Show HN: AlterClass – A platform for making and selling programming courses
alterclass.io
alterclass.io
I'm a software engineer who got into creating programming courses back in 2019. I wasn’t satisfied with the resources I found on the web to learn and master React.js, so I decided to build and launch an online course to help people learn everything they need to become successful React developers.
However, I didn't want to develop a video-based only course where students would be passive, just listening to me and reproducing every keystroke I type on my keyboard. How can you learn a skill as practical as programming just by watching hours of video of someone coding? It's like trying to learn how to drive a car only by watching someone else driving. It doesn't work like that. Programming (or any other technical skills) requires a significant amount of practice to really acquire and master the skill.
So I came up with a project-based course that included a ton of practical content: quizzes, coding assignments, mini-challenges, real-world projects, and more. The problem is, creating such a course takes time, let alone building an audience and finding customers. Plus I had to build my own platform to create the course content and host it. I couldn't find any affordable (with a fair revenue sharing model) and easy-to-use tool out there that could help me with this.
After spending months building all of this, I realized how much work it was just to launch one course. But I was more than ever convinced that students want and need more than just video-based or code-along courses to learn new skills. The natural next step was to work on building a platform to make this much easier.
So, I built AlterClass, a modular and easy-to-use platform for creating and selling your programming courses online. AlterClass lets you build engaging and interactive programming courses using diverse blocks to compose your lessons without being restricted to a single format. You can choose between quizzes, code snippets, embedded coding environments, videos, rich-text articles, and more. Then, it provides support for getting paid for your course once it is ready. AlterClass instructors receive up to 100% of all the sales wherever they come from. Plus, I never alter your prices and never run any promotional campaigns on your courses. So you keep most of the revenue for yourself and the control over your courses.
You can also fund courses with pre-orders before they get released. Coming soon, you’ll be able to host them on your own domain.
About the tech stack, I’ve built the platform using React / Next.js, NextAuth.js, Tailwind CSS, FaunaDB, and Stripe. And everything is deployed on Vercel.
You can use AlterClass for 14 days for free (no cc required): https://alterclass.io.
My goal is to help developers create better and profitable online courses and save months of work in the process. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Any feedback is much appreciated as well!
Not sure I'd call 10% transaction fees plus card processing a "fair revenue sharing model" when I'm already paying a monthly fee? And not sure it's really ethical to say "No transaction fees" for the more expensive plan when I'm still going to be the one paying card processing, not you.
What Stripe charges you is your expense/cost. If you want to pass that on to the customer, then that's fine, but that is you charging a transaction fee to cover the cost (not Stripe - because it is you billing it to the subscriber).
Good luck with your business - the site looks great and it's clear a load of work has gone into it. Wish you every success! A few other notes:
- Unsure why your login system needs full access to all my user data on GitHub - seems excessive but maybe I just don't understand what 'full access' means in this context?
- Agreed with other posters on price, it seems like a free tier would be mutually beneficial for both you and the course writers. Also not sure how you are planing to police preorders in particular, but it's worth making sure that you don't lose your shirt if someone doesn't make with the goods (i.e. as this is a preorder rather than a pledge, if you already paid the creator and they never delivered the course, I assume you might be liable for refunds unless you are very careful).
For the authentication, I'm using the Next-auth.js library, and what I get from Github is only your Id, name, email, and avatar URL. That's it. Not sure why you've seen "full access".
I'll think about the free tier. And for the pre-orders, yes this is something I've though about and this is definitely something I'd like to avoid. I'll probably unlock the fund only if the instructor delivers (for first time instructors for example) so that I protect the students from losing their money if the instructor does not deliver and run away with it.
I couldn't find a way to reorganize blocks or lessons, or even insert a block in-between two other blocks. I was surprised to be confused here because the rest of the platform is really seamless.
I totally understand that the ownership of your course content is a concern for you and I'm working on a solution. I don't want to promise anything yet, but I do think hard about it. As an instructor myself, I understand that you want to own your course and have access to it outside the platform you used to create it. More on that soon.
Regarding the blocks/lessons order, it is not possible on the authoring system yet. I'm working on that too.
Ownership shouldn’t need to be “worked” out, the creator owns their content and either AlterClass supports that or they’re ripping off the creator. Especially since AlterClass is charging the content creator transaction fees and a subscription fee.
Check it out, and let me know what you think.
That seems to be backwards, as that means I am charging to be able to put in time and effort to make the content that the learners use, which generates the product that you are selling. This just doesn't seem to make sense.
1- An easy-to-use interface to create the content of their course, specialized in technical/programming courses.
2- The freedom to organize their lessons as they wish. Instructors are not restricted to a specific format. Instead, they can choose from various blocks, as mentioned above.
3- The freedom to sell their courses for the price they want without worrying about any promotional campaigns from the platform, for instance.
4- Integrated payment processing, so they don't have to worry about setting it up themselves.
5- A marketplace to host and showcase their courses.
6- Tools to help them build up the audience they need to drive initial sales, such as offering free courses, presale courses, or using their custom domain (coming soon). I will also provide/include marketing tools to instructors to manage their audience right from AlterClass (coming soon).
I hope this helps you understand the benefits of choosing AlterClass to launch your courses. Please let me know if there is anything unclear, and as always, feel free to provide any feedback or idea you have. Thanks!
With this model, you can actually expect you will be listened to ( as a course offerer ).
All competitors are free. I would consider paying a fee only if better sales are guaranteed. Which is not the case, obviously.
I guess a free tier is a must, and hints about expected number of users, vistors.
In case, you plan to make a lot of sales (because you already have a huge audience on social media or Youtube for example), you can choose the other plan (Pro trainer), and pay no fee on each sale (expect for the Stripe fee). In either case, you can upgrade/downgrade at anytime and for no extra cost.
Only having paid options also increases friction for adoption. If something is free, I'm happy to give it a try and see if it's worth paying for. If I have to pay no matter what, I find myself a lot less likely to try something out.
I'm definitely interested in trying, but the lack of a free onboarding option makes me more hesitant (not sayings that it's 100% rational, just that it's my emotional response when looking for options :) )
Now my greedy request: if you could take all this technology and make a blogging platform for developers, I would be greatly appreciative! And happy to pay a monthly fee!
I really need a coding blog platform where I can write interactive blogs for my readers.
Have a look and let me know your thoughts -> https://alterclass.io/tutorials
What will the Code playground block be for (compilation?, interpretation? of code?).
I see playground and sandbox to be very similar, so it might be beneficial to change CodeSandbox to CodeEditor in the future.
In terms of flexibility, have you thought about allowing non-YouTube video links within the course material (Vimeo or otherwise)?
Q1. I see the Code playground block as a mini code-editor that would give you the ability to run coding challenges your students will have to complete, much like what you find on Codecamedy for instance. Also, I'd like this code playground to support languages CodeSandbox doesn't, such as Python. Plus, in comparison to CodeSandbox, this block will feel more integrated to your course as it will be native to the AlterClass platform and not just an iframe embed into your lessons. Feel free to suggest any idea you have for this block :)
Q2. I thought about it and my goal is to add more blocks over time to give you as much freedom as possible in creating your lessons. I support YouTube videos as it is the most popular, but Vimeo is something I could easily add. I've added it to the backlog. Stay tuned ;)
"We're pivoting our company away from the course marketplace idea, so we're reaching out to inform you about your purchase and what to expect next.
We'll be helping [redacted] migrate his/her content to a new platform, and make sure that if you've purchased his/her course on Slip, you will get access to it on the new platform, with no additional charges.
You'll receive instructions via email on how to access the course on the new platform."
We’ll send all our users an email early next week (though we’ve emailed a subset of users already. Namely those who have purchased a course that is already being migrated off the platform).
Building a marketplace to sell something (Apps, courses, clothes, food, ...) is a very challenging problem.
I am an App developer who sales app in Google Play. The only thing I am concerning is, how much users are Google Play (marketplace) is gonna to bring to me? Rest of the concern factors are secondary to none.
Even if Google Play choose to charge higher fee, or providing a more crappy publishing tool, I still will stay with Google Play. Because I know if I try to sell my Android app elsewhere, I will get 0 customer.
Good luck to your venture!
If changes will be made to these two things then I will jump in without doubt.
Q1. Yes, the pricing model is something that has been pointing out several time here. I'll think about it and probably open the "Starter" plan as a free tier + the 10% cut. How does it sound?
Q2. Payment via PayPal for students is something I'll definitively support in the near future. Stay tuned ;)
"You own your content" does not qualify. Lots of content companies have predatory contracts that give them perpetual licenses to content buried on page 13-b.