an online course platform with paid membership
What this app does
This project is an online course learning platform for paid members, with Stripe handling membership checkout and subscription confirmation. Learners can access only the courses granted to their own accounts and watch the video lessons within those courses, while course administrators create courses, upload lessons, and assign access. The expected operating level is about 100 active users per day.
As an anonymous visitor, I can browse published courses before registering
As a learner, I can purchase paid membership through Stripe
As a learner, I can view only courses granted to my account and watch their lessons while my membership is active
As a course administrator, I can create and publish courses
As a course administrator, I can add ordered video lessons to a course
As a course administrator, I can grant a learner access to a specific course
The following user counts are projected totals after one year of growth
1000
anonymous_visitors
Unregistered visitors who can browse the published course catalog but cannot purchase membership or watch lessons.
1990
learners
Registered members who can purchase paid membership and watch only courses granted to their accounts.
10
course_admins
Internal course staff who create courses, upload lessons, and grant learner-specific course access.
How your requirements become a plan and a price
Momen doesn't give a vague quote: it first sizes the project's actual demand for each capability and resource, then costs each item out. The numbers in the 'Project demand' column below — their scale assumptions and derivations — are detailed in Scale & sizing
Minimum viable plan
PRO
Stripe paid memberships require PRO payment capabilities.
See the capability-by-capability assessment ▾
PROJECT DEMAND
ALLOWANCE PROVIDED (COMPOSITION)
PRO
x 1
Pro is the minimum viable plan
Pro
(Plan tier: PRO)
See minimum viable plan above
$ 99
single-tenant kit
x 0
1 req/s
not purchased
(plan/kit 25 req/s)
Covered by plan/kit (margin ~2400%)
$ 0
Database storage add-on
x 0
27.17 MB
not purchased
(plan/kit 1.00 GB)
Covered by plan/kit (margin ~3580%)
$ 0
Object storage
add-on
x 1
31.14 GB
100GB × 1/year, amortized monthly
(plan/kit 10.00 GB + add-on +21.14 GB)
Add-on fills +21.14 GB gap beyond plan/kit
$ 2.92
Outbound data transfer add-on
x 6
226.49 GB/mo
500GB × 6/year, amortized monthly
(plan/kit 10.00 GB/mo + add-on +216.49 GB/mo)
Add-on fills +216.49 GB/mo gap beyond plan/kit
$ 17.5
AI points add-on
x 0
0 points
not purchased
(plan/kit 5.0M points)
No requirement
$ 0
plan + add-ons · usage-based · no development cost
Your options for this project
In the table below, the 'monthly infrastructure' for the self-built / AI routes is derived from the AWS list prices shown below, sized against this project's actual usage. Figures cover infrastructure and operations only — AI usage is billed separately and excluded here, so they don't match the $119.42/mo all-in above.
Current usage sizing
AWS list pricing
2 × t4g.large × 730h
EC2 t4g.large → 98.11
2 × db.m6g.large (Multi-AZ) × 730h
RDS PostgreSQL db.m6g.large → 232.14
0.03 GB-month
RDS gp3 storage → 0
31.14 GB-month
S3 Standard → 0.72
30.03 GB (first 100GB free)
Internet egress → 2.7
Total ≈ $333.67 / mo
Pure cloud resources
DEVELOPMENT COST
MONTHLY CLOUD INFRA ($/MO)
MONTHLY TOTAL (INFRA + OPS, EXCL. AI USAGE)
Traditional outsourcing / build in-house
about $65,000 - $95,000
≈ $334
Based on the AWS estimate above
≈ $2,334
Infra $334 + ops ~$2,000
4-6 months
5 / 5
Vibe Coding
about $12,000 - $18,000
≈ $334
Based on the AWS estimate above
≈ $1,834
Infra $334 + ops ~$1,500
hours
5 / 5
AI full-stack generation
about $6,000 - $9,000
≈ $334
Based on the AWS estimate above
≈ $1,834
Infra $334 + ops ~$1,500
hours
3 / 5
Off-the-shelf SaaS / vertical solution
$0
N/A
Priced per seat, not by cloud infra
≈ $16,000+
Per-seat pricing, tens of thousands of users
days
1 / 5
Momen
Recommended
$0
$119
All-in: egress / storage / auto-scaling; excludes AI usage
$119
hours
5 / 5
Servers, databases, traffic and storage are inherent infrastructure costs for this project — you pay them whether you outsource, use Cursor or Lovable, or build it yourself (self-built runs ≈ $333.67/mo at AWS list prices, often more), on top of the dev and ops staff you'd need to hire. Momen bundles all of it into $0/mo all-in and removes the need for an ops team.
The frontend can be generated with AI tools (Cursor, Lovable, etc.); the hard part is the backend — auth, database, scaling, data security and ops. Momen delivers a production-grade backend as a BaaS: keep the vibe-coding speed on the frontend, while the backend runs on proven infrastructure — reliable, with no self-hosting or ops.
What scale this estimate assumes, and how the numbers are derived
Cost depends heavily on usage volume. First see the key assumptions and business scenarios this estimate uses, then the full calculation derived from each scenario for every resource — all adjustable to your real situation
We assume a stable registered base of about 2,000 accounts because the product is an education platform with 100 active users on a typical day, while the input does not state the total registered-account count. The education-category anchor is appropriate for a small mature course platform and avoids treating daily activity as the full registration pool. If your actual business operations differ, such as if 100 represents nearly all registered learners, this parameter can be adjusted accordingly.
We assume 225 effective accumulation days because a small online course platform typically grows gradually as learners register, purchase membership, and receive course access. This follows the standard linear-growth pattern rather than a launch with a full pre-existing dataset or a short-lived traffic burst. If your actual business operations differ, such as if the platform launches with an established learner and video library, this parameter can be adjusted accordingly.
Daily Member Learning
Daily Member Learning
Daily Member Learning
Daily Member Learning
30
times/month
0.03 req/s
Peak load
We assume authenticated course use is spread over a six-hour after-work and evening period because self-paced learners generally arrive gradually rather than at one externally imposed moment. The scenario occurs daily and separates private-library navigation from actual video study because those purposes have different participant counts and core actions. If your actual business operations differ, such as if the platform serves full-time students throughout the day, the duration and distribution can be adjusted accordingly.
Main impact: Peak Concurrency
The scenarios above set the assumptions for each resource; below is the full calculation derived from them. Click to expand each item.
How this app works
What exactly does this budget support? Broken down by business scenario, showing the pages, data tables, automation flows and AI assistant behind each one
Anonymous visitor browses the published course catalog.
Course Catalog Page
users
Learner reviews membership status and begins paid subscription checkout.
Course Catalog Page
users
start_membership_checkout
Learner views only courses granted to the account.
Course Catalog Page
users
Entitled learner enters a course and watches selected video lessons.
Course Catalog Page
users
Administrator reviews managed courses and creates a course record.
Course Catalog Page
users
Administrator opens a course editor and uploads a video lesson.
Course Catalog Page
users
Administrator grants a learner access to a specific course.
Course Catalog Page
users
page
data_table
action_flow
Course Catalog Page
Public catalog for discovering published courses.
Membership Page
Page where learners review membership status and start Stripe Checkout.
My Courses Page
Private library containing only courses granted to the signed-in learner.
Course Learning Page
Entitlement-protected course area for selecting lessons and watching videos.
Course Management Page
Administrative page for listing and creating courses.
Course Editor Page
Administrative editor for adding and reviewing video lessons within a course.
Course Access Page
Administrative page for assigning learner-specific course entitlements.
What you might want to know about this project
The Q&A below is generated by AI based on this project's type, features and scale
What will use the most resources on this platform?
Can each learner be restricted to only their own courses?
How is Stripe membership connected to course access?
How is the user scale estimated from 100 daily active users?
What should be considered when choosing a platform plan?
Copy to discuss with AI
Challenge & re-estimate
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