Udacity vs Pluralsight: Prices, topics, and details

Hi, I’m Elle! I work as a product designer at Getaround and as an industry mentor here at Pathrise. I help our fellows land great jobs in product design through technical workshops and 1-on-1s. Check out my article where I compare Udacity vs Pluralsight.

Similarities and differences between Udacity vs Pluralsight
Topics offered on Udacity vs Pluralsight
Prices for Udacity vs Pluralsight
Ratings and reviews of Udacity vs Pluralsight
Alternatives to Udacity vs Pluralsight
How do Udacity and Pluralsight compare to Pathrise?

Similarities and differences between Udacity and Pluralsight

Udacity and Pluralsight both offer courses in software engineering, web development, product management, data science, web design, machine learning, and digital marketing. However, Pluralsight hosts a slightly wider variety of courses on topics like tech sales, operations/IT, construction, architecture, and game development. But, Udacity also hosts courses on job search skills, business strategy, and career advancement.

Similarities

Both programs are remote and self-paced.
Courses are hands-on and give students the opportunity to build polished project portfolios.
Pluralsight & Udacity grads get a certificate upon completion.
Likewise, both programs are open to anyone with no formal admissions process.

Differences

Udacity focuses on tech topics and professional skills courses, while Pluralsight offers a slightly wider variety of topics including courses for creative professionals.
Students in Udacity’s nanodegree courses work 1-on-1 with both industry experts and career coaches. Pluralsight’s live mentoring is not included in the program and priced at $1 per minute.
Pluralsight’s full “Path” courses only take about 9-50 hours to complete. Udacity nanodegree courses can range from 3-7 months and often require 5-10+ hours of work per week.
Udacity collaborates on some courses with major tech companies like Google. Pluralsight designs their courses themselves.

Topics offered by Udacity and Pluralsight

Both Pluralsight and Udacity offer courses that cover the following topics:

Software engineering
Web design
Digital marketing
Web development
Product management
Machine learning
Data science
Cybersecurity

However, Pluralsight teaches a slightly wider variety of topics, including:

Operations/IT
Tech sales
Construction
Architecture
Creative professional skills

While Udacity focuses on tech subjects, they also teach professional skills like:

Job search skills
Business analytics
Career advancement
Applying to jobs
Acing interviews

Prices for Udacity and Pluralsight

While Udacity offers almost 200 short introductory courses for free, their more popular and comprehensive nanodegree programs cost around $599 to $1,199. Courses can range from just a couple days to 7+ months, but nanodegree courses usually last 4-7 months with 5-10 hours of work per week. Nanodegree students build real-world projects while working with both a technical mentor and a career coach. Students can pay upfront, in monthly installments, or via loans.

Pluralsight hosts 7,500+ expert-led courses that include hands-on projects, assignments, peer discussions with both mobile and offline learning options available. Although advanced courses are available, anyone can still register for any course. Their full Path programs only last about 9-50 hours and are composed of shorter courses. Recorded conferences, slides, instructor notes, and more bonus materials are also available.

Students only get to try Pluralsight free for 10 days, otherwise a paid $29 per month subscription is required for full access. However, users who are billed annually only pay $299, closer to $25 per month. While mentoring is available, users pay as much as $1 per minute for the extra support.

Ratings and reviews of Udacity and Pluralsight

Udacity holds mostly positive reviews. They have a 4.73/5 star rating on Course Report and a 4.62/5 star rating on Switchup. A recent review on Course Report praised the intensive 1-on-1 mentoring and feedback, commenting that the mentoring sessions “help with any inquiry and extra live examples of our projects.” Another grad valued the course’s flexibility and support, raving about the “very personalized timeline you can tailor to your busy lifestyle” and liked that there were “weekly sessions with your mentor to answer any question.”

Many grads appreciated that even though courses were part-time, they were still hands-on, describing the program as “very practical.” One grad liked that Udacity’s nanodegrees teach real-world skills students “can immediately apply in the job search.”

Reviews for Pluralsight are similarly positive. They hold a perfect 5 star rating on CourseReport, where a reviewer loved that courses were hands-on with lots of bonus content like slides, notes, and mobile learning. Grads described their mobile feature as “one of the best mobile applications in comparison to other platforms.” A user on Reddit commented that “I’ll queue sessions up on their mobile app and listen to it while driving to and from work.”

Students on G2 liked how Pluralsight keeps their courses updated with the latest tech trends, describing it as a helpful “refresher on fundamentals” but also useful for learning “more advanced courses.”

However, some reviewers on Trustpilot were disappointed by the course support. One student was disappointed that Pluralsight can “refuse to cancel” subscriptions for some time “even though you’ve sent an email cancellation request.” Another was frustrated with organization, wishing the discussion boards were organized by topics, not “all grouped together.” Finally, some grads would have liked more course support, especially support from a real human.

Alternatives to Udacity and Pluralsight

If you decide not to enroll in Udacity or Pluralsight, you might consider one of the alternatives listed below instead:

Students seeking flexible learning with 1-on-1 mentoring can look into Springboard. People in their career tracks build 14 portfolio projects with weekly meetings with experienced mentors, similar to Udacity’s nanodegrees. If students don’t land a great job within 6 months after graduating, they get a refund. Learn more about Springboard in our review.
The online learning platform Udemy hosts 100k+ courses on both tech and humanities subjects. Their program is self-paced and flexible with lifetime course access for students.
Aspiring software engineers and UX designers can check out Kenzie Academy, a full-time tech bootcamp that offers in-person and online courses. Learn more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
One of the most popular bootcamps is General Assembly. They offer full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on a variety of topics like UX/UI design, data science, software engineering, digital marketing, product management, and more. Read more about General Assembly in our review.
The tech bootcamps BrainStation, allWomen Academy, and Tech Talent South have tracks in web development, web design, data science, marketing, and product management.
Thinkful and Flatiron School are also bootcamps that offer programs in software engineering, data science, and other tech fields. These bootcamps are hands-on, with lots of opportunities for students to build polished portfolio projects.
A few other popular software engineering bootcamps include Rithm School, Hack Reactor, Codesmith, Eleven Fifty Academy, and The Software Guild. While these programs can be more intensive than Pluralsight’s Path programs and Udacity’s part-time nanodegrees, students can learn software skills very quickly.
Codecademy is one of the most popular coding programs online. Moreover, they provide free courses on many different programming languages. Learn more about Codecademy in our review.

More alternatives

People who are interested in digital marketing, UX design, sales, or business development can check out GrowthX Academy. Like Udacity’s nanodegrees, their SaaS program includes 1-on-1 mentoring with hands-on assignments.
Aspiring web developers and software engineers can also look into CodeX Academy, a self-paced coding bootcamp with mentorship opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
For those interested in self-paced data science education, Data Science Dream Job offers remote, flexible courses for aspiring data analysts and data scientists.
Aspiring data scientists with some experience can consider Metis. This 12-week, immersive program is online with lots of hands-on projects. Learn more about Metis in our program review.
If you’re interested in taking an online product design bootcamp with both instructor-led and self-guided options, consider DesignerUp. Read more about DesignerUp in our review.
The online bootcamp Designlab teaches the necessary skills to land an entry-level UX designer job. Take a look at our review of Designlab to see if it meets your needs.
Bloc offers online courses in web development and web design. Their program is hands-on like Pluralsight and Udacity.
For students seeking self-paced courses on a budget, Simplilearn and Treehouse are both tech learning resources with a similar design as Pluralsight.
The massive learning platform Coursera offers thousands of online courses on tech topics like web development, UX design, software engineering, data science, and more.
Similarly, edX hosts courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft, collaborating with them on courses like Udacity. Their courses are on a wide variety of tech topics, including software engineering, web dev, digital marketing, and sales. Learn more about edX in our review.

How do Udacity and Pluralsight compare to Pathrise?

Udacity and Pluralsight both offer courses that teach people the skills they need to launch a new career in tech. Both programs teach part-time courses in web development, web design, software engineering, machine learning, digital marketing, product management, and data science.

Although Udacity recommends students have some background for high level courses and Pluralsight gives informal placement exams, most students start with no tech experience. Pathrise fellows should have some background in their chosen field so that they can fully benefit from our industry workshops and 1-on-1 sessions, which can cover challenging technical interview questions. We have tracks in software engineering, product design, data science, digital marketing, sales, product management, strategy, and ops.

As a full service organization, Pathrise helps students and professionals with each stage of their job search. Our experienced mentors have helped 700+ people land great jobs by working 1-on-1 with fellows on their resume, LinkedIn, and portfolio optimization, reverse recruiting and cold emailing, behavioral and technical interview prep, salary negotiation, and much more.

While Udacity offers some free courses and Pluralsight follows a subscription model, students pay monthly, upfront, or through loans for full access. The Pathrise income share agreement (ISA) means that fellows don’t pay anything until they land a job they love and start working. We never require upfront payments or charge extra for mentoring.

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, fellows have seen their interview scores double and their application responses triple, landing a job in just 3-5 months on average. If you are interested in working 1-on-1 with any of our mentors to land your dream job faster, become a Pathrise fellow.