MasterClass vs Skillshare (2026): Which Is Worth It?

Last updated: 12 October 2026; prices and plan details read on each company’s own site that day. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

THE SHORT ANSWER

Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes the verdict. Skillshare pays us nothing, and it is the pick for most people who want to learn a creative skill.

MasterClass and Skillshare both sell an annual subscription to video classes about creative work, and both are often bought for the same reason: someone wants to get better at writing, drawing, photography or cooking. They solve that problem in opposite ways. MasterClass films a small number of famous practitioners talking about how they work. Skillshare hosts thousands of shorter classes from working creatives, each built around a project you make yourself.

This comparison covers what each one costs, how the classes are built, what the libraries contain, certificates, apps and offline viewing, refunds, and who should pick which. Every price and plan detail was read on MasterClass’s and Skillshare’s own pages on 12 October 2026.

See MasterClass plans →

MasterClass vs Skillshare at a glance

Who teaches: famous names vs working creatives

MasterClass’s whole proposition is the instructor list. On 12 October 2026 its class catalog still included cooking from Gordon Ramsay, Thomas Keller and Massimo Bottura; writing from Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and James Patterson; filmmaking from Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee and Werner Herzog; music from Herbie Hancock, Hans Zimmer, Timbaland and deadmau5; photography from Annie Leibovitz; and acting from Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson. Outside the arts there are leadership classes from Bob Iger and Howard Schultz on business, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chris Hadfield on science and space, Matthew Walker on sleep, Serena Williams and Stephen Curry on sport, and Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey on poker.

These are people at the top of their fields explaining how they think, not professional teachers. The filming is cinematic, and the best classes feel like a long, well-made documentary about one person’s process.

Skillshare’s teachers are mostly working professionals: illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, video editors, YouTube creators and freelancers. Skillshare says more than 9,000 teachers publish on the platform. Few are household names, but many are very good at a specific tool or technique, and they teach it step by step. Because so many people publish, quality varies more than on MasterClass; reading a class’s ratings and reviews before you start is worth the minute it takes.

The practical difference: a MasterClass instructor tells you how they work, while a Skillshare teacher shows you how to do the task and asks you to do it alongside them.

Pricing, plans and what you pay over a year

MasterClass: three annual plans, priced by devices

MasterClass sells annual memberships only. On 12 October 2026 its checkout listed three plans, all with the same classes:

The plans differ only in how many screens can play at the same time and whether you can download lessons for offline viewing. If you watch alone and always have a connection, Standard is enough. Plus is the cheapest way to get offline viewing, and Premium is for a household. Our MasterClass pricing guide covers taxes, gift memberships and how sales usually work.

Skillshare: one membership, billed yearly

Skillshare’s pricing page listed one membership at $167.88 a year, shown as $13.99 a month paid annually. Skillshare says prices vary by region, so check the pricing page in your own currency. There is no tiered plan: every member gets the same classes and features, including offline viewing in the mobile app, subtitles and transcripts. A month-to-month subscription exists only when you subscribe through the iOS or Android app, billed by the app store. Gift memberships come in 3-, 6- or 12-month options in the United States.

Our full Skillshare cost guide goes through the trial, Teams pricing and the app-store route.

Which is cheaper?

At the entry level, MasterClass is: Standard costs $120 a year against Skillshare’s $167.88, a difference of $47.88. Once you want offline viewing, MasterClass Plus at $180 costs slightly more than Skillshare, which includes offline viewing for everyone. Per class, Skillshare is far cheaper because its library is so much larger, but that only matters if you would actually use it.

The honest way to judge value is how many classes you will finish in a year. Someone who watches six MasterClasses is paying $20 a class on Standard. Someone who completes a project-based Skillshare class every couple of weeks is getting more practical learning for $167.88 than almost anywhere else. Someone who signs up and forgets about it wastes the full year on either platform.

Compare MasterClass plans →

Free trials, refunds and renewals

This is where the two differ most, and where readers most often get caught out.

• Skillshare starts with a free trial: its sign-up page offered 7 days of unlimited classes on 12 October 2026. Payment details are required, and the membership is charged when the trial ends unless you cancel first. After a 7-day trial, Skillshare will refund that first charge once if you contact support within 48 hours and have not used Skillshare since. Charges after a trial of 14 days or longer are not refundable.
• MasterClass has no free trial. Instead, it offers a 30-day satisfaction guarantee: a full refund within 30 days of your first purchase, but only for first-time purchases made on the MasterClass website. It does not cover renewals, redeemed gifts or MasterClass at Work accounts. If you bought through the iOS app, refunds go through Apple.
• Neither refunds a renewal. Both say so in their help centers. MasterClass memberships renew automatically; you can switch auto-renewal off at any time in your account settings on the website (not in the app), and you keep access until the renewal date. Skillshare emails annual members about 30 days before renewal, and you can cancel from Membership & Payments in your account settings.

The practical advice for both: set a calendar reminder a week before your renewal date when you sign up. Our guide to canceling MasterClass walks through each route, including app-store subscriptions.

How the classes work: watching vs doing

A MasterClass is a series of filmed lessons. Gordon Ramsay’s first cooking class runs 20 lessons and 3 hours 54 minutes; Annie Leibovitz’s photography class is 15 lessons and 3 hours 4 minutes; Margaret Atwood’s creative writing class is 23 lessons and 3 hours 43 minutes. The instructor talks to camera, demonstrates, and tells stories about their work. MasterClass also offers an audio-only mode, which suits the more talk-driven classes.

You watch a MasterClass the way you watch a documentary series. Nothing in the format makes you practice, and you can finish a writing class without having written anything. That is a fair trade for people who already practice a craft and want a master’s perspective on it, and a poor one for someone hoping to pick up a skill from scratch.

Skillshare classes are shorter and built around a project. Skillshare says every class includes one: in a lettering class you letter something, in an illustration class you draw a character, in a photography class you go out and shoot. You post the result to the class’s Project Gallery, where the teacher and other members can comment. Skillshare also groups classes into Learning Paths, curated sequences that take you from beginner material to more advanced work.

For learning a skill, Skillshare’s format works better. You finish with something you made and a record of what to fix next. For broadening how you think about a craft you already practice, MasterClass is the better use of an evening.

What each library covers

MasterClass lists 200+ classes and says new ones are added every month; its class sitemap held 223 class pages on 12 October 2026. The range is wide: cooking, writing, film, music, photography, acting, business and leadership, science, wellness, sport and games. Each subject has a handful of classes rather than dozens, so a determined member could watch everything that interests them within a year or two. That is the question to ask at renewal time.

Skillshare describes its catalog as thousands of classes, concentrated on creative work: illustration, digital art, drawing, painting, watercolor, graphic design, UI/UX design, motion design, photography and editing, video production, content creation, marketing, freelancing and productivity, plus software-specific classes for Procreate, Adobe Illustrator, Canva, Blender and ChatGPT. Depth in popular areas like illustration and design is the strength: you can find several classes on one tool or style and pick the teacher whose approach suits you.

If you want to learn cooking or writing in a hands-on way, Skillshare’s coverage is thinner than in design, and a specialist platform may suit you better; our MasterClass cooking classes ranking and MasterClass writing classes ranking show what MasterClass offers in those two areas.

Certificates: what each one gives you

Skillshare now includes certificates and badges with membership, to mark classes and paths you complete. They are a record of your own progress rather than an accredited credential, and employers are unlikely to weigh them; your project portfolio is the stronger evidence.

Standard MasterClass memberships are not built around credentials. MasterClass sells a separate Certificates product: career-focused courses that MasterClass says take 15 to 20 hours (the listed courses ran 10 to 19), some built with companies such as Uber and Microsoft, which end in a real-world project and a certificate. That is a different purchase from the entertainment-style membership compared here. Our MasterClass Certificates review covers prices and whether they are worth it.

Apps, devices and offline viewing

MasterClass plays on desktop, TV and mobile. Your plan sets how many screens can stream at once (1, 2 or 6) and whether you can download lessons: offline viewing is included on Plus and Premium, not on Standard. Cancellations have to be made on the website; the app cannot do them.

Skillshare works on desktop and in its iOS and Android apps, and every member can download lessons in the mobile app to watch offline. Classes include subtitles and transcripts, and Skillshare says there are no ads. There is no device tier to choose.

Community and feedback

Skillshare is built around sharing work. Each class has a Project Gallery where members post what they made and get comments from the teacher and other students, and you can follow other members to see their work. For a beginner, that feedback and the visible work of other students are a real source of motivation.

MasterClass is a solo viewing experience. It is designed for watching rather than submitting work, so if you want critique on what you make, you will need to find it elsewhere: a local class, an online community, or a platform with graded projects.

Which should you choose?

Choose Skillshare if

• You want to learn a practical creative skill: illustration, graphic design, photography, video editing, UI/UX or a specific app like Procreate.
• You learn by doing and want a project, and some feedback, at the end of every class.
• You want to try before paying: the 7-day trial is enough to finish two or three classes.
• You want offline viewing without paying for a higher tier.

Choose MasterClass if

• You already practice a craft and want to hear how someone at the very top approaches it.
• Your interests are broad, from cooking and writing to business, science and sport.
• You value production quality and enjoy learning the way you would watch a good documentary.
• You are buying a gift: MasterClass is easier to give than to justify for yourself. Our MasterClass gift guide covers the options.

If you can only pick one and you want to get better at a creative skill, pick Skillshare. If you can afford both, they work well together: Skillshare for practice, MasterClass for perspective. Use the free trial on Skillshare first; if it fits, you may find you do not need MasterClass at all.

Explore MasterClass classes →

See Skillshare’s pricing page (not an affiliate link)

If neither fits: three other options

Neither platform is the right answer for everyone. Depending on what you want, one of these may suit you better:

• Udemy if you want one structured course rather than a subscription. Courses are bought one at a time and often discounted; our Udemy vs Skillshare comparison covers when that beats a membership.
• Domestika for creative courses taught by working artists and designers, sold individually or by subscription. Our Skillshare alternatives guide compares it with the other creative platforms.
• Coursera if you want a credential an employer recognizes, such as a professional certificate from a university or company. See our MasterClass vs Coursera comparison.

If MasterClass’s celebrity format appeals but you want different instructors, our BBC Maestro vs MasterClass comparison and MasterClass alternatives guide cover the closest rivals.

For photography, CreativeLive is a third option worth a look: it relaunched in 2026 after CourseHorse bought it, and it still runs live workshops with Q&A. See our CreativeLive review.

Pros and cons

MasterClass

• Pro: instructors at the very top of their fields, with high production quality.
• Pro: wide range of subjects, well beyond the creative arts.
• Pro: cheapest entry price of the two ($120 a year on Standard).
• Pro: 30-day satisfaction guarantee on a first web purchase.
• Con: watching rather than doing; no projects or feedback in the membership format.
• Con: no free trial and no monthly plan; offline viewing costs extra (Plus or Premium).
• Con: a library of about 200 classes can run out for an active member.

Skillshare

• Pro: every class has a project, and the Project Gallery gives you feedback.
• Pro: thousands of classes, with depth in design, illustration, photography and video.
• Pro: 7-day free trial, and offline viewing for every member.
• Pro: certificates and badges included to track your progress.
• Con: quality varies between teachers; check ratings before you start.
• Con: few famous instructors, and thinner coverage outside creative work.
• Con: $167.88 a year, paid upfront, unless you subscribe monthly through the app.

Related guides

• MasterClass review
• Is MasterClass worth it?
• The best MasterClass courses
• How much does Skillshare cost?
• Best Skillshare alternatives
• Best MasterClass alternatives
• MasterClass Black Friday: past deals and what to expect

Related: Looking for painting classes in particular? We compare the best online watercolor classes and the best online oil painting classes, including free YouTube teachers.

Frequently asked questions

Is MasterClass or Skillshare better?

Skillshare is better for learning a practical creative skill, because every class includes a project and you can get feedback in the Project Gallery. MasterClass is better for insight and inspiration from famous practitioners across many subjects. For a beginner in design, illustration or video, Skillshare teaches more.

Which is cheaper, MasterClass or Skillshare?

On 12 October 2026 MasterClass Standard cost $120 a year, against Skillshare’s $167.88 a year. MasterClass Plus ($180) and Premium ($240) cost more and add more devices and offline viewing, which every Skillshare member already gets in the mobile app.

Does Skillshare have a free trial? Does MasterClass?

Skillshare offers a 7-day free trial with a payment method on file, charged when the trial ends unless you cancel. MasterClass has no free trial; it offers a full refund within 30 days of a first-time purchase made on its website.

Can I pay monthly?

MasterClass sells annual memberships only. Skillshare is billed yearly on its website, but offers a month-to-month subscription when you subscribe through its iOS or Android app.

Do MasterClass and Skillshare give certificates?

Skillshare includes certificates and badges with membership to mark your progress; they are not accredited credentials. MasterClass sells a separate Certificates product of career-focused courses (roughly 10 to 20 hours) that end in a project and a certificate.

Can I get a refund after my membership renews?

No. Both MasterClass and Skillshare say renewal charges are not refundable. Turn off auto-renewal before your renewal date: on the MasterClass website (not the app), or in Membership and Payments in your Skillshare account settings.

Can I use MasterClass and Skillshare together?

Yes, and they suit different jobs: Skillshare for hands-on practice and projects, MasterClass for perspective from experts. If budget is tight, start with Skillshare’s free trial and add MasterClass later if you want it.

Which is better for graphic design?

Skillshare. It has many classes on design principles and tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Canva and Procreate, each with a project. MasterClass has very little that teaches design software or workflows.