Key Takeaways
- Therapists build three different things and call them all courses: public psychoeducation, a resource library for current clients, and a companion to a group program.
- Public psychoeducation needs a storefront. A client resource library needs to sit beside your bookings. A group companion needs scheduling. Almost no platform does all three.
- A course sold to the public reaches people you aren't licensed to treat — the disclaimer and the scope statement are part of the product, not paperwork.
- Course platforms are not HIPAA-compliant systems and shouldn't hold anything clinical, including anything a participant types into a reflection field you can read.
- If your course exists to serve people who also book sessions, keeping the two on one platform is worth more than any course-builder feature.
In this article
Most therapists who build a course build the same one: the explanation they've given a hundred times about how anxiety works, or sleep, or the thing that comes up in week three with almost everyone. It's good material, and it doesn't need to be delivered live for the hundred-and-first time.
Where it goes wrong is the platform decision, because "course platform" describes tools built for three different jobs, and therapists usually need the one they're least often shown.
Three shapes of therapist course
Work out which one you're building before you compare features:
- Public psychoeducation. Sold to strangers who may never become clients. A product with a storefront, a price, and no relationship attached.
- A client resource library. Material you give to people you already see — between-session exercises, a module you assign after intake. Often free, always tied to a client.
- A group program companion. Recorded content that runs alongside scheduled live sessions over six or eight weeks.
These need different software, and the mistake is choosing for the shape you plan to build in two years instead of the one you're building now.
Why the shape decides the platform
A public course needs a checkout, a sales page, and an audience — the things course platforms are built around. If that's your product, the market serves you well and cheaply.
A client resource library needs the opposite. There's no storefront, no funnel, and no stranger; there's a person who booked a session on Tuesday and needs module two before Thursday. The feature that matters is whether the course and the booking sit on the same client record, which no dedicated course platform offers because it isn't their job.
A group companion needs both, plus scheduling — recorded modules and live calls, with one list of participants across both. Why live and recorded content work better together covers the format; the platform question is whether one tool holds both halves.
The boundary problem
A course sold publicly reaches people in jurisdictions where you aren't licensed, people in acute distress, and people who will read it as personal advice unless you tell them otherwise.
The scope statement is part of the product, not the paperwork. Say plainly what the course is (education), what it isn't (therapy, assessment, or crisis support), who it's for, and where to go if someone needs more than a course. Put it in the first lesson rather than buried in a terms page — the people who most need to read it are the ones who skip terms pages.
Important
What to check before choosing
Six questions, in order of how often they're overlooked:
- Can a buyer also book a session, without a second account?
- Does the platform hold anything that could become clinical, and does that worry you?
- Can you release content on a schedule rather than all at once?
- Does it read properly on a phone, which is where most modules get watched?
- Can you give free access to a current client without inventing a coupon workflow?
- Can you see who stopped watching?
Question five is the tell. If giving your own client access to your own material requires a 100%-off discount code, the platform doesn't have a concept of your practice — only of customers.
The options compared
| Platform | Strong for | Weak for |
|---|---|---|
| Teachable / Thinkific | Public self-paced courses | No booking, no client record |
| Kajabi | Courses plus marketing machinery | Price, minimal scheduling |
| Podia | Simple storefront, low setup | No real session management |
| Practice Better | Protocol-style programs, clinical fit | Weaker as a public course product |
| Merkora | Courses beside bookings and groups | Not an EHR; no deep email automation |
The dedicated course platforms win on course-building polish and lose on everything that touches the practice. The broader course platform comparison goes deeper on the builders themselves if a public course is all you need.
What it costs
Teachable starts at $29/month with a 7.5% transaction fee, or $69/month without. Thinkific is around $74/month annually with no fee. Podia runs $49/month with a 5% fee or $99 without. Kajabi starts at $69 and realistically works at $149. Practice Better ranges from roughly $29 to $89 depending on tier. Prices as of 2026 — check each provider.
For a first course selling a handful of copies a month, transaction-fee plans cost less than flat plans — a 7.5% fee on $400 of sales is $30, against $69 for the fee-free tier. The arithmetic flips somewhere around $900 a month in course revenue.
Choosing
- Public course, no session tie-in → Teachable or Thinkific. Cheapest path to a decent product.
- Material for clients you already see → whatever already holds your bookings. A second platform for this is pure overhead.
- Group program with live calls → a platform that schedules and hosts, or you'll run the course in one tool and the calls in another.
- All three, eventually → choose for the second and third. The first is the easiest to add.
Most therapists discover the second shape is the valuable one. The course that saves you fifteen minutes in every intake and gives clients something to work with between sessions earns its keep before it sells a single public copy — selling courses and sessions together covers why that combination outperforms either alone.
Therapist software with courses, bookings, and group programs on one client record means the course you build for clients and the course you sell publicly are the same course, delivered from the same place. Merkora is free until your first sale, so the first course costs nothing to build and test.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best platform for a therapist to sell a course?
For a public self-paced course with no session component, Teachable or Thinkific do the job at a lower price than Kajabi. For a course that supports clients you also see, a platform that combines courses with booking keeps everything on one client record instead of two systems.
Can a therapist sell a course to people who aren't clients?
Yes — psychoeducation sold to the public is a product, not treatment, and that's the distinction your course needs to make explicitly. State the scope, avoid individualised advice, and include crisis resources. Ethics codes and jurisdiction rules differ, so check yours.
Do course platforms need to be HIPAA-compliant?
If they hold protected health information, yes — and general course platforms don't sign BAAs. The practical rule is to keep courses free of anything clinical: no diagnoses, no notes, and no reflection fields you can read that a participant might fill with clinical detail.
Is a course worth building for a small private practice?
It's worth building when you're repeating the same explanation to most clients. That course pays for itself in session time before it earns a cent publicly, and it's a far better first product than a course aimed at strangers.
