In a Nutshell
pros
- Free and paid courses available
- 30-day refund policy
- Full-service app
cons
- Not accredited by the Better Business Bureau
- Phone support not available
Udemy at a Glance
Language Variety
Ease of Use
Interactivity
Pricing
Learning Flexibility
Udemy Plans
As a global online marketplace, Udemy allows you to purchase individual courses on a case-by-case basis. When we searched the platform for language courses, we found resources in:
- Arabic
- Chinese
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Russian
- Spanish
- Turkish
All courses contain a minimum of 5 lectures and at least 30 minutes of video content.
Udemy also offers a range of free courses, which provide a streamlined version of its paid alternatives. With a free course, you will not, for example, receive a certificate of completion or be able to send direct messages to your tutors.
How much does Udemy cost?
The cost of studying through Udemy will depend on the course you choose. Although it wouldn’t be possible to feature all the languages courses available here, we’ve listed a selection of its bestselling ones below:
Because Udemy operates as a marketplace, many of its courses will be on sale for significantly discounted prices, but these offers may be for an extremely limited time only. The prices in the table above were obtained in December 2021 and will very likely be subject to change.
If you’re not satisfied with your course, the company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, provided that you haven’t downloaded a significant portion of the material.
How does Udemy work?
All courses are created, owned, and managed by Udemy’s instructors and include:
- Video lectures
- Audio lectures
- Text lectures
- Quizzes
If you’d like to learn a new language through Udemy, the first step is to search for a suitable option through its landing page or your online account. The search tool allows you to select whether you’d like a free or paid course and to filter courses according to your ability level–beginner, intermediate, or expert.
Udemy’s courses operate on an on-demand basis, which means you can begin a course at any time and there aren’t any deadlines for completion.
If you’re not certain whether a paid course is right for you, you can see a free preview, which will include a number of lectures that the instructor has selected to give you a flavor of their teaching methods and the topics covered.
Once you sign up for a course, you can access it by clicking on the link in your confirmation email. You can access your courses through your desktop, laptop, or the Udemy app.
Available to download from Google Play or the App Store, the app enables you to:
- Download course material
- Watch courses on the big screen with Chromecast
- Receive learning reminders through push notifications
- Take notes and add bookmarks to your learning material
- Take in-app quizzes
Once you’ve finished watching a lecture, Udemy will automatically mark it as complete.
After you have completed the course, you’ll still have access to all your course material, as long as you are current with the payments on your account.
Overall, we found the experience of searching for courses on Udemy extremely straightforward and found all the information we needed without any difficulty.
Is Udemy reliable and safe?
With more than 175,000 courses and more than 60,000 instructors, Udemy evidently has a large community of instructors and learners.
Note, however, that the company is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has a rating of 2.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot. Although the positive reviewers praise the quality of free resources and the helpfulness of customer support staff, more critical reviewers mention difficulty in obtaining refunds and struggling to follow the course material.
What’s special about Udemy?
In one of its most distinctive features, Udemy offers gift subscriptions, which enable you to buy courses as a present for friends, family, or colleagues.
Unlike some of its competitors, Udemy will provide you with a certificate of completion for every course. Although these certificates could provide you with an advantage over other candidates when you’re seeking a new role, they are not formally accredited by any official educational body.
Help and Support
You can contact Udemy through live chat or its online ticketing system. Live chat agents are available between 8am and 7pm CST and you can submit a ticket 24/7. Although telephone support isn’t available, this isn’t uncommon for language learning platforms.
When we contacted the company through live chat, we were able to speak to an agent immediately who answered all our questions in great detail.
If you sign up for a course and your tutor has enabled direct messaging, you can send them a private message through your online account.
There is also an extremely detailed set of FAQs on Udemy’s website, which provided most of the information we needed.
Although there is a blog on the company’s website, it doesn’t cover topics specific to language learning and focuses on areas such as office productivity and the value of soft skills.
Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a flexible approach to language learning, Udemy could be right for you. As well as offering a 30-day money-back guarantee, it provides a number of free courses and allows learners to view sample lessons on paid courses. The most significant cause for concern we identified is that the company isn’t accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has been rated as poor on Trustpilot. Ultimately, however, determining whether Udemy provides value for money will depend on the course you choose.
FAQs
Do Udemy lectures have subtitles?
Yes. All instructors can add subtitles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese to their video lectures. If you’d prefer to turn these off, you can do so through the closed caption icon on your course player.
How do Udemy practice tests work?
Practice tests are a free feature that provide an exam’s worth of questions. These can prove especially valuable if you’re studying for an external exam and using Udemy to supplement your learning. Be aware, not all courses offer practice tests.
Can I rate or review my Udemy course?
Yes, you can leave a review if you’d like to provide guidance for other students or give feedback to instructors. Instructors will have the opportunity to respond and you can also edit or delete your feedback.
