Best Boilerplates for Online Course Platforms in 2026

Online Course Platforms: Content + Commerce

Building a course platform from scratch means: video delivery, curriculum structure, progress tracking, quizzes, certificates, payment (one-time + subscription), student management, and a good student learning experience.

Most course creators use Teachable, Kajabi, or Thinkific instead of building. But if you're building a platform for others — a white-label LMS or a specialized education product — a custom boilerplate makes sense.

Build vs Platform Decision First

Monthly Revenue	Recommendation
$0-$5k	Teachable Free / Gumroad / Lemon Squeezy
$5k-$50k	Kajabi ($149/mo) or Teachable ($39/mo)
$50k+	Custom platform (worth the development investment)
White-label LMS	Custom from day one

Building a custom course platform makes sense for:

• White-label LMS — selling the platform itself to others
• Community-integrated learning — tight integration between courses and community
• B2B training — enterprise SSO, team management, compliance tracking

Quick Comparison

Starter	Price	Video	Progress	Payments	CMS	Best For
Payload CMS + Next.js	Free	Manual	Manual	Stripe	✅	Custom LMS foundation
Open edX	Free (complex)	✅	✅	✅	✅	Enterprise LMS
Moodle	Free	✅	✅	✅	✅	Academic LMS
Supastarter + custom	$299	Manual	Manual	Stripe	❌	SaaS foundation + courses

Building a Course Platform on Next.js

The core data model:

// Prisma schema for course platform
model Course {
  id          String    @id @default(cuid())
  title       String
  description String
  price       Decimal?  // null = free
  slug        String    @unique
  published   Boolean   @default(false)
  modules     Module[]
  enrollments Enrollment[]
  instructor  User      @relation(fields: [instructorId], references: [id])
  instructorId String
}

model Module {
  id       String   @id @default(cuid())
  title    String
  order    Int
  lessons  Lesson[]
  course   Course   @relation(fields: [courseId], references: [id])
  courseId String
}

model Lesson {
  id          String       @id @default(cuid())
  title       String
  videoUrl    String?      // Mux or Cloudflare Stream URL
  content     String?      // MDX content
  order       Int
  completions LessonCompletion[]
  module      Module       @relation(fields: [moduleId], references: [id])
  moduleId    String
}

model Enrollment {
  id        String   @id @default(cuid())
  student   User     @relation(fields: [studentId], references: [id])
  studentId String
  course    Course   @relation(fields: [courseId], references: [id])
  courseId  String
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
  @@unique([studentId, courseId])
}

Video Delivery

Don't use YouTube or self-hosted video. Use:

• Mux — $0.015/min storage + $0.005/min viewed. Best developer experience.
• Cloudflare Stream — $5/1000 min stored + $1/1000 min viewed. Cheaper at scale.
• Bunny.net — $10/TB storage + $9/TB bandwidth. Lowest cost for high volume.

// Upload video to Mux
import Mux from '@mux/mux-node';

const mux = new Mux();

const upload = await mux.video.uploads.create({
  new_asset_settings: { playback_policy: ['signed'] },
  cors_origin: 'https://yourdomain.com',
});

// Return upload URL to client for direct browser upload
return { uploadUrl: upload.url, assetId: upload.id };

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Compare course platform and SaaS boilerplates on StarterPick.