Last Updated on January, 2025
Continuous learning and developing new skills are necessary to stay on top of your career, and online learning platforms have become the go-to destinations.
Udemy and Pluralsight are two such online learning platforms with distinct features, courses, and learning pathways.
If you are wondering “which learning platform is the best for me,” you’ve got the answer here.
So keep reading.
This article covers a detailed comparison of Udemy and Pluralsight so that you can make an informed decision.
Quick Summary
When choosing between Udemy and Pluralsight, factors such as individual learning goals, course content, instructor qualifications, and cost should be considered. Each platform has its own pros and cons, and understanding these can help make an informed decision. Its better if you read down below to make yourself a good decision☺️💕.
While both platforms offer a multitude of courses, Udemy has a wider range and is more accessible to a broader audience, while Pluralsight specializes in IT-related courses and is known for its partnerships with Fortune 500 companies.
The pricing and certifications offered by both platforms also differ. Udemy has a more flexible payment system with individual course purchases and subscription plans, while Pluralsight is primarily subscription-based. The certifications from both platforms may not be accredited, but Pluralsight’s hold more value due to its partnerships with reputable companies.
Contents
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight in a Nut Shell
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Overview
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Pros and Cons
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Online Courses
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Free Online Courses
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight Pricing
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Instructor and Course Quality
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Certifications
- Languages Available on Udemy and Pluralsight
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Interface Design
- Udemy Vs Pluralsight: Customer Support
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Which is the Best Way to Learn Programming?
- Is Udemy or Pluralsight Best for Business?
- Tips to Select the Right Online Learning Platform
- Differences Between Udemy and Pluralsight
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Which is More Popular?
- Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Alternatives
- FAQs
- Which Platform is the Best for You? Udemy or Pluralsight?
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight in a Nut Shell
The comparison table below will give you a quick insight into both Udemy and Pluralsight.
| Criteria | Udemy | Pluralsight |
| No. of Courses | 210,000+ | 7,000+ |
| No. of Students | 67 million learners | Not specified |
| Teachers | 75,000 instructors, open to anyone meeting guidelines | 1,500 expert instructors, with formal qualifications |
| Specialization | Broad range, including development, business, etc. | Primarily IT-related courses |
| Free Trial | Free courses available, but without certificates | 10-day, 200-minute viewing trial |
| Pricing | Individual courses from $19.99 to $199.99, subscription plans available | Subscription-based; $19/month (standard), $29/month (premium) |
| Refund | 30-days (More about Udemy Cash Back here.) | No Refunds |
| Certificates | Available for paid courses, not accredited | Available, not accredited but hold some professional value |
| Features | Video lessons, quizzes, additional resources | Skill assessments, labs, sandboxes, interactive courses |
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Overview
Before going into detail, let’s look at a summary of Udemy and Pluralsight.
About Udemy
Udemy is an education technology company founded in 2010 by Eren Ball, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar.
Udemy offers 210,000+ courses across different niches. It has 67 million learners and 75,000 instructors at present.
Udemy is an open platform where anyone can record and upload videos that obey the Udemy guidelines. However, many of its instructors are professionals.
You can buy an individual course or opt for a monthly subscription plan on Udemy. You can also select one from the many free Udemy courses available. Free classes don’t offer certificates or extra learning resources.
Sounds interesting? Take a peek at our full Udemy Platform review.
About Pluralsight
Pluralsight is another popular online education company founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonnard, Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, and Bill Williams.
It offers courses in various disciplines but primarily focuses on IT-related courses. Several specialized courses and learning pathways exist for software developers and IT administrators.
Pluralsight is known as a professional learning platform due to its academically proficient instructors and partnerships with many Fortune 500 companies.
Pluralsight is based on a subscription model with a personal or premium plan. It has no free courses, but you can get a seven-day, 200-minute viewing free trial to watch Pluralsight classes.
What about this? Sounds interesting? Then take a peek at our full Pluralsight Platform review.
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Pros and Cons
What are the benefits and downsides of Udemy and Pluralsight? Let’s find out.
Udemy Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Pluralsight Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Online Courses
Let’s discuss the courses offered by Udemy and Pluralsight in detail.
Udemy Courses
Udemy offers more than 210,000 courses under 13 main categories and several subcategories. So you can find online courses to learn any skill on Udemy.
The main disciplines are as follows:
Udemy has an advanced filter system to help you find courses. It filters the courses based on the video duration, category, subcategory, course review, level, language, and features.
Generally, Udemy courses consist of a preview, a video lesson with subtitles, and additional learning resources.
The course preview is a small, accessible introduction to the course content to understand the course structure and the instructor. Watch this preview to decide whether the course content aligns with your goals and the teaching style fits you.
POPULAR COURSES ON UDEMY
Below are some of the best courses on Udemy right now:
Pluralsight Courses
Pluralsight offers over 7,000 courses in 9 subjects as follows:
Unlike Udemy, Pluralsight has several different learning pathways, such as courses, assessments, hands-on experience, and labs. What are these?
Skill assessments are a set of questions that’ll help you to identify your knowledge gaps and strengths. After taking the assessment, Pluralsight will recommend specific courses to close your knowledge gaps.
Hands-on experience follows a learn, practice, and apply approach.
There are four main types of frameworks under this: labs, sandboxes, projects, and interactive courses:
The hands-on experience learning path in Pluralsight is designed for programmers to develop their coding skills. Some of the learning pathways are only available for business plans. We’ll discuss this further in the pricing section.
Certificate prep helps you to develop the necessary knowledge and skills for the in-demand tech exams. It provides video courses, labs, guides, peer trackers, and practice exams related to the specific exam you will take.
Here are some of the certification prep courses that Pluralsight offers:
In Pluralsight, there are individual courses to learn a specific subject or a combination of 3-15 single courses to master a particular skill from the beginning. These are known as skill paths.
For example, a web development skill path consists of HTML, Javascript, CSS, and other courses a web developer requires. Java skill path consists of a combination of Java courses to develop your Java programming skills.
POPULAR COURSES ON PLURALSIGHT
Below are some of the best courses that Pluralsight offers:
Summary: Udemy has more courses than Pluralsight. Udemy also covers a broader range of topics than Pluralsight. Pluralsight has different learning pathways, especially for developing programming skills.
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Free Online Courses
Can you take courses without paying in Udemy or Pluralsight? Let’s find out.
Free Udemy Courses
Udemy offers over 500 courses for free. You have a filter to help you find a course based on topic, subcategory, level, and language.
Udemy has many free courses to learn programming languages, iOS development, android development, and web development.
The downside is that you won’t get the total learning experience through free courses. You’ll have free access to the video lessons only and won’t be able to take Q&As and assessments or get course completion certificates.
Some instructors issue free coupons at certain times of the year to market their Udemy courses in exchange for reviews.
Free Pluralsight Courses
Pluralsight is a subscription-based online learning platform. Therefore, you can’t purchase or have free access to individual courses.
The subscription plans have a 10-day free trial limited to 200 minutes of viewing. You won’t be able to learn anything with such limited viewing. However, it’ll help you explore the platform, watch Pluralsight courses, and decide whether it suits you.
Summary: Udemy offers so many courses for free, and Pluralsight doesn’t have any free courses.
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight Pricing
Pricing is an important aspect you look for when choosing an online learning platform. So let’s have a look into it.
In Udemy, you can purchase courses individually or go for a subscription plan.
An individual course price may vary from $19.99 to $199.99. With this, you get lifetime access to the video lessons, quizzes, and a completion certificate for that particular Udemy course.
A personal subscription plan costs $29.99 per month for monthly memberships. An annual membership costs $16.58 per month, which is $199 for a year. You can access all the courses, practice tests, exercises, and Q&A with one monthly fee. (You can learn more about Udemy Costs here.)
Pluralsight pricing is based on a subscription model; it doesn’t offer single-course purchases.
There are two types of subscription plans: standard and premium.
The standard plan costs $19 per month. It includes access to a limited core library of 2,500 courses, assessments, and several learning pathways.
The premium plan gives access to 7,000 courses, skill assessments, advanced content, past conferences, and hands-on learning. With a premium plan, programmers get sandboxes and labs to improve their coding skills. Premium plan costs $29 per month. (Here you can learn more about Pluralsight Costs.)
Both Udemy and Pluralsight run flash sales. You can use these to save some extra bucks.
Summary: Udemy has flexible payment options: purchase single courses to get lifetime access or opt for a subscription. Pluralsight is subscription-based with standard and premium plans.
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Instructor and Course Quality
Before diving into a course, you must know the quality of the content and whether the instructor is an expert in the field.
Udemy Instructor and Course Quality
Udemy is an open platform, which means anyone with the passion, skills, and knowledge can create and share courses on Udemy.
The courses must meet some standard quality guidelines such as good video and audio quality, each video must be at least 30 minutes long, and a course should have at least five lectures.
As anyone can upload courses into Udemy, you might find some low-quality courses, too. So, how can you identify them?
Under each course, there’s a bio about the instructor, course ratings, and reviews. Go through it to know the instructor’s qualifications and what others say about the course. Moreover, there’s a preview where the instructor will walk you through the course content.
Even though anyone can share courses on Udemy, most instructors are industry experts, experienced professors, and award-winning artists.
Victor Bastos, a famous internet developer, and Pierian Training’s Data Science head, Jose Portilla, are two popular instructors at Udemy.
To become an Udemy instructor, go to the instructor tab, fill in the details, and upload the course.
Pluralsight Instructor and Course Quality
Pluralsight is a site focused on professional learning. It has over 1,500 expert instructors to provide authority courses.
Unlike Udemy, Pluralsight allows only its authors to publish studies. Pluralsight looks for formal qualifications while selecting instructors, and it supports the authors in course creation, video production, and editing.
Additionally, the courses are peer-reviewed by fellow instructors before being published. Therefore, you can be sure that Pluralsight has only top-notch courses.
Linux Professional Andrew Mallet, Author Evangelist Greg Shields, and Certified Ethical Hacker, instructor Dale Meredith are some of the authors of Pluralsight.
If you want to be an instructor on Pluralsight, you must do a short audition video and submit it for review by the experts.
General Pluralsight courses have a bio about the instructor, ratings, and course reviews. You can go through this information to find suitable courses.
Pluralsight has a standard format for its courses, so all the courses on the platform look consistent. Each module is 30-40 minutes long and divided into 3-5-minute short sessions. There’s a preview and a summary video. There’s also a table showing the contents of the course.
Summary: Udemy and Pluralsight provide online courses of high quality. As Udemy is an open platform, it can have some low-quality courses. Pluralsight allows only authors with formal qualifications to share courses. So, it has only top-quality courses.
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Certifications
Are Udemy or Pluralsight certifications worth it? Can you use them on resumes? Let’s explore.
Both Udemy and Pluralsight provide certifications.
Udemy offers course completion certificates for paid courses. As you already know, Udemy is not an accredited institution. So, you can’t use Udemy’s certificates as a formal qualification. The certificate might be valuable if you take the course from an expert.
Pluralsight offers certificates after you complete a course. Like Udemy, Pluralsight is also not an accredited educational institution, but it has some value as it has partnerships with reputable Fortune 500 companies.
Pluralsight certificates can be used as Continuing Education Units and continuing Professional Education. Remember, Pluralsight doesn’t offer certificates for interactive courses and projects.
Summary: Udemy or Pluralsight don’t issue certifications from accredited institutions, so you cannot use them as formal accreditation, but Pluralsight certificates hold more value than Udemy. Only paid courses offer certificates.
Languages Available on Udemy and Pluralsight
Udemy offers courses in 80+ languages, including English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Indonesian, and many more. Instructors can upload courses in any language as well.
Pluralsight offers courses primarily in the English language. However, you have the option to generate subtitles in any language.
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Interface Design
Having a user-friendly learning platform makes the learning experience more pleasant. Are Udemy and Pluralsight platforms easy to use?
Before going into the platform, you must sign up. Let’s look at the signup process and then the interface.
Registering on Udemy is very simple. You have to enter your name, email, and password, and then you’ll receive a confirmation email.
Once you log in, the Udemy interface is organized and very smooth to navigate. You’ll find the most popular courses under each category and the courses the other learners view.
After you start learning, Udemy will show “what’s to learn next” and a recommendation section.
Signing up with Pluralsight needs some time. You’ll have to enter your name, email address, and country of residence. Then you have to fill out the payment details and confirm it.
You’ll not be charged for the first ten days, and if you’re not satisfied with the platform, you can cancel before the trial ends without paying any money.
Pluralsight is a unique online learning platform due to its striking color combination of black, pink, and orange. On the top, there are tabs with solutions, products, and resources. There’s a chatbot for you to get help if required.
Due to the numerous learning pathways and resources available, exploring the options will take some time. There’s a dedicated section for developers on Pluralsight.
Summary: Udemy and Pluralsight are user-friendly platforms. Udemy has a straightforward layout, while Pluralsight has a lot of resources to explore with a colorful, artistic look.
Udemy Vs Pluralsight: Customer Support
Udemy has a help and support section. This FAQ section contains numerous articles on the commonly asked questions for learners and instructors.
They are divided into several categories: getting started, accounts, troubleshooting, learning experience, purchase/refunds, etc. There’s a search bar for you to find the answers to your queries quickly.
If you have any other specific questions, you can contact Udemy through [email protected].
Pluralsight has detailed guides on the courses, billing, subscription, troubleshooting technical issues, and much more. You can contact Pluralsight through email or phone if you have any other questions.
Their email service is 24/7, while phone support is available from 8 AM to 5 PM on weekdays, excluding U.S. holidays. Having phone support is a unique feature of Pluralsight.
Go to the help center and click the contact support button to get the Pluralsight phone number and email address.
Summary: Udemy and Pluralsight have supportive customer service, but Pluralsight’s customer support is unique due to the phone support.
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Which is the Best Way to Learn Programming?
Udemy and Pluralsight offer multiple courses related to programming. Which one is the best?
If you search for tech-related courses on Udemy, you’ll get around 10,000 courses, but if you search the same on Pluralsight, you’ll get only about 2,000 results. In terms of quantity, Udemy has more programming-related courses than Pluralsight.
We’ll have to look at some more facts before concluding.
Udemy offers only individual courses for you to learn a specific skill. In contrast, Pluralsight offers learning paths. In a learning path, there are several courses to master a particular skill from beginning to advanced.
For example, you learn HTML, Javascript, CSS, Angular React, and other tools to learn web development.
Coding skills develop with practice. Pluralsight offers labs and sandboxes to practice coding, which is unavailable in Udemy.
Even though Udemy has more tech-related courses than Pluralsight, Pluralsight has some specially designed features to teach students to code online. Hence, Pluralsight is the best platform to learn programming.
Is Udemy or Pluralsight Best for Business?
Constant learning is necessary to remain at the top of your career. So, popular online learning platforms provide business plans for companies to improve their employees’ skills.
Udemy offers two business plans: the enterprise plan and the team plan.
The team plan is suitable for small companies with 5-20 people. It costs $360 per year for one person.
The team plan gives access to 10,500+ top courses, practice tests, coding exercises, certification prep for 200+ exams, goal-focused recommendations, and analytics and adoption reports.
Enterprise plans are suitable for companies with more than 20 employees. Its price is customizable. So you must contact sales for pricing details. You can also request a demo to decide if it suits your company.
An enterprise plan provides access to 24,000+ top courses, 200+ certification exam prep, coding exercises, advanced analytics and insights, international course collections, assessments, labs, workspaces, and dedicated customer support.
In addition, there’s a leadership academy for groups of 25 or more.
This program provides:
Read more here about Udemy for business.
Pluralsight offers three business plans: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise.
The starter plan is suitable for teams with 2-50 people. It gives access to a limited core library of 2,500 courses, limited analytics, curated learning paths, and skill and role assessments. The starter plan costs $33.25 per month/user.
The professional plan is also suitable for 2-50 people but offers additional features.
The professional plan gives access to the entire course library of 7,000+ courses, team-level reporting and user analytics, sandboxes, labs, real-world projects, and certification exam preps. This plan costs $48.25 per month for each person.
Enterprise plans are for large organizations. It provides all the professional plan features and other benefits, such as advanced content, niche topics, recordings of past tech conferences, channel analytics, and more. The price of the enterprise plan is customizable.
Summary: Udemy provides more affordable business plans, but Pluralsight is more suitable for developing tech-related skills.
Tips to Select the Right Online Learning Platform
We have gone through in-depth details about Udemy and Pluralsight.
Now, I’ll give you some points to consider while choosing a platform to make your decision-making process easy:
Differences Between Udemy and Pluralsight
Both Udemy and Pluralsight offer quality courses, but the key differences arise in their model.
Below are the differences between Udemy and Pluralsight:
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Which is More Popular?
Udemy was founded in 2010, and at present, it has over 67 million users, 75,000+ instructors, 900 million course enrolments, and 15,000 enterprise customers. Additionally, Udemy offers 210,000+ courses in 75 languages and across various subject areas.
Pluralsight was founded in 2004 with around 1,500 experienced instructors and 23,000 business accounts. It offers 7,000+ courses in various categories, but fewer than Udemy.
Due to the large number of users, broader course categories, and several languages available, Udemy is more popular than Pluralsight.
Udemy Vs. Pluralsight: Alternatives
There are many other platforms similar to Udemy and Pluralsight. I’ve briefly explained some popular platforms below so you don’t have to spend countless hours hopping from site to site.
Skillshare is an e-learning platform designed especially for creatives.
It has 25,000+ courses in creative topics such as graphic designing, cooking, digital illustration, freelance and entrepreneurship, and many more.
Anyone can share courses on Skillshare, but most instructors are industry experts.
Alicia Souza, Aaron Draplin, and Denise Bayron are some popular instructors of Skillshare.
Skillshare has an engaging community, and the classes are interactive and fun. This platform is subscription-based, and you get a free trial of 7 days.
Here you can learn more about Skillshare platform.
Masterclass
Masterclass is another e-learning platform.
It offers 180+ courses in various categories: arts and entertainment, business, design and style, food, science and tech, wellness, writing, sports and gaming, music, and home and lifestyle.
The specialty of Masterclass is that celebrities and industry experts conduct the classes.
For example:
Masterclass focuses on improving practical skills rather than academic knowledge. It’s a subscription-based platform, too. When you become a Masterclass member, you’ll gain access to all the video lessons, offline letters, newsletters, etc.
Here you can learn more about MasterClass platform.
Codecademy
Codecademy is an online platform designed specially to develop coding skills.
It offers machine learning, data science, data visualization, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and many more courses.
Codecademy has three plans: basic, plus, and pro. The basic plan is free, giving access to free courses, community support, and free resources.
The Plus plan offers skill paths, real-world projects, and certifications. The pro plan helps you build your programming career.
It gives access to technical interview preps, code challenges, assessments, career services, and professional certificates.
Coursera
Coursera is one of the best e-learning platforms known for its high quality, excellent courses, and accredited certificates.
Coursera offers over 7,000 courses in 80+ languages across various categories. It has partnerships with 275+ leading universities and companies.
The professors in the partner universities conduct the classes, so they are of very high-quality content.
Moreover, the partner institutes award the certificate. Hence, you can use it as a formal qualification.
Coursera provides several learning pathways, including guided projects, specializations, courses, professional certificates, Master track certificates, and degrees. You can choose a learning path that aligns with your goals.
Coursera has flexible payment options. You can generally buy courses individually or get a subscription.
Other comparisons you might want to read:
FAQs
Which Platform is the Best for You? Udemy or Pluralsight?
Both Udemy and Pluralsight have high-quality courses. Pluralsight is the best platform to learn software development and programming-related courses.
Consider your goals, course reviews, instructor ratings, teaching style, and budget to find the most suitable platform.
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