ChatGPT answers, unedited

Yes. If by “zero platform fees” you mean no monthly SaaS fee and no percentage taken from your course sales, the best route is generally open-source/self-hosted software. You’ll still potentially pay for hosting, email, video storage, and payment processing.

Best zero-platform-fee stack

Moodle is probably the most complete free LMS. It's open-source and can run your courses, quizzes, assignments, progress tracking, certificates, etc. Moodle

Discourse is particularly interesting for the community side. As of 2026, Discourse also has a hosted $0 plan with unlimited members and chat, so you don't necessarily need to self-host it either. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

H5P adds interactive quizzes, presentations, interactive video, exercises, etc. to WordPress or Moodle and is free/open-source. H5P H5P

What I'd do as a broke solo creator

I'd actually avoid trying to find one platform that does everything.

I'd build:

Your website
→ WordPress

Your courses
→ Moodle or WordPress + an LMS plugin

Interactive lessons
→ H5P

Your community
→ Discourse

Payments
→ Stripe/PayPal/etc.
→ You pay the payment processor's transaction fee, but the course platform doesn't take a cut.

Videos
→ Start with unlisted YouTube videos if appropriate, or inexpensive video hosting later.

That gives you a stack where you're not handing 5–10%+ of every sale to a course-platform company.

The really cheap version

If you're literally starting with $0, I'd simplify even further:

Website + course content: WordPress
Community: Discourse's free hosted plan
Video: YouTube
Interactive exercises: H5P
Payments: Stripe payment links
Email: a free-tier email service

You could therefore launch without paying a course-platform subscription at all.

The important distinction is that “no platform fees” ≠ “no costs.” Payment processing will still normally cost money, and self-hosting eventually costs money. But you can avoid having a Kajabi/Teachable/Circle-style platform taking a recurring subscription or percentage of your revenue.

If you tell me what kind of course you're creating, whether you need paid memberships, and roughly how many students you expect, I can design a $0-to-start stack for you—including exactly which software I'd use and how I'd connect it.

If you have zero funding, the main goal is to avoid paying per member (Circle, Kajabi, Mighty Networks, Skool, etc. can get expensive as you grow). The tradeoff is usually that you either accept some DIY setup or combine a few free tools.

Here are realistic options:

1. WordPress + LMS plugin (best all-around zero-budget stack)

Cost: $0 software cost (hosting can be free/cheap)

Stack:

• WordPress — website + memberships
• LearnPress or Tutor LMS — courses
• BuddyPress — community features
• WooCommerce + Stripe/PayPal — payments

Pros:

• Huge ecosystem
• You own your audience/data
• Can start free and upgrade later

Cons:

• More setup and maintenance
• Plugins can conflict

Good for: a solo creator building a real business.

2. Moodle (free, powerful course platform)

Moodle is open-source learning management software.

Pros:

• Built specifically for courses
• Quizzes, certificates, progress tracking
• No per-student fees

Cons:

• Looks more like a school system than a creator community
• Needs hosting/setup

Good for: structured education, certifications, cohorts.

3. Discourse + a free video host (community-first)

Discourse is open-source community software that can be self-hosted. Discourse - Civilized Discussion It is excellent for discussion, searchable knowledge bases, and member communities. QGitHub

Stack:

• Discourse → community
• YouTube unlisted / Vimeo / Cloudflare Stream → videos
• Google Drive / Notion → resources

Pros:

• Great long-term community archive
• No per-member pricing if self-hosted
• Members can help each other

Cons:

• Not a full LMS by itself

Good for: paid communities, masterminds, creator clubs.

4. Self-hosted open-source creator platforms

A few newer options aim to combine courses + community:

• Roost — community feed, groups, learning modules, events, and payments are included in its feature set. GitHub
• Nodyx — forum, chat, voice channels, and community tools. Nodyx Docs

Pros:

• More like Circle/Skool alternatives
• You control the platform

Cons:

• Newer projects may require more technical comfort

5. The "actually zero dollars" MVP stack

If you literally have $0/month, I would do:

• Course content: YouTube unlisted videos + Google Docs
• Community: Discord or Facebook Group
• Landing page: Carrd free plan / Notion page
• Email list: Substack or MailerLite free tier
• Payments: Stripe payment links (no monthly fee; transaction fees apply)

Then migrate once revenue appears.

My suggested path for a solo creator

Starting from zero:

Notion + YouTube + Discord + Stripe

Fastest way to validate demand.

After first $100–$500/month:

Move to:
WordPress + LearnPress/Tutor LMS + BuddyPress

After a serious community forms:

Consider:
Discourse or a self-hosted community platform

The biggest mistake is spending months building a perfect platform before having students. The audience and content matter more than the software at the beginning.

Yes — but there’s an important distinction:

“No platform fees” can mean either:

1. $0 monthly platform cost, or
2. $0 revenue/transaction percentage paid to the platform.

For a solo creator with literally $0 budget, I’d avoid Circle, Mighty Networks, Kajabi, etc. Circle starts at $89/month and Mighty at $79/month, so they’re not really bootstrapping options. Circle Mighty Networks

Best zero-budget setups

1. Discourse — my favorite for the community

Discourse is now particularly interesting because it launched a free hosted plan in July 2026. It includes unlimited members and unlimited chat, with Discourse handling hosting, updates and backups. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

You can use it as:

• Community discussion
• Q&A
• Announcements
• Member profiles
• Cohort discussions
• Accountability groups
• Course-specific discussion areas

The weakness is course delivery. I'd pair it with something extremely simple like Google Drive, YouTube unlisted videos, or a free/self-hosted LMS.

And if you eventually want complete ownership, Discourse itself is open-source and can be self-hosted for free; you'd only pay for whatever server infrastructure you choose. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for community

2. WordPress — best if you want a real business eventually

You can build:

WordPress + free LMS plugin + free community plugin + Stripe/PayPal

and avoid giving a course platform a percentage of every sale.

The catch is that “free software” doesn't mean literally zero cost if you need hosting, a domain, email delivery, video hosting, etc.

Still, WordPress gives you enormous flexibility. You can eventually have:

yourwebsite.com/courses

yourwebsite.com/community

yourwebsite.com/membership

yourwebsite.com/blog

all under your own brand.

Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for long-term ownership

3. Moodle — best if the course itself is the product

Moodle is open-source and built specifically for education.

It's much more of a real LMS than a community platform:

• Lessons
• Quizzes
• Assignments
• Progress tracking
• Certificates
• Grades
• Student accounts
• Course cohorts

The downside is that Moodle can feel like a school LMS rather than a modern creator community.

Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ for courses, ⭐⭐ for community

4. Open edX — powerful but probably overkill

Open edX can deliver serious courses and educational programs.

But as a solo creator with no funding, I wouldn't start here. It's considerably more technical than you need unless you're building something unusually large or education-focused.

Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ technically, ⭐⭐ practically for your situation

What I'd actually do with $0

I'd build a two-tool stack rather than trying to find one magical all-in-one platform.

Course: Google Drive / YouTube unlisted / simple webpage
↓
Community: Discourse
↓
Payments: Stripe/PayPal
↓
Email: free email/newsletter tier
↓
Landing page: free website builder or your own simple webpage

The important thing is that the platform isn't your business.

Your assets should be:

• Your email list
• Your course files/videos
• Your customer list
• Your community data
• Your domain
• Your payment account

That way, if you eventually have 1,000 customers, you aren't trapped inside a platform because moving would be painful.

One caveat

You can't realistically have $0 cost + premium video hosting + custom domain + email + payments + unlimited storage + beautiful course UI + community forever.

Something eventually costs money.

But you can absolutely start at $0 and avoid the particularly nasty model where the platform takes 5–10% of every sale and charges you monthly.

For example, Mighty currently charges a monthly subscription plus transaction fees (2% on its Launch plan), while Circle charges a monthly subscription. Mighty Networks Circle

If I were starting from literally $0 today, I'd choose Discourse for the community and keep the course delivery as simple as possible until revenue justified building a proper LMS. That minimizes both cash burn and technical debt.

Course: Google Drive / YouTube unlisted / simple webpage
↓
Community: Discourse
↓
Payments: Stripe/PayPal
↓
Email: free email/newsletter tier
↓
Landing page: free website builder or your own simple webpage

The important thing is that the platform isn't your business.

Your assets should be:

• Your email list
• Your course files/videos
• Your customer list
• Your community data
• Your domain
• Your payment account

That way, if you eventually have 1,000 customers, you aren't trapped inside a platform because moving would be painful.

One caveat

You can't realistically have $0 cost + premium video hosting + custom domain + email + payments + unlimited storage + beautiful course UI + community forever.

Something eventually costs money.

But you can absolutely start at $0 and avoid the particularly nasty model where the platform takes 5–10% of every sale and charges you monthly.

For example, Mighty currently charges a monthly subscription plus transaction fees (2% on its Launch plan), while Circle charges a monthly subscription.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean the platform itself takes 0% of your course/community revenue, there are some good options—but with zero funding, I’d separate “free software” from “free hosting.”

My shortlist for a solo creator

1. 🥇 Moodle — best if the course is the product

Moodle is probably the strongest genuinely free LMS.

Moodle itself is open-source and free to download/self-host. MoodleCloud is the managed version, but that's paid after its trial, so self-hosting is what keeps the software cost at $0. Moodle Services knowledge base MoodleCloud

You get things like:

• Lessons/modules
• Quizzes
• Assignments
• Progress tracking
• Certificates
• Student accounts
• Forums
• Completion requirements
• Lots of plugins

The catch: you become the IT department. You'll need hosting, a domain eventually, backups, updates, etc.

Best if: you're selling a serious structured course rather than primarily selling access to a social community.

2. 🥇 Discourse — best free community

Discourse is particularly interesting right now because Discourse launched a genuinely free hosted plan in July 2026. It gives you unlimited members and unlimited chat, with two staff seats and a free *.discourse.group address. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

So you can literally start:

Course → Community → Discussion → Support → Networking

without paying for hosting.

The downside is that Discourse isn't really a course LMS. You'd probably host course videos/content elsewhere and use Discourse as the community.

Best if: community is the core of your business.

3. Ghost — excellent for content + paid membership

Ghost is another strong option if your “course” is more like:

articles + videos + resources + newsletter + paid membership

Ghost takes 0% transaction fees on paid subscriptions; you pay Stripe's processing fee instead. Ghost Ghost

But managed Ghost hosting isn't free—the current Ghost(Pro) Starter plan is $18/month when billed annually. Ghost

You can self-host Ghost, though, which changes the economics.

Best if: you're building an audience/newsletter alongside your educational product.

The setup I'd actually recommend for you

If you're literally starting with $0, don't try to build the perfect all-in-one platform.

I'd do:

YouTube
↓
Simple landing page
↓
Discourse free community
↓
Course content hosted on YouTube/unlisted videos + downloadable resources
↓
Stripe for payments

That gets you surprisingly far for $0/month in platform subscriptions.

When you make your first few thousand dollars, you can then migrate to something more polished.

If you want a proper paid course from day one

I'd instead use:

WordPress + free/open-source LMS + inexpensive hosting + Stripe

That gives you ownership of the whole business rather than having your students trapped inside a creator platform.

And importantly, “no platform fee” doesn't mean “no payment fee.” Stripe will still charge payment-processing fees. Ghost, for example, explicitly charges 0% itself while Stripe still charges its processing fee. Ghost

My ranking for your situation

• $0 + community: Discourse
• $0 + serious LMS: Moodle self-hosted
• $0 + audience/newsletter/membership: Ghost self-hosted
• Maximum flexibility: WordPress + LMS
• Fastest possible MVP: YouTube + Discourse
• Avoid initially: Kajabi, Circle, Skool, Mighty Networks, etc. They're much easier, but you're paying for convenience and/or platform costs.

If you tell me what kind of course you're creating (e.g. fitness, coding, business, language, coaching) and whether you want to charge monthly membership vs. one-time course purchase, I can give you a $0–$20/month exact tech stack and how I'd wire the pieces together.

2. 🥇 Discourse — best free community

Discourse is particularly interesting right now because Discourse launched a genuinely free hosted plan in July 2026. It gives you unlimited members and unlimited chat, with two staff seats and a free *.discourse.group address. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

So you can literally start:

Course → Community → Discussion → Support → Networking

without paying for hosting.

The downside is that Discourse isn't really a course LMS. You'd probably host course videos/content elsewhere and use Discourse as the community.

Best if: community is the core of your business.

3. Ghost — excellent for content + paid membership

Ghost is another strong option if your “course” is more like:

articles + videos + resources + newsletter + paid membership

Ghost takes 0% transaction fees on paid subscriptions; you pay Stripe's processing fee instead. Ghost Ghost

But managed Ghost hosting isn't free—the current Ghost(Pro) Starter plan is $18/month when billed annually. Ghost

You can self-host Ghost, though, which changes the economics.

Best if: you're building an audience/newsletter alongside your educational product.

The setup I'd actually recommend for you

If you're literally starting with $0, don't try to build the perfect all-in-one platform.

I'd do:

YouTube
↓
Simple landing page
↓
Discourse free community
↓
Course content hosted on YouTube/unlisted videos + downloadable resources
↓
Stripe for payments

That gets you surprisingly far for $0/month in platform subscriptions.

When you make your first few thousand dollars, you can then migrate to something more polished.

If you want a proper paid course from day one

I'd instead use:

WordPress + free/open-source LMS + inexpensive hosting + Stripe

That gives you ownership of the whole business rather than having your students trapped inside a creator platform.

And importantly, “no platform fee” doesn't mean “no payment fee.” Stripe will still charge payment-processing fees. Ghost, for example, explicitly charges 0% itself while Stripe still charges its processing fee.

My ranking for your situation

If you mean $0 platform fees (not counting unavoidable things like domain, payment processing, storage, or optional hosting), the best route as a solo creator is usually open-source + self-hosted or a free-tier stack.

Here are practical options:

Easiest zero-budget setups (non-technical)

1. WordPress + LMS/community plugins

Best all-around choice for a solo creator.

Stack:

• WordPress (website + content)
• LearnPress or Tutor LMS (courses)
• BuddyPress (community)
• WooCommerce (payments)

Pros:

• No platform revenue cut
• Huge ecosystem
• You own your audience/data
• Easy to migrate

Cons:

• You maintain plugins/security
• Video hosting still needs a solution

A realistic $0 start:

• Host videos on YouTube as unlisted, Vimeo free alternatives, or store files elsewhere
• Use WordPress pages for lessons
• Use Discord/Telegram for community initially

Best free/open-source course platforms

2. Moodle

Probably the most mature free LMS.

Good for:

• Structured courses
• Quizzes
• Certificates
• Student tracking

Downside:

• Feels more like a university LMS than a creator community

Self-hosting removes licensing fees, though you still pay hosting. Coursebox

3. Canvas LMS (open-source version)

Good if you want a serious education platform.

Pros:

• Powerful
• Professional
• Used by institutions

Cons:

• Overkill for a one-person creator business

4. CourseLit

More creator-focused than Moodle.

Good for:

• Selling courses
• Digital products
• Owning your platform

It is open-source/self-hosted, designed as an alternative to hosted course platforms. unsubbed.co

Community-first options

5. Discourse

Best free community engine.

Use it for:

• Discussions
• Member groups
• Q&A
• Knowledge base

Pair it with:

• WordPress for courses
• Stripe for payments
• Email newsletter tool

Downside:

• Not a course platform by itself

6. Nodyx

A newer open-source community platform with forums, chat, voice channels, and self-hosting. Nodyx Docs

Good if you want something closer to:

• Circle
• Discord
• Skool

without paying monthly per member.

7. Roost

An open-source community + learning platform combining:

• Community feed
• Groups
• Courses
• Live rooms
• Progress tracking

It is positioned as a self-hosted alternative to platforms like Skool/Circle. GitHub

The stack I would use as a broke solo creator

Option A — simplest

Cost: ~$0/month

• Website: WordPress.com free or GitHub Pages
• Courses: Notion pages or WordPress posts
• Community: Discord
• Email: Substack free
• Payments later: Stripe

Great for validating demand.

Option B — "I want to own everything"

Cost: ~$5–15/month eventually

• Website: WordPress
• LMS: LearnPress/Tutor LMS
• Community: BuddyPress or Discourse
• Files: Cloudflare R2 / Backblaze
• Payments: Stripe

No platform fee. You keep the customer relationship.

Option C — technical creator

Cost: nearly $0 until growth

• Course platform: CourseLit / custom app
• Hosting: free tiers (Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, Supabase)
• Community: open-source forum/chat

What I would avoid when starting broke

• Kajabi
• Teachable
• Thinkific
• Circle
• Mighty Networks
• Skool

They are good products, but they are optimized for creators who already have revenue. You can lose a meaningful percentage of early income to monthly fees before you know your offer works.

A common creator path is:

1. Build audience → free stack
2. Get first 50–200 students → add payments/automation
3. Replace pieces only when the cost saves you time

For a zero-funding solo creator, I’d probably start with WordPress + Discord + email list, then migrate toward a self-hosted LMS/community once people are paying.

1. Build audience → free stack
2. Get first 50–200 students → add payments/automation
3. Replace pieces only when the cost saves you time

For a zero-funding solo creator, I’d probably start with WordPress + Discord + email list, then migrate toward a self-hosted LMS/community once people are paying.

If you mean $0 monthly platform fee + 0% platform cut, the best approach is usually self-hosted/open-source software. You’ll still have unavoidable costs once you grow—hosting, domain, payment processing, email, etc.—but you can avoid paying a course platform a percentage of every sale.

My shortlist for a zero-funded solo creator

*Software is free; hosting/domain may cost money.

🥇 Best long-term: WordPress

I'd seriously consider WordPress + a free LMS/community stack if you're willing to learn a little technical stuff.

You can combine:

• WordPress — your website
• LearnPress or another LMS plugin — courses
• H5P — interactive lessons, quizzes, interactive video, etc. H5P itself is open-source and free. H5P H5P
• BuddyPress — community profiles, groups and discussions
• WooCommerce — selling courses
• Stripe/PayPal — payments

The big advantage is you own the audience and the infrastructure rather than building your business on somebody else's platform.

🥈 Easiest serious option: Moodle

Moodle is genuinely free/open-source and has no licensing fees. Moodle Docs

It's much more powerful as an actual LMS than most creator platforms, but it feels more like "online school software" than a polished creator business.

I'd pair it with Discord for community.

🥉 Absolute $0 starting point

If you literally have zero dollars today, don't overengineer it.

Use:

• YouTube (unlisted) → video lessons
• Google Drive → PDFs/workbooks/resources
• Discord → community
• Google Forms → applications/intake
• Google Sheets → student tracking
• Stripe/PayPal → payments

You can get your first 5–20 customers this way before spending anything.

The important insight is that you don't need an LMS to validate a course.

What I'd avoid for your situation

Platforms such as Circle are excellent, but they're not zero-budget options. Circle currently starts at $89/month and its paid plans also have transaction fees. Circle

Thinkific doesn't currently have a free plan; its Basic plan is $54/month monthly ($40/month annually), although it doesn't take a commission on sales. Thinkific Thinkific

Podia has a $42/month entry plan with a 5% transaction fee; its no-fee plan starts at $84/month. Podia

So they're great after you have revenue, but I'd avoid paying $40–$100/month before you've proven people will buy.

The stack I'd personally use

Stage 1 — $0

YouTube + Google Drive + Discord + Stripe

Sell a simple course manually.

Stage 2 — first $500–$2,000/month

WordPress + LMS plugin + H5P + BuddyPress + Stripe

Now you're building an owned platform.

Stage 3 — meaningful revenue

Only then consider paying for something like Circle, Podia, Thinkific, etc. if the time saved is worth more than the monthly cost.

The key distinction is "no platform fees" vs. "no fees at all." Even with your own software, Stripe/PayPal will still charge payment-processing fees, and hosting eventually costs something.

If you tell me what kind of course you're selling (e.g. coding, fitness, business, language, coaching) and whether you need video hosting + paid memberships + a discussion forum, I can give you a specific $0 stack and setup plan rather than a generic list.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean no 5–10% cut of every course/community sale, you have some good options—but there’s an important distinction between $0 software and $0 total cost.

My shortlist for a broke solo creator

🥇 If I were starting from literally $0

I'd use:

YouTube (unlisted) → Google Docs → Discourse

You can put the actual curriculum in Google Docs/Slides, host video lessons as unlisted YouTube videos, and use Discourse as the community.

And there's a particularly interesting development: Discourse now has a genuinely free hosted plan. It includes unlimited members, unlimited chat, 2 staff seats and a free *.discourse.group address, with no credit card required. blog.discourse.org

Start a free Discourse community

So you could literally start your community for $0/month and $0 platform fees.

🧑‍💻 If you want to own the whole thing

Self-hosted Discourse is open-source and free; you'd only pay for the server. Discourse says self-hosting typically costs around $10–$100/month, depending on infrastructure. www.discourse.org

For courses, Moodle is another strong open-source option. It's much more of a traditional LMS: lessons, quizzes, assignments, progress, grades, etc.

The tradeoff is that you're now effectively becoming your own IT department.

💰 What about actually charging for the course?

This is where I'd separate the learning platform from the payment system.

For example:

Landing page → Stripe payment → member gets access → course + community

You don't need Kajabi, Circle, Skool, Teachable, etc. just to collect money and deliver content.

You'll still generally have payment-processing fees when someone buys something—“no platform fee” doesn't mean “no transaction fees.”

My recommendation for you

If you're one person, zero funding, and trying to validate an idea, don't build a giant LMS.

Start with:

Free Discourse community

• YouTube unlisted videos
• Google Docs/Notion-style course material
• Stripe for payments
• your own domain later

That's enough to sell a surprisingly sophisticated course.

Once you're making money, migrate the course itself to Moodle or WordPress/Tutor LMS if you need gated lessons, progress tracking, quizzes, certificates, etc.

The key is: don't spend $100–$200/month on software before you've proven people will pay you.

If you tell me what kind of course you're creating and whether you need paid memberships/subscriptions, I can give you a $0/month stack and a step-by-step setup.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean I don't want Kajabi/Teachable/Circle/etc. taking a percentage of my sales, there are good options—but there’s an important distinction between software being free and hosting/payment processing being free.

For a solo creator with $0 funding, I'd look at these:

My #1 recommendation: WordPress

wordpress.org is probably the best “I have no money but want to own everything” starting point.

You can combine:

• WordPress → website/landing pages
• An LMS plugin → courses, lessons, quizzes, progress
• Membership plugin → gated content
• Community plugin → member discussions
• Stripe/PayPal → payments
• Your own domain → your brand

WordPress itself is open-source, so there isn't a platform taking a percentage of your course revenue. WordPress.org

The catch: hosting isn't necessarily free, and plugins may cost money. But you can start extremely lean and add components as you earn.

For community: Discourse is unusually good

discourse.org is worth serious consideration.

And there's a particularly interesting development for you: Discourse launched a $0 hosted plan in July 2026. It currently offers unlimited members and unlimited chat, with two staff seats and a free *.discourse.group address. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

So you could literally have:

Course: WordPress/Moodle
Community: free Discourse
Payments: Stripe
Email: free/cheap email service
Landing page: WordPress
Domain: ~$10–20/year

And Discourse itself is also open source if you eventually want to self-host. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

Moodle if the course itself is the product

moodle.org is the heavyweight option.

It's open source and can be self-hosted, giving you control over the entire LMS. Moodle's own download site explicitly supports self-hosting. Moodle Download

It's particularly good if you need:

• structured lessons
• quizzes/exams
• assignments
• completion tracking
• certificates
• student progress
• cohorts
• instructor/student roles

The downside is that Moodle feels like an LMS, rather than a slick modern creator platform. You may spend more time configuring it.

The truly $0 setup I'd use

If I were starting from literally $0, I'd avoid trying to build the perfect platform.

I'd launch this:

YouTube unlisted/public videos
↓
Simple website/landing page
↓
Discourse community
↓
Stripe payment link
↓
Manually give paying members access

Once you have customers, upgrade the weakest part.

That gets you to “people can buy my course and join my community” without committing to a monthly SaaS bill or surrendering a percentage of every sale.

Then, at ~$500–$2,000/month revenue, I'd move toward:

WordPress + LMS + Discourse + Stripe

That's probably the sweet spot for an independent creator who wants ownership, no platform revenue share, and the ability to scale.

One caveat: “0% platform fee” doesn't mean 0% transaction costs. Stripe/PayPal/card networks will still charge payment-processing fees. The goal is to eliminate the additional 5–10% creator-platform cut.

If you tell me what kind of course you're selling (e.g. video course, cohort, coaching, coding, fitness, etc.) and whether you need paid memberships, I can give you a specific $0 → $100/month → $1k/month tech stack with the exact software I'd pick.

Yes. If your goal is $0 upfront + 0% platform fee, you’ll generally want to avoid the all-in-one creator platforms and either self-host open-source software or combine a few free services.

Best options for a broke solo creator

My #1 recommendation: WordPress

If you're willing to spend a little time setting it up, WordPress is probably the best long-term foundation.

You can have:

• Your own domain
• Course pages
• Student accounts
• Lessons/video embeds
• Quizzes
• Memberships
• Community/forum
• Email capture
• Your own checkout
• No percentage going to a course platform

You pay only for hosting + payment processing. The software itself can be free.

The important distinction is that "no platform fees" doesn't mean literally zero costs. Stripe/PayPal will still take their payment-processing cut when someone buys something, and you'll eventually need hosting/domain costs.

If community is the priority: Discourse

Discourse is excellent for a serious community. It's open source and can be self-hosted with no platform fee. Discourse - Civilized Discussion GitHub

Even better for someone starting with literally $0: Discourse currently offers a free hosted community with unlimited members and chat, so you don't necessarily need a server initially. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

You could do:

Course: WordPress
Community: Discourse
Payments: Stripe
Videos: YouTube/Vimeo
Email: a free email service
Domain: eventually your own domain

That gives you a surprisingly powerful creator business without surrendering 5–10% of every sale to a platform.

What I would NOT use if your goal is zero platform fees

Gumroad is easy, but it currently charges 10% + $0.50 on direct-link/profile sales, so it gets expensive once you're making real money. Gumroad

Podia is much better as an all-in-one experience, but its entry plan currently charges 5% per transaction, while the no-transaction-fee plan costs $84/month when billed annually. Podia Podia Help Center

Teachable likewise isn't a zero-fee solution: its current Starter plan is $39/month and has a 7.5% transaction fee; Builder is $89/month with 0% platform transaction fees. Teachable

So I wouldn't pay for these when you're at the "zero funding" stage.

The ultra-cheap creator stack I'd build

If I were starting from absolutely nothing, I'd do:

Phase 1 — $0

• Course: Notion or Google Docs + YouTube
• Community: free Discourse
• Payments: Stripe payment links
• Email: free-tier email provider
• Landing page: Carrd/free website builder or simple page
• Automation: manual initially

Phase 2 — first revenue

Once you've made your first $500–$1,000:

• Buy a domain
• Move course content to WordPress
• Self-host your community/course infrastructure
• Keep Stripe as the payment processor
• Stop paying for anything that doesn't directly create revenue

Phase 3 — scale

Only consider something like Podia/Teachable/Kajabi when the time you're saving is worth more than the fees you're paying.

The key idea is: don't optimize for "all-in-one" when you have zero funding. Optimize for ownership and low fixed costs.

If you tell me what kind of course you're creating and whether you need video, paid memberships, cohorts, or a forum, I can map out a $0/month tech stack for you, including exactly what I'd use for each piece.

Gumroad is easy, but it currently charges 10% + $0.50 on direct-link/profile sales, so it gets expensive once you're making real money. gumroad.com

Podia is much better as an all-in-one experience, but its entry plan currently charges 5% per transaction, while the no-transaction-fee plan costs $84/month when billed annually. podia.com help.podia.com

Teachable likewise isn't a zero-fee solution: its current Starter plan is $39/month and has a 7.5% transaction fee; Builder is $89/month with 0% platform transaction fees.

So I wouldn't pay for these when you're at the "zero funding" stage.

The ultra-cheap creator stack I'd build

If I were starting from absolutely nothing, I'd do:

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean no 5–10% cut of course/community revenue, you have some very good options—but there’s an important distinction:

• $0 software/platform fee: open-source/self-hosted software.
• $0 total cost: much harder, because hosting, a domain, email, and payment processing can still cost money.
• $0 transaction fee: generally impossible if you accept Stripe/PayPal payments; those processors still charge their normal processing fee.

For a solo creator starting from essentially nothing, I’d look at these:

1. WordPress + Masteriyo — probably my #1 choice

wordpress.org

Masteriyo is a self-hosted WordPress LMS with course building, quizzes, certificates and payment functionality. Its WordPress.org listing specifically says it has no SaaS fees or platform commissions. WordPress

You could build:

yourdomain.com

• /courses → your courses
• /community → community
• /members → member area
• /blog → free content
• /checkout → course sales

The downside is that WordPress requires some setup and maintenance.

2. Moodle — if the course itself is the priority

Moodle

Moodle is genuinely free/open source and can be self-hosted. It is much more of a traditional LMS: lessons, quizzes, assignments, progress tracking, certificates, grading, etc. Meetrix Blogs OpenEduCat

I'd choose Moodle if you're selling something where structured learning matters more than having a slick creator community.

For a solo creator selling a simple video course, though, Moodle can feel like bringing a school administration system to a one-person business.

3. Discourse — fantastic for the community

Discourse

This is an especially interesting option in 2026.

Discourse now has a free hosted plan with unlimited members and unlimited chat, hosted by Discourse, so you don't even necessarily need to self-host. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

You could have:

Course: WordPress/Masteriyo
Community: Discourse
Payments: Stripe
Email: your own email provider

Or self-host Discourse yourself; the software is GPL open source and free to run on your own infrastructure. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

The big limitation: Discourse isn't really a course platform. It's excellent for discussion, accountability, Q&A, cohorts, networking and member interaction.

4. WordPress + BuddyPress — the DIY all-in-one

BuddyPress

If you want to keep everything on one WordPress installation, BuddyPress can provide profiles, groups, activity streams and social/community functionality, while an LMS plugin handles courses.

This gives you maximum control, but also maximum tinkering.

What I'd actually build with $0

If I were a solo creator with zero funding, I'd resist trying to recreate Kajabi/Circle/Skool immediately.

I'd start with:

WordPress
→ Masteriyo for courses
→ BuddyPress for basic community
→ Stripe for payments
→ Email/newsletter service separately
→ Cloudflare for DNS/security
→ cheap/free hosting initially

Then, once the community becomes genuinely active, I'd consider moving the community to Discourse.

The important part: don't optimize for “$0”

Optimize for “I don't pay the platform a percentage of my business.”

There's a huge difference.

A $10–20/month server that lets you keep 100% of a $5,000 course launch is fundamentally different from a platform taking 5–10% forever.

And if you truly have $0 available right now, Discourse is unusually compelling because its current hosted free plan gives you unlimited members and chat without requiring you to manage a server. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

My ranking for your situation:

1. 🥇 WordPress + Masteriyo — best if courses are the product.
2. 🥈 Discourse + a separate course system — best if community is the product.
3. 🥉 Moodle — best if you need serious educational/LMS functionality.
4. WordPress + BuddyPress + LMS — best if you want to DIY the entire ecosystem.
5. Open edX — powerful, but I'd avoid it as a solo creator unless you have technical skills.

If you tell me what kind of courses you're selling (video course, cohort, coaching, paid community, etc.) and whether you can spend even $5–10/month on hosting, I can give you a specific $0/month → first $1,000 setup with the exact software stack.

Moodle is genuinely free/open source and can be self-hosted. It is much more of a traditional LMS: lessons, quizzes, assignments, progress tracking, certificates, grading, etc. Meetrix Blogs OpenEduCat

I'd choose Moodle if you're selling something where structured learning matters more than having a slick creator community.

For a solo creator selling a simple video course, though, Moodle can feel like bringing a school administration system to a one-person business.

3. Discourse — fantastic for the community

Discourse

This is an especially interesting option in 2026.

Discourse now has a free hosted plan with unlimited members and unlimited chat, hosted by Discourse, so you don't even necessarily need to self-host. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

You could have:

Course: WordPress/Masteriyo
Community: Discourse
Payments: Stripe
Email: your own email provider

Or self-host Discourse yourself; the software is GPL open source and free to run on your own infrastructure. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

The big limitation: Discourse isn't really a course platform. It's excellent for discussion, accountability, Q&A, cohorts, networking and member interaction.

4. WordPress + BuddyPress — the DIY all-in-one

BuddyPress

If you want to keep everything on one WordPress installation, BuddyPress can provide profiles, groups, activity streams and social/community functionality, while an LMS plugin handles courses.

This gives you maximum control, but also maximum tinkering.

What I'd actually build with $0

If I were a solo creator with zero funding, I'd resist trying to recreate Kajabi/Circle/Skool immediately.

I'd start with:

WordPress
→ Masteriyo for courses
→ BuddyPress for basic community
→ Stripe for payments
→ Email/newsletter service separately
→ Cloudflare for DNS/security
→ cheap/free hosting initially

Then, once the community becomes genuinely active, I'd consider moving the community to Discourse.

The important part: don't optimize for “$0”

Optimize for “I don't pay the platform a percentage of my business.”

There's a huge difference.

A $10–20/month server that lets you keep 100% of a $5,000 course launch is fundamentally different from a platform taking 5–10% forever.

And if you truly have $0 available right now, Discourse is unusually compelling because its current hosted free plan gives you unlimited members and chat without requiring you to manage a server.

My ranking for your situation:

If you’re a solo creator with $0 funding, I’d avoid most “all-in-one creator platforms” (Kajabi, Circle, Skool, Teachable, etc.) at the beginning because they charge monthly fees or take revenue cuts. A good zero-budget stack is usually open-source + free tiers + your own domain later.

Here are the strongest options:

Best all-in-one (course + community)

1. CourseLit — closest to a free Teachable/Kajabi alternative

• Courses
• Memberships
• Community features
• Digital downloads
• Website/blog tools
• Email features
• Self-hosted = no platform fee (you only pay hosting if you use a server)

Selfhost Tools CourseLit DocsBest for: a solo creator who wants one place for a paid course business.

Difficulty: Medium (you’ll need basic hosting/Docker skills if self-hosting).

2. Moodle — the “serious education” option

• Extremely mature
• Quizzes, assignments, certificates
• Student accounts
• Plugins
• Huge ecosystem

Best for: structured courses, cohorts, certifications.

Downside: feels more like a school system than a creator community.

3. WordPress + free LMS/community plugins — easiest DIY route

Stack example:

• WordPress → website
• LearnPress or Tutor LMS → courses
• BuddyPress → community
• WooCommerce → payments

Best for: creators who want control and don’t mind assembling pieces.

Difficulty: Low–medium.

Best free community-first options

4. Discourse

• Forums
• Member profiles
• Categories
• Private groups
• Long-form discussions

Best for: paid communities where the conversation is the product.

Pair it with:

• YouTube unlisted videos
• Google Drive resources
• Stripe payment links
• Email newsletter

5. Mastodon / chat communities

If your “community” is more social:

• Discord (free but not self-owned)
• Matrix + Element (more ownership)

Cheapest “just start creating” stack ($0/month)

For most solo creators, I’d do:

Website

• WordPress on free hosting initially

Course delivery

• YouTube unlisted videos
• Google Docs/Drive worksheets
• Notion pages

Community

• Discord or Circle free trial → migrate later
• Or a free Discourse install if you’re technical

Email

• mailerlite.com free tier
• brevo.com free tier

Payments

• stripe.com (no monthly fee, only transaction fees)

If I were starting from zero today

Non-technical creator:

WordPress + LearnPress + Discord + MailerLite

Technical creator:

CourseLit self-hosted + Stripe + Cloudflare

Community is the main product:

Discourse + email newsletter + hosted videos

Audience-first approach:

Don’t build the “perfect platform” first. Build:

1. audience
2. email list
3. first paid cohort
4. then migrate to a custom platform when revenue justifies it

The biggest trap for solo creators is spending weeks building infrastructure before proving people want the course.

Technical creator:

CourseLit self-hosted + Stripe + Cloudflare

Community is the main product:

Yes. If your priority is $0 platform fees, the key is to use open-source/self-hosted software—or, in the case of community software, a genuinely free hosted tier.

For a solo creator, I’d narrow it down to these:

My pick for a zero-budget solo creator

Start with Moodle + Discourse.

moodle.org is open-source LMS software. You can self-host it and get proper courses, lessons, quizzes, assignments, progress tracking, certificates, etc. Moodle explicitly supports self-hosting. Moodle Downloads

discourse.org is open-source community software with discussions, chat, search, moderation, member accounts, etc. You can self-host it with no software/license fee. Discourse - Civilized Discussion GitHub

The architecture would be:

Your website → Moodle (courses) → Discourse (community)

The downside is that $0 platform fees doesn't mean $0 operating cost. If you self-host, you'll eventually need a server, domain, email delivery, backups, and possibly payment processing.

Even easier: Discourse's new free plan

There's an interesting option that wasn't available until recently: Discourse now has a free hosted plan with unlimited members and unlimited chat, hosted infrastructure, automatic updates, and a free *.discourse.group domain. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

So you could do:

Moodle → free Discourse community

That gets you very close to a $0/month platform stack without having to administer the community server.

What about Open edX?

openedx.org is another serious option. It's completely free/open-source with no license fees and includes both course authoring and an LMS. Open edX Open edX

But honestly, I wouldn't recommend it for most solo creators starting from zero. It's considerably more infrastructure than you need unless you're building something that looks more like a full online school.

One important distinction

If by "without platform fees" you mean:

I want to sell a $100 course and keep the entire $100 except payment-processing fees.

Then you want to avoid platforms whose business model takes a percentage of every sale.

A self-hosted stack can do that. You'd generally pay only things like Stripe/PayPal processing fees, rather than giving the course platform 5–10%+ of every sale.

The ultra-lean version I'd build

If I were starting completely broke:

1. Course: Moodle
2. Community: Free Discourse
3. Landing page: simple WordPress/static site
4. Payments: Stripe
5. Email: free-tier transactional/email service initially
6. Videos: don't host massive video files yourself—use an appropriate video host
7. Domain: buy one domain when you can afford it
8. Upgrade to paid hosting only when revenue justifies it

This lets you avoid getting trapped in Kajabi/Teachable/Thinkific-style monthly subscriptions and transaction fees.

If you tell me roughly what you're teaching (e.g. fitness, coding, business, language, art) and whether you need paid memberships/subscriptions or just one-time course sales, I can give you a specific $0–$20/month stack and setup architecture.

moodle.org is open-source LMS software. You can self-host it and get proper courses, lessons, quizzes, assignments, progress tracking, certificates, etc. Moodle explicitly supports self-hosting. Moodle Downloads

discourse.org is open-source community software with discussions, chat, search, moderation, member accounts, etc. You can self-host it with no software/license fee. Discourse - Civilized Discussion GitHub

The architecture would be:

Your website → Moodle (courses) → Discourse (community)

The downside is that $0 platform fees doesn't mean $0 operating cost. If you self-host, you'll eventually need a server, domain, email delivery, backups, and possibly payment processing.

Even easier: Discourse's new free plan

There's an interesting option that wasn't available until recently: Discourse now has a free hosted plan with unlimited members and unlimited chat, hosted infrastructure, automatic updates, and a free *.discourse.group domain. blog.discourse.org Discourse - Civilized Discussion

So you could do:

Moodle → free Discourse community

That gets you very close to a $0/month platform stack without having to administer the community server.

What about Open edX?

openedx.org is another serious option. It's completely free/open-source with no license fees and includes both course authoring and an LMS. openedx.org openedx.org

But honestly, I wouldn't recommend it for most solo creators starting from zero. It's considerably more infrastructure than you need unless you're building something that looks more like a full online school.

One important distinction

If by "without platform fees" you mean:

I want to sell a $100 course and keep the entire $100 except payment-processing fees.

Then you want to avoid platforms whose business model takes a percentage of every sale.

Yes—but there’s an important distinction between “no monthly platform fee” and “no fees at all.” Payment processors like Stripe will still generally charge processing fees.

For a solo creator with $0 starting budget, I’d look at these:

🥇 My recommendation: WordPress

If your goal is eventually to build a real course business without becoming dependent on Kajabi/Circle/Mighty/etc., I'd build:

WordPress
→ LearnPress or LifterLMS for courses
→ BuddyPress for community
→ H5P for quizzes/interactive lessons
→ Stripe for payments
→ Your own domain/hosting when you can afford it

H5P is particularly interesting because it's open source and free, and can create interactive videos, presentations, quizzes, games, etc. H5P

The catch: hosting isn't free forever. The software can be free, but you'll eventually pay for web hosting, domain registration, email, video storage, etc.

🆓 If you literally have $0 today

I'd actually not build a full LMS yet.

Start with:

YouTube (unlisted/public) + Google Drive + Discord

Use Discord as the community, YouTube for lessons, and Google Drive for worksheets/resources.

Then sell access manually at first. Once you've proven people will pay, migrate the paying students to your own WordPress LMS.

That's much better than spending weeks configuring an elaborate platform before you know whether anyone wants the course.

Platforms I'd not choose for your specific goal

Circle is excellent, but it isn't a zero-cost/no-platform-fee solution. Its Professional plan is currently $89/month and Circle also takes 2% on paywall transactions at that level. Circle Circle

Mighty Networks is similarly polished but not free: its current Launch plan is $79/month and has a 2% transaction fee. Mighty Networks

Podia is easier to use, but its current Mover plan charges 5% per transaction, while the no-Podia-transaction-fee plan costs $89/month ($75/month annually). Podia Help Center Podia

So I'd avoid those if your primary constraint is zero recurring platform cost.

The $0 → $100/month → $1,000/month path I'd use

$0:
Discord + YouTube + Google Drive

↓

First customers:
Keep the same stack. Manually onboard people. Learn what they actually need.

↓

$100+/month revenue:
Buy a domain + cheap WordPress hosting and move the course onto your own site.

↓

$500–$1,000+/month:
Add automated checkout, email marketing, proper LMS functionality, memberships, analytics, etc.

This approach keeps you from paying $80–$200/month for software before you've made your first dollar.

If you tell me what kind of course you're creating (e.g. fitness, coding, business, art, language, coaching), I can give you a specific $0 software stack and exactly how I'd wire the course + community + payments together.

Yes. If your priority is $0 platform fees, the key is to separate “software cost” from “hosting cost.” You can get the software essentially free, but a truly public website usually needs hosting eventually.

Here are the options I’d consider as a solo creator:

1. Moodle — probably the best free LMS

Moodle is open-source and has no licensing fees. You can run courses, quizzes, assignments, certificates, progress tracking, grades, etc. Moodle explicitly says you can run it wherever you want without license restrictions. Moodle

You can also add H5P for interactive videos, quizzes, presentations, and other content. H5P itself is free/open source. H5P

Downside: Moodle feels like an actual LMS rather than a slick creator platform. You'll spend more time configuring it.

Best if: your product is primarily structured education.

2. WordPress + LMS/community plugins — best all-around

This is probably what I'd choose if you want to eventually build a real creator business.

You can have:

• WordPress → website
• LMS plugin → courses
• H5P → interactive lessons
• Community plugin → profiles/groups/discussions
• Stripe/PayPal → payments
• Your own domain → branding

The advantage is that you're not locked into one SaaS platform. You can change individual components as you grow.

The catch is that "no platform fees" doesn't mean no costs. You'll eventually pay for hosting, domain, email, video storage, payment processing, etc.

3. Discourse — surprisingly good free community option

Discourse just introduced a free hosted plan in 2026. It includes unlimited members, unlimited chat, two staff seats, and a free *.discourse.group address. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

That's particularly interesting for a zero-budget creator because you don't even need to self-host initially.

I'd use it for:

• member discussions
• accountability groups
• Q&A
• cohorts
• challenges
• resource libraries
• peer networking

It's not really a course platform, though.

You could therefore do:

Moodle/WordPress → courses
Discourse → community

Discourse is also open source if you eventually want to self-host it. GitHub

4. Flarum — if you want a very lightweight community

Flarum is another open-source community platform.

It's considerably simpler than Discourse and can be very inexpensive to host. But I'd pick Discourse today unless you specifically want a minimalist forum.

What I'd actually do with $0

Don't try to recreate Kajabi/Circle/Skool on day one.

I'd build this:

Landing page
→ free/simple website

Course
→ Moodle or WordPress + LMS

Interactive content
→ H5P

Community
→ free Discourse

Payments
→ Stripe/PayPal when you actually make a sale

Video
→ YouTube/Vimeo/unlisted video initially rather than paying for expensive course-video hosting

Email
→ free-tier email service initially

That gives you a surprisingly capable stack without handing 5–10% of every sale to a course-platform vendor.

If you're extremely non-technical

I'd actually start with free Discourse + Google Drive/YouTube + a simple website, validate that people will pay, and only then build the full LMS.

If you're technical

I'd go self-hosted Moodle + Discourse. You own the software, learner data, and community rather than building your business on someone else's SaaS. Moodle has no license fees, while Discourse is GPL/open source and can be self-hosted. Moodle Discourse - Civilized Discussion

My ranking for a solo creator:

1. 🥇 WordPress + LMS + H5P + Discourse — best overall ecosystem
2. 🥈 Moodle + Discourse — best genuinely open-source stack
3. 🥉 Discourse alone — best if community matters more than formal courses
4. Flarum + separate course system — good lightweight alternative

One important distinction: “no platform fees” ≠ “no transaction fees.” Stripe/PayPal will still charge payment-processing fees when someone buys something. The goal here is eliminating the additional percentage or monthly fee charged by platforms such as hosted course/community SaaS.

Discourse is also open source if you eventually want to self-host it. GitHub

4. Flarum — if you want a very lightweight community

Flarum is another open-source community platform.

It's considerably simpler than Discourse and can be very inexpensive to host. But I'd pick Discourse today unless you specifically want a minimalist forum.

What I'd actually do with $0

Don't try to recreate Kajabi/Circle/Skool on day one.

I'd build this:

Landing page
→ free/simple website

Course
→ Moodle or WordPress + LMS

Interactive content
→ H5P

Community
→ free Discourse

Payments
→ Stripe/PayPal when you actually make a sale

Video
→ YouTube/Vimeo/unlisted video initially rather than paying for expensive course-video hosting

Email
→ free-tier email service initially

That gives you a surprisingly capable stack without handing 5–10% of every sale to a course-platform vendor.

If you're extremely non-technical

I'd actually start with free Discourse + Google Drive/YouTube + a simple website, validate that people will pay, and only then build the full LMS.

If you're technical

I'd go self-hosted Moodle + Discourse. You own the software, learner data, and community rather than building your business on someone else's SaaS. Moodle has no license fees, while Discourse is GPL/open source and can be self-hosted.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean no Kajabi/Teachable/Circle-style percentage of your sales, I’d strongly consider self-hosted/open-source software.

The catch is that “free software” ≠ “free infrastructure”: you’ll eventually need hosting, a domain, email, payment processing, etc. But you can avoid a platform taking 5–10%+ of every sale.

My top choices

1. WordPress — probably the best solo-creator choice

You can build a surprisingly capable course business with:

• WordPress — your website
• LearnPress / Tutor LMS / LearnDash alternatives — courses
• bbPress or BuddyPress — discussion/community
• H5P — interactive quizzes, presentations, exercises, etc.
• Stripe/PayPal — payments

H5P is particularly useful because it's free/open source and can be integrated into WordPress, Moodle, Drupal, etc. H5P H5P

The big advantage: you own the site and customer data rather than building your entire business inside someone else's SaaS.

2. Moodle + Flarum — my pick if you want a serious learning platform

Moodle is a full LMS and is genuinely open source. You can download and run it yourself with no licensing fees. Moodle explicitly says self-hosting has no license costs; you just provide the hosting and technical administration. Moodle Moodle Services knowledge base

Then pair it with Flarum for the community.

Flarum is MIT-licensed, free/open source, and designed specifically for communities/forums. Flarum Flarum

So you'd have:

yourdomain.com
→ Courses: Moodle
→ Community: Flarum
→ Payments: Stripe
→ Videos: YouTube/Vimeo/cloud storage
→ Email: your own email provider
→ Analytics: Matomo or similar

This is much closer to having your own Kajabi/Circle, without actually paying Kajabi/Circle.

3. Moodle alone

Don't overlook Moodle.

It already has courses, lessons, quizzes, assignments, student accounts, progress tracking, grading, certificates/plugins, discussion functionality, etc.

If your primary product is education rather than community, Moodle may be enough. Its source is freely available under GPL, and you can modify it extensively. Moodle GitHub

The downside is that it can feel more like a school/LMS than a polished creator community.

What I'd actually do with $0

If you're genuinely starting with zero funding, I wouldn't build an elaborate platform first.

I'd start with:

Landing page → payment → course → community

And keep the tech extremely cheap:

• Website: WordPress
• Course: WordPress LMS plugin
• Interactive lessons: H5P
• Community: Flarum or BuddyPress
• Video: unlisted YouTube videos initially
• Payments: Stripe
• Email: free/cheap transactional email
• Domain: ~$10–20/year once you can afford it
• Hosting: eventually ~$5–10/month

Your only unavoidable per-transaction cost is generally the payment processor's fee. That's different from a course platform taking a percentage simply because you use its software.

The important distinction

I'd separate these three models:

SaaS creator platform

Teachable/Kajabi/Circle → easiest, but you're renting the infrastructure and potentially paying monthly + transaction/platform fees.

Self-hosted

WordPress/Moodle/Flarum → software is free, but you pay for hosting and maintain it yourself.

Hybrid

Free/cheap website + external video/community/payment services → easiest way to start, while keeping costs low.

For a solo creator with no funding, I'd choose WordPress + H5P + a lightweight community solution first. Once you have paying customers, you can graduate to Moodle + Flarum if you actually need the complexity.

If you tell me what kind of course you're selling, expected number of students (e.g. 50/500/5,000), and whether you want a paid monthly community, I can give you a $0–$20/month stack with exact software choices and setup order.

What I'd actually do with $0

If you're genuinely starting with zero funding, I wouldn't build an elaborate platform first.

I'd start with:

Landing page → payment → course → community

And keep the tech extremely cheap:

Yes. If your priority is $0 platform fees and you’re willing to trade some convenience for control, you can build a surprisingly good course + community stack yourself.

My top choices

\*You still need hosting/domain costs if you self-host.

🥇 Best overall for a solo creator: WordPress + LMS + Discourse

I'd seriously consider this architecture:

Your website
→ WordPress

Courses
→ LearnPress or another free/open-source LMS plugin

Community
→ Discourse

Payments
→ Stripe/PayPal/etc. — you'll still pay payment-processing fees, but not a percentage to your course platform

Video
→ Don't host video files on your web server. Use YouTube/Vimeo or another video host, and embed the videos into your lessons.

This gives you ownership of the customer relationship rather than putting everything inside something like Kajabi, Circle, Skool, Teachable, etc.

🟢 Discourse is particularly interesting now

Discourse launched a $0 hosted plan in July 2026. It includes unlimited members and unlimited chat, with two staff seats and a free *.discourse.group address. blog.discourse.org

So you don't even necessarily need to self-host the community anymore.

Discourse free community

If you eventually want your own infrastructure, Discourse is also open source and can be self-hosted. www.discourse.org

🟢 Open edX if the course itself is the product

Open edX is much more serious LMS software. It includes both course authoring and a learner-facing LMS, and there are no software licensing fees. You pay for infrastructure and maintenance instead. openedx.org

I'd use it if you're building something closer to an online school than a creator membership.

The downside: it's substantially more technical to deploy and maintain than WordPress.

🟢 Moodle if you want a traditional LMS

Moodle is another excellent $0-license option. It's particularly good for structured courses: lessons, quizzes, assignments, certificates, grades, cohorts, etc.

For a solo creator, though, I'd avoid overengineering it unless you actually need those LMS features.

What I'd do with literally $0

I'd start extremely lean:

Landing page: free static website / WordPress
Course: WordPress + free LMS plugin
Videos: YouTube unlisted
Community: Discourse free
Email: free-tier email provider
Payments: Stripe
Domain: eventually ~$10–20/year
Hosting: free initially where practical, then ~$5–10/month when revenue justifies it

The important distinction is:

"No platform fees" doesn't mean "no costs."

You can eliminate the 10–20% creator-platform tax, but you'll still encounter payment processing, domain, hosting, email, video hosting, and potentially software-maintenance costs.

And if you're starting from zero, I'd optimize for simplicity rather than building a fully self-hosted stack on day one. Your first goal should be getting the first 5–10 paying students, not becoming your own DevOps team.

If you tell me what kind of course you're selling (e.g. $49 course, $500 cohort, $20/month membership), I can recommend a specific $0–$20/month stack and show you exactly how I'd assemble it.

If you have zero funding and want to avoid platform fees, your best options are usually either:

1. Self-host open-source software (no SaaS fees, but you handle setup/hosting), or
2. Use free-tier tools and stitch them together (easier, but less ownership).

Here are practical stacks for a solo creator:

Option 1: $0–$10/month “indie creator stack” (my recommended starting point)

Courses

• Moodle — Free, open-source LMS. Very powerful: lessons, quizzes, certificates, student accounts. It is more “school” than “creator brand,” though.
• CourseLit — Open-source creator-focused course platform with courses, memberships, digital products, and self-hosting options. CourseLit Docs
• WordPress + LMS plugins — A common solo creator route. Free core software; you only pay hosting/domain if you want a custom site.

Community

• Discord — Free and probably the easiest community solution. Great for cohorts, accountability groups, live chats.
• Discourse — Open-source forum/community platform. Better for long-term searchable communities, but requires hosting.
• Circle alternatives: self-hosted projects like Roost combine community features with learning features. GitHub

Video hosting

Avoid uploading lots of video directly to your server.

Free/cheap approaches:

• YouTube unlisted videos (simple)
• Cloudflare Stream when you can afford small usage costs
• Bunny Stream (low-cost paid option)

Option 2: Fully self-owned “creator business” stack

A good zero-platform-fee setup:

Website

• WordPress

Courses

• CourseLit or Moodle
• Or a custom WordPress LMS setup

Community

• Discord at first
• Move to Discourse later

Email list

• Brevo free tier or Mailchimp free tier (until your list grows)

Payments

• Stripe

You cannot realistically avoid payment processing fees unless you use unusual payment rails; Stripe fees are transaction fees, not platform rent.

Option 3: No-code, no maintenance

If you value time over ownership:

• Gumroad — easy selling, but takes a cut.
• Teachable / Thinkific — polished, but fees/subscriptions eventually hurt small creators.

My suggested path for a solo creator with no money

Stage 1: First 100 students

Use:

• Landing page: Carrd / WordPress
• Course: Notion + Google Drive + unlisted YouTube
• Community: Discord
• Payments: Stripe payment links

Cost: ~$0/month

Stage 2: Revenue starts ($100–$1,000/month)

Move to:

• WordPress + LMS plugin or CourseLit
• Custom domain
• Better email automation

Stage 3: Serious community

Move to:

• Discourse or a self-hosted community platform
• Proper membership system
• Better analytics

If I were starting from zero today, I would not build a full LMS first. I’d validate the course with:
YouTube unlisted + Notion + Discord + Stripe links, then migrate once people are paying. The biggest risk for a solo creator is spending months building a platform before proving people want the content.

If you’re a solo creator with $0 budget and want courses + community without paying platform fees, you’ll usually need to choose between:

1. Truly free + self-hosted (no platform fees, but you handle setup)
2. Free SaaS tiers (easy, but limits/branding may appear)
3. A DIY stack (best long-term control)

Here are the strongest options.

Best “own everything” options (no platform fees)

1. WordPress + plugins (best beginner choice)

Cost: $0 software cost (hosting can be free/cheap)

Stack:

• WordPress → website
• LearnPress or Tutor LMS → courses
• BuddyPress → community
• WooCommerce → payments

Pros:

• Huge ecosystem
• You own your student list
• Easy to expand into memberships, newsletters, blogs

Cons:

• More setup and maintenance
• Video hosting can become the expensive part

Best for: creators building a real business.

2. Moodle (serious LMS, completely free)

Moodle

Cost:

• Software: free
• Hosting: optional

Pros:

• Extremely powerful
• Quizzes, certificates, assignments, student tracking
• Used by universities

Cons:

• Feels more like a school system than a creator community

Best for: structured courses, cohorts, certifications.

3. CourseLit (creator-focused self-hosted)

CourseLit

Aims closer to Teachable/Kajabi but self-hosted. It combines courses, digital products, blogging, email features, and community tools. Unsubbed

Pros:

• No revenue share
• More “creator business” oriented
• Own your data

Cons:

• Requires some technical setup

Best for: solo creators who want a self-owned alternative to course platforms.

4. Roost (course + community in one)

Roost

Roost is a self-hosted community platform with learning modules, groups, messaging, events, and progress tracking. GitHub

Pros:

• Closer to Circle/Skool style
• Community-first
• Open source

Cons:

• Newer ecosystem

Best for: paid communities where the community is the product.

Free hosted options (least technical)

5. Mighty Networks free/entry options

Good UX, but free tiers and pricing change frequently.

Good for:

• memberships
• communities
• cohorts

Downside:

• Eventually you pay as you grow

6. Discord + free tools

Probably the fastest zero-cost setup.

Stack:

• Discord → community
• Google Drive/Notion → lessons
• YouTube unlisted → videos
• Gumroad/Lemon Squeezy → payments

Pros:

• Launch today
• No hosting
• Familiar to users

Cons:

• Feels less like a premium course platform

The “zero dollar creator stack” I’d use

If I had no funding, I’d start with:

Audience + community

• Discord or Discourse

Course content

• Notion pages or WordPress

Video

• YouTube unlisted

Email

• MailerLite free tier

Payments

• Stripe (no monthly fee, only transaction fees)

Website

• WordPress, Cloudflare Pages, or GitHub Pages

My recommendation by creator stage

A key thing: video hosting is usually the hidden cost. The course platform can be free, but storing and streaming hundreds of hours of HD video is where creators often start paying.

For a solo creator starting from zero, I’d avoid building a full LMS immediately. Launch the simplest version, prove people will pay, then migrate into a self-hosted platform when the community justifies the effort.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean no percentage of your course revenue going to Kajabi/Teachable/Circle/etc., there are good options—but there’s an important distinction:

• $0 software + $0 platform fee: self-hosted open-source software.
• $0 upfront + $0 platform fee: free hosted tiers, where you may eventually pay for hosting/features.
• Truly $0 total: difficult once you need video hosting, a custom domain, email, payments, etc.

For a solo creator with zero funding, I’d look at these:

🥇 My recommendation: Moodle + Discourse

moodle.org is genuinely free/open-source LMS software when self-hosted. You can create lessons, quizzes, assignments, student accounts, progress tracking, certificates, etc. Moodle itself doesn't take a percentage of your sales. Moodle Services knowledge base

discourse.org is excellent for the community side. And, interestingly, as of July 2026, Discourse has a $0 hosted plan with unlimited members and unlimited chat, so you don't necessarily even need to self-host the community anymore. Discourse Discourse - Civilized Discussion

That gives you something like:

Your website → Course → Moodle
** ↘ Community → Discourse**

You could then use Stripe/PayPal/etc. for payments. The payment processor would still charge transaction fees, but Moodle/Discourse wouldn't take a cut of your course revenue.

If you want the absolute simplest setup

I'd actually start with:

Free website/landing page + Discourse + videos hosted separately

You don't need a sophisticated LMS on day one.

For example:

1. Landing page explaining your course.
2. Checkout/payment link.
3. Give purchasers access to your course materials.
4. Discourse becomes the student community.
5. Lessons can initially be PDFs, videos, links, worksheets, etc.
6. Upgrade to Moodle once you genuinely need quizzes, progress tracking, certificates, structured enrollment, etc.

This avoids spending months building a complicated “course platform” before you've proven people will pay.

What about Open edX?

openedx.org is another legitimate zero-platform-fee option. It's open source and includes both course authoring and a full LMS. You pay for infrastructure/maintenance rather than software licensing. Open edX Open edX

But for one person starting from $0, I'd consider it unnecessarily complicated unless you're building something fairly substantial.

One thing I'd avoid

Don't confuse “free plan” with “no platform fees.”

A lot of creator platforms advertise $0/month but take 5–10%+ of every sale, impose limits, or require you to upgrade once you start making money.

If your philosophy is “I want to own the audience and keep 100% of my course revenue minus payment processing,” open-source/self-hosted software is the direction I'd take.

If you tell me what kind of course you're creating (e.g. fitness, coding, business, art, language) and whether you need video, paid memberships, certificates, or live classes, I can give you a completely $0-startup stack—including the website, course hosting, community, email, payments, and video.

For example:

If you have zero funding and want to avoid platform fees (monthly SaaS fees, revenue cuts, member limits), your best options are usually open-source + free-tier infrastructure. The tradeoff is that you may spend more time setting things up and maintaining them.

Here are practical stacks for a solo creator:

Option 1: Easiest zero-cost creator stack (recommended starting point)

Courses

• Moodle — Free, open-source LMS. Very powerful for structured courses, quizzes, certificates, progress tracking. You host it yourself. Coursebox

Community

• Discourse — Open-source forum/community platform. Great for serious communities, discussions, and searchable knowledge bases.
• Or Discord — Free and much easier for a new audience.

Video

• YouTube unlisted videos — free hosting (you keep course pages elsewhere).
• PeerTube — open-source alternative if you want more control.

Files

• Google Drive free storage
• Cloudflare R2 if you later need cheap media storage

Cost: $0/month to start.

Option 2: All-in-one course + community (closest to Circle/Skool)

CourseLit

Good fit for a solo creator because it combines:

• courses
• digital products
• community
• email features
• website builder

It is self-hosted, so there is no platform revenue cut; your only costs are hosting and services you choose (like email/video/payment providers). Selfhost Tools

LearnHouse

Another modern option:

• course hosting
• communities
• quizzes
• integrations
• self-hosting
• claims of 0% platform fees because you control the infrastructure LearnHouse

Option 3: "I don't want to code or manage servers"

Use a free/cheap Frankenstein stack:

• Course pages: Notion
• Videos: YouTube unlisted
• Community: Discord
• Email list: Beehiiv or MailerLite free tiers
• Payments: Stripe (no monthly fee, but payment processing fees apply)

Cost: basically $0 until you have customers.

Option 4: Build your own "creator academy"

For a technical creator:

• Frontend: Cloudflare Pages free tier
• Database/auth: Supabase free tier
• CMS: Strapi
• Video: YouTube/Vimeo/R2
• Payments: Stripe

Maximum control, but more setup.

My suggested path for a solo creator with no money

Stage 1 (0–100 students)

• Notion or Moodle for lessons
• YouTube unlisted for videos
• Discord for community
• Email newsletter

Stage 2 (100–1,000 students)

• Move to CourseLit, LearnHouse, or Moodle
• Add your own domain
• Automate onboarding

Stage 3 (1,000+ students)

• Self-host everything
• Add paid memberships, analytics, CRM, automation

The mistake many zero-budget creators make is building the "perfect platform" before they have students. A simple stack that lets you teach, collect emails, and build relationships usually wins.

If you tell me your course type (cohort, evergreen video course, paid community, coaching, coding, fitness, etc.), I can suggest a more specific stack.

If you’re a solo creator with $0 budget and want courses + community without paying platform fees, your best options are usually either:

1. Self-hosted open source (no platform fee, but you handle setup), or
2. Free creator platforms (easy, but may have limits or future pricing changes).

Here are the strongest options:

Best “own everything” options (no platform fees)

1. Moodle + Discourse

Best for: serious education businesses

• Moodle = courses, lessons, quizzes, certificates, student tracking
• Discourse = community discussions, groups, member engagement
• You can self-host both and pay $0 in software fees. Discourse is open source and designed to be self-hosted. GitHub

Cost:

• Software: $0
• Hosting: can start around $5–10/month (or free tiers if you’re technical)

Downside: setup takes effort.

2. LearnHouse

Best for: a creator who wants “course platform + community” in one place

Features:

• Courses
• Community forums
• Payments through your own payment processor
• Self-hosting
• White-label options

LearnHouse advertises 0% platform fees and self-hosting where you control the infrastructure. LearnHouse

Good fit if: you want something closer to Teachable/Circle but without SaaS lock-in.

3. WordPress + LMS plugins

Best for: creators who want a website-first business

Stack:

• WordPress (website)
• Tutor LMS / LearnPress (courses)
• BuddyPress / bbPress (community)
• WooCommerce + Stripe (payments)

Pros

• Huge ecosystem
• Easy to customize
• You own your audience

Cons

• Plugins can become messy
• Hosting usually costs money eventually

4. Build a “Frankenstack” with free tools

Best for: starting today with zero dollars

Example:

• Course lessons → Google Drive or Notion
• Community → Discord
• Email list → Substack or free email tools
• Payments → Stripe payment links

This is ugly but extremely common for early creators.

Easier free platforms (less technical)

5. Fora

Best for: launching quickly

Fora combines:

• Community
• Courses
• Events
• Member profiles

It currently offers free creator plans, though free SaaS platforms can change pricing over time. Fora

6. Courses.gg

Best for: testing a course idea quickly

It combines:

• Course creation
• Community
• Live sessions
• Payments

Its free plan includes course/community tools, but paid transactions can include platform fees. courses.gg

My recommended zero-budget path

For a solo creator starting from nothing:

Phase 1: Validate ($0)

• Community: Discord
• Lessons: Notion or Google Docs
• Videos: YouTube unlisted
• Payments: Stripe links
• Email: Substack

Goal: get your first 50–100 students.

Phase 2: Upgrade when revenue appears

Move to:

Option A (nontechnical):

• Fora / similar all-in-one platform

Option B (ownership-focused):

• WordPress + LMS

Option C (maximum control):

• Moodle + Discourse or LearnHouse

A key thing: “no platform fees” usually means you trade money for time/technical work. The truly free route is self-hosting; the easiest route is usually a hosted platform that takes a cut or may introduce limits later.

If you tell me your course type (coaching, programming, fitness, language, community membership, etc.) and whether you can handle basic tech setup, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 choices.

Yes—but there’s an important distinction:

“No platform fees” usually means either self-hosted/open-source, or a SaaS platform that charges $0 on transactions but still has a monthly hosting fee. If you literally have $0 to spend, self-hosting is the route.

Best options for a broke solo creator

1. Moodle — my pick if courses are the core product

moodle.org is open-source and free to download/self-host. You can create lessons, quizzes, assignments, certificates, student accounts, progress tracking, etc. Moodle Services knowledge base

The catch is hosting: Moodle itself is free; running a server isn't necessarily free.

If you have essentially no budget, you can start by finding a free/cheap hosting arrangement, or run it locally while validating the idea.

MoodleCloud isn't the zero-budget solution: its paid plans currently start at $170/year, although it offers a free trial. Moodle Cloud

Best for: serious structured courses.

2. WordPress — best if you want an entire creator business

wordpress.org + free/open-source plugins can give you:

• Course lessons
• Student accounts
• Memberships
• Blog/content
• Landing pages
• Community/forums
• Email integrations
• Your own domain
• Your own payment processor

The advantage is that you aren't locked into a course platform. You can assemble exactly what you need.

For example:

WordPress → LMS plugin → membership plugin → community/forum → Stripe

You pay Stripe/payment-processing fees when someone buys something, but the course platform itself doesn't need to take a percentage.

Best for: building a long-term independent creator business.

3. Ghost — fantastic for a membership/community business

ghost.org is particularly interesting if your "course" is more like:

weekly lessons + articles + videos + private members area + discussion

Ghost has memberships, paid subscriptions, member-only content and comments. Its hosted plans charge 0% transaction fees; payment processing fees still apply. Ghost Ghost

You can also self-host Ghost, which eliminates the Ghost hosting bill.

Best for: cohort/membership education rather than traditional LMS-style courses.

4. Discourse — use this for the community

discourse.org is one of my favorite options if community is important.

It's open source and can be self-hosted for free. Discourse - Civilized Discussion Discourse - Civilized Discussion

It's not really a course platform, though. I'd pair it with something else:

Moodle + Discourse

That gives you:

• Moodle → actual course
• Discourse → community
• Stripe → payments
• Your own website → marketing

That's a surprisingly powerful stack.

What I would actually do with $0

I'd avoid Teachable/Kajabi/Circle/etc. initially.

For a solo creator trying to prove demand, I'd build:

Option A — simplest

WordPress + LMS plugin + Stripe + Discourse

or, if you're technically comfortable:

Option B — maximum ownership

Moodle + Discourse + Stripe

Your payment flow becomes:

Customer → your checkout → Stripe → you

rather than:

Customer → platform → platform takes its cut → you

This distinction matters as you grow.

For comparison, Teachable's current Starter plan is $39/month monthly ($29/month annually) and takes 7.5% per transaction; its $89/month Builder plan has 0% platform transaction fees. Teachable

So I'd think of Teachable as “pay for convenience,” not “free platform.”

One more option I'd seriously consider

If your course doesn't need sophisticated LMS functionality, you can go even simpler:

Your website + private video/content + Stripe + community

For example:

Landing page → payment → automatically give student access → private course area → Discord/Discourse community

You don't necessarily need a formal "course platform" at all.

My ranking for your situation

1. WordPress — best all-around zero-platform-fee foundation
2. Moodle — best if the course itself is sophisticated
3. Ghost — best if you're building a paid membership/education publication
4. Discourse — best community layer
5. Teachable — best if you're willing to pay for convenience

If you tell me what kind of course you're selling (video course, cohort, live workshops, AI course, fitness, coding, etc.) and roughly how many students you expect, I can give you a $0/month stack with the exact software to use and how the pieces fit together.

I'd avoid Teachable/Kajabi/Circle/etc. initially.

For a solo creator trying to prove demand, I'd build:

Option A — simplest

WordPress + LMS plugin + Stripe + Discourse

or, if you're technically comfortable:

Option B — maximum ownership

Moodle + Discourse + Stripe

Your payment flow becomes:

Customer → your checkout → Stripe → you

rather than:

Customer → platform → platform takes its cut → you

This distinction matters as you grow.

For comparison, Teachable's current Starter plan is $39/month monthly ($29/month annually) and takes 7.5% per transaction; its $89/month Builder plan has 0% platform transaction fees. teachable.com

So I'd think of Teachable as “pay for convenience,” not “free platform.”

One more option I'd seriously consider

If your course doesn't need sophisticated LMS functionality, you can go even simpler:

Your website + private video/content + Stripe + community

For example:

Landing page → payment → automatically give student access → private course area → Discord/Discourse community

If you mean literally $0/month in platform fees, your best options are mostly open-source + self-hosted. The tradeoff is that you become responsible for hosting, setup, backups, and maintenance.

For a solo creator starting from zero, I'd look at these:

1. Moodle — probably your best starting point

Moodle is genuinely free/open source. You can install it on your own server with no license fee and no percentage of your course revenue. Moodle Services knowledge base Moodle

It gives you:

• Video/text lessons
• Courses and modules
• Quizzes
• Assignments
• Progress tracking
• Certificates
• Student accounts
• Discussion forums
• Drip/restricted content
• Plugins and themes
• Your own branding and domain

The important distinction is MoodleCloud isn't free—that's Moodle's managed hosting service. Self-hosted Moodle is the $0-software route. MoodleCloud Moodle Services knowledge base

2. Discourse — if community is the core product

Discourse is excellent for building a paid/free membership community.

It's GPL-licensed, self-hostable, and lets you own/export your community data. Official hosted plans start at $20/month, but self-hosting the software itself doesn't require a platform fee. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

You could structure it like:

Course → Community → Office hours → Resources → Member discussions

It's much better at community than Moodle, but it isn't really a course platform.

3. WordPress + an LMS

This is probably the most creator-friendly long-term architecture.

You can run:

WordPress → LMS plugin → Stripe/PayPal → community plugin

and own the whole stack.

The software can be free, although you'll eventually need hosting and potentially paid plugins. The advantage is that WordPress gives you an enormous ecosystem for landing pages, SEO, email capture, memberships, payments, etc.

What I would NOT use if you're truly starting at $0

Teachable currently starts at $39/month monthly ($29/month annually), and its Starter plan takes 7.5% per transaction. The higher tiers eliminate the platform transaction fee but cost substantially more. Teachable

Podia starts at $42/month when billed annually, with a 5% transaction fee on its entry plan. Podia

So neither fits the "zero funding + no platform fees" constraint particularly well.

The stack I'd build

If I were a solo creator with $0 available, I'd actually separate the two functions:

Moodle
→ courses, lessons, quizzes, progress

Discourse
→ community, discussions, peer support

Stripe
→ payments

Your own domain
→ marketing site

That gives you something much closer to owning your own mini-education company rather than renting your business from Teachable/Podia.

The catch: $0 platform fees ≠ $0 operating cost. You'll eventually have hosting, domain, payment-processing, email, and possibly video-storage costs.

If your goal is $0 upfront and as little technical work as possible, though, I'd choose a different setup than the one above.

If you’re a solo creator with $0 budget and want to avoid platform fees (Teachable, Kajabi, Circle, Skool, etc.), your best options are usually either:

1. Self-hosted open-source software (no software fees, but you handle setup/hosting), or
2. Free-tier tools stitched together (easier, but may have limits).

Here are the strongest options:

Best all-in-one options

Moodle — best free LMS foundation

• Cost: $0 software cost
• Host yourself
• Courses, quizzes, assignments, certificates, student accounts
• Extremely mature ecosystem
• Downside: feels more like a school LMS than a creator community

Good stack:

• Moodle → courses
• Discord/Discourse → community
• YouTube unlisted/Vimeo alternatives → video hosting

Coursebox

CourseLit — closest to “your own Teachable + community”

• Open-source, self-hosted creator platform
• Courses
• Digital downloads
• Communities
• Email features
• No platform revenue cut because you run it yourself

Good fit if you want:

• “Buy my course”
• “Join my membership”
• “Access my community”

Selfhost Tools

Roost — community-first alternative to Circle/Skool

• Open-source
• Self-hosted
• Community feed
• Groups
• Learning modules
• Messaging
• Events

Better if your product is:

• cohort-based learning
• mastermind groups
• memberships

GitHub

Lowest-effort $0 stack (what I’d choose for most solo creators)

You can get surprisingly far with:

Website

• wordpress.org (free software)
• or pages.cloudflare.com for a static site

Courses

• moodle.org
• or CourseLit if you want a creator-style experience

Community

• discord.com — free and familiar
• discourse.org — better for serious communities

Video hosting

Avoid uploading lots of video directly to your server.

Free/cheap approaches:

• YouTube unlisted videos
• Cloudflare Stream if you eventually pay
• PeerTube (self-hosted) if you want full control

Payments

• stripe.com — no monthly platform fee, but payment processing fees apply
• gumroad.com — easier, but takes a cut

If you are truly starting from zero

I would avoid building a “perfect academy” immediately.

A practical $0 setup:

Phase 1 (first 100 students)

• Landing page: Carrd/WordPress
• Lessons: Notion or Google Docs
• Videos: YouTube unlisted
• Community: Discord
• Payments: Stripe payment links

Phase 2 (when revenue appears)
Move to:

• CourseLit or Moodle
• custom domain
• email list
• better analytics

My picks by creator type

The main tradeoff: “no platform fees” usually means you become the platform operator — backups, updates, security, and hosting become your responsibility. For a solo creator, starting simple and migrating later is usually the fastest path.

Yes. If your goal is $0 platform fees on course sales, the key is to avoid Teachable/Kajabi/Thinkific-style platforms that take a percentage or charge monthly fees, and instead own the software + hosting. You’ll still have unavoidable costs eventually (domain, hosting, payment-processor fees), but you can get started essentially free.

My top picks for a solo creator

1. WordPress + Tutor LMS — probably your best starting point

tutorlms.com is particularly interesting for a zero-budget creator because its core LMS is free forever. Tutor LMS

You can build:

• Course libraries
• Lessons and modules
• Student accounts
• Quizzes
• Progress tracking
• Free and paid courses
• Membership/access systems
• A normal marketing website alongside the courses

Then add BuddyPress or another WordPress community solution for profiles, groups, discussions, etc.

The architecture I'd use:

WordPress → Tutor LMS → BuddyPress → Stripe/PayPal

You own the site, customer list, course content and community rather than building your business inside somebody else's platform.

The catch: WordPress hosting isn't necessarily free forever. But cheap shared hosting can be dramatically less expensive than paying $50–$200/month to a course platform.

2. Discourse — excellent if community is the product

discourse.org is open source and can be self-hosted without paying a software license fee. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

It's excellent for:

• Discussions
• Member profiles
• Q&A
• Cohorts
• Announcements
• Long-form community knowledge
• Private member areas

I'd pair it with WordPress/Tutor LMS rather than trying to make Discourse itself into your LMS.

Interestingly, Discourse also has a hosted free plan, although the self-hosted version gives you much more control. Discourse - Civilized Discussion

3. Flarum — the lightweight community option

flarum.org is another genuinely free/open-source option. It's MIT-licensed and designed specifically for forums/community discussion. Flarum

It's appealing if you want something simpler than Discourse.

I'd do:

WordPress + Tutor LMS + Flarum

That's a surprisingly powerful $0-platform-fee stack.

4. Moodle — if the learning side matters more

moodle.org is probably the most mature free LMS option.

It's much more "real school/LMS" than something like Teachable:

• Courses
• Assignments
• Quizzes
• Grades
• Completion tracking
• Certificates
• Groups
• Enrollment
• Lots of plugins

The downside for a solo creator is that Moodle feels like an LMS rather than a polished creator-business platform. You may spend more time configuring it.

5. Open edX — powerful, but I'd avoid it initially

openedx.org is genuinely open source with no licensing fees, and includes both course authoring and an LMS. Open edX

It's capable of running serious MOOC-style education, but that's also the problem.

For one person with no funding, it's probably overkill. You'd be taking on infrastructure and maintenance that you don't need yet.

What I'd actually build with $0

If I were starting your business from scratch, I'd keep it extremely simple:

Website + courses

→ WordPress
→ Tutor LMS
→ Free WordPress theme

Community

→ BuddyPress initially
→ Move to Discourse later if the community becomes substantial

Payments

→ Stripe/PayPal
→ You pay the payment processor's transaction fee, but not a percentage to the course platform

Email

→ Start with whatever free-tier email service fits your volume

Videos

Don't upload massive video files directly to cheap web hosting. Use an external video host/free tier or optimize your delivery strategy.

So your initial stack could effectively be:

WordPress + Tutor LMS + BuddyPress + Stripe

And your cost can be $0 in platform commissions, with only infrastructure/payment-processing costs.

One important distinction

"No platform fees" and "completely free" aren't quite the same thing.

Even with open-source software, you'll eventually encounter:

• Hosting
• Domain registration
• Payment processing
• Email delivery
• Video storage/bandwidth
• Backups

But there's a huge difference between paying $10–20/month for infrastructure and giving a SaaS platform a recurring monthly fee plus a cut of every course sale.

For a bootstrapped solo creator, I'd optimize for ownership rather than absolute $0 cost.

My ranking for you

1. 🥇 WordPress + Tutor LMS + BuddyPress — best overall
2. 🥈 WordPress + Tutor LMS + Discourse — best if community is central
3. 🥉 Moodle — best if your courses are academically/LMS-heavy
4. Flarum + separate LMS — best lightweight community
5. Open edX — powerful but unnecessarily complex at the beginning

If you tell me what kind of courses you're selling (video, cohort, coaching, coding, fitness, etc.) and roughly how many students you expect, I can narrow this down to a $0–$20/month stack and explain exactly what I'd use for hosting, payments, video, email, courses, and community.

What I'd actually build with $0

If I were starting your business from scratch, I'd keep it extremely simple:

Website + courses

→ WordPress
→ Tutor LMS
→ Free WordPress theme

Community

→ BuddyPress initially
→ Move to Discourse later if the community becomes substantial

Payments

→ Stripe/PayPal
→ You pay the payment processor's transaction fee, but not a percentage to the course platform

Email

→ Start with whatever free-tier email service fits your volume

Videos

Don't upload massive video files directly to cheap web hosting. Use an external video host/free tier or optimize your delivery strategy.

So your initial stack could effectively be:

WordPress + Tutor LMS + BuddyPress + Stripe

And your cost can be $0 in platform commissions, with only infrastructure/payment-processing costs.

One important distinction

"No platform fees" and "completely free" aren't quite the same thing.

Even with open-source software, you'll eventually encounter:

• Hosting
• Domain registration
• Payment processing
• Email delivery
• Video storage/bandwidth
• Backups

But there's a huge difference between paying $10–20/month for infrastructure and giving a SaaS platform a recurring monthly fee plus a cut of every course sale.

For a bootstrapped solo creator, I'd optimize for ownership rather than absolute $0 cost.

My ranking for you

1. 🥇 WordPress + Tutor LMS + BuddyPress — best overall
2. 🥈 WordPress + Tutor LMS + Discourse — best if community is central
3. 🥉 Moodle — best if your courses are academically/LMS-heavy
4. Flarum + separate LMS — best lightweight community
5. Open edX — powerful but unnecessarily complex at the beginning

If you tell me what kind of courses you're selling (video, cohort, coaching, coding, fitness, etc.) and roughly how many students you expect, I can narrow this down to a $0–$20/month stack and explain exactly what I'd use for hosting, payments, video, email, courses, and community.

Yes — but there’s an important distinction:

“No platform fees” can mean either:

1. $0 software cost + self-hosting, or
2. $0 transaction/revenue-share fee, but you still pay a monthly subscription.

For a solo creator with literally $0 budget, I’d prioritize the first category.

Best $0 options

Moodle is probably the strongest genuinely free/self-hosted LMS. It's open source, and you can run your own instance without paying Moodle a per-student or revenue fee. Moodle Moodle

Chamilo is another particularly interesting option for a solo creator because it's explicitly free/open-source and somewhat lighter than Moodle. Chamilo

My favorite $0 stack

If I were starting from absolute zero, I'd actually not try to make one piece of software do everything.

I'd use:

• Course: Moodle or Chamilo
• Community: Discord
• Videos: YouTube unlisted
• Documents/resources: Google Drive
• Email: Substack or MailerLite's free tier
• Landing page: Carrd's free tier, Notion, or Google Sites
• Payments: Stripe
• Domain: skip it initially; use free subdomains/URLs

That gets you surprisingly close to a full course business for $0/month in software, although Stripe will still charge normal payment-processing fees when you actually sell something.

If you can eventually spend $10–50/month

Then I'd reconsider the DIY approach.

For example, Teachery currently has no platform transaction fee, unlimited courses/customers, and a $49/month plan—but that's obviously not useful while you have literally zero funding. Teachery Teachery Help

Similarly, Circle is much more polished for combining courses + community, but its Professional plan is currently $89/month, so I wouldn't recommend it for your starting situation. Circle

What I'd do in your position

Don't pay for a “course platform” until you've proven people will pay for the course.

Start with:

YouTube unlisted → Google Drive/Notion → Discord → Stripe

You can manually enroll the first 10–50 students. It won't be elegant, but elegance doesn't matter before product-market fit.

Once you're making, say, $500–$1,000/month, move to something more integrated.

If your goal is specifically “I want one free/open-source platform that looks professional and handles courses + memberships + community,” I'd investigate Moodle vs. Chamilo first. The downside is that “free software” isn't necessarily “free hosting”—self-hosting still requires a server and some technical maintenance. teachfloor.com

If you tell me what kind of course you're creating and whether you can handle basic technical setup, I can narrow this to the best $0 stack for you, including where to host it for free.

Yes. If your goal is $0 platform fees as a solo creator, I’d avoid the typical Teachable/Kajabi/Circle-style stack and look at open-source/self-hosted software or genuinely free community hosting.

The key distinction: “no platform fees” doesn't necessarily mean $0 total cost. Self-hosting can eventually cost a few dollars/month for a server, email, storage, etc.

My shortlist

1. Moodle — probably my first choice for you

Moodle is open-source LMS software. You can download it and run it yourself, giving you control over your courses, students and data. Moodle's official site specifically offers self-hosting as an option. download.moodle.org

You can build:

• Video/text courses
• Quizzes
• Assignments
• Progress tracking
• Certificates
• Student accounts
• Discussion forums
• Drip/restricted content
• Multiple courses

Downside: it feels more like a school/LMS than a polished creator platform. You'll also need to handle hosting and updates.

2. Discourse — ridiculously good for the community side

Discourse just became particularly interesting for a zero-budget creator.

As of July 2026, Discourse has a $0 hosted plan with unlimited members and unlimited chat, plus a free yourname.discourse.group domain. blog.discourse.org

That means you don't even need to self-host the community.

It's excellent for:

• Member discussions
• Q&A
• Course-specific discussion
• Announcements
• Accountability groups
• Challenges
• Searchable knowledge bases
• Member networking
• Chat

I'd actually use this even if you choose something else for the courses.

3. Open edX — powerful, but probably overkill initially

Open edX is genuinely open source and has no software licensing fees. It includes course authoring, learner management, analytics, certificates and other LMS functionality. openedx.org

The catch is complexity. Open edX's own documentation says running a production instance isn't simple and recommends service providers for people without the necessary technical expertise. docs.openedx.org

I wouldn't start here unless you are technically comfortable with servers.

4. WordPress + an LMS

This is the “I want my own internet business” option.

You can run:

WordPress
→ course/LMS plugin
→ payment processor
→ Discourse community
→ your own domain

The software itself can be free/open source, while you pay only for infrastructure and transaction processing.

The advantage is that WordPress gives you a lot more freedom over your landing pages, SEO, blog, email capture, sales pages, etc.

What I'd actually build with $0

If I were a solo creator starting from literally nothing, I'd keep the architecture extremely simple:

Your domain
↓
WordPress — landing pages + sales pages
↓
Moodle — courses
↓
Discourse Free — community
↓
Stripe/PayPal/etc. — payments

The important part is that none of those platforms needs to take a percentage of your course revenue just for hosting the platform.

You'd still have payment-processing fees, and eventually you'd probably pay for hosting/domain/email. But that's very different from giving a platform 5–10% of every sale.

Even simpler: start with Discourse + course content

If you haven't validated the course yet, I wouldn't even build Moodle.

Start with:

Discourse Free

• Community
• Course modules
• Q&A
• Accountability
• Resources

You could structure categories like:

📚 Course
├── Module 1
├── Module 2
├── Module 3
└── Bonus Materials

💬 Community
├── Introductions
├── Questions
├── Wins
└── Off-topic

Then once you're making money, move the actual educational experience into Moodle or another LMS.

My ranking for a zero-funded solo creator:

1. 🥇 Discourse Free — easiest way to get the community running for $0
2. 🥈 Moodle — best genuinely free LMS
3. 🥉 WordPress + LMS — best long-term ownership/flexibility
4. Open edX — fantastic, but unnecessary complexity for most solo creators

If your priority is “I want to sell a $100–$500 course and keep 100% of the revenue aside from payment processing”, I'd lean toward WordPress + Moodle + Discourse, rather than trying to find a free SaaS platform that does everything.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean no percentage of every sale going to the course/community platform, your best option as a zero-funded solo creator is usually self-hosted open-source software.

My shortlist

🥇 What I'd actually do with $0

WordPress + an LMS plugin + Flarum

• WordPress → website, sales pages, blog
• LifterLMS → courses
• Flarum → community/forum
• Stripe/PayPal → payments
• Cloudflare → DNS/CDN
• Cheap/free hosting to start

Flarum itself is free, open-source and MIT-licensed, with groups, permissions, moderation, notifications and extensions. flarum.org

Alternatively, Moodle gives you the LMS side in one package and is open source. It's a very mature platform, although its interface/workflow is considerably less creator-oriented than something like Circle. moodle.org

The important distinction

“No platform fees” ≠ “zero cost.”

You'll still potentially pay for:

• hosting: ~$5–15/month once you're beyond free tiers
• domain: ~$10–20/year
• payment processing: typically a few percent per transaction
• video hosting/storage, depending on how you deliver videos
• your time maintaining/updating the software

But you aren't giving the platform 5–10% of every sale.

For comparison, Podia's entry plan currently charges 5% transaction fees in addition to its subscription, while its higher plans remove those fees. www.podia.com Circle starts at $89/month. circle.so LearnWorlds has a $29/month Starter plan with $5 per enrollment, while its $99/month Pro Trainer removes enrollment fees. www.learnworlds.com

If you're truly starting at $0

I'd actually avoid building the full stack immediately.

Start with:

YouTube/unlisted video + Google Drive/Notion + free community software + Stripe payment links

Get your first 5–10 paying students.

Then migrate to:

WordPress + LMS + Flarum

once you've proven people will pay.

That way you're spending your scarce resource—time—on getting customers rather than maintaining infrastructure.

If you tell me whether you're selling one-time courses, a $/month membership, or courses + community membership, I can give you a specific $0 → $10/month tech stack with exactly what to use for video, payments, email, courses, community, and hosting.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean no Kajabi/Teachable/Circle-style monthly fee and no percentage of your course revenue, the best route is open-source + cheap/free hosting.

For a solo creator with $0 budget, I’d look at these:

My #1 recommendation: WordPress + LMS

For a solo creator, I'd probably not start with Open edX. It's fantastic, but it's designed for much larger learning operations. Open edX itself says that production installation isn't simple and recommends using a service provider unless you have the technical expertise. github.com

Instead:

WordPress
→ course plugin
→ Stripe/PayPal for payments
→ free community plugin/forum
→ your own domain
→ inexpensive hosting

You own the site and aren't giving 5–10% of every sale to a course platform.

The catch: “no platform fees” doesn't mean literally $0. You'll eventually have hosting, domain, payment-processing, email, and possibly video-storage costs.

If you want truly open-source

Moodle is probably the strongest fit for courses. Moodle LMS is free/open-source and can be self-hosted; Moodle itself distinguishes this from MoodleCloud, which is a paid hosted service. support.moodle.com

You get things like:

• Lessons/modules
• Quizzes
• Assignments
• Student accounts
• Progress tracking
• Certificates
• Discussion forums
• Enrollment management
• Plugins
• Payment/enrollment integrations

MoodleCloud isn't zero-cost, though: its current plans start at $170/year, so you'd want self-hosted Moodle, not MoodleCloud, if eliminating platform fees is the goal. www.moodlecloud.com

For the community: Flarum

If community is important, I'd seriously consider Flarum.

It's MIT-licensed, open source, and free forever. It provides discussions, groups/permissions, moderation, notifications, extensions, themes, etc. flarum.org

You could have:

yourdomain.com
→ Courses
→ Community
→ Resources
→ About

with Flarum powering /community.

Discourse is the premium-feeling alternative

Discourse is another excellent open-source choice. You can self-host it for free, with complete control over your data and customization. Its hosted service starts at $20/month, but that's optional if you're willing to manage the server yourself. www.discourse.org

I'd choose Discourse over Flarum if you expect your community to become a major part of the business.

Open edX if you're building a serious education business

Open edX is genuinely impressive. It's free/open source, includes course authoring + LMS, supports discussions, certificates, learner analytics, enrollment, etc., and has no per-learner license fee. openedx.org

But there's a big difference between:

“I want to sell my first $500 of courses.”

and

“I'm building an education platform.”

For the first, Open edX is probably unnecessarily complicated.

The $0-ish stack I'd actually build

If I were starting from zero today:

Website: WordPress
Courses: Moodle or a WordPress LMS
Community: Flarum
Video: YouTube unlisted/private links initially
Payments: Stripe
Email: free-tier email service initially
Domain: ~$10–20/year
Hosting: free/very cheap initially, then ~$5–10/month when revenue appears

That gives you something much closer to:

You → customer

rather than:

You → Kajabi → payment processor → customer

And importantly, you can migrate/upgrade individual components later.

One important distinction

If your goal is literally $0 upfront, rather than merely no platform fees, I'd actually recommend not setting up a giant LMS yet.

Start with:

simple website → free video hosting → simple checkout → community

Then introduce Moodle/WordPress/etc. once people actually pay.

If you tell me (1) what kind of courses you're selling, (2) whether they'll be video/text, and (3) whether you want paid memberships/community access, I can give you a specific $0 → $10/month → $50/month tech stack, including exactly what I'd use at each stage.

Yes. If your priority is $0 platform fees, you generally want either open-source/self-hosted software or a platform with a genuinely free tier. The tradeoff is that “free software” can still require hosting, email, payment-processing, and technical maintenance.

My top picks for a solo creator

1. Moodle — my pick for courses

Moodle is free/open-source LMS software. You can self-host it and avoid a percentage-of-sales platform fee entirely. Moodle supports courses, lessons, quizzes, assignments, certificates, learner management, etc. support.moodle.comwww.moodlecloud.com

The important distinction: MoodleCloud isn't free forever. Its current paid plans start at $170/year, while the Moodle software itself is free if you host it yourself. support.moodle.comwww.moodlecloud.com

Best for: structured courses, cohorts, certifications, assessments.

2. Discourse — surprisingly good community option

Discourse just introduced a $0 hosted plan in July 2026. It gives you unlimited members, unlimited chat, 2 staff seats and a free *.discourse.group address. blog.discourse.org

So you could literally start:

Course: Moodle
Community: free Discourse
Landing page: free static website
Payments: Stripe/PayPal/etc.
Email: free/cheap transactional email

And none of those require Kajabi/Teachable/Circle-style 5–10% platform fees.

If you eventually want your own server, Discourse itself is also open source and free to self-host. www.discourse.org

3. Open edX — powerful, but probably too much

Open edX is another genuinely free/open-source LMS. It includes both Open edX Studio for authoring and the learner-facing LMS. openedx.org

It's capable of running serious education businesses, but there's a catch: deployment and maintenance are substantially more complicated than Moodle. Open edX itself recommends service providers for production deployments. github.com

I'd not start here as a solo creator unless you already know Docker/Linux or have a technical reason to use it.

What I'd actually build with $0

If I were starting a course business from scratch with no funding, I'd avoid trying to find a magical “everything platform.”

I'd build:

Your website
→ free static site / WordPress / whatever you're comfortable with

Course delivery
→ Moodle

Community
→ Discourse

Video
→ YouTube unlisted/private links initially, or inexpensive video hosting later

Payments
→ Stripe

Email
→ a free-tier transactional email provider

Domain
→ eventually ~$10–20/year

This gives you ownership of your customer relationship and content rather than having your entire business trapped inside one course platform.

One important caveat

“Zero platform fees” doesn't mean literally zero cost.

You'll eventually encounter:

• domain registration
• server hosting if self-hosting
• email delivery
• video storage/bandwidth
• Stripe/payment-processing fees
• potentially backups

But you can get the software/platform percentage down to $0, which is the important distinction.

For a solo creator, I'd choose Moodle + Discourse. If you're validating the idea and don't want to touch servers at all, start with Discourse's new free hosted community + a very simple course delivery setup, then migrate to self-hosted Moodle once people are actually paying.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean the platform doesn't take a percentage of every course sale, there are some very good zero/near-zero-cost setups—but most require you to self-host or stitch together a few tools.

My picks for a solo creator

🥇 Best overall: WordPress + LMS + Discourse

For a solo creator with no funding, I'd probably start here.

• WordPress — your website/landing pages
• LearnPress or another free LMS plugin — course delivery
• Discourse — community
• Stripe/PayPal — payments
• Email service — email capture/notifications

The important distinction: WordPress and the software can be free, but you'll still have hosting and payment-processing costs. Stripe, for example, can charge transaction fees even though your course platform doesn't take a cut.

🥈 Easiest community: Discourse

Discourse is particularly interesting right now because it introduced a $0 hosted plan in July 2026. It includes unlimited members and unlimited chat, so you don't even necessarily need to self-host your community anymore. blog.discourse.org

For example:

Course: your website / WordPress
Community: free Discourse
Payments: Stripe
Videos: YouTube/Vimeo/unlisted video hosting
Email: free-tier email provider

That's potentially $0/month in software/platform costs until you need more infrastructure.

Discourse is also open source, so you can self-host it later if you want complete control. www.discourse.org

🧑‍🏫 Moodle if courses are the priority

Moodle is genuinely open source and has no licensing fees, including for commercial use. It has considerably more traditional LMS functionality than something like Notion. docs.moodle.org

The downside is that Moodle feels like a school LMS, rather than a polished creator-business platform. You'd probably want to customize the design and add a separate community.

🚀 Open edX if you're building something ambitious

Open edX is another genuinely free/open-source LMS with course authoring and a full learner-facing system. There are no software license fees, but you are responsible for hosting, infrastructure and maintenance. openedx.org

For one person starting from zero, I'd consider it overkill unless you're planning a substantial education business.

What I'd actually do with $0

I'd avoid trying to recreate Kajabi/Teachable immediately.

Start with:

Landing page → free/cheap course platform → Discourse community → Stripe checkout

And keep the stack ridiculously small.

Phase 1

• Website: WordPress
• Course: free LMS plugin
• Community: free Discourse
• Videos: unlisted YouTube
• Payments: Stripe
• Email: free-tier email provider

Phase 2: Once you're making money, pay for better video hosting, email automation, analytics, etc.

The key is that “no platform fees” doesn't mean “no costs.” You can eliminate the percentage-of-revenue platform tax, but you'll still encounter payment processing, domain, hosting, video storage/bandwidth, and potentially email costs.

If your priority is literally $0 upfront, I'd actually choose a slightly different stack than if your priority is $0 platform commission.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean I don't want Kajabi/Teachable/Circle/Gumroad-style monthly fees or a percentage of every sale, there are some very good options—but the tradeoff is usually you manage the software/hosting yourself.

My shortlist for a solo creator

\*Hosting and any paid plugins/services are separate.

🥇 If I were starting from zero: WordPress + Discourse

I'd seriously consider this stack:

Your website
→ WordPress

Courses
→ Moodle or a WordPress LMS

Community
→ Discourse

Payments
→ Stripe/PayPal or another payment processor

Video
→ YouTube unlisted, Vimeo, Cloudflare Stream, or videos hosted elsewhere

Email
→ A free-tier email provider initially

The important distinction is that Discourse itself doesn't take a cut of your course sales. It's open source and can be self-hosted. www.discourse.org

And there's an interesting development as of 2026: Discourse now has a $0 hosted plan with unlimited members and chat, so you don't necessarily even need to self-host the community initially. blog.discourse.orgwww.discourse.org

Discourse free plan

🧑‍🏫 Moodle is probably the best genuinely free course engine

Moodle is free/open source and can be installed on your own server with no licensing fees and no ads. Moodle itself explicitly distinguishes this from MoodleCloud, which is a paid hosted service. support.moodle.com

It's much more "school/LMS" than something like Teachable, though.

You get things like:

• lessons/modules
• quizzes
• assignments
• grading
• completion tracking
• certificates
• student accounts
• discussion
• structured courses

Moodle

The downside: Moodle can feel like software built for institutions rather than a polished creator storefront.

🚀 Open edX if you're building something ambitious

Open edX is another completely open-source option. The software itself is free, and it includes both the LMS students use and Studio for creating courses. openedx.org

But I wouldn't recommend it to most solo creators.

It's considerably more complicated to deploy and maintain. Even the Open edX project recommends service providers for production installations because running it isn't simple. github.com

Open edX self-managed setup

💬 Discourse is fantastic for the community side

Discourse is particularly interesting for a course business because the community doesn't have to be a throwaway Facebook group or Discord server.

You can create:

• course-specific discussion areas
• member introductions
• Q&A
• office-hours discussions
• announcements
• searchable knowledge base
• private member areas
• real-time chat
• moderation/trust systems

And it's GPLv2 open source. www.discourse.org

Discourse official site

The catch: “$0 platform fees” ≠ “$0 cost”

You can absolutely get to 0% platform fee, but you'll still potentially pay for:

• domain: ~$10–20/year
• hosting: potentially $5–20+/month
• payment processing: Stripe/PayPal fees
• email sending
• video hosting/storage
• optional plugins
• your time maintaining the system

For example, self-hosted Discourse is free software, but you'll need a server. Discourse's current documentation says a production installation can run on a VPS, with 1 GB RAM listed as a minimum and 2 GB+ recommended. github.com

The ultra-lean $0/month approach

If you're literally broke and validating an idea, I wouldn't build a giant LMS.

I'd do:

Landing page
→ free/cheap website

Course
→ videos + PDFs hosted inexpensively/free

Community
→ Discourse Free

Payments
→ Stripe payment links

Automation
→ only add automation when you actually need it

Custom domain
→ add later

That gets you surprisingly close to:

Sell a $100 course → you keep essentially all of the revenue except payment processing, rather than giving 5–10%+ to the course platform.

And you can start with Discourse's current free hosted community rather than learning server administration. It provides unlimited members and unlimited chat, although it has limits such as two staff seats and a discourse.group subdomain. blog.discourse.orgwww.discourse.org

What I'd choose based on your situation

Want to launch this weekend:
→ Discourse + simple website + Stripe + video hosting

Want a proper structured course:
→ Moodle + Discourse

Want maximum control/customization:
→ WordPress + LMS + Discourse

Want a serious education platform that could become huge:
→ Open edX

Want literally zero technical maintenance:
→ Discourse's free hosted plan is unusually compelling right now.

If you tell me what kind of course you're selling (e.g. fitness, coding, business, art), your expected number of students, and whether you need subscriptions vs one-time purchases, I can narrow this down to a specific $0–$20/month stack and show you exactly how I'd build it.

If you have $0 budget and are a solo creator, I’d avoid “free trials” and focus on either:

1. self-hosted open-source tools (no platform fees, but you handle setup), or
2. free-tier SaaS tools (easier, but usually with limits).

Here are the strongest options:

My favorite zero-dollar stack for a solo creator

Option A: simplest (no coding)

• Course content: Google Drive / Notion pages
• Community: Discord
• Video: YouTube unlisted
• Payments: Gumroad or Stripe payment links
• Email: Substack

You can validate an idea without paying anything.

Option B: own your platform

• Website: WordPress
• Courses: Tutor LMS / LearnPress
• Community: BuddyPress or Discourse
• Videos: YouTube/Vimeo embeds
• Payments: Stripe

More setup, but you own the audience.

Option C: closest to “Teachable + Circle without fees”

• CourseLit is worth looking at: it is designed as a self-hosted creator platform with courses, digital products, communities, and email features, avoiding SaaS platform cuts (you still pay any server costs if you host it yourself). selfhosttools.com

If you literally have $0 and no technical skills

I’d start with:

1. YouTube unlisted → lessons
2. Notion → course hub
3. Discord → community
4. Substack → email list
5. Stripe payment link → sell access

Then migrate once you have paying students.

The biggest mistake solo creators make is building a “perfect academy” before they have 10–50 people who want the outcome. The free stack is enough to prove demand first.

If you have zero funding, the trick is to avoid “creator platforms” that charge monthly fees or take a cut of sales. The closest to free is usually a self-hosted stack (you pay only for a cheap server later, when you have users) or a mix of free tools. docs.courselit.app

Here are the best options by situation:

My recommended “broke solo creator” setup

Phase 1: $0/month

• Videos: upload unlisted/private to YouTube or store files in cloud storage
• Course lessons: WordPress or CourseLit
• Community: Discord, Telegram, or a free forum
• Email list: Buttondown or Brevo free tiers
• Payments: Stripe or PayPal (you still pay payment processing fees, but no platform fee)

Phase 2: <$10–20/month
Move to:

• CourseLit for courses + memberships docs.courselit.app
• Discourse for community github.com
• A cheap VPS from providers like DigitalOcean or Hetzner

If you want the closest “Kajabi/Circle replacement” without fees

I would shortlist:

1. CourseLit — probably the best fit for a solo educator because it combines courses, memberships, website, and creator features. docs.courselit.app
2. WordPress + plugins — less elegant but almost unlimited.
3. Discourse + WordPress — best if community is the main product. github.com
4. Moodle — best if your courses are more academic/training-oriented.

What I would avoid when starting broke

• Kajabi
• Teachable
• Thinkific
• Circle
• Mighty Networks
• Skool

They are good products, but they are optimized for creators who already have revenue.

A practical zero-budget path is: build audience → collect emails → sell first cohort manually → then automate with self-hosted software. You do not need a full platform on day one.

Yes. If your priority is $0 platform fees and you’re willing to accept a little technical setup, you can get surprisingly far with open-source/self-hosted software.

The key distinction is:

• $0 platform fee ≠ $0 total cost. You may still pay for hosting, a domain, email, payment processing, and video storage.
• If you literally have zero dollars, there are also hosted free tiers you can start with.

My top picks

\*The software can be free, but hosting/plugins may cost money.

🥇 For a solo creator: Discourse

Discourse is particularly interesting right now because it launched a free hosted plan in July 2026.

The free plan gives you:

• unlimited members
• unlimited chat
• long-form discussions
• search
• moderation
• email-in/email-out
• automatic updates
• a free yourname.discourse.group address
• $0 hosting/platform cost

blog.discourse.org

It isn't really a course platform, though. I'd use it as the community layer, while putting course content somewhere else.

A very lean creator stack could therefore be:

Landing page → course content → Discourse community → Stripe/PayPal for payments

No Kajabi/Circle/Skool-style percentage of every sale.

🥈 Moodle if courses are the main product

Moodle is probably the strongest option if you're primarily selling structured education.

You get things like:

• lessons
• quizzes
• assignments
• progress tracking
• grades
• certificates
• discussion forums
• learner accounts
• course enrollment

It's open-source, so there's no per-student platform fee. The catch is that you'll need to host and maintain it yourself.

For a technical solo creator, this is a serious alternative to Teachable/Kajabi.

🥉 Open edX for a more ambitious academy

Open edX is another open-source option. It's much more powerful than you probably need at first, but it is designed specifically around online courses.

It supports self-hosting, has course authoring through Studio, discussions, assessments, learner progress, analytics, etc. openedx.org

The downside: don't choose Open edX for a weekend MVP. Its installation/operations requirements are substantially more technical. docs.openedx.org

The sleeper option: WordPress

If you're comfortable tinkering, I'd seriously consider:

WordPress + LMS plugin + H5P + Discourse

H5P is particularly useful because it's free/open technology and lets you create interactive videos, presentations, quizzes, exercises, etc. h5p.org

You can therefore make something that feels much more like a proper course platform without paying a SaaS platform fee.

What I'd actually do with $0

I'd not try to build the perfect all-in-one platform.

I'd start with:

1. Website/course content: WordPress or a very simple static site
2. Interactive lessons: H5P
3. Community: Discourse's free hosted plan
4. Video: YouTube/Vimeo initially, with unlisted videos if appropriate
5. Payments: Stripe/PayPal — accept that payment processing is unavoidable
6. Email: a free email service initially
7. Domain: use the free subdomains until you actually have revenue

That gives you a functional course + community business for essentially $0/month in platform subscriptions.

And there's an important strategic advantage: don't put your community inside a platform that takes a percentage of your revenue if you don't need to. Discourse explicitly supports self-hosting as well, so you can move from its free hosted version to your own infrastructure later. www.discourse.org

If you want the absolute simplest answer

Want community first? → Discourse

Want courses first? → Moodle

Want both and don't mind technical work? → WordPress + LMS + Discourse

Want a serious Udemy-style learning platform? → Open edX

If you tell me what kind of courses you're selling (video, cohort, text, coding, coaching, etc.) and whether you need paid memberships, I can narrow this down to a $0/month stack I'd actually use as a solo creator, including what to use for video, email, payments, hosting, and the website.

If you’re a solo creator with $0 funding and want to avoid platform fees (Kajabi, Teachable, Circle, Skool, etc.), you’ll usually trade money for either setup time or technical maintenance. The best options are a mix of free/open-source tools and generous free tiers.

Here are practical stacks:

Best zero-budget setups

Option 1: The easiest creator stack (my pick for most beginners)

Website + courses

• WordPress
• Tutor LMS or LearnPress

Community

• BuddyPress
• or a free Discord server

Payments

• Stripe (no monthly fee, but payment processing fees apply)

Pros:

• Fast to launch
• Lots of tutorials
• You own your audience

Cons:

• You’ll eventually pay for hosting, email, backups, video storage

Option 2: Fully owned “creator business” stack

Course + memberships + community:

• CourseLit

CourseLit is designed as a self-hosted alternative to platforms like Teachable/Thinkific, combining courses, memberships, digital products, and community features. docs.courselit.app

Typical cost:

• Software: $0
• Server: ~$5–10/month once you need one
• Domain: ~$10–15/year

Good if:

• You’re comfortable following setup guides
• You want no platform revenue cut
• You want ownership of student data

Option 3: Community first (audience before courses)

Use:

• Discourse → structured discussions
• Matrix + Element → chat
• Google Drive/Notion-style docs for lessons

This works well for:

• Cohorts
• Paid memberships
• Accountability groups
• Creator communities

Option 4: “No tech, start tomorrow”

If you truly have no money and don’t want to manage servers:

• Videos: YouTube unlisted
• Lessons: Notion or Google Docs
• Community: Discord
• Email: Substack
• Payments: Stripe payment links

It’s not as polished, but many creators validate their idea this way before building a platform.

Free/cheap video hosting matters

Video is usually the hidden cost. Avoid uploading hundreds of hours directly to your own server.

Alternatives:

• YouTube unlisted (free)
• Vimeo free/paid depending on needs
• Cloudflare Stream when scaling
• Bunny Stream (low-cost video hosting)

A realistic $0 → $50/month path

Stage 1 ($0)

• Discord community
• Notion lessons
• YouTube unlisted videos
• Stripe payment links

Stage 2 (~$10/month)

• Domain
• Cheap VPS
• WordPress or CourseLit

Stage 3

• Move to a dedicated LMS/community once revenue justifies it

For a solo creator starting from nothing, I’d avoid building a complicated LMS first. Build the audience and paid offer first; migrate the content once people are paying.

Yes. If your goal is $0 in platform fees, the best route is usually open-source/self-hosted software rather than creator platforms like Kajabi, Teachable, Circle, etc.

Best setups for a solo creator

1. Course LMS — self-hosted LMS

pen-source self-hosted learning management systems for selling online courses

The standout option is Moodle. Moodle LMS itself is free/open source; you install it on your own server and don't pay Moodle a percentage of your course revenue. You do have to pay for hosting (or run it on hardware you control). support.moodle.com

Good for: structured courses, quizzes, assignments, certificates, progress tracking, drip content.

2. Community — free hosted or self-hosted forum

ree and open-source community forum platforms for creators

Discourse is particularly interesting right now. As of July 2026, it has a free hosted plan with unlimited members and unlimited chat, so you don't even need to self-host initially. It gives you a yourname.discourse.group address. blog.discourse.orgwww.discourse.org

If you eventually want maximum control, Discourse is also open source and can be self-hosted. www.discourse.org

What I'd build with $0

Website/landing page → Moodle → Discourse → Stripe

• Landing page: your own simple website
• Course: Moodle
• Community: Discourse
• Payments: Stripe/payment processor
• Email: free-tier email service initially
• Video: YouTube/Vimeo/unlisted video hosting, depending on your needs
• Domain: optional; you can start with free subdomains

The important distinction is "no platform fees" ≠ "no costs." If you self-host, you'll still have server/domain costs, and payment processors will generally charge transaction fees. But you aren't giving a course platform 5–10% of every sale or paying hundreds per month just because you have members.

If you want the absolute simplest setup

I'd actually start with Discourse's free hosted community + a lightweight course site, rather than immediately self-hosting everything. Discourse's current free plan eliminates the server-management problem while still charging $0. blog.discourse.orgwww.discourse.org

Then, once you're making money, move the course infrastructure to Moodle/self-hosting if you need more control.

My recommendation for a zero-funding solo creator: don't build a complicated "all-in-one" platform. Separate the course and community, use free/open-source software where possible, and spend your first dollars on things that actually improve sales rather than platform subscriptions.

Yes. If your goal is $0/month in platform fees, I would avoid Kajabi, Circle, Teachable, Thinkific, etc. and build a small stack from free/open-source tools.

The important distinction is:

• $0 platform fee = the software doesn't take a cut of your revenue.
• $0 total cost = you also don't pay for hosting, domains, email, payment processing, etc.
• You can realistically get the software/platform side to $0, but if you sell something, payment processors will still charge processing fees.

My top choices

\*Within free storage limits.

🥇 If I were starting with literally $0

I'd use:

YouTube → course videos
Notion/Google Docs → course materials
Discourse → community
Stripe/PayPal → payments
Simple website → landing page

The interesting development is that Discourse now has an actual free hosted plan. It gives you unlimited members and unlimited chat, with a free yourname.discourse.group address, so you don't even need to self-host your community anymore. blog.discourse.org

Discourse free community

That's probably the easiest zero-budget community solution I'd recommend today.

For the actual courses

LearnPress + WordPress is probably the best DIY option if you want a real LMS. LearnPress itself is free/open source and supports courses, lessons, quizzes, student management and selling courses. It can integrate with payment methods including WooCommerce and Stripe. wordpress.org

LearnPress

Then WooCommerce handles the commerce side. WooCommerce explicitly charges 0% revenue share and no platform fee; you only pay whatever your payment processor charges. woocommerce.com

WooCommerce

The catch: WordPress normally requires hosting, so this isn't literally $0 unless you already have hosting or find suitable free hosting.

If you want something more "serious LMS"

Moodle is another excellent option. It's open source and can be self-hosted, giving you complete control over the course platform. download.moodle.org

Moodle

It's more powerful than you probably need as a solo creator, though. I'd choose it if you're building a substantial educational business rather than a small creator course.

What I'd not do

I wouldn't spend your first dollars on a $50–$200/month "all-in-one creator platform."

At zero funding, your biggest advantage is not needing sophisticated software yet.

You could launch:

Landing page
→ $20 course
→ YouTube-hosted lessons
→ Google Drive resources
→ Discourse community
→ Stripe checkout

Then, once you're actually making money, migrate to a nicer integrated LMS.

One caveat: GitHub Pages is free, but GitHub explicitly says Pages shouldn't be used for websites primarily facilitating commercial transactions, so I wouldn't use it as the storefront for a paid course. docs.github.com

My recommendation by stage

$0 revenue:
Discourse + YouTube + Google Docs/Drive

$1–1,000/month:
WordPress + LearnPress + WooCommerce + Discourse

$1,000–5,000/month:
Consider moving to a more polished all-in-one platform if the time savings justify it.

The key idea: don't optimize for "one platform." Optimize for zero fixed costs + zero revenue share + portability. You can replace individual pieces as you grow without rebuilding your business.

If you tell me what kind of course you're creating (video, cohort, coaching, coding, etc.) and whether you want to charge upfront or monthly, I can give you a completely $0-startup stack with the exact tools I'd use.

Yes. If by “without platform fees” you mean the platform doesn’t take 5–10% of every course sale, you have some very good options. The catch is that truly $0 usually means either self-hosting or accepting a free subdomain.

My top choices for a solo creator

1. 🥇 WordPress + LearnPress — probably the best solo-creator route

LearnPress is a free WordPress LMS plugin aimed specifically at individuals and solopreneurs. The free version includes course creation, progress tracking, student management, assessments, and basic payment functionality. learnpresslms.com

You can pair it with a free community plugin such as BuddyPress.

Stack:

• WordPress — website
• LearnPress — courses
• BuddyPress — community/profiles/groups
• H5P — interactive quizzes/content
• Stripe — payments
• YouTube/unlisted video or another video host — video delivery

H5P is particularly useful because it's completely free/open source and can add interactive videos, quizzes, presentations, etc. to WordPress or Moodle. h5p.org

The downside: you'll still need hosting. So this isn't literally $0 forever unless you have somewhere to host WordPress.

2. 🥈 Moodle + Discourse — best if you want a real school + community

Moodle is probably the strongest free LMS option. Moodle itself is free/open source and can be self-hosted with no licensing fees. support.moodle.com

Then use Discourse for your community.

Discourse is also open source and can be self-hosted for free. And, interestingly, Discourse now has a hosted $0 plan, with unlimited members and unlimited chat, so you don't necessarily have to self-host the community either. www.discourse.org

This gives you:

Moodle
→ courses
→ modules
→ lessons
→ quizzes
→ assignments
→ progress tracking
→ certificates

Discourse
→ community
→ discussions
→ Q&A
→ member networking
→ announcements
→ chat

This is the stack I'd choose if your goal is eventually building a serious education business that you own, rather than just throwing videos behind a paywall.

3. Open edX — incredibly powerful, but probably overkill

Open edX is another open-source LMS that can be self-hosted. Its official documentation specifically supports running your own instance, including through the community-supported Tutor distribution. openedx.org

It's capable of building something much closer to a university-style learning platform.

But: you're a solo creator with zero funding. I wouldn't start here unless you already know Linux/Docker/server administration.

4. Ghost + Discourse — excellent if your “course” is mostly content

Ghost is interesting because it has memberships built in and doesn't charge transaction fees on subscriptions; Stripe's normal payment processing fees still apply. ghost.org

Ghost can actually be used to deliver subscription-based courses: you can organize lessons with tags and put them behind membership tiers. ghost.org

So you could have:

Ghost
→ landing page
→ email newsletter
→ free content
→ paid course
→ memberships

Discourse
→ community

It's a particularly nice setup if content + audience + community is your business rather than formal education.

The catch is that managed Ghost hosting isn't free; self-hosting is possible because Ghost is open source. docs.ghost.org

What I'd actually do with $0

I'd avoid trying to recreate Kajabi/Teachable/Circle from day one.

I'd start extremely lean:

Free website/course layer
→ WordPress + LearnPress

Free community
→ Discourse Free

Video
→ YouTube unlisted initially

Interactive exercises
→ H5P

Payments
→ Stripe

Email
→ whichever free email provider meets your initial volume

That gets you surprisingly close to a $0-platform-fee version of:

Teachable + Circle + basic email marketing

And when you make your first money, spend it on hosting and better video delivery, rather than immediately handing 5–10% of revenue to an all-in-one platform.

One important distinction

There are three different meanings of “free”:

$0 platform fees:
You pay the payment processor, but the course/community software takes no percentage.

$0 software:
Open-source software such as Moodle, WordPress, Discourse and H5P costs nothing, but you may pay for hosting.

$0 total cost:
Much harder. You generally need free hosting/subdomains and will have limitations.

For a zero-funding solo creator, I'd optimize for $0 platform fees, not necessarily $0 total cost. It gives you much more control and doesn't force you to migrate your business later.

If you tell me whether your course is video-heavy, cohort-based, or self-paced, I can narrow this down to the cheapest exact stack I'd use and how I'd wire the pieces together.