Maatos

What Maatos is

Maatos is a hosted course platform for creators who want to sell online courses from their own branded website instead of a marketplace. The company behind it is Maatos B.V., and its Dutch blog calls Maatos a Dutch platform designed for independent course makers who want to start without technical hassle but still want professional features. It runs an English site at maatos.com and a Dutch one at maatos.nl, and the English homepage sums up the offer as "Easily build your own platform to host and sell courses".

The idea is a division of labor. The creator brings the knowledge and the lessons; Maatos supplies the website, the course builder, the payment connection, the student administration and the hosting. A Maatos blog post on where to sell a course says this route suits entrepreneurs, trainers, coaches and educators who want to sell under their own name, with control over prices, look and the customer relationship, but without managing the technology. The same post is candid about the trade-off: on your own platform you usually pay a fixed monthly fee, and you have to bring in your own marketing and students. Maatos is the tool for the course you sell to your own audience, not a place where strangers browse a catalog.

Building the course and the site

The course builder takes video, audio, images, text and PDFs, according to the Dutch feature list, and the English homepage adds questions to the mix, so a module can end in a quiz. The Dutch blog describes the workflow as building modules, adding videos, uploading PDFs and setting quizzes. The English homepage calls it an "easy to use coursebuilder", and Maatos says it updates customer sites automatically "with the newest e-learning features", so a creator does not install upgrades or plugins.

The website around the courses is built with a drag and drop editor and a set of professional templates. The Dutch e-learning page promises a platform in "jouw kleuren, jouw logo, jouw tone of voice" (your colors, your logo, your tone of voice), and the Dutch homepage says a blog can be added to the site. Hosting, updates and security are handled by Maatos ("We host your data on a safe and fast infrastructure"), and the Dutch e-learning page says a first course can be uploaded and put on sale within minutes, with no developers involved.

Maatos is not limited to video courses. The homepage section titled "More than just an LMS" says: "Don't only sell courses. Also sell (digital) products, offline meetings or ship materials." The Dutch version adds that students can book offline trainings through the site. A coach can therefore put a workbook, a template pack or an in-person workshop next to the online course and sell all of it from one checkout.

Selling, payments and VAT

Maatos does not hold the creator's money. Creators connect their own Stripe or Mollie account, and payments land directly with them. The homepage says Maatos charges no commission and the creator works directly with Stripe, and the company's Stripe setup guide states that Maatos takes 0% platform commission, so the only fees are Stripe's or Mollie's own transaction fees. The Dutch homepage leads with iDEAL and Bancontact through the creator's own Mollie account, the Dutch blog lists iDEAL, Bancontact and credit card as ways customers pay, and the English guide adds Apple Pay, Google Pay and the local methods common in the buyer's country.

Tax is handled at checkout. The same guide says that on Maatos "VAT is calculated automatically and invoices go out to your buyers without you lifting a finger", and that the checkout shows a clean total. Refunds and disputes stay in the creator's own Stripe or Mollie dashboard, which the guide says plainly is the creator's job to manage.

On the selling side, the Dutch blog lists a built-in payment integration, discount codes, subscription options and a dashboard showing how each course performs. An English post on affiliate programs says the Complete plan adds an affiliate marketing system "alongside sales funnels, optimized checkout pages and upsells". It describes setting commission triggers such as a completed enrollment or a subscription renewal, product-specific conditions so a cheap course does not pay like a premium one, and order filters such as a minimum subtotal, all in the same place where the courses and payments live.

Students, certificates and marketing

The student side is a management overview. The English homepage says creators can "Monitor how users are using your courses" and get insights to improve them, and the Dutch homepage describes one overview in which you manage students, follow their progress and hand out certificates. The Dutch e-learning page lists course management, payments, email automation and certificates as part of the all-in-one package.

For marketing, the homepage promises "email-marketing and social-media integrations" and a student management system, and it frames the brand tools as a way to build a personal brand and grow a community. Integrations are presented as connections to other marketing tools; the pages do not name the specific tools.

Two customer stories appear on the homepage. Rory and Lotte of Ik Kies Jou write that "Creating a course exactly the way you want is very easy, and it’s also clear and enjoyable for students to follow." Sasja Bork of Schilder School says Maatos built the platform for its online drawing and painting courses, adding: "They also provided excellent support in migrating our existing courses."

Plans, trial and services

The English homepage offers 30 days of free access with no obligations. The Dutch e-learning page puts the price after that plainly: "Behoud jouw site vanaf €10 per maand na 30 dagen proefperiode" (keep your site from €10 a month after the 30-day trial period). That is the entry price; the affiliate post names a Complete plan that includes the affiliate system, funnels and upsells, and the pages do not give that plan's price.

For creators who would rather not build anything, Maatos sells a Quick Start Service ("You focus on your course, we build your platform"), also called the Done For You Service, and on the Dutch site the Opstartservice. The Stripe guide says this service builds the whole site, payments included, and hands it over ready to sell, and the Schilder School story shows it covering a migration of existing courses.

Support runs through a contact form, a bookable video call, an FAQ, a knowledge base and tutorials, and the Dutch blog says Maatos focuses on the Dutch market in language, support, payment methods and marketing advice. The Ik Kies Jou testimonial says "Every time we contact them, they are there for us." Maatos also runs its own affiliate program for people who recommend the platform, paying 30% recurring on every referred subscription with a 30-day cookie window.

Who it suits

Maatos fits independent coaches, trainers and course makers who sell to an audience they already have and want a site under their own brand. Creators whose buyers pay with iDEAL or Bancontact get those methods through Mollie without any custom setup, and automatic VAT and invoicing removes a real chore for anyone selling across borders in Europe. The 0% platform commission matters most to creators with steady sales, because the platform cost stays a fixed monthly fee rather than growing with revenue.

It also suits coaches with a mixed offer: a course, a downloadable product, an offline workshop and a subscription can sit in one store, and the Complete plan adds affiliates, funnels and upsells for creators ready to grow through partners. The done-for-you service makes it an option for someone who wants a finished platform handed over.

The caveat is the one Maatos states itself: there is no marketplace audience behind it, so a first-time creator with no mailing list or following has to bring in every student through their own marketing. The platform is built for selling courses to individuals; it is not presented as a tool for assigning training to employees inside a company.