Top Online Course Certificate Makers for 2025 (Platforms vs AI)

Online learning is exploding. By 2029, more than 1.1 billion people will be taking courses online. That’s a lot of learners—and, for most, a lot of certificates to deliver. Unless, of course, you skip certificates entirely (a costly oversight) or try to manage it with tools that simply can’t keep up as you grow.

It’s no wonder many educators and organizations are turning to everything from credential platforms to quick AI generators to fill the gap. 

But not every solution is built for scale or trust. Here’s a look at the top online course certificate makers for 2025, starting with the one that sets the standard.

TL;DR

Dedicated online course certificate maker like Certifier give you everything in one place—design, automation, bulk issuance, verification and analytics. Perfect for educators and course platforms.

LLM tools like ChatGPT can write certificate text and generate layout ideas. But they don’t offer automation, precise visual design or actual delivery tools.

Credential platforms are ideal for course creators handling large groups. AI certificate generators may work for solo coaches or one-off certificates, but not for scaled learning programs.

01 Certifier

If you want your certificate process to run like a well-oiled machine, start with Certifier. You can use this online certificate maker free.

Certifier is the digital credential platform trusted by over 2,000 organizations and institutions worldwide, from universities like UC Berkeley and Stanford to global brands like Amazon and L’Oréal.

And honestly, those numbers and brands should speak for themselves. But if you’re still on the fence, there’s plenty more to tip the scale.

Why do so many organizations choose Certifier? It simply takes care of everything.

You can create, brand and send professional-looking digital certificates and badges at scale.

The built-in certificate visual editor builder is loaded with customizable, professionally designed templates that use dynamic attributes—our little helpers that autofill the placeholder with personalized data.

With Certifier integration capabilities, you can connect this free online certificate maker with your course platform: Kajabi, Learndash, Teachable and more.

You can track everything: see who opened, downloaded or shared their credentials and even analyze which certificates drive the most engagement.

Recipients get login-free access to their certificates, with one-click sharing to LinkedIn, Facebook and beyond, so your brand shows up where it matters.

You get a branded Issuer’s Portal—a central hub that showcases courses credentials and recipients in one place.

Security and scalability are built in. Certifier is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR-compliant and hosted on AWS. There’s no limit on how many certificates or badges you can host online—they’re available to recipients forever. 

Certifier supports deep integrations with LMS, HR platforms and custom workflows via API or Zapier.

What does this look like in real life?

Imagine opening enrollment for a new online course and every learner who completes it gets a beautifully branded, instantly verifiable certificate—on autopilot. 

You can launch a fresh module or certification track and award hundreds of credentials at once, all personalized with the learner’s details and your own design. You can even run live workshops or webinars and send out participation badges the moment the session wraps up.

Reuse certificate settings and recipient groups across course levels. Just duplicate the B2 group, tweak the level name to C1 and you’re ready to issue certificates again. In minutes, not hours.

Get this online certificate maker free. Sign up or book a demo and join the 1.1 million (and counting) who’ve received digital credentials powered by Certifier in 2025 alone.

02 Sertifier

Sertifier is a highly‑rated free online certificate maker used by educational institutions and online course creators alike. 

It offers a drag‑and‑drop editor, so you can pick from free certificate templates, customize fonts, upload your company logo or custom images and build a personalized certificate in minutes.

You can easily generate certificates in bulk by uploading recipient lists, download certificates as high‑quality PDF and PNG files and let recipients send certificates or share them on social media.

Users consistently praise its quick generation but, that said, it’s not flawless.  A few Capterra reviewers note the UX experience is clean but could use polish.

The certificate design templates can feel less flexible compared to what Sertifier alternatives offer. Some advanced customizations, like multi‑brand white-labeling or precise layout tweaks, require higher-tier plans or additional manual effort.

03 Virtualbadge.io

When you start your online course, the last thing you want is for certificate issuance to feel like a tedious spreadsheet marathon. 

Virtualbadge.io steps in to simplify that process, offering a professional, slick way to create, send and manage course certificates.

With Virtualbadge, you get a 7-day free trial to explore the full feature set and see if it fits your workflow. Choose from built-in templates or upload your own design, add logos, graphic elements, recipient names and additional details, then upload a CSV to start creating a full batch of PDF or PNG certificates.

Custom certificates include QR-code validation and recipients can instantly download, print or share them on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter with just two clicks.

This online custom certificate maker trades some flexibility for speed, though. The editor is intentionally streamlined—great for speed, not so much for granular design tweaks. 

Compared to other Virtualbadge alternatives, this tool may be a bit pricey. If you're chasing pixel-perfect layouts or advanced integrations, you'll need to upgrade and pricing can stretch tight budgets as your volume grows.

04 Canva

When you start your online course and need certificates online that look polished, Canva is often the go-to. 

It’s an easy-to-use, free online certificate maker in disguise: you can get started for free, choose from hundreds of high-quality templates and use a sleek drag-and-drop editor to add logos, names, dates and any graphic elements you like.

Because this free online certificate maker is built for every type of project— certificates, social posts, presentations—it’s incredibly versatile if you value design flexibility above automation.

Once created, recipients or students can view, print or share their beautiful certificates; though distribution and verification have to be managed separately, outside of Canva.

And that brings us to the main challenge: Canva isn’t a full credential workflow tool.

Canva lacks built-in email delivery, certificate hosting, tamper-proof verification or analytics. So once the design is ready, it’s up to you to send certificates, ensure certificate course completion data aligns and track their performance. 

Personalized touches like social sharing, individual downloads or QR-code drives require extra tools or manual steps. You get the design, but not the systems. 

Do you want more details on how Canva compares with a dedicated tool for certificate management? We’ve contrasted Canva vs Certifier.

05 Credly

Credly is a widely adopted online custom certificate maker trusted by large institutions and enterprises to issue high-quality certificates and verify achievements. 

It offers an intuitive interface for creating certificates and badges. You can customize templates, upload your design assets and recipients receive downloadable high-resolution PDF certificates and badges—complete with public links and badges that display verification data publicly.

You can’t use this certificate maker online for free. There’s no free trial.

With integrations across LMS systems and CRMs, Credly supports scalable badge issuance. Admins benefit from insightful analytics and reporting—revealing data on downloads, shares and engagement impact.

It's a very versatile professional certificate maker, but it's not designed for every use case. 

Small organizations or solo course creators may find the cost prohibitive—as there’s no pay-per-certificate tier and pricing can be steep. The design tools of this online course certificate maker are functional but not highly flexible. Some users note constraints on badge shapes, icons and layout tweaks.

You can’t sign up on your own—you need to contact sales to request more information on Credly pricing.

06 Accredible

Accredible is a heavyweight in the digital credential space, trusted by over 2,300 institutions—from universities and associations to enterprise training teams—to issue professional certificates and badges at scale. 

This online course certificate maker offers a collection of pre-built high-quality templates so you can create certificates and digital badges with ease.

You can customize your own certificate template, upload logos, set metadata like recipient name, course title and issue date, then auto-issue credentials in bulk via CSV or LMS integration.

Accredible also offers advanced reporting tracks engagement and even supports learning paths and expiration reminders.

And it all sounds great, but there are quite a few things worth knowing before committing to this certificate maker online. Pricing starts at $45 a month for a limited set of features, which can be a heavier lift for small teams. 

While templates are strong, ultra-granular layout edits or brand style tweaks may require developer support. It's been reported, too, that there's a lot of manual work setting up a lot of digital badges.

See the comparison Accredible vs Credly to get more details about these two popular tools.

07 Venngage AI Certificate Generator

When you're managing online courses or events and need certificates quickly, Venngage's AI Certificate Generator delivers—but it's important to weigh both its strengths and limitations.

With a free account, you start by selecting purpose and entering recipient details. Venngage’s AI drafts a complete, professional certificate layout in under five minutes, including placeholders for names, dates, titles and messaging. 

A drag-and-drop editor lets you tweak fonts, colors and layout. You can upload your logo via the Brand Kit, replace icons, adjust backgrounds and then download instantly as PDF or PNG—ready to print, share or email.

Where does this online course certificate maker fall short, then? 

Venngage AI Certificate Generator lacks bulk issuance: there's no CSV upload, automated emailing, hosting, verification or analytics. After the design stage, any additional customization to your finished certificate requires manual adjustments.

This online course certificate maker is perfect for one-off certificates, but doesn’t support workflows needed by organizations issuing dozens or hundreds of certificates regularly.

08 LLM-based open tools (e.g. ChatGPT)

When you're tempted to go DIY and use ChatGPT to generate certificates for your online course, it can feel like a brilliant hack... until you realize how unreliable it really is.

ChatGPT lets you draft certificate wording and even suggests layouts or placement ideas through plain-text prompts. It’s handy for brainstorming personalized messages or creative phrasing.

But it’s very, very imprecise.

Here's a certificate we generated with Certifier:

Now, tasking ChatGPT to create a similar course certificate:

ChatGPT frequently gives different responses depending on your prompt wording, far from being reliable for polished, professional certificates. It seems to be quick and easy, but won't let you scale.

ChatGPT lacks consistency across runs and can hallucinate details, misplace names or dates or generate uneven design suggestions—as seen above. It’s not the greatest pick as your online course certificate maker.

It also gives you no visual or automation tools—you get the reflection of your text output only. Layout, graphic elements, formatting, batch issuance, emailing, verification, hosting, analytics, free templates, text boxes—none of that exists.

ChatGPT can be helpful for seeding ideas for layouts. But if you're serious about issuing polished, scalable, verifiable certificates, it's not just early days—it's entirely the wrong tool for the job.

AI or a comprehensive online course certificate maker?

Every tool we explored, from free online certificate makers to AI design assistants, offers unique strengths for creating professional-looking certificates. But only one stands out as a complete solution, capable of handling design, automation, distribution, verification and analytics from A to Z.

With Certifier, a free online certificate maker, you get everything in one place: beautiful available templates, an intuitive drag‑and‑drop builder and the ability to create PDFs or deliver PNG formats in a standard certificate size, all accessible on any mobile device.

You can add elements like logos or personal signatures, maintain a personal touch and issue credentials automatically in bulk. Plus, you can connect your course platform with Certifier and automate the certificate issuance process even further. 

Try Certifier out for free on your own or book a demo.