How to Compare Online Course Platforms in 2024

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Struggling to choose a platform? We compare online course platforms on features, pricing, and scalability to help you find the perfect fit for your needs.

When you're comparing online course platforms, it's easy to get sidetracked by flashy feature lists. The real key is to focus on what actually moves the needle for your business: the quality of your course creation tools, your ability to market and sell effectively, and of course, pricing transparency.

The best platform for one creator can be a terrible fit for another. That's why a direct, side-by-side analysis of the top players like Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi is so important.

Choosing Your Platform in the Modern eLearning Landscape

The online learning market has absolutely exploded, growing from a small niche into a global force. This boom presents a massive opportunity for creators, but it also means picking the right tech partner is more critical than ever.

Consider this: the U.S. online learning market was already valued at 686.9 billion by 2030. Your choice of platform directly impacts your slice of that pie.

This guide is your practical roadmap for making that decision. We're going to skip the surface-level descriptions and get into what makes each platform tick, zeroing in on the features that truly drive creator success. If you want a wider look at the market before we dive in, Mindstamp's main comparison page offers a broad overview.

Our Contenders and Criteria

For our head-to-head comparison, we’ve handpicked five of the most well-regarded and interesting platforms available today. Each brings a different philosophy to the table, designed for distinct types of creators and business models.

Here are the key players we'll be breaking down:

Teachable: The go-to for many beginners, known for its straightforward user interface and solid marketing tools.

Thinkific: A highly flexible option that shines with its deep customization capabilities and zero transaction fees on paid plans.

Kajabi: The powerhouse all-in-one solution, bundling course hosting with advanced email marketing and sales funnels.

Podia: An affordable, creator-first platform built for selling not just courses, but all kinds of digital products and memberships.

Sotion: A truly unique, no-code tool for transforming your existing Notion pages into polished, monetized course websites.

To keep things fair and genuinely useful, we'll evaluate every platform against the same set of criteria, reflecting the real-world challenges you'll face as a course creator.

Key Insight: The best platform isn't the one with the most features; it's the one with the right features for your specific goals, audience, and technical comfort level.

Our analysis will follow a clear framework, making it easy to see exactly how each option stacks up.

Evaluation Criteria	Teachable	Thinkific	Kajabi	Podia	Sotion
Ideal User	Beginners & Marketers	Educators & Businesses	Serious Entrepreneurs	Solo Creators	Notion Users
Primary Strength	Ease of Use	Customization	All-in-One Power	Simplicity	Notion Integration
Pricing Model	Tiered + Transaction Fees	Tiered, No Fees on Paid Plans	Premium All-Inclusive	Tiered, Low-Cost Entry	Tiered, Affordable
Community Focus	Basic	Strong	Moderate	Moderate	Strong (via Notion)

Throughout this guide, we'll use this structure to give you the clarity needed to make a confident decision and find the perfect home for your online course business.

Comparing Core Features for Course Creation and Delivery

A platform's real worth is revealed in its course builder and how it delivers content. These are the tools that determine how easily you can shape your knowledge into a killer curriculum and, just as importantly, how your students will experience it. The right features can be the difference between a polished, professional course and one that just feels clunky.

When you start comparing online course platforms, you’ll see they all have different philosophies. Some go all-in on simplicity, getting you launched fast. Others are built for deep customization, giving seasoned educators precise control. It’s never about which is “best,” but which one fits your specific content and teaching style.

Course Builders: A Closer Look

Think of the course builder as your digital command center. Teachable is famous for its drag-and-drop interface that just makes sense right away. If you're a first-timer, you'll love how quickly you can pull in content from Google Drive or Dropbox and structure your lessons without getting lost in menus.

Thinkific, on the other hand, gives you more structural freedom. It supports a wider variety of lesson types right out of the box and offers granular control over your curriculum's layout. This is a huge plus if your course has complex modules or needs to be arranged in a very specific way. For a deeper dive into what different platforms can do, check out our collection of creator-focused guides on our blog.

Then there's Kajabi. Its approach is totally different, weaving the course builder into a massive marketing ecosystem. It’s incredibly powerful, but the sheer volume of options can feel like overkill if all you want to do is build and sell a course.

Key Takeaway: The best course builder isn’t the one with the most bells and whistles; it's the one that gets out of your way. If your main goal is to convert existing material into a course without a fuss, a streamlined tool is your best friend.

This is exactly where Sotion flips the script. It’s designed for creators who already live and breathe in Notion. Sotion takes your organized Notion pages and transforms them into a sleek, functional course site in minutes. You completely sidestep the traditional builder and its learning curve.

Content Delivery and Student Engagement

How your students actually consume your course is every bit as important as the content itself. Features like video hosting, quizzes, and drip-fed lessons are what keep people hooked and help them actually learn something.

All the big players offer solid video hosting, but the devil is in the details. Thinkific and Kajabi really shine with their video analytics, showing you exactly where student attention starts to fade. That kind of data is gold for refining your lessons.

Quizzes and assessments are another major point of difference.

Teachable: Keeps it simple with basic multiple-choice quizzes, perfect for quick knowledge checks.

Thinkific: Offers more advanced options, including assignments you can grade by hand, which is great for more academic or in-depth training.

Kajabi: Packs in various assessment types that plug into its automation engine, letting you trigger emails or special offers based on a student's quiz score.

Podia sticks to the essentials, focusing on core delivery without the advanced testing tools. This makes perfect sense for its audience of creators selling a mix of digital products, not just intensive courses.

Drip content, which releases lessons over a set schedule, is a standard feature on most paid plans. It's a must-have for memberships or for preventing students from binging the whole course and immediately asking for a refund. Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi all handle this well, letting you schedule lesson releases based on when a student enrolls.

Sotion tackles engagement by leveraging Notion’s own interactive blocks. You can embed quizzes from third-party tools, create discussion sections with comments, and build a truly dynamic experience right inside your Notion pages. This gives you unlimited flexibility without being boxed in by a platform's built-in tools.

Ultimately, picking the right platform means finding the one whose delivery features match your unique teaching strategy.

A Side-by-Side Analysis of Marketing and Sales Tools

Let's be honest, creating a brilliant course is only half the job. The other half—the part where your business actually makes money—is getting that course in front of the right students. This is exactly why a platform's built-in marketing and sales tools should be a massive factor in your decision. Features like sales page builders, smooth checkouts, and affiliate marketing can be the difference between a flop and a runaway success.

The best tools let you attract, convert, and keep students without having to stitch together a dozen different marketing apps. As we dig in, you’ll notice a clear split between platforms that offer simple sales features and those that aim to be your entire marketing engine.

This breakdown shows you the essential costs you'll run into with some of the top platforms, giving you a clear picture of the initial and ongoing investment.

As the chart makes clear, you're always making a trade-off. You might pick a platform with a higher monthly fee but 0% transaction costs, or go for a cheaper monthly plan that takes a cut from every sale.

Building Your Digital Storefront

Think of your sales page as your most valuable employee. It's where potential students decide if your knowledge is worth their money. Each platform we’re looking at has a different philosophy on how this should work.

Kajabi, for example, is famous for its Funnels. These are basically pre-built marketing blueprints that walk you through creating a sequence of pages—from landing page to checkout—all designed to convert. It's a guided, powerful system for creators who want to use proven strategies without having to figure it all out from scratch.

Podia keeps things much simpler. It gives you clean, easy-to-customize templates for your sales pages and overall digital storefront. The whole vibe is about speed and clarity, which is perfect for solo creators selling a mix of products (courses, downloads, webinars) who need a single shop window without getting lost in complex funnels.

Key Insight: When you're looking at marketing tools, think about your business model. An all-in-one powerhouse like Kajabi is built for entrepreneurs scaling a high-ticket course. A versatile storefront like Podia is a better fit for creators with a whole catalog of different products.

Teachable and Thinkific land somewhere in the middle. Both give you solid page builders with enough flexibility to create a professional sales page that matches your brand. Thinkific, in particular, offers a good deal of design control, letting you get a more custom look without touching any code.

Optimizing the Checkout and Sales Process

Nothing kills sales faster than a clunky checkout. The best platforms make it incredibly simple for students to give you their money. This includes offering flexible payment options like subscriptions and payment plans, which can make a huge difference for higher-priced courses.

To give you a clearer picture, we've broken down the key marketing and sales features for each platform.

Platform Marketing & Sales Feature Breakdown

Here's a comparative look at the built-in marketing and sales capabilities of leading online course platforms.

Feature	Teachable	Thinkific	Kajabi	Podia	Sotion
Sales Page Builder	Yes, flexible	Yes, highly customizable	Yes, with Funnels	Yes, simple templates	N/A (Integrates with any)
1-Click Upsells	Yes	Yes (on higher plans)	Yes	Yes	Via integrated gateways
Order Bumps	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Via integrated gateways
Affiliate Marketing	Yes, built-in	Yes, built-in	Yes, advanced	Yes, built-in	Via integrated gateways
Payment Plans	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Via integrated gateways
Coupons & Discounts	Yes	Yes, with advanced rules	Yes, with advanced rules	Yes	Via integrated gateways
Email Marketing	Basic built-in	Basic notifications	Advanced, with automation	Full email marketing	N/A (Integrates with any)

As you can see, most platforms offer a core set of features, but the depth and flexibility vary. While Teachable and Kajabi are strong on conversion-boosting tools like order bumps, Sotion takes a fundamentally different approach.

Instead of building its own sales tools, Sotion integrates directly with leading payment gateways like Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, and Gumroad. This is a game-changer. It means you aren't locked into the platform's native tools.

Want to use Gumroad's massive affiliate network or Stripe's powerful global payment processing? No problem. You get the freedom to use the best-in-class checkout and affiliate features from these dedicated services, all while your course content lives neatly in Notion. This gives you ultimate control to build a sales and marketing stack that’s perfectly tailored to your business, not the other way around.

Understanding Pricing Structures and Monetization Models

When you're comparing online course platforms, the monthly subscription fee is just the tip of the iceberg. A platform that seems cheap at first glance can quickly become expensive once you get into the nitty-gritty of transaction fees and other hidden costs. Understanding these pricing models is crucial to picking a platform that actually supports your financial goals from day one.

You’ll usually run into a mix of fixed monthly subscriptions and per-sale transaction fees. Those little percentages might not seem like much, but they can take a serious bite out of your profits, especially as your sales grow. This is where you need to put on your analyst hat and do a real cost-benefit breakdown.

And it’s the perfect time to do so. The demand for digital learning is exploding. In 2023 alone, the online course app market pulled in $3.1 billion in revenue—a 14.8% jump from the previous year—with a staggering 46.4 million downloads. With that kind of market potential, every dollar you keep in your pocket matters. You can dive into more data on this booming market to see the full picture.

Free Plans vs. Transaction Fees

Some platforms, like Teachable, lure you in with a "free" plan, letting you launch a course without paying a cent upfront. The catch? They take $1 + 10% from every single sale. This model is fantastic if you're just testing a course idea and want to avoid financial risk. But once you start getting consistent sales, those fees add up fast.

Thinkific plays the game differently. While its paid plans have a monthly fee, it charges zero transaction fees. Once you cover your subscription, every dollar from your course sales is yours (minus standard payment processing fees, of course). If you already have an audience and expect a steady stream of sales, this model almost always works out to be more profitable.

Key Insight: Don't just stare at the monthly price tag. Figure out your "break-even" point. Calculate how many courses you need to sell for a no-transaction-fee plan to save you more money than a "free" plan that nibbles away at every sale.

All-in-One Value vs. Focused Affordability

The next big fork in the road is choosing between an all-in-one suite and a more focused, affordable tool. A platform like Kajabi comes with a premium price, starting at $119/month for its basic plan. That might sound steep, but it packs in advanced email marketing, sales funnels, and a website builder. If you were to buy all those tools separately, you could easily spend more than Kajabi’s fee.

On the other hand, a platform like Podia offers a simpler, more affordable solution. Its plans are built for creators who value simplicity and don’t need a massive, integrated marketing machine. This is a great fit if you already have an email marketing tool you love or prefer to mix and match best-in-class tools for your marketing stack.

Sotion carves out a unique third path by separating content hosting from how you make money. By turning your existing Notion pages into a full-fledged course site, it lets you integrate with specialized payment gateways like Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, or Gumroad. This unbundled approach gives you total freedom to choose the payment tools that work best for you, often resulting in lower overall costs. You can see how this flexibility works by checking out Sotion's straightforward pricing plans.

Finding Your Perfect Fit with User-Specific Scenarios

Generic feature lists rarely answer the most important question: which platform is actually right for you? To really figure this out, you need to look at these platforms through the lens of real-world scenarios. Your goals, your comfort level with tech, and your business model will point you to the right choice far more than a simple feature-for-feature comparison ever could.

So, let's step away from the abstract and get into practical, situational advice. Find the creator persona below that sounds most like you, and you'll get a much clearer idea of which platform will truly serve your needs and ambitions.

The First-Time Creator on a Budget

Scenario: You've got a brilliant course idea and a small but dedicated audience. Your main goals right now are to test your idea, keep upfront costs as low as possible, and launch without getting tangled in a complicated platform. You need simplicity and affordability more than anything else.

For this situation, Podia is a fantastic place to start. Its interface is incredibly clean and intuitive, cutting out all the noise and complexity that often trips up beginners. You can genuinely build your course, a sales page, and a checkout process in a single afternoon without feeling overwhelmed. It's built for getting things done quickly.

Teachable's free plan is also a solid option, as it completely eliminates any monthly fee. The catch, however, is its $1 + 10% transaction fee on every sale. That can add up fast as you start making money. Podia's free plan, with its more reasonable 8% transaction fee, often ends up being a more cost-effective starting point for monetization.

Key Recommendation: Zero in on platforms with generous free plans or low-cost starter tiers that are all about ease of use. Podia’s straightforward approach is designed specifically to help new creators get that first product out the door and start building momentum.

The Scaling Business Integrating Courses

Scenario: You’re running an established business—maybe you're a coach, run an agency, or have a popular blog—and you want to add online courses as a powerful new revenue stream. You need an all-in-one powerhouse that can handle sophisticated marketing, manage a growing student base, and consolidate all your tools.

For this, Kajabi is the undisputed leader. Honestly, calling it just a course platform is selling it short; it's a complete business engine. Its real power comes from its deeply integrated funnels, email marketing automation, and a surprisingly robust CRM. You can build out complex marketing sequences that nurture leads and upsell customers without having to duct-tape a bunch of different tools together.

The higher price tag is justified when you consider the value of having your website, email provider, and course hosting all in one place. For any business serious about scaling efficiently, this kind of integration saves a massive amount of time and eliminates the technical headaches of trying to make separate systems talk to each other.

The Community-Centric Expert

Scenario: Your teaching philosophy is built on interaction, live engagement, and building a real community. You're not just selling a static, one-and-done course; you want to create a paid membership or a thriving learning hub where students can connect with you and, just as importantly, with each other.

While platforms like Thinkific have solid community features, sometimes a different approach offers much more flexibility. This is where a platform like Sotion truly shines, offering a unique, community-first model. Sotion lets you turn your beautifully organized Notion pages into a professional, members-only course site.

This method gives the community-focused expert two massive advantages:

Ultimate Flexibility: You build your course content and community space inside Notion, a tool legendary for its organizational power. This means you can embed discussion boards, live event calendars, and collaborative documents right inside your lessons.

Best-in-Class Tools: By connecting with payment gateways like Stripe and Gumroad, you aren't stuck with one platform's limited community tools. You can use Notion's inherent flexibility to build the exact interactive experience you have in mind.

This model is perfect for experts who crave deep control over their curriculum and the entire student experience. To see what this looks like in action, you can explore these ready-to-use Notion templates for creating a course site that Sotion can bring to life. Picking the right platform is all about aligning its core philosophy with your vision for teaching and community building.

Scalability and Integrations: Future-Proofing Your Business

Picking an online course platform isn't just about getting your first course out the door. It’s a long-term commitment. The tool that feels right for your first 50 students needs to be the same one that can handle 5,000 without breaking a sweat. This is why thinking about scalability and integrations isn't just a techy detail—it's about future-proofing your entire business from day one.

A platform that truly scales grows right alongside you. It won’t buckle under a sudden wave of new sign-ups, and it can gracefully manage a growing library of courses and more complex business needs as you expand. When you're comparing platforms, you have to look past the launch and imagine where you'll be in two or three years.

This kind of forward-thinking is crucial, especially now. The market for online learning is absolutely booming. The MOOC market alone was valued at USD 12.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to skyrocket to nearly USD 112 billion by 2031. That’s not a small trend; it’s a massive, sustained shift in how people learn. You can explore more eLearning statistics to get a sense of the scale.

How Well Does It Play With Other Tools?

Your course platform shouldn’t be an island; it needs to be the central hub of your operations. Its power to connect with the other tools you rely on—like your CRM, email marketing software, or analytics dashboards—is what keeps your business running smoothly as you grow. Most platforms offer some mix of built-in connections and broader options through services like Zapier, but not all integrations are created equal.

The quality of these connections can make or break your workflow.

Native Integrations: These are the gold standard. They're built-in connections that just work seamlessly. Think about how Kajabi's native email marketing is woven directly into its course and checkout experience.

Zapier/Make Support: This opens the door to thousands of apps, which is great for flexibility. But be warned, these connections can sometimes be less reliable or more limited than a direct, native integration.

API Access: For creators with unique needs or those who want to build custom workflows, API access is non-negotiable. It gives you the ultimate freedom to connect tools in exactly the way your business requires.

Making sure your platform can connect to crucial third-party services is a core part of future-proofing. For example, looking into integrations with popular platforms like Kajabi shows you what’s possible for tracking ad performance and marketing attribution. This kind of foresight ensures your tech stack can evolve with you, so you're never trapped in a system you've outgrown.

Frequently Asked Questions

Diving into the world of online course platforms can kick up a lot of questions. It’s a big decision, and it’s totally normal to have some lingering doubts before you commit. We’ve pulled together some of the most common questions creators ask to give you the clear, straightforward answers you need to make your final call.

Which Online Course Platform Is Best For Beginners?

If you’re just getting started, your best bet is a platform that champions simplicity. You can't go wrong with either Podia or Teachable, as both are built from the ground up to be incredibly user-friendly.

Their intuitive course builders and clean interfaces let you get your first course out the door without a steep technical learning curve. The goal here is to get your content live with as little fuss as possible, which is exactly what you need when you're still figuring things out.

Can I Switch Platforms Later If My Business Grows?

Technically, yes—but it's a major project. Moving your business means a painstaking migration of all your student data, course content, payment details, and community chats. It's often a complex, time-consuming mess that can easily disrupt your students' experience.

This is exactly why thinking about scalability from day one is so important. Picking a platform that has powerful integrations and is ready to handle your growth will save you a world of hurt later on.

Do I Need An All-In-One Platform Like Kajabi?

An all-in-one system like Kajabi is a fantastic choice if your goal is to run everything—website, email marketing, funnels, and courses—from a single control panel. The biggest plus is how seamlessly everything works together, making automation a breeze.

But it’s definitely not for everyone. If you've already got a set of marketing tools you know and love, like a specific email provider or landing page builder, a more focused platform could be a much better (and more affordable) fit. Platforms like Thinkific or Sotion integrate smoothly with other best-of-breed tools, giving you the freedom to assemble your perfect tech stack without paying for features you don't need.

Ready to turn your knowledge into a professional course site without the tech headaches? Sotion transforms your Notion pages into a beautiful, secure, and monetized website in minutes. Get started today and launch the course you’ve always imagined.

Learn more about Sotion