How to Build a Skillshare-Like Online Learning Platform?

Planning to create a powerful online learning community like Skillshare? You can build a passionate community around anything from creative design to technology, deliver quality content, and monetize from it. All you need is a profitable niche and the right business model to get started!

Good news: You don’t need to write a single line of code. It’s entirely possible to launch your Skillshare-like platform within a few days without coding skills, thanks to ready-made clone scripts.

Key Takeaways:

• Skillshare is a subscription-based learning platform offering video courses across diverse niches, including design, photography, art, and technology. 
• The platform focuses on project-based learning, community engagement, and collaboration. 
• Subscriptions, payment integration, community, reviews and ratings, and analytics are key features for building a platform like Skillshare. 
• To make a Skillshare-like platform, choose a niche & business model, research the market, design a user-friendly website, pick the right platform, launch and market your platform. 
• The cost to build a Skillshare clone is $40,000 to $60,000, approximately, with a timeline of 6-12 months. However, ready-made clone scripts like Pinlearn cut down the development costs and reduce the time-to-market to a few days.

What is SkillShare? How Does It Work?

Skillshare is a subscription-based learning platform offering video courses for design, photography, art, technology, business, etc., taught by industry experts. The platform focuses on project-based learning, collaboration, and community connections. 

So, who can use Skillshare? The platform is ideal for creators, designers, writers, freelancers, or anyone learning a skill without the need for certification.

How Does It Work?

Skillshare operates on a subscription model. The platform offers free membership (limited access), premium membership (unlimited access) and also a 7-day free trial.

For Students:

1. Students get unlimited access to all the courses on the platform by enrolling with the monthly or annual plans.
2. They can watch videos at their own pace, complete projects and get feedback from instructors and peers.
3. Additionally, they can also purchase digital products, 1-on-1 sessions or live workshops beyond subscriptions. The Creative Feed is a new feature offering a dedicated space for students to interact with peers and instructors they follow.  

For Instructors:

1. Instructors can join the platform, create courses, manage classes and interact with students.
2. They are paid based on the minutes watched in the classes and community engagement. Additionally, instructors can also earn from new learner referrals.

Key Features to Build a Skillshare-Like Platform

Skillshare connects instructors to curious learners by offering high-quality courses and tutorials.

Let’s explore the features for building a Skillshare-like online platform:

Learner Features

• User-Friendly Interface: Design a clean, intuitive interface with easy sign-ups, video transcripts, and smooth navigation.
• Course Discovery & Filters: Learners can explore an extensive course catalog with effortless search and filters like classes, levels, duration, etc.
• Subscription & Secure Payments: Set up a secure payment system with Stripe, Wise, and PayPal to accept payments and allow learners to enroll in courses.
• 1-on-1 Live Classes: Learners can access live sessions or 1-on-1 classes with instructors using Zoom.
• Community & Collaboration: Offer dedicated community spaces where students can interact, get tutor feedback and collaborate on projects.
• Reviews and Ratings: This helps learners to rate the quality of classes and interactions with instructors.
• Recommendations: Include a course recommendation section based on the learner’s preferences and viewing history.
• Offline Viewing/Mobile Access: Learners can download course videos on their mobile and watch them later, even without an internet connection.

Instructor Features

• Course Creation Tools: Provide video editing and course creation tools for instructors to simplify workflows and curate quality content.
• Payouts: Set up an efficient payout system processing monthly or weekly payouts based on minutes of classes watched and referrals.
• Communication: Create dedicated forums and project sections where instructors can respond to comments and review projects.
• Earning Analytics: Help instructors to view their class data, such as minutes watched, engagement, earnings and even referral history from the dashboard.

Admin Features

• User & Instructor Management: Admin can add, modify and manage learner and teacher profiles. Further, the admin can verify teacher profiles and approve payouts once they start creating content.
• Revenue & Commissions: A comprehensive admin dashboard gives a bird’s eye view of earnings, the best earning revenue segment and commissions.
• Content Management & Moderation: Set platform guidelines for inappropriate content or formats and possible regulatory action.

Related: Key Features for a Website Like Udemy

How to Create a Website Like Skillshare in 7 Steps?

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a website like Skillshare:

Step 1: Define a Profitable Niche

Don’t build a “generic subscription marketplace.” Instead, target a niche or audience segment.

Here are examples of top niches for Skillshare-style platforms:

• Business & entrepreneurship
• Creative design & art
• Software, Technology & AI
• Photography & Video Creation

When you narrow down your niche, you can tailor your platform message, branding and marketing strategy accordingly.

Step 2: Conduct Market Research

Perform thorough analysis of market trends, audience behavior and competitors. This helps to identify the gap and scale your business by addressing audiences’ pain points. Study your competitor’s features, pricing, course categories and marketing tactics.

Step 3: Determine a Suitable Business Model

Before you move on to development, choose a viable business model for your platform. That’s how your platform operates and earns revenue. Subscription, freemium, pay-per-course, and advertising are the top business models. This way, you have all the key growth levers for turning your vision into a reality.

Step 4: Design a User-Friendly Skillshare-like Website

Choose a simple yet professional and powerful design. Include clean layouts, easy navigation, visual hierarchy, progress tracking and effective CTAs. A thoughtful design minimizes the learning curve for users and instructors.

Step 5: Choose the Right Development Platform

There are two ways to build your platform: Building from scratch and ready-made clone scripts. Custom development is time-consuming and expensive. Using ready-made clone scripts like Pinlearn reduces the overall development cost and helps you to launch your platform in 5-6 days.

Step 6: Define Instructor & Content Creation Guidelines

Before you onboard instructors and skill experts, it’s crucial to set up clear and transparent community guidelines. Mention what’s allowed, the prohibited content and behaviour and how to report a privacy or security violation.

Step 7: Launch & Promote Your Platform

The final step is to test all the functionalities and launch your platform seamlessly.  However, you’re just halfway through once you launch your platform! Spread the word by promoting across social media, emails, press releases, and influencer campaigns. Skillshare also markets through brand sponsorship, content marketing, and referrals.

Lastly, monitor your platform performance and scale the infrastructure as users and content grow.

How to Monetize on Skillshare-Style Platforms?

Skillshare-like platforms run on a subscription model. Every month, the platform pays approximately 20% of their total subscription revenue as teacher payments. And instructors receive a share of this revenue based on the minutes watched and learner engagement. However, including additional revenue streams ensures platform stability.

You can diversify your platform revenue with:

• Digital Products
• Live classes and workshops
• Advertising zones
• Sponsorships
• Affiliate programs
• Business or team subscriptions
• Certificates (Skillshare doesn’t support)

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Skillshare-Like Platform?

The cost of building a Skillshare-like platform is $40,000  to $60,000 approximately, when building from scratch. The final cost depends on project complexity, location, customizations, developer rates, etc. You can reduce the cost significantly by using ready-made Skillshare clone scripts and launch your platform within a few days to weeks.

Here’s a breakdown of the development cost:

Based on Feature Integration

A dynamic feature set includes course creation, subscriptions, payments, content management, analytics, etc. 

Based on Platform Complexity:

The more complex features you add, the higher the cost. On the other hand, a basic platform with essential features costs less.​

Why Create a Skillshare Alternative?

Below are the benefits of investing in a Skillshare alternative:

1. Step into the Growing Creator Economy

The $250 billion creator economy is resounding and lucrative for growing a Skillshare-like business.

2. Diverse Revenue Streams

Skillshare-like platforms can monetize through subscriptions, sponsorships, advertising, and corporate training.

3. Build a Niche-Specific Community

If you are passionate or have industry experience in a specific niche, you can build a close-knit community and share your knowledge with beginners. 

4. Offer More Personalized Learning Path

Embrace technology and build an AI-first creator marketplace. Include AI-based content recommendations, pricing, creation tools, and simplify workflows (An AI-first creator platform is a great competitive edge🏆).

5. Proven Business Model

Subscriptions are a proven business model due to recurring revenue, premium content and low acquisition costs.

What’s the Recommended Tech Stack for Developing a Platform Like Skillshare?

These are the key technologies and frameworks to include:

Final Thoughts: Build Your Online Learning Community Today

So, we have covered all the steps and features to build a profitable learning community like Skillshare. 

Laying a strong foundation increases the chances of succeeding in the marketplace. With Pinlearn, you can be rest assured that you will be provided industry-standard features and a quick launch to stay ahead of your competitors! Since all the core features are readily available, you can focus on customizing and growing your business. You can even hire our development engineers for integrating unique platform workflows with our premium add-ons.

You can drop your questions in the comments below or contact our team. We will reach out to you through a quick call! Good luck with your endeavor! 😀

FAQ-Related to How to Create a Website Like Skillshare

1. How long does it take to build a Skillshare-like platform?

It takes around 6- 12 months to build a Skillshare-like platform from scratch. Ready-made Skillshare clone scripts like Pinlearn reduce costs and help you launch your platform within days or weeks.

2. Which is the recommended tech stack for building a Skillshare-like platform?

Here’s the recommended tech stack for developing your Skillshare clone:

• Front-End: React.js, Angular, or Vue.js
• Back-End: Python, Node.js, Ruby
• Database: PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB

3. How to monetize from platforms like Skillshare?

Subscriptions, commissions, sponsorships, advertising, affiliate marketing team and business plans training are different revenue streams for platforms like Skillshare.

​4. Can I use Pinlearn to build a Skillshare-style platform?

Yes, you can use Pinlearn to launch a Skillshare-style platform quickly at an affordable price.