Check out our review of Udacity to learn more about their offerings, costs, and student reviews.
Updated in 2023
- What does Udacity do?
- Who is Udacity for?
- What does Udacity cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Udacity
- Alternatives to Udacity
- How does Udacity compare to Pathrise?
What does Udacity do?
The mission of Udacity is to democratize education by offering higher education opportunities that are accessible, flexible, and economical. Udacity offers aspiring learners across the globe the opportunity to participate in—and contribute to—some of the most exciting and innovative fields in the world.
They offer beginner, intermediate, and advanced courses in a variety of topics including artificial intelligence, programming, data science, autonomous systems, business, and more. Recently, they added a career services course as well. But, Udacity is perhaps most well known for their nanodegree programs. These are project and skills-based educational credential programs. Nanodegrees often take 3-7 months and 5-15 hours of work per week to complete.
Who is Udacity for?
People with a commitment to learning thrive in Udacity classes. Their unique learning model enables them to engage with their students more than a lot of other online classes. Udacity students’ goals range from learning a new hobby to advancing their skills to changing the type of work that they do.
What does Udacity cost? How much work is involved?
Udacity provides a lot of free resources. Usually, the introduction classes to most of their tracks can be accessed by just giving them your email address. But, they are typically pushing their students towards the nanodegree programs so that they can get the full content. These programs range in cost from $599 to $1,199, which can be paid in monthly installments.
Students who sign up for Udacity courses, especially the nanodegree programs, should be ready to put in work. In fact, they should consider it similar to a Master’s program. Most of these degree programs require some sort of background knowledge in order for students to be successful. But, students do not need to apply or show that they have this before joining the program.
Ratings and reviews
Udacity has mostly positive reviews online. The program is extremely well known and well respected in the industry. Students reviewing their courses on Switchup said, “It was amazing training with Udacity, more than my expectations.” Likewise, another alumnus reported, “It is truly a unique experience and a paradigm shift in the field of programming…” In reviews on HackerNoon, people compliment Udacity’s project-based learning and the real-world style experience that students receive from working on these projects. In addition, they enjoyed working with instructors who are industry experts.
However, some students wished for more 1-on-1 time with their mentors and the ability to contact their instructors more easily.
Alternatives to Udacity
As an educational program, there are a fair number of alternatives to Udacity.
- Students can check out Springboard, which is a similar online learning platform with lots of options. Learn more about Springboard in our review.
- Similarly, edX is one of the largest online learning platforms. They have courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Learn more about edX in our review.
- Codecademy is one of the most popular coding programs online. They provide free courses on many different programming languages. They also offer membership options ranging from $20 to $40. Learn more about Codecademy in our review.
- Likewise, there is Coursera, Treehouse, Interaction Design Foundation, and Pluralsight, which provide a large variety of courses for low costs.
- Another option is Udemy, which is an online learning platform with over 100,000 online video courses in a wide variety of topics. Udemy students can pick & choose the classes, often paying around $10 per class.
- Free online resources, SoloLearn and the Mode tutorials have tracks in SQL, as well as other programming languages.
- One of the most well known bootcamps is General Assembly. They offer full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on a variety of topics like software engineering, data science, UX design, digital marketing, product management, and more. Read more about General Assembly in our review.
- Aspiring software engineers and web developers can also consider CodeX Academy, a self-paced coding bootcamp with mentorship opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
More alternatives
- Students can also consider Kenzie Academy. A full-time tech bootcamp, Kenzie offers in-person and online courses in 2 tracks: software engineering & UX design and front-end engineering. Learn more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
- Aspiring designers can consider Designlab. This online bootcamp that teaches the necessary skills to land a job as a UX designer. Read more about Designlab in our review.
- Students interested in taking online self-guided or instructor-led product design courses can check out DesignerUp. Learn more about DesignerUp in our review.
- GrowthX Academy is an online bootcamp with courses in growth marketing, UX design, and sales and business development.
- If you are looking for a free online digital marketing resource, check out the short courses offered by SEMrush Academy, QuickSprout, Facebook Blueprint, or HubSpot Academy.
- Similarly, Bootcamp Digital, Digital Creative Institute, Somerville Academy, Skillcrush, and InternStreet offer tracks in digital marketing.
- Lambda School and Coding Dojo are well known bootcamps in which students can learn fundamentals of software engineering and data science.
- You can also check out General Assembly, Flatiron School, One Month, allWomen Academy, and BrainStation, which offer a variety of courses on similar topics.
- If you are looking for extra help before a bootcamp, First Step Coding has a software engineering prep course.
- The Tech Academy is an online and onsite bootcamp that helps people learn the technical skills necessary to land a job as a (junior) software developer or data scientist.
- Codesmith and Actualize are software engineering bootcamps with online and on-campus options. Codesmith focuses on preparing people for mid-to-senior level software engineering roles.
More resources
- For people with an interest in data science, Metis has part-time introduction courses as well as onsite and online bootcamp options. Learn more about Metis in our review.
- DataCamp, Dataquest, Promotable, and Data Science Dojo are also options for current and aspiring data scientists. They offer individual courses, as well as in-depth tracks.
- Hack Reactor is a software engineering bootcamp with online and onsite options.
- Current and aspiring project managers can benefit from taking the product management bootcamp at Product School or Product Academia.
- Those looking to advance their product management skills and network with a community of peers can check out membership and classes at Product Gym.
- Similarly, experienced product managers looking for community and courses can check out Mind the Product.
- HackDesign is a free online newsletter with lessons for aspiring and current designers.
- Students located in the Bay Area or looking to work in Silicon Valley can check out Tradecraft. They have tracks in product design, growth marketing, engineering, and sales.
- You can also check out Bubble no-code bootcamps to learn how to make products without coding. Learn more about Bubble in our review.
We created a list of the best resources to learn software engineering and data science, so you can decide what the best option is for you. You can also check out our list of 93 software engineering interview questions from top tech companies to practice.
How does Udacity compare to Pathrise?
Udacity is an educational tool with classes for technical skill building and advancement. At Pathrise, our fellows should already have a background in the field they are interested in. This is because our technical workshops provide more specific learnings based on what they will see in their interviews.
Some of the Udacity nanodegrees come with career support, including resume help and networking opportunities. But, often the students do not get to speak with their coaches right away. Pathrise provides fellows with flexible 1-on-1 sessions that focus on anything that the fellow needs help with at that moment in their job search. This includes: resume & profile optimization, reverse recruiting, advanced sourcing, email templates, interview prep, and negotiation.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. With our tips and guidance, we’ve seen our fellows interview performance scores double.
If you want to work with our mentors 1-on-1 to get help with your technical and behavioral interviews or with any other aspect of the job search, become a Pathrise fellow.
Apply today.
