creating eLearning content.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is ideal for freelancers, small/medium companies, large enterprises, and non-profit organizations.

Pricing:

Lectora has three pricing plans:

*Information retrieved from ELB Learning on October 26, 2023.

Tool #5: EasyGenerator

easygenerator-website

Just like its name suggests, EasyGenerator is an authoring tool that is super easy to use. It has rich interface options, and it is great for use by individuals who are just starting out and have no previous experience in creating online courses. This tool aims to simplify the course creation process to make it accessible to everyone.

Pros:

Cons:

Who is it for?

It is ideal for individuals who have no eLearning background. It is up for use by freelancers, small/medium companies, large enterprises, and non-profit organizations.

Pricing

Easy Generator has three pricing plans:

*Information retrieved from EasyGenerator on October 26, 2023.

Choosing an Online Learning Platform

As you can see, there are many options available when it comes to offering online learning, and each one carries its own strengths and weaknesses. While you may find it time-consuming to go through every small bit of detail that describes each platform and tool, conducting some research on those you are most interested in is highly recommended before finalizing your decision.

Don’t forget, most platforms allow you to have a test drive before you buy their products, so make sure you give it a try and see how it works with other edtech tools!

In the end, the best option for you is to choose the one that best accommodates your needs and works well with your budget.

Want to try out LearnWorlds? It is our very own all-in-one online course platform and what we believe to be the best for creating, selling, and delivering online courses. Get your 30-day free trial today!

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Content Creator at LearnWorlds

Kyriaki is a Content Creator for the LearnWorlds team writing about marketing and e-learning, helping course creators on their journey to create, market, and sell their online courses. Equipped with a degree in Career Guidance, she has a strong background in education management and career success. In her free time, she gets crafty and musical.