Course Platform Kit

Your own course platform — pay once, deploy it yourself, keep every sale

Course platforms bill $42–179 every month, and several charge extra when you use your own Stripe. This kit is the opposite: a boilerplate course site — Markdown and video lessons, student access, progress tracking, drip schedules, email hooks and your own Stripe checkout — one Node process, no runtime dependencies, a working demo course included. One payment of $249. No subscription.

Get the kit — $249
One-time payment · ≈ THB 8,590 · free updates for v1.x · instant download
Instant download · 30-day refund, no questions · human reply within a day · secure checkout by Stripe
Every Zicula kit ships with its own key art — this one's yours.

The math that pays for the kit on day one

Published prices from the platforms' own pricing pages, checked 20 September 2026. A solo creator selling courses pays these every month — the kit's platform cost happens once.

Platform Entry price (2026) Platform fee on your sales ~3-year cost at $10k/yr sales
Teachable $39/mo (Starter) 7.5% + 5-product cap ≈ $3,294
Podia $42/mo billed yearly ($504) 5% on the entry plan ≈ $3,012
Thinkific $54/mo ($40 billed yearly) Gateway fee if you use your own Stripe ≈ $1,440+
Kajabi $179/mo ($143 billed yearly) +2%/1%/0.5% if not using Kajabi Payments ≈ $5,748
Payhip $0/mo 5% per sale ≈ $1,500
Gumroad $0/mo 10% + $0.50 per sale ≈ $3,150
Course Platform Kit $249 once 0% — your own Stripe account $249 + hosting ($0–240/yr)

Sources: official pricing pages — teachable.com/pricing · podia.com/pricing · thinkific.com/pricing · kajabi.com/pricing · payhip.com/pricing · gumroad.com/pricing. 3-year figures include each plan's published transaction fees at $10,000/yr sales; every option pays the same Stripe processing (~2.9% + 30¢), which is excluded. Prices change — re-check before you buy anything.

What's inside the kit

One zip, 31 files: a runnable platform (Node 18+, standard library only — nothing to npm install), a demo course you can enroll in within two minutes, and the docs that take you from first run to your first sale.

Course site

Markdown + video lessons

Write lessons in plain Markdown — headings, tables, code blocks — and embed video from YouTube, Vimeo, Mux or Cloudflare Stream. The landing page, curriculum and lesson pages render from one course.json.

Student access

Access codes or paid enrollment

Run cohorts with email + access code, or sell open enrollment through Stripe. Signed-cookie sessions, a one-click enrollment link per student, and a resend form — students stop asking you for links.

Checkout

Your own Stripe, wired

Paste a Stripe Payment Link or let the server create Checkout Sessions with your keys. A signature-verified webhook grants access on payment. Card data touches Stripe, this server stores none.

Email hooks

Welcome, receipt, drip reminders

Three editable templates with placeholders, delivered via Resend (or any provider — one function to swap). During development an outbox mode writes every message to disk so you read exactly what students get.

Progress + drip

Completion tracking and drip schedules

Students mark lessons complete and see their progress bar; any lesson can unlock N days after enrollment. Data lives in JSON files you own and can back up with rsync.

Docs + license

Six-chapter SETUP + commercial license

SETUP.md goes from first run to selling in six checked steps; deploy.md covers VPS, Docker and Node PaaS. One commercial license per buyer: use it for your courses and client builds.

The 8-step README-buyer quickstart
README-buyer — the 8-step quickstart
The six-chapter SETUP guide, each chapter ends with a checked result
Six-chapter SETUP, checked as you go
A demo lesson written in plain Markdown
A demo lesson in plain Markdown
checkout.js — the signature-verified Stripe webhook
checkout.js — the signature-verified Stripe webhook
The deploy guide: VPS, Docker or PaaS
Deploy guide: VPS, Docker or PaaS

Real files from the zip, rendered as-is — no mockups.

Who's behind this?

Zicula is a one-person studio — hi, I'm Zic. Every kit here, including this one, is written, tested and shipped through documented process, and the support email is answered by me, not a helpdesk. This store's own build, QA and deploy pipeline runs on the same kind of SOPs and checklists we sell.

  • Free sample, instant download — no email required.
  • 30-day refund, processed in Stripe — no forms, no interrogation.
  • Free updates for v1.x — full history in the store changelog.
  • Real human support: [email protected]

What this kit is not

Not a hosted service. There is no dashboard to log into and nothing of ours to outgrow. You deploy the code on hosting you control (a $4–6 VPS or a free Node tier is enough to start) and you own the student data — JSON files in your own backups.

Not a no-code tool. You will run one command and edit one JSON file. That is the whole learning curve, but it is not zero. If you want zero commands, a hosted platform is the honest choice — that is what their monthly fee buys.

No tax autopilot. With your own Stripe you are the merchant of record: enable Stripe Tax for VAT/sales tax or take local advice. The kit includes a Stripe Tax section so this does not surprise you at launch.

From zip to selling

The demo course runs in two minutes; most people reach a deployed, test-mode-selling site the same afternoon.

Step 1 — minutes

Run the demo course

node app/server.js — enroll with the demo access code, complete a lesson, watch progress persist. A working example of every feature, not a skeleton.

Step 2 — an hour

Make it yours

new-course.sh scaffolds your curriculum; write lessons in Markdown, embed your videos, set price and access mode. The preflight script validates everything before you announce it.

Step 3 — same day

Deploy and sell

Follow deploy.md to a VPS, Docker or PaaS, wire your Stripe webhook in test mode, then go live. Your course URL, your Stripe payouts, your student list.

One payment. The platform is yours.

Less than one month of an entry hosted plan — for the whole platform, for good.

$249
one-time payment

≈ THB 8,590

  • The full platform: lessons, access, checkout, email, progress, drip
  • Demo course that runs in 2 minutes (code LAUNCH2026)
  • Six-chapter SETUP + authoring, Stripe, email, deploy, troubleshooting docs
  • Commercial license: your courses + client builds
  • Free updates for v1.x
Buy the kit — $249

Secure checkout by Stripe. Instant download link after payment.

Instant download · 30-day refund, no questions · human reply within a day · secure checkout by Stripe
30-day refund: if the kit does not fit how you work, write to us within 30 days of purchase and we refund the full amount — no forms, no interrogation.

Not sure yet? Try a free sample

Two real files from the kit, trimmed to taste: the complete Stripe webhook signature-verification function from app/lib/checkout.js — the exact code that grants access after payment — and the course.json authoring excerpt from docs/authoring.md, the schema every course in the kit is built on. Instant download — no email needed.

Download the free sample (zip) Read what's inside first →

Frequently asked questions

Is this another Kajabi or Teachable?

No — those are hosted services, and good at it. This kit is for the other decision: you would rather own a small platform, deploy it yourself, pay nothing monthly, and route sales through your own Stripe. If you do not want to touch a terminal, stay hosted — that is a fair trade, not a mistake.

What exactly do I get?

A zip with 31 files: the platform (one Node process using only the standard library), a demo course with 5 lessons you can enroll in immediately, three email templates, a preflight script, a course scaffold script, six documents (SETUP, authoring, Stripe, email, deploy, troubleshooting) and five screenshots. Plain code and Markdown throughout.

Do I need to be a developer?

You need comfort with a terminal and editing a text file — that is genuinely the whole skill set. There is nothing to compile and no database to install; if you have run "node" before, you can run this. Agencies use the kit to build for creators who would rather not.

Who handles VAT and sales tax?

You do — that is part of owning the checkout. Stripe Tax can calculate, collect and report in supported countries once you enable it; the kit's Stripe doc has a section on setting it up before launch, so it is a checklist item rather than a surprise.

What is the refund policy?

If the kit doesn't fit how you work, write to us within 30 days of purchase and we refund in full — the files are yours to keep or delete. One refund per purchase; we only ask for optional feedback.

What if I get stuck?

The troubleshooting doc covers the real failure modes — startup validation errors, webhook signature failures, lost enrollment links, deliverability. Email support is included, and every v1.x update is free; re-download any time from your download page.