CourseLit is a self-hosted, open-source learning management system (LMS) designed for educators, coaches, and creators who want full ownership of their online course platform. Unlike SaaS alternatives like Teachable or Podia, CourseLit empowers users to host their courses, blogs, and digital downloads on their own infrastructure with complete control over branding, data, and monetization. It combines course authoring tools, a visual website builder, Stripe-based payment processing, and student management in a single platform. Built as a monorepo with TypeScript, it’s ideal for technical users seeking an alternative to proprietary LMS solutions without sacrificing core functionality.
The platform is purpose-built for those who value data privacy, custom domains, and full control over their digital products. While it offers a cloud-hosted version for quick setup, its true value shines in self-hosted deployments where users can customize every aspect of their learning platform — from sales pages to analytics and media storage. With integration support for MediaLit for file hosting and extensible widget architecture, CourseLit is a flexible foundation for building scalable online education businesses.
What You Get
- Course authoring - Create and manage online courses with structured lessons, multimedia content, and progress tracking without needing a developer.
- Built-in website builder - Design custom landing pages and sales funnels for your courses using a visual editor, with full branding control.
- Stripe payment processing - Integrated Stripe support to accept payments for courses and digital downloads with automated delivery upon purchase.
- Self-hosted deployment - Full control over your data and infrastructure via Docker or direct Node.js deployment, eliminating third-party vendor lock-in.
- MediaLit integration - Seamless cloud media storage for course files, with support for self-hosted MediaLit instances via environment variables.
- Admin dashboard - Centralized interface to manage students, course analytics, orders, and content with role-based access.
- Extensible widgets - Add custom functionality to your platform by building and integrating your own widgets without modifying core code.
Common Use Cases
- Building a branded online course platform - A life coach wants to sell a 12-week mindfulness program with videos, PDF workbooks, and quizzes on their own domain instead of paying recurring fees to Teachable.
- Creating a membership site with digital downloads - A freelance designer offers premium templates and tutorials; CourseLit handles secure file delivery, payment tracking, and customer management on their custom domain.
- Problem → Solution flow: High SaaS fees → Full ownership - A creator is frustrated with platform fees, limited branding, and data restrictions on Podia; they migrate to CourseLit to reduce costs by 80% and own all customer data.
- Team workflow for educators - A university department uses CourseLit to host open educational resources (OER) internally, with faculty members uploading content and admins managing student enrollments without external platforms.
Under The Hood
This project is a modular learning management system (LMS) platform built as a monorepo, integrating web UI, documentation, and background job processing into a cohesive ecosystem. It emphasizes shared packages, clear app boundaries, and extensible architecture to support scalable development.
Architecture
The system follows a layered monorepo structure with well-defined responsibilities across multiple apps.
- Modular organization with distinct apps for docs, web, and queue processing
- Shared packages for common logic, models, and utilities to ensure cross-app consistency
- Configuration-driven design and dependency injection for flexible module composition
Tech Stack
The platform leverages modern TypeScript-based tools and frameworks for full-stack development.
- Built primarily in TypeScript with React, Next.js, and Astro for frontend and documentation
- Relies on MongoDB, BullMQ, and various payment providers like Stripe and Razorpay
- Comprehensive tooling including Jest, ESLint, Prettier, and Tailwind CSS for development and testing
Code Quality
The codebase reflects a balanced approach to testing and consistency, with some room for improvement.
- Extensive test coverage using Jest across multiple apps and environments
- Centralized error handling through custom classes and middleware patterns
- Strong emphasis on type safety and linting, though stylistic variations exist
What Makes It Unique
This system stands out through its innovative use of modular architecture and tool integration.
- Combines Astro-based documentation with React/Next.js web frontend in a unified monorepo
- Implements pluggable payment providers and shared utility packages for extensibility
- Focus on developer experience through consistent component design and layout structures