Udemy Clone: How to Create an E-learning Platform like Udemy?

Udemy is one of the largest American MOOC sites oriented on the e-learning sector. The provider of massive open online courses operates on the principle of an open market, where any user can register and start selling. Such sites prove in practice that although online training has not yet found its business model, there are already some successes in this area. In our article, we will take a closer look at how e-learning sites work, and how to create a clone of the Udemy site - a platform that can attract a large flow of sellers and clients for training in general and highly focused courses.

Udemy business model: site features

The essence of the Udemy platform is to provide access to the platform where you can conclude deals by selling created courses on various topics. For each sale of a course, the site charges a certain amount of commission, which is one of the ways developers earn money. The business model of the site is straightforward - each user is allowed to register a personal account and create an online course. After it is posted on the site, all users begin to see it, after payment, part of the money goes to the developers, and the seller takes the rest. On the example of Udemy, you can see that many users are ready to pay even for expensive courses, the main thing is that the material contained in them is worthwhile.



The e-learning field is still unstable, it is gradually developing, attracting more and more attention from entrepreneurs and developers. There are many Udemy clones out there today. There are completely copied sites with all functions, similar design and terms of cooperation, and there are projects that have taken only some working chips from large services.



You shouldn't get hung up on software when developing a website in the online learning category. Better to focus all your energies on creating a business model that is not only effective, but can easily scale in the future. E-learning trends change almost daily. Today this market is dominated by Udacity, edX, Coursera, which decided to transfer their video courses, lectures and other materials to electronic format. The best educational institutions in the countries of the world develop their own websites and provide access to knowledge to a large number of users. All similar platforms are combined in a similar format:

• each training course is 5-10 weeks long;


• by purchasing a course, the user receives a load of 2 to 10 hours per week;


• after each passed topic or stage of training, the user must complete the task to assess the understanding of the topic;


• during the chosen course it is supervised by a teacher to whom you can ask questions;


• after completing the course, an exam is required.

The presented training model is effective. Even without external stimulation, the user completes tasks, since he paid for obtaining new skills and knowledge.

Udemy business model is based on the described service offering format, but it also operates as an open marketplace. This form gave the developers the opportunity to constantly develop and improve.

Features and main functions

Features of the site for selling Udemy courses are in several points. The user is not required to independently promote their product. The promotion algorithm on the platform is created in such a way that the site itself gives users courses suitable for their requests, while it recommends even unknown and new programs. A large number of search parameters are also highlighted. Since the site offers more than 100,000 courses, the site search was developed taking into account all the nuances (course duration, cost, direction, program search).

Any e-learning platform should have 3 main roles, which are distributed among three types of users: students, teachers, and administrator. The student's role is reduced to paying for the course, studying it, completing the assignment and obtaining a certificate. The teacher (instructor) should design and deliver online courses, as well as follow the progress of user training by answering their questions. The role of the administrator is reduced to managing the site and monitoring all transactions, he intervenes in any conflict situations and resolves them.

Choosing a niche and target audience

To create an e-learning project, you must initially select a site specialization. You can promote 1-2 main course categories or create a multifunctional portal that brings together the hottest eLearning topics. With a small budget and little experience in site management, you should choose to create a highly focused platform. This will help you get the most out of your initial investment. After a successful launch, it will gradually expand, attracting new teachers and clients. Global giants like Amazon, Google or Microsoft started from the bottom, gradually expanding their sphere of influence.

Additionally, it is important to understand which audience to target. It must be hungry for knowledge and financially be able to pay. It is better to start creating a project by choosing a popular niche and make it even more specialized - for example, teaching web design for students.

Promotions: the key to success for sellers, but a headache for administrators on e-learning sites

Attracting more students to the site requires not only displaying courses on attractive topics, but also properly evaluating them. Many sellers deliberately cut costs or even give out the course for free to first users in order to get a high rating. You must admit that the expectations from the $ 15 training are completely different than from the $ 150 course.

Promotions become bait - they need to be sold correctly. When building a site like Udemy, it's important to keep track of the instructors (sellers) and check the quality of the courses they provide. If the training is of poor quality, then developers and administrators will have problems - people will begin to complain about the quality of the material and demand a refund.

Choosing the type of platform to create a Udemy clone

Developing a clone site requires choosing the right platform. The original e-learning platform is based on MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses). This site model resembles larger marketplaces such as Amazon or Ebay. On such a site, any teacher, university, government or freelancer can upload their own teaching materials, sell them to a group of students, and then advise them and bring them to graduation.

You can also use the LMS (Learning Management System) platform type. On such a site, it will be possible to develop, upload, save courses and prepare reports on work. Today there are over 700 LMS sites. They are most often used for corporate training.

Development of a monetization model

The key when building an e-learning website is to develop the right monetization strategy. One of the main sources of income on such platforms will be a commission on each course sold - a single percentage is set for each payment. Additionally, you can use the following methods:

• adding paid content - special offers and tools are created that can be used after making a one-time payment or monthly payment;


• division of all courses into initial and advanced, where the latter will be paid;


• adding advertising banners to the site, which are paid by clients; you can also add ad blocking function and make it paid;


• development of coupons that provide a discount on certain tools or courses - you can attract new customers with their help.

It is important to maintain a balance between free and paid services. With such a strategy, it will be possible to constantly warm up the interest of customers and push them to take certain actions.

The difference in cost between different approaches when creating an Udemy clone

The Udemy website was developed in 2010. To create it, the programming languages PHP and Python were used. The platform type was chosen by MOOC. Nginx became the web server for this site. As for the search engine, it was developed on the basis of Elasticsearch, and MySQL is used as a database. In order to create a full-fledged clone of the site, you need to use the same programs, but it is important to understand that far from small sums were invested in the development of such a project.

In order to create a clone, you can use free platforms to create a website and try to develop it yourself - this is an effective way for developers without start-up capital. If you have at least a small budget, then you should already contact the masters who are versed in platform development. On the Internet you can find tutorials on how to create pages, as well as many offers from agencies and freelancers.