The best online course software in 2027

Hosting courses, collecting payments and guiding students through to the last lesson: that is what you expect from an online course platform. This ranking compares ten tools, from the best-known names to French vendors, on course creation, selling, community and how clear the offer is for a trainer based in France. Each profile is based solely on the pages published by the vendor, consulted in October 2026.

The 10 best software for selling online courses in 2027

1. Kajabi: to sell courses, coaching, community, newsletter and podcast from a single tool.
2. Teachable: to sell in many countries, with local payment methods and taxes handled.
3. Thinkific: for academies that also sell to businesses, with invoicing and per-seat licenses.
4. LearnWorlds: for training organizations and companies that want an academy under their own brand.
5. Podia: for creators who want courses, community, emails and website in the same place.
6. LearnyBox: for French-speaking trainers who want sales funnels, emails and webinars in the same platform.
7. Skool: to sell access to a community that holds your courses and your live calls.
8. SchoolMaker: to get students to finish your courses, with an AI coach trained on your content.
9. Teachizy: to start for free with a French tool that describes itself as Qualiopi-compatible.
10. Mighty Networks: to build a paid community under your brand, with courses and events.

Why does the choice of an online course platform matter in 2027?

Selling an online course to a consumer is a distance sale, with the rules that come with it. Service Public, the French government's official information site, points this out: a distance buyer has at least 14 days to change their mind. Digital content supplied on an intangible medium is an exception, on two conditions: performance has begun with the customer's agreement, and the customer has waived their right of withdrawal. If the seller did not inform the buyer of this right, the period is extended by 12 months.

Selling across borders raises another question, that of VAT. According to impots.gouv.fr, the French tax administration's site, services supplied to consumers in another EU country are taxable in the country where the buyer lives. Below a threshold of €10,000 excluding VAT per year of such sales to other EU countries (electronically supplied services, such as a pre-recorded course, and distance sales of goods), a micro-enterprise established in a single member state stays under its own country's VAT; above it, the VAT One-Stop Shop lets you declare from France the VAT due elsewhere. Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific and Podia advertise automatic tax calculation: ask what is calculated, and who remains liable.

Finally, if you are targeting public training funds, Qualiopi certification comes into play. The DREETS Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (the regional office of the French labor and economy administration) explains that the law of September 5, 2018 requires this certification from all training providers that want to benefit from public or pooled funds, and that it came into force on January 1, 2022. The mark is issued by third-party bodies accredited or authorized by Cofrac, the French accreditation committee, after an initial audit. For their part, Teachizy, LearnyBox, SchoolMaker and LearnWorlds highlight features designed with this certification in mind.

How did we rank these platforms?

We applied four criteria to what each vendor publishes on its site: the homepage, a features page and the pricing page, read in October 2026, with no paid testing and no commercial partnership of any kind.

1. Creating courses and getting them finished. Lesson editor, quizzes, assignments, certificates, drip release of modules, progress tracking, import of existing content and AI writing help.

2. Selling and collecting payment. Checkout page, subscriptions, installment payments, tax handling, and above all the share of each sale the platform keeps.

3. Running a community. Discussion spaces, events and live sessions, coaching, a mobile app for students.

4. Clarity for a French trainer. French-language site, prices published in euros stating excl. or incl. VAT, features useful to training organizations.

The 10 best software for selling online courses: the profiles

1. Kajabi

Kajabi brings online courses, coaching, communities, memberships, newsletters and podcasts together on one platform.

Kajabi offers subscriptions, one-time payments and payment plans, add-on offers before and after purchase, and automatic tax calculation. Marketing emails, landing pages and sales funnels are advertised as unlimited. The latest additions bet on AI: Cofounder, an AI partner that knows your business, prepares your plan and writes your launch, and an MCP connection, a protocol that lets you drive Kajabi from the AI tool you already use.

Best for: experts who sell several formats (courses, coaching, community, newsletter, podcast) and want to replace several tools with a single subscription.

Strengths: the platform takes no share of your sales, apart from payment processing fees; the Pro offer is aimed, according to the FAQ, at those who want their own app in the App Store; every plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Limitations: site in English only. The Basic offer is limited to 5 products, 2,500 contacts and 2 admins, and extra contacts are bought in blocks of 25,000. In countries where Kajabi Payments is available, collecting through another provider adds fees, from 2% on Basic to 0.5% on Pro. The FAQ itself acknowledges that Kajabi is expensive if you are only looking for a course delivery tool.

Pricing: prices published in dollars on the site; free trial offered.

2. Teachable

Teachable lets you sell four formats: online courses with videos, quizzes and drip lessons, one-on-one or group coaching with scheduling and payment, downloadable digital products and subscription memberships. Students follow their courses on the web or in the iOS and Android apps.

Teachable Payments accepts more than 35 local payment methods and handles US sales tax, VAT and GST in more than 45 countries. On the AI side, the Course Starter writes a course outline, content and sales page in a few minutes, and a built-in service transcribes your videos with automatic translations into more than 70 languages.

Best for: creators who sell in many countries and want to leave local payment methods and taxes to the platform.

Strengths: no platform commission on sales from the Builder offer; AI creation tools on every offer, with as many course drafts as you want; unlimited enrolled students and video storage up to 1 TB.

Limitations: site in English only. The Starter offer takes a 7.5% fee on each sale and is limited to 5 products. Course certificates, removal of Teachable branding and free captions and translations come with the Growth offer, and the Starter and Builder offers include only one admin.

Pricing: prices published in dollars on the site; 7-day free trial and 30-day guarantee.

3. Thinkific

Thinkific combines a drag-and-drop course builder, sales tools and a community housed in the learners' space, the Learner Hub. Courses can be self-paced, cohort-based with live sessions, or blended, with quizzes, assignments, certificates and learning paths. The vendor also mentions AI-assisted course generation and import of videos, slides and SCORM packages, the standard format for exchanging e-learning content.

Thinkific hosts the checkout page and handles subscriptions, payment plans, coupons and bundles. Buyers see the price in their local currency, sales tax and VAT are calculated automatically, and sales to businesses go through invoicing, purchase orders and per-seat licenses.

Best for: academies and companies that also sell seats to other businesses, with built-in invoicing.

Strengths: unlimited courses from the Basic offer, with a community, the checkout page and abandoned cart reminders; unlimited Zoom sessions and booking calendars from the Start offer; phone support and priority chat from the Grow offer.

Limitations: site in English only. The AI teaching assistant, single sign-on (SSO) and SCORM learning paths are listed in the top offer, to be negotiated with the sales team. The branded mobile app is an option, and Thinkific branding only disappears from the Grow offer.

Pricing: Basic, Start and Grow offers published on the site's pricing page, billed monthly or annually; Plus offer on request; free trial.

4. LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is an LMS platform, learning management software, hosted in the cloud. It is aimed at course creators, training organizations and companies that train their employees, customers or partners. The AI assistant helps structure and write courses, and the visual editor brings together interactive video, assessments, certificates and SCORM content.

The sales side covers courses, bundles and subscriptions, with sales pages, one-click sales funnels, add-on offers and payments by Google Pay, Apple Pay, Klarna or SEPA direct debit. For training organizations, the vendor describes academies branded for each client, managed from a single platform, with the tracking and certificates of completion to include in the Qualiopi file.

Best for: training organizations and companies that train their customers or several organizations, under their own brand.

Strengths: a site written in French all the way to the pricing page, where prices are shown in euros excluding taxes; more than 50 native integrations, including HubSpot, Stripe, Shopify and Mailchimp; migration handled by its teams, as an add-on, with customers already moved over from Kajabi, Thinkific, Teachable or Podia.

Limitations: the Starter offer charges €5 per paid enrollment and is limited to 1,000 monthly active learners and one admin. Full white label starts with the Learning Center offer, and the branded mobile app is sold as an add-on.

Pricing: Starter at €24 per month billed annually (€29 monthly), Pro Trainer at €79 (€99), Learning Center at €249 (€299), excl. VAT, price checked on October 10, 2026; Corporate on quote; 30-day free trial with no credit card.

5. Podia

Podia groups courses, community, coaching, events, digital products, emails and your website in a single subscription. Courses accept unlimited students, video, audio or text lessons, quizzes, drip release, cohorts and completion certificates.

The checkout page accepts Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay and regional methods such as SEPA direct debit, offers installment payments and calculates taxes in 230 jurisdictions. The built-in website includes a blog, landing pages and SEO settings for title tags and descriptions.

Best for: creators who want courses, community, emails and website in the same place, without stitching several tools together.

Strengths: a 14-day free trial with no credit card, with access to every feature; no Podia fees on sales from the Shaker offer; migration help included in all plans, up to 50 products on Mover and 150 on higher offers.

Limitations: several blocks of the French site, including part of the homepage, remain in English. The Mover offer takes 5% transaction fees, and the grid only lists PayPal, affiliates, upsells and Zapier from Shaker. Podia Email is included for up to 100 subscribers on Mover and 500 on Shaker.

Pricing: prices published in dollars on the site, including on the French page.

6. LearnyBox

LearnyBox combines course hosting, sales funnels, email marketing, webinars and payment collection in a single platform. Courses take videos, PDFs and audio files, with progressive release of modules and tracking of members' progress.

LearnyBox generates conversion funnels from templates, with add-on offers and the addition of Google Tag Manager and Meta Pixel tracking tags, opt-in pages with built-in A/B tests and automated email sequences. Webinars run live or as automated replays. Invoices go out automatically with each purchase, and VAT is handled from within the app.

Best for: French-speaking trainers who want to replace their funnel tool, their email marketing and their webinar tool with a single platform.

Strengths: a free plan with no credit card or commitment; prices published in euros excluding taxes; a team the vendor presents as 100% French, and a solution it says complies with Qualiopi and the GDPR.

Limitations: the free plan is limited to one course, 20 learners and €1,000 in sales, and the Launch offer to 10 courses and 100 learners. White label and the advanced LMS are reserved for the Scale offer, and support goes through tickets, with a stated response time of 48 hours (24 hours on Scale).

Pricing: Free at €0 excl. VAT, Launch at €39 excl. VAT per month (€390 excl. VAT per year), Boost at €89 excl. VAT per month (€890 excl. VAT per year), Scale at €149 excl. VAT per month (€1,490 excl. VAT per year), price checked on October 10, 2026.

7. Skool

Skool is first and foremost a community platform: its homepage works as a directory where you discover communities, free or paid, or create your own. Courses sit in a Classroom space, next to the discussions: courses, pages, videos, resources, searchable transcripts and progress tracking.

A calendar shows events in each member's time zone, with email reminders. Gamification (points, levels, rewards) can give access to courses as members progress, and one click is enough to send a post to all members by email.

Best for: creators whose main offer is access to a community, with courses and live calls included.

Strengths: unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls from the Hobby offer; a single login and a single profile for all groups; a 14-day free trial.

Limitations: the site mentions no quizzes, no certificates and no sales pages. Emails go to all members, with no segmentation. The Hobby offer takes 10% transaction fees, compared with 2.9% on Pro.

Pricing: prices published in dollars on the site.

8. SchoolMaker

SchoolMaker puts the emphasis on student success: the vendor promises courses your clients actually finish. The platform brings together courses, a built-in community, consultations and live sessions, coaching, assignments with feedback and individual learner tracking, with a mobile app for your school.

Its AI coach has access to your courses and answers your students; you choose which courses and documents it knows, and which members can use it. The AI also writes a quiz from any lesson. For training organizations, the homepage announces CPF exports (CPF being France's personal training account) linked to Qualiopi.

Best for: experts who sell coaching programs and want to track, then improve, each student's progress.

Strengths: no SchoolMaker commission on sales, only Stripe's standard fees apply; API, MCP and webhooks, Zapier and Make integrations on every plan; a refund is possible within 30 days of the first payment.

Limitations: each plan caps the number of members, from 100 on Lite to 5,000 on Business, and beyond that the offer is custom. The Lite plan, reserved for new customers, is limited to one course and keeps the SchoolMaker badge always visible; free migration starts with the Starter plan.

Pricing: Lite at €24 per month billed annually (€29 monthly), Starter at €79 (€99), Pro at €149 (€179) and Business at €229 (€279), excluding local taxes, price checked on October 10, 2026; 14-day free trial.

9. Teachizy

Teachizy is a French LMS tool that promises a first online course created in one hour. Lessons are built in blocks, with videos, audio, quizzes, assignments and challenges, and the tool adds a CRM for learners, a community, anti-dropout emails, gamification and a satisfaction check right after training.

Teachizy offers sales pages, promo codes, installment payments through Stripe, affiliate programs and abandoned cart reminders. The vendor presents its tool as Qualiopi-compatible, with built-in certificates and tracking, and hosted on servers in France. A separate offer, Teachizy+, targets schools, CFAs (French apprenticeship training centers) and in-house training.

Best for: independent trainers and French training organizations that want to start for free, including under Qualiopi.

Strengths: a free-forever Découverte offer; unlimited learners, courses and sales from the Pro offer; free coaching and priority access to support on Pro.

Limitations: the free offer is limited to 3 courses and 70 learners, with a 9% commission on sales. SCORM import is in beta, reserved for the Expert offer, and accepts only one course per file; the multilingual option, also on Expert, lets you switch the platform to English.

Pricing: Pro at €49 incl. VAT per month (€490 incl. VAT per year), Expert at €99 incl. VAT per month (€990 incl. VAT per year), with no commitment, price checked on October 10, 2026.

10. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks brings together community, courses and events, with real iOS and Android apps for your members. Courses can be on demand, cohort-based or live, with quizzes and tests, badges and certifications awarded automatically, and an instant AI-generated course outline.

On the payment side, you charge for access to your whole network or to one space, by subscription or one-time payment, with several pricing tiers, free trials, promo codes and hundreds of currencies. With Mighty Pro, the most complete offer, you get your own branded apps and community management services.

Best for: creators building a paid community under their brand, with courses and live events.

Strengths: unlimited members and spaces; live streaming included, from 20 hours per month; a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

Limitations: branded apps go through Mighty Pro, on quote. Access to APIs, MCP and third-party integrations starts with the Scale offer, and transaction fees of 2%, 1% or 0.5% apply depending on the offer. Part of the French site remains in English.

Pricing: prices published in dollars on the site, including on the French page.

The 10 online course platforms compared

Prices checked on October 10, 2026 on the vendors' websites. Four tools publish a price in euros on a French-language page; the others show their prices in dollars, or on a pricing page in English.

Software	What sets it apart	French-language site	Share taken from your sales	Entry price published in euros
Kajabi	Courses, coaching, community, newsletter and podcast in a single tool	No	No commission; 2% to 0.5% with a third-party payment provider	No, prices in dollars
Teachable	Local payment methods, taxes handled in more than 45 countries	No	7.5% on Starter, 0% after that	No, prices in dollars
Thinkific	Sales to businesses: invoices, purchase orders, licenses	No	Not stated in the plan grid	Pricing page in English, amounts not included
LearnWorlds	Academies branded for each client, interactive video	Yes	€5 excl. VAT per paid enrollment on Starter, none after that	€24 excl. VAT per month billed annually
Podia	Courses, community, emails and website in one subscription	Partly	5% on Mover, 0% after that	No, prices in dollars
LearnyBox	Built-in sales funnels, emails and webinars	Yes	Not stated; sales capped at €1,000 on the free plan	Free, then €39 excl. VAT per month
Skool	Community first, courses and live calls included	Partly	10% on Hobby, 2.9% on Pro	No, prices in dollars
SchoolMaker	AI coach trained on your courses, completion tracking	Yes	No commission	€24 per month billed annually (€29 monthly), excluding local taxes
Teachizy	French tool, servers in France, free plan	Yes	9% on the free plan	Free, then €49 incl. VAT per month
Mighty Networks	Community under your brand, native mobile apps	Partly	2%, 1% or 0.5% depending on the offer	No, prices in dollars

On top of these amounts come the fees of the payment provider, Stripe or PayPal, which Podia and SchoolMaker point out on their pricing pages.

Other course platforms worth knowing

Software	What it does, according to its site
LearnDash	LMS plugin for WordPress, with a drag-and-drop course builder, quizzes and memberships, with no per-student fees.
Circle	Community platform that brings community, events and courses together under your own brand.
Graphy	Platform to create and sell courses, memberships and digital products.
Tutor LMS	WordPress learning management plugin, available as a free download.
LifterLMS	WordPress plugin to create and sell online courses and memberships.
Coursify.me	French-language platform to create your online school and sell courses, with free access to get started.
Coachy	Platform for courses, member areas and employee training, hosted in the European Union.
Uscreen	Video membership platform for creators, with apps, community and live streaming.
Zenler	All-in-one platform for course creators, coaches and trainers: courses, coaching, emails, sales funnels and communities.
EzyCourse	Platform to create, market, sell and deliver your courses in one place.
Heights Platform	Software to create and sell courses, community and coaching, with an AI assistant and coach.

What should you check before choosing?

1. What share of each sale does the platform keep? Entry offers often take a commission: 7.5% at Teachable on Starter, 5% at Podia on Mover, 10% at Skool on Hobby, 9% on Teachizy's free plan, €5 excl. VAT per paid enrollment on LearnWorlds' Starter offer. Work out the revenue level at which the higher, commission-free offer becomes cheaper.

2. Which cap will you hit first? Each vendor limits something different: active learners at LearnWorlds, contacts at Kajabi, products at Teachable, members at SchoolMaker. Project your numbers one year ahead.

3. Who calculates taxes, and on which invoice? If you sell to consumers in several countries, ask whether the platform applies the right VAT rate, whether it issues the invoices and under whose name, and what remains for you to declare.

4. Does the checkout page handle withdrawal rights? For immediate access to lessons, you must be able to inform the buyer of their right of withdrawal and record their waiver. Check that the terms of sale and the checkbox can be set up on the checkout page.

5. Can you leave with your students? LearnWorlds and Podia help you migrate to them, and Teachizy mentions import and export of learner data. Before signing, ask how to export your content, your learners and your active subscriptions.

Where does this ranking stop?

It describes offers without having used them. We opened no school, published no course and paid for no course as a student. The video player, support and migration are judged during a trial, and all ten vendors offer a free trial or a free plan. Our reading of the sites has its blind spots: a tool described in a few lines on its site may seem poorer than it really is.

It follows a precise scope. We kept the software that hosts and sells courses. Corporate training platforms, such as 360Learning, are left out. Skool and Mighty Networks are included because they sell access to a community that holds courses.

It does not know your business. A coach working with thirty people and an organization that invoices companies do not need the same tool. Compare the caps of each offer with your numbers, read the Best for line, then the rank. We will update this page as offers change; confirm each amount with the vendor before subscribing.

How do you get future students to find your courses?

A course platform hosts your courses, takes payment for your sales and moves your students forward. Podia and LearnyBox add a website with a blog. Getting found by a future student who searches for a course on Google, or who asks ChatGPT which one to take, takes regular work: publishing content that answers their questions, then checking what AIs say about your offer.

Sorank is an SEO and GEO platform on autopilot: it identifies your keywords, writes and publishes articles optimized for AIs, then tracks, prompt by prompt, the answers in which an AI cites you; the GEO software page details these features. Sorank works with the sites of the top five in this ranking, and a guide details the settings for each: Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, LearnWorlds and Podia. To see how this would apply to your courses, book a call.

Conclusion

Three profiles, three choices: Teachizy for a French trainer or training organization that wants to start for free and is preparing for Qualiopi, with a tool hosted on servers in France; LearnWorlds for an academy under your brand that also trains clients or companies, with prices in euros excluding taxes; Kajabi for an expert comfortable with an English-language tool, who sells courses, coaching, community, newsletter and podcast from a single subscription.

If your offer is built mainly around a paid community, compare Skool and Mighty Networks; if you want sales funnels, emails and webinars in the same platform, with prices published in euros, look at LearnyBox. Before migrating, open a trial, publish a test lesson and go through the checkout page as a student would.