Coaching. Is. HUGE.
There are coaches for pretty much everything. Want to master your career? Want to find a date? Want a better money mindset? There are coaches for that.
In fact, the International Coaching Federation found a 54% growth in coaches from 2019 to 2022; growing the industry by $20 billion USD.
We're seeing coaches hit 6-, 7- and even 8-figures. Imagine a business you can do from anywhere, which helps people, and makes GREAT money. It doesn’t get much better than that.
In this article:
- We’ll share secrets from 7-figure coaches.
- We’ll show you the ULTIMATE online coaching business model (you’ve probably never heard of it).
- And, we’ll show you which online coaching platforms to choose for a thriving coaching business.
Try the platform with the most $1 million communities.
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What is an online coaching platform?
An online coaching platform is a digital solution that gives you the tools you need to host your online coaching business, and usually offers tools like scheduling, sales, and video meetings.
We're seeing two main types of online coaching platforms: marketplace platforms and white-label platforms.
- Marketplace platforms are places where thousands of potential clients can browse coach listings, hire a coach, and manage their relationship with them.
- White-label platforms let the coach build their own brand and audience without competing with other coaches, but you’ll need to learn how to attract clients there.
Both types of platforms have pros and cons, which we’ll talk about below.
Why online coaches fail
For every successful coach there are 10 that are struggling, and maybe about to give up. Some will close their practices and disappear back into a day job.
That's a shame. Because there's never been more opportunity for great coaches. So to choose the right online coaching platform, it's important to understand why coaches fail.
Here’s when coaches fail:
They can’t figure out client acquisition: You're posting on LinkedIn or Facebook. You bought an ad package from a "marketing guru." You stole a "winning email strategy." But you're still struggling. Contrary to popular belief, a “funnel” is NOT the best way to sell coaching. But we’ll get to that in just a sec.
Lesson - a good coaching platform should help you acquire clients.
They silo their audience: 100 Facebook followers. 140 on Twitter. 85 on Instagram. And 200 on your email list. Does your audience look like this? When your potential (and current) clients engage with you on 5 different platforms, it creates confusion and lost opportunity. Plus you're creating content in 10 places. It's exhausting.
Lesson - a good coaching platform should let you focus on building in one place.
They underwhelm: If you promise life transformation, you better deliver! A lot of coaches just don’t. You need a focused way to coach AND a platform that lets you create amazing products.
Lesson - a good coaching platform elevates your offers.
They get stuck at scaling: Too many coaches can’t scale. They’re in a constant loop between searching for clients and spending energy on the ones they’ve got–and they’re exhausted.
Lesson - a good coaching platform scales with you
If you’re struggling with one or more of these things, here’s what you need:
You need the ultimate online coaching business model (that you’ve probably never heard of).
7-figure online coaching blueprint
Can the right online coaching platform help you build a 7-figure business? Yup.
Here's how.
- Get the ideal client right: You can't skip this. A 7-figure coaching business needs a clear ideal member. You need to help one type of person address one type of problem, again and again.
- Unlock recurring revenue: Whether it's recurring 1:1 coaching sessions, group coaching, or an ongoing community or membership, recurring revenue gives you a cushion to build and grow with.
- Productize your offerings: At some point, scale needs productization. Maybe it's a pre-recorded coaching program. Maybe a live class that's an upsell. Maybe a high-ticket item like a premium live event. Creating products lets you charge more, and boost your effectiveness with existing clients.
- Unlock the community flywheel: You don't need a community to grow a successful coaching business, but it can be an amazing boost. When you build an online community with your ideal members, you're not the only one offering value anymore. Now your members offer value to each other! They share, comment, encourage, and build friendships that transform their lives. It's the network effect--and it's the principle behind all the biggest social media companies. And building a community supercharges growth, because people will join by word of mouth (throw out your funnels).
We've seen this formula work again and again. Get off the social media hamster wheel. Stop buying the “get rich quick” programs from the gurus who are getting rich quick off of you.
Here are some of the awesome results we've seen:
- A finance community selling a $1,000/month high-ticket coaching program.
- An entrepreneurship brand launched a community to 5,000 members and made over $30,000 in 2 ½ weeks.
- A health-focused brand added 100 high-ticket members and $40,000 in ARR.
- A podcaster and author sold 5,000 seats to a $997 course in 10 days to existing members.
- One coaching community launched a 13-week add-on course and generated an additional $100k in revenue in 2 months.
What to look for in an online coaching platform
So if you’re looking for an online coaching platform, you’re basically looking for the right features for YOUR business.
Here are some common options.
- Marketing options: e.g. email integration, sales pages, ability to build packages & offers, or even ways to run a marketing funnel or coaching sales funnel (if you want one).
- Sales options: e.g. point of sale, sell in different currencies, offer bundles, products, discounts, free trials.
- Courses: The best option here is an online course platform for coaches, which will let you build beautiful, engaging courses (live and/or pre-recorded), which can be a great way to scale!
- Groups: Group coaching lets you work at different price points, serve multiple people at once, especially if you have clients who might not be able to afford 1:1 coaching. Can you manage groups, sort out members, and still give each an experience that feels personalized?
- Community: If you want to build a community flywheel business, it all comes down to this. So many online coaching businesses we see have benefitted from a thriving community flywheel business. Look for a platform that lets you host discussions, share content, and form connections between your clients. Plus, because of the network effect, you’ll experience the magic of how the community serves each other and therefore gets more valuable.
- Apps & Access: Last, but definitely not least, you want to make sure your online coaching platform has an app to serve your clients. If your coaching platform doesn't come with an app, run the other way.
The best online coaching platforms
1. Mighty Networks
Best all-in-one for community, group coaching, and courses
When it comes to running your own online coaching business, Mighty Networks gives you all the native features you need to grow.
Delivering Live Coaching
- Sell coaching sessions and packages + bundle with other products.
- Add and track memberships and automate coaching programs.
- Schedule events with a click, host live meetings and group sessions.
- Livestream to all your members.
- Handle messaging and chat natively AND/OR connect email with the ConvertKit integration.
Building Coaching Products
- Create a coaching community with discussions, polls, easily-navigable forums, and tons of content options.
- Mighty grows with you as you scale, letting you easily manage dozens, hundreds, or thousands of members.
For coaching communities, Mighty is ranked the #1 community platform by G2. And only Mighty has people magic, meaning it's designed to encourage member-to-member engagement.
Here's just one example of how people magic happens in a Mighty Network—the People Explorer.
Mighty also comes with a built-in ConvertKit integration for connecting your coaching emails and your coaching platform together seamlessly. And Mighty Co-Host™ --our community AI engine--can instantly generate landing pages, profiles, a brand identity, surface interesting members, automate profiles, and outline courses. It makes growing your coaching business radically easier.
Try it!
Pros
- Easily deliver and manage coaching
- Build programs and courses (live or pre-set)
- Powerful coaching community
- Mighty Co-Host™ AI community builder
- Dedicated Spaces you can customize and charge for
- Livestreaming & live events (both native + 1-click Zoom integration)
- An app for every device
- Charge for coaching in your home currency
- Bundle coaching, courses, etc.
Cons
- Need to use the Zapier integration with Google Calendars or Calendly to schedule 1:1 meetings
Pricing
The Community Plan is perfect for monetizing a community. The Business Plan is good for a community +courses. More info here!
2. Mighty Pro
Best for building your own coaching app
If you love the features of Mighty Networks, and want to get courses, community, content, commerce, and live events on your own branded app, come build with Mighty Pro!
Mighty Pro takes G2's top-ranked community software and builds it into your own branded app. You can bring payments, memberships, bundles, and your calendar into one place. With our Spaces feature, you can add in livestreaming, live events, member profiles, chat & messaging, discussion forums, and all sorts of content options!
Mighty Pro has built apps for TED, Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, Cambridge University, and Cristy "Code Red" Nickel. Listen to Cristy talk about the difference having her coaching programs on her own app made.
We've seen coaches reach amazing heights with Mighty Pro. These are customers like Zac Bush MD, founder of Journey of Intrinsic Health, who sold out his high-ticket course, community, and coaching program in 72 hours.
When you build with Mighty Pro, you'll work with a team of Account Executives and Community Strategists who have scaled 7-figure creator brands and 8+-figure subscription businesses.
We're in your corner. And we'll walk through this journey with you.
Finally, if you're already building on a platform, we'll take care of the migration for you!
Let us show you what you could build for your coaching brand!
"We made $100,000 in the first two weeks on Mighty Pro!" Ashley Fox - Founder, Wealth Builders Community
Pros
- Premium apps under your brand in the App Store and Google Play Store
- A team of Account Executives and Community Strategists behind you--both before and after launch
- A ton of features: discussions, live & pre-recorded courses, livestreaming, chat & messaging, gated Spaces, member profiles
- VIP support with proactive upgrades & analytics
- Run your community in a few hours a week with premium Mighty Co-Host™ features
- We'll handle migration from your existing coaching platform (if applicable)
Cons
- It's a premium solution. If you're just starting out, start on Mighty Networks
Pricing
Contact us for a custom quote.
3. Kajabi
Best for marketing funnels
Kajabi is best known as an online course platform that lets creators build and host courses, as well as letting them create landing pages. And for coaches looking to cash in on the course boom, one of the things Kajabi does best is to provide comprehensive marketing tools and funnels to sell those courses. In some cases, if you’re an online coach looking for the right platform, these marketing systems might help you to find clients and make sales.
If your coaching business is course-based, Kajabi lets you build out modules with text, files and videos (hosted on the third-party site Wistia). And the platform includes email campaigns, welcome flows, and landing pages–complex marketing systems that are not included in most other online coaching platforms.
The downside to Kajabi for coaches is that it’s a course-focused business builder. It does have a very limited community option and some programming options, but community is a struggle.
Kajabi tried to remedy this by purchasing the community platform, Vibely. They used this to launch what they call Community 2.0. But it still is really a basic forum with a livestreaming feature built in. It's missing the flexibility of spaces and there's actually a separate login for your course and community. Even Kajabi runs its own "Kajabi Heros" group on Facebook.
All this means Kajabi is fantastic for building courses with complex marketing funnels. It's not as strong if you want to add community, group coaching, or live courses.
It doesn’t have the complexity of community features Mighty Networks has and it’s twice as expensive.
Pros
- Solid course builder with a good LMS (for pre-recorded courses) and flexible content options
- Powerful marketing options, build in landing pages, email campaigns, and other sales triggers
- A good app for every device
- New AI features for course creation
- Options to create programs and challenges
Cons
- Extremely expensive for the course platform
- Limited community options (even with Kajabi 2.0)
- If you grow and want your own branded apps, you'd need to move elsewhere
Pricing
- The basic plan starts from $149/mo, with 3 products and 3 funnels. The Growth plan is $199/mo and adds 15 products and funnels, + an affiliate program and advanced automations.
4. Noomi
Best coaching marketplace
If you’re looking for an online coach marketplace to list your services on that also helps you run your coaching business, Noomi is one of the most popular. It has thousands of coaches for just about any demographic or specialty.
If you want to become a coach on Noomi, you need to go through their onboarding process and follow their structure; this will include a call with them to be approved and to record a video that you will use for your profile. Once you do that, the platform will place you in the database of coaches and, if clients are interested in working with you, they can send you a message and schedule a free consultation.
The back end of Noomi is pretty limited, it’s primarily built for messaging. So you might choose to pair it with another platform if you wanted to build in things like courses or community. But it’s a good place to be listed if you want to get leads and clients.
The marketplace structure can be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how good you are at getting leads elsewhere. If you have an existing practice and are doing well, it probably doesn’t make sense to pay to get listed on Noomi–especially since you need to actually attract attention in a sea of other coaches. That’s not easy. But if you’re just starting out, listing on Noomi might be a good option.
Pros
- An existing marketing system with people searching for coaches
- Qualified leads can find you
Cons
- Need to stand out in a sea of coaches
- Tons of competition
- You need to be approved and follow their rules
- Limited options for actually building out your business or scaling
Pricing
- Being listed on Noomi costs $447/year.
5. Satori
Best for 1:1 coaches
Satori is a scheduling solution made for coaches, and it automates a lot of processes that 1:1 coaches need to go through. Initially designed for yoga instructors, it gives you an administrative system for managing your coaching business. It lets you automate onboarding features like setting up programs for purchase, scheduling 1:1 or group sessions, and managing invoices.
Satori is built around your calendar, and clients can use it to schedule sessions with you. You can also add forms for them to fill out before you meet.
While it’s great on the admin side, Satori lacks some of the features you might look for in an online coaching platform. For example, it doesn’t let you create courses. It also doesn’t have an app to serve your clients, which is a bit tricky since the majority of internet users are mobile.
Pros
- Calendar interface and easy scheduling
- Automated forms and on-boarding
- Package sales and invoice features
Cons
- No community option
- No course functionality
- No app
Pricing
- It starts from $9/mo (for 3 clients), $39/mo for the Trailblazer plan (unlimited clients), or $79/mo for the Pro plan which includes some branding options.
6. Thinkific
Best WordPress plug-in for coaches
The final platform we’ll mention here is Thinkific. It’s another possible platform for coaches to build and sell courses. If you’re a coach who has an existing website on WordPress and you’re looking for functionality to add a plugin to run your courses on, Thinkific gives you this option.
It gives instructors the ability to customize the course design with a drag and drop course builder and comes with some options for marketing courses, including selling through affiliates. It integrates with PayPal and Stripe as payment gateways and lets you sell in 100 currencies.
Thinkific has its limits. It’s good for courses but doesn’t really have any capacity to create events or groups. Even the community functions are limited to a basic forum with some events options. So, if you’re looking for robust options beyond basic WordPress functionality, you’d probably want to choose something else on this list.
Pros
- Build a course and landing pages
- Some marketing features
- Connects with WordPress
Cons
- Limited community functions
- No event functions
- No scheduling functions
Pricing
- Starts from free with limited spaces, admin, etc., $36/mo for a Basic, and $74/mo for Start (which gives you live lessons, memberships and payment plans, etc.).
7. Coaching.com
Coaching.com is another online coaching platform that’s a marketplace. It gives coaches an operations software for their coaching business, including a dashboard, a video platform, a calendar for scheduling, program templates, and notifications. You can also add session notes.
The platform is simple, but it also includes a marketplace where coaches can list their services–which could be good for exposure.
Pros
- Good operations software for scheduling and tracking
- Built-in marketplace
- Mobile app & some custom branding options
Cons
- Limited flywheel features (no community, courses, discussion forums, etc)
- No way to deliver content
Pricing
- Up to 3 clients at $0/mo, then $47/mo for Pro (up to 10 clients), and $97/mo for Premium (unlimited clients).
8. Teachable
Best budget course-only platform
If your online coaching practice only needs an asynchronous course platform (that’s pre-recorded for the cool kids), Teachable might be an option. It has a good LMS for static courses and the option to build landing pages, offers, customize, and even sell with affiliates.
Pros
- Solid LMS with course options
- Good native video options
Cons
- No community
- Limited mobile app access (it only has iOS)
Pricing
- "Free" (but 1$ + 10% transaction fee); Basic is $59/mo with a 5% transaction fee and gives you 5 products; Pro is $159/mo for a 0% transaction fee and 50 products.
8. Kartra
Best Kajabi alternative for courses + marketing
Kartra is similar to Kajabi. It has a lot of the same features but isn’t quite as comprehensive. It has a coaching calendar built-in for 1:1 coaching sessions, and like Kajabi, it has a marketing platform to help you run a funnel and convert leads. It has built-in email marketing, and an LMS for creating courses and programs.
Pros
- Good marketing features (email, landing pages, etc.)
- LMS for courses
- Calendar for booking sessions
Cons
- No community features
- Not as strong as Kajabi (but almost as expensive)
Pricing
- Up to 2,500 leads is $119/mo; Silver plan is $229/mo for up to 12,500 leads with unlimited emails, pages, products, etc. The Gold Plan is $339/mo and adds up to 25,000 leads with 5 custom domains.
9. Nudge Coach
App for courses & “nudges”
Nudge Coach is an app for an online coaching practice that lets you build your own coaching programs using video lessons and automated prompts– which they call “nudges”. It feels a bit like a social media platform, you can create inspirational cards (that look like Instagram).
It’s got messaging included, so you can chat with clients. And you can get your coaching practice on a branded app.
Pros
- Good features for goal tracking & plans
- Chat & messaging + scheduling
- Cool video-based coaching packages
- Branded app options
Cons
- No real community, group, or event features
- Customized branding is quite limited
Pricing
- Up to 5 clients free, $60/mo for up to 50 clients, $100/mo for up to 100 + white-label options that require a custom quote.
Best video coaching platforms
10. Zoom
It came of age during the pandemic, but there’s still nothing quite like it. Zoom lets you host 1:1 coaching sessions OR group sessions. It has a lot of flexibility with scheduling, GCal integrations, and you can keep your coaching session secure with a password. With backgrounds, multispeaker views, and even some ways to monetize your community of fitness enthusiasts, it’s a tool most online coaches should have in their arsenal.
11. Geneva
Geneva is a video-first app that could work well for the video portion of a group coaching session. You can post rooms, access a calendar, RSVP, and DM.
12. MS Teams
Built as Microsoft’s answer to Slack, MS Teams has a better video platform than Slack does (it’s more intuitive) and functions more as a chat and conferencing platform. It’s a great tool for coaches as an alternative to Zoom.
Best online coaching business tools
What are the other tools for running an online coaching business? Well, here are a few that coaches rely on. (Note that some of these are built into the coaching platforms we talked about above!)
13. Google Calendar
It’s still one of the cheapest shared calendar options for coaches and works well!
14. Calendly
A step up from GCal, it lets you send a scheduling link and clients can schedule a session.
15. Zapier
For any integrations you need, Zapier can help you run different software together smoothly (check out a list of Mighty’s Zapier integrations here).
16. Hootsuite
If you’re trying to create a consistent social media presence, Hootsuite is a good option for managing your channels and scheduling your posts in advance.
17. ConvertKit
A fantastic email tool that can run campaigns (both live and automatic). It gives you tons of tools for sorting followers and building your list with custom landing pages and forms.
Conclusion
Whether you’re an experienced coach or just getting started, these online coaching platforms have something for each coach and their needs. And since you’re here anyway, why not try Mighty Networks for free? It’s an engine you can use to build an amazing coaching business and community.
Or, if you want a totally custom app under your own brand, let us show you Mighty Pro! It gives you all the great stuff we talked about above, plus we work with you to build an app you love for the App Store and Google Play Store.
We've built apps for creators and brands like TED, MindBody, Christy “Code Red” Nickel, Jeff Walker, Jim Kwik, and Sadie Robertson Huff.
Find out more!
