Online courses are amazing. People can learn anything through the Internet, no matter of their geographical or economical situation. But if you want to get one certificate for free, what is the best online course provider? I did a review of these platforms to try to answer this question. Here’s what I found”’
Here are the best free online course platforms.
Teachable
Teachable is my favourite online course platform and the one I use to sell my courses as part of my side hustle.
Teachable is a freemium platform, so there is a Free account available – yay! This makes it a perfect choice for beginners who have never created a course.
As standard all plans include unlimited hosting, unlimited courses, the ability to use lecture comments and basic quizzes.
Premium plans at Teachable start from $29 per month (annual billing) and provide unlimited students, custom domain support, lower transaction fees and the ability to create coupon codes.
To get zero transaction fees in Teachable you need their most popular plan – Pro. Their Pro plan comes at a cost of $99 per month (annual billing) and also comes with the ability to add course completion certificates and removes any Teachable branding from your school.
If you choose to use Teachable, be sure to check out my step-by-step guide on how to create an online course with Teachable. This guide will show you how to get started with Teachable to create and sell an online course for free.
- Related: Teachable Review: The Best Online Course Platform?
- Related: Teachable Pricing: What Price Plan Should You Pick?
Teachable
✔️ Free account available
✔️ Can handle EU VAT payments
✔️ Unlimited courses
$0+
PER MONTHStart Teachable For Free
Khan Academy
Partnering with many post secondary schools, Khan Academy offers a useable, well-organized interface. Also curating many courses from around the web, Khan Academy offers impressive depth on many different subjects.
Among the more well-known educational sites, Khan Academy is also incredibly user-friendly, which may make it easier to keep learning goals. If you’re looking for a free online education, you can’t go wrong with Khan Academy.
3. Open Culture Online Courses
If you are struggling to find exactly the material you are looking for, try Open Culture’s listing of free online education courses. The page highlights 1000 lectures, videos, and podcasts from universities around the world.
The site features a lot of material found only on universities’ private sites, all in easy-to-browse categories. This means you can find hundreds of university courses without having to visit and search each university’s site.
Open Culture’s list features courses from England, Australia, Wales, and many state universities around the United States. It’s a very helpful resource for finding many courses in one area of study.
Thinkific (#1 free option)
Thinkific is probably the best online course platform if you don’t want to spend a penny.
Thinkific is an excellent choice for creating your first online course since they include a Free price plan with zero transaction fees! In fact, you can create up to three courses with their Free plan.
Some of the core features available on all Thinkific plans include unlimited hosting, unlimited students (although there is some additional charge for certain plans), student quizzes and instant access to any sale funds.
Their entry-level premium account – Basic – starts at $39 per month (annual payment). This includes the ability to add a custom domain to better fit your course portal with your brand and the ability to create coupons for promotions. You can also create unlimited courses with their Basic plan.
For those with higher requirements, their most popular plan – Pro – enables the advanced course pricing options, course completion certificates, memberships and bundles, priority support and much more!
Since Thinkific is free to start, there is no excuse to not try it out!
Thinkific
✔️ Free account available
✔️ Zero transaction fees on all plans
✔️ Unlimited students
$0+
PER MONTH
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is the perfect option for creating an online course with a focus on social learning.
At LearnWorlds there is no free account, but you can take a 30-day free trial to see what it is capable of.
Their Starter plan is $24 per month (annual billing) and includes the ability to have unlimited students, unlimited paid courses, create coupons, interactive e-books and quizzes. This are quite a lot of features, however, there is a $5 transaction fee per course sale on the Starter plan.
To get zero transaction fees, you need to go for their Pro Trainer plan, which comes in at $79 per month (annual billing). This plan also gives the ability to create custom certificates for students, a complete website builder with a blog and the ability to have free courses.
Perhaps the biggest attraction to LearnWorlds that sets it apart from the rest is their emphasis on creating a social learning platform. Think of a LinkedIn-like platform where students have their own profile and are encouraged to contribute to the community.
The social network focus in LearnWorlds is an interesting approach to online learning and may be worth looking into if you want to create a unique school.
Related: LearnWorlds Review: Next-Gen Online Course Platform
LearnWorlds
✔️ Built-in social network
✔️ Unlimited students
✔️ 30-day free trial
$24+
PER MONTH
Creative Mind Class
Creative Mind Class has a unique pay-as-you-earn pricing model for creators.
Aimed at creative teachers, such as artists, Creative Mind Class has introduced a truly revolutionary pricing model to the online course platform space.
There’s no ongoing monthly or yearly fees when you take up a Creative Mind Class account. Instead, you are charged a variable transation fee based on the level of features you want your online school to have. So, you only pay when you make a sale!
Their Basic plan charges a 8% transaction fee (plus payment and processing fees). With this you get a ready to use teaching platform that can host an unlimited number of lessons.
For those that want to add additional student engagement features, including discussions and feedback sessions, you can go with the Pro plan (12% transaction fee).
To have everything Creative Mind Class has to offer, including landing pages with upsells, then go for their Empire option. Creators will be charged a 16% transaction fee, in return for the additionall marketing power.
It’s completely free to sign up for a Creative Mind Class account. So, what are you waiting for?
Creative Mind Class
✔️ Pay only when you earn
✔️ Can handle EU VAT payments
✔️ Unlimited classes and students
Free
Start Creative Mind Class For Free
Kajabi
Kajabi is aimed at accomplished course creators who have a large following.
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform to grow your online presence. It isn’t just an online course platform. As well as being able to create online courses, Kajabi can build landing pages, websites and has a powerful set of marketing tools.
All of these features come at a cost though, with no Free account in sight. There is a 14-day free trial to have a peek at their platform, then prices start at $119 per month (annual billing).
As standard, Kajabi plans include unlimited landing pages and unlimited emails to students.
Their lowest price plan – Basic – can handle up to 10,000 contacts and 1,000 active members. An active member is a person who has logged in at least once within the last 30 days.
With Basic you can create up to three products and pipelines. A product can be an online course, but can also include digital downloads (e.g. an e-book). A pipeline is an automated sales funnel to maximise your sales – this is what Kajabi is great at!
If you’re starting out with creating online courses, Kajabi may not be the best place to start. But, it may be worth giving their trial a go for a no-fee peek under their hood.
Kajabi
✔️ Zero transaction fees
✔️ Powerful marketing capabilities
✔️ 14-day free trial
$119+
PER MONTH
Academy of Mine
Academy of Mine is the most expensive online course platform on this list.
Prices at Academy of Mine start at an eye-watering $599 per month! But, as you would expect for that amount of money, you do get a lot of features included.
In their first plan – Essentials – you get up to 2 hours of custom programming hours every month. The guys at Academy of Mine will work with you to create a bespoke online course school to fully fit your brand. This is what sets it apart from the other online course platforms.
As well as the customization help, all plans include unlimited students, unlimited course, quizzes, assignments, badges/gamification, certificate templates and much more.
If you’re starting out, then Academy of Mine will seem like an overkill option. But, it could be worth thinking about in the future if you are serious about your online course side hustle.
Academy of Mine
✔️ Custom programming included
✔️ Unlimited students
✔️ 30-day free trial
$599+
PER MONTHTry Academy of Mine For Free
Udemy
Udemy’s free courses are similar in concept to Coursera’s but additionally allows users to build custom courses from lessons.
Working with many top professors and schools, the site mixes the customizable platform of other sites with a heavy emphasis on top-quality content. This is another site, however, that mixes free and paid content.
Lifehack Fast Track Class
Lifehack believes in skills that multiply your time, energy, and overall quality of life.
In this rapidly changing world, traditional education skills just don’t cut it anymore. You can’t afford to take years learning a skill you’ll never really practice. Besides offering some paid courses that will help you become a better self, it offers a list of free courses which aim to train some of the Core Life Multipliers including:
- How to stop procrastinating to reach your goal – Hack Your Procrastination
These are cross-functional skills that work across many aspects of life.
Academic Earth
Another site with courses from many different schools is Academic Earth. Much like the three sites above, Academic Earth brings together top notch courses from many different sources and focuses on offering a wide variety of subjects.
Academic Earth lists courses by subject and school, so it might be easier to find what you’re looking for.
Conclusion
You don’t need to wait until you can afford a full course to start your learning experience without paying anything at all. I’ve created this list of the best free online learning platforms so that you learn more about these sites and get started on your new journey whether you’re a student or teacher.