9 Best Digital Badge Platforms for SaaS Academies

The quick answer

Quick answer: if you want verifiable badges that customers can add to LinkedIn after finishing your product academy, Certifier has a free plan and paid plans from $118 a month billed annually, Accredible starts at $45 a month on a 12-month term, Virtualbadge.io starts at $26 a month billed yearly, and Open Badge Factory sells yearly licences from €220. Sertifier prices by the number of people you credential each year, and Credly, part of Pearson, is quote only and best known for professional and product certifications. If you want achievement badges inside your product instead, PLG OS (our own product) and Trophy award badges or achievements from product events, and BadgeOS does the same on WordPress sites. Prices are as of October 2026, checked on each vendor's own site.

Credential badges vs in-app achievement badges

Two kinds of tools call themselves badge platforms, and they solve different problems.

• Credential badge platforms issue a badge as a verifiable record: each badge has a public verification page showing who issued it, to whom and when, and recipients share it on LinkedIn or store it in a wallet. Several follow the Open Badges standard. SaaS companies use them for certification programs, customer academies, partner training and community programs.
• In-app achievement badges live inside your product. They reward actions such as finishing setup, using a feature for the first time or keeping a streak, and their job is engagement and retention rather than proof of skill.

Many SaaS teams need both: an in-app badge when a user completes onboarding, and a shareable credential when they pass a certification. For the in-app side, our guide to gamification platforms for SaaS covers the wider set of mechanics.

Digital badge platforms compared

1. Credly

Who it is for: companies running professional or product certifications that want their badges in a recognized network.

Pricing: not published; Credly's pricing link goes to a demo request.

Strengths: Credly, a Pearson company, issues verified digital badges automatically and places them in a searchable network of issuers. It has dedicated solutions for product certification providers, training providers and employers, plus workforce skills insights.

Limits: no self-serve plan or public price, so it suits established certification programs more than a first academy course.

2. Accredible

Who it is for: customer academies and training providers that want badges and certificates with branding and learning pathways.

Pricing: the Launch plan starts at $45 a month on a 12-month term, billed monthly, with 50 recipients. Connect and Growth plans are custom. Plans are priced by unique recipients per year, and each recipient can receive unlimited credentials. Source: Accredible pricing.

Strengths: badge and certificate design, blockchain credentials and email support on Launch; pathways, digital wallet cards, insights reporting and a dedicated customer success manager on Connect; white-labeling and program marketing analytics on Growth. It integrates with LMS and other learning tools.

Limits: pathways and most program features start on Connect, which is quote only.

3. Certifier

Who it is for: small teams that want to start issuing badges for free and grow into automation.

Pricing: the Starter plan is free, with an annual issuing limit. Professional is $118 a month billed annually ($138 on monthly billing) and Advanced is $254 a month billed annually ($299 monthly). Enterprise is custom. Source: Certifier pricing.

Strengths: even the free plan includes 3,000+ templates, bulk issuing from CSV, LinkedIn sharing, a verification page for every credential, an API, webhooks and an MCP server, and Certifier says its badges meet the Open Badges 3.0 standard. Professional adds expiration and renewals, LMS integrations such as Canvas, Moodle and LearnDash, and wallet cards. Advanced adds a custom domain and pathways that stack badges into a final credential.

Limits: branding and LMS integrations need a paid plan.

4. Sertifier

Who it is for: education and training teams that want to issue credentials automatically from an LMS or CRM.

Pricing: priced by the number of people you credential in a year, with monthly or yearly billing (two months free on yearly). Sertifier lists 25% off the first year for startups and 20% off for education and nonprofits, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Enterprise adds SSO. Source: Sertifier pricing.

Strengths: a REST API and webhooks for automatic issuing, one-click LinkedIn sharing, public credential pages and PDF export. Issued credentials stay valid if you cancel.

Limits: no fixed price is shown until you set your recipient volume, and branding and advanced analytics are paid add-ons.

5. Virtualbadge.io

Who it is for: course creators and event organizers issuing certificates and badges in bulk.

Pricing: at the smallest volume, Lite is $35 a month on monthly billing or $26 a month billed yearly, and Growth is $75 a month or $49 a month billed yearly; Plus starts at $110 a month on monthly billing. Prices rise with credential volume, and Enterprise is custom. Source: Virtualbadge.io pricing.

Strengths: bulk sending from CSV, QR codes and validation pages and LinkedIn badges on Lite; API access, Zapier and Zoom integrations and expiry management on Growth; Google and Apple Wallet support on Plus.

Limits: API access starts on Growth, and recipient accounts and badge catalogues are Enterprise features.

6. Open Badge Factory

Who it is for: organizations that want an Open Badges issuing service on a simple yearly licence.

Pricing: Basic is €220 a year (10 badge classes, up to 5,000 badges a year), Premium €700 a year (unlimited badge classes, up to 15,000 badges) and Pro €1,280 a year (up to 50,000 badges, API integration, PDF certificates and a report generator). Prices exclude VAT. Source: Open Badge Factory pricing.

Strengths: built around the Open Badges standard, with badge applications and endorsements on every plan and meta badges from Premium.

Limits: prices are in euros, and the API is only on Pro.

7. PLG OS

Who it is for: SaaS products that want to award badges to users inside the app. PLG OS is our own product, so weigh this entry with that in mind.

Pricing: a free tier covers 100 monthly tracked users and one component; Starter is $49 a month and Growth $149 a month. Source: PLG OS pricing.

Strengths: the component library includes Badges next to streaks, a leaderboard screen and challenges, and the gamification page describes giving badges to your most active users. If badges sit inside a broader program, our comparison of leaderboard software covers the ranking side.

Limits: these are in-app badges, not verifiable credentials with a public verification page.

8. Trophy

Who it is for: developers who want achievements driven by product events through an API.

Pricing: Pro is $299 a month with 10,000 users included; Business is $599 a month. Both start with a 30-day trial. Source: Trophy pricing.

Strengths: the achievements docs cover metric, API, streak, anniversary and composite achievements, with points, streaks and leaderboards on the same platform.

Limits: you build the badge UI, and like PLG OS these are product achievements rather than shareable credentials.

9. BadgeOS

Who it is for: membership, community and course sites on WordPress.

Pricing: Single Site is $69 a year, All Access $179 a year and Unlimited Sites $259 a year. Source: BadgeOS.

Strengths: a badge builder inside WordPress, required-steps rules for each achievement, points and ranks, and a widget that shows members what they have earned. A social sharing add-on lets users share badges.

Limits: WordPress only.

How to choose a digital badge platform

Decide what the badge proves. If it proves a skill and the recipient will show it to an employer, pick a credential platform with verification pages and LinkedIn sharing: Certifier or Virtualbadge.io for a low-cost start, Accredible or Sertifier for automation from your LMS, Open Badge Factory for an Open Badges licence, or Credly for an established certification. If the badge rewards product use, an in-app tool such as PLG OS or Trophy is a better fit, because it reacts to product events in real time.

Then connect badges to the moments that matter. In a SaaS academy that is passing a course or a certification exam. In the product it is finishing onboarding or adopting a key feature. Our guide to in-app training strategies covers where learning fits in the product, and our list of rewards that motivate SaaS users covers what to pair with a badge.

FAQs

What is a digital badge platform?

A digital badge platform lets an organization design, issue and manage badges that recipients can share online. Credential platforms such as Credly, Accredible and Certifier add a verification page for each badge showing who issued it, to whom and when.

What is the difference between a digital badge and an in-app badge?

A digital badge from a credential platform is a verifiable record that recipients share on LinkedIn or keep in a wallet. An in-app badge, such as those from PLG OS or Trophy, rewards actions inside a product and is meant to drive engagement, not to prove a skill.

Is there a free digital badge platform?

Certifier has a free Starter plan with an annual issuing limit that includes templates, LinkedIn sharing, verification pages and API access. Most other credential platforms start with paid plans.

Which badge platforms support Open Badges?

Certifier says its badges meet the Open Badges 3.0 standard, and Open Badge Factory is built around the Open Badges standard. Check each vendor's documentation for the version it supports before you choose.