Taking an online course is a relatively cheap, easy and diverse way to enrich your skills and job opportunities, especially in an age where social distancing has sparked a shift towards working and studying at home. Skillshare and Udemy stand among the giants in the field of online learning platforms, each offering a bevy of high-quality online courses. Udemy and Skillshare are online course providers that offer course materials and assessments to help users learn a particular skill. Both platforms share a few similarities. They each have a versatile array of courses but can lean more towards creative skills such as craftmaking, acting, writing, and speaking. They also allow users to create their own courses and earn from teaching other users.
If you're planning to enroll in either platform, there's quite a few factors that you need to know and consider. In this article, we'll lay out the Udemy vs Skillshare comparison, reviewing important features, such as available courses, subscription models, and instructor or community support from both to help you pick out which works best.
Feature Comparison - Udemy and Skillshare
Courses Offered
Udemy offers a diverse assortment of courses, from bite-sized lessons by hobbyists to fully-fledged lesson packages from actual professionals. It has a fair amount of both academic and creative topics, from Microsoft Excel and Python to personal development and guitar.
Anyone can create a course, leading to the platform carrying about 100,000 different courses in its inventory. As a result, each course on Udemy can be highly variable from another in terms of quality. A Udemy course could last as shortly as 30 minutes or take up to 5 hours long. Whether the skills you acquire within that timespan are substantial or not depends on picking the right course.
Skillshare classes are similarly diverse, although the platform leans toward the creative side. Many hobbyists use Skillshare to teach fine arts like freehand drawing and Oriental calligraphy. There are approximately 25,000 courses on Skillshare to date; course quality is likewise varied, but the platform partners with companies like Adobe and LG to create its own, higher-quality original classes.
In terms of its approach to courses, Skillshare is fairly direct. It can take you as little as 10 minutes to finish a video. The platform is notable for its project-based philosophy; all courses task their students to complete a project for their culminating activity. Users get the opportunity to apply and cement their learning experience through actual outputs.
Instructors & Community
Your instructors on Udemy are made up by your fellow users on the platform; the quality of the support and feedback they can give - if they give any at all - varies from course to course. You might be fortunate enough to find one instructor who's genuinely passionate about their course and friendly to their learners, but you're equally likely to meet one who is forever out of reach for any questions or feedback.
In stark contrast, Skillshare is rather fond of cultivating an active and friendly community made from students and instructors. As each course on Skillshare is project-based, the platform encourages frequent collaboration; users regularly share and exchange ideas with one another. First-time instructors get a special video course on teaching and an actual Teacher Handbook to help them in starting their teaching career.
Pricing & Subscriptions
Skillshare users can pay a flat $15 monthly subscription rate per for unlimited access to the platform's library of online classes. Users may also opt to pay per year at a cost of $99. If you want to try the service out, Skillshare offers a free trial that lasts two whole months.
Enrolling in a class is a little different in Udemy - courses are bought individually at a rate as cheap as $19.99 per course, all the way to $199.99. A one-time purchase unlocks lifetime access to the course. In addition, Udemy always offers a discount to plenty of popular and trending courses, slashing prices by up to 95% to keep users interested in buying courses.
Pros and Cons - Udemy vs Skillshare
Udemy
Pros
With over 100, 000 courses, there's tons of good (and not so good) courses on a particular topic that are available on Udemy - Skillshare has a collection that seems dwarfed by comparison.
Once a course is purchased, its entire contents are available to you forever. You can study its materials and take all the assessments at your own pace.
Frequent discounts mean you can buy plenty of the high-quality, professional courses for the price of a single class.
Excellent quality-of-life support, including a sleek interface, advanced video player with subtitles, and different language options.
Cons
If you're planning to learn from a lot of courses on Udemy, you're going to have to spend more over time.
Many courses are simple cash-grabs that suffer from poor quality and no instructor support. It's best to avoid them altogether while finding better ones.
There is usually no instructor or community support. If you prefer study groups or peer/mentor support while studying, this can be a serious disadvantage.
Skillshare
Pros
Great bargain if you want to try multiple topics. A Skillshare subscription can be bought at $15 per month, or you can save with a $99 plan per year. In exchange, you gain access to the entirety of Skillshare's catalog and enroll in as many courses as you want.
Skillshare's online classes are generally of a higher quality. Additionally, it creates its own courses, called Skillshare Originals, by partnering with companies and professionals.
Highly vibrant and active student community. Instructors are similarly more open to communicating with students to assist their learning progress.
Skillshare is more focused than Udemy, fostering a community of artistic individuals that create several types of projects as part of their courses.
Cons
If you just want to try a single course, Skillshare's subscription model might not work for you. There's seldom any discounts given, too.
Lessons can be excessively short, with many videos lasting only ten minutes.
There's less variety in the types of courses; Udemy plainly has more than double the amount to compensate for its quality.
Final Verdict - Skillshare vs Udemy
Ultimately, if you're considering Udemy or Skillshare, it's best to look at your priorities. Among the different online course platforms, these two stand out for being particularly helpful to creative learners.
Students who want to learn more on artistic topics might enjoy Skillshare more. This also applies if you simply enjoy learning; for a cheap fee, you gain access to a whole library of information.
Udemy is better suited for academic and general learning, especially for a single topic. If you only have one topic in mind, you can get it forever on Udemy at an affordable rate.
We hope this article will help you settle your dilemma on Skillshare or Udemy. Happy learning!
