Udemy Review: Is It Really Good or Pretty Bad?

Online course providers differ in terms of quality, user ratings, and price.

Udemy offers courses to 50 million learners with both positive and negative experiences.

What do Udemy students like? What are they criticizing?

(Continue here to compare all online courses from 50+ providers.) 

What is Udemy?

• Provider of more than 200,000 online courses, 50+ million users   
• Founded in 2010 in San Francisco, backed by venture capital 
• Strong in computer science, business, and lifestyle courses
• Short lessons – think YouTube, not college lectures 
• Any expert can offer courses, not just university instructors

+ Positive aspects from user reviews:

• Choice: Many different topics. Includes professional training courses (programming, business, marketing) but also hobbies and leisure 
• Moderate costs: Many courses are available at prices around $10-20 
• Expert knowledge: Practitioners teach skills that can be applied immediately. Not limited to universities and institutions. Some instructors have 10,000+ students and outstanding reviews. 
• Direct teaching style: Many users prefer a quick start to long introductions. Of course this depends on your learning objective.  
• Preview: The instructor's presentation style can be tested in preview videos. This is a key feature not available on most other course platforms. 
• Playback speed: Can be adjusted, which is very user-friendly. Useful for longer lessons.
• Languages: Unlike other course platforms, Udemy also offers 65 languages besides English (including Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Chinese).

- Sometimes criticized:

• Varying quality: Anyone can create lessons, so the quality of the content varies a lot. The same is true for teaching styles. Some non-native English-speakers can also be hard to understand. The course preview is a great help! 
• Price changes: Some reviewers criticize that course prices change a lot. But that’s not a scam, it’s just dynamic pricing over time. As a rule of thumb, you should only book at prices below $50. 
• Only few free courses: Some instructors start by offering their courses for free. However, Udemy does not have the free learning option that other providers offer. 
• Value of certificates: The reputation of Udemy certificates is still low and needs to improve. The main reason is the varying quality between courses. Most Udemy students aim to upgrade their skills, not to list certificates in their résumé/CV.
• Limited theoretical insight: If you are looking for theoretical concepts at university level, look elsewhere.
• Course updates: Many courses are launched but never updated. The last update date is shown on the course page.