Udemy Vs Pluralsight 2020 – Which One Is Right For You?

Udemy

Udemy is a marketplace that offers tons of courses on a wide range of topics starting from creative to professional ones.

They are a better option for learners looking to develop new skills out of their passion or hobby. However, it doesn’t mean serious learners who want to build professional skills can’t get any benefit.

Even though most of the courses are not broadly gauged, they are still a better choice for complete beginners.

With exclusive discounts offered almost every week, Udemy is a brilliant place to buy courses at a cheap price.

Pluralsight

Pluralsight is mostly offering online courses for software developers, I.T administrators. 

They have a flexible learning system with advanced tools where you can enroll in courses by evaluating your skills. 

Whether it is a job role or skill development, Pluralsight is always a better choice than Udemy because Industry experts are part of their team.

Their website is mostly preferred by intermediate/advanced learners, businesses & professionals.

Udemy

Since it is a marketplace, there is no doubt you can explore tons of courses on their platform. As of October 2020, they have over 1,50,000 online courses focusing on a wide range of topics. Whether it is business, Lifestyle, IT & Software, Health, or Music, Udemy covers all the major categories.

Pluralsight

Pluralsight has over 6,500 courses that are more inclined towards the I.T & Software Development industry. Though they also offer a bunch of courses in Design, Business, Creative topics, most of them are suitable for technical professionals.

Udemy

Udemy gives freedom to independent instructors to sell their courses if they meet the Course Quality Checklist guidelines.

This results in a lot of mediocre courses created just for the sake of earning quick bucks instead of providing thorough in-depth knowledge. Though I am not saying all courses are like that, still the majority are. 

That’s the reason it’s kinda difficult to pick the right course out of all the low-quality ones. As an Udemy user, I always check out the instructor along with the user ratings and review while buying a course. This way I can assure myself that I am learning the topic from an expert.

Pluralsight

Pluralsight has an editing team that checks every course to see whether the audio, video, & content is meeting the quality standards.

This not only encourages in-depth, polished, and well-structured courses, but also a better user experience.

Moreover, the courses are created by highly qualified professionals who are the authority in their field.

So, Pluralsight is the clear winner here.

Udemy

Udemy doesn’t have any specific teaching style, but they do offer assignments and quizzes to horn your skills.

Unlike other platforms, they lack the learning path option because of which the learners have to do their own research to find the best courses.

I’d say that if you are a complete beginner, you won’t have a problem with Udemy’s teaching style.

Pluralsight

Pluralsight’s teaching model is impressive as it analysis your weak and strong points and then recommend courses resulting in a better learning experience.

Their teaching model comprises Skill IQ, Role IQ, learning path, & mentorship.

Before enrolling in any course, you can measure your skill using Skill IQ to find out where to start. This not only saves time, but you will also know where to pay more attention.

Role IQ is also similar, but it is more focused on a professional role. When you complete the test, you can right away understand what skills you lack for the job position. Based on the result, Pluralsight will create a learning path offering courses targeting skills you need to improve.

Apart from this, Pluralsight also offers one-on-one expert help whenever you have questions or facing any problem.

Udemy

Udemy doesn’t have any specific selection process for their instructors. As long as anyone is following their Quality Course checklist, they are free to sell their courses even if they are not an expert in their field.

Because of such a weak system, you can either jump into a well structured comprehensive course created by an industry expert.

Or you may find courses lacking thoroughness created by someone who isn’t credible.

Most of the time, the latter stands in the majority while there are a few gems that publish quality content.

Pluralsight

Talking about Pluralsight, they have a strict selection process because of which their panel of authors (instructors) are industry experts having more former education and on-the-job experience.

With such a team, you can expect better professional recorded comprehensive courses that provide a better learning experience to the learners.

Also, Pluralsight has a “find your expert” page where you can select your favorite authors according to the roles and then explore their courses.

Udemy

Even though Udemy offers completion certifications for the courses, it doesn’t provide any accreditation for job seekers.

Adding them to your CV or resume can be a good thing in the context of your ongoing learning path, but it won’t give you an upper edge for getting jobs.

That’s because Udemy is not considered an accredited institution, as anyone can sell their courses. That’s the reason Universities do not count their certificates towards college credit or even continuing education units (CEUs).

Pluralsight

Some Pluralsight skill courses can be used to receive CEU (continuing education unit) and CPE (continuing professional education) credits applicable for several certification organizations.

These include – CompTIA, IIBA, ISACA, ITIL, PMI, PRINCE2®, and PRINCE2 Agile.

Apart from this, all courses provide a certificate of completion once you finish them. Though University degrees are always better, still including Pluralsight certificates on resume holds more importance compared to Udemy.

Udemy

Udemy’s pricing model works on a pay-per-course basis where you can buy courses individually, ranging from $19.99 to $199.99.

Though the model fits perfectly for people looking to buy one or two courses, it can be a disadvantage for anyone looking to buy several of them.

However, the best thing is Udemy host discounts on various occasions where you can buy most of the courses at a mere $10. Additionally, they also offer a few of them for free.

Pluralsight

Pluralsight offers two types of packages – personal & team.

With the personal package, you can either buy a monthly ($29/month), yearly ($299/yr), or premium plan ($449/year).

While the business package has only annual plans – Professional ($579 per user/year) and Enterprise ($779 per user/year).

I know spending money on something without trying is a bad idea. That’s the reason Pluralsight offers a 10-day free trial or 200 minutes for its individual plans.

Using this option, you can check out their courses to see whether it is really worth your money.

Udemy

If you want to learn any non-technical skill at an affordable price, consider Udemy.

Whether you are hobbyists, Business professionals, Designer, Technologists, you will definitely find something to learn from here.

Though they might not be detailed courses like Pluralsight offers, they are definitely good for beginners.

Moreover, technology professionals can use Udemy courses to brush up their skills.

Pluralsight

Pluralsight is geared towards professionals either looking for a jump in their career or want to focus on skill development in the IT/tech industry.

Also, small businesses & companies use Pluralsight to train their employees.

In both cases, absolute beginners don’t fit in the scenario. However, their classes are easy to understand, even if you are not technical jargon.

I would recommend you to first learn about the skill/topic on YouTube & when you feel the grip, then think about investing in Pluralsight plans.