Are you looking for a Skillshare review? Is Skillshare a scam?
Getting enough sleep, listening to NPR, and eating superfoods aren’t the only ways to feed your brain. You need to challenge yourself to learn new skills.
To exercise your cognitive muscles, you don’t need to earn a college degree today. One of the best ways to embark on a new learning experience is to take online courses to help you improve your skills, enhance your understanding of new concepts, and learn new things.
You can take online courses for free – or for a very small price – through numerous online learning platforms. There are plenty of online learning communities available, including Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and more.
Skillshare offers some of the best courses. With Skillshare, you can take advantage of easy, affordable, and effective online learning.
You’ve come to the right place if you’re new to Skillshare and wondering what classes they offer. We will explain everything you need to know about Skillshare in our review, including the Skillshare membership details, prices, available classes, and other key features.
To help you make an informed decision, I have done thorough research about Udemy in the past few weeks, so I can tell you everything you need to know.
Skillshare Review – Key Takeaways
- Product Name: Skillshare
- Website: https://www.skillshare.com/
- Overall Rank: 4.7/5
- Skillshare Scam or Legit: It’s not a scam. It’s a legit online course platform that you can learn different things
- Who is it For: Anyone who want to take online courses
In this Skillshare review, I’m going to cover the following topics.
What is Skillshare?
Learn at your own pace, in your own way with Skillshare, a self-paced learning community based in the US. Most Skillshare courses require a subscription. Videos make up the majority of the site’s content.
Skillshare offers the goal of learning by completing projects rather than lecturing – a unique aspect of the platform. You can pick from several main course categories, such as entrepreneurship, arts, design, and technology.
Michael Karnjanaprakrn and Michael Ong founded the platform in 2010, making it one of the youngest ones of its kind. You can choose from more than 30,000 free or subscription-based courses taught by industry leaders.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
How Does Skillshare Work?
Skillshare is a great platform for those looking to become lifelong learners. With the help of video lessons and online workshops available on this website, you can easily learn just about any skill.
A typical online course includes lectures and supplementary materials, such as readings and worksheets, as well as interactive online learning communities where students can interact with one another about their projects.
Although the platform focuses primarily on creating online courses for creative categories, it covers a variety of subject matter. There are many topics available that can benefit your career or let you indulge in your hobbies.
What are the Features of Skillshare?
Sharing of learning experiences
Skillshare offers an online or in-person shared learning experience similar to what you would experience in a traditional classroom.
Students will be able to share their experience and point of view with other students and provide feedback based on the courses they’ve taken.
A seamless instructional experience
You’ll find the process to be straightforward if you’re a teacher hoping to create and sell courses on Skillshare. The Skillshare team will guide you through the entire process, from creating a class to advertising and getting paid.
As an instructor, you can add interactive steps directly to videos. With these steps, you can display information exactly how you want it.
Technical Specifications
As well as mobile devices like Android and iOS, Skillshare is available on the web. An app is also available. Both computer and smartphone classes are available.
It’s integrated with several technologies and companies, including Adobe, MailChimp, VS, Bigcartel, inVISION, Shapeways, and Quirky.
Skill Tags
Skillshare’s “skill tags” setting is another unique feature. Instructors can use skill tags to identify which skills they teach in their courses.
Plus, students can search for courses based on specific skills and view classes based on that.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
What’s Inside Skillshare?
Let’s see what Skillshare has to offer.
- Classes on the site are divided into three categories: Create, Build, and Thrive.
- Among the topics in Create are those relevant to animators, writers, filmmakers, artists, graphic designers, illustrators, musicians, photographers, UI and UX designers, and web developers.
- Business-related subtopics on Build include analytics, freelancing and entrepreneurship, leadership and management, and marketing.
- There are currently only two subtopics in Thrive: lifestyle and productivity.
- Search for classes that do not fit into these categories using the search bar. For example, cooking classes do not fall into these categories.
- You might not know that Skillshare offers plenty of classes on cooking from these three categories.
What Are Skillshare Classes Like?
There is no fixed format for classes. Typically, there are a few videos that last about ten minutes each. There are also 50 short videos lasting only a few minutes. There are also assignments for some classes.
When that’s the case, learners share their work with others who have taken the class, usually in the course’s comments section. Others haven’t logged in for a long time, while some continue to give feedback and answer questions.
It is important to note that Skillshare Originals and classes created by individuals are the two types of courses. Students can make money from their classes. We will discuss this later.
Skillshare Originals are skillshare-produced courses. Some are created in collaboration with a partner, such as Mailchimp, Patreon, and Eataly. The instructors may be celebrities or semi-celebrities, and the quality of the production is guaranteed.
Almost always, an Original class will contain several videos, each approximately 8 to 10 minutes long, clearly labeled and intended to be viewed in order. The videos are short, so you can pause and resume watching as needed. You can control how much time you spend watching.
It’s fair to say that the best classes in the user-created content are similarly structured: short, sequential, and clearly labeled. Skillshare has begun auditing user-created videos and removing those that don’t meet the company’s quality standards since we first began reviewing the site.
Hundreds of courses are still available. Students sign up for the ones that get high ratings from learners, so you can tell which ones are good.
Learners may never know how much work goes into creating a class, but the best ones clearly follow a detailed outline, yet don’t force instructors to read word-for-word from a script.
A good instructor can take you where the lesson is going in an authentic way. The scripted style of LinkedIn Learning classes, where many instructors have a robotic stage presence, is a far superior structure.
It is possible to save classes into Playlists in Skillshare.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Why is Skillshare unique?
Among other online learning platforms, Skillshare stands out for a few reasons:
- You take courses to learn one specific skill in a short amount of time.
- Learning skills on Skillshare can be applied in the real world.
- With Skillshare, you can learn new skills through project-based learning.
- Skillshare is an affordable option. There are three options: a free 30-day trial, a monthly subscription, or an annual Premium membership with a 40% discount. All Skillshare classes are included.
- When it comes to classes, Skillshare often invites celebrities. There are two new classes taught by Lilly Singh, an NBC talk show host, and Jonathan Van Ness, a New York Times best-selling author.
- It’s free to learn! That’s right: Skillshare offers thousands of free classes as well.
How to Get Started With Skillshare?
- Create an account on Skillshare, which will suggest classes based on your interests.
- Classes can be found by browsing topics, checking out trending classes, or using the search bar. If you find a class that interests you, you can bookmark it to watch later. All the courses you bookmark are stored in your account, and they can be organized into playlists.
- To the right of the video player, you’ll see a list of all the videos in the course. Below the video player, you’ll see a description of the course and its instructor. There will also be a number of students registered for the course. Skillshare members can rate videos in three different categories: beginners, experienced users, and all levels.
Skillshare Review From The Learner’s Perspective
During my Skillshare testing, I watched several courses on interior design, interior styling, memoir writing, personal essay writing, cooking, and applying for jobs.
Closed captioning can be turned on, the video playback speed can be increased or decreased, paused, skipped ahead, and so on. Video clips that are short and have accurate titles make it easy to jump back and rewatch any part of the course.
It was a thorough and well-produced interior design class. Short videos were used by the instructor. They were clearly labeled and arranged in a systematic manner.
With a good camera, she filmed the class while wearing a lavalier microphone. Her shots included her discussing interior design principles and examples of designed rooms. There are some cool resources provided by this instructor, too, such as apps and websites for designing rooms virtually and exploring color palettes.
Despite being very watchable, the content lacks depth. This course could have been tailored into something more specific by SkillShare. This is where MasterClass excels. You will learn about their fields from A-list celebrities and experts in their fields in great depth and detail.
Scrolling down the page duplicates the video player so that it is in your field of view.
What are the Community Features and Interaction on Skillshare?
Participants can usually participate in courses that ask for learner participation if they look at the discussion area below the video. A lot of times, you see instructions that tell you what to share, like a picture of a room you redesigned or a personal essay. You can then receive comments from other learners.
On Skillshare, there is an unwritten rule: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything. We saw nothing but positive comments from students. Although it is less effective than deep, critical analysis, it is still something.
Skillshare Workshops are an excellent way to interact with the community. Workshops are classes that have more structure and involve the entire community. Students must follow a set timeline and deadline for them to be successful.
Workshops aren’t different from other classes, but you might be motivated to follow through and do the work by having deadlines and being part of a community.
Even Skillshare’s non-workshop classes come with projects that the instructors develop. You can choose to do them or not. If you watch a class video but don’t participate, the other students can’t see it. The same goes for Workshops.
There is a wide variation in the level of participation. Many students uploaded essays for the writing class, for instance. There were no pictures of sample projects presented in a sewing machine class.
A workshop about watercolor painting generated a good deal of activity, but much of it was from Skillshare community managers or students posting about how much they love watercolors.
The topics themselves were not the subject of debate about their theory or purpose. As I have experienced in other educational online courses, instructors encourage students to help each other learn by fostering deeper discussions.
The reason for what we do? Does it work? Are there any shortcomings in this process or school of thought? Those aren’t Skillshare’s responsibilities. The MasterClass program has glimpses of it, but it comes from the instructors rather than the learners.
Skillshare lets you add notes to any video and see other members’ notes.
What Kind Of Accreditation Does Skillshare Offer?
Accreditation is not offered by Skillshare. After taking a class, you will not receive any certificates. Learning new skills, gaining practical knowledge, and expanding your horizons are all part of skillshare.
Skillshare is sometimes asked if it can lead to a job. Well, it’s all up to you. Skillshare might help you land a job or boost your career if you learn a lot of new skills required for a certain position. Despite Skillshare’s lack of certifications, I think its classes would look good on your CV.
In addition, if you complete a project during the course, you will receive a URL that can be included in your resume, portfolio, or elsewhere.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
What Categories of Courses Can You Find on Skillshare?
Skillshare’s creative classes are divided into three main categories, Create, Build, and Thrive, when you select Browse in the top-left corner. There are 10 topics in Create.
There are four in Build and two in Thrive.
- Create: Animation, Creative Writing, Film & Video, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Music, Photography, Web Design, and UI/UX Design.
- Build: Business Analytics, Freelancing and Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Management, and Marketing.
- Thrive: Lifestyle and Productivity
Skillshare offers thousands of free courses in all the above-mentioned fields, so it is a great place for you to test out its courses. You can also access Skillshare’s full library of courses and classes with the free trial of the premium plan.
What are the Pros of Skillshare?
Skillshare offers several benefits for enhancing your skills and exploring new topics.
1. User-friendly and easy to use
Skillshare’s courses can differ a bit between instructors – after all, every instructor has their own teaching style and modality – but for the most part, it is a consistent and easy to use platform. Each class will be clear to you.
You can use all kinds of technological resources to make Skillshare a more convenient and comfortable learning environment. If you need to relisten to something you have already heard, you can turn on closed captioning or slow down video playback speed.
Alternatively, you can pause, skip, or return to a video. Off to the side, you’ll see the video title and description, so you’ll know what you’ve already covered. It is also possible to jump to new sections without having to watch hours of content.
2. Community Interaction
Skillshare has another wonderful feature that allows you to interact with the community. By posting your work on Skillshare, you will allow other Skillshare members to comment on it.
At first glance, this sounds like it might open up a whole can of worms. How will other students react to your work? What if they’re too harsh? Skillshare tends to be a friendly community with constructive feedback from other users.
There are other ways you can engage with the Skillshare community, something that makes this platform unique from other online course platforms.
For example, Skillshare Workshops offer more structure and community engagement, running between set calendar dates and including a timeline for students to follow.
Students in these courses have deadlines and an interactive community similar to what they’d find in a traditional college course.
Regardless of whether you are taking a Workshop class or not, you will be able to work on projects. While taking a class, you can gain some expertise by doing projects.
3. A great way to learn creative skills
Skillshare is by far the best online course platform if you want to build your creative skills, like writing and photography.
4. Open to Anyone
Skillshare is unique because it is open to everyone. Teaching does not require a college degree, and taking a class does not require a steep tuition price or enrollment as a student. It really is open source.
What are the Cons and Complaints of Skillshare?
1. Depth is lacking
Skillshare’s courses – and those of other online education platforms, as well – have been criticized for lacking depth. There won’t be any Skillshare classes with discussion boards that delve deep into the crux of an issue or go into theories of any kind.
Most other online courses you might have taken at a traditional college foster collaboration and deep conversation between students, but you won’t find this on common open-source platforms like Udemy, Coursera, and Skillshare.
2. Interaction with instructors is poor
Skillshare users say that they have trouble getting feedback from instructors or interacting with them through the platform.
Skillshare is not the only online learning platform with this problem, and it seems to happen across the board.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
What I Like and Don’t Like About Skillshare Courses
How would I rate Skillshare? In a few important ways, they do a great job for me. The first thing I noticed was how easy it was to find and match courses to my goals. I am able to identify quickly whether or not the course will meet my needs based on the course descriptions, reviews, and project outlines provided.
Because the courses are broken down into short videos, which make it easy for me to replay parts of the course where I feel there is still more to learn, the courses are organized into chapters. I enjoy being able to jump back and forth between content so that I can get the most out of the course.
You can find a lot of inspiration on the Skillshare dashboard. I am able to quickly view my saved lists of courses, see what courses my favorite teachers are teaching, and even see what’s hot across the platform as soon as I sign in.
I gave Skillshare 4.5 stars based on the platform’s drawbacks that should be considered. Its inequity towards learners of all abilities dismayed me. They have even offered courses on website accessibility and singing on their own site.
In addition, the platform fails to provide quality control for instructors, which means it is our responsibility to evaluate our options carefully.
A few changes to the platform could eliminate this added work. Skillshare has one downside: the need to pay in order to have a truly better experience.
What are the instructors for Skillshare classes?
What are the instructors at Skillshare teaching? There are thousands!
It’s part of the appeal.
In contrast to tightly manufactured platforms like MasterClass and MindValley, Skillshare connects you to a pool of thousands of teachers, giving you the opportunity to choose the most appropriate teacher for you.
Skillshare has some well-known teachers, including:
- Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist
- Seth Godin, author and executive
- Jessica Hische, illustrator and lettering expert
- Young Guru, music producer
The names aren’t the most recognizable ones, but that’s the point. You don’t have to hobnob with celebrities to participate in skillshare. The point isn’t to take classes from “the big names.” The point is to learn. When you want to learn, you should go to expert teachers.
That’s what Skillshare is all about.
There is no shortage of teachers to choose from. Accordingly, courses are sorted on the page by featured, popular, and trending, which means Skillshare is actively tracking how people engage with their courses and then putting the best ones at the top.
It’s true that some courses won’t be as awesome, but Skillshare’s team is working to make sure those are less prominent. It’s all about your success!
Who Is Skillshare For?
A professional who wants to learn new skills or improve existing ones can use this eLearning platform. It’s aimed at creative workers (like designers, chefs, artists, etc.) and entrepreneurs (like marketers or SEOs), so freelancers and small businesses will benefit most from Skillshare.
If you are looking for some sort of formal education (or certificate), Skillshare may not be the right choice for you. In this case, I recommend checking out Coursera.
Skillshare for Teams
Skillshare offers classes for companies and teams as well as individuals. Three different team plans are designed to uplevel, uplift, and upskill any team or business.
- Starter for teams of 5-49 users
- Enterprise for teams of 20+ users
- Revive for teams of 50+ users
Skillshare’s Starter, Enterprise, and Revive plans offer unlimited access to 35,000+ courses, Skillshare Originals, Class Lists by topic or skill, mobile viewing, teacher and peer feedback, and tech support.
There are some more advanced features included in the Enterprise plan, such as engagement reports and analytic reports, API integrations, and curated learning paths.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
How To Open A Skillshare Account?
You only need to follow these steps to open a Skillshare account:
- Click ‘Sign in’ (top right corner) on Skillshare.com
- You can choose between signing up with your own email, Facebook or Google account by clicking on ‘Sign up’
- You should have received a confirmation email from Skillshare
You can sign up for a premium Skillshare account by clicking the ‘Go Premium’ button (see image above). You can choose the subscription model (annual or monthly).
Skillshare Review From The Instructor’s Perspective
If you teach on Skillshare, you’ll find that posting your class here has several advantages over other platforms.
You don’t need a degree or any other credentials to be an instructor on Skillshare. Additionally, your course will be completely up to you. You decide how the course will look and how it will be structured, as well as how to handle all the day-to-day details, including uploading materials and videos.
Skillshare instructors earn royalties from the courses. At first, it can be difficult to figure out how much you will make. However, this is a pricing structure that you will eventually get used to.
Every month, Skillshare will pool your royalties together. That is 30% of the revenue from Premium memberships. As well, Skillshare will track how many minutes Premium members watched your videos, including those who don’t pay. In addition, unpaid subscribers are included in the calculations.
Interesting enough, the speed and length at which students watch your video also affect your royalties. Students who increase the playback speed on a video, for instance, lower the time watched and the royalties.
For each teacher, you’ll receive a payment that includes all the Premium minutes watched for the month. Note that you must have watched 30 minutes of your videos across all of them every month in order to qualify for royalties.
Skillshare teachers find the payment structure to be too complicated, which leads many to take their classes elsewhere.
Skillshare is great because there is no membership fee, and you can figure out how much money you’re going to make each month so that you can more or less plan for it.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
How to Find The Best Skillshare Class?
Skillshare, like most elearning platforms, has a review system that you can use to see what previous students have said about a particular course.
Here are some tips to help you find the right class for you. These aren’t the only ways to find the right course – here are a few more.
You can filter out the classes
When you shop on sites like Amazon or eBay, you probably use filters to narrow your searches. Using Skillshare’s interface, you can filter courses to find the one that’s right for you.
You may then select the free vs premium classes and the course duration (in minutes) as per your preference once you have selected a category (topic). Classes may also be ordered by popularity or trend.
Although there aren’t as many options as in other elearning platforms like Coursera or Udemy, its filters can be useful as well.
About this class
You can find the course landing page’s ‘About this class’ section that details who the course is aimed at, what you’ll learn, how advanced the course is, and what skills you’ll learn after completing it.
An instructor’s biography also appears, normally explaining their experience, passion, and why they teach this subject.
In order to choose the right course, first make sure the skills taught in it match what you’re looking for and that the level of the course matches your experience.
Available projects
You can get a sneak peak at the projects the instructor will use to support his or her teaching throughout the lessons since Skillshare classes are project-based.
Even before starting the course, you can access the course resources. Then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you’ll be practicing and learning.
Read reviews at Skillshare
Another great way to find the course of your dreams is to check out what past students have to say about it.
There is a review system that shows what students thought of the course; you can then click on one of the grades to read the reviews (e.g., only reviews for ‘Exceeded!’ ratings).
As well, you can read some of the reviews from other Skillshare users, but be aware that they are sorted by default by best to worst. If you want a more balanced selection, sort them by ‘Most Recent’.
Also, I checked the ‘Most Liked’ section, which describes the different aspects that students valued most. The instructor provided clear explanations, for example, or classes were well organized.
Find out more about the instructor
A Skillshare teacher’s profile includes information about who they are, what they teach, and their teaching goals. You can see how they approach education on this page and whether or not you like their teaching style.
Despite this, you are not limited to the information found on their instructor landing page; as you can see in the image above, instructors normally include links to either their website or their social media accounts.
Take a look at their websites for more information on your potential teacher – but don’t act like a creepy stalker.
Free Trial
With the Skillshare 1-month free trial, you can explore the Skillshare platform and all its courses for a whole month at no charge.
In case you do not want to continue with Skillshare premium, you can always cancel before the 1-month is up and you won’t be charged.
Mobile app for Skillshare
The Skillshare app allows you to access Skillshare from your tablet or phone. Even when you are offline, you can learn on the go with the premium membership.
Afterward, you can access the classes from anywhere. All you need to do is download the classes beforehand.
You’ll be able to access your classes and progress in them on any device, whether it’s a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
The Skillshare app may be the answer if you have a busy schedule or a long commute. Skillshare is available for Android (4.5 rating) and IOS (4.8 rating).
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
How Much Does Skillshare Cost?
There is a limited free tier, a Premium membership ($8 per month or $29.88 per year), and a Teams account ($139 per person, per year, with a minimum of two users).
You can access a few video classes and related resources, including workbooks in PDF format and community discussions, with the free version. You can watch the introduction video of any class, but you cannot access the rest of them.
By upgrading to Skillshare Premium, you’ll remove ads, unlock the entire catalog, and be able to download classes to watch offline. By paying the annual membership fee, you also get discounts from affiliates like Adobe software, Squarespace subscriptions, and Society6 products. An annual membership is also cheaper than a monthly membership.
With Skillshare Teams, you get the same access as a Premium subscription, but it’s designed for organizations to administer staff or member Skillshare accounts. In light of the much lower price of a personal annual account, the price seems astronomical.
Closed captioning and speed adjustments are available in Skillshare’s learning videos.
How Much Do Other Learning Sites Cost?
Costs of online learning vary widely, and Skillshare is no exception. The monthly and annual prices of Skillshare have fluctuated a few times. It is frustrating for those people who feel as if they have been ripped off in the past.
Skillshare’s personal account price is still quite low. MasterClass, on the other hand, costs $180 per year without a monthly subscription option. Premium LinkedIn members have access to LinkedIn Learning, which starts at $29 per month.
As a member, you’ll have access to more information and people on LinkedIn, in addition to online courses.
Khan Academy is free of charge. It is a nonprofit organization, and you can donate to it if you wish.
Coursera, Udacity, and Udemy are some sites that offer more practical skills training, and include some free courses and others that cost $40 to $400 per month.
Can Skillshare Help Me Advance My Career?
Perhaps! Today’s workforce is pretty high in demand for skills like graphics, UI/UX, coding, and animation on SkillShare. Your career could really take off if you take advantage of these, or you can change careers if you’re looking for something different.
You can also take classes in marketing, leadership, and business analytics to improve your chance of getting promoted.
In general, Skillshare strikes a good balance between the creative and the practical. My favorite thing about the platform is how applicable the skills are.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Is Skillshare a Legit or Scam Online Course Platform?
I want to be clear that Skillshare is a legit company, and if you look at the Trustpilot reviews, you will see that they have many good reviews.
There was one complaint that seemed to be common among people who left negative reviews: being charged after the end of a free trial (no one complained about having free access to thousands of high-quality classes).
In the event that you do not cancel your Skillshare subscription before the trial ends, you will automatically be charged. There is a common question that people ask: Is it possible to cancel my Skillshare membership if I sign up for a free trial? Yes, you can! The trial can be canceled at any time during the trial period if you do not wish to be charged.
Skillshare’s refund policy is also a popular question. You can request a refund for an annual Premium membership only after 7 days after your payment was processed. A monthly subscription cannot be refunded, which makes perfect sense to me.
Check out Skillshare for a month for free, then decide if it’s right for you. During the 30 day trial period, you may cancel your subscription anytime if you don’t like it for any reason. Make sure you always remember to do it by adding a reminder to your calendar.
What is Skillshare Premium?
Skillshare Premium is a subscription service offered by Skillshare. If you pay for the whole year at once, it will cost $144. Purchasing the annual Skillshare Premium subscription is your best option if you want to get the most value for your money.
Is there a free trial?
Definitely! You can try Skillshare Premium for 7 days for free. You can take as many free courses as you like for seven days when you sign up for Skillshare premium! After 7 days, you’ll be charged for your premium membership.
Isn’t Skillshare’s free trial used to be longer?
You have an excellent memory! Skillshare used to offer a crazy two-month free trial. Skillshare was actually how I first discovered it. Their two-month trial was really generous … and probably too generous.
It isn’t my fault that they made the trial smaller. A two-month trial isn’t a trial – it’s a freebie.
Skillshare Premium now offers a seven-day free trial so you can try out some classes and see whether it is right for you.
The classes last 30-60 minutes each. You won’t need months to complete these courses, so a seven-day free trial is plenty of time to determine whether Skillshare Premium is right for you.
Do Skillshare have a discount?
At the moment, they aren’t actively pushing any discounts (aside from the free seven day trial), but occasionally they will issue coupons or announce promotions (such as the free two months they used to offer).
Skillshare doesn’t offer any discounts right now, but that can always change.
Can you get a refund with Skillshare Premium?
Yes, but there are limitations.
Refunds are only available for annual memberships. Monthly subscriptions are not eligible.
A refund must be requested within 7 days of the charge being processed.
The only refund you get is one.
You can get your $144 refunded if you’ve purchased an annual Skillshare Premium membership, and decide on day four that it’s not right for you.
Then you cannot get another annual membership and get another refund. One refund is all you get!
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
How To Cancel Skillshare Subscription?
You can cancel your Skillshare subscription easily and quickly. To cancel your membership, you simply log in to your account, click the profile icon at the top right corner of the page, go to Settings, and then continue to Payments.
Both computers and mobile devices can be used to do this. You will still be able to access the Premium classes until the end of your paid subscription period.
You must cancel your Skillshare subscription from your mobile device if you purchased it through the App Store or Google Play. Your subscription cannot be refunded, canceled, or managed in this case. This must be done by contacting Google Play or the App Store.
Skillshare can be contacted at [email protected] if you want to remove your credit card from the site.
Is Skillshare Worth It?
Skillshare is a good, legitimate company. A free trial is available as well as 27,000 classes for $32/m or $168/y. These are well-structured, high-quality classes.
Student engagement is enhanced by cool features like workshops and live sessions. There are very few cons, and Skillshare is without a doubt worth it.
I really like Skillshare, as you can see from this review. I recommend Skillshare to all my family members and friends. It is so convenient to learn from home. The projects I worked on were great. The most important thing to me is using new skills in real life and getting results.
Skillshare has its cons, as does any other service, but I think that the benefits outweigh the cons. After using Skillshare for several years, I believe the company is trustworthy and reliable. It’s also very cost-effective.
Where else can you get such a low price on so many classes? I would say that Skillshare is a good deal.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Are There Any Notable Experts on Skillshare?
Marc Ecko – Entrepreneurship and Brand Creation
The designer, entrepreneur, and artist Marc Ecko was born in 1972. A twenty-year-old founder of Ecko Unltd, he recently wrote a book titled “Unlabel: Selling you without selling out.”
There are over 6,000 students watching his Skillshare video entitled “Run your own business: Lessons from Biggie.”
Jessica Hische – Letterer
Jessica Hische is a letterer and illustrator from the United States. Her project Daily Drop Cap is widely known and she has a degree in Graphic and Interactive Design.
Over 35,000 people have viewed this expert’s video, “Lettering from designers: One dropcap letterform at a time.”.
Seth Godin – Entrepreneurship
Former business executive and author Seth Godin lives in the United States.
With about 40,000 followers on Skillshare, he is one of the most popular teachers on the platform. He has written over 20 books, including “This is Marketing” and “The Smiley Dictionary.”
Yuku Shimizu—Illustrator
Yuku Shimizu, even though she is Japanese, works and teaches in New York. The New York Times, Time, The New Yorker, and many others have published her work.
She teaches a Skillshare class called “Ink Drawing Techniques: Brush, Nib and Pen style” which has more than 45,000 students.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Who is Skillshare Not For?
Skillshare is not for students who are looking for the biggest names in the field. Skillshare offers thousands of different teachers, and part of the joy of the platform is finding the one that works best for you.
Neil Gaiman will not teach you how to write. For that, you should check out MasterClass.
In addition, Skillshare might disappoint you if you’re expecting longer-form learning. The platform is designed to teach one skill as efficiently as possible through short (30 minute) classes. Your job is to connect those skills.
Skillshare might not be the best option for you if you want to learn French in a 13-week class.
Skillshare won’t be the best option if you’re looking for accredited or certificated courses. These courses teach you real-world skills. However, they aren’t accredited, which means you can’t get an online MBA.
They can help you develop specific skills that will enable you to excel at your job, however.
There is no right or wrong answer; just a question of “Is this platform right for me?” Skillshare might be the best option for learners who want to gain skills now.
Positive and Negative Feedbacks of Skillshare Customers
Positive Feedbacks
- There are many classes to choose from. Skillshare offers 27,000 courses. Their content exceeds the number of hours per year. Classes are engaging, diverse, and highly applicable. You’ll never run out of material since the classes cover so many different topics.
- Classes are free. Skillshare offers 2,000 free classes without requiring a premium membership. Despite being a fraction of the 27,000 available with Premium, it’s a great way to get a sense of what the platform offers. You can also take advantage of Skillshare’s 7 day free trial of Premium to learn if it is right for you.
- Each class has a project. There is a lot of emphasis on takeaways in skillshare. Basically, you will complete a concrete task and then upload it for your course as one of the ways they accomplish this. You can use it to reinforce what you learned.
- Live courses are available. Most online learning platforms do not offer this feature. Live courses don’t amount to a lot, but there are enough to mention. You can ask questions and receive answers in real time during these live sessions! That’s awesome!
Negative Feedbacks
- Depending on the course, the quality can vary. Having 27,000 courses has its advantages and disadvantages. So many courses mean a huge variation in quality. There are some classes that are really awesome plus high quality, but others aren’t quite as good. You can decide whether a course is right for you based on the reviews for each course.
- Short courses are offered. This is a great benefit for some. 30 minutes may seem a bit short for people who are trying to learn a skill. It’s more like a crash course for me. By combining these courses using the workshop feature, you can create something similar to a traditional class. I wish the courses were longer, but it’s not a bad experience.
- Certificates do not exist. The classes are skill-based. You learn hard skills. Having the opportunity to walk away with a certificate or other method of recognition would have been ideal.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
How do You publish a course on Skillshare?
Skillshare doesn’t have any formal requirements for publishing courses, you don’t have to be a university lecturer or a super famous designer or artist – although that helps.
Skillshare instructors design their courses, create videos and materials, upload them to Skillshare and keep in touch with their students.
Skillshare teachers are paid in two ways:
- Skillshare pays you $10 for every new student you refer
- You will be paid a royalty each time one of your classes is viewed.
Instructors are paid via PayPal; unfortunately, there is no other way to get paid with Skillshare.
You should be aware that the rate at which students watch your classes can affect your revenue. For example, if someone watches 20 minutes at 2x, you will be paid for 10 minutes, and if someone watches 20 minutes at 0.5x, you will be paid for 40 minutes.
In creating classes, instructors must follow a few guidelines, but they are mostly common-sense suggestions:
- Produce engaging and educational content
- The sound and video should be of high quality
- An introduction/presentation video is required
- Classes should be project-based
- No self-promotion outside the class introductions and outros
- Upload only one class per week
- There are some topics that aren’t allowed: passive income, Udemy, reselling products, and medical content
- Each course should last a minimum of 10 minutes
Skillshare Review: Final Verdict
I believe that Skillshare is worth it simply because of the chance to learn for learning’s sake. Hands-on projects and the ability to connect with others in your field of knowledge make the $10 monthly fee quite attractive.
It is up to you to determine which courses will add the most value to you, whether you wish to bolster your resume with vibrant competitive skills or establish yourself as a professional hobbyist.
In addition to learning new skills, members of Skillshare gain much more from courses. Your love of learning will return, you will meet motivated and skilled peers that will challenge and inspire you, and you may become obsessed with learning.
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Skillshare Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Here are some of the most common skillshare questions and Skillshare’s detailed answers to them.
1. Are Skillshare courses accredited?
No. As Skillshare is not an online university, Skillshare’s courses are not accredited. It is a platform for taking courses, learning skills, and implementing those skills in daily life.
It’s not a place where you can earn credits for a degree. Additionally, you do not receive a certificate for completing your course, though you do receive a URL to showcase the projects you complete.
That’s great! This is a great way to show off your newfound knowledge. After all, isn’t that what this is all about? Learning a new, applicable skill and then showing off how well you can apply it?
2. Is it possible to just take the free classes?
It’s possible! 2,000 free classes are available to you, which is less than a tenth of the classes available if you upgrade to Skillshare Premium.
Only taking free courses has some serious downsides, including:
- You cannot participate in the discussion groups
- You can’t participate in the workshops
- Over 90% of the classes aren’t available on the platform.
Therefore, if there is a class you really want to take and it’s free, take it. Skillshare Premium is required if you want the full Skillshare experience.
3. How can I access Skillshare?
Most electronic devices can access Skillshare, including:
- Browser
- Mobile app
- Tablet
- Smart TV.
On your lunch break in the office, you can start watching a class, continue watching it on your train home, and finish it on your TV while cooking dinner. It’s seamless and convenient.
It is best to use a web browser. Download any of the necessary files after accessing the video. You can quickly complete your assignments on your computer after class and upload them once you’re done.
4. Can I purchase Skillshare on behalf of someone else?
Kind of. Gift cards cannot be purchased individually, but Limited Memberships can be purchased in sets.
For more information, contact Skillshare, but the gist is you can purchase limited (as in time) Skillshare Premium memberships for multiple people (like family members, friends, or students).
If you want to give Skillshare as a gift to your class, they can help you with that!
5. Does Skillshare have a referral program?
Yes. Refer your friends or family to Skillshare Premium if you are a member.
You get one full month free (instead of seven) when they sign up! That’s a great deal!
Only premium members can participate in the referral program. Once you become a member, you can begin earning commissions!
Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative
Best Alternative of Skillshare to Make Passive Income
If you want to make a stable and secure stream of passive income, I would suggest you start an affiliate marketing business online.
Affiliate Marketing is perfect for anyone who is new to online business.
In fact, of all the online business models I’ve tried, affiliate marketing is the easiest and most rewarding so far.
In affiliate marketing, you can actually run your business almost with zero cost and achieve a steady and sustainable passive income to pay for your bills. You don’t need any initial capital and can even do it as a side hustle.
And if you really want to learn affiliate marketing and build a business from scratch, I’d recommend you to get started with the most reputable platform for affiliate marketing: Wealthy Affiliate.
Wealthy Affiliate is an all-in-one platform for building your affiliate marketing business from scratch. It offers you a free account (including a free website) with comprehensive training on SEO (free traffic methods), which enables you to get started with affiliate marketing right away without paying a penny.
But How Much Can You Earn with Wealthy Affiliate?
A 21-year old student from Wealthy Affiliate was able to earn $7,395 in just 1 week, which means he made more than $1k a day…all while using free traffic methods.
Wealthy Affiliate has existed for 15 years and there are many success stories in the past decade.
To give you more examples, here are some of the other inspiring success stories of Wealthy Affiliate members.
Where to Join Wealthy Affiliate?
Wealthy Affiliate has a very simple pricing scheme. It has free and premium membership.
If you want to feel about Wealthy Affiliate, you can sign up for the free starter membership here (no credit card required). You can select to be a free member with no time limit.
And as a starter member, you can get instant access to the community, live chat, over 500 training modules, 2 classrooms, networking, commenting, 1 free website, access to the keyword tool.
You can enjoy all these values without paying a penny.
So I strongly recommend you to register a free account and see it yourself.
