Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Evolution of Selling Online Courses
- Exploring Online Course Marketplaces
- Standalone Course Hosting Platforms
- Why a Native Shopify Approach Wins
- Essential Features for a Successful Course Business
- Diversifying Your Revenue with Digital Products
- Setting Realistic Business Expectations
- Comparing the Costs of Selling Courses
- Technical Practicality: A Real-World Example
- Marketing Your Online Course
- Scaling to the Next Level
- Final Comparison: Marketplace vs. SaaS vs. Native
- FAQ
- Conclusion
Introduction
Did you know that the global e-learning market is projected to skyrocket to a staggering $325 billion by 2026? This isn't just a trend; it's a fundamental shift in how the world consumes information. For e-commerce entrepreneurs, this represents a massive opportunity to stop worrying about shipping delays or rising inventory costs and start building a high-margin digital asset. If you are already running an online store, adding a course is often the single most effective way to increase your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) while positioning yourself as an authority in your niche.
The purpose of this guide is to navigate the crowded landscape of the best websites to sell online courses. We will break down the differences between massive marketplaces, standalone SaaS platforms, and the high-growth world of native e-commerce integration. Whether you are a fitness coach looking to bundle workout plans with equipment or a craft supplier wanting to teach your customers how to use your materials, choosing the right home for your content is the first step toward success.
At Tevello, we believe that you should have complete control over your business. Our mission is to "turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse" by providing an all-in-one ecosystem where your community, digital products, and physical inventory live in harmony. In this post, we’ll explore the top choices available today and why keeping your customers on your own URL is the smartest long-term play for your brand.
The Evolution of Selling Online Courses
The way creators sell knowledge has changed dramatically over the last decade. In the early days, you either needed deep technical skills to build a custom site or you had to hand over your content to a marketplace that took a massive cut of your profits. Today, the "creator economy" has matured, and the tools have become more accessible, allowing anyone with a Shopify store to transition into the education space.
When we look at the best websites to sell online courses, we generally see three distinct categories:
- Online Course Marketplaces: Sites like Udemy or Skillshare that provide a built-in audience but offer limited branding and lower profit margins.
- Standalone Course Platforms: SaaS solutions like Kajabi or Teachable that host your courses on their infrastructure, often requiring you to manage a separate website and login for your students.
- Native E-commerce Integrations: Solutions like Tevello that allow you to sell courses directly through your existing Shopify store, providing a unified experience for both you and your customers.
Each model has its pros and cons, but for a business owner focused on building a long-term brand, the choice usually comes down to how much control you want over your customer data and your profit margins.
Exploring Online Course Marketplaces
Marketplaces are often the first stop for beginners. They offer the path of least resistance because they handle the hosting, payment processing, and even some of the marketing. However, this convenience comes at a significant cost.
Udemy: The Volume Play
Udemy is perhaps the most famous name in the space. With over 81 million students, it provides a massive potential reach. The "Udemy way" is guided and prescriptive; they tell you exactly how to structure your lessons and even review your videos for quality. For someone who has never created a digital product, this can be helpful.
However, the revenue model is where many creators find themselves frustrated. Udemy frequently runs deep discounts, often selling courses for as little as $10. If a student finds your course through Udemy’s own marketing, they can take up to 63% of the revenue. Furthermore, you don’t "own" the customer. You cannot easily export your student email list to build a relationship outside of the platform.
Skillshare: The Creative Hub
Skillshare operates on a subscription model. Instead of students buying individual courses, they pay a monthly fee for access to the entire library. Creators are then paid based on "royalties" for every minute of video watched. If you are teaching creative skills—like photography, illustration, or design—Skillshare can be a great place to build a following. But like Udemy, you are at the mercy of their algorithm and their payment structure, making it difficult to build a predictable, scalable business.
Standalone Course Hosting Platforms
For those who want more control than a marketplace provides, standalone platforms are a popular second step. These "best websites to sell online courses" offer branded landing pages and more advanced marketing features.
Teachable and Thinkific
Both Teachable and Thinkific have become industry standards for "solopreneurs." They allow you to build a dedicated school, set your own prices, and keep a larger portion of your sales. They offer features like drip content, quizzes, and basic affiliate management.
The challenge with these platforms arises when you already have an existing brand. If you sell physical products on Shopify and courses on Teachable, your customers have to navigate two different websites, remember two different logins, and deal with two different checkout experiences. This "fragmented stack" often leads to higher customer support volume and a lower conversion rate. Many merchants find themselves unifying a fragmented system into a single Shopify store to solve these exact friction points.
Kajabi: The Marketing Heavyweight
Kajabi positions itself as an all-in-one marketing machine. It includes email marketing, funnel builders, and even CRM features. While it is incredibly powerful, it is also one of the most expensive options on the market. For many store owners, paying for a massive marketing suite that they already have elsewhere (like through Klaviyo or Shopify) results in paying for redundant features.
Why a Native Shopify Approach Wins
If you already use Shopify, the best website to sell online courses is actually your own website. By using a native integration, you turn your storefront into a comprehensive learning hub without the headache of managing multiple platforms.
The Power of Native Shopify Integration
Our "Native Shopify Integration" ensures a seamless experience. When a customer buys a course from you, they use the same checkout they already trust. There is no redirect to a third-party URL. This is crucial for building brand trust and keeping your data where it belongs—with you.
When you keep your digital and physical products in one place, you can create powerful bundles. For example, a merchant selling high-end gardening tools can instantly grant access to a "Master Class in Soil Health" upon purchase. This not only adds value but increases the perceived worth of the physical item. We have seen incredible results with this model, such as how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses with their existing products.
Eliminating Technical Friction
One of the biggest hurdles in e-learning is "login friction." If a customer buys a product and then has to check their email for a separate link to a different site to access their course, you risk losing them. By keeping customers at home on the brand website, you ensure that their account page on Shopify is the single destination for everything they’ve ever bought from you.
If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.
Essential Features for a Successful Course Business
Choosing a platform isn't just about price; it's about the tools that will help your students actually learn and stay engaged. When evaluating the best websites to sell online courses, look for these key features:
1. Robust Video Hosting
Video is the backbone of most online education. You need a platform that provides all the key features for courses and communities, including high-quality video hosting that doesn't lag. Many platforms charge extra for bandwidth or video storage, which can become a hidden "success tax" as you grow. At Tevello, we include unlimited video hosting and bandwidth in our Unlimited plan because we don't believe in punishing you for being successful.
2. Community Engagement
Education is more than just watching videos; it's about connection. A successful course often thrives on its community. Look for features like member directories, social feeds, and student profiles. When students can interact with each other and with you, they are much more likely to complete the course and recommend it to others.
3. Drip Content and Quizzes
Not everyone should see every lesson on day one. Drip scheduling allows you to release content over time—perhaps one module per week—which keeps students from feeling overwhelmed. Quizzes and assessments are also vital for reinforcing learning. They provide a sense of achievement and allow you to track student progress effectively.
4. Seamless Checkout and 0% Transaction Fees
Many "free" or low-cost platforms make their money by taking a percentage of every sale you make. These "success fees" can eat into your margins significantly. We believe you should keep 100% of what you earn. That’s why we charge 0% transaction fees on all our plans. Whether you sell a $10 course or a $1,000 certification, your revenue stays in your pocket.
Diversifying Your Revenue with Digital Products
Selling courses is about more than just a one-time sale; it's about building a sustainable, recurring revenue stream. The e-commerce world is often a "treadmill" of finding new customers for one-off physical sales. Digital products allow you to break that cycle.
Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
When you add a digital component to your store, your LTV potential expands. A customer who buys a physical product might not need another one for six months. However, that same customer might be willing to pay for a monthly membership or an advanced course just days after their initial purchase. This is one of the key strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively that we have observed among top-performing merchants.
Building Brand Loyalty
A course allows you to spend hours in the "ear" or on the "screen" of your customer. By the time they finish your curriculum, they don't just see you as a vendor; they see you as a mentor and an expert. This level of brand loyalty is impossible to achieve through physical product photos alone. It creates a "moat" around your business that competitors cannot easily cross.
Stability Through Recurring Revenue
Membership models and subscriptions provide the financial stability that every business owner craves. Instead of starting every month at zero, you can build a base of recurring subscribers who pay for access to your community and exclusive content. This predictability allows you to invest back into your business with confidence.
Setting Realistic Business Expectations
While the "get rich quick" side of the internet might promise six figures in your first week, we prefer to focus on realistic, sustainable growth. Building a successful course business takes work, high-quality content, and a focus on student results.
The advantage of using a tool like Tevello is that it amplifies your existing efforts. You aren't starting from scratch on a new platform where you have to learn a whole new system. You are building on the Shopify foundation you already know. This reduces the "learning curve" for you and the "buying curve" for your customers.
Many of our most successful users started by migrating over 14,000 members and reducing support tickets because they realized their existing systems were too complicated. By simplifying the tech stack, they were able to spend more time on what actually drives revenue: creating great content and marketing it to their audience.
Comparing the Costs of Selling Courses
When looking for the best websites to sell online courses, the math needs to make sense. Many platforms use complicated tier structures where the price jumps as soon as you add more students or more videos. This makes it very difficult to predict your expenses.
At Tevello, we reject that model. We offer a transparent, simple pricing structure designed to help you scale without fear.
The Unlimited Plan: $29.99 per month.
This plan is built to be the last platform you’ll ever need. It includes:
- Unlimited courses and students: Whether you have ten students or ten thousand, your price stays the same.
- Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth: No need to worry about extra fees for "going viral."
- Community features: Build profiles, directories, and social feeds to keep your learners engaged.
- No Hidden Fees: We charge 0% transaction fees. Your Shopify payment gateway (like Shopify Payments or PayPal) will have its own standard processing fees, but Tevello will never take a cut of your hard-earned revenue.
By securing a fixed cost structure for digital products, you can accurately calculate your profit margins and scale your marketing spend without worrying about rising software costs. We also offer a 14-day free trial, which gives you plenty of time to start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now before you pay a single cent.
Technical Practicality: A Real-World Example
Let's look at a practical scenario. Imagine a merchant who sells high-quality coffee beans and espresso machines on Shopify. They have a loyal customer base, but they face stiff competition from big-box retailers.
By using Tevello, this merchant can create a "Home Barista Mastery" course. This course could include modules on:
- Dialing in your grind for the perfect shot.
- Milk steaming techniques for latte art.
- The science of coffee bean sourcing.
The merchant can sell this course as a standalone product for $49, or they can include it for free with the purchase of a $500 espresso machine. This makes the $500 purchase much more attractive than a competitor's price-matched machine because the customer is also getting expert education.
Behind the scenes, the merchant isn't managing a separate website. When the customer buys the machine, Shopify automatically triggers access to the course via Tevello. The customer logs into the store, clicks "My Courses," and starts learning immediately. This is the power of seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify.
Marketing Your Online Course
Once your course is built, the focus shifts to marketing. One of the biggest advantages of selling courses on your own website is the SEO benefit. Every lesson title, course description, and blog post you write about your course helps drive traffic to your Shopify domain.
Leveraging Your Existing Email List
If you already have a list of past customers, you are sitting on a goldmine. You don't need to go out and "find" an audience on a marketplace; you already have one. You can send targeted email campaigns to people who have bought related physical products, offering them your new course as the "next step" in their journey.
Social Proof and Community
Encourage your students to fill out their profiles and participate in the community feed. When new visitors see an active, engaged community on your site, it provides powerful social proof. They see that real people are learning and succeeding with your methods, which significantly lowers the barrier to purchase.
Using Affiliates
Since you are on Shopify, you can use existing affiliate apps to recruit influencers or even your own students to promote your course. This is a great way to scale your reach without upfront advertising costs. Because Tevello offers predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, you have more room in your margins to pay your affiliates generously.
Scaling to the Next Level
As your business grows, you may want to move beyond simple courses and into full-scale memberships or certifications. The beauty of a robust system is that it grows with you. You might start with one course, but soon you find yourself with a library of twenty.
Because we provide an all-in-one ecosystem, you don't have to worry about the "technical debt" of outgrowing your platform. You can continue to add unlimited members and content while maintaining that single, unified brand experience. Before you make a decision, we recommend install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today to see just how easy the setup process is. You can build your entire curriculum during your trial period and only launch when you are ready.
Final Comparison: Marketplace vs. SaaS vs. Native
To wrap up our analysis of the best websites to sell online courses, let's look at the final scorecard:
- Marketplaces (Udemy/Skillshare): Best for absolute beginners with no audience and no desire to build a brand. High fees, low control.
- Standalone SaaS (Kajabi/Teachable): Best for creators who don't have an existing website and want a "business in a box." High monthly costs, fragmented customer experience if you also sell on Shopify.
- Native Shopify (Tevello): Best for e-commerce merchants and brands who want full control, 0% transaction fees, and a unified customer experience. Highest profit potential and strongest brand building.
FAQ
1. Can I sell courses alongside my physical products on Shopify?
Absolutely! This is one of the primary reasons merchants choose our platform. You can list your courses as products in your Shopify admin, allowing customers to add both a physical item (like a yoga mat) and a digital item (like a 30-day yoga challenge) to the same cart. This creates a seamless checkout and simplifies your order management.
2. Do I need to pay for separate video hosting?
No. When you use the Unlimited plan, we provide unlimited video hosting and bandwidth. You don't need to use third-party services like Vimeo or Wistia, which can save you hundreds of dollars per year. Your videos are served securely to your students directly through your store.
3. Will my customers have to log in to a different website?
No. One of our core values is keeping customers on your own URL. Your students will use their existing Shopify customer account to access their courses. This reduces confusion, minimizes "lost password" support tickets, and keeps your brand front and center.
4. Are there any transaction fees on my course sales?
We charge 0% transaction fees. Unlike many other "best websites to sell online courses" that take 5% to 10% of every sale, we believe your profits belong to you. You will still pay the standard processing fees to your payment gateway (like Shopify Payments, Stripe, or PayPal), but Tevello will never take a cut.
Conclusion
Choosing from the best websites to sell online courses is a pivotal decision for your business. While marketplaces offer a quick start, they often limit your growth and ownership. Standalone platforms provide more features but frequently lead to a disjointed customer experience and high monthly overhead. For Shopify merchants, the most powerful and profitable path is to keep everything under one roof.
By integrating your educational content directly into your Shopify store, you create a seamless, professional environment that builds trust and maximizes your revenue. At Tevello, we are dedicated to helping you turn your expertise into a thriving digital asset with our Unlimited plan, which offers a fixed, transparent cost and 0% transaction fees. This allows you to focus on what you do best: teaching your community and growing your brand.
Start diversifying your revenue and increasing your customer loyalty today. To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from. We invite you to start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now and see how easy it is to transform your store into a digital learning powerhouse.
