by Mac Gambill, Co-founder / Nudge Coach
This is our guide to the best online coaching platforms on the market. Read on to find the best coaching tools to help you streamline and grow your coaching business in 2023.
Online coaching has evolved significantly over the past two decades. Our coaching sessions have moved from in-person meetings and workshops, to telephonic coaching, to video coaching calls and live group coaching Zoom sessions.
We used to print out pen-and-paper workbooks and journals for clients to fill out. Then we moved to spreadsheets to digitally track accountability. Now we build customizable habit trackers into our own mobile coaching apps, and sync data from other apps and wearables automatically.
Online coaching platform innovation has bridged meaningful gaps in coaching relationships to help coaches increase client engagement, guide clients more proactively to reach higher levels of performance and stick with them longer to master new disciplines.
Related online coaching tools have also streamlined business processes and administrative tasks to help coaching businesses grow and scale.
The rise of online coaching platforms and related business tools have empowered a generation of thriving online coaching businesses. Thanks to the internet, online coaches can turn niche coaching programs that could have never been profitable in local markets into massive followings and successful companies.
This post is about finding the right online coaching platforms and tools to power the growth and success of your business.
Whether looking for a simple digital coaching platform, or complete coaching solutions, it’s critical to realize that most technologies are designed to solve specific pain points within specific coaching models and workflows. Some may be better suited for personal coaching, and others for group coaching and scalable program delivery.
Some will be better suited for solopreneurs just getting started with their business, while others may be best suited for more established coaching businesses, or even larger organizations.
Even your unique business model will help you determine your specific technology needs.
As a result, identifying the BEST online coaching platform for you will depend on the relative importance of the following business needs:
Administrative Tools (generally more appropriate for smaller businesses)
Contracts, Payments, Scheduling, etc.
Remote Communication And Messaging Capabilities
Such as SMS messaging, telephonic and video coaching tools, or group coaching capabilities.
Data Collection (lifestyle, biometric, etc)
From smartphone apps to wearables and connected devices.
Data Monitoring & Analysis (critical for more established businesses)
To help coaches and managers understand who is being successful and who needs more attention.
Content Delivery
Such as PDF and image sharing, link sharing to web pages, or other platforms like Learning Management Systems (LMS) which are often used in group coaching models.
With the right online coaching platform and business tools in place, you’ll be ready to go as far as your vision, strategy and work ethic can take you.
Best Online Coaching Platforms On The Market
With these items in mind, below is our list of the top recommended coaching platforms based on reviews from sites like Wellpreneur.com and others, as well as other top complementary coaching tools we’ve used for our businesses.
Keep in mind that each online coaching platform may be more geared towards nutritionally focused coaching vs. general engagement vs. personal accountability, etc. so you’ll want to find the right tools to fit your coaching program philosophy and specific needs.
A fully customizable online coaching platform, Nudge Coach is designed first and foremost to help coaches get clients and keep them on track in between sessions and remotely.
Because it was developed first as a consumer-facing personal habit tracking app, the coaching app for clients has always stood out for having the most user-friendly client experience on the market.
A full suite of client tracking and coaching tools helps identify who needs attention, so you can keep clients on track by sending the right message at the right time, or even scheduling a message to be delivered in the future.
Today, the Nudge Coach platform enables health coaches, life coaches, business coaches, and their coaching teams to deliver their services at scale. Updates in 2021 enabled the delivery of beautiful and scalable custom program experiences that have taken the client engagement capabilities to a truly unique level. Letting you customize your coaching app by creating custom form fields, habit trackers, and learning modules means it’s the ideal platform for coaching businesses in life coaching or any niche that doesn’t have a specialized coaching platform on the market.
Expanded support from Nudge’s team of client engagement experts to help optimize your programs also highlights the company’s updates for 2022.
Functionality Overview
Customizable daily trackers can be standardized for entire programs, or personalized to individual client engagement needs to boost accountability.
Group coaching programs can also be easily managed with engagement-driving coaching tools like community social forums and monthly steps challenges (challenges can also be customized based on other daily habit trackers).
Can optionally be configured as a HIPAA-compliant platform for programs in healthcare and medical environments.
Integrations with leading movement tracker apps to streamline data collection, and Zoom so you can easily fit Zoom coaching sessions into your programs.
Pricing Overview
Nudge Coach has a wide variety of plans available to suit every type of coaching business.
Free Plan
The Free Plan has been updated in 2022 to help you start implementing your full client engagement solution, including Sequences for program automation, and Communities for group coaching.
Grow Plan
$60/month, manage up to 50 clients.
Scale Plan
$100/month, manage up to 100 clients with everything from Grow Plan plus access to reporting and an admin panel to help you manage your team and optimize your client engagement programs at scale.
*$1/month for each additional client beyond 100.
White Label App
White label app development available - launch a custom branded coaching app for clients in the App Store and Google Play. Pricing based on user tiers.
Additional Notes
For coaches who work on the go, Nudge Coach also features a simple mobile coaching app included as a companion to the online coaching platform.
Nudge Coach does not include some administrative features, such as payments or scheduling; however, other systems can easily be embedded within the Program Builder.
TrueCoach is designed to help personal trainers and fitness businesses launch remote coaching and training offerings, including the ability to connect with clients remotely and share workouts and workout videos.
Where systems like Satori and CoachAccountable are more focused on the basics of running a coaching business (i.e. payments, programs, notes, etc) TrueCoach shares similar client management and program delivery focus as the Nudge platform.
TrueCoach’s tools for targeted communication and health tracking help you drive ongoing engagement and accountability for better results. And in remote coaching relationships, there’s nothing more important than a platform that can help drive client engagement.
Pricing Overview
Like most coaching and personal training systems, TrueCoach’s pricing model is based on number of clients.
Their initial tier starts at $19/month which offers all base functionality other than payments, but they also have a 14-day free trial as well.
Quenza was developed by the founders of PositivePsychology.com, so it’s a bit more geared towards mindfulness and mental wellbeing.
That said, while the platform is still young, it advanced rapidly through 2021 with program management and client engagement tools, and expects new administrative capabilities coming throughout 2022. It already boasted solid versions of some of the bare essential capabilities around basic client engagement and accountability. These include a “pathway builder” which allows you to send fully automated series of activities to clients over a period of time.
Even better, they also give you the option to either design one from scratch, OR select a prebuilt pathway from their library.
Pricing Overview
To understand Quenza’s pricing you have to first understand their platform. The platform is built on the concept of creating and sending “Activities” (i.e. an assessment, educational module, etc) to clients either one-off or through a “Pathway”, which is a string of “Activities” connected together in a sequence (i.e. think email sequence).
With that in mind, their pricing is based on a combination of client count and the amount of “Activities” and “Pathways” created and shared each month.
You can check out their 30-day, $1 trial before opting for one of their following plans:
Lite
$49/month for 15 clients, 20 Activities (with 250 send credits) and 5 Pathways.
Standard
$89/month for 50 clients, 100 Activities (with 1,500 send credits) and 20 Pathways.
Unlimited
$149/month for unlimited clients, Activities, and Pathways.
Similar to TrueCoach, Coach Catalyst is designed to help personal trainers and fitness businesses launch remote coaching and training offerings (here are some extra tips to help you do this), including the ability to connect with clients remotely and share workouts and workout videos.
The system is built around the concept of engaging clients through simple daily “check-ins” they complete to stay accountable in-between sessions. From the dashboard the coach is then able to monitor general progress and reach out to those who may need additional attention or motivation.
In addition, Coach Catalyst also has a library of “done-for-you” programs you can select and edit to provide further value and education to clients remotely.
Pricing Overview
Coach Catalyst’s pricing is solely based on the number of clients you have on the platform making it really easy to control your costs.
Pricing starts at $39/month for up to 12 clients which also includes access to all features of the platform including automated client check-in, team access, and co-branding.
Paperbell focuses on the administrative side of your online coaching business with an all-in-one solution that weaves together payments, scheduling, contract signing, and general coaching client management software capabilities.
It also includes digital download and course delivery, as well as the ability to sell and deliver more complex packages such as group coaching or “combo” packages.
While the business management side of the platform truly shines, the additional course and content delivery tools give you enough to deliver a viable experience for client engagement as well.
As your coaching business and programs scale and you want to invest more to deliver more immersive branded or in-app program experiences, it could be worth considering combining Paperbell’s top notch business management tools with the Nudge platform or another app-based program delivery option.
Functionality Overview
Sell one-time fee, payment plan, or subscription packages
Legally binding digital contract signing
Personalize with your brand and logo
Landing pages for your offerings
Schedule your clients or let them self-schedule
Digital downloads and online courses
Pricing Overview
Paperbell has a free plan - a fully functional account that is free through your first client. Their pricing starts at $50/mo and all plans include unlimited clients.
Satori is an all-in-one online coaching platform for emerging coaches. The platform is designed to streamline administrative and business management processes for coaches wanting a full out-of-the-box solution to run their business.
Their system is unique relative to others on the market as the platform is more of a CRM for coaches. It combines customer relationship management (CRM) functionality with a basic business intelligence tool. Its clean and intuitive interface makes it an attractive option for new coaches looking for a 1-stop shop.
Functionality Overview
Build and market coaching programs
Distribute/collect client proposals and agreements
Collect and nurture leads
Support for online bookings and payments
Send pre-session questionnaires
Pricing Overview
Satori’s pricing is a bit unique relative to other systems as it’s a CRM for coaches.
Their initial tier starts at $39/month which includes the following; however, they also have a 30-day trial available:
10 active offers
20 active agreements
60 monthly sessions
2,500 contacts
Similar to Satori, CoachAccountable covers the basic administrative tools of running an online coaching business, including accepting payments, scheduling sessions, creating detailed, individual coaching plans for clients to be delivered electronically, and sharing documents.
Pricing Overview
Like most coaching and personal training systems, CoachAccountable’s pricing model is based on the number of clients. They have a more granular pricing model that ranges from $10 to $4 per client per month as your business grows, making it one of the more expensive platforms on the market in terms of cost per client.
Their initial tier starts at $20/month which allows you to manage 2 clients and includes all base functionality.
Luckily they have a 30-day free trial as well.
The Best Practice Management / Coaching Client Management Platforms
Different coaching models require different online coaching tools to maximize the value they offer to clients. If you’re delivering coaching programs in clinical and healthcare settings the following list are the platforms you should consider first. Here are some of the best practice management platforms for your coaching business.
Healthie considers itself the all-in-one practice management and telehealth platform for managing a nutrition/wellness business; however, they also provide an enterprise solution for larger entities.
Their robust solution includes everything from payments and charting, to telehealth services, enabling enterprises and organizations to scale, improve efficiency, and extend their offerings.
Where most systems that handle payments do so with basic invoicing and credit card collection, Healthie has placed additional focus on healthcare billing and reimbursement by also generating superbills and CMS1500 forms.
Pricing Overview
Healthie has a wide variety of pricing options for individual practitioners and groups depending on the needs of the business.
Beginnings
$29/month for up to 5 clients. Includes secure messaging, document sharing, payment processing and other basic functionality.
Small Practice
$89/month for unlimited clients. Includes secure messaging, document sharing, payment processing and other basic functionality.
Practice Plus
$129/month for unlimited clients. Includes secure messaging, document sharing, payment processing, AND Efax and video conferencing (ZOOM integration).
Group Practice
$149/month for multiple practitioners and unlimited clientsIncludes secure messaging, document sharing, payment processing, AND Efax and video conferencing (ZOOM integration).
Enterprise
CUSTOM pricing with unlimited clients. Includes secure messaging, document sharing, payment processing, AND Efax, video conferencing (ZOOM integration), API integration, and branding.
PracticeBetter is a practice management system for nutrition coaches needing a simple way to manage recommendations, bookings, and payments. The system is also HIPAA-compliant and includes support for video conferencing, branding, and form and program creation.
One area of differentiation to note is that the system has placed added focus on interoperability allowing you to either pull documents directly from Google Drive or Dropbox, and connect to other systems within your workflow through Zapier.
Pricing Overview
PracticeBetter has multiple pricing options for individual practitioners and teams based on a combination of client count, data storage, and functionality.
Their free tier allows you to manage up to 3 clients with 100mb of storage.
Sprout
$0/month for up to 3 clients and limited functionality
Starter
$19/month for up to 10 clients and additional functionality including video chats
Professional
$49/month for up to 200 clients and additional functionality including video chat, group communication and scheduling.
Plus
$79/month for unlimited clients, up to 3 admins ($10/month per account), and support for additional team members (PLUS plan required).
Team
$135/month
MBody360, is an integrated platform for health and wellness coaches. The system allows you to create lifestyle plans that consist of components such as diet, supplementation, activity and sleep, which clients can monitor manually or by syncing in data from apps such as Apple Health and Google Fit.
In addition, MBody360 supports both 1-to-1 and group-based coaching programs giving you the flexibility to run various types of programs.
The coaching tool also has a Shopify integration allowing you to seamlessly integrate your store into the client experience.
Pricing Overview
MBody360 has multiple pricing options for individual practitioners and teams based on a combination of client count, number of “Plans”, functionality, and support needs.
They also have a free tier that allows you to manage up to 2 clients.
Solo Lite
$29.95 for up to 5 clients.
Solo
$79 for unlimited clients.
Pro
$149 for up to 3 practitioners and unlimited clients.
Similar to Healthie and MBody360, SimplePractice is a HIPAA-compliant, telehealth suite enabling practitioners to seamlessly spin up telehealth programs with key functionality: schedule appointments, collect payments, and conduct video sessions.
The company provides an app-based experience for easy management on the go, and clients are provided with an easy-to-use web-based portal.
That said, where SimplePractice really differentiates itself from other coaching tools on this list is that you can actually create, file, and monitor claims through the system, making it a great fit for those coaching within a traditional healthcare setting.
Pricing Overview
SimplePractice has two pricing options for individual practitioners as well as support for organizations with multiple practitioners.
Essential
$39/month for unlimited clients and basic functionality such as intake forms, treatment plans, and online payments.
Professional
$59/month for unlimited clients, functionality from ESSENTIAL, plus an online booking mechanism, secure messaging, claim filing, and payment reports.
Group Practice
$59/month for initial practitioner + $39/month for each additional practitioner
Additional Online Tools to Streamline Your Coaching Business
Most consumers of technology would argue that a platform is always 1 feature short, so below are the other useful coaching tools we’ve seen incorporated into effective workflows, as well as ways we've tied them into our business.
Best Lead Capture and Online Form Tools
Lead capture and online forms are essential for creating leads and building your business. The more contact details you get, the more you can leverage your email marketing to boost client numbers.
Build consumer-friendly assessments your clients will love. Easily integrates with most tools through Zapier.
How We Use It:
We use Typeform in many places on our website, from our contact form to the form we use to qualify leads who are interested in our White Label coaching app solution.
Best Typeform Alternatives for Coaches:
Best Booking & Scheduling Tools
Keeping track of all your meetings and calls isn’t easy. You want it to be as simple as possible for people to schedule a call with you, and these tools can help.
Integrates with your calendar (Gmail, Outlook, etc) so clients can seamlessly book appointments with you based on your actual availability.
You can either distribute a personal booking link or a booking link for an entire team. We've seen this dramatically increase efficiency as it not only reduces the amount of back and forth for scheduling, but also enables you to include booking links within automated emails or embedded in buttons on landing pages.
It also easily integrates with most tools through Zapier.
How We Use It:
We use Calendly for booking conversations with our team - for example if you want to learn more about creating your own coaching app with Nudge Coach you can book an intro call using our Calendly here.
Best Calendly Alternatives for Coaches:
Best Video Coaching Tools
Once you’ve booked a call, you’ve got to find a way to deliver it in a professional way that maximizes value for the client.
HIPAA-compliant video platform that is rapidly growing within the health and wellness space. ZOOM is a fantastic platform for multiple reasons:
Does NOT require your client to have an account to join a call
You can record and share sessions through simple links
They have a webinar option if you want to broadcast out to a group.
It integrates with everything... my calendar, Slack, etc.
How We Use It:
Zoom is probably our most used platform internally as we use it for 1-to-1 and group calls, hosting training sessions, hosting webinars, and recording podcast episodes and webinars. We even wrote a post about using Zoom for online coaching sessions.
Here are a couple of Zoom-created resources:
Best Zoom Alternative for Coaches:
Best Business Automation Tools
One takeaway from a post like this is that running your business will involve weaving together multiple online coaching tools. Luckily, there are tools that make it easier to automate simple daily activities so that you can focus on the work that requires your discerning eye.
In our experience, the best and easiest to use tool for automating simple processes - like automating an email response when a form is completed, or adding a contact to your CRM when a call is booked with you - is Zapier.
Zapier lets you connect two or more of the other apps, platforms and tools you use in your coaching business to automate simple tasks that help you streamline and scale.
When you need a specific email response to fire based on each online intro assessment a new prospect completes, just set up a “Zap” so it fires automatically. When you need an invite to download your coaching app to go out after a new client submits payment, that’s a Zap too. You get the idea.
It takes some basic technical know-how, and a lot of tinkering to get automation to work how you want it, but once you get each automation set up, it will save you oodles of time from that point on.
Best Zapier Alternative for Coaching Businesses:
Quick Review
Whew! That was a lot to cover, so here are some quick links to get you back to the best of the best depending on the specific type of platform you’re looking for:
Best Online Coaching Platform: Nudge Coach
Best Administrative/Client Management Platform for Coaches: Paperbell
Best Life Coaching Platform: Nudge Coach
Best Fitness Coaching Platform: TrueCoach
Best Telehealth / Practice Management Platform: Healthie
Best Business Coaching Platform: Nudge Coach
Best Online Booking Tool for Coaches: Calendly
Best Form & Assessment Tool for Coaches: Typeform
Best Video Conferencing Tool for Coaches: Zoom
Best Business Automation Tool for Coaching Businesses: Zapier
Conclusion
While all of these online coaching tools provide significant value it’s critical to identify which ones best match the needs of your business.
Different platforms are designed with different online coaching businesses in mind, so it’s important you take the time to find the best option for you. While we’ve created Nudge Coaching to help a range of coaches and organizations scale programs and drive peak client engagement, we’ll let you be the judge by trying it for free.
Any other recommendations? We’d love to hear about your experience with these or any other platforms for coaches.
