How to sell a course online

How to sell a course online: the short answer

To sell a course online, put it on a platform that hosts the lessons, takes payment at a checkout and gives you a sales page, then set a price and publish. There are two routes: list the course on a marketplace, which sets its own rules, or create and sell a course online from your own school on a course platform.

The steps below cover the own-school route. Where the lessons are hosted is its own question, answered on where can I host my online course.

Five steps from finished lessons to a first sale

1. Choose the platform and set up the school. Pick a course platform that hosts the course and takes payment, then give the school its name, description, time zone and contact email.
2. Build the course. Create the course and add its learning activities: videos, ebooks, quizzes and live sessions. Leave it as a draft until the lessons are in.
3. Set the price and the offer. Make the course paid and set its price. The plain offer is a one-time payment, where learners pay once for unlimited access.
4. Connect Stripe or PayPal. A payment gateway must be connected before the first sale. Stripe accepts cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Set the currency you will charge in first.
5. Publish the sales page and go live. Publish the course and every page learners should see, then buy the course with a test learner account before real buyers do.

What it looks like on LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds Starter is enough to build and sell paid courses with your own Stripe or PayPal, at $29 a month, billed monthly, plus $5 per paid enrollment, as read on October 4, 2026, and the best online course platform comparison puts it beside its rivals.

Its Quick Start guides name the screen for each step. School details sit under Settings, School Settings, School Info. A course starts at Courses & Programs, Courses, Create Course, where the Course Creation Wizard asks for an access type: Draft, Free, Paid, Private or Coming Soon. A paid course opens only to buyers or to people you enroll by hand. Gateways connect under Settings, Financial, Payment Gateways, as LearnWorlds payment gateway covers.

Connect the Stripe account you mean to keep: the documentation says not to connect a different one later. PayPal needs a business account and asks for a Client ID and a Secret. US dollars are on the currency list, and the site builder, on every plan, makes the sales page. Test the purchase in sandbox mode, then switch it off at launch: the PayPal article warns that a school left in sandbox gives paid course access without payment.

The first real sale needs a paid plan, because the free trial cannot connect a payment gateway. LearnWorlds can be tried for 30 days with no credit card, which is enough to build the course and the sales page before paying. A LearnWorlds school owns its content and learner data and can export contacts and sales at any time. LearnWorlds pricing shows how the enrollment fee works.

Which platform to sell on

Starter cannot offer free courses, bundles, subscriptions or installments, which start at Pro Trainer, $99 a month, billed monthly.

The alternative is Teachable Starter, $39 a month, billed monthly, with a 7.5% transaction fee, for a seller who prefers a percentage fee to a flat $5 on each sale. A seller who lists on a marketplace needs no school of their own and accepts the marketplace's terms.