There are a ton of mods out there that do nearly the same thing as this mod. Problem is, many of them either just make the edits to skills with no customization, no experience changes, etc; or change a boatload of other aspects of the game, including level lists, perks, stats, etc. This mod is intended to be light and barebones, with only the changes you want, for maximum compatibility with other mods in your load order. It includes ESP/ESL variants and merged ESP/ESL variants to accommodate any load order you may have. Perfect for large modlists such as those that feature 1000+ mods. This mod also offers an optional experience plugin and requests the use of "Experience" for balancing purposes. 

A New Game is required. For balancing and official support from mod author, please read the "What are the recommended mods?" section.

Experience
For skill capping and balancing. This mod detaches your player level from your skill levels. This allows  you to gain experience in a more traditional RPG format. With Experience you level up by killing enemies, exploring the world, completing quests, reading books and clearing dungeons. The experience rates, the enemies, and the methods to gain experience can be modified in the experience.ini. Additionally, your skills are capped to your level.

Recommended Configuration:
fSkillCapBase=15.0 (controls base skill cap) -> What the skill cap starts at when you are level 1. I recommend 5.
fSkillCapMult=2.0  (controls increase to cap per level) -> How much the cap increases on level up. I recommend 1.
Skill Cap Formula: fSkillCapBase x fSkillCapMult = player level required for 100.

The recommended Base (5) and Mult (1) will give you a skill cap of 5 at level 1, and 100 at level 95.

Static Skill Leveling
This mod gives 0 experience when you use skills, and instead, lets you choose skills to increase after you level up and sleep in a bed.

OR

Gold Is Souls (Static Skill Leveling Alternative)
A great alternative to Static Skill Leveling, Gold Is Souls (Static Skill Leveling Alternative): A great alternative to Static Skill Leveling and skill experience adjustments, Gold Is Souls gives 0 experience when you use skills, and instead, forces you to buy each skill level instead. Couple it with Experience which should (in theory), only allow you to buy skills until you reach the skill cap. gives 0 experience when you use skills, and instead, forces you to buy each skill level instead.

Using Experience and Static Skill Leveling (or Gold Is Souls) together allows YANS to work at its full potential, making leveling up a much more challenging and rewarding experience. Experience and one of the listed mods are required for any sort of support from YANS.

Level 15. There is an optional plugin to change it to 1 for those who want it. Personally, I'd recommend installing a mod that gives you perks in a different manner as it is far less "grindy". 
Some good options:
Radiant Quest Point System ( Rethinking Perk Point ) - Awards perk points from radiant quests.
Quests Award Perk Points - Awards perk points from main quests.
Skyshards - 1 Perk Point for every 3 Skyshards you collect.

The YANS (No Bonuses) version removes all racial skill bonuses. All skills start at level 1. The original intent of the mod.
The YANS (Less Bonuses) version lets your skills start a bit higher, but not as high as vanilla.  Increases: 1+4 to Primary, 1+2 to Secondary.
The YANS (Vanilla Bonuses) version gives default bonuses to skills, but still less than vanilla without this mod. Compatibility version. No race edits. 1+10 to Primary, 1+5 to secondary.
The YANS (More Bonuses) version gives higher bonuses than vanilla to skills. Increases: 1+14 to Primary, 1+9 to Secondary.
The YANS (Max Bonuses) version lets the skills with bonuses start as high as vanilla would start the skills, but the rest are level 1. 1+24 to Primary, 1+19 to secondary.

You can take the first perk of any tree without meeting a level requirement. This is vanilla behavior. Level 20 will be needed for more perks. If you cannot take any perks at all, you are experiencing an issue with another mod. This mod was tested with minimal mods to ensure proper behavior.

You cannot improve weapons and armor until you are level 14 in smithing. This is vanilla behavior. I will not making a "fix" for this, because it actually makes sense that you wouldn't be able to improve weapons and armor until you've obtained some sort of skill in smithing.

You may notice some other things, such as speech checks, missing/fail due to the lower level. Increasing your level is a surefire way to get beyond this. Let me know if you are unable to start or finish a main quest (Even after increasing your level). This shouldn't happen, but hey, it is Skyrim.

Does not make any edits to anything other than the racial skill bonuses(controls what level the skills are at in addition to the base level). Vanilla is 15 + 10 for the race's primary skill and 15 + 5 for the race's secondary skills.

This mod should be loaded as low in your load order as possible. The plugins are clean and lightweight. No dirty/wild edits are present so you can be sure that the mod will not make any undesired edits to your load order.

This mod is not compatible with the following types of mods:
1. Perk Overhauls (if using the experience plugin).
2. Race Overhauls (Except the YANS [Vanilla] main file)

If you find a compatibility issue with a mod PLEASE REPORT the issue in the forum.

Patches (as they are made available) should be loaded after this mod and the conflicting mod.
EX:
[Your mod here]
YANS
[Supported Patch]

Please confirm that my mod is the cause of the conflict before reporting. I am one person (who is pretty busy) and I don't have all the time in the world to make patches!

There are two ways to find conflicts for this mod.
1. SSEEdit- The preferred method. Simply load your modlist into SSEEdit and search for conflicts. If my mod comes up in the list, you have a conflict. You may then report the compatibility issue.

2. Top of Load Order (The Slow Way) - Place this mod high up in your load order then start a new game. If the changes made by this mod are not present, then you are experiencing a conflict. Simply keep moving the mod lower in your load order until the issue is found.

For large load orders, the following sequence will narrow it down fastest. This sequence will work no matter how many mods you have installed.
Start: Place YANS halfway down your load order.
IF YANS changes are missing, move it halfway further down your load order. (Ex: Start 50/100 mods, move to 75/100.)
IF YANS changes are present, move it halfway further up your load order. (Ex: Start 50/100 mods, move to 25/100.)
Rinse and repeat moving about 50% through your mods until you have narrowed it down completely. With any luck, this method of finding the conflict will only require reloading the game a few times. Keep in mind, a new game is required for each test. Report the compatibility issue after you narrow down the conflict. 
TLDR: Just use SSEEdit and search YANS against your load order for conflicts.

How to Report
In the "Forum" section of this mod, you will find 3 topics:
1. Perk Overhauls
2. Race Overhauls
3. Compatibility Issues

If the mod that is conflicting is not a perk or race overhaul, please post it in the "Compatibility Issues" section. Please post in the following format:
1. Name of Mod [Link]
2. How did you narrow down the conflict?
3. Description of Issue

You should never add/remove mods mid-game. However, adding/removing this mod mid-game will not make any changes. As the changes made by this mod only affect the starting skill levels, after a character is created, the mod will do nothing more to your save file.

For those running very large load orders, you should be able to merge this mod into others without issue. There are ESL versions available as well. The FOMOD installer automatically merges the files installed by this mod.

1. Skyrim Souls RE
2. Souls QuickMenu RE
3. Disable Fast Travel SKSE - No Janky Map UI
4. Better Third Person Selection (BTPS)
5. I'm Walkin' Here
6. Relaxed Bards
7. iHarvest [Use version 1.1.4 if you are using AE]

Note: Will fill more in this list when I can. Feel free to recommend mods in the comments and I may add them here.
1. Unique Dovahkiin - Skill randomization and scaling SE (Recommended for advanced users only.)