Udemy is a learning platform where you can buy courses created by some of the best tutors in any industry. As per Wikipedia, Udemy has more than 30 million students, 50,000 instructors. What makes Udemy standout is its reasonable pricing module over its competitors.
Udemy does have both free and paid courses. Paid courses are worth it. Choose carefully before buying, but you do have time to refund if you aren’t happy with your course (1 month time at the point of writing).
I am Sydney based WordPress Developer and I discovered Udemy when I was trying to upskill myself as a WordPress Developer. My main targets were to learn JavaScript and React. Courses I found in Udemy were awesome and reasonably priced and in no time I fell in love with Udemy. At the point of writing, I have already bought 11 paid courses from Udemy.
So what makes Udemy stand out? Why is it so popular? Here are some of my honest feedback. I can talk so many good things about Udemy and I do have one negative feedback too.
Quality Free Courses
Who doesn’t like a freebie? Udemy does have tons of free courses. If you want to try Udemy, it might be a good start. I started by trying some free courses and they are good. Just choose wisely and read reviews before. Anyway is there any harm to trying free courses?
Awesome Paid Courses
Paid courses are worth every penny. This doesn’t mean that you go and buy any courses, and it will be great. Do some research before buying.
So how can you make sure you buy the best course? There are a few things you can do before buying.
- Preview free video preview – Almost all courses come with a free preview video. They explain about course, what can you expect by the end of course. This also gives you a chance to see how confident your tutor is, how professionals/he is and how good or bad is the video quality.
- Read the review before buying – Don’t forget to read the reviews of fellow students. More review the better chance you can know about the course. OF course, courses with better reviews are no brainer. But be careful, you make sure that these reviews are genuine. I did find some dodgy reviews in some courses, which looks like a favor from someone. So make sure the reviews are from diverse sets of students from different geographic locations. That will be a fair shot.
- Check out the tutor's profile – You can also check the number of students enrolled in a particular tutor. S/he may have created other courses. The more popular the tutor, the better chance of the course is outstanding.
Reasonably Priced
All the good things said goes in vain if the price isn’t affordable isn’t it? But with Udemy I think pricing structure is the best part. You can buy a good decent course from 12 dollars AUD. You can buy one course without any commitment, and get lifetime access (most of the time). SO if the tutor adds a new video, for example, to describe new features about any technology, you will get access to it instantly.
Payable in local price
Being able to pay at local prices is another solid feature of Udemy *. This does cut down unnecessary bank fees for international conversion. Well done Udemy on this part. Very smart and User-focused.
And also I can pay via PayPal which does give me peace of mind because of buyer’s protection.
* I am Sydney based developer and I can pay in AUD via PayPal. So I am guessing this feature is available in other countries too
Download and read offline at your convenience
If you aren’t aware Udemy has IOS and Android apps. I personally use an Android app, and it's pretty much flawless.
The best thing about the Udemy app is you can download courses on the app and watch it at your convenience. If you are worried about your mobile data, you can download courses at suitable place and watch it in offline mode.
Overall I think Udemy is quite well thought out platform. You can access on desktop and mobile devices at your convenience.
Excellent Support
Another outstanding feature of Udemy is its support. From my personal experience, it had been quite good. Most of the queries I have asked been answered promptly.
Easy Refunding
As stated above refunding a course in Udemy is pretty straightforward.
When you buy a course and you feel like it's not what you are looking for just fill-up the form and send it to Udemy. Normally refund happens quietly fast. You can find the details here.
Sometime it might take a while, up to a few business days, to get into your account depending upon your bank. If you are using Paypal, it's a bit faster.
Conclusion
Overall, my personal experience using Udemy had been great. Courses are great, the platform is awesome, pricing is very reasonable.
