Most instructors can launch their courses directly by building a website with Kanorio. If you already have a website or want to design your own from scratch, you can use Kanorio solely as the backend for your courses and members, while hosting the course pages on your own site. This approach is known as "Headless." Your students will still log in and take courses on your website, and the player, anti-piracy protections, and progress tracking remain identical to using the standard Kanorio website builder.
| Your situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| No website yet, or want to avoid technical setup | Use Kanorio to create a website, starting with |
| Already have a website and just want to add course pages and a player | Self-host, using Elements to embed |
| Need custom design, interactions, or workflows that existing modules don't support | Self-host, using AI tools or hiring an engineer |
| Have an engineer, or know how to use AI coding tools like Cursor, Lovable, or v0 | Self-host |
If you are unsure, start by building your site with Kanorio. You can switch to a headless setup later without migrating any data—your courses, members, and orders will carry over seamlessly.
| Handled by Kanorio, no action required | Handled by your website |
|---|---|
| Course management backend, protected files, and video streaming | Homepage, course landing pages, and sales copy |
| Products, checkout, payments, invoices, and taxes | Website design and layout |
| Student login (Email verification) and access control | Embedding course outlines, players, and login forms into your pages |
| Player, anti-piracy, learning progress, quizzes, and completion certificates | |
| Contacts, segmentation, newsletters, promotions, and Webhooks |
Checkout still takes place on the Kanorio checkout page, with an automatic redirect back to your site after payment. Features exclusive to the Kanorio editor (such as promotional top bars or pop-ups) are not applicable to headless sites. For alternative solutions, see the .
Sorted from easiest to most advanced:
<kanorio-curriculum> (curriculum and free previews), <kanorio-login> (student login), and <kanorio-unit> (course page and player). You can adjust the appearance using CSS variables to match your site's branding. This is perfect if you already have a site and just want to add course functionality.Regardless of the method, you must add your domain to the "Allowed Origins" list under "Site Settings › Developers" so students can log in on your site.
You don't need to share your account password: invite your developer to your site team, assign them a role created from the "Headless Developer" template (see ), and copy the starter kit from "Site Settings › Developers" for them. For full handover steps and post-launch workflows, see the .
Technically yes, but it is not recommended. If you play original files, students lose features like adaptive bitrate streaming and instant seeking. Original files are also easier to download in full. Furthermore, streaming versions will still be generated and count toward your storage usage, with no option to disable them. The Elements player and Customer API default to streaming versions; please instruct your developer to prioritize them.
Yes. The pricing plan, platform fees, and storage calculations are the same. API calls are unlimited and there are no bandwidth fees. See Course Costs.
No. Students only need to log in once on your site using an email verification code. Their courses, progress, and certificates are all viewed directly on your site.
Yes, as long as your pages allow for custom HTML and script embeds, you can use Elements to embed the curriculum, login box, and player.
Yes. Your courses, products, members, and orders will carry over. Students will simply need to log in on your new site once.