What Software Do You Need to Create Online Courses?

I created my first online courses many years ago, somewhere around 2013 / 2014…  long before the necessity of going online during the covid years!

However, over time, I’d got myself stuck in a quagmire of Teachable, ActiveCampaign, and many more systems, none of which spoke to each other, and seemed to constantly move the goal posts.  They would increase their pricing out of the blue, reduce the functionality of the existing plan, or require another paid Zap to connect softwares up to speak to each other… It was all getting beyond me, so found myself paying tech support for the majority of my updates, in amongst a constantly moving digital landscape, it was costing more and more each month, it was exhausting and demoralising trying to keep up with it all…

All I was trying to do was share my passion of creativity with those who kept saying “I wish you were closer!”… so I’d reached the crunch time of should I scrap everything, or find another way…?

That’s when I came across an all in one system, called Smart Growth System.  It’s a white label of Go High Level (GHL)

It sounded perfect, with everything I was looking for, but I didn’t instantly jump in, I wasn’t sure if their pricing was too good to be true, so I watched and waited, I saw some of their success stories starting to roll in, I researched, and did my own digging around.  I missed their initial founders pricing, (£29 per month!) but I wasn’t ready to jump into another dead end software wall at that point…  after observing for a few months, I finally took the decision to move a couple of years ago, and to say I’m delighted I took the leap is an understatement!

After an initial call with Gethyn to discuss the system and my needs in more detail, I discovered I didn’t have to burn everything to the ground and start again.  The system integrated with my existing WordPress site. (so this blog you’re reading, and the majority of my web pages are hosted on WordPress)  Instead, I started slowly by replacing my online course platform from Teachable, and e-mail marketing system from ActiveCampaign, and have expanded from there.  I’ve since gone on to include and use individual products connected with Stripe, voucher codes, automations, QR Codes, member tags, segmented lists, and a membership, if you’d told me I’d be managing all of that myself a couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you!  I know I’m still not using a fraction of the full functionality that SGS has to offer… but I also know that it’s there when I’m ready for it, at no extra cost.

Yes, it’s been a learning curve, but I’m finally in control of my software, my pricing, and my technical support.

Talking of cost, I’ve found it very affordable, and way less than I was paying for my previous unconnected systems and tech support!  The price you purchase at, is locked in for the lifetime of your subscription, which means I can set my pricing, safe in the knowledge that they won’t be doubling their price, or halving the functionality two months later… (that happened to me, not once, but twice! )

The tech support is brilliant, I’ve been hand held through so many queries by Gethyn, from how to set up automations, to landing pages, to pop ups on a sign up page… through a combination of weekly support calls, video tutorials, and personalised loom videos showing me exactly what button I’ve missed to make the ‘thing’ work!!  There’s still more to learn and refine, but knowing I’ve got that this level of support on tap is invaluable.