16 Tools to Create an Online Course

An online course can generate revenue, grow an audience, and establish expertise. Given the range of helpful tools, it’s relatively easy to create, distribute, and monetize a course.

Here’s a list of tools to create an online course. There are all-in-one platforms to build and manage a course, and tools to create course materials, produce lesson videos, market and distribute content, and automate the instruction.

Tools to Create a Course

Teachable is an all-in-one platform to create an online course. Engage and manage students with quizzes, completion certificates, and compliance controls. Run one-on-one sessions with milestones, call hosting, and tasks. Offer coupons and advanced pricing options, including subscriptions, memberships, one-time payments, bundles, and more. All paid plans include unlimited video bandwidth, unlimited courses, and unlimited students. Price: Plans start at $29 per month.

Teachable

Thinkific lets you create, market, and sell online courses. Easily upload videos, build quizzes, and organize all learning content with a drag-and-drop builder. Set pricing, schedule lessons, and automate content to curate the learning experience. Use a theme to launch a course site easily, or connect your courses to an existing site for a seamless brand experience. Additional features include completion tracking, automated progress emails, course discussions, and more. Price: Plans start at $49 per month.

Kajabi is a platform to build, market, and sell an online course, membership site, or coaching program. Use the product generator to create a course, or start from scratch. Customize pricing, delivery, and packaging. Create an online community for your customers. Set up an integrated website, create and customize emails with video and timers, run automated marketing campaigns, and get performance metrics. Price: Plans start at $119 per month.

Zippy Courses is an all-in-one platform to build and sell your online courses. Create lessons, and then rearrange, edit, and update your course at any time. Offer a course with multiple tiers and sell it at different prices. Attach a “launch window” to set when your course is open for enrollment. Release your course content at once, or drip it over time. Price: Plans start at $99 per month.

Zippy Courses

Screenflow is a screen recording and video editing and sharing tool to create courses. Record from multiple screens at once, or use retina displays. Access over 500,000 unique media clips, record from your iPhone or iPad, and add transitions and effects. Animate graphics, titles, and logos with built-in video and text animations. Directly publish to hosting sites. Price: Starts at $129.

Camtasia is another screen recorder and video editor to record and create professional-looking videos. Start with a template, or record your screen and then add effects. Instantly access your most-used tools. Easily modify your video with the drag-and-drop editor. Add quizzes and interactivity to encourage and measure learning. Price: Starts at $249.99.

AudioJungle, part of Envato Market, sells royalty-free stock music and sound effects. Purchase music and sounds for your course content as well as elements to strengthen your brand, such as audio logos and musical idents. Price: Purchase assets individually or access unlimited downloads through Envato Elements for $16.50 per month.

AudioJungle

Vimeo is a platform to host, manage, and share videos, including courses. Set embed permissions, send private links, and lock videos or entire albums with a password. Customize the player with your logo, colors, speed controls, and more. Price: Hosting plans start at $7 per month.

Zoom provides multiple ways to connect with your course attendees. Run meetings, conference rooms with video, and full-featured webinars. Price: Basic is free. Premium plans start at $149.90 per year.

FormSwift is a tool to generate, edit, and collaborate on documents and forms. Create and modify your course materials. Use customizable lesson plan templates. Choose from a library of roughly 500 document templates and forms or upload your own documents and edit them with FormSwift’s tools. Price: Plans start at $39.95.

FormSwift

Canva is an online design and publishing tool that can be used to create a wide range of online course documents, including lessons and guides, infographics, presentations for video recordings, workbooks, and completion certificates. Pro version contains a brand kit to upload your own logos and fonts. Price: Basic is free. Pro is $119.99 per year.

PowerPoint is a tool to create branded presentations for lessons, particularly for screen recordings. With Presenter Coach, practice your delivery and get recommendations on pacing, word choice, and more through the power of artificial intelligence. PowerPoint is part of the Microsoft 365 suite. Price: Microsoft 365 is $69.99 per year.

Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that can help you connect with online course participants, grow your audience, increase engagement, and automate your marketing and course distribution. Price: Basic is free. Premium plans start at $9.99 per month.

Mailchimp

Zapier is an automation tool to sync applications. Create workflow “zaps” to automate course tasks and apps, such as subscribing new participants to Mailchimp. Each time it runs, the zap automatically sends information from one app to another. Price: Basic is free. Premium plans start at $19.99 per month.

Logitech, the tech hardware producer, makes affordable webcams that capture high-definition video. Logitech’s new StreamCam records in full HD 1080p at 60 frames per second and AI-enabled facial tracking for a crisp image that’s always in focus. The C930e is an HD 1080p webcam that delivers sharp video in any environment, including low-light and harshly backlit settings. Price: SteamCam is $169.99. C930e is $129.99.

Blue Yeti produces professional microphones for capturing high-resolution audio directly to your computer. The Yeti Pro is a USB mic with an XLR cable to connect to professional studio gear. The Yeti Nano is a popular microphone that delivers 24-bit audio for podcasting and streaming. Price: Yeti Pro is $249.99. Yeti Nano is $99.99.

Blue Yeti