Udemy vs Udacity: Get Educated with Online Education Options

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Deb Mayberry

Deb Mayberry is a business owner that specializes in MS database creation for personal use, writers, and businesses. Deb takes the knowledge she's learned and helps others that want to start their business owner journey as well. After taking many courses, she feels confident in her ability to recommend the best courses to learners looking to further their education through courses.

Latest posts by Deb Mayberry (see all)

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The world around and within us is constantly evolving. What we learned in school many years ago and even last year has likely changed. To stay abreast of the latest happenings and technologies, we need to remain tapped into the educational system, one way or another.

Fortunately, for mere convenience, we can leverage the internet as it allows Educational Platforms to provide online learning opportunities.

Enter Udacity vs Udemy

These two great learning academies help us to stay connected and up-to-date with the latest educational materials available. They also provide the ability to learn in the comfort of your home, on-the-go, during lunch breaks at work, on a retreat, or just during your own downtime.

Bottom Line Up Front Summary: Udemy is the “wild west” of online courses, offering many new and innovative courses, with varying degrees of quality. Udacity offers a select group of robust nano degree programs, specifically around tech careers. Go with Udemy to uplevel some skills, but go with the more recognized “degree” programs offered by Udacity for credentials and career progression. 

Best for Tech Careers

Why Go With Udacity

While Udacity doesn't have the widest selection, the degrees they DO offer are robust, industry recognized "nano" degree programs (mostly concentrated in TECH careers). If you have the choice - and are looking for recognized credentials - Udacity is the more industry specific pick.

Start Now Take 25% with Code "CAREER25"

We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Main Differences Between Udemy vs Udacity

The main differences between Udemy vs Udacity are:

• Udemy has 100,000+ courses, whereas Udacity only has 200 free and 35 Nanodegree courses
• Udemy’s courses are short and range from 3-5 hrs in length, whereas Udacity’s courses are more in-depth and range from 3-5 months long
• Udemy provides learning material on a wide range of subjects, whereas Udacity courses only cover niche subjects related to artificial intelligence

What are Udemy and Udacity?

Both are Virtual Online Educational Platforms (or MOOC: Massive Open Online Course) available for anyone or any business who wants to learn a new skill or brush-up skills on specific topics.

• Udemy provides a wide range of topics to learn from for anybody across the world, and they teach in many different languages. The courses are short, focusses on skill training, inexpensive, and taught by a knowledgeable instructor.
• Udacity provides a limited number of course material that is available for anybody who wants to learn technical skill sets. Their courses are months long, provide specialized learning, pricy, and designed by industry leaders.

How to choose between Udacity vs Udemy?

For starters they both provide some commonality:

✔ Up-to-date educational material
✔ Free courses
✔ Paid courses
✔ Access at any time, anywhere
✔ Learn at your own pace
✔ No Time Limit (for free courses)
✔ Learning Material: training videos and reading material

Overview of Udemy – Is Udemy Legit?

Udemy Features – What is Udemy?

• Online Learning, Anywhere, Anytime, At Your Own Pace
• Short courses
  • Large variety of course options
• 30 Day Refund Policy
• Access to course material at any time
• Provides a course overview which includes an overview of instructor and a course rating before purchase

Udemy Benefits

• No Time Limit to complete free course or paid courses
• Courses can be completed quickly
• Inexpensive
• Discounted prices are available
• Certificate upon Completion for paid courses
• Sign-up for multiple courses at once

Udemy Course Categories – Some Examples of Topics per Category

When you choose a Category you will be given topics to select from. 

When you choose the Business Topic, you will be given Courses to get you started. They will give you Most Popular to peruse by scrolling to the right, and they provide a Tab to click on for you to peruse what is Trending, under that Topic.

Examples of “Most Popular” choices under the Business Category:

Examples of “Trending” choices under the Business Category:

When hovering over a selection, a pop-up box will appear. The title of the course is at the top, and it provides a very brief sentence as to what the course provides, when it was updated, how many hours the course is, what level of learning it delivers if their captions are included, and the cost of the course.

In summary, when you click on this course you will be given an overview of what you will learn:

Such as:

• Launch a company from scratch
• Use Networking tools to get many Customers
• Create Financial models from scratch
• Understand how investment banking firms work and what they can do to help your business
• Understand micro and macroeconomics
• Analyze quantitative & qualitative in the market place
• How to protect your costs in-case sued
• Set-Up a legal entity
• Understand taxes

It will then supply a list of requirements if any. In this case, they said there is nothing, except a positive attitude. 🙂

A lengthy course description is given with insights on the course content it provides and an overview of the instructor and his credentials. 

Customer Testimonies are provided additional feedback from former students to help you get advice from those that have taken the course. This word-of-mouth from people that have actually taken the course will give you insight into the good/bad of the course. It will help you make the decision as to whether or not you should invest your time and money into the course.

A recommendation for who the course is for suggests anyone interested in learning about business.

And Udemy review(s) are included too:

Detailed Course Content is listed below the Reviews. It explains everything you can expect when you sign-up. 

This course has 16 sections, 83 lectures, and 8 hours in length.

Each chapter of the course is given a Class Title from Introduction & Class 1: Launching a New Business to Class 10: Due diligence and Data Sources. Each informs you of how many lectures are in a Class and Total Duration.

When you click on the drop-down box for each Class (from introductory course to the last class), a more in-depth overview is provided. 

Udemy offers 645 free courses that are taught via Online Video only… should you choose to pay for a course, you will be taught with online videos, you will receive a certificate upon completion, you will work with your Instructor with Question and Answers, and receive Instructor Direct Messages.

Each category provides an up-sell from the free option where you pay for the course to gain more than just video course instructions.

Udemy Instructors

Courses are taught by former teachers, CEOs of tech companies, graduates, and others that have extensive knowledge of the topic. They create their own content their way and teach accordingly. There is a restricted topic list that they need to abide by. There are no fees to Instruct.

• Course Materials: Course material that the Instructor shares is owned by the Instructor, not Udemy. The course material needs to be uploaded into the Udemy platform in order for Students to use it. There are minimum course material requirements that Udemy requests.
• Revenue:
  When students buy courses on Udemy both the Instructor and Udemy share revenue through a revenue shared model Payments are received via PayPal or Payoneer.
• Profile:
  Udemy posts Instructor profiles for each course in order for the Student to understand who they are and what their credentials are. The profiles include instructor ratings, reviews, number of students, and number of courses they teach.
  • Example: They provide a profile picture, full name, title, instructor ratings, reviews counts, number of students, number of courses taught, and instructor credentials. For example Chris Haroun- Award Winning MBA Professor, Venture Capitalist, and Author. 4.5 Instructor Rating. 121,541 Reviews. 863,184 Students. 34 Courses. “Chris has sold more than 1,000,000 of his online business & self-improvement courses in 12 languages in 196 countries and his courses have been profiled in Business Insider, NBC Inc, Forbes, CNN, Entrepreneur & on other business news websites….”

Course Pricing

Udemy discounts their prices which can be as low as $10.99 CA

A word of warning though. Depending on where you find a purchase option to click on, you will either be given a full price or a discounted price. However, I found that their full prices do not appear to be consistent. See the example below for the same course.

Is the regular course price $204.99 CA or is it $199.99 CA? I was not able to determine why there is a discrepancy. 

If you come across discounted pricing, you will notice that they added a ticker showing the price will be discounted for a limited time, to put pressure on you to sign-up. However, the courses for Udemy are often discounted all the time. Be aware of this before signing up at full price. Try to find a purchase option that includes a discount.

It is best to do your due diligence by investigating the subject on-line and get the best price possible before signing up.

Udemy’s discounts

Udemy consistently has discounted pricing up to 60% off, but their website does not clearly offer this option. I have just found full prices listed on their website, however, I was able to find a site providing Udemy sale discounts & Promo Codes that you can and should take advantage of if you are interested in taking any of their courses. Click here: Udemy Discounts.

Overview of the Udacity Platform 

Udacity Features

• Online Learning, Anywhere, Anytime
• Lengthy, in-depth courses
• Course material designed by Top-Tier Industry Leaders
• Monthly Payments
• Time limit required to complete paid courses

Udacity Benefits

• Time limit to complete courses helps with your time management
• In-depth technical training
• Udacity Certificate upon Completion for paid courses
• One-on-One Mentorship to help answer questions and stay focussed 
• Course material is designed for what the Industry wants 
• Customized learning material is offered to suite workforce training in order to learn the most applicable skill sets needed

Udacity offers a selected range of courses specific to computer technology. Below are the course categories and a few examples of topics that they offer.

Udacity Course Categories – Some Topics by Category Consist of

All Udacity Courses Include:

✓ Real-world projects that help master technical skills that companies want
✓ Personal Career Coach that provide advice, coaching sessions, resume & professional profile reviews
✓ Technical mentors to support, guide, answer questions, and to keep you focused and motivated
✓ Flexible learning in order for you to learn on your own schedule and at the pace that suits you.

The Business Analytics Overview

Collect & Analyze data, model business scenarios, and communicate findings with SQL, Excel, and Tableau.

The estimated time to complete the course is 3 months (10 hours/week)

Date to enroll by is July 28, 2020

Pre-requisite: none, other than computer skills, and able to download and install applications

Overview of the Program:

• Welcome to the Program
  • Meeting the Instructor
  • Interpret data visualization
• Introduction to Data
  • Learn how to use and communicate stats & visuals
  • Develop excel skills
  • Analyze NYSE data
• SQL for Data Analysis
  • Learn to use SQL
  • Query a digital music store database
• Data Visualization
  • Build data dashboards and tell stories with data

Course Reviews

Business Analytics Pricing

Once you sign-up you can opt-in for discount pricing for financial support.

Payment options also include:

• Lump-sum 3 months access at $1,437 ($479.00/month)

or

• Pay-as-you-go at $529.00/month

Udacity Instructors

Course material is created by Top Tier companies who teach relevant and latest information on technical subjects. Their content is extensive, thorough, and of University level. 

• Course Materials: Course material that the Instructor shares is owned by the Instructor, not Udacity. Expert instructors will need to commit time-limited courses to learn the requirements for Onboarding, Creating Projects & Develop Lessons, Video Production, Revise & beta test, Finalize Contact & Launch Courses, and Post-Launch before initiating their first course. Course materials encourage student interaction by including quizzes, exercises, videos, and student self-assessments.
• Revenue:
  When students buy courses on Udacity the instructor receives a salary that varies on student engagement, # of sessions, cost per session, and what category of Nanodegree the instructor is at (beginner, intermediate, or advanced).
• Profiles: Their profiles provide a profile picture, full name, title, and instructor credentials.
  • Example: Dana Sheahan- Content Developer: “Dana is an electrical engineer with a Masters in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. Her work experience includes software development for embedded systems in the Automotive Group at Motorola, where she was awarded a patent for an onboard operating system.”

Udacity Overall Pricing

Udacity provides 200 free courses with little interaction with the Instructor or Students

In addition, paid Nanodegree Programs are available that teach high-impact skills that companies are looking for. The courses are designed by top industry leaders and the cost of the programs is $200.00 USD and higher, per month. They consist of real-world projects, mentorship, personal coaching, and flexible hours. You are given a Nanodegree Certificate after passing the course.

Pros & Cons of Udemy vs Udacity

Pros: Udemy – Udacity

Cons: Udemy – Udacity

Overall Reviews

Udemy: https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/udemy.com

Udemy has received a total of 69% Great to Excellent Reviews according to trustpilot.com

Udacity: https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/udacity.com

Udacity has received a total of 97% Great to Excellent Reviews according to trustpilot.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Alternative Online Learning Platforms

Here are some other Udacity and Udemy alternatives to consider for a nano degree program or upleveling skills.

Coursera

Teaches hundreds of free online course providors and also paid courses that span 4-6 weeks by Instructors that are from Universities and Businesses.

Instructions include video, exercise, and forums. Paid courses include quizzes and projects and a Certificate upon completion. Prices start approx $49 USD.

EdX

Provides free and paid courses with topics that include chemistry, computer science, finance, engineering…to food and nutrition. Paid courses range from $50 to $300 USD and provide a verified certificate.

Lynda.com

Lynda.com is a learning platform that teaches business, software, technology, and creative skills for personal and business-related goals. Lynda.com can be found on linked-in and provide free trials. The Basic Membership is $25 / month, and Premium Membership is $37.50 / month.

Final Thoughts: Udemy vs Udacity?

Although certificates from these platforms are not accredited, the things you learn still had value to you. Learning online keeps your knowledge up-to-date with the latest learning techniques, they brush-ou-up on subjects you haven’t been in touch with lately, they teach you new things that you may have always been interested in but didn’t pursue, and introduce you to a different world of learning that you may find fascinating to pursue further.

Best for Tech Careers

Why Go With Udacity

While Udacity doesn't have the widest selection, the degrees they DO offer are robust, industry recognized "nano" degree programs (mostly concentrated in TECH careers). If you have the choice - and are looking for recognized credentials - Udacity is the more industry specific pick.

Start Now Take 25% with Code "CAREER25"

We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

It is best to do your due diligence by investigating in Online Educational Platforms that give you the best bang for your buck. Even if you invest zero money in a course, your time is still valuable. There is nothing like investing your time too and get no satisfaction afterward.

Udemy provides a quick, inexpensive skill set learning. Before investing time and money, you are given an overview of the course, the instructor, the rating of the course, and a 30 money-back guarantee and a wide variety of courses to choose from.

Udacity is more technical, in-depth, and University learning with deadlines, and many hours, months, and cost involved. It all depends on what you want and how serious you are willing to invest your time and money in.

I lean towards Udemy to learn quick and easy lessons and I lean towards Udacity to learn in-depth technical lessons to further my career.

Bottom Line Summary: Udemy is the “wild west” of online courses, offering many new and innovative courses, with varying degrees of quality. Udacity offers a select group of robust nano degree programs, specifically around tech careers. Go with Udemy to uplevel some skills, but go with the more recognized “degree” programs offered by Udacity for credentialing and career progression. 

Further Online Learning Platform Reading & Online Course Comparisons:

• Udemy Course vs Skillshare Course Platforms
• Udemy vs Pluralsight Online Learning Platform
• Udacity vs DataCamp Platform Comparison
• Best LinkedIn Learning Online Course Selections