In Jungle Gym's latest blog, Nick Wilde—the creator, interviewed Sean Linehan of Exec on his thoughts about the career trends of 2024. I couldn't pinpoint enough Sean's last line on how critical the coaching program could be next year: “In the coming year, leaders at all levels will come to recognize coaching as the secret weapon for their success.”

It all comes back to the fact that coaching programs will continue to soar high and it will be a “must-have” for almost every person who fights courageously through all life's ups and downs. It won't only be a necessity in the workplace, but also in other areas.

Apparently, this insight concludes that every aspiring online coach—it doesn't matter what your niche is—should build your own coaching business. And for those who are already professional coaches, 2024 is the perfect year for you to keep going and to keep growing your coaching practice.

How can you do that? Start with the most basic step: Choose an online coaching platform that helps coaches to elevate their coaching services and make tasks easier.

Starting digital coaching gets a little trickier because of too many tools, apps, and platforms to choose from. You already spend half of your day just googling, reading reviews, and looking for the best platform out there.

To save you more time, energy, and effort, I laid down the Best Coaching Platforms on the market to help you get started in managing your coaching business.

Ready? First, let me show you the important features that you should look for in an online coaching platform.

Key Features to look for in an online coaching platform

White-label Solution

When you're starting a business, getting your brand (or yourself as a brand) out there should be your top priority. In short, creating brand awareness among your target market must be the first on your list. Choosing the best platform that offers a white-labeling solution is important. What do I mean? The white-label solution allows you to design your coaching platform with your brand. Unfortunately, not all platforms out there offer white labeling. So be sure to get the right one that will strengthen your brand awareness strategy.

Curriculum Builder

Coaching nowadays isn't only about talking one-on-one with your clients. The industry gets more creative where coaches are creating and selling online courses to populate their expertise in a form of an educational product. Similarly, online courses integrate essential online coaching in their educational packages to track students' performance and personalize the learning experience.

So, ask yourself: Are you going to try these non-traditional ways? If yes, then look for a coaching or online course platform that can help you sell courses and offer online coaching programs at the same time.

Live Sessions, Scheduling & Other Automation Tools

When starting out, you are the Ms./Mr. all around. You do everything and it gets frustrating to keep a long list of tasks in your notepad and manage several apps, tools, and open tabs.

End this cycle by choosing a coaching management platform where you can schedule your live sessions automatically, onboard your students flawlessly, process payments while you're sleeping, and lets you integrate multiple apps all at once.

Built-in Community

Modern coaching doesn't only come with online courses. Another powerful strategy to sustain your business is through building an online community for your clients. Communities are actually a space for your clients to meet, learn from each other, to build other income streams.

Unless you decide to take the simplest route of running an online coaching business without a community, then you don't need a built-in community feature.

Course or Landing Page

It's easier to sell online when you have a landing page, a course page, or any page that links to your business. Look for a platform that allows you to create these pages because it will help you to sell your coaching services.

Peer Review

Another modern tool and ancient teaching strategy is peer review (or peer learning). Study shows that peer review can increase the collaborative learning experience among your clients.

The peer review feature is perfect for your group coaching programs. It's where your coaching clients can review the submitted homework of their peers. All you need is to set it up and voila—it can run by itself!

Now that you are aware of what to look for in an online coaching platform, let's get you to the main thing. There are many online coaching platforms on the market, and we've handpicked the best for you.

Teachfloor, The best online coaching platform to start your coaching business

Teachfloor is a learning platform designed to build and scale cohort-based courses. Apart from this, Teachfloor is also popular with online coaches. It provides the best & useful features like white-labeling solutions, built-in communities, automation tools, a course builder, and peer review. These are highly designed features to start and run your coaching business.

Top Features

• Peer review and instructors review
• A white-labeling solution to strengthen brand awareness
• Built-in community space for asynchronous learning
• Zapier, Zoom & other app integrations
• Easy & automated collection of payments
• Customer priority support & live demo
• Helpful resources on eLearning
• Affordable Pro plan that helps to grow your online services

What's lacking?

• No mobile app features
• E-commerce for coaching packages is unavailable

Pricing

• Pro Plan - $59/month with unlimited students, unlimited courses, unlimited file storage, and lets you add up to 4 coaches. Perfect for those who are starting up, have a tight budget, and want to scale in the long run. Sign up now for a 15-day free trial.
• Business Plan - $299/month. This is perfect for scaled online academies running more than 10 cohorts every year. With its unlimited students, courses, & file storage, and can add up to 15 coaches, you can scale faster.
• Enterprise Plan - Feel free to talk to the founders of Teachfloor to get the best quotation. This is perfect for middle to large enterprises with several educational products, launching bunches of courses or training programs in a year.

What people are saying?

“Overall experience has been great to date. Appreciate the quick responses from their team and the speed at which they're enhancing the platform. I've had a great experience with Teachfloor to date. Teachfloor provides a richer, more organized experience for our students and enables our team to focus on more important items. The platform supports multiple use cases and their team is quick to respond to questions and feedback. Looking forward to the further enhancements on the roadmap.” - Quadri O., founder

Upcoach, the most popular coaching platform for any type of coaches

David Henzel, founder of Upcoach created the platform due to the low volume of completion rates of his online courses. There was only 7% of students completed his course, and he wonder what was missing. So he started to increase engagement by tracking habits and creating weekly to-do and accountability groups. After doing so, his completion rates went up to 94%!

After seeing this result, he created Upcoach to help other coaches and course creators like him who need to manage their coaching companies.

Top Features:

• Habit tracking accountability
• Smart Docs - where coaches can see the completion rate of students in every doc
• Lesson modules or course platform
• Client's CRM to easily track every client's data
• Live chat, discussion board, and scheduler
• Easy-to-navigate platform

What's lacking?

• You can't manage assessments of your clients
• No mobile learning app
• No video conferencing

Pricing:

• Starts at $29/member per month with 30 clients to launch your coaching business
• Grow your business at $39/member per month with 100 clients
• Scale at $79/member per month with unlimited clients

What people are saying?

“Upcoach dramatically improved my ability to run a coaching group cohort. It kept everyone on track and centered with the key learnings and exercises, allowing me to focus on helping each person get the most out of their coaching experience.” - Dana Theus, Executive Coach, President & CEO of InPower Coaching

NudgeCoach, the best coaching app in the market

If you prefer your clients to easily access your materials on their mobiles, then go for NudgeCoach. It was originally a personal habit-tracking app and grew into a coaching app because of market demand. Users love with because of its best user experience not just for coaches but also for the coachees.

Top Features:

• Customizable daily tracker
• Engagement-driving tools such as social forums and gamification features
• can be configured as a HIPAA-compliant platform for healthcare and medical programs
• Zoom integrations for live sessions
• White-label app development (to put your brand out there)

What's lacking?

• Appointment scheduler
• Billing invoice

Pricing

• Start for free with 5 clients and other basic features
• Start paying $50 and accommodate 50 clients in your app
• If you have over 100 clients, feel free to book a demo with them to quote a price

What people are saying?

“Depending on what you're looking for, this is a great coaching software that you can mold into being your own software with tons of flexible options! The big flexibility on how and what to deliver to your clients! You build your online program and make it look like you want to and then deliver it to your client the way you want to.” - Benjamin V, Health and Fitness Coach

Uteach, your well-rounded coaching platform for any coaching programs

Uteach is a well-rounded coaching solution for any type of coaching business that allows you to build your own website, create your course, and track your clients' progress, to have your own mobile app.

What more can you ask for? Its website & course builder allows you to optimize for SEO and rank in Google which is a very good marketing strategy.

Top Features:

• Website and course builder to build your brand while you are starting out
• Multiple integrations
• Assessment and tracking
• Automation workflows and processes

What's lacking?

• No gamification
• No peer review and interactive learning

Pricing

• Basic plan - $23/month with unlimited bundle inclusions plus 1 coach admin
• Pro plan - $59/month with unlimited bundle inclusions plus 5 coach admins

What people are saying:

“If you are looking for a great platform to launch your course then Uteach will meet all your needs. It comes with great templates that are highly customizable. Everything is laid out logically and the white label is truly white-label. The advanced SEO capability is a major plus. I cannot say enough good things about the Uteach platform and how happy I am that I made the change.” -Angel Rodriguez, CPP

SatoriApp, is the go-to coaching software for anyone who needs a coaching platform

Coaches love SatoriApp because its simple features will take care of your coaching process such as booking, signing, and delivering clients. Everything that you need is in one place. It exactly saves you time and energy to manage your tasks especially if you're doing it alone.

One of the users generously commended Satori's customer support for being responsive and amazing!

Top Features

• Signature packages and client enrollments
• Group session booking and coaching engagement
• Automated billing and session scheduling

What's lacking?

• No analytics report
• No community for clients or direct messaging
• No course features to grow your coaching sessions into a course or community

Pricing:

• They have a free tier with limited features
• Pioneer - $15/month. It lets you sign coaching clients with easy and simple features
• Trailblazer - $32/month. The best subscription to start with and let automation do the work

What people are saying?

“I'm so grateful for Satori, it's been huge as a coaching business-enhancing program. My life has been so much easier since I said YES to becoming a member of this generous community. Because that's what it is - a community of users who embrace the gifts that Satori shares with the world. Also, Satori's level of customer service is BRILLIANT, it has exceeded my expectations in every way!” - Blaze L. Business Strategist

Do you still have questions we haven't answered?

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions that may help you out:

What is an all-in-one coaching platform?

This type of digital platform allows coaches to manage their entire business in one place. It provides the ability to create automated client onboarding, track progress, and deliver effective sessions.

Coaches will also be able to organize their clients' data into meaningful insights for better decision-making. In addition, coaches can focus on delivering a high-quality service by streamlining their workflow and simplifying the processes of setting up, managing, and delivering their services.

By providing them with a complete suite of tools designed specifically for their businesses, coaches are able to save time and money while ensuring that they deliver the highest quality results for their clients.

Why do you need online coaching platforms and tools?

Online coaching platforms and tools are essential for any coach looking to expand their reach, increase their impact, and better serve their clients. With an online coaching platform, coaches can easily create custom content, manage client information and communication, track progress, set goals and objectives, and schedule sessions with clients.

Additionally, online coaching platforms provide a variety of resources such as video conferencing capabilities, e-learning materials, discussion boards and forums, assessment tools, and analytics that can help coaches better understand the needs of their clients.

By leveraging these tools, coaches have the opportunity to provide a personalized experience for their clients that can help them reach their full potential.

How do I start to become an online coach?

Becoming an online coach is a great way to make money while helping others reach their goals. The first step in becoming an online coach is to decide what you would like to do.

Some popular options are life coaching, career coaching, health and wellness coaching, or even business coaching. Once you have decided on what you want to provide, create a website or blog so that potential clients can learn more about your services.

You may also want to consider joining social media networks such as LinkedIn or Facebook so that you can market yourself and reach more people.

You can also read a complete guide on How to do Group Coaching to expand your knowledge in entering the coaching industry.

What are coach marketplaces and do you have examples?

Coach marketplaces are online platforms that connect certified coaches with people seeking professional advice and guidance. They provide a wide range of services such as career coaching, health and wellness coaching, executive coaching, and lifestyle coaching.

These services can be provided by experienced professionals in the field of coaching who have extensive knowledge and experience in their respective areas.

Some popular coach marketplaces include Noomii, CoachUp, and BetterUp.

How much does it cost to start an online coaching business?

The cost of starting depends on the type of business model you choose to use. If you decide to work as a sole proprietor, it may cost you less to get started than if you opt to form a corporation or LLC.

Generally, some of the costs associated include website design and hosting, purchasing any necessary software and tools, marketing materials, advertising and promotion, customer service and support, accounting services, legal fees, insurance coverage, and employee payroll.

Depending on the size and scope of your business, these costs could range from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars.

A great platform for a limited budget is Teachfloor where you only need $59 to start your first monthly subscription. Teachfloor is an all-in-one coaching platform that covers the cost of the tools like Mailchimp (email marketing), WordPress (curriculum builder), Slack (community space), and Squarespace (course pages).

Is online coaching scalable?

Yes, online coaching is definitely scalable. Through the use of technology, coaches can easily reach clients all over the world. Additionally, with cloud-based software and platforms, coaches can manage multiple clients at once and quickly create tailored sessions for each one.

Furthermore, coaches can leverage automation to streamline their workflow, making it easier to handle larger client bases with minimal effort. Ultimately, online coaching allows coaches to rapidly scale their business and reach more people than ever before.

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