How to Price an Online Course (and Set It Up in LifterLMS)

Most course creators set a price by looking at what others charge and going a little lower. That is the fastest way to underprice something that took months to build. Knowing how to price an online course means starting from the outcome your buyer gets, choosing a pricing model that suits how they want to pay, and then expressing that model cleanly in your platform.

This guide does all three. The first half is a pricing method that works for any platform. The second half shows exactly how to set up each pricing model in LifterLMS, using access plans and memberships, including the settings that behave differently from what people expect.

If you have not created an access plan before, the explainer on memberships and access plans covers the basics.

Start with the outcome, not the content

Buyers do not pay for hours of video. They pay for a result: a certification passed, a skill used at work, a business problem solved, a hobby finally learned properly. Price follows how valuable and how specific that result is.

Answer these questions before choosing a number:

1. What changes for the buyer? "Pass the exam first time", "Run payroll without an accountant", "Hold a 10-minute conversation in Spanish".
2. What is that worth to them? Money saved or earned, time saved, risk avoided, or simply enjoyment.
3. Who pays? Individuals with their own money are more price sensitive than employers paying from a training budget.
4. What are the alternatives? A book, a free YouTube playlist, a consultant, an in-person workshop. Your price sits somewhere between the cheapest and the most expensive alternative, depending on how much support you provide.
5. How much of you is included? Self-paced video, community access, live calls, feedback on work, and one-to-one coaching are very different products.

A rough rule many creators use: self-paced content sits at the lower end, adding live group support moves you up a level, and personal feedback or coaching moves you up again. Our article on LifterLMS for coaches and consultants covers the higher-touch end.

Choosing a pricing model

Model	Suits	Watch out for
One-time payment, lifetime access	Most standalone courses	Revenue depends on constant new buyers
Payment plan	Higher-priced programmes	Some buyers stop paying; decide what they keep
Subscription (membership)	Growing libraries, ongoing communities, fitness, professional updates	You must keep adding value every month
Tiers (basic, plus, premium)	Courses with optional support or extras	Too many tiers confuse; three is usually the limit
Bundle	Several related courses	Bundles cannibalise single sales if the discount is too large
Cohort price	Live programmes with a start date	Must deliver the live element you promise
Team or company seats	B2B and professional training	Needs invoicing and seat management
Free course	Lead generation, onboarding, customer education	Only works with a clear next step

You can combine models on one course: pay in full or in three instalments, with a premium tier that adds live calls. That is exactly what access plans are designed for.

How to price an online course in LifterLMS access plans

Each course or membership can have up to six access plans by default, shown together as a pricing table. Here is how each model translates into plan settings.

One-time payment

Set Plan Type to Paid, enter the Price, choose the one-time payment frequency, and set Access Expiration to Lifetime Access. For time-limited access, such as a year of exam prep, choose Expires after and set the period, or Expires on a fixed date.

Payment plan

Choose a recurring Frequency (for example every month), then set Plan Length to a fixed number of payments, such as three. Keep Access Expiration at lifetime. Price the instalments slightly above one third of the full price so paying in full is the better deal. Note that recurring payments need a gateway add-on that supports them, such as Stripe or PayPal. See payment plans and free trials.

Subscription

Sell a membership rather than a single course, with a monthly and an annual plan, both with Plan Length set to run until cancelled. Use membership auto-enrollment to give subscribers the courses. A Trial Offer (free or paid) can be added to recurring plans only.

Tiers

Create one plan per tier on the same course, with a clear Plan Title and a Plan Description listing what each includes. Set the middle tier's Visibility to featured so the pricing table highlights it. If higher tiers unlock extra content, give them access through a membership (for example "Course Name: Premium") rather than trying to restrict lessons by plan, which LifterLMS does not do: every plan on a course enrolls into the same course.

Bundles

Create a membership that auto-enrolls into the bundled courses and sell it with a one-time plan. Our guide to course bundles and upsells covers presentation.

Member pricing

Add a second plan at the lower price with Plan Availability set to Members only and choose the qualifying memberships. Non-members see it marked as member pricing with a link to join.

Pay what you want

The paid Name Your Price add-on lets the buyer choose the amount, with optional minimum, suggested and maximum prices. It appears as an option when you add a new access plan.

Early-bird offers, sales and coupons

Discounts are useful, and LifterLMS gives you three tools with different behaviour:

• Sale Pricing on a plan. Set a Sale Price with a Sale Start Date and Sale End Date. Ideal for launch week. On a recurring plan, the access plan documentation notes that buyers keep the sale price for the life of the plan, so a sale on a subscription is a permanent discount for them.
• Coupons. Codes for a percentage or fixed discount, limited by product, date and number of uses. Good for partner offers and email campaigns. See coupons and vouchers.
• A separate hidden plan. A plan with Visibility set to hidden does not appear in the pricing table but can be reached by direct link. Useful for a private offer, but not secure; anyone with the link can use it.

Use deadlines honestly. A sale that ends on the date you said builds trust; a permanent "50% off today only" banner destroys it.

Testing and changing your price

• Raise prices for new buyers only. Existing buyers keep what they paid. On recurring plans, changing the plan price does not quietly reprice existing subscriptions, so plan any price change for subscribers carefully and communicate it.
• Launch high, discount early. It is easier to offer an early-bird discount from a confident full price than to raise a price that launched too low.
• Change one thing at a time. Price, tiers or payment plan, so you can see what made the difference.
• Watch refunds as well as sales. A lower price that attracts the wrong buyers can increase refunds and support load.
• Use real data. The Customers screen in recent LifterLMS versions shows lifetime value and order history, and reporting shows sales by course.

Common pricing mistakes

• Pricing by content length. More hours is not more value; often it is less.
• Too many plans. Six plans on one course is the default limit, not a target. Two or three is usually clearer.
• A trial on a one-time plan. Trials only exist on recurring plans.
• Confusing plan length with access. Plan length is about billing; access expiration is about access. A three-payment plan with access that expires after three months is rarely what you meant.
• No anchor. Without a higher-priced option, buyers have nothing to compare your main price against.
• Forgetting tax. Decide whether prices include VAT or sales tax before you publish them.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I charge for my first online course?

Price on the outcome and the support you include, then compare with the alternatives your buyer has. If unsure, launch at a confident price with an early-bird discount rather than launching cheaply.

Can I offer different prices for the same course in LifterLMS?

Yes. A course can have several access plans, for example pay in full, a payment plan and a members-only price, all shown in one pricing table.

Can different plans unlock different lessons?

Not directly. Every plan enrolls the student into the same course. Use separate courses or a membership for premium extras.

Should I offer a subscription or a one-time price?

A subscription suits content that keeps growing or ongoing support. A one-time price suits a course with a clear finish line.

What to do next

Write your outcome statement, choose one main model and at most one alternative (usually a payment plan), and set them up as access plans on a staging copy of your course. Run a test purchase for each plan before launch, using our checkout setup guide.

If your pricing involves tier upgrades, company seats or rules the settings cannot express, our LifterLMS consulting service will design the structure with you. Send us your offer and we will suggest how to build it.