Service · Courses & memberships
A custom e-learning website in Singapore from $1,500, then S$25 a month billed yearly — S$300 a year, about US$19 a month. That's about $2,100 over three years — against roughly $7,200 on Kajabi for the same three years, before it takes a cut of anything.
The arithmetic
A subscription looks small at $149 a month. Over the life of a course business it is the largest cheque you will write, and you never stop writing it.
| Route | Typical plan | Per year | 3-year total | Who builds it | You own it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | Business, US$39/mo | $632 | $1,895 | You do | No |
| Singapore agency | 5-page build, plus a care plan | $600 – $1,200 | $4,200 – $12,400 | They do | Usually |
| Built by me | $600 once, then S$240/yr (about US$15/mo) after year 1 | $240 | $1,080 | I do | Yes |
Wix's published list price as at September 2026 on the monthly billing cycle, converted at S$1.35 to US$1. Plans and prices change — check them before you decide. A builder subscription also costs you the weekends you spend building it.
| Platform | Typical plan | Per year | 3-year total | Cut of sales | Who builds it | You own it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi | Basic, US$143/mo | $2,317 | $6,950 | 0% on this tier | You do | No |
| LearnWorlds | Pro Trainer, US$79/mo | $1,280 | $3,839 | 0% on this tier | You do | No |
| Teachable | Builder, US$89/mo | $1,442 | $4,325 | 0% on this tier | You do | No |
| Thinkific | Start, US$82/mo | $1,328 | $3,985 | 0% on this tier | You do | No |
| Built by me | $1,500 once, then S$25/mo billed yearly — S$300/yr (about US$19/mo) | $300 | $2,100 | 0%, ever | I do | Yes |
Each platform's published list price for the tier a working course business normally lands on, checked September 2026, annual billing, at S$1.35 to US$1. Card processing fees apply to every option including mine. Cheaper platform tiers exist; several take a percentage of each sale.
Against Kajabi, a built site is cheaper from about month 8. Against Thinkific's Start plan, from about month 14. After that the gap widens every month for as long as you're in business, because your side of it stops going up.
Why own it
Names, emails, purchase history and progress sit in your database — not exportable-if-you-ask. If I vanished tomorrow another developer picks up the files.
On $60,000 of course sales a year, a 5% platform cut is $3,000 — twice the cost of the whole build. You keep everything but the card fee.
Per-family logins so siblings share one account. Papers that unlock one at a time. Term-based access that expires. A parent view separate from the student view.
Platform tiers get restructured and features move up a plan. A course business built on someone else's terms absorbs that. Yours doesn't.
Everything a working LMS needs, custom-coded for your teaching rather than configured around someone else's.
Sign-up, login, password reset, profile.
Any structure your teaching actually needs.
Per course, per item, per family, or time-limited by term.
Students see what's finished; you see who has stalled.
PayNow, cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay through Stripe — one-off or subscription.
Enrolments, revenue, who bought what, manual access grants.
Self-marking assessments, and certificates on completion.
Most students study on a phone, so that layout is designed first.
I show you how to run it before I hand the whole thing over.
I would rather say this now than take $1,500 for something you didn't need.
Course platforms bundle video hosting into the monthly fee, and video is genuinely expensive to serve. A custom site needs a plan for it. Three that work:
Even with option two the three-year total lands under every platform in the table. Forty hours of HD video is a different conversation — say so early and I'll price it properly.
Proof
Not case studies with the client's name filed off — my own businesses, so every awkward decision in them is one I've had to live with. Both open right now.
Roughly how many lessons, how many students, and what you pay a platform today — enough for a real number and an honest answer about whether switching is worth it.
Straight answers
Fair Price Web Design builds custom e-learning and course websites from S$1,500 one-off, with the first year of hosting free and S$300 a year afterwards. That is about S$2,100 over three years. Subscription course platforms cost roughly S$3,600 to S$7,200 over the same three years and the fee never stops.
Owning the site instead of renting it. A custom-built course website costs a one-time build fee plus flat annual hosting, with no monthly subscription and no percentage of sales. It becomes cheaper than Kajabi at around month 8 and cheaper than Thinkific's Start plan at around month 16, and the gap widens after that.
Yes. Student names, emails, purchase history and lesson progress live in your own database on your own hosting. Nothing is held by a third-party platform, and the site can be moved to another developer or another host at any time.
When the course is unproven and you have no audience yet. Paying a monthly fee to find out whether anyone will buy is the correct risk to take. A custom build makes sense once you have paying students and the subscription has started to feel like rent.
Course platforms bundle video hosting into their monthly fee, so a custom site needs its own arrangement. Unlisted YouTube or Vimeo embeds cost nothing, Vimeo Pro costs roughly S$30–S$60 a month for domain-locked privacy, and Cloudflare Stream charges per minute stored and delivered. Even with paid video hosting the three-year total stays well below every major course platform.
Yes. PayNow is set up alongside card payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay through Stripe. Both one-off course purchases and recurring memberships are supported.
Yes. Per-family access is a standard part of these builds — one account, several children, each seeing only the levels the family has paid for. It is one of the things off-the-shelf course platforms handle badly and a tuition centre needs immediately.
Two to three weeks from the deposit clearing and the course content being ready, because payments and access rules are tested with real transactions before launch.
Next step
Tell me that number and roughly how many students you have. I'll tell you honestly whether switching is worth it — including when it isn't.
WhatsApp +65 9228 1903