4 Best Digital Certificate Generation Tools To Grow Courses With Social Proof
Let's compare some of the market leaders and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.
Apr 1, 2022
12 minutes
| by
Giovanna Pergher
So you’re looking for a digital certificate generation tool, but you’re not sure which one is the best fit for you?
No worries - we’re here to help you make a final verdict.
We tried the four best certificate generation tools on the market, and here’s our feedback and in-depth comparison.
The best certification generation tools we’re going to compare are:
Virtualbadge.io
Canva
Badgr
Credly
To go even further - we evaluated each tool from 1 to 5 for the following criteria:
Ease of use
Pricing
Customer Support
Design capabilities
Overall score as a digital certificate generator
Ready?
Let’s see what’s the best digital certificate generation tool for you.
TL;DR
Don’t have time to read the entire comparison? No worries, here’s the quick comparison sheet and a breakdown:
If you create less than ten certificates a month and don’t need a dedicated certificate generation solution, then Canva will fit you perfectly.
If you’re looking for a tool to elevate your employee onboarding and gamify their experience, then Badgr’s badges will be the best choice.
If you’re an enterprise that requires a robust certificate solution and don’t mind paying a lot of money, then Credly is the best fit.
And,
If you’re an SMB course creator or education company requiring an automatic and easy-to-use certificate generation tool, then Virtualbadge.io is the perfect solution for you.
Virtualbadge.io - LinkedIn-first Digital Certificate Generation Tool
Virtualbadge.io allows you to quickly and easily issue unique certificates of completion for the students/participants of your courses or academies.
It’s a complete all-in-one solution - that allows you to:
Create different certificates
Automatically issue them to your participants upon completion
Make sharing of certificates on social media frictionless
Track the performance and analytics of how your certificates perform on social media (to have a clear view of awareness and word-of-mouth it brings to your course).
Anyway, without further ado, let’s dive a little deeper into the strengths and shortcomings of Virtualbadge.io.
Full disclosure - I know you are thinking right now: “Wow, you’re soo promotional! Virtualbadge.io is your own tool” - but hear us out - we don’t believe Virtualbadge.io is the best solution on the market. It’s not the right fit for everyone, and that’s fair. But on the other hand, it might be an excellent fit for some. So no worries, we’re going to objectively evaluate our tool as well as we’re going to do with other products.
Virtualbadge.io - Advantages
Here’s what makes Virtualbadge.io an excellent choice for everyone who’s running their online course, academy, or masterclass:
LinkedIn-first digital certificate generator - Virtualbadge.io is, first and foremost, created for business experts whose dream students are hanging out on LinkedIn. It allows you to quickly and easily create various certificates for your students. These certificates are directly connected to LinkedIn - giving you more social proof, awareness, and potentially - new students.
It will even add your certificate to the recipients’ Licenses & Certifications LinkedIn profile section, giving you even more exposure and reach.
You can create certificates automatically - Forget about manually creating certificates for your students inside Word or PowerPoint. Virtualbadge.io allows you to create certificates automatically by creating hundreds of certificates at scale for your students or when they finish a program.
Easy-to-use - Virtualbadge.io is extremely easy to use, even for non-techy people. Creating your certificates, personalizing them, and making them available to your students is frictionless.
Excellent customer support - I know this sounds like a cliche - but this is true. Virtualbadge.io team is always there to quickly assist you as much as possible. Your success is our success. Don’t take our word for it:
Certificate validation - every certificate can be validated, providing you and your students with another dose of trust and credibility.
Virtualbadge.io - Shortcomings
No tool is perfect, right? We have some shortcomings as well but working hard to make them up for you:
The design could be a bit better - Designing your certificates in Virtualbadge.io is not as easy as in Canva, for example. However, with some extra effort and a couple of minutes later, you’ll still be able to build cutting-edge certificates for your students.
There is no free plan - Unfortunately, Virtualbadge.io doesn’t have a free plan to offer. But the price you’re paying for it, even in the smallest package (that costs $9/mo when billed annually), is more than worthy. Just think about all those hours that the software saves for you.
It requires credit card info for a free trial - To activate your 7-day free trial, you’ll need to fill out your credit card info. You can always cancel in the next seven days, with no hard strings attached.
Virtualbadge.io - Pricing
Virtualbadge.io has three main plans:
Also, keep in mind that the price may vary depending on how many certificates you issue per year. The price goes up the more certifications you issue. This means our team supports you on your journey - from a small course-maker to a large academy.
So, here’s a breakdown of the starting packages if you pay annually:
Starter - $9/mo - for 300 certificates per year
Pro - $35/mo - for 600 certificates per year
Expert - $75/mo - for 1200 certificates per year
Virtualbadge.io - The Final Verdict
We can conclude that Virtualbadge.io is a tremendous digital certificate generation tool for courses, academies, and other programs whose primary audience is congregating on LinkedIn.
With some minor drawbacks on the side, it’s a great solution that supports your entire lifecycle - from creating stunning certificates, over automatically issuing them to allowing your students to easily share them on their social media - giving you more awareness and eyeballs.
Oh, did we also mention that you have robust analytics and tracking performance for the claimed certificates?
Here are our final scores for VirtualBadge:
Ease of use - 5
Pricing - 4
Customer Support - 5
Design capabilities - 4
Overall score as a digital certificate generator - 5
Total: 4.6/5
So, choose Virtualbadge.io if you’re a course creator looking for a simple yet effective digital certificate generation tool to create certificates and awards for your students automatically.
Canva - design-first digital certificate generation software
You’re living under a rock if you haven’t heard about Canva. Canva revolutionized the way we mortals are doing design.
No more complicated Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.
Jokes aside. Canva is an all-in-one, frictionless design tool you can use to create many visuals - including certificates.
Let’s see if Canva is the best choice for you.
Canva - Advantages
Although Canva isn’t specifically designed for creating certificates of completion, it has some notable advantages over other digital certificate generation tools:
The most extensive database of certificate templates - Without overreacting, Canva has the most substantial database of templates. I guess no other tool can match that. There are almost 6000 templates to choose from:
The best design capabilities - Although Canva will never beat Photoshop or Illustrator when it comes to design capabilities, even the total beginners can make eye-catching certificates inside Canva. It’s both powerful and easy at the same time.
Has a lifetime free plan - Canva is the only digital certificate generation tool on this list to have a free plan. So if you’re low on budget, I guess this would be the best option for you.
Without any doubt, Canva has some fantastic advantages over other tools. But, a couple of shortcomings don’t make it the best fit for 90% of course creators out there.
Canva - Shortcomings
It’s too time-consuming (You can’t automatically issue certificates) - Although Canva is easy-to-use - manually creating certificates for each of your students (even though you have templates) is too time-consuming. First, you’ll need to collect all the information from them (such as the picture, for example), then crop it and fit it into the template. We’re speaking about at least 10-15 minutes per certificate. Imagine that on a scale of even 20-30 certificates per month - I would say it’s just not worth it.
No social media integration - You can’t automatically prompt your students to share their certificates on social media - they’ll need to do it manually (after you send them a pdf file). This also brings us to our next shortcoming.
No analytics to track your performance - Although you’ll know that awareness you get from your students sharing certificates online is probably there, you don’t have a clear picture.
You can’t validate certificates - You and other people can’t check if someone’s certificate issued with canva is real.
All of this makes Canva more of a design tool (as it is) that’s not suitable for issuing certificates at scale for your students.
It might be worth it to issue less than ten certificates a month. But if you’re issuing more, it won’t.
Canva - Pricing
Canva has a straightforward with three plans:
The free plan might be enough for you, but keep in mind that over 95% of great certificate templates are only available in the Pro plan.
So, is paying $12.99/mo worth it?
Canva - The Final Verdict
As we can conclude - Canva is an excellent tool for designing various visuals (including certificates). But if you’re looking for a tool that will help you issue dozens or even hundreds of certificates on the scale, Canva just won’t cut it.
Our recommendation is to go with Canva only if it isn’t your primary certificate generation tool - since if you depend only on it, you won’t end up far.
With this in mind, here are our scores:
Ease of use - 5
Pricing - 4
Customer Support - 2 (it’s tough to reach)
Design capabilities - 5
Overall score as a digital certificate generator - 2
Total: 3.6/5
Badgr - Badge-first tool
Badgr is a tool similar to Virtualbadge.io, but with a slightly different use case. Instead of creating certificates for your students, Badgr is intended for creating “progress awards” for employees and teammates in larger companies and associations.
Anyway, let’s see what Badgr stands for.
Badgr - Advantages
Great for employee onboarding and retention - Badgr essentially gamifies your entire “employee” and “company” experience. With Badgr, you can create various badges and issue them to your teammates upon reaching certain milestones.
Robust “badge creator” features - When it comes to creating and designing badges, Badgr nailed it. Quickly and easily it can create various types of badges for your employees.
You can integrate third-party courses into your onboarding flow - Badgr allows you to choose from 7 partners that offer educational services and thus integrate their courses into your own onboarding experience and learning.
Badgr - Shortcomings
Not great for individual course creators - As already discussed, Badgr is more intended for gamifying your employee onboarding experience and shaping your company culture. If you’re looking for a tool that will create the students’ certificates on the scale, then Badgr isn’t the right fit for you.
Complex learning curve - Getting around Badgr might be a bit complicated at first. The UI doesn’t follow the latest standards. Keeping the product’s complexity in mind, you’ll need to invest more time into learning how to use the tool.
Badgr - Pricing
Badgr has two straightforward plans:
The free plan will satisfy the majority’s needs - but if you want anything more extra (or if you’re a considerably larger organization), you’ll need to opt for the PRO plan that doesn’t have a disclosed price.
Badgr - The Final Verdict
If you’re looking for a digital certificate generation tool to create different badges and use them to highlight your teammates’ accomplishments, then Badgr is the right fit for you.
If you’re a course creator and you need a tool that will allow you to quickly issue certificates to your students at scale while also giving them an easy option to share them on their social media, then Badgr is not for you.
Here are our scores for Badgr:
Ease of use - 3
Pricing - 4
Customer Support - 4 (it’s tough to reach)
Design capabilities - 4
Overall score as a digital certificate generator - 4
Credly is an enterprise-first certification tool. It’s like a mix of Virtualbadge.io and Badgr. It:
Supports both badges and certificates
Can be used both for your course or for training/gamifying your employees
Let’s see Credly’s advantages and shortcomings.
Credly - Advantages
Great Account Representatives - You'll probably get your own account representative since Credly is a more enterprise-level digital certificate generator. Many people found them great and helpful.
Easy-to-use and robust onboarding - Many people found Credly extremely easy to use. Additionally, there are a lot of how-to videos you can watch to get the most out of the platform. And if you really feel stuck, their support is almost always back to you in less than 24 hours.
Credly - Shortcomings
It’s not suitable for smaller companies - This is both an advantage and a shortcoming, depending on your use case. If you’re a large company, Credly would be the perfect fit. But if you’re an individual or a smaller team, the robust platform and high price is not the right fit for you. It’s not suitable for smaller companies - This is both an advantage and a shortcoming, depending on your use case.
Price - To be honest, we don’t know the exact cost of Credly. But considering their “lack of transparency” and the fact we couldn’t find any estimated range, Credly is probably more expensive than we think. It’s perhaps the most expensive product on the market (more than $5000/year) - but this is our estimate, don’t take it for granted.
Credly - Pricing
Credly isn’t transparent about its pricing. You’ll need to speak with their sales reps to find out the exact price.
Credly - The Final Verdict
With all facts on the table, we can conclude that Credly is a fantastic tool with almost no flaws. But, its robustness and price make it a great fit only for enterprise companies and large organizations.
If you’re a small-to-medium course or educational company, then Credly is not the best choice for you, considering that there are other tools on the market that are a better fit.
Here are our scores for Credly:
Ease of use - 5
Pricing - 3
Customer Support - 5
Design capabilities - 4
Overall score as a digital certificate generator - 4
Total: 4.2/5
The Bottom Line - What’s the Best Digital Certificate Generation Tool For You?
Now comes the final verdict. What’s the best digital certificate generation tool for your particular use case?
If you create less than ten certificates a month and don’t need a dedicated certificate generation solution, then Canva will fit you perfectly.
If you’re looking for a tool to elevate your employee onboarding and gamify their experience, then Badgr’s badges will be the best choice.
If you’re an enterprise that requires a robust certificate solution and don’t mind paying a lot of money, then Credly is the best fit.
And,
If you’re an SMB course creator or education company requiring an automatic and easy-to-use certificate generation tool, then Virtualbadge.io is the perfect solution for you.
.jpg)
%20(1).svg)
.png)
