We build The Big Class, so we're not neutral — but everything below is verifiable, and we've flagged where Skolasti is genuinely the better pick. Decide for yourself.
Skolasti is a genuinely India-first course platform — UPI-era pricing in ₹, white-label, course content locked down with DRM, and a built-in AI assistant that answers students from your material. Two things send teams our way: it's priced per coach (so a team of five pays five times), with no free tier to start, and it's built around hosting + protecting course videos rather than the whole live-teaching-plus-community loop. If you want a free tier, flat pricing no matter how many co-teachers, live classes and a cohort community built in, and more than one product type — here it is. Where Skolasti is genuinely stronger, we say so below.
Skolasti
Today
The Big Class
From day one
The honest verdict
The Big Class is the stronger Skolasti alternative if you teach live, sell more than self-paced courses, or want a free tier. Both are India-built with UPI and ₹ pricing — but Skolasti is priced per coach with no free tier and centres on hosting and protecting course videos with DRM and an AI assistant, where live cohorts, a community feed and a whiteboard are the centre of ours. We charge a flat fee (free to start, ₹1,499/month on Pro) regardless of team size, ship live classes, eight product types and marketing automation, and settle to your own Razorpay at 0% commission. Skolasti is genuinely better if hard content DRM (right-click/copy/print lockdown) or a 24/7 student AI assistant is your top requirement, or a single solo coach wants the cheapest white-label at ₹999/month.
Why teachers and creators move on
We've onboarded teachers from every category of platform. These are the same complaints, again and again.
Plans run ₹999–₹2,999 per coach per month, and the trial only opens from the Pro tier. A solo coach can start cheaply, but a small team multiplies the bill by headcount — and there's no free plan to test a real launch on first.
The core is unlimited courses with strong DRM (right-click / copy / print blocking, watermarking, domain lock). That's great for a video-course seller — but live classes, a cohort community feed, and a whiteboard aren't the centre of the product the way they are here.
Courses and cohorts are first-class; memberships, 1:1 sessions, webinars, digital downloads, license keys and bundles — the other ways creators package and sell — aren't the focus.
Skolasti's pages don't publish a per-sale commission or a bring-your-own-gateway flow. We're explicit: connect your own Razorpay, money settles to your bank, and the platform takes 0% — verifiable against your processor's dashboard.
Selling the course is on you — there's no contacts CRM, no 'enquiry/purchase → email + WhatsApp' automation, and no abandoned-checkout win-back baked in.
What you get instead
Skolasti doesn't publish a per-sale commission, but it also doesn't publish a bring-your-own-gateway payout flow. We do: your own Razorpay keys, money settles straight to your bank, platform takes 0% — and you can verify it against your processor.
Your students, courses and orders export to CSV or JSON in one click on every plan, including the free tier. No upgrade-to-export gate.
Skolasti hosts and protects courses well. We run the whole loop around them: live classes, a cohort community with a feed + leaderboard, a whiteboard, quizzes, certificates and an analytics view — one login, one student record, one bill — plus seven more product types beyond the self-paced course.
Both of us are India-built — UPI, ₹ pricing, GST invoicing, Hindi/Tamil portals. The difference isn't India-ness; it's a free tier, flat (not per-coach) pricing, and a deeper live-teaching + community surface.
Side by side
We checked the rival's current public pricing + feature pages before publishing every cell. Hover any “partial” row for the caveat.
| Feature | Skolasti | The Big Class |
|---|---|---|
Free tier to start Launch and sell before you pay anything. | ||
Flat pricing regardless of team size Add co-teachers / TAs without the bill scaling per head. | ||
Content DRM (block copy/print, watermark, domain lock) Stop right-click, text-copy, download and printing of course content. | ||
Student-facing AI assistant (24/7 Q&A from your content) A bot that answers learners from your own course material around the clock. | ||
Live classes built into the platform Schedule, host and record without renting a third-party seat. | ||
Cohort community (feed, leaderboard, @-mentions) A social layer per batch, not just a course shell. | ||
Whiteboard with templates Multi-cursor whiteboard with K-12 + brainstorm scaffolds. | ||
Product types beyond courses Memberships, 1:1 sessions, webinars, downloads, license keys, bundles. | ||
White-label / own brand + domain Your brand, your domain, no platform badge. | ||
Marketing automation + CRM Contacts auto-captured; purchase/tag → email + WhatsApp; abandoned-checkout win-back. | ||
Zero commission, payouts to your own gateway Bring your Razorpay keys; money settles to your bank; platform takes 0%. | ||
Workspace export (CSV / JSON) Per-entity + full dump on every plan. |
Straight talk
Pick Skolasti if content DRM — blocking right-click, copy, print and downloads with watermarking — is your single most important requirement, or you want its built-in 24/7 student AI assistant, and a solo coach can start at ₹999/month. Those are real Skolasti strengths and our content protection is deterrence, not full DRM. We're the better fit when you want live teaching and community, a free tier, and flat pricing across a team.
Other options worth a look
We compare honestly against each of these too — so you can hold Skolasti up against the whole field, not just against us.
How to switch
Most teams are fully migrated inside a weekend. You don't lose your roster, your courses, or your branding.
Step 1
Export your student roster from Skolasti (most platforms ship a CSV under "Students" or "Members"). Map the columns to name + email + WhatsApp.
Step 2
Bulk-import the CSV into /dashboard/students. We dedupe by email so re-running the import is safe.
Step 3
Recreate your courses — the curriculum builder lets you drag modules + lessons, paste video embed URLs, and upload PDFs without a wizard. Most teams get 5 courses across in an afternoon.
Step 4
Apply your brand — logo, primary colour, custom domain. The portal-template picker has 7 starting points if you want to refresh the look while you're at it.
Step 5
Send a one-shot announcement to your students that you've moved, with the new portal URL. The in-app + email + WhatsApp dispatcher fires once; reminders auto-schedule if you want.
Stuck mid-migration? Email us — we'll walk through the CSV mapping or migration scripts with you on a call. No upsell.
The switching framework
Score each tool yourself, Skolasti and us included — these are the questions that actually decide it.
Questions to ask before you switch
Does it ship live cohort tooling that respects classroom dynamics?
Is my data exportable on every plan, including the free tier?
Will my bill stay flat as my sales grow, with no per-sale cut?
Does it speak Indian-first (UPI, WhatsApp, INR, vernacular)?
Can I migrate over a weekend without losing my roster?
Start free — keep 100% of what you earn.
Start freeCommon questions
If your top priority is locking down course videos — blocking right-click, copy, print and downloads with watermarking and domain restriction — Skolasti's DRM is genuinely strong and central to their product, and a single solo coach can start at ₹999/month. If you also want a built-in 24/7 AI assistant that answers students from your content, that's a real Skolasti feature. We're the better fit when you want live teaching + community in the same place, a free tier, flat pricing across a team, and more than one product type.
Yes — both ship ₹ pricing, GST invoicing and Indian-language portals. The difference isn't India-ness. It's that we have a free Starter tier, flat pricing instead of per-coach, live classes and a cohort community built in, eight product types, and a marketing-automation/CRM engine — and we publish a 0%-commission, bring-your-own-Razorpay payout model.
Skolasti is ₹999 (Basic) / ₹1,999 (Pro) / ₹2,999 (Growth) per coach per month, with no free plan. We have a free Starter tier, then flat ₹1,499/mo Pro (2 seats) and ₹3,499/mo Studio (5 seats) — so for a team, you're not multiplying a per-coach price by headcount. Run your own numbers: a solo coach who only needs DRM-protected video may pay less on Skolasti Basic; a team that teaches live usually pays less here.
Partially, honestly. We watermark recordings and serve video through signed, expiring playback URLs, which deters casual re-sharing. We do not currently do full right-click / copy / print lockdown or domain-restriction DRM the way Skolasti does. If hard content-DRM is your single most important requirement, weigh that carefully.
Yes — export your student roster as CSV and bulk-import (we dedupe by email). Recreate courses by pasting your existing video embed URLs and uploading PDFs; you keep your current video hosting. Most teams move five courses across in an afternoon.
Nothing to start — open a free Starter workspace, rebuild a course or two, point a custom domain, and run both in parallel until you're confident. There's no setup fee and no annual lock-in.
Compare other alternatives
Each comparison is built the same way, so you can hold Skolasti up against the rest.
All-in-one workspace for live + cohort + community — without per-transaction fees on lower tiers.
See comparisonSame all-in-one promise — now including the marketing automation — without the steep starting price or the missing live-class primitive.
See comparisonSame course-builder polish — with the live cohort room, the whiteboard, and India-native checkout that Thinkific doesn't.
See comparisonSame simplicity — with deeper teaching tooling and India-native payments that Podia doesn't ship.
See comparisonWhen you outgrow the link-in-bio checkout — and need courses, classes, community, and a real student record.
See comparisonSame interactive-learner ambition — with the live cohort, native whiteboard, and India-first plumbing LearnWorlds doesn't quite ship.
See comparisonSame India-built ambition — without the per-transaction commission ladder and with a deeper teaching surface.
See comparisonSame creator-mobile-first focus — with the deeper teaching surface and zero-commission commitment Indian educators ask for.
See comparisonSame India coaching-centre focus — on the open web instead of locked inside a branded app, with transparent flat pricing and 0% commission.
See comparisonSame India roots — but built to TEACH and SELL, not just to administer a school.
See comparisonSame India-built, creator-friendly start — without a fee on your free-plan sales, and with live, community and the whole business in one place.
See comparisonSame India focus — but built around the whole teaching business and zero commission, not just secure, app-first content delivery.
See comparisonClassWalla gives coaching institutes a branded Android/iOS app from ₹4,999/mo or revenue-share. We're the open-web alternative: a free tier, flat 0%-commission pricing, a cohort community and 8 product types — no app install to browse or buy.
See comparisonFree Starter forever. No credit card. Cancel any day. The export button still works.