There are over a dozen online learning platforms today, but if you've filtered down your choices to just Pluralsight vs. Udemy, then this comprehensive comparison post and review is perfect for you.
Learn why Udemy may not be the best fit for you, even if the online platform has 100x more courses than Pluralsight.
Udemy vs. Pluralsight Courses
If you're choosing the platform based on the number of courses you can access on the site, Udemy hands-down has a bigger variety of courses offered. Udemy also ensures that once you buy a Udemy course, you receive lifetime access.
However, Pluralsight is known for offering some of the best, up-to-date online courses for IT professionals.
Udemy Courses
- Number of Courses: Over 100,000
- Number of Languages: 65
- Number of users: 50 million+
Launched in 2010, and founded by Eren Bali, Udemy's growth is pretty impressive. As of 2021, it has 155,000 courses from 56,000 instructors. With 40 million learners (7000+ of which are Enterprise customers), it is right to say that the site is ready to evolve into a bigger platform.
Udemy is unofficially referred to as "Universal Academy," which I think is very fitting. It is the world's largest e-learning platform with a wide variety of quality courses in categories like fitness, business intelligence, gaming, teaching, personal development, IT, and more. If you suddenly want to learn a particular course, there's a good chance Udemy already has that course in the library.
Udemy Certification
Udemy offers different courses in a wide range of industries, but you won't find any degree programs here, so manage your expectations. You won't be able to create your own curriculum and have the courses accredited.
Certificates are available, but you can only find them as an add-on for top-priced courses, which is probably the reason why they're not as popular.
Pluralsight Courses
- Number of Courses: 7,000+
- Number of Languages: 50
- Number of users: Over 1 million
Like Udemy, Pluralsight is an online learning platform. However, the site is known for advanced content quality in IT education. You can find multiple courses in web development, coding, programming and web language, and other related courses.
Pluralsight was launched in 2004 as a way to deliver courses in classrooms. By 2007, it added features and offered training courses online.
Just like the courses they delivered in real-world classrooms, the courses are focused on technology, IT, and web development. It isn't surprising that Pluralsight has partnered with big names in tech, most notably with Microsoft.
As of 2021, it has 4,000+ courses taught by over 600 instructors.
Pluralsight Certification
While Pluralsight doesn't offer degree programs, this learning platform does offer "Paths," a curriculum-like program that takes the guesswork out of your learning experience. Each path lists down all the courses you need to take in order to master a particular skill from start to finish. And even includes quizzes, course material, and other support to help you obtain certificates.
For example, if your goal is to become a Cisco-certified DevNet Associate, PluralSight has 4 courses that you can take within 8 hours.
Is Pluralsight Better Than Udemy?
Comparing Udemy and Pluralsight is exactly like comparing apples to oranges.
- Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
- Both offer value for money (depending on your professional needs)
- Both fees are confusing but flexible enough for individuals and teams
As you can imagine, Pluralsight can be the better choice for you if you are (or hoping to become) an IT professional.
Udemy vs. Pluralsight Pros and Cons
Both Pluralsight or Udemy features a per-course model and subscription (that you pay monthly or per year). Both sites offer no accredited certificates but feature pathways to guide you through a particular career path.
Pros and Cons of Udemy
Pros
Cons
Pros and Cons of Pluralsight
Pros
Cons
Pricing and Plans: Pluralsight vs. Udemy
Since the range of courses Udemy offers and Pluralsight offers are widely different, expect the fees to be just as different.
Pluralsight Cost
The Pluralsight is divided into two types of courses: "Skills" and "Flow" with plans specific for individual students and teams.
Skills
- Individual
- Standard ($19 monthly) gives you access to the core course library with paths and skill assessment included.
- Premium ($29 monthly) gives you access to the core course library with expanded courses, exams, hands-on learning, projects, and assessment of paths and skills also included.
- Teams - Team pricing ranges from $399/user/year for the Starter plan to $779/user/year for the Enterprise plan.
You’d be able to access free courses for up to 10 days only if you paid for a subscription. Learn all the skills you can learn for free within this period; you'll quickly discover that one course isn't enough to explore a specific IT topic.
If you paid annually (regardless of any plan), you could save around 14% on fees.
Flow
Pluralsight offers Flow, a way to aggregate historical git data into easy-to-understand insights and reports; it is designed to help make your engineer teams more successful.
Think of Flow as an Enterprise model to boost team productivity. The subscription cost isn't shown on the site since fee tiers are based on the number of people actively contributing to the team's codebase and the number of reports that Pluralsight Flow will process.
Udemy Marketplace, UdemyPro, and Udemy Business
Udemy's pricing can confuse new students because there is very little constant pricing available in the marketplace. You can find a course priced at about $100, which goes down to $10 on Udemy sales. The good news is that site is ALWAYS on sale, so if you've got a course in mind, check out the marketplace and find one that fits the bill.
UdemyPro is billed as a guided learning experience, exclusive to students interested in IT certification. (The company has over 25+ IT certifications available). Unlike the marketplace online courses that you pay on the go, this one follows a subscription model, billed $19.99 per month + taxes. There is a 7-day free trial available, but you may need to enter your credit card details first to access the programs.
Udemy Business pricing is totally dependent on what a particular company needs. For example, X company wants to train its new employees in Advanced Excel formulas and chose 2 courses from the marketplace. X company could negotiate for lowered fees, especially if they're going to be used by hundreds or thousands of its employees. Pricing may also be a monthly subscription with lifetime access to certain online courses.
Pluralsight vs. Udemy Review
This review on the online learning platforms Udemy vs. Pluralsight is quite a mismatch if you look at it more closely, but if you're an IT professional looking for the best courses for you, it's totally understandable why you were left with the Udemy and Pluralsight as your last top 2 options.
And here's my honest recommendation: pick Pluralsight for quality courses in games development, web development, coding, app development, web language, and any other niche in the IT industry. There is no comparison when it comes to updating your IT skills and the quality of industry-expert instructors.
I'm positive that any of Pluralsight’s coding or web development course is better than Udemy's course on the same topic.
However, go with Udemy if:
- you are looking to work on your soft skills to get promoted in a current job,
- you want to learn a completely different online course to get into a new industry,
- you need access to courses teaching you a new hobby
- you are looking to learn from multiple instructors to get a better understanding of a particular topic
Like I said before, this comparison to these sites is like apples to oranges, so choose between the online learning platforms based on your educational requirements and the commitment level you have for self-learning.
