Udemy vs LinkedIn Learning (2026): Pricing, Courses & Which to Choose

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Last updated: September 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. Every price on this page was read on Udemy’s and LinkedIn’s own pages in September 2026. See our review methodology.

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Udemy vs LinkedIn Learning at a Glance

How the Two Platforms Work

Udemy is an open marketplace. Independent instructors create and price their own courses, Udemy hosts and sells them, and learners judge quality through ratings and reviews before they buy. That model is why its catalogue is so large: Udemy lists 250,000+ courses, from beginner Excel to niche frameworks that no curated library would commission. The trade-off is uneven quality. Two courses with the same title can differ enormously, so reading the reviews and the last-updated date matters more on Udemy than anywhere else.

LinkedIn Learning works the other way round. It is a curated library that LinkedIn commissions and produces; its library-edition page describes courses as developed by instructional designers and taught by real-world experts. Production quality is consistent, courses tend to be short and focused on workplace skills, and the library connects to your LinkedIn profile, so completed courses can show there and recommendations draw on your role and skills. The trade-off is breadth and depth: fewer courses overall, and fewer long technical tracks.

The platforms have also diverged on how you buy. Udemy still sells individual courses and a subscription. LinkedIn’s help centre now states that LinkedIn Learning offers neither individual LinkedIn Learning subscriptions nor one-off course purchases: individuals get it through LinkedIn Premium, organisations through a license. Many comparisons still describe both as pay-per-course platforms, and that stopped being true.

Pricing for Individuals

Udemy: buy courses or subscribe

Individual Udemy courses list between $19.99 and $199.99, and Udemy runs sales often enough that paying list price is rarely necessary. You keep lifetime access to a course you buy, and eligible purchases carry a 30-day refund.

The Personal Plan starts at $13 a month, billed monthly or annually, and includes 28,000+ of Udemy’s most popular courses plus certification prep and AI-powered coding exercises. Two rules matter before you subscribe. Udemy’s billing FAQ says subscriptions are not refunded once they bill, and its Personal Plan FAQ says lifetime access does not apply to courses you take through the plan: cancel, and you lose them.

LinkedIn Learning: comes with Premium

There is no LinkedIn Learning price for an individual anymore. You get the library by subscribing to LinkedIn Premium, which bundles it with InMail credits and job-search features, and LinkedIn shows the Premium price only after you sign in because it varies by country and plan. Eligible members get a one-month free trial. Our LinkedIn Learning cost guide explains every route in detail, including the free ones through libraries and employers.

Which costs less?

Run the numbers for your own year. Three Udemy courses at the bottom of the list-price range come to about $60, and sale prices usually bring that lower; you keep all three. A year of the Personal Plan at its starting rate is $156, which buys unlimited access to 28,000+ courses for as long as you stay subscribed. LinkedIn Learning’s cost is a year of LinkedIn Premium at whatever price LinkedIn quotes you.

For someone who needs two or three specific courses a year, Udemy is almost always cheaper: a few sale-price courses cost less than a year of any subscription, and you keep them. If you study constantly across many subjects, a subscription starts to make sense, and then the question becomes whether you’d use LinkedIn Premium’s other features. If you would, LinkedIn Learning is effectively a free extra. If you wouldn’t, the Personal Plan is the cheaper way to get a large library.

Free ways to use each platform

Neither platform is free by default, but both can cost you nothing in the right circumstances. Udemy has some free courses alongside its paid catalogue, which PCMag’s review counts among its strengths, though the free ones tend to be shorter introductions. LinkedIn Learning is more often free through someone else’s license: LinkedIn sells it to public libraries, universities and employers, so check your library card, your student portal or your company’s training site before paying. Otherwise, the one-month Premium trial is the only free route LinkedIn offers an individual.

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Pricing for Teams and Businesses

This is where the two platforms are closest. Both publish a self-serve team price, and the difference is under $20 a seat a year. Udemy’s Team Plan is $30 a month per user, billed annually, for 2 to 50 people, with a free trial. LinkedIn Learning for Teams is $379.88 per license per year; LinkedIn’s purchase FAQ allows 2 to 20 licenses at first purchase and up to 50 per account, with a one-month free trial, and the account admin needs a license too.

Past those limits both move to sales-led plans. Udemy says flexible Enterprise purchase options start at $20 a month; LinkedIn publishes no enterprise price and routes you to its sales team. For a small business, the better question than price is content: Udemy’s catalogue is deeper for developers and IT staff, while LinkedIn Learning is stronger on management, communication and business software.

Course Catalogue and Quality

Udemy wins on size by an order of magnitude, and on depth in technical subjects. Long, project-based courses on programming languages, cloud platforms and data tools are common, and popular topics have many competing courses, so you can choose an instructor whose style suits you. The cost of that openness is that you have to do the filtering: check the rating, the number of reviews, and when the course was last updated before you buy.

LinkedIn Learning’s catalogue is smaller, at over 26,300 courses and Learning Paths, but more even. Courses follow a consistent format and are usually broken into short videos, which suits learning at work in spare half-hours. It is strongest on business skills, leadership, productivity software and creative tools. Developers wanting a long, hands-on path through a language or framework will usually find more on Udemy.

One practical difference: LinkedIn Learning lets you download courses in its mobile app to watch offline, but not on a desktop or laptop, and the app asks you to sign in again every 30 days.

Certificates and Career Value

Neither platform issues accredited qualifications. Both give certificates of completion, which record that you finished a course. Employers rarely treat either as a credential on its own; what matters is the skill you can show.

LinkedIn Learning has two practical advantages here. Completed courses can be added straight to your LinkedIn profile, where recruiters look, and LinkedIn says more than 2,000 courses prepare you for over 120 outside credentials, including certifications, continuing education units and academic credits. Udemy’s advantage is exam prep: its Personal Plan includes certification-prep courses, and Udemy sells a Learn AI with Google plan that leads to a Google AI Professional Certificate, which is issued by Google rather than Udemy.

If a recognised certificate is the real goal, consider a third option. Coursera Plus includes professional certificates issued by companies such as Google and IBM, and our Coursera vs LinkedIn Learning comparison covers that trade-off.

Compare Coursera Plus certificates →

Learning Features Compared

Beyond the videos themselves, the two platforms build different tools around the courses. Based on each company’s own plan pages (Udemy, LinkedIn):

The practical upshot is that LinkedIn Learning does more to connect learning to your career profile and to workplace practice, while Udemy’s tools are aimed at hands-on technical practice and at exam preparation. Neither set of features makes up for the wrong catalogue, so decide on content first.

What Independent Reviewers Say

PCMag, which reviews both, gives each the same score, and its criticisms point in opposite directions. Its Udemy review rates Udemy 3.0, Average (Jill Duffy, updated October 2025), saying it “excels at personal and professional development” but uses “a confusing pricing scheme and needs to vet some of its courses better.” Its LinkedIn Learning review also rates it 3.0, Average (Jill Duffy, updated September 2025): its “many professional courses make it easy to learn new skills, but the service is expensive and its presentation is a bit dry.”

User reviews are warmer about LinkedIn Learning: it averages 4.6 out of 5 from 174 reviews on Capterra, where many reviewers get access through an employer. That matches our own read. Udemy’s weakness is inconsistency you have to manage, LinkedIn Learning’s is depth, and both are genuinely useful when matched to the right learner.

Pros and Cons

Udemy

• Pro: buy a single course and keep it, often at a steep sale discount
• Pro: by far the largest catalogue, with deep technical courses
• Pro: 30-day refunds on eligible course purchases
• Con: quality varies widely between instructors
• Con: no refunds on subscriptions, and plan courses vanish when you cancel

LinkedIn Learning

• Pro: consistent production quality across the library
• Pro: completed courses show on your LinkedIn profile
• Pro: often free through libraries, universities and employers
• Con: no standalone subscription or single-course purchases
• Con: thinner on long, hands-on technical training

Refunds, Trials and Cancellation

• Udemy courses: eligible purchases can be refunded within 30 days under Udemy’s refund policy.
• Udemy Personal Plan: no refunds once a subscription bills; free trials run only as occasional promotions; courses taken through the plan disappear when you cancel.
• Udemy Team Plan: includes a free trial and can be cancelled at any time.
• LinkedIn Premium (including Learning): may be refundable within 7 days of the charge if you haven’t used Premium; EU residents buying for themselves get 14 days; iOS purchases are refunded by Apple.
• LinkedIn Learning for Teams: a one-month free trial with a reminder email seven days before it ends.

Which Should You Choose?

• You need one skill, fast: Udemy. Buy the best-reviewed course on sale and keep it.
• You’re a developer or in IT: Udemy for breadth, or Pluralsight for structured technical paths.
• You already pay for LinkedIn Premium: LinkedIn Learning. It’s included, so start there.
• Your library or employer offers LinkedIn Learning: use it free before paying for anything.
• You want workplace skills to show on your profile: LinkedIn Learning.
• You’re buying for a small team: prices are nearly identical, so pick on content; trial both.
• You want a recognised certificate: neither; look at Coursera’s professional certificates.

Other Platforms Worth Comparing

Coursera Plus costs $59 a month or $399 a year and suits learners who want certificates from universities and companies. Pluralsight offers Core Tech from $21 a month and Complete from $39 a month, both billed yearly, with a 10-day free trial, and suits developers who want skill paths and hands-on labs. For more options, see our LinkedIn Learning alternatives and Udemy alternatives guides.

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How We Compared

We read every price, plan limit and policy on this page directly on Udemy’s and LinkedIn’s own pricing pages and help centres in September 2026, and linked each source so you can check it yourself. Where a company does not publish a figure, such as LinkedIn’s Premium price, we say so rather than repeat a number from another site. We earn commissions from Udemy but not from LinkedIn, and we still recommend LinkedIn Learning wherever it is the better fit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Udemy or LinkedIn Learning better?

It depends on how you learn. Udemy is better if you want one specific skill, want to own the course, or want the deepest technical courses, because it sells courses individually and has by far the larger catalogue. LinkedIn Learning is better if you already pay for LinkedIn Premium or get it free through an employer or library, and you want short, consistently produced workplace courses.

Is Udemy cheaper than LinkedIn Learning?

Usually, for individuals. Udemy courses list at $19.99 to $199.99 and are frequently discounted, and the Personal Plan starts at $13 a month. LinkedIn Learning has no standalone price: you get it with LinkedIn Premium, whose price LinkedIn shows only after sign-in. For teams the published prices are close: Udemy’s Team Plan is $30 a month per user billed annually ($360 a year) and LinkedIn Learning for Teams is $379.88 per license per year.

Can I buy a single course on LinkedIn Learning like on Udemy?

No. LinkedIn says LinkedIn Learning does not offer one-off, a la carte purchases of individual courses, and it no longer sells an individual LinkedIn Learning subscription either. Buying courses one at a time is the clearest difference between the two platforms today.

Are Udemy and LinkedIn Learning certificates accredited?

No. Both give certificates of completion, which show you finished a course but are not accredited qualifications. LinkedIn Learning certificates can be added to your LinkedIn profile, and LinkedIn says more than 2,000 of its courses prepare you for outside credentials such as certifications and continuing education units. Udemy offers certification-prep courses and a Learn AI with Google plan that leads to a Google AI Professional Certificate.

Do Udemy and LinkedIn Learning offer refunds?

Udemy refunds eligible course purchases within 30 days but does not refund subscriptions once they are billed. LinkedIn says Premium subscriptions, including LinkedIn Learning, may be refundable within 7 days of the charge if you have not used Premium, and EU residents buying for themselves get 14 days.

Which has more courses, Udemy or LinkedIn Learning?

Udemy, by a wide margin. Udemy lists 250,000+ courses in its marketplace, of which 28,000+ are included in the Personal Plan. LinkedIn lists over 26,300 courses and Learning Paths on LinkedIn Learning.

Is Udemy Business or LinkedIn Learning better for a company?

For a small team the published prices are within $20 a seat a year of each other, so the choice comes down to content. Udemy’s Team Plan covers 2 to 50 people and draws on a larger technical catalogue; LinkedIn Learning for Teams covers 2 to 20 licenses at first purchase, up to 50 per account, and is stronger on business and soft skills. Larger organisations need a quote from either company.

Related Guides

• How much LinkedIn Learning costs — Premium, Teams, enterprise and free routes
• Udemy Personal Plan review — whether the subscription beats buying courses
• How much Udemy costs — course prices, sales and refunds
• LinkedIn Learning review — is it worth it?
• The best LinkedIn Learning courses
• Coursera vs Udemy — the other big comparison

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