Good to know that you want to estimate the cost to build an app like Byju’s. Having built quite a few apps similar to them, I can help you with your query. It looks like you’ve reached the right page to know everything about e-learning apps.
Your intention is correct. If there is one industry that was dramatically transformed by the effect of Covid-19, it is Education. Since the pandemic outbreak in March 2020, smartphones have replaced our classrooms. Every educational institution and tutor began to adopt e-learning apps to continue teaching their students. Can you imagine what would have happened if e-learning apps didn’t exist?
Well, it’s a great decision to build an online educational app for your organization or yourself. In this article, we will discuss the factors that determine the cost to build such an app as Byju’s or Toppr. I assume you are not going to code this app yourself and you need to hire a product development company based in India to build it for you.
Byjus App has over 50,000,000 downloads on Google Play, whereas for Toppr it is over 10,000,000. These figures confirm the huge market potential for e-learning apps.
What is the purpose of an e-learning app? “To help students learn” – right? Well, that may not be enough. Helping students learn better is definitely the prime goal. But there are several other features and components that make the app more useful.
For example, the Content Management System (CMS) to create and manage the learning materials. Depending on the person who manage the content, (It can either be the in-house staff or independent teachers), we need to decide the level of flexibility needed for the CMS.
Then you need to decide on the revenue model. How are you going to make money out of this app? Is it subscription-based or do you plan to charge a one-time fixed price for every course as in Udemy?
When you think about an e-learning app, it is not just one single application. There will be a mobile app for the student, another app for the teachers, then one for the administrators. It completely depends on your business model.
Now, the number of features, personalization, refinement of design and user experience and several other things matter.
Always remember the fact that, apps like Byju’s and Toppr evolved over a period of several years and spent millions to reach where they are now. It is not rational to expect your app to be like that in the initial stage. Because, doesn’t that simply violates law of conservation of
energysomething?
I explained all these just to give you a hint that it is not easy to ask someone – “How much does it cost to build an app like Byjus?” The direct answer would be – anywhere from $1000 (for a cheap rip-off) to $100000 (for a project that needs an expert team, and several months to build a highly scalable, well-refined app)
For this article, we will assume you are just starting up, and therefore you have two priorities –
Like we discussed above, you should be thinking about the specific features of your e-learning product. We’ll learn about different apps and features for each of them.
This is the primary app and the face of your e-learning product. Therefore, more than 60% of the budget will be spent to develop this app. Let’s see what are some of the essential features for learner app –
Make it really simple for a user to start using your app once downloaded. A mobile number and SMS-based OTP login are the easiest. There doesn’t even have to be a separate Login and Sign-Up feature. Instead, it can be simple OTP-based access with the exception of an extra data capture step for first-time users.
The growth of apps like TikTok, and Instagram Reels confirm the wide acceptance of video content. It is in fact the best form of content to teach someone. Make sure to make the videos short, and split them into topics and chapters.
Once you have a lot of content, it will become increasingly difficult for the learners to find the content they want. Also, the app should allow learners to quickly return to the topic they were reading.
Learning is not complete if you cannot assess yourself. So, an e-learning app needs to present exercises to learners after every lesson or chapter. It can be simple multiple selection questions (MCQs) or even interactive exercises that looks like mini-games depending on your target user’s age group.
If an exercise or assignment is due, or if the learner hasn’t finished a topic they started, notification is the best way to alert a user and bring him back to the app.
Learning without sharing is inefficient. The e-learning app should have a community forum to ask and collaborate with other learners. Also, having a one-on-one chat module with the instructor would add a lot of value to your app.
If your app has paid content, allow the users to subscribe quickly, in a few steps, using a payment gateway like Razorpay or Stripe.
Even though the target user of the student app is learners, depending on their age group, parents can use it to track their children’s progress too.
Having a teacher app is optional and it depends on your business model. Think about it this way – Who are the content creators of your platform. Is it you, or do you plan to build a marketplace model where any qualified instructor can create content?
Depending on the use case, the teacher app can either be a mobile app, or a web-based dashboard or both. Always remember that each decision like this can affect the cost to build an app like byju’s.
Student Progress Card – As a teacher, they would be interested in reviewing the progress of their students. So, it is essential to have a detailed progress card for each student under the teacher.
Content Management System (CMS) – If your business model allows teachers to create course content, then it is very important to invest in an easy-to-use CMS. Content creation, and classifying them into topics/chapters etc is a difficult task and it needs focus and attention. So, if you provide them with a complex dashboard, it can be irritating.
Chat & Discussion Forum – This is where teachers can reply to one-on-one chat messages sent by students and parents.
You, being the product owner needs to have complete control over each and everything on the app. For example, you need to manage the users, parents, teachers. Also, you want to review the content, monitor the community forms, block or remove spammy users etc.
For this, there should a web-based admin dashboard (or the platform management dashboard) with the following features.
Content Management System (CMS) – If your business model allows admins to create course content, then it is very important to invest in an easy-to-use CMS, just like we explained before.
User Management – Manage all users in the app, track their activities, manage their subscription, enable/disable account etc.
View Financial Reports – You can get this information from the payment gateway provider, but still it is better to have basic reporting on your dashboard to show the figure of paid vs free users, revenue etc.
Discounts & Promo – When you start building the e-learning app business, giving discounts and offers is one of the best ways to attract users.
This is another important topic to consider, especially if you’re on a budget. The best approach to this problem would be to analyze your target customers. Based on the geography or your target customer, you would get an idea about the usage statistics from a website like Statista. We’ve already written a blog on this topic and you can read it here – Android or iOS: Which platform should you develop first?
I haven’t forgotten the fact that you came to this page to know the cost to build an e-learning app like byju’s or toppr. But I wanted to give you an idea about the features of the app before discussing the price because estimating the price is more difficult than you imagine. It depends on a lot (really a lot) of factors.
I’ll estimate the cost based on some common approaches, and assuming that you are working with a team in India. Definitely, the cost differs by factors of at least 2X when the geography changes due to several factors such as salary, availability of talent, cost of living etc.
At Logidots, we have built early stage e-learning apps like Byjus for less than $15000 and also we’ve worked with companies who’ve spent over $100K on app development. So it really depends on your requirements, and the budget.
Again, the cost I mentioned in this article is based on the standard Indian developer rates. It is different if you hire a product development company from the US or Europe or any other location.
USA: $80-120+/hr
India: $15–25+/hr
Europe: $30 – 90+/hr
The cost to build an app like Byju’s or Toppr is not a simple topic with a straightforward answer. App development is a long complex process involving a lot of skilled people. It needs a lot of planning, experimentations, trials, and validations before it becomes successful. Thinking about building a highly successful and scalable app like Byju’s overnight is definitely overkill for a small startup and that’s what I’ve been trying to explain throughout the article. Instead, you need to plan and build the e-learning app step by step, with an experienced team of designers and developers. Who knows, one day, your app might become the next Byju’s.
Logidots is product development company based in India that primarily works with startup founders, and digital decision makers of fortune 1000 companies to turn their ideas into beautiful apps & products. This article is written from our experience in helping several early stage startups develop their e-learning apps. If you have an idea that can revolutionize elearning industry, you might be interested in our e-learning app development services.
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