21 Best Website Ideas to Launch an Online Side Business in 2021

Are you looking for website ideas to launch a side business in the new year?

There are tons of opportunities online with profitable website ideas that you can easily transform into a sustainable side income.

In this article, we’ll share the best website ideas to launch this year. We’ll also show you how to easily get started without a big investment.

What You Need to Put Website Ideas into Action

It is a common myth that you need to be tech-savvy or a programmer to start a website. This was probably true in the 90s, but these days you don’t need any special skills to build a website.

Here is what you actually need to make a website:

• A domain name. This will be your website’s address on the internet, e.g. wpbeginner.com).
• Web hosting account. This will be your website’s home and where you’ll store all your website files
• A website builder. We recommend using WordPress.org which is the best website builder powering more than 39% of all websites on the internet.

We recommend using Bluehost to make your website. They are one of the biggest hosting companies in the world and are officially recommended by WordPress.

They are offering WPBeginner users a generous 60% off discount on hosting with a free domain name and free SSL certificate. Basically, you can launch a website for $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

They automatically install WordPress for you, and you can quickly start working on your website idea with in minutes. If you need more help, then follow the steps in our WordPress installation guide to set up your website.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the most profitable website ideas to launch this year and turn them into a viable business.

Here is a quick list of website ideas that we’ll talk about. You can jump to the one that you find interesting or read as you scroll along.

• Start a Personal Blog Website
• Build an Online Store
• Make a Membership Website
• Sell Online Courses
• Create a Dropshipping Website
• Make an Affiliate Website
• Launch a Fashion Blog
• Start a Travel Website
• Make a Food / Recipes Website
• Start a Podcast Website
• Start a Job Hunt Website
• Make a Coupons Website
• Create an Online Marketplace
• Start a Restaurant Website
• Build a Reviews Website
• Make a Photography Website
• Launch a Portfolio Website
• Start an Online Food Delivery Website
• Sell Handicrafts Online
• Start a Pet Owners Community
• Start a News Website

1. Start a Personal Website / Blog

Blogs are a popular website idea that has been around for some time and still going strong. Entrepreneurs like Darren Rowse, John Lee Dumas, and Pat Flynn all started as bloggers and are now making six-figure incomes.

Our company’s CEO, Syed Balkhi, started this blog that led him to build an eight-figure business (see: WPBeginner income).

Launching a blog is pretty easy, and it can be on any topic that you are passionate about. The benefit of starting a blog is that you can later use it as a platform to launch many other website ideas.

There are also a ton of monetization options that make blogging a profitable website idea. You can use programs like Google AdSense to display ads, promote affiliate products, sell direct advertisements, or you can even sell your own products to your readers such as online courses, eBooks, etc.

Need help? See our step by step how to start a blog tutorial where we walk you through every step of the way.

If you need expert help, then we also offer a free WordPress blog setup service where one of our WordPress experts will set up your blog for you.

2. Build an Online Store

Another booming website idea is to build an eCommerce store. A lot of folks think that it is probably too technical to get started, which is not exactly true.

You can easily start selling things online with WooCommerce. It is the world’s most popular eCommerce platform that runs on top of WordPress.

It is super easy to use and allows you to sell any type of digital, virtual, or physical products that need shipping. You can easily accept online payments using PayPal, Stripe, or many other payment services.

For step by step instructions, you can follow our beginner’s guide on how to start an online store.

Need ideas on what to sell on your store? See our tutorial on how to source products to sell online.

3. Make a Membership Website

Another popular website idea that is getting a lot of momentum is to create a membership-based website.

Basically, you restrict access to some content on your website that is only available for paid members. This could be an online course, members-only forums, audio or video content, or anything else.

The easiest way to do this is by using MemberPress. It is a WordPress membership plugin that helps you create subscriptions, restrict access, and sell membership plans on your website.

For details, follow our tutorial on how to make a membership website with step by step instructions.

4. Sell Online Courses

Creating and selling online courses is another popular website idea that is growing really fast.

This growing website niche is fueled by the modern gig economy where people need to learn new skills to find new jobs, improve existing skillsets, or just learn something new as a hobby.

MemberPress is the best WordPress LMS plugin that allows you to easily create and sell online courses on your website.

5. Create a Dropshipping Website

Dropshipping is another growing website idea that you can launch without much investment. A dropshipping store is an online store where you sell products, but they are shipped directly by the vendor.

This saves you from the hassle of managing and storing stuff, keeping up inventory, and shipping things. It also allows you to sell a wide-variety of products.

For more details, see our step by step guide on how to create a dropshipping business for beginners.

6. Make an Affiliate Website

One of the most popular website ideas is to start an affiliate website.

Affiliate marketing is a referral arrangement in which an online retailer (advertiser) pays you a commission when users purchase their product from your referral link.

This is a massive industry which means you can make a niche affiliate website and start building upon it. You can find affiliate programs in nearly every industry.

For example: you can create a website that’s focused entirely on reviewing all the newest women’s handbags, new internet routers, new smartphones, etc.

When users make a purchase based on your recommendation, you get a referral fee.

For a more in-depth discussion, see our beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing which has step by step instructions for new affiliate marketers.

7. Launch a Fashion Blog

Fashion and lifestyle is another profitable website idea that has a ton of potential. There are a lot of fashion bloggers and influencers making six-figure incomes.

You can make money through display ads, affiliate marketing, Instagram partnerships with brands, and more.

With WordPress, you can add all the tools you need to grow your brand. You can use connect your Instagram feed, Youtube videos, find fashion website themes, use advertising plugins, and more.

For details, see our tutorial on how to start a fashion blog and promote it the right way.

8. Start a Travel Website

Making a travel blog is another great website idea that is easy to implement and build upon.

You can be an experienced traveler, vlogger, or marketer promoting different tourist destinations. You can monetize using display ads, travel partnerships, earning perks, and more.

Influential travel bloggers are using their travel blogs to launch different products and making significant passive income.

For more on this, don’t forget to check out our article on how to make a travel website using WordPress.

9. Make a Food / Recipes Website

Food and recipe websites are already a popular website idea with plenty of room for new websites.

You can easily start a blog or website, share recipes, discuss food, health, or other related topics. Most recipe websites make money through ads, affiliate marketing, and by selling membership subscriptions.

WordPress comes with plugins that allow you to easily write recipes in SEO friendly format. For details, you can follow our tutorial on how to create a food website and make money online.

10. Start a Podcast Website

Podcasting is another popular website idea that you can launch. It is a fast-growing niche with tons of monetization options.

A podcast is an episodic series of audio files that users can subscribe to download and listen to.

Successful podcasters are making significant money online through sponsorships, advertisements, selling products, and more. It does require a little bit of hardware and some practice with recording and uploading files.

We have a comprehensive guide on starting a podcast website with step by step instructions.

We also have a list of the best podcast hosting platforms to help you succeed.

11. Start a Job Hunt Website

Another popular website idea is to create a job hunt website. It is easy to monetize, and you make money based on user-generated content.

Basically, a job board website allows companies to post job listings and facilitate job seekers by browsing and searching for jobs.

There are WordPress plugins that help you quickly create a job search engine. You can even accept online payments from employers to post listings.

For details, see our guide on how to create a job board in WordPress.

12. Make a Coupons Website

A coupons website helps customers find coupons and deals for their favorite products.

It connects businesses to the customers and provides them tools to locate deals and discounts. It is monetized by affiliate links, partnerships, and display ads.

You can totally automate your website and allow businesses to submit deals directly. This allows you to make money online with user-generated content.

For more details, see our guide on how to create a coupon site in WordPress.

13. Create an Online Marketplace

Many successful marketers use ideas that involve user-generated content to make money. Creating an online marketplace website is one such website idea that you can easily replicate.

A marketplace website is where you provide an eCommerce platform for others to sell their products. You get a cut on each transaction made on your website while the sellers manage the shipping and fulfillment.

For more details, see our article on creating an online marketplace website with detailed instructions.

14. Start a Restaurant Website

Making a restaurant website is an idea specific to people in the restaurant and food industry. Making a restaurant website allows you to accept table reservations and even accept online orders for food delivery.

With WordPress, you can use tools like WPForms to accept bookings and food delivery orders. It also gives you access to many professionally designed restaurant templates that you can customize to your own needs.

Making a restaurant website also helps you easily promote your business, reach new customers, and strengthen your brand image.

15. Build a Reviews Website

Most users look at online reviews before making a buying decision. This makes a reviews website a really lucrative website idea.

A reviews website could rely on both user-generated and original content. You can make money using display ads, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and more.

We have an article on how to create a niche reviews website with step by step instructions.

16. Make a Photography Website

Another exciting website idea is to launch a photography website. This could be a blog about photography itself, or it could be a place to showcase and sell your own photos.

You can also create a marketplace like Shutterstock where users can sell or buy photographs, illustrations, and other graphic design items.

For more information, take a look at our article on how to make a photography website in WordPress.

17. Launch a Portfolio Website

A great website idea is to make a portfolio website. If you are an artist, photographer, musician, or videographer, then a portfolio website helps you showcase your work and find new opportunities.

However, you don’t need to be an artist to make a portfolio website. The same idea can be used by any kind of professional like writers, web designers, developers, fashion models, and more.

You can use portfolio plugins to showcase your work or choose from these beautiful portfolio themes to get started.

18. Start an Online Food Delivery Website

The online food delivery business is booming and it could be a profitable website idea with a little bit of investment.

You can find local restaurants and create a website that showcases these restaurants and allows customers to order food online. You can then pass the order to the restaurant and they deliver the food.

You can use WPForms to collect food delivery orders. Upon form submission, you can show users a page with estimated delivery time and a phone number to the restaurant.

19. Sell Handicrafts Online

Want to sell your homemade items on the internet? It is really easy to do and could be the beginning of a successful business idea.

You can start an online store using WooCommerce, which is super-easy to set up. Unlike other platforms, WooCommerce doesn’t take a cut out of each transaction you make which is really important for home-based business.

For details, see our guide on how to make an Etsy like store in WordPress.

20. Start a Pets Store / Community

Making an online pets store is another easy to start website idea. It is such a massive industry that you can find many untapped niche ideas catering to specific customers.

You can sell anything on your pet store using WooCommerce. You can also use MemberPress to build a members-only community that generates even more revenue for your business.

21. Start a News Website

If you are into current affairs and politics, then creating a news website could be the money making idea you are looking for.

You can start a news website and monetize it using display ads and by selling membership subscriptions. Many traditional newspapers are already putting their content behind paywalls and monetizing.

You can start small with few articles per week and then build upon that. You can even invite guest authors, start a podcast, and sell merchandise to make a sustainable business.

With local newspapers struggling, there’s a high demand for hyper-local niche news website, and we believe this will be a huge trend going into 2021 and beyond.

We hope this article helped you find the best website idea to launch in the new year. Once you have launched your website, you can see our tips on how to increase your website traffic, and our guide on the best WordPress plugins to grow your online business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 21 Best Website Ideas to Launch an Online Side Business in 2021 appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 19, 2021 at 06:00PM

How to Make a Smart WooCommerce Product Search

Do want to improve the product search in your WooCommerce store?

WooCommerce has a built-in search feature, but it is not very good at finding products. Replacing it with a smarter and faster search improves user experience and brings in more sales.

In this article, we will show you how to make a smart WooCommerce product search for your online store.

Why Add a Smart WooCommerce Product Search to Your Store?

By default, WooCommerce comes with a built-in product search feature, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

It does not look for matches in product attributes, reviews, custom fields, or description. It is also very slow and doesn’t offer a good user experience.

This means that users will not be able to find the products they are looking for, and you will lose potential sales.

Luckily, there are some excellent WooCommerce product search plugins that you can use to remedy that. This will allow you to show more helpful product search results, fetch them faster, and get more product sales.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a smart WooCommerce product search feature to your online store.

Method 1. Make Better WooCommerce Product Search Using Ajax Search for WooCommerce

This method is easier and recommended for most store owners.

For this tutorial, we will be using the pro version of Ajax Search for WooCommerce, which is the best WooCommerce product search plugin on the market.

It looks for the searched keywords in all your products fields including custom fields. The plugin can can also display results without reloading a page, and it is considerably faster than the default WooCommerce search.

There is a free version of this plugin available as well, but it doesn’t have all the powerful features.

First, you need to install and activate the Ajax Search for WooCommerce plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to click on the ‘Ajax Search for WooCommerce’ menu in the WordPress admin sidebar to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the plugin website.

After that, you can visit the WooCommerce » Ajax Search Bar page to configure plugin settings. Simply switch to the ‘Search bar’ tab to get started.

From here, you can choose the appearance of your search box. You can show and hide the button, change the search button label, and replace the placeholder text.

The plugin starts fetching and displaying product results as soon as users start typing. You can customize how many products to show, and how to display instant results.

Simply switch to the ‘Autocomplete’ tab and review the available options. If you are unsure, then you can leave them as they are. The default settings would work for most online stores.

Next, you need to switch to the Search config page. From here, you can tell the plugin which areas to look at when looking for a match.

You can check all the options if you want. You can also select custom fields that you may want to be included in search.

Lastly, the plugin also includes Fuzzy matches. These basically include products that might be close to what users are looking for but not an exact match. We recommend keeping this setting at Normal for more relevant and helpful results.

Finally, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save changes’ button to store all your settings.

Displaying Your WooCommerce Product Search on Your Website

Ajax Search for WooCommerce gives you three ways to add the product search box to your WooCommerce store.

• You can add it to your store’s navigation menu.
• Display it in the sidebar using a widget
• Add it manually to a shop page using the shortcode

Adding WooCommerce Product Search to Navigation Menu

Users are likely to look for the search option near your top navigation menu. The plugin makes it easy to place the product search there.

Simply go to Appearance » Menus page. Make sure that your current navigation menu is selected and then add the ‘AJAX Search Bar’ to your navigation menu.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Menu button to store your settings.

You can now visit your store to see the product search added to your site’s navigation menu.

Adding WooCommerce Product Search to Sidebar Widget

The sidebar is also a popular place to display the product search option.

Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘AJAX search bar’ widget to your sidebar.

Optionally, you can provide a title and choose a layout for your search field from the widget settings.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to save your widget settings.

You can now visit your store and you’ll see the search box in your sidebar.

Adding WooCommerce Product Search using Shortcode

If you are using a custom landing page for your shop page or product catalog, then you may want to display a product search on that particular page or post.

The plugin comes with a shortcode that allows you to easily do that. Simply edit the post or page where you want to display the search box.

On the edit screen, click on the add new block button (+) and then insert the shortcode block. Inside the shortcode block, you can simply enter the following shortcode:

[wcas-search-form]

Don’t forget to publish, save, or update your post / page.

You can now visit that particular page or post to see the on-page search box displayed there.

Method 2. Creating a Smarter WooCommerce Search Using SearchWP

This method is for store owners that also have a lot of non-product related content, and they want to make a better search experience for all their content.

SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin on the market and comes with a WooCommerce addon too that helps you improve WooCommerce product search too.

The advantage of SearchWP is that it also indexes your blog posts and landing pages.

The disadvantage is that their instant search feature doesn’t display product thumbnails in the results. As a store owner, you want a more visual search experience to engage your customers instantly.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the SearchWP plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: You’ll need at least the PRO plan to access the WooCommerce integration.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » SearchWP page and switch to the license tab to enter your license key.

Next, you need to install and activate the WooCommerce Integration extension. You can download it from your account area on SearchWP website and install it as you would install any other WordPress plugin.

Now you are ready to set up your SearchWP custom search engine.

Simply go to Settings » SearchWP page and click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.

This will bring up a popup where you need to make sure that the checkbox next to products is checked.

Next, click on the ‘Done’ button to close the popup and scroll down to the ‘Products’ section.

By default, the plugin will look at the product title, content (description), slug, and excerpt (short description) for matches. You can extend that by clicking on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.

This will bring up a popup where you can check to include reviews or select custom fields and taxonomies. We have added color and size in the custom fields, and product categories, and product tags in the taxonomies.

You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Save Engines’ button to save your settings. It will then start rebuilding your search index in the background.

SearchWP automatically looks for your WooCommerce or WordPress search forms and replaces them. Your WooCommerce theme may already have an option to display the search option.

You can go to your website to try out the search feature. You’ll notice that it is slower and will reload the page to show the search results.

You can change that behavior by downloading the Live Search extension from SearchWP’s website. After downloading it, you can install and activate it like any other WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘SearchWP Live Search’ widget to your sidebar.

Don’t forget to click on the Save button to save your widget settings.

After that, you can visit your website to see your smart WooCommerce search in action. You’ll notice that SearchWP will display products in live search results but without product thumbnails.

Which is the best WooCommerce Product Search Plugin?

Ajax Search for WooCommerce and SearchWP are both good at finding products that your default WooCommerce search would not be able to show.

However, Ajax Search for WooCommerce is faster and offers a better user experience. A faster search feature on an eCommerce store ultimately leads to more sales.

It is also easier to use, and you wouldn’t need to install multiple addons to create a better product search on your site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily make a smart WooCommerce product search for your online store. You may also want to see our pick of the best WooCommerce plugins that help you grow your store, and our comparison of the best business phone services to add a virtual phone number on your site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Make a Smart WooCommerce Product Search appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 18, 2021 at 06:00PM

9 Best Online Course Platforms for 2021 (Compared)

Are you comparing the best online course platforms?

Whether you’re a content creator looking for an online course platform to sell courses, or a student looking to learn from online courses, you’re in the right place.

In this comprehensive guide, we will compare the best online course platforms with their pros and cons.

What to Look for in an Online Course Builder Platform?

Following are a few things that you should look for in an online course builder platform. These things may affect your ability to build better courses and grow your business over time.

1. Course building features

Depending on what kind of online course you want to sell, you may have specific features in mind that you’ll need. For instance, you may want to give assignments to students, create quizzes, or offer multiple payment methods.

Different learning management systems (LMS) offer different course creation features. Make sure you review them before you sign up, so that you don’t have to switch platforms later on.

2. Payment solutions

You may also want to make sure that they offer payment solutions that are affordable for you as the business owner. Some online course builder platforms may charge a percentage of revenue generated from selling each course, and this amount adds up over time.

3. Integrations

Integrations help you connect your online courses to third-party platforms and marketing automation tools. For instance, you may want to connect it with your email marketing service, social media marketing tool, or your CRM software.

Make sure that your online course platform supports third-party integrations and already has many important ones ready to use.

4. Flexibility and freedom

Many online course platforms may have their own terms and conditions that may affect your business. For example, they may not allow you to sell certain types of courses or may have the ability to shutdown your entire business without any notice.

Some platforms compromise on flexibility for ease of use, which means you have less control on your courses, and you cannot add new customization / features on your own course.

5. Ease of use and Support

As a course creator and entrepreneur, you want to choose a course builder that is easy for you to use. It should come with customizable templates, work with your own website, and offer good customer support.

You also want to make sure that it is user-friendly for your students and customers too.

Keeping these criteria in mind, let’s take a look at the best online course platforms on the market today,

Best Online Course Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses

We are breaking our guide into two sections. The first six course platforms are for content creators looking to build and sell online courses.

If you’re looking for best online learning platforms for students, then please click the link to jump to that section.

Having that said, here are the best online course platforms for content creators and teachers:

1. MemberPress

MemberPress is the best WordPress LMS plugin on the market and the easiest way to build online courses.

It runs on top of WordPress, which powers over 39% of all websites on the internet.

MemberPress comes with an online courses addon that allows you to easily create, manage, and sell online courses. Their drag and drop course builder is super easy to use.

You also don’t need to worry about design skills. MemberPress includes a virtual classroom functionality that takes care of styling and works with all WordPress themes.

The classroom mode is designed to offer an interactive learning experience on your course website. You can add high-quality video content along with additional downloadable resources.

The best part is that you get access to MemberPress’s powerful content access controls. This allows you to sell unlimited courses with different pricing options and subscription plans.

You can also add digital downloads with access control, so only logged-in students can access them.

MemberPress checkout seamlessly integrates with your email marketing service, so you can add each student to your email list, so you can notify them of new course upsell or discounts in the future.

You can add a discussion forum using bbPress to boost engagement, add a referral system or affiliate program using Affiliate Royale to boost sales, and create custom sales pages / webinar pages using SeedProd to grow your online course business.

Pros:

• MemberPress is extremely easy for use even for beginners. You don’t need any coding skills to use it.
• Visual course builder makes it very easy to create courses for educators.
• It offers a better learning experience for students with the classroom mode
• Ability to drip course content, sell group memberships, and all the powerful membership features.
• You have the freedom to set your own course prices, charge upfront vs subscription payments, have multiple pricing options for your online school, and more.
• It supports multiple payment gateways such as Stripe and Authorize.net for credit cards and full PayPal support.
• It does not take a percentage of your course sales like other platforms.
• MemberPress integrates with all popular email marketing services like MailChimp, and they also have a Zapier integration that lets you connect with over 2000+ apps.
• Since it’s a WordPress plugin, you have the flexibility to customize your website design, add new features, and more without any restrictions.

Cons:

• You’ll need to manage a WordPress site which means installing updates and managing backups.
• If you haven’t used WordPress before, then there might be a slight learning curve as you familiarize yourself with it. Most beginners quickly overcome this phase quite easily.

Pricing: Starts from $149 per year for a single site license (no monthly fee).

How to Get Started with MemberPress:

To build and sell courses with MemberPress, you will need to create a WordPress website.

We have created a complete step by step on how to create a membership site in WordPress with MemberPress.

2. LearnDash

LearnDash is another popular WordPress LMS plugin and online course builder. It allows you to easily sell online courses using WordPress.

LearnDash comes with an intuitive drag and drop course builder that allows you to create any type of course, add interactive video lessons, quizzes, assignments, and more.

You can give all course contents right-way, or use drip content feature to release content as users move along a course. It is super easy to use and gives you lots of tools you would want to see in an LMS platform.

It integrates with all popular payment services, WordPress eCommerce plugins, bbPress, and more. It even works with MemberPress allowing you to let MemberPress manage subscriptions and LearnDash handle the course management.

You can create sales funnels for your courses by using the SeedProd landing page builder, and add gamification by using any of the WordPress gamification plugins.

If you’re looking to create SCORM or TinCan content, then you will need the UncannyOwl Toolkit with the all access pass. They allow you to add many powerful features to LearnDash.

Pros:

• Full fledged WordPress LMS plugin with quizzes, lessons, assignments, certificates, and more.
• Easy to use with a visual course builder that allows you to create interactive online courses.
• Integrations allow you to add third-party tools you’ll need to promote your online course.
• It does not take a percentage of your course sales like other platforms.

Cons:

• Content access controls are not as powerful as MemberPress.
• Less control on creating multiple subscriptions with different access controls.
• Runs on WordPress, so you’ll need to manage your own site, which is pretty easy for most beginners.

Pricing: Starting from $159 for a single site license.

How to Get Started with LearnDash:

To build and sell courses with LearnDash, you will need to create a WordPress website.

To get started, you will need your own domain name and web hosting. Domain name is your website’s address on the internet such as wpbeginner.com, and web hosting is where your website files are stored.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are offering WPBeginner users a generous 60% discount on hosting, a free domain name and free SSL certificate. Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

After your website is setup, you’ll need to install the LearnDash plugin and continue creating your courses.

3. Teachable

Teachable is a hosted all-in-one platform that allows you to easily create courses and sell them without managing any software or installing updates.

You can use Teachable on your own custom domain name or add it as a subdomain to your existing website.

It is super easy to use and allows you an easy drag and drop platform to make courses, upload content, and publish it. It also includes marketing and analytics to help promote your course.

Teachable also takes care of payments for you and offers your customers multiple ways to pay. You can also use its highly optimized sales to create landing pages for your courses.

Pros:

• Incredibly easy to use.
• You don’t need to manage any software installation, updates, or backups.
• You also dont’t need to worry about scaling resources as your business grows.
• Powerful integrations allow you to use third-party tools for marketing and growth.

Cons:

• Teachable is more expensive than MemberPress or LearnDash.
• It also charges 5% transaction fee on each transaction if you are on the basic plan.

Pricing Starting from $29 per month for basic plan with 5% transaction fee. You can upgrade to the Pro plan which has no transaction fees but costs $99 per month.

4. Thinkific

Thinkific is another fully-hosted online course platform similar to Teachable.

It comes with an intuitive drag and drop visual course builder that lets you make highly interactive courses. You can upload any content to your course including videos.

Thinkific supports all features you can expect from an LMS plugin. Plus, you can create different multiple subscription programs, create landing pages, and make a membership community.

Pros:

• Thinkific is very easy to use for all users
• It is fully hosted which means you don’t need to worry about software, backup, and other technical aspects.
• You can grow your business without worrying about scaling the platform

Cons:

• It is more expansive than WordPress powered LMS platform like MemberPress
• The free plan is quite limited in features

Pricing: Limited free plan that allows you to offer up to three courses. Paid plans start at $39 per month.

5. LifterLMS

LifterLMS is a popular WordPress LMS plugin that you can use to create and see courses online.

LifterLMS is a powerful platform and comes with tools that help you easily create online courses. It also offers a better learning experience for your users which is important to build a community around your website.

It is flexible enough to set up an small online coaching website or a full-fledged degree program. It supports multi-tier courses, where you can add training modules, lessons, categories, and more.

It has advanced features like drip content, course progression requirements, group memberships, and more.

Pros:

• A powerful platform to create highly engaging online learning communities.
• Easy to use with simple course builder that helps you add any type of course material.
• Integrations for third-party services to help you promote and grow.

Cons:

• You need to manage your WordPress website and install updates
• Cost may increase if you choose to buy individual addons

Pricing: Starting from $99 per year for a single site. You’ll need to purchase addons separately and pricing for addons typically starts at $99 per year.

How to Get Started with LifterLMS:

You’ll need to purchase a domain name and web hosting to setup your WordPress site.

You can use Bluehost, SiteGround, or any other recommended WordPress hosting provider.

6. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform in the world. It is incredibly easy and flexible which makes it a good base to build your online course.

For selling and managing an online courses with WooCommerce, you’ll need their Sensei LMS extension.

Sensei LMS is a simple and straightforward LMS addon that allows you to create courses, add modules, lessons, and quizzes.

It is easy to use, and you can quickly setup a course website using the WooCommerce storefront theme.

If you want to create custom sales pages, then you can use SeedProd page builder. For real-time analytics, you can use the MonsterInsights analytics plugin.

Pros:

• Simple and straightforward LMS plugin
• Runs on top of WooCommerce which allows you to sell other physical or digital products on the same site.
• You can use essential WordPress plugins to extend your website and grow your business.

Cons:

• Requires paid addons to create paid courses and subscription programs
• Lacks some of the advanced LMS plugin features.
• You’ll have to manage your WooCommerce store and install updates

Pricing: Sensie LMS itself is free, but you’ll need WooCommerce Paid Subscriptions addon to create paid courses which costs $129 per year.

Best Online Course Platforms for Students

Whether you’re a student or an aspiring professional, acquiring new skills and continue improving on them can open many doors of opportunities in the modern economy.

There are ton of online learning platforms for students that you can join to acquire a new skill or to follow your passion.

7. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning (formerly, Lynda) is a popular platform to learn digital, creative, and other professional skills. They a large variety of subjects and classes for all levels of users (not just beginners).

LinkedIn Learning’s courses are taught by professionals with real-world experience and qualifications in their field.

You can learn at your own pace using the their online teaching platform, or their iOS / Android app.

You also get to earn certificates upon completion of a course which you can then display as a badge on your LinkedIn profile.

Pros:

• Higher quality courses taught by professionals with relevant background
• Badges and certificates that you can show off on your LinkedIn profile
• You also get access to LinkedIn Premium with more salary and job insights, unlimited profile viewing, InMail credits, and more.

Cons:

• More expansive than other online learning and skill sharing platforms.
• LinkedIn does not offer refunds, so you better take advantage of their free trial before making a purchase.

Pricing: Free trial, but pricing starts at $29.99 per month.

8. Skillshare

Skillshare is one of the largest online course platform for students offering hundreds of courses on a wide variety of subjects and categories.

It has a limited free trial, after that, you can upgrade to premium which gives you access to thousands of premium online courses that you can join.

Courses are created by professionals and teachers, not by Skillshare itself. Teachers are paid for these courses by views. This acts as an incentive for teachers to offer better quality and highly engaging courses.

Pros:

• It is affordable and you can cancel anytime.
• Thousands of classes on a very large number of skills and topics
• Easy to use with a built-in community element that makes learning fun

Cons:

• With too many courses it can be difficult to decide where to begin.
• Skillshare courses an be taught by anyone and there is not too many checks on the quality or standardization of the courses.

Pricing: Skillshare Premium starts from $3.29 per month paid annually.

9. Coursera

Coursera is another good place to learn new skills.

They offer a variety of free and paid courses and even online degree programs. They have partnered with technology companies like Google and IBM who want to promote the usage of their technologies by offering free courses.

In addition, Coursera also collaborates with colleges offering online degree programs. The courses offered are prepared by professionals with qualifications and skills in the subject matter.

Pros:

• Some useful technical courses for beginners are available for free enrollment
• Easy to use platform with a relatively better quality control than similar platforms
• Access to course materials from top IT companies and colleges
• Takes a more academic approach to courses.

Cons:

• Upselling of degree programs offered by colleges

Pricing Varies based on the courses or programs you choose to enroll.

Which is the Best Online Course Platform (Expert Pick)

After evaluating all the popular online course platforms, we recommend MemberPress as the best online course platform to build and sell online courses.

If you’re a student looking for the best online learning platform to expand your skills, then LinkedIn Learning and Skillshare are the best online learning platforms for students.

We hope this article helped you choose the best online course platforms. If you are selling your own online courses, then you may want to see our guide on how to grow your business online without spending a fortune.

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Disclaimer: to help avoid choice paralysis, we only compared the top online course platforms. This list doesn’t include other elearning platforms or course marketplace like Udemy, Kajabi, Podia, LearnWorlds, WizIQ, iSpring, Academy of Mine, etc.

The post 9 Best Online Course Platforms for 2021 (Compared) appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 15, 2021 at 06:00PM