Online course platforms, 2026.

A directory of online course platforms and providers. Compare course builders, marketplaces, membership and coaching tools, business and school LMSs, authoring and assessment software, university MOOCs, and course sites for coding, languages, exam prep and kids.

One entry per product

Best Online Course Platforms lists more than 2,000 products for teaching and learning online, one entry per product. Teachable is one listing, and so is a regional marketplace such as Hahow. A product appears in every category its own pages qualify it for, with the same write-up behind it each time, so a platform that hosts courses, runs a paid community and ships a branded app shows up under all three.

The 51 categories follow three kinds of reader. Eight are for people who make and sell courses, fifteen are for organizations that train staff, students or customers, and the rest are for people who want to take a course.

For creators and course businesses

All-in-One Course Platforms is the main creator shelf. Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia and LearnWorlds sit there beside a long tail of smaller and regional builders that combine a course player, a student area and a checkout. Course Marketplaces for Instructors are the other route, where Udemy, Skillshare, Domestika, Inflearn or Stepik bring the buyers and pay the instructor a share. Membership and Community Platforms such as Circle, Mighty Networks and MemberSpace put the course inside a paid community, and Cohort-Based and Live Class Platforms like Maven, Disco and Teachfloor are built around a start date and live sessions rather than a library of recordings.

Coaching Platforms holds both the software a coach runs a practice on, such as CoachAccountable and Delenta, and the coaching that companies buy for their staff, such as CoachHub and BetterUp. WordPress LMS Plugins, including LearnDash, LifterLMS, Tutor LMS and Sensei LMS, turn a WordPress site into a course school. White-Label Course Apps such as Passion.io, Graphy and Classplus put a course business into its own mobile app. Video Hosting for Online Courses lists video hosts that cater to teaching, from VdoCipher and Spotlightr for creators to Panopto and Kaltura for campuses and companies.

For companies, schools and training teams

LMS for Business and Teams is the largest category, with 360Learning, Docebo, TalentLMS and Absorb LMS among hundreds of systems that assign training and report on who finished it. Narrower shelves cover one job each. Training Management Systems such as Administrate, accessplanit and Training Orchestra handle the scheduling and administration around instructor-led courses. Microlearning Platforms like Axonify, eduMe and Qstream deliver short lessons to a phone, and Sales Training Platforms, among them Mindtickle, Allego, Seismic and Showpad, coach sales teams. Customer Education Platforms such as Thought Industries train a company's customers and partners, and Association LMS, with BenchPrep, YourMembership, Blue Sky eLearn and Crowd Wisdom, serves associations that sell courses to their members.

Off-the-Shelf Training Libraries like BizLibrary, Go1 and LinkedIn Learning sell ready-made courses for an employer to assign, and Compliance and Safety Training, with KnowBe4, NAVEX and iHasco, covers the topics a business is required to train on. Schools and universities have LMS for Schools and Universities (Canvas by Instructure, Blackboard, D2L Brightspace, itslearning) and Open-Source LMS (Moodle, Open edX, Chamilo, Sakai, ILIAS).

The tools for building and testing courses have their own shelves. Course Authoring Tools includes Articulate 360, Easygenerator, Adapt Learning and the AI video maker Colossyan, and Simulation and VR Training Tools includes BranchTrack, Attensi and Virti. Quiz and Assessment Tools such as ClassMarker, FlexiQuiz and ExamSoft build and grade tests, Online Proctoring Software like Proctorio, Honorlock, ProctorU and Respondus supervises them, and Classroom Engagement Tools such as Kahoot!, Mentimeter, Nearpod and Wooclap run live quizzes and polls in class.

For learners

MOOCs and University Online Courses lists Coursera, edX, FutureLearn, openHPI and France Université Numérique, and Executive Education and University Certificates covers paid programs such as Harvard Business School Online, Wharton Executive Education, Stanford Online and Emeritus. Government Online Courses gathers the courses public bodies publish themselves, among them the SBA Learning Center, the TESDA Online Program and WTO e-Learning. Multi-Subject Course Subscriptions such as LinkedIn Learning, MasterClass and Centre of Excellence sell a whole catalog, while Distance Learning Courses lists colleges like Open Study College, Oxford Home Study Centre, Euroinnova and LOI.

Most learner categories are about one subject. Coding and Tech Skills Courses includes Codecademy, freeCodeCamp, Boot.dev and CodeCrafters, with Cybersecurity Training (TryHackMe, Hack The Box, PortSwigger Web Security Academy, SANS Institute), Coding Bootcamps (Le Wagon, Flatiron School, Ironhack, Hack Reactor) and Data Science and AI Courses (DataCamp, Dataquest, fast.ai) beside it. Creative and Design Courses has Domestika, CreativeLive, Craftsy and CG Spectrum, and Online Music Lessons has Yousician, flowkey, TrueFire and Pickup Music. Language Learning Apps and Courses (Duolingo, Busuu, Glossika, ELSA Speak) sits next to Online Language Schools such as Lingoda and Berlitz, which teach with live teachers, and Online Tutoring Platforms such as GoStudent, Cuemath and Codementor match a learner with a tutor. Business and Marketing Courses (Digital Marketing Institute, Foundr, AIHR), Finance and Investing Courses (Corporate Finance Institute, Breaking Into Wall Street, CFA Institute), Health, Fitness and Nutrition Courses (ISSA, American Council on Exercise, Institute for Integrative Nutrition) and Personal Development Courses (Mindvalley, Sounds True, Hay House Online Learning) round out the subjects.

Exams and careers get six categories. Certification and Licensing Exam Prep includes Becker, CBT Nuggets and Achievable, Admissions Test Prep includes Magoosh, Manhattan Prep, 7Sage and The Princeton Review, and Nursing and Medical Exam Prep includes UWorld, AMBOSS, Archer Review and OnlineMedEd. Government Exam Prep covers civil service and public exam coaching such as Testbook, Oliveboard and Unacademy. Continuing Education for Licensed Professionals (ASHP Learning Center, Ausmed) and Teacher Professional Development (Bureau of Education & Research, Model Teaching, Credits for Teachers) are for people who must keep earning credits after they qualify.

Four categories are for children. K-12 and Kids Learning has Khan Academy, IXL and Outschool, Online Homeschool Curriculum has Time4Learning, Miacademy and Abeka, Coding for Kids has Code.org, Tynker, CodeMonkey and CodeCombat, and Math Programs for Kids has Beast Academy, Zearn, Math Academy and Prodigy Math and English.

Before you choose

If you are selling, work out the fees at your own sales volume. A platform that takes a cut of each sale on a cheap plan can cost more than a flat-fee plan once sales grow, and a marketplace share is a different trade again, audience in exchange for price control and the student list. Check whether you can export your students and content if you leave. If you are learning, find out whether you are buying lifetime access or a subscription window, and whether the certificate at the end is one anyone else will recognize. If you are buying for an organization, ask whether the courses you build can leave with you, usually as SCORM or xAPI packages, before you commit to a multi-year contract. Prices, plans and course catalogs change often, so confirm them on the provider's own site before you pay.