My Course Website Stack
Everything I use to sell courses on WordPress — LearnDash, WooCommerce, FunnelKit, and more.
Last updated: March 12, 2026
If you want to sell courses or coaching online, you need a platform that handles payments, delivers content, and doesn’t fight you every step of the way.
I run my courses website on WordPress. Not because it’s trendy — because it’s the most flexible option when you actually want to own your business and not rent it from a platform that can change its pricing overnight.
Here’s everything I use, and why.
The Platform: WordPress
WordPress powers the foundation. It’s not the simplest option for selling courses, but it’s the one that gives you the most control. You own the content, the customer data, and the checkout flow. No revenue share, no platform lock-in.
The trade-off is complexity. You need plugins to do what all-in-one platforms do out of the box. But once it’s set up, it runs — and you’re not paying 10% of every sale to Teachable or Kajabi.
The LMS: LearnDash
LearnDash is the course engine. It handles lessons, topics, quizzes, progress tracking, and certificates. The course builder is solid, drip content works as expected, and it integrates with everything in the WordPress ecosystem.
If you’re serious about selling courses on WordPress, LearnDash is the standard for a reason. LearnDash is now owned by PE, but it's still the best around. Maybe I'll build a course platform someday, but until then LearnDash is the best I've found.
I covered LearnDash in more detail in my Essential WordPress Plugins guide.
Payments: WooCommerce
WooCommerce handles the money side — product pages, cart, checkout, order management. It connects to Stripe and PayPal, manages subscriptions, and gives you full control over pricing and offers.
Yes, WooCommerce adds weight. But it’s the most flexible ecommerce engine on WordPress, and LearnDash integrates with it natively. More than anything, I choose WooCommerce for the extensions. Sales Funnels, Memberships, Subscriptions... there isn't much you can image that someone hasn't already built.
I wrote about the recent WooCommerce subscription changes in my WP Subscription review.
Sales Funnels: FunnelKit
FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) replaces WooCommerce’s basic checkout with optimized sales funnels. Custom checkout pages, order bumps, one-click upsells, and abandoned cart recovery.
At a minimum, it makes WordPress checkout feel like Shopify with a click. If you really dig in, you can built full sales funnels that would even make Russell Brunson proud.
If you’re selling courses and not optimizing your checkout flow, you’re leaving money on the table, and you're not helping your students get more valuable products.
Did I mention? FunnelKit also includes an automation engine for post-purchase email sequences. It can probably replace that expensive Kit subscription.
I included FunnelKit in my WordPress Agency Deals roundup.
Video: Presto Player
Presto Player is the video player. It supports self-hosted video, YouTube, Vimeo, and Bunny.net — with chapters, speed controls, and engagement tracking built in.
I use it with Bunny Stream, which has been my video hosting solution for years.
Theme: GeneratePress + GenerateBlocks
GeneratePress is the theme. It’s lightweight and gives you full design control through GP Premium’s site library and element system. No page builder bloat.
Paired with GenerateBlocks Pro, you can build any layout you need without touching code. I use it for landing pages, course pages, and the main site structure.
In 2026, I'm sure I will move to an AI building solution, but until then GeneratePress & GenerateBlocks has been my primary goto for many years.
SEO: SEOPress Pro
SEOPress Pro handles meta tags, sitemaps, structured data, redirects, and content analysis. It does everything the big SEO plugins do without the upsell nag screens and slower performance.
Every WordPress site I run uses SEOPress Pro. I wrote about it in my Essential WordPress Plugins guide.
Security: Patchstack
Patchstack monitors for plugin vulnerabilities and provides virtual patching. WordPress security is mostly about keeping things updated and knowing when something’s exposed — Patchstack handles the second part.
The automatic vulnerability patching is worth the price of admission.
Automation: WP Fusion
WP Fusion is the glue that connects everything. It syncs your WordPress users, LearnDash progress, WooCommerce purchases, and form submissions directly to your CRM — automatically tagging contacts based on what they buy, what they complete, and where they are in your funnel.
Here’s the thing: without something like WP Fusion, you end up building Zapier chains or writing custom code to keep your CRM in sync with WordPress. WP Fusion handles it natively, with deep integrations into practically every WordPress plugin that matters.
In my opinion, this is a must-have on every WordPress site that does anything with users or customers. It’s the plugin that makes all the other plugins and your email marketing tool talk to each other.
Performance: Redis + Cloudflare APO
Redis caches database queries so WordPress doesn’t hit MySQL on every page load. Combined with Cloudflare APO for full-page edge caching, the site loads fast even under traffic spikes.
Cloudflare APO caches entire WordPress pages at Cloudflare’s edge. Instead of just static assets, the full HTML is served from the nearest data center. I use it on every WordPress site I run.
Hosting: Hetzner VPS
The site runs on a Hetzner VPS. Self-managed, Docker-based, and affordable. Full control, low cost, reliable performance. No panels, cause maybe I'm building my own?
Is this stack overkill for your first course? Maybe. You could start with just WordPress, LearnDash, and WooCommerce on a $10 VPS and add the rest as you grow. But if you’re building something you plan to run for years, this is a setup that scales without needing to re-platform.
