Online coaching platforms allow you to host online sessions and manage clients, and some even offer all-in-one payment management & marketing features. They come in handy with many useful integrations, tools & features that help you manage your online coaching business.
There are many platforms available out there on the market. So, which platform can be better for you? Let's find out by comparing the best online coaching platforms, discussing their advantages, disadvantages and reviews.
7 best online coaching platforms for you
To ensure these platforms can meet your needs we considered the following factors:
- Features: are they flexible and customizable?
- Pricing: does the online coaching platform offer best value for the money?
- Reviews: what are the users saying and how their experiences have been with that platform?
- Scalability: will the platform grow with you? What advantages and disadvantages does it have?
The most popular platforms that online coaches prefer in 2024 include:
- Uteach, which is best for not only online coaches but also online educators on the whole
- Mighty Networks best for online coaches who also focus on the community
- Noomii, offering almost all the features online coaches usually need
- Thinkific being one of the best platforms for online course creators and coaches
- Satori being the best solution for both beginners and professional coaches
- Upcoach, helping you build the best client experience
- Kajabi, an all-in-one platform for online coaching and online course business owners
Let’s take a look at these platforms in more detail, including pricing information. Please note that pricing is true at the moment of publishing and is subject to change.
#1 Uteach
Uteach is the top choice of thousands of online coaches. It offers each and every tool necessary to build and expand your online coaching business. It is great not only for coaches but also for online educators and online course creators in general
With Uteach, you will be able to build your professional coaching website, sell both digital & physical products, host webinars, and much more.
You will be able to create both online and offline coaching sessions. It has a calendar feature so your clients can book coaching sessions based on the availability you set previously. As a client books a session with you, you can accept and reject them. Due to the automated notification system your clients will get notified in any case.
As you attach your Google account, your data gets synchronized with your account and you keep track of all your booked appointments with the help of Google Calendar.
Other features
- Additionally, Uteach offers a community where you can engage your clients further. They can run discussions on different topics and exchange experiences.
- Marketing tools and third party integrations allowing you to SEO-optimize your coaching website, cross-sell your coaching programs, send automated emails, apply discounts, etc.
- A website builder, where you can choose your favorite template, customize it to your heart’s content and get a nice-looking website.
Pricing
Uteach offers three main pricing plans with a 14-day free trial run period for each (no credit card required)
- Free: $0
- Launch: $39, plus 10% per sales
- Grow: $99, without commissions
- Plus, there is a custom plan
Pros ✔ 100% white labeling opportunities ✔ Surveys and forms to collect feedback and information ✔ Custom notes for notes for each client ✔ Branded mobile app available | Cons ❌ Does not have direct Zoom integration.
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Why do coaches love Uteach?
Uteach has everything you need to scale your online coaching business.
- All-in-one platform - build a website, publish courses, host live coaching sessions, sell digital & physical products and control every aspect of your online coaching business, including marketing & payments, from one place.
- Easy-to-use. User Interface of Uteach is incredibly beginner friendly, and you do not need any coding skills to use and build an online business with it.
- Affordable. As we compare Uteach with its competitors in many areas, it offers more advanced functionality while at the same time remaining even more affordable.
- Automation that allows you to save time on routine tasks and focus on real coaching and tasks that will make your business even more scalable.
Here is what Scott Laking from Box thinks:
“Before I found Uteach, I had already started with Teachable. However, I was looking to serve a more personal client.
Uteach ticked all the boxes. Audio,video and document hosting, Check! On-demand course hosting check! Payment gateway check (and free so another check!), Live lessons for both online and in-class - wow Check! Great mobile phone browser support, check! They just keep getting better.”
#2 Mighty Networks
Mighty Network is another amazing solution for online coaches built around communities. In communities, each member will see individualized content in their feed according to their settings. Community members can customize their profiles and chat with each other. They can match by category, location, and interest.
Mighty Networks integrates well with Calendly for your clients to book sessions with you. With Mighty you can organize both one-on-one and group sessions. Besides coaching your clients can also purchase online courses, digital resources and “events”.
You can run your coaching sessions within the live streaming opportunities inside your Spaces or use video conferencing platforms. However, Mighty Network’s coaching features and opportunities are not as powerful as that of the community.
That is why Mighty Networks will work for you if you prefer the community-focused approach.
Other features
- Creating and selling digital products to your community members
- More than 1000 integrations, including MailChimp, HubSpot and Zapier integrations
- Creating group chats and private chats for community members
Pros ✔Offers a mobile app ✔ Multiple content formats, such as articles, videos, files, etc to engage the community ✔ Opportunities for virtual and in-person events | Cons ❌ Limited website design templates ❌ Has little focus on coaching ❌ Does not have integrations with popular payment methods, such as PayPal |
Why do coaches love Mighty Networks?
Users have left overall positive reviews on Mighty Networks. Here are just some of them.
Taryn, a coach and reviewer from Capterra mentions: “I did also start one for my personal coaching business and without a following it's been tricky to funnel folks in even using the tactics they tell you.”
Zac, another reviewer from Capterra describes Mighty Networks as the key to their success, also mentioning “If you are a coach or community builder there is no better first party platform than Mighty Networks!”
Pricing
The Mighty Network pricing goes as follows:
- Community: $41/month
- Courses: $99/month
- Business: $179/month
- Path-toPro: $360/month
- Mighty Pro: you will need to contact their team for information
#3 Noomi
Noomii is a popular network created for professional coaches. Unlike most of the platforms that generally concentrate on traditional education, Noomii is full of features for online coaching.
The platform facilitates the process of finding and hiring coaches for personal and professional development. To get started, you need to create a coach profile, providing information about your coaching experience and credentials. The way your clients find you is through directory listing, where they can contact you based on the coaching niche you mentioned on Noomii. Thus, customizing your profile helps you reach potential clients faster.
There is a dedicated space for your clients to leave reviews, thus helping you build credibility. The clients are able to book sessions with you through the platform. Apart from that, you can access all the courses on Noomii to grow as a professional.
Other features
- Referral program. The referral program is when a client contacts Noomii for them to refer to a coach for a more specific type of coaching that will fulfill their needs.
- Every coach has a chance to be featured on Noomii’s homepage, which will increase traffic to your page, and most likely result in more clients.
- Audio interview. One of Noomii’s HR members will host a 5-minute audio interview with you that will later be published on your page. You can show your personality and coaching methods to attract clients with the help of that interview.
Pros ✔ Profile customization to match the clients’ needs ✔ Opportunities to reach a large audience through the extensive directory ✔ Clients can leave you reviews | Cons ❌ Lots of competition as the clients find the coaches they need through a directory ❌ No control over your coaching business ❌ Serves more as a directory, rather than an all-in-one coaching platform |
Why do coaches think about Noomii?
The platform has an average of 2.2 stars on Trustpilot, the highest rating being a 3-star one.
Although the reviewers are satisfied with the team and support they get, they don’t find the coaching clients to be “of quality”.
Here is what Michael, a coach and reviewer from Trustpilot, thinks.
“The downside is the quality of coaching clients. The model that is used to screen potential clients requires zero commitment from clients which devalues the overall relationship between clients and coaching.”
Pricing
Noomii costs $447 / year. There is also a money-back guarantee.
If you don’t make any income to cover your subscription throughout the year, Noomii will refund 100% of the payment.
#4 Thinkific
The next on our list of the best online coaching platforms is Thinkific. With Thinkific you can also build your online coaching website and sell digital products. The platform is more widely used to create and sell courses and memberships. Meaning, there aren’t so many features for online coaching sessions specifically. Yet, it offers several tools for you to run your coaching business.
To book sessions with you the clients can use Calendly, Doodle, and SimpleBook.me integrations. And you can run your coaching sessions with their Zoom integration. Coaches on Thinkific usually sell their coaching programs as a supplementary resource to their online courses or include them in course bundles.
There are multiple ways of pricing your coaching program on Thinkific. For example, they can be subscription based, with one-time purchase, memberships or free trials.
Other features
- Website Builder allows you to customize the appearance of your website with a wide range of pre-made themes you can choose form
- Marketing and sales tools and integrations to run your marketing campaigns (integrations including but not limited to Mailchimp and ConvertKit)
- Detailed analytics and reporting to track the client’s progress
Pros ✔ White-labeling opportunities available ✔ Allows creating multimedia lessons, such as video, text, audio, presentation, quiz, etc. ✔ Integrates with analytics tools such as MixPanel, Facebook pixel, etc. | Cons ❌ Not very customizable ❌ Does not allow posting blogs and articles ❌ High price jump between plans as you do not get so many additional features |
Pricing
Thinkific comes in with four pricing plans.
- Free: $0
- Basic: $36/month
- Start: $74/month
- Grow: $149/month
- Thinkific+ : you will need to contact their team
See more Best Thinkific alternatives.
Compare Uteach with Thinkific.
Why do online coaches think about Thinkific?
Thinkific has 4.5 stars on the most credible review platforms, such as Capterra.
To provide you with the freshest insights on whether Thinkific is worth it, our team has contacted Lauren Wireman who is offering nail art courses. She also has started her coaching career as a creative business coach.
What she likes about Thinkific is that “Thinkific has built-in reviews”. She also mentions: “I am frustrated that I can not customize the Thinkific app more. I think it is also overpriced”.
Lauren is satisfied with Thinkific’s visual appeal.
“I almost always choose systems that are visually beautiful. It's a personal and professional value, and I share that value with most of my clients”
-Lauren Wireman
Creative Business Coach
#5 Satori
Satori app is another amazing all-in-one coaching platform. It will help you simplify the technical part of your work, so you can concentrate more on coaching itself.
The appointment booking system offered by Satory gives your clients a chance to self-schedule sessions with you. The clients can review billing history, check the agreements, etc.To view your schedule you can connect to Google, Outlook or Apple calendar. This is where you set your availability and customize your schedule. Your Satori session will get synchronized with your calendar app.
Satori enables you to send automated emails and reminders so your clients don’t forget to join. What’s great about this platform is that you can use the discovery questionnaires and create a worksheet with your coaching questions. This way you can also learn more about your clients.
From your Satoi dashboard you can access metrics like client engagement, reviews, appointments, prospects, proposals and many other analytical insights. Besides, you can decide on a pricing model that looks best for you and each of your clients by setting billing cycles, payment plans or making a discount.
Other features
- Coaching bundles. You can sell packages with multiple session agreements that have the same intake forms and tracking as usual offers.
- Personalized proposals. Easily enough, you can create individual coaching agreements and send them through email.
- Group features. Coach multiple people at the same time with workshops and coaching groups.
Pros ✔ Opportunities to white-label your booking and login page for building your own brand. ✔ Custom billing and billing automation is available ✔ Allows creating custom quizzes to assess the progress of your clients | Cons ❌ Difficult to set up and has a steep learning curve according to reviewers. ❌ Synchronization with your calendar app is not always smooth reported by users ❌ Does not integrate with Zoom |
Why do coaches think about Satori?
What is common through most of the Satori reviews provided on Capterra is the customer support.
Here is what Christina thinks:
“It is a beautiful system in sight graphically speaking. It is a complete Sotfware. With it you can schedule appointments, organize programs, manage customer service, sequence customer progress and take care of service billing. Works with any web browser even the most innovative.”
Other reviewers would like the platform to have a Zoom integration, as not every one of them uses Skype these days.
Pricing
Here is how much Satori charges for its three plans:
- Essentials: $33/month
- Pro: $49/month
- Leader: $124/month
The plans put limitations on the number of clients, coaching programs, and bookings.
#6 Upcoach
Upcoach is a well-organized online coaching platform. This means that it is smooth & easy for the clients to navigate through, so all of them can quickly orient to your hosting platform.
With Upcoach you can run hybrid, one-on-one, group coaching programs, plus masterminds and cohort programs. The platform offers ready-made templates for you to create your coaching programs easily. Besides the programs, templates are available to create the agenda of the sessions.
You can create programs with drag-and-drop builders, manage your clients, groups and communities in one place. Besides coaching you can also create online courses and training programs.
The platform allows you to assign habits, to-dos, questions and worksheets to your clients. You can keep track of all this data and insights with the help of analytics tools. All this helps to encourage social accountability and motivate your clients.
Other features
- Creating interactive worksheets with Smart Docs
- Uploading and sharing documents with your clients with our built-in Drive block.
- Chats. On Upcoach, you can have private and group chats and special chats just for the admins.
Pros ✔ Has third-party integrations with Smart Docs, Stripe, Zoom, and more. ✔ Allows you to create notes for keeping track of the clients’ progress. ✔ User-friendly and easy to master | Cons ❌ Limited customization options ❌ No free trial or free version is available ❌ UI needs to be improved based on user reviews |
Why do online coaches like Upcoach?
Upcoach enjoys a rather high rating on Capterra, one of the most credible review platforms. It has 4.9 stars, to be precise.
There are multiple things coaches like about Upcoach, including smart documents, habit and progress trackers. Using the platform for 1+ years Neil mentions:
“Absolutely brilliant platform to support coaches and consultant. (It's also very reliable - never failed on me yet).”
Pricing
Upcoach offers two main pricing plans you can choose from.
- Basic: $29/month
- Pro: $79/month
The only difference in the features both of the plans offer lies in branding & customization and integrations.
#7 Kajabi
The last platform on our list of best online coaching solutions is Kajabi. Kajabi is a popular platform for creating online courses as well as coaching programs. It provides you with a place to share your knowledge and train people, whether you are a lifestyle coach or a school teacher.
When creating coaching sessions on Kajabi you can add agenda items to let your client know what you plan on focusing on, useful resources and notes.
Whether you like it or not, the platform has its own built-in scheduling tool and you cannot add popular third-party tools like Calendly and Acuity. The good thing is you can organize video calls directly through the platform without having to use Zoom or any other video conferencing platform.
Other features
- Digital products. Apart from your coaching course, you can sell digital products such as audiobooks, eBooks, documents, and bundles.
- Third-party integrations. With Shopify and Zapier integration, you can sell physical products as well.
- SEO. Improve the visibility of your Kajabi coaching site with SEO tools.
Pros ✔ Opportunities to build sales funnels ✔ Built-in and automated email marketing tools ✔ Kajabi University to help you learn and grow as an expert. | Cons ❌ No white-label mobile app available ❌ Limited website design and customization options ❌ Expensive solution, especially that it does not offer many coaching features |
Pricing
With a 14-day free trial, you have three pricing opportunities.
- Basic plan – $119/month
- Growth plan – $159/month
- Pro plan – $319/month
Compare Uteach vs Kajabi.
Why do online coaches like Kajabi?
Kajabi enjoys a rating of 4.4 stars on Kajabi.
Lauren Wireman, who is a business coach for creative businesses has been using Kajabi for several years now. In an interview with our team she shared what she likes and dislikes about Kajabi. So, why does she like Kajabi?
“Kajabi is SUPER customizable for web design.”, she shared with our team. As someone who coaches visual artists and creative businesses she finds the visual aspect of her coaching website is essential.
However, she mentioned “I am frustrated that I can not see cover photos on modules on the Kajabi app... that really matters when teaching VISUAL ARTS.”
As for the pricing, Lauren thinks that “Kajabi is fairly priced.”
What types of tools do online coaches need?
Before diving into the best tools and platforms, let’s understand what tools online coaches need throughout the working process.
- CRM tools. Managing CRM is very vital for successful business expansion and good client relationship management that will lead to positive publicity.
- Calendars & Assessments. Your coachees came to you to make progress a transform their lives. Therefore the platform of your choice should offer simple tools such as a calendar, quiz builder & even certification builder.
- Course Builder. You are a coach, but maybe you decide to publish pre-recorded sessions as well to automize the processes even more; then, the platform of your choice should definitely have a powerful course builder with all the SEO-optimization tools.
- Website Builder. As a coach who wants to expand their business and stand out from the rest, you must look for a platform that offers a website builder in which you can easily build & customize your business online coaching website without any coding skills.
- Live Sessions. As an online coach, you will host lots of one-on-one or group coaching live lessons, so the live sessions feature/tool is a must for you.
- Email marketing & marketing tools. Also, a platform of your choice should offer marketing tools, including SEO optimization & email marketing, to allow you to take control over this aspect of your business from the back end of your business website. Or that it offers integration responsible for this aspect of your business.
- Integrations. Without necessary integrations, the platforms may lack wide functionality, but integrations such as Zoom, Zapier, etc., will widen the features and user experience both for you and your client. So, make sure the platform of your choice comes in handy with lots of USEFUL integrations.
- Design Tools. You will definitely need a few design tools for pre-recorded sessions or maybe other digital materials you would like to sell.
If the platform of your choice offers all of the necessary features and tools (even with the integrations) mentioned above, then you can be confident that your choice is reliable.
5 best tools for creating and hosting a coaching program
It is time to dive into the tools. All the tools mentioned in this section of the article aim to help you design perfect coaching sessions and maintain quality. So, let’s start!
Canva
The first tool we would like to mention is Canva; one of the Pro version plans you can purchase as a coach is Canva for Education. Now, let’s take a look at the main features of the Canva platform.
Main Features
- Images to Video
- Remove audio from the video, combine images, and add music to the video
- Mirror Images
- Ready to use templates
- Creation of presentations, flyers, posters, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media posts from scratch or customizing pre-made templates
- Ready to use elements both free & for the Pro users
Zoom
Zoom is one of the mainstream platforms for hosting online meetings or for online video calls. It is the most used platform in the professional industry. For a coach, it is perfect for long lessons that can also be recorded and accessed later.
Main Features
- Webinars. Create webinars with HD video and audio, and host private and group video calls.
- Recordings. Video calls can be recorded and shared.
- Events. Schedule events, invite only those you want, and share the video room via a link or password.
- Register.Register in one click with your Gmail.
- Chat. Chat with your team during or after the video call.
- Screen recording. Apart from your web-camera recording, you can display the recording on your screen.
- Responsive. Use the Zoom app for mobile phones, tablets, and computers, or use Zoom Web.
However, it is also worth mentioning that Zoom as a stand-alone won’t work out quite well for your coaching business expansion, so a better choice would be to choose a platform that offers everything; plus, Zoom as an integration.
Mailerlite
MailerLite specializes in creating automated email campaigns and selling digital products. For you, as an online coach, it is a perfect opportunity to market your brand.
Main Features
- Email campaigns. Create email campaigns with the intuitive drag & drop builder.
- Automations. Schedule and personalize the emails you send.
- Digital products. Create and sell digital products.
- Analytics. Track your progress to develop your business.
- Websites. Create your own websites.
- Sign up. With signup forms, you can effectively build your audience.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the most useful tools for marketing your brand on social media. It allows you to plan and schedule posts and manage your business marketing on multiple social media.
Main Features
- Publish. Schedule and publish your content on different social media with Hootsuite’s simplified process.
- Engage. View all reactions you get on social media and engage with the feedback.
- Monitor. You can view your gains and losses with analytics and reports and create a new path for progress.
- Advertise. Hootsuite provides you with different tools to advertise your content easily and without much time loss.
Notion
Notion is the best platform that comes in with an app for planning, writing, and even teamwork. As a coach, you will definitely need it. For example, did you know that with Notion templates, you can create a personalized dashboard with multiple pages related to goals, daily affirmations, budgets, etc.?
Well, you definitely can! Although Notion can also be silently installed on macOS devices, another app explicitly created for MacOs and worked like Notion is called - Craft. However, Notion wins in Free criteria as you can make everything you want for free on Notion (unless you decide to purchase paid templates), but in Craft, if you reach a specific block limitation, you will have to pay for further usage. You'll also find different Notion replacements that offer note-taking, project management, team communication, and even CRM capabilities.
Let’s get back on track and review the Main features of Notion!
Main Features
- Table Database Block
- Text Editor
- Lots of Columns & Blocks
- Ready to use Templates
- Public Pages
- Customization Options
Uteach: The best and all-in-one coaching platform
Uteach remains one of the best online coaching platforms for you. It simply offers all the necessary functionality and third-party tools integrated within to ensure a high-quality experience for you & your coachees. Plus, it comes in handy with affordable pricing.
With Uteach, you can create a full-featured website in less than a few minutes, choose from a wide range of affordable pricing plans, build & most importantly, expand your coaching business worldwide.
You will gain all the customization & branding tools, including white labeling. So, in short, it is an all-in-one potent automation that will help you to start and take your business to the next level without any limitations.
Start your free trial now and build a coaching business that scales.