The most significant player is Udemy. The problem with Udemy is that I can't build my own audience and have no control over the sales price due to ongoing discount offers (the price setting is a joke, regardless of what amount I set I rarely sell for more than 10$. I'd have to opt-out of their marketing channel but then why host with Udemy at all?)
The other problem with Udemy is the low barrier of quality. They do some quality control but only checking the sales page and sound or video quality but never the content itself.
There are other providers with higher quality control, like Pluralsight, but here the barrier is too high (plus you still can't build your audience).
Then there's the option to self-host using a Saas provider. For example, I found Teachable quite useful. But of course I'm on my own here, there's no network effect I can take advantage of, and I can't have a public review system to gain customer's trust.
Are there any other alternatives I'm not aware of?
I wish there were a platform where independent creators come together to build a brand. It would have some voting system to control who can publish, and a creator would have to pay some small percentage to keep the platform running but retains control of everything else.
There would be a public course review system for students ala Amazon or Udemy.
What are your thoughts on that?
To get started I could imagine finding a small group of creators who come together to build a common landing page with a review feature that then just redirects to each of the creator's self-hosted site. If interested contact me.