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Index

Every online learning platform reviewed here, with its price and its verdict

Fourteen platforms reviewed against the same six criteria, eight of them scored, the other six carrying the reason their price could not be settled.

A black mechanical keyboard corner, a coiled network cable, a violet USB stick and a lime measuring tape pulled out slightly

This is the full index. The reviews go into the reasoning; the table is the summary. Prices are United States list prices, checked on August 19, 2026, and each review carries that date beside its own figures.

Subscription platforms, cheapest first

Subscription platforms, cheapest first: annual price, monthly price, certificate, what survives cancellation, and score out of 100.
PlatformAnnualMonthlyCertificateKeepsScore
MasterClass $120 annual only none nothing 44
Skillshare $167.88 annual only none nothing 41
Codecademy $179.88 annual only included certificate 65
LinkedIn Learning $239.88 $39.99 included profile record 61
Pluralsight $252 annual only included assessment results 63
Coursera $399 $59 included certificate 85

Platforms without a single annual price

These eight are priced per course, sold outright, free, or published inconsistently enough that no single annual figure would be honest, so none of them can sit on the price axis. Each one carries the reason on its own review. Being off the axis is not the same as being unscored: the price criterion needs a price that can be established, not one that happens to be annual.

Two of them still carry a score (Udemy and Khan Academy), because an established figure exists either way: Udemy sells at a street price the sale cycle makes predictable, and Khan Academy is free. The remaining six are read against the same six criteria and left unscored, because on those the price is in dispute across sources or could not be established at all, and a mean of five equal criteria is not comparable with a mean of six.

All platform reviews

What the scores mean

Each score is the mean of six equally weighted criteria: price, access, teaching, assessment, credential and exit. A platform can win on price and finish mid-table, and most do, because the two criteria that separate this market hardest are assessment and exit — whether anybody marks your work, and whether anything survives cancellation.

Nothing in the score is adjusted for popularity or brand recognition, and nothing is adjusted commercially, because there is no commercial arrangement with any platform listed here. Where a platform is unscored, and six of the fourteen here are, it is because a figure the score depends on is in dispute or could not be verified at all, never because the platform performed badly. The reason is printed on that platform’s own review rather than left to be guessed at.

The pattern in the table

Read the annual column against the certificate column and the market’s logic appears. The two cheapest subscriptions certify nothing at all. The most expensive carry a university’s or an employer’s name. Price tracks the credential far more closely than it tracks teaching quality, which is worth knowing before assuming the expensive option is the better taught one.

The per-course platforms sit outside that pattern entirely. Udemy and edX charge for the thing rather than the access, which removes the clock: nothing renews, nothing expires, and the only question is whether that particular course is worth its price. For occasional learners this is the cheapest structure in the market by a wide margin, and it is the one the subscription platforms are least keen to be compared against.

Who is missing, and why

Several well-known names are absent. Some are corporate training products sold only by the seat, which makes an individual price impossible to state and an individual verdict meaningless. Others are single-subject platforms narrow enough that comparing them with a general catalog tells you nothing: a service teaching one certification track is not an alternative to a library.

Two views of the same set answer different questions: the pairs people actually weigh against each other are judged two at a time, and which platform teaches a given field properly is a subject-by-subject question rather than a ranking.

A platform also drops out if we cannot verify what it charges. That is the case with DataCamp today, and it is a deliberate exclusion from the price axis rather than a judgment on the teaching, which is good. A comparison table’s authority comes entirely from the reader believing the numbers in it, and one invented figure spends that credit permanently.

Anything genuinely new gets assessed against the same six criteria before it appears here, and the date of that assessment is printed on its page. A platform that launched last month has no cancellation record to judge, which is itself worth saying rather than scoring around.

When a verdict changes

A score here moves for three reasons: a price change, a change to what the platform certifies, or a change to what survives cancellation. The first is common and rarely interesting; the other two move a platform substantially, because they change what is being sold rather than what it costs.

Each review carries the date it was last assessed, so a reader can see how fresh the verdict is rather than assuming it is current. Where a platform has changed since, the fix is a re-check and a new date rather than a quiet edit to the old text.

How to read the table

The two columns that decide most purchases are the last two before the score. “Certificate” says whether anything is issued and, in the reviews, whose name is on it. “Keeps” says what is still yours after the subscription ends, which is the question no pricing page answers and the one that separates a platform selling qualifications from a platform selling access to video.

Read the annual column against those two and the market’s logic becomes visible: the cheapest subscriptions here certify nothing, and the most expensive ones are the ones whose certificates carry an institution’s name. Price tracks credential far more closely than it tracks teaching quality, which is worth knowing before deciding that the expensive option must be the better taught one.

Questions people actually ask

How many online learning platforms are worth considering?

Fewer than the market suggests. Once you filter by who issues the certificate and whether any work is marked, the serious list is about six platforms, and the rest are priced accordingly.

Which platform has the best courses?

No platform is best across subjects. Coursera and edX lead on anything academic or credentialed, Udemy on specific tools, Skillshare and CreativeLive on creative practice, and Pluralsight on infrastructure technology.

What is the difference between a subscription and a per-course platform?

A subscription rents you a catalog and takes it back when payment stops. A per-course platform sells you one course permanently. Below roughly five courses a year the second model is cheaper and keeps working.

Do any of these platforms offer accredited degrees?

Coursera and edX host full online degrees awarded by partner universities, priced separately and requiring admission. No standalone course certificate on any platform is a degree.

How often is this index updated?

Prices are re-checked and the date is printed on every page that carries one. The current set was checked on August 19, 2026.

Why do some platforms have no score?

Because the score is the mean of six equally weighted criteria and one of them is price. Where a published price is in dispute across sources, or where no figure could be verified at all, that criterion cannot be filled, and a mean of five is not comparable with a mean of six. Those platforms are reviewed in full and left unscored, with the reason stated on the review itself.