by Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt Ltd
Unacademy is an Indian online learning platform founded in 2015 by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh in Bengaluru, operating under Sorting Hat Technologies. Once India's most valuable edtech at $3.5 billion, the company's valuation has fallen below $500 million by late 2025 amid the broader edtech downturn. FY25 revenue was โน826 crore (down 16% from FY24), though losses narrowed sharply to โน436 crore from โน1,678 crore in FY23 through aggressive cost-cutting. Unacademy's core product is live online classes for competitive exam preparation โ UPSC, JEE, NEET, SSC, banking exams, and state PSC. The platform's strength is its educator roster: top teachers like Roman Saini (UPSC), Unacademy Atoms (JEE), and various subject experts deliver live lectures with real-time doubt-clearing. The subscription tiers are Plus (structured courses, practice tests, live sessions) and Iconic (personal mentoring, offline mock tests). Unacademy also launched Airlearn, a Duolingo competitor for Indian language learners, which grew to $3M ARR by end of 2025. Unacademy follows a freemium model: free content on YouTube and the app, with paid Plus subscriptions starting around โน20,000โ30,000 per year depending on the exam category. Compared to Khan Academy (free, general) or Coursera (global, skills-focused), Unacademy is specifically built for Indian competitive exams. The company is transitioning offline centers to a franchise model to reduce costs. Founders stepped down from operations in May 2025, with acquisition talks (Allen, PW, upGrad) all collapsing over valuation disagreements. Best suited for students preparing for UPSC, JEE, NEET, or banking exams who value access to top educators and live interaction. The platform's educator quality can be excellent but varies widely. Major concerns include the strict no-refund policy, educator attrition to competing platforms, and the company's uncertain future given valuation decline and M&A turmoil. Students should verify that their preferred teachers are still active on the platform before subscribing.
Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt Ltd
3.8/5 on Google Play Store (10M+ downloads) ยท Last verified 2026-04-25
Hand-picked videos to help you get started โ tutorials, demos, and reviews.
Unacademy App Kaise Use kare - How To Use Unacademy in Hindi
How to Become an Educator on Unacademy : Complete Guide and Experience Overview-Yashika Arora
Unacademy Application - Know Plus vs Iconic Benefits | Complete Walkthrough Video | India's No 1 App
Unacademy app installation in real me tab #realmetabthings
Unacademy is a powerful Indian alternative to these international apps:
Yes, Unacademy by Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt Ltd is an Indian alternative to Coursera. It offers similar functionality while being developed and maintained in India.Explore other Indian alternatives to Coursera โ
Yes, Unacademy by Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt Ltd is an Indian alternative to Udemy. It offers similar functionality while being developed and maintained in India.Explore other Indian alternatives to Udemy โ
Yes, Unacademy by Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt Ltd is an Indian alternative to Khan Academy. It offers similar functionality while being developed and maintained in India.Explore other Indian alternatives to Khan Academy โ
Think & Learn Pvt Ltd
BYJU'S is India's most well-known edtech, founded 2011 by Byju Raveendran in Bangalore. Offers animated video lessons, adaptive quizzes, and personalised learning for K-12 plus JEE, NEET, UPSC, CAT prep. Acquired WhiteHat Jr, Aakash, Great Learning, and Epic. Content mapped to CBSE, ICSE, state boards in English and Hindi. Note: company entered insolvency in 2024; main app was delisted from Google Play in May 2025. Best approached with caution.
PhysicsWallah Ltd
Physics Wallah (PW) is India's most affordable edtech platform for JEE, NEET, UPSC, and school board exam prep. Founded by Alakh Pandey in 2020, it offers live classes, recorded lectures, Saarthi AI doubt-solving, and test series โ most batches priced โน2,000โ5,000. Operates 303 hybrid Vidyapeeth centers across 152 cities with 4.5M+ paying subscribers. Best for budget-conscious competitive exam aspirants.
Testbook Edu Solutions Pvt Ltd
Testbook is an Indian government-exam prep app for SSC, Railways, Banking, Teaching, Defence, UPSC and 250+ state exams. Is it free or paid? Both โ free mock tests, live tests and daily current affairs cost nothing, while Testbook Pass (Rs 399/year, listed against Rs 1,199) unlocks 1,50,000+ mock tests, 30,000+ previous year papers and 24x7 AI doubt support. 5 crore+ Play Store downloads. Controlled by Classplus since 2022.
Vedantu Innovations Private Limited
Vedantu is a Bengaluru-based online tutoring platform offering LIVE interactive classes for K-12 (Class 1โ12) and competitive exam prep (IIT-JEE, NEET). Founded in 2011 by Vamsi Krishna and team, it uses proprietary WAVE two-way whiteboard tech for real-time teacher-student interaction. Free content on YouTube plus paid group and 1-on-1 courses. A homegrown alternative to Physics Wallah, Unacademy, and BYJU'S.
Sanchhaya Education Private Limited
GeeksforGeeks is a Noida-built computer science learning platform run by Sanchhaya Education Private Limited, offering free programming tutorials, data structures and algorithms practice, interview preparation and paid courses. Widely used by Indian engineering students preparing for placements and by working developers brushing up on DSA.
Pupilfirst Pvt. Ltd.
Pupilfirst is an open-source LMS by Pupilfirst Pvt. Ltd. (Kochi, founded 2017). Built around task-based curriculum and personalized written feedback from domain experts instead of passive video lectures. Includes AI-powered grading via ChatGPT, GitHub Actions for code review, peer communities, and progress tracking. Powers the LITE program across 6 states, 13 universities, 100+ NEP 2020 institutions. Best for Indian universities and coding bootcamps.