Docebo
Enterprise, AI-powered LMS for personalized learning at scale.
CourseLit
Self-hosted platform to sell courses and digital downloads
Open-source learning management system for creating, selling, and delivering online courses from your own branded website. An alternative to Teachable, Thinkific, and Podia.
Overview
Modern LMS for Independent Educators
CourseLit is a batteries-included learning management system designed for educators, creators, and entrepreneurs who want full control over their online teaching business. Built as a self-hosted alternative to platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, and Podia, it eliminates platform fees and vendor lock-in while giving you complete ownership of your content and student data.
Comprehensive Feature Set
The platform includes everything needed to launch and scale an online course business: a visual website builder for creating custom landing pages, integrated course authoring tools, student management, Stripe payment processing, and analytics. You can publish courses, digital downloads, and blog content—all from a single, unified interface.
Flexible Deployment Options
CourseLit offers both cloud-hosted and self-hosted deployment. The cloud version includes a 14-day trial with no credit card required, while self-hosting gives technical teams complete infrastructure control. Built with TypeScript as a monorepo using Pnpm workspaces, the codebase is extensible through a custom widget system. Media assets are managed via MediaLit, which can be used as a service or self-hosted for complete independence.
Highlights
Visual website builder with custom sales pages and landing page creation
Integrated Stripe payment processing for courses and digital downloads
Course authoring tools with student management and progress tracking
Extensible widget system for adding custom functionality
Pros
- Complete ownership of content, branding, and student data
- No platform fees or revenue sharing beyond payment processing
- Self-hosted option eliminates vendor lock-in
- Cloud-hosted version available with 14-day free trial
Considerations
- Self-hosting requires technical expertise for setup and maintenance
- Analytics capabilities are currently limited
- Media management depends on MediaLit service or self-hosted instance
- Smaller ecosystem compared to established commercial platforms
Managed products teams compare with
When teams consider CourseLit, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.
Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.
Fit guide
Great for
- Educators and creators wanting full control over their course platform
- Businesses seeking to eliminate recurring platform fees
- Technical teams comfortable with self-hosted infrastructure
- Organizations requiring complete data ownership and privacy
Not ideal when
- Non-technical users without development or DevOps resources
- Teams needing advanced analytics and reporting out of the box
- Creators prioritizing large built-in marketplace exposure
- Projects requiring immediate enterprise-grade support contracts
How teams use it
Independent Course Creator
Launch a branded course website with custom landing pages, process payments via Stripe, and retain 100% revenue minus payment processing fees
Corporate Training Platform
Deploy a self-hosted LMS for employee training with complete control over sensitive training data and compliance requirements
Digital Product Storefront
Sell ebooks, templates, and downloadable resources alongside courses from a unified, branded website
Educational Institution
Build a white-labeled learning platform with custom branding, student management, and content delivery without vendor lock-in
Tech snapshot
TypeScript97%
JavaScript2%
CSS1%
Astro1%
Pug1%
Shell1%
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cloud-hosted and self-hosted versions?
The cloud-hosted version at courselit.app offers a managed service with a 14-day free trial. Self-hosting gives you complete infrastructure control and eliminates recurring platform fees, but requires technical expertise for deployment and maintenance.
How does payment processing work?
CourseLit integrates with Stripe for payment processing. You connect your own Stripe account, so payments go directly to you minus Stripe's processing fees—no platform revenue sharing.
What is MediaLit and is it required?
MediaLit is the backend service for managing media assets like videos and images. You can use the paid cloud service or self-host your own MediaLit instance for complete independence.
Can I customize the platform beyond the built-in features?
Yes, CourseLit supports custom widgets that allow you to extend functionality. The codebase is TypeScript-based and organized as a monorepo, making it accessible for developers to modify and enhance.
What technical skills are needed for self-hosting?
Self-hosting requires familiarity with Node.js, MongoDB, environment configuration, and basic DevOps practices. You'll need to manage database migrations and server infrastructure.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 1,073
- Watchers
- 1,073
- Forks
- 207
LicenseAGPL-3.0
Repo age6 years old
Last commit3 days ago
Self-hostingSupported
Primary languageTypeScript
Last synced 4 hours ago