Unless you are a cave dweller, you must have heard of Udemy. Since its inception in 2009, Udemy has been one of the most popular e-learning platforms.
As of 2022, they have an active community of over 46 million learners and provide over 155,000 courses.
Their popularity and reach have skyrocketed, Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, as more students started opting for online courses.
Here’s a tweet showing how much they have grown in the years of social distancing.
But have they really monopolized e-learning?
Not really!
In this post, we will be looking at the 5 best Udemy alternative apps you can use in 2022.
We will evaluate and compare salient features of each service, prices, ease of usage, and more.
5 Udemy Alternatives in 2022
Here are the 5 best alternatives to Udemy that you should keep an eye on.
1. Coursera
Pros
- Updated new courses and topics.
- Provides Financial aid
- Free courses without certification
Cons
- Reported plagiarized projects
- Confusing subscriptions
Active Users: 77 million+
Coursera offers courses from diverse fields. The courses on this platform revolve around different career paths and trending topics.
There are over 5100 online courses like Udemy that include over 40 certifications and 25 degrees.
Some of the popular course categories are Business, Data Science, IT & Language learning, Computer Science, Humanities & Arts, Personal Development, Mathematics, Health, Social Science, and Personal Development.
The video quality of Coursera tutorials is limited to 720p resolution. Some high-rated courses have 1080p full HD resolution videos.
You can fast-forward the tutorial videos as per your will. You can even take notes and use the ‘Save Note’ option during the lectures.
The user interface provides subtitles in multiple languages. This feature is especially helpful for non-native candidates who aren’t used to different English accents.
You can jump between the sections but for certifications, you have to go through the complete course video.
Students and other professionals find Coursera plentily useful thanks to the free courses and financial aid services.
At the pace their subscriber base is increasing, they would soon be flaunting over a hundred million users.
Supported Devices
- Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, Amazon Fire Stick, Android Smart TV
Pricing
- Individual courses start from $0 – $99,
- special programs from $39- $79 and
- online degree from $15,000- $25,000.
As a part of special programs, you may receive discounted subscriptions.
2. Pluralsight
Pros
- Categorized courses for beginners and experts alike
- Courses are always updated by the authors
- Easy to get niche expert-level topics
Cons
- Lengthy videos
- Lags in-course progress update
Active Users: 1 million+ active users across 150+ countries.
Pluralsight allows you to filter your courses depending upon your skills level. The interface provides a sorting option to browse by newest and highly rated courses.
There are multiple courses offered by Pluralsight including IT Ops, Software Development, Cyber & Information Security, Business, Creative, Manufacturing Design, and Data Architecture.
Pluralsight provides 2 sign-in options. One is Skills, which will help your team members to upskill their knowledge with the trends & technologies. The other one is Flow, which will leverage your team’s workflow data to provide detailed reporting and help define key performance indicators.
The user interface is quite mature and well designed for giving steep competition to sites like Udemy. Here you can select the tutorial video quality up to 720p resolution. The audio quality is decent, the video tutorials support subtitles, and can be fast-forwarded.
On the right-hand side, there is a tab to write Notes and you can jump between the sections. Overall, the interface has no issues to crib about.
The courses on this platform are mostly suited for techies. Many tech companies also provide complimentary Pluralsight subscriptions for their employees, so that they can access and keep abreast with the latest programming techniques.
Supported Devices
- Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Amazon Fire TV, Smart TV, and Chromecast.
Pricing
- For individuals: Standard courses $29 per month and Premium courses $45 per month.
- For Teams: Professional courses $529 per year.
The platform offers discounts to schools, high school students, and teachers.
3. Udacity
Pros
- Integrated job opportunities
- Quality Content
- Provides Mentorship
Cons
- No dedicated application
- Expensive
Active Users: 12 million+ users
Udacity offers a wide range of online courses and services. Apart from tutorial videos, the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platform provides a wide range of services like career preparations, overview for enterprises, and Government opportunities.
You can filter courses by skill level, type, and duration. Its online courses cover different areas on Autonomous Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Science, Cyber Security, Programming, Business, and Product Management.
The user interface of Udacity is good but lacks the ability to take notes. The player supports tutorial videos up to 1080p Full HD and can be fast-forwarded. The audio quality of their tutorials is relatively better than other platforms.
There is a subtitle option, however, subs are limited to English and Portuguese. You can jump and skip between the topics, and it provides a route map for the whole course. This proves that Udacity is one of the strongest Udemy competitors.
This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform provides a plethora of different courses for its users. Their subscribers’ have rated it 5 stars and find it to be worth every penny. Udacity is one of the fastest-growing e-learning platforms in the world.
Supported Devices
- Windows, Mac, Linux
Pricing
Course fees are a bit expensive at $399 per month. You can get discount coupons on DevOps.
4. SkillShare
Pros
- Affordable
- Provides free trial
- A diverse pool of courses
Cons
- Available only in the English Language
- No certifications
- Video resolution mimics internet bandwidth
Active Users: 5 million+ users
Simple, and user-friendly- this is Skillshare in a nutshell. You can browse courses by filtering different niche sections. Under the Create section, you will find courses related to Film & Video, Fine Arts, Music, Animation, Photography, Web development, and many more.
The Build section provides tutorials on Freelancing & Entrepreneurship, Business Analytics, Marketing, and Leadership & Management. Lastly, the Thrive section includes courses on Productivity and Lifestyle.
Skillshare’s interface is packed with a lot of features. Workshops from real-life experiences, live sessions, and student projects. You cannot change the resolution of the tutorials. Video quality gets automatically adjusted according to your internet bandwidth.
The video quality is good with only English subtitles and has decent audio. You can adjust playback speed and can fast-forward the course video. The tutorials are in-depth, well-constructed, and nicely explained. This website can prove to be the most potent Udemy alternative in the long run.
Subscribers and users find Skillshare to be a good e-learning platform. The course content available on this platform is not for the masses. It is best suited for entrepreneurs and creative people, a bit out-of-the-box but a diverse and quality catalog. There are over 6,000 teachers and their user base is 5 million strong.
Supported Devices
- iOS, Windows, Android
Pricing
- Premium subscription at $99 per annum or $19 per month.
- Premium membership offers a 50% discount.
5. Teachable
Pros
- Brilliant Customer Support
- Affordable
Cons
- Complicated to browse through courses
Active Users: 10 million+ active users
Teachable is an e-learning platform targeted towards emerging entrepreneurs and creative people. This website is not only an online tutorial platform but also offers blogs on topics like creativity, mindset, marketing, money management, and other trending topics.
You can find video courses on arts, music, career choices, productivity, business, health & finance, travel & language, culinary skills, to name a few.
The interface is well designed and their digital marketing team has done a good job of ensuring this platform’s reach. One downside of this platform is that it is a bit complicated to search for the courses. Its media player can render course content in 1080 Full HD with decent audio quality and the resolution gets automatically selected.
You can skip and fast-forward the tutorial videos.
Overall, users and subscribers have given Teachable positive feedback. Its customer support services are very responsive. Few of its users have shared their frustration with finding tutorial videos other than blogs. This new start-up is growing fast with over 10 million students. But this platform is a discrete Udemy alternative.
Supported Devices
- iOS, and Windows
Pricing
- Basic courses: $29 per month*
- Premium courses: $99 per month*
- Business plan: $249 per month*
*Billed Annually
You can make the best huge random discounts ranging between 50%-69% on select courses.
Conclusion
Even though Udemy is an e-learning behemoth, you can go ahead with any Udemy alternative we’ve listed here.
Here’s a helping hand –
- If you are looking out for free online tutorials from a bunch of different disciplines, then Coursera gives Udemy competition. This is one platform that is gradually gaining popularity among netizens.
- If you are an IT professional or want to learn coding or blockchain, then you can opt for Pluralsight. It even gathers statistics and can provide smart reports regarding your skill competencies.
- SkillShare is the new kid in the block. This platform is perfect for entrepreneurs and subjects related to creative arts.
- If you are an employee (especially IT) you can opt for e-courses on any of the above-mentioned platforms and get it reimbursed from your employer. Most of these websites provide attractive offers & special subscriptions for companies and enterprises too.
If you want an easy way out or just want to revise your existing skills, I’ll suggest you look up that course on YouTube. But remember checking out tutorials on YouTube can be a double-edged sword. Yes, you can find complete tutorials on numerous subjects however you yourself have to determine the authenticity of its content.
FAQs
Is Coursera better than Udemy?
Coursera is here to stay, but it will take quite some time for Coursera to catch up to Udemy’s popularity. Depending on the quality of the courses offered we feel both are great e-learning platforms. While Coursera offers over 4000 courses from different universities, it can’t match Udemy’s course diversity of 155,000 courses in over 65 languages. As Udemy has more reach and courses to offer, Coursera can’t match Udemy in terms of the sheer volume of content.
Why is Udemy so cheap?
Udemy runs promotions from time to time which provides unbelievable discounts. This is especially to attract students. Online instructors opt for such promotions so that students can enroll in a course at a minimal price. This way students are more likely to enroll in a course and they would be notified when the instructor of that course publishes any new material. Such promotions are a win-win for students, instructors as well as Udemy.
Is Udemy good?
Yes, if not the very best. If you keep an open eye, you can get your favorite courses at rock-bottom prices. You just have to wait for the right moment of course. Udemy covers a spectrum of disciplines and can be accessed from desktops, smartphones, and even smart TVs.