Udemy Review: All Key Pros and Cons in 2022

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In 2022, If you want to pursue a course or learn something online then I’m pretty sure you have come across the word Udemy i.e. An Online learning platform.

And, In today’s article, I’m going to review this online learning platform. So, If you’re looking for a Udemy review and Udemy Pros and Cons, this review guide is worth reading for you.

Udemy is one of the largest online learning platforms or MOOCs in the market. They offer courses on everything from marketing to programming to design. Udemy has 52 million students enrolled in its courses.

Being an all-time online learner, I know for sure that these things are not going to persuade you to purchase any course from Udemy and invest your valuable time, and money. Right?

Hence, In this Udemy review, I’m going to put one of the best online learning platforms available to the test.

I’m going to discuss how it stacks up in terms of:

• Udemy Courses:
• Content quality:
• Udemy Certificate:
• Pricing and value for money:
• Free Courses:
• Interface and Ease of use:
• Support:
• All Pros and Cons:
• Udemy Alternatives:

Let’s dive in with a key question…

What is Udemy?

Udemy is an online learning or e-learning platform founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. Udemy offers courses in a wide range be it; Business, Tech, Personal Development, Health, Lifestyle, or any kind of soft and hard skills you want to learn.

That’s because it has 196,000 courses, 52 million students, and 68,000 instructors teaching courses in over 75 languages. (Source: Wikipedia)

Sounds impressive?

Udemy offers paid and free both types of courses. It depends on the course creator whether they want to make their course free list on Udmey or not. The majority of Udemy courses are paid, however, there are many top free courses that you can take advantage of.

Workday, Degreed, Microsoft Viva Learning, ServiceNow, Successfactors, Nuvepro, Xoxoday, and more are the top tech and global partners of Udemy.

So, here I’ve given a brief Udemy introduction for those who don’t have any idea about it.

Let’s talk about…

Who is Udemy for?

A short answer to this question is that Udemy is for all learners who want to learn some skills and for all teachers who want to teach and make money online.

If you’re a student of any class, housemaker, or working professional, and no matter what you do, you can sign up on Udemy either to learn some new skills or to upgrade your knowledge. Or else, you can teach on Udemy in any field in which you have some expertise.

Apart from this, Udemy also helps businesses and their employees to grow. For business, Udemy offers Professional Services, Financial Services, Technology, Higher education, and Product Resources like; Human resources, Learning & Development, and more.

So, if you have a company, now you can train your employees and grow your business with Udemy.

However, In this Udemy review, I’m not going to talk about Udemy for businesses.

I’ll be focusing more on Individual learners who want to purchase some course from Udemy but have certain questions in mind like; Is Udemy worth the money and time? Are courses on Udemy good? Does Udemy Certificate help you to get a job? and many more.

Udemy Course Catalog:

As I told you already, Udemy offers courses in a wide range. Here are the fields in which you can search and pursue any course:

As you can see in this image, all categories of courses are available on Udemy. Be it soft skills courses like Productivity, and Personality Development or Hard skills courses like IT & Software and Development.

Additionally, every course category is divided into sub-categories. For example, Development covers Web development, Mobile Development, Programming Languages, Game Development, Software Testing, Software Engineering, Software Development Tools, and No-code development.

Similarly, in every sub-category, you’ll find Popular topics and hundreds of courses.

So, you can be specific about what you want to learn. However, we’ll talk later about how you can find the best Udemy courses in your category.

Udemy Content Quality: My Experience

In order to write a review for any product or platform, we have to use it first from all sides.

For this Udemy review, I’ve invested both money and time. I’ve purchased and pursued 10-12 paid courses and a lot of free courses since I started writing blogs.

You see, Udemy’s courses are created by individuals like you and me who have some expertise in any field.

Like Coursera, edX, and Udacity; Udemy doesn’t assess anyone’s knowledge of being a teacher and creating a course. So, It’s obvious that some course content you’ll like or some you might not.

Keep in mind, here I’ll be considering four content quality factors in Udemy courses:

• Content Clarity
• Content Depth
• Content Usefulness
• Presentation of the content

Based on different instructors and courses, I found many ups and downs in all the content quality factors that I had set. However, some courses that I pursued after checking the ratings and reviews, met all the content quality requirements.

For example, the course Energize Your Life by Ashwani Deswal I purchased one year back was AMAZING and worth paying for. Since I had heard a lot of positive comments about this course on Quora, that’s why I landed on this course.

Whereas, the course that I purchased for content marketing was filled with outdated information. In fact, plenty of courses have high ratings but are not yet updated on Udemy by their creators.

So, Did I find Udemy worth it when it comes to content quality? And, How much I would rate its Content Quality?

All in all, Yes! Furthermore, I’d rate 4.6/5 for Udemy’s overall content quality.

However, it all depends on which course you take and what you consider before purchasing a course.

Look, Instructors list their courses on Udemy for making money and getting some value. And, nobody wants to share that piece of content that isn’t liked by the users. So, it is hard to say that Udemy courses are not worth it.

Still, here I’m going to put some guide on how you can find the best Udemy courses that are worth paying for.

How to Find the Best Udemy Course?

To begin with, Udemy offers a hundred courses for any topic you search for. So It is important to know how to find the best course on Udemy that can match your requirements. Here are 5 steps that will help you to uncover the best courses:

1. Filter out for the best:

If you’ve any topic or category in mind, you can put the topic name in the search box, or either you can pick any category that you wanna learn.

For example, I want to learn Graphic Design. So, I’m going to search this topic:

Now, Udemy will show me all the available courses in Graphic Design.

As you can see, now we have Udemy’s filter system to narrow down my course requirements. So this filter system can help you to be specific about what you want to learn in Graphic Design or in any other field you search.

There is a ‘Topic’ section to find a course on a particular topic like Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Web design, and more. With the ‘Level’ section you can choose whether you want to take a beginner, Intermediate, Expert or Mixed level course.

Similarly, you can use Language, Price, Features, Ratings, Video Duration, and Subtitles. Once, you set all the filters then out of 10000 results, you will only get 10-100 results. So, now you have to find the best course in fewer result courses.

2. Check out the ratings and reviews

I’m pretty sure by filtering out now you’ll have the list of courses that meet your need. Furthermore, out of the top results now you need to find the higher rating and reviews courses.

Pro Tip: The courses which have a Bestseller tag, 4.5 ratings or higher than that, are assumed to be the best courses.

For the Graphic Design course, I consider Graphic Design Masterclass – Learn GREAT Design a good course to pick, as it has a 4.7-star rating and a bestseller tag.

Now, we need to read the reviews of the higher-rating courses. The users who have given only 1 star, must read their reviews. If all the users are reporting the same problem then it is better to look for another course.

Also, take a look at the creators’ profiles and look for what he/she does, how many courses they published, the total no. of students enrolled, and reviews of all their courses.

If you find all the ratings and results fine then it is time to land on our 3rd step.

3. Watch the preview and check all the features of the course:

In this step, you’ve to look at all the features of the course like what you’ll learn, Requirements, Description, Who this course is for, what the course includes, and the main thing Course Content.

If you find all these things interesting and not offered by other courses then watch the preview of the courses. Look at the teaching style of the instructor, the graphics, and the quality of the courses.

4. Check out when the course is last updated:

Now, you may be convinced to purchase the course if you like the rating, course features, and the teaching way of the instructor. However, there is one thing you also need to check in the course- When the course is last updated?

It might be not important for some fields like philosophy. But, in fields like Digital Marketing, Business, IT, Finance, and others you should seek the latest information. Therefore, it is mandatory to go with an updated course.

(Check out the above image. The last update is mentioned below the creator name.)

If any course on hard skills hasn’t been updated from 1-2 years then it’s better to try other courses.

5. Search the course on forum sites:

Forum sites like Quora, and Reddit are great to take opinions from all around the world. If you’ve found a couple of courses on any topic then search that course on these sites.

As I guessed, Graphic Design Masterclass – Learn GREAT Design by Lindsay Marsh is good to pick. Still, to make a final decision before purchasing I’d try to find this course on Quora by searching ‘Best Udemy Courses on Graphic Design.

As you can see, some quora users who had taken this course admired the course.

Here is another user:

Now I’m pretty sure this Udemy course on Graphic Design is worth taking for me.

Inside a Udemy course while learning you can take notes, and check out the announcements like; going live, Reviews & Learning Tools. You can also download the resources and learning materials.

Udemy Certificates:

After finishing any paid course from Udemy, It offers you a Certificate of completion and lifetime access. But the question is: Are certificates from Udemy legit? Can a Udemy certificate get you a job?

Udemy is great for learning and acquiring skills but its certificate doesn’t add much value to your resume for getting a job. It is because like Udacity, Coursera, and other e-learning platforms, Udemy isn’t an accredited institution so these certificates are not legally valid. These certificates just show that you have finished this or that course.

Note: We've partnered with Udacity, and currently Udacity offering a huge 25% Off discount on all its courses. This offer is applicable till only for a week till 2022. Check out the Udacity Coupon Code and discount applied post. 

However, if you just want to learn some skills and want to start something on your own, you don’t require a certificate even. For example, I took a few courses on Blogging and Content Writing to start my own blog.

So, you might not get a job with Udemy certificates but I’m 100% sure the skills you’ll learn through its courses can make your career.

Price & Value for Money:

Courses are great on Udemy for learning or upgrading your knowledge. Now you must be wondering how much does a Udemy course cost? And, Is Udemy worth the money?

Udemy keeps changing course prices. Right now (3rd July 2022), Udemy course prices in India start from INR 799 and can go up to INR 7900. Additionally, in most of Udemy’s bestseller courses, you’ll find between INR 3000 to INR 4000 price range.

However, If you’re a new student on Udemy then you can grab its bestsellers and many other courses as cheapest price in India. This price can be increased on decreased with time. So, avoid impulse buying.

Isn’t it a great deal for a new student like you?

Check it out now!

Udemy course fees are affordable and for a first-time user, it’s amazing compared to other e-learning sites like edX, Skillshare, Coursera, and Udacity. Additionally what I find most fascinating here is that Udemy course fees don’t depend on how long it takes you to finish the course.

For example, if I purchase any certificate courses on Coursera or Udacity, then prices can be increased if I take a course for a longer duration. However, on Udemy once you purchase any course, you’ll have lifetime access. That means you can also revisit your course if you need. This is what I call value for money.

Here is Coursera’s fee structure for Google Digital Marketing & E-Commerce professional certificate course:

Udemy 30-Day Refund Policy:

If you have purchased a course and for whatever reason, if you are unhappy with a course, you can request a refund within 30 days. At the current time, Udemy is not offering Free-Trial but its 30-day refund policy allows students to learn risk-free.

To claim this refund you must check out Udemy’s refund policy page. Along with full refunds, you may also request a partial refund for eligible courses purchased within the last 30 days on Udemy.

Remember these two points at the time of refunding:

• Most refunds are returned via the original payment method. Please note that certain restrictions may apply and some purchases may only be eligible for credit refunds. Learn more about Udemy’s refund policy.
• Refund requests cannot be submitted in the Udemy mobile app (please see the Requesting a refund on a mobile device.

Udemy Free Courses:

If you just want to test Udemy and its courses, its free courses are a way to go. Along with the paid courses, Udemy offers thousands of free courses in all fields.

These free courses are enough to gain some fundamentals and necessary skills in any field. Just put the ‘Free Courses’ in the search box. And there you go!

Now you can set the filter about what you want to learn, the language of the course, Level, Ranting, Video duration, and more.

Remember, with free courses you get only online video content, however, if you also want to take advantage of Udemy’s Certificate of completion, Instructor Q&A, and Instructor direct message, you have to upgrade your Udemy plan.

Interface and Ease of use:

If you’ve checked out the Udemy platform, I’m pretty sure you must have been satisfied with its interface and ease of use.

Udemy has a very simple, easy-to-use, and navigate interface. Each course category is divided into sub-categories, furthermore, sub-categories are divided into the popular topics that allow students to find easily what they are actually looking for.

However, the most interesting thing is that Udemy provides complete transparency with the course features and the course creators.

Once you make an account on Udemy and enroll in any courses, you’ll get a separate page i.e. My Learning. This page will contain all the courses you have taken and a few other things Wishlists, Archived, and Learning Tools.

Support:

Online learning or any other online platform can be useless if they don’t provide contact support. Right?

Udemy has a great support system by the way. If you want to contact Udemy, visit its Help and Support page. Now you can find your issues or any kind of questions in FAQs or you can select a topic to search for help.

Udemy provides help mostly through articles. These articles will tell you to take a few steps to resolve your issue. Whether you have to request a refund or need some troubleshooting help, these articles work great.

Additionally, Udemy also has chatbot help. If your query is a bit different, you can send your problem in form of a message and they’ll get back to you soon.

Udemy review conclusion:

Udemy is a great online learning platform that offers courses in many fields and it’s well known for its quality courses at very affordable prices. Whether you want to learn any skills quickly or want to show your expertise in any field by teaching, Udemy is going to be the best option for you.

Yeah! It is certainly true that Udemy’s certificate doesn’t help you to get a job. However, the skills you’ll learn can definitely make your career.

The main downside? Udemy keeps changing its prices for all courses. The prices for the courses that you see today can be increased or decreased tomorrow. Besides, Udmey also doesn’t take any kind of test for instructors or course creators to assess their knowledge.

But overall, Udemy is a great platform to learn and develop skills quickly in any field. And, if you want to start something on your own but lacking in some skills then Udemy’s bestseller and high-rating courses are worth trying for you.

To finish up, below I’m going to highlight the key pros and cons of Udemy which are the most important part of this Udemy review.

Our Overall Rating: 4.2/5

Udemy Alternatives:

Udemy is not the only platform in the online learning market. There are many other platforms that you should also check out.

Coursera, edX, Skillshare, Udacity, and many more offer courses in a wide range, and these platforms have head-to-head competition with Udemy. While reading this Udemy review, you must have noticed many times I compared Udemy with our e-learning sites.

Well, there is no doubt Coursera Degree & Professional Certificates, Udacity Nanodegee can be way more valuable as compared to Udemy certificates. Still, Udemy has more than 35 million users learning new skills from 57,000 expert instructors who’ve produced over 130,000 online courses.

Check out our Udacity review and Coursera review. We’ve also published an article on Udacity Vs Coursera, you may also find it worth reading.

Here are a few reasons why Udemy is better than others:

• Affordable course prices and lifetime course access
• Offering courses in each and every field
• New students can grab bestselling courses at very cheap prices
• 30-Day refund policy