If you’re a coach or creator with a large and eager online community, this question has probably crossed your mind: “Should I launch a course?” Or maybe you’ve been wondering, “Is it time to build a paid membership community?”

Courses and membership programs are like having a clone of yourself that works 24/7. They allow you to turn your knowledge into a business that grows even while you’re binge-watching Netflix. However, creating the content is just half the battle. The main challenge is finding the right platform to host it online.

Pick the wrong one, and everything feels like you’re swimming upstream – payments become a nightmare, payouts take forever, and don’t even get me started on currency conversion issues. This is especially true if you’re in Africa, where most platforms are not tailored to work with our existing payment infrastructure.

So if you’re sitting there with valuable knowledge burning to share, ready to build your community and get paid for what you know, but you’re stuck on the “how” and “where,” you’re in the right place. 

We’re going to break down what to look for in a platform, which red flags to run from, and most importantly, which platforms are worth your precious time. By the time we’re done, you’ll know where to set up and start building. 

What Makes a Great Membership or Course Hosting Platform?

Now that we’ve established you need the right platform, let’s talk about what “right” actually looks like. You might be impressed by elaborate dashboards and claims of over 100 integrations, but if you’re developing from Africa, there are essential priorities you must concentrate on initially. Some of them are:

1. Local Payment Integration 

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: money.

If your audience can’t pay you easily, your brilliant course becomes about as useful as a generator without fuel. You need a platform that plays nicely with local payment methods and currencies.

Whether someone’s paying via bank transfer in Lagos or mobile wallet in Nairobi, it should work. Platforms that stubbornly stick to only one payment route are usually a dead end for African creators. And even when they do work, the fees and currency conversions might eat into your profits faster.

2. Multi-Currency Support

Picture this: a potential customer from Kenya visits your site and sees “$49/month.” Now they’re opening a new tab to figure out how much that is in KES, getting distracted, and probably never coming back. Not ideal, right?

Your platform should automatically show prices in local currency, display familiar payment methods based on location, and allow you to adjust pricing strategies for different markets. It removes friction.

3. Easy Set-Up Process

If setting up your first membership takes three days, three tutorials, and four frantic calls to customer support, run. Life’s too short, and your audience is waiting.

The best membership platforms are built for creators who just want to create. You should be able to upload your content, set your pricing, customise your landing page, and start collecting payments within minutes.

4. Intuitive Course Delivery

The platform should handle video streaming without turning into a buffering nightmare, especially on slower connections. Look for adaptive streaming that adjusts video quality based on connection speed, plus download options for members who prefer offline viewing.

Navigation should be so intuitive that your least tech-savvy member can find their way around. Progress bars and completion certificates aren’t just nice-to-haves; they’re good for retention.

5. Analytics That Help You Improve

You need to know which content hits and which misses, when your members are most active, what causes cancellations, and which marketing efforts drive sign-ups. Look for platforms that give you actionable insights, not just pretty graphs.

For example, knowing that your “Instagram Marketing Masterclass” has a 90% completion rate while “Email Marketing Basics” only reaches 45% helps you improve the weaker content or double down on what’s working.

6. Pricing

Some platforms want $99/month before you’ve made your first sale. Others take such a huge revenue cut that you’d need high ticket pricing to make it work. But here in Africa, you need something lean, predictable, and creator-friendly. So, go for platforms that provide flexible pricing – either a reasonable monthly fee or a fair revenue share that scales with your success.

7. One platform to do everything: 

You’re already a teacher, marketer, community builder, and content creator. You don’t need to add “tech stack manager” to that list. Look for a platform that bundles everything you need: course hosting, membership management, checkout, local payments, email list building, and analytics. Fewer moving parts mean more time creating and connecting with your audience and fewer things that can mysteriously break.

Top Membership Platforms for Coaches and Course Creators

Now that you know what to look for, let’s see which platforms deliver on these promises.

1. Selar

If you’ve been in the African creator space for a while, you’ve probably heard of Selar. And there’s a good reason for that – we understand what it’s like to build a business here as a creator.

Selar isn’t just another course hosting platform trying to squeeze into the African market. It’s an all-in-one digital commerce ecosystem built specifically for creators who deal with naira, cedis, mobile money, and even global currencies daily. Whether you’re selling ebooks, courses, hosting webinars, or building membership sites, Selar handles it all without making you jump through hoops.

Selar works for coaches, course creators, and for building membership sites specifically because it has all-in-one features that make it easy and seamless to host your courses online.

Some of them include;

1. Content Delivery & Drip Scheduling: You get full control over how your content is delivered. Want to drop everything at once? Go for it. Prefer to drip-feed content to keep members engaged? Easy. You can schedule releases by fixed dates or trigger them when someone joins. Upload unlimited videos, audio, PDFs,  whatever your heart desires, and manage it all from one dashboard.

2. Secure and Stream-Only Hosting: Remember those horror stories about courses being pirated within hours of launch? Selar’s got your back. Videos are securely hosted and stream-only by default – no downloads or leaks. Your members get high-quality playback on any device, and you get to sleep peacefully at night.

3. Monitor Progress:  Want to know which lessons are hits and which are skips? Selar tracks everything. You can see who watched what, monitor member progress, and export real-time data. It’s like having a crystal ball for your content performance.

4. Flexible Pricing & Subscriptions: Want to charge a flat fee, monthly subscriptions, or pay-what-you-can? Selar supports whatever pricing model fits your audience. Set subscription intervals weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, or create custom plans. And yes, it handles both local and global currencies without stress.

5. Certificates & Course Completion Tools: When a student finishes your course, Selar allows you to issue a customised certificate of completion. It’s automated, branded, and helps you increase the perceived value of your program.

6. Built-In Comments & Community Interaction: Every lecture can have its comment section, giving members a place to ask questions, share feedback, or engage with each other. These lightweight interaction tools help keep people involved and connected to the learning process.

7. Mobile-First approach: We understand that most of your audience is on mobile. Every course, membership, and checkout experience is optimised for phones too. Plus, it supports local payments and offline customer access.

8. Pricing:  Selar’s Pro and Turbo plans give you everything you need to host courses and membership sites. You also get to enjoy other features that help deliver a wholesome experience to both your students and members. 

2. Teachable

Now let’s talk about Teachable, the platform that’s probably on every “best course platforms” list you’ve googled.

It’s clean, intuitive, and makes creating structured courses feel like a breeze. If you’re targeting audiences in the U.S. or Europe, Teachable can be a dream to work with.

The interface is beginner-friendly. You can upload video lessons, add digital resources, create quizzes, and have a professional-looking course ready in no time. Plus, they throw in some nice extras like basic email marketing, which is perfect for solo creators who want to keep things simple.

But here’s where things get complicated…

Teachable primarily processes payments through Stripe and PayPal, which aren’t fully accessible in many African countries. Then there’s the currency situation. Teachable only allows you to price in major currencies like USD and EUR. So when your Nigerian audience sees “$97” instead of “₦150,000,” they’re not just doing math, they’re second-guessing whether this is even meant for them, which results in hesitation at checkout.

Even if you manage to get payments flowing, getting your money out isn’t so easy. Creators outside Stripe-supported countries often face delays or need to get creative with workarounds. It’s not impossible, but it’s not the “set it and forget it” experience you’d hope for.

In summary, Teachable is a solid, well-built platform with a lot of useful features. But for African creators selling primarily to local audiences, the lack of regional payment options and currency support adds friction that platforms like Selar are built to avoid.

3. Kajabi

Kajabi platform is built for creators who want everything in one place – courses, memberships, landing pages, email marketing, automation tools, the works. It’s polished, powerful, and honestly pretty impressive.

Kajabi is like having an entire marketing team built into your platform. The automation features are genuinely sophisticated, and if you’re selling to global audiences who are used to premium pricing, it can feel like having superpowers.

But, reality check… that power comes at a price, literally. Kajabi starts at $149/month with no free plan, making it a steep choice for creators just getting started or selling to price-sensitive local markets. It also supports only Stripe and PayPal, with no integration for African payment gateways. That means your buyers need international cards, and pricing is locked to USD, which can create friction if your audience prefers local currency. 

Kajabi is undoubtedly great, but it’s built for creators who are already making serious money and targeting international audiences. If you’re just starting or your audience is primarily local, paying $149/month to struggle with payment processing feels like a lot– technically impressive, but probably not the smartest choice.

4. Podia

Podia is a user-friendly platform that makes it easy to sell courses, memberships, digital downloads, and even webinars. It’s beginner-friendly and doesn’t require any technical skills to get started.

For creators with international audiences, it provides a smooth experience, with built-in email marketing, sales pages, and customer messaging features. But for African creators, the road gets bumpier. Podia only supports Stripe and PayPal for payments. That means no direct support for local African payment methods and no pricing in local currencies. If your customers don’t have USD cards, they’re locked out at checkout.

It has a 14-day trial after which plans start at $33/month. For local creators selling low-cost products or subscriptions, this pricing structure may feel limiting, especially without local payment options to match. Podia is simple and reliable, but without local payment support, it often leaves African creators searching for workarounds.

5. Thinkific

Thinkific is a solid, education-focused platform built for delivering structured online courses. It offers features like quizzes, certificates, student progress tracking, and drip content, making it a favourite for instructors who want to provide a more formal learning experience. Its dashboard is intuitive, the course builder is flexible, and there’s even a free plan with core features, which is great for beginners testing the waters.

However, for African creators, the same familiar issue shows up: payments. Thinkific only supports Stripe and PayPal. That means if your audience can’t pay with USD cards or prefers mobile money, you’re likely to lose sales.

You also can’t price in local currencies like Naira or Cedis, and payouts can take time if you’re not in a Stripe-supported country. Thinkific shines brightest when it comes to delivering structured, education-focused content. But for creators building in African markets where localised payments, fast payouts, and flexible pricing aren’t nice-to-haves but necessities.

6. KoboCourse

KoboCourse is a platform built to help African creators sell digital products, courses, and coaching programs. It’s a simple, mobile-first solution tailored to the local market, especially for creators offering lower-ticket products or starting with smaller audiences.

One of KoboCourse’s strengths is its support for local payments, including Paystack and Flutterwave, which means creators can accept payments in Naira and other African currencies. It also supports instant course uploads, coaching sessions, and membership-style access, all from a clean, mobile-friendly interface.

While it’s easy to use, it doesn’t provide the depth of features you’d find on Selar or global platforms, like advanced content scheduling, member analytics, customizable checkout flows, affiliate programs, or automation tools. There’s also less flexibility for managing complex pricing models or drip-fed memberships.

KoboCourse is a good starting point for newer creators focused on basic course delivery. But for those looking to scale, automate, or manage a growing membership community with deeper insight and control, platforms like Selar offer more room to grow.

Build Where It Works

Membership programs and courses are one of the most powerful ways to turn your knowledge into recurring income that keeps flowing even when you’re not actively working. But your success depends on way more than just creating good content. It depends on picking a platform that works where you work.

After going through all these platforms, there’s a clear pattern. Most of the big names in the course creation world weren’t built with African creators in mind. They can work, sure, but only after a lot of stretching, patching, and creative workarounds that shouldn’t be necessary in 2025.

If you’re a coach or course creator in Africa, you need a platform that understands your audience, your payment realities, currencies, and supports your growth goals. You shouldn’t have to explain to your customers why they need to figure out dollar conversions or hunt for USD cards just to learn from you.

This is where Selar takes a completely different approach. Instead of trying to force a square peg into a round hole, they built the round hole from scratch. You get everything you need to launch, sell, and scale – secure mobile-friendly course hosting, flexible membership pricing, real-time analytics, automated certificates, local payments, multi-currency support, and automation tools. affiliate supports, and other helpful features.

Every single feature is designed for the way African creators work. Mobile-first because that’s how your audience lives. Currency-conscious, so you can set your pricing in any currency you want, and community-driven because that’s how you grow.

You have valuable knowledge to share and a community waiting to learn from you. Don’t let payment processing issues, currency conversion, or platform limitations stand between you and your success. Pick a platform that was built for you and get started.