Embed Your Course on Your Website or Use a Custom Domain

Your course already has its own page — a clean address on CourseFriendly that you can share immediately. But many creators want the course to feel like part of their existing brand. There are two ways to do that.

Option 1: Embed on your existing site

Paste a short snippet into your own website and the course player loads inside your page. Visitors stay on your domain. Best when:

• You already have a busy website and you want the course to live alongside your other content.
• You want to control the page around the player — your header, footer, sidebar, signup form.
• You only want to surface one or two courses from your full catalog.

How to embed

1. Open the course and go to Share → Embed.
2. Copy the embed code from the box.
3. Paste it into the page on your website where you want the player to appear.

The code is a small block of HTML. Most website builders accept it inside an HTML or Embed block. WordPress accepts it in the Custom HTML block. Squarespace accepts it in the Code block. Wix accepts it in the Embed HTML widget.

When a visitor lands on your page, the course player loads in place. If they are not signed in, the player asks them to sign in or buy. Once they buy, they can stay on your page or click through to their full student dashboard.

Embedding the catalog instead of one course

If you want a full catalog grid on your site, pick Catalog instead of Course in the embed picker. The grid shows all your published courses with their cover images, titles, and prices.

Option 2: Custom domain

A custom domain points your own web address — say, learn.yourcompany.com or academy.yourcompany.com — at your CourseFriendly site. Visitors see your domain in the address bar; the experience is the full CourseFriendly site under your name. Best when:

• The course site is your main presence (you do not have a separate website, or the course site IS your website).
• You want a clean address to share — learn.yourcompany.com is friendlier than the default CourseFriendly URL.
• You want the dashboard, the catalog, and the checkout all on the same brand.

How to set up a custom domain

1. From your dashboard, click Settings → Domain.
2. Click Add Custom Domain and enter the address you want to use (for example, learn.yourcompany.com). It must be a subdomain — learn.yourcompany.com works; the bare yourcompany.com does not.
3. CourseFriendly shows you a single DNS record to add — a CNAME pointing your subdomain to a CourseFriendly address.
4. Open your domain registrar (where you bought the domain) and find the DNS settings.
5. Add the CNAME record with the host and value shown.
6. Come back to the Domain page and click Verify. Verification can take a few minutes to a few hours depending on your registrar.
7. Once verified, your domain is live with a secure (HTTPS) connection. The certificate is issued automatically.

What changes after a custom domain is live

• Your course pages, catalog, dashboard, and checkout all serve from your domain.
• Emails students receive (purchase confirmations, drip reminders, certificate notices) link back to your domain.
• Your old CourseFriendly URLs keep working — they redirect to the matching page on your custom domain.

Email and custom domains

A custom domain affects how your students see your course site. It does not automatically change the address student emails come from — that stays a CourseFriendly email address by default. If you want emails to come from your own domain too, that is a separate setting under Settings → Email Domain. It needs a few extra DNS records and takes a little longer to set up.

Common questions

Can I do both — embed on my site AND use a custom domain? Yes. The embed loads from wherever you choose; the custom domain is just what your standalone CourseFriendly site uses. The two settings do not conflict.

Can I switch domains later? Yes. Old URLs redirect to the new domain automatically.

Does a custom domain affect my SEO? Custom domains help — search engines treat your subdomain as part of your brand. The default CourseFriendly URLs are also indexable, so either way you are findable.

Do I need a custom domain to launch? No. The default address works perfectly well. Many creators launch first, then add a domain once they have traction.