Courses & Communities
Free course and community platforms
9 of the 42 course and community platforms in this directory are free or have a free plan.
2 have no paid plan at all. The rest pair a free plan with paid ones, and the table says what each free plan includes.
Listings checked up to Nov 12, 2026 · Where the facts come from
| Tool | Price | What is free |
|---|---|---|
| systeme.ioAll-in-one marketing suite with funnels, email, courses and community | Free plan · from $17/mo | 2,000 contacts, unlimited emails, 3 funnels, 1 course with 500 students, 1 community, 1 blog, 1 automation rule and 1 email campaign. No card needed. |
| MavenMarketplace for live cohort courses and workshops taught by experts | Free | Everything. There is no paid plan. |
| LifterLMSWordPress LMS plugin with a free core and paid bundles | Free plan · from $398/yr | Core plugin: unlimited courses, memberships, students and teachers, with quizzes, certificates and achievement badges. |
| Sensei LMSWordPress course plugin with a free core and a paid Pro tier | Free plan · from $15/mo | Sensei Free: unlimited free courses, certificate builder, basic quizzes and learning mode, open-source and community supported. |
| Paid Memberships ProOpen-source WordPress membership plugin with managed hosting | Free plan · from $49/mo | Self-host the open-source PMPro platform with the core plugin, 25 free add-ons and payment gateways; no support or premium add-ons. |
| DiscourseOpen-source discussion forum software with hosted plans | Free plan · from $100/mo | Free hosting plan: 2 staff seats, 10 categories, 5GB of storage, 20k emails a month and 500k page views a month. |
| FourthwallCreator shop with merch, digital products and memberships | Free plan · from $15/mo | Design and sell products, offer memberships, run promotions; 5% fee and 5 GB limit on digital products. |
| RuzukuCourse platform with live sessions, community and no sales fee | Free plan · from $99/mo | Up to 5 student enrollments at a time, unlimited courses, community discussions, live meetings, sales pages and payments. |
| HotmartSell courses and digital products for a cut of each sale | Free | Everything. There is no paid plan. |
Common questions
Which course and community platforms are free?
9 of the 42 course and community platforms in this directory are free or have a free plan. They are systeme.io, Maven, LifterLMS, Sensei LMS, Paid Memberships Pro, Discourse, Fourthwall, Ruzuku and Hotmart.
Which course and community platforms are free with no paid plan?
Maven and Hotmart have no paid plan. The others on this page limit the free plan and sell paid ones.
When was this checked?
Each listing shows its own date. On this page they run from Oct 17, 2026 to Nov 12, 2026. Vendors change prices and plans without notice, so confirm on their site before you buy.
This page is built from the listings. A tool is here because its listing says so, and each listing names the pages it was read from.