Top 25 Best Online Learning Platforms
May 2021

The e-learning market is estimated to reach over $330B by 2026. The industry has continued to grow with revenue growth of over 900% since 2000.

The Covid-19 pandemic increased the demand for online e-learning in 2020. As the industry continues to enjoy continuous growth, new players are springing up making the e-learning market more competitive.

For institutions, companies, students, entrepreneurs, teachers, or anyone who wants to participate, it is not advisable to go headfirst. You need to do some research so as to understand what these platforms are offering, their benefits, and if they fit into your budget.

LMS Hero wants to help you make the best-informed choices about online learning platforms. We have done our research and compiled the best online learning platform for relevant categories.

Just before we dive into this list of the best online learning platforms and tools, let’s clarify some commonly confused e-learning terms. People often confuse these common e-learning terms – online learning platforms, online course platforms, and learning management systems (LMS).

So we are going to clarify these terms before we share our best e-learning platforms.

What is an online learning platform?

An online learning platform is an online service designed for learners to help them find, pay and take courses online. Online learning platforms are often referred to as online course marketplaces. These platforms often promote learning two kinds of skills – professional skills and educational skills.

Examples of best online platforms include Udemy, Coursera, Udacity, LinkedIn Learning, EdX and Open EdX, and SkillShare.

What is an online course platform?

An online course platform is an online service designed for instructors to help them create, host, launch, and sell online courses. These services are designed with more features targeting the instructors.

Examples include Thinkific, Teachable, LearnWorlds, Kajabi, and Podia.

What is Learning Management System (LMS)?

Learning management systems is a software application typically designed for corporate entities or institutions for managing, tracking, assessing, reporting, documentation, automation, and launching of educational courses, training, learning, or development programs.

Examples include Docebo, Moodle, EdModo, Blackboard, and LearnUpon

Asides from the traditional LMS software described above, we also have WordPress LMS software. WordPress is a popular content management system software used to create and manage interactive websites. These WordPress LMS software are integrated into WordPress as plugins. This is very useful for instructors who already have their brand and want to self-host their content.

Examples include MemberPress, LearnDash, LifterLMS, LearnPress, and WPLMS.

Learn how to start your WordPress blog.

What is an Authoring Tool?

Authoring tools are used to design learning content into an interactive format that meets the needs of the instructors and learners. The typical export format of these tools is SCORM, xAPI, HTML5, or Tin Can. The content exported from an authoring tool can be uploaded to other e-learning platforms that support the formats.

Examples include Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline 360, Lectora Online, Elucidat, and EasyGenerator.

Best Online Learning Platforms

1. Udemy

Udemy is a leading global marketplace for learning and teaching by connecting millions of learners with instructors to learn the skills they need to succeed.

Udemy has over 57K instructors, 65+ languages, 130K+ courses, 110M+ minutes of videos, 35M learners, and over 400M course enrollments. This impressive data makes Udemy the most popular learning online course marketplace.

This platform makes it easy for people to acquire a new skill by offering many online learning materials. The popularity of the platform makes it a preferred choice for instructors. However, the cost of selling on Udemy is quite high. Furthermore, they control pricing, discounting, and even your content.

Udemy is suitable for everyone, especially freelancers. Their courses cover all disciplines.

Pros

• No setup cost for instructors
• No high technical knowledge required
• The app is available on IOS and Android

Cons

• Too competitive for instructors
• Limited engagement between students and instructors.
• No personal branding for instructors
• Udemy controls pricing and discounting for instructors
• Udemy does not share data with Instructors. Instructors also have no control over data about their course, learners, emails, and other useful information

Pricing for Instructors

• No startup fees
• Instructor Promotion: 97% revenue share on sales when a student comes through your link or coupon.
• Udemy Organic: 50% revenue share on sales when students come through organic search
• Paid User Acquisition Channel Sales: 25% revenue share on sales

2. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn learning formerly Lynda has a repository of 16K+ courses to learn from. Their courses primarily target individuals or organizations in business, government, and higher-education fields.

More so, their courses focus on three main disciplines – business, creativity, and technology.

Pros

• Risk-free 30-day free trial
• Credible certifications upon course completion
• Personalized course recommendations
• Access to other premium career features
• Offline learning available
• Take quizzes to assess your learning progress

Cons

• Certificates are not accredited
• A limited selection of courses
• Learning path lacks congruence

Pricing

• Monthly plan: $29.99/mo
• Annually plan: 19.99/mo

3. Coursera

Coursera partners with over 200 globally prominent universities and companies to deliver affordable, flexible, professional online learning to organizations and individuals worldwide. Coursera partners with reputable institutions like Yale, Imperial College London, Duke University, Stanford, Google, and IBM.

The Coursera platform offers a range of online learning opportunities such as hands-on projects and courses, specialized courses, degree programs, accredited certifications. These courses are delivered with on-demand video lectures, in-course exercises, peer-review assignments, and discussion forums.

Coursera has provided these opportunities to 76M+ learners and 6500+ campuses, businesses and government organizations.

Coursera is suitable for learners who want to learn from renowned institutions and instructors who work in partnered institutions.

Pros

• Effective learning outcome
• Industry recognized, shareable certificates
• High-quality educational tools and features
• An extensive variety of topics and disciplines

Cons

• Limited to educators in partner institutions
• The course creation option is less flexible.

Pricing

Prices vary. They offer free courses, subscription-based courses, and one-time courses. Pricing depends on the course.

4. EdX and Open-EdX

Edx is a trusted, global non-profit online learning platform where learners find online courses from various universities. The platform was created by Harvard and MIT and has empowered 20M+ learners, the majority of top-ranking universities and market-leading companies.

Open Edx is an open-source online course content management system. With Open Edx, instructors or organizations can create online campuses, instructor-led courses, degree programs, and self-paced courses.

Open Edx currently powers 35K+ courses with support for 53 languages having reached 55M+ learners worldwide.

The Edx platforms are best suited for higher-education learners who want to learn topics such as computer science, medicine, biology, law, engineering, architecture, music, data science, languages, data analysis, chemistry, economics and finance, and more.

Open-EdX is suitable for instructors and organizations who can afford a hire a dedicated team to develop and manage the platform on their own servers.

Pros

• It is free to use and open-source
• Interactive classes, forums, and discussion boards
• Live video conferencing
• Multi-device, cross-platform, and integrates with third-party tools like Salesforce
• Rich authoring experience – AR, VR, animation, interactive content
• Real-time smart data collection available for analysis
• Apps available on iOS and Android

Cons

• Server and maintenance cost can get expensive
• outdated discussion forums
• requires some technical knowledge to implement successfully

Pricing

It is free but may require additional costs for getting a server.

5. SkillShare

Skillshare is an online learn platform with several classes for creative people who want to learn topics such as illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and much more.

The marketplace boasts of 24K+ courses and 4M+ learners. Courses are packaged as short videos combined with class exercises and discussion forums to encourage engagement among learners.

SkillShare primarily focuses on four main categories

• Creative arts – animation, copywriting, graphic design, photography, web design, music
• Business – entrepreneurship, marketing, accounting, bitcoin, blogging, SEO
• Technology – game design, web & mobile app development, programming, data science
• Lifestyle – gaming, culinary, interior design, languages, crafts, makeup, screen printing

SkillShare is suitable for learners, instructors and employees.

Pros

• Risk-free 14-day trial
• Supportive discussion forums
• Unlimited courses for the same price
• Offline learning available with mobile apps

Cons

• Content limited to four categories
• No certificate of completion

Pricing

• Learners – Get unlimited access to all courses with $15/mo
• Instructors – Free to join. Instructors make money every minute a learner watches their video and through premium referrals.

Best Online Course Platforms

1. Thinkific

Thinkific is an online course platform that helps entrepreneurs to create, market, sell and deliver their own courses. 

Many online course platforms have a typical problem. Course creators often do not have control of their content, data, and business. This has been a problem for many entrepreneurs over the years. Thinkific was designed to solve this problem. 

Thinkific is a platform for course creators and businesses looking to educate learners. With Thinkific instructors can

1. Sell their courses on their websites 
2. Drive business growth and branding 
3. Be in absolute control of their brand, content, and business in general. 
4. Thinkific is most suitable for entrepreneurs and small businesses. 

Pros

• Convert visitors to learners with landing page builder and other web design tools. 
• Advanced Sales and marketing tools such as affiliate reward programs, email marketing campaigns, and more. 
• Integrates seamlessly with your domain or website as it is hosted on the cloud 
• Integrates with 1K+ popular software 
• 24/7 customer service support 
• White-label option available 
• Expert marketplace to outsource tasks or get additional help from Thinkific professionals 

Cons

• No course marketplace to sell your course 
• Limited control of website design
• No support for SCORM, TinCan, or AICC 
• It may not be suitable for creating complex courses 
• No community forums or discussion boards

Pricing

Get 30-day risk-free trial.

• Free plan: $0/mo
• Basic plan: $49/mo
• Pro plan: $99/mo
• Premier plan: $499/mo

2. Teachable 

Teachable is a powerful, simple to use, all-in-one platform that helps entrepreneurs easily create and sell online courses and coaching services. 

Teachable is designed to be easy to use and yet feature-rich. The platform is suitable for coaches, entrepreneurs, newbie course creators, and creative artists. 

Pros 

• You can connect your custom domain
• Easy online course customization 
• Equipped with eCommerce features 
• Integrates with popular third-party software
• Flexible page editor to convert visitors 
• User access rights for teams 
• One/on/one sessions available 
• Flexible pricing options, acceptance of multiple currencies, tax forms available 
• Advanced marketing tools like affiliate marketing, email marketing, coupons, and more available 

Cons 

• No support for SCORM and TinCan 
• Limited customization options on landing pages and branding 
• No community forums
• Limited white/labeling features

Pricing

• Basic plan: $39/mo (5% transaction fees applies)
• Professional plan: $119/mo
• Business plan: $299/mo

3. Kajabi

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that aims to help you build, market, and sell your online course, membership site, or coaching programs. It requires no prior knowledge or technical skills to setup. 

Kajabi launched in 2010 and has empowered 50K+ Kajabi users in 120 countries to serve 60M+ students and make over $1.5B+ total sales. 

Kajabi is designed for everyday online course creators, small business owners, freelancers, influencers, and experts. 

Pros 

• Community and discussion forums available 
• Available on iOS and Android 
• Advanced marketing features such as email marketing, lead tracking, custom automation, sales pipelines
• Lead page builder and web design themes available 
• Access to real-time insights and analytics 
• Flexible pricing and payment terms
• Integrate with other popular software 

Cons

• Kajabi is quite expensive compared to similar products 
• Limited learning features
• Limited website design 
• Maybe quite difficult for newbies to setup

Pricing 

Get a 14-day risk-free trial.

• Basic plan: $149/mo
• Growth plan: $199/mo
• Pro plan: $399/mo

4. LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is an all-in-one online course platform that helps you start your online academy while creating an interactive, unique, and social learning experience for your learners. 

In addition, LearnWorlds is packed with sales and marketing features that help course creators promote and sell online courses. 

LearnWorlds is suitable for entrepreneurs, individual instructors, professional trainers, small businesses, and employees. 

Pros

• Website builder available 
• Easy to set up and create courses
• Built-in course authoring available 
• Learning tools and features such as prerequisite recommendations, customizable course player, assessment tools, and more available 
• Supports SCORM and HTML5 files
• No technical expertise or prior experience needed
• 24/7 customer support 

Cons

• Limited marketing features such as sales funnels, and email marketing.
• No support for TinCan

Pricing

Get a 30-day risk/free trial.

• Starter plan: $29/mo (+$5 per course sold)
• Pro trainer: $99/mo
• Learning center: $299/mo

5. Podia 

Podia started in 2014 and has become one of the most popular online course platforms with 25K+ creators. The provides tools to help creators sell online courses, digital downloads, membership subscriptions, and more. 

Start selling your online course in 5 easy steps

1. Setup website – start your website, add your domain, and more
2. Customize – add media and rich text, and design the pages to match your brand 
3. Add products – add or migrate your online course, membership plans, and digital downloads
4. Build an email list – create or migrate your email list to fire up your marketing plans
5. Start selling – maximize sales with features such as payment plans, coupons, affiliates, 1-click upsells, and more. 

Podia is suitable for content creators who want to monetize their content. 

Pros

• Easy to use
• No transaction fees
• Website and online course builder available 
• Very affordable with Unlimited products, unlimited learners, unlimited content, unlimited emails, and unlimited sales 
• Advanced marketing tools such as email marketing, live chat messaging, sales pages, and more. 
• Live customer support

Con

• No community or discussion forum
• Limited learning features like assessment, exercises, certificates, and so on. More suitable for content downloads. 
• No white-labeling
• No support for SCORM or TinCan

Pricing 

Get a 14-day risk-free trial.

• Mover plan: $39/mo
• Shaker plan: $79/mo

Best Learning Management Systems (LMS)

1. Docebo

Docebo is a cloud-based enterprise AI-powered learning management solution designed to create immersive learning experiences to train customers, partners, and employees.

The award-winning software was launched back in 2005 by Claudi Erba in Italy and has grown to become one of the fastest-growing, innovative learning technologies on the market with six global offices. Docebo is trusted by top companies like Walmart, Amazon, Uber, and 2K+ companies. in addition to the software learning features, it is extendable, flexible, user-friendly, and scalable.

With Docebo, you can provide training to customers, employees, or partners, employee onboarding, sales enablement, employee development and retention, and compliance training.

Docebo is suitable for human resource professionals, HR departments, or medium and large-scale companies.

Pros

• Integrates with existing IT systems via the API system
• White-labeling options are available. Add your domain, logo, branding, and more.
• Enterprise Cloud Solutions to allow you to run your own dedicated cloud instance
• AI automation to eliminate time-consuming or menial tasks
• Easy-to-use with a customizable and intuitive user interface
• Unlimited configurations
• Third-party integrations with popular software like Salesforce
• Available in more than 40 languages
• Mobile applications available
• Instructors can offer certificates and sell online courses
• Manage, deliver and track instructor-led training (ILT) and web-based training (WBT) activities
• Compatible with SCORM, AICC, and xAPI
• Social learning and gamification features

Cons

• Limited reporting functionalities like business intelligence reports
• Requires internet to work
• Limited features for standard package
• Training videos have a size limit
• Users may experience latency as it is cloud-based
• Does not integrate with popular authoring tools

Pricing

14-day risk-free trial available. Call Docebo for pricing.

2. LearnUpon

LearnUpon was designed to help medium to large scale companies to deliver impactful training that can help achieve employee, partner, and customer success.

The platform can be used for employee onboarding and development, as well as customer, product, partner, sales, and compliance training. More so, you can use LearnUpon to sell your training.

LearnUpon is cloud-based and offers easy-to-use user interfaces. The platform features the ability to create unique learning paths and teams.

The software is trusted by top companies like Zendesk, Logitech, Twilio, Booking.com with 8M+ users on the platform. Its best suited for businesses and educational institutions.

Pros

• Compatible with SCORM and Experience API
• Third-party integrations with popular software
• Global 24/7 customer support
• It has gamification features
• Can support multiple audiences in one system via multiple portals
• Supports Instructor-Led Trainings (ILT), webinars, and more
• eCommerce ready

Cons

• It’s expensive compared to other competitors
• No support for HTML5

Pricing

• Basic: $699/mo for 50 active users and 1 Portal
• Essential: $1,249/mo for 250 active users and 2 Portal
• Premium: $1,999/mo for 500 active users and 3 Portal
• Enterprise: 500+ active users and 3+ Portals (Call for pricing)

3. Moodle

Moodle is an open-source LMS platform and has been around since 2001. In other words, just as WordPress is used as a content management system, Moodle is used as a learning management system.

Moodle is designed to provide educators, administrators, and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated platform to create a personalized online learning environment.

As of 2020, Moodle is the most widely used eLearning platform with 213M+ users worldwide across several disciplines. Moodle is trusted by top companies like the London School of Economics, Shell, Microsoft, and Open University.

Moodle is suitable for tech-savvy “edupreneurs”, freelancers, educators, businesses of any kind.

Pros

• Open-source and highly customizable features with plugins and addons
• Collaborative tools such as Chat, Forum, and Discussions.
• Easy integration with third-party software, and with custom plugins.
• The software can be hosted self-hosted on-premise or on the cloud
• Available on mobile apps(iOS and Android)
• Compatible with SCORM, AICC, xAPI, and IMS LTI
• Backed by a large community of users and developers who contribute to the software development and documentation
• Scalable to any size
• All-in-one platform that supports blended learning and fully online courses
• Extensive resources available via documentation, user forums, and many other dedicated sources

Cons

• Lacks video conferencing
• No support
• Price can easily rack up if you ae not tech-savvy or don’t have an IT team
• Setup takes longer than other turnkey solutions

Pricing

Moodle is Free. Users can download and install the software on their server for free. In addition, you can setup the Moodle LMS with a Certified Moodle Partner.
Users can also use the moodleCloud service.

MoodleCloud Pricing

45-days risk-free trial

• Start plan – $115/yr for 50 users and 250MB storage
• Mini plan – $212/yr for 100 users and 500MB storage
• Small plan – $385/yr for 200 users and 1GB storage
• Medium plan – $865/yr for 500 users and 2.5GB storage
• Large plan – $1,539/yr for 1,000 users and 5GB storage

4. SAP Litmos

SAP Litmos was founded in 2007 and acquired by SAP in 2018. The software is an enterprise learning solution unifying learning management and prepackaged courses in an innovative platform to meet their overall training needs. The platform is an easy-to-use learning management system with 24M+ in 130 countries and 28 languages.

SAP Litmos is a cloud-based LMS solution designed to unify classroom, virtual, mobile, social learning, eCommerce features into a secure and scalable platform that can meet any organization’s training needs. A key feature of the platform is the ability to create customized learning paths.

SAP Litmos is trusted by industry-leading companies like IBM, Fitbit, YouTube, Mercedes Benz, Pepsico, and more. The software provides training solutions for employees, customers, gig workers, sales, contractors, partners, and more. SAp Litmos is suitable for any business.

Pros

• Easy to learn and use with a simple interface
• Integrates with third-party apps like Dropbox, WordPress, Zendesk, BambooHR, and more
• Native mobile application on iOS and Android
• Smart Course builder available
• Instructor-led training and virtual classrooms available
• Provides multi-language and localization support
• Compatible with SCORm, xAPI, and AICC formats
• eCommerce ready
• Feature-rich with gamification, reporting, tracking, assessments, learner dashboard, and more
• Access to more than 2,500 courses and videos

Cons

• Administrators may encounter a steep learning curve
• Some users may find the plethora of features intimidating
• Limited customization features
• No dedicated payment gateway
• Small businesses may find SAP Litmos expensive

Pricing

They offer a 14-day risk-free trial. Pricing is based on the number of active users per month.

5. Blackboard Learn

Blackboard was founded in 1997 and continues to be a leading EdTech company providing adaptable learning systems to higher education, K-12, business, and government organizations worldwide.

The Blackboard Learn LMS product by Blackboard is feature-packed with course management, assessments, design, administration, and can be extended with other Blackboard addons such as Blackboard SafeAssign to check for submitted content originality, Blackboard intelligence, Blackboard Reach for communication, and more.

Blackboard is for educational institutions, government organizations, and medium to large businesses.

Pros

• Easy to use and customize
• Ability to segment users by metrics such as skills and department
• Available on iOS and Android
• It is compatible with SCORM, AICC, xAPI, and IMS LTI
• Integrates with third-party software like Google Suite
• Easy collaboration through group works and discussion board posts.
• A plethora of add-ons to add additional functionalities as needed
• It can be self-hosted or cloud-based

Cons

• User interface not as intuitive as other top-rated LMS software
• Limited reporting features
• Limited integration with other popular software
• No security-enhancing features
• Limited gamification capabilities
• It could be expensive for small businesses

Pricing

They offer a 30-day trial on selected products. Contact Blackboard for pricing.

Best WordPress LMS

1. LearnDash

LearnDash helps course creators easily create and manage stunning online courses without restrictions equipped with features to ensure learner engagement. It also provides tools for course creators to set price and their desired payment schedules.

LearnDash is the most popular premium WordPress LMS plugin that extends your WordPress website with important LMS features. The powerful WordPress plugin suitable for universities, small businesses, and bloggers.

Pros

• Create courses with a drag and drop course builder
• Offers online learning course creation like advanced quizzing, dynamic content delivery, flexible prerequisites
• Engage users with notifications, badges, and certificates, discussion forums, points rewarding system to unlock new content, assignment, and leaderboards
• Exercise and management tools including grade books, student metrics, and profiles
• Supports major media assets – video, audio, images, Adobe Captivate files, Google Docs, and even SWF files, HTML5, SCORM, xAPI, etc
• Supports major payment gateways like PayPal, 2Checkout and highly extensible with other WordPress plugins such as MailChimp, Slack, Zapier, etc
• Sophisticated marketing and sales features – Membership, bundles, subscription, bulk-access, and one-time sales pricing options available
• Offers key features you find in traditional LMS – Group management, detailed reporting, assignment management, grading, etc
• Works with any WordPress theme and across a multisite network

Cons

• No video conferencing available
• LearnDash may need to work with a handful of third-party plugins to deliver optimally
• Integration with other third-party plugins may increase cost quickly

Pricing

LearnDash offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• Basic: $159 – 1 site license
• Plus package: $189 – up to 10 site licenses
• Pro package: $329 – up to 25 site licenses

2. LifterLMS

LifterLMS is a WordPress LMS platform that helps online course creators create and manage beautiful online courses and membership sites with a flexible drag and drop builder. In addition, course creators can sell courses or memberships, engage learners, manage access and integrate with other relevant tools to deliver a great learning experience.

LifterLMS is suitable for entrepreneurs, small businesses, or groups.

Pros

• Create courses with a drag and drop course builder
• Offer online learning course creation features like dynamic multimedia quizzing, certificate of completion, drip content, assignments, prerequisites, multi instructor, etc
• Engage users with discussion areas, course reviews, achievement badges, social learning with Facebook, messaging, personalized email, notifications, and more
• Offers beautifully designed royalty-free certificate backgrounds, badges, awards, and more and supports imports and exports of video, audio, images, xAPI assets
• Integrates with other popular software like Twilio, Zapier, Google Analytics, MailChimp, authoring tools, Elementor, PayPal, Stripe, etc
• Extensive pricing models and features – one-time payments, recurring payments, payment plans, free courses, bulk sales, upsells, bundles, coupons, affiliates, etc
• Offers key features you find in traditional LMS – course protection, detailed reporting, grading, etc
• Compatible with any WordPress theme

Cons

• Not SCORM compliant
• No video conferencing
• The more add-ons you need, the more expensive it gets

Pricing

• Available for trial for 30 days at $1
• Individual add-ons – $99+ per year
• Universe bundle – $299 per year
• Infinity bundle – $999 per year

3. LearnPress

LearnPress is a WordPress LMS plugin quite similar to the Moodle for WordPress. It can be used to easily create and sell courses online without any coding experience. It is equipped with features that allow course creators to make lessons and quizzes which can be easily managed with a simple interface.

The LearnPress plugin can work with any WordPress theme and even work better with the LearnPress premium teams. LearnPress offers themes that come prepackaged with core LMS features.

Learnpress is suitable for beginners. 

Pros

• Create and manage courses easily
• Free to use with a wishlist, bbPress, offline payment, course review features, and more
• No risk-free trial 
• An affordable and excellent option for beginners 
• Can be extended with other WordPress plugins like BuddyPress for forums, Yoast for SEO
• Seamless payment integration with payment services like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and 2Checkout
• Available in 8 languages 

Cons

• More add-ons mean more expenses
• Not advisable for educators who need extensive functionalities.
• Add-ons required for important features like assignments, certificates, drip feeds, payment, co-instructors, and more
• The best plan offers a license for 3 sites maximum 

Pricing 

• LearnPress Plugin – Free
• LearnPress Theme – starts at $54 one-time payment 
• LearnPress Pro – $249 for all addons 

4. WPLMS

WPLMS is an enterprise-level, feature-rich social learning management system for WordPress suitable for training centers, corporate training, course creators, colleges, universities, and MOOC platforms.

Pros

• Great features such as learning paths, gamification, drip feeds, certificate, conferencing, and more for a better learning experience
• Course creators can create courses easily, manage students, track learners, evaluate and make remarks, generate reports, create question bank and so much more learning management features
• Can be extended with other plugins such as Zapier, Twilio, MailChimp, and more
• Extensions include calendar, help desk, knowledge-base articles, blogs, conferencing, and more
• One app with cross-platform capabilities – available on web and mobile, iOS and Android
• Works offline without internet
• Unlimited members and courses
• Search engine optimized 

Cons

• No free trial
• No drag and drop builders 

Pricing 

One time payment $75+

5. MemberPress

MemberPress is an all-in-one WordPress plugin that helps you create, manage and track membership subscriptions, sell online courses, accept payments securely, control who sees your content, and sell digital assets.

MemberPress is not a learning management system. However, it can be used alongside other WordPress learning management systems like LearnDash to improve member management.

Pros

• Host unlimited members
• Provides powerful access rules to restrict access to pages, posts, categories, tags, and almost any other files in your WordPress installation.
• Seamlessly integrates with Zapier to connect with thousands of software products and services
• Simple payment gateway integration with Stripe, Paypal and Authorize.Net
• Comprehensive subscription management
• Relevant reporting
• Offers the premium affiliate management plugin – Affiliate Royale
• Works with any WordPress theme
• Offers monetization features such as content dripping, access expiration, premium affiliate management plugin

Cons

• Requires courses add-on to deliver full online LMS functionality
• No certifications available
• No drag and drop builders
• No real-time online learning or webinars
• You may still need LMS plugins like LearnDash

Pricing

14-day No-Risk Money Back Guarantee

• Basic: $149 per year
• Plus: $249 per year
• Pro: $349 per year

Best Authoring Tools

Authoring tools provide alternative platforms to create learning content. With authoring tools you can design content and package them into an interactive format. 

These tools generate content in popular LMS content supported format types such as SCORM, HTML5, and xAPI file (TIN CAN). 

These content can then be transferred to your favorite LMS platform. There are couple of great authoring tools out there. Lets check out the favorite authoring tools currently buzzing the market. 

1. Adobe Captivate 

Adobe captivate is an e-learning course authoring tool that allows you to design and create learning projects. Course creators can deliver engaging and interactive content including interactive videos, storyboards, screencasts, simulation, branched scenarios, and virtual reality courses.

Adobe Captivate is feature-rich with extra features regularly added. Adobe is a recognizable, reputable, and favored brand. This is why Adobe Captivate has dominated the market since 2006. 

The Adobe Captivate authoring tool is suitable for anyone – individuals, small or enterprise companies who want to create professional eLearning solutions. 

Pros

• Better subscription model
• Clean UI 
• Robust and feature-packed 
• Convert existing PowerPoint into interactive videos 
• Create Virtual Reality courses viewable in any screen size 
• Create screencast and simulation 
• Works across platforms – MAC, Windows, mobile, and desktop. 

Cons 

• No free trial
• More expensive than the competition 
• Steep learning curve
• Can be time-consuming for beginners 
• Requires high computer resources 

Pricing 

• Subscription – $33.99/mo
• Perpetual license – $1,299
• Student/Teacher edition – $399.00
• Upgrade price – $499.00

2. Articulate 360

Articulate Storyline is a course authoring tool used for creating interactive courses. With Articulate 360 you can create screencasts, software simulations, and add any video. 

Articulate is easy to use but yet feature-packed. This is why it’s the favorite authoring tool for many instructional designers and course creators. 

The platform is suitable for businesses, individuals, and academics who prefer an easy to use and beginners friendly tool. 

Pros

• UI is similar to PowerPoint which makes its familiar UI easy to use 
• An online community of tech support
• Cross-platform and Mobile-friendly 
• Comes with a huge content and template library to jumpstart your project

Cons

• It is expensive compared to similar platforms 
• It comes as a downloadable program only 

Pricing

• Freelancers – $999 for personal and $1,299 for teams 
• Companies – $1,299
• Academic – $499 for personal and $649 for teams 

3. Elucidat

Elucidat is an intuitive authoring tool designed to help you create and deliver content faster and at scale. 

The platform is suitable for large organizations. 

Pros

• The platform is cloud-based 
• Available cross-platform devices 
• Online business hours live support 
• Online collaboration 

Cons

• No white labeling on lower-paid plans
• Less flexibility 
• No PowerPoint conversion

Pricing 

Contact for pricing 

4. Lectora Online 

Lectora Online is a cloud-based authoring tool that helps small businesses and large enterprises design publish and deliver courses and multiple platforms. The software is designed to help course creators design interactive courses via the cloud or desktop. 

The Lectora Online platform is suitable for freelancers and large enterprises and government agencies. 

Pros

• Team collaboration and automated versioning 
• Import PowerPoint slides 
• Easy to use and clean UI
• Robust asset library and course templates to help you jumpstart your projects 
• In-person live customer support 

Cons

• Updates may affect old content 
• Limited features 
• backward compatibility issues

Pricing

30-day risk-free trial 

• Silver Suite – $899/yr
• Gold Suite – $1,299/yr
• Platinum Suite – $1,599/yr

5. Easy Generator 

The cloud-based authoring software is designed to help design and create interactive content easily and efficiently. Created by a mix of teachers and designers, the software promises to help you create courses 12x faster.  

The software is suitable for big freelance teams, organizations, educational institutions, and startups. 

Pros

• Easy to use and clean user interface
• Beginner-friendly 
• Good customer service 
• Fast learning curve 

Cons

• Limited features compared to similar tools
• No content library like stocky images 

Pricing 

EasyGenerator offers 14-day trial 

• Pro – $99/mo
• Team – $495/mo
• Enterprise – contact sales team 

Summary

There are many e-learning solutions available online and these “best of the best” solutions all have their pros and cons. The team hopes this article has been able to educate you in making informed decisions before you invest in any of the software.

Furthermore, there are some additional factors to consider before investing in any e-learning software. The two main factors include:

• Risk-free money-back guarantee – Ensure you are able to test the product before parting ways with your money
• Pricing – Ensure the pricing makes business sense

Other factors to consider include:

• Consider availability of effective marketing tools and features
• Ensure the e-learning software is flexible enough to keep you in control
• The more payment options available, the better
• Consider platforms with course interactivity to engage learners
• Consider platforms that integrate with other relevant software like social media platforms, other e-learning platforms, and even your personal/business website
• Consider software with advanced features to avoid jumping ship when your course becomes successful.