Choosing the right online course software is a crucial step in starting our online teaching career. Our online course platforms roundup covers 15 tools and all the info you need: pros and cons, pricing, features, integrations, and screenshots to help you choose something that fits your needs.
Thinkific
Thinkific is the best overall LearnWorlds alternative thanks to its free plan and powerful marketing tools.
Teachable
Teachable is an ideal choice for beginners because of its user-friendly interface and design.
Podia
Podia is perfect if you want to get the best bang for your buck if you choose a high-end paid plan.
LearnDash
LearnDash is ideal for self-hosting courses and it comes with an advanced quiz builder and numerous integrations.
Systeme.io
Systeme.io has some of the most powerful & efficient online course marketing tools in the industry.
Pros and Cons of LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds does stand out in the LMS marketplace because it is a user-friendly platform that we believe is one of the best for selling interactive courses.
The video player and E-Book reader in the platform are interactive, which provides a unique experience. The course sales pages and payment process are optimized to get you high conversions and increase sales. In my opinion, this software does have all the tools necessary to satisfy every digital information publisher’s needs. But before you buy, you should consider looking at the best LearnWorlds alternatives out there.
Where LearnWorlds Excels:
- Advanced Features: From the course creation process to publishing, your work is a lot easier and your students will have a great learning experience thanks to the progressive and engaging courses.
- Multiple Learning Activities: There are various learning activities and interactive learning materials for online teaching that you to choose from to help keep your students motivated and to achieve your learning objectives.
- Powerful Digital Marketing Feature: The SEO tools, blogging tools, email apps, and other marketing tools allow you to efficiently market your course online.
Where LearnWorlds Needs Improvement:
- No Support: LearnWorlds doesn’t offer phone or chat support
- Buggy: Features can be buggy at times
- No Free Plans: There is only a 30-day free trial offer
1. Thinkific
Best Overall LearnWorlds Alternative (Starts at FREE)
When it comes to an online course platform with a free plan, one of the best LearnWorlds alternatives is Thinkific. It is by far my favorite free online course platform to sell courses, and is a great place to begin. The free plan does have its limitations. But, if you aren’t ready to buy just yet, this cloud-based online course creation software is a free, all-in-one solution that is easy to navigate –no experience necessary.
With an impressive array of marketing and sales tools, Thinkific allows you to customize your course to match your existing brand. They boast 51,000 instructors and have helped people earn $340 million. With the user-friendly dashboard, you can manage your clients, payments, course materials, integrations and more.
Thinkific Pricing:
- Free ($0/month): Accessibility to 1 course, 1 community, 1 administrator, 1000 students, 0% transaction fee, fully integrated e-commerce, quizzes/surveys, and email/chat support.
- Start ($99/month): Includes all Free plan features with accessibility to 10 courses, 1 community, 1 administrator, 2,500 students.
- Grow ($199/month): Includes all Start plan features with accessibility to 25 courses, 3 communities, 2 administrators, 5,000 students, and phone/email support.
- Expand ($399/month): Includes all Grow plan features with accessibility to 75 courses, 10 communities, 5 administrators, 10,000 students, and priority phone support.
Thinkific Pros:
- Easy to use: Extremely user intuitive. Easy to upload content and build your course.
- Free Option: A free plan is available.
- All-in-One Course Platform: You can design, create, and deliver a stunning first course to thousands of online courses on your own branded site.
2. Teachable
Best LearnWorlds Alternative for Beginners ($39/Month)
Among all of the LearnWorlds alternatives on this list, Teachable is the platform with the most user-friendly dashboard and features for those who are just getting started. It is an exceptional online course creator that is jam-packed with features.
With over 100,000 instructors on the platform earning over $500 million so far, Teachable is the most prominent platform to create online courses in the current marketplace.
This cloud-hosted solution offers a user-friendly interface that was built with beginners in mind. There is a focus on launching fast, with numerous templates that allows even the least-experienced online instructors to get going quickly.
Teachable allows instructors to use free trials, subscription payments, installments, and more for added flexibility to increase sales. The biggest negatives about Teachable are the transaction fees on the lower priced plans, and the fact that there is no webinar capability.
Teachable Pricing:
- Free ($0/month): Transaction fees of $1 + 10% of each course sale, 1 admin, 1 course, unlimited students, website builder, payment processing, and tax handling.
- Basic ($29/month): Free features plus 5% transaction fees, 2 admin users, unlimited courses, custom domain, email marketing, private community launch accelerator, and email support.
- Pro ($99/month): Basic features plus 0% transaction fees, 5 admins, public API, affiliate marketing, advanced reporting, live chat, and live group coaching.
- Business ($250/month): Pro features plus 20 admin users, advanced theme customization, custom user roles, and bulk import student capabilities.
Teachable Pros:
- Free Version Offered: Teachable’s free version allows unlimited students, a unique feature that you won’t often find in online course creation platforms.
- Built-In Email Automation Tools: The powerful email marketing feature lets you communicate directly with your students without having to integrate a third-party email tool.
- Wide Range of Marketing Options: Coupon codes, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and various other marketing tools are available on Teachable to help get your courses in front of your target audience.
3. Podia
Best Value-for-Money LearnWorlds Alternative ($33/month)
If your goal is to effectively grow an online business from the ground up by building an online school and selling courses, Podia is the platform that has all of the tools you will need.
The access to the webinar platform is what makes Podia a strong LearnWorlds alternative. But that’s just one of the features that makes communicating with your students and increasing student engagement easy with Podia. You can also create downloadable content, establish a membership community, and even offer live chat.
Podia is an all-in-one platform, which makes its interface significantly different than the other platforms on this list. Instead of having standard school templates, this LearnWorlds alternative offers templates to create a full website that will require more time to customize to get the look you want.
If you prefer, you can skip creating an online school entirely and just create money-making sales pages– product pages that sell online courses.
The few Podia “cons” I could find were that it does not host videos directly, and instead relies on embeds. The student engagement analytics are also lacking, and Podia does rely on a Google Analytics Integration.
Podia Pricing:
- Free ($0/month): Transaction fees of 8% of each course sale, full website, email marketing, live chat, community capabilities with the ability to offer 1 download and coaching product.
- Mover ($33/month): Free features plus no transaction fees and unlimited downloads, coaching, and courses.
- Shaker ($75/month): Mover features plus unlimited webinars and an affiliate platform.
- Earthquaker ($250/month): Shaker features plus priority support, onboarding calls, and a monthly creator call.
Podia Pros:
- No Transaction Fees: Podia never charges transaction fees, and you also get unlimited everything better than other Podia alternatives.
- Free Trial: Each plan comes with a free 14-day trial so you can test out this online learning platform first before spending any money.
- Easy to Use: The simple and intuitive interface and drag-and-drop builder on Podia makes it great for beginners compared to the alternatives. No coding knowledge needed.
4. LearnDash
Best LearnWorlds Alternative for WordPress Website Integration ($29/month for full site or $199/year for WordPress plugin)
If you are looking to host your courses and online school directly on your own WordPress website, LearnDash is the best online course platform for you. This self-hosted tool is the most popular LMS WordPress plugin on the market right now.
It is a perfect fit if you want a course platform that allows you to run everything from your WordPress dashboard. You can quickly set up and run your courses, plus you’ll have complete control over both the creation and the customization process.
If you’ve already been using WordPress, you will have no problem navigating this course creation software.
LearnDash doesn’t offer a free version or a free trial, but all the plans do come with a money-back guarantee.
LearnDash pricing:
- WordPress Plugin ($199/year): The full plugin that allows you to create and manage online courses directly on your website — 1 site for $199, 10 sites for $399, and unlimited for $799 per year.Learndash Cloud ($29/month): Create and manage a website directly on the Learndash platform.
LearnDash Pros:
- User-Friendly Dashboard: The dashboard is easy to navigate, and anyone can build a course with the drag-and-drop features.
- Advanced Quiz Builder: Learndash’s quiz builder is the best of any platform, and it has tons of customization options.
- Powerful Integrations: The integration with WordPress gives y ou access to a broader community of developers and users.
5. Systeme.io
Best LearnWorlds Alternative for Marketing ($27/month)
Systeme.io is an all-in-one marketing software that has everything you need to start an online business and sell online courses. This single platform offers a suite of tools (such as affiliate software and marketing automation tools) that you can use to build sales funnels, manage affiliate programs, automate various parts of your marketing strategy, and so much more.
For just a fraction of the price of other platforms on this LearnWorlds alternatives list, Systeme.io is an all-in-one solution for your marketing and sales needs.
Systeme.io Pricing:
- Free Account ($0/month): 1,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels, unlimited emails, 1 membership site, and marketing automation, among other features.
- Startup ($27/month): 5,000 contacts, 10 sales funnels, unlimited emails, 5 membership sites, and marketing automation, among other features. It also includes one custom domain.
- Webinars ($47/month): 10,000 contacts, 50 sales funnels, unlimited emails, 20 membership sites, 10 webinars, 50 coupon codes, and 10 custom domains.
- Enterprise ($97/month): 15,000 contacts, unlimited emails, funnels, and membership sites. You also get unlimited webinars, members, custom domain, file storage space, and unlimited custom domains in one platform.
Systeme.io Pros:
- Great for Beginners: It’s easy as possible for anyone to use all of the tools – even with no prior experience or technical knowledge.
- Effective Tutorials: Upon signing up, you will receive in-depth email tutorials to boost your understanding of making optimal use of the software.
- All-In-One Tool: All your tools are in one convenient place — at one affordable price.
6. Kartra
Best LearnWorlds Alternative for Automating Lead Generation (14-day trial for $1, then $79/month)
Kartra offers a ton of functionality at your fingertips, which makes it one of the best LearnWorlds alternatives in terms of versatility.
This platform doesn’t just stop at courses. You can create a membership site, checkouts, and host your own affiliate program. If your goal is to go beyond course creation, create a true community, grow your business beyond a simple course platform, Kartra is a great option.
Kartra pricing is among the most competitive on the market. The Kartra Starter plan includes all the core features and no add-ons, for just $79/month. The price for the all-in-one tools is also much lower than competitors.
Kartra Pricing:
- Starter Plan: $99/month ($79/month when billed annually): Up to 2,500 Leads, 1 custom domain, 15,000 emails/month, 50 GB bandwidth, Host 100 pages, Host 50 videos, Sell 20 products, and much more.
- Silver Plan: $149/month: Up to 12,500 Leads, 3 custom domains, Unlimited emails, Unlimited bandwidth, Unlimited pages, Unlimited videos, Unlimited products, and much more.
- Gold Plan: $229/month: Everything in the “Silver” plan + Up to 25,000 Leads and 5 Custom domains
- Platinum Plan: $379/month: Everything in the “Gold” plan + Up to 50,000 Leads and 10 Custom domains
Kartra Pros:
- Internal Video Hosting: Kartra has powerful video hosting capabilities.
- Expertly-designed Campaigns: Boost your marketing efforts with campaigns that are done for you.
- Beautiful Templates: Kartra Pages offers hundreds of beautiful, optimized templates
7. Teachery
Best Thinkific Alternative for Automating Specific Tasks (14-day trial, then $49/month)
Teachery is another great platform for beginners to create courses online because they intentionally limited the confusing functionality/design that other platforms have and made it extremely beginner-friendly. However, I should note that this simplicity does limit the site’s overall functionality.
Still, Teachery is a quick and easy way for novice creators to reach their audience and monetize online learning. There is a low monthly fee, zero transaction fees, unlimited courses and files are allowed, the platform is intuitive and straightforward, and uploading is simple.
Teachery Pricing:
- Monthly Plan ($49/month): Unlimited courses, students, landing pages, affiliate program, email provider integrations, analytics integration, promo codes, upsells/bundles, drip lesson scheduling, no transaction fees.
- Yearly Plan ($470/year): Same as the monthly plan with a 20% discount.
Teachery Pros:
- Easy Course Outline: A few prompting questions help you create a basic course outline.
- Drip Content: You don’t have to provide your entire course at once.
- Affordable Pricing: An attractive pricing model with zero transaction fees.
8. Graphy
Best LearnWorlds Alternative for Student Engagement (10% per sale plus a $999 onboarding fee)
Graphy is the best Learnworlds alternative with a mobile application. This all-inclusive solution had to be on this list because of the incredible amount of features it has to create an online course from scratch, as well as the built-in marketing tools to market the course beyond your existing network.
The no-code branded websites and app make the delivery of online content easy, even if you don’t have any experience in web development or coding. This course creation platform currently has 30,000 creators who make over $50 million in annual revenue.
Graphy Pricing:
- Testing First: Test out all of the Graphy core features with any of their plans
- The Launch plan: Requires a $199 onboarding fee
- Customized Pricing: All other plans are priced primarily on a percentage of each course sale
Graphy Pros:
- Affordable LMS: Offers a range of growth-focused pricing plans to fit individuals and businesses of all sizes.
- All-in-One Platform: From the online course builder to marketing, launching, and selling your classes, you can do everything with Graphy all-in-one place.
- Robust Affiliate Program: The affiliate program allows others to promote your courses, which can lead to more sales with no extra effort.
You can learn more about this platform by reading my Graphy review.
9. Yondo
Best LearnWorlds Alternative for Presentations and Real-time Communication (14-day trial, then $69/month)
Easily create and sell online video courses from your own branded online store with the all-in-one video platform, Yondo. Sell your courses alongside On-Demand Online Video, Webinars, Online Group Classes, and Live 1-To-1 Video Consultations.
Yondo allows you to customize how you sell your courses — one-off purchases, time-based rentals, and subscription memberships. And with the platform being mobile-friendly, your customers can take your courses with them on-the-go.
Yondo Pricing:
- Starter ($69/month): 1 account user/team member, live online group sessions, 25 videos on demand/unlimited viewing, unlimited live 1-to-1 videos sessions, unlimited webinars with up to 25 attendees, you keep 100% of the revenue
- Professional ($139/month): 5 account users/team members, live online group sessions, 100 videos on demand/unlimited viewing, unlimited live 1-to-1 videos sessions, unlimited webinars with up to 100 attendees, you keep 100% of the revenue
- Premium ($349/month): 25 account users/team members, live online group sessions, 500 videos on demand/unlimited viewing, unlimited live 1-to-1 videos sessions, unlimited webinars with up to 1000 attendees, you keep 100% of the revenue
Yondo Pros:
- Integration: Can be easily integrated into your web design
- Webinars: 24/7 live webinar capabilities
- Easy Access to Numbers: Comprehensive analytics dashboard
10. SameLane
Best LearnWorlds Alternative for Training Business Employees, Partners, and Vendors (Starts at $160/Month)
Update your business’ employee, partner, and vendor training with SameLane, a learning management system (LMS) that supports companies in digital transformation and process optimization.
If your business has numerous partners, franchises, and/or vendors who need to be trained before performing their roles, the SameLane platform can help you make that happen. You can create extensive training programs that include e-learning courses, events, and augmented reality training. You can also automate onboarding and knowledge sharing.
SameLane Pricing:
- Flex (Pay as you go — per user, per month): Unlimited courses, unlimited support
- SM1 ($160/month): up to 100 users, unlimited courses and support
- SM2 ($240/month): up to 300 users, unlimited courses and support
- SM3 ($290/month): up to 500 users, unlimited courses and support
SameLane Pros:
- Easy Course Creation: very simple and intuitive for users.
- Customizable Settings: Downloading reports, tracking progress is laid out clearly and there are options to customize.
- Quick Training: Digitizes the employee learning experience and makes it easy to train an organization.
11. PinLearn
Best LearnWorlds Alternative for Hosting 1-to-1 Classes and Webinars ($699 One-Time Cost)
PinLearn is a versatile eLearning platform builder where you can sell self-paced courses, earn cash from 1-to-1 live classes, and monetize group webinars. You have the option of selling on your own, inviting other tutors onto your platform to sign-up and sell, or doing both.
This one-stop eLearning solution gives all tutors a dedicated Tutor Dashboard so they can manage their profile, courses, classes, students, appointments, and earnings. Tutors have access to everything they need to create courses, host a webinar, and go live with video conferencing. There is also an integrated session recording option to save live lectures for future reference.
PinLearn Pricing:
- Starters ($699 one time cost): sell courses, live classes, coupons, tutor dashboard and analytics, and much more…
- Professionals ($1499 one time cost): 100% Unencrypted source file, sell courses, live classes, coupons, tutor dashboard and analytics for student assessment, and much more…
- Upgrade at any time: You can start with a starter plan and upgrade to professional at anytime — all you have to do is pay the difference amount.
PinLearn Pros:
- No Recurring Fees: Each plan is a one-time fee, is self-hosted, and has zero transaction charges
- Lifetime Upgrades: The PinLearn software is easy to maintain and guarantees lifetime upgrades with a complete suite of web and apps.
- Easy-to-Use: Build an online course website without knowing how to code.
Summary and Top Picks
When considering an online course platform, there are many dozens of areas that you should pay close attention to so that you make the right decision for your online school. That said, there are four main areas that I feel are most important to focus on.
- Course Creation Capabilities: Understanding what tools are available to instructors to create a course with the proper materials.
- Tools to Market and Sell Courses: Building your course is one thing, but marketing and selling it is a completely different skill set. Ideally, you’ll choose a platform that has tools to help.
- Instructor Support: Understand how the platform will support you as an instructor and how it’ll help you when you hit inevitable roadblocks along the way.
- Student Management: Supporting your students in their endeavors to learn the skills you teach is an important way to grow your school over time.
Here’s a quick look at my five best LearnWorlds alternatives, and why they are the top choices.
Thinkific
Thinkific is the best overall LearnWorlds alternative thanks to its free plan and powerful marketing tools.
Teachable
Teachable is an ideal choice for beginners because of its user-friendly interface and design.
Podia
Podia is perfect if you want to get the best bang for your buck if you choose a high-end paid plan.
LearnDash
LearnDash is ideal for self-hosting courses and it comes with an advanced quiz builder and numerous integrations.
Systeme.io
Systeme.io has some of the most powerful & efficient online course marketing tools in the industry.