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 — $249Published 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.
One zip, 26 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The demo course runs in two minutes; most people reach a deployed, test-mode-selling site the same afternoon.
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.
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.
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.
Less than one month of an entry hosted plan — for the whole platform, for good.
≈ THB 8,900
Secure checkout by Stripe. Instant download link after payment.
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.
A zip with 26 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, and six documents (SETUP, authoring, Stripe, email, deploy, troubleshooting). Plain code and Markdown throughout.
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.
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.
If the kit doesn't fit how you work, write to us within 14 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.
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.