ChatGPT answers, unedited

If by “video course marketplace” you mean your own branded marketplace where many instructors upload courses, set/receive revenue shares, and students browse and buy from one catalog, I’d narrow it to these:

1. Thinkific — probably the first one I'd investigate

Thinkific has a particularly relevant feature called Revenue Partners. It lets you assign another user a percentage of sales from specific courses, communities, or bundles and tracks the commission owed. Thinkific Support

That maps fairly closely to:

Instructor uploads library → you approve it → customer buys → platform records your/instructor's share.

Thinkific also supports white-labeling and is positioned toward multi-course academies. Thinkific

Caveat: if you mean a true Udemy-style open marketplace where hundreds of independent instructors each have their own seller dashboard, automated payouts, tax documentation, instructor onboarding, etc., I'd investigate its higher-tier/enterprise capabilities carefully rather than assuming the standard product does all of that.

2. LearnWorlds — strong if the video/LMS experience is the priority

LearnWorlds is particularly strong for interactive video, assessments, SCORM/xAPI, white-labeling, and sophisticated learning experiences. Its Learning Center tier is aimed at larger learning organizations and supports multiple administrative roles. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds

The important drawback for your particular model is that instructor revenue splitting isn't as native as Thinkific's Revenue Partners, so you may need integrations or your own payout logic.

3. Teachable — worth considering for a simpler version

Teachable is good when your marketplace is relatively curated: you recruit instructors, create their courses, and handle sales rather than letting anyone freely become a seller.

It's less compelling if your vision is essentially “Shopify for video courses” with hundreds/thousands of independent instructors.

4. Kajabi — excellent business platform, different marketplace philosophy

Kajabi is strong for selling courses, memberships, communities, email marketing and funnels. But its core model is more “each creator runs their own education business” than “one marketplace operator manages hundreds of instructors.” Its current positioning emphasizes keeping the customer relationship and revenue within your own business. Kajabi

If your idea is closer to Udemy

There's an important distinction:

A. Curated academy

You own the marketplace → recruit 10–50 instructors → approve courses → control pricing → split revenue.

B. Open marketplace

Anyone can apply → instructor gets a dashboard → uploads courses → sets pricing → students purchase → automatic split/payout → instructor tax forms → refunds/chargebacks → reviews → search/ranking → instructor analytics.

For A, I'd start by evaluating Thinkific, LearnWorlds and Teachable.

For B, I'd seriously consider a custom marketplace architecture rather than trying to force a conventional LMS into the role. You'd typically need:

• Instructor onboarding and KYC
• Course/video upload and transcoding
• Instructor dashboards
• Course approval/moderation
• Marketplace search and categories
• Student accounts/library
• Individual course pages
• Bundles and subscriptions
• Automated revenue splits
• Instructor payouts
• Refund/chargeback handling
• Coupons/affiliates
• Reviews/ratings
• Tax/VAT/sales-tax handling
• Analytics for both instructors and marketplace owner
• Stripe Connect or equivalent marketplace payments
• Video DRM/protection
• Admin controls and dispute management

My shortlist would therefore be:

1. Thinkific — if you want to launch quickly with a curated multi-instructor academy and native revenue-share functionality.
2. LearnWorlds — if sophisticated video/learning functionality matters more than native instructor payouts.
3. Custom build — if the central product is genuinely a two-sided marketplace rather than simply a multi-instructor LMS.

If you tell me roughly how many instructors you expect (10 / 100 / 1,000+), whether instructors set their own prices, and whether you want one-time purchases vs. a Netflix-style subscription library, I can narrow this down to the architecture I'd use and estimate the monthly cost.

Instructor uploads library → you approve it → customer buys → platform records your/instructor's share.

Thinkific also supports white-labeling and is positioned toward multi-course academies. Thinkific

Caveat: if you mean a true Udemy-style open marketplace where hundreds of independent instructors each have their own seller dashboard, automated payouts, tax documentation, instructor onboarding, etc., I'd investigate its higher-tier/enterprise capabilities carefully rather than assuming the standard product does all of that.

2. LearnWorlds — strong if the video/LMS experience is the priority

LearnWorlds is particularly strong for interactive video, assessments, SCORM/xAPI, white-labeling, and sophisticated learning experiences. Its Learning Center tier is aimed at larger learning organizations and supports multiple administrative roles. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds

The important drawback for your particular model is that instructor revenue splitting isn't as native as Thinkific's Revenue Partners, so you may need integrations or your own payout logic.

3. Teachable — worth considering for a simpler version

Teachable is good when your marketplace is relatively curated: you recruit instructors, create their courses, and handle sales rather than letting anyone freely become a seller.

It's less compelling if your vision is essentially “Shopify for video courses” with hundreds/thousands of independent instructors.

4. Kajabi — excellent business platform, different marketplace philosophy

Kajabi is strong for selling courses, memberships, communities, email marketing and funnels. But its core model is more “each creator runs their own education business” than “one marketplace operator manages hundreds of instructors.” Its current positioning emphasizes keeping the customer relationship and revenue within your own business. Kajabi

If your idea is closer to Udemy

There's an important distinction:

A. Curated academy

You own the marketplace → recruit 10–50 instructors → approve courses → control pricing → split revenue.

B. Open marketplace

Anyone can apply → instructor gets a dashboard → uploads courses → sets pricing → students purchase → automatic split/payout → instructor tax forms → refunds/chargebacks → reviews → search/ranking → instructor analytics.

For A, I'd start by evaluating Thinkific, LearnWorlds and Teachable.

For B, I'd seriously consider a custom marketplace architecture rather than trying to force a conventional LMS into the role. You'd typically need:

• Instructor onboarding and KYC
• Course/video upload and transcoding
• Instructor dashboards
• Course approval/moderation
• Marketplace search and categories
• Student accounts/library
• Individual course pages
• Bundles and subscriptions
• Automated revenue splits
• Instructor payouts
• Refund/chargeback handling
• Coupons/affiliates
• Reviews/ratings
• Tax/VAT/sales-tax handling
• Analytics for both instructors and marketplace owner
• Stripe Connect or equivalent marketplace payments
• Video DRM/protection
• Admin controls and dispute management

My shortlist would therefore be:

1. Thinkific — if you want to launch quickly with a curated multi-instructor academy and native revenue-share functionality.
2. LearnWorlds — if sophisticated video/learning functionality matters more than native instructor payouts.
3. Custom build — if the central product is genuinely a two-sided marketplace rather than simply a multi-instructor LMS.

If you tell me roughly how many instructors you expect (10 / 100 / 1,000+), whether instructors set their own prices, and whether you want one-time purchases vs. a Netflix-style subscription library, I can narrow this down to the architecture I'd use and estimate the monthly cost.

If your core model is “multiple instructors each contribute video-course libraries, customers browse one marketplace, and instructors get paid their share”, I’d narrow the field considerably. Most popular course platforms are designed for one business/one owner, not a true multi-vendor marketplace. Wbcom Designs Webflow

Shortlist

The key distinction is “multiple instructors” vs. “multiple sellers.” Thinkific, for example, supports multiple courses, memberships, communities and administrators, but its core product is still an operator-controlled learning business rather than an independent-instructor marketplace. Thinkific Thinkific Support

What I'd look at first

1. WordPress + a genuine multi-instructor LMS

For the business model you described, this is probably the most practical starting point if you don't want to build everything from scratch.

Look at platforms/plugins specifically designed around:

• instructor registration
• instructor dashboards
• instructor-owned courses
• marketplace commissions
• automated payouts
• course-level revenue splits
• centralized catalog/search
• video hosting
• coupons/promotions
• refunds
• instructor analytics

There are WordPress LMS products explicitly targeting this marketplace model, including MasterStudy and Tutor LMS. Recent marketplace comparisons distinguish these from LMS products where "multi-instructor" merely means assigning another person as a course editor. Wbcom Designs Woo Sell Services

2. LearnWorlds

I'd investigate this if your priority is a high-quality video-learning experience and you expect to operate the marketplace fairly centrally. It is particularly strong for interactive video and structured learning, but I'd verify the exact instructor revenue-sharing/payout workflow before committing. SavingSec

3. Thinkific

Excellent if you're essentially creating your own Netflix-like course library, with multiple instructors working for/through your organization. It supports courses, memberships, communities, subscriptions, bundles and ongoing libraries. Thinkific Support Thinkific

I'd be more cautious if you mean:

Instructor A owns their courses → customer buys → platform automatically takes 20% → Instructor A receives 80%.

That's a different technical/payment architecture from simply having multiple course authors.

4. Custom build

If you're envisioning something closer to Udemy + MasterClass + Netflix, I'd seriously consider a custom marketplace rather than trying to force a conventional LMS into the model.

The important infrastructure would be:

Marketplace
│
├── Student accounts
├── Instructor accounts
│   ├── Profile
│   ├── Course library
│   ├── Analytics
│   └── Payouts
│
├── Course catalog
│   ├── Categories
│   ├── Search
│   ├── Instructor pages
│   └── Recommendations
│
├── Video infrastructure
│   ├── Encoding
│   ├── Streaming
│   ├── DRM/access control
│   └── Downloads
│
├── Commerce
│   ├── One-off purchases
│   ├── Subscriptions
│   ├── Bundles
│   └── Coupons
│
└── Marketplace economics
    ├── Commission
    ├── Instructor balances
    ├── Refund handling
    ├── Tax reporting
    └── Automated payouts

The payout/commission system is the part I'd make the deciding factor, not the course builder. That's where conventional LMS products often stop being true marketplaces. Wbcom Designs ThemeAlley

One important question

There are actually three very different businesses hiding in your description:

1. Netflix model: customers pay one subscription and get access to everyone's courses; you distribute revenue to instructors.
2. Udemy model: customers buy individual courses; each instructor gets a percentage.
3. Creator-platform model: each instructor essentially runs their own storefront under your umbrella.

If you tell me which of those 3 you want, plus roughly how many instructors/courses you expect in year 1, I can give you a much tighter software stack—including video hosting, payments/payouts, LMS, marketplace frontend, and estimated monthly cost.

3. Thinkific

Excellent if you're essentially creating your own Netflix-like course library, with multiple instructors working for/through your organization. It supports courses, memberships, communities, subscriptions, bundles and ongoing libraries. Thinkific Support Thinkific

I'd be more cautious if you mean:

Instructor A owns their courses → customer buys → platform automatically takes 20% → Instructor A receives 80%.

That's a different technical/payment architecture from simply having multiple course authors.

4. Custom build

If you're envisioning something closer to Udemy + MasterClass + Netflix, I'd seriously consider a custom marketplace rather than trying to force a conventional LMS into the model.

The important infrastructure would be:

Marketplace
│
├── Student accounts
├── Instructor accounts
│   ├── Profile
│   ├── Course library
│   ├── Analytics
│   └── Payouts
│
├── Course catalog
│   ├── Categories
│   ├── Search
│   ├── Instructor pages
│   └── Recommendations
│
├── Video infrastructure
│   ├── Encoding
│   ├── Streaming
│   ├── DRM/access control
│   └── Downloads
│
├── Commerce
│   ├── One-off purchases
│   ├── Subscriptions
│   ├── Bundles
│   └── Coupons
│
└── Marketplace economics
    ├── Commission
    ├── Instructor balances
    ├── Refund handling
    ├── Tax reporting
    └── Automated payouts

The payout/commission system is the part I'd make the deciding factor, not the course builder. That's where conventional LMS products often stop being true marketplaces.

One important question

There are actually three very different businesses hiding in your description:

If your core model is “one marketplace, many instructors, each instructor owns a library of video courses, and we take a cut of sales”, I’d look at these differently from the usual “course platform” recommendations.

My shortlist

1. 🥇 Sharetribe — best starting point for a true marketplace

sharetribe.com

This is probably where I'd start if the important part is multiple independent instructors selling on your platform, rather than simply having multiple teachers inside one LMS.

Sharetribe is specifically built around marketplace primitives: seller profiles, listings, payments, commissions, search, reviews, seller dashboards, etc. It also supports digital-product marketplaces and can be extended with custom code. Sharetribe Sharetribe

You could model:

Instructor → Instructor profile → Course library → Individual course → Checkout → Revenue split

The big advantage is that you're building your marketplace, rather than trying to make an LMS behave like a marketplace.

The downside: Sharetribe isn't fundamentally a sophisticated video LMS. You'd probably integrate a video/course-delivery layer rather than expect it to handle every learning feature natively.

Best if: you want an Udemy-like business where instructors are independent sellers.

2. 🥈 LearnWorlds — best if the learning experience matters most

learnworlds.com

LearnWorlds is much more purpose-built for sophisticated online courses: video, assessments, learning experiences, course websites, etc.

Interestingly, LearnWorlds now has Course Hub, which is itself a marketplace where creators can publish courses and other academies can license them. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds

That makes it particularly interesting for your idea because it demonstrates a marketplace/content-licensing model rather than merely "I have a course and sell it."

However, there's an important distinction:

LearnWorlds is primarily an LMS with marketplace capabilities, whereas Sharetribe is primarily a marketplace platform.

If your product is:

"The best place to discover and learn from 500 instructors"

I'd lean Sharetribe + specialized video infrastructure.

If it's:

"A premium learning platform where we curate and distribute courses from instructors"

I'd investigate LearnWorlds first.

3. Uscreen — excellent for a Netflix-style video library

uscreen.tv

Uscreen is particularly strong if you're envisioning:

Netflix for professional education

It is video-first, supports course libraries and memberships, and is designed around selling video content through subscriptions or individual purchases. It can also extend to branded mobile/TV apps. Uscreen

I'd choose it if the business model is primarily:

• $20/month membership
• access to hundreds of videos
• curated instructor content
• potentially live + recorded content
• strong branded video experience

I'd be less enthusiastic if each instructor needs their own seller account, storefront, sales reporting, commissions, payouts, etc.

4. Mighty Networks — best if community is part of the product

mightynetworks.com

Mighty is compelling if every course is also a community.

It supports courses with video/audio/text/PDF content, discussions, live events, messaging, comments, dripping and assessments. Courses can also be bundled with communities, coaching and events. Mighty Networks

But again, I'd view it more as:

community + courses

than:

multi-vendor course marketplace.

What I'd actually build

If you're describing something like "Shopify/Etsy for video courses", I'd seriously consider this architecture:

Frontend

• Next.js
• Tailwind
• Search/discovery

Marketplace

• Sharetribe

Video

• Mux, Vimeo OTT, or another dedicated video infrastructure provider

Payments

• Stripe Connect

Course/LMS layer

• Custom course/player experience, or an LMS integrated behind the marketplace

Core entities

Marketplace
├── Instructors
│   ├── Profile
│   ├── Courses
│   │   ├── Sections
│   │   │   ├── Lessons
│   │   │   │   └── Video
│   │   │   └── Resources
│   │   └── Pricing
│   └── Revenue
│
├── Students
│   └── Purchases
│       └── Course access
│
└── Marketplace
    ├── Search
    ├── Categories
    ├── Reviews
    ├── Recommendations
    └── Commissions

That gives you something much closer to Udemy + Shopify + Netflix, rather than forcing one off-the-shelf LMS to do everything.

My recommendation

I'd narrow it to:

If you're validating the business:
→ Sharetribe

If you're primarily building a premium LMS:
→ LearnWorlds

If it's primarily a Netflix-style video subscription:
→ Uscreen

If community is the differentiator:
→ Mighty Networks

If you already know this is going to be a large marketplace:
→ Custom frontend + marketplace/payment infrastructure

One particularly important question is how instructors get paid. If you want something like “Instructor uploads a $100 course → marketplace keeps 20% → instructor automatically receives $80”, that dramatically changes which platforms are appropriate. Sharetribe's marketplace architecture is much closer to that requirement than a conventional LMS. Sharetribe Sharetribe

If you tell me your intended model (e.g. one-time course sales vs subscription, commission %, expected number of instructors, and whether instructors upload/manage their own videos), I can narrow this to the best 2–3 platforms and give you an estimated monthly cost + recommended architecture.

I'd investigate LearnWorlds first.

3. Uscreen — excellent for a Netflix-style video library

uscreen.tv

Uscreen is particularly strong if you're envisioning:

Netflix for professional education

It is video-first, supports course libraries and memberships, and is designed around selling video content through subscriptions or individual purchases. It can also extend to branded mobile/TV apps.

I'd choose it if the business model is primarily:

• $20/month membership
• access to hundreds of videos
• curated instructor content
• potentially live + recorded content
• strong branded video experience

I'd be less enthusiastic if each instructor needs their own seller account, storefront, sales reporting, commissions, payouts, etc.

If your model is “multiple instructors each contribute a library of video courses, customers browse the whole catalog, and instructors get paid based on sales/subscriptions,” I’d narrow it to these:

My recommendation: LearnWorlds

For your specific idea, I'd start with LearnWorlds.

It has an actual instructor role where you can assign courses and specify an instructor's revenue percentage. It calculates instructor revenue for courses, bundles, subscriptions, and installment plans. LearnWorlds Help Center

It also recently introduced Course Hub, which is essentially a course-content marketplace: creators can publish courses and other schools can license them. LearnWorlds Help Center LearnWorlds Help Center

The important caveat is that Course Hub isn't exactly the consumer marketplace you're describing. It's primarily a marketplace between LearnWorlds schools. So if your vision is:

“Students visit mybrand.com, browse 500 instructors, buy individual courses or subscribe to the entire library, and I automatically split revenue with the instructor.”

I'd evaluate Uscreen vs. a custom marketplace architecture rather than assuming LearnWorlds will do everything natively.

If the experience is more like Netflix

Choose Uscreen if the core product is a large video library + subscription rather than traditional LMS functionality.

Uscreen supports creator/author attribution, filtering the catalog by instructor, and viewership analytics that can be used to determine revenue-sharing arrangements. However, instructors aren't independent sellers with their own dashboards; authors are managed by the platform administrator. Uscreen Help

So it's great for:

Customer → subscription → entire video library → instructor attribution/revenue share

but less ideal for:

Instructor → creates account → uploads courses → sets price → sells independently

If you really mean “marketplace”

Then Sharetribe is particularly interesting.

Sharetribe is designed around the marketplace model: sellers/providers create listings, customers transact with them, and the platform can monetize through commissions. It now explicitly supports digital-product marketplaces as well. Sharetribe Sharetribe

You could architect:

Sharetribe
→ instructor accounts
→ course listings
→ marketplace/search
→ checkout
→ commissions

plus a video/LMS layer for:

→ video hosting
→ lessons
→ progress tracking
→ quizzes/certificates
→ course access

That's more work, but gives you considerably more control over the marketplace economics and UX.

One important distinction

I'd decide between these two business models first:

A. Course marketplace

Instructor A sells Course A for $99.
Instructor B sells Course B for $149.
You take 20% of each transaction.

B. Subscription library

Customer pays $29/month.
They get access to 1,000 courses from 100 instructors.
You distribute some portion of subscription revenue to instructors based on consumption/enrollments.

B is substantially harder. You need a defensible revenue-allocation system, refunds/cancellations, instructor accounting, potentially tax handling, and a mechanism for deciding what each instructor earns from a pooled subscription.

If B is your actual idea, I'd lean toward Uscreen or a custom/headless architecture rather than a traditional LMS.

If A is the idea, LearnWorlds is probably the fastest route to an MVP, while Sharetribe + a video/LMS backend gives you the most marketplace flexibility.

And I would not choose Thinkific as the foundation for a true multi-vendor marketplace. Its Revenue Partners functionality can track percentage allocations, but payments to partners are handled manually/outside Thinkific. Thinkific Support Thinkific Support

If you tell me your intended model—(1) pay per course, (2) Netflix-style subscription, or (3) both—I can give you a recommended tech stack, estimated monthly cost, and architecture for 100/1,000/10,000 instructors.

If your goal is a marketplace where many instructors each have their own video libraries and can sell courses, I’d shortlist these differently from the usual “best online course platform” lists.

My ranking

🥇 Best fit: Uscreen

Uscreen is probably the closest off-the-shelf starting point if the product you envision is essentially:

“Netflix for courses, with multiple instructors.”

Uscreen now has an Authors system specifically for sites with multiple content creators. You can attribute videos and collections to instructors, filter the catalog by author, and use viewing analytics to calculate revenue-sharing arrangements. Uscreen Help

It also supports Content Hubs, which let you create different catalog sections—for example, separate catalogs for different instructors, subjects, or audiences. Uscreen Help

Its strength is that it's video-first, rather than being primarily an LMS with video bolted on. It also supports one-off purchases and subscription memberships. Uscreen

I'd choose Uscreen if:

• Every instructor has a video library.
• Customers browse/search instructors and courses.
• You want subscriptions such as $29/month for access to everything.
• You may also sell individual courses.
• You want a polished consumer-facing video experience.
• You want to calculate instructor payouts based on consumption.

The big caveat: instructors aren't really independent sellers with their own dashboards/storefronts. Uscreen's Authors are managed by your administrators. Uscreen Help

So it's excellent for a curated marketplace, but less ideal for an open marketplace where 1,000 instructors sign themselves up.

🥈 LearnWorlds — best LMS architecture

LearnWorlds is the one I'd investigate most seriously if the courses need to feel like a professional education marketplace rather than a streaming service.

LearnWorlds supports instructor accounts and roles, with instructors able to create/manage assigned courses and upload content. Higher plans support multiple instructors and more granular permissions. LearnWorlds Help Center LearnWorlds

More interestingly, LearnWorlds launched Course Hub, an actual internal marketplace where course creators can publish courses and schools can license them. LearnWorlds Help Center LearnWorlds

That doesn't exactly equal “Udemy clone,” but it shows that LearnWorlds is moving toward the multi-party course ecosystem you're describing.

The Learning Center plan is currently listed at $249/month billed annually ($299 monthly) and includes up to 25 admins, full white-labeling, etc. LearnWorlds

I'd pick LearnWorlds over Uscreen if:

• Courses need quizzes/certificates/SCORM/etc.
• Instructor permissions matter.
• Education/LMS functionality is more important than Netflix-style browsing.
• You're building a curated professional education business.

🥉 Mighty Networks — great if community is the product

Mighty Networks is compelling if the business model is more like:

Instructor → course → community → membership

rather than:

Instructor → video library → marketplace → purchase.

It supports on-demand and cohort courses, resource libraries, quizzes, memberships, one-time purchases, subscriptions and bundles. Mighty Networks

But I wouldn't make it my first choice for your specific concept because the multi-instructor marketplace isn't its core architecture.

The important distinction

There are actually three different products you might mean by "video course marketplace":

A. Curated marketplace

You recruit 20–100 instructors yourself.

Customers see:

Photography
→ 15 instructors
→ 120 courses
→ $39/course or $29/month

Uscreen or LearnWorlds makes a lot of sense.

B. Creator marketplace

Anyone can apply to become an instructor.

Each instructor gets:

• Profile
• Dashboard
• Uploading
• Course builder
• Pricing
• Sales analytics
• Customer list
• Payouts
• Revenue share
• Coupons
• Reviews

Customers browse thousands of independent instructors.

I would custom-build this, or use a marketplace-oriented platform rather than trying to force Uscreen/LearnWorlds into this architecture.

C. Netflix-style subscription library

Instructors contribute content, but customers don't necessarily buy individual courses. They pay:

$19/month → everything

Then you pay instructors based on watch time, enrollments, or an agreed pool.

Uscreen is particularly attractive here because its author analytics can be used to establish revenue-sharing arrangements based on viewership. Uscreen Help

What I'd build for your use case

If you're starting a new business, I'd probably avoid building the entire platform initially.

I'd do:

Uscreen + Stripe/payment infrastructure + your own marketing site

and structure it around:

YOUR MARKETPLACE
│
├── Instructor A
│   ├── Course 1
│   ├── Course 2
│   └── Course 3
│
├── Instructor B
│   ├── Course 4
│   └── Course 5
│
├── Instructor C
│   ├── Course 6
│   ├── Course 7
│   └── Course 8
│
└── All-access membership
    └── Entire video library

Then determine instructor compensation using something like:

Instructor payout = subscription revenue × instructor's share of qualified watch time

That creates a genuine marketplace incentive: instructors are rewarded for creating content people actually consume.

When I'd go custom

I'd move to a custom platform once you need things like:

• Instructor self-registration
• Automated KYC/tax onboarding
• Stripe Connect-style instructor payouts
• Instructor-specific dashboards
• Instructor-specific storefronts
• Marketplace commissions
• Reviews/ratings
• Affiliate tracking
• Dynamic instructor revenue splits
• Instructor coupons
• Automated refunds/payout adjustments
• Thousands of independent instructors

That's where an LMS like LearnWorlds or a video platform like Uscreen starts becoming a constraint rather than the foundation.

Bottom line: For a curated multi-instructor video library, I'd test Uscreen first. For a serious education/LMS marketplace, I'd test LearnWorlds. For a true “any instructor can join and sell courses” marketplace, I'd plan for a custom marketplace architecture rather than trying to make a traditional course platform do it. Uscreen Help LearnWorlds Help Center

If you tell me whether you want (1) Netflix-style subscriptions, (2) individual course sales, or (3) both, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and compare pricing, Stripe/payouts, instructor dashboards, video hosting, white-labeling, and marketplace functionality.

Uscreen is particularly attractive here because its author analytics can be used to establish revenue-sharing arrangements based on viewership. Uscreen Help

What I'd build for your use case

If you're starting a new business, I'd probably avoid building the entire platform initially.

I'd do:

Uscreen + Stripe/payment infrastructure + your own marketing site

and structure it around:

YOUR MARKETPLACE
│
├── Instructor A
│   ├── Course 1
│   ├── Course 2
│   └── Course 3
│
├── Instructor B
│   ├── Course 4
│   └── Course 5
│
├── Instructor C
│   ├── Course 6
│   ├── Course 7
│   └── Course 8
│
└── All-access membership
    └── Entire video library

Then determine instructor compensation using something like:

Instructor payout = subscription revenue × instructor's share of qualified watch time

That creates a genuine marketplace incentive: instructors are rewarded for creating content people actually consume.

When I'd go custom

I'd move to a custom platform once you need things like:

• Instructor self-registration
• Automated KYC/tax onboarding
• Stripe Connect-style instructor payouts
• Instructor-specific dashboards
• Instructor-specific storefronts
• Marketplace commissions
• Reviews/ratings
• Affiliate tracking
• Dynamic instructor revenue splits
• Instructor coupons
• Automated refunds/payout adjustments
• Thousands of independent instructors

That's where an LMS like LearnWorlds or a video platform like Uscreen starts becoming a constraint rather than the foundation.

Bottom line: For a curated multi-instructor video library, I'd test Uscreen first. For a serious education/LMS marketplace, I'd test LearnWorlds. For a true “any instructor can join and sell courses” marketplace, I'd plan for a custom marketplace architecture rather than trying to make a traditional course platform do it.

If your core model is “one marketplace, many instructors, each selling their own video-course library”, I’d narrow the field considerably. You’re not really looking for a normal online-course LMS—you need multi-instructor marketplace + video hosting + subscriptions/transactions + instructor attribution/revenue sharing.

My shortlist

1. uscreen.tv — my first choice for a video-first marketplace

Uscreen is particularly interesting because it has recently added functionality specifically relevant to multi-creator video libraries.

Its Authors feature lets you organize videos by creator/instructor, let customers filter by instructor, and track viewership by author. It explicitly supports using those analytics for revenue-sharing arrangements. Uscreen Help

It also has Content Hubs, which can create separate catalog experiences—for example, different sections for different instructors or content types. Uscreen Help

And its core monetization model is very video-centric: individual videos and collections can be gated behind subscriptions and other access rules. Uscreen Help

I'd choose Uscreen if your vision is:

“Netflix for expert instructors”

For example:

• Instructor A → 40 courses
• Instructor B → 25 courses
• Instructor C → 80 courses
• Customer pays $29/month
• Customer gets access to the entire library
• Each instructor gets compensated based on consumption/revenue allocation

That's a very natural Uscreen architecture.

Caveat: Authors aren't independent sellers with their own full dashboards. Uscreen says authors are managed by platform administrators rather than independently uploading their own content. Uscreen Help

So if you want true Shopify-like vendor accounts, I'd look elsewhere or custom-build.

2. learnworlds.com — best if these are structured courses

LearnWorlds is stronger if each instructor is creating traditional courses rather than simply contributing to a video library.

It has:

• Courses
• Bundles
• Memberships
• Advanced course sales
• Instructor/academy management
• White labeling
• Analytics
• B2B licensing
• A built-in Course Hub marketplace

The particularly interesting part is Course Hub. LearnWorlds now has a marketplace where creators can publish courses and other LearnWorlds schools can license them, with publishers earning money per enrollment. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

It also supports bundles, which is useful if you want to sell combinations of courses from multiple instructors. LearnWorlds Help Center

I'd choose LearnWorlds if your product is more like:

“MasterClass/Udemy for a particular niche”

rather than a pure Netflix-style video subscription.

One important distinction: LearnWorlds' Course Hub is primarily an ecosystem for licensing courses between schools, rather than a turnkey consumer marketplace where independent instructors each operate their own seller account. LearnWorlds Help Center

3. thinkific.com — excellent if revenue sharing is important

Thinkific has a useful Revenue Partners feature that lets you allocate a percentage of sales from courses, communities, or bundles to other contributors/instructors. Thinkific Support

It also supports instructor profiles and course administration. Thinkific Support

That makes it attractive if your model is:

You operate the marketplace → instructors provide courses → you control the storefront → sales get split between you and instructors.

But I would put it behind Uscreen for a video-library-first business and behind LearnWorlds for a large structured-course marketplace.

The key question: what does "marketplace" mean?

There are actually three different businesses you could be describing.

A. Netflix model

You own the marketplace.

Instructors supply content.

Customers pay you:

$19/mo → access to everything

You then distribute revenue to instructors.

Best fit: Uscreen

B. Udemy model

Each instructor is effectively a vendor.

For example:

Sarah's Photography Course — $79
Mike's Photoshop Course — $49
John's Video Editing Library — $129/year

The platform takes a percentage.

Instructors need things like:

• Their own accounts
• Course creation
• Uploading
• Pricing
• Sales analytics
• Customer/student management
• Payouts
• Instructor profiles
• Reviews
• Coupons
• Affiliate/referral tracking

Best fit: I'd seriously consider a custom marketplace rather than forcing a conventional LMS to behave like a multi-vendor marketplace.

C. MasterClass model

You have curated instructors, but you operate everything.

For example:

Master Academy

150 instructors
2,000 courses
$29/month
All-access library

Instructors don't necessarily need to manage their own stores. You manage content and compensate them.

Best fit: Uscreen or LearnWorlds, with Uscreen getting my vote if the experience is predominantly video.

What I'd build

If this were my project, I'd first decide whether you need true vendor independence.

If instructors only need to contribute content:

Uscreen → probably the fastest path.

If instructors need to behave like independent merchants:

Custom marketplace → probably the better long-term architecture.

A custom architecture could look like:

• Frontend: Next.js
• Video: Mux or Cloudflare Stream
• Payments: Stripe Connect
• Marketplace: custom
• Database: Postgres
• Auth: Clerk/Auth0
• Search: Algolia/Typesense
• Analytics: PostHog
• Email: Resend
• Storage: S3/R2

The important piece is Stripe Connect. That's what makes the economics of a multi-instructor marketplace much cleaner: customers pay through your platform while you can calculate and distribute instructor earnings.

My ranking for your specific idea

1. Uscreen — best if it's primarily a subscription video library
2. LearnWorlds — best if it's primarily structured online courses
3. Thinkific — best if you want conventional LMS functionality + revenue sharing
4. Custom build — best if instructors need genuine independent vendor accounts and payouts
5. Kajabi — excellent creator software, but not my first choice for a multi-vendor marketplace

If you tell me (1) whether customers pay per course or one subscription for the whole library, (2) whether instructors upload/manage their own courses, and (3) roughly how many instructors you expect, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and compare their actual pricing, transaction fees, instructor/payout functionality, video limits, and marketplace capabilities.

3. thinkific.com — excellent if revenue sharing is important

Thinkific has a useful Revenue Partners feature that lets you allocate a percentage of sales from courses, communities, or bundles to other contributors/instructors. Thinkific Support

It also supports instructor profiles and course administration. Thinkific Support

That makes it attractive if your model is:

You operate the marketplace → instructors provide courses → you control the storefront → sales get split between you and instructors.

But I would put it behind Uscreen for a video-library-first business and behind LearnWorlds for a large structured-course marketplace.

The key question: what does "marketplace" mean?

There are actually three different businesses you could be describing.

A. Netflix model

You own the marketplace.

Instructors supply content.

Customers pay you:

$19/mo → access to everything

You then distribute revenue to instructors.

Best fit: Uscreen

B. Udemy model

Each instructor is effectively a vendor.

For example:

Sarah's Photography Course — $79
Mike's Photoshop Course — $49
John's Video Editing Library — $129/year

The platform takes a percentage.

Instructors need things like:

• Their own accounts
• Course creation
• Uploading
• Pricing
• Sales analytics
• Customer/student management
• Payouts
• Instructor profiles
• Reviews
• Coupons
• Affiliate/referral tracking

Best fit: I'd seriously consider a custom marketplace rather than forcing a conventional LMS to behave like a multi-vendor marketplace.

C. MasterClass model

You have curated instructors, but you operate everything.

For example:

Master Academy

150 instructors
2,000 courses
$29/month
All-access library

Instructors don't necessarily need to manage their own stores. You manage content and compensate them.

Best fit: Uscreen or LearnWorlds, with Uscreen getting my vote if the experience is predominantly video.

What I'd build

If this were my project, I'd first decide whether you need true vendor independence.

If instructors only need to contribute content:

Uscreen → probably the fastest path.

If instructors need to behave like independent merchants:

Custom marketplace → probably the better long-term architecture.

A custom architecture could look like:

• Frontend: Next.js
• Video: Mux or Cloudflare Stream
• Payments: Stripe Connect
• Marketplace: custom
• Database: Postgres
• Auth: Clerk/Auth0
• Search: Algolia/Typesense
• Analytics: PostHog
• Email: Resend
• Storage: S3/R2

The important piece is Stripe Connect. That's what makes the economics of a multi-instructor marketplace much cleaner: customers pay through your platform while you can calculate and distribute instructor earnings.

My ranking for your specific idea

1. Uscreen — best if it's primarily a subscription video library
2. LearnWorlds — best if it's primarily structured online courses
3. Thinkific — best if you want conventional LMS functionality + revenue sharing
4. Custom build — best if instructors need genuine independent vendor accounts and payouts
5. Kajabi — excellent creator software, but not my first choice for a multi-vendor marketplace

If you tell me (1) whether customers pay per course or one subscription for the whole library, (2) whether instructors upload/manage their own courses, and (3) roughly how many instructors you expect, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and compare their actual pricing, transaction fees, instructor/payout functionality, video limits, and marketplace capabilities.

If your goal is a marketplace where many instructors each upload a library of video courses, set prices, and receive a share of sales, I’d narrow the field considerably. A normal “course platform” and a true multi-vendor marketplace are different things.

My shortlist

🥇 My pick: Teachable

For your exact description, Teachable is probably the best starting point.

It has an explicit Author model: you can add instructors, assign them particular courses, give them administrative permissions, and set a revenue share per sale. Teachable Help Center Teachable Help Center

That maps quite closely to:

Your platform → Instructor A → 20 courses → students buy → instructor gets X% → you keep Y%

You can also have different instructors selling different libraries under one school rather than forcing each instructor to operate a completely separate site.

teachable.com

🥈 Thinkific — better if you're building a serious academy

I'd look closely at Thinkific if you expect the business to become a substantial education platform rather than simply a creator storefront.

Its higher-end plans support multi-admin/partner arrangements and revenue-sharing workflows, making it more interesting once you have several instructors and substantial course volume. Current 2026 comparisons specifically identify Thinkific's higher tiers as having native partner revenue-share functionality. CourseStack Review

thinkific.com

🥉 LearnWorlds — best video-learning product

If the actual learning experience is your competitive advantage, I'd consider LearnWorlds.

It's particularly strong for interactive video: interactive elements, transcripts, captions, quizzes, and a customizable course player. LearnWorlds

The catch is important: it's not really designed as a Udemy-style open instructor marketplace with built-in revenue splitting. You'd need more customization/integrations around instructor payouts.

learnworlds.com

But there's an important distinction

If by "marketplace" you mean:

A. Curated marketplace that you own

You recruit 20–100 instructors → they upload courses → you control branding/pricing/discovery → you take 20–40% → instructors get the rest.

Then I'd choose Teachable or Thinkific, with Teachable being my initial choice.

If you mean:

B. Open marketplace like Udemy

Instructors sign themselves up → create profiles → upload courses → students browse thousands of courses → platform automatically handles marketplace economics and instructor payouts.

Then I'd look at Udemy itself, or potentially build a custom marketplace rather than trying to bend Teachable/Kajabi into doing something they weren't designed for. Udemy is explicitly structured around a large instructor/course marketplace and revenue sharing. Thinkific

udemy.com

What I'd choose for your business

If you're envisioning something like:

"Netflix/Udemy for a specific niche"

with:

• 50+ instructors
• hundreds/thousands of video courses
• instructor profiles
• individual course purchases
• bundles
• subscriptions / all-access membership
• instructor revenue splits
• coupons
• affiliate commissions
• ratings/reviews
• search/filtering
• centralized student accounts
• your own brand/domain
• automated instructor payouts

…I would not automatically choose a conventional LMS.

I'd consider a marketplace stack where the LMS/video layer is combined with marketplace/payment infrastructure. That gives you much more control over instructor onboarding, commissions, refunds, subscriptions, and discovery.

If you tell me roughly how many instructors/courses you expect (e.g. 10, 100, or 1,000) and whether you want one-off course purchases, subscriptions, or both, I can recommend the best 3 architectures—including no-code, SaaS, and custom-built options—and estimate what each would cost.

That maps quite closely to:

Your platform → Instructor A → 20 courses → students buy → instructor gets X% → you keep Y%

You can also have different instructors selling different libraries under one school rather than forcing each instructor to operate a completely separate site.

teachable.com

🥈 Thinkific — better if you're building a serious academy

I'd look closely at Thinkific if you expect the business to become a substantial education platform rather than simply a creator storefront.

Its higher-end plans support multi-admin/partner arrangements and revenue-sharing workflows, making it more interesting once you have several instructors and substantial course volume. Current 2026 comparisons specifically identify Thinkific's higher tiers as having native partner revenue-share functionality. CourseStack Review

thinkific.com

🥉 LearnWorlds — best video-learning product

If the actual learning experience is your competitive advantage, I'd consider LearnWorlds.

It's particularly strong for interactive video: interactive elements, transcripts, captions, quizzes, and a customizable course player. LearnWorlds

The catch is important: it's not really designed as a Udemy-style open instructor marketplace with built-in revenue splitting. You'd need more customization/integrations around instructor payouts.

learnworlds.com

But there's an important distinction

If by "marketplace" you mean:

A. Curated marketplace that you own

You recruit 20–100 instructors → they upload courses → you control branding/pricing/discovery → you take 20–40% → instructors get the rest.

Then I'd choose Teachable or Thinkific, with Teachable being my initial choice.

If you mean:

B. Open marketplace like Udemy

Instructors sign themselves up → create profiles → upload courses → students browse thousands of courses → platform automatically handles marketplace economics and instructor payouts.

Then I'd look at Udemy itself, or potentially build a custom marketplace rather than trying to bend Teachable/Kajabi into doing something they weren't designed for. Udemy is explicitly structured around a large instructor/course marketplace and revenue sharing. thinkific.com

If you want to build a video course marketplace where many instructors upload libraries and earn revenue, you need something different from a normal “sell my course” platform. The key features are:

• Instructor accounts + dashboards
• Instructor revenue splits / payouts
• Course approval workflow
• Video hosting at scale
• Searchable course catalog
• Student accounts and progress tracking
• Subscriptions or one-time purchases
• Reviews, ratings, certificates
• Affiliate/referral support
• Tax/payment handling

Here are the strongest options by business model:

My recommendations by stage

1. Fast launch (first 10–100 instructors)

Use:

• Thinkific
• LearnWorlds

Build:

• Your branded academy
• Instructor onboarding manually
• Revenue sharing through payment tools or manual payouts

This gets you to market quickly. SavingSec Uscreen

2. Growing marketplace (100–1,000 instructors)

Consider:

• WordPress + LearnDash + marketplace plugins
• Moodle customization
• A headless LMS setup

You will likely need:

• Instructor dashboards
• Automated commissions
• Content moderation
• Better search/filtering

3. Building “the next Udemy”

I would custom build:

Frontend

• React / Next.js

Backend

• Node.js, Laravel, or Django

Video

• Mux or Vimeo OTT

Payments

• Stripe Connect for instructor payouts

Database

• PostgreSQL

Storage

• AWS S3 + CDN

Core marketplace features:

• Instructor profiles
• Course bundles
• Subscription library
• Revenue splits
• Student analytics
• Recommendation engine
• Reviews
• Coupon system

If I were choosing today

• Want to validate the idea quickly: Thinkific or LearnWorlds
• Want a premium “Netflix for courses” subscription: Custom build + Mux/Vimeo + Stripe Connect
• Want a true instructor marketplace: Avoid Kajabi/Teachable as the foundation; they are better for individual creators than multi-vendor marketplaces. InvestmentKit AFFiNCO

A useful question is: are instructors selling individual courses (Udemy model), or are you selling an all-access subscription library (MasterClass/Netflix model)? The best architecture changes significantly depending on that.

If your goal is a marketplace where many instructors each have their own video-course library, while you control the overall marketplace and take a commission, I’d narrow the field considerably.

My shortlist

1. thinkific.com — my first choice

Thinkific is probably the closest match if you want to own the marketplace rather than simply give instructors a place to sell courses.

The particularly important feature is Revenue Partners: Thinkific can allocate a percentage of sales from a course, community, or bundle to another instructor/contributor and track the commission owed. Thinkific Support

It also supports subscriptions, bundles, memberships, payment plans, coupons, upsells, multiple currencies, and commerce/reporting features. Thinkific

Example business model:

Your marketplace → 100 instructors → 1,000 courses → customer pays $199/year → instructor receives 70% → you retain 30%.

That's much closer to your use case than Kajabi.

2. uscreen.tv — best if it's really a Netflix-for-learning

I'd seriously consider Uscreen if the product is primarily:

"Subscribe to our library of thousands of instructional videos from dozens of instructors."

Uscreen is particularly strong around video libraries, memberships, communities, and branded apps. Its Authors functionality lets you organize content by instructor, allow viewers to filter by creator, and track author-level viewership analytics. Uscreen Help Uscreen

So if your model is:

• $19/month membership
• 50 instructors
• hundreds/thousands of videos
• users browse by instructor/topic
• instructors get paid according to consumption or an agreed split

Uscreen may actually be better than Thinkific.

3. learnworlds.com — best learning experience

LearnWorlds is attractive if you're building something more like a professional online school than a Netflix-style video marketplace.

It has interactive video, assessments, custom roles, analytics, branding, APIs/webhooks and extensive customization. LearnWorlds

The catch is that its native revenue-sharing model isn't as compelling for a true instructor marketplace; you may need integrations/custom processes for instructor payouts.

What I would not choose

Kajabi is excellent if each instructor is essentially running their own independent business. But that's different from your model. Its strength is giving a creator an all-in-one business stack—courses, funnels, email, checkout, community, etc.—rather than operating a multi-vendor marketplace. Kajabi

Udemy is the obvious comparison, but it's more useful as inspiration than infrastructure. You'd be giving up a lot of control over branding, pricing, customer relationships and marketplace economics.

The important distinction

There are actually two different products you could be building:

A. "Online school with multiple instructors"

Example:

Acme Academy

30 instructors
300 courses
$299/year membership
Acme owns the customer relationship
Instructors receive agreed revenue shares

→ Thinkific

B. "Netflix/Udemy for a particular niche"

Example:

FitnessMaster

150 instructors
5,000 workout videos
$24.99/month
Browse by instructor, discipline, difficulty, etc.
Instructor payouts based on watch time/revenue

→ Uscreen

That second model is where I'd lean Uscreen. Its own documentation specifically positions its author functionality for educational platforms with multiple instructors/content creators. Uscreen Help

My recommendation

If you're starting from scratch, I'd rank them:

1. Thinkific — best if instructors sell individual courses/bundles and you need revenue sharing.
2. Uscreen — best if customers subscribe to a giant video library.
3. LearnWorlds — best if sophisticated education/interactive learning is the differentiator.
4. Teachable — worth considering for a simpler implementation.
5. Kajabi — great software, but not my choice for a true multi-vendor marketplace.

One caveat: if you need automated Stripe Connect-style payouts to hundreds of independent instructors, instructor onboarding/KYC, each instructor having their own dashboard, marketplace-wide search, instructor-specific storefronts, commissions, refunds and tax handling, I'd look beyond traditional course platforms. At that point you're really building a multi-vendor marketplace, and a headless/custom stack may be substantially better.

If you tell me roughly how many instructors you expect (10 / 100 / 1,000), whether customers pay per-course or subscription, and your desired commission split, I can recommend the specific stack—including Stripe Connect + video hosting + LMS + marketplace frontend—rather than just a generic course platform.

What I would not choose

Kajabi is excellent if each instructor is essentially running their own independent business. But that's different from your model. Its strength is giving a creator an all-in-one business stack—courses, funnels, email, checkout, community, etc.—rather than operating a multi-vendor marketplace. Kajabi

Udemy is the obvious comparison, but it's more useful as inspiration than infrastructure. You'd be giving up a lot of control over branding, pricing, customer relationships and marketplace economics.

The important distinction

There are actually two different products you could be building:

A. "Online school with multiple instructors"

Example:

Acme Academy

30 instructors
300 courses
$299/year membership
Acme owns the customer relationship
Instructors receive agreed revenue shares

→ Thinkific

B. "Netflix/Udemy for a particular niche"

Example:

FitnessMaster

150 instructors
5,000 workout videos
$24.99/month
Browse by instructor, discipline, difficulty, etc.
Instructor payouts based on watch time/revenue

→ Uscreen

That second model is where I'd lean Uscreen. Its own documentation specifically positions its author functionality for educational platforms with multiple instructors/content creators.

My recommendation

If you're starting from scratch, I'd rank them:

If your goal is specifically a marketplace where many independent instructors each sell their own video-course libraries, I’d narrow the field quite a bit. You need more than a normal LMS: you need multi-vendor/instructor accounts, course ownership, revenue splits, marketplace discovery, payouts, subscriptions/bundles, reviews, and admin moderation.

My top picks

1. learnworlds.com — my first choice for an MVP

LearnWorlds is unusually close to what you're describing. It supports instructor accounts, assigning instructors to courses, and instructor revenue percentages. It can calculate commissions across courses, bundles, subscriptions and payment plans. LearnWorlds Help Center LearnWorlds Help Center

The important caveat: LearnWorlds' instructor commission calculation doesn't automatically pay instructors from the LMS; payouts are handled separately. LearnWorlds Help Center

It also now has Course Hub, where course creators can publish courses for other LearnWorlds schools to license. That's slightly different from the consumer marketplace you're describing, but it demonstrates that LearnWorlds is moving toward a content-marketplace model. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

I'd choose it if:
You want to launch something like "Netflix/Udemy for a niche" without building the entire LMS infrastructure yourself.

2. sharetribe.com — best underlying marketplace engine

If the important part is "instructors are vendors selling their libraries through my marketplace", Sharetribe becomes very interesting.

It's designed around marketplace primitives: provider profiles, listings, transactions, payments, monetization and admin tools. It explicitly supports digital-product marketplaces. Sharetribe Sharetribe

The downside is that Sharetribe isn't a full video-course LMS out of the box. You'd likely combine it with a video/content system and build the learning experience around it.

I'd choose it if:
Your business model looks more like:

Instructor → creates storefront → uploads 10/50/100 courses → sets prices → students browse marketplace → marketplace takes 20% → instructor receives 80%.

That's a marketplace problem more than an LMS problem.

3. mightynetworks.com — best for community + courses

Mighty Networks is excellent if every instructor has a community/audience around their courses. It supports courses, memberships, events and community features. Mighty Networks

I'd put it behind LearnWorlds/Sharetribe for your particular idea because you're describing a multi-seller course marketplace, rather than primarily a community platform.

The important distinction

I'd decide between these two architectures before picking software:

A. "One school with many instructors"

Think:

Your brand → catalog → instructors → courses

You control the customer relationship, pricing, bundles, subscriptions and marketplace.

LearnWorlds is the strongest starting point.

B. "Marketplace of independent course businesses"

Think:

Your marketplace → Instructor A's storefront
Your marketplace → Instructor B's storefront
Your marketplace → Instructor C's storefront

Each instructor effectively operates a mini-business inside your platform.

Sharetribe + a dedicated video/LMS layer is closer to this model.

If I were building this

For a niche Netflix/Udemy-style marketplace, I'd actually consider a hybrid:

Frontend: Next.js
Marketplace: Sharetribe or custom marketplace backend
Video: Mux or Vimeo
Payments/payouts: Stripe Connect
Learning: custom course/player layer
Search: Algolia/Typesense
Email: Resend/Postmark
Analytics: PostHog
Database: PostgreSQL

That gives you the crucial ability to have:

• Instructor onboarding
• Instructor dashboards
• Course libraries
• Individual instructor storefronts
• Video hosting
• Course progress
• Reviews/ratings
• Coupons
• Bundles
• Marketplace-wide subscriptions
• Instructor-specific pricing
• Revenue splits
• Automatic payouts
• Refund handling
• Admin approval/moderation
• Featured instructors/courses
• Search and category pages

Stripe Connect is particularly important if you want automated instructor payouts rather than merely calculating commissions. That's one area where an LMS like LearnWorlds may eventually force you into additional operational work.

My ranking for your idea

1. LearnWorlds — fastest way to validate the concept
2. Sharetribe + video/LMS stack — best marketplace architecture
3. Custom build — best if you expect this to become a substantial marketplace
4. Mighty Networks — best if community is as important as courses

If you tell me your expected number of instructors (e.g. 20 vs. 1,000), whether instructors upload their own videos, and whether you want subscriptions like Netflix vs. individual course purchases, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 architectures and estimated monthly cost.

I'd choose it if:
You want to launch something like "Netflix/Udemy for a niche" without building the entire LMS infrastructure yourself.

2. sharetribe.com — best underlying marketplace engine

If the important part is "instructors are vendors selling their libraries through my marketplace", Sharetribe becomes very interesting.

It's designed around marketplace primitives: provider profiles, listings, transactions, payments, monetization and admin tools. It explicitly supports digital-product marketplaces. Sharetribe Sharetribe

The downside is that Sharetribe isn't a full video-course LMS out of the box. You'd likely combine it with a video/content system and build the learning experience around it.

I'd choose it if:
Your business model looks more like:

Instructor → creates storefront → uploads 10/50/100 courses → sets prices → students browse marketplace → marketplace takes 20% → instructor receives 80%.

That's a marketplace problem more than an LMS problem.

3. mightynetworks.com — best for community + courses

Mighty Networks is excellent if every instructor has a community/audience around their courses. It supports courses, memberships, events and community features. Mighty Networks

I'd put it behind LearnWorlds/Sharetribe for your particular idea because you're describing a multi-seller course marketplace, rather than primarily a community platform.

The important distinction

I'd decide between these two architectures before picking software:

A. "One school with many instructors"

Think:

Your brand → catalog → instructors → courses

You control the customer relationship, pricing, bundles, subscriptions and marketplace.

LearnWorlds is the strongest starting point.

B. "Marketplace of independent course businesses"

Think:

Your marketplace → Instructor A's storefront
Your marketplace → Instructor B's storefront
Your marketplace → Instructor C's storefront

Each instructor effectively operates a mini-business inside your platform.

Sharetribe + a dedicated video/LMS layer is closer to this model.

If I were building this

For a niche Netflix/Udemy-style marketplace, I'd actually consider a hybrid:

Frontend: Next.js
Marketplace: Sharetribe or custom marketplace backend
Video: Mux or Vimeo
Payments/payouts: Stripe Connect
Learning: custom course/player layer
Search: Algolia/Typesense
Email: Resend/Postmark
Analytics: PostHog
Database: PostgreSQL

That gives you the crucial ability to have:

• Instructor onboarding
• Instructor dashboards
• Course libraries
• Individual instructor storefronts
• Video hosting
• Course progress
• Reviews/ratings
• Coupons
• Bundles
• Marketplace-wide subscriptions
• Instructor-specific pricing
• Revenue splits
• Automatic payouts
• Refund handling
• Admin approval/moderation
• Featured instructors/courses
• Search and category pages

Stripe Connect is particularly important if you want automated instructor payouts rather than merely calculating commissions. That's one area where an LMS like LearnWorlds may eventually force you into additional operational work.

My ranking for your idea

1. LearnWorlds — fastest way to validate the concept
2. Sharetribe + video/LMS stack — best marketplace architecture
3. Custom build — best if you expect this to become a substantial marketplace
4. Mighty Networks — best if community is as important as courses

If you tell me your expected number of instructors (e.g. 20 vs. 1,000), whether instructors upload their own videos, and whether you want subscriptions like Netflix vs. individual course purchases, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 architectures and estimated monthly cost.

If by “video course marketplace” you mean a platform where many independent instructors upload courses, learners browse a central catalog, buy individual courses or memberships, and instructors receive a revenue share, I’d narrow the field considerably.

My top picks

🥇 Best overall: thinkific.com

For your particular model, Thinkific is probably where I'd start.

Thinkific supports multiple instructors/admins and has tools around content partners and revenue sharing. Its current platform also supports subscriptions, bundles, payment plans, coupons, upsells, B2B sales, and sophisticated course/catalog management. Thinkific Thinkific

The important distinction is that you can structure it as:

Your marketplace
→ Instructor A → Course library
→ Instructor B → Course library
→ Instructor C → Course library
→ Customer → buys course/membership
→ Your platform → tracks instructor share

A 2026 comparison specifically identifies Thinkific's higher tiers as having native revenue-share functionality for content partners, making it unusually relevant to a multi-instructor academy. CourseStack Review

I'd choose this if you're building something like:

“MasterClass/Udemy, but focused on a specific niche and with our own brand.”

🥈 Best for a polished learning experience: learnworlds.com

LearnWorlds is particularly strong if the learning experience itself matters: interactive video, assessments, certificates, learning paths, SCORM, customizable course players, etc. LearnWorlds

There's also an interesting distinction: LearnWorlds now has Course Hub, where courses can be listed and licensed by other schools. Publishers receive revenue when learners enroll. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

However, that's more of a course licensing marketplace than the exact “many instructors selling directly through my marketplace” model you're describing.

🥉 Best if it's primarily a Netflix-style video library: uscreen.tv

I'd look seriously at Uscreen if your concept is:

“Netflix for [niche] education.”

For example:

• $29/month membership
• 500+ courses/videos
• multiple instructors
• users watch everything while subscribed
• mobile/TV experience
• community around the videos

Uscreen is particularly video- and membership-oriented, whereas Thinkific is more naturally suited to structured courses and an education business. Uscreen Uscreen

One important caveat

There are two very different businesses hiding inside your question.

A. “Online academy with multiple instructors”

You control the platform.

Instructors are essentially content partners/employees.

YOUR BRAND
    │
    ├── Instructor A
    │     ├── Course 1
    │     └── Course 2
    │
    ├── Instructor B
    │     ├── Course 3
    │     └── Course 4
    │
    └── Instructor C
          ├── Course 5
          └── Course 6

           ↓

       CUSTOMERS
           ↓
    Payments / Memberships
           ↓
     Revenue allocation

Thinkific is my first choice here.

B. “True marketplace”

You want strangers to apply as instructors, create their own storefronts, upload courses, set prices, see sales dashboards, receive payouts, etc.

                  MARKETPLACE
                       │
        ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
        ↓              ↓              ↓
   Instructor A   Instructor B   Instructor C
        │              │              │
    courses         courses         courses
        └──────────────┼──────────────┘
                       ↓
                  CUSTOMERS
                       ↓
               Stripe / payments
                       ↓
          Marketplace takes 20%
          Instructor gets 80%

I would not use Kajabi, Thinkific, or LearnWorlds as the long-term architecture if this is your core vision.

Those products are fundamentally course-business/LMS platforms, rather than fully fledged two-sided marketplaces. You can get surprisingly far with them, but eventually you'll run into requirements around instructor onboarding, seller accounts, automated split payments, tax reporting, instructor dashboards, moderation, refunds, disputes, etc.

For a true marketplace, I'd consider a custom marketplace application on top of Stripe Connect + a video infrastructure provider + an LMS/course engine.

What I'd build

If you're starting from zero, my shortlist would be:

Fastest MVP:
Thinkific + Stripe + your own marketing/site layer

Premium video membership:
Uscreen

More sophisticated LMS:
LearnWorlds

True “Udemy for X” marketplace:
Custom build using Stripe Connect + video hosting + your own marketplace/catalog

The last option costs more, but gives you control over the thing that actually makes your business unique: the instructor marketplace and revenue-sharing system.

My recommendation

If you tell me (1) roughly how many instructors you expect, (2) whether instructors set their own prices, (3) whether you want subscriptions vs individual course purchases, and (4) whether you need automated instructor payouts, I can give you a specific software stack and architecture rather than just an LMS comparison.

🥈 Best for a polished learning experience: learnworlds.com

LearnWorlds is particularly strong if the learning experience itself matters: interactive video, assessments, certificates, learning paths, SCORM, customizable course players, etc. LearnWorlds

There's also an interesting distinction: LearnWorlds now has Course Hub, where courses can be listed and licensed by other schools. Publishers receive revenue when learners enroll. LearnWorlds support.learnworlds.com

However, that's more of a course licensing marketplace than the exact “many instructors selling directly through my marketplace” model you're describing.

If your goal is a marketplace like Udemy, but owned by you, where many instructors upload video-course libraries, students buy courses or memberships, and instructors receive a revenue share, I’d shortlist these:

🥇 My first choice: LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is unusually close to what you're describing. It supports multiple instructors, lets you assign instructors to courses and specify their percentage of revenue, and supports courses, bundles, subscriptions and installment plans. LearnWorlds Help Center

It also now has Course Hub, essentially a marketplace for course content. Creators can publish courses and earn money when other schools license them. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

learnworlds.com

The important caveat: LearnWorlds' instructor commission calculation is built in, but instructor payouts aren't automatically made by LearnWorlds; you handle the actual payments externally. LearnWorlds Help Center

So I'd choose it if your model is:

You operate the academy → instructors provide courses → you sell the courses → you calculate/pay instructors their share.

🥈 If you want a Netflix-style course library: Uscreen

Uscreen is worth serious consideration if the business is primarily video rather than a traditional LMS.

It is designed around video libraries and memberships, and its Authors functionality lets you organize content by instructor and track performance by creator. Uscreen Help Uscreen

uscreen.tv

I'd lean Uscreen if you envision:

$19/month → access to hundreds of instructors and thousands of videos

rather than:

Buy Instructor Jane's $149 course.

🥉 If you mean a real two-sided marketplace: Sharetribe

This is the interesting option if instructors should function almost like independent sellers on your platform.

Sharetribe is specifically designed for marketplaces. It supports marketplace payments through Stripe, including onboarding providers and automatically handling the marketplace's transaction cut. Sharetribe Sharetribe

sharetribe.com

The downside is that Sharetribe isn't really an LMS/video-course platform. You'd likely combine it with a video hosting/LMS system.

That makes the architecture something like:

Sharetribe
→ instructor profiles
→ course listings
→ checkout
→ commissions
→ instructor payouts

Video/LMS platform
→ video hosting
→ quizzes
→ progress
→ certificates
→ course player

This gives you considerably more control over the marketplace economics.

What I'd choose for your specific idea

If you're building this from scratch, I'd rank them:

1. LearnWorlds — fastest route to launch
2. Sharetribe + specialized video/LMS — best if marketplace economics and instructor independence are core
3. Uscreen — best if it's fundamentally a subscription video library
4. Thinkific — excellent LMS, but I'd be less enthusiastic about it as the foundation for a multi-vendor marketplace
5. Kajabi — great creator-business software, but not my first choice for a Udemy-style marketplace

One distinction is very important: if by "multiple instructors can sell libraries" you mean each instructor gets their own storefront, controls pricing, receives automatic Stripe payouts, and you take 20–30% commission, I'd actually steer you toward a marketplace architecture rather than a conventional LMS.

If that's your model, I can also compare the best 5 platforms specifically for a Udemy-style marketplace, including automatic instructor payouts, subscriptions, commissions, video hosting, course limits, white-labeling, and approximate 2026 costs.

If you mean a marketplace like Udemy/Skillshare where many instructors upload video libraries, set prices, and receive payouts, you need more than a normal LMS. You need:

• Instructor accounts and dashboards
• Revenue sharing / automated payouts
• Course catalog + search
• Video hosting/streaming
• Student accounts
• Reviews/ratings
• Subscriptions or one-time purchases
• Coupons/affiliates
• Admin moderation
• Analytics

The best options depend on whether you want a true marketplace or a branded academy with multiple instructors.

Best platforms for a multi-instructor video course marketplace

1. Sharetribe + custom LMS/video stack — Best for a true marketplace

Best for: Building “the Airbnb of courses”

Pros:

• Built for multi-vendor marketplaces
• Handles user roles, listings, payments, transactions
• Flexible marketplace workflows
• Good if you want instructors to own storefronts

Cons:

• Not a complete LMS/video-course system out of the box
• Requires integrations/custom development

Typical stack:

• Sharetribe → marketplace logic
• Stripe Connect → instructor payouts
• Vimeo OTT or Mux → video streaming
• Custom frontend → course experience

2. Thinkific Plus — Best for a professional academy

ThinkificBest for: A company running a catalog of courses from multiple experts

Pros:

• Strong course creation tools
• Video lessons, quizzes, certificates
• Memberships and communities
• Commerce features
• Enterprise permissions

Cons:

• Not naturally a “many independent sellers” marketplace
• Instructor revenue splits may require workflows/integrations

Good fit:

“We are a brand that recruits 50 instructors and sells their courses.”

3. LearnWorlds — Best video-learning experience

Best for: Premium education marketplaces

Pros:

• Excellent video learning features
• Interactive video
• Assessments
• White-label branding
• Multiple instructor/admin roles

Cons:

• Marketplace-style instructor payouts may require customization

4. Moodle + marketplace plugins — Best open-source route

Best for: Maximum control

Pros:

• Fully customizable
• Huge ecosystem
• You own the infrastructure
• Can support thousands of courses

Cons:

• Requires technical team
• You must build the marketplace/business layer

5. Kajabi — Best for premium creator businesses

KajabiBest for: A smaller group of high-value instructors

Pros:

• Beautiful marketing funnels
• Email marketing
• Memberships
• Communities
• Strong creator monetization tools

Cons:

• Not designed as a Udemy-style open marketplace

6. Build a custom marketplace — Best if this is your startup

For a serious marketplace business, I would usually avoid forcing an LMS to do marketplace jobs.

A modern stack:

Frontend

• Next.js / React

Backend

• Node.js / Django / Laravel

Database

• PostgreSQL

Video

• Mux
• Vimeo OTT
• Cloudflare Stream

Payments

• Stripe Connect (automatic instructor payouts)

Search

• Algolia / Elasticsearch

Course engine

• Custom or integrated LMS

This gives you:

• Instructor storefronts
• Revenue splits
• Subscriptions
• Bundles
• Marketplace ranking algorithms
• AI recommendations

My recommendation by business model

For a real multi-instructor marketplace where instructors sell their own libraries, I would lean toward custom marketplace + Stripe Connect + dedicated video hosting rather than trying to make Kajabi/Thinkific behave like Udemy.

If you tell me your expected size (e.g., 10 instructors vs 1,000 instructors, and whether you want subscriptions like Netflix or individual course sales), I can narrow it to a specific architecture and budget range.

If you mean “I want to build my own marketplace where many instructors each have their own video libraries, students can browse/buy from them, and I take a platform fee”, I’d narrow the field considerably.

My shortlist

🥇 1. Thinkific — best balance

thinkific.com is probably where I'd start if you want to launch relatively quickly.

It supports multiple instructors/content partners, and its Revenue Partners functionality lets you assign a percentage of sales to another person for a course, community, or bundle. Thinkific Support Thinkific Support

The important caveat: Thinkific's native revenue sharing is primarily a tracking/allocation system, not a fully automated marketplace payout system. Payments to revenue partners are handled separately. Thinkific Support

So it's excellent for:

• Instructor profiles
• Large course catalogs
• Video courses
• Bundles
• Memberships
• Student accounts/progress
• Instructor/admin permissions
• Revenue-share arrangements

But if your business model is:

Instructor uploads course → student buys → platform automatically takes 20% → instructor automatically receives 80%

…I'd investigate a more marketplace-native architecture rather than assuming Thinkific handles the entire transaction flow.

🥈 2. WordPress + LearnDash + WooCommerce — best for a real marketplace

learndash.com is worth serious consideration if your vision is closer to Udemy for a particular niche.

You can build:

Instructor → Course Library → Product → Checkout → Platform commission → Instructor payout

with substantially more control over:

• Instructor onboarding
• Instructor dashboards
• Course ownership
• Pricing
• Coupons
• Bundles
• Memberships
• Commissions
• Stripe Connect
• Search/filtering
• Reviews
• Instructor profiles
• SEO
• Custom marketplace UX

The downside is that you're assembling a stack, rather than buying one turnkey SaaS product.

For a marketplace business, though, that's potentially an advantage.

🥉 3. LearnWorlds — best if the learning experience is the differentiator

learnworlds.com is particularly strong if your courses need sophisticated interactive video, assessments, certificates, structured learning paths, SCORM, etc. Current comparisons also put it toward the higher end for interactive/LMS functionality. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds

Interestingly, LearnWorlds itself now has a Course Hub, which is an internal marketplace where creators can license courses to other LearnWorlds schools. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

But that's not exactly the same as saying “I can create my own Udemy-style multi-vendor marketplace with automatic instructor payouts.”

4. Uscreen — if your business is really a Netflix-style library

uscreen.tv is compelling if the product is primarily:

“Pay $X/month and get access to hundreds/thousands of videos from different instructors.”

It has strong video delivery, memberships, communities, and catalog functionality. Its newer Content Hubs feature specifically allows multiple catalogs and can be useful for separating content by instructor or audience. Uscreen Help

I'd choose it over Thinkific if video consumption/subscription is more important than traditional LMS functionality.

The key distinction

There are actually two very different businesses hiding in your question.

A. “Online school with multiple instructors”

Example:

My company owns the platform.
10 instructors contribute courses.
We control pricing and customers.
We pay instructors 30%–50% of revenue.

Thinkific is a very good fit.

B. “Multi-vendor course marketplace”

Example:

Instructor Jane signs up.
She creates her own storefront.
She uploads 15 courses.
She chooses prices.
Students purchase Jane's courses.
We automatically take 20%.
Jane automatically gets 80%.
500 other instructors do the same.

That's much closer to Udemy/Skillshare/Amazon Marketplace architecture.

For this model, I'd lean toward:

WordPress + LearnDash + WooCommerce + Stripe Connect, or a custom marketplace application.

That's because instructor identity, ownership, commissions, payouts, refunds, taxes, disputes and permissions become core infrastructure, rather than merely “multiple admins on an LMS.”

What I'd choose

If I were building this business today:

<$100k initial budget / validate the idea:
→ Thinkific

Need beautiful, sophisticated course experience:
→ LearnWorlds

Netflix-like video subscription:
→ Uscreen

True multi-vendor marketplace with automatic instructor payouts:
→ WordPress/LearnDash + WooCommerce/Stripe Connect

Serious marketplace with hundreds/thousands of instructors:
→ Custom application, probably using a video infrastructure provider rather than storing/serving the videos yourself.

One particularly important consideration is Stripe Connect (or an equivalent marketplace payment system). If instructors are independent sellers, I would make automatic split payments/payouts a first-class architectural requirement rather than bolting commissions on afterward.

If you tell me roughly how many instructors you expect (10 / 100 / 1,000+), whether instructors set their own prices, and whether students buy individual courses or one subscription, I can recommend the exact software stack + estimated monthly cost + marketplace payment flow.

If your core model is “many instructors each sell their own video-course libraries through one marketplace”, I’d narrow the field quite a bit.

My ranking

1. LearnWorlds — my first choice

LearnWorlds is unusually close to the business you're describing.

It supports instructors with assigned courses and configurable revenue percentages, and it calculates instructor commissions automatically. LearnWorlds Help Center LearnWorlds Help Center

More importantly, in 2026 it introduced Course Hub, essentially a marketplace where creators can publish courses and other schools can license them. It supports publisher revenue, Stripe payments, course listings, private listings, and a 10% marketplace commission. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

learnworlds.com

Why I'd choose it: If you're building a centralized academy/marketplace with dozens or hundreds of instructors, it gives you much more of the underlying LMS infrastructure than trying to hack together Kajabi/Teachable.

Caveat: Course Hub is oriented around licensing courses between LearnWorlds schools, so if your desired model is more like Udemy/MasterClass where instructors directly join your marketplace and sell to consumers, you'll want to validate the exact seller onboarding and payout workflow before committing.

2. Uscreen — best if the product is primarily a video Netflix

Uscreen is particularly strong if your vision is:

Browse instructors → browse their libraries → subscribe → watch hundreds/thousands of videos

It is built around video memberships, streaming libraries, subscriptions, communities, and branded apps. Uscreen Uscreen

It also has an Authors system that lets you organize content by creator and track viewership for revenue-sharing arrangements. Uscreen Help

uscreen.tv

The big limitation is important: authors aren't independent sellers with their own dashboards. Administrators create authors and upload/assign their content. Uscreen Help

So I'd use Uscreen if you control the catalog and pay instructors, rather than if instructors need to independently operate their own storefronts.

3. Thinkific — good LMS, less ideal marketplace

Thinkific handles instructor profiles, course administration and product payees for sharing course revenue. Thinkific Support

thinkific.com

It's a strong choice if you have something like:

Your company owns the marketplace → instructors produce courses → your team manages the catalog → instructors receive a percentage.

But I'd put it behind LearnWorlds for a true multi-vendor marketplace.

The key distinction

Before choosing software, I'd define which of these two businesses you're actually building:

A. Curated marketplace

Instructor joins → creates profile → uploads courses → sets price → you approve → customers purchase → platform takes 20% → instructor gets 80%.

This is Udemy-like.

B. Centralized subscription library

Instructor joins → gives you content → you organize it into the marketplace → customers pay $29/month → instructors are paid based on watch time/revenue share.

This is MasterClass/Netflix-like.

For A, I'd start with LearnWorlds and investigate whether its current instructor/payment workflow can be adapted closely enough to your desired seller experience.

For B, I'd seriously consider Uscreen.

If you're building a serious marketplace

If you expect 100+ independent instructors, I'd actually consider a different architecture: a marketplace platform + specialized video hosting/LMS rather than trying to force a conventional course platform into being a multi-vendor marketplace.

The critical features I'd require are:

• Instructor self-service signup
• Instructor dashboard
• Course creation/upload
• Instructor storefront/profile
• Individual course pricing
• Bundles
• Subscription access
• Coupons
• Platform commission
• Automated instructor payouts
• Stripe Connect or equivalent marketplace payments
• Refund handling
• Tax/VAT handling
• Content approval/moderation
• Video DRM/protection
• Analytics per instructor/course
• Reviews/ratings
• Search and categories
• Affiliate/referral tracking
• Ability to revoke instructor access
• Ownership/IP controls
• Bulk upload and video transcoding
• API/webhooks

The payments/payout architecture is the one I'd investigate first. A platform can look perfect as an LMS but become painful when you have to split a $99 purchase between the platform, instructor, affiliate, taxes, refunds, and payment fees.

If you tell me your intended model — e.g. “100 instructors, each sells individual courses, we take 20%, plus an optional $20/month membership” — I can recommend the best 3 software stacks and estimated monthly cost, including whether I'd use an off-the-shelf platform or build the marketplace layer custom.

It supports instructors with assigned courses and configurable revenue percentages, and it calculates instructor commissions automatically. LearnWorlds Help Center LearnWorlds Help Center

More importantly, in 2026 it introduced Course Hub, essentially a marketplace where creators can publish courses and other schools can license them. It supports publisher revenue, Stripe payments, course listings, private listings, and a 10% marketplace commission. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

learnworlds.com

Why I'd choose it: If you're building a centralized academy/marketplace with dozens or hundreds of instructors, it gives you much more of the underlying LMS infrastructure than trying to hack together Kajabi/Teachable.

Caveat: Course Hub is oriented around licensing courses between LearnWorlds schools, so if your desired model is more like Udemy/MasterClass where instructors directly join your marketplace and sell to consumers, you'll want to validate the exact seller onboarding and payout workflow before committing.

2. Uscreen — best if the product is primarily a video Netflix

Uscreen is particularly strong if your vision is:

Browse instructors → browse their libraries → subscribe → watch hundreds/thousands of videos

It is built around video memberships, streaming libraries, subscriptions, communities, and branded apps. Uscreen Uscreen

It also has an Authors system that lets you organize content by creator and track viewership for revenue-sharing arrangements. Uscreen Help

uscreen.tv

The big limitation is important: authors aren't independent sellers with their own dashboards. Administrators create authors and upload/assign their content. Uscreen Help

So I'd use Uscreen if you control the catalog and pay instructors, rather than if instructors need to independently operate their own storefronts.

3. Thinkific — good LMS, less ideal marketplace

Thinkific handles instructor profiles, course administration and product payees for sharing course revenue. Thinkific Support

thinkific.com

It's a strong choice if you have something like:

Your company owns the marketplace → instructors produce courses → your team manages the catalog → instructors receive a percentage.

But I'd put it behind LearnWorlds for a true multi-vendor marketplace.

The key distinction

Before choosing software, I'd define which of these two businesses you're actually building:

A. Curated marketplace

Instructor joins → creates profile → uploads courses → sets price → you approve → customers purchase → platform takes 20% → instructor gets 80%.

This is Udemy-like.

B. Centralized subscription library

Instructor joins → gives you content → you organize it into the marketplace → customers pay $29/month → instructors are paid based on watch time/revenue share.

This is MasterClass/Netflix-like.

For A, I'd start with LearnWorlds and investigate whether its current instructor/payment workflow can be adapted closely enough to your desired seller experience.

For B, I'd seriously consider Uscreen.

If you're building a serious marketplace

If you expect 100+ independent instructors, I'd actually consider a different architecture: a marketplace platform + specialized video hosting/LMS rather than trying to force a conventional course platform into being a multi-vendor marketplace.

The critical features I'd require are:

• Instructor self-service signup
• Instructor dashboard
• Course creation/upload
• Instructor storefront/profile
• Individual course pricing
• Bundles
• Subscription access
• Coupons
• Platform commission
• Automated instructor payouts
• Stripe Connect or equivalent marketplace payments
• Refund handling
• Tax/VAT handling
• Content approval/moderation
• Video DRM/protection
• Analytics per instructor/course
• Reviews/ratings
• Search and categories
• Affiliate/referral tracking
• Ability to revoke instructor access
• Ownership/IP controls
• Bulk upload and video transcoding
• API/webhooks

The payments/payout architecture is the one I'd investigate first. A platform can look perfect as an LMS but become painful when you have to split a $99 purchase between the platform, instructor, affiliate, taxes, refunds, and payment fees.

If you tell me your intended model — e.g. “100 instructors, each sells individual courses, we take 20%, plus an optional $20/month membership” — I can recommend the best 3 software stacks and estimated monthly cost, including whether I'd use an off-the-shelf platform or build the marketplace layer custom.

For a multi-instructor video course marketplace (think “Udemy but you own the brand”), the best software depends on whether you want a true marketplace with instructor payouts or a curated academy where you control publishing. CourseStack Review ThemeAlley

Best options

Uscreen SavingSec## My recommendations by business model

1. “I want instructors to sign up, upload courses, and get paid automatically”

Use:

WordPress + Tutor LMS Pro + WooCommerce + Stripe Connect

Good for:

• 10–500 instructors
• instructor dashboards
• commission splits
• course reviews
• coupon codes
• subscriptions

This is probably the closest low-cost route to an owned Udemy-style marketplace. ThemeAlley

2. “I want a premium Netflix-for-learning platform”

Use:

Uscreen or LearnWorlds

Good for:

• video libraries
• memberships
• subscriptions
• branded experience
• mobile apps

Less ideal if hundreds of independent instructors need their own storefronts. Uscreen

3. “I want enterprise quality and fewer technical headaches”

Use:

Thinkific Plus or LearnWorlds Learning Center

Good for:

• vetted instructors
• corporate training
• large catalogs
• admin controls

CourseStack Review### 4. “I want a fully custom marketplace”

Build with:

• Frontend: React / Next.js
• Backend: Django, Laravel, or Node
• Video: Vimeo OTT, Mux, or AWS IVS
• Payments: Stripe Connect
• Search: Algolia / Elasticsearch
• LMS features: custom

Best if you expect:

• thousands of instructors
• revenue sharing complexity
• recommendation algorithms
• licensing/subscriptions

Features you should prioritize

For a real marketplace, don’t just look for “course hosting.” You need:

• Instructor onboarding
• Instructor profiles
• Course approval workflow
• Revenue split automation
• Tax/payment handling
• Student reviews
• Course bundles
• Subscriptions
• Search/filtering
• Video protection (DRM or signed URLs)
• Analytics dashboards
• Refund management

My shortlist

If I were choosing:

1. Startup MVP: WordPress + Tutor LMS + Stripe Connect
2. Serious branded academy: LearnWorlds or Thinkific
3. Netflix-style subscription library: Uscreen
4. Long-term marketplace platform: Custom build on Stripe Connect + dedicated video infrastructure

The biggest architectural decision is whether instructors are employees/content partners you curate or independent sellers who need marketplace payouts. The latter changes the software choice significantly.

If your model is “one storefront + many instructors + each instructor owns a library of video courses + students buy individual courses or memberships + you take a platform commission,” I’d narrow it down to these:

1. My first choice: LearnWorlds

learnworlds.com is probably the closest fit if you want the learning experience to be the heart of the product.

It supports instructor accounts and lets you assign instructors to courses with a specified revenue percentage. It can also calculate instructor commissions for courses, bundles, subscriptions, and payment plans. LearnWorlds Help Center

It also now has Course Hub, its own course-content marketplace, where creators can publish courses and earn from enrollments by other schools. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

The catch: LearnWorlds' native instructor revenue calculation isn't the same thing as a fully automated Etsy/Udemy-style vendor marketplace. Its documentation says instructor payments themselves are handled outside the platform. LearnWorlds Help Center

So I'd choose it if your business is:

“We operate an online academy with many expert instructors.”

rather than:

“We are a marketplace company where thousands of independent sellers transact with customers.”

2. Sharetribe if the marketplace is the business

sharetribe.com is worth serious consideration if your priority is multi-vendor marketplace mechanics.

It is specifically designed for marketplaces with multiple providers/sellers, transactions, listings, search, etc., and supports digital-product marketplaces. Sharetribe Sharetribe

You could structure it roughly as:

Sharetribe
→ instructor profiles
→ course catalog
→ seller onboarding
→ search/discovery
→ checkout
→ marketplace commissions

plus a dedicated video/LMS layer for:

→ video hosting
→ chapters/lessons
→ quizzes
→ progress tracking
→ certificates
→ student library

That's more work than LearnWorlds, but potentially a much better architecture for a genuine Udemy-like marketplace.

3. Graphy — best for speed

graphy.com is another one I'd investigate if you want to launch without assembling several systems. It supports courses, memberships, digital products, websites, mobile apps, marketing, etc., and positions itself as an all-in-one creator platform. Graphy Graphy

I'd put it ahead of Thinkific/Kajabi if the goal is specifically a course-content business rather than a traditional individual creator business.

What I'd choose for your specific model

If you're envisioning something like:

“Netflix/Udemy for a particular niche — 50–500 instructors, each with multiple courses, customers can buy individual libraries or subscribe to everything, and we take 20–30%.”

I'd rank them:

1. LearnWorlds — fastest credible way to build the actual education product
2. Sharetribe + specialized video/LMS infrastructure — best long-term marketplace architecture
3. Graphy — best all-in-one alternative
4. Thinkific — great LMS, less compelling for marketplace-first economics
5. Kajabi — great creator platform, wrong center of gravity for this model

One important distinction: don't optimize for “best course platform.” Optimize for “best multi-vendor marketplace.” Vendor onboarding, seller permissions, commission accounting, refunds, subscriptions, payouts, tax handling, content ownership, and instructor analytics become much more important than simply being able to upload videos.

If you tell me your expected number of instructors, whether customers pay per course vs. subscription, and your target commission (e.g. 20%), I can recommend the specific stack and architecture I'd use—including Stripe Connect, video hosting, LMS, marketplace software, and approximate monthly cost.

If you mean a true marketplace (like “many instructors upload video libraries, set prices, and earn revenue share”), the answer is different from a normal “sell my own course” platform. Most LMS tools are built for one academy owner, not a multi-vendor marketplace. CourseStack Review

Here are the strongest options by business model:

Uscreen Thinkific Uscreen## My shortlist depending on your goal

1. You want a “Udemy for a niche” marketplace

Example: “A marketplace where 500 fitness instructors sell workout libraries.”

Best stack:

• Marketplace layer: Sharetribe
• Payments/revenue splits: stripe.com
• Video hosting: Vimeo or Mux
• Learning layer: custom app or LMS integration

Advantages:

• Instructor profiles
• Instructor onboarding
• Revenue splits
• Marketplace search
• Reviews/ratings
• Subscription models

This is closest to building your own marketplace.

2. You want to launch quickly without engineering

Consider:

LearnWorlds

Good for:

• Multiple instructors
• White-label academies
• Interactive video
• Certificates
• Structured learning paths

It is stronger as a curated academy than an open marketplace. LearnWorlds

Thinkific

Good for:

• A central brand running many courses
• Instructor/admin roles
• Communities
• Memberships
• Selling course bundles

Thinkific emphasizes courses, communities, memberships, and commerce tools rather than being an open instructor marketplace. Thinkific

3. You want “Netflix for experts”

For:

• Monthly subscriptions
• Large video libraries
• Mobile apps
• Binge-style viewing

Look at:

Uscreen

It is designed around video businesses and memberships rather than traditional LMS workflows. Uscreen

If I were building this today

For a serious multi-instructor marketplace, I would avoid forcing a traditional LMS to do marketplace work.

A scalable architecture:

Frontend

• Next.js

Marketplace

• Sharetribe (MVP) or custom marketplace backend

Payments

• Stripe Connect (automatic instructor payouts)

Video

• Mux/Vimeo OTT-style hosting

Learning features

• Custom progress tracking, quizzes, certificates

Database

• PostgreSQL

Search

• Algolia or Elasticsearch

This gives you:

• Instructor dashboards
• Revenue splits
• Affiliate programs
• Subscription bundles
• Enterprise licensing
• Marketplace SEO

A few questions would change the recommendation:

1. Are instructors uploading their own courses themselves, or will your team curate/upload them?
2. Do you want one-time course sales, subscriptions, or both?
3. Are you trying to build a Udemy-style open marketplace or a Netflix-style membership library?

If your goal is specifically “a marketplace where many independent instructors upload/sell their own course libraries and you take a platform fee”, I’d narrow the field quite a bit.

My top picks

1. LearnWorlds — my first choice for a hosted solution

learnworlds.com

This is probably the closest match to what you're describing without having to engineer the whole platform.

It supports instructor accounts, course assignment, instructor revenue percentages, and commission calculations. LearnWorlds Help Center

The particularly interesting part is that LearnWorlds has also introduced Course Hub, essentially a marketplace for course content. Creators can publish courses and earn money when other schools license/enroll students in them. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds

Good fit if you want:

• 50–500+ instructors
• Each instructor to have their own library
• Courses, bundles and subscriptions
• Instructor revenue splits
• Strong video-learning experience
• A polished consumer-facing marketplace
• Minimal development

Important caveat: LearnWorlds' standard instructor commissions are calculated by the platform, but payouts to instructors are handled outside the platform. LearnWorlds Help Center

So if your model is:

Customer pays $100 → platform keeps $20 → instructor automatically receives $80

I'd investigate the payment/payout architecture carefully before committing.

2. Tutor LMS — my choice if you want to own the marketplace

themeum.com

If you're comfortable with WordPress, Tutor LMS Pro is arguably the most directly aligned with a Udemy-style marketplace.

It has native multi-instructor functionality, instructor dashboards, commissions and withdrawals rather than trying to bolt those concepts onto a conventional single-school LMS. Independent comparisons also identify Tutor LMS as one of the stronger WordPress choices specifically for multi-instructor marketplaces. WP Pioneer ThemeAlley

Your architecture would look roughly like:

WordPress + Tutor LMS Pro + WooCommerce/payment infrastructure

Instructor A → 25 courses
Instructor B → 80 courses
Instructor C → 12 courses

Customer → buys Course B7
→ payment processed
→ platform takes commission
→ instructor receives their share

That's much closer to a true marketplace.

3. LearnDash + WooCommerce + multivendor plugin — best for customization

learndash.com

LearnDash is an excellent LMS, but it isn't inherently a marketplace. You'd combine it with WooCommerce and something like Dokan/WCFM to create the vendor/commission layer.

LearnDash itself documents selling courses through WooCommerce and paying instructor commissions. Liquid Web

I'd choose this if you have a developer and want to build something highly customized.

The downside is obvious: you're maintaining a stack of interconnected systems, rather than one marketplace product.

What I would NOT choose

I wouldn't start with Kajabi, Teachable or a typical creator-first platform if the fundamental business model is:

“We're building the marketplace; instructors are the suppliers.”

Those platforms are primarily designed around one creator/business owning a school, with other people assisting or sharing revenue.

That's a fundamentally different architecture from:

Udemy-style marketplace → many instructors → many course catalogs → centralized discovery → centralized checkout → commissions/payouts.

Thinkific's Revenue Partners feature, for example, is designed around sharing revenue with co-instructors/contributors on courses, communities and bundles—not necessarily operating a large open instructor marketplace. Thinkific Support

My recommendation

I'd make the decision like this:

• Want to launch quickly, no/low development: LearnWorlds
• Want a genuine Udemy-like marketplace: Tutor LMS Pro
• Want maximum control and have developers: LearnDash + WooCommerce + multivendor
• Want a curated marketplace where you personally approve instructors: LearnWorlds is particularly attractive.

One architectural question is very important before choosing: whether instructors should be able to sell independently and receive automatic payouts, or whether your company owns the customer transaction and pays instructors monthly.

If you tell me your expected number of instructors, course count, pricing model (one-time vs subscription), and commission split, I can give you a much more specific platform + payment architecture + estimated monthly cost.

2. Tutor LMS — my choice if you want to own the marketplace

themeum.com

If you're comfortable with WordPress, Tutor LMS Pro is arguably the most directly aligned with a Udemy-style marketplace.

It has native multi-instructor functionality, instructor dashboards, commissions and withdrawals rather than trying to bolt those concepts onto a conventional single-school LMS. Independent comparisons also identify Tutor LMS as one of the stronger WordPress choices specifically for multi-instructor marketplaces. WP Pioneer ThemeAlley

Your architecture would look roughly like:

WordPress + Tutor LMS Pro + WooCommerce/payment infrastructure

Instructor A → 25 courses
Instructor B → 80 courses
Instructor C → 12 courses

Customer → buys Course B7
→ payment processed
→ platform takes commission
→ instructor receives their share

That's much closer to a true marketplace.

3. LearnDash + WooCommerce + multivendor plugin — best for customization

learndash.com

LearnDash is an excellent LMS, but it isn't inherently a marketplace. You'd combine it with WooCommerce and something like Dokan/WCFM to create the vendor/commission layer.

LearnDash itself documents selling courses through WooCommerce and paying instructor commissions. learndash.com

I'd choose this if you have a developer and want to build something highly customized.

The downside is obvious: you're maintaining a stack of interconnected systems, rather than one marketplace product.

What I would NOT choose

I wouldn't start with Kajabi, Teachable or a typical creator-first platform if the fundamental business model is:

“We're building the marketplace; instructors are the suppliers.”

Those platforms are primarily designed around one creator/business owning a school, with other people assisting or sharing revenue.

That's a fundamentally different architecture from:

Udemy-style marketplace → many instructors → many course catalogs → centralized discovery → centralized checkout → commissions/payouts.

If your core model is “one marketplace, many instructors, each instructor owns a library of video courses, and we take a commission”, I’d prioritize marketplace infrastructure over a traditional course platform.

My shortlist

1. Best overall: Sharetribe + video infrastructure

sharetribe.com

This is the one I'd investigate first.

Sharetribe is specifically designed around marketplaces with multiple providers/sellers, rather than assuming that one business owns all the content. It supports seller/provider accounts, listings, payments, commissions, reviews, messaging, and marketplace administration. Sharetribe Sharetribe

Most importantly for you, its Stripe integration handles the ugly part of a marketplace: customer pays → platform takes commission → instructor gets their share. Providers go through Stripe Connect onboarding, and payouts can be handled through the marketplace. Sharetribe Sharetribe

You could structure it like:

Instructor
→ creates profile
→ uploads course
→ sets price
→ course goes through approval
→ customers purchase
→ platform takes, say, 20%
→ instructor receives 80%

Then use a dedicated video/content system alongside Sharetribe rather than trying to force Sharetribe to be your LMS.

2. If the video-learning experience is the priority: LearnWorlds

learnworlds.com

I'd look at this if your product needs to feel more like a premium online school than a conventional marketplace.

You get much more of the course-specific functionality—video lessons, learning paths, assessments, certificates, learner progress, etc.—out of the box.

The tradeoff is that your unusual requirement is not simply “let instructors sell courses.” It's:

“Build a marketplace where independent instructors have their own businesses/libraries inside my platform.”

That distinction makes marketplace-oriented infrastructure more attractive.

3. If you want Netflix-for-courses: Uscreen

uscreen.tv

Uscreen is particularly interesting if you're envisioning something like:

MasterClass + Udemy + Netflix

with large video libraries, memberships/subscriptions, branded video experience, and potentially apps.

It's heavily video-oriented; its own 2026 comparison of video-course platforms highlights it alongside Teachable, LearnWorlds, Thinkific, Kajabi, etc. Uscreen

The question I'd investigate carefully is how much control you get over individual instructor ownership, revenue splits, instructor dashboards, and marketplace-level discovery.

The architecture I'd recommend

If you're serious about this being a marketplace business, I'd separate the system into four layers:

Marketplace

• Sharetribe
• Instructor profiles
• Course listings
• Search/categories
• Reviews
• Purchases
• Marketplace commission

Video/course delivery

• LearnWorlds / specialized video infrastructure / custom LMS
• Video hosting
• Chapters
• Progress tracking
• Quizzes
• Completion certificates

Payments

• Stripe Connect

Marketing

• Stripe subscriptions
• Email/CRM
• Affiliate/referral system
• Coupons
• Analytics

Stripe Connect is explicitly designed for this type of architecture: a marketplace collects money from customers and pays portions to connected sellers, while allowing the platform to collect application fees/commissions. Stripe Docs Stripe Docs

One important distinction

There are really three different products you could be building:

A. Udemy-style marketplace

Each instructor sells individual courses.

Best fit: Sharetribe + course/video layer.

B. MasterClass-style subscription marketplace

Customer pays $20/month, gets access to a huge library, and you distribute revenue among instructors.

Best fit: custom architecture or a platform that supports sophisticated subscription/revenue-share logic.

C. Instructor storefront marketplace

Each instructor gets their own branded page/library, while your site aggregates everyone.

Best fit: Sharetribe or custom marketplace architecture.

If B is what you mean, I'd be much more cautious about picking a conventional LMS. Revenue allocation from a common subscription pool becomes one of the central technical/business requirements.

My recommendation

For a startup I'd probably prototype:

Sharetribe + Stripe Connect + a dedicated video/course system

rather than trying to make Thinkific/Kajabi behave like a marketplace.

Sharetribe already provides the marketplace primitives and Stripe payout/commission infrastructure, including provider onboarding and marketplace commissions. Sharetribe Sharetribe

If you tell me whether you want (1) pay-per-course, (2) one subscription for the entire library, or (3) both, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 stacks and estimate what each would cost at 100, 1,000, and 10,000 instructors.

If your goal is “Netflix/marketplace for video courses, where many instructors each have their own libraries and get paid”, I’d narrow the field considerably.

My top picks

1. LearnWorlds — best overall starting point

learnworlds.com

I'd put this at the top if you're building an education company rather than simply a video subscription service.

LearnWorlds has recently introduced Course Hub, which is essentially a marketplace where creators can publish courses and other schools can license them. It supports publishers earning per enrollment, protected course content, private listings, and a curated catalog. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds Help Center

It also has strong native support for:

• Courses and learning paths
• Video hosting
• Subscriptions and memberships
• Bundles
• Multiple administrators/roles
• White-label websites
• Analytics
• Certificates
• SCORM
• Payments and marketing

Its Learning Center plan is currently listed at $249/month when billed annually, with 25 admins and full white-label functionality. LearnWorlds

Caveat: Course Hub is closer to a course licensing ecosystem than a fully open Udemy-style marketplace where thousands of independent instructors automatically create storefronts, set prices, and receive automated marketplace payouts. That's an important distinction.

2. Uscreen — best for a Netflix-style experience

uscreen.tv

If your mental model is:

“Every instructor has a channel/library, users browse videos, subscribe, and watch on web/mobile/TV”

I'd investigate Uscreen first.

Uscreen specifically supports multiple authors/creators, including filtering a catalog by instructor and tracking viewership analytics for each author. Uscreen Help

It's particularly strong for:

• Netflix-like video libraries
• Subscription video
• Instructor/creator profiles
• Apps
• Video memberships
• Content discovery
• Recurring revenue

The weakness is that it's not really designed as a fully open instructor marketplace out of the box. You may need to build some of the instructor onboarding, revenue-share, and marketplace mechanics around it.

3. Mighty Networks — best if community is important

mightynetworks.com

Mighty is compelling if each instructor should have something more like a mini-community + course library.

It supports courses, resource libraries, memberships, drip content, quizzes, certifications and community features. Mighty Networks

I'd choose it if your product is closer to:

“MasterClass meets Patreon meets community”

rather than:

“Udemy but with a Netflix-style video library.”

The major issue is that marketplace economics—independent instructor accounts, commissions, automated payouts, instructor dashboards, etc.—aren't its core architecture.

4. Custom marketplace — best if this is the actual business

If you're serious about creating a multi-sided marketplace, I'd actually consider going custom rather than forcing an LMS to behave like a marketplace.

A typical stack could be:

Frontend

• Next.js
• React

Video

• Mux
• Cloudflare Stream
• Vimeo OTT

Payments

• Stripe Connect

Database/backend

• Supabase/Postgres
• or a conventional Node backend

Search

• Algolia
• Typesense
• Elasticsearch/OpenSearch

Core marketplace functionality

• Instructor accounts
• Instructor storefronts
• Course creation
• Video upload/processing
• Course pricing
• Bundles
• Subscription tiers
• Reviews
• Instructor revenue dashboards
• Platform commission
• Automated instructor payouts
• Coupons
• Affiliate/referral tracking
• Content moderation
• Tax handling
• Refunds
• Analytics

Stripe Connect is particularly important because it is designed around platforms and marketplaces splitting payments between the platform and connected sellers.

That gives you the model:

Student pays $49 → platform takes 20% → instructor receives 80%

rather than having every instructor manually invoice you.

What I'd choose for your specific idea

If you mean:

“I want to build a marketplace where 100+ instructors can upload their own video libraries, create profiles, price their content, and earn a percentage of sales/subscriptions.”

I'd rank the approaches:

1. Custom + Stripe Connect — best long-term product
2. Uscreen + customization — fastest route to a polished video marketplace
3. LearnWorlds — best if the courses/LMS functionality matters more than marketplace mechanics
4. Mighty Networks — best if community is central

The biggest question is how instructors get paid.

If you're envisioning individual instructor storefronts + platform commission + automated payouts, I'd strongly favor a platform built around marketplace payments rather than a conventional LMS.

If you tell me your expected model—e.g. “students pay $20/month for access to everything, instructors get 50% based on watch time” versus “instructors sell individual courses and we take 20%”—I can recommend the best 3 software stacks and estimate what each would cost at 100, 1,000, and 10,000 instructors.

If your goal is specifically “Netflix/Skillshare for instructors”—multiple instructors each have their own video libraries, students browse the catalog, and you take a cut of sales/subscriptions—the best software depends heavily on whether you want a true marketplace or simply a branded video membership site.

My shortlist

1. uscreen.tv — probably the best starting point

I'd put Uscreen at the top if the product you're envisioning is primarily a video subscription/library business.

It now has an Authors feature: you can associate videos and collections with instructors, give each instructor a dedicated author page, filter the catalog by instructor, and use analytics to calculate revenue-sharing arrangements. Uscreen Help

It also supports:

• Individual courses/collections
• One-time purchases
• Recurring subscriptions
• A Netflix-style catalog
• Dripped courses
• Live video
• Community
• Mobile/TV apps on higher tiers

Collections can be sold individually or included in membership plans. Uscreen Help Uscreen Help

The catch is important: Uscreen's “authors” aren't independent sellers with their own dashboards. Administrators control the authors and content; instructors don't independently upload/manage their own storefronts. Uscreen Help

So I'd use it if your model is:

You operate the marketplace → instructors supply content → you control catalog/pricing → you pay instructors a percentage.

Current pricing starts at $49/month, with higher plans adding capacity and features. Uscreen

2. mightynetworks.com — excellent if community matters

Mighty is stronger if every instructor is essentially running a mini-community around their courses.

It supports pre-recorded courses, live teaching, memberships, events and community, all under your brand. Mighty Networks

But there's a major distinction: it isn't really designed as a multi-vendor course marketplace. Mighty itself acknowledges that it isn't a course marketplace with an existing student audience—you'd be building the audience yourself. Mighty Networks

I'd choose it for:

Instructor → course → community → events → membership

rather than:

Instructor → course library → marketplace → transaction → revenue split

3. maven.com — best example of the marketplace model

Maven is interesting because it demonstrates the actual multi-instructor marketplace concept you're describing.

Courses are presented in a marketplace, instructors are featured with profiles/credentials, and courses can be purchased individually. Maven also handles instructor payouts. Mighty Networks

The downside is that Maven is particularly oriented toward cohort/live professional courses, rather than huge Netflix-style libraries of prerecorded video.

So I'd study Maven for the business model and marketplace UX, not necessarily use it as your underlying software.

The big distinction I'd make

There are actually two different products you might be describing.

A. “Netflix for courses”

For example:

$29/month
→ access 500 courses
→ 75 instructors
→ browse by instructor/topic
→ instructors get 50% of subscription revenue based on watch time

Uscreen is much closer to this.

You can build the catalog yourself and use author analytics to calculate revenue sharing. Uscreen Help

B. “Shopify/Udemy for instructors”

For example:

Instructor signs up
→ creates profile
→ uploads 10 courses
→ chooses pricing
→ students buy
→ platform takes 20%
→ instructor receives 80%

That's where the off-the-shelf options get much weaker.

You need things like:

• Instructor accounts/roles
• Instructor dashboards
• Instructor onboarding
• Course creation/upload
• Individual storefronts
• Instructor-controlled pricing
• Coupons
• Reviews
• Student enrollment
• Stripe Connect/marketplace payments
• Automatic instructor payouts
• Platform commission
• Tax handling
• Refund allocation
• Revenue analytics
• Content moderation
• Search/discovery
• Video hosting/DRM
• Subscription revenue allocation

That's closer to a multi-vendor SaaS marketplace than a normal LMS.

What I'd choose

If you're trying to launch this as a business, I'd rank the approaches:

1. Uscreen + custom marketplace logic — fastest route if you're primarily selling access to a large video library.

2. Custom application + Stripe Connect + video infrastructure — best if independent instructors are core to the business model.

3. Mighty Networks — best if community/social interaction is as important as the video courses.

4. Maven — worth studying as a marketplace/business-model reference, particularly if your courses are premium/cohort-based.

I wouldn't start with a conventional LMS if your defining feature is “many instructors each selling libraries.” An LMS is optimized around teaching, whereas you're building a two-sided marketplace + video subscription platform.

If you tell me your intended model—e.g. “students pay $20/month for everything” vs. “students buy individual instructor libraries” vs. “both”—I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and lay out the exact architecture, payment/revenue-share model, and estimated monthly cost.

rather than:

Instructor → course library → marketplace → transaction → revenue split

3. maven.com — best example of the marketplace model

Maven is interesting because it demonstrates the actual multi-instructor marketplace concept you're describing.

Courses are presented in a marketplace, instructors are featured with profiles/credentials, and courses can be purchased individually. Maven also handles instructor payouts. Mighty Networks

The downside is that Maven is particularly oriented toward cohort/live professional courses, rather than huge Netflix-style libraries of prerecorded video.

So I'd study Maven for the business model and marketplace UX, not necessarily use it as your underlying software.

The big distinction I'd make

There are actually two different products you might be describing.

A. “Netflix for courses”

For example:

$29/month
→ access 500 courses
→ 75 instructors
→ browse by instructor/topic
→ instructors get 50% of subscription revenue based on watch time

Uscreen is much closer to this.

You can build the catalog yourself and use author analytics to calculate revenue sharing.

B. “Shopify/Udemy for instructors”

For example:

Instructor signs up
→ creates profile
→ uploads 10 courses
→ chooses pricing
→ students buy
→ platform takes 20%
→ instructor receives 80%

That's where the off-the-shelf options get much weaker.

You need things like:

If your goal is a marketplace where many independent instructors each have their own video-course libraries, while you control the overall marketplace and take a cut of sales, I would not start with a conventional “online course platform” alone. The key requirement is multi-vendor commerce + instructor payouts + course hosting.

My shortlist

Current comparisons put Teachable, LearnWorlds, Thinkific, Kajabi and Uscreen among the leading course/video platforms, but their marketplace capabilities differ considerably. Uscreen LearnWorlds

🥇 I'd start with Thinkific

thinkific.com

Thinkific has a particularly relevant feature called Revenue Partners. You can associate instructors/contributors with particular courses, bundles, or communities and assign them a percentage of sales. Thinkific Support

The important caveat: Thinkific tracks the revenue allocation but does not automatically pay the revenue partner; payouts are handled manually outside Thinkific. Thinkific Support

So I'd use Thinkific if your marketplace is something like:

“MasterClass/Udemy-style catalog, but curated and owned by us.”

For example:

• Instructor A → 15 courses
• Instructor B → 8 courses
• Instructor C → 42 courses
• Customer buys a $199 annual membership
• Your platform owns the customer relationship
• Revenue gets allocated to instructors according to your agreements
• Customers can browse/search the entire catalog
• You control branding, pricing, promotions and merchandising

🥈 Teachable if marketplace functionality is the priority

teachable.com

Teachable is worth a very serious look because it has historically been more marketplace/creator-oriented than Thinkific. In a comparison of the major platforms, Teachable is one of the platforms specifically identified as offering a course marketplace, whereas Thinkific does not provide that same native marketplace model. LearnWorlds

I'd lean Teachable if your model is closer to:

“Amazon for courses — instructors upload products and customers purchase individual courses.”

🥉 LearnWorlds if the learning experience matters most

learnworlds.com

LearnWorlds is particularly compelling for video-heavy, premium education. It has interactive video, transcripts, assessments, certificates, strong course-player customization and white-label capabilities. LearnWorlds

Interestingly, LearnWorlds now has a Course Hub, an internal marketplace where course authors can monetize course content and buyers can license courses. LearnWorlds Help Center

The catch is that I'd investigate its multi-instructor revenue/payout workflow very carefully before committing. It is excellent LMS software, but your business model is more complicated than simply having several instructors inside one school.

If you want a Netflix-style video library

uscreen.tv

Uscreen is excellent if you're envisioning:

Netflix + courses + memberships

rather than:

Udemy + independent instructors.

Its strength is the video consumption/subscription experience, community, memberships and monetization. Current platform comparisons specifically position Uscreen around video creators and community/membership experiences. Uscreen Uscreen

The bigger question: marketplace vs. multi-instructor academy

This distinction will dramatically change my recommendation.

Model A — Curated multi-instructor academy

You own the brand.

YOUR PLATFORM
│
├── Instructor 1
│   ├── Course A
│   ├── Course B
│   └── Course C
│
├── Instructor 2
│   ├── Course D
│   └── Course E
│
└── Instructor 3
    ├── Course F
    └── Course G

Customers buy from you, and you subsequently pay instructors.

Thinkific / LearnWorlds become very attractive.

Model B — True multi-vendor marketplace

Each instructor is essentially a vendor.

MARKETPLACE
│
├── Instructor A → $99 course
├── Instructor B → $149 course
├── Instructor C → $49 course
└── Instructor D → $299 library

You need:

• Instructor accounts
• Instructor dashboards
• Course submission/approval
• Individual storefronts
• Revenue attribution
• Automated payouts
• Refund handling
• Tax/KYC information
• Coupons/affiliate attribution
• Marketplace search/discovery
• Admin moderation
• Potentially instructor-specific pricing

This is where I'd be cautious about simply buying Thinkific/Teachable/LearnWorlds. They are primarily LMS/creator platforms, not full-blown multi-vendor marketplaces.

Model C — Subscription library

This may actually be the most interesting model:

Customers pay $15–30/month and get access to 500+ courses from 50 instructors.

Then you distribute the subscription revenue according to some formula—watch time, enrollments, negotiated percentages, etc.

For that model, I'd prioritize video library UX, subscriptions, analytics and revenue allocation over individual-course checkout.

What I'd choose

If you're launching an MVP:
Thinkific — fastest path to a polished multi-instructor academy.

If individual instructors need their own products/storefronts:
Teachable deserves the closest evaluation.

If this is a premium, highly interactive educational product:
LearnWorlds.

If it's basically “Netflix for educational video”:
Uscreen.

If you want a genuine Udemy-like marketplace with hundreds/thousands of independent sellers:
I'd consider building the marketplace layer separately rather than forcing an LMS to behave like a marketplace. You can use an LMS/video platform for course delivery while using a marketplace/payment layer for instructors, commissions and payouts.

The most important question is how you want instructors to get paid. If you tell me whether you want (1) individual course sales, (2) a subscription library, or (3) both, plus roughly how many instructors/courses you expect, I can narrow this down to the best 3 architectures—including SaaS options and a custom-stack option—with estimated monthly costs and payout mechanics.

This distinction will dramatically change my recommendation.

Model A — Curated multi-instructor academy

You own the brand.

YOUR PLATFORM
│
├── Instructor 1
│   ├── Course A
│   ├── Course B
│   └── Course C
│
├── Instructor 2
│   ├── Course D
│   └── Course E
│
└── Instructor 3
    ├── Course F
    └── Course G

Customers buy from you, and you subsequently pay instructors.

Thinkific / LearnWorlds become very attractive.

Model B — True multi-vendor marketplace

Each instructor is essentially a vendor.

MARKETPLACE
│
├── Instructor A → $99 course
├── Instructor B → $149 course
├── Instructor C → $49 course
└── Instructor D → $299 library

You need:

• Instructor accounts
• Instructor dashboards
• Course submission/approval
• Individual storefronts
• Revenue attribution
• Automated payouts
• Refund handling
• Tax/KYC information
• Coupons/affiliate attribution
• Marketplace search/discovery
• Admin moderation
• Potentially instructor-specific pricing

This is where I'd be cautious about simply buying Thinkific/Teachable/LearnWorlds. They are primarily LMS/creator platforms, not full-blown multi-vendor marketplaces.

Model C — Subscription library

This may actually be the most interesting model:

Customers pay $15–30/month and get access to 500+ courses from 50 instructors.

Then you distribute the subscription revenue according to some formula—watch time, enrollments, negotiated percentages, etc.

For that model, I'd prioritize video library UX, subscriptions, analytics and revenue allocation over individual-course checkout.

What I'd choose

If you're launching an MVP:
Thinkific — fastest path to a polished multi-instructor academy.

If individual instructors need their own products/storefronts:
Teachable deserves the closest evaluation.

If this is a premium, highly interactive educational product:
LearnWorlds.

If it's basically “Netflix for educational video”:
Uscreen.

If you want a genuine Udemy-like marketplace with hundreds/thousands of independent sellers:
I'd consider building the marketplace layer separately rather than forcing an LMS to behave like a marketplace. You can use an LMS/video platform for course delivery while using a marketplace/payment layer for instructors, commissions and payouts.

The most important question is how you want instructors to get paid. If you tell me whether you want (1) individual course sales, (2) a subscription library, or (3) both, plus roughly how many instructors/courses you expect, I can narrow this down to the best 3 architectures—including SaaS options and a custom-stack option—with estimated monthly costs and payout mechanics.

For a video course marketplace where multiple instructors sell their own libraries, you need more than a normal LMS. The key features are:

• Instructor accounts and dashboards
• Each instructor managing their own courses
• Revenue sharing / commissions
• Automated payouts
• Course storefronts
• Video hosting and streaming
• Student accounts
• Reviews, search, bundles, subscriptions
• Admin approval workflows

The best options depend on whether you want a fast launch or a custom marketplace business.

Best overall options

1. Mighty Networks — Best for community + courses

mightynetworks.com

Best if: your marketplace is built around communities, memberships, creators, and recurring revenue.

Pros

• Strong community features
• Courses + memberships
• Branded apps available
• Good creator experience

Cons

• Not a true Udemy-style multi-vendor marketplace
• Instructor revenue splits require workarounds

Good for: creator networks, coaching ecosystems, niche learning communities. Mighty Networks

2. WordPress + marketplace LMS stack — Best balance of control and cost

A common build:

• WordPress
• Tutor LMS
• WooCommerce
• Dokan or WCFM Marketplace

Best if: you want your own branded “Udemy clone.”

Pros

• Own your website and data
• Flexible commissions
• Instructor dashboards
• Thousands of plugins
• Lower startup cost

Cons

• More maintenance
• Plugin compatibility issues
• You manage hosting/security

Tutor LMS and similar WordPress LMS tools are among the more marketplace-oriented approaches because they support instructor workflows and commission models. ThemeAlley

3. Thinkific — Best for a professional academy

thinkific.com

Best if: you have a smaller number of premium instructors rather than thousands of sellers.

Pros

• Excellent course delivery
• Strong branding
• Good analytics
• Enterprise features

Cons

• Not designed as an open marketplace
• Instructor payout workflows may need customization

Thinkific is often a better fit for an academy model than a two-sided marketplace. CourseStack Review

4. LearnWorlds — Best video-learning experience

learnworlds.com

Best if: interactive video and learning quality matter most.

Pros

• Strong video tools
• Assessments
• Certificates
• White-label options

Cons

• Less marketplace-native
• Multi-instructor selling requires integrations

Zapier

5. Custom marketplace build — Best for a serious startup

For a marketplace aiming for:

• hundreds/thousands of instructors
• subscriptions
• instructor storefronts
• automated Stripe payouts
• mobile apps
• AI recommendations
• enterprise licensing

You will likely outgrow SaaS tools.

Typical stack:

• Frontend: React / Next.js
• Backend: Node.js / Django
• Video: Vimeo OTT, Mux, Cloudflare Stream, AWS
• Payments: Stripe Connect
• Search: Algolia / Elasticsearch
• Database: PostgreSQL

A custom platform gives you full control over instructor onboarding, payouts, licensing, and marketplace rules. Webority

My recommendation by business stage

Features I would prioritize before choosing software

1. Stripe Connect payouts

This prevents manually paying instructors every month.

2. Instructor self-service dashboard

Sellers should upload courses, see earnings, and manage students themselves.

3. Video protection

Avoid simply uploading MP4 files; use streaming providers with access controls.

4. Marketplace discovery

Search, categories, reviews, instructor profiles, recommendations.

5. Ownership of student data

Some marketplaces give you access to learners; others keep the relationship themselves.

If you are trying to build “Udemy but niche-focused”, I would start with WordPress + Tutor LMS + WooCommerce + Stripe Connect for validation, then migrate to a custom platform once you have traction.

Features I would prioritize before choosing software

If you mean a true marketplace where many instructors upload their own video libraries, set prices, and get paid automatically (more like Udemy than a single creator selling courses), your shortlist changes quite a bit. Many popular course platforms are built for one brand with many courses, not a multi-vendor marketplace. CreatorStackClub

Here are the strongest options by business model:

My recommendations by stage

1. You want to launch quickly (MVP)

Use:

• WordPress
• LMS plugin
• WooCommerce
• Stripe Connect for instructor payouts

This gets you:

• instructor profiles
• course catalogs
• subscriptions
• commission splits
• coupons
• reviews
• SEO pages

The downside: you own more maintenance.

2. You want a serious Udemy competitor

Build a custom marketplace layer:

Core stack:

• Frontend: React / Next.js
• Backend: Node.js, Django, or Laravel
• Video: Vimeo OTT, Mux, or AWS Media Services
• Payments: Stripe Connect
• Search: Algolia or Elasticsearch
• LMS features: custom or Moodle-based

You need:

• instructor onboarding
• course approval workflow
• revenue sharing rules
• affiliate/referral system
• ratings/reviews
• DRM/video protection
• analytics dashboards

3. You want a Netflix-style subscription library

Consider:

• Uscreen — built around video memberships and communities rather than a multi-vendor marketplace. Uscreen

Features I would prioritize for your model

For “multiple instructors selling libraries,” the critical pieces are:

1. Instructor storefronts

• Each teacher gets a profile page and catalog.
• Revenue splitting

• Example: instructor keeps 70%, marketplace keeps 30%.
• Subscription support

• Users pay monthly and access many libraries.
• Content rights management

• Important if instructors own their video IP.
• Video security

• Signed URLs, watermarking, download restrictions.
• Marketplace discovery

• Search, categories, ratings, recommendations.

My top pick

For a startup testing the idea:
WordPress + LMS + WooCommerce + Stripe Connect

For a venture-scale marketplace:
Custom build with Stripe Connect + dedicated video infrastructure

For a curated instructor network where you control quality:
Thinkific/Teachfloor-style academy model rather than a fully open marketplace. Thinkific Teachfloor

A key question: are you trying to build “Udemy (any instructor can join)”, “MasterClass (curated premium instructors)”, or “Netflix for niche courses (subscription library)”? The best architecture is different for each.

If your core model is “many instructors each sell their own video libraries, while I run the marketplace and take a commission”, I would not start with Kajabi/Teachable/Thinkific. Those are excellent for a single business selling its own courses, but they aren't really designed as multi-vendor marketplaces.

My shortlist

1. Best match: Mentor LMS

For the model you described, Mentor LMS is closest to what I'd investigate first. It explicitly supports a Udemy-like multi-instructor marketplace: instructors create profiles and courses, customers browse a common catalog, and the marketplace owner can set commissions and manage instructor payouts. Mentor LMS

That gets you much closer to:

Instructor signs up → uploads 20-course library → sets prices → customers buy → platform takes 20% → instructor gets 80%.

That's fundamentally different from simply having multiple "authors" inside an LMS.

2. Uscreen — best if the product is really a Netflix-like video library

Uscreen is particularly strong if you envision the product as:

Netflix for [your niche], with instructor channels/libraries.

It supports subscriptions, rentals, one-time video/course sales, collections, and video-focused monetization. Uscreen Uscreen Help Uscreen Help

Uscreen also added an Authors system that lets you organize content by instructor and track performance for revenue sharing. However, there's an important limitation: instructors aren't independent sellers with their own dashboards; administrators manage the authors and content. Uscreen Help

So I'd choose Uscreen if you control the catalog and instructors are content partners.

I wouldn't choose it if you want 500 independent instructors self-publishing and managing their own storefronts.

3. Mighty Networks — excellent if community matters

Mighty Networks is compelling if each instructor is essentially building a community around their courses.

It supports pre-recorded courses, live courses, memberships, resource libraries, events, and community features. Mighty Networks Mighty Networks

But it's not really a multi-vendor course marketplace. Mighty itself notes that it doesn't provide an existing course marketplace audience—you have to build the audience yourself. Mighty Networks

4. WordPress — my choice if you want maximum control

If this is intended to become a real marketplace business, I'd seriously consider:

WordPress + LMS + multi-vendor marketplace + Stripe Connect

That gives you control over:

• Instructor registration
• Instructor storefronts
• Course approval
• Individual course pricing
• Bundles
• Platform commissions
• Instructor payouts
• Subscriptions
• Coupons
• Reviews
• Search/filtering
• Affiliate commissions
• Instructor analytics
• Your own domain/brand/data

The key is to make sure the stack supports actual marketplace payouts, rather than merely calculating commissions. That's an important distinction: some "multi-instructor" LMS products simply track what an instructor is owed and leave you to pay them manually. ThemeAlley

The architecture I'd recommend

If your vision is something like “Skillshare/Udemy, but focused on a particular niche”, I'd structure it as:

Marketplace
→ instructor profiles
→ course/library catalog
→ search + categories
→ reviews
→ subscriptions
→ individual course purchases

Instructor side
→ onboarding
→ upload video
→ build courses/playlists
→ pricing
→ sales analytics
→ earnings
→ payout history

Platform side
→ approve instructors
→ approve courses
→ set commission
→ manage refunds
→ featured courses
→ platform-wide subscriptions
→ analytics

Payments
→ Stripe
→ Stripe Connect
→ automatic instructor payouts
→ platform commission

The subscription model is particularly interesting. Instead of just:

Customer buys Instructor A's $99 course.

you can have:

Customer pays $29/month → gets access to the entire marketplace → revenue is allocated among instructors based on consumption.

Uscreen's author analytics are actually relevant to that model because it can attribute viewership to authors, although it doesn't provide independent instructor dashboards. Uscreen Help

What I'd pick

If you're validating the idea: Mentor LMS / WordPress marketplace.

If you're building a polished Netflix-style video subscription service: Uscreen.

If courses + community are equally important: Mighty Networks.

If you expect hundreds/thousands of instructors and this is the actual business: I'd lean toward a custom or heavily customized marketplace, rather than trying to force a normal LMS into being a marketplace.

The most important question is actually how you want instructors to get paid. If you tell me whether you're thinking (A) instructor sets course price + you take a commission, (B) $X/month subscription shared among instructors based on watch time, or (C) both, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 software stacks and the likely monthly cost.

If your goal is specifically “a marketplace where many instructors each sell their own video-course libraries”, I’d narrow the field considerably. Most course platforms are built for one business + many instructors, not a true multi-vendor marketplace.

My shortlist

1. LearnWorlds — my first choice

LearnWorlds is unusually close to what you're describing.

It supports instructor accounts, assigning instructors to courses, and specifying an instructor's percentage of course revenue. It calculates commissions across courses, bundles, subscriptions and payment plans. The important caveat is that payouts to instructors are handled outside LearnWorlds, rather than being automatically split through the platform. support.learnworlds.comsupport.learnworlds.comhelp.uscreen.tvhelp.uscreen.tv

It also now has Course Hub, a marketplace where creators can publish courses and other schools can license them. support.learnworlds.com

Best if:
You want something you can launch relatively quickly, with:

• Instructor profiles
• Hundreds/thousands of video courses
• Course categories/search
• Individual course sales
• Bundles
• Subscriptions
• Instructor commissions
• Your own branding/domain
• LMS functionality

Big weakness: if you're envisioning a true Udemy-like marketplace where instructors independently manage their storefronts, receive automated Stripe payouts, run their own promotions, etc., you'll eventually hit platform limitations.

2. Uscreen — best for a Netflix-style library

Uscreen is excellent if the experience you're imagining is:

“Pay $19/month and get access to hundreds of videos from dozens of instructors.”

It has strong video hosting, collections/courses, subscriptions, tiered memberships, one-time purchases and bundles. help.uscreen.tv

For example, you could have:

$29/month

• Instructor A's library
• Instructor B's library
• Instructor C's library
• New courses every month

Or:

Instructor A — $99

• Course 1
• Course 2
• Course 3

The problem is that Uscreen is fundamentally designed around a creator/business operating its own video membership, rather than a marketplace with independent sellers. Its team-management functionality is about people operating your store, rather than independent instructor merchants. help.uscreen.tv

So I wouldn't choose it if the marketplace itself is the key innovation.

3. Sharetribe + video/LMS — interesting if marketplace is everything

If your actual business model is:

“Airbnb/Etsy, but for video-course instructors.”

then I'd seriously consider a marketplace platform rather than an LMS.

You'd essentially have:

Marketplace layer

• Instructor signup
• Instructor profiles
• Course listings
• Search/filtering
• Reviews
• Checkout
• Vendor commissions
• Payouts
• Marketplace admin

+

Learning/video layer

• Video hosting
• DRM/content protection
• Course player
• Progress tracking
• Quizzes
• Certificates
• Drip content

This gives you much more freedom, but you're assembling a system rather than buying one.

The key question is your business model

There are actually three very different products hiding inside your question.

A. “Netflix for courses”

Users pay you:

$25/month → entire library

Instructors contribute content and you pay them based on consumption/revenue.

Best: Uscreen or LearnWorlds.

B. “Udemy for instructors”

Users browse:

Photography
→ John Smith's courses
→ $79

Marketing
→ Jane Doe's courses
→ $129

The instructor is essentially an independent seller.

Best: marketplace architecture / custom build. LearnWorlds can approximate it, but isn't my first choice for this model.

C. Hybrid — probably the most interesting

I'd seriously consider:

Free account

↓

Individual courses

• $49
• $99
• $199

Instructor bundles

• $149

All-access membership

• $29/month
• Access to 500+ courses

And instructors get, say:

70% of course sales + proportional share of membership revenue.

That gives you both the Udemy marketplace economics and the Netflix recurring-revenue model.

What I'd choose

If you told me “I want to launch this without spending a year building software”, I'd start with LearnWorlds.

Its instructor/commission functionality is much closer to your requirement than most mainstream course platforms. support.learnworlds.comsupport.learnworlds.comhelp.uscreen.tvhelp.uscreen.tv

If you told me “the marketplace itself is the business, and I expect 500+ independent instructors”, I'd not lock myself into an LMS. I'd build the marketplace layer around Stripe Connect + a video/LMS infrastructure, because automated vendor onboarding, KYC, payouts, refunds, commissions, tax handling, instructor analytics, etc. become core infrastructure.

And if the concept is specifically “one subscription gives you access to everyone's video libraries,” I'd look hardest at Uscreen because its subscription/video infrastructure is particularly mature. help.uscreen.tv

If you tell me roughly how you want instructors to get paid (e.g. 70% of their course sales, 50/50 subscription revenue, or per minute watched), I can narrow this down to the best 3 platforms and the exact architecture I'd use.

If your goal is a marketplace where many independent instructors each sell their own video-course libraries, I would not start with Kajabi/Thinkific/Teachable. Those are excellent for an individual creator or a single branded academy, but the marketplace model needs multi-vendor instructor accounts, revenue splits, payouts, instructor storefronts, moderation, and ideally subscriptions.

My shortlist

Uscreen, for example, is particularly video-centric, while Thinkific/Kajabi/LearnWorlds are more conventional course-business platforms. www.uscreen.tvwww.uscreen.tv

🥇 My recommendation: WordPress marketplace stack

If you're trying to launch your own brand, I'd seriously consider:

WordPress + LearnDash/LifterLMS + WooCommerce + a multi-vendor/revenue-share layer

That gives you the ability to have:

• Instructor accounts
• Individual instructor storefronts
• Multiple courses per instructor
• Video lessons
• One-time course purchases
• Bundles
• Recurring memberships
• Platform-wide subscription
• Instructor-specific commissions
• Automated instructor payouts
• Coupons/affiliate tracking
• Course reviews
• Admin approval/moderation
• Your own branding and domain
• Your own customer data

There are already WordPress marketplace implementations specifically designed around this model. For example, one current approach combines LifterLMS or LearnDash with WooCommerce and a revenue-sharing system to automatically distribute course-sale and subscription revenue to instructors. www.sirenaffiliates.com

🥈 If you want the fastest route

Mentor LMS is worth investigating. It explicitly supports the Udemy-style model: multiple instructors, instructor dashboards, course publishing, commissions, revenue sharing, payment gateways, reviews, etc. www.uscreen.tvmentor-lms.comwww.uscreen.tv

I'd choose this if your priority is:

"I want something resembling Udemy, but under my own brand, without spending six months building software."

🥉 If the business is really "Netflix for courses"

Then I'd look much harder at Uscreen.

For example, imagine:

$29/month → access to 500 courses from 40 instructors

rather than:

Buy Jane's course for $79.

Uscreen is designed around video subscriptions, memberships and community, so that model fits its strengths much better. www.uscreen.tvwww.uscreen.tv

The tricky part is how you compensate instructors. If you're paying instructors based on watch time, course consumption, or a percentage of subscription revenue, make sure the platform can support your exact royalty calculation rather than merely splitting individual purchases.

One important architectural decision

Before picking software, decide which of these you actually want:

A. Udemy model

Student → buys Instructor A's course → Instructor A gets 70% → you get 30%.

B. Netflix model

Student → pays $29/month → watches courses from 10 instructors → you distribute a monthly royalty pool based on watch time/enrollments.

C. Hybrid

Student → can buy individual courses or subscribe to everything → instructors participate in both revenue streams.

C is probably the most interesting business model, but it's also where generic course platforms start becoming restrictive.

For reference, Udemy itself currently uses substantially different revenue shares depending on whether the instructor generated the sale: its published figures are 97% of net revenue for instructor-promotion sales versus 37% when the sale isn't attributable to an instructor promotion. support.udemy.com

What I'd choose

If you told me:

"I want to build a serious marketplace where 50–500 instructors can each maintain a library of video courses, and I want to take a percentage of sales/subscriptions."

I'd rank the options:

1. Custom marketplace — best if you have meaningful budget and expect this to become a substantial business.

2. WordPress + LMS + multi-vendor/revenue-share stack — best way to validate the business without building everything from scratch.

3. Mentor LMS / similar marketplace-focused LMS — fastest inexpensive MVP.

4. Uscreen — best if the core product is a video subscription service rather than a traditional course marketplace.

5. Thinkific/Kajabi/Teachable — excellent products, but I'd generally avoid making them the foundation of a true multi-instructor marketplace.

If you tell me your approximate budget (e.g. <$5k, $5–25k, $25–100k, $100k+) and whether you want individual course sales, a Netflix-style subscription, or both, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and the exact stack I'd use.

If your goal is “MasterClass/Udemy-style marketplace, but I own the platform and multiple instructors can sell their own video libraries”, I’d narrow it to these:

🥇 My first choice: Uscreen

Uscreen is probably the closest fit if video libraries are the actual product.

It supports a Netflix-style video catalog, subscriptions, one-time purchases, memberships, communities, and branded apps. More importantly for your idea, Uscreen added an Authors system specifically for sites with multiple content creators: viewers can filter by instructor, while you can track each author's viewership for revenue sharing. www.uscreen.tvhelp.uscreen.tv

So you could structure it like:

Your marketplace
→ Instructor A → 40 courses / 300 videos
→ Instructor B → 15 courses / 120 videos
→ Instructor C → 60 courses / 500 videos
→ Students subscribe to the entire library
→ You calculate each instructor's share

That's a much better fit than trying to force a traditional LMS into being a marketplace.

🥈 Thinkific — best if “courses” matter more than Netflix-style video

Thinkific is worth serious consideration.

Thinkific supports multiple instructors/course administrators and, importantly, has Revenue Partner functionality for splitting revenue among co-instructors/content partners. support.thinkific.com

It's particularly attractive if your marketplace looks more like:

Instructor → Course → Modules → Lessons → quizzes/certificates

rather than:

Instructor → giant searchable video library → Netflix-like consumption.

Thinkific also supports subscriptions, payment plans, bundles, memberships and other commerce features. www.thinkific.com

🥉 LearnWorlds — best for a serious educational product

LearnWorlds is probably the strongest option if you want the platform to feel like a professional education company, rather than primarily a video subscription service.

It has particularly strong interactive-video capabilities, assessments, transcripts, learning paths, certificates, and content protection. www.learnworlds.com

Interestingly, LearnWorlds also has its own Course Hub marketplace, where schools can license courses from other academies and add them to their catalogs. www.learnworlds.com

The important distinction

There are actually two different businesses you might mean:

A. “Netflix for instructors”

Customers pay $20/month and get access to everyone's libraries.

I'd choose Uscreen.

Revenue could be:

$20 subscription × 10,000 members = $200k/month

Then you distribute, say, 50% of subscription revenue among instructors based on watch time or another formula.

B. “Udemy for instructors”

Each instructor creates courses and sets prices.

Example:

• Instructor A: $149 course
• Instructor B: $79 course
• Instructor C: $299 course
• Platform takes 20%
• Instructor receives 80%

I'd lean toward Thinkific or a custom marketplace architecture.

C. Hybrid — probably the most interesting

You could offer:

Individual course purchase
$99 → instructor gets 80%

All-access membership
$29/month → revenue pool distributed based on consumption

Instructor premium channel
$9/month → dedicated instructor gets most of that revenue

That starts looking much more like a creator marketplace + streaming platform.

One warning

If “multiple instructors can sign up themselves, create storefronts, upload content, set prices, receive payouts, and manage their own customers” is a hard requirement, I would not automatically choose a standard LMS.

That's a true multi-vendor marketplace. You need to think about:

• instructor onboarding
• Stripe Connect / payouts
• revenue splits
• refunds and chargebacks
• tax reporting
• instructor dashboards
• content ownership
• instructor-specific analytics
• affiliate commissions
• subscriptions vs. individual purchases
• marketplace search/discovery
• moderation
• instructor contracts
• video DRM/security

Uscreen is unusually interesting here because its current Authors functionality explicitly addresses multiple creators and revenue-sharing analytics. www.uscreen.tvhelp.uscreen.tv

My ranking for your specific idea

1. Uscreen — best if video libraries + subscriptions are the core
2. Thinkific — best if structured courses + instructor revenue sharing are the core
3. LearnWorlds — best if sophisticated education/LMS functionality is the core
4. Custom build — best if you want a genuine Udemy/Skillshare competitor with independent instructor storefronts
5. Kajabi — excellent creator-business software, but I'd choose it less readily for a multi-instructor marketplace

If you tell me roughly how you want the money to flow (e.g. “students pay $30/month for everything and instructors get 60% based on watch time” vs. “each instructor sets their own course price and we take 20%”), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and the exact architecture I'd use.

If your goal is “Udemy, but I own the marketplace”—multiple instructors each selling video libraries, with you taking a commission—I would not start with Kajabi, Teachable, or standard Thinkific. Those are primarily built around an individual creator/academy rather than a true multi-vendor marketplace.

My shortlist

1. 🥇 Mentor LMS — best if you want to launch cheaply

Mentor LMS is probably the most interesting off-the-shelf option I found for your specific model.

It explicitly supports a multi-instructor marketplace, with separate admin/instructor/student dashboards, instructor-created courses, commission settings, payment gateways, reviews, certificates, etc. It's self-hosted, so you control the platform rather than renting an academy from a SaaS provider. mentor-lms.comwww.learndesk.us

Good fit if:

• You want to get an MVP live quickly.
• Instructors upload their own video libraries.
• You take 10–30% of sales.
• You want one-time purchases initially.
• You don't want to spend $100k+ building version 1.

Big caveat: I'd treat it as an MVP/early-stage solution rather than automatically assuming it's the architecture you want for a huge marketplace.

2. 🥈 LearnDesk — interesting if you want a marketplace component

LearnDesk explicitly describes a marketplace where individual instructors and educational institutions sell learning content, alongside payments, subscriptions, payment plans and marketing. www.learndesk.us

I'd investigate it if you want a marketplace that already has instructors/content on the other side of the platform, rather than merely software for creating your own school.

3. 🥇 Custom build — best if this is intended to become a real marketplace

If you're envisioning something like:

Instructor joins → creates profile → uploads 50-course library → sets prices → you approve → students buy → Stripe automatically splits revenue → instructor gets paid → marketplace takes commission

then I'd seriously consider a custom marketplace.

A modern implementation can use Stripe Connect for the money movement. For example, marketplace developers are building systems with instructor onboarding, configurable revenue sharing, automated payouts, instructor tiers, course-category commissions, reviews, search, recommendations and learner histories. www.raftlabs.com

The important distinction is that you're not really building an LMS. You're building three products at once:

1. Marketplace — discovery, search, categories, rankings, reviews
2. Instructor SaaS — upload/manage courses, analytics, pricing, students
3. Learning platform — video player, progress, quizzes, certificates, memberships

That's why I'd avoid trying to force a conventional course platform into the marketplace model.

What about Thinkific?

Thinkific is excellent software for a company/creator selling a catalog of courses, memberships, communities, coaching, etc. www.thinkific.com

But I wouldn't make it my first choice for your model if you want hundreds of independent instructors selling through a common marketplace.

Thinkific is more naturally:

You → your courses → your customers

whereas you want:

Marketplace → Instructor A/B/C/D → their courses → shared customers

That's a materially different architecture.

One interesting wildcard: LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds Course Hub has a feature called Course Hub, where you can license courses from other academies and add them to your own catalog. www.learnworlds.com

That's intriguing if by "libraries" you mean curated/licensed libraries, rather than necessarily letting every instructor operate their own storefront.

What I'd choose

For an MVP:
Mentor LMS + Stripe + your own video hosting/CDN

For a business you expect to scale substantially:
Custom marketplace + Stripe Connect + dedicated video infrastructure + LMS/course engine

For a simpler “academy with lots of content” rather than a true marketplace:
Thinkific or LearnWorlds

And there's one architectural question I'd settle before picking software:

Are you selling individual courses, or selling access to instructor libraries?

Those are very different businesses.

For example:

Model A — Udemy

Instructor uploads 20 courses → students buy individual courses → instructor gets 70%, marketplace gets 30%.

Model B — Netflix for courses

Student pays $29/month → gets access to 500 courses from 40 instructors → marketplace distributes subscription revenue based on consumption.

Model C — Hybrid

$19/month library + individual premium courses + instructor subscriptions.

If you're thinking Model B or C, I'd favor a custom platform (or a platform specifically designed around marketplace subscriptions), because revenue attribution, instructor payouts, entitlements, cancellations, refunds and watch-time accounting become core infrastructure, not just LMS features.

If you tell me your expected number of instructors, approximate course count, pricing model, and whether you want subscriptions, I can narrow this down to the best 3 platforms and an estimated monthly/initial cost for each.

For a multi-instructor video course marketplace (think “Udemy, but owned by you”), the best software depends on whether you want to launch quickly with SaaS or build a true marketplace with instructor storefronts, revenue splits, and scalable payouts.

Here are the strongest options:

My shortlist by business model

1. You want 100+ instructors selling their own libraries

Best choices:

• Custom build
• Moodle + marketplace extensions
• Sharetribe + video/LMS integrations

You need:

• Instructor onboarding
• Individual instructor profiles/storefronts
• Course approval workflow
• Revenue splits
• Automated payouts
• Coupons/affiliates
• Search and discovery
• Reviews/ratings
• DRM/protected video hosting

A generic LMS usually struggles here.

2. You want to launch an MVP in 30–60 days

Consider:

• Thinkific
• LearnWorlds
• Kajabi

These are faster, but typically you’ll manage instructors manually rather than have a true open marketplace. www.thinkific.comwww.savingsec.com

3. You want a true “creator economy” platform

Look for software that supports:

• Stripe Connect or equivalent marketplace payouts
• Instructor dashboards
• Revenue-share rules
• Subscription libraries
• Bundles
• Affiliate commissions
• API access

Some newer LMS marketplace solutions are specifically targeting this model, including platforms with multi-party licensing and payouts. perfectum.ai

A common winning architecture

For a serious marketplace, many companies build:

• Frontend: React / Next.js
• Marketplace: Sharetribe, custom backend, or Laravel marketplace framework
• Learning engine: Moodle, Open edX, or custom LMS
• Video: Vimeo OTT, Mux, Bunny Stream, or Cloudflare Stream
• Payments: Stripe Connect
• Storage/CDN: AWS or Cloudflare
• Search: Algolia or Elasticsearch

My recommendation

If you are starting from zero:

• <50 instructors: Thinkific/LearnWorlds + manual instructor management
• 50–500 instructors: Sharetribe + LMS/video integrations
• 500+ instructors or a marketplace business: Custom build

The key question is whether instructors are employees/partners you manage or independent sellers who need their own storefronts and payouts. That determines the right stack.

If your goal is a marketplace where multiple instructors each sell their own video-course libraries, I’d shortlist these:

🥇 My pick: Uscreen

Uscreen is probably the closest fit if you're envisioning something like “Netflix + Udemy, but our instructors supply the content.”

It supports:

• Multiple authors/instructors, with author pages/filtering and performance analytics. help.uscreen.tv
• Video libraries and structured courses.
• Individual course purchases and subscriptions. help.uscreen.tv
• Bundles and subscription tiers. help.uscreen.tv
• Revenue-sharing workflows around different creators/authors.
• A branded storefront rather than sending instructors to a third-party marketplace.
• Web, mobile and TV apps if you eventually want a Netflix-style experience. www.uscreen.tv

Important caveat: Uscreen is much better at “I operate a video membership business with multiple instructors” than “any instructor can sign up, create a seller account, list courses, receive payouts, and manage their own mini-store.” If the latter is your exact marketplace model, I'd investigate the architecture carefully before committing.

🥈 LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is particularly interesting because it has recently added Course Hub, which is explicitly a course marketplace connecting creators/schools. Creators can publish courses and earn from enrollments, while buyers can license courses. www.learnworlds.com

It also has robust course creation, ecommerce, instructor/user roles, analytics and interactive video. www.learnworlds.com

However, there's an important distinction: Course Hub is primarily a licensing ecosystem between LearnWorlds schools, not necessarily the turnkey consumer marketplace you're describing.

If you're building a true marketplace

If by “multiple instructors can sell libraries” you mean:

Instructor A signs up → uploads 30 courses → sets prices → Instructor B does the same → customers browse everyone → platform takes 20% → instructors receive 80%

then I'd not automatically choose a conventional LMS.

You need marketplace infrastructure for:

1. Instructor onboarding
2. Instructor dashboards
3. Course approval/moderation
4. Individual instructor storefronts
5. Platform-wide search/catalog
6. One-time purchases + subscriptions
7. Split payments/payouts
8. Refunds and chargebacks
9. Instructor revenue reporting
10. Coupons/affiliates
11. Video hosting/DRM
12. Reviews/ratings
13. Tax/VAT handling
14. Admin control over every instructor
15. Potentially different commission rates per instructor

That's closer to building “Shopify + Teachable + Netflix” than simply launching an LMS.

What I'd choose based on your business model

If you want to launch quickly:
→ Uscreen

If this is primarily a professional education/LMS business:
→ LearnWorlds

If community/social interaction is a major part of the product:
→ Mighty Networks

If you want a genuinely open marketplace where hundreds/thousands of independent instructors sell through your platform:
→ Custom marketplace, probably using an LMS/video infrastructure underneath rather than trying to force an LMS into marketplace behavior.

If you tell me roughly how you want instructors to get paid (e.g. 80/20), whether they set their own prices, and whether customers buy individual courses vs. one subscription for the entire library, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 architectures and estimated monthly cost.

If your goal is a true marketplace where many instructors each upload a library, learners browse everyone’s content, and you take a commission, I would not start with Kajabi/Thinkific/Teachable. Those are primarily built for individual course businesses rather than a Udemy-style multi-vendor marketplace.

My shortlist

Uscreen, for example, is particularly strong for video-centric subscription businesses, while Thinkific/Teachable/LearnWorlds are generally positioned around creators selling their own courses. www.uscreen.tv

What I'd choose for your model

If you mean something like:

"I'm building the Udemy for [a particular niche]. 100 instructors can each have 10–50 courses. Students subscribe or buy individual courses. I keep 20–30%, instructors get the rest."

I'd rank the approaches:

1. Bubble + Stripe Connect + dedicated video hosting — best MVP

This is probably the sweet spot. Bubble supports the multi-role/data structure required for a marketplace, while Stripe Connect can handle instructor payouts and platform commissions. www.lowcode.agency

You can build:

• Instructor signup/KYC
• Instructor dashboard
• Course/library creation
• Course approval workflow
• Individual instructor storefronts
• Marketplace search/filtering
• Video lessons
• One-time purchases
• Subscriptions
• Coupons
• Reviews
• Instructor analytics
• Platform commission
• Automated instructor payouts
• Admin moderation

I'd host the actual video somewhere purpose-built rather than storing huge video files directly in Bubble.

2. WordPress + LearnDash/LifterLMS — best if you want maximum control

This is attractive if you're comfortable with WordPress. You can add multi-instructor functionality and revenue-sharing infrastructure. There's even a current solution specifically designed to distribute subscription revenue among instructors based on learner engagement. www.sirenaffiliates.comwww.sirenaffiliates.com

The downside is that you'll be assembling several pieces rather than getting a single elegant marketplace product.

3. Custom build — best if you already know this will be a substantial business

If you're expecting hundreds/thousands of instructors and want sophisticated marketplace economics, build the architecture around:

Frontend → marketplace/course engine → video platform → Stripe Connect → analytics/search

That gives you complete control over instructor contracts, commissions, subscriptions, bundles, recommendations, and payout rules.

One important distinction

There are actually two very different marketplace models:

A. Transactional marketplace

Student buys Instructor A's $99 course → Instructor A gets 70% → you get 30%.

This is relatively straightforward. Udemy uses a version of this model, with different revenue shares depending on how the sale was acquired. support.udemy.com

B. Subscription library

Student pays you $29/month → they can watch courses from 100 instructors → you distribute the $29 among instructors according to consumption/enrollment/completions.

This is substantially more interesting—and more complicated. You need a revenue-pool algorithm, e.g.:

$29 subscription × 70% instructor pool = $20.30
Instructor's share = their qualified watch/completion activity ÷ total marketplace activity

There are WordPress solutions already implementing engagement-weighted subscription revenue sharing. www.sirenaffiliates.comwww.sirenaffiliates.com

My recommendation

If you're starting from scratch, I'd seriously consider:

Bubble + Stripe Connect + Mux/Vimeo + Algolia + PostHog

That gives you a relatively fast way to build a real multi-instructor video marketplace, rather than trying to bend a creator-focused LMS into something it wasn't designed to do.

If you tell me (1) one-time purchases vs subscription, (2) expected number of instructors, (3) whether instructors upload their own videos, and (4) your approximate budget, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and give you the actual architecture + estimated monthly cost.

If by “video course marketplace” you mean something like Udemy, but you own the marketplace—multiple independent instructors upload courses, students browse a shared catalog, buy courses/subscriptions, and you take a percentage—I would not start with a conventional course platform like Kajabi or Thinkific. They are primarily designed for one business/brand selling its own courses.

My shortlist

Current platform comparisons also put Uscreen particularly strongly in video-first memberships, while LearnWorlds is stronger on structured/interactivity-heavy courses. www.uscreen.tvwww.learnworlds.comwww.uscreen.tv

🥇 What I'd choose

If your core model is:

Instructor signs up → creates profile → uploads 10–50 courses → sets prices → you approve → students buy → platform automatically splits revenue → instructor gets paid

I'd build a custom marketplace, rather than trying to force Kajabi/Thinkific/Uscreen into that model.

A practical stack would be:

• Frontend: Next.js
• Backend/database: Supabase/Postgres
• Video: Mux or Cloudflare Stream
• Payments: Stripe Connect
• Search: Algolia or Typesense
• Course/LMS: custom application layer
• Email: Resend
• Analytics: PostHog
• Authentication: Clerk or Supabase Auth

The critical piece is Stripe Connect because it is designed around platforms/marketplaces where money needs to flow between customers, your platform, and individual sellers.

That gives you considerably more control over:

• instructor onboarding
• instructor commissions
• platform take rate
• coupons
• bundles
• subscriptions
• instructor-specific pricing
• refunds
• payouts
• affiliate commissions
• course approval/moderation
• instructor dashboards
• ratings/reviews
• search/ranking
• revenue reporting

One interesting alternative: LearnWorlds

If you want to avoid building the LMS itself, I'd investigate LearnWorlds first. It's much more education-oriented than most video membership platforms, and it has particularly strong course/video capabilities. LearnWorlds also has its own Course Hub marketplace, although that's primarily for licensing third-party courses into your school rather than being an open Udemy-style marketplace where independent instructors operate their own storefronts. www.learnworlds.com

LearnWorlds Course Hub

If subscriptions are more important than individual course sales

Then Uscreen becomes much more interesting. It is built around video libraries, memberships, subscriptions, live video, and community. Its current plans support selling individual videos/courses as well as subscription tiers. www.uscreen.tv

But again, Uscreen is not the obvious choice if your defining feature is “hundreds of independent instructors, each earning their own share.”

My recommendation: if you're trying to build a serious business rather than just launch a single instructor's course site, I'd go custom marketplace + Mux/Cloudflare Stream + Stripe Connect, unless you can simplify the model to “we own all the courses and instructors are essentially content contributors.”

If you tell me roughly (1) number of instructors, (2) whether courses are sold individually vs subscription, and (3) your expected launch budget, I can narrow this down to the 3 best platforms/architectures and approximate monthly cost.

If your core model is “multiple instructors each have their own libraries, students browse one marketplace, and you take a cut of sales/subscriptions,” I’d narrow it to these approaches:

Best overall: self-hosted WordPress + LMS + marketplace layer

WordPress with an LMS such as LearnDash/LifterLMS plus a multi-vendor/revenue-sharing layer is probably the most flexible.

• Each instructor can manage their own courses/library.
• You control branding, pricing, commissions, subscriptions, and customer data.
• Revenue can be split between instructor and platform; WordPress-based setups can automate instructor royalties. www.sirenaffiliates.com
• Best if you want something resembling your own Udemy, rather than another creator simply having a course website.

Downside: more setup and ongoing technical maintenance.

Best hosted option: Thinkific

Thinkific is a strong choice if you want substantially less technical work.

It has course, bundle, community and commerce functionality, and its Revenue Partners feature can allocate a percentage of sales to other instructors/contributors. support.thinkific.com

The catch is that Thinkific is fundamentally designed around an academy/business, rather than a true open marketplace where hundreds of independent instructors sign up and operate storefronts.

Best for a video-library/subscription business: Uscreen

Uscreen is worth considering if the experience is more:

“Netflix for educational video libraries”

rather than:

“Udemy with hundreds of independent sellers.”

It's particularly strong around video delivery, memberships, communities, and subscriber experiences. Current comparisons put it at the premium end of hosted video-course platforms. www.uscreen.tv

Best if you want a true marketplace

I'd actually look at dedicated multi-vendor marketplace software or a custom build, rather than forcing Kajabi/Teachable/Thinkific into the role.

A true marketplace needs things like:

• Instructor onboarding
• Instructor profiles/storefronts
• Individual course libraries
• Platform-wide search/discovery
• Instructor-specific analytics
• Per-instructor commissions
• Automated payouts
• Refund/chargeback handling
• Coupons/affiliate attribution
• Platform-wide subscriptions
• Potentially subscription revenue allocation across instructors

Those last two are particularly important. A normal LMS can sell courses; a marketplace has to solve the money flow between the platform and many sellers. Dedicated marketplace implementations explicitly support configurable commissions and automated instructor payouts. www.webority.com

My recommendation

If you're starting this as a serious business, I'd choose based on the model:

One important distinction: if instructors are going to sell their own libraries and you take a percentage, I would not make Kajabi or Teachable my first choice. They're excellent creator platforms, but you're describing a multi-vendor marketplace, which has materially different requirements.

If you tell me roughly (1) number of instructors, (2) one-time vs subscription pricing, (3) whether instructors set their own prices, and (4) your expected monthly budget, I can narrow this down to the 3 best platforms/architectures and estimated costs.

If you mean “I want to build my own Udemy-like marketplace where many instructors each have a library of video courses, students buy courses/subscriptions, and I take a commission,” the shortlist is quite different from the usual “best online course platforms.”

My ranking

🥇 Best turnkey option: Mentor LMS

Mentor LMS

This is probably the closest fit to what you're describing. It's explicitly designed to run either a solo course business or a multi-instructor marketplace, with separate admin/instructor/student dashboards, instructor commissions, course publishing, video lessons, quizzes, certificates, etc. It's self-hosted rather than a conventional SaaS. mentor-lms.commentor-lms.com

The big advantage is economics: you aren't paying a SaaS platform a percentage of every instructor's sale. You own the installation and control the commission model. mentor-lms.commentor-lms.com

I'd choose this if: you want to validate the business quickly without spending $100k+ building software.

🥇 Best if this is intended to become a substantial business: custom marketplace

If your vision is something like:

“Hundreds of instructors → each with their own library → learners can subscribe to everything or purchase individual courses → we take 20% → instructors get automated payouts”

I'd seriously consider a custom marketplace, rather than trying to force Thinkific/Kajabi into doing something they weren't designed for.

A proper architecture would have:

Learner side

• Marketplace/catalog
• Instructor profiles
• Course pages + trailers
• Search/filtering
• Individual purchases
• Bundles
• All-access subscription
• Watch history/progress
• Reviews
• Certificates
• Recommendations

Instructor side

• Onboarding/KYC
• Course builder
• Video upload/encoding
• Course/library management
• Pricing
• Coupons
• Sales dashboard
• Student analytics
• Earnings dashboard
• Payout history

Marketplace/admin side

• Instructor approval
• Course moderation
• Commission rules
• Automated payouts
• Refunds
• Tax handling
• Featured courses
• Promotions
• Analytics
• Content rights management

Stripe Connect is particularly useful for the money flow because it is designed for platforms that collect payments and route funds to multiple sellers. A custom implementation can support configurable instructor commissions and automated payouts. www.raftlabs.com

What about Thinkific?

Thinkific

Thinkific is excellent if you are the course business and you're selling your own courses. It has strong course creation, video, commerce, subscriptions, learning paths, certificates, etc. www.thinkific.com

But I wouldn't make it my first choice for a true multi-vendor marketplace where independent instructors operate their own stores and you automatically split every transaction.

Same general caveat applies to Kajabi, Teachable, and LearnWorlds. They're excellent creator/course platforms, but a marketplace with independent sellers introduces a different set of requirements.

If your concept is more “Netflix for education”

Then I'd look harder at Uscreen.

Uscreen

Uscreen is particularly strong around video libraries, memberships, subscriptions, communities, and the viewing experience. It's a better conceptual fit if the customer pays, say, $19/month for access to an entire library rather than buying individual courses. www.uscreen.tv

The problem is the multi-instructor economic model. You'd want to verify exactly how you would attribute subscription revenue to individual instructors and automate their revenue shares before committing.

One interesting wildcard: Perfectum

Perfectum AI

Perfectum is worth investigating if your marketplace will eventually have B2B licensing in addition to individual learners. It positions itself around LMS + marketplace/licensing, with instructors, learners, course marketplace functionality, and organizational licensing. perfectum.ai

What I'd do

For your specific description, I'd narrow it to:

1. Mentor LMS → launch MVP cheaply
2. Custom build → if you expect this to become a major marketplace
3. Uscreen → if the core model is Netflix-style subscriptions/video libraries
4. Perfectum → if B2B licensing is important
5. Thinkific/LearnWorlds → if you're really building an academy rather than a marketplace

The most important question isn't actually the LMS. It's your monetization model.

For example, there's a huge architectural difference between:

A. Udemy model

Instructor sells $100 course → you keep 30% → instructor gets 70%

B. Netflix model

Student pays $30/month → watches 12 instructors → you distribute subscription revenue based on watch time

C. Hybrid

$49 individual courses + $19/month all-access membership + instructor revenue sharing

If you tell me which of A/B/C you're aiming for, roughly how many instructors you expect (10 / 100 / 1,000+), and whether instructors need to bring their own audience, I can give you a much more specific software stack + estimated monthly cost + recommended architecture.