13 best online learning platforms for businesses and course creators

I could go about telling you how online learning has changed digital education by making knowledge accessible to everyone, anywhere, and at their own pace. But as a professional in your area who educates people and shares your expertise with the world, you already know this, right?

So the question at hand is not whether an online platform is a must-have for you to sell your knowledge or train and educate your audiences, but which platform to choose out of the numerous options.

I know a lot of professionals from the educational space and all of them want their learners to have access to skill development, professional certifications, and lifelong learning opportunities to advance their careers or pursue personal growth. However, with so many options available, selecting the best online teaching platform can feel overwhelming.

Over the years, through my interactions with customers and industry experts, I have learned a lot about the pains and difficulties the elearning professionals face. I’ve identified what truly matters to creators, businesses, and trainers looking to educate their audiences. Putting together over 10 years of our team’s experience and expert opinions from top creators and training professionals, I’ve collected the best online teaching platforms for different scenarios, to make sure you find the right fit for your needs.

What is an online learning platform?

An online learning platform is a collection of digital tools and functionalities that allow individuals, educators, and businesses to create, manage, and deliver educational content. These online platforms cater to a wide range of users, from course creators and corporate trainers to universities and enterprises. Unlike traditional learning management systems (LMS), best online elearning platforms often integrate marketing, sales, and community-building tools to help you make your online courses and training programs modern, and at the same time, to meet most of your business needs.

Course marketplaces

Online course platforms such as Udemy and Coursera allow educators to upload and sell courses without managing a website. However, these marketplaces come with trade-offs, such as revenue-sharing models, limited pricing control, and branding restrictions. While they provide access to a built-in audience, they lack scalability for course creators who want full ownership of their content. Additionally, these platforms offer numerous online teaching jobs, providing educators with flexible, remote work opportunities and the ability to teach students globally.

Why is it different from LMS?

LMS platforms focus primarily on corporate training and compliance-based learning. They lack built-in marketing and sales features, making them less suitable for entrepreneurs looking to grow their online teaching business. Best online course platforms, on the other hand, offer monetization options, automation tools, and analytics to help educators and course sellers scale their impact.

How to choose an online learning platform

I can’t give you a magic pill and tell you which online learning platform is best for you, but I can share my experience—gathered from numerous educators—on the important criteria to consider when choosing the right one for your needs:

• Customization & branding: Can you fully brand your courses, pages and the whole learning environment?
• Monetization options: Does it have the tools to monetize your content your way?
• Engagement features: Quizzes, live sessions, community features?
• Scalability & integrations: Does it integrate with CRM, email tools, or analytics?
• Pricing & value: Is the cost justified by the features and does it make sense when you grow in terms of learners, courses, and markets?
• Security ans support: Does the platform provider offer the platform that complies with data privacy, security regulations? Will you have access to the support team and resources that will help you along the way?

According to Valentin Radu, CEO & Founder of Omniconvert: “Choosing the right online learning platform in 2025 is all about balancing efficiency, engagement, and scalability. First, prioritize platforms that offer robust analytics—insights into learner behavior can make or break the optimization process, just like understanding customer value in eCommerce. Look for customization options; a one-size-fits-all approach won’t cut it if you’re aiming for long-term loyalty, whether in learning or business.

Ensure the platform supports mobile-first experiences because convenience isn’t optional anymore—it’s expected. Seamless integration with other tools (like CRMs or marketing automation software) is a must to save time and centralize data. Consider the community aspect too; much like retaining a loyal customer base, active learner engagement often thrives on meaningful connections. Lastly, security matters—your learners’ data needs to be as safeguarded as your customers’ data. With these factors in mind, choosing the right platform becomes less overwhelming and more about strategy, just as I approach Customer Value Optimization—always with clarity and purpose.”

💡 Ready to find the perfect platform for your online courses? Discover how to choose the right elearning solution in this FREE expert webinar.

Use cases of online learning platforms

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to online learning platforms. It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Are you a solo creator launching your first course? A business training employees? A company educating customers?

Here’s a breakdown to help you find your best match:

Solo course creators & coaches

Best picks: LearnWorlds, Thinkific, Teachable, Kajabi, Graphy, EzyCourse, LearnDash

If you’re a creator, coach, or educator looking to build and sell online courses, these platforms are designed with you in mind. They offer tools to upload content, customize your brand, accept payments, and grow your audience.

• LearnWorlds is a great choice if you want interactive features (like quizzes, certificates, and interactive videos) to keep learners engaged.
• Kajabi offers strong marketing automation and is a good choice for coaches who want an all-in-one solution to grow their brand.
• Thinkific & Teachable are good entry-level options with user-friendly course-building tools.

Probably not for you: Coursera, edX, Udemy. These platforms control pricing and branding, making them less appealing if you want full ownership.

Membership communities & digital entrepreneurs

Best picks: LearnWorlds, Kajabi, Thinkific, Teachable, Graphy, EzyCourse

If you’re building a membership-based business, these platforms help you create gated content, set up recurring revenue streams, and build a community.

• Kajabi is perfect for blending courses, memberships, and marketing automation.
• LearnWorlds offers strong community features on both web and mobile, plus flexible monetization options.

Skip these: Docebo, Litmos, Coursera. They’re too enterprise-focused and don’t support community-driven business models.

Small & medium businesses (SMBs) training employees

Best picks: LearnWorlds, Thinkific Plus, Docebo, Litmos, Moodle, LearnDash

If you’re an SMB that needs an easy way to train employees, these platforms offer structured learning, analytics, and reporting to track progress.

• LearnWorlds & Thinkific Plus provide scalability and flexibility for businesses training employees or partners.
• Docebo & Litmos are feature-packed for larger teams and compliance-based training.

Less ideal: Udemy (you don’t control the experience), Kajabi (not designed for employee training).

Enterprises training employees

Best picks: Docebo, Litmos, Coursera for Business, edX for Business, Moodle (with dev support)

If you’re a large enterprise with a serious need for custom learning paths, HR system integrations, and security compliance, these platforms fit the bill.

• Coursera & edX work well for companies that don’t want to create their own content but instead provide employees with top-tier, off-the-shelf courses.
• Docebo & Litmos are great for corporate training, offering AI-driven learning paths and in-depth reporting.

Companies offering product training to clients & partners

Best picks: LearnWorlds, Docebo, Litmos, Thinkific Plus, Moodle, LearnDash

If your business sells software, hardware, or services, you may need a customer academy to help clients and partners use your products more effectively.

• LearnWorlds & Thinkific Plus make it easy to build a branded learning experience for customers.
• Docebo & Litmos scale well if you’re training large partner networks or customers in multiple regions.

Probably not for you: Udemy & Teachable – they lack customer segmentation and external organization management.

Academic institutions & schools

Best picks: Moodle, edX, Coursera for Campus, LearnWorlds, Thinkific, LearnDash

For universities and schools, structured learning is a must. These platforms support grading, assessments, and integrations with school systems.

• Moodle is open-source and customizable (great for IT-savvy institutions).
• Coursera & edX allow universities to offer accredited courses and degree programs.
• LearnWorlds & Thinkific are flexible for smaller-scale academic programs.

Less ideal: Kajabi, Teachable – they don’t have formal academic tools.

SMBs that are training providers (selling B2B or B2C)

Best picks: LearnWorlds, Thinkific Plus, Teachable, Kajabi, LearnDash

If you run a training business that sells to individuals or other companies, these platforms support white-labeling, bulk enrollments, and B2B seat-based pricing.

• LearnWorlds & Thinkific Plus have great tools for both individual and bulk B2B sales.
• Kajabi is good for B2C entrepreneurs who prioritize marketing automation.

Not ideal: Udemy, Coursera, edX – you can’t fully own the customer experience.

Best 13 online learning platforms

1. LearnWorlds: The all-in-one, flexible online learning platform to create and sell online courses and digital products

LearnWorlds is a modern and comprehensive AI-powered LMS with built-in course authoring, e-commerce, community, and user management features. Unlike many other platforms, LearnWorlds is not just a course hosting service—it’s a true all-in-one elearning solution that supports different business models, from selling digital products to delivering training programs to employees, partners, and customers. It also supports live courses and stands out in interactive course creation, automation, AI-powered tools, community-building features, and advanced marketing capabilities.

With LearnWorlds, you can create your own fully branded academy, launch a white-label mobile app, and deliver exceptional learning experience.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

LearnWorlds is ideal for educators, trainers, and businesses seeking a flexible, all-in-one platform to create interactive and customized online learning experiences. Its robust feature set caters to those who prioritize learner engagement and want to deliver high-quality educational content with advanced AI-powered tools.

Pricing:

It offers a 30-day free trial for users to explore the platform before committing and then 4 subscription-based pricing plans as follows:

• Starter plan: $29/month
• Pro trainer plan: $99/month
• Learning Center: $299/month
• High Volume and custom corporate pricing are available

*Pricing information retrieved from LearnWorlds in March 2025.

LearnWorlds is a standalone course platform for any size of business looking to create a professionally looking academy and sell online courses. Try LearnWorlds with a 30-day trial today.

LearnWorlds is a standalone course platform for any size of business looking to create a professionally looking academy and sell online courses. Try LearnWorlds with a 30-day trial today.

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2. Udemy: A leading course marketplace

Udemy is one of the most popular online course marketplaces on the web, featuring more than 210,000 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. Additionally, Udemy supports live video classes, providing flexibility and accessibility for students from various backgrounds.

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

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Learners: Udemy has a course for almost every discipline, but potential students should always read the reviews before buying one. The quality is not consistent.

Instructors: It’s great for teachers, instructors, educators, and freelancers who are just starting out.

Pricing/Revenue share (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 in March 2025.

Learner Pricing: Most Udemy courses end up selling between $10-$20 with very few exceptions where instructors have set a higher price.

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3. Coursera: The academic learning platform

Coursera is an online learning platform with over 100 million users dedicated to offering high-quality online training courses worldwide. Partnering with top universities and businesses, it offers students the opportunity to receive certifications from renowned institutions upon enrolling in its paid courses. Coursera also provides a flexible environment to teach students, connecting educators with learners of various levels through one-on-one sessions or structured classes.

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

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

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Learners: 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.

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4. Thinkific: An all-in-one learning platform for SMEs

Thinkific is a standalone course platform that helps you build and sell online courses. It provides everything you need to create your online education business, including an easy-to-use interface for building courses and rich multimedia to add right to your course content. Thinkific also offers features that enhance the experience for online teachers, such as flexible payment options, interactive tools, and assessment capabilities.

Thinkific is a popular option for course creators launching their business, but support is lacking.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Learners: Thinkific academies usually offer decent video courses with a certification, but usually top-tier educators choose more professional platforms to deliver their training.

Instructors: Thinkific is ideal for solopreneurs, small/medium businesses – SMEs, and coaches who want to generate more income.

Pricing:

The platform has a 14-day free trial plan. Subscription plans include:

• Basic: $48/month
• Start: $97/month
• Grow: $195/month
• Thinkific Plus: custom pricing

*Pricing information retrieved from Thinkific in March 2025.

View a list of Thinkific Alternatives

Compare Thinkific to LearnWorlds.

Compare Thinkific Pricing to Teachable & LearnWorlds.

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5. edX: The marketplace & open source LMS

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. Additionally, edX supports an online English learning platform designed for engaging and interactive English language education, particularly for younger students aged 4-12.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

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

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

Pricing for instructors:

It’s free to join, but there may be additional costs for 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.

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6. Teachable: All-in-one course platform for coaches

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.

Teachable embodies simplicity. It’s easy to use and ideal for beginner course creators wanting to sell video courses, tutorials, or coaching. It also comes with the digital marketing tools you need to promote your courses.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Instructors: It’s a great option for new course creators, solopreneurs, and coaches due to the free plan.

Learners: Teachable courses are more often video lessons with some quizzes. Teachable schools are great when they specialize in video tutorials, but you will not find many great certification courses there.

Pricing:

Teachable does not offer a free plan, but has a 7-day free trial. Also, it offers the following paid plans:

• Basic plan: $59/month (plus a 5% transaction fee)
• Pro plan: $159/month (no transaction fee)
• Pro+ plan: $249/month (no transaction fee)
• Business plan: custom pricing, you need to contact their sales team for a quote

*Pricing information retrieved from Teachable in March 2025.

Compare Teachable with LearnWorlds

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7. Kajabi: Strong course platform with marketing feature

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

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Instructors: It is for non-techy online course creators, digital entrepreneurs, small businesses, freelancers, creators, and individual instructors selling video courses and other digital products.

Learners: Kajabi is great at selling and less in the learning experience, you should expect simple video lessons, PDFs, quizzes, live sessions, and a community/membership where students can socialize.

Pricing:

Offers a 14-day trial that requires a credit card. Then it goes to yearly or monthly payments, which include the following paid plans:

• Kickstarter plan: $89/month
• Basic plan: $149/month
• Growth plan: $199/month
• Pro plan: $399/month
• Enterprise: contact sales

*Pricing information retrieved from Kajabi in March 2025.

Compare Kajabi with LearnWorlds

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8. Docebo: Best traditional LMS for entreprises

Docebo comes with a top cloud-based LMS solution that meets most of every organization’s training needs and requirements.

The platform is learner-centric and offers L&D capabilities using learning-specific Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to personalize the learning experience.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Docebo is targeted at corporate and enterprise users training their employees and partners. It is prohibitively expensive for most course creators or small businesses.

Pricing:

Docebo doesn’t list its prices publicly, so if you’re interested, to get the best idea of what it’ll cost for your business, you’ll need to reach out to their sales team for a quote.

*Pricing information retrieved from Docebo in March 2025.

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9. Litmos: Easiest-to-use traditional LMS

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.

One of its biggest strengths is the ability to create customized learning paths for the needs and styles of every company and its employees.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

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

Pricing:

Pricing for Litmos LMS is not publicly available on the site, but it is based on the number of active users. Various online sources mention a price range between $2 and $5 per user per month.

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

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10. Moodle: The most popular open-source LMS

Unlike the majority of LMSs, Moodle is a free, open-source learning management platform. You can also buy hosted versions of Moodle with technical support from many resellers.

Moodle is the usual LMS for higher education and is being used by many businesses as well. It requires a great deal of effort for setup, but may be the most customizable solution for elearning out there.

A large community of developers is still supporting it, and you can find or develop almost any feature you might require.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Instructors: Moodle is best suited for colleges, universities, public administration, and specialized businesses with an in-house IT team.

Learners: While not the most user-friendly solution, it is relatively easy to use and could offer many functionalities for users, including a community, forum, etc.

Pricing:

Moodle is open-source Moodle which is free to use but requires your own server to host.

The other is MoodleCloud or other providers, which offer a cloud-based solution and usually come with tech support.

Subscription plans include:

For off-the-shelf hosting:

• Starter: $130/year (50 users)
• Mini: $220/year (100 users)
• Small: $400/year (200 users)
• Medium: $910/year (500 users)
• Large: $1,720/year (750 users)

For premium hosting: Customized pricing

*Pricing information retrieved from MoodleCloud in March 2025.

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11. LearnDash: Best WordPress plugin for learning

LearnDash is the most popular premium WordPress LMS plugin in the market. With it, you can design, promote, and sell online courses. Some of the best features it offers are its speed and its drag-and-drop course builder, which make the process of course creation both easy and enjoyable. LearnDash integrates seamlessly with your WordPress website, enhancing its functionality and user experience.

LearnDash has the flexibility of WordPress, allowing it to be very customizable. You can add many more functionalities that are not natively built-in. The downside is that adding too many plugins may be detrimental and break the website, requiring a developer to do the setup or keep maintaining the site and offering support.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Instructors: LearnDash is suited for individuals and smaller companies, as it’s a low-cost LMS based on WordPress. It does not support most requirements for bigger, more complex organizations.

Learners: LearnDash’s interface is pretty easy to use and straightforward for learners. You will probably not realize when a course you bought is hosted on LearnDash.

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) starts at $25 per month.

MemberDash (the membership plugin) starts at $199/year as a standalone plugin (does not require LearnDash).

*Pricing information retrieved from LearnDash in March 2025.

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12. Ezycourse: Best for language instructors and educators

Ezycourse is an all-in-one platform designed to empower educators and businesses to create, market, and sell online courses, services, and products. With features like custom landing pages, email marketing, and the ability to build membership-style sites, Ezycourse aims to simplify the process of online teaching and business management.

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Ezycourse caters to a diverse range of users, including individual educators, entrepreneurs, and businesses looking to offer online courses, build communities, and sell digital or physical products. ​

Pricing:

Ezycourse has a 14-day free trial and requires a credit card. Also, it offers the following monthly subscription plans:

• Basic: $59/month
• Pro: $199/month
• Unlimited: $399/month
• Elite: $699/month

*Pricing information retrieved from Ezycourse in March 2025.

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13. Graphy: Best for creators and educators

Graphy is an online teaching platform that helps creators and educators to build, market, and sell their courses, and digital products. It offers multimedia tools, website and mobile app development, and integrated payment gateways. ​

Pros & Cons

Who is it for?

Graphy is good for content creators, educators, and businesses aiming to monetize their expertise through courses and digital products.

Pricing:

Graphy offers the following subscription plans:

• Launch: $49/month
• Rise: $99/month
• Scale: $249/month

*Pricing information retrieved from Graphy in March 2025.

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So, which platform are you going to choose?

There are many options available when it comes to offering online learning, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some platforms are more suitable for individual learners, while others are more business-friendly.

Depending on your budget, type of course, and compliance requirements (for bigger companies), you may choose a different platform that fits your needs.

Our favorite option is hands-down LearnWorlds.

It’s the easiest all-in-one course platform offering a high-end learning experience to your learners, whether you are an individual creator or a business.

Want to try out LearnWorlds? You can get a 30-day free trial today and schedule your demo!

Rosemary Georgarakou

Rosemary is LearnWorlds’ Content Marketing Manager. She has over 2 decades of experience in omnichannel marketing and content writing for the IT and SaaS industry. Her expertise lies in crafting effective content marketing strategies that attract, engage, and nurture customers, enabling LearnWorlds to reach its target audiences with precision.