Top UX learning platforms, rated
Dip your foot into the kiddy pool of UX, and you’ll soon find yourself in an ocean of learning options.
If you’re here, you’re probably either new to UX or a current UX practitioner keeping your skills sharp.
That’s because UX learning platforms (5 of which we’ll review today) are a fast way to learn a variety of UX topics for cheap.
If you’re a serious UX career transitioner, then you’ll want to check out the UX bootcamp review page.
What we’ll cover today…
- Cost comparison
- Pros and cons of each platform
- Learning experience
If you’ve been deciding where, I hope this guide shows you the way.
– Oz Chen, reviewer & founder of UXBeginner.com
Note: There are affiliate links to the recommendations on this page. We stand by our recommendations for UX students. Thanks for supporting our free site!
Platforms reviewed today
For serious ux Students
Certificates
Subscription based
In-depth courses
IDF has been an online UX school since 2002, which is dinosaur years in the UX field. It’s our top pick for serious UX students who want lengthy, in-depth design courses that come with completion certification.
- These are serious, full length UX courses that usually require 10+ hours of practice over 4-6 weeks.
- Course completion certificates you can put on LinkedIn
- Grading by real humans and top industry instructors
- Non-profit business model
- Limited to UX courses specifically, unlike Skillshare and other broad platforms
- You have to pay an annual subscription up front versus monthly
- Courses are longer and take more commitment
- No mobile app, if you care about learning on the go
- Professional membership (unlimited courses): $192/year, or $144/year with our link.
- Student membership (2 courses max at the same time): $132/year, or $99/year with our link
Using our educational partner link, the cost breaks down to $12/month for the professional membership and $8.25/month for the student membership.
For all learners
variety of topics
A la carte courses
Shorter courses
Udemy is an online course marketplace that covers almost every topic, from entrepreneurship to UX design. You buy courses a-la-carte which range anything from $9 to $250.
- 130,000+ courses in every topic, with great UX courses.
- Solid mobile app for learning on the go
- A-la-carte so you can pay just $10 for a course, and keep it forever.
- Many courses have interactive elements built in, including quizzes, exercises and discussion areas
- If you’re interested in many UX courses, then it gets more expensive compared to unlimited subscription plans like IDF or Skillshare.
- Courses vary in quality. That’s why you should check our our top UX course recommendations
Udemy is a marketplace of individual courses, which range anywhere from $11.99 and up to $250. There are often sales year round, so no worry about dropping too much money on the course you want.
For beginner creatives
Great mobile app
Cheap Subscription
Short, quick courses
Skillshare is a freemium learning platform focused on creatives—think graphic design, lettering, and of course user experience. Skillshare is the most “tech-forward” learning platform on this list, with beautiful design and consistently well-polished courses. Consider it a very close second to Udemy, which only edges it out with more in-depth UX courses.
- 27,000 premium (paid) courses in every topic, and 3000+ free courses.
- Best-in-class mobile app and website. Skillshare’s UX is awesome.
- All courses look and sound great—Skillshare has good quality control.
- Some courses have interactive quizzes, homework and disucssion
- Courses tend to be shorter and more introductory, than say compared to IDF.
- If you don’t like subscriptions, you won’t like Skillshare. Though the price is quite reasonable for the quality.
You can join Skillshare for free and or pay $8.25/month (annul price) for the Premium subscription. With UXBeginner’s partner link, you can binge watch all your favorite UX courses on 2 free weeks of Premium, instead of the usual 1 free week.
For LinkedIn power users
Huge course library
Expensive subscription
Certificates
The artist formerly known as Lynda is now LinkedIn Learning. There’s a vast library of professional courses, including UX design topics. Some students might find the higher monthly price worth it if you’re also interested in LinkedIn Premium features like salary and job insights + unlimited profile views, which are included with a LinkedIn Learning subscription.
- Huge library of courses
- Solid mobile app for learning on the go
- Completed courses show up as certificates and skills on your LinkedIn profile
- Courses tend to be drier and a bit more “serious” than Skillshare or Udemy
- This is the highest cost subscription on this list
- New courses take longer to come out compared to other platforms
LinkedIn Learning costs $29.99/month or $24.99/month if you buy the annual plan (check out the pricing page). What’s nice is that either option comes with a free 1 month trial for your binge-learning pleasure.
The cost is most worth it for learners who also want a LinkedIn Premium subscription for job searching.
For designer-coders
Technical library
Subscription plan
Well-produced videos
Team Treehouse is one of the best places to learn programming, and in recent years they’ve grown their library of design courses. If you’re a designer-coder hybrid who wants access to technical-oriented courses (Like Prototyping in the browser), then you’ll be very pleased with Treehouse’s professionally-produced videos.
- Great selection of coding and UX courses.
- Library geared towards designers who code, or coders who design.
- Video lectures are very polished and professional, with great visuals that help illustrate UX concepts.
- Team Treehouse’s target audience is programmers
- No mobile app (if that matters to you)
- Not as many courses compared to Udemy, Skillshare or IDF
Treehouse costs $29.99/month on the monthly plan or $14.99/month if you buy the annual plan (check out the pricing page). You get a 7 day free trial to binge-learn.
Thanks for reading! Here’s who we’ve reviewed today…
What should I do next?
Like we mentioned at the top of this page—UX learning platforms are great for the UX students just dipping their toes in OR existing product designers looking to sharpen/broaden their skills.
We at UXBeginner recommend UX courses and short classes path for starting out, since these are cheaper options that are easy to cancel or have free trial periods. Bootcamps, on the other hand, require much higher investment and research.