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E-Learning Platforms Last update: Mar 25, 2024

Skillshare Review: Is It Best For You?

Best For Creative Courses

Starting from

$29 USD a month

Best for

  • Creative Courses
  • Subscription Plans
Photo of Catherine Cooke

Written by

Catherine Cooke

Catherine Cooke

Upskillwise Advisor

I'm Catherine, originally from London, now living in Spain. My professional journey led me from being a certified teacher to a yoga instructor and then a freelancer designer. These changes were made possible by online learning platforms like Skillshare and Coursera. It wasn't always easy, but so worth it and inspired me to start Upskillwise.

Photo of Catherine Cooke

Upskillwise.com is fully supported by its readers. If you register or buy a course using our links, we may receive a commission. This does not affect our ratings, methodology or partners.

As a freelance graphic design, I’m always looking for online resources and courses to keep my skills up to date. Years ago, I came across Skillshare, which was founded in New York back in 2010 by Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong. It’s an online learning platform that focuses on creative categoires offering dozens of categories and subcategories

Catherine Cooke author of the post and education and freelance expert

To guarantee that this Skillshare review is informative and beneficial, I’ve invested time in extensive research on Skillshare’s classes, instructors, pricing model, refund policy, and have analyzed feedback from its users. Furthermore, my Master’s degree in Teaching and Education, combined with years of experience utilizing online learning platforms, has equipped me to create this comprehensive assessment.

Catherine CookeUpskillwise Advisor

If you have time to read on, I explain all about my experience in this comprehensive and honest Skillshare review, without further ado, let’s get stuck in.

Skillshare Video Review

If you’re short on time and can’t read the detailed review, please check out our video above for a quick summary of what Skillshare offers. I’ve produced this video review of Skillshare to highlight its pros, cons, and fees.

Skillshare Summary

Skillshare is an online learning platform, providing more than 34K+ classes covering a wide selection of creative fields such as animation, illustration, music, photography and much more. It offers both a monthly and annual subscription plan, the monthly plan costing $29 USD and the yearly plan costs $99 USD (equivalent to $8.25 per month). A free trial is available upon initial sign-up to Skillshare, enabling you to explore the platform before committing financially, and you won’t be charged if you decide to cancel within the first 14 days. Skillshare is an ideal platform for creatives, entrepreneurs or those eager to acquire new skills and broaden their knowledge in creative sectors. Its community encourages user interaction, collaboration and support, whether it’s providing feedback or sharing their final work with their peers.

Besides the individual annual plan, Skillshare also offers ‘Skillshare Teams’, a plan priced at $159 per user per year, tailored for teams and businesses. The plan is adaptable to suit teams or businesses of any stage, structure or size. Scholarships and Financial aid are available for qualifying learners. Its free trial is a great place to start, be mindful that you’ll need to add your card details to get access to Skillshare’s free trial.

Skillshare Pros & Cons

Pros

Affordable

Even though you have to commit to Skillshare’s plan for a year, when you work it out monthly at ($13.99) its affordable compared to other online learning platforms.

Free Trial

Skillshare offers a free trial on its Premium membership, so you can enjoy the full learning experience before financially committing.

Engaged Community

Skillshare has a highly engaged community, this can make its classes interactive and fun.

Big pool of classes

Skillshare offers thousands of classes, on topics that include illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing and much more. I think it will be hard for you to get bored with the selection.

Hands-On

Skillshare’s courses focus on developing practical skills using hands-on projects, which is a really engaging way to learn.

Learning Paths

If you are looking to deepen your skillset with a set of curated classes for beginners to advanced learners.

Creative Experts

Skillshare has 11K teachers and some of its classes are taught by industry leaders Youtuber Marques Brownlee and Photographer Amelie Satzger.

Cons

Non Accredited Certificates

You will receive a completion certificate when you successfully complete a class, but be mindful these aren’t accredited by an external University or Organization.

Quality Control

Since anyone can create their own course at Skillshare the available courses’ quality can vary from course to course.

Only Available In English

Although Skillshare welcomes courses in any language, in reality, there isn’t much on offer in languages other than English.

Annual Fee

The Skillshare Premium Membership only allows you to pay for its subscription annually.

Who Is Skillshare For?

Skillshare is aimed at creatives who want to develop new skills or improve existing ones. Since its classes focus on topics like illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing and much more naturally it appeals to; creative workers (e.g. designers, chefs, artists, etc.), entrepreneurs (e.g. marketers or SEOs), freelancers or small businesses who all want to take the next step in their creative journey.

Skillshare Who is it for?
Skillshare Welcome Back

What Does Skillshare Offer?

Skillshare offers 34,000+ courses, that all fit under Skillshares 4 main categories; Creative, Business, Technology and Lifestyle. In case you can’t find what you are looking for under its main categories, you can browse using its subcategories. On top of its individual courses, you can access Skillshares learning paths, ChromaCourses and much more.

Skillshare Learning Paths

Skillshare Learning Paths is designed to help you achieve your learning goals with hand-picked sequential classes that will deepen your skill set with a set of curated classes that build on one another. The learning paths are available in a range of experience levels from beginner to advanced.

Skillshare Learning Paths
Skillshare Learning Paths

Skillshare ChromaCourse

Skillshare has recently introduced four-week, immersive small group courses called ChromaCourse. The idea of it is to give a small group of learners access to exclusive content from expert teachers with live Q&As that get personalized feedback on your assignments.

ChromaCourse on Skillshare
ChromaCourse on Skillshare

Anyone can enroll on a Chroma Course, you don’t need to be a Skillshare member. All you need is access to Slack and Zoom, so you can participate in the live sessions. New Chroma Courses are launched each month and if you find the course you would like to join is full, there is the option to join the waiting list. You can purchase a Chroma Course with a debit or credit card, and then you will receive confirmation of purchase in your email.

Skillshare Chroma Courses

Skillshare Live Sessions

Skillshare offers a digital event series, so you can learn alongside Skillshare teachers and fellow creatives. Anyone is free to join a Skillshare live session by registering through Eventbrite, you don’t need an active Skillshare membership to join. If you are looking to deepen your creative skills, be inspired by a Skillshare teacher or reach your creative goals, it’s worth checking them out.

Skillshare Live Sessions
Skillshare Live Sessions

Skillshare Live Sessions

Skillshare Community

Skillshare is an online learning community that believes in the importance of its members being able to come together to find inspiration, connect with one another and take the next steps into their creative journey.

Groups

Collaboration is a key part of the Skillshare platform. It has tamed up with some Skillshare teachers to bring you Groups. The Groups are broken up into 4 categories Creative, Technology, Business and Lifestyle.

Skillshare Groups
Skillshare Groups

The Groups are an opportunity for you to connect with other creators, share your work, and take your skills to the next level. By joining a Group, you’ll be able to connect with other Skillshare members in your industry, by asking questions, sharing your work, giving and receiving feedback or simply discuss your interests. If you have a free account you can join groups, but members with a Premium paid account can post in them.

Student Projects

Skillshare members can post the work they have been creating which can then be commented on and liked by other Skillshare members. It’s an ideal way to connect with others and share your work in an inspiring and creative community.

Skillshare Student Projects
Skillshare Student Projects

If you are someone who is looking for an online learning platform with a focus on community and connecting with members then Skillshare is the platform for you.

Localized Languages

Originally, the Skillshare community was primarily English speakers, but it now reaches a much larger global community. So, that is why it now offering its content in four additional languages including German, Spanish, French and Portuguese. It is in the process of localizing its catalog of classes for all these languages.

Skillshare multiple languages
Skillshare Language Menu

For its English speaking classes subtitles will accompany the class in the chosen language of the user. Just make sure that you select the right language in the Class Details section of the Class Creator.

Skillshare for Teams

Skillshare isn’t just an online learning platform for individuals, it offers a plan for teams and businesses. This plan is designed for teams or businesses of any size and designed to develop their creative skills.

Skillshare for teams: A plan that gives users a personalized experience with unlimited access to Skillshare’s 34,000+ classes, the ability to watch classes offline and detailed reporting and analytics.

Skillshare for teams package
Skillshare for Teams
Try Skillshare for Teams

However, if you are after some sort of formal education, Skillshare won’t be a good match as it doesn’t offer accredited certificates. If that is what you are looking for, we suggest checking out Coursera.

How Much Is Skillshare?

Skillshare has a simple pricing model, its plans are all subscription based. Its premium plan for individual learners gives you unlimited access to its 34,000+ classes, which you can watch when and where you want. A team plan is also available for your team or business.

Skillshare Premium

Skillshare offers a subscription plan which can be billed monthly or annually for individual learners. The monthly plan costs $29 USD and the annual plan costs $99 USD (working out at $13.99 USD a month). Once you’ve registered you’ll need to choose either the monthly or annual plan at checkout along with entering your credit/debit or PayPal details.

Remember that you won’t be charged anything until your 30-day free trial has finished. If you do decide that Skillshare Premium isn’t for you, you can cancel at anytime during your free trial, and you won’t be charged anything.

Skillshare start free month
Skillshare start free month

The cost of the Skillshare annual plan is similar to an individual MasterClass plan, if you want to read a comparison of the two platforms, check out our Skillshare vs MasterClass article here.

Skillshare Sign Up 1 month free trial
Skillshare Premium Free Trial

A Skillshare Premium membership includes:

  • Unlimited access to 35K+ classes
  • Offline Viewing
  • Access to a vibrant community

Try Skillshare Premium

Skillshare Refund Policy

Skillshare offers refunds on annual Skillshare memberships if you contact them within 14 days after the charge has been processed, just by submitting a request for refund here. Be mindful, that only one refund is available per customer.

In some cases, users may have signed up to a 30-day money-back guarantee offer, can request a refund up to 30 days after payment.

Be aware that Skillshare will not be able to cancel, refund, or manage subscriptions bought through apps like the iOS App Store or Google Play.

Cancel Your Membership with Skillshare

After you cancel your membership, your Skillshare account will be active for the remaining days of your membership plan. When your membership expires, you’ll lose access to your class videos and any downloadable material. If you change your mind, you’re able to reactivate your membership plan at any time.

Skillshare Teams

Skillshare for Teams is designed for creative learning, developing the skills of your team or business.

Skillshare for Teams (2-49 seats): $159 per seat annually

Skillshare for Teams (50+ seats): Custom Priced

Skillshare for teams
Skillshare for teams

The Skillshare for Teams is billed annually per user and there is no monthly option. The memberships are designed to provide flexibility for your organization. You have the option to add users to your account if your team grows.

Skillshare Scholarships

Skillshare offers different Scholarships ranging from 50% off a membership for College and University students to furloughed workers in the UK. If you meet the requirements, then you are eligible to apply for the scholarship.

Skillshare Scholarships
Skillshare Scholarships

The application process is pretty straightforward, all you need to do is add your name, email and explain why you are applying for the Skillshare Scholarship. You will then be notified via email if you are successful.

Skillshare Scholarships

For more information about how much Skillshare costs, you can check out our pricing guide.

How To Open A Skillshare Account?

Skillshare sign up
Open an account with Skillshare

Opening a Skillshare account is straightforward to open, you only need to follow these steps:

  1. Visit Skillshare.com and click on ‘Sign in’ (top right corner) or ‘Sign Up With Email’
  2. Or if you prefer you can Continue with your: Facebook, Google or Apple account
  3. You will then be directed to add your payment details
  4. Once completed just select Start your free month
Skillshare payment details
Skillshare payment details

Try Skillshare 1-month free

Skillshare in Detail

Criteria

Comment

Ease of Use ?

4

Signing up to Skillshare is really straightforward; you only need an email and a password. It’s also possible to register using Facebook or Google.

Before purchasing the premium membership you will get access to a 1-month free trial. If you don’t want to continue with the premium plan, you will need to cancel before the trial ends, and you won’t be charged anything.

Using Skillshare’s interface is also straightforward, there is enough information about the classes and the backend is intuitive. It could have a more detailed knowledge base though.

Convenience ?

5

Skillshare is an online learning community to master real-world skills with thousands of classes (courses).

Skillshare offers a completely unrestricted free trial for 1 month, to its premium membership. The premium plan allows you to watch its classes offline.

Available Platforms

5

Besides its website, you can use their mobile apps (Android and Apple) to follow a class. Users like Skillshare apps as their rating at the app stores is higher than 4.5 (out of 5).

Certifications ?

Skillshare is not accredited with any educational institution (e.g. University or Organization) and you will not receive an accredited certificate when you complete a course.

Categories ?

3.5

Skillshare offers over 34,000+ online classes. The classes are offered in four main categories: Creative & Design, Business, Technology and Lifestyle.

If you are looking for a wider range of courses, then Udemy has courses on every topic you could imagine.

Free Courses

4

Skillshare no longer offers free classes. However, it does offer a 7 – day free trial on its premium memberships, which gives you full access to all classes on the platform.

Content Quality ?

4

Every class has short lessons and hands-on projects for you to work on. You will then share your project in the class and receive feedback from Skillshare’s community.

Some complaints are that the classes and the instructors lack quality control as pretty much anyone can post their own Skillshare course.

Languages ?

4

Skillshare accepts classes in all languages. Its community is primarily English speakers. Recently, it has added four additional languages: French, German, Portuguese and Spanish to appeal to its growing global community.

Instructors ?

5

As well as offering course subscriptions it also allows you to sign up as a teacher and produce your own classes.

Skillshare classes are taught by creators, entrepreneurs and professionals from all over the world. Skillshare teachers are responsible for every aspect of their course, from designing it to uploading videos and materials. They are then paid a royalty based on the number of minutes of your classes that Skillshare users watch.

Course Requirements ?

3.5

There aren’t many specific requirements a course must meet other than ‘it must be educational’, ‘good sound quality’, ‘include a presentation’, ‘well-organized content’ or ‘high-resolution video’. Classes must be, at least, 10-minutes long though.

One positive thing is that all classes must include a project the students will be able to use to learn.

Course Structure ?

3

Skillshare online classes consist of a video window that plays the course content which is divided into small bite-size classes. Some of the classes can vary from minutes to hours.

You will also have the information about the instructor’s profile, links to additional information and a project (or projects) to follow the course.

The course program and structure are well detailed within the course page, so you’ll know what to expect from each class.

Quizzes and Tests ?

3

Some Skillshare classes include quizzes in their content, but this isn’t a requirement.

Payments and Refunds

4

Skillshare works on an annual subscription model. You pay a fixed fee every year with full access to the platform.

Skillshare premium is billed annually at $99 working out at $8.25 a month for individual learners. There is also Skillshare for Teams that’s $159 per user, per year, and the plan can be adapted for a team or business of any size.

You have a 14-day refund policy for the premium annual plan. Use a credit card or PayPal to pay for your subscription.

For a more detailed review on Skillshare costs and pricing plan.

Support ?

3

You can reach out to Skillshare via email at help@skillshare.com. At times, they can be slow to answer. They have some support materials, but they don’t answer all the questions you may have about the platform as they aren’t super detailed either.

Overall Rating ?

4.5

Skillshare offers such a wide variety of creative classes that you can learn at your own pace. Sadly, they don’t offer courses on every topic, other platforms like Udemy have courses about pretty much everything.

If you are looking for an accredited certification it would be best to explore Coursera or edX.

What Classes can I find on Skillshare?

When you click on Browse in the top-left corner you will see that Skillshare has divided its creative classes into 3 main categories Create, Build and Thrive (see image below).

Skillshare Categories
Skillshare Categories
  • Create: Animation, Creative Writing, Film & Video, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Music, Photography, UI/UX Design and Web Development.
  • Build: Business Analytics, Freelance & Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Management and Marketing.
  • Thrive: Lifestyle and Productivity

Skillshare offers thousands of free classes in all the areas listed above, so it is an ideal way for you to try out its courses. Plus the free trial on the Skillshare Premium plan gives you full access to its library of classes and courses.

How are Skillshare Classes Stuctured?

Skillshare classes are not designed around a fixed format. Some of its classes are short and sweet around 10 minutes, whereas others run for longer hours even and can have up to 50 short videos. All its classes have assignments and encourage its learner to share their projects and learning along the way, and it encourages engagement with the Skillshare community.

YouTube Success Learn Skills Online
YouTube Success Learn Skills Online

Skillshare offers a couple of types of classes, the Skillshare Original and other Skillshare classes that are created by individuals. The Skillshare Originals are courses which Skillshare produce, and they normally collaborate with partners like Moz and Havenly. As well as these partners it also likes to work with celebrities or influencers who have a decent following like Marques Brownlee (YouTuber, Pocaster, Tech Head) and Ali Abdaal (Doctor & YouTuber). I actually took one of Ali Abdaal classes you can read about my experience in this review below.

Under each class video are some features that help to deepen your learning which include About, Teacher, Class Ratings, Hands-on Class Project and Resources and Transcripts.

About

Skillshare About This Class
Skillshare About This Class

The About section gives a summary of the class, what the lessons will cover and most importantly what skills you will learn from taking this class.

Teacher

A small blurb about the teacher teaching the class will tell you about their experience and background. In some cases, you may already be familiar with your teacher, but if not this gives you a well-rounded overview of who they are.

Skillshare Meet Your Teacher
Skillshare Meet Your Teacher

Class Ratings

The class ratings are a good indication for new users about an insight into the class. You can check out the Expectations of previous users and read comments left by them, this may help your decision-making whether you want to take the class or not.

Skillshare Class Ratings
Skillshare Class Ratings

Skillshare Customer Reviews

To ensure this Skillshare review offers a thorough perspective, I chose to explore two well-know customer review sites, Trustpilot and Sitejabber. This approach enables us to gather insights from a broad and varied customer base, offering a comprehensive view of what users have to say about the platform.

The Trustpilot review comes from 1,499 users, you can see in the table below the breakdown of the ratings between 1 and 5 star. The Sitejabber review is taken from 588 customers with 365 of those users awarding Skillshare a 5-star rating.

Rating Trustpilot Sitejabber
5-star 47% 365
4-star 12% 7
3-star 3% 5
2-star 2% 9
1-star 36% 172
Overall 1.4 out of 5 stars 3.69 out of 5 stars

Data gathered on 10/20/2023

As I dug further into the details, I wanted to know what users were praising and complaining about. On Trustpilot, nearly 50% of the reviews gave the platform a 5-star rating, many praising its ‘Customer Service’, ‘User Experience’ and ‘Payment & Refunds’. “I really enjoy the Skillshare platform! Everything is really well organised and easy to figure out.” a content five-star reviewer said.

On the downside, many of the unhappy 1-star ratings on Sitejabber complained about ‘Bad Customer Service, ‘Technical Issues’ and ‘Disappointing Teachers’.  “I was charged for the membership renewal without prior notice. When I realized it, I cancelled quickly on the website. They refused to give me a refund…” an unhappy one-star reviewer said.

My Skillshare Experience

The best way for me to get to know the Skillshare platform, is by trying out some classes for myself. Luckily, I’ve taken a bunch of classes which has helped me to get a good overview of the platform. Some of my favorite classes have included Productivity Masterclass by Ali Abdaal and Boost Your Dream Business by Isis Breanna.

Video Lessons

The video lesson’s template is very intuitively designed (see image below). You can find all the video lessons and duration on the right side of the video player. Then below the video player is subheadings of the class like About, Reviews, Discussions, Projects & Resources and Transcripts.

Skillshare Productivity MasterClass Video template
Skillshare Productivity MasterClass Video template

This Productivity Masterclass – Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity consists of 15 video lessons which are all bite sized, with the longest video around 20 minutes long. I particularly enjoyed the video lesson on The Power of Habits as it was one of my favourite classes, I took a lot away from it, especially about how once something becomes a habit it becomes so much easier to sustain. Also, the fact that it is about identity change and the identities we reinforce on ourselves and making the smallest changes will impact us long term.

Projects & Discussions

After watching all the video lessons, there is an opportunity for you to put what you’ve learned into action. After completing the ‘Boost Your Dream Business’ I added my own class project, which was a lead magnet that I implemented on Upskillwise, you can see it in action here. I really liked seeing the work of other students, and it actually gave me inspiration before I designed my own lead magnet (see image below).

Skillshare Class Projects
Skillshare Class Projects

I added my own response to the prompt “I Don’t Have Time” (see image below) and even though I won’t be getting any feedback from Ali Abdaal it did make me think about what am I avoiding when I say to myself “I don’t have time” and write down what that is. I believe much of what this class is about is changing old habits of behavior, so having this reflective practice enforces you to think about changing patterns of behavior.

Skillshare Productivity Masterclass I don't have time
Skillshare Productivity Masterclass I don’t have time

Certificate

Once you’ve submitted your project, you’ll earn a completion certificate. Even if your main goal isn’t to receive a completion certificate, it’s still a recognition of your hard work and commitment (see image below). I added mine to my LinkedIn and actually felt quite proud of myself.

Skillshare Catherine Cooke Certificate
Skillshare Certificate

To summarize

Before concluding all the reasons, you should take a Skillshare class. It would only be fair to highlight where the platform is lacking and why it may not be right for you. Skillshare’s classes aren’t accredited with any external Organization or University. If that is something you are looking for then Coursera or Udacity would be the right fit.

You’ll love Skillshare for:

  • 1-month free trial
  • Engaging & Bite size video lessons
  • Ask questions in the Discussions
  • 34,000+ classes on a wide variety of subjects

Skillshare isn’t right for you:

  • There are no quizzes, tests or assessments
  • You won’t get any feedback from the teacher
  • There are no deadlines

Skillshare Teachers

Skillshare has over 8,000+ teachers within its community. If you are looking to teach online and trying to decide on your class topic then Skillshare offers up-to-date teaching resources and teachers tips videos (see image below). You can also join a Skillshare Teachers group to ask questions, share tips, and you can email teach@skillshare.com for any specific questions.

Skillshare Teach a Class
Skillshare Teach a Class

As well as all the resources and tips that Skillshare offers for new teachers it also highlights success stories of teachers on its blog to inspire you to build a following, engage with learners and earn a passive income.

Top Skillshare Teachers

Hayden Aube: An illustrator, designer and teacher at Skillshare. Hayden offers a variety of classes from Character Design to Illustration. His classes are short and to the point and the focus is on delivering the most important information that’s going to make the biggest impact on your work. Some of Hayden’s most popular classes are Adobe Illustrator: Design with Gradients, Teach Yourself to Draw Anything: A Step-by-Step Process and Vector Illustration: Playing with Texture.

Mel Armstrong: An illustrator, Pattern Addict and teacher at Skillshare. Mel is obsessed with creating beautiful things, from craft to illustration. Her classes focus on learning pattern design as well as digital illustration. Some of Mel’s most popular classes are Illustrating in Procreate: Draw a fox!, 10 Photoshop Tips for Surface Designers and Surface Pattern Design Fundamentals.

Sean Dalton: A travel and lifestyle photographer and teacher at Skillshare. Sean strives to capture the true essence of a scene with his camera. His classes relate to his travel and lifestyle photography background, but his focus is constantly expanding as he continues to grow as a photographer. Some of Sean’s most popular classes are Photography Essentials: Understanding the Basics, Adobe Lightroom: Finding Your Unique Editing Style and Dark & Moody Food Photography for Instagram Success: Visual Storytelling with Emotional Food Photos.

7 tips To Find The Perfect Class

Like most of the other elearning platforms, Skillshare has a review system that you can check to find out what previous students think about a certain course. But these aren’t the only ways you can find the right course for you, let me highlight some tips on how you can find the right class for you.

Filter out the classes

If you buy on sites like Amazon or eBay you are probably used to the filters to narrow your searches down. Skillshare’s interface comes with filters you can use to find the right course for you.

Skillshare filter view
Skillshare filter view

Once you’ve selected a category (topic) you can then filter the classes out by free vs premium and select the desired course duration (in minutes). There is also the possibility to order the classes by popularity or trend.

Sadly, its filters don’t have as many options as the ones you can find in other elearning platforms such as Coursera or Udemy, but they can be useful too.

About this class

In the course landing page, you can find the ‘About this class’, a section that will detail who the course is aimed at, what you will learn, the level of the class (from beginner to advanced) and the skills that you’ll be able to acquire after completion.

Skillshare about this class
Skillshare about this class

There is also a short blurb about the instructor, normally it details their experience, passion and why they teach this subject.

A good place to start is checking that the skills taught in the course are what you are looking to learn and that the level of the course matches your experience.

Available projects

Since Skillshare classes are project-based, you can have a sneak peek of the projects that the instructor will use to support her or his teaching throughout the lessons.

Skillshare course projects
Skillshare sneak peek of the course projects

As you can see in the image above, the course resources can be accessed even before starting the course. I’d recommend doing so as they will give you a pretty clear idea of what you’ll be practising and learning.

Read reviews at Skillshare

Another great tip to find the course of your dreams is to be checking what past students have to say about it.

Skillshare reviews and rating
Skillshare reviews and rating

Its review system offers a breakdown of what students thought of the course, you can then click on one of the grades and read the reviews for it (e.g. only ‘Exceeded!’ rating reviews).

You can also go ahead and read some of the reviews from other users, but be aware that Skillshare sorts them by default from best to worse. you can always sort them by ‘Most Recent’ to read a more balanced pool of users’ feedback.

I also checked the ‘Most Liked’ section too, this section provides information about the different aspects that students valued the most. For example, helpful examples, the instructor was clear or how organized the classes are.

Find out more about the instructor

At Skillshare.com, every teacher has a page where they explain who they are, their professional experience and what their teaching goals are. Going through this page can be useful to get a vibe of each teacher and see if you like their approach to education.

Skillshare instructor profile
Skillshare instructor profile

However you are not limited to the information that you can read on their instructor landing page, as you can see in the image above, they normally have references to either their website or their social media accounts. Check them out to gather more information on your potential teacher – but please don’t be a creepy stalker 🙂

Free Trial

The 7-day free trial gives you the opportunity to try out the Skillshare platform and all its courses for a week.

Skillshare Start 7 day free trial
Skillshare premium 7 day free trial

Remember, you can always cancel before the first 7-day if you want to avoid continuing with the Skillshare premium plan, and you won’t be charged anything.

Skillshare mobile app

You can access Skillshare from your tablet or phone thanks to the Skillshare app. With the premium membership, you can learn on the go even when you are offline. All you need to do is download the classes beforehand, and then you can learn from anywhere. As you progress in different classes, this will all be synced with all your devices, be it your computer, tablet or phone.

Skillshare mobile app
Skillshare mobile app

So if you have a busy schedule, or a long commute, then learning with the Skillshare app maybe the answer for you. The Skillshare app is available for IOS (4.8 rating) and Android (4.5 rating). 

Will Skillshare Help Me With My Career?

Whereas Skillshare won’t get you a formal promotion as it doesn’t have accredited certificates, it’s very possible that it helps improve your professional skills so you can work confidently.

Skillshare projects
All Skillshare classes are project-based

I would say that Skillshare is ideal if you are a freelancer (or part of a creative team) and you don’t care too much about earning certificates and developing your CV. Skillshare is more about teaching you the knowledge you can apply to your work.

There is also an engaged community of students at Skillshare, this can be a great way to get in touch with other professionals from your field.

Is Skillshare Legit?

Sure, Skillshare is an elearning platform that has been operating since 2010, which means that it’s older than most of its competitors. They have their headquarters in New York and companies such as Vice, Stapels or Virgin TV use them for their employees’ development.

Its website is SSL secured and the payments can be done using a credit card or PayPal, you’ll have a 14-day refund policy for annual subscriptions. On top of that, you’ll be able to trial the platform and its classes for some time completely free.

Publish a Course at Skillshare

There aren’t any formal requirements to publish a course at Skillshare, you won’t have to be a university lecturer or a super famous designer or artist – although that helps.

As a Skillshare instructor, you’ll be in charge of designing your course, producing the videos and materials, uploading the resources to Skillshare and keeping in touch with your students.

There are two ways in which Skillshare teachers are paid:

  1. You would get paid $10 for every new student you bring to Skillshare
  2. For each viewed minute of your classes, Skillshare will pay you a royalty.

Payments to instructors are made via PayPal, sadly, there isn’t any other way to get paid with Skillshare.

Please be aware that the speed at which students watch your classes has an impact on your revenue. For example, if they watch 20 minutes at 2x, you’ll be paid for 10 minutes, and if they watch 20 minutes at 0.5x you’ll be paid for 40 minutes.

There are guidelines for instructors when creating classes, but they are mainly common-sense recommendations:

  • Create engaging and educational content
  • Sound and video should be good quality
  • You must have an introduction/presentation video
  • Classes need to be project-based
  • No self-promotion outside the intro and outro of the classes
  • Max upload 1 class a week
  • Some topics aren’t allowed: passive income, other educational platforms (e.g. Udemy), reselling products or medical content
  • Minimum of 10 minutes per course

Skillshare Alternatives

Coursera

Accredited Certificates

4.8

Udemy

Variety of Courses

4.3

edX

Best for Verified Certificates

4.2

Coursera: With over 113+ million students and more than 4,000 courses created by universities and companies is a big fish in the elearning world. The main perk of Coursera is that you can earn accredited certificates, something Skillshare is unable to offer.

Udemy: Udemy is possibly the most popular elearning platform in the world, it has more than 210,000+ courses, and it’s available in several languages. They cover a wide range of topics, from programming to icing cakes, so if you can’t find the course you like in Skillshare, check out Udemy.

edX: More than 24 students have trusted on this platform. With more than 4,000 courses from universities like Harvard or Berkeley, and official recognition (certificates) it’s a solid alternative for many.

Skillshare Conclusion

After this in-depth Skillshare review, I hope you have a clearer understanding of how this popular creative online learning platform works and whether it is right for you. Let me summarize why it’s worth it;

Its premium plan is affordable and gives you access to 34,000+ classes which are geared towards creative professionals, entrepreneurs and learners. The course community is normally engaged, so interacting with other students can be a fun way to learn. The 1-month free trial gives you the opportunity to test the waters out before financially committing.

If you are part of a creative team or business, one of its three team plans may be suitable. The starter plan is the cheapest option, and then you have the Enterprise or Revive, which are both custom plans.

As mentioned earlier, if you are looking for any kind of official recognition of your learnings (e.g. a certificate), you’ll have to look elsewhere (e.g. Coursera or edX). Even if they have a lot of online courses available, they are normally focused on design, marketing and entrepreneurship – you may not be able to find the course you need.

Please leave a comment below if you have any questions, and I’ll do my best to help you out.

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