9 Best Online PLC Training Courses & Certifications in 2026

Last updated: October 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson. See our review methodology.

Preview PLC Fundamentals (Level I) →

A programmable logic controller (PLC) is the industrial computer that runs machines, conveyors, pumps and packaging lines. PLC training teaches you to write and troubleshoot the programs those controllers run, mostly in ladder logic. Good PLC training is hard to judge from a course card. Industrial automation moves slowly compared with web development, so a 2019 course can still teach a lot, but Siemens TIA Portal V20 and Rockwell’s Studio 5000 have changed enough that freshness matters. And because a large share of PLC faults turn out to be hardware-level problems, we weighted courses that teach the physical side too.

Searching for PLC courses in Ireland? In Ireland, PLC also means a Post Leaving Certificate course (a further-education program). This page covers programmable logic controllers only.

What good online PLC training has to cover

A PLC course is only useful if it produces someone who can stand in front of a running machine and reason about it. That means four things, in order: how a PLC scan cycle actually works (inputs read, logic solved, outputs written, and the timing consequences of that loop), fluency in ladder logic including timers, counters and interlocks, hands-on hours in real vendor software rather than slideware, and enough exposure to I/O wiring and sensors to know when the problem is not in the program at all.

Courses that skip the simulator work, and plenty of cheap ones do, leave you with vocabulary instead of skill. Every pick below includes hands-on programming against a simulated or emulated controller, which is the single strongest predictor that the training transfers to a plant floor. The other thing to check is the language mix: ladder logic comes first, but structured text (ST) and function block diagrams matter more as you move into process control and Siemens or CODESYS environments.

How we picked

We loaded every course listing on 21 October 2026 and recorded the current rating, review count, student count, video length and last-updated date from the platform itself. We did not take every course end to end, so we describe what each one covers rather than claiming a lab-tested score. Beyond liveness, we weighted instructor track record, whether the course includes simulator-based labs, software version currency (TIA Portal V20 against the V15-era courses that still dominate search results), and whether the review volume is large enough to trust the score. Where a course is old but its subject is a frozen legacy platform, we kept it and said so. We also read what working technicians recommend on r/PLC; Lynn’s Level I was the most-upvoted beginner pick in the threads we read. Udemy and Coursera pay us a commission on some links, which never changes the order. Our full process is on the how we review page.

Best online PLC training at a glance

1. PLC Fundamentals (Level I) — best online PLC training for beginners

Paul Lynn’s Level I course is the course working technicians recommend most often, and the numbers back that up: 4.7 stars from 25,557 ratings and 82,785 students, refreshed in July 2025. It assumes zero programming background and walks you from what a programmable logic controller actually does (scanning inputs, solving logic, firing outputs) to writing and testing your own ladder logic programs.

The practical detail that matters: the course is built around a software PLC and simulator, so you can complete every exercise without buying hardware. Lynn teaches in an Allen-Bradley-flavored environment, which maps directly to what most North American plants run. Expect about 14 hours of video plus lab exercises, and expect to do the labs: the course is structured so the simulator work is the learning, not a demo. Lynn also sells the course on his own site; Udemy’s version comes with its 30-day refund on an individually purchased course.

Take PLC Fundamentals Level I →

2. Applied Logic (Level 2) — the follow-on that makes you employable

Level I teaches you the language; Applied Logic teaches you to think in it. This is the same instructor’s second course (4.7 stars from 3,944 ratings, 8.5 hours, updated July 2025), and it is built as a series of increasingly awkward real-world problems: timing conflicts, interlocks, sequencing, and the kind of half-specified requirements you actually get handed on a plant floor.

If you are self-training toward a controls technician or junior automation role, the Level I plus Level 2 pair is the strongest 22 hours you can buy on the topic. Employers do not care that you watched videos; they care that you can debug a rung someone else wrote. This is the course where that skill develops.

3. From Wire to PLC — best if you want the electrical context too

Rated 4.7 across 11,367 reviews with 48,639 students, this 17-hour bootcamp starts before the PLC: contactors, relays, motor starters, sensors and panel wiring, then builds up to PLC programming and HMI basics. That sequencing is the right way to learn if you are coming from outside the electrical trades, because PLC faults in real plants are wiring and instrumentation problems as often as they are logic problems.

It was last updated in July 2024, which is fine for this material: the electrical fundamentals do not age. Choose this over Level I if you want one bigger course covering the whole path from panel to program rather than a focused programming sequence.

Preview the From Wire to PLC bootcamp →

4. Learn 5 PLCs in a Day — best multi-brand overview

The title oversells the timeline (it is 40 hours of video), but the content is useful: hands-on programming across Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Schneider, Omron and Delta environments in one course (4.6 stars from 6,415 ratings, updated November 2025). Every vendor’s software has its own quirks, from addressing to instruction sets to simulator behavior, and seeing five side by side teaches you which concepts are universal.

This is the right second or third course for maintenance techs who walk into plants running mixed hardware, or for anyone who does not yet know which brand their career will land on. Treat it as a reference you dip into by vendor rather than something to finish in a weekend.

5. Siemens TIA Portal V20 — best current Siemens training

Most TIA Portal courses online still teach V15 or V16. This one teaches TIA Portal V20, covering S7-1200 and S7-1500 programming plus WinCC HMI design, and it was updated again in October 2026. The review base is still modest (4.6 from 673 ratings, 4,368 students), but it is the freshest credible Siemens option on Udemy, and the reviews have grown since we first featured it in July.

If your plant or regional job market is Siemens territory (most of Europe, much of Asia and a growing share of US process industries), start here rather than with the Allen-Bradley-centric picks above. Siemens environments also lean harder on structured text, which pick 7 covers in depth.

See the Siemens TIA Portal V20 course →

6. RSLogix 500 & 5000 Training — for legacy Allen-Bradley plants (with a caveat)

Full disclosure: this course was last updated in November 2019, and we nearly cut it. We kept it because RSLogix 500 and RSLogix 5000 are themselves legacy platforms; the software it teaches has not changed since then, and many North American facilities still run SLC-500 and older ControlLogix systems on it. The 4.5 rating over 3,195 reviews has held steady, with 14.5 hours of video.

Take it only if you know you are heading into an RSLogix shop. If you are starting fresh, Studio 5000 Logix Designer is Rockwell’s current environment, and Level I above teaches concepts that transfer directly to it.

7. IEC Paradigms (Level 4) — best for structured text and the IEC languages

Once ladder logic is comfortable, the gap most self-taught programmers hit is everything else in the IEC 61131-3 standard: function block diagrams, sequential function charts, instruction lists and structured text. Paul Lynn’s IEC Paradigms (Level 4) covers all five, and it is the highest-rated course on this page at 4.9 from 1,055 ratings (14,451 students, 16 hours, updated July 2025).

It is not a beginner course. Take it after Levels I and 2 if you want to work on Siemens, Beckhoff or CODESYS-based machines, where structured text is often the main language, or if you are moving toward process control and need math and data handling that ladder logic does awkwardly.

See IEC Paradigms (Level 4) →

8. PLC Programming with CODESYS — best budget way to practice on free software

Rockwell and Siemens software licenses are expensive if your employer is not paying. The CODESYS development environment is free to download and runs on controllers from many hardware makers, and practitioners on r/PLC recommend it as the beginner-friendly budget route. Marco Nucci’s PLC Programming: Learn the basics with CoDeSys (4.6 from 2,127 ratings, 7.5 hours, updated August 2025) teaches you to build PLC applications from scratch in it, including simulation.

It pairs well with Level I: learn the concepts in Lynn’s simulator, then rebuild the exercises in CODESYS so you have projects of your own to show in an interview.

9. Learn PLC and HMI from Scratch (Coursera) — for Coursera Plus subscribers

If you already pay for Coursera Plus, Packt’s Learn PLC and HMI from Scratch (Basic) Specialization is included. It is a three-course series rated 4.8 from 48 reviews (7,156 enrolled), at an intermediate level, covering ladder logic, timers and counters, HMI screens and simulation. The review count is small and the material is less battle-tested than Lynn’s, so we place it last, but it is a reasonable structured option with a Coursera certificate at no extra cost on a subscription.

See the PLC and HMI specialization →

Do you need to buy a PLC to practice?

No, and you should not, at least at first. A real training setup with an Allen-Bradley CompactLogix or Siemens S7-1200 runs several hundred dollars before you have wired a single input. Every course on this list includes or works with software simulation: Level I ships with its own soft PLC, Siemens offers PLCSIM inside TIA Portal, CODESYS includes a simulation mode, and tools like Factory I/O can simulate a whole production line your virtual PLC controls.

The time to buy hardware is when you are preparing for interviews and want to demonstrate wiring, fault-finding and commissioning on something physical. A used MicroLogix, an S7-1200 starter kit or one of AutomationDirect’s low-cost CLICK controllers is plenty.

Which PLC brand should you learn first?

Learn the brand your target employers run. In North America that is usually Allen-Bradley (Rockwell Automation), which is why Paul Lynn’s Allen-Bradley-flavored courses lead this list. In Europe, the Middle East and most of Asia, Siemens dominates. Japanese plants and OEM machinery often mean Mitsubishi or Omron; budget-conscious integrators use Delta, Schneider and AutomationDirect.

The good news: ladder logic, I/O addressing and scan-cycle thinking transfer across all of them. Brand choice affects your first job search far more than your long-term career; a programmer who understands logic picks up a second vendor’s environment in weeks.

Is there a real PLC certification?

There is no single “PLC certification” the way CompTIA or Cisco certifications exist in IT. What exists instead, in rough order of employer weight:

Industry certification. The International Society of Automation runs the Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST) program. It covers instrumentation and control systems broadly rather than one vendor’s PLC, so it signals general controls competence rather than fluency in one PLC brand. Read the eligibility rules on ISA’s site before you plan around it.

College certificate programs. PLC Technician is an online certificate program from George Brown Polytechnic in Toronto, with a PLC Technician II follow-on. It includes its own simulator (PLCLogix 500, for RSLogix 500 and SLC-500 practice) and is a paid, pay-as-you-go program. Community colleges and trade schools offer similar industrial automation certificates.

Vendor training. Siemens SITRAIN and Rockwell Automation’s instructor-led courses issue certificates and carry real weight, but they cost thousands and are normally employer-funded.

Course certificates. Udemy and Coursera completion certificates show initiative but will not carry a resume on their own. What carries it is being able to talk through a ladder program in an interview and, ideally, hands-on time from a lab, a plant floor or a well-documented home setup.

Free ways to start

Before spending anything, you can test your interest for free. AutomationDirect’s free online PLC training gives you video libraries on PLC fundamentals and its own controller families with no time limits, for just an email address, and its PLC programming software is a free download. RealPars publishes a large library of free PLC explainer videos on YouTube. Tony Kuphaldt’s open-source textbook Lessons in Industrial Instrumentation is free and widely recommended by technicians for the instrumentation side. Siemens and Rockwell both publish free documentation and getting-started guides, and Udemy’s free preview lectures on the courses above are long enough to judge each instructor’s style.

If you work through free material and still want more, that is your signal the paid training is worth it. The free route does have a limit: it rarely gives you structured exercises that build on each other, which is what Lynn’s Level I and Level 2 do well.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to learn PLC programming?

Plan on 2 to 3 months of consistent part-time study to become simulator-competent with PLC Fundamentals plus Applied Logic (about 22 hours of video plus labs), and 6 to 12 months of real exposure, through lab work, plant time or an entry-level maintenance role, to become independently useful on live systems.

Is PLC programming hard?

The basics are not hard: ladder logic was designed so electricians could read it. The hard part is debugging real machines, where timing, wiring and sensor faults interact with the program. A simulator-based course gets you through the first part; plant experience gets you through the second.

Can I learn PLC programming without an electrical background?

Yes. Level I assumes none. But an electrical foundation makes you far more employable, because most real PLC troubleshooting starts at the I/O and wiring level. That is why the From Wire to PLC bootcamp is on this list.

Are there free PLC courses with a certificate?

Free training exists (AutomationDirect’s video library, RealPars on YouTube, free software from AutomationDirect and CODESYS), but free options rarely include a certificate. Coursera’s Packt specialization issues a certificate and is included with Coursera Plus, which starts with a free trial.

Is PLC programming still a good career in 2026?

Manufacturing automation keeps expanding, and controls roles are consistently among the harder skilled positions for plants to fill. It is also one of the more automation-resistant technical careers, because someone has to program and troubleshoot the machines doing the automating.

Ladder logic or structured text: which should I learn?

Ladder logic first. It remains the dominant language on plant floors because electricians and technicians can read it. Structured text matters as you advance into process control and complex math, and Siemens and CODESYS environments lean on it more heavily than Allen-Bradley shops do. Paul Lynn’s IEC Paradigms (Level 4) covers it.

What does PLC training cost?

Udemy courses on this list sold for $12.99 during a site-wide sale on 21 October 2026, well below their list prices; Udemy runs sales often, so avoid paying list. College certificate programs cost more and are paid per course, and vendor training (SITRAIN, Rockwell) runs into the thousands and is usually employer-funded.

The bottom line

Start with PLC Fundamentals (Level I), continue into Applied Logic (Level 2), and add the brand-specific course your job market demands: Siemens TIA Portal V20, an Allen-Bradley path, or CODESYS if you want free software to build your own projects. Skip hardware until interview prep, and if you want a credential, look at ISA’s CCST or a college certificate program rather than a stack of course certificates.

Start with PLC Fundamentals (Level I) →

PLCs sit at the center of a bigger industrial skill set: our guides to the best signal processing courses (how PLCs read analog and digital signals) and the best robotics courses cover the two most natural next steps.