30 Best Online Learning Platforms for 2024 (2024)

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.

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

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!

📝 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 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

• Highly recognizable and valued for skills training
• Comes with a one-month free trial
• Provides personalized course recommendations for users
• Offers certification upon course completion
• Allows you to assess your progress using quizzes
• Has offline learning access to learn on the go
• Grants you access to other premium career features

Cons

• The quality of the courses it offers is ambiguous and you need to conduct some research into them before enrolling
• Joining as an instructor may be challenging

Who is it for?

• Learners: It is mostly suited for professionals and businesses looking to train their employees.
• Instructors: Apart from individual learners, business teams, universities, and government organizations can use the platform for educational and training purposes.

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:

• Monthly: 1-month free trial, then $39,99/month
• Annually: 1-month free trial, then $19,99 /month

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

Platform #2: Udemy

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:

• No setup cost (for instructors)
• Geared towards self-paced learning and video courses
• No need for highly technical knowledge
• A Udemy app available for iOS and Android

Cons (for instructors):

• Limited interaction with students
• High competition between instructors
• No personal branding option
• Minimal control over prices
• No data ownership or control over branding – it keeps emails and user data and does not share this information with instructors
• Visibility depends on your own marketing, the platform only promotes courses that are already popular

Who is it for?

• Students: Udemy has a course for almost every discipline, but potential students always need to read the reviews before buying one. Quality is not consistent.
• Instructors: It’s great for teachers, instructors, educators, and freelancers who are just starting out.

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:

• No starting fee but very high commissions on sales of up to 75%.
• 37% when students come through their paid user acquisition channel.
• 97% on course sales when you sell through your own links. Udemy keeps a 3% administration fee.

*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 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:

• Offers a variety of learning options and activities
• Awards students with different types of accreditation (through degrees and certificates)
• Provides high-quality educational tools and instructor interactions
• Courses are free if you are not looking for a certification

Cons:

• Limited to educators in partner institutions
• Less flexible course creation optionscompared to other platforms
• Does not offer instructor feedback, only peer reviewed assignments as a feedback mechanism

Who is it for?

• Students: Anyone who wants to learn from prestigious institutions, whether they are looking for a one-off course, certification, or an online degree.
• Instructors: It is aimed at professors who are based at a HE partner institution or business.

Pricing:

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

Platform #4: Skillshare

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:

• Offers easily digestible and bite-sized learning
• Comes with a supportive discussion forum where students exchange feedback
• Provides the ability to take many courses for the same price

Cons:

• Class content limited to only four categories
• Course material can be low quality
• Skillshare reviews from users are low across multiple review platforms
• No certificate of completion or any other formal recognition

Who is it for?

• Students: It is suitable for students interested in the creative arts, technology, business, and lifestyle classes.
• Instructors: It’s great for instructors who are in the creative fields and want to make a side income. Instructors can make money through Skillshare’s royalty system and referral program.

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.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:

• Free and open-source. (for instructors)
• Provides in-depth knowledge and added value (for students)
• Comes with a mobile app on iOS and Android
• Interactive online classes – allowing students to chip in

Cons:

• Discussion forums seem to be outdated and difficult to navigate
• Requires technical knowledge or hiring a developer/web designer to implement (for instructors)
• Comes with the additional costs of a self-hosted server and its maintenance (for instructors)

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 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:

• Has a simple and intuitive user interface
• Offers top-notch course content quality
• Provides additional career services (for students)
• Comes with more than 200 free courses
• Awards certificates (not accredited)
• Supports live tutoring (for instructors)

Cons:

• Not much variety of course topics
• Course material is mainly in the English language
• No mobile app available
• It is a pricey option compared to other platforms

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:

• Instructor – developing a full course
• Advisor – offering advice on an Udacity school or nanodegrees
• Course proposals – proposing a new course
• Other course support – building projects, lessons, assessments, etc.

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.

Platform #1: LearnWorlds

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:

• Very easy to set up and create course content
• Does not require any technical skills to use
• Comes with built-in course authoring capabilities
• Offers a state-of-the-art no-code Website Builder
• Offers a fully customizable, coding-free Mobile App Builder for iOS and Android
• Has built-in reporting, e-commerce, marketing, and affiliate features
• Comes with a built-in online community and discussion boards
• Supports SCORM and HTML5 files, including Graded SCORMs
• AI Assistant to build courses with artificial intelligence
• Offers responsive 24/7 customer support

Cons:

• No pre-built sales funnels
• Limited gamification options (badges only)
• Does not support TinCan

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:

• Starter plan: $29/month (plus $5 per course sale)
• Pro trainer plan: $99/month
• Learning center: $299/month
• High Volume and custom corporate pricing are available

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

💁 Find out more about LearnWorlds’ alternatives.

Platform #2: Thinkific

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:

• Includes a landing page builder
• Offers built-in sales and marketing tools
• Has various integrations with popular software
• It helps you build your online learning community
• Is a cloud-hosted platform you can connect your domain with
• Has a white-label option
• Has 24/7 support

Cons:

• Offers limited control over website design
• Can be difficult to build complex courses
• Does not support SCORM, TinCan, or AICC
• Doesn’t include social features
• Focuses more on sales features rather than learning

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:

• Free Plan – $0
• Basic – $49/month
• Start – $99/month
• Grow – $199/month
• Thinkific Plus – Customized pricing

*Pricing information retrieved from Thinkific October 26, 2023.

💁 Compare Thinkific to LearnWorlds.

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Platform #3: Teachable

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:

• Simple and easy-to-use course authoring with quiz capabilities
• Has a landing page editor and blogging capabilities
• Comes with built-in eCommerce features
• Includes built-in affiliate, marketing, and sales tools
• Comes with a built-in email marketing tool
• Offers an app that is common to all schools (only Apple – App Store)
• Offers email support and a knowledge base

Cons:

• Limited learning/teaching and assessment capabilities
• Does not support SCORM or TinCan
• Offers limited customization options on landing pages and branding
• No social or community building features
• Not very responsive customer support
• Limited white-labeling options (e.g. sign-ins and emails cannot be white-labeled)

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:

• Free plan: $0/month (limited functionality and $1 + 10% per transaction)
• Basic plan: $59/month (plus 5% transaction fee)
• Pro plan: $159/month
• Pro+ plan: $249/month
• Business plan: Customized pricing

*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 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:

• Comes with built-in email and marketing tools
• Offers various integrations with popular software
• Provides sales pipelines/funnels building capabilities
• Features an online community
• Offers a collection of beautiful themes
• Allows the creation of landing pages

Cons:

• Can be difficult to set up
• Has the most expensive pricing options
• Offers limited control and customization over website design
• Doesn’t offer as many course creation or learning features
• Focuses more on small digital product sales

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:

• Basic Plan: $149/month
• Growth Plan: $199/month
• Pro Plan: $399/month

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

💁 Compare Kajabi with LearnWorlds

Platform #5: Podia

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:

• Very easy and simple to use
• Has sales page customization options
• Comes with a website builder
• Offers email and affiliate marketing options within the platform
• Allows you to have your own membership subscription

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer a community area on the platform
• Lacks learning tools like grading, assessment/assignments, and certificates
• Does not support SCORM or TinCan
• Very limited in its capabilities – suiting smaller video-based learning, coaching, and downloadables only
• No white-label option

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:

• Free plan
• Mover: $39/month
• Shaker: $89/month

Pricing information retrieved from Podia on October 26, 2023.

💁 Compare Podia with LearnWorlds

💁 Find out more Podia Alternatives

Platform #6: WizIQ

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:

• Offers elearning reporting and analytics
• Provides the opportunity to teach in a virtual classroom
• Has a mobile app (mLearning) that is available on Apple and Android
• Comes with course authoring with test and assessment capabilities
• Has eCommerce features and multiple integrations
• Offers a white label option

Cons:

• Does not support SCORM or TinCan
• Has no gamification options
• Its customer support representatives are difficult to reach after setup (based on online reviews)

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:

• Live Classroom (Professional & Enterprise, or Pay-Per-Use plans), and
• LMS (Elite and Infinite Plans)

For more information, contact WizIQ directly.

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

Platform #7: 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:

• Supports SCORM content
• Offers reporting on learners’ progress
• Provides branding and white-label options
• Integrates with popular tools and uses API
• Comes with a flexible website builder
• Very responsive support team

Cons:

• Needs a lot of work to customize the site
• Only offers a few video guides to help you learn how to work with the platform
• Very high price to get started or scale a project/business

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:

• Professional: $999/month
• Enterprise: custom pricing

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

💁 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 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:

• Compatible with SCORM 1.2 and 2004 editions, AICC, and Tin Can API
• Has engaging gamification and social learning capabilities
• Provides analytics on the effectiveness of learning programs
• Offers instructor-led training (ILT) features
• Supports more than 40 languages
• Allows third-party integrations with 400+ tools
• Allows offering certificates and selling online courses (eCommerce)

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer customizable or advanced reporting capabilities
• Has limited functionality on certain objects of the LMS that require richer API
• Doesn’t come with enough features on its standard package that would better suit small and medium-sized businesses

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:

• Growth: suitable for organizations that have up to 300 users.
• Enterprise: suitable for organizations that have over 300 users and are looking for a more advanced elearning solution.

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 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:

• Features great gamification options
• Comes with eCommerce functionality
• Compatible with SCORM and xAPI/Tin Can API
• Offers third-party integrations with key business tools
• Offers the ability to support multiple audiences in one system using multiple portals
• Supports blended learning methods – ILT, webinars, PowerPoint presentations, etc.

Cons:

• Has high-pricing plans
• There is no option for HTML5 courses

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:

• Essential: for 150 to 300 users
• Premium: for 300 to 1000 users
• Enterprise: for 1000+ users

To get detailed information on pricing, contact LearnUpon directly.

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

Platform #3: Litmos

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:

• Has an intuitive course builder and built-in authoring
• Compatible with SCORM, AICC, xAPI/Tin Can API
• Offers built-in reporting, dashboards, and social communication functionality
• Comes with eCommerce and third-party integrations
• Allows the creation of customized learning paths
• Provides ILT, video assessments, and virtual classroom capabilities
• Has a content library with 2,000+ ready-made training video-based courses

Cons:

• Has limited customization options
• Its interface isn’t as appealing as others
• It might be an expensive option depending on your business requirements
• Its assessment and feedback delivery process are slower than usual
• Lacks a dedicated payment gateway connection

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

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:

• Has unlimited file storage
• Features an intuitive learner interface
• Comes with a course template library
• Presents rich gamification features
• Provides analytical and real-time reporting
• Compatible with SCORM, AICC, and xAPI/Tin Can API
• Offers an integrated authoring tool with blended learning capabilities
• Allows mobile and offline access for a more convenient learning experience
• Uses an automated course management tool that makes administrative tasks easier

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer multilingual support
• No direct learner-to-learner messaging inside discussion forums
• Has limited design customization, branding, and API options
• Has limited eCommerce capabilities and integration options

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 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:

• Comes with a mobile app for learners and instructors (iOS and Android)
• Compatible with SCORM, AICC, IMS LTI, and xAPI/Tin Can API
• Features reporting, tracking program outcomes & accreditation standards
• Offers the ability to categorize users by different metrics (e.g. skills and department)
• Integrates with social media channels and video conferencing tools

Cons:

• Limited reporting capabilities
• Limited gamification options
• Doesn’t have any security-enhancing features

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

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:

• Has a desktop and mobile app (iOS and Android)
• Compatible with SCORM, AICC, IMS LTI, and xAPI/Tin Can API
• Offers a variety of customization options and integrations to plugins and add-ons
• Gives you access to a community of developers, users, and certified partners that share best practices on the use of the platform

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer an email or 24/7 support
• Primitive and not as user-friendly interface
• Comes with limited gamification options
• Can be expensive if you are hosting the solution but don’t have an in-house IT team
• Its setup can be tricky and time-consuming without the help of a certified Moodle partner
• Its consultation services may come with an additional fee

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:

• Starter: €120/year (50 users, 250MB)
• Mini: €200/year (100 users, 500MB)
• Small: €370/year (200 users, 1GB)
• Medium: €860/year (500 users, 2.5GB)
• Large: €1,630/year (1,000 users, 5GB)

For premium hosting: Customized pricing

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

Platform #6: Talent LMS

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:

• Offers a clean and user-friendly interface
• Easy to create courses in different categories
• Comes with a mobile app (for iOS and Android)
• Supports SCORM, CMI5 & xAPI content
• Comes with TalentLibrary – a collection of ready-made courses
• Provides an assessment building engine (with different testing options)
• Offers gamification and e-commerce options
• Has reporting, integrations, mass actions, and account branching capabilities

Cons:

• Not as responsive customer support service
• Has limited course setup and content variety options
• Offers limited functionality inside discussion forums

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:

• Free: $0
• Starter: $89/month
• Basic: $189/month
• Plus: $369/month
• Premium: $569/month

Active plans (on the yearly plan) include:

• Starter Active: $179/month
• Basic Active: $339/month
• Plus Active: $489/month
• Premium Active: $649/month

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.

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 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:

• Offers membership, subscription, and one-time pricing options
• Features test and management tools, e.g., grade books and student metrics.
• Works with any WordPress theme and multi-sites
• Supports many types of media, including video, audio, images, Adobe Captivate files, and Google Docs
• Compatible with PayPal and Stripe payment gateways
• Provides the ability to market courses through monetization tools (shopping cart, memberships, subscriptions, course bundles, and course licenses)
• Provides automated email notifications and detailed reporting
• Integrates with popular tools (like Zapier, Slack, & ConvertKit)
• Offers drip-feed content, flexible prerequisites, badges, and certificates
• Allows you to install extra extensions and premium add-ons (such as the frontend course creation add-on) for advanced functionality

Cons:

• No free trial, but you can cancel within 15 days (if you don’t like the product)
• Doesn’t have any video conferencing tools
• Has to be integrated with a third-party plugin like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads to offer comprehensive payment options

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:

• 1 site license: $199/year
• 10 site licenses: $399/year
• Unlimited: $799/year

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

• Starter: $29/month
• Yearly: $299/year

Information retrieved from LearnDash on October 26, 2023.

💁 Compare LearnWorlds vs LearnDash

💁 Compare LearnWorlds vs WooCommerce

Plugin #2: LifterLMS

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:

• Comes with a 30-day demo for $1
• Has an automated mailing system and video lesson support
• Offers course completion certificates and achievement badges
• Supports flexible payment options (bundles, coupons, upsells, and more)
• Comes with built-in membership features, quizzes, and gradebooks
• Has a drag-and-drop builder that makes it easy to set up and create courses
• Integrates with key marketing tools, including MailChimp, WooCommerce, and WPForms

Cons:

• It can get expensive if you need multiple add-ons (e.g. payment gateways)
• Not SCORM-compliant
• Doesn’t have any video conferencing tools

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.

• Earth Bundle: $199/year
• Universe Bundle: $360/year
• Infinity Bundle: $1200/year

*Information retrieved from LifterLMS on October 26, 2023.

Plugin #3: LearnPress

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:

• Has a free plan and mobile app (iOS & Android)
• Offers theme demos that allow you to preview your website design
• Frequently updated to address bugs and improve security
• It is a great option for beginners
• Allows integration with BuddyPress and BBPress forums
• Its free add-ons include Wishlist, course reviews, and prerequisite courses
• Has an in-built automatic email system that allows you to send quiz results to participants
• Supports a collection of payment gateways such as PayPal, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, and Stripe
• Has management tools for tracking students, grades, and course content

Cons:

• Might be expensive to get all the features and add-ons at once
• Its best available plan only offers up to 3 site licenses
• Needs premium add-ons to offer the drip-feed and certificates capability
• Doesn’t come with a setup wizard like most WordPress plugins
• Lacks a variety of communication tools

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:

• LearnPress Free: $0
• LearnPress Theme Bundle: starting $49 – $69 (one-time payment – 1 site license)
• LearnPress Pro Bundle: $249.99 with access to all add-ons (one-time payment – 3 site licenses)

*Information retrieved from ThimPress on October 26, 2023.

Plugin #4: MemberPress

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

• Restricts and manages access to your learning materials and courses
• Hosts unlimited members and memberships
• Has automatic upgrade and downgrade prorations
• Provides full subscription and transaction management
• Offers content access drip, access expiration, and premium community forums
• Includes comprehensive reporting, custom registration, account fields, and built-in integrations

Cons

• Doesn’t have a free trial or free version
• Doesn’t offer certificates
• Doesn’t have a drag-and-drop builder
• Might be more complicated or need a longer time for setup
• Doesn’t offer live online learning or webinars; only documentation
• Works best for online courses when combined with a WordPress LMS plugin like LearnDash

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:

• Basic: $179.50 per year
• Plus: $299.50 per year
• Pro: $399.50 per year

*Information retrieved from MemberPress on October 26, 2023.

Plugin #5: WPLMS

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:

• Has a mobile app (for iOS and Android)
• Is one of the most affordable and feature-rich WordPress LMSs
• Extends and integrates with third-party services and popular WordPress plugins including WooCommerce for monetization and BBPress for discussion forums
• Supports video conferencing through integration and gamification of courses
• Offers microlearning, gamification, certificates, and badges
• Supports activity tracking, student management, question banks, and custom reports
• Provides the ability to offer course bundles, membership and corporate plans

Cons:

• It doesn’t come with a free version or a free trial
• Its course creation interface is lacking in some areas
• It doesn’t come with a full drag-and-drop interface
• Lacks some customization options compared to other LMSs

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:

• Regular license: $75 (one-time payment)
• Extended license: $3,000 (one-time payment)

*Information retrieved from Themeforest on October 26, 2023.

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

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:

• Has a comprehensive set of features and course-authoring apps
• Allows you to create courses manually from existing templates
• Offers live and on-demand online training (live webinar by experts)
• Has a variety of quizzes and course templates
• Allows you to add various interactions with the content
• Comes with a large library of templates, course assets, photos, videos, icons, and illustrations
• Features a review app to help you gather feedback from stakeholders easily

Cons:

• Has a downloadable program only
• Has one price tier and feature set only
• It is an expensive solution compared to others
• It relies heavily on the PowerPoint experience
• Difficult to use and might need a technical expert to help you out

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 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:

• Offers enhanced collaboration options (for L&D teams)
• Provides data protection (GDPR, data encryption)
• Comes with user permissions and access controls
• Features localization workflows
• Supports HTML5, video SCROM (1.2, 2004), xAPI (TinCan) on all browsers
• Comes with a rich course template library
• Has a range of support resources

Cons:

• It lacks integrations
• You need to contact sales to get a pricing quote

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 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:

• Has a clean and easy-to-navigate user interface
• Allows you to create interactive training courses or videos
• Includes a green screen feature where you can insert your background
• Offers the possibility to create storyboards and offer VR immersive learning Supports smart video recording helping you create studio-quality HD videos
• Frequently updated with new services and features
• Available on MAC and Windows
• Supports a variety of mobile forms
• Has a PowerPoint integration
• Offers overlay and ready-to-go slides

Cons:

• Can be difficult to use or overwhelming for new users
• Not an intuitive and user-friendly interface
• Expensive to purchase compared to other tools

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

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:

• Comes with a built-in asset library (icons, eLearning templates, stock images, audio, video, PowerPoint templates)
• Supports SCORM, xAPI, HTML5, AICC, and cmi5
• Integrates well with every LMS platform
• Easy to use and easy to understand
• Comes with a wide range of editing features
• Offers knowledge tests, quizzes, built-in navigations, and interactions

Cons:

• Has some new features that can be quirky with different browsers
• Offers limited options in interactions
• Comes with limited abilities in advanced animations

Who is it for?

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

Pricing:

Lectora has three pricing plans:

• Silver Suite: $999/year (for individual use)
• Gold Suite: $1,399/yearly (for teams, per author pricing)
• Platinum: $1,999/year (for teams, per author pricing)

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

Tool #5: EasyGenerator

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:

• Offers the ability to do PowerPoint imports
• Provides course auto-translation with one click (from/to 75 languages)
• Has a drag-and-drop functionality
• Supports SCORM (1.2, 2004) and xAPI
• Allows you to access learner insights (performance & engagement)
• Comes with a stock-image library
• It is compatible with most LMS platforms out there

Cons:

• Its drag-and-drop feature doesn’t always work on mobiles
• It can be difficult to use in the beginning

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:

• Pro: $108/month (1 author, 10 courses, 100 learners)
• Team: $541/month (5 authors, unlimited courses, unlimited learners)
• Enterprise: you need to contact EasyGenerator for custom pricing (unlimited authors, unlimited courses, and unlimited learners)

*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!

Further reading you might find interesting:

• How to Teach Online
• The 7 Best Kajabi Alternatives Reviewed
• 6 Top Thinkific Alternatives Reviewed
• The 5 Best Teachable Alternatives Reviewed
• The 9 Best Mighty Networks Alternatives Reviewed
• Best Online Coaching Platforms

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