The adoption of online education, zoom classes and virtual meetings have encouraged a lot of experts to sell their own program.
Previously requiring website developers, a lot of alternative tools have emerged to facilitate this new way of teaching!
Selling online courses and membership on your website is very accessible and can easily fit into other things you’re already promoting there.
Let’s review how to practically do this and get you ready in a matter of days.
Why Selling Online Courses On Your Own Site?
A lot of creators start from scratch and get overwhelmed with the number of options available out there to host their online programs.
Most decide to go with an all in one platform such as Kajabi, Kartra or New Zenler.
But what if you already have a website with everything else you’re doing and you don’t want to migrate and learn a new platform?
If that’s the case, chances are you built your website using one of the following CMS:
- WordPress
- Square
- Wix
- Other CMS Or Custom build
Each of these have different options that we will outline here to integrate a Learning Management Software (LMS) to.
Another big upside of doing this is that since you’re hosting the website you will have full control over site speed, design and customization.
Let’s look into the solutions that exists:
Which Learning Software To Use?
There are several ways to create an online course or membership and sell them directly from your own website.
#1 Using a Plugin
Depending on which CMS you’re using, there will probably be some plugins you can use to make this a lot easier.
For example, here are our top 3 LMS plugin for WordPress
#1st WordPress LMS
Thrive Themes
Category: WordPress LMS
From:
$19/mo
Free Trial:
None
Overall Rate:
9
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Most well-rounded WordPress suite and will help with much more than just course design! This is everything you need for funnel build, lead capture, testimonials, timers, etc.
Very affordable considering what you get for it! The only other cost you’ll have would be an email marketing system and video hosting.
Ratings
Feature: 10
User Experience: 9
Pricing/Value: 10
Support & Community: 9
#2nd WordPress LMS
LearnDash
Category: WordPress LMS
From:
$199
Free Trial:
None
Overall Rate:
8.75
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
One of the most user-friendly LMS plugins, which is not always the case with these tools. Learn Dash also comes loaded with templates to make things even easier to set up.
Large community of fellow users and online course creators to brainstorm how to best use the tool and strategies for your marketing and funnel.
Simple one-off payment giving you everything you need to use this world-class tool on your WordPress site and start selling your online courses.
Ratings
Feature: 9
User Experience: 9
Pricing/Value: 8
Support & Community: 8
#3rd WordPress LMS
MemberPress
Category: WordPress LMS
From:
$129
Free Trial:
None
Overall Rate:
8
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
One of the most popular WordPress LMS plugins, Memberpress is a simple way to protect the content of your pages and build a member’s area.
Great support and experienced team to help you both use the plugins and make the most out of it.
Competitive pricing and straightforward yearly payment that includes any future updates and ongoing support.
Ratings
Feature: 9
User Experience: 9
Pricing/Value: 8
Support & Community: 8
If you’re using Wix, there are some apps that can help you achieve this, although it’s not the best customer experience.
MORE ON WIX:
Squarespace also allows you to put pages behind a paywall, which would help you create membership site pages.
#2 Using a 3rd party tool
If you’re using another type of CMS than the one we listed such as Joomla, Drupal or something… First of all, I’m very sorry and I feel your pain…
But don’t worry there are solutions out there to make this work.
An external software like MemberSpace can help you turn any website or CMS into a membership site.
Read our full review for a better understanding but essentially you’ll simply install a snippet of code in your header and be able to manage your membership restrictions from the MemberSpace platform.
All you have to do then is to create these pages with your course content on your site and manage the rest in MemberSpace.
This also works well for custom coded websites that definitely don’t have any easy plugin to use for this.
#3 Using a dedicated platform
If online courses and membership are going to be an important part of your business, then maybe using a specialized platform is your best option.
Here are a couple of ways you can go about this:
Course-only platforms
Maybe your best bet is a hybrid solution using a course-only platform.
These are self-hosted platforms that provide just enough to take payment, and host your online course.
Here are our top 3:
#1st Course-Only
Thinkific
Category: Course Only
From:
$39/mo
Free Trial:
Free Plan
Overall Rate:
8
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Great site builder without all the fuss of a WordPress setup, allowing course creators to build a well-designed funnel to get started.
Best free plan in the industry, which is a perfect starting point for beginners looking to validate their course idea without breaking the bank.
Ratings
Feature: 8
User Experience: 9
Pricing/Value: 7
Support & Community: 9
#2nd Course-Only
Teachable
Category: Course Only
From:
$29/mo
Free Trial:
14 Days
Overall Rate:
7.5
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Leader in the industry with over 100,000 users and a very mature platform that won’t let you down. This also makes it easy to find solutions to any problem you encounter.
Lightweight platform ideal for course creators who just need to sell and deliver their online courses, without the fancy bits.
Ratings
Feature: 8
User Experience: 8
Pricing/Value: 8
Support & Community: 5
#3rd Course-Only
LearnWorlds
Category: Course Only
From:
$24/mo
Free Trial:
30 Days
Overall Rate:
8.25
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Excellent feature set with smart website building abilities and intelligent global elements and synergy. Note that LearnWorlds does not include an email system.
Outstanding learning experience, including the ability to build SCORM compliant courses and other smart learning tools for your students to keep coming back.
Ratings
Feature: 9
User Experience: 8
Pricing/Value: 7
Support & Community: 8
So you can keep your website how it is now and simply send people to checkout on your course-only platform for the learning experience.
They will then get into your course hosted on that platform too.
With a bit of customization, you can make the user experience smooth when they’re switching from your website to the platform.
Migrate to an all-in-one platform
If you only have a few pages on your website and there aren’t any special functionalities that demand custom coding, maybe migrating everything to an all-in-one platform is the way!
These platforms provide both website and funnel features but also checkout & payment, email marketing and a course builder.
Below is our top pick:
#1st All-In-One
Kajabi
Category: All-In-One
From:
$119/mo
Free Trial:
30 Days
Overall Rate:
9
Special Extended 30 Days Trial!
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Includes all of the features you need, striking a great balance between depth and ease of use - making it a top choice for beginner course creators.
Outstanding UX for both you and your students and allows for great customization of their journey and learning experience with a sleek interface.
Ratings
Feature: 8
User Experience: 10
Pricing/Value: 7
Support & Community: 10
Pros
Cons
What You Should Know
Best value for your money. Ever since the beta run, the platform has offered attractive pricing while still being an all-in-one.
Integrated webinar tool, this is a feature you don’t find everywhere and could be a deal-maker for course creators wanting the ease of managing directly from their course platform.
Ratings
Feature: 9
User Experience: 8
Pricing/Value: 10
Support & Community: 8
Another upside of using such platforms is the savings you can make by combining all of your tools into one.
Also, a migration can also be an opportunity to give your website a good refresh!
How To Decide?
Ultimately, there is no one size fits all solution to selling online courses or membership.
But here are a few questions to consider when looking at the options we’ve laid out so far:
- How important are these digital products going to be for my business?
- Does my current platform offer solutions to sell online courses?
- Is my current website hard to migrate to another platform?
- Do I prefer something very customized or do I favor something easy to use?
If you’re still unsure, joining a community of course creators or talking to an expert can be a good idea.
Thinking of the long term and taking your time with this decision can save you a ton of money and trouble in the long run!
