You already have a WooCommerce store running. Now you want to add courses to it — without rebuilding everything from scratch or juggling two completely separate platforms.
Most course creators either pick a standalone LMS and lose WooCommerce’s payment infrastructure, or they try to use WooCommerce alone and end up with no real course management.
In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to sell online courses with WooCommerce in WordPress using Masteriyo LMS — from installation to automatic student enrollment, plus how to set up coupons, subscriptions, and course bundles. No coding experience needed, and the WooCommerce integration addon is free.
Key Takeaways
- Connect Masteriyo LMS to WooCommerce in minutes using the free WooCommerce Integration addon
- Enroll students automatically the moment a WooCommerce order is completed
- Configure exactly what happens to enrollment when payments fail, are refunded, or canceled
- Bundle courses with physical products, ebooks, or other digital resources from one storefront
- Set up subscription-based course access using WooCommerce Subscriptions
- Add coupon codes and launch discounts directly through WooCommerce
- Use Masteriyo’s built-in checkout as a simpler alternative if you don’t need WooCommerce’s full feature set
Why sell courses through WooCommerce
Masteriyo comes with its own built-in order and checkout system. For many course creators, this is all you need — it’s faster to set up and keeps things simple.
| Masteriyo built-in checkout | WooCommerce integration | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Minutes | 30–60 minutes |
| Payment gateways | Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Authorize,net, Offline | 100+ WooCommerce gateways |
| Sell physical products | No | Yes |
| Course bundles | Basic | Full (grouped products, chained products) |
| Coupon system | Masteriyo coupons | WooCommerce coupons |
| Analytics | Masteriyo reports | WooCommerce analytics + reports |
| Best for | Course-only businesses | Stores selling courses + other products |
💡 If you’re only selling courses and don’t need WooCommerce’s extended payment gateways or physical product support, the built-in Masteriyo order system is worth considering before adding the integration layer.
Before you start: configure WooCommerce correctly
Before enabling the Masteriyo integration, two WooCommerce settings must be configured or enrollment will break at checkout.
Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Accounts & Privacy and make these two changes:
- Uncheck “Allow customers to place orders without an account” — this is mandatory. Guest checkout prevents Masteriyo from linking the purchase to a student account, so enrollment won’t trigger.
- Check “Allow customers to log into an existing account during checkout” — this ensures returning students are recognized at checkout and enrolled correctly.
🚧 Skipping these two steps is the most common cause of broken enrollment after purchase. Do this before creating any course products in WooCommerce.
Optionally, you can check “Redirect to the cart page after successful addition” under WooCommerce → Settings for a checkout flow that more closely mirrors Masteriyo’s native experience.
What you’ll set up in this guide
Before diving into each step, here’s the full picture of what you’re about to build. If you’ve done this before and just need a refresher, use this as a checklist and jump to whichever step you need.
- Install and set up Masteriyo LMS — install the plugin, run the setup wizard, and configure your course page, business type, and checkout currency
- Create your first course — build your curriculum with sections, lessons, and quizzes, then set a price so WooCommerce can recognize it
- Enable the WooCommerce Integration addon — activate the free addon from Masteriyo → Addons to connect your courses to your WooCommerce store
- Create a WooCommerce product for your course — link your Masteriyo course to a WooCommerce product so students can buy it through your store
- Configure enrollment and unenrollment rules — decide what happens to course access when payments fail, are refunded, or canceled
- Set up subscriptions — configure recurring billing for ongoing course access using WooCommerce Subscriptions
- Add coupon codes and launch discounts — create and restrict coupons to specific courses for launch campaigns
- Configure payment gateways — connect Stripe, PayPal, or any WooCommerce-supported gateway and run a test transaction before going live
- Market and launch your course — build your landing page, run your pre-launch email sequence, and get your first students enrolled
- Analyze analytics and grow — use Masteriyo and WooCommerce analytics to look for growth opportunities
Step 1: Install and set up Masteriyo LMS
If Masteriyo isn’t installed yet, here’s how to get it running:
Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins → Add New Plugin. Search for Masteriyo. Click Install Now, then Activate
The Setup Wizard will launch automatically
Work through each tab in the wizard:
- Welcome — select how you’re creating the site and check the features you’ll need
- Setup — choose your currency and enable your preferred payment methods
- Starter Templates — import a starter template if you’re building from scratch, or skip if you already have a site
- Finish — optionally install sample courses, then click Create new course to get started
Once the wizard is complete, you’re ready to create your first course.
✅ Masteriyo is installed and ready. Your course page, student dashboard, and payment settings are live.
Step 2: Create your first course
Click Create a new course from the wizard completion screen, or go to Masteriyo → Courses → Add New from your dashboard.
On the course editor screen:
- Enter your course name, description, and a short highlight (the value proposition shown on the course card)
- Assign a category and upload a featured image
Next, click on the Course Builder
- Add sections to structure your curriculum, then add lessons inside each section
- Add a quiz or assignment at the end of each section to reinforce learning
Go to Settings → Pricing, set the course to Paid, and enter your price — this step is required for the WooCommerce integration to recognize the course
Once your course is built, hit Publish. It will appear on your Masteriyo courses page and be available to link to a WooCommerce product.
💡 For a full walkthrough of the course creation process, including lesson types and quiz setup, see our detailed guide: How to Create an Online Course with Masteriyo →
Step 3: Enable the WooCommerce Integration addon
This is the step that connects your Masteriyo courses to your WooCommerce store. It takes about 30 seconds.
- Go to Masteriyo → Addons from your WordPress dashboard
- Scroll down the list to find WooCommerce Integration
- Click the toggle to the right of it — it will turn blue when active
Once enabled, a new WooCommerce tab will appear inside Masteriyo → Settings, and a WooCommerce settings tab will be available inside individual course editors.
✅ The WooCommerce Integration addon is free. You do need an active WooCommerce installation for the toggle to work.
Step 4: Create a WooCommerce product for your course
With the integration active, you can now create a WooCommerce product that’s linked to your Masteriyo course. When a student purchases this product, they’re automatically enrolled in the course.
- Go to Masteriyo → Courses and open your course
- Go to Settings → WooCommerce
- Click Create Product — Masteriyo creates the WooCommerce product automatically and links it to the course
Once published, the course appears in booth Masteriyo Course catalog and the WooCommerce store.
Students can add it to their cart, check out as they would any other WooCommerce product.
Students are automatically enrolled in the Masteriyo course once the order is marked Completed.
Step 5: Configure enrollment and unenrollment rules
By default, Masteriyo automatically revokes course access when a WooCommerce order is Canceled, Refunded, or Failed. You can customize this behavior to fit your business.
Go to Masteriyo → Settings → WooCommerce (the Integration tab) to configure:
- Revoke on failure — on by default. Recommended to keep this active.
- Revoke on pending or on-hold — off by default. Turn this on if you want to restrict access until payment fully clears (useful for bank transfers or manual payment methods)
- Revoke on refund — on by default. Students lose access as soon as a refund is processed
To check enrollment status for a specific student, go to Masteriyo → Students and search by name or email. Order details are managed through the standard WooCommerce → Orders screen.
💡 If a student completes checkout but can’t access the course, the most common cause is that the WooCommerce order status is still Processing rather than Completed.
Go to WooCommerce → Orders, find the order, and manually change the status to Completed to trigger enrollment.
Step 6: Set up subscriptions for recurring course access (Pro)
If you want to charge students on a recurring basis rather than a one-time payment, you can do this using WooCommerce Subscriptions. This is an optional setup — skip this step if a one-time payment model works for your business.
🚧 This requires the WooCommerce Subscriptions extension to be installed and activated. This is a separate paid plugin from WooCommerce, not included with Masteriyo or the free integration addon.
Here’s how to set it up:
In Masteriyo:
- Go to Masteriyo → Courses and open your course
- Go to Settings → Pricing
- Set pricing to Paid
- Enable Recurring and set the amount and billing period (monthly, quarterly, annually)
In WooCommerce:
- Go to Products → Add New
- Name the product to match your course
- In the Product data dropdown, select Masteriyo Course
- On the Course tab, select the course you configured recurring payments for
- On the General tab, set the same recurring amount and billing period as you set in Masteriyo
- Publish the product
Once a student purchases, their subscription is created under WooCommerce → Subscriptions. You can manage renewals, pause subscriptions, and handle cancellations from there.
Step 7: Add coupon codes and launch discounts
Coupons are one of the fastest ways to drive enrollment during a launch window. Since your courses are WooCommerce products, you use WooCommerce’s full coupon system.
Go to WooCommerce → Coupons → Add Coupon and configure:
- Coupon code — choose something memorable for launch campaigns (e.g., LAUNCH30 for 30% off)
- Discount type — percentage discount, fixed cart discount, or fixed product discount
- Coupon amount — the discount value
- Usage restrictions — limit the coupon to specific courses (products) under the Usage Restriction tab
- Usage limits — set a maximum number of uses or limit to one use per customer
- Expiry date — add a deadline to create urgency
✅ To restrict a coupon to specific courses only, go to the Usage Restriction tab and add those courses under Products. This prevents the coupon from applying to physical products or other items in your store.
Step 8: Configure payment gateways
Masteriyo’s native checkout includes Stripe and PayPal. When you switch to WooCommerce, you gain access to WooCommerce’s full payment gateway library — over 100 options, including Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, and local payment methods for specific regions.
To configure gateways, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Payments and enable the gateways you want to use. Each gateway has its own setup screen where you’ll connect your account credentials.
For Stripe: Enable Stripe in WooCommerce payments, then connect your Stripe account using your publishable and secret API keys from your Stripe dashboard.
For PayPal: Enable PayPal in WooCommerce payments and enter your PayPal email address. For PayPal Payouts (if you’re running a multi-instructor marketplace and paying instructor commissions), instructors need a PayPal Business account linked to the email address in their Masteriyo profile.
🚧 Always run a test transaction after configuring a new payment gateway. Use WooCommerce’s built-in test mode or Stripe’s test card numbers to confirm the full purchase-to-enrollment flow works before going live.
Step 9: Market and launch your course
Your course is live on WooCommerce. Now you need students.
Build a dedicated landing page: Your WooCommerce product page is functional, but a dedicated landing page converts better for course launches. Include your course outcome in the headline, a breakdown of what students will learn, instructor credentials, student testimonials or early results, and a clear enrollment button. Link your WooCommerce product’s Buy Now button to this page.
Run a pre-launch email sequence: Email outperforms social media for course sales. In the week before launch, send:
- An email addressing the problem your course solves
- A curriculum preview showing what students will achieve
- An early-bird coupon (set this up using the steps in Step 8)
- A launch-day announcement with a deadline
Offer a free mini-course as a lead magnet: Create a short free course in Masteriyo — three to five lessons is enough — and use it to build your email list before launch. Students who complete the free course are your warmest leads for the paid version.
Run paid ads to your landing page: Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads work well for course launches when you target your buyer personas specifically. Use a short video preview of your course content as the ad creative — it consistently outperforms static images for digital products.
Collect and display social proof: After your first cohort, collect written or video testimonials and add them to your WooCommerce product page and landing page. Student results are the single most effective trust signal for course buyers.
Step 10: Analyze Analytics and growth
Track sales and revenue: Go to WooCommerce → Analytics → Revenue for a full breakdown of course sales, refunds, average order value, and top-performing products. This is where you monitor which courses are selling and which coupons are driving the most conversions.
Track student progress. Go to Masteriyo → Reports to see lesson completion rates, quiz scores, and overall course progress. Check this weekly — if most students complete Module 1 but drop off before Module 3, something in Module 2 needs attention.
A/B test your pricing and checkout: Try different price points across launches and track conversion rates in WooCommerce analytics. Keep your checkout form as short as possible — name and email is enough for a digital product. Every extra field reduces conversions.
Create membership tiers for recurring revenue: Combine WooCommerce Memberships with Masteriyo to offer tiered access — a base membership unlocking a catalog of courses, and a premium tier unlocking additional content, live sessions, or direct instructor access.
Start selling your courses today
WooCommerce and Masteriyo together give you a complete course-selling infrastructure — payments, enrollment, subscriptions, coupons, analytics, and the flexibility to sell courses alongside any other product in your store.
The WooCommerce Integration addon is free, takes minutes to enable, and works out of the box with your existing store.