Pluralsight vs Udemy vs Zero To Mastery: Comparison Guide

So you’re looking for a coding platform, and you’re not sure which to choose:

• Pluralsight with its huge course catalogue

• Or Udemy with its cheap courses

Well, what if there’s a better 3rd option that you might not have heard of?

In this guide, I’ll break down Pluralsight vs Udemy, weighing up the pros and cons, along with pricing and unique features that they have, (or are missing).

I’ll also share how we compare here at Zero To Mastery, so you can choose for yourself without having to crawl through pages and pages of reviews and guides.

I promise to be unbiased and call out any issues with our platform and others.

So let’s get into it…

Pluralsight

Pluralsight is a huge training platform with over 6,500 tech focused courses! Obviously this means you’re going to find pretty much anything you want.

For example

A quick search for Python shows 277 courses alone!

Most of them are up to date, but I did see some courses that haven’t been updated since 2020.

This could be for a few reasons:

• The topic was popular at a time in the past and hasn’t really changed much since and not needed an update

• And it’s hard to keep 6,500 courses up to date!

That being said, as long as the ‘core’ content you need isn’t outdated and incorrect you’ll be fine. Pluralsight seems to do a good job at updating these, and publishing new training on trending topics.

They also have set learning paths for certain topics. Basically roadmaps for different goals where you might need to learn a few topics which is always handy.

Also, they have actionable projects that you can work on and build.

This is super important, as it’s one of the best ways to learn a skill. (You would be amazed at how many platforms don’t have this).

Can they help you get hired?

The tech industry is unique to almost any other job, in that they hire people without a degree - just as long as that person has proof that they have the skills to do the work. This is done via portfolios and technical exams questions during the interview. 

Because of this, it can be a little difficult to get hired at first, simply because the process has more steps and nuance. So ideally you want a platform to not only teach you tech skills, but to also have some focus on helping you get hired.

Unfortunately, Pluralsight doesn’t have any training around getting hired and passing the tech interview, although they do have a few blog posts around various job adjacent topics for different roles:

However, they do offer a feature that’s not strictly designed at helping you get hired as such - although it may help.

It’s nothing to do with tech interviews or anything like that. It's a way to track certifications in your industry:

If you don’t know, some areas in tech offer user certification exams to prove that you fully understand a tool, or are up to date on a topic.

CompTIA+ is a cyber security one, while Amazon has their own AWS practitioner exams, etc.

This tool helps you to see the certificates available so you can plan ahead and get them done. Which in a roundabout way, may help when you apply for roles. However, you would still need to then pass the tech interview itself.

Either way, it's a great idea!

Pricing

As for the pricing, it’s a little complicated. 

Basically you have 3 tiers (with further discounts if you pay for a year in advance):

• ‘Core tech’ is $30 a month and gives you access to 3,900 courses (of the 6,500 total)

• Then you have specializations at $35 a month (which also includes the core tech training). So if you want to learn AI, data, cyber security or Cloud then you need to be on this price point. That being said, I’m fairly certain you only have access to the one you choose + the core lessons

• Finally, you have the ‘complete’ tier, which is access to every course at $55 a month

Honestly, it would probably be easier for them to just offer the $55 a month as the single price point.

Is there a community?

Learning a new skill can be incredibly hard. You might be super motivated but that motivation can dip over time. 

That’s why communities are so vital, because they help you get past problems, but also lower the chances that you will quit. Especially if you join with other members on the same course, and keep each other accountable.

Unfortunately Pluralsight doesn't offer a community. In fairness, with 6,500 courses and likely millions of users, it would be hard to manage one.

You could always find other communities online and join them, but you might struggle to find people learning the same things. 

Is there support? 

It seems that Pluralsight have recently moved their support towards an AI chatbot that has had some teething issues:

Although not a ‘core’ feature that you look for, it would be incredibly frustrating if you’re having an account issue. 

Apparently you can get through to support tickets, but even those can be hit and miss:

On the subject of reviews, let’s take a look at their TrustPilot score.

Reviews + TrustPilot score

At the time of writing, Pluralsight is currently sitting at 1.3 out of 5 stars on TrustPilot.

In all fairness to them, that’s out of a total of 920 reviews, and people do prefer to post reviews when having a bad experience. (Out of possibly millions of users that’s not too bad I guess).

However, scrolling through them I see their last positive review was 4 months ago. 

They seem to have recently acquired another training platform and members of that other platform are not happy with the changes. So they’re getting review bombed to some extent.

However, they also seem to have a few issues with removing lifetime access that had been purchased previously:

Not cool!

Like I say though, definitely check out the reviews for yourself as things can change. It’s also very difficult for a company of their size to keep 100% of people happy.

TL;DR

As you can see, there’s a few great things and a few hiccups with Pluralsight.

Pros

• $55 is fairly cheap, even at premium membership. Most dedicated tech platforms are around this or more expensive

• High quality content

• High level teachers and expertise

Cons

• A HUGE volume of course can be overwhelming. Although in fairness, most of them cover a core specific topic vs multiple variations of the same topic that you’ll find in Udemy

• No dedicated community, but they do have a questions section via Disqus on each course

• That pricing is overly complex. I need a lie down after figuring out how it all worked!

• No lifetime deal (at least, not anymore)

Udemy

Udemy is an e-learning platform with literally millions of users. Thanks in part to its discounted pricing schemes.

It’s not a dedicated ‘tech training' platform, but it does feature a whole heap of tech courses. (And I mean a HEAP!)

This can be ever so slightly overwhelming though.

For example

When we search Python courses, there are 27 on the first page. And then a whopping 417 pages of Python course results!

That’s 11,259 Python courses alone…

Which do you pick? 

• The newest one?

• The one with the most reviews?

• Or just freak out and not pick any of them?

My best advice is to look for courses that are up to date, and then filter down from there. 

I did see some updated in the last month so that’s good.

However, I will say this.

Udemy works as a marketplace so literally anyone can post a course.(It’s why they have millions of them). 

This does lead to a few issues:

• With so many options, they can’t keep track of if a course is actually updated or if someone just edited a text file to make the ‘last updated’ criteria trigger. So courses can be out of date although claim they are updated 

• The rankings can be ‘gamified’. Just because a course got a lot of stars in the past, if they keep updating it, it can then stay at the top of the rankings to some extent. This means it might look like the best course when it isn’t

• Udemy recently started moving towards more Enterprise customer packages and lowered the percentage that teachers earn per sale - making teachers less incentivized to update their courses

• Finally, there’s no real quality control. You could watch a course then record your own and sell it there a week later. So you’re not always guaranteed the best content

That being said, this is not always the case. Just be aware that it can happen. A good rule of thumb is to look for recent reviews of any particular course before deciding.

At the same time though, you can sometimes find courses from huge tech influencers that you can’t find elsewhere. Not only that, but they recently released roadmaps to certain careers called ‘Career Accelerators’:

Just like with Pluralsight, these cover a series of courses to help you learn the core elements of a role.(Although I’m not sure AI art generation is a growing requirement in UX design, it's probably a good skill to have knowledge of).

Can they help you get hired?

They can!

Again though, they have 5,472 courses on how to pass the tech interview, including different specialties and programming languages, as well as different stages of the interview.

Gah!

However, some of the Career Accelerators do have specific recommended classes around getting hired based on that role. i.e. they cover JavaScript questions in Web Dev etc.

Pricing

This is where Udemy shines because almost all courses are constantly on some kind of deal, so you can absolutely grab a bargain.

Course prices will vary depending on what offers are live, but you’ve looking at anywhere from $10 to $300 for some courses for lifetime access.

They also have a membership pricing option at $12 a month where you get access to a wide range of courses (not all of them for some reason).

Not bad at all really. 

Although some courses you could just buy outright for not much more.

Is there a community?

No. There’s no community at Udemy, which is understandable with their size.

I know I keep going on about the importance of these, but you will struggle to work through the content without a support network.

In fact, there’s a common issue in tech called ‘Tutorial Hell’. It sounds ominous but basically it's a common problem, where you’re self taught via a platform like this, but you lack any structure or support. 

Everything is fine at finest, but what happens is:

• You do X amount of a course

• Stop 

• Come back 

• Get bored

• Choose something else to learn 

• Etc

You end up bouncing around between topics (sometimes for years), learning unrelated things and not what you need to know to actually get hired.

It's a really common problem.

In fact, we get a lot of students who start on Udemy and then come to use at Zero To Mastery, because we have that structure and support. Some of them struggle for years on topics, and then within 3 months of working with us they’re hired.

It’s a night and day difference what a community can do for you.

Is there support?

Yes but it can be hit and miss. Just like with Pluralsight, they’re victim to their size and how many customers they have.

Like I say, you can’t keep everyone happy. However, it does seem to be a pretty big trend with their reviews.

Speaking of which…

Reviews + TrustPilot score

Right now, Udemy is currently sitting at a 1.7 out of 5. However, that is across 1,718 reviews:

Again, with millions of members you will get a lot of negative feedback. However, 50% of their reviews are 1 star.

To put that into perspective, that's a higher segment than any of their other star ratings.

Again though, they have had 5-star reviews in the past 2 months so that’s a good indicator that not everyone is having a bad experience. Although users are frustrated with some of the billing issues and refunds. (If you watch more than X of a course, you void the 30-day refund window apparently).

And that was their latest review of 3-stars or above.

Again, don’t just listen to me. Check out the reviews for yourself.

TL;DR

Udemy does have a lot going for it, in that it's the cheapest option you’ll ever find.

However, you do run the risk of ‘getting what you pay for’.

Pros

• A huge database of courses from experts in multiple fields

• Low cost

Cons

• The sheer volume of courses can be overwhelming

• There’s no community. Without this, you can struggle for accountability or questions, but you could again use a 3rd party forum like StackOverFlow

• There’s no quality control other than visual assessment of the content. This means they can’t verify the course content is accurate. They don’t check or push for course updates.

• Content can be out of date, which can definitely be an issue when coding languages evolve or change versions

Like I say, Udemy is a great place to find some high-quality training at a great price, as long as you’re willing to search through the results.

It lacks some elements that can help you succeed online such as a community and support, but with some self-discipline and organization, it’s a great place to start your coding journey.

But what if you want more accountability, structure, and systems in place to help you complete and finish your training?

Well, let me tell you about us…

Zero To Mastery

Here at Zero To Mastery, we’re a tech training platform with some slight differences to others out there.

Mainly in that we’re incredibly focused on helping you learn fast and get hired ASAP.

We don’t have the huge course catalogue of other platforms and we do this on purpose:

• First off, it removes overwhelm and choice fatigue. You want to learn Cyber Security, we have one expert who teaches it. You don’t need to pick through 250 or 10,000 options

• Secondly, this allows us to update our courses regularly - often twice a year or sooner if a major update happens. (Although there may be a slight delay if it's a MAJOR update across all lessons etc). This means you’re learning everything you need to know

We currently have 37 expert instructors who focus on their specialties, teaching a total of 142 courses.

These are broken down into:

• Web Development

• A.I. and Machine Learning

• A.I. Development/Building with A.I.

• Cyber Security

• Cloud

• DevOps

• UI/UX Design

• Business and Data Analysis

• Web 3 and Blockchain

• As well as life skills

Each expert works in their field, so they are up to date with all relevant information and requirements.

Not only that but we design our courses as if we were training up our ideal hire. We cut out all the stuff you don’t need, and give you everything to not only do the job but excel at it - including hands-on projects to create.

In fact, most employers are blown away at the level of our students. Some of them then end up training their departments at their new jobs!

This focus is also how we’ve had students go from zero experience to being hired in as little as 3 months! (Although that was one VERY eager person). The average is around 6 months or so, depending on the industry, what you need to learn, and how much time you can spend.

Either way, you’ll get it done faster here and be confident in your new role.

Can we help you get hired?

100%. Like I say, it's a huge focus for us.

Not only do we build our courses to help with this, we also give project training for your portfolio, as well as teach you how to ace each aspect of the tech interview. From the initial application, to the technical questions, behavioral, and more.

Back to course topics again. Each year we research the most trending areas to work in, and then survey our audience for topics they want to learn.

Then we either create that course, or bring in a new expert to the team to get it made.

This is why we not only help people get hired initially, but we also help people get promoted into more Senior roles.

We recently helped someone learn the skills they needed to land a senior position at NVIDIA, while other students are literally writing papers on Deep Learning and speaking at events.

Not bad right?

We also have career paths and roadmaps to help you learn everything you need to know, in order to get hired in a role.

Pricing

We have 4 pricing options, as well as a deal which I GUARANTEE you’ve never seen offered before in the tech space.

So let’s break it down:

• You can purchase courses individually, starting at around $249 each

• Then we have our monthly membership at only $49 a month

• Or you can join for the year at $299 and save 49% (Working out to $25 a month equivalent)

• We also have a one-time purchase offer for $1,299 that gives you lifetime access to all courses now and in the future

That alone is better than most platforms, but we take it one step further by offering a unique challenge.

This is the deal I mentioned.

Here’s how it works:

If you login and complete 1 lesson per month, for 30 months straight - you no longer have to pay us and get lifetime access.

Pretty cool right? 

That way we can reward long term members.

More importantly though, it incentivizes you to keep learning and not quit. Like I said, we’re all about making sure you succeed at this.

It’s why we’ve had people hired at Tesla, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and all other places.

You can check out some of the testimonials here.

They’re super inspirational.

Like I said, we’ve had people hired in 3-6 months, and going from waiters to 6 figure tech salaries.

Is there a community?

Of course there is! 

We have a private Discord community with private channels for each major course/industry.

This way you can chat with the instructors, other students, create accountability buddies, and ask questions from working tech professionals in your field.

Like I’ve said already - we’re committed to providing things that will help you learn and stick to it. People are often shocked at how supportive and helpful the community is - especially after experiencing other platforms.

(And that’s just a fraction of the happy members we have here).

We also run live events, cohort sprints, private AMA calls and more. All the benefits of boot camps or in person events, without the price tag!

Is there support? 

Yep. Hopefully you never need it, but we have a genuine human being there to help reply to any account issues if they happen.

We also have our experts and community support who help pass on any issues and get them sorted ASAP.

No dodgy pricing issues allowed!

Reviews + TrustPilot score

As of the time of writing (Sept 2025), we currently have a TrustPilot score of 4.9 out of 5, with 563 reviews.

You can check them out here for yourself. 

We also have less than 1% of our reviews as negative, and every single one of them has been responded to and resolved within 24 hours.

In the interest of fairness with these other platforms, let’s take a look at those 1-star reviews.

The last one we got was 9 months ago in December 2024. As you can see, a student was annoyed that a course wasn’t up to date.

What had happened is the language had just gone through a major overhaul less than 30 days prior, and the instructor was putting together all the changes so they could update the course and that takes time, which I think is fair.

It’s been updated multiple times since then also, but for such a sweeping change it can take a little while to record 43 hours of videos!

Advanced

Complete React Developer in 2025 (w/ Redux, Hooks, GraphQL)

42.5 Hours •380 Lessons

Learn React.js from two industry experts. The only React JS bootcamp course you need to learn React, build large-scale apps from scratch, and get hired as a React Developer. Go from Zero to ReactJS Mastery.

Andrei Neagoie&Yihua Zhang

All in all, not that bad really right?

Like I say though, please do read the reviews for yourself, so you can make your own mind up. 

TL;DR

If you want to get a job in tech asap, then we believe we have everything in place to help you get there fast.

Everything that we do, we plan the best methods to help you succeed.

Pros

• Low price

• One-off purchase offer

• Lifetime free access on completing the lifetime challenge

• Designed to help you get hired asap from zero prior experience

• Thriving community

• Frequently updated

Cons

• We don’t offer a free plan, although we have released some introductory courses over on our YouTube channel

For example

Here’s the first 8 hours of our complete Python developer course:

This way you get an idea for our courses and can get started for free!

So which will you choose?

Hopefully this guide has helped you clear up some questions you might have about the best platform for you to learn to code right now.

The decision is ultimately yours, and there is no best option for everyone. You need to weigh up your own needs:

• Pluralsight has the course catalogue but lacks support

• Udemy is cheap but possibly not updated so definitely check. It also lacks support

• While Zero To Mastery will help you learn from scratch and get hired ASAP. Everything from the way lessons are structured to the topics we choose to each, and how we teach them is all focused on helping you become a working tech professional

The choice is yours and ultimately comes down to your needs, and what you want your next 6-12 months to look like, and the next 10 years after that.

You’ll be surprised how quickly you can get into that 6-figure career.

The key thing though is to just make sure you take action and choose one of these platforms today so that you can get started on that new job and skill.