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Udemy
Coursera
Udacity
In this Udemy Vs Coursera Vs Udacity comparison, we’ll compare and contrast these three online learning platforms in-depth, to see which of them best meets your need if you want to learn and pursue a course online.
Read on for a detailed look at…which is best at everything.
(Read also: Is Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate good?)
Trust me, by the end of this comparison, you’ll have a clear idea about which platform is going to be the best for you.
Let’s dive in with a fundamental question:
What Udemy, Coursera, and Udacity are?
Udemy, Coursera, and Udacity are online learning or e-learning platforms that offer courses online to learn skills and improve your knowledge.
Whether you have to learn soft skills like Communication Skills, Office Productivity, Personal Development e.t.c. or hard skills like Artificial Intelligence, Business, Development e.t.c. you can try any of these platforms.
Moreover, You can also pursue courses in Health, Lifestyle, Language learning, Photography, or any Leading Tech field. You can also earn a degree or certificate after finishing any course you purchase. Hence, these platforms can make your career, and upgrade your knowledge while sitting at home.
Sounds interesting?
No matter who you’re (a student, working professional, or housemaker), and what qualifications you have, if you want to learn something online from your home, these platforms always welcome you.
Now, the big question is: In Udemy Vs Coursera Vs Udacity which one is best for you?
Well, the answer is not easy. We have to look at all the factors listed in the beginning thoroughly to find the best for you.
Let’s start one by one…
Course Categories:
To begin with, Udemy and Coursera provide courses in a wide range, whereas Udacity focuses only on the leading tech field.
That is why, Udemy offers a total of 196,000 courses in 13 fields, Coursera offers 7000 courses in 11 subjects, and Udacity offers 500 courses in 8 fields.
Take a look at the below table where I listed the fields they offer courses:
| Udemy | Coursera | Udacity |
|---|---|---|
| Development | Data Science | Data Science |
| Business | Business | Business |
| Finance & Accounting | Computer Science | Autonomous Systems |
| IT & Software | Information Technology | Cloud Computing |
| Office Productivity | Language Learning | Cybersecurity |
| Personal Development | Personal Development | Artificial Intelligence |
| Health & Fitness | Health | Product Management |
| Marketing | Physical Science & Engineering | Programming & Development |
| Lifestyle | Social Sciences | |
| Photography & Video | Arts & Humanities | |
| Design | Math & Logic | |
| Music | ||
| Teaching & Academics |
As you can see, there are some courses like Business, and Programming is common on all three platforms. For Health, IT, Language learning, or Personal Development you can try either Udemy or Coursera.
However, courses in Music, Photography, Cybersecurity e.t.c. are also offered by Coursera but Coursera doesn’t have a dedicated subject in these fields.
If you find the same course (that you want to take) on all of these platforms, it can be very hard to choose one. Right?
This is where you need to check the Content Quality or in other words, who provides better courses in similar fields.
Content Quality and Features:
This is the most challenging thing to decide in Udemy Vs Coursera Vs Udacity which has better content quality. So, we’ll go one by one to assess the content quality of these 3 platforms…
Udacity:
Udacity is well known for its content quality and servicers with that. There is no doubt when it comes to Tech fields, especially Programming, Machine Learning, Business Analytics, and Product Manager no one can beat Udacity.
It is because Udacity’s courses and its Nanodegree programs are built in partnership with the world’s most innovative tech companies and taught by industry leaders like Github, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.
For example, Its Digital Marketing Nanodegree program is built in collaboration with Google, Hubspot, Mailchimp, Moz, and Facebook. (We’ll talk later about what is Nanodegree and all.)
Additionally, All instructors and mentors at Udacity are highly educated. On Udacity, you get instructors who have achieved the career you want. With every program, you can find a small bio, qualification, and the position where an instructor has been working now.
With their mentorship, you can achieve the career that you want. Sounds amazing?
Udacity has bite-sized video content, reading exercises, and Quizzes that brush up your learning. Its all-paid courses include Real-world projects from industry experts, Flexible learning programs, Technical mentor support, Student community, and Career Services like Github review, Resume support, and more.
However, Udacity course prices are also expensive. So, I’d rate Udacity’s content quality 4.8/5.
(Read also: StationX review: Is it good for learning cybersecurity?)
Now let’s jump into Coursera…
Coursera:
Like Udacity. Coursera has also partnered with over 200 universities and companies to provide real learning experiences that can connect to real-world benefits. Google, IBM, Stanford, Duke, Imperial College of London, and more are the Coursera partners that add courses in Coursera.
You might have heard about Google Career Certificates. Google has tied up with Coursera and offers professional Certificates courses in fields like IT Support, Data Analytics, UX Design, Data Science, Cloud Computing, and more.
Since Coursera’s courses are offered by top companies and Universities, it’s obvious that you will get high-quality content on Coursera also. Recently, I took Google UX Design and META Social Media Professional Certificates on Coursera and I really enjoyed these courses.
Coursera’s courses include video content, articles, test, and quizzes. And the best thing about Coursera content is it takes tests and quizzes during the course to make your learning more effective.
However, there are also some cons of Coursera’s content that are worth mentioning here. Like, Coursera provides forum support for students who enroll in its courses but some classmates get criticized by other classmates for asking questions in the forums, which ignores by forum moderators.
With that, you may also find that some courses serve old information which needs to be new and updated. All in all, I’d rate it 4.7/5 for Coursera’s content quality.
Udemy:
Udemy also provides great content quality. Like Coursera and Udacity, Udemy is not tied up with big companies and Universities, however, Udemy has a bigger audience of 52 million students enrolled in its courses.
To be clear, Udemy is more like YouTube where any person who has some expertise in any field can create a course and be an instructor at Udemy. As Udemy doesn’t assess the knowledge of the course creator, It might be hard for you to trust the content of these courses.
However, Udemy best-seller tag courses or the course have 4.5 or 4.5+ ratings, always winning the battle when it comes to content quality.
Besides, you need to also remember that instructors list their courses on Udemy for making money and getting some value. And, nobody wants to share that piece of content that the users don’t like.
Still, some instructors don’t update their content and provide doubt sessions. That’s why I always recommend students enroll in courses after checking the ratings and recent reviews to filter for the best course.
Since Udemy also doesn’t assess the knowledge of course creators, so I’d rate 4.6/5 for its content quality.
To sum up, I've rated 4.8/5 for Udacity's content quality, 4.7/5 for Coursera, and 4.6/5 for Udemy's content quality.
Value of their Certificates:
Udacity, Coursera, and Udemy all offer certificates after finishing a course. But the big question is Whose certificate can help you to get a job and make a career?
Let’s start with Are Udacity Nanodegrees worth it?
To make you clear, Udacity offers Nanodegree certificates and the recognition of Udacity’s Nanodegrees comes from tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook. However, Nanodegrees are not recognized or accredited by educational institutions, it is issued by Udacity itself.
So, if you have the skills and the company needs your skills, not an accredited Degree then I’m pretty sure adding a Nanodegree certificate on your LinkedIn profile can help you to get a job.
When it comes to Coursera, Coursera offers online degree and Professional certificates courses. If you want to make a career in a field where you need a degree or post-graduate studies then Coursera can be great for you.
Since Coursera’s online degrees are acceptable around the world while many top companies seek professional certificates in UX design, Data Analytics, and more. So, Coursera has a high chance to land you a job in a big company.
Besides these degrees and professional certificates, Coursera also offers you free courses with a Certificate of Completion which doesn’t help you to get a job.
Udemy offers a Certificate of Compliance after finishing a course. Like Udacity, Udemy isn’t an accredited institution so its certificates are not going to help you with your jobs.
However, the skills you’ll gain from Udemy courses can make your career. And if you 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, when it comes to the value of degrees and certificates, Coursera wins the battle, followed by Udacity and Udemy.
Pricing and Value for Money:
We’ve walked you through the course categories, content quality, and the value of their certificates. Now, let’s talk about the pricing or course fees of these platforms.
Well, when it comes to prices and worth the money, I’m pretty sure, Udemy would be the winner and in the end, you will get to know why it is so.
If I talk about Udacity, it has two price plans for every paid course- one is Monthly access at INR 22849 and another one is Complete course fees with an average time to finish the course. In monthly access, you pay money as you go.
For example, if you want to pursue Digital Marketing Nanodegree program. One is monthly access for INR 22849 and one is 3 months course fees for INR 58257 because it takes an average of 3 months to finish this course.
If any course takes an average time of 5 months or more to complete then the price would be higher for sure. Since Udacity doesn’t provide lifetime access to any paid courses and Nanodegree programs so, in my opinion, its course prices are expensive.
Coursera has also taken the same approach for its Professional certificate courses. However, it has 3 price plans for professional certificate courses: One-month price, 3 months prices, and 6 months course prices.
Like Udacity, Coursera also doesn’t provide lifetime access to its courses but prices are affordable comparatively.
The earlier you finish the course the less money you pay. However, its Degree courses and MasterTrack® Certificate course will ask you for a one-time payment or installment payment.
Let’s check out the pricing of Udemy…
Udemy course prices are affordable enough and the best thing about Udmey is that you get lifetime access to every course you purchase. That means you can revisit your course any time if you need.
Unlike Coursera and Udacity, the Udemy course’s price doesn’t depend on how long it takes you to finish the course.
Besides, Udemy offers its courses at a huge discount for its first-time users. So, if you’re a new student at Udemy then you can grab its bestseller courses as cheap as INR 529 which generally cost you INR 3000 to INR 4000.
However, there is one negative point about Udemy course prices that is Udmey keeps changing its course prices. So, it might be possible that the course you purchase today at a price may increase or decrease the next day.
Since Udemy course prices are much affordable compared to Coursera and Udacity and it also offers lifetime access so the winner is Udemy, followed by Coursera and Udacity.
Free trial and Refund policy:
Talking about free trial and refund, all platforms offer. Udacity offers 30 days free trial and 7 days refund period. Also, keep in mind that you’ll have to cancel and unenroll within the first 2 days from your first month’s subscription purchase date to be eligible for a full refund.
Not to be outdone, Coursera also offers 7 days free trial and a 14-day refund period for its professional certificate courses.
Whereas Udemy doesn’t offer any free trial now but it provides 30 days refund policy which is a longer period than Udacity and Coursera. Udemy also has a half refund policy that is worth considering before 30 days when you don’t like the course you purchased.
One key point to note here, Udacity and Coursera also provisdes schlorships plans for financial poor students while Udmey doesn't.
Free Courses:
Udemy, Coursera, and Udacity these platforms also offer free courses that you can take advantage of to gain the basics skills.
As Udemy has a wide range of fields of so it offers a total of 10000 free courses, followed by Coursera offers 4000 free courses while Udacity offers 500 free courses only in the tech field.
You don’t need to pay any price, a credit card number, or add any other details to enroll in these free courses. All you need to do is just create an account on these platforms and you’re done.
Coursera also offers a Certificate of Compliance with its free courses, if you want to access this certificate then you may have to pay a small price to Coursera.
Ease of Use:
If you’ve taken a tour of these e-learning platforms then you must be satisfied with their easy-to-use and easy-to-navigate sites.
All these platforms provide a filter system to filter a course as per your requirement regarding the topics, languages, difficulty level, and more. You will also get the complete course description of what you will learn, the course syllabus, the instructor’s bio, reviews, and ratings for a course.
In fact, on Udacity you can download the course syllabus for free. On Udemy you may watch the preview for some courses before enrolling.
Remember, Udemy and Coursera both also have a mobile application to access their courses from your mobile phone. These platforms also offer courses in many languages. Here are the Udemy application and Coursera mobile applications on Google Play.
On the other hand, Udacity doesn’t have any mobile application so you have to use your browser for Udacity. Udacity also offers its courses in only one language i.e. English.
When it comes to easiness, I'll consider Udemy and Coursera as winner because Udacity doesn't have any mobile application and also it doesn't provide content in other lanugages.
Support:
You should always be concerned about this before purchasing any course from any platform. Here you don’t need to worry about it because Udacity, Udemy, and Coursera all offer a support system for students.
Udacity provides you support with a Chatbot, FAQs, Content questions, and anything else in the form of a message.
Along with these supports, Udacity also provides many supports in content and career services with the Nanodegree programs like Technical mentor support, Student community, resume support, GitHub review, and Linkedin profile optimization for students.
On the other hand, If you need support from Udemy and want to contact it, visit Udemy’s Help and Support page where you can find your issues or any kind of questions in FAQs or you can also 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. Like Udacity, Udmey also has chatbot help. If your query is a bit different, you can send your problem in the form of a message and they’ll get back to you soon.
Coursera has also support systems that you can access through its Contact Us page, Learner Help Centre, and FAQs. And, if you enroll in any Coursera course then you get community support i.e. discussion forums.
As Udacity also provides career services support like Github review, Technical Mentor support, Student community, resume support and other to help students to get a job easily, so the winner is Udacity.
Udemy Vs Coursera Vs Udacity verdict:
Overall, in a Udemy Vs Coursera Vs Udacity shootout, it’s hard to say Coursera, Udacity or either Udemy is the winner.
When it comes to content quality in tech fields and career supports Udacity wins the match. If you look at the job’s perspective and the value of certificates Coursera comes first. And, If you consider the price and value for money then Udmey is ahead of others because it provides lifetime access.
Now It’s on you, what you consider and on what behalf you choose a platform. If you’re interested in the Tech field, especially in Programming, Machine Learning, Business Analytics, and Product Manager and you can afford Udacity prices then its Nanodegree programs are worth taking for you.
However, if Google Career certificates fascinate you or you want to pursue an online degree course from a top university like London of University then Coursera is the only option available for you here.
If you want to learn a skill online, or just upgrade your knowledge on certain things by investing less money, I guess Udemy is best for you.
Now I’ll leave you with a list of the key pros and cons of each online learning platform.
The Pros and Cons of Udacity, Coursera, and Udemy
Key reasons to choose Udacity over Coursera and Udemy:
- Provide better content in Tech fields like Programming, Machine Learning, Business Analytics, Self Driving Cars, and Product Manager.
- You learn from the instructors who have achieved the career you want.
- If you want to learn from zero to an advanced level on any topic then Udacity schools in that field can only help you.
- With Nanodegree certificates, you also get many career services like mentor support, resume support, GitHub review, Linked profile optimization, and more.
Key reasons to choose Coursera over Udacity and Udemy:
- Best for pursuing an online degree from top universities like the University of London.
- Coursera professional certificate courses are not only affordable but also get you a job easily.
- The earlier you finish a course the less money you have to pay. You can also take advantage of its EMI payment options.
Key reasons to choose Udemy over Coursera and Udacity:
- Offer courses in all categories and gives opportunity to instructors also to create and sell their courses.
- It offers courses at a very cheap price. In fact, If you’re a first-time user at Udemy, you can grab its best-selling course at as cheap as around INR 500.
- After paying a one-time price for any course, you get lifetime access which means you can revisit the course at any time.
- Udemy offers 10000 total free courses to learn and explore Udemy.
Now It’s your turn:
Have you got something to say about Udemy vs Courser Vs Udacity, or do have you any further queries about these learning platforms?
Share your thoughts in the comments below – we’ll do our best to answer any questions you may have.
Alternatives to Udemy, Coursera, and Udacity:
When it comes to learning skills online, Udemy, Coursera, and Udacity are not the only platforms available today.
Besides these platforms, you can also take a look at edX, Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning, Futurelearn, and others.
You can try edX for learning Computer Science, Language learning, Data Science, and more courses here. Moreover, edX offers courses organized by world-class universities like MIT, Berkeley, and Harvard. With certificate courses, this platform also provides hundreds of free courses.
Read more: Udemy Vs edX- which is best?
Skillshare courses help one to learn and develop new skills in Animation, Graphic Design, Photography, Leadership, Marketing, and more. You can also pursue any courses in Business, Technology, and lifestyle. Also remember like Coursera, Udacity, and Udemy, Skillshare doesn’t offer free courses now.
However, If you’re looking for a completely free online learning platform then you can try Alison Learning.
Udemy Vs Coursera Vs Udacity FAQs
Which is better Udemy or Udacity or Coursera?
It’s difficult to decide between Udemy, Udacity, and Coursera which one is better. However, When it comes to content quality in tech fields and career supports Udacity wins the match.
If you look at the job’s perspective and the value of certificates, Coursera comes first. And, If you consider the price and value for money then Udmey is ahead of others because it provides lifetime access to all its courses.
Can you try Udemy, Udacity, and Coursera for Free?
Yes! All these platforms offer free courses. As Udemy has a wide range of fields so it offers a total of 10000 free courses, followed by Coursera offers 4000 free courses while Udacity offers 500 free courses only in the tech field.
Udacity also offers a 30-day free trial while Coursera offers a 7-day free trial.
Which is cheaper, Udacity, Coursera, or Udemy?
Udemy is cheaper compared to Coursera and Udacity and if you’re a new user at Udemy then you can grab its best-seller courses as cheap as 529 or less than that.
Coursera professional certificates are also affordable. However, Udacity Nanodegree programs look expensive to me and can’t be afforded by financially poor students. That’s why Udacity also offers scholarship programs.
