merchavio
Course platform

Course platform: create online courses and sell them under your own name

With Merchavio you build your online course from modules and video lessons, sell it through your own store and give buyers access right after they pay. Video hosting, checkout, member area and invoices through Stripe are included, and the money goes straight to your Stripe account. Add a community and livestreams when you need them, without a second tool.

5-day free trial · no credit card · servers and video hosting in the EU

Course editor in Merchavio: modules and lessons on the left, preview of the lesson as students see it on the right (sample data)
Real interface with sample data

What is a course platform?

A course platform is software for creating online courses, selling them and delivering them to your students. It stores and streams the videos, takes payments and controls who can see which lessons. People searching for a course platform usually mean one of three models, and the model matters more than any single feature:

01

Marketplace

Your course sits next to thousands of others in a large catalogue. The marketplace brings visitors, but the buyers remain first and foremost its customers.

02

Reseller

The provider resells your course in its own name and handles the invoice and VAT towards the buyer. That is part of a higher fee per sale.

03

Your own course platform

You sell under your own name, with your own store, your own customer list and your own payment account. Merchavio follows this model.

Which model suits you depends on whether you already have an audience and who should take care of invoices and taxes. You can compare what each model costs with your own numbers in the fee calculator.

What the Merchavio course platform does

Everything you need for an online course is included in every plan. The plans only differ in limits such as video traffic and storage, and in the fee per sale.

Course view in the Merchavio member area as buyers see it: progress, finished lessons and the next lesson (sample data)
Real interface with sample data

What your students see

After paying, buyers sign in to your member area with their email address and a code, no password needed. All their purchases are in one place: courses, communities and downloads.

Inside a course they see every lesson, tick off the ones they have finished and can tell at a glance how far they are and what comes next. On a phone they can install the member area as an app with your store’s name and icon.

Five steps to your first course sale

  1. Create an account

    Start the 5-day trial, no credit card needed. During the trial you embed videos via YouTube or Vimeo links; hosting and streaming your own videos starts with a paid plan.

  2. Connect Stripe

    Connect your Stripe account in the settings. From then on, payments go straight to you.

    Guide: connect Stripe

  3. Build the course

    Create a course under Products, add modules and lessons, upload videos and PDFs and mark one or two lessons as a free preview.

    Guide: build an online course

  4. Price and sales page

    Set a one-time price or a subscription and design the sales page. The preview shows the checkout exactly as buyers see it.

    Guide: prices and subscriptions

  5. Publish and share

    Publish the course and share the link: in your store at <store>.merchavio.com or on your own domain, on a link-in-bio page for social media, or through affiliates who recommend it for a commission.

    Guide: create a link in bio page

What does the course platform cost?

You pay a fixed monthly price and a small fee per sale. The higher the plan, the lower the fee, and the more video traffic and storage are included. All prices exclude VAT; Stripe’s payment fees are added.

PlanStarterGrowthScalePlus
Price per month€19€49€129€499
Fee per sale1.9% + €0.251.6% + €0.251.4% + €0.251.2% + €0.25
Course video traffic per month100 GB500 GB2 TB8 TB
File storage10 GB50 GB200 GB1 TB
Team seats251550

Prices excl. VAT. Every plan includes store, courses, community, livestreams and back-office. Annual plan: 10 monthly prices for the first 12 months. All plan details

Calculate with your course

€

Revenue per month: €1,970

Merchavio cost per month
Starter€58.93
Growth€83.02
Scale€159.08
Plus€525.14

Cheapest for your numbers: Starter, €19 base price + €39.93 in fees, which is 3.0% of your revenue.

Excluding VAT and Stripe’s payment fees. Higher plans also include more video traffic, storage and team seats.

At the same revenue, the next plan up becomes cheaper from these monthly revenues: Growth from about €10,000, Scale from about €40,000, Plus from about €185,000. To see what other platforms cost with your numbers, use the fee calculator.

Who Merchavio suits as a course platform

A good fit if you …

  • … want to sell under your own name, with your own store, domain and customer list.
  • … sell a community, live calls, coaching or ebooks alongside the course and don’t want to connect several tools for it.
  • … sell to customers in Germany and the EU and want withdrawal button, cancellation button and invoices through Stripe ready to use.

Less suited if you …

  • … want the platform to act as the seller and handle invoices and VAT towards your buyers. With Merchavio you sell yourself.
  • … need timed release of lessons, graded quizzes or certificates. Merchavio does not offer these yet.
FAQ

Questions about the course platform

What does a course platform on Merchavio cost?

From €19 a month plus 1.9% + €0.25 per sale (Starter plan), excluding VAT. Stripe’s payment fees are added. Higher plans cost more per month but take less per sale. You can try it free for 5 days without a credit card.

Is video hosting included?

Yes. Merchavio streams uploaded course videos through protected links to buyers only. Depending on the plan, 100 GB to 8 TB of video traffic per month are included. Once the allowance is used up, hosted videos play again next month or after a plan upgrade. YouTube or Vimeo videos can be embedded by link and do not count towards it.

How do buyers get access to the course?

Right after paying. They sign in to the member area with their email address and a code they receive by email, without a password. There they find all the courses they bought, with their progress.

Can I release lessons over time (drip)?

Not yet. Buyers get all lessons right after purchase.

Are there quizzes and certificates?

Not yet. Lessons are videos, PDFs or text. Students mark lessons as complete and see their progress.

Can I sell a course as a subscription or in instalments?

As a subscription, yes: monthly or annually, also with several plans per course. Instalment plans with a fixed term are not available yet.

Can I sell a course and a community together?

Yes, both live in the same account and store, and buyers find both in the same member area. Each is its own product with its own price. Unlocking a course automatically as part of a community membership is not possible yet. What the community can do is explained on the community platform page.

Who is the seller: Merchavio or me?

You are. Merchavio is not a reseller: buyers buy from you and pay into your Stripe account, so you take care of VAT yourself. You export your orders with amounts as a CSV; the buyer’s country is in your Stripe account.

Is the platform available in German?

Your content, sales pages and legal texts can be in German. Stripe shows the payment page in the buyer’s language, the order button then reads “Bezahlen”. The dashboard and the member area for buyers are still mostly labelled in English.

Can I move my course from another platform?

Partly. The import reads your current website and creates page titles and product drafts as a starting point. Courses and videos you move yourself, and importing existing buyers with their access is not available yet.

Start your course today.

Try Merchavio free for 5 days, no credit card. Pick a plan when it fits.