The Best Online Course Platform 2024 | Shiken
Ready to take your wealth of knowledge and turn it into a source of passive income? Whether you are an experienced educator or just someone who knows a lot about what you do, these platforms enable you to create online courses that can be customized and marketed effectively.
But where do you start? Finding the best platform for online courses, often referred to as a learning management system, is essential in creating courses that you can be proud to upload to the internet and they can make it easy to turn your passion into money with just a little effort from the outset.
What exactly are online course platforms?
These websites offer all the tools you need for online course creation and sharing the courses you make. These platforms not only assist in course creation but also streamline course delivery, ensuring that your content reaches your students effectively. Whether you want to create a one-page PDF on a subject or a six-month course on a more in-depth topic, you should be able to put all your information together in a way that encourages people to learn.
Of course, you could record videos and share them on your social networks, but these platforms offer something more sophisticated and professional, making your courses more appealing and ensuring students are more likely to complete the entire thing. Plus, they help you monetize your courses, so you can earn additional income from them for many years to come.
So what do you need to consider when deciding which is the best online course platform to sell online courses?
Definition and Purpose
An online course platform is a software tool designed to help educators and entrepreneurs create, manage, and deliver online courses. These platforms provide a comprehensive suite of features that enable users to build, market, and sell online courses, as well as engage with students and track their progress. Whether you’re looking to sell online courses to a global audience or provide specialized training to a niche market, an online course platform can streamline the entire process. From multimedia integration to assessment tools, these platforms offer everything you need to create a professional and engaging learning experience.
Benefits of Using an Online Course Platform
Using an online course platform offers numerous benefits that can significantly enhance both the teaching and learning experience:
- Increased Accessibility: Online course platforms allow instructors to reach a global audience, breaking down geographical barriers and making education accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
- Cost-Effectiveness: These platforms are often more cost-effective than traditional classroom-based learning, eliminating the need for physical infrastructure and travel expenses.
- Customization Options: Online course platforms provide extensive customization options for branding, messaging, course structure, assessment tools, and SEO. This allows users to create a unique and tailored learning experience that aligns with their brand and educational goals.
- Engagement and Retention: With interactive multimedia elements and robust analytics tools, online course platforms promote higher engagement and retention rates. Features like quizzes, videos, and discussion forums make learning more interactive and enjoyable, leading to better student success.
Types of Online Course Platforms
When it comes to creating and selling online courses, the platform you choose can make a significant difference in your success. Online course platforms can be broadly categorized into four main types: Standalone Platforms, All-in-One Platforms, Online Course Marketplaces, and WordPress LMS Plugins. Each type offers unique features, advantages, and disadvantages, catering to different needs and preferences of course creators.
Standalone Platforms
Standalone platforms are designed to provide specific tools and services for course creation, course management, marketing, and payment processing. These platforms are perfect for course creators who seek greater flexibility and control over their online courses. Popular standalone platforms include Thinkific, Teachable, and LearnWorlds.
Standalone platforms offer several advantages:
- Flexibility and Control: You have the freedom to customize and brand your platform to suit your needs.
- Affordability: Often more budget-friendly compared to all-in-one platforms.
- Integration: Can be easily integrated with other tools and services to enhance the learning experience.
However, there are some drawbacks:
- Technical Expertise: Setting up and managing these platforms may require more technical know-how.
- Feature Limitations: They might not offer as many features as all-in-one platforms.
- Support and Community: The level of support and community engagement may not be as robust as with all-in-one platforms.
All-in-One Platforms
All-in-one platforms provide a comprehensive suite of features, including course creation, marketing, payment processing, and community building. These platforms are ideal for course creators who want a streamlined process and a one-stop-shop for all their online course needs, including tools to enhance student engagement. Popular all-in-one platforms include Kajabi, Podia, and Simplero.
The advantages of all-in-one platforms include:
- Streamlined Process: A seamless course creation process with all necessary tools in one place.
- Comprehensive Features: Everything from marketing to payment processing is covered.
- Support and Community: Often come with a high level of support and a vibrant community.
However, they also have some disadvantages:
- Cost: These platforms can be more expensive than standalone options.
- Flexibility: They may not offer as much control over course content and design.
- Customization: There might be limitations on how much you can customize and brand your courses.
Online Course Marketplaces
Online course marketplaces allow course creators to host and sell their courses on a shared platform. These marketplaces are ideal for those who want to reach a wider audience without handling the technical aspects of course creation and course marketing. Popular online course marketplaces include Udemy, Skillshare, and Coursera.
The benefits of online course marketplaces include:
- Wider Audience: Gain more visibility and reach a larger audience.
- Support and Community: Often provide a high level of support and community engagement.
- Convenience: More time-efficient as the platform handles much of the marketing and technical work.
However, there are some downsides:
- Commission Fees: The platform may take a commission on course sales.
- Customization: Limited options for customization and branding.
- Control: Less control over course content and design compared to other platforms.
WordPress LMS Plugins
WordPress LMS plugins allow course creators to host and sell their courses on their own WordPress website, effectively turning it into a course delivery platform. These plugins are perfect for those who want more control over their online courses and wish to integrate them with their existing website. Popular WordPress LMS plugins include LearnDash, LifterLMS, and Masterstudy.
The advantages of WordPress LMS plugins are:
- Control: Greater control over course content and design.
- Integration: Can be integrated with other WordPress plugins and themes.
- Customization: High level of flexibility and customization.
However, they also have some disadvantages:
- Technical Expertise: Setting up and managing these plugins may require more technical skills.
- Support and Community: May not offer the same level of support and community as all-in-one platforms.
- Scalability: There might be limitations on scalability and performance.
By understanding the different types of online course platforms, you can make an informed decision about which one best suits your needs. Whether you prioritize flexibility, comprehensive features, or ease of use, there’s a platform out there that can help you create and sell online courses successfully.
What should you look for?
There are a few things that make the most useful course tools stand out from the rest, but ultimately, the best online course platforms for you will depend on your needs. Look for things like:
• Variety of course creation tools available.
• Price, including free trials or free versions so you can get a taster of the platform. Some platforms even offer a free online course platform option, allowing you to create and share courses without any upfront costs.
• How easy the platform is to use.
• How flexible the platform is.
• What tools are available for creating courses and then getting them out into the world.
• What other people have said about the platform.
• Stand-out features of the platform.
Because everyone’s needs are so different, there’s no platform out there that offers a one-size-fits-all option. But lots offer free versions or free trials so you can test a few out and see what works for you.
Key Features to Consider
When selecting an online course platform, it’s essential to consider the key features that will best support your course creation and delivery needs:
- Course Creation Tools: Look for platforms that offer intuitive and easy-to-use course creation tools. These should include multimedia integration, assessment tools, and interactive discussion forums to enhance the learning experience.
- E-Commerce Features: Consider platforms that provide robust e-commerce features, such as payment processing, subscription management, and affiliate marketing. These tools can help you monetize your courses effectively.
- Marketing and Promotion Tools: Effective marketing is crucial for the success of your online courses. Look for platforms that offer comprehensive marketing and promotion tools, including email marketing, social media integration, and SEO optimization.
- Customer Support: Responsive customer support is vital, especially if you encounter technical issues or need assistance with platform features. Consider platforms that offer various support options, including online support, training resources, and community forums.
How to Choose the Best Online Course Platform
Choosing the best online course platform requires careful consideration of your specific needs and goals. Here are some steps to guide you through the selection process:
- Consider Your Needs and Goals:- Define Your Target Audience: Identify who your target audience is and what their learning needs are. Understanding your audience will help you choose a platform that caters to their preferences.
- Determine Your Course Content: Decide on the type of course content you want to create and deliver. Whether it’s video-based, text-based, or a combination of both, ensure the platform supports your content format.
- Set Your Budget: Establish a budget for your online course platform. Consider the costs associated with course creation, marketing, and delivery, and choose a platform that fits within your financial constraints.
- Evaluate Platform Features: Compare the features of different online course platforms. Look for those that align with your needs and goals, such as course creation tools, e-commerce features, marketing tools, and customer support.
By considering these factors and evaluating different online course platforms, you can choose the best platform for your needs and create a successful online course that engages and retains students.
Consider Your Needs and Goals
What are the top online course platforms?
There are so many websites out there that claim to be the best platform for online courses, but there are a few that stand out amongst the rest. Our favourites are:
• Shiken
• Kajabi
• Teachable
• Skillshare
• Thinkific
These platforms offer various features for course hosting, making it easier for educators to share their knowledge with a global audience.
Many of these platforms also offer free courses, allowing users to try out content before committing to paid options.
They all have slightly different offerings, so if you’ve tried one of these before, don’t be afraid to try any of the others. You might find an online course platform you can really fall in love with!
To try and help you in your course-creating endeavours, we’ve taken a look at some of Shiken’s competitors.
Shiken AI
Here are some of the key features of Shiken to consider as you read through:
Shiken AI is a comprehensive online course creation platform that offers a variety of active and passive learning options.
• A variety of active and passive learning options:
Combine on-demand video and live courses with live and asynchronous quizzes to enhance course delivery and engage your students. There are leaderboards and visible skill progression to bring a competitive edge to learning. Shiken compares favorably to other online learning platforms beyond online course software.
• Your friendly AI coach:
If you’ve never created a course before, or even if you have, our AI tools will save you time and give you the skills you need to make something more professional than you could ever have dreamed of.
• Comprehensive marketing suite:
Make blogs, contact groups, landing pages, and so much more with the knowledgeable AI assistant to enhance your course marketing efforts.
• Sell on the Shiken store:
You can manage course sales via your own Shiken landing page or through the Shiken Store to all the registered Shiken users which works a little differently from other online course platforms where your site is often away from existing users. Shiken users can follow your account so they know when you’ve uploaded new content and purchase your online courses through the store. You can also upload to your own landing pages for additional marketing options.
• Repurpose your content:
Shiken’s AI writing tool can take your courses and create downloadable PDFs, learning goals, wiki pages, databases and project management boards that will help cement the knowledge of your customers. You can use AI to generate online courses with the click of a button, simplifying the course creation process and making it easier than ever to create online courses.
So how does Shiken compare to other online course platforms?
There are lots of providers out there claiming to be the best platform for online courses. Shiken offers advanced online course creation software that simplifies the process of designing, building, and selling courses, making it a comprehensive course management system. The best online course platform to sell online courses is likely the one that works best for you and your budget. Let’s look at some of the market leaders vying for the title of best online course platform and see how Shiken compares to them. If you’ve ever used or considered any of the following tools for your courses, you’ll want to read on!
Kajabi
Kajabi claims to be the best place for creators to make money and seems to focus more on this than the learning side of course creation. Kajabi provides robust online course software that helps creators design and market their courses effectively. Its aim is to remove the technology barriers that come from sharing information online, whether that’s via courses, memberships, podcasts or coaching and it targets what it calls ‘knowledge entrepreneurs’.
Its platform has lots of course features, including:
• Website builder:
Not got a course website yet? Kajabi can build you a simple course platform that keeps all your products in one place. While Shiken doesn’t yet offer this functionality, it does allow you to keep all your courses in an easy to access dashboard within the Shiken community and offer easy sharing to your own website – perfect if you want to add to your existing business rather than starting a new one from scratch.
• Stripe and PayPal integration:
Using two of the biggest payment tools in the world means more people can sign up to your courses without having to overthink the process. Shiken also uses Stripe integration, and, of course, you can use whichever providers you like on your own site.
• Emails:
Connect with your online audience through email to stay front of mind at all times. As one of the most important marketing channels, emails are a vital tool for anyone wanting to promote their courses. Shiken has a whole marketing suite that incorporates email functionality and helps you get in front of your students.
• Landing page templates:
Creating a landing page for your courses is easy with Kajabi templates, taking all the guesswork out of building your internet presence. This is also something Shiken offers, making this a very comparable product.
• Analytics:
Want to know how well your courses are selling? Or perhaps you’d like to see how your marketing efforts are paying off? The Kajabi analytics platform keeps all your data in one place so you can assess performance with a quick glance. Knowledge is power, so if you know how well you are doing, you can adjust your marketing activities to suit. Again, Shiken can also do this, helping you to identify any weaknesses in your platform so you can improve.
Despite its reputation as one of the best online course platforms, Kajabi does have some limitations. The free plan is very basic, meaning you’d have to pay for one of the other plans to make it a truly worthwhile platform, and these are expensive. Chat support is only available during business hours, which isn’t helpful if you are trying to build a side-hussle outside of your day-to-day job and the AI side of things isn’t very advanced, which is one of the things that really stands out at Shiken.
Teachable
Like Kajabi, Teachable puts huge focus on the money-making side of course creation. Teachable provides various tools to help educators sell courses and maximize their revenue. Their mission is to help educators create courses, coaching platforms and digital downloads that will teach others something interesting while making money for the creator. And they do this without the creator needing to learn to code (unless that’s one of the courses they’ve signed up to).
Here are some of the features of the platform:
• Build mini courses or bigger online courses:
Whether you want to create a short course to supplement your classroom learnings or a more in-depth style of teaching, Teachable can help you do this with templates and tools to make yours unique, making it a versatile course creation platform. Shiken can also do this, with dedicated tools for on-the-job training and employee on-boarding.
• Sales and marketing suite:
Just like Shiken, you can attract new learners to your courses with the many marketing tools available. You get analytics data and even online affiliate tools that can really help expand your reach.
• Effortless payment:
Teachable:pay is the platform’s own payment tool that streamlines the process for you. So however your learners choose to pay, you will get the full amount, less tax, making for a very easy process. This is something Shiken does not yet provide, but it is very easy to work with Stripe, who Shiken partner with.
• Site builder:
You can build your own website through Teachable, which is another thing that Shiken cannot yet do. The platform is simple and gives you a basic website. If you want something more extravagant, you’d be better off outsourcing website creation and adding your courses, which is what Shiken promotes, with landing page templates to help.
• Create memberships:
One way to ensure your customers keep coming back to learn from you is through a membership and this is something that Teachable can help you do. For some people, membership is a barrier to entry, which is why Shiken don’t currently offer this, but if it works for your business then you have the tools you need with Teachable.
• AI assistance:
Like Shiken, Teachable offers AI help in planning and creating your courses, so you can customise to your needs. This takes out a lot of the hard work of course creation and helps to fill in any information you think is missing. Create quizzes, summaries, subtitles and longer blocks of copy with the clever AI tool.
One of the biggest drawbacks to Teachable is that some people found the functionality wasn’t flexible enough for their needs. Templates are quite generic, and quizzes could be unsophisticated. However, it’s a great platform to start on and competitively priced compared to many others. Is it the best platform for online courses? That’s for you to decide (of course, we think Shiken is better!)
Thinkific
Thinkific is probably Shiken’s closest competitor in terms of what the platform offers. Thinkific allows creators to offer unlimited courses, providing flexibility and growth potential. Their focus is on creating high quality courses and improving engagement so that you have a higher uptake of students. While it is still possible to earn money through course creation, it seems right that the content should be the primary concern.
Some of the other features that make this one of the best online course platforms are:
• Low cost:
This is one of the cheapest platforms on our list, with excellent course pricing and a free product that provides a great base for your activities. You will have to upgrade to be able to create more than one course and access all the features.
• Community:
Thinkific has worked hard to help create a community for your courses, increasing student engagement and making it easier for you to stay in touch with them. While other platforms do this to an extent, this is one of the stand-out features of this course creation tool.
• Active and passive learning options:
Like Shiken, Thinkific understands that nobody learns in exactly the same way, so a variety of course media is important to help information sink in. Create quizzes, videos and text for your course and incorporate them with no technical knowledge. There’s no need for coding skills or extensive website experience – the drag and drop tool makes this bit easy.
• 24/7 chatbot:
If you do get stuck at any point in the course-building process, Thinkific is there to help. The virtual AI assistant can answer almost any question that you have, so you don’t have to wait for a real person to become available. If the AI chatbot really can’t help, you can use the live chat option or email the team to speak to someone who knows the product inside-out.
• T-Commerce sales platform:
Like Shiken, Thinkific deals with the sales side of things for you, so you don’t to worry about having your own sales system in place – unless you’d prefer that.
• Mobile app:
The Thinkific app makes access to your courses easier than ever, as people can learn on-the-go through their mobile phone.
When it comes to marketing your courses, Thinkific does have some features, but they are weaker than other platforms, especially those tools provided by Shilken. This is perhaps the reason for the cheaper cost. And the free plan only allows for one course, so it works as a tester, rather than something that professional educators can use forever. Once you start upgrading, watch out for hidden costs. Despite all this, it is a great way to create online course platforms and easily comparable to Shiken in that respect.
Skillshare
There’s a template for every single part of the course creation process on Skillshare, making it very easy for anyone to make and upload a course on their chosen subject. Skillshare is one of the leading online learning platforms, known for its extensive library of creative courses. And there are already over 8,000 people sharing courses on the platform, ensuring you are in good company.
Some of the best features of Skillshare are:
• Teacher approval process:
A lot of platforms will let anyone create and upload a course, but Skillshare has an approval process that can take up to two weeks to complete, ensuring high course quality. While this can be frustrating if you are keen to get started, it means that students know they can trust your content and will make them more likely to use it.
• Membership model:
Worried you won’t have a captive audience for your course? Everyone using Skillshare is part of the membership, so they all want to learn. And if you pick the right subject, you’ll have no problem attracting students. There is a factsheet about marketing your course, but otherwise there is little help in getting your course out there. Meanwhile, Shiken has a whole marketing suite of tools.
• Creative focus:
The video courses on Skillshare are mostly focused on creative pursuits, making it a great place for a like-minded community to congregate and meaning students are more likely to purchase more than one course. This does mean it is not the best place for non-creative topics. If you have a first aid course, for example, you might be better at Shiken.
• Incredible content base:
One of the biggest perks of Skillshare is that whatever question you might have, they will already have answered it in one of their comprehensive blogs or articles. If you do have a question that isn’t in their archives, you can contact them via email – there’s no 24/7 support.
• Timed payment system:
The payment system at Skillshare means you’ll make a profit every time someone watches at least half an hour of your course. That means the onus really is on you to create courses that will keep people engaged. With no tools like quizzes or gamification, your videos will need to be fantastic.
While everything on Skillshare is very easy to navigate, the simplicity of it all means that all the courses have a very similar format, and you may struggle to stand out with your knowledge. That is especially true if you are covering a subject that has already been uploaded, which is quite possible given the size of the teaching community. So, if you want to create a unique course that is seen as an industry-preferred teaching tool, this might not be the platform for you. If, however, you are new to course creation, Skillshare could be a great way to learn.
So, when it comes to the best platform for online courses, which one best suits your needs? The choice of where to create is a personal one and will depend on many factors like whether or not you want to make money, whether you are hoping to host on your own site and whether you already have a waiting and willing audience. It will also depend on how much support you need and how much you are willing to spend to get the best possible courses.
We are biased, of course, but we believe Shiken has everything you could possibly need to create the courses you want, with the flexibility to do things your way.
