Having trouble deciding which platform to sell courses online? Let me break it down for you.
As someone who has made her online course, I have scanned multiple online learning platforms to find the perfect one for my situation.
I will be sharing the online course platforms I have shortlisted, and an online course comparison guide to help you with the decision-making process for your online course.
This post will help you find the best platform to sell courses online.
Online Course Platforms
During my research phase to find the perfect match to create and sell my online course, I have shortlisted 3 platforms:
- Kajabi
- Teachable
- Clickfunnels
Before digging further, I have consolidated areas that I find are of importance to me and that I will look into. There are 5 in total:
- Pricing – Of course, this is at the top of my list. As a creator who has just started out, pricing is a vital part of my investments. I want to make sure that I am not spending unnecessarily on features that I do not need at this stage of my business.
- Custom Domain – Having a custom domain available is super important to me because I want my branding to be consistent regardless of what platforms I use.
- Payment Plans – Considering the pricing strategy that I have for my online course, I want to find one that would allow both one-time payments and payment plans.
- Fees – Another area I am looking at is whether the course platform has additional fees like transaction fees, processing fees, or any other fees I need to be aware of. If there are no additional fees, that is the perfect situation. But if there are, I will have to weigh if it is worth going on. Because if the platform is going to take a lot of my profits, then I would not bother.
- Other Useful Features – Last but not least, I would also consider the platform integrations they provide, analytics features, limits, and many more. These are not important right now, but they are in the long-term strategy where I start to analyze the stats and start my email marketing.
Online Course Platforms Comparison
| Kajabi | Teachable | Clickfunnels | |
| Pricing(per month) | Basic – $119 Growth – $159 Pro – $319 | Free – $0 Basic – $39 Pro – $119 Pro+ – $199 | Basic – $127 Pro – $157 Funnel Hacker – $208 |
| Custom Domain | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Payment Plans | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fees | No additional fees | Processing Fees | 4.9% Transaction fees |
| Other Useful Features | Integrations – Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, Mail Chimp, Convertkit, Clickfunnels Can track students’ progress Email Marketing Available Available on mobile | Integrations – Convertkit, Active Campaign, Mail Chimp, GA4, GTM, Hotjar, Calendly, Zoom Tracking pixels Can create lead magnets, subscriptions & bundles Coupons available | Integrations – Active Campaign, Convertkit, Hubspot, Mail Chimp, Slack Email marketing sequence available Segment your leads and build funnels Do not website builder, focus on funnel building |
These are the details for all the factors I want to take into account. Let’s get into the thought process.
Factor 1: Pricing
Teachable has the best prices. Its highest pricing plan is similar to Kajabi’s Growth plan and Clickfunnels’ Pro plan. This means that you will have a lot of features if you were to get the highest-paying plan.
Additionally, Teachable’s lowest pricing plan is free, so you could simply create an account for free and get hands-on experience to see the features yourself.
Factor 2: Custom Domain
In terms of branding consistency, all course platforms can provide custom domains in the form:
- <name>.mykajabi.com
- <name>.teachable.com
- <name>.myclickfunnels.com
Factor 3: Payment Plans
All platforms have a variety of payment plans, so this is good news for me. All of them provide one-time payments, payment plans, and subscription models.
I love the subscription models, especially considering long-term strategy and possibilities if I want to open monthly subscription plans to add more value to my students.
Factor 4: Fees
Kajabi tops this one because it has no fees involved other than the pricing plan. But this does explain the steep pricing for the Kajabi platform.
For Teachable, there are several processing fees involved.
From my perspective, many of these processing fees are not applicable since I am not using PayPal nor am I in the US.
As for Clickfunnels, it involves a 4.9% transaction fee.
Factor 5: Other Features
After looking at the other features the platform provides, I find that all are pretty similar in terms of integrations. All have integrations with email marketing platforms and analytics platforms, which is what I look for first.
Kajabi allows students to access the course on their mobile devices, so that is a plus point.
Clickfunnels seems to focus more on funnel building rather than course features. They also do not have a website builder.
What I Chose
This is my rating chart for the course comparison, and I went with Teachable in the end. Its price point is what is most comfortable for me as of right now, and considering all the other factors, Teachable did not have any big NOs other than the processing fee charged by payment processors.
Kajabi and Clickfunnels’ pricing is a bit steep. Besides, the platforms have an extensive range of features, but I do not need them at this stage. My thought process is that I could easily switch platforms or upgrade when my course gains traction.
And there you have it, which online course platform will you choose?
This post highlights my thought process of choosing platforms to sell courses online.
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