Options to Host a Course or Membership in ShinePages
ShinePages Support
Last Update a day ago
If you're planning to sell a course or run a membership inside ShinePages, there are two different ways to build out the actual course/membership content or "members only pages" your members will access. Picking the right one from the start saves you a rebuild later, so let's walk through both.
Option 1: Create your Members-Only Pages in a Funnel or Website
This option works well for a simple, self-paced course where members move through the material on their own, in whatever order they like.
What it does not do:
- Members cannot mark a page as "complete"
- You cannot see which pages a member has finished and which they haven't
- You cannot drip content out over time, schedule it to unlock on a future date, or require one page to be completed before the next one unlocks
In other words, every page is simply available to every member, all at once, with no progress tracking behind it.
See lessons on How To Set Up a Course in this way.
Plan availability: It is strongly recommended to build courses in this way on the GROW plan or above. It's technically possible to build a very small, simple mini-course this way on the LAUNCH plan, if you're only working with a handful of pages (as you can technically set Website or Funnel pages as "members-only" on this plan), but we don't recommend building your course strategy around that route and you may quickly bump into the Launch plan's "page limit" of 20 pages.
Option 2: Create your Course or Membership Content in a Circle
Inside a Circle, you get real course functionality:
- Members can mark individual lesson pages as "complete"
- You can see exactly where each member is in your content
- You can drip content out on a schedule, so lessons release over time instead of all at once
- You can unlock a lesson only after a member has marked the previous one complete, creating a guided, sequential path through your material
- You can set certain pages behind a separate "paywall"
Plan availability: Full Circle functionality, including drip, scheduling, and unlock-on-complete, requires the CONNECT plan or above. This is the setup we recommend if you want your course or membership to feel structured and guided rather than just a stack of pages behind a login.
Styling/Layout Differences
Members-only pages in a funnel or website don't have this built-in course navigation. Any navigation has to be built manually into the page design itself using a "column" of a content block for navigation. (Note:You can set that column as a "Global Column" which will display the same content across all pages with that Global Column shown.)
Which One Should You Choose?
| 1) Funnel/Website | 2) Circle | |
| Best for: | Simple, self-paced content | Structured, guided courses |
| Progress tracking: | No | Yes |
| Mark pages complete: | No | Yes |
| Drip or schedule content: | No | Yes |
| Unlock lessons on completion: | No | Yes |
| Navigation: | Manually build using a column on page | Static, built-in, left or right hand navigation |
| Minimum plan: | GROW | CONNECT |
Overview:
If you're building a simple free download or mini-course with just a few pages, creating your members-only pages within a Funnel (or Website) can get the job done.
But for anything you want members to actually progress through, with structure, tracking, and a real course feel, building it in a Circle on the Connect plan is what we recommend.
NOTE: "Engagement" widgets such as Discussion boards, Comment Area widgets or Wall/Forum widgets may be added to and used with EITHER option. You can add these to a course/membership set up in a Funnel/Website OR a course/membership set up in a Circle.