CourseGlade LMS vs Skillplate: WordPress plugin or hosted platform

You’ve got a course to sell and two very different ways to ship it. One means installing a plugin on the WordPress site you already pay to host. The other means moving into a hosted platform that also wants to run your website, checkout and CRM. Both are AppSumo lifetime deals, both are pitched as Kajabi and Teachable alternatives, and they’re built on opposite ideas.

The real difference: a plugin or a platform

CourseGlade LMS runs inside WordPress. You need WordPress 6.4+ and PHP 7.4+, and you handle hosting, updates, backups and security yourself. The upside is control. The listing says CourseGlade takes no percentage of your sales, and payments go straight to your connected gateway.

Skillplate is the reverse. It’s hosted, and it tries to be your whole storefront: courses, communities, coaching programs, services, memberships and downloads, plus a website builder, CRM and analytics in one admin panel. You connect a custom domain and a Stripe account. In exchange, it takes a commission on sales that varies by tier.

If you don’t use WordPress and have no wish to start, most of this decision is already made. Skillplate is the one you can actually use.

What you get for building and teaching courses

CourseGlade’s feature sections are the more detailed on teaching tools. You build modules, lessons, quizzes and assignments, with video, audio and text, and you can schedule drip content. There are 8 quiz question types, from single choice to essay, with passing grades, time limits, maximum attempts and randomized questions. Assignments feed a gradebook with letter grades and GPA, and certificates are awarded automatically on completion.

One caution. CourseGlade’s own written review says the listing doesn’t describe quizzes, certificates or drip scheduling, yet the feature sections do. We’re going with the feature sections, but check the live demo before you rely on any of it. It has one public review and no product video, so there’s little outside evidence.

Skillplate’s strength, going by the demo video, is how you launch and sell. You can run a pre-order while you’re still recording, set a launch date and force students through lessons in order. You can even require 90% of a video to be watched. Lessons can be draft, published, coming soon, or dripped by date or number of days.

Pricing options are free, one-time, installments and subscriptions, with an optional free trial. Students get a notes panel and a page that resumes where they left off. There’s also a referral program and editable email templates.

The material we have for Skillplate says nothing about quiz types, a gradebook or certificates. If you teach something that needs graded assessments, that silence matters.

Skillplate also offers an AI course outline generator and an AI agent called the Overmind. The presenter was clear that the generator only produces an outline of modules and lessons. The Overmind, which is meant to build catalogs and campaigns by conversation, never appears in the video. Treat it as a promise.

Pricing and tier limits

CourseGlade’s tiers differ only by how many sites you can use it on. Per the plan data:

Multi-instructor tools and all payment options come with every tier, so a solo creator on Tier 1 gives up nothing. The higher tiers mostly make sense for agencies building course sites for clients. Be aware that the written review quotes slightly lower prices for tiers 2 to 4, so check the live listing. The listing also shows a list price of $0, which tells you nothing about the saving.

Skillplate runs six tiers from $79 to $549, all with the same features and one business. The limits change: contacts, active users, monthly streaming minutes (15,000 to 75,000), video storage hours (15 to 100), commission rate and AI credits. The listing’s reference prices of $948 and $1,788 for the first two tiers read like inflated anchors, so ignore them.

The tier table doesn’t add up. Read left to right, it gives the first tier 20,000 contacts and the next two only 10,000 and 5,000. Commission reads 5%, 10%, 9%, 8%, 7%, 3%, while the video says the entry tier starts at 10% and the rate you buy stays for life. We can’t tell which is right. A 10% cut on $10,000 of sales is $1,000 to the platform, so get your rate in writing.

Both deals carry a 60-day activation window. CourseGlade’s listing end date of October 27, 2026 has already passed, so confirm it’s still on sale. Skillplate’s runs to December 4, 2026.

Where each one worries us

CourseGlade’s risk is age and thin evidence. One review, no video, and a developer you’re trusting to keep the plugin updated. The listing promises future updates for your covered sites, but that’s a promise. You also pay for your own WordPress hosting, which the deal price doesn’t include.

Skillplate has more evidence behind it, with 99 reviews averaging 4.85 and buyers praising the founder’s support. But the demo showed a custom domain that said connected and didn’t work, and support blamed root domains. We don’t know if that’s fixed. The one recurring complaint is basic email marketing.

Storage is another limit. The entry tier’s 15 hours of video is fine for a modest course and tight for a big library. The presenter mentioned a paid add-on for more.

Who should pick which

Pick CourseGlade if WordPress is already home, you dislike paying a cut of every sale, and you want proper quizzes, grading and certificates. It also suits an agency, since the 25 and 100 site tiers are priced for client work. Start with Tier 1 at $59, and try the demo before you spend.

Pick Skillplate if you’re a solo coach or consultant who wants one login for the site, checkout, CRM and courses, and you’d rather not maintain hosting. Accept the commission, test your domain and storage needs in the first couple of weeks, and don’t buy until you know your commission rate. If email sequences are central to your business, you’ll need a separate tool either way.