Online coding courses are known to be boring and many students don’t complete them. Codédex makes learning Python, HTML, CSS and JavaScript a game of adventure, with XP points, new regions and badges.
It has paid off. Based on its TrustMRR revenue profile, Codédex has a Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) of $80,986 from 6,467 active subscriptions. It has generated $1,511,606 in all-time revenue since it was launched in November 2022.
Codédex’s Business At a Glance
| Metric | Verified Data |
|---|---|
| Company | Codédex |
| Founder | Sonny Li |
| Founded | November 2022, Brooklyn, New York |
| Funding | $1M total, including a $750K pre-seed round |
| MRR | $80,986 (6,467 active subscriptions) |
| Last 12 Months Revenue | $884,281 |
| All-Time Revenue | $1,511,606 |
| Users | About 2,000,000 (TrustMRR estimate) |
| Pricing | Free tier, Club from $9.99/month |
| Status | Not for sale |
Why Most People Quit Learning to Code?
It is difficult to learn how to code without someone to encourage you.
In a 2023 interview with Glitch, Codédex founder Sonny Li said, “94% of people who learn to code online give up in mere days. He didn’t mention a source for that number, but anybody who has left a tutorial in the middle will know the pattern.
Motivated learners do well with video lessons and text exercises. For beginners and career changers, there’s a need for better motivation to return the following day.
How Codédex Makes Coding Lessons Feel Like a Game
Codédex is designed similarly to an old-fashioned adventure game. Learners navigate through a fantasy world, with XP points awarded for completing each exercise, leading them to unlock each region. It’s named after the Pokédex, as the team had grown up playing Pokémon.
TrustMRR says that the free tier contains over 250 hours of lessons. The paid membership, Codédex Club, begins at $9.99/month. The site is geared towards novices and job changers, and according to the home page, it’s for children and adults.
How a Former Codecademy Developer Built Codédex?
Sonny Li has insider experience with coding education. Born in Shanghai, he studied computer science and engineering at Ohio State, started a PhD in New York and taught computer science at Columbia University and Lehman College. He then moved to Codecademy, where his profile as a member of the Codecademy team shows that he was a senior curriculum developer, creating courses in C++, SQL, Java and machine learning.
Skillsoft is a company that bought Codecademy. In December 2021, Skillsoft announced the acquisition, estimating the purchase cost at approximately $525 million, and estimating Codecademy to have approximately 40 million registered learners and $42 million in expected 2021 revenue.
Li has launched Codédex on Product Hunt in November 2022.
The goal is simple, he said in the Glitch interview, “Our north star is to make learning to code as fun and collaborative as playing a Pokémon game with friends.” In just a couple of months, there were tens of thousands of registered users from 174 countries.
According to CB Insights, Codédex has raised a total of $1M from investors such as Hustle Fund, Worklife Ventures, Goodwater Capital and New York Ventures.
A Big Free Tier and a Paid Club
Codédex offers a massive free tier and a paid Club membership to students who wish to get more. Only a small percentage of users pay. TrustMRR estimates that there are approximately 2,000,000 users and about 6,467 active subscriptions, which is approximately 0.3%. The average amount of money that comes in from each subscription is approximately $12.50 per month.
Revenue was stable throughout the past year:
| Month | Verified Revenue |
|---|---|
| December 2025 | $65,068 |
| March 2026 | $76,010 |
| July 2026 (Peak) | $80,384 |
| September 2026 | $75,597 |
| October 2026 | $65,711 |
There is a moderate decline in the past two months. In the past month, the revenue decreased by 15.3% and MRR decreased by 5%.
Why is Game-Based Learning Attractive to Young Coders?
The Stack Overflow Developer Survey reveals where Codédex belongs. Among 33,454 respondents, 32.7% learned to code through online courses or certification in the past year, and 12.1% used games or coding challenges. The proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds is even higher at 15.2% and 68.6% of those learning to code are in that age group.
Now the competition is AI! A higher percentage of respondents (44%) learned using AI code generation tools or AI-driven apps compared to online courses in the same survey.
What Does Codédex Reveal About Fun, Free Tiers and Conversion?
FUN = people come in.
It’s a different task to get them to pay.
Codédex has a massive free user base and with not a lot of people paying, a modest increase in conversion would generate a substantial amount of revenue.
It’s worth noting that a recent decline took place. As more learners are using AI to assist them, revenue has declined for the past two months. Codédex is making money by providing people with a fun, social motivation to attend, similar to the Ritmo sports dating app, which monetized a habit that their community already had. How long they stay subscribed will decide how big it gets.
Why We Chose This Startup?
We’re using Codédex because it has verified revenue at one of the highest levels of any education startup: $884,281 over the past 12 months. It was founded by someone who spent years developing courses on one of the largest coding platforms, but was then able to create something more fun and interactive on their own.
It’s also a pretty good examination of the restrictions. The next step is to convert more players into paying subscribers, as MRR has decreased by 5% in the past 30 days, and most of the users are on the free plan.