Sell Courses Online in India, Free to Start: How It Works on Sikhami

What you get, free

On Sikhami you sell through an institute, which is free to create, even if you are the only teacher. Everything below comes with it, and there is no plan to upgrade to.

How selling a course works, from start to payout

1. Sign up on Sikhami, open Learning studio and choose New institute. Type the Institute name (your own name is fine if you teach alone), pick What do you teach? if you like, and choose Create institute. It is saved as a draft.
2. In Details, add your logo, a username, an about section, your email and phone (each confirmed with a code), your full address and your location on the map, so the institute can be published. Add your bank and tax details for payouts from here too, and your GSTIN if you have one.
3. Under Courses, choose New course, then Video course, then Upload videos. Video courses are made on the website.
4. Build the curriculum. Add sections, then use Upload video in each one: every file under 2 GB, in MP4, WebM or OGG, with the tab kept open until the upload finishes. Rename and reorder lectures, mark a few as Free preview, and use Opens after (days) if you want lessons to unlock over time.
5. Choose Add test wherever you want a check, and decide whether to keep the Certificate of completion, which is on by default.
6. In Set prices, enter a price for any of 6 months, 1 year, 2 years or Lifetime. Leave them blank and the course is free. Make coupons when you want to run an offer.
7. Publish the course, then share its page. A course goes live only under a published institute, so finish step 2 first.

Sikhami does not convert your videos after upload; learners watch the file you upload. Export each lesson in a size that plays smoothly on a phone before you upload it.

Learners enrol, watch on the website or in the Android app, and pick up where they left off, because progress and the playback position are saved. Paid access lasts for the period they bought, and when it ends they can buy it again.

Payments, earnings and payouts

Learners pay on the website by UPI, card or net banking, through Razorpay, or through Google Play when they buy in the Android app. Sikhami collects the payment and pays your share to you.

The Earnings tab

Earnings shows your Gross sales, the Google Play fee, the Sikhami fee, Your earnings, what has been Paid out, any Tax withheld (TDS/TCS) and the Balance receivable. Below that is a table of sales with their invoices and a list of Payouts from Sikhami. Your institute's Dashboard also shows course sales still to be paid out.

Your share is paid to your bank account, which you add from Details under your bank and tax details. Sikhami's team processes payouts once those details are checked, so add them before your first sale.

GST and invoices

If you are registered for GST, enter your GSTIN in Details and it is printed on your students' invoices. Under GST law, a supplier of services must register once aggregate turnover in a financial year crosses Rs 20 lakh (Rs 10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura), and CBIC says people who supply services through e-commerce platforms can use the same threshold. You may also register voluntarily below it. Every case is different, so check yours with a chartered accountant; the GST section of our selling guide goes into more detail.

Free previews, announcements and co-teachers

Mark any lecture as a Free preview and anyone can watch it before paying, which is the simplest way to let a learner judge your teaching. Consider two or three short lectures from different parts of the course, not just the introduction.

Once learners have bought, Announcements reach every student of the course in the app and by email: a new lecture, a change in the syllabus or tips before an exam. Students ask doubts at the exact moment in a lecture, and you can see which ones are still waiting for you. Course analytics show who is active this week, average progress, test results and where learners stop watching, which tells you which lecture to record again.

Teaching a course with others

Use Invite a teacher to bring in a co-teacher. They need a published Sikhami teacher profile, and they accept the invitation; they then get the course's Curriculum, Analytics and Announcements. You can give each co-teacher a share of that course's online sales. The share is fixed at each sale and split automatically, and a co-teacher you set no share for receives none.

Only you, the owner, see your institute's Courses, Online students and Earnings, so staff who help with batches or fees do not see your sales.

How Sikhami earns

Creating an institute, its pages, video courses, tests, certificates and free courses costs nothing, with no subscription. Sikhami earns when a learner buys a paid course online: it keeps a share of that sale. When the purchase is made in the Android app, Google Play takes its fee as well. The Earnings tab shows every sale, each fee, any tax withheld and what is due to you.

If you also teach in a classroom, fees for classroom courses and batches are paid to you directly, outside Sikhami, so it takes nothing from them. Our free LMS page covers the classroom side.

Where to sell courses online: three kinds of platform

Whichever platform you look at, two questions decide most of it: who brings the buyers, and how the platform is paid. Course selling platforms fall into three broad kinds.

None of these is right for everyone. A marketplace can bring buyers but sets many of the rules. A subscription builder gives you control, at a fixed cost every month. A free-to-start platform costs nothing until you sell, and takes a share of each sale instead. You can also start on a free platform and move to your own site later, once you have regular buyers. Sikhami is the third kind, with an LMS and a public institute page included.

Ten questions to ask any platform

1. What does it cost before your first sale, and what does it keep from each sale, counting payment and app store fees?
2. Can learners in India pay by UPI as well as card and net banking?
3. Who sets the price, and can you run coupons?
4. Can learners buy access for a fixed period, or only for life?
5. Does every sale come with an invoice, and can your GSTIN go on it?
6. How are you paid, and what details does it ask for first?
7. Can learners watch on a phone, and is there an Android app?
8. Does it include tests and certificates, or do you need another tool?
9. Can you see where learners stop, and write to all of them at once?
10. Can you leave later? Keep your original video files, whatever you choose.

Then test it with something small: one short course with a free preview, priced simply. The first few buyers will tell you more than any comparison. For a wider look at marketplaces, tutor sites, live-class tools and YouTube, read our comparison of online teaching platforms. If you already teach on YouTube, a free course from your playlist is another way to begin: see turning a YouTube playlist into a course.

Good to know before you start

• Video courses are created on the website. Learners can watch and buy them on the website and in the Android app.
• A course is made of videos and tests; there are no PDF lectures inside a course. To sell a PDF, use paid notes from your own account in Creator studio.
• Tests are multiple choice with one correct answer, and there is no negative marking.
• There is no DRM or download protection on course videos.
• Courses made from a YouTube playlist are always free, so a paid course needs uploaded videos.
• The certificate is issued by Sikhami and names your institute as offering the course; it does not carry your logo or signature.
• Publishing your institute needs a full address and map location, which signed-in learners can see. Our page on a coaching institute website shows what visitors see.