Online courses are a lucrative business opportunity, offering lots of related revenue streams.
If you want to launch and scale a course-based business, there are plenty of platforms available that offer the functionality you need. This includes course-building software, marketing tools, and payment processing.
Here, we review one of the newer platforms on the block, New Zenler. We’ll break down its features and pricing, and give you our verdict to help you decide if it’s the right fit for your e-learning business.
Plus, we’ll introduce top alternatives and explain our #1 choice for growing any online business.
What is New Zenler?
New Zenler is a comprehensive platform for course building and delivery. It's a relatively recent addition to the course creation and monetization space.
As well as courses, it supports community building, coaching, and live content such as webinars. The platform has a focus on marketing, with a range of tools to help users build and engage with their student base.
There is also an app version of Zenler. This is for students to access course content on any device.
Before we get into the details of New Zenler, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s still in beta mode. As such, some functionality, features, and prices are subject to change (and improvement).
With that in mind, let’s start our review of New Zenler with a look at the main features.
New Zenler's Top Features
New Zenler offers a suite of features to help you not only build your course but to maximize student engagement and revenue. The features are grouped under the following categories:
- Course creation
- Email automation
- Live functionality
- Marketing
- Zenler AI
We’ll go through these in turn.
Course creation with New Zenler
Once you’ve opened your account on New Zenler, you’ll be taken to the dashboard. At first glance, it’s a pretty simple interface. However, it’s a bit plain in terms of the color scheme, which can make it difficult to navigate.
Here, you can build your course as well as add optional extras, including:
- Assignments for students to complete
- Discount coupons
- Bundles of courses
- Quizzes and surveys
- Enabling reviews
- Completion certificates
- Video-based content
As you build your course, you can tailor each lesson by adding different types of content.
There is an option to give away the content for free, such as a promotional introductory course, or to set your own pricing. Stripe, PayPal, and Razorpay are the payment processors.
As the platform is still in development, some features are less functional, such as the quizzes and discussions.
Once you’re ready to launch, the basic course page looks pretty low-key. It will display to students like this:
The paid plans give you limited customization options, such as changing the color and font. You can also use a custom domain instead of the default “newzenler.com” and add a blog to your site.
With New Zenler, you can complement your course with an online community. This feature supports:
- Text
- Images
- Videos
- File uploads
- Likes
- Comments
Again, the functionality is a bit basic, but it is a useful tool to increase engagement with students.
Email automation
New Zenler comes with a limited built-in email system. You can automatically send out emails when a trigger event occurs, such as a student signing up, or segment users into groups.
As well as automation, there is an email broadcast feature to allow you to send out messages to all students.
New Zenler suggests its email feature avoids the need to integrate a third-party service. However, users might still want to use something like ConvertKit for a more comprehensive email marketing solution.
Live functionality
Paid users of New Zenler can unlock a range of Live features, including:
Within these options, you can add live chat, screensharing, file sharing, and breakout spaces.
These features are a good way to engage with students and to offer courses with varied teaching methods. This can help with course monetization, as students may be willing to pay a premium for being able to interact with you and their classmates in real time.
The webinar tool is especially useful, with the cheapest paid plan offering the ability to host 300 attendees and hold up to 100 live sessions per month.
Marketing
New Zenler claims it is the “first ever” course platform built around sales and marketing. Its tools include the ability to create marketing funnels.
With the “Lead Magnet” feature, you can build an email list by giving away an incentive, such as a free ebook.
The “Video Series” funnel allows you to send potential students videos over a few days, building to the pitch to sell them the course.
While these are useful features, in reality, setting up funnels is quite a complicated process that could benefit from some streamlining to make it more user-friendly.
Zenler AI
One more feature worth mentioning is Zenler AI. Available for users on the paid plans, this gives you the option to harness the power of AI to create your course content.
Simply input the basic details and the AI tool will draft an outline curriculum, lesson plan, and modules, which you can (and will probably want to) edit.
So, now you know a bit more about the features, how much will it set you back?
Pricing: How Much Does New Zenler Cost?
There are two paid plans on offer. When paid on a month-by-month basis, the Pro plan costs $67 and the Premium plan costs $197 a month.
You can save a significant amount if you pay upfront for a full year’s access. The Pro plan costs $647 annually (equal to around $54 a month), while the Premium plan is $1,447 (or $121 a month).
There are no transaction fees with either plan.
Note that these prices are advertised as an introductory “limited time” offer, so they are likely to rise once the platform becomes more established (i.e. no longer in beta mode).
There’s no suggestion as to when the introductory period will end. However, New Zenler promises that users who sign up during this period lock in those prices for as long as they use the platform.
The list of features included in the basic Pro plan include:
- Unlimited courses
- Unlimited students
- 100,000 emails a month
- 100 marketing funnels
- 3 websites
- Live classes
- Live webinars
- Live streams
- Advanced quizzes and surveys
- Assignments
- Blog
- Priority customer support
New Zenler bills itself as an all-in-one course platform, and its list of features is pretty comprehensive for building and scaling a course-based online business.
So, what does the higher level Premium plan offer?
There is no difference between the two paid plans in terms of the course creation, analytics, Zenler AI, and customer support options and features.
However, upgrading to the Premium plan unlocks extra features within the platform’s marketing, site admin, and Live functionalities.
For example, with Premium, you get to send extra emails and create an unlimited number of marketing funnels.
In addition, the enhanced Live features for the higher plan include the ability to host 300 live sessions (compared to 100 on the Pro plan) with 500 attendees (instead of 300).
Free plan
If you want to try out New Zenler without paying, there is a free “Beta” plan. A 10% transaction fee applies.
Clicking “sign up” on the main website takes you to the “invite only” page, where you have to sign up to request an invitation. If approved, you get sent a link to access the free features.
There are ways of tapping into the free plan without going through the invitation process (we did it via a link on the Zenler LinkedIn page).
The features you don’t get on the free plan include the blog, site customization, Live functionality, and integration of some payment gateways.
Again, this might be subject to change as the platform moves fully out of beta mode.
New Zenler Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✅ Focus on course marketing | ❌ Lengthy beta mode |
| ✅ Lots of features | ❌ Monthly fee |
| ✅ Coaching and community building | ❌ Limited to course creation |
| ✅ No transaction fees with paid plans | ❌ Not the most user-friendly platform |
The verdict on New Zenler
There’s a lot to like about New Zenler. The platform includes many features that help users create and deliver their courses and offer supporting content to students, including coaching and communities.
The Live features mean educators can interact with their students, enhancing the customer experience. Meanwhile, the focus on marketing supports growth and monetization.
User reviews highlight good levels of customer support. Additionally, the site includes lots of documentation and videos to help new users get to grips with all the platform’s features.
There are also potential cost savings, as users may avoid the need to integrate paid third-party services and tools.
The drawbacks of New Zenler include the monthly fee. While it’s not the most expensive option out there, the Pro plan is still a significant monthly (or annual) cost for new creators and educators.
Further, New Zenler is quite feature-rich, so getting up to speed as a new user can take time. Coupled with this, some of the features are a bit clunky, such as the course builder, at least when compared to some alternative platforms.
There is also the issue of beta mode. The platform has been around for a couple of years now; but it still seems some features need work and the bugs are being fixed to make it more user-friendly and functional.
Finally, this is a platform focused on courses only, so creators are limited to this type of content (plus coaching and communities).
Courses offer a great springboard to develop lots of complementary revenue streams, so online entrepreneurs may be frustrated with the lack of supported content types.
Overall, while New Zenler has plenty working in its favor, many creators might prefer to go with a more established all-in-one platform which offers additional flexibility.
New Zenler Alternatives
If you’re searching for the right platform to host your course, here are some other popular options.
🏆Whop
With Whop, you can build your course on an all-in-one platform that offers true flexibility. Create, market, and manage your course all from one place, with a user-friendly interface that supports maximizing your revenue stream. You can even sell other digital products alongside your course, such as community access, ebooks, and digital downloads. Plus, with Whop, you can host video calls for webinar or coaching, create a forum for your students, and make a student chat channel all within your whop - no third-party integrations needed. Get started for free, then pay just 3% on each transaction.
Teachable
One of the top platforms for course creation is Teachable. It also supports digital downloads, coaching, and communities. There is a limited free plan available, with paid plans starting at $39 when paid annually (or $59 when paid on a month-to-month basis.)
Kajabi
Kajabi is another of the leading names in the world of online course creation and monetization. It also supports coaching and memberships but not all content types. Paid plans start at $55 a month when billed annually ($69 when paid month by month).
Thinkific
Thinkific is a further big player in this space. It features a simple course-builder and a good range of tools to support creators. Again, it is limited in the content types supported on the platform. Paid plans start at $36 a month paid annually (or $49 on a month-by-month basis).
Sell Courses and More With Whop
If you’re looking for the right home for your online course, look no further than Whop.
Our well-established all-in-one platform has all the tools and functionality you need to build and grow your e-learning business.
All we charge is a 3% transaction fee, so there’s no steep monthly cost to factor in as you build your business. And, the best thing is that while course creation sites like New Zenler limit you to this type of content, Whop supports all kinds of digital products and services.
This means you can seamlessly diversify your offerings and create additional revenue streams, all in one place.
So, find your inspiration and get started for free today.
