Nine platforms now offer 'live class' functionality to Indian teachers and coaching institutes. They charge wildly different prices for wildly different shapes of product. This is the honest 2026 ranking — which one fits a solo tutor, a 500-student coaching, a 10,000-student institute, and a CBSE school — with the full price math for each.
The landscape
The phrase "live class software" is misleading because it conflates three very different product types:
If you only need the first — video quality for a free 1:1 session — a meeting tool works. If you need the last — a real teaching business — you need an education platform. The ranking below is aware of this distinction.
Full comparison
| Feature | Zoom | Meet | Teams | Classplus | Teachmint | Graphy | Vedamo | BBB | Igniter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live HD class | |||||||||
| Free-tier duration limit | 40 min | 60 min | n/a | Sales call | Unlimited | Trial | Trial | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Recording on free tier | |||||||||
| LMS (courses/batches) | Basic | ||||||||
| Mock tests with Indian exam patterns | Basic | ||||||||
| DRM video | Via Azure | ||||||||
| UPI / cards / EMI checkout | |||||||||
| Branded Play Store app | Limited | ||||||||
| Parent dashboard | |||||||||
| AI doubt-tutor | |||||||||
| Monthly cost (realistic) | ₹1.5K+ | ₹170+/user | Enterprise | ₹15K+/yr | ₹2K–15K/mo | ₹2K–8K/mo | $25/mo | ₹0 (self-host) | ₹0 |
| Revenue share | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3–10% | 0–5% | 5–10% | 0% | 0% | 5% flat |
Ranked for India
1. Igniter — Best overall for Indian teachers and coaching institutes. Bundles everything, no subscription, Indian-first UX, supports 12 regional languages. Where we win: cost efficiency and feature completeness. Where we lose: brand recognition against Classplus.
2. Teachmint — Solid free tier for early-stage teachers. Good video quality. Branded-app path exists but is limited compared to Igniter. Paid tiers get expensive once you cross 500 students.
3. Classplus — Market leader in Indian coaching SaaS. Feature-rich, on-ground account managers, stable. But expensive: ₹15K–1L/year subscription plus often 3–10% revenue share. Ideal if you have a ₹2 crore+/year institute and want enterprise hand-holding. See the Classplus alternative breakdown.
4. Graphy (by Unacademy) — Great for polished course creators. Less suited for coaching/exam-prep. High revenue share (5–10%). See the Graphy alternative breakdown.
5. Zoom — Best pure-video quality. But a live-class tool only, not a platform. Most Indian teachers end up stitching Zoom + 4 other tools. See the Zoom alternative page.
6. Google Meet — Acceptable for free 1:1 tutoring with a Gmail account. No recording on free, no LMS, no branded app. See the Meet alternative page.
7. Microsoft Teams — Appropriate for tier-1 private schools with existing Microsoft 365 Education contracts. Overkill and overpriced for most Indian teachers. See the Teams alternative page.
8. Vedamo — A specialised virtual-classroom product (whiteboard, breakout rooms, attendance). Good feature depth at the live-class layer, but no LMS or payments. Pricing in USD (~$25/month) makes it uncompetitive for most Indian teachers.
9. BigBlueButton— Open-source. Free if you self-host. Excellent for educational institutions with an IT team. Not appropriate for individual teachers or coaching owners who don't want to run Linux servers.
Picking for your stage
The answer depends on stage more than features. A simple flowchart:
Igniter is ₹0 to start. Branded app in 24 hours. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
Free · No credit card · Live in minutes · Or book a 20-min guided demo
FAQ
For most Indian teachers and coaching institutes under ₹2 crore/year revenue, Igniter ranks first — it bundles live HD classes, LMS, mocks, DRM video, UPI payments and a branded Play Store app with ₹0 setup and 5% only on sales. For tier-1 private schools with existing Microsoft 365 contracts, Teams is acceptable. For solo 1:1 tutoring, Zoom/Meet free tiers work.
Three free options worth considering: (1) Igniter free tier — no subscription, branded app included, 5% only on actual sales. (2) Teachmint free tier — limited features. (3) BigBlueButton self-hosted — free if your IT team can run Linux servers. Zoom and Meet have time-limited free tiers.
Igniter, Classplus, Teachmint and Graphy have native UPI/cards/EMI checkout. Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams have no native payment layer — you'd need to bolt on Razorpay/Stripe externally.
For exam-prep, you need sectional mocks with All-India rank — Igniter and Classplus both support this with JEE/NEET/UPSC patterns. Teachmint supports basic mocks; Graphy's pattern support is limited. Zoom/Meet/Teams have no mock-test functionality at all.
Wide range. Free tier platforms (Igniter free, Teachmint free, Meet free): ₹0 upfront, possible per-sale cuts. Subscription platforms (Zoom Pro, Teachmint paid, Graphy): ₹1,500–15,000/month. Coaching SaaS (Classplus, Igniter enterprise): ₹15,000+/year subscription or flat 5% on sales. Enterprise (Teams A3/A5): ₹6–20L/year for a 2,000-student school.
Igniter, Classplus and Teachmint are tested at 10,000+ concurrent students per live class. Zoom handles 1,000+ on webinar licences. Google Meet free tier caps at 100; paid tiers go to 500+. BigBlueButton's scaling depends on your self-hosted infrastructure.
Igniter is specifically tuned for patchy 4G — adaptive bitrate, low-latency protocols, fallback to audio-only when bandwidth drops. Classplus and Teachmint perform similarly. Zoom has strong adaptive bitrate but its UI is heavier on older Android devices.
Yes, and many institutes do during migration. Run Zoom + Igniter in parallel for 7–14 days while students move to the branded app. After parallel run, deprecate the older tool. We support this explicitly — no exclusivity clauses.
Explore more
Individual-teacher angle on Zoom limitations.
Meet's free tier gaps for Indian teachers.
When Teams is overkill for Indian schools.
Same features, 70% cheaper, no annual lock-in.
Teachmint free tier hits a ceiling fast. Flat-rate alternative.
Complete ranking of the 7 platforms Indian teachers shortlist in 2026.