The move you keep putting off
You have outgrown your course platform. The new one does community, cohorts and checkout better, and costs less at your size. But you have eight hundred students, some halfway through the course, a hundred on monthly memberships, forty on payment plans, and three years of links in emails, blog posts and social media pointing at the old lessons.
You tried a test move with one course. The lessons came across. The progress did not. The payment plans would need buyers to re-enter card details, which you know some will not do. So the move sits on your to-do list for another quarter.
Why platform moves are risky
Moving lessons is the easy part. The hard parts are the things students notice: their progress, their login, their subscription, their community access and their links. Each platform stores these differently, and not all of them can be exported. Subscriptions tied to a platform's own payment processing may not be transferable at all.
- Progress data may not be exportable, or not in a usable form.
- Subscriptions and payment plans depend on who holds the card details.
- Students log in with emails that do not match your list.
- Old lesson links are scattered through emails and posts.
- Automations point at the old platform's webhooks.
What a bad move costs
Students who lose their progress feel they are starting again, and some will not. Subscribers asked to re-enter card details drop off. Broken links in old emails and posts lead prospects to error pages. Support floods for weeks. It is no surprise that many creators stay on a platform they have outgrown rather than risk it.
How we run a platform move
- We inventory everything: courses, lessons, students, progress, subscriptions, payment plans, communities, automations and incoming links.
- We check what each platform can export and import, including whether card details can move between payment processors, and tell you plainly what will and will not transfer.
- Lessons and resources are moved and checked, lesson by lesson, against the old platform.
- Students are created on the new platform with their enrolments and, where the data allows, their progress, which students can see on first login.
- Subscriptions and payment plans move with the card details where both processors support a transfer; where not, we build a gentle re-subscribe flow with reminders.
- Old lesson and sales page URLs are redirected to their new equivalents, and automations are repointed.
- Both platforms run side by side for a period, with a checklist of tests, before the old one is closed.
| Item | Usually transfers? | If not |
|---|---|---|
| Lessons and resources | Yes | Rebuilt and checked |
| Students and enrolments | Yes | Imported from your records |
| Progress | Sometimes | Summary shown, or students mark where they are |
| Subscriptions | Depends on the processor | Re-subscribe flow with reminders |
| Old links | No | Redirects |
A move students barely notice
Students receive a clear email, log in to the new platform with a familiar email and find their courses and, where possible, their progress. Subscriptions carry on, or they are guided through a short step. Old links still work. Support is busier for a short time, not flooded for weeks, because the likely questions are answered before they are asked.
You also end up owning a clean record of your students and their purchases outside any platform, which makes the next decision about tools less frightening.
Are you stuck on the wrong platform?
- You have outgrown your platform but fear the move.
- You are not sure whether progress or subscriptions can be moved.
- Old lesson links are spread across years of emails and posts.
- Many automations depend on your current platform.
- A test move went badly.