This article, first published in December 2014, was updated to represent recent changes across the platforms. It now compares Udemy Vs Udacity Vs Coursera online courses platforms.

Udemy is an online market place open to ”industry experts” to teach their knowledge and area of expertise to learners.

Udacity partners with “industry leaders” like Google, Facebook, AT&T & Microsoft, to teach technology skills today employers need.

Coursera partners with “top Universities” like Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Manchester, and University of Sydney etc to offer courses to learners around the world.

In addition to their different models, the major difference here is in “who creates the content”. The decision is between learning from industry experts (Udemy), industry employers (Udacity) and top university professors (Coursera).

Comparison of Udemy Vs Udacity Vs Coursera

The table below is a side-by-side comparison of the three major online learning platforms.

	Udemy	Udacity	Coursera
Founders	Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, Oktay Caglar	Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens	Daphne Koller, Andrew Ng
Launched	2010	February 2012	April 2012
Objective	To help anyone learn anything	To bring accessible, affordable, engaging, and highly effective higher education to the world	To provide universal access to the world’s best education
Beginner Courses	Yes	Yes	Limited
Intermediate Courses	Yes	Yes	Yes
Advanced Courses	Yes	Yes	Yes
Course Content Creators	Authors, professors, experts, professionals, entrepreneurs, public speakers	Industry Employers and experts from tech companies	Professors from top colleges and universities
Partners	Individual instructors	Tech companies	Colleges & universities
Subject Areas	Almost everything from business & entrepreneurship, academics, the arts, health & fitness, language, music, photography, yoga, technology, games	Technology related courses. Android, iOS, data analytics, Software Engineering & Web development	Courses are offered in academic-style category: Business, Computer Science, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Data Science, Life Sciences etc
Number of Courses	65,000+	150+	2,000+
Users	15 million+	1.6 million+	24 million+
Video on Demand	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live Classes	No	No	Yes
PDFs	Yes for Some courses	Yes	Yes
Download for offline	Instructor can choose to enable or disable this feature. Courses can be saved for offline viewing on mobile app	Yes	Courses can be saved for offline viewing on mobile app
Quizzes & Assessment	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free Courses	Available	Available	Available
Paid Courses	$20-$200 (one-time)	$199 per month	$29 - $499 (one-time)
Refund Policy	Within 30 days of purchase	Cancel enrollment at any time. Does not refund monthly fee once a given month has been billed.	Two weeks after your payment date, or until you earn a Course Certificate.
Discounts & Coupons	Readily available – Get Udemy Courses for $11.99.	Limited	Limited. Usually available for Specializations
Certification	Yes. For most courses	Available for Paid option	Available for Paid option
Popularity/ Alexa Ranking (as at 06 March 2018)	344	1,356	650
Learners Community	No	Yes	Yes
Quality Control	Limited	Yes	Yes
User Rating & Reviews	Yes	Yes	Yes
Website	Visit Udemy.com	Visit Udacity.com	Visit Coursera.org

Udemy, Udacity or Coursera – Which is better?

Eventually, it’s totally up to you to decide. If you want to learn technology skills from tech companies, pay about $200 per month to complete the course and get a certificate, consider Udacity. Browse Courses on Udacity.

If you want to learn anything from android, iOS & web development to business & entrepreneurship, academics, health & fitness, language, music, photography, yoga, games etc, in a less academic style, consider Udemy. Browse Courses on Udemy.

If you want a more university style learning from the academia, consider Coursera. Browse Courses on Coursera