Whop for courses: host on Whop or sell from WordPress?

Whop works for courses in two ways: host the course in Whop’s own Courses app, or keep your WordPress course site and use Whop only to take the payment. The second option is what WhopForWoo does, through the WooCommerce checkout.

Which one is right depends on where your students, content and SEO already live.

Option 1: the Whop Courses app

Whop’s guide for educational programs walks through it: create a whop, add the Courses app, organise content into modules, chapters and lessons, add a Content app for a “start here” guide, and add chat or forums for the community. Whop hosts the videos and handles checkout and access.

Good for: a new course, a creator whose audience is on social media, or a cohort that needs chat. Less good if you already have a WordPress site with SEO traffic, a blog and an email list, because the course and the buyer account then live on whop.com.

Option 2: WordPress course + WooCommerce + WhopForWoo

Many WordPress course plugins (LMS plugins) sell access through WooCommerce products: a paid order unlocks the course. In that setup, WhopForWoo is just the payment method:

1. The student adds the course to the cart and checks out on your site.
2. The Whop payment form is embedded in the checkout: card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other methods Whop offers in the student’s region.
3. WhopForWoo confirms the payment with Whop’s API or a signed webhook, then marks the order paid.
4. Your course plugin sees a completed order and enrols the student.

Course plugins are separate products with their own setup; check that yours grants access on WooCommerce order completion. WhopForWoo can mark an order Completed after payment (“After Successful Payment” setting), which most plugins rely on.

Before you launch: a short checklist

• Exclude the checkout page from page caching. A cached checkout serves a stale security token and the Whop form won’t load; WhopForWoo’s Status & Tools has a test for this.
• Test a full purchase in sandbox mode: payment, order status, enrolment email, course access.
• Write the access period on the product page and in your terms.
• Decide who handles refunds: issue them in Whop, then remove access in your LMS.

Side by side

Pros and cons

Pros

• Courses are squarely in what Whop accepts and supports.
• Keep your WordPress site, blog, SEO and email list.
• Embedded checkout: students don’t leave your site on the classic checkout.
• Wallet and local payment methods without extra plugins; 12 languages for the payment form.

Cons

• WhopForWoo is one-time payments. Monthly memberships need Whop’s own recurring products or a different gateway; see Whop subscriptions on WooCommerce.
• Refunds are issued in the Whop dashboard, and you must revoke course access yourself in WordPress.
• Whop does not allow promises of access with no end date; state the access period (for example “12 months of access” or “access while the course is online, with notice before closure”).
• Whop’s rules on earnings claims apply: no unrealistic income promises in course marketing. Course topics in prohibited categories (for example selling crypto assets or legal services) are out. Whop decides eligibility.

Pricing

Solo (1 site): $49/year or $129 one-time payment, updates included. Dropshipper (5 sites): $99/year or $249. Pirate (unlimited): $199/year or $499. 14-day refund.