Coursera Plus Review: Is the Subscription Worth it for $399?
Coursera is one of the leaders in the e-learning market. It’s been operating since 2012 and currently has over 90 million students and over 1700 employees. Coursera offers courses from leading universities like Harvard, Stanford, Duke University, The University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, and also partners with some of the biggest corporations like Google, IBM, and Meta for course creation. Having different program types with different fees you need to choose from, there is a universal solution Coursera Plus, a subscription offered by Coursera. This is what we want to review in this article.
- Unlimited courses and certificates
- Ability to save money for active learners
- Easy switching between different courses
- Online degrees and MasterTrack programs are not included
- Not a cost-effective solution if you just take a couple of courses per year
Now that you know our take on the value of Coursera Plus, let’s get into the details.
You’ll be better off in the following scenarios.
- You are planning to take more than one course per month or more than 10 per year and you want to get certificates upon completion. In this case, you will save money as each certificate costs around $50. However, if you usually take one-two courses per year, there is not much sense to buy the subscription.
- You want to take more than three Specializations or more than two Professional Certificates during a year. In this case, you’ll definitely spend more than $399 per year.
- You want to be able to switch between different programs and take courses simultaneously. This way, even a monthly Coursera Plus subscription is a good deal as you’ll save at least $20.
So, the Coursera Plus subscription is the best option for active learners who would like to complete many courses and be able to move between multiple courses at any time.
What is Coursera Plus
Coursera Plus is a subscription offered by Coursera. You don’t pay for each course individually–instead, you for a period of time (month or year) and take as many courses as you want. The subscription provides access to the majority of Coursera’s courses (over 7000 courses). Moreover, you get unlimited certificates for all the courses you complete.
Online courses usually have a pay-per-course model and this subscription model by Coursera is an opportunity for the most active learners to get more content for a fixed price. The price of the subscription is very simple–let’s check how much it costs.
Read more on What is Coursera?
Coursera Plus price
There are two pricing options available for this subscription: with billing per month or per year.
- Monthly-billed subscription is $59
- The annual subscription is $399 ($33.25 per month)
In the first case, you’ll be automatically billed each month on the same date but you are more flexible as you can cancel anytime and renew it later without losing money. In the second case, you will be billed once per year and save money; however, if you want to cancel it after the first two weeks, you won’t get a refund.
Additionally, the annual subscription comes with a 14-day refund window, whereas the monthly one has a 7-day free trial included.
| Location | Price per year | Price per month | Price of a single learning program per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $399 | $59 | $49 – $79 |
| United Kingdom | £350 | £51 | £43 – £69 |
| Europe | €399 | €59 | €49 – €79 |
| Canada | CA$537 | CA$79 |
In the table, you can see Coursera Plus cost for different locations–if you pay on a monthly or annual basis. For all locations, you pay less by going for the annual Coursera Plus subscription. For instance, if you pay in US dollars, you save $300 (if you pay on a monthly basis for 12 months (12*59), you’ll spend $708 per year).
However, keep in mind that if you have existing subscriptions to Coursera Specializations, you need first to cancel them. Otherwise, you’ll be charged twice, for your Coursera Specialization and for a Coursera Plus subscription separately.
What Coursera Plus includes
Coursera Plus subscription includes over 90% of all Coursera’s content.
More specifically, here is what Coursera Plus gives you:
- Access to over 7,000+ courses and Specializations. While courses are shorter and focused on a single topic, specializations are a series of courses to master a specific skill. For instance, there is Business Foundations Specialization consisting of 6 single courses like Introduction to Marketing, Introduction to Financial Accounting, etc.
- Access to over 15 Professional Certificate programs. These are programs of longer duration designed to prepare a student for a job or a particular industry. An example is Data Analytics Professional Certificate offered by Google which is estimated to take 6 months to complete.
- Access to over 1,000 applied projects. These are usually 2-hour interactive courses to practice a specific skill.
- Unlimited certificates, including Specializations, or Professional Certificates.
What is not included in Coursera Plus
However, Coursera Plus doesn’t include online degrees or MasterTrack programs, so you need to pay for them separately.
Here are some of the Specializations, and Professional Certificate included:
- Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate
- Google Project Management: Professional Certificate
- Meta Back-End Developer Professional Certificate
- Excel Skills for Business Specialization
- Mathematics for Machine Learning Specialization
- Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)
Coursera Plus does not include programs offered by Stanford University, IBM, University of Virginia, Spectrum Sharing, Cisco, deeplearning.ai, and some others.
For instance, these Professional Certificates are not available in Coursera Plus:
- IBM Data Science Professional Certificate
- IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate
- IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate
- IBM Customer Engagement Specialist Professional Certificate
- (ISC)² Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) Professional Certificate
- UCI Project Management Professional Certificate
To check the program you are interested in, go to a program page and check for the badge “Included with Coursera Plus” below the “Enroll” button. To see a complete list, go to this page.
Pros and cons of Coursera Plus
Let’s sum up what are the main benefits of Coursera Plus:
- Flexible learning with the ability to easily move between multiple courses. If you opt for Coursera Plus with access to over 7000 courses, you can take as many courses as you want and even a couple of them going at the same. This means unlimited learning opportunities with huge flexibility to choose whatever you need.
- Cost-effective solution. If you are an active learner and are easily interested in new subjects, online learning might get expensive. Let’s say you’d like to take two or even three courses per month–this will end up paying around $150. However, with Coursera Plus you pay $399 for a whole year and you don’t need to count how many courses you take.
- Unlimited certificates. As you can take as many courses as you want, you can also get a certificate for each completed one.
Now, it’s time to mention the disadvantages as well.
- Not including online degrees and MasterTrack programs. While Coursera Plus includes the majority of courses, it doesn’t provide access to online degrees and MasterTracks as these are the most expensive Coursera programs. Also, the subscription doesn’t include some programs offered by Stanford University, IBM, and some other recognized institutions.
- Not a cost-effective option for some learners. If you are not an active learner who realistically takes less than three to five courses per year, you will end up spending more on the subscription than you would spend on individual courses otherwise.
Customer reviews on Coursera Plus
Let’s now see what users say about Coursera Plus. For this, we have collected Coursera Plus reviews from Reddit.
Here are brief answers to the main question: Is Coursera Plus worth it?
- “It depends on your personality type. It depends on what you want to learn and how self-motivated you are. If you are highly self-motivated, have a good routine, and want to learn tech, math, and science then Coursera Plus is an absolute pleasure.“
- “If you do a lot of learning on the side (the cost of the subscription per year comes out to about 8-10 months of average course fees), it’s pretty reasonable.“
- “I say no, it’s overwhelming to start and stop and not have the accountability. I say just pay for the specialties or specific programs separately.”
Here are more reviews about the Coursera Plus subscription:
- “I have the Coursera Plus subscription for 6 months. I fell in love with it. I’ve been taking time off from a career being a stay-at-home dad and ended up getting 29 certificates in those 6 months(early morning, nap, and after bedtime). I’ve paid $300 and have gained immense practical knowledge and skills, specifically in computer science and programming. Favorite single course is Medical Neuroscience from Duke. My favorite specializations are the ones UofM offers, particularly the Statistics, Data Science, and Python3 specializations are phenomenal.”
- “I have it and its fantastic. Looking at LinkedIn, i see a lot of people add their certificates from coursera to their profile too.“
Here is additional advice from one Coursera customer:
- “I have Coursera Plus. I also have access to a Coursera Team account. Leaving aside the question about havint it being worth it, I’d say you should go with the Team account, as it has access to all the courses that the Plus acc. doesn’t have.”
Coursera for Teams vs Coursera Plus
Coursera for Teams is a plan designed for a company or organization with a team of 5-25 people. Meanwhile, Coursera Plus is created for the individual. Coursera for Teams also provides additional tools for user management and messaging features, which are not available in Coursera Plus.
Both plans offer an annual subscription for the same for both plans–$399. However, unlike Coursera Plus, Coursera for Teams doesn’t have a monthly fee option.
Finally, Coursera for Teams gives access to 5,000+ courses, whereas Coursera Plus provides access to 7,000+ courses.
FAQ
What is Coursera Plus?
Coursera Plus is a subscription-based service offered by Coursera that gives users access to thousands of courses from top universities and organizations. With Coursera Plus, subscribers can take as many courses as they want, as often as they like, for a single annual fee.
What is the difference between Coursera Plus and Coursera?
Coursera’s main pricing means paying for a chosen course, whereas with Coursera Plus, you pay per month/year and get almost unlimited access to courses.
What does Coursera Plus cost?
The price of the subscription is $59/month or $399/year.
Does Coursera Plus include all courses?
No, it includes 90% of all courses and doesn’t include online degrees or MasterTrack programs.
What types of courses are included in Coursera Plus?
Coursera Plus includes a wide range of courses across various disciplines, including computer science, data science, business, personal development, and more. The courses are provided by top universities and organizations, and cover a range of skill levels from beginner to advanced.
How does Coursera Plus differ from regular Coursera courses?
With Coursera Plus, subscribers have unlimited access to thousands of courses, while regular Coursera courses are priced individually and may have limited access to course materials.
