# Udemy

16 Hacker News commenters recommended Udemy and 44 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (4 owners).

**Verdict:** Recommended for practical courses on technologies, languages and soft skills, and for cheap certificates. Critics say many courses are outdated, low quality and bought but never finished.

## Why people recommend it

- Useful for learning technologies and languages (4 comments): "I gained a lot from both Udemy and Coursera. Stuff that has helped me a fair amount in my career." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46307262)) "I found Udemy useful to learn new languages and technologies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49407825)) "Udemy got me started in online dev education." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46304920))
- Practical, tactical courses for careers (2 comments): "I use Udemy courses all the time; great for compliance, game engine training, and insightful training of soft skills." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46301479)) "since Udemy is more about tactical courses in 10 out of 10 times" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46311054))
- Occasional good courses found (2 comments): "why not just find a good Udemy course after maybe a few hours of research" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49928347)) "I've found the occasional good course on Udemy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48107980))
- Cheap courses and certificates (2 comments): "The first two can give certificates cheaply." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46302471)) "give them $15 to spend on Udemy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49853826))

## What people warn about

- Outdated courses (2 comments): "old courses with outdated info are a major frustration on the platform" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46307264)) "the videos were 10 years old and most of the content was woefully out of date" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46310364))
- Low quality, no quality control (4 comments): "so much utter trash. There should be some kind of quality control." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48108359)) "the quality level was okay-to-mediocre but better than nothing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46303750)) "the instructor could barely speak English, audio seemed to have been recorded out an internet cafe" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46302794))
- Bought courses often left unfinished (4 comments): "Buying them is an easy way to feel good in the moment and it's easy to tell yourself that you'll do the courses later." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46303226)) "You buy the course and then it sits there. You get a dopamine hit when you buy, and you can finish the course later." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46302990)) "I bought quite a few courses at udemy, none at coursera though, but I ended up not taking them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46301662))
- DRM makes some videos hard to watch (2 comments): "Except for the DRM crap for some of the videos, that I need to watch in another browser" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48110256)) "most of the big names (Udemy, Coursera, ...) are using encrypted streaming with DRM" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47887724))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Khan Academy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/khan-academy.md): 67 recommend
- [Coursera](https://hackerapproved.com/p/coursera.md): 26 recommend
- [MIT OpenCourseWare](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mit-opencourseware.md): 14 recommend
- [Brilliant.org](https://hackerapproved.com/p/brilliant-org.md): 12 recommend
- [Bloomy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bloomy.md): 12 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.udemy.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Udemy", https://hackerapproved.com/p/udemy/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).