What is the Best Online Course Platform for Instructors?

 In recent years, online learning has rapidly become an essential part of education, professional development, and skill-building across various industries. For instructors, the opportunity to share knowledge, skills, and expertise with a global audience has never been more accessible. The challenge, however, lies in choosing the best platform to host and manage online courses.

The ideal platform for instructors should offer a user-friendly experience, robust course creation tools, monetization options, and strong support for marketing and selling courses. Whether you're a subject matter expert, a coach, or a teacher looking to expand your reach, finding the right platform is crucial to your success.

In this article, we’ll explore the best online course platforms for instructors in 2025, each offering unique features that cater to different types of instructors, teaching styles, and goals.

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1. Udemy

Best For: Instructors Looking for a Large, Established Audience

Overview: Udemy is one of the most well-known online course platforms, offering a marketplace where instructors can create and sell courses on virtually any topic. With over 200,000 courses and millions of students worldwide, Udemy provides a massive audience for course creators. It’s a great platform for new instructors who want to tap into an established community.

Key Features:

• Ease of Use: Udemy provides an intuitive course creation process, making it easy for instructors to upload videos, add quizzes, and organize course content.

• Marketing Tools: Udemy handles much of the marketing for you. They feature your course in their marketplace, run promotions, and even help with paid ads. However, instructors also have the option to promote their courses independently.

• Revenue Model: Udemy operates on a revenue-sharing model. Instructors earn 50% of the revenue when a course is sold through the Udemy marketplace, and 97% of the revenue if the instructor drives the sale (through their own marketing efforts).

• Global Reach: With students from around the world, Udemy provides an excellent platform for instructors looking to reach a global audience.

Cons:

• Revenue Share: While Udemy offers great exposure, instructors have to share a significant portion of the revenue. Additionally, Udemy’s frequent discounts may lower the course prices, leading to lower earnings.

• Limited Branding: Instructors cannot fully brand their course pages, and Udemy’s branding is often the most prominent on the site.

Why it’s best for instructors: Udemy is a good choice for instructors who are just starting out and want to reach a broad audience without having to build a website from scratch. The platform’s simplicity, large audience, and marketing assistance make it ideal for instructors looking to focus more on content creation.

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2. Teachable

Best For: Instructors Who Want Control and Customization

Overview: Teachable is a popular platform for course creators who want more control over the look, feel, and pricing of their courses. Unlike Udemy, which operates as a marketplace, Teachable allows instructors to create their own branded websites for their courses. It’s a great option for instructors who want to establish a business around their courses and have more flexibility.

Key Features:

• Customizable Course Website: Teachable gives you the ability to create a custom-branded course site with your logo, colors, and design preferences.

• Course Creation Tools: Teachable offers a wide range of content delivery options including video lectures, quizzes, assignments, and drip content.

• Monetization Options: Teachable allows instructors to sell courses in various formats (one-time payments, subscription models, or payment plans). It also supports affiliate programs, helping you grow your reach.

• Advanced Analytics: The platform offers powerful analytics to track student progress, sales, and other performance metrics.

Cons:

• Transaction Fees on Lower Tiers: While Teachable offers a free plan, there are transaction fees for the basic and pro plans (5% on the basic plan).

• Learning Curve: While the platform is fairly easy to use, it may take a bit of time to get used to all the customization options available for your course and website.

Why it’s best for instructors: Teachable is ideal for instructors who want complete control over their course content, branding, and pricing. It’s also a great choice if you’re interested in building a more professional business around your online courses with long-term growth potential.

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3. Thinkific

Best For: Instructors Looking for a User-Friendly and Scalable Solution

Overview: Thinkific is a powerful course creation platform that’s highly regarded for its simplicity and ease of use. With a focus on user-friendly design and flexibility, Thinkific is perfect for instructors who want to create, market, and sell their courses with little hassle. It also allows you to host your courses under your own brand, similar to Teachable.

Key Features:

• Customization Options: Thinkific offers great design flexibility, letting instructors customize their course websites, landing pages, and other aspects of their courses.

• Monetization: You can sell your courses in different formats such as one-time payments, memberships, or subscriptions. Thinkific also offers an affiliate marketing program to help increase sales.

• Content Delivery: Thinkific supports various media types for course content, including videos, quizzes, assignments, and downloadable resources. You can also drip content to students over time.

• Student Engagement Tools: The platform offers tools to engage students such as surveys, discussions, and certificates of completion.

Cons:

• Limited Marketing Tools: While Thinkific offers integrations with third-party marketing tools, the platform itself is not as focused on marketing as other platforms like Udemy. You may need to use other services for things like email marketing.

• Pricing: Thinkific has a free plan, but its more advanced features, such as custom domains and advanced reporting, are locked behind the paid plans.

Why it’s best for instructors: Thinkific is a solid choice for those looking for a simple, cost-effective, and scalable platform that allows instructors to sell and manage their courses without much hassle. It’s easy to get started, and the platform grows with you as your course business expands.

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4. Podia

Best For: Instructors Who Want All-in-One Features (Digital Products, Memberships, and Courses)

Overview: Podia is an all-in-one platform for creating and selling online courses, digital downloads, and memberships. It’s an excellent option for instructors who want to sell multiple types of digital products from a single platform.

Key Features:

• All-in-One Solution: Instructors can create and sell online courses, digital downloads, webinars, and even memberships from one platform, making it easier to diversify your income streams.

• Unlimited Content and Students: Unlike some platforms, Podia offers unlimited uploads and no transaction fees on any of their plans, which can help maximize your earnings.

• Integrated Email Marketing: Podia offers built-in email marketing tools, allowing you to send emails, manage subscribers, and create drip email campaigns.

• Easy Course Creation: Podia has an intuitive course-building interface that lets you add videos, quizzes, assignments, and other course content without requiring any technical expertise.

Cons:

• Limited Customization: While Podia is user-friendly, it doesn’t offer as much customization as platforms like Teachable or Thinkific. The design options are more basic.

• No Affiliate Marketing on Basic Plans: The affiliate marketing program is only available on Podia’s higher-tier plans.

Why it’s best for instructors: Podia is ideal for instructors who want an easy-to-use platform with all the features they need to sell a variety of digital products. It’s a great choice for those who want to combine online courses with other offerings like memberships or digital downloads.

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5. Kajabi

Best For: Experienced Instructors Looking for a Comprehensive Marketing and Sales Platform

Overview: Kajabi is an all-in-one platform designed for course creators who want to build, market, and sell online courses and digital products. Kajabi offers everything from course creation tools to marketing automation and CRM features.

Key Features:

• All-in-One Platform: Kajabi integrates website building, course creation, email marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) all in one platform.

• Marketing Automation: Kajabi offers robust marketing features, including email automation, sales funnels, and landing pages, making it easy to promote and sell your courses.

• Customization: It provides advanced customization options for creating branded websites, landing pages, and course pages.

• Affiliate Program: Kajabi offers an affiliate marketing program to help instructors expand their reach and grow their customer base.

Cons:

• Cost: Kajabi is more expensive than other platforms, and its pricing plans may be out of reach for some instructors, especially those just starting out.

• Steep Learning Curve: While Kajabi offers comprehensive tools, there can be a learning curve to fully take advantage of all its features.

Why it’s best for instructors: Kajabi is perfect for experienced instructors or entrepreneurs who want an all-in-one solution for building, marketing, and selling their courses. It’s especially suitable for those looking to scale their online course business and who have the budget for its premium pricing.

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Conclusion

The best online course platform for instructors in 2025 depends on your needs, teaching style, and business goals. If you're looking for a large audience with minimal marketing effort, Udemy may be the right fit. For more control over your branding and pricing, platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, or Podia offer great flexibility. Finally, for experienced instructors looking for an all-in-one business solution with robust marketing features, Kajabi is an excellent option.

Ultimately, the best platform for you will align with your objectives, budget, and the level of customization you require to grow and scale your online course business.