Choosing the Right Platform for Your Course or Membership Site - Christina Rava

00:01 Hi, I'm Christina Rava and I'm going to talk about choosing the right platform for your course or membership site. A quick background on me, I left corporate to start an online business in 2017 and for the first three years of my business I was offering one to one. I had one to one offers like coaches and coaching and services but I felt pretty burned out by this because my schedule was always full and my revenue was plateauing because there are only so many hours in the day and I wasn't able to increase my revenue without working more hours, which was just not an option for me. 

00:42 I wanted to have a life and I have kids and I just wanted to have more work life balance. So that's when I started creating digital products and courses for greater impact you know, you can reach more people through this A1 to many offer than through a one to one offer obviously more revenue because the digital products and courses are more scalable and also more time freedom i could increase my revenue while lowering my work hours. So you know, that sounds great you know, you, you hear about what's possible with digital products and courses and memberships but I know that one thing that holds people back from actually fulfilling that vision is the tech. 

01:27 And they think there are so many options that it, it's overwhelming even getting started by choosing a platform. So that's why that, that's what brings us here i'm going to choose talk about choosing the right platform for your course or membership site. So just right off the bat, I'll give you the bad news there isn't one right answer, right so I can't at the end, I'll tell you what I use, but really there's no perfect solution there's no one size fits all solution. 

02:01 There's not like a clear winner. So instead, I'm going to talk about the options and how to find the option that's right for your business needs and your budget. So a word of caution is to not choose a course or membership platform based on price alone. I completely understand that price is a consideration, especially in the early stages of your business. You need to find a platform that fits into your budget so you absolutely should look at pricing, but that can't be the only factor that determines the platform that you ultimately choose for a few reasons. 

02:47

There's really no apples to apples comparison across platforms they offer different features and functionality and levels of customization and so just looking at price assumes that everything else is equal when it's actually not. Also a lot of times, not all the time, but a lot of times with price like you, you get what you pay for. So if you are comparing 2 platforms that seem comparable in terms of the, you know, comparable in terms of what they offer and so then you just choose the one with the lower price there may be things that you're not aware of so maybe like this, the customer support isn't good with the cheaper platform, or maybe it's not as customizable, or maybe there are some kind of like hidden transaction fees, you know, so that's another reason to not just go with the cheapest option. 

03:39 And the other thing is that you have to keep in mind that even though you're making a decision about what platform to use right now, your business will grow and I have to fix this type of the, the cheaper platforms may not fit your future needs so a lot of times the platforms that are the lowest price also have the fewest features and the lowest quotas, like for example, of how many different products you can create and sell. And so that may be fine for the next year or so, but what happens when you're ready for more can the platform accommodate that? And then sometimes like the like the bare bones platforms, it can't like you can't grow with them and then you end up switching platforms, which could be expensive and time consuming and it could introduce some room for error. 

04:34 That's another reason to just give some second thought if you're tempted to choose based on price. So how do you make a decision? So one thing that's really important to ask yourself when you're choosing a course or membership platform is what would serve your business and your customers best. So at the minimum, you're looking for a place to host your course or your membership content, right so you want a place where you can upload your content into a secure password protected members area or dashboard, and you want to be able to grant your members access to that, right so that's the bare minimum. 

05:17 But do you also want or need a private community, so a way for the members to connect with one another and also with you? Do you want to be able to host live meetings or calls alongside your course or membership? Do you want the ability to offer coaching, maybe as an upgrade to your course or membership? Do you want to have assessments or quizzes that where you can evaluate how well your students or your members are understanding the material and how they're progressing? Do you want to be able to measure engagement so are people completing the lessons are they going through the content? What does their progress look like? Do you want to add an element of gamification to your course or your membership? A lot of times gamification isn't just, it's about fun, right, for your members, but it's also about keeping them engaged and on track so that they complete the so that they complete the, the content and that they ultimately get a result from the, the content from the course of the membership. 

06:26 And then finally, another example of serving your customers is offering certificates of completion because we want to reward the people who do consume the information and who make it all the way to the end. So these are all not, they're not necessary, but a lot of them can really improve the customer experience. And the happier you can make your customers, the better it is for your business, right? They will refer you to other people, they'll give you great testimonials, they'll seek out other ways of working with you. So if you choose a course or membership platform that has features like the ones I've listed in this page, that makes for a better customer experience, which is therefore better for your business. 

07:20 Also, there are some platforms that are built. They're built specifically to host your content for your course or your membership a lot of them offer the features that I showed on the previous slide, but it stops there. Whereas there are other platforms that are called all, they're called all in one platforms because they have features for other parts of your business so for example, you can build your website or your blog on them. You can do your email marketing. There's a landing page builder so you can make your, you know, you can use that for your funnels and for your sales pages, there's a the payment processor. 

08:00 You can build entire funnels with automations. There are options to offer an affiliate program so that you can recruit other people to promote your business or your course or your membership in exchange for a Commission. So. 

08:16 A lot having all of these things in one place tends to be helpful because then you're not trying to, first of all, pay for multiple different software subscriptions for all of the things that I've listed. And you're also not going through the headache of trying to connect everything together like if your business is built on multiple platforms, if you have everything under one roof, it's a lot more convenient for you. You're running everything in one place and it actually can save money in the long run because you're paying for a single subscription rather than multiple subscriptions for the different functionalities that I've listed here. 

08:56 Also, when you are comparing course or membership platforms, I recommend that you look at whether there are limits or quotas for things such as like the number of products you can create so a product could be something like a course or a membership or a digital download or community so how many products can you create and sell for the subscription price? Are there limits to how many customers or students you can have enrolled in your programs? Are there limits to the number of email contacts that you can have on your list, the number of subscribers? Are there limits to the number of landing pages that you can create or the number of emails that you can send? A lot of platforms do have do have these types of quotas. 

09:48 So if you're looking at pricing and plans or within one platform or cross platforms, I recommend that you take this into consideration so that you have an understanding of what what the platform can accommodate. And this is especially important in reference to what I was talking to before about growing your business. A lot of times the the cheaper plans have smaller quotas for the things that I've listed here so you have to see if they have the option where you can upgrade as your business grows to a higher tier to get to be able to have like more products and more students and more emails. 

10:33 Now, here's a long list of additional considerations, but I'm going to briefly talk through them because there are probably other things that you, you know, you may not realize are a consideration when you're choosing a course or membership platform. Some platforms include video hosting and others do not. So if your course or membership, if the content is mostly video based, this is a really important consideration because if the platform does not cover video hosting, what that means is that you're going to have to pay for the subscription to that platform. 

11:14 But in addition to that, you're going to have to pay for a subscription to another platform where you can upload all of your video files and then get a link and, you know, link them over to your course platform so that's an additional fee that you may not realize that you have to pay. So definitely take that into consideration when you're choosing a platform. If you're going to have a lot of content, you may want to consider is there a search function is this a very like searchable platform? Are there any transaction fees so does the platform take either a flat transaction fee, like every time you sell a course or membership, or does it take a percentage of the sale? Are there AI features this is of course, increasingly important to understand, like is the platform actively building AI, you know, in so to make everything easier and faster for you, is there a branded app option so we know that a lot of people, the people are using their phones more and more and some people will consume your content on a laptop, but others will want to consume it on their phone. 

12:28 And it's really nice if you can have like basically have your course, your membership on a branded app that gives like a very, it's a great, it makes a great impression on your students. Can you edit and repurpose content directly on the platform so this is a little bit of an advanced feature, but it makes things very convenient for you. Like if you make a video for your course or if you record a workshop or something like that, can you use the platform to then edit it and and repurpose it maybe for marketing purposes? Can you offer flexible payment options for your students? If you can, that will help increase your sales conversion so for example, Afterpay or Klarna, like the more the more flexible options you have, the more students you can enroll. 

13:18 What integrations are available to connect with other platforms so let's say you already are using a certain platform for your email marketing. When you're choosing a course or membership platform, you can look at how easily you can integrate the two. How customizable is the interface and are templates included. So we want, we would always want our courses and our memberships to have like to be on brand, right? And to have a certain look to them. But some course in membership platforms are more customizable than others, and then some offer templates that are a good starting point for you, especially if you don't have good design skills it's really helpful to have landing page templates and website templates that you can customize with your own branding rather than having to start from scratch with the things that you're creating. 

14:12 How comprehensive are the analytics? So as your business grows, you want to get a really strong idea of like, where your traffic is coming from and what your conversion rates are and how engaged are your students and are people reading your emails like, you know, you want to look at the numbers to really understand what's working well in your business and what needs to be optimized. And some platforms have better analytics than others. How easy is it for you to navigate the platform so is it? Does it, is it organized is the interface user friendly? And then finally, what type of customer support is available does the platform have live chat available for support does it have a Facebook group how? How are they going to be there to answer your questions, 

15:04 So I've just given you a lot of information and hopefully was helpful, but you may still be wondering what now, how, how do I actually make a decision about what platform to use for my course for membership? So on this page, just to help you get the ball rolling, I've listed some platform options. There are so many out there, I couldn't possibly cover them all, but you have your all in one platforms so these are the ones that offer the most features and they're the most customizable there's kaja which is the one i use, plus also Kartra and high level. 

15:38 There are some that are more basic they are mostly for hosting your content they do have some other features but in general they have less than the all in ones and they're also less customizable but if you're looking for something that's like more simple and just for your course or membership platform, you can explore them. There are a couple, There are a few that are community focused like circle and school. So if the thing that you want to offer centers heavily around a community, you can look at those. 

16:11 If you are planning on offering a membership, there are some platforms that are specifically built for that like Member Vault and Searchy, which is now called membership dot IO. And then there are other options out there for example, Thrive Cart Learn. That's an interesting one because it's a one time payment instead of a subscription or Learn Dash, which is a WordPress plug in so if you want to be able, if you have a WordPress site and you want to be able to just add a course that goes along with your site, that's an option for you. So here are some suggestions for next steps. One is to review my slides like you can go back and watch this presentation and review all the slides I had about considerations so let me go to them. 

17:03 So this one, what would serve your business and your customers best? This one about, you know, do you need to be able, do you want the platform to also function for other parts of your business? This one about quotas and this one about additional considerations. So go back and review those four slides and try to make a list of three to five non negotiable. For example, I absolutely want to offer a community alongside my course or I really would love to have an app, I would like to have a branded app where people can consume my content or I want something that will allow me to send a lot of emails because I'm really big into email marketing you know so select the things that are essential to you right now. 

17:50 Also you can use the list I gave you or come up with others and research three to five course or membership platforms to see how they compare on that list of non negotiables that you made. So I do this personally i do this by Googling three things one is the platform name, pricing and features because every platform will have a page that shows you the different plans they offer, the price of each plan, and the features of each plan. So then you can carefully read through the features on that page and see if the platform meets your requirements for the non negotiables. Another thing is if you are leaning toward two or three platforms, you can Google platform one name versus platform two name comparison and you can find articles where other people have compared the platforms for you. 

18:52 One little word of caution though, if you do that is to pay attention to who where that article is published or who published it because sometimes the platform itself will publish comparison articles and obviously the it'll try to convince you to sign up for that platform. Or if it's, let's say a Blogger who's comparing 2 platforms, are they giving you an unbiased viewpoint or are they trying to sway you one way or the other because they may, for example, earn an affiliate Commission. So take it a little bit with a grain of salt when you when you research these comparisons but still, it's helpful to do because the comparison articles may bring certain things to your attention that you weren't really thinking about or paying attention to. 

19:42 And then finally, you can Google whatever the platform name is reviews and you can find some reviews online about what people liked and didn't like about the platform. Also, before making a final decision, ask yourself if the platform will still suit your needs as your business grows so do they have different tiers, pricing tiers where you can add on more features or get higher quotas as your business grows? Also take advantage of free trials, so. I would venture to say almost every platform or most platforms will offer a free trial. So that's really the best way to get a sense of whether it's suitable for you but don't just sign up for the trial, actually dive in you know, so when when you sign up for a trial, play around with it, right let set aside some time to actually use it. 

20:39 And if they have, let's say tutorials or some kind of like onboarding onto the platform, take advantage of that so that you can get like a really true sense of what it's like to use that platform. And then finally ask around in Facebook groups and within your network to see what other people are using and then just don't, don't be afraid to DM them or something and say, hey, like, can you just share with me like why you chose that platform or what you like about it or you know, like get other people to kind of share their own experience with you. 

21:11 So I know that it may not be easy to select your non negotiables so what I did is I pulled my own audience so I have a pretty large and engaged list, of course creators email list i'm referring to. And I sent them a survey and I gave them a list of pretty much all of the choices that all of the, you know, different platform features and considerations that I talked about in this presentation and I asked them to pick three that were the most important to them i asked what are they looking for in a platform and with so many different options that the results were scattered but there were seven things that really came through as top priorities for a lot of people. 

22:04 So these are in order of the number of votes that these things got so number one not surprisingly was price. I know I did say not to choose a platform only based on price, but it certainly is an important consideration. The number two thing that came through is people were looking for a platform that was customizable and easy to use. And that makes total sense to me because you know, if you're paying for a platform but you can't get it to look the way you want or it's not easy to navigate and use, it's not going to do you any good so that is kind of a no brainer number three the number three thing that came through on people's wish list was all in one functionality. 

22:50 This also makes a lot of sense for me because you need a lot of different tools to be able to run an online course or membership business it's not just about hosting the content, it's also about doing marketing and making sales and growing your email list and having a website. And so if you can do all of those things in one place, it really does make your life easier. And like I mentioned before, it can save you money in the long run so it looks like, you know, my audience agrees with that, and that's something that they're looking for in a platform number four people said they wanted the option to upgrade plans for growth so as their business grows and they begin to offer more products and have a bigger email list, and you know, maybe they have different types of funnels set up, they want the platform to be able to accommodate that, which also makes makes a lot of sense number five people want video hosting to be included. 

23:55 I absolutely agree with that. If you're going to be paying money every month for a course or membership hosting platform, you know, you don't really want to pay even more now to have your videos somewhere else so I agree with that. Number six, no additional transaction fee. One thing to note here is if you collect payments online through something like PayPal or Stripe, there's going to be a transaction fee no matter what you really can't get around that. However, you don't really want to have to pay even more money to your hosting platform on top of what you're already paying to PayPal and Stripe, so that makes sense as well. 

24:39 And then the number seven desired feature that came through was the option to host a community. I love that people are looking for this because I think that moving forward, what people are looking for in a course or membership is changing. It used to be that you could have a successful course or membership with just by delivering content. But I think now in 2025 people are looking for connection and community and support and feedback and accountability. 

25:12 And having those things bundle together with your course or membership I think can really add to its value. And you can also charge more for it that way so I love the fact that people want to be able to host a community in addition to their course or their membership so I think that my audience nailed it they chose really, really important features when I asked them about what they were looking for in a platform and I couldn't agree more with them. And one platform, the platform that I use and that I recommend that checks all of these boxes on the list is Kajabi. 

25:51 Kajabi has four different pricing tiers. The lowest one starts at 69$ a month if you pay monthly and 55$ a month if you pay annually. It's customizable and easy to use they have a lot of templates that you can use to help get you started so you don't have to design things from scratch. And there are a lot of tutorials that help you navigate the platform it's called Kajabi University and they are really helpful. And the overall the platform is very user friendly. It's an all in one platform so you can basically run your entire business with it that's what i do you can always up you know start with a lower plan and then upgrade plans for growth if you need to have more contacts or more products or more students, video hosting is included and Kajabi is one of the few platforms that does include that in the subscription price. 

26:45 They don't charge an additional transaction fee and you can host your community on Kajabi and in fact, they just did a major upgrade of their community interface recently. So if you're interested in checking that out, i offer a Kajabi course launch checklist for free. You can get the link for that somewhere around my bio. And also I'm an affiliate for Kajabi, so i offer a free 30 day trial, which is an extended free trial and some bonuses if you sign up with my link. I hope that you found this presentation to be helpful and I wish you the most success with your course or membership business.