How To Create a Udemy Clone

By: Justin Ferriman • September 21, 2015
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devEvery now and again we receive some pre-sales questions as to whether it’s possible to create a “Udemy Clone” using LearnDash. As such, I thought I would write an article addressing the finer details since the answer to this question isn’t necessarily a simple “yes” or “no”.

First, for those of you who may not be familiar with Udemy, it’s a platform that allows you to create and sell courses.

Udemy then takes a cut of your course sale. I’ve written about the pros and cons of this in the past from a course author standpoint.

However, this article is meant to address the other side of the equation, and that’s owning a site with the same business model as Udemy. It’s pretty straight-forward:

  1. Allow people to sign-up and create online courses
  2. Take a percentage of any course that they sell

With regards to this characteristic of Udemy: yes, this can be done using LearnDash.

Creating Your Udemy Clone

Udemy boasts a lot of features (and they should, they have received tens of millions of dollars in funding). Let’s take a look at the basic Udemy features and how it can be accomplished using LearnDash.

Core Feature #1: Course Creation

This is the bread-and-butter of LearnDash. Robust elearning courses can be made with our software.

Core Feature #2: Discussion

Udemy has the option to have course specific forums. This too is possible in LearnDash. The primary ways are to use the free bbPress integration or the free BuddyPress integration (depending on your exact needs).

Both of these options will allow you to have forums specific to your courses. The latter will enable more robust user profiles, group possibilities, and user interactions.

Core Feature #3: Instructors & Revenue Splitting

The final (and most defining) core feature is the ability to allow instructors to create their own courses and for you (as the administrator) to set a commission percentage.

To accomplish this using LearnDash you can use the Instructor Role add-on.

Done & done!

One Final Step

The final part of your Udemy clone is to choose a WordPress theme.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” option in this area as the theme you use is really dependent on your personal preferences. With regards to LearnDash, any modern theme will do.

If you want a list of themes that work well with LearnDash then send us a quick note referencing this article.

Something To Remember…

I feel it’s important to end this article with a word on expectations.

While creating your Udemy clone is certainly possible with the tools mentioned above, it’s also important to remember that copying every single element of Udemy is going to be difficult to accomplish.

Udemy has received millions of dollars in funding (recently securing an additional $65 million).

While LearnDash and WordPress offer cost-effective ways to get similar functionality, you’ll be hard-pressed to create an exact clone for just a few hundred dollars.

But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing!

You really don’t want to copy another business model exactly. Put your own spin on your offering so that you can stand-out. You’re likely to find more success by being unique.

So that’s it!

If you’re interested in creating a Udemy clone then you can do so using LearnDash and our add-ons. You won’t be in it alone either, we’re here to help you along the way!

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter