You have more than enough online resources for learning data science, machine learning, and programming, but it can be difficult to pick one of them since there are several good ones out there. Datacamp and Udemy are two such online video course providers where you learn technical skills to become a professional. But which one is better?
Datacamp is better if you’re a beginner wanting to learn while practicing. Their structured career path and interactive environment let you learn many things for a single membership fee. On the contrary, if you want to join individual courses at affordable prices, Udemy is the better platform.
You need to consider your preferences while determining which platform is the best for you. In this article, you’ll find an in-depth comparison of Datacamp and Udemy on various grounds to help you pick the right platform.
However, before we deep dive into each platform, let me give you my key recommendation upfront. To most people (especially the aspiring data professionals), DataCamp will prove to be a better overall platform than Udemy. It is the only platform that is 100% dedicated towards data science, and its membership gives you access to every single course on the platform. Therefore, if in doubt: Go for DataCamp! You cannot go wrong with that decision.
Click Here To Sign Up For DataCamp Today!
Important Sidenote: We interviewed numerous data science professionals (data scientists, hiring managers, recruiters – you name it) and identified 6 proven steps to follow for becoming a data scientist. Read my article: ‘6 Proven Steps To Becoming a Data Scientist [Complete Guide] for in-depth findings and recommendations! – This is perhaps the most comprehensive article on the subject you will find on the internet!
Table of Contents
Overview
Both Udemy and Datacamp offer courses that you can learn at your own pace, but there are a couple of differences between the two. Let’s first understand what these platforms are and how they work, and then we’ll compare them in detail in the next sections.
Udemy
Udemy is a vast marketplace offering hundreds of thousands of courses in virtually every industry. The best thing about this platform is that anyone can create an online course about a topic and sell it on Udemy. This means there are many experts in every industry offering top-notch courses.
There are various high-rated classes about different skills like data science, data engineering, programming, web development, data visualization, etc. You can even find several free courses for these topics taught by industry experts.
The most significant advantage of Udemy is the ability to choose courses from many instructors at affordable prices. However, the fact that anyone can upload a course sometimes leads to low-quality and incomplete classes. So, you’ll need to do proper research about the contents of the class and read reviews before paying for it.
Datacamp
Datacamp is an e-learning platform for IT-related skills like programming, data engineering, data visualization, machine learning, etc.
When you choose a career track like data science, you’ll be presented with a series of courses that comprehensively cover the topic. They teach you all the skills you need to know in one place. This means you don’t have to worry about finding different courses and making sure your skill gaps are filled.
Datacamp also has a unique skill assessment tool. It allows you to test your existing skills in a subject and suggests a tailored learning path for you. You’ll get to see how much you know and what you still need to learn. It’s an excellent tool for finding skill gaps and learning everything about the topic.
The most significant advantage of Datacamp is the availability of career tracks that help you learn all about a topic for a single membership fee. You don’t have to worry about course quality as only certified experts are available as instructors.
However, here, you lose the variety of options and have access to courses only as long as you keep paying. The prices are moderately higher than Udemy.
That being said, DataCamp is an outstanding value platform. For the cost of one dinner, you get access to pretty much every course that you can potentially think about as an aspiring data scientist. You just cannot go wrong with DataCamp.
Click Here To Sign Up For DataCamp Today!
Pricing and Certifications
Datacamp works on a subscription basis where you have to pay a single membership fee to gain access to all the courses on the site. The minimum price is $25 per month, giving you access to 335+ classes and 14 career tracks. You can only access the video courses and practice challenges as long as you keep paying.
There’s also a free level in which you can watch the first chapter of all courses, including the skill assessment tool. You can read about Datacamp’s pricing model in detail by following this link.
On the contrary, Udemy is a marketplace for courses on virtually all topics. If you need to learn data engineering, you’ll have to search it on Udemy and select a class based on its reviews and the topics it covers. Then, you can purchase the course and gain lifetime access to it. The course prices range from $9 to $199, and Udemy frequently runs sales, reducing the prices for a limited time.
Overall, Udemy is less expensive than Datacamp. However, you also need to research correctly on Udemy to ensure you don’t end up wasting money on a low-quality class.
Both platforms offer a certificate of completion. Now, the obvious question is: are they worth anything? The answer is that they’re as useful as every other certificate.
They prove that you’ve completed a particular course and likely have the skills mentioned in it. However, if you can’t build practical projects using the concepts taught in the class, then it’s useless flashing the certification on your resume.
If you think of yourself as a beginner in data science, DataCamp would be the way to go as it gives you access to entire portfolio of courses.
Help and Support
Since Datacamp has different membership levels, they also have different levels of support. In the standard membership, you get access to community chat. Here, you and other students can ask questions, and the teachers will answer them as soon as possible.
However, when you opt for the premium plan for $33.25 per month, you get priority support where your queries will be answered more quickly. The premium plan also has other benefits over the standard membership. You can check it out here.
Each course on Udemy also has a community chat. You can ask questions and the instructors typically respond in a day or two. It is similar to the community chat available in standard membership of Datacamp.
Udemy also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. This means that if you’re not satisfied with a course’s contents, you can request a full refund within a month of purchasing it. This really helps you test a video class and make sure it has what you’re looking for.
On the other hand, Datacamp does not offer refunds. They instead have a free membership plan to access the first chapters of all courses for free.
Which One Should You Choose?
We recommend you sign up for Datacamp if you want a learning path including all the topics you need to learn in one place. You’ll also be able to practice in your browser without having to download any additional software. Community chat and coding tests will help you clear any doubts and solidify your skills.
On the contrary, Udemy provides incredible courses at very affordable prices, thanks to coupons and sales. We recommend buying a course on Udemy if you’re willing to research a few things like the exact skills you need to learn, what courses cover them in-depth, and what other students say about them.
Here, you get downloadable video courses with lifetime validity. Course instructors are more than happy to answer your queries in the Q&A section of the class.
Of course, you can also mix them both. There are some Udemy courses in every industry that are recommended everywhere since they’re high-quality. You can take such courses for building the foundation and then take the skill assessment test to figure out what you should learn next.
Conclusion
Datacamp and Udemy are two major education platforms that work quite differently. In Datacamp, you have to pay a single membership fee to access all the courses on their website. The catch is that you only have access to the videos, projects, and other tools as long as you keep paying.
On the contrary, Udemy is a marketplace where industry experts create and sell individual courses. It is comparatively cheaper and offers lifetime access to downloadable classes.
Both Datacamp and Udemy have their pros and cons. We’ve already discussed the parameters you should consider when choosing between them.
To most aspiring data scientists: DataCamp is likely to provide better value!
So, if in doubt – Sign Up For DataCamp!
BEFORE YOU GO: Don’t forget to check out my latest article – 6 Proven Steps To Becoming a Data Scientist [Complete Guide]. We interviewed numerous data science professionals (data scientists, hiring managers, recruiters – you name it) and created this comprehensive guide to help you land that perfect data science job.
Affiliate Disclosure: We participate in several affiliate programs and may be compensated if you make a purchase using our referral link, at no additional cost to you. You can, however, trust the integrity of our recommendation. Affiliate programs exist even for products that we are not recommending. We only choose to recommend you the products that we actually believe in.
