Creating an e-commerce website is quite challenging whether you're a developer or simply an educator with a bit of tech knowledge. In this article, we'll dive deeper into the different ways how you can build an eLearning website.

4 Ways to Build an E-learning Site

Here are four ways you can build your e-learning site:

1. Code From Raw: PHP, ASP, JAVA, NodeJS

This approach is ideal for Ed-tech entrepreneurs that want to launch a large-scale website, and then make plenty of money from it. So, if you're going to launch a large site with a lot of budgets to hire a team of experts or outsourced personnel, then this approach is ideal. Mainly because of its unlimited customizability.

Technical Skill

You need to have a tech stack for the development of your site. Note that each stack has a particular MVC structure and framework. You can choose a specific framework and create your eLearning platform from scratch.

Moreover, you also need to know how to design scripts and frameworks. You can use unique design technologies like CSS, HTML, Javascript, and so on.

When it comes to back-end design and development, the frameworks that you need to get familiar with are Zend, Laravel, and Symfony.

Features And Customization

You can add features of your choice. It's possible for you to design web functionalities the way you want it. For customization, choose the one with the highest customizability. That way, it's convenient for you to edit the code to customize a feature or even the entire site.

Cost

The cost range from purchasing a tech stack to hiring in-house or outsourced web developers. Initially, the cost of development is high, but it decreases later on in the maintenance phase.

Time

Overall, it's a time-consuming process. Making a small project from scratch can take you about 3-4 months to finish until it's ready to go live in public.

Scale Effects

You can always choose a scalable tech stack that can handle big websites. Ideally, the framework should have an easy addition of new features without breaking the already existing codes.

2. Open Source Moodle, CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.

CMS platforms give open-source code accessibility. That way, third-party developers can create and add new features to expand its usability.

Technical Skill

The most used CMS in the market are PHP tech stack and frameworks. PHP has a well-known programming language; that's why it's easier to look for affordable developers.

Also, if you're quite familiar with the frameworks of popular CMSs, you can even code your eLearning platform.

Features And Customization

The CMS platforms development framework allows you to add many features. You can also buy new plug-ins and features without doing the coding on your own.

There's also unlimited customization as long as you're going with a prescribed framework, coding style, and tech stack.

Cost

Costs are dependent on the platform that you choose. For instance, WordPress is a free platform, but you need to pay for themes, plug-ins, and other additional customizations.

Time

The time to launch ranges from 15 days to a month.

Scale Effects

If you expect the number of subscribers of your site will not reach past 10,000, then it's great to be in these platforms. However, if you shoot past this range, you might experience customization and scaling issues.

3. Ready To Launch Sites - Weebly, Wix, Squarespace

If you want to launch a site within a week and you're looking for budget-friendly alternatives, then you might want to settle with ready to launch sites.

However, there's minimal customization available, and these tools are quite not fit for eLearning. However, some companies do provide customizations.

4. Ready To Launch eLearning Websites - Teachable, Thinkfic, etc.

These are ready-made eLearning website builders that come with source-code access. This option, such as the LearnDash Theme, is getting popular nowadays because all the feature sets are there.

Coding Skills

There's no coding required.

Features And Customization

They have most of the features that are required in an eLearning site. From LMS platforms to authoring tools, it's already offered as a built-in depending on the vendor.

Also, since it has to offer source code access, you can always customize the code of an existing feature. You can even add one if you want to.

Over to You

So, these are the main ways to launch your eLearning site this 2019. Remember that all of these options have pros and cons, so it's essential that you choose the one the caters to your needs correctly. Go with the approach that gives you flexibility, scalability, customizability, with access to the source code.