Creating an online course? You're in the right place. This guide unpacks all the best tools for course creation, helping you turn expertise into profit.

From the platforms you need to host your course to the tools you need to market it, we've got you covered. Here are all the tools we'll talk about:

Course platforms

Podia

Podia is an all-in-one platform for digital products.

Podia is robust but user-friendly, designed to manage online courses, memberships, and digital downloads in one place. With no transaction fees and a straightforward setup process, it's geared towards solo entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Some of the things we like most about Podia are its robust email marketing tools, the ability to handle webinars, and how customizable the storefront is.

Teachable

Teachable is probably one of the easiest course creation tools to use.

Known for its ease of use, Teachable provides course creators with customizable templates and a really intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

It offers in-depth analytics, student engagement tools, and native quizzes.

Teachable can get a bit pricey though. The basic plan starts from $59/month and comes with 5% fees on transactions.

Kajabi

Comprehensive and pricey. Kajabi is an all-in-one solution for selling courses, memberships, and digital products. Known for its automation capabilities and in-depth customer tracking. Suitable for large businesses with a bigger budget, but can be overwhelming for solopreneurs.

Skool

Skool platform is relatively new compared to the others on this list.

Skool is a community platform for creators with lots of features for building online courses like Group funnels, Subscription memberships, Coaching Programs, and much more.

Thinkific

Thinkific offers maximum control over course design and student data.

It's known for its flexibility and educator-friendly policies. Thinkific provides the tools for course marketing, delivery, and student management. And even better, it's got a free plan!

Maven

Maven specializes in cohort-based courses.

It provides tools for live sessions, interactive projects, and community building.

If you prefer live, dynamic teaching environments over pre-recorded videos, Maven is the tool for you.

Superpeer

Superpeer focuses on 1-1 video sessions. It allows experts to monetize their time through pay-per-minute consultations or pre-set session pricing.

Great for individual coaching but not for large-scale course hosting.

Filming tools

Tella

Tella is a hip video editing and screen recording software optimized for creating tutorials and presentations.

It offers a ton of pre-made templates and interactive elements, making it useful for course creators looking to add a polished look to their content quickly.

Loom

Loom is a simple screen and video recording tool with cloud storage. Great for creating quick explanatory videos or tutorials.

It provides basic editing features and allows instant sharing, making it a convenient option for quick, informal content creation.

Veed

If you want to promote your course on social media, Veed is a must-have.

Veed is a video editor geared towards social media content but applicable to course creators. It offers easy-to-use editing tools like subtitling, effects, and audio improvements. Really good for short, engaging educational clips.

Cleanshot

Arguably the best screen recording software on a mac. Cleanshot is known for its clutter-free interface and high-quality output. Useful for course creators using Mac, offering easy-to-use annotation tools and quick sharing options.

Design tools

Canva

Everyone and their grandma knows Canva now. Its been around for over 10 years!

It's super user-friendly and perfect for those who aren't design experts but still want to create killer graphics. From social media posts to course slides, it's got you covered.

The best thing about Canva is probably its thousands of hand-crafted templates. No need to start from scratch!

Figma

If you're a course creator, Figma can be a hidden gem for you.

It's not just for UI/UX designers; you can use it to make stunning graphics for your course material, or even collaborate on designs with a team in real-time. It's a versatile tool that can make your course look polished and professional.

Brandbird

Brandbird lets you create incredible graphics from your screenshots in seconds.

Gone are the days of sharing dry screenshots on social media. With Brandbird, you can add beautiful backgrounds and mockups to your screenshots in seconds.

Pika

Pika is a lot like Brandbird, but it also lets you do much more than create beautiful screenshots.

Create images for icons, cards, tweets, social media, and much more, from one neatly designed app.

Copy tools

Craft

Craft is much more than a note-taking or document creation tool.

Use it for content planning and organization. You can think of it as a sophisticated digital notebook that helps you outline your course modules, manage resources, and even draft course content. The interface is clean, making it easier to focus on your ideas. The best part? It's available on mac and windows via the web interface.

Customer Copy Bot

The customer copy bot is a tool by Senja that allows you to generate marketing copy from your customers' words with AI.

Just import your testimonials and Senja's Customer Copy bot will use them to create compelling course descriptions, sales emails, or ad copy. Saves a ton of time on the marketing side of course creation.

Copy.ai

Another tool in the automated copywriting space. Copy.ai like having an assistant that helps you brainstorm and write content, whether it's for your course landing page, emails, or social media. Just input your requirements and watch it churn out options for you.

Jasper

Formerly Jarvis, Jasper is an AI-driven writing assistant that's more versatile than just copywriting. From blog posts to course outlines, it can help you generate a variety of content types. Great for when you're multitasking on different aspects of your course.

ChatGPT

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've most likely heard of ChatGPT by now.

Use it to brainstorm course ideas, write copy, summarise feedback, and much more.

Hemingway

Hemingway is a must if you're doing any writing for your course. It helps simplify and improve your text, making it more engaging and easier to understand. It highlights long sentences, unnecessary adverbs, and complicated words, guiding you toward clearer communication.

Marketing

Senja

Nobody buys from people they don't trust. That's where Senja comes in.

Senja helps you collect text and video testimonials from your customers and display them on your site with just a few clicks.

Senja has dozens of testimonial images, Wall of Love designs and testimonial widgets to pick from that make it easy to turn your happy customers into your most powerful sales asset.

Ewebinar

Ewebinar is an automated webinar solution that lets you turn live presentations into evergreen content. If you're into leveraging webinars for course promotion or as part of your course content, this can help you reach people 24/7. You set it up once, and it runs on autopilot.

Feedhive

Feedhive is probably the best tool for scheduling social media content.

Good for course creators who need to manage a content calendar and want analytics at their fingertips. Helps keep your social presence consistent while you focus on course development.

Frase SEO

Frase is designed to optimize your course landing page or blog posts. It analyzes top-performing content and offers SEO suggestions to make your page more discoverable. If you want your course to rank well on search engines, this is a tool to consider.

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads are nearly indispensable for any online course creator looking to scale. The targeting options are incredibly detailed, allowing you to reach the exact audience interested in your course topic. A must-have for any serious marketing strategy.

Affiliates

Not a tool per se, but an approach. Setting up an affiliate program can significantly amplify your reach. Many course platforms have built-in affiliate features, making it easy to incentivize and track referrals from your students or partners.

Email marketing

Kit

Kit is an email marketing tool specifically designed for creators and educators. It offers advanced segmentation and automation features, making it easier to target different student profiles or course alumni.

MailerLite

MailerLite is a budget-friendly alternative for email marketing. Simple but effective, it offers most of the essential features like automation, landing pages, and segmentation. A good pick if you're just starting out with your course and have a limited budget.

Email Octopus

Email Octopus is a stripped-down, no-frills email marketing tool. If you're comfortable setting up your own templates and need reliable delivery with basic automation, this could be for you.

Beehiiv

The new, trendy kid on the block. Beehiiv markets itself as "the newsletter platform built for growth."

Beehiiv has all the tools you need to create and monetize a newsletter from scratch.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a jack-of-all-trades in the email marketing world. Beyond just emails, it offers landing pages, social media ads, and even postcards. Good for course creators who want a variety of marketing tools in one place, but it can get pricey as you scale.

Active Campaign

This one is more than just email; it's a full customer experience platform. Active Campaign's strong suit is the automation, which is extremely customizable. If you're looking to build complex student engagement journeys, it's a top-tier choice.