Bottom Line Upfront:
If you’re interested in learning about computer and programs like software and tech, Pluralsight is a solid option. But here’s the deal: Udemy has some excellent courses on these topics too, and you don’t have to commit to a subscription. You can simply buy the courses you want one at a time.
So, if you like the idea of choosing what you want to learn without a subscription, Udemy could be a better fit for you!
Pluralsight vs Udemy: Overview and General Info
About Pluralsight
Pluralsight is a website that focuses on teaching people about software and computer stuff. It started way back in 2004 and has a bunch of smart people who teach over 7,000 courses there.
They want to help regular folks and businesses learn all sorts of things. The people who teach these courses make their own lessons.
So, the people who like Pluralsight the most are software developers, IT folks, and anyone using computers and data. Pluralsight has been growing quickly.
They used to work with about 40% of the biggest companies in 2017; by 2019, it was up to 70%! They have courses on important tech stuff like Adobe, VMWare, and Nasdaq. So, if you want to learn about computer things, Pluralsight can help you.
About Udemy
Udemy is the leading global online marketplace for teaching, learning, and spreading knowledge of millions of skills across a huge number of students to succeed in their lives. It is an open online course provider targeting professional students and adults.Â
It started in 2010, and now it teaches over 54 million students worldwide.
They have a ton of courses, like more than 204,000 of them! You can learn through videos, audio, or reading, depending on your interests.
Here’s the cool part: You don’t have to subscribe or pay a monthly fee. You can buy the courses you want one by one. Each course has its price and is taught by someone who knows their stuff. When you buy a course, you can use it forever and get all the stuff that comes with it.
Plus, there are also some courses that you can access for free! So, if you want to learn something new, Udemy has many options.
It allows instructors to build courses on their topic preferences. Courses are offered across various categories: business, entrepreneurship, academics, arts, health and fitness, language, music, and technology.Â
Course Structure: Pluralsight vs UdemyÂ
Both Udemy and Pluralsight have quality courses. However, Udemy has more number of courses as compared to Pluralsight.
| Udemy | Pluralsight | |
| No. of Courses | 200,000 + | 7,000+ (Premium) |
| Categories | Development Business Finance & Accounting IT & Software Office Productivity Personal Development Design Marketing Health & Fitness Music |
Business Professional Cloud Data & Machine Learning IT Ops Security Software Development |
| No. of Free Courses | 500+ | 10-Day Free Trial |
Let’s find in detail about these courses:
Pluralsight Courses:
While exploring the course library, I found Pluralsight had some programming and non-programming courses.
These courses are:
- Introduction to Testing in Java: A beginner-friendly course taught by Richard Warburton. This course explains why you should develop automated tests for programs and how to do it in Java. This course has a 4.5 out of 5 rating and will take just under 4 hours to complete.
- Daniel Lachance teaches Computer Fundamentals: Software Troubleshooting, a beginner-friendly course. This course will teach you how to identify software problems and safeguard your machine from infection. This course has a rating of 5 out of 5 and will take just under 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete.
- Communicating Data Insights: This course will teach you how to distill complicated information into clear and actionable insights. This course has a 4.5 out of 5 ratings and will take just under 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete.
- Introduction to AutoCAD Drafting and Annotation:Â A beginner-friendly course taught by Pierre Derenoncourt. This course will teach you how to get started with AutoCAD. This course will take little more than 2 hours to complete and has a rating of 5 out of 5.
Udemy Courses:
Udemy, as I said, is a large marketplace of courses, and here, you’ll get all kinds of categories. Whether into music, art, programming, or coding, Udemy has everything for the learners.
Let’s look at these courses:
- Complete Guitar Lesson System: For Beginners to Advanced Players – This 40-hour course teaches you how to play the guitar and has benefited over 200,000 students so far. This course has received a 4.6 out of 5 rating from previous students.
- Complete Financial Analyst Training: This popular Udemy course has been taken by approximately 300,000 students who have rated it 4.6 out of 5.
- Complete Python Bootcamp In Python: You can go from zero to hero in only a few steps. This is Jose Portilla’s Python course, which has over 900,000 students registered. Previous students rated this 24-hour series 4.5 out of 5 stars.
- Photography Masterclass: Another top-selling course on Udemy, with over 250,000 students enrolled. It includes 22 hours of instruction, beginning with the fundamentals of photography. Previous students gave it a 4.7 out of 5 ratings.
Certificates Comparison: Pluralsight vs Udemy
Pluralsight
Pluralsight offers a completion certificate for all its courses. The certificate of completion looks like this:Â
The courses on the platform are supported through various categories of study. The certificate can be supported by the CIA (continuing education), and CompTIA. (The Computing Technology Industry Association), and PMI (Project Management Institute).
These certificates have a certain value and are accredited through various institutes. These courses do not have the value of a true university certificate, but they certainly have certain values.Â
Udemy
When you complete a class on Udemy and finish it successfully, you’ll get a special Certificate of Completion. But you should know that Udemy isn’t like a school with official certificates that employers like.
So, if you need a super official certificate for a job or to show your boss, Udemy can’t give you that.
Verdict: Both the platforms give a completion certificate to all their users, but Pluralsight gives certificates that have a certain value attached to them, they are taken more seriously than the certificates from Udemy. Hence, Pluralsight Is the clear winner.
Course Quality & Instructors:Â Pluralsight Vs Udemy
When choosing an online learning course, you want to be sure that not only is the course of high quality but that a respected and experienced instructor also teaches it.
Pluralsight Instructors
One of Pluralsights’ 1500+ expert authors teaches the courses. Pluralsight will assist you as an author with content creation, video production, and editing.
The content and technical accuracy of the authors’ work will then be peer-evaluated by other authors and specialists. Pluralsight’s content is subjected to a stringent quality check to ensure that it meets the highest standards.
The individuals here are intelligent and seasoned experts. Enrolling in a class under any of them will undoubtedly equip you with the proficiencies and comprehension you desire.
Since every instructor has their own focus and expertise, no class is identical. This is particularly true given the availability of 7000 courses across various fields, ensuring that each lesson is distinct.
Despite this, certain fundamental components of Pluralsight courses maintain uniformity:
- Greg Shields – Author Evangelist and Full Time Author at Pluralsight
- Kevin Henry – Lecturer in Information Security and Audit
- Ross Bagurdes – Pluralsight Author and IT Lecturer at the University of Madison
- Andrew Mallet – Linux Professional
- Dale Meredith – Certified Ethical Hacker and Instructor EC-Council
Well, there are hundreds of other instructors as well.
Udemy InstructorsÂ
Each instructor brings their unique perspective, making each lesson distinct, which holds true with the multitude of instructors available on Udemy.
The platform maintains its high standards through a rigorous vetting process for both instructors and courses, and you can assess the quality of both by examining their credentials and reading course reviews.
Typically, the lessons are presented in pre-recorded video format, allowing for on-demand consumption at your convenience. Your instructor will guide you through concepts specific to your field of study.
In addition to this, most courses provide an extensive range of supplementary learning resources, including downloadable texts, articles, and other materials relevant to your area of focus.
The best Udemy instructors are:
- Pierian Data, Jose Portilla heads the data science division and instructs the highest-rated course on Udemy, titled “From Zero to Hero in Python.”
- Rob Percival, a web developer and entrepreneur, has taught coding to over 120,000 students on the platform.
- Internet developer Victor Bastos has successfully guided more than 50,000 students through the fundamentals of web development.
Verdict: In terms of instructor quality, Pluralsight Wins.
Pluralsight vs Udemy: Free Resources
Udemy
Udemy vastly outperforms Pluralsight when it comes to free materials and online courses.
There are many free classes available on Udemy to learn programming languages such as Python, Java, C, C++, C#, JavaScript, and Ruby, as well as frameworks such as React, Angular, Vuejs, Nodejs, and tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Maven, Gradle, and many others.
There are a number of free Udemy courses on topics such as Swift, iOS Development, Android App Development, Web Development, SQL, Database, Linux, Big Data, Machine Learning, and more, which you can explore at your leisure.
Instructors on Udemy likewise make their courses free at first to get popularity. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but I’ve seen a lot of them do it, giving free discounts to individuals who sign up for their course, learn, and provide reviews.
This is a win-win situation, but finding those coupons at the proper time and for the course you want is difficult.
Pluralsight
Pluralsight, on the other hand, offers a 10-day free trial that gives you access to their 5000+ courses but only for 200 minutes.
This is a no-risk trial, but you won’t be able to do much in 200 minutes; all you’ll be able to do is take one course and assess the platform’s quality.
Nonetheless, many firms have associated with Pluralsight, and there’s a strong possibility you’ll get free Pluralsight access through your employer, so check to see if that’s an option.
Pricing: Pluralsight vs Udemy
Remember, it’s essential to think about how often you’ll use each platform and if it’s worth the money you’ll spend.
Pluralsight Pricing:
Pluralsight has designed its pricing plans to meet the demands of various users. They have different plans for individuals and a separate package for groups and teams that work with them.
The platform also has a 10-day free trial associated with it.
1. Personal PlanPrice: $29/month ($299 Annually):
- Entire course library
- Channels
- Skill assessments
- Course completion certificates
- Course learning checks
- Course discussions
- Exercise Files
- Mobile and TV apps
- Offline viewing
- Email & phone support
2. Professional Plan
Basic reporting and user analytics for teams
Price: $499/user per monthÂ
Professional plan includes:
- All Individual features
- Basic skills analytics
- Basic channels analytics
- Certification practice exams
- Trend analytics
- Usage analytics
- Team management
- Entire course library
- Learning paths
- Channels
- Skill assessments
- Course completion certificates
- Course Files checks
- Course discussions
- Exercise Files
- Mobile and TV apps
- Offline viewing
- Email & phone support
3. Enterprise plan.
Price: $699/user per month (Billed Annually)
Features include:
- Contact sales
- Enterprise includes
- All Individual features
- All Professional features
- Advanced skills analytics
- Advanced channels analytics
- Six mentoring sessions
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- API access
- Data export
- Entire course library
- Learning paths
- Channels
- Skill assessments
- Course completion certificates
- Course learning checks
- Course discussions
- Exercise Files
- Mobile and TV apps
- Offline viewing
- Email & phone support
Udemy Pricing:Â
Udemy has formulated two plans for its users that are taken annually. Both the proving plans have various benefits and are worth the price.
1. Udemy Team
Price: $240 per year.
Incentives:
- 5-20 Users
- Designed for small teams and businesses
- 2000 Courses
- 20+ Course Topics
- Unlimited Access Anytime, Anywhere
- Includes Analytics & Insights
- Offline Viewing Availability
- Progress and Quiz Assessments
- Mobile App for iOS and Android
2. Udemy EnterprisePrice: $360 plus tax.Incentives:
- More than 21 Users
- Built for departments and large organizations
- 2,000 Courses
- 20+ Course Topics
- Basic Analytics & Insights
- Basic Analytics & Insights Basic
- Â Advanced Analytics & Insights
- Single Sign-On
- API Integration
- Course Creation Platform
- Hosted Proprietary Content
- Dedicated Customer Success
- Advanced Admin Functionality
- Offline Viewing Availability
- Progress & Quiz Assessments
- Mobile App for iOS and Android
The platform gives a 30-day return policy if the user is not satisfied with the course.
Verdict: Though Udemy has low pricing, Pluralsight is a more cost-effective option. When you get courses on bulk, Pluralsight is much cheaper.
Udemy vs Pluralsight: Customer SupportÂ
Customer support is an important pre-requisite when it comes to selecting an online education platform.
Udemy
Udemy’s Help Page contains a search tab where you can ask for help and a range of FAQs and topics that typically require some kind of assistance.
However, the Help Page does not contain a direct customer support service.
Pluralsight
Pluralsight’s Help Center is at the bottom of their main page. It’s got all kinds of help for different parts of the website. And if you want to talk to someone from Pluralsight’s sales team, there’s a special link to contact them directly.
Hands-on Experience: Pluralsight vs Udemy
Getting better at programming depends on practicing a lot. When you practice while you’re learning, it helps you remember things better. Even the coolest programming videos can’t beat the benefits of hands-on practice.
Pluralsight
One cool thing about Pluralsight is that they have labs and sandboxes.
These are fun playgrounds where you can practice coding while you learn. For example, if you’re studying Amazon’s AWS or Microsoft’s Azure, Pluralsight gives you a fancy virtual place to try out your new skills.
You don’t have to bother installing software on your computer or paying money to try things out. They even have playgrounds for lots of different programming languages. This makes everything feel the same and makes learning a lot simpler.
Udemy
Some Udemy courses also have cool exercises you can do in their special coding playground. While Udemy’s playground isn’t as fancy as Pluralsight’s, it’s still pretty good.
You can practice coding in languages like JavaScript, Java, PHP, Ruby, Python, C++, C#, and a few more on Udemy. But Pluralsight’s labs and sandboxes are fancier and seem designed with more thought.
Pros and Cons: Pluralsight vs Udemy
Udemy Pros:
- Compared to the price that Udemy offers, the course is extremely affordable to use for both students and instructors.
- The platform has over 7000 free courses that students can enjoy without a subscription.
- If you do not like a particular course, they have 30 30-day return policy for any courses you have subscribed to.
- The platform provides 13 categories of vocational courses that the students can choose from; each category also has its subcategories.
- It has a great user interface and is very easy to manage.
- The learners have the choice to choose from the different duration of courses under different instructors.
- All the process of training is efficiently sorted.
- Easily adaptable course structure.
- Lifetime access to the course.
Udemy Cons:Â
- No access to the email addresses of the student.
- It does not have course styling options
- Courses cannot be used for University credits.
Pluralsight Pros:
- The content of the website is always up to date.
- Various institutions accredit the certificate of completion.
- The course can be used as credits for subjects.
- The course can be translated into several languages.
- The website is easy to navigate and use.
- Plenty of courses are available for beginners to advanced levels.
- The courses are carried out by industry professionals and taught by tech industry champions.
- It is quite affordable as compared to the features it provides.
- All the courses have several downloadable exercise files to keep track of their progress.
Pluralsight Cons:
- Some user interface features are chunky and can crowd the website.
- There is no free trial available for the service.
- A lot of outdated courses are still available on the platform.
Final Verdict on Pluralsight vs Udemy
In my comparison, Pluralsight won most of the rounds.Â
Udemy has many courses to pick from, so if you don’t like one teacher’s JavaScript class, there are many others by different teachers. On the other hand, Pluralsight doesn’t have as many choices.
But Pluralsight is really good for learning tech skills. It might not be as famous or have as many courses as Udemy, but it’s designed for learning tech stuff and could be the better choice.
FAQs On Udemy vs Pluralsight:
Is Pluralsight better than Udemy?
It depends on what you want to learn. If you want to learn about technology and programming, Pluralsight might be better. But if you want lots of choices on different topics, Udemy could be a good choice.
Is Pluralsight worth it?
If you're wondering whether to join Pluralsight and if it's worth the money, I can tell you from my own experience that it's a great platform. They have lots of good courses, and they keep adding new ones to cover the latest topics.
Is Pluralsight a good learning platform?
If you want to get a professional certification like ITIL, CompTIA, PMP®, and need help preparing with practice exams, Pluralsight is a great option. And if you already have a certification, it's good to know that Pluralsight's certifications can help you earn CEU credits.
Which is cheaper among Pluralsight and Udemy?
When it comes to cost, it depends on the specific courses and subscriptions you choose on Pluralsight and Udemy. Pluralsight often offers subscription-based pricing, which can be a monthly or annual fee, while Udemy typically allows you to purchase individual courses.
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