BetterUp review: Is this online learning platform coach-friendly?

BetterUp is an online coaching platform that combines technology and human expertise. Discover its features and its competitors.

The world of online coaching has never been more accessible. Platforms like BetterUp promise to connect coaches with clients, provide structured programs, and simplify the process of sharing expertise.

But is BetterUp really the right fit for you, especially if you’re just starting out in digital coaching?

In this review, we break down how BetterUp works, what it offers coaches, and how it stacks up against other online coaching platforms—so you can decide if it’s worth your time and energy.

BetterUp at a glance

BetterUp is a San Francisco-based organization that started as a mental health and coaching platform. Today, it advertises itself as the first “Human Transformation Platform,” which aims to provide comprehensive behavioral development. 

It prioritizes the use of analytics, behavioral science, and evidence-based coaching, for both individuals seeking self-improvement and businesses wanting to promote performance within their employees. BetterUp can facilitate seamless integration into an organization's core workflow, thereby improving efficiency and productivity.

In simple terms, it aims to provide highly personalized and curated services that combine both technology and human elements for individuals and organizations as a whole. 

The coaching services offered on this platform aim to empower each individual so that they can unlock their full potential—not only in their professional careers but also in their personal lives.

So, to sum it up, BetterUp is a highly specialized coaching platform for mental health and individual development. It operates on the following core principles:

• Technology-driven innovation: BetterUp drives its innovative approach to coaching by using some of the most advanced technologies available today. These include (but are not limited to) machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), advanced data analytics, and top-notch encryption and authentication protocols.
• Human-centric approach: Aside from the implementation of advanced technologies, the platform places a strong emphasis on the human factor as well. After all, a human touch is necessary to ensure high-quality and effective tutoring.
• Varied subjects: The subjects you can teach on BetterUp are not limited to coaching programs. There is a range of activities you can offer users, such as workshops, training programs, and so on.
• Working with businesses: You can take advantage of BetterUp'smoedl of working with companies, expanding the number of students seeking to learn.

Getting started with BetterUp, step by step

Below is a step-by-step guide on how you can get started as a coach with BetterUp.

1. Sign up for an account

Signing up for a new BetterUp account is the first and foremost step in becoming a coach on this platform. The company follows a comprehensive signup process that all aspiring coaches must complete.

Applying to become a registered coach on BetterUp can feel very similar to applying for a job. First, pay attention to your credentials. BetterUp does not allow just anyone to become a coach, so you need to have good knowledge or prior experience to be considered for the role.

To apply, you need to gather all the relevant documents and proof of your coaching or mentoring expertise. If you are just starting as a coach, you will need to go through a mandatory certification process before you can get started with the application. 

Depending on your chosen area of expertise, this may take a while to accomplish. But once you have all of that in order, you can apply to become a coach on BetterUp.

Clicking on the “Apply now” button will present you with a list of all the available coaching positions in the company.

To proceed, select the one that best fits your profile. You will then be taken to the BetterUp Coach application page, where you must fill out the necessary details to proceed further.

Before you do that, though, we would strongly suggest that you read through the entire job description for your selected coaching role. Certain jobs require you to have advanced training in more than just one specialty or be multilingual, among other prerequisites.

Once that’s done, you can continue filling out the fields with the required information to wrap up the registration process.

2. Create your profile on BetterUp

After you complete the registration process, you can get started on creating your profile. While it may seem a bit complicated at first glance, it is necessary to make your coaching profile stand out on the platform. 

The process is similar to creating accounts on social media sites (or any other website, for that matter). There are a total of 15 steps included, starting with the application.

You can’t randomly move or switch between these steps—you must complete each one serially. Unless you complete a step, the next one won’t be unlocked.

3. Get endorsements

After you finish creating your profile, you will need to get endorsements. Think of this step as a marketing campaign for your profile. The more endorsements you get, the better your profile visibility will be, which will subsequently attract more users to try out your coaching services.

It’s important to note that the quality of the endorsements is just as important as the quantity. Getting hundreds of low-quality endorsements may make your coaching profile seem suspicious. Thankfully, the coaching community of BetterUp can help you to a great extent in this regard.

If you put in the proper effort, you can get excellent endorsements from reliable individuals, such as veteran coaches and leading industry mentors. That can give your BetterUp coaching services a significant boost.

4. Launch your BetterUp coaching business

Once you get a good number of endorsements, you will find it easier to launch your coaching services on this platform. Focus on creating high-quality educational resources to maximize the value for your clients. 

Likewise, keep your content up-to-date to avoid lagging behind your competitors. You should try to diversify your reach by using other digital tools, such as social media platforms, internet marketing, and so on.

The top features of BetterUp

Here are the best features included in BetterUp:

Personalized coaching

BetterUp’s data-driven approach helps users find coaches according to their requirements and goals. The platform has a wide reach and is suitable for coaching in various areas, including development, overall well-being, career progression, and leadership. This helps coaches have a substantial growth environment. 

Integrated assessments

Students can complete integrated assessments after opting for your coaching program. This is a plus point for coaches. By examining the results of these assessments, you can improve your coaching resources according to your client’s needs.

Data analytics

With BetterUp, you, as a coach, get robust insights and analytics setups. This helps you keep detailed track of our coaching results. Using the detailed breakdown of data, you can ensure your coaching’s strategic objectives/goals align with development programs and also deliver measurable ROI.

Automated reminders

BetterUp understands the importance of time as a resource, which is why it provides automated reminders to all the coaches registered on the platform. The intuitive scheduling system can be configured according to your coaching needs. 

This way, you don’t have to monitor your business manually, saving you a lot of time and effort. Additionally, it has an automatic payroll that compensates you promptly.

Flexible coaching session

Whether you want to have a one-on-one meeting or a group coaching session, the approach depends on the user's history, your interaction with them, or their preferences. BetterUp provides coaches with the flexibility to choose among these methods so they can cater to different needs.

BetterUp Labs

Launched in 2018, BetterUp Labs is a unique and innovative behavioral research lab that boasts an impressive team of 40+ PhDs. These experts use different scientific methods to provide valuable insights into the coaching and education domain. 

As a coach, you can use the research published by BetterUp Labs to improve your services and educational resources further.

Powered by AI

A big risk of implementing AI within organizations is that it can undervalue the human element significantly. Fortunately, BetterUp’s AI framework stands out since it tries to enhance the human element rather than replace it. 

The built-in intelligence algorithms analyze the learning patterns and sentiments of users, which provides detailed insights into which individuals need more specialized training. Because of that, coaches can focus their learning resources and efforts efficiently. 

Security and authenticity

Data security can be a major concern for digital platforms these days, which is why BetterUp implements top-of-the-line security measures.

Members are required to authenticate on an SSL server using an OAuth2 mobile app. Likewise, coaches are required to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access their data, which prevents any breaches or leaks.

BetterUp integrations

BetterUp has integration with many other digital platforms, which can help coaches improve their business outcomes. Below, we have discussed these integrations briefly so that you can understand how to maximize their use.

Salesforce

Salesforce provides cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions. To grow your coaching business, you need extensive knowledge about sales and customer management. This is where the BetterUp Salesforce integration comes into the picture. 

The BetterUp Sales Performance app has been natively embedded into Salesforce, which you can use to improve the sales performance of your coaching business. Using the insights and resources provided by this integrated app, you can attain business quotas quickly and efficiently. 

You can also identify any shortcomings in your existing selling or marketing strategies and make the necessary improvements wherever required.

Slack

Slack is a business-to-business (B2B) team communication platform used by many organizations today. In that context, the integration of BetterUp within Slack is handy to both coaches and users. 

Employees can easily integrate the BetterUp bot in their Slack workspace after getting the necessary permissions. This allows them to access their BetterUp coach seamlessly from Slack. 

Naturally, this can be advantageous for BetterUp coaches since they can send all their training materials and resources to their users directly via their Slack workspace.

Microsoft Viva

Microsoft Viva is a workspace management platform where organization employees can access different apps and services to manage their workflow. Keeping that in mind, BetterUp is integrated into Microsoft Viva in more than one way.

Short videos are featured in the Viva Digest mail monthly. Furthermore, the BetterUp integration extends to mailing apps like Microsoft Outlook, making it easier for a BetterUp coach to communicate with their organizational clients. 

Apart from that, the Viva Hub page contains a web link to BetterUp for easy access to coaching services and resources. Since Microsoft Viva and its associated services are widely used in organizations today, coaches get the opportunity to reach a wide audience easily.

Workday

Workday is a cloud-based management platform that provides various organizational solutions across different areas, such as finance, IT, HR, planning, and more. BetterUp’s integration with Workday allows enterprises to ensure that their employees get a seamless coaching experience.

At the same time, Workday integration can prove quite useful for BetterUp coaches. They can quickly reach out to all the interested employees working in the organization, making it convenient for the coaches/creators to advertise their coaching services.

Degreed

Degreed is a platform that shares some similarities with BetterUp in that it provides workplace training and upskilling opportunities to employed professionals. You might think that such an integration may be redundant since both of these are digital training platforms. However, this integration with Degreed allows BetterUp to streamline its coaching success further.

BetterUp has been embedded within the Degreed coaching pathway, which enables BetterUp coaches to simplify their content delivery systems. Additionally, it enables both the users and the coaches to map their progress.

SAP

SAP is a software company that develops enterprise software for numerous organizations worldwide. Integration with SAP can help prospective coaches on BetterUp reach out to different organizations globally.

BetterUp is integrated within the SAP SuccessFactors platform, which is primarily focused on Human Capital Management. So, this integration allows coaches to connect with individual employees across organizations and deliver personalized coaching resources. 

BetterUp coaching options

As a coach, you have 4 areas you can join on BetterUp:

• Specialist coaching: This involves working with clients dealing with specific issues requiring targeted solutions/assistance. These issues include stress management, sleeping problems, and diversity and inclusion.
• BetterUp care coaching: You’ll join this category as a wellness expert and offer one-on-one support to your clients experiencing challenges regarding mental health and maintaining overall well-being. You'll need to provide empathy and tools that are sensitive and efficient enough for them to navigate their situation. 
• Dedicated coaching: This is a highly personalized sector. Your goal as a coach is to help your clients focus on their personal growth and development. Start by helping your clients identify their goals and guide them to overcome challenges. Work one-on-one to help them increase their skills with customized support approaches and materials. 
• Group coaching: This approach allows you to coach multiple people at once on a certain topic/theme. The best part about this is that your clients can mutually interact, share their experiences, teach, and learn from each other. Group coaching cultivates a sense of community, making them feel acknowledged.

Keep in mind that you must have proper certification and technical skills to be eligible.

As mentioned above, you have to go through several steps before finally getting hired, which include a video or phone screening, skill assessment, and virtual or on-site interview. Depending on the role you’re applying for, you may also need to complete a written or design exercise to prove your eligibility.

The process may take anywhere from 14 days to a couple of months, depending on the specific role you’re applying for and the availability of suitable candidates.

How much can you earn with BetterUp?

Your earnings as a BetterUp coach may vary based on factors including coaching experience, credentials, location, endorsements, and others.

If you are an entry-level coach with less than 2 years of experience, you can expect to earn around $60k.

Mid-level coaches with 3 to 5 years of experience can earn around $70k. Similarly, you can easily earn over $80k per year if you are a senior-level coach.

That said, there are limits to the amount of money that you earn on BetterUp.

You cannot keep expanding your coaching business indefinitely, as your earnings will be capped by BetterUp at a certain point. 

The exact salary cap amount is not openly disclosed, but according to the current data gathered from the career community site Glassdoor, number-wise, the salary may range between $62k and $115k, with the median salary being $82k. 

Is BetterUp the right choice for online coaching?

You might be wondering if BetterUp is really the best choice for you as an online coach – here's a list of the platform pros and cons:

Pros

• Intuitive website and app: The BetterUp website and app are incredibly easy to use, regardless of your expertise level with such platforms.
• Safe and Secure: Thanks to its advanced encryption and authentication protocols, the platform provides a high degree of security to users.
• Convenient: Features like automated scheduling make it highly convenient for coaches to manage and monitor their coaching profile.
• Scientifically and technologically sound: The platform uses modern technologies like AI and utilizes proper scientific research to improve its coaching success.

Cons

• Repetitive assessments: While periodic assessments are an advantage, some users have reported the questionnaires as being redundant.
• Lack of rollover sessions: If someone misses a coaching session, they cannot transfer it to the subsequent session, which can cause problems for users and coaches.
• Income limit: The most significant setback is the income cap, which prevents coaches from expanding their coaching business after a certain point.

As you can see, the salary caps could discourage many professional coaches from registering on the platform.

5 BetterUp alternatives

If you’re looking for a better alternative to BetterUp, check out the below options:

1. Whop

Whop is the most flexible alternative to BetterUp.

Unlike traditional coaching platforms, Whop offers a social commerce hub where you can sell digital products and services (including coaching sessions, courses, ebooks, templates, and membership access).

Getting started is quick: you can create an account in minutes, set up your coaching services, and even integrate your existing website.

Whop handles payments and customer management for you, so you can focus on teaching.

The platform also has no income caps: you keep scaling your earnings as your audience grows.

With a small transaction fee starting at 2.7%, Whop offers a far simpler and more transparent pricing structure than BetterUp.

2. Bridge

Bridge is a strong option for coaches in professional and technical domains, like software development.

Its learning management system (LMS) includes goal tracking, performance management, and easy course authoring—ideal for creating structured, high-value coaching content.

Bridge supports over 27 languages and has a clean mobile app. However, the signup process can be complex, and the platform’s speed isn’t always optimal, so new coaches may need some patience.

3. Cornerstone

Cornerstone is best for coaches working with organizations, particularly in compliance, healthcare, or higher education.

Its platform enables collaboration with managers who use coaching content to train teams.

It supports 42 languages and offers significant customizability for both coaches and learners. On the downside, the interface feels a bit dated, and customer support isn’t always responsive.

4. Marlee

Marlee leans heavily on AI and behavioral science to deliver personalized coaching experiences. Coaches are encouraged to use research-backed insights to craft high-quality programs for clients.

The platform can feel overly automated, which may downplay the human coaching element. Coaches who take the time to learn the system can, however, leverage it to deliver impactful sessions.

5. Leapsome

Leapsome focuses on flexibility and collaboration.

It supports features like surveys, feedback, reviews, and interactive learning pathways, which is perfect for coaches who want to track and improve their programs.

The platform also includes tools for promotion, compensation management, and business growth. Its main drawbacks are a clunky interface and lack of mobile app support, which may limit accessibility for some users.

Whop: The ultimate coaching platform

Building an independent coaching business from scratch can be daunting, especially if you’re just starting out.

Platforms like BetterUp make it easier to get going, but they come with limitations like earning caps and restricted flexibility.

Whop is designed for coaches who want to grow a full-fledged business.

There’s no limit on how much you can earn: the better your coaching resources, the more your business can scale.Plus, beyond coaching sessions, Whop lets you diversify your offerings.

Sell courses, digital downloads, membership access, or even monetize your audience directly.

You control how your content is delivered (fully free, paywalled, or a mix of both) giving you unmatched versatility and complete control over your coaching business.

Start selling your coaching services with Whop today and see your business booming.

FAQs

Do coaches need to pay money to sign up for online coaching platforms?

In most cases, people don’t need to pay to become an online coach. Most learning platforms, like Whop, offer free sign-up and registration.

Can I sell my coaching services on more than one platform?

Usually, selling your coaching services and resources on multiple platforms should not cause any problems. In fact, it can help in growing your coaching business faster since it will provide more than one avenue for generating income for your services. 

That said, some coaching platforms may contain contracts that can legally prevent you from doing this. So, it’s wise to check all the terms of use and documentation of your current coaching platform before attempting this strategy. 

What type of coaching services are offered for clients on BetterUp?

The overall coaching services can be broadly grouped into three categories: career coaching, communication coaching, and personal coaching. 

Career coaching allows you to help students navigate career transitions or achieve career goals quickly. Likewise, communication coaching can hone interpersonal communication skills to build better relationships—both personally and professionally. Lastly, personal coaching aims to develop personality and lifestyle all around.