| Website | skillshare.com |
| Courses | 34K+ |
| Price | $13.25/month |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Alternatives | Domestika & Skillshare |
| Pros | ✔ Over 30,000 courses ✔ Variety of topics ✔ Affordable subscription ✔ Mobile app |
| Cons | ✘ Quality of courses vary ✘ No certificates or accreditation |
Skillshare is an online learning platform that offers thousands of classes on a wide range of creative topics. In this review, I’ll test out Skillshare, looking at courses, pricing, features, and ease of use.
Get 1 month free trial at Skillshare. Unlimited access to a wide range of creative classes taught by industry experts. 🙌
What is Skillshare?
Founded in November 2010 by Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong, Skillshare is an online learning platform. Skillshare currently employs over 600 people and offers 34K+ courses on a wide range of topics, including animation, illustration, music, photography, and much more.
Who is Skillshare For?
Skillshare’s courses focus on creativity. So, if you are a professional freelancer looking to strengthen your creative skills, you’re in the right place.
But this platform can be an amazing tool for anyone, not just professionals or creatives. If you’re curious about a specific topic or want to learn a new skill, Skillshare could also be for you.
How Does it Work?
Getting started with Skillshare is quick and easy. You can either sign up with your email address or use your Facebook, Google, or Apple account.
Once you have created a profile on Skillshare, you can start browsing the different sections of the website to discover courses and workshops. Based on your interests, you can then pick and choose the courses that you like best, sign up for those, and get started on your learning adventure.
Features
The platform has many interesting features. Let’s take a quick look at some of them.
Simple Categories
First of all, the courses are split into three main categories:
- Create
- Build
- Thrive
But what is each category about, exactly? Check out the table below.
| CREATE | BUILD | THRIVE |
|---|---|---|
| Animation | Business Analytics | Lifestyle |
| Creative Writing | Freelance and Entrepreneurship | Productivity |
| Film & Video | Leadership and Management | |
| Fine Art | Marketing | |
| Graphic Design | ||
| Illustration | ||
| Music | ||
| Photography | ||
| UI/UX Design | ||
| Web Development |
If you want to find a specific course, you can also type some keywords in the search bar. This will take you straight to the course you want without the need to browse the three sections.
Flexible Courses
Similar to Domestika, Skillshare courses are not designed around a fixed format. There is a nice mix.
Some of its classes are short and sweet (around 10 minutes), whereas others run for hours and can have up to 50 short videos.
Also, some of its classes have assignments to encourage students to share their projects and learn along the way. This is great as it promotes engagement with the Skillshare community.
Easy To Use App
Want to learn on the go? That’s no problem, as Skillshare’s new mobile app lets you do that. Available for both iOS and Android devices, it’s free to download and gives you access to your account and courses.
Blog
Skillshare also offers a range of helpful blog posts to assist in your learning experience. They are divided into four different main categories.
- Guides: This section groups together lots of tutorials and guides on topics such as drawing, painting, photography, and more.
- Teach: This category provides great resources to support Skillshare teachers with creating excellent online courses.
- Stories: In this section, users will find interviews and profiles of members of the Skillshare community, including teachers, creatives, students, and the Skillshare team.
- News: This category includes all the news, updates, and announcements from the Skillshare team.
Scholarships
Skillshare also offers regular scholarships that allow students to sign up for online courses at discounted prices. The following scholarships are currently available:
- 1 free year of Skillshare membership is available to ten students who apply for financial reasons
- All college and university students can get 50% off 1 year of Skillshare membership
Pricing
In the past, Skillshare offered free courses. Unfortunately, this option is no longer available. However, if you want to try out the platform without signing up for a membership, you can start a 1-month free trial.
After the one-month trial, the Premium membership costs either $32/month or $168/year, which averages out to about $14/month.
If you have multiple people on your team who need to use it, you can choose between Enterprise and Revive.
Is Skillshare Worth it or Not?
In short, yes. Skillshare is a great platform for anyone looking to learn new creative skills or strengthen the ones that you already have.
The only drawbacks are that the quality of the courses can vary slightly, and there is no certification or accreditation.
However, considering the subscription price and range of courses, it’s definitely worth trying out.
