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With so many online learning sites all over the Internet, you can learn almost anything, from anywhere, without having to go to college or take classes.

Online courses come with the right tools to help you learn, such as video streaming, notes, resources, discussion forums, notes, practice tasks, help from teachers, and other devices.

In the past few years, the number of platforms that offer online courses has grown a lot, and you can now find hundreds or even thousands of resources and courses on a single subject.

With so many choices, it takes time to determine which online course websites to use and which tool will work best for you.

Regarding a single niche or skill, the different online courses offered serve other goals.

Some online learning sites are made for people with jobs and teach new skills to those already working.

Some online course sites are for people wanting to learn something new or start a new job.

Others are just for people who want to find the best online classes to learn about hobbies like cooking or photography.

To help you understand it all, we’ve reviewed and ranked the best websites for online courses based on several factors, such as the quality and amount of their classes, their value, the credentials of their instructors, how easy they are to use, and more.

This guide has been updated for 2023 to give you the most up-to-date information to choose the best online learning tool.

What are the best places for online courses?

Here are the sites we think offer the best online cources in 2023:

1. MasterClass

Masterclass has classes given by some of the world’s most famous people and experts. These classes cover various topics, from cooking and gardening to science and wellness.

Some famous people who teach on MasterClass (review) are Bill Clinton, Gordon Ramsay, Samuel L. Jackson, Margaret Atwood, Serena Williams and Natalie Portman, to name a few. MasterClass is one of the best sites for online classes because it gives you access to such well-known teachers.

There are more than 180 classes that cover everything from business to acting to photography.

You can stream Masterclass on your mobile phone, Television, tablet, laptop, or computer. These classes are given in short, high-quality lessons that you can learn from quickly.

Depending on the type of course, each class has video lectures, documents from the class workbook, interactive tasks, and group activities.

Periodically, classwork and assignments are turned in directly to the teacher for one-on-one feedback and learning review.

What’s Important

• Watch lessons on your phone, computer, or TV
• Celebrity Tutors
• Periodic one-on-one time between teacher and student
• Help over the phone for free
• Work on different platforms

Popular lessons

• Annie Leibowitz Teaches Photography
• Robin Roberts Teaches How to Communicate in a Real Way
• Massimo Bottura Teaches How to Cook Modern Italian
• Ron Finley Teaches Gardening
• Alicia Keys Teaches People How to Write Songs and Make Music

Pricing

MasterClass prices include an all-access pass that gives you unlimited access to classes and content and starts at $180 per year or $15 per month.

2. SkillShare

It’s an excellent place for creative people who want to learn, improve, and make their drawing, education, proofreading, photography, digital marketing, voice-over training, instructional design, UX design, or web design skills look better.

Skillshare has a one-month free trial, a great way to try some lessons and see if it’s a good choice.

Overall, it’s a good choice for creative people who want to learn new skills. Please read our review of Skillshare to learn more.

What’s Important

• Short lessons for busy students
• There are a lot of classes.
• No charge
• Lots of movies to choose from
• iOS/Android smartphone apps
• Film, writing, tech, leisure, photography, and illustration are some of the best Skillshare.

Popular lessons

• Digital Illustration for Everyone 2. Productivity Masterclass: Make a Custom System that Works
• The Basics of Character Animation
• Finding Success: 7 Exercises to Find Your Passion, Purpose, and Path
• Style Your Space: Creative Interior Design Tips and Tricks

Pricing

The prices for Skillshare include a one-month free trial where you can take as many lessons as you want. After that, the price is $165 per year, totaling an average of $13.75 monthly. At the moment, there is no monthly plan.

Get 1 free month of Skillshare Here.

3. Udemy

Udemy is one of the biggest platforms with the cheapest prices. It has over 100,000 courses, frequent sales, and a wide range of online lessons.

Udemy has more than 30 million users, and it helps people take classes in more than 50 languages.

It has many topics, from coding boot camps to in-depth art lessons.

What’s Important

• Extensive course list
• Content that is well-arranged
• Apps that work with smartphones
• Reviews that help
• More than 50 Languages
• Low costs, Frequent sales (prices as low as $10.99)

Popular lessons

• Finish Python Bootcamp, the Character Drawing Course, and get your MBA in one course.
• Learn Ethical Hacking From Scratch Beginner to Pro in Excel: Financial Modeling and Valuation

Pricing

The price of each lesson on Udemy is different. You can sign up and buy individual courses, give them as gifts, or sign up for one of the free classes.

4. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is the best choice for business professionals who want to learn new skills. It’s an online learning platform lets users take more than 18,000 classes. Users pay a monthly fee to use it.

It has courses on everything from business development, marketing, and finance to coding and time management for people who want to improve their skills to succeed in their jobs.

The course structure is made up of short videos, quizzes, and tasks, making it easy for you to learn. This course design lets you learn skills even when busy, so you always continue learning and improving.

The courses are primarily about getting certificates that you can put on your resume and LinkedIn page.

What’s Important

• Professionally planned, built, and run by teachers who are experts in that field.
• Learning flexibility (smartphone compatibility, audio-only option, option to learn when you don’t have internet access, short vids)
• Gives a free one-month trial
• A way to save money each year
• A detailed description of the course material. 6. Certificates of completion.
• Great for getting better at your job

Popular lessons

• Marketing and public relations
• Courses on how to think strategically
• How to Talk to People with Confidence
• Improving Interpersonal Communication
• Building confidence in yourself

Pricing

LinkedIn Learning costs $19.99/month for an annual subscription or $39.99/month for a monthly membership after a one-month free trial. Read more in our review of LinkedIn Learning.

5. Coursera

Coursera gives you access to thousands of courses offered by top professors at top universities. You can find courses on almost any subject you want.

With Coursera, you can take classes from Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and Duke, some of the best universities in the world.

Coursera has started offering online bachelor’s and master’s degrees from some of the best universities in the world. You can take many online certificate courses to learn practical, in-demand skills.

It has many course topics, including public health, science, technology, languages, social sciences, art, fiction, and personal growth. All classes let you get a certificate of completion so that you can put it on your LinkedIn profile and resume.

The course structure includes recorded videos, a transcript of the video, notes, tools, assignments, quizzes, and a conversation forum so that students can learn more actively.

What’s Important

• Free lessons
• The top colleges work together
• Wide range catalog
• Certificates and degrees that are 100% online

Popular lessons

• Data science certificate
• Google IT help certificate
• In the study of happiness
• Certificate and expertise in deep learning

Pricing

Courses on Coursera cost anywhere from $29 to $99 for certification, but you can watch any class for free. Coursera Plus is your best bet. For $59 a month or $399 a year, you can subscribe to it and get access to thousands of classes.

6. edX

edX, started by Harvard and MIT, is the only Massive Open Online courses (MOOC) platform with free and open-source courses.

Some of the more than 100 institutions that work with it are Berkeley, MIT, and Harvard.

edX has tens of thousands of open-source classes on arts, economics, finance, law, email marketing, coding, computer science, and architecture, among other things.

In addition to professional certificate classes, edX hosts degrees programs like MicroMasters and Masters.

What’s Important

• The best college stuff
• Free, open sources classes
• Offers of micro degrees
• Certificate Courses from the Master’s Program
• Apps that work with smartphones

Popular Courses 

• Everyone Can Program (Getting Started with Python)
• Introduction to Computer Science for CS50
• How to Make People Happy at Work and Lead High-Performing Teams
• Bitcoins and other digital currencies

Pricing

Except for professional education classes, signing up and taking courses or watching them is free. Adding a verified certificate is free, which you can put on LinkedIn and your resume—prices on edX range from $50 to $300, based on the course.

7. FutureLearn

FutureLearn is the same as edX and Coursera in that it has thousands of free classes and paid courses from top universities and institutions.

FutureLearn is based in England, so it has more courses from UK universities than sites like edX and Coursera.

Short courses. Micro-credentials, Expert Tracks, and Online Degrees are all examples of these.

Popular lessons

• Computer Programming for Everyone: Online English Lessons
• COVID-19: Understanding and Applying Critical Care
• A History of Royal Fashion How Mindfulness Can Help You Be Healthy and Do Your Best

What’s Important

• Working with the university to build relationships.
• Learning in depth
• Its main goal is to teach skills.
• You can get a free song.

Pricing

Sign up and take free classes for up to 5 weeks. It sells paid programs for single courses. Sign up for it for $189.99 per year, and you can use it as much as you want. 

8. Codecademy

Codecademy is an online tool for learning programming languages, Data Science, and Web Development. It is for people who want to become experts in these areas. Simply put, this is where you’ll find the best online classes to improve your computer skills.

Codecademy classes teach 12 computer languages and markup languages like HTML and CSS. These languages include Python, Java, Go, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, C++, Swift, and Sass.

Codecademy has career paths for different skill sets, like data science, web programming, etc. The focus of skill routes is on becoming an expert in a few skills for short-term goals. There are different levels of challenge in each Skill Path, and you can take a quiz to find out what your current skill set is so you can move up from there.

Popular lessons

• Learn HTML
• Learn Python 3
• Learn JavaScript
• Career Path of a Front-End Engineer 
• Career Path of a Data Scientist

What’s Important

• Offers career paths in tech 
• Skills for people who want to specialize in a particular skill. 
• Gives scholarships to students who qualify.
• You can learn more than 12 programming languages.

Pricing

There are a few different ways to pay for Codecademy as a person and student. A student will pay about $150 a year, and an average person will pay between $250 and $300 a year.

9. Udacity

Udacity has classes on making software, coding, building websites, and learning about data science.

Udacity is the only place to find classes like nano degrees geared toward business and technology education.

Nanodegrees is a program that offers skills and jobs in a way that is different from college degrees. With Udacity, you can become a technology expert and prepare for a full-time tech job.

Udacity makes learning and getting better at something easier through live feedback. It’s a way to talk to the teacher one-on-one to get serial input on your projects and assignments. But most people can’t use these services because of how much they cost.

If you want to improve your web development, programming, data science, and computer skills, this is the place for you, and this is your best chance, and Udacity has some of the best online classes in these areas.

Please read our review of Udacity to find out more.

Popular Courses

• Nanodegree can help you become a marketing analyst.
• Nanodegree can help you become a UX designer.
• Become a Data Scientist – Nan degree.
• Nanodegree: Become a Robotics Software Engineer.
• Udacity Courses: Applying Data Science to Product Management.
• AI for Business Leaders: Courses from Udacity.

What’s Important

• Frequent Discounts
• Responses from people
• Nano-degrees
• Collaborations in education
• Focus on tech experts

Pricing

Udacity’s prices are different for each degree. On average, getting a nano degree costs $399 per month. But if you paid for 3 months upfront, you would get a 15% discount.

10. Nas Academy

Are you talented and looking for a way to get paid for what you do?

Nas Academy is an online learning site that helps creators get the skills they need to do well. It has a variety of online classes for both creators and businesses that experts teach.

You can take lessons in content creation (photography, editing, publishing, scriptwriting, etc.), business (entrepreneurship, branding, storytelling, etc.), cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other topics.

Many of these classes can be finished in a week or less, so you can quickly get the skills you need to go from being a beginner to an expert.

Another cool thing about Nas Academy is that it offers free classes, and we do mean free. These workshops are an excellent way to understand what you can learn on their site.

You can also take live classes at Nas Academy, where you can talk to your teacher and get comments on your work.

How We Chose the Best Websites for Online Courses

There are so many places to learn online that it can take time to figure out where to start. We’ve done all the hard work for you by narrowing down our list and reviewing many platforms.

Even though there is only one online learning platform that’s great for everyone, we’ll help you narrow down your options so you can easily find one that fits your needs.

We’ve looked at these choices based on several things, which are listed below:

Pricing

Pricing options change from platform to platform. You can choose from free classes, free audits, and monthly or yearly subscriptions.

Content

Content on different platforms is different because some focus more on things like learning arts and creativity, computer languages, or business skills.

Quality

Online classes must be suitable. Some platforms have a lot of students, so course material is either made more general or kept at the level of depth and difficulty that most students want. On the other hand, some sites work with certain universities to teach the course material.

Features like certificates, degrees, and smartphone compatibility must also be looked at for formal education purposes.

What are the pros of learning online?

These are some of the benefits of online learning:

• The ease of learning online
• Gives you more impact and better skills for your work prospects.
• There is no deadline to finish the course or sign up.
• Lessons are cheaper and sometimes even accessible. It costs less than standard ways to learn.

What kinds of resources do most online educational platforms offer?

E-books, lectures in audio and video forms, e-journals, transcriptions, notes, worksheets, and more are all common learning resources.

Do I get a certificate I can print?

Some online course providers give learners printable certificates when they finish a course, and this is a great way to show possible employers what you’ve learned. Only some online course sites, though, do this.

A Last Word on the Best Websites for Online Courses

Online classes make learning interactive, easy, and cheap. They also make learning more open and casual for people who want to know about any subject.

When looking for the best places to learn online, we advise taking advantage of the free samples that many of these sites offer, and this lets you try things out and determine which app works best for you.

Do you have a question about the best places for online courses? Leave a comment below, and we’ll try to help.