Udemy is not the only eLearning service provider on the internet. Other educational websites offer courses that Udemy may not have. So whether you’re a manager looking for skill enhancement or a hobbyist trying out something new, there’s bound to be an eLearning platform that suits your needs.
Udemy is one of the leading educational portals, thanks to its wide-ranging rates. You can access free courses or pay for a monthly subscription. Unless you see only one topic of interest, you can pay between $12.99 to $199.99 per lecture.
Some people choose Udemy because they have over 185,000 courses available. With 13 categories to choose from, you won’t run out of things to learn. However, Udemy is not for everyone. If you’re looking for a better option, here are (8) Udemy alternatives.
1. Skillshare
Skillshare is an eLearning platform perfect for creatives and entrepreneurs. They offer courses on various topics, including animations, videography, fine art, business, nonprofit, and hundreds more. The flexibility of these online classes allows for self-paced learning. You can stop and start any lecture whenever you want. Plus, you can rewatch courses if you fail to understand some topics.
Industry professionals from different sectors curate each lecture to suit the needs of their students. These famous instructors are Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Kawasaki, and Young Guru.
Pros:
- Most of Skillshare’s courses encourage engagement rather than the lecture itself. Because of this interactive approach, this Udemy alternative is best for active learners.
- You don’t have to spend so much for a premium membership because it offers certificates for paid courses.
- Because Skill Share highlights people sharing learning techniques, you can communicate and respond to instructors and other students.
Cons:
- The price may not be worthwhile for everyone. Some people might not find enough educational content to pay over $100 annually.
- Since Skillshare is an open-source eLearning platform, video lectures lack quality consistency. They don’t screen the trainer’s content before launching it on their platform.
- A free plan on this Udemy competitor contains multiple ads, which can be distracting. Given that you’re not paying for their online courses, they will only provide you with limited content.
Skillshare vs. Skill Success
SkillShare is one of the most unique Udemy alternatives for active learners. Their inclusive website design opens the door for people with hearing and visual problems to continue learning. While their site has limited accessibility profiles, Skill Success offers 8, including dyslexia, color blind, seizure & epileptic, and ADHD.
This all-inclusiveness of Skill Success makes its platform more appealing to people with disabilities.
2. Coursera
Coursera is the prestigious alternative to Udemy. They offer online lectures on specialized niches. Their courses include but are not limited to digital marketing, healthcare IT support, and AI for medicine.
Unlike other educational platforms, Coursera hosts professors from accredited institutions. Therefore, your teachers can give quality and valuable lessons. Because certified individuals make these courses, monthly membership costs $59 or $399 annual fee.
Pros:
- You can earn a legitimate online degree with Coursera because they partnered with institutions like Macquarie and Arizona State University.
- Coursera guarantees full access to quality video lessons powered by 200+ prestigious universities and organizations like Google.
- While some people may not afford Coursera’s prices, free and paid courses are available on the platform. However, you won’t earn a certificate after completion.
Cons:
- Coursera lessons have college-level instructions. As a result, most people without prior knowledge of a topic may find it challenging to go along with the lessons. However, Skill Success provides simplified lessons so everyone can achieve their development goals.
- Many users find Coursera subscription plans confusing due to their varying membership prices. So it takes a little bit of getting used to their plans to understand the different programs they offer.
- Courses on Coursera can be expensive for some people. However, taking their classes is far less costly than traditional college fees.
Coursera vs. Skill Success
Coursera is excellent if you want to earn an online degree, but not everyone can afford their course fees. Skill Success, however, is a budget-friendly option. While the latter eLearning service provider doesn’t have an accredited partner, some students can still gain in-depth education. Following up your lessons with actual experiences is essential to earning credibility among recruiters.
3. LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is an online learning platform with a library of on-demand instructional videos covering business, technology, and creative industries. It provides tailored course recommendations to help you develop your marketable skills.
It offers tailored course recommendations to help you develop your marketable skills. You can access these training videos from any device anytime, anywhere.
Pros:
- Every week LinkedIn Learning uploads 50 new wide-ranging videos, so there’s always new content to enjoy.
- Students can gain a certificate of completion whenever they complete a course with Udemy alternative. These documents will increase a candidate’s hiring chances during their job search.
- Linkedin Learning has a 1-month free trial. So if users are still unsure if they should pay for a membership subscription, they can get an overview of their online courses for a month.
Cons:
- Although LinkedIn Learning offers a certificate of completion, it isn’t accredited by a University or an affiliate partner.
- LinkedIn Learning mainly focuses on business, tech, and creative niches. Some students may find these topics limiting. Still, Skill Success is worth checking out since they offer an honest range of other courses like lifestyle, nonprofit, hobbies, and languages.
- Since LinkedIn Learning has targeted subjects, some courses can be repetitive.
LinkedIn Learning vs. Skill Success
LinkedIn Learning is an incredible online learning website that costs $19.99 monthly for a one-time annual subscription. However, Skill Success is one of the leading eLearning platforms offering competitive monthly or annual subscription rates. For only $12.50 per month, you can have an All Access Pass to their multitude of online courses.
4. edX
edX is one of the credible online learning platforms for serious learners. This platform is a good combination of Udemy’s verified in-depth course selection and SkillShare’s interactive learning approach. MIT and Harvard University professors launched this Udemy alternative in 2012 and taught the first edX courses.
Pros:
- This alternative to Udemy has a 14-day refund policy. So if you withdraw your subscription within the 14-day grace period, edX will guarantee to give you back your money.
- While edX has free courses, they won’t issue you graded assignments and credited certificates.
- Because edX offers courses similar to University subjects, future employers will recognize your certificates.
Cons:
- edX focuses on higher education in business and sciences. So users looking for new hobbies might have better chances of enrolling with Skill Success.
- For people lacking the attention span for non-hands-on learning, edX courses may pose a challenge.
- Unlike Udemy, edX doesn’t offer student-trainer interaction. Thus, students may not post questions publicly so trainers can answer their queries.
edX vs. Skill Success
edX has an outstanding course collection, but they don’t allow individuals to subscribe to monthly plans. If you’re searching for an online course provider with monthly packages, Skill Success has an assortment of courses for only $15 a month.
5. MasterClass
MasterClass is another online learning website alternative to Udemy. They offer more than 150 scaling courses in 11 categories ranging from songwriting to photography.
Founded in 2014 in San Francisco, MasterClass is ideal for lifelong learners seeking to advance their non-academic skills. The courses on this platform include assignments, while some have community activities.
Pros:
- MasterClass stands out among the other alternatives to Udemy since they have celebrity and VIP instructors.
- The video lectures on MasterClass offer great production value because they have a production company creating their content.
- Courses on MasterClass are downloadable and have an audio mode option for times when you’re doing other things simultaneously.
Cons:
- MasterClass only offers an annual subscription that costs $180. Therefore you can’t buy a single course. Nor can’t you subscribe to the platform for only a few months.
- While MasterClass offers quality video lessons, the contents are broad. So if you need a deep dive into one topic, you may opt for LinkedIn Learning or Skill Success.
- Taking lessons on MasterClass won’t give you any completion certificate. However, if you need proof of your acquired knowledge, you might want to try Coursera.
MasterClass vs. Skill Success
In terms of class duration, MasterClass and Skill Success offers bite-size information on each lesson topic. So if you find yourself too overwhelmed with the subjects at hand, you can rely on these platforms to provide you with nuggets of insights.
6. Codecademy
Codecademy is an education learning site that primarily targets computer programmers. Their goal is to give people the ability to succeed in the 21st century through their online courses available. They offer 14 courses on programming languages like HMTL & CSS, Python, JavaScript, and more.
Most of Codecademy’s video lessons are appropriate for beginners and advanced learners alike.
Pros:
- Because of Codecademy’s interactive lessons, you can get the chance to build show-worthy projects for potential clients.
- There’s a strong sense of supportive community on Codecademy. Teachers and other graduates can help you with any uncertainty.
- This alternative to Udemy offers affordable plans for individuals, teams, and businesses. Each program includes a 7-day free trial.
Cons:
- Like Udemy, Codecademy is not an accredited institution, which means your courses won’t count toward your college credit.
- This Udemy alternative doesn’t provide enough instructor bio. So if you want to learn about your trainer, you might need background research.
- Codecademy has no advanced search filters for courses. Therefore, you may have problems narrowing the scope of your search query.
Codecademy vs. Skill Success
While Codecademy is a fantastic platform for coders, it doesn’t offer other options. Skill Success, however, provides course materials for almost every career possible. Learners can enroll without additional costs, so knowledge seekers like you can gain the skills you need to get job-ready.
7. Pluralsight
Pluralsight is another alternative to Udemy. It focuses on delivering computer related skills like e-learning software development, IT Ops, information & cyber security, and more. They offer three paid plans ranging from $399 to $799 per user per year. These monthly and yearly plans give you unlimited access to their course materials and other resources.
Pros:
- Since Pluralsight mainly focuses on tech materials, they bring the best possible quality to their members.
- Courses available on this online knowledge platform are great for all skill levels, so whatever level of expertise you’re in, Pluralsight will have content for you.
- Pluralsight has a testing engine that measures your current skills and helps you to align your career goals to your skill level.
Cons:
- Like other alternatives to Udemy, Pluralsight doesn’t provide lifetime access to your courses. Thus, you can’t retrieve your accomplished lessons once you stop paying for your subscription.
- All of Pluralsight’s courses are available through paid programs. Unfortunately, you can’t purchase one course at a time.
- Even though Pluralsight can be expensive, they can’t guarantee any refunds.
Pluralsight vs. Skill Success
Pluralsight is one of the leading web-based solutions offering creative training for people interested in technology. And like Skill Success, both platforms offer monthly subscriptions. However, as mentioned above, Pluralsight isn’t budget-friendly for some. Still, Skill Success provides only $199 annually per person and has all access to all of the platform’s courses.
8. Treehouse
Treehouse is another technology e-learning platform with two types of learning programs; certificate courses and tech degrees. Their lesson plans include video courses, tests, coding exercises, workshops, and projects. To jump-start your career, Treehouse lets you build websites, web, and mobile apps.
Pros:
- Even if you sign up for Treehouse’s 7-day free trial, they give you full access to its library of resources.
- Treehouse lets you experience real-life projects so you can be ready to accept clients by the time you finish your courses.
- Although Treehouse only has over 300 courses, they offer valuable knowledge content for your career of choice.
Cons:
- Treehouse requires you to provide credit and debit card information even if you sign up for a free trial. However, the company won’t charge you even if your trial period ends.
- For some, the Treehouse category of courses can be limiting.
- Like most eLearning platforms, Treehouse is not an accredited platform. Therefore most companies won’t recognize your documents from this Udemy alternative.
Treehouse vs. Skill Success
While Treehouse offers limited but high quality courses, Skill Success has more than 4,000 online video lectures and uploads at least 20+ lessons weekly.
Best Udemy alternative for nonprofits
There are hundreds if not thousands of knowledge-sharing platforms for nonprofits. Still, Skill Success has the most competitive rates to date. You’ll only fork up $12.50/month for an all-in annual plan. However, for a monthly membership plan, the most you’ll have to pay is $15. In addition to acquiring nonprofit courses, you can take as many courses with your monthly or annual subscription.
This educational website put forward an all-inclusive platform for everyone, providing accessibility options for PWD (People With Disability).
Even though Skill Success is not an accredited online learning website, they provide a deep dive into every topic possible through digestible chunks of insights. As a result, you can leverage Skill Success for your educational nonprofit skill-building needs.
Online learning for nonprofits
Online learning has advantages; that’s why people tend to choose this study method over traditional education. Online courses are a great way to develop your employability skills into marketable assets without college’s costly expenses. Alternatively, since your courses are accessible online, you can learn something new wherever you go.
But with hundreds of options, it’s hard to think which eLearning platform is ideal. So make sure there’s enough educational content on the platform to justify potentially subscribing to it.
While using these websites to hone your marketable skills, there are some ways to avoid encountering problems while taking online classes.