Our vision

Our vision for CourseLit is to establish a parallel, modern ecosystem of open-source tools that competes head-to-head with industry leaders like Teachable, Thinkific, Podia, and Learnworlds, while remaining accessible and affordable for everyone.

We are essentially building the “WordPress of course and membership platforms.”

The Problem We Solve

The current course platform landscape presents significant barriers for creators:

  1. Exorbitant Cost Barrier

    Incumbents charge high monthly fees (often $50–$200/month), burdening solo creators like marketing coaches or small businesses with 1–50 employees, especially those bootstrapping or operating in emerging markets.

  2. Feature Lock-Out and Upselling

    Essential features like certificates, subscriptions, or the ability to add their own payment gateways are locked behind expensive premium tiers, forcing creators and teams to upgrade constantly.

  3. Vendor Lock-In

    Proprietary platforms trap creators in ecosystems where data, branding, and functionality are controlled, risking loss if the platform raises prices or shuts down.

Our Foundational Philosophy

CourseLit is built on two core commitments: Affordability and Freedom.

Commitment to Affordability (The Pricing Promise)

We believe core functionality should never be a premium add-on.

  1. Single Affordable Pro Plan

    All essential features (e.g., course creation, memberships, analytics, payment gateways) are consolidated into a single Pro Plan priced under $30/month, allowing solo creators and small businesses to launch and scale without financial strain.

  2. Tiered Pricing Discipline

    Future enterprise features (e.g., SSO, advanced integrations, webhooks, API access) will be offered in a higher tier, but all essential tools will remain in the Pro Plan, ensuring accessibility for small creators and teams.

Commitment to Freedom (The Open-Source Mandate)

Creators should own their platform and destiny.

  1. No Vendor Lock-In

    The entire CourseLit stack is open-source, hosted on GitHub for longevity. If CodeLit, the company behind CourseLit, ever ceases operations, the tools remain available for anyone to use, extend, or fork, ensuring creators’ ecosystems are secure.

  2. The Free Path

    Technical users can self-host the entire stack at zero license cost for commercial use. We rely solely on other open-source projects and platforms like MongoDB that offer generous free tiers. The only cost is server hosting (e.g., $5–$20/month on AWS or DigitalOcean). The platform is fully white-labeled for branding freedom.

  3. Documentation and Community

    We provide up-to-date documentation and maintain an active community (e.g., Discord, GitHub Discussions) to make self-hosting accessible, even for users with moderate technical skills (e.g., familiarity with basic server setup).

  4. Community-Driven Evolution

    Technical users, such as developers building custom platforms for agencies, can contribute code (e.g., gamification features, Zapier integrations), documentation, or feature requests via GitHub. Solo creators and small businesses benefit from these enhancements without needing to code, ensuring the platform evolves based on real user needs, not corporate priorities.

Service and Access Model

CourseLit offers two ways to access the platform, tailored to creators’ needs:

Access ModelTarget UserKey Principle
Managed SaaS (courselit.app)Solo Creators (e.g., marketing coaches, consultants) and Small Businesses who value convenience and supportHigh-Value, Hassle-Free: We handle hosting, updates, and maintenance via the affordable Pro Plan under $30/month, delivering a plug-and-play experience for creators scaling to 10,000+ students. Community-driven features enhance the platform without requiring technical skills
Self-Hosted (Open Source)Technical Users (e.g., developers, edtech startups) seeking control or cost-free evaluationZero-Cost Access: Users download the stack from GitHub and host it themselves (e.g., on AWS, DigitalOcean). All features, including future enterprise tools, are available. Contributors shape the platform’s future via code or feedback

Conclusion

CourseLit is more than a platform; it’s a mission to empower online educators—from solo creators to small businesses—with a modern, feature-rich, and ethical alternative to costly course platforms. We aim to be the obvious choice for:

  1. Serious Creators, including solo professionals (e.g., marketing coaches, consultants) and small businesses (e.g., agencies, edtech startups with 1–50 employees), who seek a cost-effective, feature-rich platform to scale their courses and memberships without technical barriers.

  2. Technical Users, like developers or edtech startups, who want a customizable, open-source alternative to proprietary platforms, with opportunities to shape its evolution.

By combining affordability, open-source freedom, and community-driven innovation, we’re building a platform that grows with creators’ needs, much like WordPress transformed web publishing. CourseLit is the obvious choice for anyone seeking to build and scale their online school or training program with confidence and control.

Join Our Community

Join our Discord channel to get help, request features, or just hang out with an awesome community of creators.

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