Pluralsight Vs Coursera: Which Platform Is Better In 2023

With each passing year, the online education market grows and grows as more students sign up for online courses all around the world.

From programming to writing, students can learn pretty much anything – but finding the right online education platform can be much tougher than finding the right course. 

Two giants in the online education market are Coursera and Pluralsight – but which of these two companies is the best course provider for you? 

Here we are going to compare Pluralsight VS Coursera to find out what each online learning platforms offer and which one could benefit you the most.

This way, you can find the best online education platform for you and your preferences – so let’s dive in! 

Pluralsight Vs Coursera: The Basics

First, let’s take a look at both Pluralsight and Coursera to see what they offer and their value as a company.

This way, we can see what kind of service they aim to sell to their students – and the kind of experience you can expect to get from signing up with them.

What Is Coursera?

First, let’s start with Coursera. 

Coursera is an online educational platform that aims to provide technological-based free courses to students. Unlike other competitors, Coursera’s courses are offered through universities and companies including Yale and Stanford.

This means that most of the more advanced courses available through Coursera are set at a higher educational level.

Most of Coursera’s courses aim to help those who want to enter technological industries but not all of their courses are strictly ‘techy’.

There are languages, music production, creative writing, and graphic design – but all of these can still help develop online content and businesses. 

This is because Coursera’s goal as a company is to provide relevant and flexible education to those seeking to boost their employability.

The company aims to provide everyone with the knowledge and confidence they need to climb career ladders, which is partly why they work with so many third parties to deliver challenging but highly relevant courses. 

So, Coursera’s courses offer accreditation, lifetime access, and tech skills to help employers recognize your potential to boost your chances of landing a great profession. 

What Is Pluralsight?

Like Coursera, Pluralsight is another online educational learning platform that provides technological-based courses.

There are thousands of interactive courses on offer that range from creative subjects like machine learning to software development, but all involve working with software and programs to achieve different goals. 

Unlike Coursera, Pluralsight courses have a larger focus on technology. They believe that offering different learning paths can help more students get into the tech industry, encouraging progress in our society and paving the way for a better future.

This is why Pluralsight has teamed up with some huge organizations to provide effective training. Such companies include GE Healthcare, Dell Technologies, and Ford. 

As a result, Puralsight’s courses put a lot of focus on hands-on projects and applying the knowledge taught to real-life situations.

Although the structure of the course means a lot of lectures and not much of anything else apart from the odd quiz, the point of these videos is also to inspire students while providing them with the information they need. 

Pluralsight Vs Coursera

So, now you know the basics about each platform, it’s time to compare the two together to see which one is the ultimate online educational platform. Check out our comparison below and see which one is right for you. 

Course Quality

Generally, both Pluralsight and Coursera offer seriously high-quality courses – which is why these two platforms are so widely used!

Courses on Pluralsight are run by instructors who have years of experience in their respective fields, so you can count that the information they are providing you to be solid and relevant to real-world applications.

Each course is broken down into subjects, and each subject is built of several easy-to-watch lectures.

However, there’s no accreditation or completion certificate with Pluralsight’s courses – but you will walk away with the knowledge you need to meet your goals. 

Coursera is slightly different. Courses are university or company-led, meaning that the quality of each course is not guaranteed by Coursera. However, a vast majority of the courses we checked out were still very high quality.

This is because Coursera does have strict protocols when it comes to what courses they accept. 

As a result, Coursera offers courses that are rich in content and run by experienced instructors, qualified professors, and the best of the best in each respective field.

It also offers accredited and certified courses – which helps it push a little ahead of Pluralsight. Plus, these certifications and accreditations are recognized by a lot of businesses and universities – because they helped create them! 

Ease Of Use

Every student wants their learning experience to be a smooth ride and this is why finding the right online education platform is so important. So, how did we find using Pluralsight and Coursera? 

Pluralsight had a great user interface which made it easy to navigate and find your resources. Courses are structured so you can complete them at your own pace, fitting in around your schedule with ease.

Accessing your lessons is easy from any device, even on your smartphone so you can fit in a lesson or two while on your morning commute, making online learning even more accessible to more people. 

The length of courses ranges depending on the topic and how advanced it is. For example, a beginner’s course may only contain 30 minutes worth of material, while one for experts can take hours to fully complete.

Ultimately, how long it takes for you to complete your course comes down to your preferred pace. 

Coursera is different as some of its courses are certified or accredited, meaning that you need to pass exams or tests to access later lessons or to complete your course.

This means that some courses need to be ‘enrolled’ and contain deadlines to help you keep on track. This might be motivating to some students, but restricting to others – especially if a course contains face-to-face interactions at fixed times every week. 

Ultimately, Coursera’s courses like data science and all differ in content and structure so this isn’t the case with all of their courses. It just means you need to be extra careful when finding the right course.

Affordability 

Coursera and Pluralsight offer very different payment models which makes it difficult to judge when it comes to affordability. 

Pluralsight works on a ‘subscription’ model which means that students need to pay for a plan every year, with prices starting at a whopping $399 per year. Here’s the catch – once you pay that fee, you get access to all of Pluralsight’s courses.

This means you can keep learning course after course, jumping from one subject to another, learning every skill you need to work on larger projects rather than just in one profession. 

For example, if you are thinking of developing your website, you can learn about programming, user interface, SEO, email marketing, business culture, mental health, working as an entrepreneur, and web design – multiple courses all for one single payment that you can access all year. 

Coursera, however, charges per course. Prices can range from as little as $25 to a few hundred or thousand dollars per course. This can make enrolling in multiple courses difficult and expensive – unless you opt for Coursera Plus.

Coursera Plus offers unlimited access to thousands of courses and programs all for one subscription price of $399.

Some of its more costly courses are not included in this, so make sure that the courses you want to complete are before you sign up for Coursera Plus. 

So, both Pluralsight and Coursera are equal when it comes to cost. But, if you just want to sign up for one or two courses, then Coursera gives you the option to save a lot of money by buying each course individually. 

So, Who Wins? 

Coursera offers a lot of different yet high-quality courses, each with its type of certification and accreditation which can be useful for boosting your employability.

It offers different options when it comes to payments, allowing students to choose the most affordable option for them. 

As a result, Coursera wins out when compared to Pluralsight – but Plural sight still has a lot to offer.

Its courses are still high quality even though they don’t offer the same accreditation as Coursera’s, and its subscription-based payment plan matches Coursera’s.

So, if you know you want to take multiple courses, Pluralsight is a close competitor to Coursera. 

Ultimately, Coursera is our winner overall. You may find Pluralsight is the better option for you due to its better flexibility and that’s fine – the best thing about online learning is that it’s more accessible and flexible for all! 

So, check out the information above one more time and decide which platform is the best choice for you. You may agree with us, or you may not, no biggie!

Just find the right course and platform for you, and enjoy your learning experience!