And then there’s WordPress — the original DIY option, and honestly where I started before switching to Teachable. The old WordPress course plugins were clunky and painful to use. But they’ve gotten much better. If I had to recommend one free WordPress course plugin right now, it would be LearnPress. It has a genuinely free plan that lets you build and run a full course on your existing WordPress site. You will need a separate payment processor (PayPal or WooCommerce both work), and you’ll want to configure it carefully — but it gets the job done.
Shopping Cart Software
If you use SamCart ($79/month), their built-in LMS features are included at no extra charge – no need to add a separate course hosting tool.
ThriveCart is SamCart’s main competitor and offers one-time lifetime pricing that a lot of people love. However, the “Learn” feature — which lets you use ThriveCart as a course platform — does cost extra, either as an additional monthly or one-time fee.
Email Marketing Platforms
Kit(formerly ConvertKit) and Mailerliteboth offer online course hosting built into their email marketing plans. The features are more minimal than a dedicated course platform, but if you’re already using one of these tools and want a simple, free way to get started, they’re worth considering.
The Best Free Dedicated Option: Systeme.io
Here’s the one I forgot to include in my initial research until a group of my students reminded me. And honestly, it’s become my top recommendation for anyone starting from scratch.
Systeme.io has a free plan — no credit card required.
It’s not just an online course platform. It’s a full all-in-one tool — website, email marketing, automations, course hosting, memberships, community, landing pages, and checkout pages.
I talked to several students who are actually using it, and here’s what they told me:
What’s good: It really does check all the boxes. Easy to use, solid features, and the free plan is legitimate.
What to know going in: The free plan limits you to 2,000 contacts, 1 tag, 1 automation, and 1 email campaign. That means you can launch your first course, but the moment you want to send different emails to different customer groups (say, a welcome sequence for your list vs. an onboarding sequence for course buyers), you’ll need to upgrade to the Startup plan.
Two smaller drawbacks: The page builder can feel a bit restrictive. You can’t drag and drop visual elements as freely as you might want. And the community feature, while functional, is text-only and a bit basic compared to something like a Facebook group.
None of these are dealbreakers, especially at the price. Systeme.io isn’t perfect, but for sheer value — especially on the free plan — nothing else comes close right now.
The Cheapest Dedicated Course Platform: Skool ($9/month)
If you want a dedicated course platform with a proper community component and don’t want to spend much, Skoolat $9/month is by far the most affordable option in this category.
It was founded by some well-known entrepreneurs and has gotten significant backing and visibility. The platform is clean and community-focused, which is its main draw.
The tradeoff: you’re building inside Skool’s ecosystem, not your own branded site. It’s a bit like running a membership out of a Facebook group — it works, but your members know they’re on Skool’s platform, not yours. For some creators, that’s fine. For others, it’s a reason to look elsewhere.
Gumroad: Technically Free (But Read the Fine Print)
Gumroad was originally built for selling digital products — ebooks, PDFs, downloads — and it shows. You can technically run an online course through it by selling a PDF that links to your video lessons, but the experience is clunky and I wouldn’t call it a proper course platform.
The bigger issue: Gumroad takes 10% of every sale (covering their fee and payment processing) plus $0.50 per transaction. There’s no monthly subscription, but that per-sale fee adds up fast. It ends up near the bottom of my list even though it’s technically one of the few “free” options.
