Per-Student LMS Pricing, Explained
Why we bill per student per year — not per active user, not per course, not per feature. The trade-offs versus self-hosted Moodle and per-active-user models, with a tier-by-tier TCO walkthrough.
Quick answers
- What is per-student LMS pricing?
- An annual licence sized to the institution's cohort headcount — every enrolled learner gets a seat, and the institution renews annually as the cohort changes. Pricing is predictable and not affected by activation spikes.
- How does it compare to per-active-user pricing?
- Per-active-user can swing materially across renewals when activation patterns change. Per-student keeps the bill flat against headcount and avoids penalising real launches.
- Is Moodle cheaper because it's free?
- Moodle's licence is free; the real cost is hosting, DevOps, plugins, theme dev, upgrade engineering, and on-call cover. At higher-ed scale, that all-in TCO is usually higher than a per-student SaaS licence.
- Is there a pilot before licensing?
- Yes — a 30-day no-cost pilot for AICTE / UGC-recognised institutions with branded portal, up to 250 learner accounts, and full features.
Four ways to buy LMS — trade-offs at a glance
| Model | Pros | Cons | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-student annual licence (DeepTech) | Predictable, scales with enrolment, full feature set included, GST-compliant invoice. | Inactive learners still count toward the licence within their cohort year. | Universities, colleges, and corporate L&D with stable annual headcounts. |
| Per-active-user (some commercial LMS) | Pay only for learners who logged in this billing period. | Pricing can spike on launches and renewals when activation jumps; harder to plan TCO; some platforms count an active user as anyone who logged in once that year. | Highly seasonal training programmes with sparse activation outside campaigns. |
| Self-hosted Moodle / Open edX | No software licence fee. | Hosting, DevOps salary, plugin licences, theme dev, upgrade engineering, downtime risk, on-call. Real TCO is typically multiples of a SaaS licence at higher-ed scale. | Institutions with deep in-house engineering capacity that prefer AGPL. |
| Free LMS (Google Classroom, basic Canvas Free) | Free at the surface. | No native AI course builder, no AI proctoring, no cyber labs, no India-resident data guarantees, no branded mobile apps, no NAAC / NIRF / AICTE-return exports. | K-12 classroom workflows, very small cohorts, non-credit-bearing trials. |
What's included at each cohort tier
| 500 students | 2,000 students | 10,000 students | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enrolment (students) | 500 | 2,000 | 10,000 |
| Cohort tier | College Starter | Institutional | Enterprise |
| Indicative per-student licence (INR / year) | Lowest tier rate | Mid tier rate | Custom — volume-discounted |
| Includes AI course builder? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Includes AI proctoring? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Includes browser cyber labs? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multilingual delivery (10+ Indian languages) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NEP 2020 / UGC / AICTE compliance exports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GST-compliant invoice | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Indian data residency (AWS Mumbai) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Indicative tiers — final per-student price is volume-discounted against your specific enrolment numbers and contract length.
Per-student pricing FAQs
What does 'per-student' mean — anyone enrolled or only active learners?+
Per-student means anyone with an active learner account in the institution's cohort for that billing year. The model is intentionally not 'per-active-user' so that pricing is predictable and not penalised by genuine launches or activation campaigns.
Are inactive students still charged?+
Within a given annual cohort, yes. Between annual renewals, the institution adjusts the cohort headcount — leavers drop off, new entrants are added — and the next year's licence is sized accordingly.
How does this compare to Moodle's free licence?+
Moodle's licence is free; the real cost is hosting (~₹6–40 lakh / year at higher-ed scale), DevOps salary, plugin licences, theme dev, upgrade engineering, and on-call cover. DeepTech's per-student SaaS licence is usually competitive against that all-in TCO once headcount crosses a few thousand.
Do you have a per-active-user option?+
Not by default. For specific workflows where active-user pricing is genuinely the right model (e.g. open public-MOOC programmes), the structure can be reviewed in a custom enterprise agreement.
How is GST applied?+
Invoices include the appropriate GST split (CGST + SGST for intra-state, IGST for inter-state) against your institution's GSTIN. The invoicing entity is APQOR Technologies Private Limited.
Is there a way to test the platform before committing to a licence?+
Yes — a 30-day no-cost pilot for AICTE / UGC-recognised institutions, with branded portal, up to 250 learner accounts, and the full feature set. Book at /university-demo/.
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