The Problem: Student Dev Tools Cost Real Money
Finance MBA by day, WordPress dev by night. Somewhere between cost of capital calculations and SEO rabbit holes, I noticed something: students are sitting on hundreds of dollars in free professional tools and literally nobody's organizing them properly.
So I built studentdiscount.tech. Not a side project—a necessity.
The Stack (Or: Three Hard Problems)
Building a discount aggregator sounds easy until you realize it's actually three different systems:
1. Status Verification
You can't just hand out $100 Azure credits to anyone with a .edu email anymore. Brands need proof. Students need privacy. The verification layer has to be airtight or nobody trusts the platform.
2. API Integration
We're pulling real-time internship data from Google, Microsoft, etc. Not because it's cool—because students need to know which roles actually pay. The data has to be current or it's worthless.
3. Technical SEO
Here's the thing about student resources: they're only valuable at specific moments. Start of semester. Internship season. Your SEO has to predict when students are searching, not just what they're searching for.
What's Actually Free (If You're a Student)
Ngl, the student discount landscape is kind of wild right now:
Azure for Students: $100 in credits, 25+ services, zero credit card required. Lowkey one of the best deals in cloud computing.
GitHub Student Developer Pack: Still the GOAT. Free domains via Namecheap, Canva Pro, the works. If you're not using this, you're leaving money on the table.
Notion & Evernote: 50-100% off Pro plans. Critical for documentation when you're juggling multiple projects.
The pattern? Professional tools at consumer prices. Or free.
Why This Matters (Beyond Saving Money)
Building studentdiscount.tech taught me more about full-stack development than any MBA course could. The technical challenges were real:
- Data integrity across multiple vendor APIs
- SEO for seasonal search patterns
- Verification systems that balance security and UX
- WordPress performance optimization (because hosting isn't free either)
But the bigger lesson: your student status is an asset. Use it.
The Real ROI
Side projects are the best portfolio. Not because they look good on GitHub—because they force you to solve real problems with real constraints.
Want to learn API integration? Build something that depends on live data. Want to understand SEO? Build something where discoverability matters. Want to ship faster? Build something students actually need.
What We're Tracking
The platform focuses on:
- Cloud infrastructure deals (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Developer tools (JetBrains, GitHub, etc.)
- Internship postings with verified salary data
- Productivity tools (because documentation matters)
All curated for the Indian student community because that's what I know.
What's Next
Currently working on:
- Better verification flows
- More API integrations
- Regional deal tracking (different states, different opportunities)
The goal isn't to build the biggest aggregator. It's to build the most useful one.
Your Turn
What student perks saved your project? Which tools did you sleep on until it was too late? Drop your best finds below.
Because the next student reading this might be one GitHub Student Pack away from shipping their first real project.
Built with WordPress, SEO knowledge, and an MBA student's understanding that free money is still money.