You’ve decided to make an online group mentorship program. Exciting! This immediately raises the first question: which platform should you use for this? You need an online academy where you can share all your information, videos, and workbooks with your clients, but how and where do you do this? Can you put all the information on your own website? Do you need a LMS or membership plugin, or should you look for an all-in-one 3rd party platform?
In this article, I will explain all the different options and help you make a decision for your situation, so you can go back to focus on the content and stop stressing about the technical stuff.
It’s good to know you have two main options for building your online academy:
-  A 3rd party platform (these are often all-in-one platforms);
- Your own platform, like WordPress.
In this article, I will focus on the three best 3rd party platforms, and in the next one, I will cover WordPress plugins.Â
Your wants & needs
Before diving into all the different software you can use to build your online program, it’s important to first think about what you actually need. What are your needs & wants for your online academy? To choose the best option for you, you need to know what your criteria are.
Ask yourself these questions;
What is your budget?
Do you enjoy the technical stuff? (for example: are you able to work with WordPress?)
How important is the design of your online academy to you? (IMPORTANT, I hope)
How much do you want to be able to change in the design yourself? How much customisation do you want?
Which software do you use right now? (Do you have a website in WordPress, do you use marketing automation software, a CRM etc.)
Do you want to be able to drip content? (a new module will come online every week/month)
Do you want to be able to automate everything?
Do you want to be able to add a quiz, use gamification and/or add a community/forum in your academy?
Which payment options do you want to give your clients?
Will you make one or more programs?
How many clients do you expect per month/year?
The best 3rd party platforms for online programs
The first, and easiest, option is to choose a 3rd party platform. With this you won’t have to think about the technical stuff, but the costs are high(er) and you don’t have a lot of flexibility.
The biggest advantage of using a 3rd party platform, for me, is that you don´t need any technical skills and often don´t need a lot of other software since most of them are all-in-one platforms.
Pros
You don’t need any technical skills
You can start fast
They will take care of all the updates and back-ups for you
Cons
It’s not your own platformÂ
High(er) monthly costs
You (usually) can’t change the lay-out a lot
3rd party platform criteria
There are hundreds of 3rd party platforms that enable you to build your online academy, but I have listed the most popular ones for you below. The criteria I have looked at are:
Price
Obviously the price of the platform is important.Â
Cost per userÂ
For some platforms you pay per month or year, others per user (client). Â
Commission
Sometimes you need to pay a commission per sale.Â
Payment & VAT options
How can your clients pay and is it possible to add EU VAT?
Videohosting
Is there an option to host your videos on the platform itself or do you need to do this with an external host, such as vimeo or youtube?
Email marketing
When your clients are going through your program you want to send them emails. Does this platform have the option to do this (automatically) or not?
Content dripping
To prevent your clients from getting overwhelmed you could decide to drip your content. Your clients do not immediately have access to all the modules, but a new module will come online every week/month or after they finish the previous module. Â
Community/forum
Is there an option to have a community/forum in the online academy or do you need to start a separate Facebook group?Â
Progress of clients
It’s nice to be able to see where your clients are in the program, this way you may notice if/where they get stuck. It’s also nice for your clients to be able to see where they left off.Â
Place comments
If your clients are able to place comments below the lessons they can share their ‘homework’ or ask questions.Â
Quiz & test
A quiz is a fun way to add some interaction to your program and a chance for your client to test if she understood the information in the module.Â
Membership
Next to your online program you may want to add a membership to your business model. Is it possible to do this on this platform?Â
Prettiness
You want your online program to look good and reflect your brand, am I right?Â
Ease of use
How easy is it to use the platform? Is it intuitive to use? How much technical knowledge do you need?
Affiliate program
If you want to work with affiliate partners to promote and sell your program it is nice if this is integrated in the platform.
Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific
In this article I will compare the three most popular 3rd party platforms;
- Kajabi
- Teachable
- Thinkific
Kajabi
Basic plan- 3 courses
- Videohosting
- Email marketing
- Content dripping
- Community/forum
- Keep track of progress
- Place comments
- Quiz & test
- Membership
- Advanced reports
- Affiliate program (you need the growth plan for this)
Teachable
Pro plan- Unlimited courses
- Videohosting
- Email marketing
- Content dripping
- Community/forum
- Keep track of progress
- Place comments
- Quiz & test
- Membership
- Advanced reports
- Affiliate program
Thinkific
Pro plan- Unlimited courses
- Videohosting
- Email marketing
- Content dripping
- Community/forum
- Keep track of progress
- Place comments
- Quiz & test
- Membership
- Advanced reports
- Affiliate program
Kajabi
Kajabi is hot & sexy (if you ask me) and definitely an interesting option to check out. It is especially interesting if you don’t have anything online yet, as they offer an all-in-one solution with a website, landing pages, sales pages, a membership site, quizzes, funnels, and email automation.
It is not just a platform where you can host your online program; you can also market and sell it with all the extra features. Â
Look and feel: it looks very professional, offers great templates for any page you need, and is very customizable.
Tech skills:Â Kajabi is very user-friendly and easy to use, so you really don’t need any tech skills.Â
User experience:Â Kajabi isn’t just easy to use for you; it also gives a great intuitive experience to your clients.Â
Payment gateways:Â PayPal & Stripe
Price: Kajabi does come with a price tag, but with everything that is included, it is well worth the investment. Pricing plans start at $149 per month. You’ll receive a 20% discount if you pay per year, which comes down to $1428 (around 1218 euros)
Website:Â https://kajabi.com
Trial:Â Yes, 14 days
Pros
Great user experience for clients
Looks very professionalÂ
A lot of customization is possible, without any tech skills needed
Offers many marketing & sales features, such as pipelines
Ability to offer evergreen webinars
Great support via chat
Cons
Most expensive platform
You need a 3rd party to add EU VAT (such as Quaderno, starting at $ 29 per month)
When you offer payment plans you need to duplicate the whole course
rating
Conclusion
Choose Kajabi if you want a professional all-in-one platform to create, market and sell your online group mentorship program, without spending hours on the tech stuff.Â
Teachable
Teachable is a great platform if you are just starting out with online programs and offers great features, but it also misses some functionalities that other platforms do have. Â
Look and feel: clean.
Tech skills: don´t need any!
User experience: good.Â
Payment gateways: credit/debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay®, and Google Pay™
Price: This platform starts a lot cheaper than Kajabi. There is even a ‘free’ plan, although you do have to pay $1 per student + 10% commission of the total revenue (so it’s not totally free). This is a great option if you don’t have a lot of students and sell a low prices offer, but if you’re selling an online group mentorship program of 2000+ euros, you’re going to end up paying A LOT.Â
In your case, a paid plan will make more sense, and those start at $39 per month or $348 per year (+ a 5% transaction fee). Do you want to add quizzes and analytics to your program and be able to customize the design, you will have to take the pro plan for $119 per month (or $1.188 per year).
As you can see, your best option would be to go for the pro plan, which is almost the same price you pay for the Kajabi basic plan.Â
Website:Â https://teachable.com
Trial:Â Yes, you can try their free plan.Â
Pros
Offer a free plan (but you will most likely need the pro plan)
Ability to have an affiliate program + they can automatically payout to your affiliates
Charges and files EU VATÂ
Better sales and marketing features (compared to Thinkific)
It has an iOS App
Cons
5% transaction fee on the lowest plan
No membership
Your revenue is processed through Teachable’s account and you will only receive the payout after a delay of 30-60 days (when you are based outside the US or Canada)
rating
Conclusion
Teachable is great if you have a lot of clients in different EU countries (and you’re not based in Europe or have a B2C business).Â
Thinkific
Thinkific is really similar to Teachable, especially in the way the student area looks. The biggest difference is that Teachable makes it really easy to charge EU VAT and has better marketing features. Then why choose Thinkific? Because they have better customization tools, and you can integrate your zoom meetings in the academy. Â
Look and feel: clean, just like Teachable.Â
Tech skills: not needed.Â
User experience: good.Â
Payment gateways:Â Stripe & PayPal
Price:Â Thinkific actually offers a perfect free plan, which lets you create 3 courses, add unlimited students, and hosts all your content.Â
Next to the free plan, there are 3 paid plans to choose from, which start at $49 per month (if you choose to pay per month).
Website:Â www.thinkific.com
Trial:Â Yes, you can try it here.Â
Pros
Offers a good free plan
You can have zoom meeting inside of the online academy
Better customization tools (compared to Teachable)
Clients can upload their ‘homework’
Cons
No email marketing included
You need a 3rd party to add EU VAT (such as Quaderno, starting at $ 29 per month)
Not possible to add different content types (such as video, text and pdf) in one lesson
rating
Conclusion
If you´re just looking for a platform to host the academy for your program (including all the content, like videos), Thinkific is an easy and quick solution.
Other 3rd party platforms
Of course there are more 3rd party platforms out there, such as;
Time to implement
Kajabi, Thinkific, and Teachable are, in my opinion, the best 3rd party platforms to use for your online group mentorship program. Take a look at these three, and don´t take too long to decide which one to use.
In the next article, I will cover the best LMS and membership plugins to use when you decide to create an online academy in WordPress.
