I built a free certification prep platform in French — 12 certifications, dark mode, no ads
Hey IH 👋
I'm Paul, an accounting graduate from France who pivoted into digital marketing and cloud certifications. While preparing for Google Ads, AWS, and HubSpot exams, I realized something: almost all quality prep material is in English. For French-speaking people, the options are either expensive courses or scattered YouTube videos.
So I built SkillVault (https://skillvault.fr) a free, dark-mode revision platform for digital certifications.
What's live right now:
12 interactive revision sheets (Google Ads, GA4, Meta Blueprint, HubSpot, AWS Cloud Practitioner, AWS Solutions Architect, Salesforce, SEMrush, LinkedIn Marketing, LinkedIn Recruiter, Microsoft Ads, Power BI)
9 interactive quizzes with detailed corrections
9 flashcard decks with spaced repetition
Pre-exam checklist
5 SEO blog articles
Stack:
Pure HTML/CSS/JS (no framework, no build step)
Supabase (auth + database, free tier)
Stripe (payments)
n8n on a Hetzner VPS for webhooks
Brevo for email nurturing
Total infra cost: ~5€/month
Business model:
Freemium. Revision sheets are 100% free (good for SEO + credibility). Pro (7€/month or 49€ lifetime) unlocks detailed quiz corrections, flashcards, and progress tracking across certifications.
Where I'm at:
Just launched. Zero revenue yet. Focused on SEO (French long-tail keywords for certification prep are surprisingly uncompeted) and community-driven growth (Reddit, Facebook groups).
What I learned:
Don't over-engineer. Static HTML + Supabase + Stripe is enough for an MVP. No React, no Next.js, no CI/CD pipeline. Ship fast.
Content is the moat. Each revision sheet is 600-850 lines of hand-crafted HTML with exam traps, comparisons, glossaries. AI helped draft, but every question and explanation was reviewed manually.
French market is underserved. English certification prep is a red ocean. French is a blue ocean. same demand, almost no supply.
Would love your feedback on the product, the pricing, or the growth strategy. Happy to answer any questions about the stack or the approach.
→ https://skillvault.fr
congrats the design looks great not overcrowded and easy to follow
Thank you! That was the goal keep it clean and let the content do the work. No distractions, just what you need to pass the exam.
Congrats on shipping! 🎉 Building a SaaS is a marathon and launching is a massive step. The interface looks really clean and intuitive.
Thanks! Totally agree on the marathon part launching felt like the easy bit, now the real work starts. Appreciate the feedback on the interface, spent a lot of time getting the dark mode right.
Building for the French market is a genius move—English prep is way too crowded. SkillVault looks super clean.
Since you just launched and are looking for your first revenue, you should join the Validation Arena (tokyolore.com).
It’s a 30-day sprint for builders to see who can get the most real traction.
The prize pool just opened at $0 right now, so you can be the first to lead the board.
The winner takes the ultimate prize: a trip to Tokyo! 🏆
Thanks, appreciate the kind words on the design! French market definitely has less noise, that's the bet.
I'll check out the Validation Arena, sounds like a fun concept. Right now my main focus is getting the first 100 email signups organically before I do anything else — trying to validate that people actually come back and use the revision sheets before chasing prizes haha.
Are you building something yourself or just running the arena?
That’s a solid approach — validating real usage before scaling makes a lot of sense.
We’re actually building alongside running the arena. It’s called Tokyolore — focused on helping founders validate ideas early with real signals, not just signups.
Still early, but seeing some interesting patterns. Happy to share if useful!