In this guide, you’ll learn all about the best life coach online courses.

Online courses, certifications, and programs can help you become a successful coach much faster.

And today, we’ll cover…

• The qualifications you need to become a life coach
• 6 best life coach online programs
• 10 best coaching courses

Want to learn more? Read on.

What qualifications do you need to be a life coach?

First things first: 

What do you need to be a life coach?

A life coach is someone who supports and mentors clients to help them meet their goals. That said, to build successful coaching businesses, I usually recommend that my students define themselves as something more than just life coaches–here’s why. 

How do you become a life coach?

Becoming a life coach involves niching down. What do I mean?

Let me explain:

Life coaching is a very broad term. It can involve anything from relationship to stress coaching. Simply calling yourself a “life coach” isn’t enough to help you stand out from the competition. (And this is a really key point. To sell coaching successfully, you need to stand out.)

That’s why I don’t recommend becoming a life coach because it’s not a specific niche. Instead, choose a specific niche to promote your business. 

For instance, here’s a list of profitable life coaching niches to choose from (if you’re looking for more, this post gives you over 100 niche examples): 

• Happiness coaching 
• Financial coaching
• Mindset coaching 
• Performance coaching 
• Relationship coaching 
• Self-esteem coaching

I talk more about finding your niche here:

Once you’ve chosen your niche, you might consider getting a certification. But is a life coach certification worth it? 

Read on to find out. 

Is a life coach certification worth it? 

So is a life coach certification worth it? 

Not always. 

You don’t necessarily need a coaching certification (except in a few niches, mainly in health-related industries) to start your life coaching business. Most of the time, you can learn how to coach on your own while offering a slightly lower rate (so that it becomes a win-win for you and your clients–you get to practice coaching and they get to work with you at a lower rate). You’ll learn the same things that you would in a course, but with real clients. 

I explain more in this short video:

And coaching certifications can also be a huge time suck. At the same time, certifications are an unregulated industry, and you might be disappointed after your course. 

That’s why getting a certification isn’t necessary to become a coach. But if you want to go for one–go for it! I’ve listed the top coaching programs below so that you can choose for yourself. 

However, life coach certification costs can amount to several thousands of dollars. You don’t know what you’ll really get from a course unless you choose a reputable certification program. (The ones in this article are all from reputable organizations.)

But before we take a look at them, you might be wondering:

How long does it take to become a life coach? Let’s find out.

How quickly can you become a life coach?

How quickly you become a life coach depends entirely on you. If you choose to go through a certification program, you won’t be taking on paying clients for a number of months.

However, most of my clients start coaching right away unless their specific niche requires certification or training and, instead, they learn the art of coaching while coaching their clients. (Again, for a lower rate than they’ll charge once they’ve acquired the skills.) 

But if you DO choose to go for a certification, where do you start? How do you find reputable certification programs? 

Let’s find out. 

The best online life coaching programs 

So, what are the best online life coaching programs? I’ve put together a few programs from reputable institutes to help you get started off right. (Just a caveat here–I have never taken any of these life coaching programs myself and my recommendations are based on how reputable the institution or organization is and reviews online.)  

1. The Columbia Coaching Certification Program

The Columbia Coaching Certification Program is a high-level coaching program designed to help you develop your signature coaching process. Students are taken through nine research-based core lessons that focus on the science behind coaching. It’s a great fit for anyone who wants to build a solid coaching foundation before getting their feet wet with paying clients. 

Pricing: $8,500 for virtual or $10,400 if in-person (Advanced coaching intensive)

2. Leadership and Performance Coaching Certification

Brown University’s Professional School of Studies offers the Leadership and Performance Coaching Certification in collaboration with ACT Leadership. This six-month program is accredited by the International Coach Federation and enrollments open throughout the year. You’ll learn coaching skills in areas like decision making, communication, and team building.

Pricing: $10,495 for virtual and $11,495 for hybrid

3. Coach Training EDU Coaching Certificate 

The Academic Life Coaching Training Program is a coaching certificate program geared toward individuals striving to start a coaching practice. It’s a great fit for coaches looking to start relationship coaching, leadership coaching, health coaching, team coaching, and more. Coaches looking to work with high school and college students will find this certificate especially helpful. They offer three levels of certification, and pricing varies with each level. 

Pricing: Associate Certificate – $3,240

4. Coaching Training Alliance 

The Coaching Training Alliance runs six-month-long coaching courses broken up into five-hour sessions. The course teaches new coaches how to set up their own businesses, build their websites, and the best way to market their services. You get access to both group and one-on-one sessions with a personal coach. This course is a great fit for you if you want to focus on the business and marketing of coaching to attract clients. 

Pricing: $3,497

5. IPEC Coaching

The Life Coaching certification from iPEC takes coaches through their unique Core Energy Coaching process. This course teaches new coaches how to help their clients explore new goals and empower them using research-backed tools and techniques. iPEC also offers access to specialized training in nine areas, making this class perfect for people who want to tap into niche life coach training in the future. 

Pricing: $11,950, or payment plans after a deposit of $1,995 with 6-12 monthly payments. 

6. Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) (health coaching certification program) 

The health coaching certification program offered by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition is known for taking an intuitive approach to wellness. You have the option to earn your certificate within 6 or 12 months, and the class is offered in both English and Spanish. 41 modules offer a variety of health and wellness concepts, such as biohacking and nutrigenomics. This course is great for life coaches wanting to specialize in health and wellness or nutrition coaching. 

Pricing: $6,995 

The best life coaching business online courses

Once you’ve been coaching for a few months, you’ll want to learn how to run your coaching business properly. Over the years, I’ve created two flagship courses and several other courses to help you tackle all the things that come with building a coaching business. 

Thousands of people have gone through the courses and many have gotten results similar to Sanae’s results: 

These courses focus on building your business, landing more clients, and how to market your services. Most of the courses listed below are only offered once or twice a year, so make sure you get on the list to get notified when they open.  

(Note: You can sign up for the wait lists mentioned below on this page.)

Let’s take a look at these courses and what they offer.

1. Employee to Entrepreneur

Are you looking to make the jump from employee to entrepreneur? Have you always thought about starting your own business but found it hard to commit to the unknown? If you feel like this fits your situation, Employee to Entrepreneur is right for you. This course gives people a step-by-step blueprint for building a 6-figure service-based business to help you break free from the 9 to 5. 

Learn more about this course by reserving a seat for the free masterclass. 

(Note: If you’re not sure where to start, watch this quick video first:)

2. Ultimate Course Launch

Ultimate Course Launch is designed especially for coaches looking to scale their businesses. I always talk about how scaling your coaching business via group programs and courses is one of the best ways to increase your revenue while making the best use of your time. This course teaches you to do just that. It walks you through the ins and outs of creating and selling a group program to help you leverage your time and make money on your own terms. 

Find out more about the Ultimate Course Launch Framework with my free training masterclass. 

3. Your First Paying Clients 

Finding paying clients is the most important part of your business. If you’re on the fence about becoming a full-on entrepreneur, but you want to dip your toes in and get a few clients, this is the course for you. Your First Paying Clients explores various strategies you can use to find and attract your ideal client base to help you land paying clients right from the start. 

*Keep in mind that this course does include some of the material taught in Employee to Entrepreneur. If you choose to purchase this course and decide you want to dive in deeper with Employee to Entrepreneur, you can apply the price you paid towards the total cost of the class. 

Get on the waitlist to learn more about this class when enrollment opens. 

4. The Successful Entrepreneur – Mindset Makeover

One of the biggest obstacles to creating a thriving coaching practice is, you guessed it — yourself. Don’t get stuck working as a frustrated employee. This mindset makeover class teaches you the ONE skill you need to become a successful, confident entrepreneur ready to take the coaching world by storm. 

This class isn’t available year-round, so hop on the waitlist to find out when it opens. 

5. Sold Out Sales Pages

Looking to upgrade your sales pages? Or do you feel that you struggle to sell your services without coming off as too “salesy”? I know exactly how you feel. In fact, that’s why I created this course. This coaching course teaches you about my top-performing sales pages, what makes them so successful, and all of my hard-earned sales “secrets.” You can use these tactics for every type of product you want to sell in your coaching business. 

Get on the waitlist today. 

6. My First 10k Subscribers

A key part of your coaching business is your email subscribers. Who would still stick around if every social media platform were to collapse tomorrow? That’s right — your email list. This course teaches you everything you need to know about the process, emails, and templates that took me from 0 to 10,000+ subscribers in 11 months. 

Get on the waitlist to learn more.

7. Sell More with Webinars

Introducing webinars to your coaching offerings is a great way to have your coaching sell itself, even when you’re just getting started. Clients get access to you and your information from all over the globe, and they’re more likely to work with you after too. This course details the step-by-step process of creating a webinar that becomes your business’ best salesperson. 

Hop on the waitlist today. 

8. Freedom Decoded

Breaking free of the 9 to 5 and becoming an entrepreneur means that you should have more time to yourself – not less. Your business should generate real profits while giving you more time to do what really matters. Freedom Decoded provides you with all the templates, systems, and processes to build your own profitable Freedom Business. After all, who doesn’t want to run a 6-figure business while having plenty of time to live your life?

Get on the waitlist today. 

9. Content Cornucopia

Are you someone who struggles to create enough content to last you the entire month? What about enough to last a week? Content Cornucopia is a course that lasts 20 days and focuses entirely on helping you create content. By the end of the course, you’ll have mastered the skill of creating tons of content. The best part? You’ll learn how to create content in just 30 minutes a day. 

Sign up for the waitlist today. 

10. Sold Out Sales Emails

Are you struggling to create sales emails that convert passing readers to real coaching clients? The Sold Out Sales Emails course takes you behind the scenes of some of my most profitable sales emails to date. We’ll plan out and write sales sequences from scratch together, making it easy for you to implement these tactics to sell out all your own offers.

Find out more by joining the waitlist.  

Over to you!

There you have it! Now you know what some of the best life coach online courses are to jumpstart your coaching business.

Want to learn more about my own course for coaches, Employee to Entrepreneur?

Get my FREE PDF that shares the six-figure coaching blueprint you can use today to land your first clients:

Learn more:

The Top Life Coach Schools Online

How to Promote Your Life Coaching Business

Life Coaching Salary Guide