Thrive Courses is an online learning platform. People sign up, pick a membership, and get a library of video courses taught by expert instructors. That is three products in one: a marketing site that has to rank and load fast, a members-only area behind a login, and recurring billing that has to be right every month. This was one of our earlier platform builds, and we put it together as a JAMstack site so the public pages stay fast while the member area and payments do the heavy lifting.
A fast public site and a gated member area, in one build
The marketing pages - home, course catalogue, instructor profiles, blog, events - are statically generated, so they load quickly and read well to search engines. Behind the login sits the member area: an account dashboard and course pages where the video lessons only play for people whose membership is active. One codebase serves both the shop window and the room behind it.
Memberships that bill themselves
Signing up is a real subscription flow, not a contact form. Visitors choose a membership pack, start a free trial, and pay through Stripe, which handles the recurring billing from there. Accounts and who-can-see-what are backed by a hosted authentication service, so a lapsed membership loses access to the gated lessons without anyone doing it by hand.
Content the team edits like a document
The whole catalogue - 35 courses across 13 categories, 15 instructors, dozens of testimonials, blog posts and events - is managed as content the Thrive team edits themselves, version-controlled behind the scenes so nothing is lost and every change is tracked. Adding a course or swapping an instructor bio does not need a developer.
The supporting cast
Lessons stream from Vimeo and YouTube, gated so they stay behind the membership. Referrals run through an affiliate tracker so partners get credited for the members they bring in. Live chat handles support inside the app, and the marketing analytics are wired in so the team can see what actually converts. The site installs as an app and works offline where it can.
The honest note: this is an older build, and some of the tools in it we would choose differently today. The shape of it still holds up - a fast static front, a gated member area, and subscription billing that runs itself is exactly how we would approach a course platform now.
Stack: a Gatsby (React) JAMstack site, hosted on Netlify and installable as a PWA. Firebase for member authentication, Stripe for subscription billing, a git-based CMS for content, an affiliate tracker for referrals, Vimeo and YouTube for gated video, and live chat plus analytics for support and marketing.