Udemy vs Coursera: Online learning is no longer anything new. It’s the present and future of education and learning as a whole.
There are millions of people that have taken to online learning, and the number continues to rise.
It’s easy to see why people choose online learning over traditional learning methods. The significant reasons are:
1. Flexibility: There’s so much flexibility in online learning compared to traditional learning, which becomes a burden easily.
Taking in-class courses means that you have to keep specifics such as date and time, and you have to do this multiple times every week.
Meanwhile, online learning allows you to learn at your own pace.
2. Affordability: You can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for traditional education and even amass loans, but online learning usually costs less than $100, while others are free.
3. Accessibility: You can access online learning platforms from anywhere in the world with your smartphones and tablets.
There are numerous options to choose from for your online learning, but Udemy and Coursera stand out as two of the best.
So we thought it necessary to compare both to help you decide if you have to choose either of them.
Table of Contents
Introduction - Udemy vs Coursera
Udemy
This unique online learning platform calls itself the “course marketplace,” and for good reasons.
It is an open platform in which instructors can create their courses and market them.
Then the online students, after the programming assignment help, rate the course on a scale of five stars, thereby creating a system that strengthens educational merit.
Instructors can create courses across numerous categories such as business, design, development, marketing, etc.
These courses on Udemy are created by experts and taught with instructions.
Students can develop their skills to help them achieve their goals as they learn from this extensive course library.
Coursera
Unlike Udemy, Coursera is a platform that offers users a highly curated experience in their online learning quest.
This platform provides degree programs and courses created by the many respected academic institutions and universities around the world.
An instructor from the university teaches each of the courses.
All of the courses from Coursera come with video lectures that are pre-recorded so that the students can watch them at a convenient time.
Many universities mainly use this platform as their MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses).
Advantages and Pros - Udemy vs Coursera
Here are some of the advantages or pros of using Udemy and Coursera:
Udemy
Udemy runs an open model, which is unique, so it’s home to more than 65000 different courses, and one-third of these courses are free.
Various topics are covered across different categories, and the basis of each of them is per diem.
So users don’t have to pay membership fees or monthly subscriptions.
The primary benefit of this is that you have to choose the topics that interest you instead of committing to a strict lesson plan.
You can complete the course at your pace, so it doesn’t require much commitment and is very flexible as well.
The courses’ pricing is reasonable, and discount sales are common to the price to pay for each course are reduced tremendously.
During a discount sale, you can access all courses for as low as $12, even if the initial price was $200.
Udemy Pros:
- Users can plan their lectures in Google Docs or Microsoft Excel.
- It’s easy to track your progress.
- Your videos are reviewed by a team of experts the moment you upload them to Udemy.
- You’re buying each course individually.
- Courses are available in different languages.
- Over 100,000 video courses are published monthly. So there’s a wide range of options to choose from.
- Users can easily enroll in courses for their careers.
- You receive a certificate after completing a course.
- There are both advanced and intermediate courses.
- It has a friendly community.
- You can audit a course for free.
- There are courses with transcriptions.
- Users can view the courses on all mobile devices that have internet connections.
- You can access a course instantly once you choose it.
- There are ratings and reviews from past students to guide you.
- There is no pre qualification required before you take a course.
Coursera
The course that you choose to learn will determine the commitment level that is required.
Courses on Coursera have awards raining far and wide, including certificates for completing a course to a degree.
These courses take about 4-6 weeks to complete and require that you participate fully and use graded assignments. These assignments are either peer-reviewed or auto-graded.
There are three learning options for users on courses. The student either chooses a single course, specializations (series of courses created to increase a particular skill), or degree programs.
It would take about four months to 5 months before completing a specialization program, but a degree program takes as much as three years.
Coursera Pros:
- Accredited institutions and universities offer programs on Coursera.
- The courses are very structured and well organized.
- They have educational institutions from different parts of the world as partners.
- The professional institutions give the certification on Coursera.
- Students have the choice of degree programs, specializations, and single courses to choose from.
- There are programs with universities on Coursera with which you’ll be getting a master’s degree.
- Exploring different courses by different colleges is hassle-free.
- Leading universities design these quality courses.
- You get global experience which helps to build your global exposure.
- You can access Coursera from your mobile phones.
- You can download the videos.
- These courses are available in over nine major languages.
- You get feedback from a large learning community worldwide.
Disadvantages and Cons - Udemy vs Coursera
Here are some of the disadvantages or Cons of using Udemy and Coursera:
Udemy
One of the things that make this platform one of the best is also its most significant disadvantage.
Udemy runs a marketplace model, and that can be a problem because some of its courses are not thorough and lack depth.
Sometimes the free courses, especially, are just there to try and upsell paid ones.
They’re practically adverts. Thankfully, the ratings help to differentiate the good from the poor ones.
There’s also much to desire in terms of certifications after completing a course.
Udemy Cons:
- It’s not accredited.
- The courses are usually expensive.
- Taking two or more courses at once is difficult.
- The courses have their set dates that can’t be changed.
- Complete courses are not available for free.
- Some of your desired courses may be unavailable.
- It’s difficult to access content that’s business-relevant.
- Staying engaged with these courses may be difficult sometimes.
Coursera
The major disadvantage that Coursera has is the price of the courses. When compared with other platforms, they’re relatively expensive.
Also, it required a very strict commitment level, so there’s very little flexibility when taking Coursera courses.
Coursera Cons:
- Coursera has a forum moderation issue.
- There are courses on Coursera that can only be accessed on specific dates.
- After completing your course, it’s impossible to go back to the platform to access the submitted material.
- You’ll need to read prescribed books and articles when learning on Coursera to give you a better understanding of the subject.
- There are times when courses start, and you have to wait till then before you enroll for the course.
- Free courses do not come with certifications.
Courses Offered - Udemy vs Coursera
Let’s take a look at the type of courses provided by Udemy as well as Coursera:
Udemy
Udemy offers courses across almost everything and anything that you want to learn about. Some of the courses offered are:
- Language
- Business
- Technology
- Games
- Health and Fitness
- Entrepreneurship
- Music
- Art
- Programming
- Yoga
- Photography
Coursera
Unlike Udemy, Coursera has a focus. The focus is mainly academic, so the courses and subjects are tailored for academic purposes.
As stated in recent report of the assignment help, some courses that you can find on Coursera are:
- Data Science
- Computer Science
- Social Sciences
- Business
- Life Sciences
- Information Technology
- Personal Development
- Arts and Humanities
- Math and Logic
Best For - Udemy vs Coursera
Here is a short guide on why you should choose Udemy or Coursera:
Udemy
- You should go for Udemy if you’re working with a small budget and are looking to learn these skills within your timeframe and at your convenience.
- If you’re someone who learns best when you’re relaxed, then Udemy is best for you as it’s easy.
- Udemy is the best for you if you like course recommendations that’s personalized for you depending on your job.
Coursera
- Coursera is the best for you if you need to take serious courses from the best universities.
- If you’re more about the traditional timelines and courses, then you’ll prefer Coursera.
- If you want to get certifications from an institution that’s accredited, Coursera is the place for you.
Bottom Line - Udemy vs Coursera
Here is a short conclusion regarding Udemy as well as Coursera Platform:
Udemy
This is a marketplace platform that gives users a large number of courses for a reasonable price per diem.
Although there’s no class vetting and this provides room for poor classes.
You can follow the highly rated courses, and you’ll likely get a good result from it.
Coursera
This platform offers classes that are expertly curated by accredited and well-respected universities and educational institutions from all over the world.
Some of the best instructors also teach these courses from these institutions.
This is the reason why this platform is more expensive than most of the other learning platforms. However, it’s worth every penny.
Hope you like the article on Udemy vs Coursera. We also have a article on Upwork vs Fiverr, which you must take a look at.