Coursera vs. Pluralsight - complete comparison

Overview

Description	Coursera Coursera is an online learning platform that offers courses from top universities and organizations worldwide, like Yale or Stanford. They also offer fully digital Bachelors and Master’s degrees.	Pluralsight Pluralsight is an online learning platform that focuses on teaching technical skills in a broad variety of subjects. Founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonnard, Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, and Bill Williams, the platform now boasts thousands of courses created by 1,500+ expert teachers.
Types of courses	Coursera INDIVIDUAL LEARNING Regular courses Self-paced courses for individual learning and skill development. The courses itself are typically free, with certification being offered as a paid addon. $50 - $150 USDIncluded in subscription Self-paced MASTERS DEGREE Master's Degree Full master's degree programs offered in partnership with universities. $10000 - $60000 USD Full-time BACHELORS DEGREE Bachelor's Degree Full bachelor's degree programs offered in partnership with universities. $10000 - $80000 USD Full-time PARTIAL MASTERS MasterTrack Certificates Master's degree-level courses with a path to credit $2000 - $10000 USD 4-6 months INDIVIDUAL LEARNING Professional Certificates Job-relevant training programs, from universities and corporations. FreeIncluded in subscription 3-6 months	Pluralsight
Subscription plans	Coursera PERSONAL Coursera Plus Access to a selection of 7,000+ world-class courses, hands-on projects, and job-ready certificate programs $35 - 55 USD per month	Pluralsight PERSONAL Pluralsight Skills Access to Pluralsight's library of courses (either their core library with 2,500+ courses, or their full library with 7,000+ courses, depending on the plan). $25 - 45 USD per month
Pros & cons	Coursera Pros Wide range of courses Courses from top universities Professional certificates from top companies like salesforce & Google Degree programs are cheaper compared to on-campus degrees Cons Rather expensive subscription Confusing offering, because of all of the different types of courses they provide	Pluralsight Pros Wide range of courses High-quality content Experienced instructors Cons Limited free content Only suited for tech skills More geared towards businesses

General information

Type	Course Marketplace	Education Company
Number of courses	7000+	7000+
Popularity	Very popular	Popular
Available categories	3D & AnimationAccounting & BookkeepingAffiliate MarketingAppleArchitectural DesignArts & CraftsBeauty & MakeupBrandingBusiness Analytics & IntelligenceBusiness Law	3D & AnimationAccounting & BookkeepingArchitectural DesignArts & CraftsBrandingBusiness Analytics & IntelligenceBusiness StrategyCommunicationComplianceContent Marketing
Available languages	EnglishMandarin ChineseSpanishFrenchRussianPortugueseGermanJapaneseKoreanItalian	English

Evaluation

Full score	8.8 10	8.3 10

Individual scores

Course quality

LowHigh

Course catalog

Less satisfiedVery satisfied

Affordability

More expensiveHigher value

Career value

Low valueHigh value

Customer support

BadGood

Usability

BadGood

Features

Support options	Email Phone Chat Community Knowledge base Learning support Career support	Email Phone Chat Community Knowledge base Learning support Career support
Available apps	Ios Android	Ios Android

Company

Company name	Coursera Inc.	Pluralsight, LLC
Company size	Large	Large
Founded in	2012	2004
Headquarters	United States 🇺🇸	United States 🇺🇸
Founders	Andrew Ng, Daphne Koller	Aaron Skonnard, Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, Bill Williams
External reviews	App Store 4.8126900 reviews Play Store 4.8267000 reviews Trustpilot 1.7528 reviews	App Store 4.7642000 reviews Play Store 4.5214000 reviews Trustpilot 1.9934 reviews

Our opinion

Summary

Coursera

Coursera offers a great range of online learning products, which means that almost anyone can find a fitting course on their platform. We particularly like the huge catalog of free courses they offer, where you only need to pay if you want the optional certification. They also offer full degrees, which makes them one of only a few providers that offer Bachelor's and Master’s degrees online. While their overall offering might be a bit confusing sometimes, we can fully recommend Coursera for all students looking to obtain career-relevant skills.

Pluralsight

Pluralsight is one of the online learning platform with a clear focus on helping companies upskill their employees with tech skills. While they do offer their course catalog to consumers as well, many of their main strengths come into play with enterprise customers. We particularly like their extensive library of courses, with a lot of them focussing on very specific technical topics that other platforms might not even have resources for. That means that Pluralsight is a great platform for companies looking to upskill employees and more advanced techies trying to learn new skills. As a beginner, you might be a bit overwhelmed on Pluralsight.