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Send Course Bookings to an External Website

Keep courses listed in Cademy while sending customers to your own booking page, registration form or booking system.

Written by Artur Binzaru

This article is for course providers who advertise courses through Cademy but complete some bookings through another website, form or booking system.

External Bookings changes where customers complete their booking. Your course and dates remain visible through Cademy, but the selected booking actions open the web address you provide.

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Before you start

  • You need Course Owner or System Admin access. Facilitators can view courses but cannot edit this setting.

  • External Bookings is available on Pro, Teams and Enterprise plans.

  • Your external booking address must be a complete, secure web address beginning with https:// and containing no more than 2,000 characters.

If the External Bookings options are visible but disabled, your current plan does not include the feature. See Cademy Pricing and Plans Explained.

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Send bookings to your external website

  1. Open Cademy Admin.

  2. Select Courses and open the course you want to change.

  3. Select Edit Course.

  4. Open Settings, then select Booking Options.

  5. Under External Bookings, select Handle bookings on an external website.

  6. Enter the complete address under External Booking URL.

  7. Select Save.

The setting remains attached to that course until you change it. Repeat these steps for every course that should use a different booking website.

Important: Test the saved course as a customer before sharing it. Cademy checks that the address is a valid https:// URL, but it cannot check whether the external page is available or whether its registration form works correctly.

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What customers see

The external page opens in a new browser tab. The Cademy course page remains open in the original tab.

The course page otherwise remains unchanged. Its prices, dates, delivery details and available spaces continue to display as configured in Cademy.

External Bookings applies when a customer selects:

  • the main course action, which may be labelled Book, Buy, Enrol, Enroll, Apply or use customized wording

  • Book for a specific course date

  • Request a Date

  • Request Group Booking

The same setting works for classes, on-demand courses, on-request courses and blended courses. It also applies on your minisite and on the Cademy Marketplace.

Important: External Bookings takes priority over the course's Instantly, Manually or Via Application choice for the actions listed above. The customer leaves Cademy before a Cademy checkout, request or application form is completed.

A custom Booking Button label changes the wording of the main course action but does not change the external URL, new-tab behaviour or booking destination. Request a Date, Request Group Booking, sold-out and waitlist wording remain unchanged. For label setup and supported surfaces, see Rename Course Buttons and Forum Names.

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Course cards, embeds and WordPress

External Bookings also applies to:

  • the main booking button in a single-course feature embed

  • a specific date in a course-list embed when Open checkout when a customer clicks a date is enabled

  • a booking action in a single-course dates embed

  • course pages and listings produced by Cademy for WordPress

Course pages update immediately after the setting is saved. Course cards, course lists and other search-based surfaces update after the course search index refreshes, so they may keep their previous destination for a short time.

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Actions and states that do not redirect

Contact Us continues to open Cademy's Send a message form. Waitlists also remain in Cademy when they are enabled and a date has no available spaces.

Existing availability and access rules are checked before any external booking redirect:

  • If a class has no upcoming dates, there is no main Book action. An enabled Request a Date or Request Group Booking action can still redirect externally.

  • If a date is sold out and waitlists are enabled, the customer sees Join Waitlist and joins the Cademy waitlist.

  • If a date is sold out without a waitlist, the external booking link is not shown for that date.

  • If an on-demand course requires a membership that the learner does not have, its purchase or enrolment action remains unavailable until the membership requirement is met.

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What is not recorded in Cademy

Completing the external form or booking system does not send the result back to Cademy automatically. Cademy does not:

  • create an Order, Registration, request or application

  • collect or record the customer's payment

  • reduce the available spaces shown for the course date

  • send Cademy booking confirmations or reminders

  • record attendance or course completion

  • issue a certificate

  • record the external click or include the external booking in Cademy booking, revenue or conversion reports

Important: Manage the booking, customer communication, payment and capacity in the external system. If the resulting bookings also need to appear in Cademy, add them separately. See Bookings Import.

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Use the course and date information in your external system

Cademy adds information to the external address so your form or booking system can identify where the customer came from:

  • cademy_educator - the course provider's Cademy address name

  • cademy_course - the course's Cademy address name

  • cademy_occurrence - the selected course date's unique ID, when the customer selected a specific date

  • cademy_start - the selected date and start time in UTC, when the customer selected a specific date

Other query parameters already included in your external URL are kept. Cademy sets or replaces the four cademy_ parameters listed above. Your website or form provider may need to help you read and use them.

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Return a course to Cademy checkout

  1. Open the course in Cademy Admin and select Edit Course.

  2. Open Settings, then select Booking Options.

  3. Under External Bookings, select Handle bookings on Cademy.

  4. Select Save.

New booking actions will return to the normal Cademy checkout. Course cards and embedded course lists may take a short time to show the updated destination.

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Frequently asked questions

Why will my External Booking URL not save?
The address must be complete, valid and begin with https://. An address beginning with http:// is not accepted.

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Why am I still seeing Cademy checkout after turning External Bookings on?
Save the course, reload the editor and confirm that Handle bookings on an external website and the correct URL are still shown. Test from the main course page first because course cards and embeds can take longer to update. Also check that the action is not a Contact Us, sold-out, waitlist or membership-required journey, because those rules do not use the external booking address.

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Why can I not see Edit Course or change External Bookings?
You need Course Owner or System Admin access. If you can edit the course but the External Bookings section is disabled, the account's current plan does not include the feature.

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Can different dates use different external websites?
No. External Bookings is set for the complete course. Every booking action for that course uses the same external address, with the selected date added to the URL when applicable.

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Can I change the Book or Request button text?
External Bookings does not change button labels. On Pro, Teams and Custom plans, a Course Owner can rename the main Booking Button under Courses > course three-dot options menu > Settings > Advanced Settings > Custom Labels. Request, sold-out and waitlist wording stays fixed. See Rename Course Buttons and Forum Names.

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Can I see external booking clicks or completed registrations in Cademy reports?
No. Cademy does not record the external click or receive the completed booking automatically. Use reporting from the external website or booking system, and add the resulting bookings to Cademy separately if they also need to appear there.

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Does Via Application still create a Cademy application?
No. With External Bookings enabled, Apply opens the configured external website. The external system must collect and manage the application. Contact Us is the exception and continues to use Cademy's message form.

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Why does an old link still open Cademy checkout?
External Bookings changes booking actions generated from current course pages, course cards and supported embeds. An old link copied directly from Cademy checkout can still open checkout. Replace old checkout links with the course page or your external booking address.

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Why is the customer still seeing Join Waitlist?
External Bookings does not change capacity or waitlist rules. If a course date has no available spaces and waitlists are enabled, the customer can still join the Cademy waitlist.

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What happens if the account changes to a plan without External Bookings?
The main course page returns to Cademy checkout because the external address is no longer included there. Search-based course cards and embeds can continue using the previous external destination because those surfaces are not currently rechecked against the account's plan. Contact Cademy Support if the old external destination remains or the saved setting needs to be removed.

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Can I still use Contact Us?
Yes. Contact Us continues to open Cademy's normal message form and does not redirect to the external booking website.

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