Udemy online courses | My experiences

What is Udemy?

• Udemy itself lists over 250,000 courses and more than 75,000 instructors. 75 million people learn there according to the company.
• The platform is attractive because of the many courses offered in German.
• The courses are available in 75 languages, in the browser and as an app for iOS and Android. I have already taken some courses on the e-learning platform Udemy and would like to share my experiences with you below.
• Since May 11, 2026, Udemy and Coursera are one company. Both will continue as separate platforms with their own course catalog and own login for the time being. This does not change anything about courses, prices, subscriptions, and already purchased certificates. A Udemy subscription does not give you access to Coursera content, and the accounts of both platforms cannot currently be merged.

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Who is Udemy suitable for?

Udemy is aimed at anyone who wants to learn something new or refresh their knowledge. On the other hand, you can also offer online courses yourself and earn money online. The e-learning platform even offers an extra course model for continuing education of employees in companies (Udemy Business).

Udemy Business has its own price list: The team subscription for 2 to 50 people costs according to Udemy €336 per user per year and includes over 28,000 courses, preparation for more than 200 certification exams, and a 14-day free trial subscription. The enterprise subscription for 20 or more people with over 30,000 courses is only available upon request from sales.

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Udemy Price/Cost

For each online course you have to pay at Udemy, but you can then use it unlimitedly and for life. Meanwhile, there are also subscriptions: the Personal Plan (English: Personal Plan) with access to over 29,700 selected courses and the ad-supported Starter Plan with a similarly large catalog. Both only cover a portion of the offering and, according to Udemy, consist mostly of English-language courses; depending on your location, a catalog in the local language is added. The Personal Plan starts at €13.00 per month according to Udemy. Single purchase remains the standard model. Attention: The 30-day money-back guarantee described below does not apply to subscription plans, it only applies to individually purchased courses. For Germany, Udemy instead cites a legally required refund period of 14 days from the start of the subscription. This already runs even if you started with a free trial subscription. Nevertheless, the prices are somewhat puzzling to me. The course list price is set by the instructor, however the instructor and Udemy can offer discounts at any time.

I have experienced that courses that are actually advertised in the €100-200 range cost around €10 to €20 due to discount promotions. Most courses are definitely not worth €200 in my opinion and the constant discount promotions are somewhat annoying and unsettle customers.

It has also happened to me that I bought a course that became cheaper afterwards. According to Udemy, you can request a partial refund for this within 30 days of purchase; the support may require a screenshot of the cheaper price. However, I have not tried that yet.

It can also happen that prices vary between the Udemy app and the website, different browsers (Safari, Crome etc.) as well as between different operating systems.

Despite the somewhat strange pricing policy, I really like the online courses on the platform.

(no reliable price information, course prices fluctuate permanently at Udemy; status of other information: 08/28/2026)

Udemy Money Back

Do you want to return your Udemy course? No problem. Udemy refunds eligible e-learning courses that were purchased within the last 30 days. Courses purchased through a third-party website are not refunded. The money usually comes back via the originally used payment method; for some payment methods (such as in-app purchases in the Apple App Store) only Udemy credit is given. You can only request the refund in the browser, not in the Udemy app. The money-back offer is a practical solution if the course does not meet your desired expectations.

Caution: However, there are some precautions to protect instructors against abuse. If you have downloaded all content of a course, there may be no refund. If you get refunds too often, your user account may even be blocked.

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Udemy courses consist mostly of videos, but other materials can also be provided by the instructor for download. Additionally, instructors can make the course more interesting and practical by including quizzes, assignments, and exercises, e.g., programming exercises.

There are also AI features now: The Udemy AI Assistant answers questions about the course content in the course player, summarizes topics, and tests your knowledge, also in German. It is only available in courses whose instructors participate in Udemy's GenKI program, and only in the browser, not in the app. In some courses, there are also AI role-plays, labs, and programming exercises. Udemy is currently testing a newly designed, AI-powered course experience as a pilot with some users; among other things, downloading individual lessons to your computer is missing.

 

The learning platform offers video courses on a wide variety of subjects. Courses are offered on topics such as Business, Technology and Lifestyle, but also topics like programming, marketing, or learning musical instruments are available. In the Lifestyle category, you'll find many courses on learning to draw. The video courses can be found via the search bar on the website, or you can simply use the Categories tab to display all topics.

The large selection of programming courses is interesting. For example, you can learn programming languages like Python, C++ and many other languages for web and app development. 

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My Udemy Experiences

My experiences are mostly positive. The courses I've bought so far have always been very comprehensive and informative.

How do I find the right course?

The platform offers a course preview and a course curriculum to help you find the right course.

• Course preview:  The instructor releases individual lessons for free preview, at least ten minutes of video total. Usually, these are a few sample videos from different chapters.

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• Course content:  you can see the title, number, and length of all videos in the course. 

Even the instructors often have a profile where they briefly introduce themselves and can be rated. Another plus point is that you can message the instructor privately or publicly if you have questions, although it's not guaranteed they will reply.

I have also found that the course ratings are incredibly helpful in determining whether the course meets the desired quality. However, when looking at ratings, you should note that courses are offered at different prices. If someone writes a review for a course that cost €20, expectations are much lower than for a course that cost €100. So ratings mainly help to filter out bad courses. 

Tip:  Think carefully beforehand which course you want to buy, read the course ratings, and inform yourself about the instructor. 

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Whether a lesson can be downloaded to your computer is decided by the instructor. If the option is enabled, you'll find "Download lesson" in the gear menu at the bottom right of the course player. In many courses, it is grayed out. In the Udemy app, however, course lessons can always be downloaded for offline use.

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Udemy App

I really like the design of the Udemy app. The app is well structured and it's fun to watch downloaded online courses on the go on the train or at home on the couch. The app is available on iOS and Android. You can also buy new courses via the app: In the iOS app, the purchase goes through the Apple App Store, in the Android app depending on the country through Google Play or through Udemy's payment system. On the website, Udemy accepts credit and debit cards, PayPal and Udemy credit. You can only redeem discount codes on the website. That's why the prices in the app sometimes differ.

What users say in the App Store and Play Store

My opinion is just one of many. So I checked how the Udemy app performs in both stores.

Ratings from the German App Store and the German Google Play Store, retrieved on 08/31/2026.

The difference between both stores is noticeable. On the iPhone, users are noticeably more satisfied. In the Play Store, many bad reviews revolve around charges and courses that can't be downloaded. That matches what readers write to me here in the comments.

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Udemy Certificates

After completing a paid course, you receive a certificate without a special test. For free courses and for courses that consist only of practice tests, Udemy does not issue a completion certificate. Theoretically, you can just fast-forward to the end of the course chapter to complete it. You can show the completion certificate to colleagues and future employers or show off a bit to your friends and family. But note, the certificate is not the most valuable thing you achieve from a course, but the knowledge you acquire. Since Udemy is also not an officially recognized educational institution, the certificates are unfortunately not officially recognized either.

Tip: The skills you learn during the course bring you more than the certificate.

*Rating based on my own opinion. Excluding the field "user ratings", in which you can rate the platform.

For me, Udemy is the star among the platforms, at least when it comes to the selection of German-language courses.

My biggest criticism remains the billing. You usually pay per course. The subscriptions only cover a portion of the catalog. Skillshare, on the other hand, relies entirely on a subscription.

So pay attention to two things. Check if the instructor is really an expert in their field. And don't buy a course at list price, rather wait for the next discount promotion.

Honestly, the platform still convinces me. The money-back guarantee, the certificates and the mostly high-quality courses speak for themselves. For me, Udemy is among the best e-learning platforms.