Stepik

What it is

Stepik is a Russian-language online learning platform that works as a course marketplace, a course builder and an LMS in one. Authors build courses with its constructor, Stepik hosts them, sells them in its catalog, processes payments and supports the learners, and the author gets a share of each sale. Its page for authors gives three headline figures: 13 million users ("13 млн пользователей"), 10+ years in education and 5000+ authors. The FAQ calls Stepik a ready platform with a 13-million audience and the whole sales infrastructure already set up.

For a learner, Stepik is a catalog of courses from those 5000+ authors in subjects from programming to languages and exam preparation, with assignments that are checked automatically and a certificate at the end of a course where the author issues one. For a creator, it is a way to sell a course without setting up payments, hosting or support, in exchange for a commission that depends on who brought the buyer.

Building a course

The course constructor is described in one sentence on the author page: create a course in any format, upload video or text, make assignments for learners with automatic checking, and issue a certificate at the end ("Создайте курс в любом формате: загрузите видео или текст. Сделайте задания для учеников с автоматической проверкой. Выдавайте сертификат в конце."). Around it sit three groups of tools:

• Communication with learners: authors talk to learners right inside the course, collect reviews and track each learner's progress.
• Promotion tools: newsletters to learners to lift sales, plus promo codes and promotional lessons during sales and campaigns.
• Progress analysis: reports and statistics for each course, course quality analytics, and data an author can use to improve a course and attract more learners.

Authors who already run an online school can move their material over with a "Перенести контент" (transfer content) option, and first-time authors get a "Создать первый курс" (create your first course) path. A short guide on creating a successful course, covering promotion, pricing and common author mistakes, is sent on request.

What you can teach

The topic list on the author page covers Design, Architecture, ЕГЭ (the Unified State Exam), Languages, Health, Business, Management, Creativity and IT. The FAQ adds that there are already courses in programming, design, languages, business and creativity, and that any topic is welcome as long as it is not on Stepik's list of prohibited and undesirable course topics.

Commission and payouts

The FAQ sets out the commission plainly. A free course carries no commission and no charges. On a paid course, Stepik keeps 7% of sales when the author brought the learner in, and 40% when the learner came from Stepik's own channels; the 40% covers all operating costs, namely customer acquisition, hosting, payment processing and support. Stepik charges nothing if a paid course has no purchases. Authors who drive their own traffic use special referral links ("а-ссылки") from their personal account, so that those sales are counted at the lower rate.

Payouts follow a monthly reporting period. Stepik transfers the author's share and sends a purchase report after each period ends, so March sales are reported and paid in early April, and a "Платежи" (payments) report inside each course shows all sales statistics. No documents or contracts are needed to start selling: after creating a course the author connects payment, enters bank details and accepts the public offer. Authors can be paid as a private individual, as self-employed (самозанятый) or as a sole proprietor (ИП); companies work with Stepik through corporate cooperation.

Under a heading promising that Stepik takes care of everything except the teaching, the page lists what the platform handles: content hosting and payment processing, payments from abroad and installment plans for buyers, and learner support and refunds.

How Stepik promotes courses

Promotion is the main argument for the 40% rate. The page promises that Stepik takes on finding learners in three ways:

• Recommendations and collections: courses go into themed collections and recommendations, where the page says hundreds of thousands of learners interested in the topic will see them.
• Paid advertising: Stepik advertises courses through Yandex Direct and partner ad networks at no cost to the author.
• Sales and webinars: joint live broadcasts and seasonal sales.

The FAQ adds catalog placement, thematic email campaigns and purchase reminders sent to people who showed interest in a course. To reach the main catalog, a free course needs 20 users and a paid course needs 1 purchase. Courses are published by the author directly, so they go live quickly, and may then be checked by the Stepik team and automated algorithms for prohibited content.

Support for authors

Three further services back the author. Corporate sales: Stepik says it works with dozens of large companies, and a strong course can be taken by their employees as well as by individual students. An author community offers advice on course structure and delivery and shares experience to help new authors reach first sales. Legal and financial support covers handling learners' personal data and making legally correct payouts. Stepik also runs Stepicon 2026, a conference for course authors. Authors with questions can use the Help Center, a request form, a Telegram bot or email.

What authors have earned

The page showcases three courses with their authors' income, which the page itself presents as examples: an exam-prep and school-subjects course with 2 500 000₽+ in author income, an averaged 100 000₽ a month and 900+ sales over 2 years; a programming course with 2 900 000₽+, a 5000₽ average purchase and 580+ sales in 1 year; and a finance and fintech course with 708 000₽+, a 6000₽ average purchase and 118+ sales in 2 months. The FAQ is careful to say income depends on the course price, audience interest and the author's own promotion, while noting that many authors steadily earn from hundreds of thousands of rubles a month.

Author stories back this up. Ivan Starodubtsev, author of a Python course, writes that he taught IT for 9 years before making his course and gathered 20k students in 9 months. Rinat Minyazev moved into online teaching from a university job with a course on object-oriented programming in Java. Other featured authors teach English, full-stack development in C# and JavaScript, and public speaking.

Who it suits

Stepik suits authors who teach in Russian and want a marketplace that handles everything except the teaching: hosting, payments, refunds, support and a large built-in audience. The split commission rewards authors who can bring their own buyers, since those sales cost 7%, while still giving a newcomer access to Stepik's promotion at 40%. The auto-graded assignments make it a strong fit for programming, exam preparation and other subjects where practice matters. The platform is built for a Russian-speaking audience and priced in rubles, so authors teaching in other languages will find little of their market there.