Cademy is the all-in-one platform for professional training providers. It combines a training management system (TMS), a course booking system, a training CRM (customer relationship management system), a course builder and a learning management system (LMS) in one place.
Instead of a separate booking tool, LMS, CRM and spreadsheet, a training provider runs its whole training business in Cademy: courses, dates, bookings, payments, online learning, certificates, learners and the organisations that book with them. All five products work from the same records, so a change made in one place carries across the platform.
This page is for anyone who wants to know what Cademy is: training providers considering Cademy, teams already using it, and people who have booked a course that runs on Cademy. If you booked a course, go straight to “I booked a course. Who runs it?” below.
Course provider: the training company, organisation or trainer that runs a course. Also called a training provider.
Customer: the person or organisation that books and pays. This is not always the person who attends.
Learner: the person taking the course.
Cademy: the software the course provider uses. Cademy does not run the courses itself.
Who uses Cademy?
Cademy is built for training providers of every size, from a single trainer to national providers with many trainers and venues. For example:
training companies selling public course dates to individuals and to employers
providers of regulated, accredited or certificated training, such as first aid or health and safety courses
learning and development (L&D) and HR teams training their own staff
colleges and universities running short courses and continuing professional development (CPD)
businesses teaching their own customers how to use a product
Training teams in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the US and other countries use Cademy. Here are just a few of the organisations whose training teams use it: NHS organisations, Rolls-Royce, Shell, UK Parliament, the Financial Conduct Authority, the University of Manchester, Mind, NPR, Insurance Centers of America and the European Institute of Management and Finance.
Why do training providers choose Cademy?
One system instead of several. Bookings, payments, course delivery, learner records and training admin are in one platform, so you do not need a separate tool for each job.
Every way of teaching in one account. Run in-person, live online, hybrid, on-demand and blended courses side by side in the same business account.
Payments go straight to you. Online payments go directly into your own Stripe or PayPal account. On Pro and Teams, customers can also pay your invoices straight to your bank account. Cademy never holds your money.
Made for business clients as well as individuals. Keep a record for each employer, let a manager book places for their staff, enrol whole groups at once without anyone paying at checkout, and, on Pro and Teams, run private course dates and send invoices.
Automatic certificates. Cademy can issue certificates automatically when a learner completes a course, with an expiry date where you need one.
Your brand, your website. Take bookings on your own Cademy website or on the website you already have. On Pro and Teams, Cademy logos are hidden.
Connects to the tools you already use. Stripe, PayPal, Klarna, Zoom, Google Calendar, Outlook, Xero, Zapier, HubSpot, Salesforce and more.
Free to start, easy to move in. The Free plan has no time limit and needs no card. Moving from another system is straightforward: import your courses, dates, contacts, organisations and bookings from a spreadsheet on every plan, including Free.
Support from people who know the product. Cademy staff answer support questions, and most changes to Cademy start as conversations with customers.
What are Cademy’s five products?
If you run training, these are the five products you use in Cademy. All five are included on every plan, and paid plans add more features and higher limits.
Training management system (TMS)
The training management system is where you plan and run your course dates. Schedule sessions, assign Facilitators (the trainers who deliver sessions) and venues, create Zoom meetings for online sessions, record attendance, sync sessions with Google or Outlook Calendar and see reports. See Cademy’s training management system.
Course booking system
Customers find your courses on your minisite, which is your own Cademy website at an address like your-name.cademy.io, or on your own website through Cademy embeds. An embed is a short piece of code that you copy into your website to show your Cademy courses there. Customers then book and pay through Cademy checkout, and the money goes straight to your own Stripe or PayPal account. On Pro and Teams, customers can also pay by invoice, either online or straight to your bank account.
Courses can be priced in GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, CAD, NZD, ZAR or MYR. PayPal and Klarna are not available for ZAR or MYR. You can also run waitlists, discounts and memberships. Pro and Teams add private course dates, invoices and manual payments, and Teams adds deposits and monthly instalments. On Custom & Enterprise, these depend on your agreement. See Cademy’s course booking system.
Training CRM (customer relationship management system)
The training CRM keeps a record of every learner and customer. A contact record shows the person’s bookings, emails, notes, tasks and certificates. An organisation record holds an employer or other organisation that books for its people. Messages that customers send through your Contact Us form arrive in your Inbox. See Cademy’s training CRM.
Course builder
The course builder is one editor for every course. Each course has one of four formats: On set dates, On-request, On-demand online course or Blended course. Add the description, prices and dates, and, for on-demand and blended courses, the online lessons and quizzes. To choose a format, see Choose the Right Course Type.
Learning management system (LMS)
The learning management system delivers your online learning. For on-demand and blended courses, learners open their lessons online after they book. Courses can include quizzes with a pass mark, lessons that open on a schedule, due dates and a course forum. Certificates can be issued automatically: after the learner completes the online lessons, is marked as attending, or both, depending on the course format. SCORM 1.2 packages (ready-made e-learning content) are included on Teams. On Custom & Enterprise, this depends on your agreement. See Cademy’s learning management system.
Which apps does Cademy connect to?
Cademy connects to the payment, calendar, video, website, accounting and CRM tools that training providers already use. Below are some of the most used ones. Through Zapier, webhooks and the Cademy API, Cademy can also connect to many other apps and systems. On Custom & Enterprise, which apps are included depends on your agreement.
App | What it does with Cademy | Plan |
Takes card payments into your own Stripe account | Every plan | |
Takes PayPal payments into your own PayPal business account | Every plan | |
Lets customers pay the full price with Klarna at checkout, through your Stripe account. Klarna decides which customers qualify | Every plan | |
Creates a Zoom meeting for each online or hybrid session and gives learners the link. For Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, you add the meeting link yourself | Every plan | |
Adds your course sessions to your calendar | Every plan | |
Shows your courses and booking on your own website through Cademy embeds | Every plan | |
Publishes your Cademy courses as pages on a WordPress website | Teams | |
Starts automations in your other apps when an order, booking, registration, contact or course date is created, and when some of them change, for example when an order is paid or cancelled | Pro and Teams | |
Sends invoices, payments, credit notes and refunds to your Xero organisation | Teams | |
Runs ready-made e-learning packages inside your courses | Teams | |
Lets your developers connect Cademy to your own systems | Teams | |
Sends contacts, course dates and certificates to NetSuite | Custom & Enterprise (beta) | |
HubSpot and Salesforce | Sends the Cademy records you choose to your CRM | Custom & Enterprise, when Cademy turns it on (beta) |
Select an app name to open its setup guide, or see all of them in Apps and Integrations.
How does Cademy work?
A typical course runs like this:
The course provider creates a Cademy business account and sets up its courses in the Admin Dashboard, at admin.cademy.io.
The courses appear on the provider’s minisite or on its own website.
A learner, or an employer booking for its staff, chooses a course and books. If the course has a price, they pay at checkout, or by invoice when the provider offers invoices. The provider can also enrol learners directly, one by one or many at once, with no payment from the learner.
A card, Klarna or PayPal payment goes straight into the provider’s own Stripe or PayPal account. An invoice can also be paid straight to the provider, for example by bank transfer.
Cademy sends the booking confirmation and course emails on the provider’s behalf.
The learner logs in to their Cademy account to see their courses, joining instructions and online lessons.
The provider manages the booking, records attendance and issues certificates from the same account.
How do payments work?
Cademy does not hold course payments. A customer pays the course provider in one of two ways, and in both the money goes straight to the provider:
Online: by card, Klarna or PayPal at checkout, or by card or PayPal with the Pay Invoice button or a payment link for an invoice. The money goes into the provider’s own Stripe or PayPal account at the moment of payment, unless the booking is waiting for the provider’s approval.
Directly to the provider, for example by bank transfer: on Pro and Teams, a provider can send invoices or accept bookings with payment outside Cademy. The customer pays the provider using the payment details it gives, such as the bank details on the invoice. This money does not go through Stripe, PayPal or Cademy.
If you run courses
Where the money goes: card and Klarna payments go to your own Stripe account, and PayPal payments to your own PayPal business account. A System Admin connects Stripe or PayPal in the Admin Dashboard. A course with a price can only be published once a payment method is set up.
When you get it: the payment reaches your Stripe or PayPal account as soon as the customer pays, unless the booking needs your approval. Stripe or PayPal then moves it to your bank on its own schedule. A first Stripe payout typically takes 7 to 14 days.
Bookings that need your approval: if a booking needs your approval, Cademy places a hold on the customer’s online payment and tries to collect it when you select Approve. A hold can expire if you wait too long.
Fees: Stripe and PayPal charge their own processing fees. On the Free plan, a standard 5% Cademy platform fee is taken at the moment of payment, so you never receive a separate bill for it. You choose whether customers pay it as a booking fee or you absorb it, in Settings, then Payments, then Cademy Platform Fee. Pro and Teams have no Cademy platform fee.
Invoices and bank transfers: on Pro and Teams, you can send invoices and accept bookings with payment outside Cademy. Add your payment instructions, such as bank details, in the invoice footer text. When the money arrives in your bank, record it with Record Payment on the invoice.
Refunds: you decide on refunds and make them from your account.
For payouts and fees in detail, see Understand Payouts and Payment Processing Fees.
If you booked a course
You pay the course provider. An online payment goes to the provider’s own Stripe or PayPal account. If you pay an invoice by bank transfer, you pay the provider’s bank account directly, using the details on the invoice. If checkout shows a Booking fee, that is Cademy’s platform fee, which some course providers pass on to their customers. For a receipt, an invoice, a change to your payment or a refund, contact the course provider. To find your orders and payments, see Find Your Orders, Invoices and Payment Details.
Do learners have to pay to get a place?
Not always. A learner who books a course with a price pays at checkout or by invoice. A course provider can also give people a place that someone else pays for, or that needs no payment at all. This is common when an employer, an internal training team or another organisation arranges training for its people. Cademy supports this in three ways:
One order for a whole group: one order can include several participants. A System Admin can create it in the Admin Dashboard with New Order, for example for an employer paying for its staff. On Pro and Teams, you can send the employer one invoice for the order. See Create an Order and Request Payment.
Places without an order: someone on the course provider’s team (a System Admin, or a Course Owner or Facilitator with access to the course) can add a person to a course without an order, invoice or payment. See Add Someone to a Course Without Creating an Order.
Enrol many learners at once: import a CSV or Excel file of learners to give them all a place, with no orders created. This works on every plan; on Free and Pro, and on the older Starter plan, one file can have up to 1,000 rows. See Import Registrations: Add Learners or Update Registration Fields.
When people are given a place without an order, any payment from their organisation is arranged separately, for example with one invoice for the whole group. Their online lessons open without a payment step, following the course’s own lesson schedule and access dates.
If your employer or organisation arranged your place, ask them or the course provider whether anything is left to pay.
Can Cademy run my training programme?
Training providers often ask whether Cademy can run a particular process, for example a programme with live sessions followed by online modules and an assessment. Here is what Cademy can do for a programme like that. All of it is built in and needs no extra development; your plan’s limits, such as the number of admins and Facilitators, still apply.
Bookings and places
You need to | Can Cademy do it? |
Publish live course dates with a set number of places | Yes. Each date or block has its own number of places. When it is full, customers cannot book, but your team can still add people. |
Let a business book and pay for several employees at once | Yes. One booking can include several places, paid in one checkout. Depending on your setting, the booker gives each person’s details at checkout or adds them later. |
Let several businesses book the same date until it is full | Yes. Every booking uses the date’s shared places. You can also turn on a waitlist for when it is full. |
Run a course as a series of live sessions booked together | Yes. A block groups several sessions, such as two live sessions for one group, and a whole-block booking covers all of them, so each learner is on the right sessions. |
Attendance and online learning
You need to | Can Cademy do it? |
Record each person’s attendance | Yes. You or a Facilitator mark attendance for each learner on each session. |
Track each learner’s progress separately | Yes. Lesson progress and course completion are saved for each learner. On a blended course, a learner completes the course when every required session is marked attended and their online lessons are 100% complete. |
Assessments and certificates
You need to | Can Cademy do it? |
Set a pass mark, for example 80% | Yes. Each quiz has its own pass mark, from 0 to 100%. |
Use more than one assessment | Yes. You can add quizzes to different lessons, for example one after module 6 and one after module 12. |
Let learners retake an assessment | Yes. Turn on Allow Retakes and choose unlimited attempts, or a limit of 2, 3, 5 or 10 attempts. The limit includes the first attempt. |
Issue certificates automatically | Yes. Cademy can issue a certificate automatically when a learner completes the course, or you can issue it yourself. |
Issue a certificate only after the assessments are passed | Yes, through the lessons. If a quiz is required to complete its lesson, the learner must pass it before the lesson, and so the course, counts as complete. |
Trainers, sessions and emails
You need to | Can Cademy do it? |
Assign a trainer to each session | Yes. You can assign Facilitators to each date or session. |
Give trainers their own login | Yes. Each Facilitator has their own login to the Admin Dashboard, where they see the courses and dates assigned to them, their learner lists and attendance. |
Run several live online sessions at the same time | Yes. Each date or session has its own Facilitator and its own joining link. With Zoom connected, Cademy creates a Zoom meeting for each one, and you can connect a separate Zoom account for sessions that run at the same time. |
See trainers’ schedules side by side | Yes. The Timeline, and the Calendar’s Year view, can show each Facilitator’s dates in their own row, and the Calendar’s Week view shows sessions that overlap. |
Send booking confirmations, joining details and reminders automatically | Yes. Cademy sends a booking confirmation, which shows the joining link when the booking is for one online date. It also sends any reminders you switch on, a week, a day and an hour before each session. Learners can find each session’s joining link in their Cademy account once their place gives them access. |
Refresher training and memberships
You need to | Can Cademy do it? |
Give learners access for a set period, such as 12 months | Yes. On on-demand and blended courses, you can give access for a set number of days, for example 365. When it ends, the learner can book a new place to study the course again. |
Make certificates expire so learners renew them | Yes. A course’s certificates can have an expiry date, for example one year after they are issued. |
Sell an annual refresher membership | Yes. A membership can renew automatically every year, or every month, week or day, with each payment taken through your own Stripe account. |
Give members free or discounted courses | Yes. A membership can make a place on the courses you choose free, give a percentage discount on them, or make them bookable only by members. Members still book the course themselves, so with free access they can re-enrol in a refresher course at no extra cost. |
Offer different membership levels | Yes. You can create several memberships, each with its own price and benefits. |
Let members manage their own membership | Yes. Members can check their membership and payments in their Cademy account, update their payment details, and change or cancel a recurring membership. |
For the details, see Create and Set Up a Blended Course, Record Attendance, Create Quizzes and Review Answers, Set Up Automatic Course Emails, Set and Change Course Access Expiry and Create Memberships and Manage Subscribers.
I booked a course. Who runs it?
The course provider you booked with runs your course. Each course on Cademy belongs to a course provider’s account. Cademy is the software the provider uses for its bookings, payments and online course content. Cademy does not set a course’s price, dates or cancellation policy, and it does not decide refunds.
Use this table to find out who can help:
Your question is about | Ask |
The course itself: its content, dates, venue or joining instructions | The course provider |
Changing or cancelling a booking, or getting a refund | The course provider |
A payment, receipt or invoice | The course provider |
A certificate | The course provider |
Opening your course or lessons | Start with Get Help Accessing Your Course or Lessons, which says who can fix what |
Your Cademy login, or a Cademy page that does not work | Cademy Support, at support@cademy.io |
To reach the provider, use the Contact Us tab on its Cademy website, or the contact details in your booking email. Contact the Right Team for Help gives the steps.
To see your courses and bookings, follow Log In and Find Your Courses and Bookings.
Why do I see the Cademy name?
A provider’s pages and emails run on Cademy, so the Cademy name appears in these places:
Powered by and the Cademy logo appear on a provider’s minisite, at checkout, and on the course dates and forms a provider embeds in its own website. They do not appear when the provider has removed Cademy branding.
Emails about a booking or a course are sent through Cademy. Unless the provider sends them from its own email domain, the sender is shown as the provider’s name followed by “(via Cademy)”.
You log in with a Cademy account to see your courses and bookings.
How much does Cademy cost?
Cademy has four plans: Free, Pro, Teams and Custom & Enterprise. The pricing page calls the last one Enterprise.
Free: no subscription charge and no time limit, and no card is needed to start. It includes all five products, with fewer features and lower limits, for example 1 admin, 2 Facilitators and 5 published courses. A standard 5% Cademy platform fee applies to payments taken through Cademy checkout. You choose whether you absorb it or customers pay it as a booking fee.
Pro: a monthly or yearly subscription with no Cademy platform fee. It adds features such as private course dates, invoices and manual payments, Zapier, and your own branding with Cademy logos hidden.
Teams: everything in Pro, with more admins and Facilitators, much higher storage and email limits and premium support, plus features such as SCORM courses, deposits and monthly instalments, automatic VAT and tax handling, the Xero integration, the WordPress plugin, API access and custom email domains.
Custom & Enterprise: a tailored agreement for awarding bodies, multi-site providers and regulated training, with options such as single sign-on. What is included depends on the agreement. Use Book a call on the pricing page to discuss it.
Charities get 50% off the Teams plan. Pro and Teams can be started with a free trial. On every plan, payment providers such as Stripe and PayPal charge their own processing fees. Bookings made through the older Cademy Marketplace carry a separate Marketplace fee: see Cademy Marketplace Is Retiring.
Some existing accounts are on the older Starter plan or on agreed custom terms. A System Admin can check the account’s plan under Settings, then Billing & Usage.
For current prices, see Cademy pricing. For what each plan includes and its limits and fees, see Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees.
How do I start using Cademy?
You can start on the Free plan and take your first booking without a website of your own. Most providers follow these four steps:
Create your free account. Follow Create a Course Provider Account. The person who creates the business account becomes its first System Admin, the role that manages the account.
Bring in your existing data, or create your first course. Import what you already have from a spreadsheet (see below), or create a course in the course builder.
Connect Stripe or PayPal. A System Admin does this before you publish a course with a price, so customers can pay you online.
Publish and share. Publish your course, then share your minisite link or add Cademy embeds to your own website.
Start Using Cademy to Run Your Courses walks through first-time setup in the Admin Dashboard.
Bring your existing data with you
You do not have to set everything up again by hand. Cademy has six imports, and all six are included on every plan, including Free:
Courses: creates new courses or updates existing ones.
Course dates: adds dates to your courses.
Contacts: brings in your learners and customers.
Organisations: brings in the employers and other organisations you work with.
Orders: brings in past and current bookings with their payment status.
Registrations: gives people a place on a course without an order.
Each import takes a CSV or Excel file, with one row for each record. Most imports have an example file you can copy. After an import, Settings, then Imports, shows how many rows were imported and why any rows failed. To open the Imports page, you need the System Admin or Course Owner role. A Facilitator can import registrations from the Registrants tab of a course. On Free and Pro, and on the older Starter plan, an orders or registrations file can have up to 1,000 rows. Teams has no row limit, and on Custom & Enterprise the limit is set for your account. See Choose an Import and Prepare Your Data.
Moving from another system is straightforward. Export your records from your old system as a CSV or Excel file, and Cademy’s imports bring in your courses, course dates, contacts, organisations, orders and registrations. Cademy’s switching page explains how a move works. On Custom & Enterprise, Cademy’s onboarding team helps with the move.
Other ways to start
To join your organisation’s existing account: ask one of its System Admins to invite you. You do not need to create a new business account. Each team member has a role: System Admin, Course Owner or Facilitator. See Invite Team Members and Manage Their Access.
If you booked a course: follow Log In and Find Your Courses and Bookings.
How do I contact Cademy?
If you are considering Cademy: use the chat on cademy.io, or Book a call on the pricing page.
If you already use Cademy: in the Admin Dashboard, select Message Us at the bottom of the sidebar to chat with Cademy Support.
By email: write to support@cademy.io.
If you booked a course: contact the course provider about the course, your booking or your payment.
To see what has changed in Cademy, see Find Cademy Product Updates.
Who makes Cademy?
Cademy is made by Cademy Group Ltd in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland, for training teams around the world.
Cademy started because training providers were juggling tools that did not connect. It brings courses, learners and admin together in one place. The team focuses on a platform that is stable and predictable, support from people who know the product, and changes shaped by what customers ask for.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cademy an LMS (learning management system)?
Cademy includes an LMS (learning management system), but it is more than that. It is also a training management system (TMS), a course booking system and a training CRM (customer relationship management system), all in one platform.
Will Cademy find customers for me?
No. Cademy is not a course marketplace. It is the software you use to run and sell your own training. You promote your courses yourself, and customers book on your minisite or on your own website.
Is Cademy free?
Yes, you can use Cademy for free. The Free plan has no subscription charge and no time limit. A standard 5% Cademy platform fee applies to paid bookings, and you choose whether you absorb it or customers pay it. Pro and Teams have a subscription and no platform fee.
Do you offer discounts for charities and education?
Yes. Charities get 50% off the Teams plan. If you are a charity, or a school or other education provider, contact Cademy before you choose a plan, using the chat on cademy.io or Book a call on the pricing page.
Does Cademy hold my money?
No. Card, Klarna and PayPal payments go straight into your own Stripe or PayPal account when the customer pays, or when you approve the booking if it needs your approval. Stripe or PayPal then pays the money out to your bank. On Pro and Teams, customers can also pay your invoices straight to your bank account, for example by bank transfer.
I am a single trainer. Is Cademy too big for me?
No. Cademy works for one trainer as well as for large teams. The Free plan lets you publish up to 5 courses, and you can move to a paid plan when you need more.
Do I need my own website?
No. Every business account has a minisite, so you can take bookings without a website of your own. If you have a website, you can show your courses there instead, or as well. See Choose Between Your Minisite and Your Own Website.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You set up courses in the Admin Dashboard, and your minisite is created with your account. To show Cademy on your own website, you copy an embed code from Cademy and paste it into your website. Your website platform must allow embed code, and some platforms need a paid plan for it.
Can I run in-person and online courses in the same account?
Yes. One business account can run in-person, live online, hybrid, on-demand and blended courses side by side.
Can I move my courses and contacts from my old system?
Yes, and it is straightforward. Export them from your old system as a CSV or Excel file and use Cademy’s imports, which are included on every plan. See Choose an Import and Prepare Your Data.
Can employers book and pay for their staff?
Yes. An employer can book places for its staff, or you can enrol its staff in bulk with an import and bill the employer separately. You can keep a record for the employer as an organisation. On Pro and Teams, you can also add a private course date, which is hidden from your public date lists and shared by link, and send invoices. See Offer Private Course Dates.
Can learners get access to a course without paying?
Yes. A provider can give learners a place without an order or payment, one by one or many at once with an import. Their online lessons then open without a payment step, following the course’s schedule.
Can customers pay in instalments?
Yes. On every plan, you can offer Klarna at checkout through Stripe: Klarna decides who qualifies and handles the repayments, and the full price, less fees, is paid into your Stripe account. PayPal can also offer eligible customers its own Pay in 3. On Teams, you can also offer deposits and monthly instalments through Cademy.
Can I change my plan later?
Yes. A System Admin can change the plan under Settings, then Billing & Usage. On Custom & Enterprise, contact Cademy Support to change your agreement. See Manage Your Cademy Subscription and Billing.
I got an email “via Cademy”. Who sent it?
Your course provider. The provider uses Cademy to send booking and course emails, so its name is followed by “(via Cademy)”. To contact the provider, use the Contact Us tab on its Cademy website or the contact details in the email.
I booked a course. Did I pay Cademy?
You paid the course provider. Card, Klarna and PayPal payments go to the provider’s own Stripe or PayPal account, and an invoice paid by bank transfer goes straight to the provider’s bank account. If your checkout showed a Booking fee, that part is Cademy’s platform fee. For a receipt, an invoice or a refund, contact the course provider.
Can Cademy cancel my booking or give me a refund?
No. Only the course provider can cancel your booking or refund you, under its own cancellation policy. Contact the course provider.
Do I need a separate Cademy account for each course provider?
No. One Cademy account shows the courses you are attending across course providers. Log in with the email address used for the booking.
Can I get my data out of Cademy?
Yes. On every plan, a System Admin can export contacts, organisations, orders, invoices, payments and registrations as CSV files from the Admin Dashboard. See Export Data or Schedule an Export.
Can I run more than one business in Cademy?
Yes. One login can open more than one business account, and you can switch between them from the account menu. See Switch Between Course Provider Accounts.
How do I close my Cademy business account?
A System Admin can delete the business account in the Admin Dashboard, under Profile, then Delete Account. Deleting is permanent and cannot be undone. First export the records you want to keep and cancel any active learner membership subscriptions. If you only want to stop paying, you can move to the Free plan instead. See Permanently Delete Your Course Provider Account.