How to Build an App Like Khan Academy?

The educational app is simply the software that allows and facilitates virtual teaching. In the digital era, educational or e-learning apps are assisting users to learn and take courses from anywhere in the world. 

When it comes to building one, there are many apps that you can consider to proceed with. Among them, Khan Academy is leading the overall market. 

Are you the one who wants to make an app like Khan Academy? 

Well, then you can just arrive at the right place. Here we are discussing not only the steps to make an app like Khan Academy, but also the costs, factors, challenges, and much more. 

Let’s learn it all together. 

About Khan Academy

Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization whose main goal is to build a set of online tools and help the students to educate them across the world. 

The app provides a wide and personalized landscape for all ages. With practice exercises, a personalized learning dashboard, instructional videos, and users can find all the related content that boosts their learning. 

Here, the platform can provide free educational resources, you can make high-quality learning materials available to anyone with internet access. 

It is a website chock full of useful content for learning, and organized by grade level to provide students with an easy way to advance their learning. 

Want to know more? 

Well, the following section will lead you with the statistics, and much more. Let’s discover it all below. 

Statistics and Facts about the Educational Industry

We understand that when you proceed to create a portal like Khan Academy, it’s essential to know about the market. 

With the right edtech app statistics, you can analyze the market and can win the competition. 

Here are the given statistics to note and proceed with. 

• The revenue in the educational market is projected to reach US $203.81 billion by the year 2025. 
• This revenue is expected to display an annual growth rate of 8.20%, resulting in a projected market volume of US $279.30 billion by the year 2029. 
• Within the online education market, the total number of users was expected to amount to 1.1 billion users by the year 2029. 
• When it comes to online education service users, about 60% of people know about Khan Academy in the United States. 
• Between October and November 2020, it was estimated that the number of monthly active users of Android devices in Mexico amounted to 64 thousand, which is the highest figure among the group of selected countries in Latin America. 

Well, when it comes to online education services in the UK, Khan Academy has almost 25% of the share in the wide market. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the language learning services are recognized by 55% of internet users. 

These stats can define the sufficient reasons to develop an app like Khan Academy. Well, are you still puzzled about the reasons to build it, the following section may be useful. 

Why Build an App Like Khan Academy?

It’s important to evaluate the reasons to build a portal like Khan Academy because before you answer “how”, answering “Why” is important. 

Let’s discover them all below. 

1. User Engagement

If you create an app like Khan Academy, you may be able to connect multiple users at one specific time. By building an app, you can not only connect with the potential audience but can also be able to lead the industry by fulfilling their demands. 

2. Growing Market Demands

Through growing market demands, you can find the opportunity to find a way to fulfill the potential user’s demands. With the growth of the market, the revenue of your business can further increase. 

3. Earning Income

Another valuable reason to put forward is earning income. It is the most prominent cause is that there can be multiple monetization strategies you can include within the same such as in-app purchases, in-app advertising, data monetization, and many others. 

4. Remotely Avail the Learnings

If you develop a website like Khan Academy, you can provide the users with the option to access the courses through the platform. This helps them to provide convenience to access and get education, wherever they are currently and that too with the remote location. 

5. Builds Brand Reputation

Via creating an app, you can personalize the brand and may build a direct connection with potential users. This will help you to attract and engage a large group of people. Thus, you can proceed to create an app like Khan Academy. 

Now that you are clear with the reasons to build a website like Khan Academy, let’s evaluate the type of features that you might include in it as features represent the blood of an app. 

Learn them all below. 

Features to Include in an App Like Khan Academy

What are the significant features to include within the app that can help you to win the complete market?

Well, let’s learn about the top educational app features below. 

♦ Progress Tracking

A feature that acts as a mirror for most of the users is prominent when it comes to educational app features. Thus, it is a must-have feature that you can think of to include in your dream app for helping students with their performance status. 

♦ Gamification

To engage the users for the long term, gamification in educational apps can act as a simplified feature to include in apps like Khan Academy. It’s all about creating effective graphics to provide the users with a viewpoint to successfully achieve their targets. When it comes to courses for the junior classes, it is of much help. 

♦ Social Media Integration

If you include a social media integration feature in the app, it not only helps the users to connect with wide people but also your business to conduct word-of-mouth publicity. This feature is useful to the users for connecting them with their friends and family without switching the app. 

♦ Push Notifications

Through push notifications, you can let the users know about any updates related to their courses, any changes in the scheduled classes, any tests, or any related exams so that they can become aware of the same and take action accordingly. 

♦ Audio Streaming

Audio streaming provides an alternative method and helps to deliver lectures and course materials. Virtual classrooms and online collaboration platforms that are powered by audio-visual software help in real-time communication and screen sharing, and foster the community. 

♦ Offline Mode

The app provides an offline mode feature that assists the users in connecting with the lectures even without the internet. It helps in keeping the users engaged with the app. This is built to rely on physical materials or pre-downloaded content. 

♦ Multilingual Support

Through educational apps, users can engage with a larger audience by offering content in different languages. With this feature, the users can learn or take courses in their mother language that enhance the scope of understanding the concepts better.

♦ Lesson Recording

Through the feature of lesson recording, the students can get back to the subject while doing homework or uploading lessons over YouTube. This feature is important to help the students to address their queries as they can view the sessions as per their preferences. 

♦ Personalization

Every feature here has an important element that you can cover through which the users can experience learnings and can even connect with the app, easily. It is a feature that is responsible for providing users with a way to enhance their engagement with the app. 

♦ Screencasting

Screencasting is all about allowing content from the app to be displayed on a larger screen, which facilitates group studies along with classroom presentations directly from the student. The feature is an important element that helps in addressing the user’s queries via recording complex concepts and explanations. 

These were some of the features to include in the app like Khan Academy. Now, it’s time to proceed with the process to create an app like Khan Academy in the given section. 

How to Create an App like Khan Academy?

Now that you are aware of the features, it’s time to go through “how to develop an app like Khan Academy?”

Here’s a given list of steps to build an educational app like khan academy. 

Step 1: Idealization and Planning

Planning and elearning mobile app idea generation are the foremost steps in this process. Here all you need is to identify whether the idea is capable enough to survive the competitive market or not. 

Along with planning the app, you should proceed with selecting the type of platform to launch the app. Here the platforms can be Android, iOS, and Hybrid. 

You can plan the app and its potential features to lead the market successfully. 

Step 2 Conduct a Market Analysis

Businesses should pursue market research, this is all about evaluating the current market and analyzing the users’ demands as well as preferences. 

Before you launch your idea in the market, it’s vital to know whether your idea is important to the users or not. This has a large impact on whether your app will be successful in the competitive market or not. 

Well, along with this, it’s essential to know how the competitors reach their users. This will be useful in identifying the current gap that exists in the market and then fulfilling it by launching the app’s idea in the market. 

Step 3: Build an MVP Version and Select Features 

Feature selection is not only useful in creating the app but also for building an MVP version for your business. It is the version that is not only useful in testing your idea in the market, but also in knowing whether it can reach potential users or not. 

How can you create an MVP version for your app, you can enhance the value of your app? Well, you can evaluate the current market value of your app and then connect with the users. 

In this version, you need to select the features and then be required to launch the MVP with minimum features. 

Step 4 Create the App Design

Now, it’s time to design your educational app that should be attractive and engaging. It’s all about visualizing the app and then including color and theme accordingly. 

The educational app design is all about including the types of features, designs, and functions that will attract them to connect with diversified users. 

Along with this, under this step, you need to build the wireframe and prototype that will include structuring the app successfully. 

Step 5: Build the Tech Stack

The technology stack is all about diversified programming languages, databases, APIs, and various other parameters to create your dream app. 

Here, the educational app tech stack can consist of technologies such as JavaScript for the user interface, Python as a programming language, MongoDB as a database, and Apache as a server. 

The technology stack should support the features that you are going to include within the app like Khan Academy. 

Step 6: Testing

Mobile app testing is all about identifying the bugs and errors within the app and then addressing them using successful tools and techniques. 

Here you can proceed with the various types of testing including performance testing, functional testing, security testing, localization, interruption testing, and much more. 

This will not only assist you in testing the app but also enhance and optimize the complete performance of the software. 

Step 7: Deployment, Launch, and Maintenance

Well, under this step, you can deploy the app over the selected platform and launch it over the selected date. 

Along with this, you can proceed with the mobile app maintenance. You can sustain the company’s competitive environment and may enhance the overall quality as well as performance of the application. 

It’s all about enhancing the app’s performance through continuously monitoring the app and identifying as well as mitigating the errors. 

These were some of the essential steps to create a platform like Khan Academy. Well, we understand that the technology in the app is something that you cannot ignore here. 

Well, the given section can assist you in this scenario. 

Technologies to Include in an App like Khan Academy

Here are the technologies that you can include in the app and can be studied in detail. 

Well, the tech stack table can help you. 

The technology’s selection will depend on different components such as the skills of developers, features to include in the app, and complexity of the app. 

Well, after identifying the technologies to include in the app, you can analyze the costs as well as different factors impacting the same. 

Learn them all below. 

What’s the Cost to Build an App like Khan Academy?

How much does it cost to create an educational app?

The cost to build an app like Khan Academy can vary from $15,000 to $200,000. The cost can be impacted by different factors including the complexity of the app, design, technology stack, team of developers, security costs, choice of platforms, and much more. 

Let’s learn about the mobile app development cost and its breakdown depending on the factors stated below. 

Factors to include in an app like Khan Academy

Before you start to evaluate the costs, it’s important to identify the factors impacting the same. 

Learn them all below. 

1] Size and Complexity of the App

The large size of the app along with the complexity can impact the overall cost to create one. 

Here the complexity of features such as geolocation, real-time chat, augmented reality, and machine learning algorithms will enhance the development costs. 

Under this factor, the cost can vary from $2000 to $5000. 

2] Design Cost

If you avoid the design cost, it cannot give you an equivalent position to select one. 

Well, here the mobile app design cost can vary from $5000 to $12,000 depending on how complex designs you are implementing within the app. 

The mobile app design cost can be selected based on custom animations, modern and intuitive app design, and visually stunning cost. 

3] Technology Cost

Different types of technologies that you include in the app can be impacted via diversified cost parameters such as updated technologies and the skills of developers. 

Here, the type of cost can vary from $2000 to $15,000. 

You can select the technologies for your app like Khan Academy, only after evaluating the current competitive environment for your app. 

4] Team of Developers

Hire mobile app developers only after identifying two potential factors such as location and skills. 

If you select developers from Asian regions, then the cost can vary from $15,000 to $200,000. Furthermore, this cost can change, if you select a competent team instead of professional experts. 

Now, if you select developers from the United States and the United Kingdom, the cost will vary from $40,000 to $500,000 and even more. 

5] Security and Maintenance Cost

Well, here the security and maintenance costs can vary from 15% to 20% of the total cost to build a portal like Khan Academy. 

Under this factor can vary from $3000 to $13,000. Here the cost will depend on diversified factors such as the tools and techniques that will be useful to secure your app. 

Along with this, the mobile app maintenance cost will vary on factors such as how many versions you maintain the app and many other determinants. 

6] Integration with Third-Party Services

Under this factor, you should evaluate diversified third-party services that can have a large impact on an app like Khan Academy. 

Different types of third-party services that you can include here can be any payment service partners or social media platforms according to the user’s preferences. 

Here the cost will vary from $5000 to $20,000. 

These were some of the important factors impacting the cost to build an app like Khan Academy. 

Now, as we proceed further, there are various challenges that you cannot ignore when it comes to creating your dream app. 

We’ll examine all these functions in a given section. 

What are the Challenges your App Can Face during the Development Process?

You can evaluate the cost, its factors, and concepts, along with the development steps, however, learning about the challenges is what you cannot ignore. 

Learn them all below, and evaluate strategies to avoid mistakes when creating an educational app. 

• Lack of App Security

Avoiding security can even lead to losing loyal users as well as their trust in the app and even in the business. 

Educational app security is certainly a crucial phenomenon that you cannot ignore. Well, the app security will depend on the types of features and techniques that your app should adopt for saving the data. 

• Poor Device Fragmentation

Ignoring device fragmentation can even damage your app’s reputation. Due to this issue, users can experience crashes, poor performance, and even broken features. 

This issue can have a large impact on the app’s development as it can result in losing your loyal users. It can even affect the complete app’s performance. Thus, you should include the device fragmentation accordingly. 

• Low Market Research

Through inadequate market analysis, you cannot reach the potential audience. Along with this, you will not be able to address the target user’s needs. 

A lack of market analysis will lead you nowhere. Thus, it’s essential to proceed with the evaluation to fill the existing gap in the competitive market. 

• Lack of Compatibility with Multiple Devices

With poor compatibility over multiple devices, you cannot win the market. This may even take over your target audience. 

Well, you can opt for multiple devices to proceed with the same. This will be helpful for you to address the issues of the users over different devices. 

• Inadequate Technology Stack

Have you selected the right technology for your app?

Well, if not, it can have a large impact over the same. A poor technology stack can create a vast issue for your app, like Khan Academy resulting in poor performance. 

These were some of the challenges that you cannot ignore while building an app like Khan Academy. Now, let’s consider diversified ways to earn money via the app. 

Let’s learn it all below. 

How to Earn Money from an App like Khan Academy?

Well, investing in an app isn’t easy if you don’t know about the methods to earn money via the same. 

Learn about the most effective educational app monetization strategies below. 

• In-App Purchases

This is an effective way to monetize the app, by allowing the users to buy the additional features and content over an educational app like Khan Academy. 

With this model, you can not only earn a regular amount of money but also be able to connect with a wide source of users. 

• In-App Advertising

Through in-app advertising, you can partner with diversified users. With appropriate advertisements, you can provide a space for third-party companies to promote their products and services successfully. 

Additionally, in-app advertising can be an important medium to help you earn a regular amount of money. 

• Data-Monetization

Data monetization strategy is all about taking consent from the target users and then using that data to make money. This strategy can be used to attain measurable benefit. 

Here you can collect a large amount of data and then use it to make a specific amount of money. With the consent of the users, it can be a regular source of income for your business. 

• Merchandising

You can opt to sell course-related merchandise which may boost your revenue and can further increase brand visibility and loyalty with your app. 

Additionally, with this strategy, you can build a direct connection with the users, through selling T-shirts, mugs, and other elements that too on the institutional name.

• Subscription Plan

A famous and effective strategy that you cannot ignore is the subscription plan which is implemented by a majority of educational apps. We have a monthly recurring revenue model (MRR) model. 

Here users can pay and set an amount each month in exchange for access to the courses or institutional fees. 

These were some of the monetization strategies to be included within the app. Well, if you are confused about some of the strategies, then connecting with an experienced company can be helpful. 

Partner with Nimble AppGenie and let Your App Lead the Industry.

Searching for a company to connect with in order to develop your app?

Well, partner with Nimble AppGenie and let your app make noise in this competitive environment. Additionally, our team can guide you through the market strategies that will help you identify potential gaps and then lead the industry. 

We are the leading Educational App Development Company in the competitive environment. Along with this, the users will be able to know your brand, only after implementing the right process of development. 

Conclusion

Khan Academy helps the learners to study at their own pace and that too in both the ways in and out of the classrooms. Covering the subjects all around. Well, to an app like Khan Academy, you can proceed with market analysis, selecting the proper features, designing the app, creating the technologies, and then launching the app. 

Well, here you can include diversified challenges that your app might face, such as lack of market research, poor app design, inappropriate technology stack, and lack of compatibility across the platforms. Along with this, you can proceed with monetization strategies such as in-app purchases, in-app advertising, data monetization, merchandising as well as subscription plans. 

FAQs

Niketan Sharma

Niketan Sharma is the CTO of Nimble AppGenie, a prominent website and mobile app development company in the USA that is delivering excellence with a commitment to boosting business growth & maximizing customer satisfaction. He is a highly motivated individual who helps SMEs and startups grow in this dynamic market with the latest technology and innovation.