Programs, Courses, Sessions, Memberships — which one do you actually sell through?
TrainerPanel gives you five different tools to build and sell your coaching. Here's the one-page map for which surface handles which offer — so you stop guessing and start selling.
Prescribe a plan clients follow in Programs. Teach structured lessons in Courses. Book and monetize your live time in Sessions. Package ongoing access as a Membership. Sell every one of them — and take payment — through your Storefront, the one checkout surface everything routes through. Building just one offer right now? Create it where it belongs, connect a payment path, then sell it through Storefront.
Why "which surface" feels like a trick question
TrainerPanel doesn't make you pick one way to sell. That's the point — and, at first, also the confusion.
Programs, Courses, Sessions, Memberships and Storefront all live in the same platform, and none of them work quite like the others. Ask five coaches what each one is for and you'll get five different guesses — because the names sound like they could overlap, and nobody wants to build the wrong thing and redo it.
They don't overlap. Each one has exactly one job. Once you see the map, picking the right surface takes about ten seconds.
Make it in Programs (prescribe) or Courses (teach). Sell live time in Sessions. Package recurring access as a Membership. Sell all of it through your Storefront.
Programs — the plan clients follow
Use Programs when the job is to prescribe — a training, nutrition or habit plan a client actually follows, week to week. If the sentence in your head is "I want to give clients a structured plan to do," this is the surface.
Programs is never a course creator. If you're teaching a concept clients learn from rather than a plan they execute, that's Courses next — don't force one into the other.
Courses — the lessons clients learn from
Use Courses when the job is to teach — structured educational content clients learn from, not a plan they follow day to day. If your sentence is "I want to sell knowledge as a course, without bolting on Kajabi," this is the surface.
Courses is the rarest differentiator on this list — most coaching platforms don't ship a real course/LMS layer at all. Keep it distinct from Programs: teaching and prescribing are different jobs, even when the subject matter overlaps.
Sessions — selling your actual hours
Use Sessions when the job is to book and monetize live time — single 1:1s or packages of them. If your sentence is "I want to sell my time," this is the surface.
Sessions handles the booking and the sale of your time; the call itself runs through Video Meetings. Keep them distinct in your head: Sessions is the commerce and scheduling layer, Video Meetings is the room you meet in.
Memberships — packaging ongoing access
Use a Membership when the job is recurring, ongoing paid access — ongoing coaching, an ongoing community, or an ongoing plan, billed on a schedule. If your sentence is "I want recurring revenue, not a one-off sale," this is the packaging model.
Memberships doesn't have its own separate page or its own separate checkout. You package the offer as a Membership, and it sells the exact same way anything else does — through your Storefront.
This page describes how Memberships is packaged and sold, not a feature-by-feature depth claim — check Storefront for what's shipped today before you build around a specific membership feature.
Storefront — the one place buyers actually pay you
Use Storefront for the job every other surface hands off to: selling. It's the one checkout — the commerce layer every Program, Course, Session and Membership is sold through. If your sentence is "where do buyers actually pay me for any of the above," this is the surface.
Keep the distinction crisp: your Website Builder is your presence — the page a stranger lands on. Storefront is the selling — the actual transaction. Never blur the two.
Storefront needs a payment path connected before a buyer can check out — that's Pay Pro or Pay Go.
What to build, in one look
Four questions, four answers. Every row still ends the same way: sold through your Storefront.
| I want to sell… | Build it in | Sell it through |
|---|---|---|
| A plan clients follow | Programs | Storefront |
| Knowledge, taught as lessons | Courses | Storefront |
| My live time — single sessions or packs | Sessions | Storefront |
| Recurring, ongoing access | Membership (packaged in Storefront) | Storefront |
Not sure yet? Build the one offer type you sell today — you can add the others later without redoing anything you've already built.
Which surface, answered honestly.
The questions coaches ask before building their first offer — with straight answers, not sales pitches.
More answers in Help CenterRelated guides
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Start an online coaching business
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Client management for coaches
Run your roster without spreadsheets and WhatsApp chaos.
Your first offer is one surface away.
Pick the surface that matches what you're selling, connect your Storefront, and take your first payment — all in one place, flat pricing, no per-client fee.