CourseLit
Digital downloads, sales pages and payments in one compose file; mail and media still need adult supervision.
Technical Profile & Specs
verified 2026-08-10
- Cost
- $0 / forever (Open Source)
- License
- AGPL-3.0
- Hosting Model
- Local or hosted (your machine or their cloud)
- Platforms
- webself-hosteddocker to self-host
- Installation
- Docker Compose, with SUPER_ADMIN_EMAIL set before first start
- Operational Setup
- Docker starts the app, but a production setup also needs SMTP for email login and MediaLit/S3-compatible storage for uploads
- Where Your Data Lives
- Application records in MongoDB; production media uploads use MediaLit plus S3-compatible object storage
- The Catch / Trade-off
- CourseLit trades Gumroad's instant hosted checkout and delivery for a heavier self-hosted stack with mail and object-storage setup.
Replaces 7 paid apps
up to $151/mo ($1,812/yr) in subscriptions
CourseLit FAQ
Common questions
Is CourseLit free and open source?+
CourseLit is an open-source tool licensed under AGPL-3.0 that runs on local or hosted. Digital downloads, sales pages and payments in one compose file; mail and media still need adult supervision.
What paid software does CourseLit replace?+
CourseLit serves as a free replacement for 7 paid SaaS applications: Gumroad, LearnWorlds, Lemon Squeezy, Patreon, Sellfy, Teachable, Thinkific, saving up to $151/month ($1,812/year) in subscription bills.
How do you install and set up CourseLit?+
Installation: Docker Compose, with SUPER_ADMIN_EMAIL set before first start. Setup notes: Docker starts the app, but a production setup also needs SMTP for email login and MediaLit/S3-compatible storage for uploads
What is the catch or trade-off with CourseLit?+
CourseLit trades Gumroad's instant hosted checkout and delivery for a heavier self-hosted stack with mail and object-storage setup.