How to pick the right digital coaching platform for your business: 7 options

However, for many companies, offering career and executive coaching is unchartered territory. It can be overwhelming trying to keep track of each employee's progress, especially as your business grows. Whether you're a coach yourself, a team leader, or HR professional, you may be seeking a way to streamline the coaching process while still providing a personalized experience.

Digital coaching platforms are built to systemize your workflow and help you provide the best possible results for your business. However, not all coaching software is created equal. While some excel at helping you with the admin side of your business, it’s tough to find a tool that helps you with the most important piece: effective coaching.

Read on to learn about the different digital coaching platforms on the market — and how to choose the best one for your needs.

What are digital coaching platforms?

Digital coaching platforms exist on a spectrum. They can do anything from client management and payment processing to actually facilitating coaching sessions. So, the best coaching app will depend largely on your organization's needs.

If you are running an online coaching business, you'll need a tool that handles the admin side of things. Think, intake forms, invoicing, payment processing and scheduling sessions. This enables you to run and scale your coaching services efficiently.

At the enterprise level, organizations typically need a tool to run their employee coaching sessions. Digital coaching platforms like BetterUp, CoachHub and Hello Ezra connect individuals to professional coaches, via audio or video sessions. These platforms can be great for kickstarting the coaching journey. However, they tend to be challenging to scale, and exist in a silo — that is, clients work on their goals individually, with limited opportunity for collaboration with teammates.

As the world's first AI-based coaching app, Fingerprint for Success goes beyond basic coaching admin. We offer a powerful, all-in-one solution for your organization's personal development needs. At the individual level, we uncover eye-opening insights into each employee's motivations, strengths and blindspots. Coachees can also set personal goals, and work towards them in structured sessions with our AI coach, Marlee.

However, perhaps the most notable thing that sets F4S apart from other digital coaching platforms is our unparalleled team collaboration and performance tools. Our robust real-time tools and dashboards make it easy for teams to identify synergies and potential areas of friction. This takes the guesswork out of optimizing dynamics, resolving conflict and building high performing teams.

We also have a directory of experienced coaches, each with their own unique coaching styles. This powerful ecosystem allows us to serve coaches, individuals and enterprises alike.

What features to look for in a digital coaching platform

If you're a coach, consultant or C-suite executive looking to invest in a coaching app, it pays to know what actually matters. Here are some of the essential features to look for.

• Assessments: Coaches often leverage online assessments as a diagnostic tool to pinpoint problem areas and strengths. They track progress as the client moves through the coaching process. Based on 20+ years of research, Fingerprint for Success' revolutionary assessment is over 90% accurate and measures 48 different motivations — for a result that’s as unique as your fingerprint.
• Skills training: Traditionally, organizations have used LMS (learning management systems) to upskill their employees. However, these online courses tend to be quite generalized and cookie cutter. Instead, seek a digital coaching tool that offers opportunities for improvement and personalized skills training, tailored to the individual's unique goals.
• Dashboards: To really get the most of coaching, it's crucial to track performance. This means getting a bird's-eye view of progress at both an individual level, as well as how your team is performing as a cohesive whole. F4S' dashboard unearths insights about culture, affinities and motivation, to fuel high-performing teams.
• Professional development coaching: It might sound obvious, but the best digital coaching platforms should facilitate coaching! The best type of coaching will depend on the goals and stage of growth of your organization. For example, if you're looking to improve change management skills in your company, executive or leadership coaching may be needed. Or, if you're a fast-growing startup, high performance coaching may be a better fit. Both human or AI coaches can deliver these coaching services with stellar results.
• Personal development coaching: Ideally, your online coaching platform will help employees reach their professional and personal goals. Things like physical wellbeing, mental health and work/life balance play a significant role in workplace performance. So, seek a platform that has wellbeing and life coaching in its toolkit, too.

What other tools do online coaches use?

The best digital coaching platforms don't offer everything but the kitchen sink. Nor do they have an overly complex interface. They focus on what's important (facilitating effective, personalized coaching). That said, if you're building a coaching business online, here are some other online coaching tools you might choose to invest in.

• Scheduling and booking tools: Your clients need to book sessions with ease. Plus you’ll save time by avoiding going back and forth. Acuity and Calendly are popular options that make booking consults seamless by linking to your Apple or Google Calendar.
• Email marketing tools: Marketing is crucial to running a successful coaching business. You'll need a way to collect the contact details of clients. Then nurture those leads into sales prospects and ultimately, paying clients. That's where email marketing software like ActiveCampaign, Mailerlite, Convertkit and Flodesk comes in.
• Sales funnel tools: Some coaches take their marketing efforts one step further. They create marketing funnels to put their client acquisition efforts on autopilot. This might involve running paid ads to a landing page with a free lead magnet (an asset provided in return for an email address).  Then following up with a sales webinar and a series of email campaigns. Examples of sales funnel platforms for coaches include ClickFunnels and Leadpages.
• Video conferencing tools: Many coaches work with clients all over the world. This means video calls are a key component of an online coaching business. Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing tools for coaches (you'll need to upgrade to Premium, for calls over 45 minutes). Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Skype are other common alternatives.
• Invoicing tools: How will you send invoices to your clients, and how will you process payments? Offering an easy way for them to pay online is essential to running an online coaching business. Some of the go-to invoicing tools for coaches include Xero, HoneyBook and Quickbooks.‍
• Contract tools: It’s important to have a coaching agreement for your clients to sign. This  covers you legally and lets them  know what to expect. On top of sending the agreement, you’ll need a way to collect e-signatures. HoneyBook and Paperbell are examples of tools with built-in forms you can use to do this.
• Online course program tools: You may choose to deliver your coaching program as an online course. This allows clients to work through them on-demand. This may include text, audio and video lessons, quizzes and worksheets to help clients stay accountable. Like F4S, you might also choose to take a micro - learning approach, with digestible, bite-sized videos or coaching sessions. Kajabi, Podia and Thinkific are all popular digital platforms for hosting and selling courses. ‍‍

7 of the best digital coaching platforms for any type of business

Ready to find the right online platform for your organization's coaching needs? Read on to learn about some of the top virtual coaching companies.

1. Fingerprint for Success

Based on 20+ years of research, Fingerprint for Success is a digital coaching platform that combines human coaching with powerful AI technology to deliver superior results. Our evidence-based assessment tools are 90% accurate at predicting the 48 motivations that drive human behavior at work.

This makes it extremely effective for identifying the blind spots that hold organizations back from achieving their goals. Our suite of collaboration and performance tools facilitate coaching teams, as well as individuals — further solidifying our reputation in the coaching marketplace as a powerful all-in-one solution.

F4S Dashboard

Key features

• Highly accurate, evidence-based assessment: In 15-30 minutes, coachees can see a detailed report of their 48 distinct motivations that influence their behavior, highlighting strengths and blind spots.‍
• AI-powered online coaching programs: Coach Marlee has several chat-based programs for a variety of goals. So whether your focus is on wellbeing, emotional intelligence or leadership, we've got you covered.‍
• Goal tracking: Coachees can set goals inside F4S and progress with AI Coach Marlee, which measures coachee progress throughout the coaching program.
• Talent acquisition and development: Easily identify top-tier talent, and hire with culture fit in mind from the get go.
• Resolving conflict: Understand and cater for the different communication styles in your teams, so you can preserve harmony and resolve disagreements fast.
• Developing high-performing teams: Foster happy, focused employees, so everyone is empowered to do their best work.
• M&A integration: Map out cultural synergy to up to 90% accuracy, with our revolutionary merger and acquisition tool.
• F4S dashboard: Coaches can create an org inside F4S, so every coachee they work with can be connected inside that org. Alternatively, the coach can connect directly with the coachee and see all of their coachee’s F4S data in one glance.
• A global community to explore unique talents and connect with pioneers in human development.
• F4S for Zoom: our Zoom integration app is revolutionizing virtual communication and collaboration. Download the app and answer four simple questions that will reveal if your learning style is seeing, hearing, doing, or reading/writing. Then add your communication style to your Zoom profile (we use emojis) and supercharge your meetings.

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Who it's best suited to

Everyone! From employees and entrepreneurs, to organizational leaders at large enterprises, F4S has a transformative coaching program for people at all levels. We even have a community of coaches, who use our coaching tools and directory to supplement their own offering.

Pricing

We pride ourselves on making coaching accessible so it's completely free to get started with F4S. Our free plan includes our revolutionary assessment and access to one 8-week AI coaching program. You can also view and compare results with up to three connections.

We also have advanced features, available for organizations of any size. Our premium plans start at just US $9.60 per month, and provide unlimited courses and insights. Learn more about F4S's pricing plans.

Reviews

“F4S allows you to analyze a person’s characteristics and natural fallbacks, which allowed us to focus on matching ‘profile needs/wants’ rather than geography and time zones. ‍These deep insights lead to positive outcomes for mentors and mentees, as they are being actively heard, helped, and coached to achieve their desired outcomes. All subjectivity is removed and we focus on the employee needs and growth to foster an environment of inclusion, support, and belonging.”

Lorraine Longato, Business Innovation Strategist, SAP

“Fingerprint for Success is a tool that practically sells itself. It's one of the most powerful ways of gaining insight on how to best create strong and high-performing teams."

Dianne Gatto, Change manager, and business coach

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2. Nudge Coach

NudgeCoach is a digital platform, designed to help coaches provide a seamless coaching experience through goal-setting, progress tracking, and messaging.

If you’re willing to put forth a little upfront effort, Nudge Coach puts the power of personalization in your hands by giving you an easy way to build your own coaching app. This can be a great alternative to creating an online course.

Key features

• Clients: The Nudge for Clients app is different from Nudge Coach. You can enter an invite ID to sign up for a client account and preview what your app looks like on the client side. ‍
• Cards: Instead of emailing your clients, create multimedia Cards inside the Nudge Coach app to make announcements or help clients keep track of progress. Sequences deliver your coaching program with pre-scheduled Cards within the app instead of via email.‍
• Tracking: Hold clients accountable with Nudge Coach’s Tracking feature, which lets you create Tracking Cards that ask your clients to check in on their progress.‍
• Messages: You can send individual and group messages or post inside Communities. You can schedule messages as well.‍
• Communities: Encourage peer-to-peer support by creating a Community, which is similar to a private Facebook group. You can sort your clients into groups and cohorts and even make weekly challenges and a leaderboard so clients can compete.

Who it's best suited to

NudgeCoach is best suited for wellness professionals, such as health coaches, nutritionists, personal trainers. However, it can also be used by career and life coaches, to put their programs on autopilot.

Pricing

Nudge Coach is free for up to five clients. Their Grow plan supports up to 50 clients at $60/month paid monthly. To access features like data exports and multiple accounts, upgrade to Scale, which supports up to 100 clients at $100/month paid monthly. Lastly, you can access white labeling, at $600/month.

Reviews

“What I like about this application is how user friendly it is, and it becomes almost indispensable for the development and planning of the day. If you have a coach dedicated to you can achieve wonders in the weight loss. It is worth trying because it is worth losing weight with joy."

Christina Marcano, via GetApp¹

“Depending what you’re looking for, this is a great coaching software that you can mould into being your own software with tons of flexible options!"

Benjamin, via GetApp¹

3. Coaching Loft

Coaching Loft has a fairly robust set of features if you need help with the business side of online coaching, including booking, contracts and invoicing. It has some features for actual coaching, too, such as assessment templates and a library of more than 500 coaching questions. However, it doesn’t provide any premade coaching programs for your clients to participate in.

Key features

• Booking: Clients can book an appointment with you, and this calendar integrates with calendars in Google, iCloud, Office 365 and more.
• Coaching questions library: Coaching Loft has a library of more than 500 questions to help you kickstart or focus your coaching sessions. You can assign these questions to specific clients to help guide the conversation.
• Assessments: Coaching Loft has assessment templates that you can assign to your clients, or you can upload your own assessment questions.
• Coachee notepad: Keep track of your notes and questions as well as your clients' assessment results and progress.
• Messaging: Chat one-on-one with your clients. Messages are sent to the client's email address if they're not active on the platform when you send the message.
• Coach rating and feedback: You can get feedback from your clients within Coaching Loft.
• Agreements and invoicing: Coaching Loft allows you to create coaching agreements. It also has an invoicing feature that connects with QuickBooks and is expanding to other third-party integrations.
• Integrations: Zapier, Zoom, PayPal, HubSpot, Mailchimp and more

Who it's best suited to

The platform is ideal for coaches and therapists who are looking for a solution to manage their practice, allowing them to save time and focus on delivering high-quality coaching and therapy services to their clients.

Pricing

Coaching Loft has a free membership for up to two clients. To access premium features such as appointment scheduling pages, agreements, invoices and rating and feedback, you would need to upgrade to the Core membership for $20/month. There are three paid tiers available, and all come with a free 14-day trial.

Reviews

“The progress tracking is very important, for any coach who love seeing their clients progress. The easy of scheduling appointments is also a great feature and alerts for upcoming sessions which is another plus. It's very easy to use and management is a breeze."

Amy F via GetApp²

“It’s easy and simple to use. Quite intuitive. Keeping my notes organized. Keeping my files in the right places. The huge coaching questions database is just simply amazing, and the goals, milestones and actions setting and live tracking with clients is just a savior. No more dead space in-between coaching sessions."

Wassim K via GetApp²

4. Coach Catalyst

Founded by two gym owners in 2015, Coach Catalyst was created out of their struggle to scale their business while maintaining a personal touch with each client. They created Coach Catalyst to help coaches everywhere improve client results by making it easier to scale. It also has a mobile app, MyCoach, that helps clients with accountability by checking in on whether they’ve completed healthy habits.

Key features

• Programs: Access a collection of 30+ preloaded programs that are customizable. Almost all of these programs are related to health and fitness.
• Track progress: See the metrics you need in order to hold clients accountable. You can filter by anyone who’s at risk (falls way below compliance on their actions you’ve recommended), so you can be sure to swoop in and message them personally to increase their motivation and get them on track.
• Messaging: Message your clients in real-time within the platform by sending text, audio or video attachments. These messages can also be scheduled.
• Communities: Create an online community where your clients can engage with each other. You can also post your updates and announcements in this central area.

Who it's best suited to

Though its website says it’s for life and business coaches, too, Coach Catalyst’s main user base has been built upon gym owners and health and fitness coaches. So, that seems to be where its strength lies.

Pricing

Coach Catalyst's pricing depends on how many clients you have on their platform. Pricing starts at $39/month for up to 12 clients. There is a free 14-day trial that gives you full access to all of the features without asking for your credit card info.

Reviews

“This software has allowed me to stop using Google Sheets to track client progress and share workouts. My clients have one app that they use to get workouts, daily accountability, store their personal data, and so much more. Before I was using multiple apps to hold all this information."

Ashley K via Capterra³

“I'm able to fully coach all of my clients on one space. The app itself allows one to coach in any capacity at a high level in a very professional format and setting. I love working with this company and using their amazing software!"

Allison P via Capterra³

5. Paperbell

Paperbell is an all-in-one coaching software that helps coaches manage their business, clients, and coaching programs. Where Paperbell shines is taking care of the business/admin parts of being a coach. It allows you to create coaching packages that your clients can purchase online, set your availability for easy booking and see all your client data in one place. However, Paperbell doesn’t have assessments, metrics or a place to track client goals beyond private notes you can add to each client.

Key features

• Online payments: Offer your coaching packages and accept payment plans, provide discounts, offer pay-what-you-want pricing and more with online checkout.
• Booking: Allow clients to book time with you while also creating buffers between appointments and limiting how far in advance they can book.
• Contracts: Upload your contracts and have clients e-sign via partner HelloSign. Paperbell does not provide contract templates.
• Intake surveys: You can integrate client intake surveys in their initial booking process.
• Centralized client dashboard: This shows you the client's purchase history, total spending, upcoming appointments, private client notes and more.
• Group Coaching: Paperbell lets you offer group coaching through its platform.
• Landing Pages: Promote your coaching programs through customizable landing pages in Paperbell.
• Digital downloads: You can include digital downloads, such as PDFs, with any of your coaching packages or sell them as their own products (without coaching sessions attached).

Who it's best suited to

Paperbell is best suited for coaches of all kinds, who want to streamline their business, save time, and focus on coaching their clients.

Pricing

Paperbell offers a free account that has 100% of the features without requiring you to enter credit card details. There is no time limit on the free account. It's free for your first client, and after that, you will be asked to upgrade. The plan is $50/month billed monthly, and includes unlimited clients, packages and contracts.

Reviews

“I really like Paperbell. It’s easy to use. Paperbell is always open to feedback and they are continually working on updating the tool. I have used almost every feature and I trust that they will fix all bugs asap."

Mary, via Capterra⁴

"So far I'm happy with it. As a solopreneur who has tried the more involved CRMs, discovering Paperbell has saved me time. I tried Dubsado, but it took months to try to figure it all out and it was way too big for my needs, Paperbell is a much better fit. I don't need a million bells and whistles, just something clean and straightforward, which Paperbell is. There are still features I'm hoping they'll bring into the service, but I knew going in it is still growing."

Mary, via Get App⁵

6. Profi

Profi falls somewhere between a coaching tool and a marketing app. It includes a range of features designed to help organize and scale service delivery, including scheduling, video conferencing, programs, member portals and a community space. It also has a convenient toggle that lets you easily switch between the admin view and the client view, so you know exactly what your coachees see in their Profi account.

Key features

• Booking: Build a scheduling page where clients can book one-on-one or group sessions with you.
• Built-in video conferencing: Profi has its own native video conferencing capability in its 'Session room' allowing you to make calls directly in-app without having to integrate with a third-party provider.
• Messaging: Secure messaging in the Profi platform
• Forms: Send your clients forms, such as a Life Satisfaction Quiz, to measure their baseline and assess their progress.
• Services: Allow clients to book one-on-one sessions, group sessions, a coaching package or a program that you've created.
• Programs: Build out an online course with video or text materials, follow-up questions and coaching sessions. You can even team up with other coaches to build a program together.
• Memberships: Set up recurring payments for memberships.
• Community: Join an online forum of fellow coaches to share tips and tricks, or create a private community for your clients.

Who it's best suited to

Profi is targeted at service-based businesses, whether that's solopreneurs or larger companies. While this includes coaches, it also encompasses corporate trainers, therapists and consultants.

Pricing

Profi offers a 30-day free trial for solo businesses. Solo plans start at $59/month billed monthly for up to 25 active clients.

Reviews

“Our teams are using Profi daily and they can't imagine going back to our old toolstack. It has everything we need in one place. We mostly use this platform to create educational content (incl. courses and hybrid type of programs) for our customers + provide them with 1:1 support via video calls."

Alex K, via Capterra⁶

"I'm very happy with Profi! All my courses and consulting will be done on this platform going forward. I've even replaced Zoom with Profi's video conferencing and meeting system."

Jim G, via Capterra⁶

7. Simply.Coach

Simply.Coach combines business management tools such as contracts and invoicing with digital coaching tools that include premade templates for impact assessment, 360 Feedback and coaching intent.

Beyond client management, Simply.Coach also has features to help you with marketing and sales for your online coaching business.

Key features

• Online coaching tools: Simply.Coach has a Digital Coaching Tools Repository filled with premade templates such as reflective goal-setting and an impact assessment.
• Track progress: Receive visual reports in the form of bar graphs, tables and line charts to track client progress and see ROI.
• Stakeholder integration: Simply.Coach lets you loop in your clients' peers, managers and direct reports so they can give support and feedback.
• Action Plans: Create action plans where your client must track their action items. They receive reminders when an action is due.
• Nudges: Nudges are gentle reminders for you and your clients. You can create a custom Nudge schedule that will remind them of things like sessions. And if you’re worried about clients becoming so accustomed to regularly scheduled notifications that they ignore them, you can even set up surprise nudges that arrive at random.

Who it's best suited to

Simply.Coach would be a good fit for individual coaches across all industries. It is especially useful for coaches who work with multiple clients and need to keep track of their appointments, progress, and payments.

Pricing

Simply.Coach offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans for independent coaches start at $19/month billed monthly.

Reviews

“The Simply Coach platform is a straight forward effective solution that has helped create a seamless coaching experience for my clients. It makes the follow-up and resources delivery centralised and professional. The whole thing is just more ergonomic from a coaching perspective."

Chris W, via Capterra⁷

" I think I am just at the tip of the iceberg but the tool is helping me centralize and standardize my practice, automate nudges, share content, and manage my business in (almost?) one tool. I'm really excited to learn more."

Sean B, via Capterra⁷

Not all digital coaching platforms offer evidence-based, measurable results

As you can see, there's an array of online coaching platforms on the market. Many of these are suitable for individual coaches who are looking to streamline their admin and coaching process. However, if you're looking to truly unlock the next level of transformation in your organization, you need something more advanced.

F4S is the only digital coaching platform built on more than 20 years of motivational research. From our assessments and coaching programs to our culture mapping and team-building tools, we use science-backed technology to create lasting change.

So, whether you're a coach yourself, or are an organizational leader looking to implement a professional development program, you can rest assured you're delivering a world-class experience with F4S.

Try the F4S online digital platform for free today!