Online Course Creation Tools: 2024’s Top 9 Picks

As online learning booms, the market is full of course creators promising everything imaginable. But fancy features alone won’t cut it anymore – modern courses demand live sessions, engaging assessments, and vibrant communities integrated into their courses.

You have a myriad of platforms offering different features, pricing, and experiences. For creators, the sheer volume of choices can feel overwhelming.

Well, the good news is we’ve done the research for you. We’ve analyzed the top options to help you make the most informed decision on course creation tools.

Let’s get started with our top picks for 2024.

What Are Online Course Creation Tools?

Simply put, online course creation tools provide the technology and features needed to create, market, and sell online courses. These tools can range from simple course builders to comprehensive platforms offering analytics, marketing capabilities, integrations, and more.

The digital landscape is competitive. To stand out, you need more than just content; you need presentation, engagement tools, and a seamless user experience. The right course creation tool can make your course successful, keep learners engaged, and ensure a smooth learning journey.

Why Do You Need Online Course Creation Tools?

Before reviewing the options, let’s discuss why you need specialty software for online course development.

Sure, you could try cobbling together a course using slide decks and free tools. But this route has its downsides:

• Tedious to piece together all the components
• Limited built-in interactivity and analytics
• No native marketing or monetization capabilities
• Difficult to provide a cohesive learner experience

Online course creation software solves these issues with:

• Intuitive course builders to simplify creation
• Engaging multimedia lesson functionality and community-building features
• Marketing automation to attract students
• Monetization tools to sell and manage your courses
• Analytics dashboards to track engagement and completion
• Hosting and delivery infrastructure for a seamless experience

In short, investing in purpose-built course creation software will save massive headaches. The productivity boost is well worth the cost.

Without further ado, let’s explore online course creation tools that you can use to amplify your community and course experience.

9 Top Online Course Creation Tools

1. Nas.io

Nas.io goes beyond being just a course creation tool. It provides a comprehensive platform for building and nurturing learning communities.

Community capabilities are just as important as core course authoring features. But why does community matter when creating online courses? Here are a few of the many reasons:

• Allows for collaborative learning through discussions, which boosts engagement and outcomes. Students can discuss concepts, share resources, ask questions, and bond over the material.
• Enables cohort-based courses where students progress through the curriculum together. This builds momentum, accountability, and networking.
• Cultivates connections between students that persist after the course ends. Alums stay engaged, refer others, and continue growing together.
• Makes the learning experience more social, interactive, and engaging. Online courses can feel isolated without community elements.

Nas.io makes it easy to reach out to members through announcement feeds, messaging, groups, and virtual meetups as part of online courses.

Let’s explore how Nas.io can revolutionize your online course creation experience. Here’s what we particularly like (and are proud of!):

1. Integrated Course Communities – While creating your courses on Nas.io, you can easily set up an accompanying community for each module or lesson. This gives students a huddle space to directly discuss and reflect on what they’ve learned.

2. Engage in Real-time Discussions – Beyond just consuming content, students can discuss concepts, share their assignments, and seek clarifications.

3. Personalized Student Engagement – Think back to that one teacher who made a difference in your life. With Nas.io, you get to be that teacher offering a more personalized learning experience. This tailored approach enhances student retention and ensures they are truly grasping the material.

4. Continuous Engagement – With features like Magic Reach, instructors can remain connected with their students, providing them with updates, additional resources, or feedback, ensuring they remain invested in the course even after completion.

And speaking of specific features that enable you to build a community-driven successful course, here’s how Nas.io helps you do it. 

Key Features

Drag and drop course creator – Easily assemble multimedia lessons, quizzes, assignments, and other elements.

Community feed – Get students to support and collaborate through built-in community feeds where members can exchange discussions through comments.

Marketing tools – Promote your course with gorgeous landing pages, email sequences, and affiliate programs.

Payment processing – Accept one-time or recurring payments for your course with just a few clicks.

Analytics – See key metrics on enrollment, engagement, and completion with detailed reports.

Nas.io is ideal for creators seeking to build online learning communities anchored around their courses. The community features help facilitate discussions, collaboration, and networking. 

Pros

• Interactive community functionality
• Generous free tier available
• Ownership of your audience data

Cons

• Newer to the market (but rapidly gaining traction).

Highlights:

Nas.io’s Magic Reach feature ensures your course reaches the audience, be it via email, in-app, or other channels all in one click.

Use Cases:

Perfect for educators wanting an all-in-one solution for courses and community engagement.

Pricing: 

Absolutely free to start. Once you start earning, Nas.io charges an 8% transaction fee, which you can pay yourself or choose to pass on to customers.

Takeaway

Nas.io empowers creators to produce the most engaging multimedia online courses possible. For those seeking an intuitive platform focused purely on creating beautiful courses fuelled by community, Nas.io is unmatched.

2. Teachable

Teachable focuses on simplifying the course creation process. 

Best Features

Teachable provides core course creation features like multimedia lessons, assessments, and drip content scheduling. It also offers the ability to create branded course sites, though customization is limited compared to some competitors.

Plans and Pricing

The free plan is limited, with a $1 + 10% transaction fee. Paid plans start at $39/month but can get quite expensive, up to $199/month. There are also additional transaction fees on paid plans.

Pros

• Custom course sites
• Drip scheduling
• Multimedia content

Cons

• Expensive plans
• Interface is not as intuitive as some alternatives
• Limited branding

Teachable is best suited for experienced course creators invested in growing their businesses through advanced marketing tools. For most looking to simply create and sell online courses, easier and more affordable options exist.

Takeaways

While capable for course creation, Teachable has a steep learning curve. The advanced features also make it overkill for many, while beginners may find the interface overwhelming.

Platforms like Nas.io offer more intuitive course builders and cheaper plans for most needs

3. Thinkific

Thinkific offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop course builder with handy templates to get started quickly. 

Best Features

• Course templates for different types of classes
• Simple multimedia content adding with drag-and-drop
• Student assessments like quizzes and assignments
• Custom themes and branding options
• eCommerce and analytics tools

Plans and Pricing

Thinkific has a free plan for one course and unlimited students. Paid plans start at $36 per month for the Basic package with additional courses, custom domain, and more features.

Pros

• User-friendly interface
• Course templates
• Themes and assessments

Cons

• No built-in email marketing
• Lack of sales funnels 
• Fewer features than some competitors

Thinkific offers a solid foundation for simple course creation needs. However, those wanting more advanced features like email marketing, communities, and sales funnels may need to augment Thinkific with additional tools.

Evaluate your specific needs before choosing Thinkific.

4. Podia

Podia provides an online storefront for selling courses, memberships, and digital downloads. You can build branded course sites and leverage email marketing tools to promote your offerings.

Best Features

• Online storefront builder
• Courses, memberships, and digital downloads
• Email marketing and promotions
• Integrations with apps like Slack and Facebook

Plans and Pricing

Podia plans start at $33/month for unlimited courses, products, and members. More advanced plans at $79/month add features like membership sites and one-on-one support. There is an 8% transaction fee in the free plan.

Pros

• Storefront website,
• Memberships,
• Email marketing
• Community
• No transaction fees

Cons

• Less course customization than some competitors
• Limitations with some payment gateways

Takeaways

Podia provides a capable foundation for an online course business. However, it lacks some advanced features for maximizing course sales and promotion.

5. Kajabi

Kajabi combines online course creation with sales funnel building and email marketing. Notable features include:

• Drag-and-drop course builder with video, quizzes, etc.
• Sales funnel templates and email automation
• Membership site and community capabilities
• Analytics and CRM features

Plans and Pricing

Paid plans for Kajabi start at $149/month for up to 3 products and 10k contacts. More advanced plans up to $399/month offer more products, funnels, and 100k contacts.

Pros

• Course funnels
• Email marketing
• Memberships

Cons 

• Expensive
• More complex for beginners than some alternatives

Takeaways

Kajabi is robust but complex; it works best for mature course businesses. For most starting out, more affordable and straightforward options like Nas.io exist.

Even more advanced users may be better served by combining simple course builders with dedicated community and email tools. Thoroughly assess your needs before choosing Kajabi.

6. LearnDash

As a WordPress plugin, LearnDash allows the creation of courses directly on WordPress sites. 

Best Features:

• Focused learning mode to minimize distractions
• Quizzes, assignments, certificates, and grading
• Email drips and automation for enrolled students
• No revenue sharing – you maintain ownership

Plans and Pricing

LearnDash is priced annually, starting at $199/year for unlimited courses and students. More advanced plans up to $299/year offer additional features.

Pros

• Focus mode
• Certificates
• WordPress Integration

Cons

WordPress-only

May need developer help for customization

LearnDash is best suited for existing WordPress users. Those not on WordPress may struggle with integrations and customizations.

For easy course creation on WordPress, LearnDash delivers. However, alternative WordPress plugins and specialized platforms like Nas.io offer better standalone course building.

7. Udemy

As one of the largest online course marketplaces, Udemy provides access to a vast global student base. 

Best Features

• Course creation guidance and resources
• Student promotion programs to increase discovery

Plans and Pricing

Udemy is free to use for course creation. Premium instructors earn a revenue share on course sales driven by Udemy (37%) or instructor promotions (97%). For non-premium instructors, the earnings are lower.

Pros

• Massive marketplace reach
• Course guidance

Cons

• High competition
• Less course customization
• Revenue splits

Takeaways

While Udemy offers unmatched scale, instructors sacrifice customization control and revenue share. Nas.io provides more brand control and ownership over courses and earnings.

Nas.io offers better course customization, pricing control, and revenue for both beginners and established creators.

8. Skillshare

Skillshare focuses on creative learning, with course topics spanning design, photography, writing, and more. 

Best Features

• Courses focused on creative disciplines and tech skills
• Subscription model providing site-wide access
• Community features like class projects and discussions
• Mobile apps enabling offline downloading

Plans and Pricing

Skillshare uses a royalty model. Instructors earn based on the minutes of premium courses watched by subscribers.

Pros

• Strong creative community
• Subscription model
• Class projects

Cons

• No course customization
• Less robust assessment tools

Takeaways

With a subscriber base tuned into creative learning, Skillshare unlocks reach for niche course topics. However, instructors sacrifice course customization capabilities.

For standard course creation with more control, Nas.io enables building customized multimedia courses with your brand and platform.

9. Ruzuku

Ruzuku focuses on ease of use in course creation above all.

Best Features

• Intuitive course builder requiring no technical skills
• Ability to duplicate courses for iterations easily
• Accepts PayPal, Stripe, and custom payment options
• 24/7 email support for a smooth experience

Plans and Pricing

The free plan is limited to only five students. Ruzuku paid plans range from $99-$199 per month based on features like a number of courses and admin accounts.

Pros

• Extremely easy to use
• Fast course duplication

Cons

• Limited customization and design
• Fewer marketing tools
• Expensive

Takeaways

Ruzuku makes course creation highly accessible. But for those wanting more customization and marketing capabilities, other tools provide greater feature depth to grow over time.

Crucial Features To Assess In Course Building Software 

And that’s a wrap! 

We hope this guide has helped narrow down the course creation options to find the perfect fit for your needs. Rather than overwhelm you with an excessively long list, we focused on highlighting the top few platforms that can genuinely support your growth and success. 

Let us know if you have any other questions as you evaluate your options – we’re happy to help however we can! The goal is to get you set up with the ideal course creator so you can focus on sharing your knowledge.

But…it might be possible that you are still on the edge. For that, let’s make it simple and understand what features you should assess course-building software for.

When Choosing Course-Building Software, Think About:

1. UI/UX: Like a door, it should be easy to open. Opt for clear, user-friendly interfaces.Choose a tool that helps you build a solid, customizable, and beautiful landing page. Both looks and aesthetics matter!

2. Engagement Tools: Picture a living room where people connect. Your course should have quizzes, surveys and discussion boards. They keep the conversation flowing and the energy high. Which is why community-building features are excellent for keeping your course members motivated.

3. Analytics: Think of a smart home system.  It tells you when the lights are on, how much power you’re using, or if the door’s left open. That’s your analytics in course software. The software should show:

• Areas where members excel.
• Aspects they struggle with.
• What might deter engagement.

4. Scalability: Your course software should be ready to expand as you grow. That’s scalability. Whether you’re teaching 10 students or 10,000, it’s got to handle it. And the key to that is communication features. The right tool should let you reach your community effectively and with ease. 

5. Integrations: Like a home system syncing devices, your course software should seamlessly integrate with tools such as:

• Email marketing platforms
• Payment methods
• Chat applications

Conclusion

All the online course creation tools discussed offer something unique, catering to various creators’ needs. 

However, Nas.io emerges as the jack of all trades.

For creators focused on effectively sharing their expertise while building a sustainable, thriving business around their courses, Nas.io delivers on all fronts. The platform helps you create an online course and build a learning ecosystem that benefits you and your students alike.

Create and increase your course sales with Nas.io—start for free!

FAQs

How can I create an online course easily?

Choose a platform (like Nas.io) that offers easy-to-use course creation tools. Start with a course outline, then populate it with content, quizzes, and interactive elements.

What equipment do you need to create an online course?

At the basics, you’d need a computer, a good-quality microphone, and possibly a camera if you’re doing video content. Advanced setups might include lighting, green screens, and professional-grade cameras.

Can I host a course on my own website?

Yes, platforms like Nas.io and LearnDash offer integrations to host courses on your site.

Is it worth creating an online course?

Absolutely! With the rise in e-learning, online courses are a viable income source and a great way to share knowledge.

How profitable are online courses?

Profitability depends on course quality, marketing, pricing strategy, and the target audience. With the right techniques, it can be a lucrative venture.