ChatGPT answers, unedited

If your key requirement is “host cohort-based courses and actively promote new cohorts to the platform’s existing student audience,” Maven is the clearest fit.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is unusually well aligned with this model because it combines:

• Cohort-native course infrastructure — live sessions, scheduled curriculum, cohorts, community, etc.
• A marketplace of courses where students can browse by topic and search for courses. Maven Help Center Maven
• Platform-wide recommendation emails — Maven says it recommends courses to students based on their interests and activity, with factors including relevance, enrollment momentum, and how soon the cohort starts. Maven Help Center
• Trending/homepage placement — courses with strong recent enrollment momentum can get additional marketplace visibility. Maven Help Center
• Repeat cohorts — you can create additional cohorts and reuse the syllabus/events from previous cohorts. Maven Help Center

The important nuance is that Maven isn't a marketplace that simply blasts every new cohort to its entire student base. Its distribution is algorithmic/personalized. A new cohort needs to be open for enrollment and meet marketplace requirements, and Maven's recommendation system favors courses that are relevant to a particular student, starting soon, and showing enrollment momentum. Maven Help Center Maven Help Center

Maven explicitly describes its marketplace as working alongside your own marketing: you generate initial traction, and Maven amplifies that traction through its marketplace, homepage, and personalized emails. Maven Help Center

How I'd rank the options

The distinction I'd make is marketplace distribution vs. course software. Thinkific, Kajabi, Teachable, Circle, etc. are primarily tools for you to bring the audience. Maven is one of the few platforms where the platform itself has an audience that can discover your next cohort.

Maven's own current marketplace shows this in practice: it has sections such as Trending, Best selling, Starting soon, and New on Maven, with numerous live cohort courses listed. Maven

One caveat: Maven requires some initial traction before a course gets marketplace listing—currently 100 waitlist leads or 2 paid enrollments, followed by review. So it isn't quite “upload course → immediately get students from Maven.” Maven Help Center Maven Help Center

Bottom line: If you're specifically looking for “Shopify/Amazon for cohort courses, where the marketplace can help fill my next cohort”, I'd start with Maven. If you tell me whether your courses are professional/skills, consumer, university/academic, or creator-focused, I can give you a more comprehensive comparison of the 5–10 platforms that actually have marketplace-driven enrollment.

If your key requirement is “host cohort-based courses and actively promote each new cohort to an existing student marketplace,” Maven is probably the strongest fit.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is unusual because it combines course infrastructure + a marketplace + audience distribution rather than just giving you a course-hosting tool.

For a new cohort, Maven can promote it through:

• Marketplace discovery — students browse courses by category/search.
• Personalized weekly emails — Maven recommends courses to students based on their interests and previous activity.
• Trending placements — courses with recent enrollment momentum can get additional marketplace visibility.
• Proximity to cohort start — courses starting soon receive more emphasis in recommendations.
• Its existing student base — Maven says its recommendations are personalized based on student interests and Maven activity. help.maven.com

The important caveat is that Maven isn't simply a “publish it and we'll fill your cohort” marketplace. You need initial traction: currently, a course generally needs 100 waitlist leads or 2 paid enrollments to qualify for marketplace listing. Maven then amplifies courses that demonstrate demand. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com

Maven explicitly describes itself as a platform for cohort-based courses, and says experts keep 90% of sales. maven.com

How I'd rank the options

The distinction is that Thinkific/Kajabi/Circle/Mighty Networks are primarily infrastructure for an audience you already own, whereas Maven has deliberately built discovery into the product. Independent comparisons also identify Maven as the standout option when marketplace discovery is a requirement. www.ruzuku.com

If you're building a marketplace yourself

If what you mean is “I want software to run my own marketplace of instructors, where students can discover new cohorts and existing students get notified about new cohorts”, that's a different category.

In that case, I would look at marketplace/learning-marketplace software, rather than Maven. You'd want functionality such as:

1. Instructor/course marketplace
2. Cohort dates and enrollment windows
3. Student profiles + interests
4. Student/course matching
5. Automated “new cohort” recommendations
6. Email/push notifications to relevant existing students
7. Trending/popular-course ranking
8. Instructor payouts/revenue sharing
9. Reviews and social proof
10. Affiliate/referral mechanics

If you're asking because you're considering building a platform like this, tell me whether you're looking for (a) software you can use today to host your own courses or (b) software to build your own multi-instructor course marketplace. The shortlist is quite different.

If your key requirement is “run cohort-based courses and also promote each new cohort to an existing marketplace/student audience,” the shortlist gets much smaller than the usual cohort-platform lists.

Best fits

Maven is probably the closest match to what you're describing. It is explicitly built around live cohort courses and has a marketplace where prospective students can discover upcoming courses. Recent platform comparisons describe its marketplace as providing distribution beyond an instructor's own audience. www.ruzuku.com

Maven

Skool is interesting if by “student base” you mean people already participating in the platform/community. Its Discover marketplace can surface communities/courses to prospective members, and its community-centric model makes it easier to repeatedly announce new cohorts to an existing audience. listicler.com

trovi is another particularly relevant one: it describes itself as a marketplace for live, creator-led cohorts, where learners discover cohorts taught by creators they already follow. www.trovi.io

trovi

The important distinction is:

• Maven / trovi: marketplace distribution — the platform can help introduce your next cohort to people who aren't already your customers.
• Skool / Circle: community distribution — your existing members/community are the audience you repeatedly market new cohorts to.
• Teachfloor: primarily infrastructure — excellent cohort software, but you generally need to bring the audience yourself. Teachfloor explicitly emphasizes that creators own the student relationship. www.teachfloor.com

Teachfloor

If your specific model is “I have 500 existing students, and every 6–8 weeks I want the software to notify/recommend my new cohort to the relevant students”

I'd rank them:

1. Maven — strongest if you want platform-generated discovery + cohort mechanics
2. Skool — strongest if you want an ongoing student community that feeds successive cohorts
3. Circle — strongest if you're building your own owned student audience rather than relying on marketplace traffic
4. Teachfloor — strongest cohort operations, weaker marketplace/distribution
5. Kajabi — strong marketing automation, but its distribution is principally your own audience rather than a marketplace. Kajabi does support scheduled cohort courses on Growth and Pro plans. help.kajabi.com

If you tell me what kind of courses you're selling (e.g. $100 consumer course, $2,000 professional cohort, university/bootcamp, etc.) and roughly how large your existing student base is, I can narrow this to the 2–3 platforms that actually fit the distribution model, including how each one promotes a new cohort to existing students.

If you mean a marketplace that not only hosts cohort-based courses but also helps instructors get discovered by existing learners and promotes upcoming cohorts, the strongest match is:

www.ruzuku.comlearnstream.io

Best answer: Maven

Maven is closest to a cohort-course marketplace. It is designed around live, instructor-led cohorts and gives courses marketplace exposure so potential students can discover upcoming programs beyond the instructor’s own audience. The tradeoff is that marketplace distribution typically comes with a revenue share or platform fee. learnstream.io

If you already have students and want to sell the next cohort

A different category may work better:

• Kajabi — good if you own an email list and want automated launches, funnels, and cohort enrollment workflows. help.kajabi.com
• Circle — good if graduates remain in a community and you want to announce new cohorts to existing members. circle.so
• Teachfloor — good for running the learning experience itself: live sessions, assignments, peer reviews, and cohort management. www.teachfloor.com

If your requirement is specifically:

“I launch Cohort #2 and the platform emails/promotes it to students from Cohort #1 or its learner base”

Then look first at:

1. Maven — built around marketplace discovery. www.ruzuku.comlearnstream.io
2. Community-first platforms like Circle — better for re-engaging your own alumni community. circle.so
3. Owned audience stacks (Kajabi + email/community) — best long-term if you want control over student relationships. help.kajabi.com

A key distinction: most LMS/course platforms help you run cohorts; very few help you fill cohorts. Maven is the notable exception because discovery is part of the product model. www.ruzuku.comlearnstream.io

If your key requirement is “sell cohort-based courses and promote new cohorts to an existing student marketplace,” the standout is Maven.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is unusually well matched to this model because it combines:

• Native cohort-based courses — live, multi-session courses with scheduled cohorts. maven.com
• A marketplace of courses where students can browse by topic, role, and other categories. maven.com
• Promotion to Maven's existing students — once listed, courses can be included in personalized weekly emails to students based on their interests and activity. Courses closer to their start date and with enrollment momentum get more promotion. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com
• Algorithmic marketplace placement — courses can appear in "Trending," "Starting soon," "Best selling," etc. maven.com
• Built-in launch/discovery mechanics rather than simply giving you course-hosting software. Maven says its marketplace surfaces courses to thousands of students browsing each day. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com
• A cohort-to-cohort flywheel: Maven explicitly encourages keeping the next cohort open, with marketplace algorithms favoring courses that have an open cohort. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com

The important nuance is that Maven isn't a pure “list your course and we'll fill it” marketplace. You generally need initial traction—Maven currently says a course needs 100 interest-list leads or 2 paid enrollments and a quality review to qualify for marketplace listing. After that, Maven's discovery system can amplify the momentum through search, trending placements, and personalized emails. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com

How I'd rank the options

The distinction I'd make is Maven vs. Udemy: Udemy has a much larger consumer marketplace, but Maven is specifically designed around live, premium, cohort-based professional education. Maven's current marketplace is visibly organized around upcoming cohorts and has “Trending,” “Best selling,” “Starting soon,” and “New on Maven” discovery paths. maven.com

If what you're actually looking for is a platform where your own students become a reusable audience—e.g., you run Cohort #1, then the software automatically markets Cohort #2 to graduates and other relevant students—I would compare Maven against a few less obvious platforms, because that's a slightly different requirement than simply having a course marketplace.

If your key requirement is “run cohort-based courses and have the marketplace itself promote new cohorts to its existing student base,” Maven is the standout choice.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is unusually well matched to this model because it combines:

• Native cohort-based courses — live, scheduled programs rather than primarily self-paced courses. maven.com
• A student marketplace where people browse courses by category, topic, and upcoming start date. maven.comhelp.maven.commaven.com
• Personalized email recommendations to its student base. Maven says its weekly recommendations consider students' interests, past activity, course relevance, enrollment momentum, and how soon a cohort starts. maven.comhelp.maven.commaven.com
• Algorithmic promotion/trending placement on the marketplace when a cohort gains enrollment momentum. maven.comhelp.maven.commaven.com
• Promotion of new cohorts, rather than requiring you to rebuild your audience for every launch. Maven explicitly says marketplace recommendations favor courses with upcoming cohorts and recent enrollment activity. help.maven.com

The important nuance: Maven isn't a pure “post it and we'll fill your cohort” marketplace. It expects you to generate initial traction. Once you're listed and have momentum, Maven amplifies that through its marketplace, personalized emails, and trending placements. maven.comhelp.maven.commaven.com

How I'd rank the alternatives

The big distinction is distribution vs. course software. Platforms like Circle, Teachfloor, Disco, Kajabi, etc. can be excellent for running cohorts, but they generally assume you already have the audience. Maven is specifically trying to solve both sides: course infrastructure and learner acquisition. learnstream.io

Maven also reports that its marketplace has historically generated a meaningful share of enrollments; its current documentation emphasizes marketplace browsing, personalized recommendations, and algorithmic amplification. maven.comhelp.maven.commaven.com

So if your exact thesis is:

“I want instructors to list a new cohort, and I want the platform to expose that cohort to students already on the platform.”

→ Maven is probably the closest existing model.

If you're asking this because you're evaluating marketplaces to build/launch a competing product, I can also break down Maven vs. Udemy vs. Class Central vs. Outschool vs. Coursera specifically on how much student demand they actually provide to instructors.

If your key requirement is “run cohort-based courses and have the platform itself promote new cohorts to an existing student/learner audience,” Maven is the clearest fit.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is specifically built around live, cohort-based courses, rather than being a general LMS that happens to support cohorts. More importantly for your question, it has a marketplace/discovery layer where learners can discover upcoming courses. Maven has described using recommendations and algorithms to surface courses to its marketplace audience. maven.commaven.com

The interesting part is that Maven isn't just giving you a marketplace listing. Its model includes:

• Cohort-native course delivery — scheduled cohorts, live sessions, assignments, community, etc. maven.com
• Marketplace discovery — your course can be surfaced to people browsing Maven rather than relying entirely on your own email list. maven.com
• Recommendations — Maven has specifically discussed AI-powered search/recommendations and surfacing courses to the right students. maven.commaven.com
• Existing learner audience — Maven has reported students returning to take additional courses, which is the closest match to your idea of cross-promoting a new cohort to an established student base. maven.com
• Built-in marketing — landing pages, email campaigns, lead generation, etc. maven.com

How the alternatives compare

Circle, for example, supports fixed-date cohort courses and has excellent community/cross-sell functionality, but its model is fundamentally about bringing your own students into your own community, rather than having a marketplace audience discover your cohorts. circle.so

So if you're specifically looking for a “course marketplace + cohort infrastructure + distribution to the marketplace's existing learners” model, I'd start with Maven.

One important distinction: if by “promotes new cohorts to its student base” you mean automatically emails people who previously took one of your courses whenever you launch another course, that's a narrower requirement. I can compare Maven, Circle, Mighty Networks, Kajabi, Thinkific, etc. specifically on cross-selling a new cohort to past students, including whether the promotion is automatic, segmented, and platform-driven.

If your key requirement is “I run cohort-based courses, and the marketplace itself helps promote each new cohort to its existing student base,” then Maven is the clearest fit.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is unusual because it combines cohort-course software + a student marketplace. Instructors can list live cohort courses, and students can discover courses through Maven rather than only through the instructor's own marketing. Maven explicitly positions itself as a marketplace for live learning and says its platform helps experts attract students. maven.com

Maven for instructors

The important distinction is:

Independent comparisons similarly identify Maven as the standout when marketplace distribution is important, whereas platforms such as Ruzuku and Teachfloor primarily give you the infrastructure and expect you to bring the students yourself. maven.comwww.ruzuku.com

One nuance

If by “promotes new cohorts to its student base” you mean Maven automatically emails previous students whenever you launch another cohort, that's a slightly different requirement. Maven clearly provides marketplace discovery and learner acquisition, but I would distinguish that from a guaranteed cross-course re-marketing channel to your previous students.

If you're evaluating this as a marketplace business model—i.e., “I want instructors to list cohorts, and I want the platform to notify/recommend new cohorts to existing learners”—then Maven is probably the closest commercial precedent.

If you tell me whether you're looking for software to use yourself or software to build a marketplace like Maven, I can narrow this down considerably.

If your key requirement is “host cohort-based courses + get those new cohorts in front of an existing student audience,” the strongest fit is Maven.

Best fits

1. Maven — probably what you're looking for

Maven is unusually well aligned with your requirement. It's specifically built around cohort-based courses, and its marketplace actively helps students discover upcoming cohorts. Maven says courses can be surfaced through homepage browsing, personalized weekly emails, and algorithmic/trending placements. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com

The particularly relevant feature is that new cohorts can be promoted to Maven's existing student base, rather than you having to bring 100% of the students yourself. Maven describes its marketplace and recommendation emails as a distribution channel for open cohorts. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com

There is a catch: Maven isn't simply an open marketplace where anyone gets automatic distribution. You need initial traction—currently 100 waitlist leads or 2 paid enrollments—before marketplace listing, and Maven reviews listings. help.maven.com

So the model is essentially:

You generate initial traction → Maven lists the course → Maven recommends/discovers it to relevant students → you fill subsequent cohorts.

That's probably the closest match to what you described.

2. CourseHorse — interesting if your courses are broader than professional education

CourseHorse is another genuine marketplace rather than just course-hosting software. It says it reaches 1.7M monthly student impressions and promotes classes through personalized recommendations, email marketing, its media network, and other channels. coursehorse.com

I'd consider it if you're selling things like workshops, classes, skills training, creative education, cooking, wellness, etc. It's less specifically optimized for the premium professional cohort-course model that Maven targets.

3. Kajabi — great software, but not the marketplace you're describing

Kajabi now supports actual cohort-based courses, including scheduled progression and live sessions. help.kajabi.com

But Kajabi is fundamentally an owned-audience/owned-business platform. It gives you email marketing, funnels, website, payments, etc., rather than Maven's model of putting your upcoming cohort in front of a marketplace audience.

So if your requirement is specifically:

“I want the platform itself to have students, and when I launch Cohort #2, I want the platform to recommend it to relevant existing students.”

I'd choose Maven over Kajabi.

One important distinction

If by “its student base” you mean students who have previously taken your courses, rather than the platform's entire marketplace audience, Maven is also strong here. Its product ecosystem is designed so that students can move from one offering to another—for example, a Lightning Lesson → Workshop → Cohort Course—and Maven explicitly encourages keeping future cohorts open so those referrals and existing-student relationships can convert. help.maven.com

Bottom line:

• Want marketplace distribution + cohort-native software → Maven
• Want huge general class marketplace → CourseHorse
• Already have a large audience and want maximum ownership → Kajabi
• Want excellent cohort/community infrastructure but don't need marketplace distribution → Teachfloor

If you tell me what kind of cohort course you're selling (e.g. career, AI, fitness, professional certification, hobby, B2B training), I can narrow this down to the 3–5 platforms that actually have the right buyer/student network for it.

If your key requirement is “host cohort-based courses and have the marketplace itself promote new cohorts to its existing student base,” Maven is the clearest fit.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is specifically built around cohort-based courses and has a built-in marketplace of learners.

What makes it different:

• Marketplace discovery: courses are surfaced to thousands of learners browsing Maven. maven.comhelp.maven.comhelp.maven.comcircle.sohelp.maven.com
• Personalized email distribution: Maven says students discover courses through personalized weekly emails, in addition to marketplace browsing and algorithmic/trending placements. help.maven.com
• Promotion of individual cohorts: Maven's 2026 Student Growth Program can use scholarships, promotional discounts, referrals, site-wide promotions and editorial promotions to drive students to your course. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com
• Cohort-native: fixed-date live cohorts are a core product rather than an add-on. maven.com
• You don't have to supply 100% of the audience yourself: Maven explicitly positions its marketplace as an amplification channel, although it expects instructors to generate initial traction before marketplace listing. help.maven.com

One important caveat: Maven isn't a pure “list it and we'll fill your cohort” marketplace. You generally need either 100 waitlist leads or 2 paid enrollments before a course qualifies for marketplace listing. maven.comhelp.maven.comhelp.maven.comcircle.sohelp.maven.com

Other options

Circle is worth looking at because it now has Circle Discover, which it describes as a marketplace where millions of members can discover communities and courses. It also supports fixed-date cohorts, live sessions, community and cross-promotion. circle.so But its marketplace is more fundamentally a community discovery marketplace, whereas Maven is purpose-built around professional cohort courses.

My recommendation

If your business model is:

“I create recurring cohorts → platform hosts enrollment → platform exposes each new cohort to its existing learners → I get incremental students beyond my own audience”

I'd shortlist:

1. Maven — strongest match by far
2. Circle — interesting emerging alternative
3. Thinkific/Teachable/Kajabi — only if you primarily want to own and build the audience yourself

If you're specifically looking for a marketplace that actively emails its existing students when a new cohort launches, Maven is the one I'd investigate first. Its current discovery system explicitly includes personalized weekly emails, and its 2026 Student Growth Program adds platform-led promotional activity. help.maven.comhelp.maven.com

Maven for instructors
Maven's 2026 discovery system

If you mean a marketplace that can help fill new cohorts by exposing your course to existing learners, the strongest fit is usually a cohort-native marketplace, not a traditional LMS.

Here are the main options:

My shortlist for your specific requirement ("promotes new cohorts to its student base")

1. Maven — closest match
   • Built around cohort-based courses.
   • Has marketplace discovery and recommendation mechanisms.
   • Good if you want the platform itself to contribute some demand generation. maven.comreely.io
   • Tradeoff: you give up some margin through platform fees/revenue share. www.ruzuku.com

2. Udemy + cohort add-on workflow — if your priority is reach
   • Best if you want access to a massive learner audience.
   • You would typically use Udemy for acquisition and another tool for live cohorts.

3. Kajabi — if you already have an audience
   • Better for owning the customer relationship and running launches.
   • Less useful if you need marketplace discovery. help.kajabi.com

A useful distinction:

• Need the platform to bring you students? → Maven
• Need maximum audience reach? → Udemy/Coursera-style marketplaces
• Already have email/social following and want control? → Kajabi/Circle/Mighty Networks

If you are selling high-ticket cohorts ($500–$5,000+), I would put Maven at the top of the list. If you are selling low-cost courses at scale, a larger marketplace is usually more valuable.

If you mean a marketplace (not just an LMS) that can help a cohort course creator get discovered and then promote future cohorts to existing learners, the strongest match is:

maven.comwww.ruzuku.com

Best answer: Maven

Maven is probably the closest to what you described. It was built specifically for live cohort-based courses, and its marketplace helps learners discover courses beyond the instructor’s own audience. It also combines course pages, enrollment, community, email communications, and cohort operations. maven.com

A typical Maven lifecycle looks like:

1. Student discovers your course through the marketplace
2. Joins Cohort #1
3. You retain the relationship
4. You announce Cohort #2, advanced cohorts, alumni programs, or related courses

The tradeoff is that marketplace distribution usually comes with platform economics (for example, revenue share or less control than running your own funnel). maven.comwww.ruzuku.com

If your priority is "sell the next cohort to alumni"

I would compare:

• Maven → best if you need new student acquisition + cohort delivery
• Kajabi → best if you already have an audience and want sophisticated email funnels, upsells, and launches
• Mighty Networks → best if your advantage is an ongoing alumni community
• Disco → best if you are building an academy or B2B learning business rather than a single creator course www.disco.co

A useful decision rule:

• "I need students to find me" → Maven
• "I already have thousands of followers/email subscribers" → Kajabi
• "I want a lifelong alumni network" → Mighty Networks
• "I run many cohorts like a school" → Disco

If you are specifically looking for a marketplace that owns the learner audience and automatically cross-promotes new cohorts from many instructors, Maven is currently the closest model. www.producthunt.com

If by “marketplace software” you mean a platform where you run cohort-based courses and the platform itself can expose your next cohort to its existing student audience, the strongest fit I found is Maven.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is unusually aligned with this model because it combines:

• Cohort-native course delivery — scheduled, live, instructor-led courses rather than trying to retrofit cohorts onto a self-paced LMS. maven.commaven.comwww.teachfloor.com
• A student marketplace — students browse courses on Maven and can discover yours based on topic and category. help.maven.com
• Platform-driven recommendations — Maven says it surfaces courses through personalized weekly emails, homepage discovery, and algorithmic/trending placements. help.maven.com
• Promotion of open cohorts — its recommendation emails and homepage specifically surface courses with open cohorts and enrollment momentum. help.maven.com
• Built-in marketing — landing pages, waitlists, email campaigns, Lightning Lessons, etc., designed to turn interest into cohort enrollment. maven.com

There's an important caveat: Maven isn't a “post your course and we'll fill your cohorts” marketplace. You generally need to create initial traction yourself; Maven then amplifies courses that gain momentum. Its current discovery system requires either 100 waitlist leads or 2 paid enrollments before marketplace listing. help.maven.com

How I'd compare the main options

Teachfloor, for example, is strong for actually running live cohorts—Zoom, assignments, peer reviews, payments, community—but its positioning is around helping you own the student relationship rather than giving you a marketplace audience. www.teachfloor.com

So if the differentiating requirement is “the software should have its own pool of students and actively recommend my new cohorts to them,” I'd shortlist Maven first by a fairly wide margin.

If you're evaluating this because you're looking to build a marketplace yourself (i.e., you want software that lets multiple instructors sell cohorts and then promotes new cohorts to the marketplace's existing student base), that's a somewhat different question—and I can give you a shortlist of white-label marketplace platforms / SaaS products that support that model.

If your key requirement is “run cohort-based courses and have the platform actively promote each new cohort to its existing student audience,” Maven is the standout option.

Best fit: Maven

Maven is unusually well aligned with that model because it combines:

• Cohort-native course delivery — live sessions, projects, community, scheduling, etc.
• A marketplace of courses where students can discover instructors beyond their existing audience.
• Personalized recommendations to existing Maven students. Maven says its students receive weekly personalized course recommendations based on interests, past enrollments, and other activity. Courses starting soon and showing enrollment momentum get more visibility. help.maven.com
• Maven-led promotion. Its Student Growth Program can use scholarships, discounts, referrals, and editorial promotions to drive students to courses. help.maven.com
• Automated cohort-launch emails. When you open a new cohort, Maven automatically emails your waitlist and sends reminders around the enrollment deadline. help.maven.com
• A marketplace specifically oriented toward live/cohort learning, rather than primarily being an LMS storefront. maven.com

The important distinction is that Maven isn't simply giving you email automation. It has a two-sided marketplace and can distribute your cohort to students who already use Maven. That's probably the feature you're actually looking for.

How the alternatives compare

Thinkific, for example, supports live cohorts, self-paced and blended courses, but its emphasis is on giving you the infrastructure to sell rather than providing a marketplace that actively distributes your next cohort. www.thinkific.com

Teachfloor is another strong cohort-oriented platform, but its differentiation is more around cohort/community learning than Maven's marketplace distribution. www.teachfloor.com

The catch with Maven

There's an important qualification: Maven's marketplace isn't a magic “list it and fill it” channel. You need initial traction to get listed — currently either 100 waitlist leads or 2 paid enrollments — and Maven explicitly describes its marketplace as an accelerant to your own marketing rather than a replacement for it. help.maven.com

Once listed, though, the interesting flywheel is:

your marketing → initial enrollments → marketplace visibility → personalized recommendations → more students → more enrollment momentum → more visibility

That's much closer to the model you described than traditional LMS platforms.

Bottom line: If your primary strategic goal is “I create a new cohort, and the platform helps put it in front of people who are already students on the platform,” choose Maven. If your priority is instead owning the audience/data and having maximum control, I'd look at Thinkific/Teachfloor/Kajabi and build the distribution layer yourself.

If you tell me the type of courses you're selling and roughly the cohort price (e.g. $500, $2,000, $10,000), I can narrow this down to the 3 best platforms and compare their marketplace reach, revenue share, and how much they actually help fill a new cohort.

If by “marketplace software” you mean a platform that not only hosts cohort-based courses but also helps fill new cohorts by promoting launches to an existing learner audience, the shortlist is much smaller. Most LMS tools help you sell to your audience; only a few provide marketplace-style discovery or platform-driven promotion. learnstream.io

My ranking specifically for “fill my next cohort from the platform’s audience”

1. Maven — closest to what you described. It was built around live cohort courses and marketplace discovery. learnstream.io
2. Coursera — if you are an institution, credential provider, or recognized expert.
3. Udemy — if you can adapt your model toward evergreen content.
4. Kajabi + your own audience — best economics if you already have email/social reach. help.kajabi.com

A useful distinction: marketplace acquisition and student retention/community are usually separate problems. Maven is optimized for discovery; platforms like Mighty Networks, Circle, Disco, and Kajabi are stronger once you already have learners and want to run excellent cohorts. www.mightynetworks.com

If your goal is specifically “launch a cohort every quarter and have the platform help bring in new students each time,” Maven is the closest fit. learnstream.io