A guide to building education software — learning management systems, online course platforms, assessment tools, and the specific UX and technical challenges of building for learners and educators.
What is EdTech software development? EdTech software development involves building digital tools for education — learning management systems (LMS), online course platforms, assessment and testing tools, student information systems, tutoring marketplaces, and educational content delivery systems. Key technical challenges include video streaming infrastructure, progress tracking, adaptive learning algorithms, accessibility compliance (WCAG), and building engaging interfaces for diverse learner populations. The EdTech market is projected to reach $400B+ by 2027.
Education is a domain where bad software causes real harm. A clunky LMS doesn't just frustrate users — it makes students disengage, teachers waste prep time on admin, and institutions bleed money on tools nobody actually uses.
We've built education products at Hunchbite — from course platforms for independent creators to institutional systems handling thousands of concurrent learners. The consistent lesson: EdTech has unique constraints that generic software development advice doesn't cover. This guide does.
Not all education software is the same. The category dictates the architecture, the UX priorities, and the complexity.
Learning Management Systems (LMS) — The workhorse of institutional education. Course creation, content delivery, assignments, grading, student tracking. Used by schools, universities, and corporate training departments. Complex role hierarchies (admin, instructor, student, teaching assistant). Heavy on content management and reporting.
Online course platforms — Consumer-facing products where creators sell courses to learners. Think Udemy or Coursera, but custom. Key differentiator from LMS: these need payment processing, marketing tools, landing pages, and discovery/search functionality. They're part education, part marketplace.
Assessment and testing tools — Exam creation, delivery, proctoring, auto-grading, analytics. High-stakes testing has extreme reliability requirements — if the system crashes mid-exam, that's a crisis. Proctoring adds another layer of complexity (webcam monitoring, browser lockdown, AI-based cheating detection).
Student information systems (SIS) — Administrative software for institutions: enrollment, attendance, grades, transcripts, fee management. Not glamorous, but operationally critical. Often needs to integrate with government reporting systems.
Tutoring marketplaces — Two-sided platforms connecting tutors with students. Scheduling, video calling, payments, reviews. The marketplace dynamics (supply/demand balancing, commission models, quality control) are as important as the technology.
Educational games and interactive content — Gamified learning apps, interactive simulations, AR/VR educational experiences. These are more like game development than traditional web development.
Institutional management — ERP-style systems for schools and universities: admissions, HR, facilities, finance. Broad scope, long implementation timelines.
Before writing a single line of code, you need to confront the build-vs-buy question seriously.
Moodle — Open-source LMS. Ugly, but functional and battle-tested. Used by universities worldwide. Free to self-host, expensive to customise heavily. If your needs are standard institutional LMS, start here.
Canvas — Modern LMS with a better UX than Moodle. Popular with schools and universities. SaaS pricing, so less control. Good API for integrations.
Teachable / Thinkific / Kajabi — Course platforms for creators and small businesses. Handle payments, hosting, landing pages. Good enough for selling 1–20 courses. Start breaking down when you need custom features, white-labeling, or a marketplace model.
Google Classroom — Free, simple, widely adopted during the pandemic. Good for K-12 basics. Not suitable for anything beyond classroom management.
If none of these apply, don't build custom. Use Moodle, Teachable, or Canvas and spend your money on content and marketing instead.
Sounds simple — show the learner some content. But "content" in education means:
Video is the backbone of most EdTech products, and it's the most technically demanding feature.
Don't build your own video infrastructure. Use a service:
What you still need to build: a player UI with progress tracking (resume where you left off), playback speed controls, chapter markers, in-video quizzes, and DRM if you're protecting paid content.
Video storage and bandwidth costs scale directly with your user base. A platform with 1,000 hours of content and 10,000 active learners can easily cost $500–$2,000/month in video infrastructure alone. Budget for this from day one.
Learners need to see where they are. Instructors need to see who's falling behind. Institutions need completion reports for compliance.
This means tracking: which content was viewed (and for how long), quiz scores and attempts, assignment submissions, time-to-completion, and overall course progress as a percentage. Define what "complete" means carefully — is it watching 100% of the video? Passing a quiz with 80%+? Just clicking "mark as complete"?
Quizzes and tests sound straightforward until you consider: multiple question types (multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, essay, matching, ordering, code submission), randomised question pools, time limits with auto-submission, partial credit scoring, manual grading workflows for essays, and anti-cheating measures for high-stakes exams.
For proctoring, you're looking at browser lockdown (prevent tab switching, copy-paste), webcam recording with AI analysis, and screen recording. This is a significant development effort — consider integrating with a specialised service like Proctorio or ExamSoft rather than building it yourself.
Completion certificates are expected. At minimum: a PDF certificate generated automatically with the learner's name, course name, completion date, and a unique verification URL. More advanced: digital badges (Open Badges standard), blockchain-verified credentials, LinkedIn integration.
If you're selling courses, you need: one-time course purchases, subscription/membership models, bundle pricing, coupon codes and promotions, instructor revenue sharing (for marketplace models), and refund handling. Stripe handles most of this well. For Indian markets, add Razorpay. See our guide on building a SaaS product — course platforms share many of the same billing challenges.
EdTech UX is fundamentally different from consumer app UX. Here's why.
Your users didn't choose to be there. Many learners are students assigned to use your platform, or employees in mandatory training. They're not intrinsically motivated to figure out your UI. If it's confusing, they'll do the bare minimum and resent the experience.
Age range is extreme. Your users might be 8-year-olds or 80-year-olds. Font sizes, interaction patterns, reading levels, and cognitive load need to accommodate this range. What works for a corporate professional doesn't work for a primary school student.
Engagement is the core metric. In a SaaS product, users need your tool to do their job — they'll tolerate mediocre UX. In education, poor UX directly reduces learning outcomes. If the platform is frustrating, students stop engaging, and the product fails at its primary purpose.
Accessibility isn't optional. Educational institutions in many countries are legally required to provide accessible digital content (WCAG 2.1 AA minimum). Screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, captions on all video, sufficient colour contrast, alt text on images. This isn't a nice-to-have — it's a hard requirement, and retrofitting accessibility is far more expensive than building it in from the start.
Offline access matters. Students in rural areas, developing countries, or with unreliable internet need to access content offline. This adds significant complexity: content caching, progress syncing when connectivity returns, and conflict resolution.
| Layer | Technology | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend | Next.js (React) | Server-rendering for SEO on public course pages, React for the interactive learning UI |
| Backend | Node.js or Python (Django) | Node for real-time features; Django if you need rapid admin interface development |
| Database | PostgreSQL | Relational data (users, courses, enrollments, progress) with JSONB for flexible content metadata |
| Video | Mux or Bunny Stream | Managed encoding, adaptive bitrate streaming, analytics |
| Storage | AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2 | Course materials, uploads, generated certificates |
| Search | Algolia or Meilisearch | Course discovery, content search within courses |
| Real-time | WebSockets (Socket.io) | Live classes, collaborative features, real-time notifications |
| Auth | Clerk or Auth.js | Multi-role authentication (admin, instructor, student) |
| Scope | Timeline | Cost (India, quality studio) |
|---|---|---|
| Simple course platform (content delivery, video, progress tracking, payments) | 6–10 weeks | ₹8–18 lakhs ($10K–$22K) |
| Standard LMS (course management, assessments, certificates, multi-role, reporting) | 12–18 weeks | ₹18–40 lakhs ($22K–$50K) |
| Complex platform (marketplace model, live classes, adaptive learning, mobile app, integrations) | 20–30 weeks | ₹40–80 lakhs ($50K–$100K) |
EdTech costs are driven by video infrastructure complexity, the breadth of assessment types, and whether you need offline support or proctoring. Content creation (the actual courses) is a separate cost entirely — and usually larger than the platform development.
For a broader view of web application costs, see our cost-to-build guide.
Building the platform before you have content. A course platform with no courses is useless. If you're building for creators, recruit 5–10 early instructors before building. If you're building for your own content, have at least one complete course ready for launch.
Ignoring mobile. Most learners — especially in India and other developing markets — access content primarily on mobile. A responsive web app is the minimum. For engagement-heavy products (gamified learning, daily practice apps), a native mobile app may be necessary.
Over-engineering adaptive learning. "AI-powered personalised learning paths" sounds impressive in a pitch deck. In reality, effective adaptive learning requires massive amounts of learning data, validated pedagogical models, and ongoing tuning. Start with simple branching logic (if the learner scores below 70%, review the material before proceeding). True adaptive learning is a long-term investment, not a v1 feature.
Treating teachers as an afterthought. Instructor and admin tools often get the lowest design priority. But teachers use the platform daily. If the course creation experience is painful, instructors won't create good content — and content quality determines whether learners stay.
If you're building education software:
If this guide resonated with your situation, let's talk. We offer a free 30-minute discovery call — no pitch, just honest advice on your specific project.
A guide to building fintech software — payment platforms, banking applications, investment tools, and the regulatory, security, and compliance challenges unique to financial technology.
12 min readguideA practical guide to building healthcare software — compliance requirements (HIPAA, data privacy), common application types, technology considerations, and the mistakes that derail healthcare projects.
12 min read