7 best online coaching platforms for every kind of coach

Online coaching platforms are built to streamline your business processes and help you provide the best possible results for your clients. But not all coaching software is created equal. While some excel at helping you with the administrative side of your business, it’s tough to find a tool that helps you with the most important piece: providing effective coaching.

If you’re interested in finding out which online coaching platform can show measurable, evidence-based results, read on.

What are online coaching platforms?

Online coaching platforms exist on a spectrum. They can do anything from client management to payment processing to digital coaching.

Many online coaching platforms focus mainly on the business side of things-invoicing, payment processing, scheduling and the like. Few online coaching platforms have truly mastered enhancing your digital coaching to help your clients get better results.

What tools do online coaches use?

Phrased another way, you might ask what features you should look for in an online coaching platform. Here are some features or tools to look for:

• Assessments: Coaches often leverage online assessments as a diagnostic tool to pinpoint problem areas and strengths and check on progress as the client moves through the coaching process.‍
• Scheduling and booking: You’ll need a way to show your available times for coaching, and your clients will need a way to easily book a coaching session with you.
• ‍Invoicing: How will you send invoices to your clients, and which payment methods can they use? Offering an easy way for them to pay online is essential to running an online coaching business.‍
• Contracts: It’s important to have a coaching agreement for your clients to sign so that you are covered legally and so they know what to expect. On top of sending the agreement, you’ll need a way to collect e-signatures.‍
• Building an online course or program: You may choose to deliver your program as an online course with text, audio, video and PDFs. Some coaches do this by using software known as a Learning Management System (LMS), which is an educational technology that helps you create and deliver online courses. Think video lessons, quizzes, grading, and the like. Some online coaching platforms have built-in features where you can easily build your online program within the platform instead of through email.‍
• Messaging: Many coaches prefer a centralized messaging tool rather than scattering their client communications among email, text messages and phone calls.‍
• Video conferencing: Video calls are a key component of an online coaching business. Some coaches prefer to host sessions through popular web conferencing platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet. However, some online coaching platforms integrate with these web conferencing apps to create a more seamless experience where you don’t have to switch apps.

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

1. Fingerprint for Success

Fingerprint for Success is an online coaching platform based on 20+ years of research that empowers human coaches to partner with an AI coach-delivering your clients better results.

F4S has developed an evidence-based assessment that is 90% accurate at predicting the 48 motivations that drive human behavior at work. So how can this help you in your coaching practice? The F4S assessment is a highly effective and accurate diagnostic tool that can help you pinpoint cognitive biases or blind spots that hold your client back from achieving their goals. Equipped with this knowledge, you can then go in and provide transformational coaching. Then, AI Coach Marlee can provide performance and developmental coaching. This is a perfect partnership to help you provide better results for your clients.

Beyond that, many coaches choose to embed the F4S technology into high-growth ventures, helping individuals become first-time leaders, onboarding teams and optimizing teams. They can then coach an entire organization, creating a passive income stream through F4S.

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.‍

F4S dashboard

• AI-powered online coaching programs: Coach Marlee has several chat-based programs for a variety of goals. So whether your coachee’s focus is on wellbeing, emotional intelligence or leadership-Marlee has you covered. In our Vital Wellbeing program, 90% of participants saw an improvement in wellbeing.‍

• Goal tracking: Coachees can set goals inside F4S and progress with AI Coach Marlee, which measures coachee progress throughout the online program.‍
• 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.

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Pricing

F4S is completely free for the assessment and access to certain Coach Marlee programs. With the free plan, you can also view and compare your results with up to five people in a team.

Upgrade to the Individual plan at $9.60/month or the team plan for $11.99/month - check out our pricing page for more details.

Coaches who become accredited as licensed and certified coaches get permission to take the F4S technology into organizations and embed it as a licensed partner. We’d be happy to walk you through a demo if it interests you.

2. Nudge Coach

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 app would be a good fit for coaches who are looking for an alternative to email when it comes to building out their online course or program. While Nudge does not have a native booking feature, you can integrate the app with booking tools, such as Calendly.

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 are what can 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.

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 white label the app starting at $600/month.

3. Coaching Loft

Coaching Loft has a pretty robust set of features if you need help with the business side of online coaching, including booking, contracts and invoicing. It does have some features for the actual coaching piece, 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.

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 & 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

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 & feedback, upgrade to the Core membership for $20/month. There are three paid tiers available, and all come with a free 14-day trial.

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.

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. It also has a mobile app, MyCoach, that helps clients with accountability by checking in on whether they’ve completed healthy habits.

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.

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.

5. Paperbell

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. This software has an excellent free trial deal: 100% of the features are totally free up until you get your second client.

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 spend, 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).

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 first client, you will be asked to upgrade. The plan is $50/month billed monthly, and it is for unlimited clients, packages and contracts.

6. Profi

Profi strives to be the all-in-one solution for running your coaching business and offering services. True to that goal, it’s the only online coaching platform on this list that has built-in video conferencing capabilities. 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.

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.

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.

7. Simply.Coach

Simply.Coach combines business management tools such as contracts and invoicing with digital coaching tools that include premade templates like:

• Impact Assessment
• 360 Feedback
• Coaching Intent

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

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, the stepping stones to their goals. 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.

Pricing

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

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

As a coach, you have developed a unique method of providing results for your clients. But by adding a layer of science-backed technology and assessments on top of your existing expertise, you can create a truly transformative experience for every coachee.

There are many online coaching platforms out there. But F4S is the one that’s built on more than 20 years of motivational research, provides you with ready-to-use evidence-based online coaching programs and has the F4S assessment that reliably reports on several different motivators that can help your clients lean into their strengths.

Try the F4S online coaching platform for free today!