Pluralsight vs Udemy: Key Differences Explained

Is Pluralsight better than Udemy? You aren’t the only one asking yourself this question. The short answer: it depends. Bear with me as I explain why and stop thinking about murdering me. The main issue with the Pluralsight vs Udemy debate is that one platform targets technical skill learners while the other targets every learner.

As such, Udemy is more popular than Pluralsight. Therefore, it is unsurprising to find more people staunchly supporting Udemy. However, it doesn’t mean Udemy is the best online learning platform for you. People have vastly different needs and preferences. So, choosing a site that doesn’t meet your expectations will be a major deterrent to learning.  

We will help you choose between Pluralsight and Udemy by providing the facts about both platforms and how they fare against each other. You will find that picking a side in the Udemy Vs Plurasight debate is easier than choosing between Star Trek and Star Wars (a murderous mob will holler at you no matter which one you pick).

About Pluralsight and Udemy

Pluralsight is a learning platform that provides several courses on technical skills and software. It’s well-known for its courses on software development, big data, cloud, and IT. The custom learning paths are awesome and the skill assessment tests are reliable. In short, Pluralsight is an excellent option for technical professionals to improve their skills.

Udemy has a mind-blowing course collection. The sheer vastness of the courses provided under various categories is amazing. All roads lead to Rome; similarly, all learning journeys lead to Udemy. You will find the right course to improve your skills no matter what category it belongs to.  

Comparing Pluralsight vs Udemy

You will know which platform is the better fit after our Pluralsight vs Udemy comparison. Prepare yourself; this journey exploring the pros and cons of using either website will be no less thrilling than exploring Space: the Final Frontier (yes, I know my inner Trekkie is showing, and no, I won’t control it).

Course Offerings

Udemy wins this round without breaking a sweat, as it has the vastest course library for learners. Business, finance & accounting, personal development, lifestyle, IT & software, and arts & crafts are popular categories on Udemy. The food & beverage subcategory has several courses on coffee making, bartending, cooking, baking, wine appreciation, etc.

Udemy even has courses on face yoga (something I didn’t know existed until now). No matter how trivial a topic may seem, Udemy has a course on it. Therefore, it’s no wonder everybody loves the platform.

Pluralsight has courses in only limited categories. You can find courses on software development, data & machine learning, cloud, security, and IT ops.

Whereas, Udemy has several sub-categories in the IT & software category such as network & security, IT certifications, operating systems & servers. Moreover, it also has courses on Terraform, Docker, ChatGPT, and DevOps. Pluralsight has 7,000+ courses, while Udemy has 200,000+ courses.

Another debate to consider is the ‘Pluralsight vs Udemy for business’. Udemy is the obvious choice if you want to improve your business-related skills. Its business category has 15 sub-categories and each subcategory has approximately 8 popular topics. Pluralsight’s business category has only two sub-categories: office applications and security awareness.

Therefore, Udemy wins this round with its massive course library. Usually, this clears the ‘Pluralsight Udemy’ dilemma people face. However, comparing other components is equally important. So, let’s dive in without further ado.

Content Quality

Pluralsight courses have excellent content, and new courses are added based on trends in a particular field. Pluralsight has rigorous quality-check measures in place. Therefore, courses with less-than-ideal content quality can’t slip through the cracks. On the contrary, the content quality on Udemy varies depending on the courses. 

Some courses have fantastic content far superior to courses on rival learning platforms. But, some courses have sub-par content. Fortunately, ratings and reviews of each course are easily accessible. Therefore, you will have no trouble choosing a course with high-quality content. The varying content quality is Udemy’s greatest weakness. 

You will have access to phenomenal courses whether you pick Udemy or Pluralsight. However, you may have to spend more time searching for them on Udemy.  Therefore, Pluralsight wins this round with its comparatively consistent content quality.

Instructors Experience

Pluralsight has 1,500+ expert instructors. They have been in the field for a while and know what to teach you. However, Udemy instructors are generally more fun. You can also find instructors who suit you from the list of highly-rated instructors Udemy helpfully displays for every category or sub-category.

For example, Stephane Maarek, Jason Dion, and Scott Duffy are popular instructors in the IT certifications sub-category. Each one has created 60+ courses on Udemy. Selecting courses by finding a suitable instructor first helps smooth the learning journey. However, not all instructors on Udemy are fantastic. Therefore, Pluralsight wins this round, too.

Learning Methods

Both platforms use video lectures to help you learn. The difference between Pluralsight and Udemy is that the former enables interactive learning through hands-on labs and sandboxes. You can also access skill assessment tests to identify your strengths and weaknesses based on which a custom learning path is recommended. Awesome, right?

Unfortunately, Udemy doesn’t provide other interesting features to aid your learning. Though quizzes, assignments, and practice tests can be added to a course, they are not mandatory. Therefore, most instructors only have quizzes on their courses (and they aren’t much help either). This lack of interactiveness can be frustrating for some people.

Practical Focus

Is Pluralsight or Udemy better at helping you gain practical experience? Undoubtedly, Pluralsight is better (as much as it pains me to say, it’s true). The hands-on learning experience it provides helps you gain an idea of what you will face in the real world. The labs and consoles help learn programming languages, cloud computing, and DevOps.

Certification Value

Udemy certificates of completion don’t have much value on their own. You have to prove you learned a skill by building your portfolio. Pluralsight certifications aren’t accredited but have a better reputation than Udemy’s. Therefore, you have a better chance of landing a job if you earn a certificate from Pluralsight.

Customer Support

Pluralsight is criticized for its ‘sneaky’ terms and conditions and troublesome cancellation procedures. It is difficult to get hold of someone to cancel your annual subscription before the 30-day time limit, meaning the subscription gets automatically renewed for another year. As you can imagine, this causes a lot of outrage among users.

On the contrary, Udemy Support is pretty helpful. Therefore, if you are asking yourself what is better Pluralsight or Udemy, the answer is simple. Udemy is better than Pluralsight. ‘Alex’ (Udemy’s virtual assistant) responds fast and can help you search for help articles or send an email ticket to Udemy Support. 

Pricing And Value For Money

Udemy is one of the most affordable online learning platforms, and I will die on this hill. Though the regular prices of courses on Udemy may seem stupendous, they are often offered at a heavily discounted price. These ‘flash sales’ are so common that you never have to pay more than $12.99 – $15 for a course.

Since you get lifetime access to every course you purchase, the benefit is worth more than the price. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the personal plan ($35/month) and access 11,000+ top courses on Udemy. It will be billed monthly or annually according to your choice.

Pluralsight has a Standard and a Premium subscription plan for individuals. The Standard plan ($29/month) grants you access to 5000+ courses, skill and role assessments, and learning paths. The premium plan ($45/month) provides access to the entire course library, coding projects & challenges, and certification exam prep.

Udemy offers more courses for less, whereas Pluralsight’s pricing is way too high for the limited number of courses it provides. Choose Coursera if you have money to burn and want to enroll in multiple classes. At least, it provides accredited certificates that are highly valued in the industry on course completion.

Community

Neither Udemy nor Pluralsight has a community forum. However, Udemy has Q&A tabs and Pluralsight has discussion boards for each course. You can pose questions, reply, and discuss course-related topics. Using the Pluralsight discussion board comes with a catch. You need to have a Disqus account to access them.

User Interface

What’s there not to like about Udemy’s interface? It’s clean, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to navigate. The videos play smoothly, and you can skip back and forth between lessons in any course easily. Moreover, you can add notes to specific points in the video lecture. This note-taking feature is one of the things I like best about Udemy.

Pluralsight has a good UI, too. However, it is nowhere near good enough as Udemy’s. Its search filters are rudimentary compared to Udemy’s sophisticated filters. You won’t face the Udemy Pluralsight dilemma if a user-friendly interface is important to you. Udemy will be your default choice.

User Feedback

Udemy must enforce rigid quality control measures to weed the courses with lackluster content. It also needs to focus on helping users gain practical knowledge and experience. Once Udemy does that, its epic victory over rival learning platforms can’t be stopped.

Pluralsight needs to update its courses more often. Adding new courses alone cannot gloss over the fact some of its courses are outdated even though they are highly rated. Users grumble that it is near impossible to cancel subscriptions and free trials are a trap. Therefore, it must provide better customer support and stop being infuriating.

Who Should Use Pluralsight?

Pluralsight is a good choice if you are interested in developing or improving your technical skills alone. It can also help you assess your skill level. If that’s something important to you, Pluralsight may be the best fit. However, choose an alternative if you need affordable subscription plans or good customer support.

Who Should Use Udemy?

Briefly put, Udemy is for anyone and everyone. It is a fantastic choice as long as you don’t mind spending some time searching for courses with high-quality content. Moreover, Udemy is the clear choice if you, like me, are interested in several unrelated topics ranging from trivial to significant.

Alternatives

Coursera is the best alternative to both platforms. Udacity is a fantastic choice for honing your technical skills (if you don’t mind the high subscription cost). Codecademy is great for learning about programming languages. MasterClass and Skillshare are excellent for improving your creative skills.

Final Words

To conclude the Pluralsight vs Udemy debate, choose Udemy if you want an affordable platform with a vast course library. Pick Pluralsight to sharpen your software development or cloud computing skills.