Selling your training from your own website has a defining moment: the day you do the maths. Perhaps you already sell on a course platform and the commission is starting to bite. Or you have your website up and running and don't know how much it costs to add a student area with certificates. This article is that budget: what you need, which routes there are, and what you actually pay each month.
What you really need to sell a course from your website
The price is set by the anatomy of the course, not by the design of the landing page. This is the list to budget for:
- Student area: each student registers, logs in and sees only their course.
- Modules and lessons: content in order, not a loose list of links.
- Visible progress: so the student knows what's left to do — and so do you.
- Self-marking activities: immediate practice without waiting for the teacher.
- Assignments marked by the teacher: exercises with real feedback.
- PDF certificates on finishing the course.
- Integrated payment: the student pays on your website and the money reaches your account.
The more items on the list you need, the higher the cost. That is why 'how much does it cost to create an online course' has no single answer: it depends on how many of these elements you want to cover and on the route you choose to build them.
Three routes to build it, and how the cost changes
Custom development
A team programmes the student area, the course system and the certificates for you. It is the most flexible route and the most expensive: a large initial project plus maintenance that never disappears. It makes sense if you need something no platform offers; for a course with modules, assignments and certificates, it almost never pays off.
An LMS or plugins on WordPress
You install a course system on top of your WordPress site. Getting in is cheap; the recurring costs are not: hosting, domain, updates, backups and conflicts between plugins. Just the maintenance of a WordPress website is typically budgeted at between €20 and €60 a month according to a sector calculator (2026), not counting the LMS or its licences.
Subscription course platforms
They give you the whole system (student area, payments, certificates) in exchange for a fixed fee, a commission per sale, or both. Commissions vary widely: according to comparisons from May 2026, they range from 0% to 10% per sale depending on the platform and the plan.
One example: Teachable's entry plan was listed at $29 a month with annual billing and a 7.5% commission per sale according to a comparison from January 2025; 0% only arrives on its plan at around $89 a month, while Thinkific starts commission-free from around $49 a month according to comparisons from March 2026. These are third-party figures, not official rates: check them on their websites before deciding.
Rather than isolated prices, compare models: where you pay (project, maintenance or commission) and how much depends on your sales. If you are going to use an all-in-one platform, read its small print first.
The recurring costs almost nobody budgets for
The headline price is almost never the real cost. These are the lines that get forgotten:
- Domain and hosting: on the custom or WordPress routes you pay for them separately, every year, and they grow with your traffic.
- Maintenance and support: updating, backing up and fixing whatever breaks. And waiting for someone to look at it.
- The payment gateway's fee: charged by whoever processes the payment (on WordNext, Stripe Connect) and separate from any platform fee or commission; you can check it on Stripe's official pricing page.
- Your time: every afternoon spent wrestling with plugins is an afternoon you don't spend creating content.
- The platform's commission per sale, if it charges one.
With few sales, the commission barely weighs. With volume, a 5% commission overtakes any fixed fee.
A quick bit of arithmetic: if you sell €2,000 a month (20 students at €100), 5% is €100 a month in commission. More than the difference between almost any entry plan and any plan above it.
What it costs with WordNext: Docente and Academia, in numbers
WordNext has two plans for teaching, one for each cost model:
- Docente, €29/month: website + courses with a student area and self-marking activities, assignments marked by the teacher and PDF certificates. It carries a 5% commission per sale.
- Academia, €69/month: several teachers (5 included, each one sees only their own), 0% commission and 3 domains.
Extras are paid only if you use them: AI assistant (€10/month), tutoring with scheduling (€8/month), an extra teacher or an extra teacher website (€8/month on Academia) and an extra domain (€5/month).
Two quick sums: a teacher working alone pays €29/month. An academy of 5 teachers that adds the AI assistant and tutoring pays 69 + 10 + 8 = €87/month.
And the commission? With the sales from the earlier example (€2,000/month), Docente comes to €29 + €100 commission = €129; Academia to €69 with no commission. The break-even point sits at €800 in monthly sales: beyond that, the commission-free plan pays off even for a solo teacher.
Several teachers without driving anyone round the bend
When you work as a team, the question is not just the price: it is who sees what. The quick way out on many platforms is a shared account or generic permissions. It holds up with two people; with five it becomes mixed-up logins, everyone's courses tangled together and student data all over the place.
On Academia each teacher sees only their own: their courses, their students, their assignments waiting to be marked. And if the team grows, an extra teacher or an extra teacher website costs €8/month. The 3 included domains let you separate training lines or centres if that suits you.
What is included today (and what is not yet)
To decide with your eyes open:
- Payments run through Stripe Connect and the money goes into your business's account.
- Tutoring with scheduling is available as an extra (€8/month), in case you combine the course with one-to-one sessions.
- PDF certificates come as standard with the courses feature.
And what does not exist yet, so that nobody promises it to you: there is no mobile app, no student community, no coupons and no instalment payments. If any of those four is essential to your model, better to find out now than after you have paid.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost per month to run an online course with a student area?
It depends on the route: with custom development or plugins you will pay maintenance, updates and your own time. With WordNext, Docente costs €29/month (5% commission per sale) and Academia €69/month (no commission); extras are only paid if used.
Can I issue PDF certificates from my own website?
Yes. PDF certificates are part of WordNext's courses feature, alongside modules, lessons, visible progress and assignments marked by the teacher (Docente and Academia plans).
Can I have several teachers on my online course?
Yes, with the Academia plan: 5 teachers included, each one sees only their own, 0% commission and 3 domains; extra teachers or teacher websites at €8/month. With Docente, a single teacher.
Is a fixed fee or a commission per sale better for me?
It depends on volume: with few sales the commission barely weighs; as you sell more, 5% quickly overtakes a fixed fee. WordNext offers both models: Docente with 5% and Academia with no commission.
Creating an online course is not a one-off payment: it is a running total of costs that repeat every month. Budget for the elements you will genuinely use and run the numbers against your sales volume, not against the headline price. WordNext's Docente and Academia plans, with their extras, are detailed on the teaching page. By the way: every WordNext website includes WordNext Guardian, a firewall that filters AI agent traffic. And if your training combines a course with one-to-one sessions, see also how much a website with bookings and payments costs.