The same sale, two routes for the money
Take a $200 course sold to a buyer in your own country. On Whop, the buyer pays at Whop’s checkout, Whop is the merchant of record, and your share lands in a Whop balance. You withdraw from that balance on the schedule your payout method allows, and any reserve on your account is held back first.
On Learnomy, the buyer pays on a page of your own WordPress site. The payment goes to the Stripe or PayPal account whose keys you entered. Learnomy never holds the money and takes no share of it.
That is the whole difference. Everything below follows from who is standing between the buyer and your bank.
What Whop charges, from its own pages
These figures come from Whop’s fees page and help centre, read on 26 Oct 2026. They can change, so check them before you decide.
A domestic card payment costs 2.7% plus $0.30. An international card adds 1.5%, and a currency conversion adds 1%. Orchestration (0.8%), billing (0.5%) and tax and remittance (2%) are add-ons you switch on, and they stack on top. Whop’s own page shows 6% plus $0.30 for a card sale with every add-on enabled and tax collected.
Getting paid out has its own prices. A next-day ACH payout is $2.50. An instant bank deposit is 4% plus $2.50. A bank wire is $23. A dispute is a flat $15, and an early dispute alert is $29.
The page we read does not list a separate percentage cut of each sale. Some third-party write-ups mention one for particular app-gated sales. We could not confirm that on Whop’s own pages, so we make no claim about it. If you sell through the marketplace, read the current terms for any further charge.
Reserves and payout timing
Whop’s reserves page explains that a reserve is part of your balance held back for a set time. It says reserved funds are still your money and release automatically. It also says Whop may place one when an account is new, when refunds or disputes are high, or when you deliver long after the customer pays. The example on that page is a rolling reserve of 10% held for 90 days.
A separate page on payment controls lists a pending delay, which adds days before funds are available for payout. Whop applies these controls per account and lifts them as risk falls.
For a seller with a steady record this may never matter. For a new account launching a big cohort, it can decide when you can pay your own bills. That is the risk to weigh. Whop is carrying the chargeback exposure, and it prices that into your payout.
What changes when you own the checkout
Your payout schedule becomes your processor’s. Stripe and PayPal can also review an account, delay a payout or hold funds under their own terms. This is common on a new account or after an unusual spike in refunds. Owning your checkout removes the platform’s hold. It does not remove the processor’s, so read their terms before you plan around a payout date.
You also take on what Whop would have carried. Learnomy applies one flat tax rate, with per-region VAT handled through WooCommerce if you need it. Refunds made in Stripe or in Learnomy revoke access, because Learnomy listens for Stripe’s refund event. Learnomy does not listen for disputes. A chargeback is something you handle in your Stripe dashboard, and you remove the student’s access yourself if you want it gone.
Getting the money in, and access out
Stripe checkout is in Free (see Payments and memberships for every gateway). The card form sits on your own page, so buyers never leave your branding. PayPal is there too and supports guest payment.
Guest checkout is a setting and it is off by default. Turn it on under LMS Settings, Payments, and a buyer gives an email and pays. The full flow is in Checkout and purchase flow. The account is created only once the payment succeeds. An email that already has an account is asked to log in, and each IP is limited to 10 guest checkouts an hour by default.
Some payment methods do not clear at once. SEPA, Bacs, BECS, boleto, OXXO and Konbini can take days. Learnomy grants access for these only when Stripe confirms the money arrived. If the payment fails, no paid-looking order is left behind. You enable these methods in your Stripe dashboard and subscribe your webhook to the two async payment events, as Payment gateways explains.
Coupons, one-time sales and recurring memberships with trials are all in Free. Gift codes and memberships with proration, pause and payment retries need Memberships Pro.
Paying instructors
If you split revenue with instructors, Free lets you set a commission rate per course or per instructor. Instructors ask for a payout and you approve it. Automatic payouts to each instructor’s own Stripe account through Stripe Connect are in Pro.
Video and course depth
Learnomy does not host or stream video. A lesson embeds YouTube, Vimeo or Loom, or plays a file from your Media Library. MediaShield is a separate plugin that protects video playback. If you want a platform that hosts everything for you, that is a point for a hosted service.
On depth, Learnomy has six question types, graded quizzes, certificates with a public verification page and, in Pro, cohorts, learning paths and content drip. Whop offers a Course app that you add from its App Store, alongside chat and other apps. If your product is a structured curriculum with grading, Learnomy goes further. If it is a few videos and a private chat, Whop’s setup is quicker.
Which one fits
Choose Whop when speed matters most, when you want a marketplace that can send you buyers, or when you would rather not think about tax and disputes. It also suits a seller with no WordPress site.
Choose Learnomy when you already run WordPress, want the money to go straight to your own account, and sell courses with real structure. Pro costs from $149 a year, or $399 once for a lifetime licence on one site, and Free costs nothing. See pricing.
Weighing other hosted platforms too? Compare Learnomy vs Skool, Learnomy vs Kajabi and Learnomy vs Teachable.
Selling a paid community instead of courses? See BuddyNext’s Whop page. Selling done-for-you services? See WP Sell Services’ Whop page.