Skillshare Review - Is it the right choice for you?

If you've watched YouTube videos regularly in the last couple of years, you've probably heard of Skillshare before. The platform has become popular in recent years and has gained a lot of attention for their variety of courses on creative, business & tech topics.

But is it worth it? And how does it stack up against other platforms?

Let's find out in this Skillshare review!

What is Skillshare?

Skillshare is an online learning platform with a focus on creative & business skills, ranging from fine art to productivity and everything in between! The company was started by Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong in November 2010 and launched in April 2011. Today, Skillshare has more than 8000 teachers teaching 42,000+ classes, more than 12 registered users and gets about 9 million visitors every month.

Let's check out what makes their platform unique!

Skillshare classes

Skillshare's central offering are their classes (which are basically online courses, but they call them classes). These are typically pre-recorded and about 30–40 minutes in total length. Every class features a class project, which is a short assignment that students are encouraged to complete in order to put their newly acquired skills to work.

Skillshare projects

As mentioned before, every Skillshare class has a little project assigned to it, that you can use to practice your skills. These Skillshare projects are public, so you can get inspired by what others have created, and you can get feedback on your work.

Skillshare mobile app

Lastly, Skillshare also has mobile apps for iOS and Android that allow you to learn while on the go.

Pro & Cons

Who is Skillshare for?

Skillshare is best suited for creatives & aspiring creatives that want to learn something new about creative, personal development & business topics. All their courses are self-paced (except Chroma courses), so you can learn on your own schedule. Skillshare also encourages project-based learning through their projects. As it's one of the biggest online communities for creative skills, Skillshare is great for all types of creative interests!

Skillshare pricing

Skillshare has a subscription model, where you pay a monthly fee to get access to their entire library of 42,000+ classes. Currently, the membership costs $168 per year, which comes out to $13.99/month. They do not offer any free courses, but you do get a 7-day free trial to try out their services.

What's important is that they currently only offer the yearly subscription, which means there's no option to go with a monthly plan.

If you don't want to be committed for an entire year, you might want to check out other services like Domestika Plus, or CreativeLive which are similar in nature, but offer monthly plans as well.

Skillshare refund policy

In general, Skillshare offers refunds in the first 7 days after a payment has been made. This might vary depending on your payment method or where you made your purchase. To learn more about Skillshare's refund policy, you can check out their help center article about the topic.

Skillshare for businesses

Skillshare for Teams is Skillshares' offer for teams & businesses. It comes with additional team administration features for business owners & managers.

These team plans are purchased as seats per user & year. In any of the plans, every one of your team members gets access to Skillshares' library of 42,000+ classes.

Let's go through the plans one-by-one:

Starter

The Starter plan gives your team access to the entire class library of 42,000+ courses. You also get access to:

• User management tools

• Basic tech support

• Custom curated class lists

• A dedicated Customer Success Manager

• Integration options

The yearly fee is $159 per user, per year.

Enterprise

The Enterprise Plan includes everything from the Starter plan, plus:

• LMS integration

• Onboarding support

• Reporting capabilities

• Basic tech support

The price for this plan is custom based on your organizations' needs.

Revive

The Revive plan is targeted at large organization that want to offer Skillshare access as a perk to their employees. It's basically like the Starter plan, with some added capabilities for onboarding & reporting. Again, the pricing for this plan is custom, so you'll have to contact the Skillshare sales team in order to get a quote.

This plan is great if you don't care as much about the things that employees learn, and you care more about giving them access to Skillshare a part of your benefits program.

Skillshare for students

Skillshare doesn't really have a dedicated plan for students, by they do offer some scholarships for students (these might be subject to change though). One of the scholarships they currently have is a 50% discount off the one year of membership for college & university students (with a valid student address).

There's also an ongoing scholarship for others, that don't have the financial means to buy a Skillshare membership. Each month, Skillshare awards 10 recipients with a free year of Skillshare membership.

You can find these offers on the Skillshare scholarship page.

Learning & Customer support

Skillshare has a help center for technical questions about your account, payments, etc. They also have a contact form you can use to get in contact with them directly via chat & email.

When you have troubles understanding a concept taught in a course, or you're not getting a program to work properly, you can use the "Discussion" tab in your course, which allows you to ask questions that other students and the instructor can answer for you.

Something to note is that there have been reports about customers that has problems contacting the Skillshare support, mostly when asking for a refund in the 7-day period after being charged. This is also reflected in Skillshare's Trustpilot ratings. Although you have to be careful with these review sites, it's definitely something to keep in mind!

Certification

Skillshare currently doesn't offer any certificates, and the platform also isn't an accredited institution. The best way to showcase the skills you acquired through Skillshare would be to finish your class project or to start your own projects.

Create a Skillshare account

To create your Skillshare account, just click on the "Sign In" button in the top right corner.

Next, you have the option to sign in with either Google, Apple, Facebook, or your email address. After that, you'll have to enter your payment information. During your free trial, you will not be charged, but if you don't stop your membership, you will be charged after the trial ends.

Popular courses on Skillshare

Here are some of the most popular classes on Skillshare:

Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity

Learn the principles and tools to boost your creativity with Ali Abdaal, the popular productivity & self-improvement YouTuber!

Check out the class

Intro to Procreate: Illustrating on the iPad

Get started with Procreate and learn how to create beautiful illustrations with Brooke Glaser, an awesome illustrator & designer!

Check out the class

YouTube Success: Script, Shoot & Edit with MKBHD

Learn how to become successful on YouTube with MKBHD, one of the most popular YouTubers of all time (15+ million subscribers). Learn how to film, edit & promote your videos for more YouTube success!

Check out the class

Skillshare instructors

In General, instructors on Skillshare are knowledgeable in the fields they teach. They could be working professionals, subject-matter experts, or just enthusiasts that love to talk about their respective topics. The guidelines for becoming a Skillshare teacher aren't strict, so the overall course quality will be lower than it might be on platforms with more strict instructor guidelines like Domestika.

In total, Skillshare has 8000+ teachers, which is an impressive amount!

Summary: Is Skillshare worth it?

Yes, Skillshare is definitely worth it for a lot of people. You'll love Skillshare for their:

• Huge library of courses on creativity, design, business & tech

• Fair pricing ($14/month for access to 42,000+ courses)

• Recognized instructors like Seth Godin, Ali Abdaal, MKBHD & many more

In my opinion, Skillshare is awesome for exploring your creative side, as it gives you the freedom to try out lots of different things with one inclusive subscription. If that's not what you want, take a look at some of the most popular Skillshare alternatives below: