Kajabi is the leader in the course creation space, having generated over $2B for creators. They are best for creators looking for a full suite, including sales, marketing, and CRM. They will also be the most expensive, but allow for the most opportunity for growth with data and infrastructure.
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Udemy is a marketplace for courses, where each course is sold individually. The massive reach of Udemy allows for great opportunity for Creators. Instructors earn a percentage of sales but there is not a lot of room for customization.
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Another all-in-one platform calling creators to sell courses, products, memberships that also accepts payments. Built for mobile first and social commerce, creators have the ability to connect directly with their community for fan engagement. Offers unique pricing and is praised for its simplicity.
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Thinkific is a course platform that offers good customization and is a lower price than Kajibi. It’s known for its ability to integrate with other platforms, and for its ease of use. Highly popular amongst those wanting something easier to use than Kijabi.
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Skool focuses on community and is a membership-based model. They charge a monthly fee and don’t allow for a lot of customization. Their community-driven engagement helps with organic growth and retention. Their gamified features like leaderboards and badges are designed to foster strong engagement.
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All-in-one solution for e-commerce, content and community engagement. Incredibly customizable, helping creators differentiate themselves. Popular amongst creators who want to connect directly with fans and want one website to do it all. Their e-commerce on demand is popular and the platform takes a percentage of sales, which is low-risk for creators.
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Skillshare is a course platform that has a different model than Kijabi, Thinkific, and Teachable. Students pay a monthly fee and creators get paid based on the number of minutes watched. Creators have limited control over pricing. Creators can benefit from a strong community. Courses are mostly project based and geared towards shorter, focused learning.
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Gumroad is an ecommerce platform for selling digital products. Creators get complete control over pricing and audience data. Gumroad takes a fee on sales. While there’s limited customization and community interaction, it’s ease and simplicity attracts creators looking to sell any digital product (ebook, audio files, etc)
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Built for a wide-range of e-commerce sellers, from small business to large enterprises. Known for its robust software, it is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms globally. Allows for full control over everything, including inventory, shipping, and fulfillment. More complex and for creators who want to become a larger business.
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Circle is best for creators who want a customizable community with forums, channels, and threads. Its professional feel makes it great for educators. Pricing varies based on how many members, and allows for a lot of integrations with course platforms. Members of this platform usually pay a monthly fee, which makes it great for monetizing a creator's audience.
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Best for creators who want to build an SMS/text message community. Not as robust as other membership platforms for business professionals, but is great for segmenting audiences, sending large messages, and targeting communication. Offers a pay-per-message model or subscription and has a free trial.
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Patreon is used by a broad range of creators, looking to monetize across a wide range of content (videos, audio, posts, live streams). Members pay a monthly fee and the platform fees range from 5-12%
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Ko-Fi is more popular amongst niche creators (artists, writers, smaller creators). They offer one-time tips, memberships and direct product sales. They have generous pricing, and a good free option.
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Considered brand-safe and a leader amongst Gen-Z for photos, videos, and live-streams. Most creators charge a monthly fee, but there is also a popular message-to-pay feature. Fanfix takes 20% of all earnings.
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Similar to the audience of Ko-Fi with a simple interface. They take a 5% transaction fee of payments and don’t require a subscription from any users.
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Similar to Fanfix across features and audience. Platform takes 15-20%.
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Best use for professional creators looking to integrate a membership community onto their Wordpress website. Members can pay monthly or a one-time fee and have a variety of plans. Mostly used as a white-label solution to allow members to access a creator’s website directly.
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The most popular and original of the tools that aggregates links. Simple, provides analytics, and includes basic support for payments.
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Easy to use and popular amongst Instagram users/ mobile first audience. Separates links into cards which makes it easier to navigate. Free products work well, but there aren’t monetization options that have basic engagement on clicks and views.
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