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Self-host Teachable

Online course platform · Category: video, audio & courses

Teachable hosts online courses — video lessons, quizzes, drip schedules, student accounts, payment via their cart with a transaction fee. The self-hostable replacements (Moodle, Open edX, Chamilo) all do courses + students + grades; what you give up is Teachable's bundled checkout + creator-friendly course-builder UI (you bring Stripe + a CMS-style editor).

Teachable pricing anchor: Basic $59/mo (5% transaction fee); Pro $159/mo (no fees); Pro+ $249/mo.

Moodle moodle/moodle alive

GitHub
★ 7.06k · last commit 9d ago · 1 open issues
License
GPL-3.0
Setup time
30min docker-compose (PHP + MariaDB/PostgreSQL + Redis)
Monthly cost
$10/mo VPS for a small course; storage scales with video uploads.
Migration sketch. Pull `bitnami/moodle` and `bitnami/mariadb` from Bitnami Docker Hub. Moodle is the dominant LMS in education — installs out of the box with the full courses + users + grades + quizzes surface. Teachable migration: export student CSV via Teachable Settings → Export → import via Moodle's bulk-user upload. Course content (videos, PDFs) re-upload manually into Moodle Activities. For payments, install the PayPal/Stripe Enrol plugin.
Good fit forEducators or training orgs that need quizzes, certificates, gradebooks, and SCORM compliance.
Weak atUI feels academic; needs theme work to look like Teachable's polished course landing pages.

Open edX openedx/edx-platform alive

GitHub
★ 8.09k · last commit 1d ago · 486 open issues
License
AGPL-3.0
Setup time
2h — Tutor (Docker installer for Open edX) on a 4GB+ VPS
Monthly cost
$30-60/mo VPS — Open edX is the heaviest of the three.
Migration sketch. Install via Tutor: `pip install tutor && tutor local launch`. Open edX is the platform that powers edx.org and many MOOCs — broadest course-format support (XBlocks for arbitrary lesson types, problem libraries, peer assessment). Teachable course content rebuilds inside Studio (Open edX's authoring tool); student CSV imports through the bulk-enroll endpoint.
Good fit forMOOC-style large-scale course delivery, universities, and orgs publishing dozens of structured courses.
Weak atOperational complexity — Open edX is genuinely big (≥10 services); installing on a single VPS is possible but tight.

Chamilo chamilo/chamilo-lms alive

GitHub
★ 949 · last commit today · 436 open issues
License
GPL-3.0
Setup time
20min docker-compose (PHP + MariaDB)
Monthly cost
$5-10/mo VPS.
Migration sketch. Pull `chamilo/chamilo-lms:latest`. Chamilo is the lightest of the three — installs cleanly, simpler model than Moodle, easier admin UI. Teachable export → Chamilo's user import (CSV) and bulk-course-creation. Native support for SCORM, video lessons, certificate templates, and a built-in survey tool.
Good fit forSmaller education providers and corporate training teams that want a less complex LMS than Moodle.
Weak atSmaller plugin ecosystem; international community is largely Spanish/French-speaking — English docs sometimes lag.

In a terminal? npx os-alt teachable prints this table — how the CLI works →