7 Best Online Course Platforms in 2023 | Teachable vs. Thinkific vs. Kajabi vs. Podia

How can you decide which online course platform is right for you? In this video, I’ll talk about the pros and cons of the most popular tools for online course creators. I’ll also explain the difference between a course marketplace and a course platform to ultimately help you choose which strategy is right for you.

📝 FREE DOWNLOAD: The Complete Course Creation Toolkit:

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Course marketplace vs. course creation platform
2:53 - Option 1: Teachable
6:53 - Option 2: Thinkific
8:14 - Option 3: Podia
9:42 - Option 4: Kajabi
11:43 - Option 5: LearnWorlds
12:20 - Option 6: MemberVault
13:25 - Option 7: Thrivecart
15:04 - WordPress Plugins
17:20 - Final Recommendations

// MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:
- Also mentioned: Udemy, Skillshare, Coursera

// ABOUT WIT & WIRE:
Hey, I'm Melissa! I help online business owners turn their skills and passions into profitable online businesses. I'm a course creation expert (formerly @ Teachable, Ramit Sethi, General Assembly) and I share simple step-by-step tutorials to help you scale your income and impact online doing work you love.

DISCLAIMER: Some of these links may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase. This is at no additional cost to you, so it's a great way to support Wit & Wire. So thank you!

[witandwire]

All the tools mentioned in this video (and more!) can be found in my free Online Course Creation Toolkit:

And if you have any other course creation questions, let me know in the comments!

[lazymillionaireofficial]

I love this breakdown! My current fave is Teachable, I've been using it for years and it truly has helped me become a multi-million dollar business owner!

[LeadershipHeather]

This video is probably the most helpful I've ever watched on YouTube! So clear and to the point as I'm just about to host my first course. Thank you

[CandessMCampbell]

Kajabi has good reviews because of the network marketing. There are major issues with email and support. I paid over $3500 to have the website build because the site is not user friendly and the videos do not match the site. After 20 minutes of trying to get one photo on the site and it continually messing up, I realized the lie. My WP site - thank God I kept it is much better! Getting out now!

[johnnygames]

This is so Helpful, I think I will go for Teachable!

[MYZTICTRAVLER]

Glad you confessed to your bias for Teachable up front. You spent the first six full minutes hard selling it. I will research the OTHER platforms mentioned here. Thanks for putting this video together!

[foursite]

Thank you! I am trying to launch a nursing course. This video was most helpful! Keep doing what you are doing. It’s working!

[elisodav]

Thanks for this video! Now I'm considering trying Teachable. However, I would like to share my 1-year experience with Podia: I make descriptions under the video lesson where you can have hyperlinks, so I easily embed dowbloadable pdf links and files this way. So, I didn't even notice the problem that you mentioned 💜

[gohighhustle]

Great video, thank you! I've been dealing with a LOT of analysis paralysis around picking my niche and picking the right course. Ultimately, I've decided to just start creating!

[jdstarek]

I love this input. I'm guessing you were in Marketing (Demand Gen or Ops) in your former life. You are totally speaking my language.

[dianejooris]

Great video thank you! And congratulations for taking the time to answer most of the questions asked in the comments. Your answers are very helpful!

[imrnkhan]

Thanks, Melissa. I didn't know about Teachable. Well, I just started my research and was playing around with Thinkific. Definitely, one step checkout in today's hyper world is an advantage. Have a cool weekend)

[mommyscribbles]

I am a kajabi user and moved my course over to them even though I love the teachable interface way better because I like that I can do SO many things with kajabi. Also found teachable a bit confusing when it came designing the website and sales pages. I also found it way better to use then my WordPress website.

[heyolandscape]

Super helpful! I use Kajabi but this was a VERY good overview and I loved how you talked about how to think about each platform

[caxtonopereministries]

Great video. Really one of its kind! Kajabi is phenomenal but they kept adding new features until it was no longer possible to catch up. It came to a point that it felt I was paying too much monthly for features I don’t know exist for my Covid-19 courses from 2 years ago. I pulled out in June this year.

[BestAudiovisualTricks]

Wow. You have no idea how helpful this video is. I had my course at Udemy and they unpublished it a few months later due to poor sales. They never told me that ‘before’ I invested the time to create the course for their platform. It was a complete waste of my very valuable time. That was about a year and a half ago. Now, I am thinking about repurposing my course onto a different platform and this is the most perfect video I can find on the topic. Thank you SO much W&W! You are wonderful! I will definitely try Teachable as soon as I get to reorganize my course! Kudos to your success! “Your success is my success because you are my friend.” Cheers from New London, New Hampshire! 👏🏻

[billbuckleytutorials]

Finally . Someone that isn't just a kajabi fan . ( mainly because if you sign up through their links they get a % of your monthly payment )
As someone that's on Skillshare and Udemy . I agree with you Udemy gets you approx $3 each time for s course, and it's so big that it's almost impossible to compete with the instructors that have been on their for 10 years with 45K students base already.
Was going to go with Kajabi but seems expensive and theirs actually a lot more backend knowledge needed to customize email/domain names hosting etc once you dig a little deeper .
great video by the way!

[nzshareman]

May i say u are the most excellent explainer I ever come across on Youtube.

[AllieYamaguchi]

This was so helpful! I guess what I am looking for is a course creation platform but I would also like to have a community. I want to be interactive with my student and create a space where we can not only purchase trainings but have a space where they can pay monthly to have access to continued education, blog post, webinars and monthly zoom meetings!

[tesciu]

Props for not being shity marketing guru. Very informative and easy to consume video. Thank you for the recommendations.