Are you confused about whether Skillshare is the right platform for you? You’ve come to the right spot. Read this unbiased and honest Skillshare review to know if skillshare is worth your time. Skillshare is an online learning platform where one can learn and deliver educational videos. It is also one of the best platforms that provide brainstorming ideas as a way to grow in a creative direction.
So, in this article, we’ve made the decision to put an end to your suffering by giving you a frank assessment of Skillshare based on our personal usage.
Skillshare Overview- In A Nutshell
Skillshare is created by Malcolm Ong and Michael Karnjanaprakorn in 2010. It is a thriving marketplace for learners and teachers, an online learning platform based in the United States. It offers more than 35,000 classes, available to users under free and premium membership plans. It gives you instant access to thousands of new skills, projects, and tools – which is why people usually give a very positive skillshare review.
Skillshare also allows you to sign up as a teacher, and produce your courses. You can then earn money from Skillshare based on the number of people who decide to study your course materials. However, this article would cover everything that you need to know about Skillshare before you purchase a course from this platform.
Pros and Cons of Skillshare
Let us look at the Pros and Cons of Skillshare
Pros of Skillshare
- Free Classes: Even without a premium membership, you can access nearly 3000 classes for free. Although these are not detailed classes, most of them do give you a good insight into the topic and make it easier for you to decide if you want to take a paid course to learn more about any particular field.
- Ease of Use: according to various review of skillshare platform, Skillshare has an easily navigable desktop and mobile platform that syncs your progress across all devices.
- Affordable: Skillshare can be quite affordable if you pay annually. With less than 100 dollars, users get to choose from thousands of courses that are formulated and taught by the best teachers today. It even provides discounts and perks for additional products and services.
- Free Trial: Skillshare offers free 7 days Premium trials, giving new students a chance to “try before they buy”. On referring to a friend, you get an additional 1 month free.
- Communities of like-minded learners: Skillshare has communities that are highly engaged and encourage participation. It is often difficult for amateur learners to find like-minded people (which can significantly increase the learning capacity of any person), and Skillshare helps people deal with this issue by making relevant connections.
- New and Varied Content: Skillshare has thousands of classes, so you will have a lot to choose from depending on your interests.
- Mobile App Available: This platform has a mobile app with great skillshare reviews that you can download and learn from, regardless of where you are. The app also provides you with suggested courses based on your activity in the learning sphere of the platform.
Cons of Skillshare
- No Certification: if you are looking for an online learning platform that would act as accreditation for your skills, then you would be disappointed to find that there is no certificate provided at the end of any workshop. The aim of Skillshare courses is to promote individual growth.
- Only in English: Skillshare welcomes teachers to make learning content in other languages; there isn’t much to offer in languages other than English.
- Quality Varies: Since anyone can create their course at Skillshare, the responsibility of finding the best educator falls on you. Even the level of choice can feel overwhelming sometimes.
Skillshare Pricing Plans
Previously available only for individuals, Skillshare now offers services for teams too for an efficient upskill process for employees. Here is a glimpse of the two Skillshare pricing plans:
Premium: The yearly cost is $167.88 (approximately $13.99 per month). If you do decide that Skillshare Premium isn’t for you, you can cancel it anytime during your one-month money- back guarantee, and you won’t be charged a penny.
Teams: There are three subscription options available:
- Starter: for groups of 5 to 49 members, $159 per user per annum
- Enterprise: for groups of 20+ members, contact Skillshare for custom Enterprise pricings.
- Revive: for groups of 50+ members, contact Skillshare for custom Revive prices.
All Team plans are billed annually or per multi-year contract. Additionally, the more seats you purchase, the lower the price you will end up paying for an individual seat.
Skillshare for Business
While Skillshare is great for personal development, it is very beneficial for teams too. Here is a list of features that make this online learning platform great if an employer is looking to create an environment for the employees to grow up to their maximum potential:
- Unlimited access to Skillshare’s entire database and community which includes 35000+ classes taught by industry experts across varied categories.
- An easy-to-use Admin Panel where you can handle your team, invite and add users at any time.
- Class + Project model where users can test out the skills they learned and receive feedback from colleagues and other students.
- Offline, mobile, and casting capabilities through our Skillshare mobile app.
- Dedicated Customer Success Manager for 1:1 onboarding and strategy sessions (available for Enterprise only)
- Usage and Engagement reporting (Revive & Enterprise only)
- LMS Integrations and API capabilities (available for Enterprise only)
Skillshare Scholarships
Even though online learning platforms offer courses at a significantly cheaper price, it is still not affordable for many underprivileged yet bright people out there. To address this issue, many platforms such as Skillshare offer scholarships to the needy so that everyone can get access to top-quality content – especially when they deserve it.
Skillshare as of now offers two kinds of scholarships to the needy. Scholarships range from getting 50% off a Skillshare membership for college and university students to one year of free membership. If you meet the requirements, then you are eligible to apply for the scholarship.
The application process is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is add your name, and email (with a valid .edu address), and explain why you are applying for the Skillshare Scholarship. You will then be notified via email if you are successful.
Popular Skillshare Courses
Skillshare has divided its classes into three main categories:
Create: Animation, Creative Writing, Film & Video, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Music, Photography, UI/UX Design, Web Development, and so on are a part of this category
Make: these courses include Business Analytics, Freelance & Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Management, and Marketing.
Thrive: Lifestyle and Productivity make up the thrive section for personal growth
A few popular classes from each category are listed below:
1. A Beginner’s Guide to After Effects
Taught by Jake Bartlett, a Motion Designer, this class is beginner-friendly and is a comprehensive course covering everything you need to know to start creating animations in Adobe After Effects. It also covers Panels & Workspaces, Resolution, Frame Rates, Combining Effects, and much more. This class has been watched by over 12000 students, with 80% of students sharing positive feedback.
2. Video Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro for Beginners
Taught by Jordy Vandeput, a Filmmaker and Youtuber, this class is beginner-friendly where you will learn how to take your creative ideas into amazing videos with Adobe Premiere Pro. Users get to access a very detailed program about a solid basis of Premiere Pro which allows you, people, to perform basic edits, create custom graphics and texts, mix audio from speech, deal with music, sound effects, and so on. This class has been watched by over 71000 students, with over 60% of students sharing positive feedback.
3. Graphic Design BasicsCore Principles for Visual Design
Taught by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips – co-directors of the Graphic Design MFA program at MICA – this class is every beginner’s dream and will give you a solid foundation. With a focus on core principles of graphic design, you will learn the five basic design principles, critique your work for effectiveness and balance, and apply each core concept in future projects. This class has been watched by over 106000 students, with 80% of students sharing positive feedback.
4. Digital Illustration: Learn to Use Procreate
Taught by Jarom Vogel, a Digital Illustrator, this class is beginner-friendly where you will learn how to use Procreate on your iPad to create digital artwork. The key lessons in this course will include setting up your first canvas, using select tools, brushes, and erasers, creating and organizing your layers, and adding color, textures, and effects. This class has been watched by over 115000 students, with over 50% of students sharing positive feedback.
5. Stock Market Fundamentals
Taught by Zac Hartley, an Entrepreneur and Day Trader, this class is beginner-friendly. It is specially designed for people who are looking to get into day trading, swing trading, or dividend investing. This class has been watched by over 2000 students, with over 80% of students sharing positive feedback.
6. User Experience Design Essentials
Adobe XD UI UX Design – Taught by Daniel Scott, an Adobe Certified Trainer, this class is beginner-friendly. You will learn the tools necessary for creating excellent wireframes, including type, colors, icons, and much more. This class has been watched by over 21000 students, with over 70% of students sharing positive feedback.
Is Skillshare Worth It?
Skillshare is one of the world’s largest online communities for creativity. It has millions of registered users and offers thousands of online classes in just about anything one can think of. It can be related to anything or about anything – be it programs to promote upskilling for work or for lifestyle changes to live a better life.
People who like to test platforms on a monthly subscription may not be happy with Skillshare’s decision to stick to annual subscription plans, and there are many ads in the non-premium model of this education platform (which is why premium wins when we talk about skillshare free vs premium). Some users also feel that the feedback that they receive is not up to the level of finesse that they expect.
However, this online learning community is best for all creative minds without any age barriers and entrepreneurs who are looking to learn skills that will help them grow in a short period on a wider level. Hence, it is totally worth every penny spent on the purchase of courses from this gem of a platform.
Related Read – Skillshare vs. Masterclass
Conclusion– Is Skillshare Worth It?
After reading this review thoroughly, I hope all your doubts are cleared.
Millions of learners use Skillshare globally, with more than 40,000 courses. Since the classes focus on various topics like illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, etc., it naturally appeals to artists, entrepreneurs, businesses, or freelancers who want to take the next step in their career and upskill themselves.
We assume that you would now be able to make an informed and intelligent decision. If you have any queries, please feel free to drop comments below.
Frequently Asked Questions– SkillShare Review
Yes, Skillshare is a great platform to try out learning new skills and broadening the horizon of your creativity.
Even though Youtube is a free alternative, Skillshare is better when it comes to learning because one does not have to do extensive browsing to reach their desired web result. Skillshare offers easy to navigate the interface without ads which makes anyone focus more on learning.
Skillshare has an upper hand over Udemy because of the variety of courses, content quality, and direct interaction with the course tutor to track the process of learning.
Skillshare is best when it comes to learning various creative skills such as writing and design.
Skillshare offers a monthly plan of 32 dollars per account.
A year of Skillshare would sum up to about 168 dollars for one account.
Yes, users are provided with an option to cancel their subscription whenever they want to.
Although not all classes are free on Skillshare, more than 100 of them do not require you to pay to learn.
Skillshare courses cannot get you a job, but it does help you stand out amongst competitors.
