In 2024, the online education market reached around $313.428 billion dollars, which is projected to grow to about $341.72 billion in 2025.
If you're considering selling an online course, now is the time. But, with such a massive market, it can be hard to decide which online course platform is best.
How can you choose the right platform to host your courses and earn money? Let’s start with two well-known and similar platforms – Skillshare and Udemy.
What is Skillshare?
Skillshare is one of the most renowned online course platforms, founded by Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong in 2010. This learning platform, based in the United States, provides an amazing opportunity for students to learn different topics through online courses.
The courses are conducted by the world’s top professionals and industry leaders. Though there are free trials, most of the courses are only available through a paid subscription. A massive amount of courses are focused on creative work, with very little on business and entrepreneurship.
Compared to many other highly professional e-learning platforms, Skillshare is a cost-effective option and a superior launching point for learners and teachers who have the potential for specific skills.
What is Udemy?
Udemy is one of the largest online education technology companies, and it features an immense selection of courses for creators and learners. Course creators around the world offer their video courses and earn reviews. There are millions of students here who are developing their skills on their desired topics and making a significant impact on career development.
Founded by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar in 2010, the company is based in San Francisco, California, United States. They also have hubs in Denver, Dublin, Austin, Melbourne, Istanbul, and Gurgaon.
Skillshare vs. Udemy: Similarities and differences
Let's take a closer look at where these two online course platforms are similar and where they differ.
1. Customization options and best features
Skillshare
Customization
The Skillshare interface provides plenty of customization options for teachers to optimize their classes and learning processes.
On Skillshare, you can create lists and organize your class to increase engagement. You can add classes to these lists, create new ones, and even set due dates to help you stay on track with your learning schedule.
However, there are some limitations regarding video length. The videos must be pre-recorded and can only be 20-60 minutes long. Also, every course requires a project that students must complete.
Plus, you must stick to video-based lessons. You can't use other forms of media, like interactive quizzes or PDFs, for additional learning.
Top features
Have a quick glimpse at the top features you’ll find in the Skillshare platform:
- Easy-to-use Admin Panel, which lets you manage your team easily. You can invite people, add new seats, and track your team’s progress.
- For each of your courses and classes, Skillshare provides a detailed report where you can track your usage and engagement.
- Skillshare runs an affiliate program that anyone can join. If you refer someone to Skillshare, you get $7 for each person who signs up.
- To increase engagement, you can create a discussion tab under the video player. Here, you can pin important posts, and your students can ask questions or share comments.
Udemy
Customization
With all the great customization options, you can create your courses on Udemy effortlessly.
Udemy offers the option to create course categories. You can organize and group courses that are useful for your team.
You’ll get a Settings section to customize your account and set it up with useful features. You can also integrate tools like Single Sign-On (SSO) and Slack for smoother team collaboration.
Unlike Skillshare, you can make quizzes, Q&As, PDFs, and other downloadable materials in Udemy.
Udemy also has a wider range of topics across various fields, including Business and Entrepreneurship, Programming, Academics, Arts, Health and Fitness, Language, Music, and Data Science. This is lacking in Skillshare, which primarily focuses on creative disciplines like graphic design, illustration, photography, and video.
Plus, you can set your own price per course, whereas Skillshare comes with a subscription-based model.
Top features
- There are no specific qualifications or certificates required to be an instructor here. Anyone who wants to become a Udemy instructor can access the "Teach on Udemy" link.
- Udemy offers an easy-to-navigate instructor dashboard where you can easily create courses, set questions and assignments, and make announcements for your students.
- It provides access to video experts where you can test the quality of your video, audio, and delivery to ensure a professional standard.
- Udemy also includes a variety of resources, including the Teaching Center, which has helpful articles on teaching. You’ll also find an Instructor Community where you can share progress and engage with fellow instructors.
- Like Skillshare, Udemy also runs an affiliate program that allows individuals or organizations to promote courses on their blogs or websites.
2. User experience & UI/UX comparison
In the case of user experience, both platforms, Udemy and Skillshare, set themselves apart with exceptionally user-friendly and intuitive interfaces. Through easy-to-navigate systems, the platforms make the journey straightforward and enjoyable for both learners and course creators.
User interface
Skillshare features a clean, visually appealing interface that focuses on displaying classes, projects, and user profiles. The homepage features class thumbnails and descriptions, making it quick and easy for learners to select their desired courses.
At the upper Browser tab, everything is organized in a neat grid. Students can browse courses without confusion, as the menu is straightforward and divided by subject into top-class categories. This makes it easy for potential customers to find your course.
Udemy features a more refined interface than Skillshare, which has more customization and navigation options. Through the clean layout, students can easily browse the wide range of courses, search for specific topics, and access course materials effortlessly.
The categories are well-organized with various filters that narrow down course options based on price, rating, instructor, level, etc.
Before enrolling, Udemy offers preview courses with clearer descriptions, instructor profiles, video clips, and reviews, so you can use social proof to earn more students for your course.
Registration process
The sign-up process on both Udemy and Skillshare is quite straightforward. To register for an account, you’ll just need to input your active email address and set a strong password.
The sign-up process on Udemy is almost the same. You need to provide your Full name, Email Address, and set password to get started.
Udemy doesn't charge you for creating or listing courses, so there's nothing to pay at this point.
Course search
Udemy has larger course categories, which your students can easily navigate through the featured search tool on the upper side of the homepage. This makes it easy for anyone to find your online course.
On the other hand, Skillshare's search tool is simpler. While it doesn’t have as many filters, students can search by topics or keywords and quickly find classes that match their interests.
User interaction and usability
When you are comparing content interaction between two platforms, Skillshare offers more focus on community engagement and project-based interaction among students.
So your learners can ask you questions, share ideas, provide feedback, and collaborate on projects. Community is key to selling online courses, and Skillshare makes it easy for you to engage with your student audience.
Udemy focuses more on traditional course interaction with quizzes, resources, and certificates to increase interaction between teachers and students.
3. Udemy vs Skillshare course types
What type of courses can you sell with Skillshare?
Skillshare welcomes teachers offering courses on many topics. That includes graphic design, photography, illustration, video editing, animation, web design, writing, music production, marketing, cooking, crafting, and more. But it has to be created and owned by you and free of any copyrighted material from other sources.
The majority of these courses focus on creative ventures - such as photography, graphic design, drawing, and programming.
Courses are in video format, around is 1-2 hours long with bite-sized lessons of around 10 minutes. Most of the courses include a mix of talking-head lessons and hands-on tutorials where the learner can follow the instructor.
So if you have a creative skill to share, Skillshare may be the best option for you, as it is built for your target audience.
What type of courses can you sell with Udemy?
Udemy takes the lead in offering a variety of over 210,000 courses across 12 categories compared to Skillshare. Some of the demanding topics on this platform include IT and Tech, Marketing, Design, Business, Music, Education, Health and Fitness, Finance, Lifestyles, Personal Development, and more.
On Udemy, you can upload courses on any topic except for restricted topics. This includes certain topics related to sexuality, nudity and attire, flirtation, courtship, weapons instruction, violence and bodily harm, animal cruelty, discriminatory language or ideas, illegal or unethical activities, misinformation and misleading content, content for adults, and so on.
Almost all the courses on this platform are in video format, which range from an hour to over 20 hours in total. But your video courses are divided into smaller lessons, making it easier for your students to access the lessons.
Beyond that, you can add downloadable texts, articles, and other materials for your courses to help students understand the lessons better.
4. Udemy vs Skillshare: Who can sell courses?
Let’s review who can sell courses on Udemy and Skillshare:
Skillshare
Skillshare welcomes professional and industry-leading instructors to their teacher community.
- As a teacher, you must retain ownership of the content you upload. The content should be original, or you have obtained the necessary rights, licenses, and permissions to use third-party materials.
- New teachers need to apply to publish content on Skillshare. Approval of your application is not guaranteed. It reserves the right to approve or deny applications.
- Classes need to meet quality standards regarding presentation, audio clarity, and structure.
- Teachers must provide appropriate tax documentation and are responsible for paying any taxes on their earnings.
- Skillshare reserves the right to suspend or deactivate a teacher’s account.
Udemy teachers
With Udemy, there is no essential requirement to be an instructor. Anyone can create, publish a course, and start selling without the need for any approval. Just before you publish your content, you’ll need to complete an identity verification process.
5. Course access
The quality of any online platform largely depends on how comfortable and easy it is for users to navigate. A good platform allows learners and instructors to focus on their education without distraction.
Skillshare
Skillshare offers an advanced mobile application that makes it easy to learn on the go. The application is widely available for download on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.
Students can open your course and start learning while they are on the go.
The best part? Your students can save their favorite lessons, track their progress, and even pick up where they left off. Also, they can download your lessons for offline learning and stay connected with you at any time, anywhere.
Udemy
Udemy also makes it possible to access all its amazing features, even on mobile devices. It has a mobile application that can be easily downloaded from the Google Play Store or App Store.
Similar to Skillshare, students can download your courses and continue learning when they don't have an internet connection.
6. Certification and recognition
Your students enroll in online courses to improve their resumes or LinkedIn profiles, so you need to reward them when they complete your course. In terms of certification and providing recognition, there is a distinct difference between Udemy and Skillshare.
Skillshare
Unfortunately, there are no certification options in Skillshare after completing any of the courses, so you cannot give your students a certificate. Instead, Skillshare encourages students to work on projects and add them to their profiles.
Udemy
Udemy is a rich, robust online course platform where you’ll find a wide array of certifications from major organizations worldwide. As a course creator you can provide certificates after your students complete paid and approved courses.
7. Community engagement and support
Skillshare's focus on community learning
Skillshare highly focuses on community learning. It encourages your students to engage with you, the course creator, through projects. Instead of just watching videos, your students can share their projects and receive feedback.
For instance, a student may upload a project to "Project Galleries," where you can leave feedback.
Udemy's community features
Udemy is more focused on direct interaction between students and instructors through its community features. It offers an exclusive Q&A section where students can ask questions and get quick answers from you or fellow learners. This way, the students can clarify any confusion about course material.
8. Language options
Skillshare
Skillshare primarily operates in English. It also supports classes and interface languages, including French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. You can choose any of the languages you prefer and teach classes in that language.
It even offers subtitle options in French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish languages. Students need to press "C" on their keyboard while watching a video and toggle subtitles.
Udemy
Udemy offers a wide selection of language options on its platform that you can choose from according to your community. You’ll find languages including English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish.
Both platforms give you flexibility with multiple languages. However, Udemy offers more language options than Skillshare. It's great for native speakers to teach and access courses from a wide selection of languages. Still, Skillshare supports 4 more languages, including English, and it can be a good option if you're comfortable with the existing ones.
9. Monetization
Now, the most important part - how you make money with your courses.
Skillshare
Skillshare operates on a subscription model through which you earn a portion of monthly membership fees.
Each month, Skillshare takes between 30% and 50% of its total Premium Membership revenue and puts it into a royalty pool for teachers. As it’s a subscription-based service, the size of the royalty pool can change each month.
If the platform has more members, the pool will be larger. For instance, the payout amount depends on how many minutes your courses are watched by Premium members. The more minutes you watch, the more money you earn. For example, if your courses account for 10% of all minutes watched by Premium students on the platform, and the pool for that month is $150,000, you could earn $15,000.
According to the data, top teachers can earn over $3,000 a month, while the new ones earn around $200 in their first month.
However, there are some limitations on earning potential:
- Your earnings will be primarily determined by the total minutes watched and the meaningful engagement rating of the students in your classes.
- Instructors must maintain positive student reviews and engagement to qualify for additional rewards.
- Instructors must have at least 75 minutes watched by paid members in a given month. Only then will you be eligible for a payment.
- Additionally, minutes watched during a free trial or through free access links do not count toward earnings.
- The trailer minutes, or those spent watching class previews, are excluded from payment calculations.
Udemy
Udemy generally offers greater potential for higher earnings than Skillshare. Instructors can set individual course prices and receive a larger percentage of revenue per sale.
An instructor can keep 97% of the revenue from referral buys. However, if you find students from Udemy, the platform will take 63% of the course sales, and you’ll get up to 37% of revenue from those students.
You can set course prices between $9.99 and $199.99. There is no fee to host courses on Udemy. Instructors can publish unlimited free and paid courses. It also offers instructors the chance to participate in the Udemy Business program, where instructors can earn revenue from business subscriptions,
The limit is that you can’t set your course price above $200. This often makes it difficult for course creators to price premium content appropriately. Udemy frequently runs deep discounts, and there are chances for it to sell your course at a much lower price.
This is all quite confusing, so check out our full guide on how much you can earn with Udemy.
If you’re confident your course can reach out to the broader community and grab enough engagement, you can pick Skillshare to enjoy its wide earning potential.
Otherwise, Udemy would be the go-to suggestion to get access to higher revenue potential and more flexibility in course pricing. However, you need to be mindful of the platform's pricing structure and frequent discounts.
10. Cost to sell courses
Another big consideration - how much will it cost you to sell your courses?
The good news is that you won’t be charged for any of your uploaded courses on Skillshare or Udemy. You just need to sign up and start teaching, and the platforms take a cut of your sales.
How easy it is to create an online course?
Now that you know how Udemy and Skillshare work, let's take a look at how easy it is to create courses with these platforms:
Skillshare
Step 1: First you need an active account on this platform. The process for signing up as a student or instructor is the same.
Step 2: After signing into your Skillshare account, you’ll find a Teach tab on your home screen. Tap on it, and it’ll redirect you to the Teacher Hub page.
Step 3: Click on the dropdown menu and select How To Create Your Course on Skillshare from the options.
Step 4: Select Create a Class, and a new class draft will appear with a default name: "My Class."
This is where you can set up your New Class and start uploading your courses to teach others. You can upload courses on any subject except the topics related to Politics.
Step 5: In this class draft page, you’ll upload your videos. Scroll down through the page and click the gray Upload Videos button.
Select the video files that you want to upload. Here is some quick information you must know:
- Check and ensure your videos are exported with the right specifications to ensure smooth uploads.
- You can upload more than one video file simultaneously. For instance, ensure a stable internet connection to run uploading uninterruptedly.
- Your total video length must be at least 2 minutes to publish your class.
Step 6: Select the file that you want to upload and start uploading. When your videos are processed for upload, you can add more details about your class and course. To do this, go to Class Details from the side menu.
- Select the language of your video course, class title, class description, and project description in the appropriate fields.
- Click on Add Media if you want to add an image for your video as a cover image.
- You can even add resources to your project in the project field.
- Select a level for your class. It should be Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, or All Levels.
- Go to the drop-down menus from where you need to select your Class Category.
Step 7: When done, it’s time to complete your payment details. Add your payment credentials and click the green Submit button. Your video will start publishing.
Once your class is live, it’ll be available for students to enroll in immediately. However, the Moderation team will review each new class within 72 hours to ensure it meets Skillshare's guidelines.
After submission, your video will undergo a translation process for written content and subtitles. This might take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. While this is being done, the students following you will get notifications about your class and newly uploaded courses.
Udemy
Step 1: Before you start, ensure you have an active account with Udemy. If not, register by typing your name and email and setting a password.
Step 2: Once you’re signed in, click on the "Teach On Udemy" tab in the upper right corner of the dashboard.
Step 3: It’ll redirect you to the next window where you can choose the type of course you're making. Select one and press continue.
Step 4: Now, set a title for the work area or course you want to sell here.
Step 5: Choose a category from the dropdown menu.
Step 6: Set a time you can spend creating your course each week.
Step 7: Now, fill in the required fields with the needed information, such as how you target students and the requirements or prerequisites for taking your course.
Step 8: After this, it’s time to upload your lessons.
You’ll have the option to choose the content types for each lecture. It could be a video, video, and slide mashup, or article. Also, you can add PDFs, graphics, and external links to enhance your lessons and get better bundles for students.
Step 9: Once you're done, it’s time to upload your course. Set up the landing page with the needed information.
Step 10: Finally, set the price of your course. When it’s done, it’ll start showing to your target audience.
Is Skillshare or Udemy best for you?
Now we have gone through how each platform works and what you need to sell courses with the platform, let's take a look at the pros and cons of both.
Skillshare pros and cons
Pros
- Large selection of classes: With no subscription required, you can teach any course you prefer from a wide selection. This gives you the flexibility to choose topics you're passionate about and ensures a more engaging and personalized learning experience for your students.
- Direct expert advice: Through an effective, robust discussion forum, you can directly reach out to your students and solve their issues.
- Engaged community: Skillshare has a highly engaged instructor-student community where you can interact with students and other instructors.
- Easy course creation: Skillshare makes it simple to create your own courses. You don’t need to be a tech expert to get started. With an easy-to-follow guide, you can focus on sharing your knowledge and skills with students.
- Access to a large audience: Skillshare gives you the chance to reach a big group of learners from all over the world. This means more students will see your courses, which can help you grow as an instructor and expand your reach.
Cons
- Courses are available on video only: Skillshare allows the courses to be in video format only. You can’t share any downloadable materials here to better understand the lessons for the students.
- Limited course categories: You can create courses on a limited number of categories that focus on artists and creativity.
- Fluctuations on income: How much you get at the end of the month is uncertain. Skillshare is not an excellent option for making a steady income.
Udemy pros and cons
Pros
- Huge variety of categories: No matter what you want to teach here, it offers a golden opportunity to reach a diverse audience and share your expertise across a wide range of topics.
- User-friendly interface for uploading courses: Udemy makes it easy to upload your courses. The platform is simple to navigate, allowing you to focus on teaching rather than worrying about complicated tech setups.
- A focus on project-based learning: Udemy is all about hands-on learning. Students can work on real projects to practice what they’ve learned. This helps them understand better and stay excited about your courses.
- Community building potential: It lets you connect with your students. You can build a fun, supportive community with their course discussion forums and instructor Q&A sections.
Cons
- Not accredited by traditional institutions: Udemy doesn’t offer official degrees or certifications as a professional instructor from the platform.
- High competition: Due to open access, there is a large number of instructors offering similar courses, making it difficult to stand out.
- Limited branding opportunities: As an instructor on Udemy, you primarily promote the platform's brand rather than your personal brand.
Where Skillshare and Udemy fall short
Well, it’s true that you have two popular platforms where you can sell your online courses. Beyond a doubt, they both offer diverse course selections, user-friendly interfaces, and opportunities for course creators to monetize their content.
However, there are many ways in which these platforms fall short.
- No selling options on an app: You can’t sell your courses directly through an app.
- Not a highly sustainable income source: Both Udemy and Skillshare are not ideal platforms for generating sustainable income. Rather, they are better as a part-time income source.
- Selling restrictions: You may find a lot of strict rules about what you can sell on these platforms.
- Getting lost in the crowd: On such a large platform like Udemy, it can feel like you're just another creator among many. You may find yourself in larger competition, which sometimes makes it harder to showcase your true skills to the right audience.
- No real community: Though both platforms have discussion boards or Q&A sections to connect with the instructors and students, they don’t offer a dedicated community space within the platform where students can chat and connect like a community.
So, what other options do you have, if not Udemy or Skillshare?
Whop: The best way to sell online courses
If you're looking to make money with online courses then you need Whop.
Whop is a social commerce platform where you can sell all kinds of digital products and services - including online courses. It’s the perfect place to turn your skills or ideas into something you can sell and make money from. If you’re a teacher, coach, or creator, Whop gives you all the tools and features to start your own whop and start making money.
With Whop you can do so much more than create asynchronous courses. When you create your whop you can add the courses app to upload your online course, but then also offer live lessons through streams, share downloadable files like worksheets and ebooks, and add the chat app to allows your students to communicate with you and one another.
As a result you can build a complete learning experience for your students.
It costs nothing to get started with Whop, and Whop's cut starts at just 3% of your sales. So, you get to make more money and keep more of it!
Turn your skills into a thriving business, sell online courses, and build a community with ease. Don't wait any longer – get started with Whop today!
FAQs
Do you need to pay to upload a course on Skillshare?
No. You don’t have to pay a single penny to start with Skillshare as an instructor. There is even a good earning opportunity if you have true teaching potential.
Does Skillshare pay you?
The teacher fund of Skillshare pays the teachers based on the time they watch their courses. Here, they compare the total minutes watched in your class with the total minutes watched in the other teachers' classes in the same month. That’s how your share is calculated.
How much do you get paid per minute on Skillshare?
On Skillshare, teachers earn between $0.05 and $0.10 for each minute watched by students. So, if your students watch 5,000 minutes of your class in a month, you could earn between $250 and $500
How often does Udemy pay instructors?
As an instructor, you’ll get paid from Udemy once per month. It would be based on revenue generated from the courses offered during the previous month.
How can you determine the revenue potential of a course topic on Udemy?
You can estimate your course revenue potential on Udemy by using their free Marketplace Insights tool. It shows student demand, average earnings, popular keywords, and details about similar courses.
