Top 5 Udemy Alternatives For Students To Learn In-Demand Skills

There's a good chance you already know the most commonly cited alternatives to Udemy... here's the list every other article your Google search or ChatGPT prompt will give you:

Skillshare
Coursera
Masterclass
LinkedIn Learning
Udacity
Pluralsight
EdX

But what's hard to find is someone telling you why you should be looking for an alternative to Udemy and help you decide which platform is the best for you.

I'd even argue there's even a better alternative to all of these platforms.

Before we dive in, if you're looking to learn to code, we previously did a deeper dive on all of the best places to learn to code so check that out if that's the path you're interested in.

Why look for a Udemy alternative?

Although there are other criteria (ex: budget, time available, learning style, etc), the biggest reason for deciding which platform to learn from is what your own personal goal is.

The 2 most common buckets are:

Edu-tainment / personal curiosity
Getting tangible skills to get hired

Udemy used to be quite good at both but over the last couple years has gone downhill for bucket #2.

How do I know?

Because we (ZTM) actually started out by putting courses on Udemy many years ago with over 1,000,000+ students taking one of our courses on there.

But because of the many changes over the last few years, we don't think it's the best options for students (or instructors) any more so we're moving entirely away from having our courses on Udemy.

The problem with Udemy is that its biggest strengths have also become its greatest weaknesses:

It’s cheap (hooray!)
It has a wide range of course topics and instructors (everything from coding to hypnosis, to cooking or even raising chickens)

On the surface, this seems great right? But it's not as beneficial as it seems...

You get what you pay for

Because of Udemy’s low cost (we all know that every course on Udemy is always "90% OFF"), it’s very difficult for instructors to make money like this, especially as Udemy has taken a larger and larger amount of the profits for themselves away from instructors.

If instructors are making less money, their courses become less of a priority for them.

This means a worse experience for students, and I'll give you some examples in a second.

Sadly there are even some instructors that still make a ton of money on Udemy but don't spend time updating their content or helping students (this is a common problem on many learning platforms, not just Udemy).

On smaller platforms, team members can ensure that instructors are always updating. But with 200,000+ courses, there is no way for Udemy to ensure a given course is "up-to-date" and contains high quality + accurate info.

Instead, Udemy relies on a rating system, with the idea being that a bad course will have a lower rating.

The thing is, the system is broken. This means that if a course was great and rated 5-stars by someone 2 years ago, it still keeps those stars - even if it's outdated and useless information today.

Here's a little Udemy instructor secret...

All an instructor has to do to show that their course was updated to the most recent month is edit one single text lecture... just add a single character.

BOOM! Course is now "updated as of {current month}"

So how are you supposed to know which of the 10,000+ coding courses (or whatever topic you're trying to learn) to actually take?

As I've pointed out, you can't just rely on the ones with the most students or highest ratings. You need to do a lot more research (which you should probably do anyway when considering a course or platform to spend your time on).

They no longer care about the little guy

The other big shift that happened at Udemy was moving from their main marketplace for individuals to B2B.

instructor course sales growth not supported

Why? Because Enterprise sales are where the big money is.

If they can get a company to commit to buying licenses for 10,000 employees all at once on an annual subscription for a much higher amount than trying to earn that same amount of revenue from individuals.

And since Udemy is a public company, they constantly need to show revenue growth to please investors and increase their stock price.

If you look at their investments and financial results over the last few years, it's mostly been into the B2B side of the business.

Low earnings for teachers means less updates

Courses just aren't getting updated on there.

Why?

Well, as I alluded to earlier, another way that Udemy is trying to squeeze more money out of the system is by reducing the instructors course percentage profit from 25% per sale, down to 15% 😢.

Why would they bother updating if they're losing money?

And sure, old course content is fine if you’re taking a course on a topic that doesn’t change much as the information is still helpful.

For example:

This course was last updated in 2018!

I've never done it but I imagine the best practices for raising chickens doesn't change too often so this content from 2018 is likely still relevant.

(And remember... don't get tricked by that "last updated date"... it's not foolproof as I explained above).

However, if you’re trying to learn something in an industry that’s constantly updating like programming or machine learning and AI, you’ll notice that a lot of the content is out of date which makes it irrelevant and a total waste of your time and money.

Not great right?

Low cost means a lack of support

Check out this post on the Udemy instructor private forum:

$2 for lifetime support! That's just not feasible to provide. Especially when you scale that out.

The more students an instructor or a course has might seem great but it lowers the chance you're actually going to get your questions answered or support if you get stuck... it's just not possible.

There are too many options!

Add in the fact that there are so many teachers and courses on the exact same topic, and it can be hard to choose the best course to take.

Top 5 Udemy Alternatives

So then what are the alternatives? And are they better than Udemy? What's best for you?

Let's find out by diving into the 4 most common alternatives and the 1 alternative most articles miss but I think is actually a great option for a lot of people (especially if you're looking to switch careers and want to learn skills that can take you from zero to getting hired).

#1. Skillshare

Price: $29 per month or $99 per year, but you can get a month free trial to the paid content.

Pros:

Creativity. Skillshare primarily focuses on creative courses. Art, Design, Videography, etc, so it’s great if you’re looking for that kind of training

I’m actually taking some of their videography courses right now and the quality is fantastic.

Coursework. Every course has a project for you to complete, so you can learn and apply the course content. Studies show that this is far superior to information only teaching, in terms of retention, experience, and completion of training
Expertise. Each course is taught by acting practitioners, so you’re getting highly valuable, and relevant information
They have a strict process for quality control. Teachers have to produce to a certain quality or it won’t get on. This includes video, audio, structure, and project
Offline learning. Their app is incredibly helpful and the UI is great
Speed. Courses are fairly short, so you can pick up things fast

Cons:

There’s no community. Sure, you can ask questions under videos but that’s more of a 90’s blog feature and no guarantee you get an answer. However, it's the best option they have by having such a brand range of courses
Courses are not always up-to-date. Sometimes a new course will launch, and the old course will still be live also which can be confusing. (However, the industry doesn’t always change that fast in creative topics)
Too many options. Some topics have multiple teachers and course options which can be overwhelming
Depth. Due to a lack of specialization, courses normally only go so deep with information, and sometimes miss key information

TL;DR:

Skillshare is a great place if you want to pick up a creative skill at a low cost.

#2. Coursera

Price: It varies, as this platform caters to 3 different audiences.

Some courses are free, but their Coursera Plus program is $399 a year, or $59 a month. (This is also the same price when purchasing for teams, at $399 per user login).

However, not all courses on the platform are part of that $399 offer. This is because Coursera has also partnered with major colleges and universities to provide online qualifications and degrees, which are tens of thousands of dollars each and vary in price.

This way they can offer ‘entry-level’ courses, while also offering degree level qualifications, and get paid $42,000!

Pros:

Career-focused. If you want to upskill into a job, then you can definitely do that here
University partnered. That means actual degrees at the end of some of these courses (if that's important to you or the role you're looking for)
Large library. 7,000+ courses across many technical fields such as Robotics and Engineering
Online community. They have their own forum to ask questions and get support on each class

Cons:

Dear lord, the price! $10,000 - $40,000 for a digital program is just mind blowing. Sure, it’s cheaper than going in person but oh my god that’s a lot of money
The time frame. Some courses take 3-4 years to complete
Some courses don’t quite fit the model. How can you practice robotics online? Surely you need access to tools and resources to build the robot?
Prior knowledge is required. For some courses, you will need a level of education or experience before you can not only understand the content but even apply!
Enrollment windows. You can only join at certain times of the year

TL;DR:

If you’re looking for career-focused skills, while also earning a degree from the comfort of your own home, then this could be a great option for you.

Other honorable mentions that have a similar platform, pricing and degree model to Coursera, are edX and Future Learn.

However, be sure to look at the industry and check if your degree is still needed.

Thanks to the growth in digital training, many companies have become more relaxed on requiring a University degree - as long as you can prove that you can actually do the work.

If you think about it, this makes sense.

They don't care where you learned, as you’re sitting at home either way - you’re just learning from a different platform. Proving that you're able to do the job is far more important.

This means that you might not need to pay $40,000 for that digital course. You could get the same role for $300 instead, so do your homework.

#3. Masterclass

Price: $15 a month or annual at $180.

They also offer options for adding a 2nd user or family plans, with the price adjusting per added user. (Their Duo plan is $240 a year, so not a 100% increase for the 2nd person.)

Pros:

Amazing production quality. It feels like you’re watching Netflix on 4k HD (these guys are the definition of "edu-tainment" and they crush it)
Access. Information from celebrities and VIPs that you would never think to have access to, often talking around areas they have experience in but are not known for.

For example

Amy Poehler is incredibly funny, but she talks about how improv skills helped her be agile in life and adapt to opportunities.

Cost. Fairly cheap at just $15

Cons:

No free content
Courses are varied and not always actionable. Each class does come with a workbook to follow, but the value differs greatly. Some walk you through all the steps, while others are a paragraph of an idea
Varied end goals. Although there are multiple courses around a topic (with each on a separate focus which is great), there's no real cohesiveness between it all
No community

TL;DR:

Join Masterclass if you want to get insights into how people you admire have achieved certain goals, and love high-end production quality at a low price.

I like to think of this platform as the “Who would you invite to a dinner party, living or dead” question.

The insights are what I imagine you might get if you sat down for food and picked their brains on a topic, which is really interesting but you aren't going to get the skills to get hired as a chef (or any job) by learning on here.

#4. LinkedIn Learning

Price: $30 a month, or $180 a year, with a one month free trial.

Pros:

Certification. Certifications that you can immediately add to your LinkedIn profile (although, I'm not sure how much stock companies put into these)
Expertise. Instructors have real world experience in their course topics
Range. Broad range of career focused courses
Access. You can download lessons for watching offline on the app
Updated courses where relevant. (Some foundational content is 3+ years old, but the topic hasn’t changed so no need to update). Others updated in the past month
Community via Linkedin Learning groups

Cons:

Certificates are accredited by Linkedin themselves. This can be good and bad. Business courses might look great, but topics LinkedIn is not known for might not mean much to employers
It has a low quality feel. A lot of courses feature stock images and low budget screen capture videos
Very little project work. Of the 16,000+ courses, only 127 are dedicated to hands-on practice. Others do have some kind of project but it’s hit and miss
Multiple teachers teaching the same topic. Good for finding new tips. Bad for feeling overwhelmed by not knowing which course you need to take to achieve your goals

TL;DR:

If you’re in an industry that appreciates certifications, then LinkedIn Learning might be a great fit. In fact, during the research for this post, I noticed that some jobs posted on LinkedIn even mention some of these certifications.

However, if you don’t need a ‘LinkedIn’ specific certification, the next option could be better - especially if you want to learn a constantly evolving, high-end skill.

#5. Niche focused platforms

I mentioned up top but Udemy's strengths are also its weaknesses.

Many top instructors are leaving the platform because they can no longer justify their time investment there... lower profit share for them, mass competition of instructors on most topics, their shift to focusing more on B2B, etc.

Likewise, when there are 100's or even 1,000's of courses all on the same topic, it can cause analysis paralysis when you try to decide which course to take.

So what can we do?

I’ve given a few other Udemy alternatives here but in my personal opinion, the best alternative to Udemy are niche focused sites - especially if you're trying to pick up a skill that changes often.

Why?

Simply because niche focused course platforms get around each of these issues and more, thanks to supply and demand!

Let me explain:

Niche sites attract a smaller audience, but they often charge slightly more due to their specialist knowledge and ability to provide better support to students.

Pair that with the fact that there are usually fewer teachers to compete with (normally one per topic), and suddenly it's a lot more beneficial for the instructor to keep their course updated.

For example

Here at ZTM, we update our courses every year at a minimum but most of them are updated multiple times throughout the year based on student feedback as well as changes in the industry (ex: if there is a major change to a coding framework, our instructor for that topic will immediately start working on updates to the course).

Also, we have a single, definitive course on the topic, and only one teacher per course topic - each of which are industry matter experts, who are actively working in their industry.

This means the content they update is what they want new hires to know, and it’s stuff not being taught in college curriculums (which is very theory based vs. practical skills).

It also means that there is no confusion over which course you should take.

You simply have to decide what career you want to have and then follow the exact courses and steps.

That’s the power of niche focus

As you can see, this niche focus completely bypasses the Udemy issues (and other massive open course platforms) that most people get frustrated with.

You get updated content, with less course overwhelm, a specialist focus and still a reasonable price.

Better still, you can find these type of niche platforms in almost any kind of industry:

The list goes on. All it takes is a quick Google search for the topic you want to learn and course, and you’ll find a bunch of options.

However, because there are so many that don't have the big brand name recognition of these other platforms, you'll definitely want to do your research looking at reviews to make sure it's legit and highly regarded.

Price: Varies on the platform, but usually a recurring low cost monthly fee, with a discount for annual, or, a one-off fee for lifetime access and updates.

Here at Zero To Mastery, you can get unlimited access for $39 per month, but that drops down to the equivalent of $22 per month if you pay annually ($279 a year).

Considering our specialty is taking people from absolute zero to getting hired in a brand new career, often helping them land jobs making $1,000s more than they were before, you can see how it's worth spending a little bit extra.

Many niche focused platforms are like this, and the benefits stack up.

Pros:

Niche focused. You’re able to get the best information around a specific goal. It’s not a platform that tries to do everything. It’s one platform that’s dedicated to help you achieve your end goal.
Updates! Because of this core focus, you’re able to get frequent content updates. This is incredibly important when you’re trying to learn a technical role
Information quality. Their courses are often created by current working experts (ex: Daniel Bourke). Not only are they using what they’re teaching, but they’re ahead of the curve and sharing what they want people to know before it’s even trending. Compare that to outdated degrees and suddenly you’re gaining skills at a fraction of a cost of school, within months, not years
Dedicated, specialist community. We keep mentioning community as a benefit, and it’s because studies have shown that a community helps you to stay on track and achieve goals. Even better, is when that community is all dedicated to the same goal

Cons:

Niche focused. If you want to learn something totally different, you’ll need to go elsewhere
Do your homework. Not every platform updates often, even though they are in an industry that needs to. Guitar courses probably can go a few years without an update, but an AI course should have been updated in the last 6 months if you want it to be relevant

So which is the best Udemy alternative?

Honestly, it all comes down to what you want to learn.

Skillshare is great for creative skills
Coursera can help you get a University degree from home
Masterclass will let you listen to Noam Chomsky or make you feel like you're watching a Netflix of Gordon Ramsey cooking eggs
Linkedin Learning can help you skill up with specific certifications that a job posting might require but the content quality is hit and miss
While niche focused sites are usually the most up to date and focused on a specific skill. Just be sure to do some initial research (make sure there are lots of reviews and testimonials) and make sure you find a site that specializes, is up to date, and has community support

Hopefully this guide has helped you to decide on the best option for you.

Udemy is still great if you don't have a specific goal in mind and want to learn a wide variety of topics or if price if the biggest factor for you.

We've also found that many students enjoy different platforms for different reasons so it's possible that you mix and match 2-3 platforms to get the best fit for you.