ChatGPT answers, unedited

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.