Last updated: 13 October 2026 (full refresh; syllabus, prices and ratings re-checked on Udacity’s nd098 page that day). Reviewed by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.
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Udacity’s Business Analytics Nanodegree (nd098), now titled “Business Analytics with Tableau”, is a 40-hour beginner program in three courses: business metrics in spreadsheets, SQL for data analysis, and data visualization in Tableau. It has three reviewed projects, no prerequisites, and the highest rating of any Udacity program we have reviewed this year: 4.8 from 1,256 reviews on 13 October 2026.
QUICK VERDICT
Our rating: 4.1 / 5
- Best for: non-technical professionals (managers, marketers, operations and finance staff) who want to read business data with spreadsheets, SQL and Tableau and finish in a month or two.
- Not for: anyone aiming at data scientist or Python-heavy data analyst roles, or people who already write SQL and build Tableau dashboards at work.
Bottom line: one of Udacity’s best-value programs because it is short and beginner-friendly, and the three projects map directly to everyday analyst work. Its weakness is that free and cheaper courses teach the same three tools; what you pay for is the structure and the human project reviews.
See the Business Analytics Nanodegree →
Business Analytics Nanodegree at a Glance
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| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Program | Business Analytics Nanodegree (nd098), titled “Business Analytics with Tableau” |
| Level | Beginner (Udacity’s label) |
| Estimated time | 40 hours |
| Structure | 3 courses, 95 lessons, 3 reviewed projects |
| Prerequisites | None listed |
| Tools | Spreadsheets (Excel), SQL, Tableau |
| Projects | Analyze Profits for E-commerce Company, Retail Analysis, Build Tableau Visualizations |
| Rating | 4.8 from 1,256 reviews on Udacity’s page |
| Last updated by Udacity | September 1, 2026 |
| Price (13 Oct 2026) | $249/month, $846 for 4 months, or $999 one-time |
| Credential | Udacity Nanodegree certificate |
Source: Udacity’s nd098 program page, read 13 October 2026. The previous version of this review listed four projects, a three-month duration, hypothesis testing and forecasting models. The current program has three projects, takes 40 hours, and covers descriptive statistics and business metrics, not inferential statistics or forecasting.
Check current Business Analytics price →
What it costs
Udacity sells access by subscription. On 13 October 2026 the program page offered $249 a month, $846 for a four-month bundle (about $212 a month), or $999 to buy just this program outright. The page also showed a 40% discount banner for new users; check the terms at checkout because promotions change often.
Live sale
Udacity sale: 50% off all programs. 4-month bundle $423 instead of $846. Verified 21 Oct 2026 05:15 UTC by the detector (HALLOWEEN50 $423.00 vs our code $507.60).
See the Udacity sale →| Your pace | Time to finish | Likely cost (list price) |
|---|---|---|
| 15 hours a week | About 3 weeks plus project reviews | $249 (one month) |
| 10 hours a week | About 4 weeks plus project reviews | $249 to $498 (one or two months) |
| 5 hours a week | About 2 months | $498 (two months) |
Because the program is 40 hours, the monthly plan is almost always cheaper than the bundle. The $999 one-time price only makes sense if you expect to need more than four months.
What You Learn, Course by Course
| Course | Hours | Main topics | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Business Metrics with Spreadsheets | 11.2 | Data types and summaries, KPIs, growth, efficiency, profitability, customer satisfaction and innovation metrics, financial statements, spreadsheet operations, lookups and pivoting, charts | Analyze Profits for an E-commerce Company |
| 2. SQL for Data Analysis | 18.5 | Entity relationship diagrams, SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY, operators, JOINs, aggregation, GROUP BY and HAVING, CASE, dates, subqueries, data cleaning | Retail Analysis |
| 3. Data Visualization in Tableau | 10.2 | Design principles, chart selection, color, Tableau setup, aggregations and granularity, hierarchies, marks and filters, calculations, interactive dashboards and stories | Build Tableau Visualizations |
Course 1: Business Metrics with Spreadsheets
The first course is the most business-focused, and the one most data courses skip. It starts with what data is and how to summarize it, then spends most of its time on business metrics: KPIs, growth, efficiency, profitability, customer satisfaction and innovation metrics, plus how the three financial statements fit together. The spreadsheet half covers navigation, cell references, math and text functions, logic and aggregation, lookups, pivoting and chart types. The project hands you real e-commerce financial data and asks you to build the metrics and present recommendations for raising profit, so it tests judgment as well as formulas.
Course 2: SQL for Data Analysis
The SQL course is the longest at 18.5 hours. It begins with entity relationship diagrams and simple SELECT statements, then works through filtering operators, inner and outer JOINs, aggregation with NULL handling, GROUP BY and HAVING, dates, CASE statements, subqueries and data cleaning. The Retail Analysis project asks you to answer a set of business questions in SQL, write a data dictionary and draw an ERD, which is close to the first task many analysts get on a new team.
Course 3: Data Visualization in Tableau
The Tableau course starts with design principles, chart selection and honest use of color before it opens the tool. It then covers connecting to data, core chart types, aggregation and granularity, drill-down hierarchies, marks and filters, grouping and calculations, and finally interactive dashboards and stories. The project is a single interactive dashboard built to discover and communicate insights, which becomes the most visible portfolio piece from the program.
The metric families, with examples
Course one groups business metrics into families. Udacity’s lesson list names them; the examples below are standard ones in each family, to show the kind of question each answers.
| Family | Typical examples | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Growth | Revenue growth rate, new customers per month | Are we getting bigger, and how fast? |
| Efficiency | Cost per order, revenue per employee | How much does each unit of output cost us? |
| Profitability | Gross margin, net margin | How much of each dollar of sales do we keep? |
| Customer satisfaction | Repeat purchase rate, survey scores | Do customers come back and recommend us? |
| Innovation | Share of revenue from new products | Is new work paying off? |
How the projects are reviewed
Each project is graded by a Udacity reviewer against a public rubric. A submission that misses any rubric line comes back with required changes, and you resubmit until every line passes. For a beginner, that feedback is the main thing the subscription buys over free tutorials: someone checks that your SQL answers the question asked and that your dashboard tells a clear story. The cost of that model is waiting; several recent Trustpilot reviews of Udacity mention slow review queues, so submit early in a billing month.
What the three projects show an employer
| Project | What it proves | How to present it |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce profit analysis | You can turn raw financials into metrics and a recommendation | Lead with the recommendation and the two numbers behind it |
| Retail Analysis | You can answer business questions in SQL and document a database | Share the queries, the data dictionary and the ERD together |
| Tableau dashboard | You can build an interactive view a manager can use without help | Publish it on Tableau Public and link it from your resume |
What is not here: Python, R, inferential statistics, regression or forecasting. Statistics stays descriptive. If you need those, look at the Data Analyst Nanodegree instead.
Who Should Enroll?
- Managers and team leads who want to answer their own questions from company data instead of waiting on an analyst.
- Marketing and operations staff who already live in spreadsheets and want SQL and dashboards on top.
- Finance and accounting staff who know Excel well and want SQL and Tableau to go with it.
- Career changers testing whether analytics suits them before paying for a longer program.
Skip it if you already write SQL joins and build Tableau dashboards at work; the program is labeled Beginner and stays there. Skip it too if your goal is a data scientist role, which needs Python and statistics this program does not teach.
Is it too basic for you? A quick check
Try these before you subscribe. If you can do all of them comfortably, most of the program will be review; if you cannot do any, it is pitched at the right level.
- Build a pivot table that shows monthly revenue by product category, with a chart.
- Write a SQL query that joins two tables and returns the top five customers by total spend.
- Explain the difference between gross margin and net margin to a colleague.
- Build a Tableau dashboard with a filter that updates two charts at once.
What learners have said
Udacity’s program page shows a 4.8 average from 1,256 reviews, the strongest we have seen on a Udacity program this year. The most recent ones (February to October 2026) are mostly five stars and short; the longest praises clear explanations and practical Tableau examples. We found no recent Reddit discussion of this specific program, so the program-page reviews are the main learner evidence.
Across Udacity as a whole, Trustpilot showed a 4.5 TrustScore from 3,406 reviews on 13 October 2026. The 60 newest were mostly positive about structure and project reviews, and several came from people taking Udacity through employer training; the negatives were slow project reviews, broken workspace tools and unanswered support tickets.
Business Analytics vs Data Analyst Nanodegree
The two programs are often confused. Business Analytics is the no-code path: spreadsheets, SQL and Tableau, aimed at people who use data in a business role. The Data Analyst Nanodegree is the code path: Python and statistics, aimed at people who want an analyst job title. Many learners take Business Analytics first and decide afterwards whether they want to learn Python.
| Business Analytics (nd098) | Data Analyst | |
|---|---|---|
| Coding | None (SQL only) | Python required |
| Tools | Spreadsheets, SQL, Tableau | Python, pandas, statistics, visualization libraries |
| Level | Beginner | Intermediate |
| Best for | Data-literate business roles | Analyst and junior data roles |
If you are aiming further, at modeling and machine learning, our Data Scientist Nanodegree review covers the next step, and the Google Analytics 4 Nanodegree suits marketers who mainly need web analytics.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Short: 40 hours fits in one or two months of subscription | The same three tools are taught well for free or cheaply elsewhere |
| No prerequisites; genuinely beginner-friendly | No Python, R, regression or forecasting |
| A full course on business metrics and financial statements, which data courses rarely include | Descriptive statistics only |
| Three reviewed projects that mirror real analyst tasks | Project reviews can be slow, per recent Udacity-wide reviews |
| 4.8 from 1,256 reviews on Udacity’s page | The certificate is not an industry credential |
Business Analytics Alternatives
| Option | What you get | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate (Coursera) | 9 courses and over 180 hours of instruction, per Coursera; spreadsheets, SQL, Python and Tableau | $49 to $79 a month on Coursera | Learners with six months who want a recognized brand at a lower monthly price |
| DataCamp Tableau Fundamentals track | Interactive Tableau lessons in the browser | DataCamp subscription; the track can be started free | Tableau practice without installing anything |
| Tableau Public | Tableau’s free platform for building and sharing visualizations | Free (workbooks are public) | Practicing dashboards and hosting a portfolio |
| Udacity SQL for Data Analysis (free course) | Udacity’s free SQL course covering similar ground to course 2 | Free | Trying Udacity’s teaching style before paying |
The honest comparison is with the Google certificate. It is longer, adds Python, and costs less per month, but Coursera’s page does not describe individual reviewer grading, and six months of Coursera adds up too. Udacity’s program is shorter and reviewed; Google’s is broader and cheaper per month. For a wider list, see our best data analytics courses guide.
Which tool to learn first if you are on your own
If you skip the program and teach yourself, the order matters more than the course. Start with spreadsheets, because every business shares data in them and the metrics thinking from course one transfers to everything else. Learn SQL second, because it is how you get data out of company systems without waiting for someone to export it. Learn Tableau (or Power BI, if your company uses Microsoft tools) last, because a dashboard is only as good as the query behind it. The Nanodegree follows exactly that order, which is one of its quieter strengths: the three courses build on each other rather than standing alone, and each project reuses skills from the course before it.
Is the Business Analytics Nanodegree Worth It?
Yes, for business professionals who want working data skills fast and would value a reviewer checking their analysis. It is short enough to finish in a month, it starts from zero, and its first course on business metrics is something most data courses leave out.
No, if price is the main constraint or your goal is a data job title. The Google Data Analytics Certificate covers more for less per month, and the Data Analyst Nanodegree teaches the Python that analyst job postings increasingly ask for.
A four-week plan to finish inside one month
This plan assumes about 10 hours a week. It submits each project as early as possible so review waits overlap with the next course.
| Week | Course | Goal by Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Business Metrics with Spreadsheets | Submit the e-commerce profit analysis |
| 2 | SQL for Data Analysis, first half | Write any JOIN with GROUP BY from memory |
| 3 | SQL second half, then start Tableau | Submit Retail Analysis |
| 4 | Data Visualization in Tableau | Publish the dashboard to Tableau Public, submit, then cancel before renewal if you are done |
Ways to lower the cost
- Ask your employer first. Business analytics is a common employer-paid program, and Udacity sells business plans.
- Learn SQL basics for free first. Udacity’s free SQL for Data Analysis course makes the paid SQL course much faster.
- Use the new-user discount if it is running. Udacity showed a 40% banner for new users on 13 October 2026. Our links pass you to Udacity’s own checkout, where the current offer is shown.
- Use the seven-day refund window to check the first course before you commit.
Pay expectations: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics does not track business analysts as one occupation. The closest it reports are management analysts, with a median of $101,860 in May 2025 and 10% projected growth from 2025 to 2035, and operations research analysts, with a median of $88,940 and 12% growth. Both usually require domain experience as well as tools, so treat the program as one step, not a job ticket.
Start the Business Analytics Nanodegree →
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Udacity Business Analytics Nanodegree worth it?
It is worth it if you want a short, reviewed path through the three tools most business analysts use (spreadsheets, SQL and Tableau) and can finish in one or two months. At $249 a month and 40 hours of content, that usually means $249 to $498. If you can study for six months, the Google Data Analytics Certificate on Coursera covers similar ground for less per month; Coursera’s page does not describe individual reviewer grading.
What is a Udacity Nanodegree?
A Nanodegree is Udacity’s name for a multi-course program built around projects that a human reviewer grades against a rubric. You get a Udacity certificate when every project passes. It is not a college degree or academic credit, and it is sold through Udacity’s subscription rather than as a separate tuition.
Do I need coding or math experience?
No. Udacity lists no prerequisites and labels the program Beginner. The math is business arithmetic: percentages, growth rates, margins and basic descriptive statistics. SQL is taught from the first SELECT statement, and Tableau is drag and drop.
How long does the Business Analytics Nanodegree take?
Udacity estimates 40 hours across three courses and 95 lessons. At 10 hours a week that is about four weeks, plus a few days per project for review. Most learners can finish inside one or two months of subscription.
Which spreadsheet program does it use?
The first course is titled Business Metrics with Spreadsheets, and Udacity’s own description of the program names Excel. The skills it lists (navigation, cell referencing, lookups and pivoting, charts) work the same way in Google Sheets.
Do I need to buy Tableau?
Not to practice. Tableau Public is Tableau’s free platform for building and sharing visualizations; the trade-off is that workbooks you publish there are public. Paid Tableau licenses are for private, company data.
What projects are in the program?
Three: Analyze Profits for an E-commerce Company (spreadsheet metrics and a presentation), Retail Analysis (SQL queries, a data dictionary and an entity relationship diagram) and Build Tableau Visualizations (an interactive dashboard).
How much does it cost?
Udacity charged $249 a month, $846 for four months (about $212 a month) or $999 to buy the program outright on 13 October 2026, and showed a 40% discount banner for new users. Because the program is only 40 hours, the monthly plan is usually the cheapest route.
Can I get a refund?
Udacity’s Terms of Use (updated January 16, 2026) give seven days from your first purchase to cancel for a full refund. After that, fees are not refunded, and canceling a monthly plan keeps access until the end of the month you paid for.
What jobs does business analytics lead to?
Common titles are business analyst, reporting analyst, operations analyst and junior data analyst. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics does not track business analysts as one occupation; the closest it reports are management analysts (median $101,860 in May 2025) and operations research analysts ($88,940). Those roles usually also ask for domain experience, not only tools.
Related: Udacity Hub | Data Analyst Nanodegree | Data Analytics Courses Hub | SQL Nanodegree | Best Udacity Courses
Related reading: Udacity Google Analytics 4 Nanodegree review
For the full Udacity Nanodegree breakdown, including cost, programs, mentor support and our worth-it verdict, read our complete Udacity Nanodegree review (2026).
Related reading: Best business analytics courses.