Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
If you plan to create online course content, choosing where to host it is one of the most strategic decisions you’ll make. Listing on a marketplace like Udemy can give quick visibility, but building and selling through a bespoke LMS — your own branded learning management system — delivers benefits that compound over time. Here are eight reasons a bespoke LMS is usually the smarter play, with UK-specific data and practical recommendations to help you decide.
The following benefits allow trainers and organisations to weigh the advantages of creating a bespoke LMS for themselves. We would be happy to walk you through the options available during your free discovery call.
A bespoke LMS lets you set prices, run payment plans, and implement premium tiers or cohort pricing without a marketplace taking a large cut or dictating promotions. Marketplaces frequently change promotional activities and revenue shares; recent reporting shows instructors’ payouts on large platforms have been squeezed even as platform profits rise. If you want predictable margins when you create online course content, a bespoke LMS gives you that control.
One of the biggest commercial advantages of a bespoke LMS is first-party data: email addresses, progress metrics, quiz results and engagement signals. Owning this data enables personalised email sequences, targeted upsells (e.g., coaching or certificates) and improved course completion strategies. In the UK, adult participation in learning rose to over half of adults taking part in learning activities in recent surveys, driven in large part by online and self-directed learning — meaning that having direct access to learners is increasingly valuable.
A bespoke LMS allows you to deliver your entire brand experience: landing pages, testimonials, case studies and long-form content that reinforce authority. Marketplaces compete heavily on price and algorithmic discovery, which can reduce perceived value. If you want your course to be associated with expertise and premium outcomes, a bespoke LMS lets you control messaging and placement from discovery through post-course offers.
One of the biggest commercial advantages of a bespoke LMS is first-party data: email addresses, progress metrics, quiz results and engagement signals. Owning this data enables personalised email sequences, targeted upsells (e.g., coaching or certificates) and improved course completion strategies. In the UK, adult participation in learning rose to over half of adults taking part in learning activities in recent surveys, driven in large part by online and self-directed learning — meaning that having direct access to learners is increasingly valuable.
A bespoke LMS makes it straightforward to build funnels: basic course → advanced module → coaching → membership. Marketplaces generally make upsells and ongoing relationships harder to execute. If your goal is a sustainable training business, a bespoke LMS helps you increase average revenue per learner over time.
A bespoke LMS lets you implement accessibility features (captions, transcripts, alt text, keyboard navigation) and provide learners with varied delivery modes. UK commentary during and after the pandemic highlighted how remote learning improved access for many disabled students — keeping accessibility as a priority on your own platform is both ethical and good business.
Relying solely on a marketplace exposes you to policy changes, algorithm shifts, and altered revenue splits. Recent analyses show that platform-level decisions can reduce instructor earnings even when platform revenue grows. Running a bespoke LMS reduces this single-point risk: you may still use marketplaces for discovery, but your revenue and business strategy won’t be hostage to external terms.
With a bespoke LMS you can integrate with your CRM, analytics, webinar tools, and accounting — generating bespoke reports that inform marketing and product decisions. Whether you need to track cohort completion rates for employers or export SCORM/xAPI data to a partner, a bespoke LMS gives you the integration flexibility that marketplaces rarely provide.
The Adult Participation in Learning Survey 2024 reported that about 52% of adults engaged in learning in the past three years, with an increase driven by self-directed and online learning — showing continuing demand for online courses in the UK. This makes owning learner relationships through a bespoke LMS strategically important.
Industry reporting and platform analyses have highlighted cases where large course marketplaces (MOOCs) increased their profit margins while reducing payouts to trainers and instructors — an argument for creators to secure their margins via a bespoke LMS.
While some executive and professional programmes are seeing a partial return to face-to-face formats, hybrid and online course demand remains strong — reinforcing the value of having a bespoke LMS that supports blended learning models.
Massive online course marketplaces like Udemy, Teachable, Kajabi etc. are useful for discovery, but if you want control, predictable revenue, better learner relationships and the flexibility to design superior learning experiences, investing in a bespoke LMS is the strategic choice. Host your courses where you control pricing, data, pedagogy and brand — that’s how you scale learning into a sustainable business.
Reach out to us for a free 15 minute discovery call to explore some options for putting together your own bespoke LMS.
In this chat, we’ll show how we can turn your content into a branded, scalable course—no obligation.