Is Skillshare Worth It? A Complete and Honest Review
If you’ve been searching for an honest Skillshare review, your hunt ends now. Learning online has become the norm after the pandemic, enabling students to access world-class and innovative courses from the comfort of their homes.
Plus, diversifying and polishing your skill set for a cheap price can’t be beat.
Learning online has evolved quite a lot within this decade and now expansive online learning platforms are taking over.
One of them is Skillshare, founded in 2010 by two digital veterans from New York. Today, it has over 800,000 members and can be called one of the most popular and prolific learning platforms online.
In this article, we’ll dive deep into a Skillshare review, answering any and every burning question you might have about the platform.
What is Skillshare?
Skillshare is an online e-learning platform in the form of a website and an app, showcasing over 40,000 courses in the form of video content. The platform was launched in 2010, making it one of the oldest e-learning platforms.
Skillshare is not exactly a free platform and takes a community-styled approach, resulting in a tight-knit community of experts, beginners, and intermediate users.
Every lesson is planned in a self-paced manner which makes Skillshare different from other traditional types of learning platforms. At Skillshare, learning skills is convenient, affordable, and comfortable.
Who is Skillshare best for?
Skillshare was created for creatives who wanted to diversify their skill sets and improve their current ones.
Rather than technical skills, the platform focuses on providing courses to creative workers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners.
To expand this a little bit, Skillshare might be for you if you count as the following:
- Graphic designers,
- Chefs,
- Writers,
- SEO specialists,
- Marketers, and
- Artists.
Pros of Skillshare
- Affordable monthly cost
- Offers a free trial
- Diverse courses and lessons
- Develops practical skills with projects
- Offers lessons for people of all skill levels
- Offline access to courses
- Engaged and active community
Cons of Skillshare
- Not a free platform
- Offers limited languages
- Anyone can create courses
- No evaluation for classes beforehand
- No certifications for finishing courses
What does Skillshare have to offer?
Skillshare is home to over 40,000 classes at the time of this writing, with most of them focused on creative designs and skills. But what does Skillshare offer and how does it present these classes to a user?
Let’s uncover that in this Skillshare review!
Learning Paths
Skillshare Learning Paths are carefully curated sequences of classes designed to assist learners in achieving their educational goals.
These paths offer a progressive learning experience, with classes that are built on one another. The content is tailored to various experience levels, accommodating both beginners and those with advanced skills.
Live Sessions
Skillshare Live Sessions constitute a digital event series where users can learn with Skillshare teachers and fellow students.
Open to everyone, these sessions provide an opportunity to deepen creative skills, draw inspiration from experienced teachers, and work towards achieving creative goals.
Registration is accessible through Eventbrite, and active Skillshare membership is not a prerequisite.
Community
Skillshare places a strong emphasis on building a learning community where members can have inspiration strike, connect with each other, and progress in their creative journeys.
The introduction of Groups enhances collaboration by categorizing them into Technology, Creative, Business, and Lifestyle.
Related:From Layoffs to Leading Secret Brokerage: Arif Sengoren’s Story
Joining a group allows users to connect with peers, share work, ask questions, and give and receive feedback, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
Student Projects
Skillshare members can showcase their work through Student Projects, creating a platform for engagement.
Other members can provide comments and likes, creating an interactive and supportive community. This feature serves as an ideal way for learners to connect with others who share similar interests and passions.
Localized Languages
Originally an English-centric platform, Skillshare has expanded its reach to a global audience by offering content in four more languages:
- Spanish
- German
- French
- Portuguese
The platform is actively working on localizing its catalog of classes in these languages, ensuring accessibility to a diverse user base.
Skillshare for Teams
Skillshare extends beyond individual learning with a dedicated plan for teams and businesses. This plan is designed to cater to teams of any size, offering a personalized experience.
It includes unlimited access to Skillshare’s extensive class library, offline viewing capabilities, and detailed reporting and analytics to track the development of creative skills within the team.
What classes can I find on Skillshare?
On the footer navigation of Skillshare website, creative classes are divided into four sections. Each of these sections has hundreds of thousands of courses, directly from field experts.
Creative
The Creative section is focused on sectioning lessons for creative workers. This section is especially helpful to freelancers and small business owners. Some of the categories under this umbrella are these:
- Animation
- Drawing
- Graphic Design
- Illustration
- Photography
Business
The Business section expands on the business side, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Under this section, you can find classes on:
- Entrepreneurship
- Freelance & Entrepreneurship
- Leadership
- Marketing
- Productivity
Technology
As the name suggests, the courses and learning path under the Technology category are for learning and improving tech skills. Some of the main class categories:
- Data Science
- Game Design
- Mobile Development
- Product Management
- Web Development
Lifestyle
Lastly, Lifestyle is focused on providing self-care and personal management skills. Main categories:
- Crafts
- Culinary
- Gaming
- Health & Wellness
- Languages
Skillshare classes structure
As I’ve already mentioned, Skillshare courses are self-paced, and they come without any timer. That said, the duration of courses isn’t fixed either.
Some courses will take up just 10 minutes of our time while some courses can be extensive, dragging on to hours. So, your class structure can be unique every time you decide to take a new one.
Skillshare provides a variety of class types, including Skillshare Originals and classes created by individual instructors.
Skillshare Originals are courses produced by Skillshare, often in collaboration with partners like Moz and Havenly.
The platform also collaborates with notable figures such as Marques Brownlee and Ali Abdaal who have substantial followings.
Beneath each video, you’ll find features designed to enhance your learning experience, including sections labeled About, Hands-on Class Project, Class Ratings, Teacher, and Resources and Transcripts.
About
This section provides a concise overview of the course, detailing the lessons’ content and, importantly, the skills you’ll acquire by taking the course.
Teacher
A brief description of the instructor accompanies each class, offering insights into their background and experience. This section provides a comprehensive introduction to the teacher, which can be particularly helpful if you are not already familiar with them.
Class Ratings
Related:How to Effectively Utilize the Bluehost Website Builder
Class ratings serve as a valuable resource for newer users, offering insights into the course from previous learners. You can review expectations set by previous students and read their comments, aiding your decision process on whether to enroll in the class.
How much does Skillshare cost?
One of the advantages of Skillshare is its uncomplicated subscription models. When you first sign up for Skillshare, you get a month-long free trial and can instantly access all of its courses and classes.
However, at the end of the trial period, you’ll have to opt for a payment plan.
Skillshare has a subscription-based model, and the money you’d neeed to pay is tailored to you, probably based on your location.
For example, I signed up to Skillshare from Turkey and it showed me an annual fee of $49 ($4.08/month on average) after my one month trial ends.
If you see a higher amount, I suggest you to give it another try from another location with a VPN such as Surfshark.
Skillshare For Teams is another package you get access to, especially if you’re looking to use it to train your team. That would mean you pay $159 USD per team member, per year.
Does Skillshare offer discounts?
Skillshare is always running promotions and discounts for its premium membership. To avail discounts, sign up for their marketing emails or scour the website occasionally for promotional discounts!
Is Skillshare legit?
Skillshare is one of the top e-learning platforms and has come a long way since it launched in 2010. This also makes it one of the oldest competitors in the e-learning space.
So yes, Skillshare is a legitimate website to use to boost your skills.
I also want to mention in this Skillshare review that since the website requires your payment information, it features a secure roundup to ensure your personal information stays personal.
The website is SSL-secured, and you also get a 14-day refund policy for annual subscriptions if the platform hasn’t been up to par.
Top 3 alternatives to Skillshare
No Skillshare review would be complete without listing down a few alternatives to the website. This helps you gain a wider perspective on the options out there so you can make your best choices.
Luckily, Skillshare has over 10 alternatives, but we’re going to look at the top three in this Skillshare review.
Udemy
While Skillshare has roughly 40,000 classes, Udemy brings in more than 210,000 courses for over 870 million course enrollments. But that’s not all that makes Udemy a tough competitor to stand up against.
Udemy also covers many more topics than Skillshare currently offers. Skillshare is niched down to creative owners and freelancers whereas Udemy offers a broader range of topics including Business, Technology, Personal development, and much more.
Udemy’s courses are also much more localized and offer more than 75 languages, compared to Skillshare which currently only offers five languages:
- English
- French
- German
- Spanish, and
- Portuguese.
Both of the platforms allow anyone to create and share their courses, so quality control is lacking in each of these platforms.
However, Skillshare has a subscription-based business model whereas Udemy is a pay-per-course platform. Udemy also gives you certificates per course, a feature that Skillshare hasn’t picked up yet.
Khan Academy
If you know about Skillshare, you’ve probably heard of Khan Academy too! Skill Share and Khan Academy are equally popular online learning platforms and have amassed quite a following.
Related:Customer.io’s Startup Program: 12 Months of Top-Notch Free Marketing Automation
Khan Academy’s content revolves around K-12 education and includes instructional videos, practice exercises, and assessments. It’s laser-focused on school and college education, acting as a supplementary resource.
On the other hand, Skillshare is shorter and more project-oriented for creative careers.
The biggest difference that shows up in these two platforms is that Khan Academy is a non-profit organization and is absolutely free for anyone who wants to utilize it. Khan Academy also includes interactive features such as quizzes and practice exercises to reinforce learning.
Coursera
Third on our list is Coursera, an e-learning platform that was launched in 2012 by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. Coursera tends to offer more academic and university-affiliated courses.
It partners with universities and organizations to provide a diverse range of courses, including traditional academic subjects such as computer science, business, and science. Meanwhile, Skillshare is strictly adhering to unaccredited creative courses.
Another difference between the learning experience on both platforms is that Coursera courses are taught by industry experts whereas Skillshare takes a more community-based approach — as if you were a group of friends learning together!
Coursera and Skillshare both offer a free trial that can lead to a payment. On Coursera, you can pay on a monthly subscription or in a per-course method.
Courses on Coursera are often more structured, with set start and end dates. They may include graded assignments, quizzes, and exams. On the other hand, Skillshare courses are casual and self-paced, so users can learn at their convenience.
How to open a Skillshare account
If your heart is set on opening an account after reading this Skillshare review, the process is as smooth as butter. Follow these steps, and you’ll have a Skillshare account within the next five minutes:
- Open Skillshare website on your browser and click on sign in in the top right corner.
- Continue to sign up with your email, Facebook account, Google account, or Apply account.
- You’ll be redirected to a new page that allows you to add your payment details.
- Fill in the payment details with a valid mode of payment and click “Start your free month.”
- Voilà, you now have an activated Skillshare account!
Final Thoughts
To wrap things up, Skillshare stands out as a great place for anyone looking to learn new things or get better at what they do. It’s easy to use, doesn’t cost too much, and you can learn in your own time, which is perfect for busy people.
The courses are all about doing real projects, so you actually get to practice what you’re learning. This is a feature that truly sets apart Skillshare in the sea of e-learning platforms that have recently emerged.
For freelancers who want to stay sharp or shift their focus in work, Skillshare is a helpful tool. Being able to pay a small amount each month to learn as much as you want is a deal that’s hard to beat.
Plus, you can connect with other learners and teachers, which is great for sharing ideas and maybe even finding new work opportunities.
However, the courses’ quality can be a mixed bag sometimes, and if you need an official diploma or are looking to be accredited, Skillshare doesn’t offer that. But if you’re just looking to boost your skills in a relaxed, friendly space, it’s a solid choice.
All in all, Skillshare is worth thinking about, especially if you want to learn in a fun, community-based way and possibly make your profile stand out more in places like Upwork. Using Skillshare could be the thing that gives your career a nudge and makes you even better at your craft!
That said, I hope this Skillshare review has brought answers to every question you had about the platform!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Skillshare better than YouTube?
Skillshare is much better than YouTube when it comes to online learning platforms. This is because Skillshare courses are offered by subject experts who are selected through a rigorous process. On the other hand, YouTube has no process to vet information and is largely a source of misinformation on many subjects.
Is Skillshare for beginners?
Skillshare is an excellent learning platform, no matter your expertise and experience in the subject. Beginners, intermediates, and pros can all heavily learn new skills and improve existing ones.
Is Skillshare really free?
No, Skillshare is not offering free online courses. To access them, you’ll have to pay a recurring membership fee. After paying the monthly subscription, you instantly have access to thousands of quality learning content from experts themselves.
How long is a Skillshare course?
On average, Skillshare classes are roughly 20 to 60 minutes long, ensuring students can absorb information without being overwhelmed with it. These classes come as pre-recorded videos in a logical short series. On the lowest end, Skillshare requires that a class needs to be at least 10 minutes long.
The post Is Skillshare Worth It? A Complete and Honest Review appeared first on BizStack — Entrepreneur’s Business Stack.
Disclosure: We might receive commission on purchases made through links on this page. Learn more.
