My name is Kris, and I’m a Learning and Development (L&D) professional. I’ve worked across the learning space for over eight years, so I know a fair bit about how online learning platforms work and the nuances between them.
Bias Alert: I am a creative by nature, I studied graphic design and animation at college, and now work in L&D, and do a lot of video work, so I do have a bias, but I am adamant I will be as nuanced as possible in this review.
I created this post to help prospective learners choose between 2 of the most famous examples out there: Udemy and Skillshare.
Both Udemy and Skillshare are extremely popular online learning platforms with a wide variety of courses for learners to develop their knowledge and skills.
The main thing to note is that both of these learning platforms are, in reality, targeting different types of people. Udemy has developed a vast library of courses that appeal to a wide variety of learners, from learning a language to understanding how to become a developer. In contrast, Skillshare targets creative types and entrepreneurs who are interested in becoming more established in their fields and want more step-by-step tutorial-style eLearning
Overall, Udemy is the better option if you are looking for a wholesome, more capable platform with more options and more functionality.
If you are a content creator, YouTuber, or designer, I would honestly opt for Skillshare since the courses focus more on the creative arts.
As a learning and development professional, I’ve pretty much tried most, if not all, of the online learning systems on the market today, and honestly, these are two of the best out there.
Below I have created an in-depth review of both to give you the information and tools needed to decide which is best for your needs.
Let’s dive in and find out more about both.
The eLearning Industry
The eLearning industry is set to be worth a whopping $325 Billion by the year 2025, that’s mad! As a Learning and Development professional myself, I have seen how eLearning has taken off over the last decade or so, both in the personal learning sphere and in the workplace environment.
Having well-crafted online courses at your fingertips has honestly been a revelation for millions of people around the globe, and Udemy and Skillshare bring the knowledge and skills people need to learn to their doorsteps.
So Udemy…Show us what you got!
Udemy started in 2010 and was founded by (if you can believe it) a Turkish chess guru. Udemy has grown massively over the years, growing from a fringe course provider to the most widely used education platform online. They now have over 300 million students online (or at least people who take their courses, students is so formal, right?). As per their website, it” has over 150,000 current courses and each course can be used in over 65 languages, pretty damn good if I say so myself!
Remember to check out our Udemy review if you’re into that sort of thing. \
Related: Is Udemy Worth It: 12 Things To Consider Before Buying
Udemy vs Skillshare: What about skillshare though, are they up to the challenge?
Skillshare based in good old NYC has been on a bit of a tear of late. Their growth has been modest when you compare them to Udemy, but you know what, the creative and entrepreneur market which they target is much smaller. Due to their smaller subscriber count, they have created a fantastic, bustling online community that is helpful, eager to learn, and highly collaborative.
Related: What is Skillshare
They currently have over 30,000 courses in their vast library and 12 million registered students. They don’t mention how many are active, though, if we were to guess, though, probably around the 6-8 million people mark.
This is starting to sound like a Davis and Goliath kinda deal, right? Well, it’s not quite as simple as that.
Let’s continue.
Udemy and Skillshare are Massive open online course platforms (MOOC) that have a lot of similarities ad a few differences, but how do you compare them. Check our table below that talks about the main selling points and features that you’re going to love.
| Udemy | Skillshare |
|---|---|
|
150,000 + Courses to choose from |
Over 30,000 courses on offer |
|
Pay per course | from $4 up to $200 |
Monthly / Annual subscription - $19 / $99 |
|
Arguably the worlds largest education online course provider |
Known as the “Netflix of Learning” |
|
Course completion certificate |
No completion certificate |
|
Not college accredited |
Not college accredited |
|
Course quality can be hit and miss |
Highly engaged online community |
|
Udemy for business is useful but expensive |
No business subscription model |
|
Huge array of industries and categories |
Creative and tech industry focused |
|
Course prices vary wildly and go on sale randomly |
Up to 1-month free trial |
|
The go to MOOC for online learners |
Free option has access to 10% of courses |
Udemy
To start with, let’s talk about how easy to use Udemy is as a learning platform.
From initial registration to using the platform continually, to searching for courses and seeing the in-depth functionalities and analytics available, overall, it’s pretty robust and straightforward to use from an end user’s perspective.
Getting setup is pretty simple, type in your name, email and create yourself a password. Then you’ll need to confirm your email to move ahead with using the platform, but after that, you’re good to go.
The thing with Udemy registration, though, is you cannot use any existing login, e.g… google, so it takes a tiny bit of extra work, but not by much. When you have signed up, you can use your Facebook, Google, or Apple ID to log in from that point on.
SkillShare
Before diving into all the great courses, Skillshare has on offer, let’s get registered.
Honestly, when trying to sign up with Skillshare, it’s about as simple as Udemy on the registration front. The great thing about signing up with Skillshare is you can either use Facebook, your google account, or Apple ID, as well as purely by email, so there are definitely more options here, and overall, I think it’s easier.
Udemy overall style and layout
I really like Udemy’s style, design, and layout on their platform. They have put a lot of effort into making the platform simple and easy to use for the average user of their service.
Udemy has an easy-to-understand flow, from your main search bar where you can search for any course or topic, categories across the top, and all the available courses below.
You also have your “my learning section,” where you can track your ongoing learning progress, as well as options to become an instructor (more on this later), as well as looking into Udemy for business to engage your learning at a company level.
You can also save collections and save similar courses, topics, and subjects, so they can be more easily managed.
The in-course layout of Udemy
When you buy your course (or take a free one), you are ready to take advantage of Udemy’s online learning chops.
When you get into your course of choice, you will see a bunch of easy-to-use features (see image below), including the primary video player, where you can view your content, maximize your view, as well as “make a note” regarding the lesson you are participating in.
To the right, you will see all your lessons/chapters where you can tick off each lesson to mark completion, and underneath, you will find the course description, key points, and learning objectives, so you know if it is right for you or not.
Skillshare overall style and layout
On the other hand, Skillshare is more streamlined, uses much louder colors on its interface, takes a more relaxed view of user interface design, and is not as “busy” as Udemy. That may be because the company doesn’t have Udemy’s development maturity and hasn’t developed as many functionalities over time.
Your categories are in the top left (next to the logo), and your progress is in the top right, called “my classes.”
One cool thing I like about Skillshare is that you have an initial checklist of items to get you started for your creative journey. This is followed by your ongoing courses, the recommended course banner, and all courses separated by category or topic (which you can filter).
In-Course Layout of Skillshare
The video player in Skillshare is more straightforward, more streamlined, and doesn’t provide some of the options that Udemy does. For example, viewing the course transcript and upping the video quality but does allow you to search through the main search bar for content and choose your category.
Skillshare also provides all your lesson chapters on the right side as per Udemy but is more simplified.
One super cool thing with Skillshare is on certain courses, you can create your project and post it so that the engaged community and the course author can check out your work and provide feedback, or just to say thanks for uploading. This shows a fundamental difference between how engaged each platform’s online communities are, hint… Skillshare’s audience are way more vocal and collaborative.
Lastly, as per Udemy, Skillshare lets you read more about the course, reviews, check out the discussion board, projects, resources, and the course transcript, but all situated below the main video player, so still there, just laid out a little differently.
Feel free to add the course to your calendar and share it on social too, if you feel like it, either on Udemy or Skillshare.
Udemy
Udemy aims its content at the more professional audience (corporate, Not-for-profit, public sector, etc.). You can see this by toggling through the categories and courses on offer. They are a lot more professional; they include personal development, marketing, finance, and accounting.
Although there are Q&A style features on Udemy, the audience is nowhere near as engaged as Skillshare. It really depends on what you need though, not everyone needs lots of assistance, while others need it. If you are in the former category, then Udemy will work great for you.
Skillshare
Let’s get right down to it, Skillshare is very much about the creative industries, video editing, photography, animation, amongst many other subjects. The Skillshare audience, which is unbelievably engaged with the platform, is about collaborative working and is extremely helpful to other users and course creators.
Also, the platform and creators want to engage with their audience, and it is very much reciprocated, where you can pretty much ask anything, and someone will be able to help you out.
We know how the courses are what you really want to know about, so let’s have a look at how the two platforms compare.
Udemy
When using Udemy, you will notice that the courses on offer are incredibly varied and professionally created, although some can be a bit hit and miss, depending on the instructor.
As we know by now, Udemy has considerably more courses to choose from, and a greater number of features are on offer compared to Skillshare.
Due to how quickly Udemy has grown over the last few years, the course numbers have become arguably the largest in the online learning marketplace. They are mostly built with workplace learning in mind, so they are great for any worker to utilize at work or in their spare time, which includes L&D teams, so they can provide ongoing learning opportunities to their employees.
Let’s delve into the types of courses Udemy has available.
First off, Udemy offers free and paid courses across numerous professional areas.
Some of the topics available on Udemy to learn about are:
On the other side of things, Udemy offers less professionally focused courses, from personal development to health and fitness.
Also, as a way of demonstrating what the available courses are, I’ve handpicked 3 for you to have a look at below to provide an insight into what Udemy can offer you with furthering your knowledge and skills online.
The 1st course is an in-depth tutorial and best seller of how to master Blender v2.0 Character creation. It provides tuition on how to create and rig characters, sculpting and shaping, as well as texturing and skinning your developed characters.
Overall, it has 16.5 hours of courseware, 32,146 students have participated so far, two articles, three downloadable resources, lifetime license to content, and certificate of completion available when finished.
It also has a 4.8 out of 5 rating, so it is seen as very valuable by learners on Udemy.
Check the course out below:
Udemy Course 1
Our 2nd-course recommendation is a best seller total masterclass to blogging in 2021.
The course has had 35,523 students participate to date and 3.5 hours of video content. It looks at how you can build and develop your blog and what you need to consider to make it a raving success online.
It has a learner rating of 4.6 out of 5, so pretty good for upping your blogger game.
Check out the course below:
Udemy Course 2
Our 3rd and final Udemy course recommendation is a best seller, providing education on mastering Microsoft Excel. The course covers beginners’ needs up to advanced levels of working with spreadsheets, which we know can be a struggle (myself included).
The course covers Microsoft Excel 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel 365, so all your requirements should be covered.
It also has a rating of 4.6 out of 5, so the students have really enjoyed the content and highly recommend it.
Check out the course below:
Udemy Course 3
In conclusion of courses, Udemy has a vast array of well-developed, in-depth courses for online learners at any level but with a focus on workplace training.
If you go with Udemy courses, you will definitely be pleased. They provide excellent, detailed tuition by tutors who, on the whole, really know their stuff, with some of the instructors being industry leaders in providing you with real-world examples and an engaging learning experience.
Don’t forget that Udemy produces their own courses called Udemy Originals; check them out if you can, they’re pretty great!
Skillshare
If you are more into the creative arts and want to learn and develop your skills, then Skillshare is an absolute must.
I have found Skillshare to have more than enough courses of people I genuinely respect in various fields with easy-to-follow tuition, activities, tasks, and ongoing challenges to ensure you get some of the best education online.
Skillshare can work for numerous users, including entrepreneurs, designers, editors, or anyone who works in a creative field within an industry or studio-related work.
Let’s jump straight in and take a look at 3 of the best Skillshare courses I have found:
The courses you will find at Skillshare do provide some fantastic education on numerous areas of creative subjects. Check out below to see some of the topics Skillshare cover:
The 1st Skillshare course, which focuses on filmmaking from planning and shooting to editing, rendering, and uploading, is a great course that provides enormous value, especially since it’s presented and authored by one of YouTube’s original pioneers, Marques Brownlee, i.e., MKBHD.
The course is aimed at all levels, although I feel you need a fundamental understanding of filmmaking before you attempt this course, to be honest.
The course had over 35,400 students participating with 1hr 14 minutes of content available and is trending in the video editing niche.
What sets the course apart is you can start your own project based on Marques’ training and upload it for him and the community to review and leave comments. Also, having so many student proposals and uploads, you can see so many examples you can use for reference when creating your video.
Skillshare Course 1
The 2nd Skillshare recommendation we have is an excellent course on creating an animated explainer video by Honghu Guo.
The course currently has 6,461 students who have participated and has over 2hrs and 40 minutes of video-based content, to teach you the steps needed to create your instructional video for work or your clients.
Hongshu is defined as a Skillshare top teacher and is a professional motion designer.
You learn everything from initial designs and storyboarding to compositing, adding motion graphics, and rendering in the course.
Skillshare Course 2
Our 3rd and final recommended Skillshare course is about tips to level up your DSLR photography with NYC-based photographer Justin Bridges.
This course is for beginners upwards and has over 100,000 students who have participated to date, as well as having 1 hr 19 minutes of content available.
In the course, Justin goes in-depth on numerous topics including, understanding your DSLR camera, getting the perfect exposure, aperture/shutter speed, and ISO, and how to take the best photo’s possible wherever you are in the world.
Skillshare Course 3
Udemy
For Udemy, I filtered down the courses so that I could only see free course options, and the results came up to 10,000, which I was a little surprised by.
It demonstrates how much learning can be achieved on Udemy for $0, so there is no excuse to develop your knowledge and skills.
Skillshare
When you run the same filter in Skillshare, the results come up to 15,692, which definitely beats out Udemy.
Some of these, in fairness, are a mixture of resources and courses, but overall is still a considerable number to offer for free, not on the premium subscription.
Udemy
To become an instructor on Udemy, it’s pretty easy, to be honest, but before you start, you should do some research into what you want to teach, whether this is something you are passionate about, something you know lots about, or the best scenario, both!
The platform is open to anyone who dreams of teaching something they love, with a few restrictions, to ensure quality. They ask a few questions to ascertain your kind of creator and what you can provide to Udemy and their audience.
When starting with being an instructor on Udemy, it’s essential to answer all the questions they ask with 100% honesty, if you can only put in an hour a week, but say you can do 5-10 hours a week, you are setting yourself up for failure. Once you are done, you will reach the course creation screen, which you can see below:
Errands can take an enormous amount of time if you let them. If you have to trek to the store one day, the optician the next, the pharmacist the next, and the shoe store the day after that, you’ll find you hardly get anything done.
Instead of letting travel time and errands get in the way of your valuable studying hours, try to group errands.
Keep a little list handy and write down all the non-urgent errands you have. Wait until there are a good few on the list before tackling them or join them up with a grocery shop if that’s practical.
You can now start creating your Udemy course, create your videos, and teach the world in the way you want.
Skillshare
If you want to become an instructor on Skillshare (or Teachers as they call it), it’s really, really easy, although finding the first step took me a little while to find. Initially, you can go to the footer and click on becoming a teacher to get started.
Skillshare partners with numerous experts in their fields who create high-quality, engaging video-based courses that genuinely benefit the skillshare audience.
Like Udemy, you are asked numerous questions to ensure you are set up for success, and your content is best placed on Skillshare.
One of the courses I really like is Josh Utusanya, a Skillshare teacher who educates us on how to create really cool, successful, and engaging TikTok videos that people want to watch.
Personally, I think Skillshare wins here due to more easily being able to create courses quickly, with a simplified method compared to Udemy, so I, as a creator, especially for creative stuff, go with Skillshare.
Both Udemy and Skillshare are not accredited institutions meaning they will not count towards any educational credits.
Udemy
When you have completed a Udemy course, you will receive a completion certificate which you can print off and use for social shares, although to be honest with you, it doesn’t give you much credence, so you may want just to leave it. A product like LinkedIn Learning allows you to post to your LinkedIn profile but again doesn’t give any accreditation.
Skillshare
Now Skillshare, it doesn’t provide any accreditation or even a completion certificate for reasons of gamification. The platform is built around learning new knowledge and skills from experts in their respective creative field(s).
If you want full accreditation with an actual degree-like curriculum, you should be looking at products such as Udacity.
Skillshare offers a very unique feature called “teach challenges.”
With these, Skillshare will invite prospective teachers to their monthly teach challenges, which last 30 days each, and include milestones, prizes, and various support options to set you up for success as a Skillshare teacher.
If you want to know more, check out six reasons to participate in Skillshare teach challenges.
Udemy
Udemy has a wealth of resources on their site, such as job aids, user guides, and FAQs, which is helpful because getting in touch with their support is umm…tricky. Whether by phone or email, I struggled before I got in touch with them, and by that point, I had figured out the issue.
Skillshare
I think it’s fair to say that with Skillshare, you can find the information you need, but it is a bit on the weak side, it gives you a few lines of advice and troubleshooting tips to try, and then links out to another article or post.
Companies are looking at different attributes and metrics such as a wide variety of courses subjects, affordable annual license pricing, and robust admin back-end controls when it comes to business use.
As a member of an L&D team myself, the benefits of having services like these in your organization are crystal clear, and the ROI and ROE brings a terrific return from a learning and development perspective.
Both Udemy and Skillshare are best used to learn new skills or enhance existing ones rather than a complete curriculum-based online education tool.
Udemy
Udemy is actually quite expensive on the business plan(s) compared to its competitors, due to you needing a minimum of 5 users costing $360 USD per user per year for their team license, which works out to $1,800 a year for just five users…ouch!
If you want more, you can speak to Udemy directly for custom pricing via their Enterprise plan, all of the online education companies use the same model here, so this is pretty normal.
They also offer you 6000+ courses, so you should have more than enough content for your organization.
Skillshare
On the Skillshare front, they currently have three different plans to choose from, Starter, Enterprise, and Revive, which allows organizations licenses for small, medium, and large corporate teams, ensuring that they have the learning opportunities they need.
Unlike Udemy, which restricts the number of courses you et until you level up on the business plans, Skillshare provides access to their entire library, 35,000 courses at last count, this definitely sets them apart.
From a business perspective, admins get access to their portal’s backend, where they can manage users and courses and run reports for management and leadership.
The starter plan requires a minimum of 2 users to activate the plan, this is set up more for, and the next two plans are for teams of 20+ and 50+, so they work well for larger businesses.
As pricing for business is generally conducted via conversing with each client independently, I will focus on individual licenses only.
The pricing models for each company are different since Udemy you pay per course and with Skillshare is based on a subscription model, so you may every month or annually, and you have access to their entire course collection.
Check out the table below to give you a comparison.
Udemy
With Udemy, you are paying on a per course basis which starts at a very reasonable price but can jump up very quickly, which if you need to dive in-depth into a specific subject, that’s when things start to get a tad pricey, but usually paid courses start from $19 and can go up to $200.
The other thing about Udemy is what I call “Pricing Storms.” This means that courses go on sale, and prices can swing wildly, sometimes hundreds of $$$ off, so for a one-off, it’s okay, but for numerous, you definitely want to wait for these flash sales to get the best deal on the courses you really want.
If you want to get more free courses, remember to check your Facebook groups, as Udemy Instructors sometimes leave course coupons in these groups, as well as that, you can search for other coupons on google, which can sometimes provide good results.
Also, with Udemy, once you have paid for a course, it is yours for life.
Skillshare
The other thing about Udemy is what I call “Pricing Storms.” This means that courses go on sale, and prices can swing wildly, sometimes hundreds of $$$ off, so for a one-off, it’s okay, but for numerous, you definitely want to wait for these flash sales to get the best deal on the courses you really want.
If you want to get more free courses, remember to check your Facebook groups, as Udemy Instructors sometimes leave course coupons in these groups, as well as that, you can search for other coupons on google, which can sometimes provide good results.
Also, with Udemy, once you have paid for a course, it is yours for life.
So, we’ve learned so much already about the two platforms, but what about if you need more variety, accreditation or just want to try a different MOOC platform?
Below I have posted the five best platforms (in our opinion) covering a broad spectrum of topics and specialisms that you may want to consider.
Udacity
Udacity‘s niche in the online course market is that they are leaders at offering short (Nanodegrees) where the curriculum is created in-house. The course content is based on technology topics mostly, but if this is your field, there are some phenomenal choices.
Our topic is the “Learn Foundational AI Algorithms” nano degree, priced at $1017 if you pay upfront. It teaches you fundamental and ground-breaking techniques into AI development where top industry leaders can make between $300K to $500K, not bad, eh.
This nano degree takes around three months and is taught by experts from such institutions as: Georgia Tech ad Google.
You will also get a Udacity accreditation, including a certificate of completion. Leaders in the industry will recognize the degree, so getting a great job will not be hard to find.
Let’s take a look at some of the Udacity programs on offer:
- Artificial IntelligenceCloud Computing
- Data Science
- Autonomous Systems
By enrolling in these programs, you will receive expert tuition from industry leaders, and you will be set up for career success in the technology field.
Click the button below for up to 75% off online tech courses at Udacity.
edX
edX is a great online learning platform that provides top-notch courses from world famous education institutions such as: Harvard, MIT, and UC Berkely, so you can rest assured that the content can be trusted with either their courses or educational programs.
Also, you will be able to get accredited for all the courses you take and use this for your career development (not free courses, though).
An example of what programs you can enroll in include:
- Front-End DevelopmentData Science
- Corporate Finance
- Food, Nutrition, and Health
If you are looking for accredited education programs with an easy-to-use platform, give edX a try below.
Linkedin Learning
I thought I would add a more general, non-accredited, infamous platform in here as well…LinkedIn Learning. Having huge name recognition is super helpful, and LinkedIn does a great job of offering a wide variety of topics for you to develop your skills.
Related: Linkedin Learning Review 2020: Is It Worth Your Time
LinkedIn does offer a certificate of completion, which is excellent for gamification, but they don’t offer accredited programs, so just be aware of that.
Subjects you can learn on LinkedIn Learning include:
- Web Development Leadership Development
- Office 365 Skills
- Animation Techniques
As you will know from our previous LinkedIn Learning post, the platform is a game-changer for learning new knowledge and skills in a general sense. As long as you don’t need anything super technical or insanely niche and will get your skills where you need them to be.
You can join LinkedIn Learning and start with a free trial below.
Udemy Pros and Cons
Pros
Udemy is an excellent platform with many cool features and functions that make learning online fun and easy.
Some of the pros include:
- A wealth of content is available
- Only having to pay for one course at a time
- Having leaders in a particular industry to be your teacher
Cons
As great as Udemy is, there will always be not so good aspects of a learning platform, and here is a brief list that we think you should know about:
- It’s really aimed at the professional market
- It can end up being quite expensive.
Skillshare Pros and Cons
Pros
Skillshare is a newer but no less innovative as an online learning course provider as Udemy but has aimed itself at a different market, but with that said, what are the main reasons to purchase a subscription?
Below we provide a brief list of the pros of Skillshare
- By far the most engaged audience of all MOOC’s
- Very affordable for most users
- Ongoing monthly learner challenges
- Great for creative types
Cons
Skillshare is building a truly inspirational, innovative online learning space where anyone can learn what they need in a safe, collaborative environment and a hub for creatives.
But there are still some cons, mainly as it’s a growing platform and has some growing pains. Let’s see what we have:
- Course experience slightly less impressive than Udemy
- A smaller amount of courses
- If you’re not a creative, it may not be the best choice.
Final Thoughts
So, I appreciate this post has been a wild ride to this point, and thanks so much for sticking in there, but hopefully, by now, you should have a good idea of which online learning platform is the best choice for you.
Deciding between Udemy vs. Skillshare is definitely a big decision to make, as they are two of the best SaaS learning platforms out there on the market, and knowing why you should choose one over the other is critical information to know.
So what are our final findings on each?
Why you should go for Udemy
- You need the widest variety of course content available
- Engaging with an audience is not paramount
- You are more professionally focused
- An ongoing subscription is not for you
- You only want to take a few courses,
Why should you go for Skillshare?
- You are a creative
- Content is more important than finessed features
- Happy to pay a monthly or annual subscription
- A more informal learning experience
- You want to be part of something bigger, e.g., a collaborative learning hub for creators.
Get down with Udemy
If you go with Udemy, remember it is paid for course by course, so pick the best one for you, make sure it meets your needs, try and wait for the courses to come down in price in one of their pricing storms, and happy learning.
If you are into the creative arts though and want to level up your skills, whether it be illustration, video production, or something else, I would highly advise getting onboard with Skillshare.
Also don’t forget, by clicking the coupon or button below, you get 30% off of an annual membership with Skillshare.
Whichever you choose, you will be confident of at least one thing, a platform that puts learning first and provides a professional
It would be great to learn which platforms you chose, let us know in the comments,
Catch you soon
Hey, I’m Kris Taylor. I’m a Learning and Development professional currently in the healthcare field, with over 8 years of experience in the area of corporate education. I have created numerous instructional content for various corporate projects including eLearning, in-person facilitation, and virtual training across a wide variety of learning interventions and sectors. On Taughtup, I discuss topics ranging from how to succeed through K-12 to college all the way to instructional design tips for L&D designers.
