This has to be the greatest e-learning debate that has ever occurred. It is always a constant war, a never ending argument between Udemy and Coursera and which is best.

In my opinion, they are both great platforms and have their various upsides and downsides.

But for you, perhaps you might be a beginner who is new to online learning and want to know which platform, between Udemy and Coursera, would suit you better.

Or, perhaps you might be well established in online learning but you want to take a course in a particular area and want to know which to go for, Udemy or Coursera.

Or, you might just be one of the debaters (yeah, I see you) that wants to know exactly what I think about your favorite (whether Udemy or Coursera). 

That is okay, I am going to give the most unbiased view on the greatest e-battle; Udemy or Coursera?

Before we get into the main fighting stage, let’s explain some terms.

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What is an E-Learning Platform?

In other words, what is Udemy or Coursera all about?

Essentially, E-Learning Platforms, which are also known as online learning platforms, are an integrated set of interactive online services that provide trainers, learners, and others involved in education with information, tools and resources to support and enhance educational delivery and management.

In shorter words, it connects teachers of vast and sometimes unconventional (in the sense that it is not taught in the traditional classroom) with students, people who want to gain knowledge, master a skill or even want extra information on the field he already is studying or practising.

I like to call it Facebook for learning.

It recently became a very explosive skill due to the pandemic and lockdown where a lot of people were stuck at home and to kill this boredom, people picked up new skills and tried to master those skills professionally.

And those knowledgeable in these fields are taught, all online, without the need for physically meeting or regular classrooms.

And among these e-learning platforms, Udemy and Coursera continue to top that chart which is why, understandably, there is plenty of debate surrounding them.

Now we have understood what these two apps are about, let us go on to understand them separately before getting to the debit.

About Udemy:

Udemy is a platform that allows instructors to build online courses on their preferred topics. Using Udemy’s course development tools, they can upload videos, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, audio, ZIP files and live classes to create courses.

As of May 2022, the platform has more than 52 million students, 196,000 courses, and 68,000 instructors teaching courses in over 75 languages. There have been over 712 million course enrollments.

Users of Udemy mainly take courses primarily to improve job-related skills and some courses generate credit toward technical certification. 

Why Choose Udemy?

Udemy is relatively cheap. It is affordable to the extent that it is student-friendly, and you know, being student-friendly means that it is almost cheap.

Apart from the cost, the quality of information you get from Udemy is assured to be quite valid because it goes the extra mile of selecting corporate professionals and people that have an actual certified degree and are practising whatever it is that they teach.

This is very important because these days, there is a pandemic of incorrect and unprofessional tutors that give unsolicited opinions that end up being damaging.

Let’s take for instance what is happening in the fitness, wellness and nutrition field, there is a truckload of uncertified information that people take from random people on the internet and these end up being damaging.

And to prevent this, Udemy goes the extra mile of ensuring that anybody that teaches anything, especially in sensitive life-altering fields is properly certified.

You might not understand the importance of this till you fly with the wrong information.

In addition, Udemy has A LOT of course options. And by a lot, I mean, nearly two hundred thousand words so you have a variety to choose from, topics from anything and everything are existing on Udemy.

So if you are a serial learner, you would love Udemy, plus, whatever course you purchase, you have access to it throughout your life.

Finally, there is the flexibility of learning times and diversity of language, so if you are not exactly English proficient, there are over sixty-five languages to choose from.

In order words, Udemy hands you the reins, nothing stops you from acquiring the skill or knowledge with Udemy.

About Coursera

Now Coursera is a bit more distinguished.

Coursera Inc. is a U.S.-based massive open online course provider founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. 

Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects.

So unlike Udemy, Coursera was started by professionals in a leading university who have knowledge in the educational sector.

Why Choose Coursera?

If you want a more old fashioned and traditional educational style of learning, then you should choose Coursera.

The best part of Coursera is that you can more or less get an equivalent of a university degree with the same knowledge and even more than the regular student that enrolled in a university.

Coursera partners with several universities and offers courses that ordinarily wouldn’t be available to students via the regular educational process.

In addition, Coursera offers certificates after successfully completing courses. These certificates are actually recognised and accepted by top employers, this is because Coursera has been accredited by prestigious universities making it acceptable on your resume.

Finally, if you work a 9-5 and still want to upskill, then Coursera is a very good choice because it goes into great detail and provides theoretical and academic information that is applicable.

Udemy and Coursera: Which will you?

At the end of this great debate, which one should you go for?

Considering the great detail that we have talked about both of them, which should you choose?

Firstly, Udemy is pocket friendly, it is cheaper than Coursera, so if you are looking closely at your pocket, then you should go with Udemy.

In terms of courses, Udemy has more courses, Coursera’s courses are often well structured, especially machine learning ones. 

Coursera also allows you to learn from top universities of the world, and their certificates generally hold more value because they are offered by top universities along with Coursera, therefore Coursera is more focused on academic topics.

Unlike Coursera, Udemy offers a wide range of courses on almost every subject you can imagine, from learning how to be a dog owner to coding.

Also, Udemy courses can be taught by almost anyone and tend to be cheaper and require less of a time commitment, however, Coursera patents with accredited universities making its tutors certified and actually authorised to teach this particular topic.

Finally, in terms of the validity of certificates, employers do not consider Udemy certifications a valid thing to include in the education section of your resume.

Unlike Coursera, Udemy is not considered an accredited institution, which means courses will not count toward college credit or continuing education units (CEUs). However, many of the courses are worthwhile and can help you develop new skills or improve skills you already possess.

Coursera certificates are recognised and even accepted by employers. 

Conclusion 

However, whichever platform you choose, should supply your needs.

So tell me, which would you be choosing?

Udemy or Coursera?