LearnDash

LearnDash is the answer for somebody who already has a WordPress site and does not want their course living on somebody else's domain. Lessons, quizzes, drip schedules and certificates all become part of the site you own, and the payment plugin is your choice rather than theirs. Hosting, backups and the security of that site stay your problem. That is the whole trade against a hosted platform.

Essentials is $259 a year for a single site and covers launching and selling courses. Pro is $399 a year and adds selling to teams, running structured cohorts and advanced reporting. Elite is $599 a year for institutions and internal training teams. No monthly option is offered, so these are the prices rather than annualised versions of something smaller. Nothing is taken per sale, since the payment gateway is whichever WordPress plugin you choose, which means the true cost is the licence plus hosting plus whatever the cart charges.

Somebody who already runs a WordPress site with an audience arriving on it, and who wants the course to live on that domain rather than on a platform's subdomain. It suits a creator comfortable owning hosting, backups and updates. Anybody who does not want to think about a server should take a hosted platform and accept the revenue share, because self-hosting trades a monthly fee for a maintenance job.