LinkedIn Learning vs. Udemy: Which Platform Is Better for Upskilling?

LinkedIn Learning and Udemy have their own sets of benefits to offer. But which platform is best for online learning? Find out here!

Learning a new skill or upskilling has become crucial in growing in any career today. With so many online platforms available, the process of learning has become so much easier and more flexible to learn from anywhere and anytime.

Whether you’re aiming to upgrade yourself with some new lucrative skills or just looking to explore a topic, LinkedIn Learning and Udemy are the two most popular options to go for online learning.

In this article, we'll compare the differences between these two platforms to see what’s best for you.

LinkedIn Learning vs. Udemy: Overview

Founded in 2010, Udemy is known as one of the largest learning platforms, with 50,000 Instructors and 40 million students today. The platform offers access to a wide range of courses for individuals to businesses to upskill. Professionals in any field worldwide can share their expertise with the world by applying as an instructor.

Previously known as Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning comes along with LinkedIn Premium, making it exclusively available for all its members since 2017. With a community of more than 27 million learners, the platform provides premium quality online courses combined with LinkedIn's network to get the most out of. It offers an inclusive platform for professionals to host their learning content as instructors.

User Interface and Sign-Up Process

When it comes to online learning, the user interface matters the most to get the best possible experience from the courses. Both Udemy and LinkedIn Learning offer an attractive, user-friendly, and organized interface for you to get going.

On Udemy, you can sign up or log in using your Google, Facebook, or Apple Account, whereas LinkedIn Learning allows you to sign in through your LinkedIn profile.

Once you log in, you get access to popular and recommended courses to pick from. You can keep track of your courses on the My Learning tab. Additionally, you can access courses on both platforms via their apps, which makes learning on the go effortless.

Winner: Tie. Both platforms offer a clean user interface, making online learning easy.

Range and Variety of Courses

With over 16,000+ courses, LinkedIn Learning has its focus majorly on business, creativity, and technology categories. The courses are taught by real-world professionals and are available in around 7 languages.

On the other hand, Udemy wins this round with 185,000+ courses covering a wide range of 150+ topics, including business, arts, health and fitness, language, music, and technology. The courses are available in 17 languages currently, with more adding up.

To make browsing through the countless courses easy, Udemy and LinkedIn Learning allow you to filter courses by topic, category, level, language, price, features, and more. Additionally, both platforms let you download your courses offline, take notes as you learn, look for the latest announcements, and ask your doubts on QnA.

Winner: Udemy

Content Quality

While both courses offer profitable skills to learn today, the content quality of the course becomes the next important consideration for an optimal learning experience.

LinkedIn Learning offers premium quality courses on the platform with high-quality videos. The videos are professionally recorded by industry experts and maintain consistency throughout the platform.

On the other hand, on Udemy, finding professionals or experts in the field is not guaranteed as pretty much anyone can join. As a result, there is a wide range of courses available, so there are high chances of you coming across amateur to professional quality courses on this platform.

Furthermore, LinkedIn Learning offers digestible bite-sized content and practice quizzes, exercise files for interactive learning experiences. Udemy provides learners with resource files including PDFs, documents, and more uploaded by the instructor.

In terms of course details, both platforms offer course descriptions and preview videos to help you get to know the course better beforehand. If you want to know more about the instructor, both platforms provide a brief introduction on the course description page.

Winner: LinkedIn Learning

User reviews, Support, and Certifications

Before taking up any course, it’s crucial to know the user reviews to help you make an informed decision. Both platforms allow users who have taken up the course to post a review about the same and give a rating out of 5.

The platforms have support sections where you can look for FAQs for students and instructors both. You can raise your queries or concerns about the course, or even learn about navigating through the platform.

After finishing a course, both platforms allow you to download a certificate of completion. With LinkedIn Learning, you can showcase your certificate on your LinkedIn profile in a few clicks. However, you should note that the certificates are not accredited by top Universities or any third party.

Winner: Tie. Both platforms offer a certificate of completion, user ratings, and support for learners.

Plans and Pricing

With LinkedIn Learning, you can buy an individual course or opt for a LinkedIn Premium subscription at $29.99 monthly or $299.88 annually with a free one-month trial option. The subscription comes along with all the premium benefits of LinkedIn, including salary and job insights, InMail credits, and more.

On the other hand, Udemy offers you individual courses which you can learn at your own pace, ranging from around $10 to $200. The platform does offer special discounts frequently to benefit from.

If you’re looking to buy an individual course with lifetime access, Udemy sounds like a great option to go for combined with the special discounts. However, if you’re looking for a longer learning process, clearly, with the subscription and the premium features, LinkedIn Learning offers a better deal.

Winner: LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning vs. Udemy: Which Is the Best for You?

While LinkedIn Learning offers more premium quality courses with an attractive plan and pricing, Udemy gives you a wider range of courses available and categories to choose from.

If you are someone who enjoys learning and plans to focus on one of the three career paths—Business, Creativity, and Technology, then a LinkedIn Learning subscription would be a good idea. Alternatively, if you are someone who decides to go for courses once in a while, then Udemy could be the right choice to go for.

Ultimately, you get the best learning experience from both platforms and can’t go wrong with either of them.