25 Free or Low Cost Tools You Can Use to Create Your Online Course

Jul 8

Creating an online course is a fantastic way to add an additional revenue stream to your business, but there are so many tools designed for course creators.

In this post, I’m sharing 25 free or low cost tools (under $50/mo) that you might need to create your online course, but don’t worry; you won’t need everything at once.

For example, do you need to create a community for your first course? No, not at all! But, everything on this list is a great tool to help grow the online course side of your business.

Also, I’ll try my best to keep this blog up-to-date, but if you’re interested in a tool I recommend clicking on the links in here and checking out their pricing.

Table of Contents

Brainstorming Tools

When developing an online course, you will likely need to do a lot of brainstorming to come up with the structure and content of the course. Luckily, there are a number of tools that can help you with this process.

Miro

One great tool is Miro, which allows you to visually map out your ideas. You can then easily move pieces around and add new ideas as they come to you.

PRICE: Free - $16/month

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

You get 3 boards to use and templates
Share the boards with others

Mindmeister

My personal favorite is Mindmeister. I felt that Miro was more geared towards team collaboration, while Mindmeister really fits my needs as a team of one when it comes to brainstorming. I can quickly map out my offer and course ideas and export them for later.

PRICE: Free - $16/month

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

You get 3 mind maps free boards to use and templates
Add multiple team members
Collaborate in real time
Lots of customization options

Course Recording Tools

Recording your online course video lessons doesn’t have to be overly complicated. You can use a program like Zoom, Loom, or Screencast-O-Matic. All of these tools allow you to record your screen, camera, or both simultaneously. Then there’s Descript, where you can actually edit your video by just editing the transcript. It’s pretty seamless!

Zoom

Zoom is really popular tool for recording video lessons. You can simply create a free account, start a meeting, and record! This is also an ideal tool for you if you will be recording coaching calls or student Q&A’s and will be putting them in your course later.

PRICE: Free - $25/mo

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Up too 100 attendees, 40 min meeting limit
Unlimited meetings for up to 40 mins
Automated captions
3 editable whiteboards

Loom

I use Loom currently for quickly capturing videos and have liked it so far. It’s easy to use and I can simply share the Loom link with a client if I’ve recorded a video for them.

PRICE: Free - $8/mo

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Up to 25 videos per person
Up to 5 mins per video
Instant editing
Unlimited transcripts
Screen recording and cam bubble

Screencast-O-Matic

On the hand is Screencast-O-Matic. I honestly will probably move over to them because they give you more bang for your buck. For just $9/mo you can get unlimited stock video, images, and music, plus add CTA and annotation buttons, get automated speech-to-text captioning AND you can draw while recording (which is not necessary but it’s a nice bonus!).

PRICE: Free - $8/year

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Capture screenshots & recordings
Edit videos & screenshots
Draw & annotate while recording
Access to music & sound effect library

Descript

Descript is one of the most interesting video editing tools out there. I truly haven’t seen anything like it. You basically edit your video by editing the transcript that pops out in the tool. You can even automatically remove filler words! Definitely a must for those who don’t want to learn video editing and just want to be able to quickly get their course videos done.

PRICE: Free - $24/mo

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

3 hrs of transcription
Full audio & video editing
Unlimited screen recordings

Course Design Tools

Canva is definitely the go-to for creating all of the graphic assets you’ll need to make your course slides pretty and engaging. BUT, if you are still trying to find your creative bone or you’ve just burned out the last of your creative energy, I recommend checking out Creative Market or Etsy for course slide and workbook templates. Those templates have saved me more times than I can count! Then, there’s Envato Elements. While you can’t create anything in Envato Elements, you can get access to photos, video templates, and sound effects for a minimal price per month.

Canva

PRICE: Free - $30/mo

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Access to 250,000+ free templates
100+ design types
Hundreds of free photos and graphics
Collaborate and comment in real-time

Envato Elements

PRICE: $16.50/mo

FEATURES:

Unlimited downloads
60+ million assets including: video templates, presentation templates, photos, royalty-free music
Lifetime commercial license

Online Course Platforms

There are many options for hosting your online course, and it can be challenging to choose the one that’s right for you. I would definitely compare plans, features, and pricing to make sure you won’t have to change platforms all of the time.

Here are a few of the most popular all online course platforms: Podia, Teachable, Thinkific.

Podia

Podia is the latest competitor to Kajabi. Not just because of their features, but their pricing currently beats Kajabi out by quite a bit. Even on their lowest priced plan ($39/mo), you can sell unlimited courses, digital downloads, and coaching , design a website, and build your email list. The only thing I haven’t see that isn’t very robust is advanced funnel building. But if you’re a beginner, you should get everything you need on the Mover plan.

PRICE: Free - $166/mo (the mid-priced plans still offer lots of features)

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

No transaction fees
Full website
Email marketing
1 download
1 coaching product
Draft courses only

Teachable

Teachable has been one of the most used online course platforms for online businesses. You can get unlimited courses starting at just $39/mo. But you will have transaction fees unless you upgrade to the Pro plan (which is $99/mo). The biggest perk about Teachable is that it has an app your students can use to learn on the go. This really depends on your audience, but industry trends point to a continued increase in mobile learning across the global in the next 3 years.

PRICE: Free - $299/mo (basic plan is $39/mo and includes most of what you need)

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Host 1 course
Unlimited students
Integrated website and builder
Integrated payment processing
Tax handling
Referral marketing
Unlimited coaching

Thinkific

Thinkific is probably one of the most customizable course platforms you’ll find out there that’s geared towards course creators. The biggest perk? No transaction fees! Just know, that if you want to offer payment plans or bundles, you would need to upgrade to at least the Pro plan, which is $99/mo.

PRICE: Free - $499/mo (the basic and pro plans are $49-$99/mo and should fit most small business needs)

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

No transaction fees
Only one course
Unlimited students
Easy drag & drop Course Builder
Full video & content hosting
Customizable course landing pages

Carts and Checkouts

If your course is hosted on a platform that doesn't have a built-in checkout system, you'll need to look at other options like online carts or checkouts. These softwares allow students to pay for the course all at once or in installments, and they provide a receipt for tax purposes (super important for your business finances!). Most of these softwares are low cost, and sometimes even free.

Cartfuel

I used Cartfuel previously and really loved how customizable it was plus the ability I had to embed it wherever I needed it on my website or in landing pages. There’s no transaction fees and you can cancel it easily anytime. The only reason I switched is because I invested in an all-in-one marketing solution that already had a checkout function.

PRICE: $37 - $97/mo

FEATURES ON THE LOWEST PRICED PLAN:

Embed anywhere!
Multiple products
Coupons
Order bumps
Tax rules
No additional fees
Zapier integration
Customer analytics

Stripe

You can also build checkouts for free with Stripe Checkout. There’s a ton of different features that Stripe has built into their checkout and can be a great one to use if you don’t want to pay another monthly fee. The only (potential) downside? You can’t accept Paypal payments.

PRICE: FREE (can only accept credit/debit cards)

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Configure one-time or recurring payments
Customize checkout using brand colors
Set tax rates based on region
Collect customers’ shipping information
Create discount and promo codes

SendOwl

SendOwl lets you sell all kinds of products for a fairly low monthly price. I mean you could sell audiobooks, ebooks, software, and even memberships in addition to your online courses. Even for just $24/mo, you can include upsells for your products and manage cart abandonment. If you’re curious, you can start a 30-day free trial - no credit card needed.

PRICE: $9 - $39/mo

FEATURES ON THE LOWEST PRICED PLAN:

1 GB storage
No transaction fees
Up to 10 products

Survey & Quiz Tools

When you are designing or teaching an online course, it is important to get feedback from your students. One way to do this is by using survey tools. This can help you to understand how your students are feeling about the course, what they think could be improved, and what they found most helpful. There are many different survey tools available, both free and paid. Some of the most popular ones include Google Forms, Typeform, and Jotform.

Google Forms

Google Forms is probably the easiest to use out of the tools we’ll talk about here. This is my go-to for collecting feedback. Even though it doesn’t have as much functionality as the others, it still has a modern look and is free for life.

PRICE: FREE

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Multiple question types
Include images in questions
Customize values using copy-and-paste
Simple branding customization
Analyze responses with automatic summaries
Unlimited submissions

Typeform

Typeform is a completely different beast than Google Forms and Jotform. Typeform is known for presenting their surveys just one question at a time to cut down on frustration with long survey forms. The customization function in Typeform is huge, plus they offer several different types of questions. You can even create a mini course in there! The biggest downside to Typeform is the limit on responses. Even on their lowest priced plan, you can only accept 100 responses per month.

PRICE: $25 - $83/mo

FEATURES ON THE LOWEST PRICED PLAN:

100 responses per month
Unlimited typeforms
Unlimited questions
Question branching/logic jumps
Accept payments via Stripe

Jotform

Jotform does support many more types of questions compared to Google Forms and Typeform. It can even function similarly to Typeform, where you can present one question at a time. Their lowest tiered plan has more monthly submissions than Typeform, but you are limited to only 25 forms (not that you would need that many). One of the things that sets Jotform apart is its ability to create no-code apps.

PRICE: Free - $79/mo

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

5 forms
100 monthly submissions
100 MB available space
100 fields per form

Project Management

You might think that you don't need to worry about project management when it comes to course creation, but project management is an important skill. Poorly executed projects can lead to wasted time and money, so it's important to take the time to plan your course and manage its creation effectively. I’ll talk about a few of the best project management tools for course creators in this section.

ClickUp

ClickUp is my go-to project management tool. I map out a ton of my workflows in ClickUp: blog posting, course creation, launching, etc. It keeps me organized and on track without missing deadlines.

PRICE: Free - $19/mo

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Unlimited tasks
Collaborative docs
5 spaces
100 lists per space
Unlimited custom views
100 uses of custom fields

Airtable

I like to think of Airtable like a spreadsheet on steriods. It allows you to organize information in a database. I did use Airtable before ClickUp but ultimately switched because I needed something that was more project management-esque.

PRICE: Free - $24/mo

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Unlimited bases
1,200 records per base
Up to 5 creators or editors
Unlimited commenter & read-only users

Notion

Notion is becoming more popular in the online space. I even have a friend who releases her freebies through Notion. While it does have some basic project management functions, I truly use Notion as more of my second brain. I put all of my notes from the courses buy in there and use it to store different resources and links. Without Notion, I would have endless Google Docs in my Google Drive.

PRICE: Free - $8/mo

FEATURES ON THE FREE PLAN:

Unlimited pages and blocks
5 MB of file upload
View databases in table, list, calendar, kanban board, gallery, and timeline views

Community Tools

If you are adding live or personalized support to your course, there are several tools and options available. These tools allow for real-time communication between students and instructors, which can be helpful for clarification or problem solving.

Heartbeat

Heartbeat is the new kid on the block in the online space. It has a TON of features including chats, threads, documents, courses, and events. Plus, it has an app where you can quickly access any communities you’re managing or are part of.

PRICE: $29 - $99/mo

FEATURES ON THE LOWEST PRICED PLAN:

Up to 1,000 members
Custom domain and brand colors
Zapier, Zoom, & GCal integrations

Mighty Networks

For a while, Might Networks was one of the only community management platforms that existed on the market. Mighty Networks not only lets you communicate with your students, but you can host your courses there as well. I will say, though, the interface is not quite as intuitive and may take some time to learn.

PRICE: $39 - $119/mo

FEATURES ON THE LOWEST PRICED PLAN:

Native livestreaming & video
Chat & Messaging
Events & Zoom integrations
Paid memberships

Circle

The last on this list is Circle. This is truly a community platform focused on discussion, networking, and member engagement. In recent years, it’s started to integrate with online course platforms, including Teachable.