Price anchors before you start
These are entry prices from vendor pages, billed annually where offered, to frame the questions below. Card processing applies to both routes.
| Route | Example | Entry price |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted | Podia Mover | $42/mo plus a 5% Podia transaction fee |
| Hosted | Thinkific Start | $82/mo, up to 10,000 current students |
| Hosted | Kajabi Basic | $143/mo, 5 products and 2,500 contacts |
| Self-hosted | Hosting | SiteGround GrowBig $4.99/mo promo then $29.99/mo; WP Engine Essential $28/mo; Kinsta Single 35k $30/mo |
| Self-hosted | LMS plugin | LearnDash $350/yr for 1 site; LifterLMS and Tutor LMS cores are free |
The ten questions
Score each answer H (hosted) or W (WordPress). Seven or more of one letter is a clear answer; a 5-5 split usually means start hosted and plan an exit.
| # | Question | Points to hosted if... | Points to WordPress if... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who will apply updates, take backups and restore a broken site? | Nobody, or you would have to learn | You, a developer or a host that manages it |
| 2 | How soon must you launch? | Within weeks | You can spend time on setup and testing |
| 3 | What can you spend each month on software? | You prefer one predictable bill | You want the lowest fixed cost and accept variable effort |
| 4 | How large is your free email list compared to buyers? | Small | Large; some hosted plans are priced partly on contacts |
| 5 | How many products will you sell? | A few | Many; some hosted tiers cap products |
| 6 | How much design control do you need? | Templates are fine | Custom layouts or an existing site design |
| 7 | Do you need your course data in a database you control? | Not important | Important for portability or compliance |
| 8 | Do you need unusual integrations (CRM, membership rules, custom reports)? | Built-in features cover you | You need plugins or code |
| 9 | Do you already run a WordPress site with traffic? | No | Yes; courses can live on it |
| 10 | Would a day of downtime during a launch be a disaster? | Yes; you want one vendor responsible | You have tested backups and staging |
How to read a split result
Questions 1 and 10 deserve extra weight. If nobody can restore a WordPress site, every other W answer becomes a liability, because a failed update during a launch has no owner.
Questions 4 and 5 are cost questions in disguise. Kajabi Basic, for example, includes 5 products and 2,500 contacts, and extra contacts cost $125 a month per 25,000. A creator with an 8,000-person list and one course is past Basic's 2,500 contacts and needs Growth at $199 a month billed annually, while Kit's free tier covers up to 10,000 subscribers on the WordPress side.
Question 7 matters most if you might switch later. Hosted platforms document piecemeal exports: Thinkific, for example, states it cannot export a whole course as one file. See our Kajabi and Thinkific migration guides for what each lets you take.
Costs the comparison pages leave out
- Hosted: platform fees on third-party processors (Kajabi lists 2%, 1% or 0.5% by plan; Thinkific lists 2% on Start, 1% on Grow and 0.5% on Expand when you use your own Stripe account).
- Hosted: tier jumps when you pass product, contact or admin limits.
- WordPress: renewal prices after promotional first terms (SiteGround GrowBig goes from $4.99 to $29.99 a month).
- WordPress: premium plugin renewals, a separate video service and possibly a developer for fixes.
- Both: card processing, typically 2.9% + 30 cents for US domestic cards on Stripe.
Next step by result
- Mostly H: shortlist two hosted platforms, price them at your expected sales and list size, and read their export help pages before uploading content.
- Mostly W: pick an LMS plugin first (see our LearnDash, LifterLMS and Tutor LMS comparison), then size hosting for logged-in students rather than page views.
- Split: start hosted to validate demand, keep master copies of every video and lesson outside the platform, and revisit after 12 months of sales data.
Questions before you decide
Is self-hosted WordPress always cheaper?
In software fees it is often cheaper, but not once maintenance time or a developer is counted. Run the numbers with your own hourly value.
Can I switch from hosted to WordPress later?
Yes, but hosted platforms generally document piecemeal exports, so course content is usually rebuilt by hand. Keeping your own copies of videos and lesson text from day one makes a later move much easier.
Sources & verification
Product details and prices can change. Check the linked provider before buying.
- Podia: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Thinkific: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Kajabi: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- SiteGround: WordPress hosting plans Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- WP Engine: Plans Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Kinsta: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- LearnDash: Pricing on liquidweb.com Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- LifterLMS: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Tutor LMS: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Kit: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Thinkific Help: Can I export my course? Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Stripe: Pricing Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Thinkific Help: Third-party payment gateway fee FAQ Accessed 29 Oct 2026
Sources link directly to providers. Product buttons may use separately labeled affiliate links. Read our disclosure.