Coursify — Course Comparator

Full-stack Indian course comparison platform with AI-powered recommendations, admin panel, reviews, and domain chat.

• Frontend: React 19 + Vite + Redux Toolkit + Tailwind (deploy on Netlify)
• Backend: Express + MongoDB + Socket.IO (deploy on Render)

Project structure

course_comparator/
├── backend/     # Express API
└── frontend/    # React SPA

Local setup

Backend

cd backend
cp .env.example .env   # fill in your values
npm install
npm run dev            # http://localhost:9000

Frontend

cd frontend
cp .env.example .env   # VITE_BACKEND_URL=http://localhost:9000
npm install
npm run dev            # http://localhost:3000

Seed database (optional)

cd backend
npm run seed

Environment variables

Backend (backend/.env)

Variable	Description
PORT	Server port (default 9000)
MONGO_URI	MongoDB connection string
JWT_SECRET	Auth token secret
GEMINI_API_KEY	Google Gemini API key (AI recommendations)
CLOUDINARY_*	Image upload credentials
FRONTEND_URL	Production frontend URL (CORS)

Frontend (frontend/.env)

Variable	Description
VITE_BACKEND_URL	Backend API URL

Deployment

Render (backend)

1. Connect repo, set root directory to backend
2. Build command: npm install
3. Start command: npm start
4. Add env vars from backend/.env.example (use production values)
5. Required for AI: GEMINI_API_KEY — copy the same key from your local .env into Render → Environment
6. Required for CORS: FRONTEND_URL=https://course-comparator.netlify.app (or your Netlify URL)

Netlify (frontend)

1. Connect repo, set base directory to frontend
2. Build command: npm run build
3. Publish directory: dist
4. Set VITE_BACKEND_URL to your Render backend URL

SPA routing is handled via frontend/public/_redirects.

Features

• Browse courses by section (Tech, Skills, School, Competitive Exams)
• Search, filter, and sort courses
• AI Smart Course Finder (Gemini-powered recommendations)
• User auth, reviews, affiliate link tracking
• Admin panel (users, courses, domains, sections)
• Domain chat (Socket.IO)

Security

Never commit .env files. Use .env.example as a template. Rotate any keys that were previously committed to git.