6 Worthy Coursera Alternatives

Stacey M. October 16, 2023 298 0

Let’s understand what the main alternatives to Coursera are and which one is best for your learning or career needs.

Coursera is probably the most well-known player in the e-learning market. It’s known for partnering with leading universities like Harvard or Stanford and business giants like Google or IBM. The company has over 4000 courses covering different subjects, from computer science to language learning. Coursera’s courses are good value but there are other companies you might investigate for your learning.

Go to Coursera

Now, let’s move to the list itself. In this article, we will cover the 6 best Coursera alternatives:

Coursera Alternative #1: edX

Closest competitor and best Coursera alternative

edX is the first Coursera alternative on our list as they are probably the most similar in terms of subjects, course structure, and positioning. The company also offers many courses from recognized institutions like Harvard, the University of British Columbia, or IBM. Similar to Coursera, edX offers courses on various subjects, from language learning to computer science but there but the choice of subjects is much more diverse on edX.

Similar to Coursera, edX features over 4000 courses. Moreover, the company features both single shorter courses and longer programs that are sets of courses. Single courses take a couple of weeks to complete, while longer programs might take five to nine months on average to finish.

Check out these edX courses:

Price: free or $50 USD and $300 USD

Coursera Alternative #2: Futurelearn

Good alternative to Coursera

Futurelearn is a direct Coursera’s competitor but it might be less known to many people. However, it was founded in 2012–the same year as Coursera. The company features similar subjects to Coursera, including IT & Computer Science, Business & Management, and Healthcare. Futurelearn generally covers more topics than Coursera but includes fewer courses (over 2000 with over 4000 offered by Coursera). Additionally, Futurelearn has a bigger focus on healthcare, psychology, and teaching subjects.

Similarly to Coursera, Futurelearn features short courses, longer programs (Experttracks), and even online degrees (many are related to management and healthcare, but there are a lot to choose from). The company also partners with some of the recognized institutions like the University of Basel, the University of Bargen, the University of Bristol, Brunel University London, and others.

Moreover, a lot of Futurelearn courses are free of change and you’ll need to pay if you want to receive a certificate upon completion. The same does Coursera for a lot of single courses. There are also premium courses covering Business and management, Healthcare, Teaching, IT and digital skills. Finally, similar to Coursera Plus, the company offers a subscription for unlimited course access–called Unlimited subscription. The price for it is

Check out some of these short courses:

Price: free or $39.99

Coursera Alternative #3: Udemy

Best for course variety

Another popular alternative to Coursera is Udemy. Being one of the largest online learning platforms, the company offers courses on almost any topic, from tech subjects to photography or cooking. The main benefit of Udemy is that you can find literally anything there and the list of courses is constantly being updated. Moreover, Udemy’s courses are quite cheap with an average price of $20.

On the downside, the instructors and course quality can vary a lot as there’s almost no moderation by the company. So, you might find courses that are very poorly structured or you can’t understand the accent of the instructor.

Some of the good courses are:

Price: $20-200.

Codecademy

Best for learning programming

One more company among Coursera alternatives is Codecademy–but it works only for those who want to learn programming languages. The company’s courses cover over 15 popular programming languages, including JavaScript, Java, Python, and Ruby. All in all, there are over 300 courses on the platform.

Similar to DataCamp, Codecademy offers single courses and longer programs. Also, the company has hands-on projects and gives certificates upon completion. Its learning is built on providing theory and giving quizzes afterward.

Check out these courses:

What is good about Codecademy is that it offers a lot of completely free courses of good quality.

Price: free or $17-35 a month.

Udacity

Best for tech subjects

Udacity is known for its tech courses–and it’s Coursera’s alternative only for tech-related subjects like software engineering, data science, or product management. You won’t find here courses on psychology or learning Spanish. However, Udacity is usually used for career transition instead of just learning a new skill, and this is what their nanodegree format was created for.

Unlike Udemy, Udacity’s courses are made with high standards in mind and are strictly checked by the company. Udacity’s huge advantage is technical mentorship when each student can get personalized feedback on their assignment.

Check out these courses:

Price: $399/month, around $1500-2000 for completing a program.

DataCamp

Best for Data Science and Data Analysis

DataCamp is a good Coursera alternative when it comes to data-related subjects, especially data analysis and data science. The company offers over 400 courses but the majority of them are based on Python or R, main programming languages for working with data. So, this company won’t work for everyone but it’s good for the subjects it offers.

Similarly to Coursera, DataCamp features both single shorter courses and longer programs that are sets of courses (like career or skill tracks). It also has its own programming environment and a lot of quizzes but has no peer review and deadlines.

Here are some of the courses to consider:

Price: $25-39/month.

So, this was our list of best Coursera alternatives. There are lots of good e-learning companies but we picked these 6 as our favourite and closest competitors of Coursera.

Why look for Coursera alternative

Here you might wonder, why at all look for Coursera alternative? Here are some of the most common reasons:

Some programs on Coursera are too expensive–especially, when it comes to online degrees priced up to $40,000.
Coursera might simply not have a subject you’re interested in. While the company has a lot of courses, you might not find the needed one. For example, if you want to learn a specific skill related to programming, you might look for an alternative.
There might be other reasons like you simply don’t like its interface or look for additional mentorship or career services.

So there are many Coursera alternatives, and you can find the best option depending on your needs. If you want to check out Coursera’s direct competitor, visit edX. If you are looking for a broad range of courses on any topic, check out Udemy. If your goal is to learn programming, Codecademy is a great option. If your goal is a career in data science, look into Datacamp or Udacity.