Skillest vs Onform for Coaches: Video Tool or Complete Business Platform?

Brian Park, Skillest CEO

If you coach golf and you’re looking at tools to deliver video lessons and run your practice, Skillest and Onform are both worth evaluating. Onform is an asynchronous video coaching tool with analysis features with a focus on golf. Skillest also offers video analysis tools, but it is known as a coaching business platform that includes video analysis alongside everything else you need to run and grow your coaching practice.

The question is whether you want a single video tool, and manage billing, scheduling, marketing, and student acquisition separately, or one platform that handles all of it.

Quick verdict (TL;DR)

Onform gives coaches a tool for asynchronous video coaching: drawing tools, voice-over, side-by-side comparison, slow-motion, multi-camera, and 3D golf visualization at the Pro tier. It does not bring you new students, handle your billing, manage your schedule, collect public ratings and reviews, or automate your marketing.

Skillest offers video analysis with all of the standard annotation tools you woulde expect. In addition, Skillest offers AI-powered skeleton tracking and AI summaries of lessons so you and your clients can quickly review what you previously worked on together. In addition, Skillest offers a coaching marketplace that brings you new students, the ability to schedule and book in person coaching sessions, the ability to sell courses and subscriptions, gather public ratings and reviews, and marketing automation tools.

If you want the best platform to manage clients and grow your business, Skillest is the natural choice. Onform has great video analysis tools. Some coaches decide to use both for different clients and different purposes.

What each one is

Onform is an asynchronous video coaching app built for coaches to use with their existing clients. The workflow: a coach receives or records a student video, marks it up with drawing tools, voice-over, side-by-side comparisons, and slow-motion replay, then shares it back. Coach tiers range from $19.99/month (Basic: up to 2,000 videos, core analysis tools) to $59.99/month (Pro: 3D golf visualization, 4-angle multi-cam, kinematic sequence). Price may change at any time. Founded 2020 by Gear Fisher and Krishna Ramachandran. Used across 150+ sports, with golf as the largest category.

Onform has no marketplace. There is no directory where students browse coaches and hire one. You bring your own clients. Onform has no billing system, no scheduling tool, no marketing automation, no public ratings and reviews, and no courses.

Skillest is an online coaching marketplace and a suite of business tools with a focus on golf. As a coach you get video analysis with AI-powered skeleton tracking, a marketplace that brings you new students, integrated billing and payment processing, a scheduling calendar for in-person and online lessons, the ability to sell subscriptions and courses, public ratings and reviews, and marketing automation, all for $59 a month. Founded 2015, headquartered in San Francisco Bay Area. Although Skillest is known as a golf coaching marketplace, their coaches deliver twice as many in-person lessons compared to online lessons using the platform.

The core difference: business platform vs video tool

Onform is a video tool. Skillest is a business platform that includes video tools.

With Onform, every student in your account is one you found yourself. Onform has no marketplace, no public coach directory, no student discovery. You bring the clients, you bill them separately, and you manage the relationship outside the app.

With Skillest, golfers actively searching for a coach can find your profile, read your reviews, and book directly. That’s a lead-generation channel Onform doesn’t offer. Every in-person lesson you deliver through Skillest can generate a verified public review that helps the next golfer searching your specialty find you.

Another difference is the lesson organization. Onform creates a workspace where all of the communication lives. Skillest provides a messaging area for general discussion and questions and a lessons area specifically for technique, swing analysis, and drills. Skillest’s lessons interface organizes each session into videos, analysis, drills, messages, and AI summary. The AI lesson summary alone saves meaningful time before every session, giving you a structured recap of what you worked on, what drills were set, and where the student left off.

Video analysis: how they compare

Onform focuses primarily on video analysis, and they are one of the leading players for video analysis tools.

Skillest provides many of the same video analysis tools as Onform. But Skillest’s focus is on a lot more than video analysis. Skillest provides coaches with video analysis, messaging, billing, scheduling, marketing, automation and AI summaries. Skillest can replace 4 or 5 different companies you might be using today. In that regard Skillest is like an operating system coaches can use to run every aspect of their business.

What Skillest replaces for your business

Most coaches evaluating Onform are already paying for several separate tools to run their practice: a video analysis tool, a messaging platform, a payment backend, a scheduling tool, and some form of marketing to stay in touch with clients and attract new ones.

Skillest replaces all five for $59 a month. The platform includes AI-powered video analysis with skeleton tracking, client messaging, integrated billing and payments, a scheduling system for both in-person and online lessons, and marketing automation tools that let you broadcast messages to your entire client list. Onform, even at the Pro tier, covers the video analysis piece. Billing, scheduling, student discovery, course sales, and marketing automation all require separate apps.

Which should you pick?

• “I want the deepest video analysis tools available, 3D golf visualization, kinematic sequence, 4-angle multi-cam, and I already have billing, scheduling, and student acquisition sorted.” Onform Pro is purpose-built for that analysis workflow.
• “I want to grow my client base, manage my whole business from one platform, and have solid video tools included.” Skillest handles the full business stack, video, billing, scheduling, marketing, marketplace, in one place for $59/month.
• “I currently use Onform with my in-person clients and want to add an online coaching channel and marketplace presence.” Skillest works alongside Onform. Many coaches keep Onform for their in-person video workflow and use Skillest for online students, marketplace visibility, and business management.

Try it

Set up a Skillest coach profile and see what the business platform looks like. Most coaches find the consolidation alone pays for itself before they count a single new marketplace student.

FAQ

Does Onform have better video analysis tools than Skillest?
Onform focuses primarily on video anlaysis tools and is a leader in this space. Skillest provides many of the same video analylsis tools offered by Onform, but it also offers a lot of features that are not offered by Onform. If you are only looking for a video analysis solution, Onform is a good candidate to consider.

But if you are looking for one platform that works seamlessly to handle all aspects of your business, there is no competitor that does everything Skillest does.

Does Onform bring me new students?
No. Onform has no marketplace or public coach directory. Every student in your Onform account is one you recruited yourself. Skillest’s marketplace is where student discovery happens.

Can I use both Onform and Skillest?
Yes. Many coaches use Onform and Skillest together depending on which platform their clients have been on.

How does pricing compare?
Onform Coach Pro is $59.99/month for video tools only. Skillest is $59/month and includes billing, scheduling, marketing automation, marketplace access, public ratings and reviews, and courses on top of the video analysis tools. It’s always best to check each companies pricing to see up to date pricing.

Does Skillest take a commission on lessons?
Yes: 0% on in-person lessons, 1% on hybrid, 13% on online marketplace lessons. Onform takes no commission because you bill clients directly through your own system. Skillest’s online commission is the cost of marketplace student acquisition, you trade a percentage for students you wouldn’t otherwise have reached.