Best Free Platforms to Create Online Courses in 2025

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Reality of Free Platforms for Online Courses
3. Why Branding and Data Ownership Matter
4. The Hidden Math of "Free" Transaction Fees
5. Native Shopify Integration: The Seamless Solution
6. Practical Scenarios: Digital Products in the Real World
7. Scaling Your Community Without the Headache
8. Success Stories: From Physical Goods to Digital Empires
9. Designing Your Course for Maximum Impact
10. Realistic Expectations for Your Digital Business
11. Getting Started: The 14-Day Free Trial
12. Final Thoughts on Platform Selection
13. Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

Did you know that by 2026, the global e-learning market is projected to reach a staggering $325 billion? This massive shift in how the world consumes information has created a unique "gold rush" for content creators and business owners alike. However, many entrepreneurs find themselves stuck at the starting gate, paralyzed by the perceived costs of inventory, shipping, and technical infrastructure. The allure of "free" platforms often becomes the siren song for new creators, but as any seasoned merchant knows, the term "free" in the software world frequently comes with hidden strings that can tether your growth and erode your margins.

The purpose of this guide is to strip away the marketing jargon and provide a transparent look at the landscape of free platforms to create online courses. We will explore the various categories of no-cost and low-cost tools, from marketplaces to self-hosted plugins, while examining the true cost of these "free" solutions in terms of transaction fees and lost brand equity. More importantly, we will outline how we at Tevello believe the modern merchant should approach digital products: by keeping your customers, your data, and your brand entirely under your own roof.

Whether you are a seasoned Shopify veteran looking to diversify your revenue or a newcomer searching for the most cost-effective way to launch your first curriculum, this article will provide the technical and strategic roadmap you need. Our thesis is simple: while "free" platforms can serve as a testing ground, the most sustainable and profitable way to scale a digital learning business is through a unified ecosystem that integrates directly with the commerce engine you already trust.

The Reality of Free Platforms for Online Courses

When searching for free platforms to create online courses, it is easy to be overwhelmed by options. Generally, these tools fall into three distinct buckets: the marketplaces, the freemium SaaS builders, and the open-source plugins. Each offers a "free" entry point, but they operate on very different business models.

Marketplace-Style Platforms

The most common "free" entry point for many creators is the hosted marketplace. These platforms allow you to upload your content for free, and in exchange, they list your course on their searchable directory. The catch? They often take a massive percentage of your sales—sometimes as much as 50% to 75%—if the customer finds you through their organic search. Furthermore, you rarely "own" the customer. You often cannot export their email addresses for marketing or control the branding of the checkout experience.

Freemium SaaS Builders

These are dedicated learning management systems (LMS) that offer a "Free Tier." Usually, these plans limit the number of students you can enroll or the number of courses you can publish. The most significant drawback, however, is the "success fee." Many of these platforms charge a transaction fee (often 5% to 10%) on every sale you make. As your business grows, these fees quickly surpass the cost of a premium, flat-rate subscription.

Open-Source and Self-Hosted Plugins

For those with technical skills, open-source plugins (often for WordPress) are technically free to download. However, the hidden costs here are technical. You are responsible for your own video hosting, security updates, and payment gateway integrations. By the time you pay for high-speed video servers and a secure SSL environment, the "free" plugin has become a significant monthly expense and a technical headache.

Why Branding and Data Ownership Matter

At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. A core pillar of this mission is the belief that merchants should own their customer data and brand experience. When you use an external "free" platform, you are essentially building your house on rented land.

Imagine a merchant who sells high-end photography equipment. To add value, they want to offer a "Pro Lighting Masterclass." If they use an external free platform, the customer is redirected away from the merchant's URL to a third-party site. This creates several problems:

• Brand Fragmentation: The customer feels like they are dealing with a different company.
• Loss of Data: The merchant might not get the same level of analytics or the ability to retarget that customer for future physical product launches.
• Conversion Friction: Every time a customer has to create a new login on a different website, the chance of them completing the purchase drops.

By keeping customers on your own URL, you maintain a cohesive brand identity and ensure that the digital learning experience feels like a premium extension of your existing business.

The Hidden Math of "Free" Transaction Fees

To truly understand the value of your platform choice, you must look at the long-term math. Most "free" or low-cost platforms survive on transaction fees. Let's compare a platform charging a 10% fee versus a flat-rate plan.

If your course earns $3,000 in a month, a 10% transaction fee means you are paying $300 to the platform provider. If you scale to $10,000 a month, you are paying $1,000. This is why we focus on predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees. We believe your success should belong to you, which is why we charge 0% transaction fees.

By choosing a flat-rate model, you can secure a fixed cost structure for digital products, allowing you to reinvest your profits into marketing and content creation rather than platform overhead. This approach not only stabilizes your monthly expenses but also increases your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) because every dollar of a repeat purchase stays in your pocket.

Native Shopify Integration: The Seamless Solution

One of the biggest hurdles in the e-learning space is "stack fatigue"—the frustration of managing five different apps that don't talk to each other. This is where a native Shopify integration becomes a game-changer. When your course platform lives inside Shopify, it uses the same checkout, the same customer accounts, and the same payment gateways (like Shopify Payments or Stripe) that you already use for physical goods.

This integration allows for incredibly powerful marketing maneuvers. For instance, a fitness brand selling protein powder can automatically enroll a customer in a "30-Day Strength Challenge" course the moment the powder is purchased. There is no need for the customer to check their email for a separate login link or navigate to a third-party portal. The course is simply waiting for them in their existing account.

Before committing to any platform, we recommend reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from to see how deep the integration goes. A truly native solution won't just "link" to Shopify; it will feel like a natural part of the Shopify admin.

Practical Scenarios: Digital Products in the Real World

To understand how to move beyond "free" platforms and into a professional setup, let's look at how different merchants leverage digital products that live directly alongside physical stock.

Scenario 1: The Specialty Coffee Roaster

A roaster selling premium beans faces high shipping costs and thin margins. By creating a "Mastering the Pour-Over" video series, they create a product with 100% profit margins and zero shipping costs. Instead of using a free external platform where they might lose the customer's attention to other coffee courses, they host it natively. This allows them to bundle the course with a physical brewing kit, significantly increasing the average order value.

Scenario 2: The Art Supply Store

A merchant selling watercolor sets can offer a free "Mini-Course" as a lead magnet. While the course itself is free, it acts as a high-value funnel that brings customers into their ecosystem. Using all the key features for courses and communities, the merchant can create a gallery where students post their work. This community engagement builds brand loyalty that a generic marketplace platform simply cannot replicate.

Scenario 3: The Professional Photographer

A photographer selling presets and gear can use their expertise to create a comprehensive certification program. By driving 50% of sales from repeat course purchasers, they move away from the "one-and-done" sale model and toward a recurring revenue stream. This is a classic example of retention strategies that drive repeat digital purchases by offering a clear path of progression for the student.

Scaling Your Community Without the Headache

As your student base grows, the limitations of "free" platforms often become painful. Many free tiers will cap your student count at 50 or 100 members. Moving past that limit often requires a jump to a high-priced enterprise plan.

We take a different approach with The Unlimited Plan. For $29.99 per month, we provide a solution that scales with you. Whether you have 10 students or 10,000, your price stays the same. This includes:

• Unlimited courses and students.
• Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth (so you never have to worry about a "viral" course crashing your site).
• Community features like member directories and social feeds.
• Drip content scheduling to keep students engaged over time.

If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses. This allows you to focus on building your curriculum without constantly checking your dashboard to see if you've hit a "user limit" that will trigger a massive bill.

Success Stories: From Physical Goods to Digital Empires

The transition from selling physical items to becoming a "learning powerhouse" is a proven path to stability. Consider the story of brands generating revenue from both physical and digital goods. By bundling educational content with the tools needed to complete the project, these merchants create a "complete solution" for their customers.

Some merchants have seen massive success by focusing on volume and native integration. We have seen strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively succeed because the merchant didn't have to worry about the technical friction of external platforms. When the purchase of a digital product is as smooth as buying a t-shirt, conversion rates naturally climb.

Furthermore, the data shows that digital products are a powerful tool for customer retention. By see how the app natively integrates with Shopify, you can track which customers are actually finishing your courses. If a customer hasn't logged in for a week, you can trigger a personalized email from your Shopify-integrated marketing tool to bring them back. This level of granular control is rarely available on "free" marketplace platforms.

Designing Your Course for Maximum Impact

Choosing from the available free platforms to create online courses is only the first step. To be successful, your content must be structured for engagement. Here are some best practices we recommend for any Shopify merchant:

1. The Power of "Drip" Content

Don't overwhelm your students by dumping 20 hours of video on them at once. Use drip scheduling to release modules every few days. This keeps students coming back to your store regularly, increasing the chances they will see your latest physical product arrivals.

2. Interactive Quizzes and Assessments

Learning shouldn't be passive. Use quizzes to reinforce knowledge. Within the Shopify ecosystem, you can even use quiz results to recommend specific physical products. For example, if a student in a gardening course struggles with a quiz on soil pH, you can automatically suggest a soil testing kit from your inventory.

3. Community-First Learning

The "lonely learner" is a learner who quits. By using community features—profiles, directories, and social feeds—you turn your course into a destination. This social proof is invaluable. When a prospective customer sees a thriving community of hundreds of people learning together, the "trust" barrier is instantly lowered.

Realistic Expectations for Your Digital Business

While the e-learning market is booming, it is important to set realistic business expectations. You are unlikely to make six figures in your first week of launching a course. Building a digital learning powerhouse takes time, consistent content creation, and genuine engagement with your audience.

However, the benefits of this model are undeniable:

• Diversified Revenue: You are no longer solely dependent on physical supply chains.
• Increased LTV: Customers who learn from you are more likely to buy from you again.
• Brand Authority: Teaching a subject establishes you as an expert in your niche.
• Stability: Digital products have no "out of stock" issues and provide high-margin stability during slow physical sales periods.

Our tool is designed to amplify your existing efforts, providing a robust framework so you can focus on what you do best: sharing your expertise.

Getting Started: The 14-Day Free Trial

We understand that committing to a new platform is a big decision. That is why we offer a 14-day free trial that allows you to explore every feature of the Unlimited Plan. You can start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now without paying a cent upfront.

This trial period is the perfect time to:

1. Upload your initial video lessons.
2. Set up your community social feed.
3. Design your course landing page using the Shopify theme editor.
4. Test the checkout experience to see how seamless the native integration truly is.

Because we charge 0% transaction fees, you can rest assured that every sale you make during and after the trial period is yours to keep. We don't believe in "success fees"—we believe in providing the tools for you to succeed.

Final Thoughts on Platform Selection

The search for free platforms to create online courses often leads creators down a path of hidden fees and lost branding. While these platforms can be useful for hobbyists, the serious merchant needs a solution that respects their brand and their bottom line. By integrating your digital learning directly into your Shopify store, you eliminate the friction that kills conversions and the "success fees" that kill margins.

The future of e-commerce is not just about selling objects; it is about selling expertise and community. Whether you are roasting coffee, designing clothes, or teaching photography, your knowledge is your most valuable asset. Don't hide it away on a third-party marketplace. Keep it at home, under your brand, and on your URL.

To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell both physical products and digital courses together?

Yes! One of the primary advantages of a native Shopify integration is the ability to sell physical and digital goods in a single transaction. You can create bundles where a customer buys a physical kit and automatically receives access to a digital "how-to" course. This increases your average order value and provides a better experience for the customer, as they have everything they need to succeed in one place.

How much does it cost to host my videos?

With our Unlimited Plan at $29.99 per month, you get unlimited video hosting and bandwidth. Unlike many platforms that charge you extra based on how many gigabytes your students stream, we provide a flat-rate solution. This allows you to host high-definition content without worrying about an unexpected bill if your course becomes popular.

Do I need to know how to code to set this up?

Not at all. The platform is designed to be as intuitive as Shopify itself. You can use a drag-and-drop interface to build your modules, upload videos, and create quizzes. If you can navigate the Shopify admin, you can build a professional online course. We handle the technical heavy lifting so you can focus on your content.

What happens to my data if I decide to leave?

At Tevello, we believe you should always own your data. Because the app is built on Shopify, your customer records remain in your Shopify database. You aren't "locking" your customers into a third-party proprietary system. This ownership gives you the freedom and flexibility to grow your business on your own terms.

To experience these benefits firsthand, install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today and begin your 14-day free trial. Build your entire curriculum, engage your community, and see why thousands of merchants are choosing a native solution over "free" external platforms.