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 Udemy vs Udacity.
- Similarities and differences between Udemy vs Udacity
- Topics offered on Udemy vs Udacity
- Prices for Udemy vs Udacity
- Ratings and reviews of Udemy vs Udacity
- Alternatives to Udemy vs Udacity
- How do Udemy and Udacity compare to Pathrise?
Similarities and differences between Udemy and Udacity
Udemy and Udacity both offer courses in software engineering, web development, digital marketing, data science, UX design, machine learning, data engineering, and data analytics, and dozens of other topics.
Similarities
- Both programs are remote and self-paced.
- In addition, both offer over 100k courses on a huge variety of topics.
- Courses are open to anyone with no admissions process required.
- Udemy & Udacity grads get a certificate upon completion.
Differences
- Udemy offers lifetime access to their courses, but Udacity students lose access after they complete their course.
- Udacity nanodegrees include 1-on-1 mentoring and hands-on project learning.
- Udemy courses are shorter, usually only 15-70+ hours long. If you enroll in an Udacity nanodegree, you should expect to work 5-10 hours every week for 3-7 months.
- Udacity focuses on tech skills. Udemy teaches tech as well as a variety of other topics including photography, music, and even drawing.
- Udemy’s courses are uploaded by individual experts and teachers. Udacity designs courses themselves or collaborates with big tech companies like Google.
Topics offered by Udemy and Udacity
Both Udemy and Udacity offer courses that cover the following topics and many more:
- UX design
- Web development
- Data science
- Machine learning
- Artificial intelligence
- Software engineering
- Product management
- Business analytics
- Interviewing skills
- Data analytics
Prices for Udemy and Udacity
Udemy offers over 100k paid courses and nearly 600 free courses. Paid courses range from about $10 to $300, though they offer lots of coupons and discounts. Most courses can be purchased with a coupon code at prices below $50. Prior experience is not needed for their beginner and “all levels” courses. Intermediate and expert level courses are designed for people with some experience, but there is no admissions process, so courses are technically open to all. While some courses include demos to help students build projects, they mostly consist of recorded lecture videos. Udemy courses must be longer than 30 minutes with at least 5 lectures or learning modules. But since anyone can create a Udemy course and they have 57,000+ instructors, the course style, pace, and even quality can vary greatly.
Udacity students can take courses ranging from a few days to 7+ months. Many courses, especially the shorter or introductory ones, are free. However, the more popular and comprehensive “nanodegree” programs range in cost from $599 to $1,199. Students can pay upfront, in monthly installments, or via loans. Nanodegree courses last 4-7 months with 5-10 hours of work per week. Students participate in hands-on learning and receive 1-on-1 mentoring with both an industry expert and a career coach.
Ratings and reviews of Udemy and Udacity
Online reviews of Udemy are mostly positive, especially for their tech courses. However, Udemy hosts over 130,000 different courses taught by 57,000+ different instructors. While most students were satisfied with the courses they chose, course style and quality vary. The platform holds a 4.5/5 star rating on Switchup, where students described course offerings as a “mixed bag” with lots of good courses but “some not so good” courses, too. Some Quora reviewers worried that quality control is declining with so many new courses being uploaded. Some Udemy reviewers also had issues with course support and organization. In fact, some students reported missing discounts and issues with refunds.
Udacity has also received mostly positive reviews. They hold a 4.62/5 star rating on Switchup. Grads appreciated that courses were flexible but still hands-on, describing the program as “very practical.” One grad liked that the nanodegrees teach real-world career skills that students “can immediately apply in the job search.” However, some reviewers were worried that Udacity’s recent growth might lower the quality of their courses. Some students also had issues with assignments and wanted more support. In addition, a grad on G2 was frustrated that students are not able to contact their instructors easily for support.
Some grads on Reddit wished students got more 1-on-1 time with technical mentors. While the grads generally raved about the industry mentoring, some had mixed feelings about the career coaching and job support. Overall, however, grads seemed satisfied with Udacity’s flexible but hands-on courses.
Alternatives to Udemy and Udacity
If you decide not to enroll in Udemy or Udacity, you might want to look into one of the alternative resources and bootcamps listed below instead:
- Another popular online learning platform with self-paced courses is Skillshare. They host 19,000+ free and paid courses in a wide variety of tech topics, including web dev, UX/UI design, business analytics, and more.
- Aspiring software engineers and UX designers can look into Kenzie Academy, a full-time tech bootcamp that offers in-person and online courses. Learn more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
- People interested in self-paced learning with mentoring can look into Springboard. Students in their tech career tracks build 14 portfolio projects with weekly mentorship meetings, similar to Udacity’s nanodegree program. If students don’t land a great job within 6 months of graduating, they get a full refund. Learn more about Springboard in our review.
- The self-paced coding bootcamp CodeX Academy helps people launch new careers in software engineering and web development. Like Udacity’s nanodegree program, they offer 1-on-1 mentoring opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
- Students seeking digital marketing, UX design, sales, or business development courses can check out GrowthX Academy. Like Udacity’s nanodegrees, their SaaS program includes 1-on-1 mentoring with hands-on assignments. Read more about GrowthX Academy in our review of the program.
- People who want 1-on-1 mentoring can check out Thinkful, a bootcamp that teaches courses in data science, software engineering, and more. Like Udacity’s nanodegrees, their program includes personalized career coaching and projects students can feature in their tech portfolios.
- For students seeking flexible online courses on a budget, Simplilearn, Treehouse, and Pluralsight could be worth considering. These three programs host hundreds of self-paced tech courses to help people launch their careers.
- BrainStation is a bootcamp with tracks in web development, web design, data science, marketing, and product management. Like Udacity’s nanodegree courses, BrainStation features project-based learning and 1-on-1 feedback for students.
- For those interested in self-paced data science learning, Data Science Dream Job offers remote, flexible courses for aspiring data analysts and data scientists.
- The popular online data resource DataCamp has over 300 short courses on data science subjects. Like Udemy, their courses are short, only about 4 hours each.
- Aspiring data scientists with some experience can consider Metis. 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. You can read more about DesignerUp in our review.
- Similarly, the online bootcamp Designlab teaches the necessary skills to land an entry-level UX designer job. Read our review of Designlab to see if it’s right for your goals.
- Students interested in hands-on but still self-paced courses can look into Codecademy, one of the most popular online coding programs. They offer free courses on web dev, software engineering, and data science. They have membership options ranging from $20 to $40 per month for greater course options and more support.
- Another online learning platform that offers self-paced courses with degree certificates is edX. They host courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Their courses are on a wide variety of tech topics, including software engineering, web dev, digital marketing, business, and sales. Learn more about edX in our review.
How do Udemy and Udacity compare to Pathrise?
Udemy and Udacity offer courses that teach people the skills they need to launch a new career in tech. While both programs offer part-time and self-paced courses in UX design, software engineering, machine learning, digital marketing, data analytics, and data science, Udemy covers a much wider range of subjects.
While Udacity offers career coaching in their nanodegree programs, they don’t actually help students with the job search. Udemy has no career services at all. As a full service organization, Pathrise helps students and professionals with all phases of the job search. Experienced mentors work with fellows on their resume, LinkedIn, and portfolio optimization, reverse recruiting and cold emailing, behavioral and technical interview prep, salary negotiation, and much more. Our mentors have already helped 700+ people land great tech jobs.
Pathrise optimizes the job search through 1-on-1 mentoring. While Udacity and Udemy courses are open to anyone, fellows in our program should have some background in their chosen field so that they can fully benefit from our technical workshops. We have tracks in software engineering, product design, data science, digital marketing, sales, product management, strategy, and ops.
Both Udemy and Udacity require payment before or during the course. Pathrise offers a 9% income share agreement (ISA) so fellows don’t pay until they land a great tech job. On average, fellows land a job in just 3-5 months. We never require upfront payments or deposits.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that helps people land their dream job in tech. With our tips and guidance, fellows can see their interview scores double and their application responses triple. If you are interested in working 1-on-1 with any of our mentors to land your dream job faster, become a Pathrise fellow..
