How to Choose the Right Platform for Your Course on Shopify

How to Choose the Right Platform for Your Course on Shopify

Running an online course can be difficult, but also extremely rewarding. The online education market is projected to reach a value of $185.20 billion by the end of 2024, meaning there’s plenty of room for growth and competition for anyone offering an online course on Shopify.

Alongside crafting your course content and community, a significant part of delivering a successful online learning experience is what platform you are on. But how do you know which platform is the right one for you?

Deciding what platform to host your online courses from may be one of the most critical decisions to determine your success. This means conducting thorough research and investing sufficient time into selecting the right platform is vital.

If you are new to the digital education industry and deciding where to host your first online course, this article will guide you through the key steps to selecting the right platform and highlight key features to look for.

For anyone already established and looking to become more informed or even switch platforms, here is all the detailed information you may need to make an informed decision about your hosting platform.

Understanding Your Needs

Every online course is different, and what may be a perfect platform for another course provider may be wrong for you.

Before comparing prices or exploring features, consider what you seek in a digital education platform. Is it low pricing? Tools for managing your community? Analytical capabilities? Or possibly something else?

Whatever it is, outline your list of priorities first. This will allow you to find the right course more quickly and accurately.

Define Your Course Objectives

The first thing to do is define what you aim to achieve with your online course.

Aside from just making money, here are some key objectives that you could be aiming for:

  • Creating a scalable education business
  • Sharing your knowledge
  • Building a personal brand
  • Generate a secondary or even primary income stream
  • Add to your existing business offerings

Whatever your core objectives are, having them clearly defined and noted down is good practice regardless of finding your perfect platform. Doing so will help you make clearer business decisions and strategies and understand what kind of platform you need.

For example, if you want to create a scalable education business, finding a platform that can easily handle multiple courses without extra cost or hassle may be a priority.

Identify Your Target Audience

Whatever you’re selling – from online courses to clothes – identifying and understanding your audience is one of the most important business rules.

To help you choose the right platform, try to identify your key audience’s:

  • Technical Skills: How comfortable are they with technology?
  • Learning Preferences: do they learn best through video calls, interactive elements, or something else?
  • Accessibility: Are your users connecting via laptop, or do you need good mobile compatibility?
  • Demographics: Understanding general demographic data such as your audience’s age, location, and profession is also helpful.

By gathering and outlining all this customer data, you can more accurately choose the platform that best supports your course and students. 

If your audience consists primarily of younger people on their phones, selecting a platform with good mobile support is vital, for example.

Assess your Technical Skills and Resources

It’s not just your students’ technical skills you must consider. The last thing you want while trying to run an online course is to have to sink time into learning a new platform.

Consider how easily you’ll get to grips with a new online platform, and pick something you will be comfortable using every day. A good platform should make your online courses easier to manage, not harder.

Key Features to Look For

Now that you understand your own objectives and audience preferences, you’re ready to begin the hunt for the perfect hosting platform. While your priorities may change depending on the core needs and objectives, some features are almost always beneficial to look out for.

Ease of Use and User Interface

Your new platform must be as easy to use as possible for you and your students. An intuitive user interface can save you countless hours of admin time by making things easier to find and features easier to understand and use. 

Look out for:

  • Intuitive student and community management systems
  • Straightforward content importing, organization, and management tools
  • A clean, sleek, and understandable design
  • Drag-and-drop course builders
  • A comprehensive dashboard
  • Developer support

While not all of these UI elements are necessary, certain aspects, such as simple content and community management, are vital.

Customization

If you’re expanding or importing an existing brand or creating a whole new one, the ability to customize your platform on the user end is vital.

Consistent brand identity and messaging are crucial in a growing but crowded digital education market to stand out and attract new customers. The more complex your brand assets and design, the more customization tools you want.

Depending on what you need, you should be looking out for a range of possible customization options, including:

  • Color scheme and logo customization
  • Options for creating branded course certificates
  • Custom domain options

Integration with other tools and platforms

Whatever platform you choose, it likely won’t be the only tool you need, or even the only location your customers visit before joining you. Because of this, integration with other tools and platforms, such as Shopify, is essential for an online courses platform.

Alongside Shopify, you should also look for integration with:

  • eCommerce stores
  • Social media apps
  • Payment gateways
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems

Assess how flexible these integrations are, and ensure your chosen platform fits into your curated customer journey.

Pricing and Monetization

Alongside its features, the price tag is another crucial thing for any platform.

Unfortunately, this process isn’t always as simple as it could be. Many platforms offer a variety of pricing options. These typically include:

  • Percentage-based: Where the platform takes a percentage of your sales
  • Subscription-based: Meaning a weekly, monthly, or annual fee
  • Pay-Per-Student: Where you’re charged per student on the platform
  • Free Basic Version: You are given a free but limited platform, but can pay for more advanced features

Of course, each model has its pros and cons: percentage-based or pay-per-student models can be great for smaller courses just starting, but it would be costly for anyone looking to scale.

On the other hand, a subscription model is often the best choice for more extensive online courses.

Many courses also offer free trial periods, allowing you to test the platform before you commit to a payment plan.

All the Extras: Transaction Fees and Hidden Costs

Beware of extra fees, such as payment processing fees, fees for additional admin users, payout fees, or data storage limits and associated overage fees.

Not every platform has these, but many do, so always check the fine print. Typically, the most efficient way to avoid a bad experience is to read reviews – other users will likely bring up any seriously sneaky fees.

Monetizing Your Own Content

Even with the perfect features found and the ideal pricing agreed, one thing remains to consider: how are you making your money? Different platforms are often suited to different monetization routes, and it is crucial to ensure that your preferred monetization strategy is supported by your platform.

These methods may include:

  • Tiered pricing models
  • Subscription models
  • One-time course sales
  • Affiliate programs
  • Bundled courses

Choose a platform that technically supports your monetization method and provides tools and features to enhance it.

Support and Community

As an online course creator, your community forms the bedrock of your success. If you want to grow and reach new customers, you want a vibrant, active community, full of students who love your course (and who leave reviews saying so). The best way to achieve this is with the right course on Shopify platform, providing the proper support and tools.

Make sure to find a platform that offers:

  • Community management tools
  • 24/7 customer support through multiple channels
  • Progress tracking
  • Live web hosting capabilities
  • Support for discussion forums and chat rooms

All of these features will come together to help you build an engaged community, all while helping you manage your students easily.

Some platforms also offer communities for various course creators to connect, helping you build your network and learn from others.

Evaluating Popular Courses Platforms

There are hundreds of different platforms to choose from, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Here are three of the most popular:

Tevello

Designed to help you build your community and manage your course content, Tevello combines intuitive design with high customization.

Pros:

  • Shopify Integration
  • Excellent community support
  • No hidden costs
  • Developer on hand to help
  • Unlimited courses, communities, and members

Cons:

  • Shorter free trial
  • Small support team

Teachable

Teachable is a popular and well-liked platform that many course creators use.

Pros:

  • Unlimited courses and students on all paid plans
  • Good user interface
  • Built-in marketing tools

Cons:

  • 5% transaction fee (on basic plan)
  • Limited customization compared to competitors
  • Lack of quizzes/assessment options for courses

Thinkific

Thinkific is also a solid choice of platform. It is a large platform with plenty of support and a long history of hosting courses.

Pros:

  • Good customization options
  • Strong customer support
  • Free basic version with limited features

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve due to features
  • Requires more expensive plans to unlock marketing features
  • More expensive advanced plans

There are many other platforms, including Courses Plus, LearnWorlds, Kajabi, and LearnDash – to find out more, simply head to our comparison articles for each.

What Choosing the Right Platform Looks Like

After trying multiple platforms, Vanity Fair School Of Beauty was close to giving up. Until they found the Tevello Shopify app.

By providing seamless account setup and Shopify integration, Vanity Fair School of Beauty quickly got its courses back on track.

“Other apps I tried and failed, now I actually have a working, thriving online course platform that is fully optimized and that is honestly thanks to Tevello!” – Vanity Fair School Of Beauty

Conclusion

Whatever platform you choose, look for the best features for you, compare pricing, and ensure you get the support needed to build your community.

If you’re ready to switch platforms or start a new journey into creating online courses, Tevello is the perfect platform for you. With 24/7 support direct from the developer, easy integration with Shopify and other apps, a clean dashboard, and comprehensive community support, Tevello has everything you need to create a successful online course.

Start a free trial today installed from the Shopify App Store to see how Tevello can help you start a thriving business selling courses on Shopify.