Written by Abishek A, co-founder of Classory. Classory is our product. We have aimed to be fair to every platform mentioned, and we show where Udemy keeps more money in your pocket than we do.
If you're planning to sell an online course, the first decision is where to sell it. You can publish on a marketplace like Udemy, which already has learners searching for courses. Or you can sell from your own website, where you control the pricing, the branding and the customer relationship.
This guide compares the two across the things that actually change your outcome as a course creator in India, including the arithmetic most comparisons skip.
TL;DR
- Udemy pays 97% of Net Amount when a student buys through your own coupon or referral link, and 37% when Udemy brings the buyer (Udemy Support, checked 24 September 2026). Net Amount is what the student paid minus taxes and fees, such as the 30% Apple or Google cut on app purchases.
- If you drive your own traffic, Udemy's 3% cut is cheaper than any subscription platform until you're selling several tens of lakhs a year. The fee maths below shows the crossover.
- The real reasons to own your platform are not fee savings. They are price control, selling live batches and test series, bundling multiple products, and owning the student relationship.
- If you have no audience yet, Udemy's distribution is worth more than the 63% it takes on organic sales, because 37% of something beats 100% of nothing.
- Your own platform has a fixed cost that does not care how much you sell. Classory Pro is ₹7,499/month at launch price, ₹9,999/month after, plus 18% GST, with 0% commission when you connect your own Razorpay (classory.app/pricing).
- Many creators use both: Udemy for discovery and an owned platform for flagship programmes, cohorts and memberships.
Udemy vs your own website: what's the real difference?
Udemy is a marketplace. Your own website is an owned sales channel.
On Udemy, you operate inside someone else's shop. You get its learner base, its checkout, its reviews and its search traffic, and you accept its rules on price and promotion. On your own website, you control the experience and the customer, and you take full responsibility for bringing people there.
So the question isn't "which platform takes less money?" It's "which model fits the way I plan to find and serve students?"
What Udemy gives course creators
Distribution, mainly. A new instructor can publish without first building an ecommerce and learning stack. Udemy handles hosting, enrolment, payments, delivery, reviews, marketplace discovery, promotions and instructor reporting.
That matters because building a course and finding buyers are two different problems. A technically excellent course sells nothing if nobody knows it exists.
What you give up is control over the final price a learner sees, the sales environment, your branding, the customer relationship and how your revenue is calculated.
The money: what each model actually costs
Udemy does not use one universal percentage. For standard transactional sales:
| How the sale happened | Instructor share of Net Amount |
|---|
| Student used your coupon code or referral link | 97% |
| Udemy generated the sale, no instructor coupon or link | 37% |
| Udemy Business and Subscription programmes | Separate revenue-pool mechanism |
Source: Udemy instructor revenue share, checked 24 September 2026. Net Amount is the student payment minus applicable taxes and fees, including the 30% Apple or Google fee on app purchases. Percentages can change, so check the article and the Instructor Terms before you calculate anything.
An owned platform works differently: a fixed subscription, plus payment gateway charges, and no cut of the sale itself.
Worked example: ₹5,00,000 in annual course sales
Assumptions
- ₹5,00,000 in student payments over 12 months, before tax.
- Classory Pro at the launch price of ₹7,499/month = ₹89,988/year, with your own Razorpay connected (0% Classory commission). 18% GST is extra and is creditable if you're GST-registered; ask your CA.
- Payment gateway fee of 2%, applied to the owned-platform column only. That is Razorpay's standard rate for domestic payments, with 18% GST charged on the fee itself (razorpay.com/pricing, checked 26 September 2026).
- Marketing spend excluded from both sides, because it applies to both.
- Udemy figures use Net Amount as if it equalled the student payment, which slightly overstates Udemy's side.
| Route | What you keep on ₹5,00,000 |
|---|
| Udemy, all sales via your own coupon or referral link (97%) | ₹4,85,000 |
| Udemy, half your coupons, half Udemy organic (97% / 37%) | ₹3,35,000 |
| Udemy, all sales Udemy organic (37%) | ₹1,85,000 |
| Your own platform on Classory Pro, own Razorpay | ₹4,00,012 |
Read that table honestly, because the result is not the one a platform company usually prints.
If you bring your own traffic, Udemy wins on fees at this volume. You keep ₹4,85,000 there versus ₹4,00,012 on a subscription platform. Udemy takes 3% of coupon sales; a ₹89,988 subscription is effectively 18% of ₹5 lakh.
If Udemy brings the traffic, it's not close. ₹1,85,000 versus ₹4,00,012. That 63% is the price of discovery you didn't have to create.
So where does the subscription actually win on cost?
A percentage grows with your sales; a subscription doesn't. Compare Udemy's 3% on coupon sales with a fixed ₹89,988 plus the 2% gateway:
0.03 × Sales = 89,988 + 0.02 × Sales, so the two are equal at roughly ₹90 lakh in annual sales.
Below that, sending your own audience to Udemy with a coupon keeps more rupees. Above it, the fixed subscription wins.
That number should change how you think about this decision. If you're choosing an owned platform purely to save on fees, and you drive your own traffic, the maths does not support you until you're very large. The reasons to own a platform are different ones, and they're covered below.
See Course Platform Fees: Subscription vs Transaction for the same maths against Graphy and Learnyst.
Then why do creators leave Udemy?
Four reasons, none of them about the percentage.
1. You don't control the price. You set a list price, but Udemy's promotions and deal pricing decide what the learner actually pays, and marketplace courses are routinely discounted heavily. A marketplace built around low promotional prices is also a hard place to sell a ₹25,000 flagship programme.
2. You can only sell one shape of product. Recorded courses. If your business is live batches, cohort programmes, test series, memberships, doubt-clearing sessions or certificates, the marketplace model doesn't fit.
3. You don't own the student relationship. A learner who buys your ₹999 course on Udemy is Udemy's customer. On your own site, they're on your email list, and they can buy the ₹4,999 course next.
4. You can't bundle or build a ladder. Repeat purchases, upgrades and bundles are where course businesses make real money, and they need a storefront you control.
What an owned platform costs in India
Option 1: a SaaS platform. A monthly subscription and no code. Classory is one option: Hobby ₹1,499/month, Pro ₹7,499/month, Academy ₹14,999/month at launch prices (₹1,999 / ₹9,999 / ₹19,999 after), plus 18% GST, with the launch offer running until 31 December 2026 and locked for 12 months. Selling courses requires the Pro plan, which includes a custom domain, course and plan selling, and 0% commission on your sales when you connect your own Razorpay, or a flat 5% if Classory collects payments for you.
What Classory doesn't do yet, since it affects this decision: payments work in India only, through Razorpay in rupees, so it's the wrong choice if most of your buyers pay in dollars. There are no native iOS or Android apps; students use the web app in a mobile browser. Moving your existing students and content across is assisted, not one click. The full list is on classory.app/trust.
Option 2: self-hosted. Your own site plus LMS software, hosting, video and a gateway. More control, more maintenance.
Option 3: custom-built. Maximum flexibility, and you own the maintenance forever. See How Much Does It Cost to Build an Online Course Platform in India?
When Udemy is the right answer
- You're launching your first course and have no audience.
- You want to validate whether anyone wants this topic before investing.
- You want international learners without setting up international payments.
- You don't want to manage a platform at all.
- Your product is recorded courses at marketplace price points.
When your own website is the right answer
- You already have a YouTube, Instagram or WhatsApp audience, or an existing coaching business.
- You sell live batches, cohorts or test series, not just recorded video.
- You want to sell several products to the same students over time.
- You need price control, especially above typical marketplace prices.
- You want your own brand, domain and student database.
Remember: a course platform does not create demand. You still need content, community, referrals or paid acquisition.
Can you use both?
Yes, and many creators do, provided your pricing and promotion comply with Udemy's Instructor Terms. A common split is Udemy for an introductory recorded course that reaches new people, and your own platform for flagship programmes, live batches and memberships. Just be clear on why a learner would choose one over the other.
FAQ
Is Udemy better than selling courses on your own website?
It depends on where your students come from. Udemy gives you an existing marketplace; your own website gives you control over price, product range and the customer relationship. If you have no audience, Udemy's distribution is usually worth more than the revenue share it takes.
How much does Udemy take from each sale?
Udemy pays instructors 97% of Net Amount when the student buys through an instructor coupon or referral link, and 37% when the sale happens without one, as of September 2026. Udemy Business and Subscription programmes use a separate revenue-pool mechanism. Net Amount excludes taxes and fees such as the 30% Apple or Google app-store cut.
Is my own platform cheaper than Udemy?
Not automatically. If you drive your own traffic, Udemy's 3% cut on coupon sales is cheaper than a monthly subscription until you're selling roughly ₹90 lakh a year. An owned platform wins on control, product range and student ownership rather than on fees alone.
Can I sell the same course on Udemy and my own website?
Often yes, but check Udemy's current Instructor Terms on pricing and promotion first, and have a clear reason why a learner would buy one version rather than the other.
Does my own website mean I keep 100% of every sale?
No. You pay a platform subscription and payment gateway charges, and some platforms also take a percentage. Classory charges 0% commission when you connect your own Razorpay account and a flat 5% if it collects payments for you, on top of the plan price.
What if I don't have an audience yet?
Validate demand before investing in a platform. A marketplace, a social following, a community or a partnership can all prove people want the course. No platform will create that demand for you.
The real decision: distribution vs ownership
Stop comparing fee percentages and the decision gets clearer.
Udemy sells distribution. You pay for it with revenue share, price control and the customer relationship. Your own website sells ownership. You pay for it with a fixed cost and full responsibility for finding students.
If you're starting from zero, distribution is your problem. If you already have demand and want to sell more than one recorded course to the same people, ownership is worth more than the fee arithmetic suggests.
And it isn't permanent. Plenty of creators start on a marketplace and move once they have an audience worth owning.
Starting your own academy? See Classory's plans: ₹7,499/month at launch price for course selling, 0% commission with your own Razorpay, India-only payments for now.
Continue reading
Sources
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.
