Written by Abishek A, co-founder of Classory. Classory is our product. We have aimed to be fair to every platform mentioned, and we say where others are cheaper or stronger.
Only one of the three routes has a price you can look up today. A SaaS subscription in India is published and small: Learnyst's Essential plan is ₹3,499 per month, Classory Pro is ₹7,499 per month at launch price, and Graphy Launch is ₹24,999 per year plus 10% per sale, all as of September 2026. A custom build and a self-hosted open-source install have no published price, because both are quoted per project and both carry running costs that never stop.
This post does not invent a number for a custom build. It gives the verified SaaS prices, and a cost checklist you fill in with your own written quotes.
TL;DR
- Three routes, not one: a custom build, an open-source self-hosted install, and a SaaS subscription. Only the third has a published price.
- Published Indian SaaS prices, as of September 2026: Learnyst Essential ₹3,499/month (Learnyst advertises zero transaction fees), Classory Pro ₹7,499/month at launch price (₹9,999 standard), Graphy Launch ₹24,999/year plus 10% per sale or ₹10, whichever is higher. GST at 18% is extra.
- No reliable public figure exists for a custom build or for hosting. Replace every such line with three written, itemised quotes of your own.
- A custom build means you own maintenance forever: security patches, gateway API changes, device and browser breakage, and video costs that rise with every student.
- The largest hidden cost is the founder's own time. Six months specifying and testing a build is six months not spent teaching, recording or selling.
- A custom build is right in narrow cases: the platform itself is the product, a hard requirement rules out every vendor, or you already employ the engineers.
- Compare subscription plus commission, not subscription alone. Classory Pro becomes cheaper than Graphy Launch above roughly ₹6.5 lakh of annual sales at launch price; below that, Graphy Launch is cheaper.
How much does it cost to build an online course platform in India?
Anywhere from a few thousand rupees a month to several lakh upfront, depending on which route you take. The three routes are not variations of one thing; they have different cost shapes, different risks and different owners of the ongoing work.
| Route | Cost shape | Who maintains it | Is there a published price? |
|---|
| A. Custom build | Large one-time development cost, then permanent running and maintenance cost | You, forever | No, quoted per project |
| B. Open-source self-hosted (Moodle-type) | ₹0 licence, plus hosting, setup and a maintainer | You, forever | Licence only (₹0) |
| C. SaaS subscription | Fixed monthly or annual fee, no maintenance | The vendor | Yes |
Every custom-build and hosting line below is left for your own quotes, because no reliable public rupee figures exist for them.
Where does the "₹10 to 15 lakh" number come from?
From agency quotes for custom LMS development, repeated secondhand until it sounds like a fact. It is not a price. It is the top of a scoping range that depends entirely on how many features were in the brief.
Collect at least three written, itemised quotes against your own specific scope, and treat any single figure you read online, including that one, as unconfirmed.
The number only matters if a custom build is the only route you know about. Most Indian course creators who think they need a ₹10 to 15 lakh build actually need a branded storefront, video delivery, a checkout and access control, which is what a SaaS subscription is.
Route A: what goes into a custom build?
A custom build is not one cost, it is six. Leaving any out of the scope is how an accepted quote turns into a project that costs several times more.
| Cost line | What it covers | How to price it |
|---|
| Development | Design, frontend, backend, admin panel, student dashboard, QA | Written quotes from at least three Indian agencies |
| Video infrastructure | Encoding, adaptive streaming, storage, bandwidth, DRM or signed URLs, watermarking | Your video provider's published rates. It scales with students and is never one-time |
| Payments integration | Gateway integration, refunds, invoices, subscriptions or instalments, reconciliation | Build effort from the agency, plus the gateway's own rate (Razorpay's standard is 2% per domestic transaction plus GST on the fee) |
| Hosting and infrastructure | Servers, database, CDN, backups, staging environment | Cloud quotes sized for your expected concurrent learners |
| Maintenance and security | Patches, dependency upgrades, penetration testing, uptime monitoring, bug fixes | An annual retainer, quoted in writing before you sign |
| Compliance and tax | Invoicing, records, refund handling | Information only: confirm your obligations with a chartered accountant |
Assumptions
- No rupee figure is stated for any custom-build line because none can be verified publicly. Ask for every quote in writing, itemised.
- Video is the line that surprises people: a recurring cost proportional to minutes watched, not a one-time build cost.
- Maintenance is usually quoted separately from development. Ask for the annual figure before you sign.
- Indian SaaS subscriptions are quoted exclusive of GST at 18%; exclude it from all comparisons or include it in all.
Route B: what does open-source self-hosted actually cost?
The licence is ₹0. Everything that makes it usable is not. Moodle and similar software download free from moodle.org, and then you pay for:
- Hosting: a server sized for your peak concurrent learners, plus database and backups. Get quotes for your expected load.
- Setup and configuration: installation, theme, payment plugin, email delivery, SSL, domain. Indian Moodle partners quote this as a one-time job.
- Video: an open-source LMS is not a video platform. You still need encoding, streaming and protection, at your video provider's rates.
- Plugins: payment gateways, exam tools and certificates often come from third parties, some paid, some unmaintained.
- Upgrades and a maintainer: major versions break plugins and themes, and an unpatched LMS becomes a security problem. Budget for someone on retainer.
Open source is good value in one situation: an institution that already employs technical staff and needs deep customisation or on-premise data control. For a solo creator it is a custom build wearing a cheaper hat: you still own maintenance forever, without a purpose-built sales funnel.
Route C: what does a SaaS subscription cost in India?
The only route with published prices. Three Indian platforms, from their own pricing pages.
| Platform and plan | Subscription | Commission per sale | Annual subscription cost |
|---|
| Learnyst Essential | ₹3,499/month | Learnyst advertises zero transaction fees | ₹41,988/year |
| Classory Hobby | ₹1,499/month launch (₹1,999 standard) | Not applicable: selling courses requires the Pro plan | ₹17,988/year at launch price |
| Classory Pro | ₹7,499/month launch (₹9,999 standard) | 0% with your own Razorpay; flat 5% if Classory collects | ₹89,988/year at launch price |
| Classory Academy | ₹14,999/month launch (₹19,999 standard) | 0% with your own Razorpay; flat 5% if Classory collects | ₹1,79,988/year at launch price |
| Graphy Launch | ₹24,999/year | 10% per sale or ₹10, whichever is higher | ₹24,999/year |
| Graphy Grow | ₹49,999/year | 7.5% per sale or ₹10 | ₹49,999/year |
| Graphy Rise | ₹99,999/year | 5% per sale or ₹10 | ₹99,999/year |
Assumptions
- Prices from classory.app/pricing, graphyapp.in/pricing and learnyst.com/pricing, all checked 26 September 2026.
- GST at 18% is extra on Indian SaaS subscriptions and excluded from every figure here.
- Classory launch pricing ends 31 December 2026, locked for 12 months once taken. Learnyst also publishes higher INR tiers at ₹8,999, ₹14,999 and ₹49,999 per month.
- Annual figures are the monthly price × 12. Commission is separate and scales with sales: at ₹10,00,000 of annual sales a 10% model costs ₹1,00,000 alone.
- A payment gateway fee applies on all three routes including a custom build, so it does not change the ranking.
What matters is subscription plus commission. Classory Pro becomes cheaper than Graphy Launch above roughly ₹6.5 lakh of annual sales at launch price, and above roughly ₹9.5 lakh at the standard ₹9,999 per month price. Below that, Graphy Launch is cheaper. And Learnyst Essential at ₹41,988 per year, with zero transaction fees advertised, is cheaper on fees alone than Classory Pro at every level in that range. 0% commission is not unique to Classory. Workings: course platform transaction fees and Graphy pricing in India.
One more comparison before you spend anything: if you drive your own traffic, a marketplace may beat all three routes. Udemy pays instructors 97% of Net Amount on sales made through an instructor coupon or referral link, a 3% cut, as of September 2026. The maths is in Udemy vs your own website.
Total cost of ownership over 3 years: a checklist you fill in
Do not trust anyone's three-year total, including ours. Here is the structure instead. Fill each line from your own quotes and sales forecast, then total the columns.
| Cost line (3 years) | A. Custom build | B. Self-hosted open source | C. SaaS subscription |
|---|
| Licence / software | ₹0 | ₹0 (Moodle licence is free) | Published price × 36 months, e.g. Classory Pro at launch price = ₹2,69,964 |
| One-time build or setup | ₹ ______ (three written agency quotes) | ₹ ______ (Moodle partner setup quote) | ₹0 |
| Hosting, database, CDN, backups | ₹ ______ × 36 (cloud quotes at your load) | ₹ ______ × 36 | Included |
| Video encoding, storage, bandwidth | ₹ ______ (provider rates; scales with minutes watched) | ₹ ______ | Included up to the plan allowance; metered above it |
| Payment gateway fees | Same on all three routes | Same | Same |
| Platform commission on sales | ₹0 | ₹0 | 0% with your own Razorpay on Classory; 5% if Classory collects; 10% / 7.5% / 5% on Graphy tiers; Learnyst advertises zero |
| Maintenance and security retainer | ₹ ______ × 3 years (ask in writing) | ₹ ______ × 3 years | ₹0 |
| Upgrades and breakage fixes | ₹ ______ (recurring, unpredictable) | ₹ ______ (major versions break plugins) | ₹0 |
| Your own hours, valued | ______ hours × your hourly rate | ______ hours × your hourly rate | ______ hours × your hourly rate (much smaller) |
| Cost of launching late | ______ months of lost sales | ______ months of lost sales | Days, not months |
| 3-year total | ₹ ______ | ₹ ______ | ₹ ______ |
Assumptions
- Only the SaaS column contains a real number, and only on the subscription line: ₹7,499 × 36 = ₹2,69,964 at Classory Pro launch price (classory.app/pricing, checked 26 September 2026). Launch pricing ends 31 December 2026 and is locked for 12 months, so a three-year projection assumes a renewal price you should confirm first.
- Every blank is blank on purpose. No reliable public data exists for Indian custom-build, hosting or video costs, and inventing a total would be worse than leaving it empty.
- GST at 18% is extra on Indian SaaS subscriptions and excluded throughout. Input credit depends on your registration, so ask a CA.
- Commission belongs in the total only once you have a sales forecast: forecast annual sales × rate × 3.
Two rules keep this honest. Every blank you cannot fill is a risk, not a zero; an unfilled maintenance line is the commonest reason build budgets overrun. And fill in the last two rows before you compare totals, because they are usually the largest numbers on the page.
The cost line people forget: your own time, and maintenance that never ends
A custom build takes months of your attention: writing specifications, reviewing builds, testing on real devices, chasing fixes, re-testing. During those months you are a project manager, not an educator.
Value it honestly. If you could earn from teaching, recording or selling in that period, the opportunity cost is real money, and for a solo creator it usually exceeds every line item in the quote. Add the delay: a platform that launches five months late has five months of sales that never happened.
Then there is the part that appears in no quote. The day the build is delivered, a permanent obligation begins:
- Security patches. Dependencies get vulnerabilities, and an unpatched platform holding student payment records is a serious problem.
- Gateway and third-party API changes. Payment gateways deprecate endpoints. Checkout stops working until someone fixes it.
- Browser and device breakage. A new iOS or Android release can break video playback. Students will tell you before monitoring does.
- Video and bandwidth bills that grow. Every new student adds minutes watched. This cost rises with success.
- Key-person risk. The developer who wrote it moves on. The next one needs weeks to understand a codebase nobody documented.
A subscription converts all of that into one predictable line item. That is what you are buying: not features, but the transfer of the maintenance obligation.
When a custom build IS the right call
This post is not an argument that nobody should build. Three situations make building correct.
1. The platform is the product. You are launching an edtech company, not selling your own courses. Your differentiator is the software and you intend to sell or licence it. Renting someone else's product makes no sense here.
2. A hard requirement rules out every vendor. A genuine data-residency or on-premise mandate, an integration with an internal ERP or student information system no vendor supports, a regulated assessment workflow, or an unusual entitlement model. The test: the requirement is written down by someone who can veto the purchase. It is not a preference.
3. You already employ the engineers. An institution with an in-house technical team and a maintenance budget is redirecting an existing cost, not adding a new one. The marginal cost of building is far lower than the quotes suggest.
A practical test: write down the three things your platform must do that no existing product does. If you cannot fill all three lines with specifics, you do not need a custom build. Even in cases 1 and 3, many teams launch on SaaS first, then build once they know exactly what to build.
Everyone else divides cleanly. Choose SaaS if your product is teaching rather than software: a branded storefront, video delivery, a checkout and access control are standard features, not a differentiator worth building. Choose open-source self-hosted if you are an institution with in-house technical staff or a data-residency requirement, and budget for a maintainer from day one. The case for owning the commercial relationship without owning the code is in why build your own online course platform.
Where another platform is the better choice
Learnyst is cheaper on subscription. Its Essential plan is ₹3,499 per month, or ₹41,988 a year, and Learnyst advertises zero transaction fees, as of September 2026. On fees alone that is less than half of Classory Pro.
Graphy is cheaper for small sellers and ships apps. Graphy Launch at ₹24,999 a year plus 10% per sale costs less in total than Classory Pro at launch price below roughly ₹6.5 lakh of annual sales, and includes a branded Android app on its paid plans, with iOS as a paid add-on on Rise.
Classory is one option to price against a build if your programme involves cohorts, batches, exams and certificates rather than only recorded video. Pro is ₹7,499 per month at launch price with 0% commission on your own Razorpay. Its limits are real: payments are India-only, there are no native iOS or Android apps, migration is assisted rather than one-click, and there is no published case study with numbers yet (classory.app/trust).
See the plan breakdown and the 0% vs 5% fee choice at classory.app/pricing.
FAQ
How much does it cost to build a custom LMS in India?
There is no single published figure, because custom LMS work is quoted per project against your specific scope. Get at least three written, itemised quotes covering development, video infrastructure, payments, hosting and an annual maintenance retainer. Any quote omitting video costs or ongoing maintenance is incomplete, and those two lines are where budgets overrun.
Is Moodle really free?
The software licence is free and Moodle can be downloaded at no cost. Running it is not free: you pay for hosting, setup and theming, a video solution, some plugins, version upgrades that can break those plugins, and a person or agency to maintain and patch it. Open source suits institutions with technical staff rather than solo creators.
What is the cheapest way to sell online courses in India?
A marketplace if you have no audience, or an entry-tier SaaS subscription if you do. As of September 2026, Learnyst's Essential plan is ₹3,499 per month and Graphy Launch is ₹24,999 per year plus 10% per sale. Selling courses on Classory requires the Pro plan at ₹7,499 per month launch price. GST is extra on all of them.
Should I build my own platform or subscribe to one?
Subscribe unless the platform itself is your business, a written requirement rules out every vendor, or you already employ engineers who will maintain it. A subscription launches in days and transfers the maintenance obligation to the vendor; a build launches in months and gives that obligation to you permanently.
How do I compare three-year costs across the routes?
Build a line-by-line checklist rather than trusting a headline total: licence, build or setup, hosting, video, gateway fees, commission, maintenance retainer, upgrades, your own hours at your rate, and the cost of launching months late. Fill each blank from your own written quotes. Any line you cannot fill is a risk, not a zero.
Does GST apply to course platform subscriptions in India?
Indian SaaS platforms typically quote prices exclusive of GST. Classory lists 18% GST as extra on all plans, as of September 2026. Whether you can claim input credit depends on your registration status and turnover. This is information, not tax advice, so confirm your position with a chartered accountant.
Continue reading
Sources
- Classory, pricing, plan limits, launch-price end date and commission model: https://classory.app/pricing/ (checked 26 September 2026)
- Classory, current limitations: https://classory.app/trust/ (checked 26 September 2026)
- Graphy, pricing (Launch, Grow, Rise): https://graphyapp.in/pricing/ (checked 26 September 2026)
- Learnyst, pricing and zero transaction fee claim: https://www.learnyst.com/pricing (checked 26 September 2026)
- Udemy, instructor revenue share (97% coupon / 37% organic): https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229605008 (checked 24 September 2026)
- Moodle, open-source LMS: https://moodle.org/ (licence is free; hosting and maintenance costs vary by provider)
- Razorpay, payment gateway pricing: https://razorpay.com/pricing/ (2% per successful domestic transaction plus 18% GST on the fee; checked 26 September 2026)
- Custom development and hosting costs in India: no reliable public source exists. Replace every such line with your own written, itemised quotes.
Pricing and platform terms change. Verify current prices and terms before making a decision. Tax treatment depends on your circumstances, so consult a chartered accountant.
