Where The Online Course Platform Industry Is
The creator economy has passed the $200B mark and expected to reach $500B by 2030 (source: GlobalNewsfire).
Online courses is still a popular way to monetize content/knowledge, even if AI is disrupting the industry.
Online course platforms is a niche in that industry and following a similar upward trend.
The below are the most popular and well-ranked platforms according to aggregated scores from G2, Capterra and other review platforms.
| Rank | Platform | Type | Elo Score | Trial / Get Started |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  Kajabi | All In One | 1,278 | 30 DaysGet Started |
 |  HighLevel | All In One | 1,249 | 30 DaysGet Started |
 |  Circle | Community | 1,187 | 14 DaysGet Started |
| 4 |  Skool | Community | 1,172 | 14 DaysGet Started |
| 5 |  Kartra | All In One | 1,053 | 30 DaysGet Started |
| Rank | Platform | Type | Elo Score | Trial / Get Started |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circle | Community | 1,187 | 14 DaysGet Started |
| Skool | Community | 1,172 | 14 DaysGet Started |
|  Mighty Networks | Community | 1,142 | 14 DaysGet Started |
| 4 | Kajabi | All In One | 1,106 | 30 DaysGet Started |
| 5 |  Patreon | Not Owned | 1,075 | Transaction FeeGet Started |
| Rank | Platform | Type | Elo Score | Trial / Get Started |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|  Systeme | All In One | 1,237 | Free PlanGet Started |
|  New Zenler | All In One | 1,213 | 30 DaysGet Started |
|  Thinkific | Course Only | 1,188 | Free PlanGet Started |
| 4 |  LearnWorlds | Course Only | 1,167 | 30 DaysGet Started |
| 5 |  Thrive Themes | WordPress | 1,142 | N/AGet Started |
That said, the best platforms depend on your existing tech stack.
Solo creators starting from scratch (so with no existing platform) will often prefer going for an all-in-one platform like Kajabi.
These provide all the core features you’ll need in one place and avoid a patchwork of tools.
Core features typically include:
- Page/Funnel building
- Payment handling (usually integrated with Stripe or PayPal)
- Email marketing and automation
- Course hosting and design
- Community feature
- Other: affiliate management, mobile app, upsells, coaching programs, API.
Here are some details on the main platforms we’ve mentioned and further readings:
Of course, it also depends on your situation and who your product is built for: course creators, community builders, coaches or corporate training teams.
See the matrix below to understand where the most popular platforms lean toward:
The Trend in 2026
There are 3 trends that I’ve seen developing or continuing over the past 12 months.
These changes not only what course creators are looking for in a platform but also how the market is maturing and niching.
Let me break them down from most to least recent:
🤖 Trend #1: AI
In the past 18 months, a lot of online course platforms have started to add “AI-features” to their stack.
Let’s be honest a lot of these are not native AI features and simply an OpenAI wrapper.
So AI feature to help you write copy for your email or sales page or AI assistant to use the platform better.
This just allows LMS platform to justify sticking an “AI-powered” label on their homepage.
Though there have been some truly useful features that would not have been possible before AI.
Special mention to Circle in that area with their AI features to moderate/detect spam comments or even just Auto-respond to new posts to keep your community active.
Circle's AI Agent Feature
On the flip side I’ve also seen new platforms come up calling themselves AI LMS. Again here I have yet to be impressed.
The most likely development here is that the current top online course platforms will just keep adding an AI layer to their existing platform with a lot of users, instead of new AI-first newcomers taking over the industry.
Trend #2: Community-first offering
Platforms like Skool or Circle have been thriving for the past ~3 years.
I think this comes mainly from 3 reasons:
- Social media feels less social and the “death” of Facebook left a void for niche communities built by experts.
- Selling courses has become a little stale and boring, so adding a community aspect makes selling “knowledge” feel more valuable, especially in the AI era
- With more and more content creators online, launching a community requires less upfront effort, making it a lower-risk way to test an idea.
These are just my take and based on personal observations.
Trend #3: Niche platform & Convergence
This has been happening for about 4-5 years.
I’ve noticed this pattern where most successful online course platforms tend to move toward becoming all-in-one platforms.
To take an example, Skool and Circle used to simply be community-first platforms. As they grew, they started adding automation, course hosting and email marketing to the mix.
Circle's Email Marketing
In the meantime, as the market grows, more niche platforms are becoming profitable.
Platforms catering specifically to coaches or B2B educators, corporate training,etc.
Perhaps their inevitable destiny, if they scale, is to become all-in-one platforms too.
