Is Udemy worth it? Reviews, Analysis, and Critique

This article offers a compilation of opinions and critiques about Udemy from the years I've been using the platform; the purpose of the article is to offer key points for those interested, and I hope you find it interesting from the perspective of a Software Developer who has uploaded his material to this platform for several years.

Udemy Stagnant? - New Courses? - Terrible Call-to-Action Design

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I wanted to share some observations and opinions on the Udemy platform, especially following my recent experience buying a course during the sales season. Remember that this is purely my opinion.

1. Udemy Stagnant: Absence of New Courses

We are in the middle of Black Friday season, where prices reach their historical minimum ($9.99), which, in theory, should be a golden opportunity for new instructors.

• Low Content Production: Upon reviewing the catalog, most of the courses shown are old (they don't have the "new" tag).
• Contradiction: One would think that, as it's a season with so many sales (Black Friday, Christmas, New Year), creators would launch material to capitalize on demand. However, in the video game development section, for example, I only found one new Unity 6 course (when version 7 is about to be released) and the Unreal 5 courses have been around for a while.

I feel the platform is stagnant because creators aren't releasing enough fresh material.

2. The Promotion Algorithm: Obsession with Ratings

A clear example of Udemy's problem is seen in the mobile courses section:

• Promotion of Legacy Courses: The platform continues to promote a Flutter course from 2019 that even carries the "Legacy" (obsolete) tag. I acquired that course myself back then.
• Probable Cause: This happens because the Udemy algorithm seems to prioritize the quantity of ratings over any other factor (current relevance, version). The old course has over 177,000 ratings, while the new version by the same instructor has fewer than 4,000.
• Critique: This makes no sense for the consumer. Imagine if YouTube only recommended videos from 5 or 10 years ago because they had more accumulated views. The Udemy algorithm needs optimization to stop actively recommending content that the instructor themselves marks as obsolete.

A. Difficulty for New Instructors
This dependence on ratings creates a very high barrier to entry:

• Dominance by "Big" Instructors: The listing is dominated by well-known instructors with massive communities, such as Fernando Herrera (who has over 600,000 students).
• Unfair Competition: It's extremely difficult for a new creator to compete against courses that have accumulated hundreds of thousands of ratings over years. This is, in my opinion, a crucial reason why the platform is perceived as stagnant.

3. ️ Interface Issues (UX)

Finally, I want to comment on the user experience. I was looking for the course I bought (on video game development) and encountered frustrating interface issues:

• Poor Usability: I tried to select a course and the interface didn't respond correctly.
• Deficient Purchase Window: The window that pops up to buy the course is visually strange and unintuitive.

These usability failures only complicate the experience, even when a user (like me) already has the intention to buy.

Following my recent purchase, I analyzed the course page's user interface (UX), and I believe it is extremely cluttered with unnecessary elements, which hinders the purchase action.

1. Confusing Calls to Action and Inverted Priority

The main problem is the Call To Action.

• Subscription (Rental): The most prominent and highlighted button is the subscription one (Udemy for Business or similar), which I call a course "rental."
• My Opinion: Most users look to buy an individual course (to "own" the content for life). Paying a monthly rental for courses that last 30-40 hours is not efficient for the consumer.
• Primary Option Hidden: The "Add to Cart" option (which should be the main call to action) is in the background. Yesterday I took time searching for the direct purchase option because this subscription button was constantly distracting me.
• Redundancy: Asking if you are "Individual" or "Team" (for Udemy for Business) adds unnecessary noise. Udemy should better hide the business option if it detects the user is an individual.
• Proposed Improvement: The Buy button should be the most highlighted and be at the top. The subscription option should be at a lower level or less visible.

2. Interface Clutter

The sidebar is saturated with non-essential information for the moment of purchase:

Introduction Video: The course's promotional video shouldn't be here, but in the description section, as it breaks the flow of a user who is already ready to buy.

Redundant/Hidable Elements: Features like "Gift this course," "Share," "Favorite," or even the management of the applied coupon could be more hidden (e.g., under a three-dot menu ...). If a coupon is already applied, why show an option to apply another one immediately?

3. Security Issues and Report Button Design

When analyzing the bottom part of the interface, the button design presents serious UX flaws:

Dangerous Proximity: The button to "Report abuse" is placed very close and shares a similar style to harmless buttons like "Show all reviews."

Lack of Differentiation: Options that involve risk or irreversible action (like deleting, or in this case, reporting) must be clearly differentiated. The report button should be a warning color (red) and be further away from the other elements to prevent accidental clicks. The current design is chaotic and doesn't follow basic CRUD design conventions.

Prices on Udemy make no sense...

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I wanted to address another feature that, in my opinion, lacks logical sense on the Udemy platform: the system for managing base prices and offers.

1. Setting the Base Price (Symbolic)

In the price configuration screen, the instructor sets a base price for their courses.

• My Configuration: For example, for my old Django course, I set the suggested minimum price of $19.99.
• Extreme Range: The platform allows setting absurdly high prices (up to $199, or more in the past), prices that, in practice, no one would pay.

2. The Paradox of the Offer vs. the Base Price

The problem with this system is the relationship between the base price set by the instructor and the final prices that Udemy manages during offers.

Offer Above Base: The platform indicates that the "price range" (which includes discounted prices) for my $20 course can go up to $54.99.

• The Confusion: It makes no sense for an "offer" that the user sees to exceed the base price that I, as an instructor, have set. Technically, that's not an offer, but an overprice compared to the value I consider fair.
• Real Example: When searching for the course on a day without offers (a Sunday), the visible price is, indeed, $54.99, which aligns with the maximum range that Udemy imposes, ignoring the $19.99 base price.

3. Instructor's Conclusion

In summary, the prices that the instructor sets are, to a large extent, symbolic. Udemy manages offers and price ranges centrally.

Inconsistency: It is not right that a regular price or offer exceeds the fixed base price.

Lack of Control: In the end, the platform has total freedom to manipulate prices, which causes confusion and reduces the instructor's power of decision over how their product is presented.

That's all I wanted to comment on the inconsistencies of Udemy's pricing model.

FREE Coupons, Minimum and Regular Price on Udemy

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I want to share my opinion on one of the areas most negatively affected over the years: the use and management of coupons.

1. ⚖️ Udemy's Revenue Model: An Anomaly

Udemy operates with an unusual revenue-sharing model, which creates a significant disadvantage for the content creator:

A. The Role Reversal (Commission vs. Sale)
Direct Sale by Udemy: If the purchase is made directly through the Udemy store, the platform keeps 70-80% of the sale (a percentage that has been increasing), and ironically pays a commission to the content creator.

• Sale with Referral Link: If the person buys through the instructor's referral link, the creator takes the majority (around 90-95%) of the final offer price.
• The Comparison: Platforms like Google Play or the Apple Store keep 30% and 70% goes to the developer. On Udemy, these roles are reversed, making it one of the few known platforms where the intermediary keeps the main value of the product.

2. ️ Coupon Management: Restrictions and Types

For the instructor to take a higher percentage of the sale, they must use the coupon tool.

• A. The Strict Limit
  Udemy imposes a severe restriction: only three (3) coupons are allowed to be created per month, regardless of the type.
• B. Critique of Free Coupons
  Two of the four available coupon types are free.
• Ethical Opinion: Personally, I advocate for a product to be either paid or free, not a hybrid. I find it unethical for a course that sells in the official store to be given away intermittently.

Purpose: The main reason for giving away courses massively (through websites that promote free Udemy resources) is to quickly obtain positive ratings, artificially inflating the star count to stand out in the listing. This biases the course perception.

3. The Decline of the Self-Promotion Coupon

The great sacrifice imposed by Udemy has been the restriction of coupons that drove the instructor's referral sales.

• A. Goodbye to Permanent Coupons
  Before: In the past, only a single coupon was created that never expired. This allowed creators to place that code in YouTube videos, blogs, or social networks, ensuring the creator consistently got 90-95% of the sale.
• Now: Coupons have a very short expiration (e.g., 5 to 31 days). This makes a coupon promoted in a YouTube video useless shortly after, forcing the creator to use the generic referral link.
• B. The Problem with the Variable Referral Link
  If the creator uses the generic referral link (without a fixed coupon), the price that appears to the consumer is whatever price Udemy has active at that moment. If there is no active offer, the user will see a high price (e.g., $74.99), which drastically reduces sales conversion, unlike having a fixed coupon at the minimum price ($9.99).

4. ️ The UX Chaos: Coupon Creation

The experience of creating these coupons is extremely deficient and inefficient.

• A. Manual Creation: A Tedious Process
  • Creating a coupon for a course requires several manual steps (select course, enter details, create coupon, give it a label, etc.). This is a headache and prone to errors, especially if the instructor has 10 or 15 active courses and can only do the process three times a month.

• B. The Nightmare of Bulk Creation (The CSV File)

  • To alleviate the inefficiency, Udemy offers the option to "Create multiple coupons," but with an illogical design:
  • Erroneous Navigation: The option inexplicably appears within the details of an individual course.

  Hostile Format: Instead of offering a simple list of courses to select from, it forces the user to download a CSV file (a type of Excel).

  • Error Prone: The CSV requires following an exact pattern (course identifier, coupon type, label, date) for each course, which is very tedious and extremely prone to errors. Furthermore, a created coupon cannot be updated (only paused or deleted), which makes any error in the CSV costly.
• C. Proposed Solution: A Logical Design
  • A much cleaner and simpler solution (and what any developer would expect) would be:
  • Show a list of all courses.
  • Allow multiple selection (using checkboxes).
  • A single window to define the coupon type and label.
  • The system would automatically create the coupon for all selected courses, saving the repetition of the manual process 15 or 20 times.

In my opinion, Udemy's coupon management is designed with excessive blocks that hinder direct promotion and sales by content creators.

️ Udemy Does NOT Provide Feedback: Constructive Criticism of Udemy: Review of Images and Logos

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I want to share a piece of constructive criticism aimed at Udemy's quality team, specifically regarding the course cover image review process.

1. The “No Text on Images” Rule

When uploading a new course (or an update), Udemy issues a recurring warning. The message is clear:

"It looks like the course image includes text. Udemy research has found that course images containing text are less successful. For this reason, we only allow text on course images in very limited cases, primarily in the context of a logo."

The platform asks the instructor to remove the text and resubmit the course.

2. The Real Situation: Confusion with Programming Logos

The problem arises when this rule is applied to well-known technology logos:

• Course Example: I received this critique for both my Inertia course and my Livewire course. On the covers, I use the official logos of related technologies, such as PHP, npm, Node, or Livewire (the first two being technologies with long-standing logos).
• Udemy's Critique: The system or the human reviewer confuses these official logos with common, non-permitted text.

My Response: In the case of Inertia, I replied to the review message stating that the "letters" were, in fact, the logos of Node and PHP, and only then was the course approved.

3. The Central Problem: Lack of Feedback Loop

My main criticism of the Udemy team focuses on the lack of an efficient feedback loop:

• Ineffectiveness: The feedback loop is the process of taking the output (my course) as input to improve the process (the platform's approval).
• Unacceptable Inefficiency: Udemy's main niche is programming courses. It is unacceptable that, after so many years, they still have problems detecting and approving logos of technologies as old and well-known as PHP or npm.
• Inconsistent Logic: While I understand the rule of avoiding text to improve the image's success rate, the fact that this hasn't been settled for programming logos indicates inefficiency in the review processes or in the training of their quality team.

Like other inconsistencies I've noticed on the platform (such as promotional emails), this incident with the logos demonstrates that the Udemy team seems to operate with criteria that do not feed from previous experience, acting based on internal interests or obsolete processes.

Functioning of Educational and Promotional Announcements on Udemy

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Continuing with Udemy's features, I want to talk about the two types of announcements available on the platform. I stopped using these tools years ago because, from my perspective (and I believe that of anyone with a knowledge of marketing), they are extremely useless and make no sense.

1. Educational Announcements: The Promotional Prohibition

This type of announcement is intended to send 100% educational content to subscribed students. Only four are allowed per month to avoid customer saturation.

A. The Paradox of Local Advertising

The big problem arose when I tried to share a post from my blog, such as the article about "The Hell of Webviews in Flutter."

• Udemy's Veto: The platform prohibited me from sending the post, arguing it was "promotional."
• The Reason: The content is informative, but my blog includes third-party advertising (like Adsense) and promotion of my own courses (local advertising).
• The Irony: Udemy doesn't care about third-party advertising (which appears on my site), but it is bothered that I use my own spaces to promote my courses.
• The Nonsense: They were literally demanding that I change the structure of my website (eliminating my own banners or local advertising) just to be "suitable" for an educational announcement on Udemy.
• Consequence: Due to this infraction (which I consider an excuse to limit my reach), my account was restricted for a while, preventing me from using this tool for sending an informative post.
• My Position: I'm not going to create a "sterile" website just to fulfill a whim. I believe people are intelligent enough to discern the educational content (the core of the post) from the promotional part.

B. Inconsistency with YouTube

It's curious that Udemy has no problem with instructors sharing YouTube videos that, in their descriptions or even in their comments, contain direct links to paid content. The platform's logic is inconsistently applied.

2. Promotional Announcements: The SPAM Format

The promotional announcement is designed to directly share offers and coupons, but I consider it even worse than the educational one.

A. Inability to Enrich the Content

• Key Restriction: Sharing URLs is not allowed in the promotional announcement.
• Result: This forces the instructor to send an email that is, in essence, pure SPAM: a message that only says "buy, buy, buy" without offering any free value or enriched content (videos, images, articles).

B. Ignored Marketing Principles

• Any digital marketing expert will tell you that, to win a customer, you must give between 20% and 40% of free content (or value) before trying to sell.
• Udemy's Approach: Udemy "crudely" separates the content: it's either 100% educational (with the absurd restrictions mentioned), or it's 100% promotional (with no URLs).
• The Lack of Interest: No one wants to receive constant emails from instructors (to whom they are subscribed) only saying "look, buy this coupon." The lack of valuable content makes this tool useless.

In Conclusion: Given the impossibility of complying with the rules of the educational announcement without dismantling my own web strategy, and the uselessness of the promotional announcement (which does not allow sharing enriched content), I decided to stop using both tools entirely.

Module for updating courses (sections and lectures)

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Continuing with Udemy's features, I will address the course management module. Since we're not going to create a CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) from scratch, we'll evaluate the existing one on the platform.

1. Course Listing and Performance Issues

Upon accessing the course section (the instructor profile), we find the main listing:

• Statistics: The listing shows basic statistics, sorting, and a curious but useful button to hide all sales visualizations, which I find helpful if the environment causes frustration.
• Slow Loading: The first notable failure is the slowness with which the page loads. Despite having only about 15 courses, the platform takes too long to load the full listing, which is unusual for a company of its size.

2. ⚙️ Course Details: Structural Limitations

To enter editing, we access the management of a specific course. The area of interest to us is the Course Curriculum (lecture management).

• Simple Design: The structure is extremely simple, allowing only two levels of nesting: Sections and Lectures. Although simplicity is valued, in this case, it falls short.
• Scarce Functionality: Management is limited to creating, deleting, and updating sections and lectures, with no advanced customization options.
• Improvement Recommendations (Classification): At least one higher classification level would be needed to group sections. This would allow the instructor to organize the course more effectively (e.g., group sections by "Beginner Level," "Advanced Modules," "Legacy Content," or using tags).

3. The Disaster of the Bulk Uploader and Google Drive

When adding content (lectures), the bulk video uploader and the integration with Google Drive present severe usability flaws:

1. Inconsistent Connection: Authentication with Google Drive often fails. Even if you manage to authenticate in the external window, Udemy's internal uploader often doesn't recognize the session and requires you to repeat the process.
2. File Loss: Once a video is selected from Google Drive, the file is lost if you try to perform another action, forcing you to navigate again and re-upload the file.
3. Failure to Change Account: The system automatically links to the Google Drive account without offering a simple and immediate way to log out or change accounts, possibly requiring cookie deletion or waiting days for the session to expire.

4. ️ Critical Interface Failures: The Drag-and-Drop

The drag-and-drop system for organizing sections and lectures is terrible and prone to errors:

• Erratic Functioning: Moving sections is often inconsistent; sometimes it doesn't work, or it doesn't clearly show where the element will be dropped.
• The Aggressive Scroll Problem: When trying to move a lecture or section through the list, the interface performs an aggressive scroll, causing the user to lose the point of focus and end up placing the element in an incorrect position.
• Nesting Failures (Historical): In the past, when moving a section, its internal lectures often remained "queued" in the previous section, forcing the instructor to manually reorganize dozens of lectures, an extremely tedious process (this error was reported and, fortunately, was repaired).

5. Conclusions on Usability

In summary, Udemy's course management, beyond the lack of advanced features (like tags or section grouping), suffers from basic functional problems (slow loading, defective drag-and-drop) that are unacceptable for a platform of its magnitude. Although it is functional, the user experience is frustrating.

Why I no longer create free courses on Udemy

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The main reason why I no longer create free courses on Udemy is due to a platform update that was implemented a few years ago, which imposes serious limitations that I consider detrimental to both the creator and the consumer.

1. ⏱️ The Two-Hour Chokehold

The main limitation is that free courses cannot exceed two (2) hours in duration.

• Brutal Insufficiency: For software development or any technical field, two hours is absolutely insufficient. It barely provides a mere introduction to the technology; it does not allow for developing scalable skills or completing a basic project.
• Comparison with YouTube: Platforms like YouTube offer an open content experience and are sustainable through advertising. Instead of adopting an advertising model (which would allow for longer free courses), Udemy opts for a content chokehold, drastically limiting the value the instructor can offer.

2. ❓ Q&A Restriction: A Lack of Respect

Udemy's comparative table reveals another policy I consider unacceptable: students of free courses do not have access to the Questions and Answers (Q&A) system nor can they send direct messages to the instructor.

2. ❓ Q&A Restriction: A Lack of Respect

Udemy's comparative table reveals another policy I consider unacceptable: students of free courses do not have access to the Questions and Answers (Q&A) system nor can they send direct messages to the instructor.

• The Creator's Work: The Q&A system is work that falls 100% on the instructor. The platform only provides the interface (the text box); the effort and responsibility of answering belong to the content creator.
• The Nonsense: It is rude for Udemy to restrict a tool whose workload is external to its resources. The decision to answer questions or not should be an option for the creator, not a platform limitation.
• Impact on Marketing: A free course is supposed to be an "introduction" to capture the interest of a potential customer. Blocking the direct communication channel frustrates the potential client and renders the instructor's marketing strategy ineffective.

3. Conclusion: Udemy as a Limited Viewer

Udemy's approach is restrictive: it seeks to limit the instructor and dictate how they should work (the reverse of how it should be on an open platform, where the instructor adapts the tool to their liking within basic guidelines).

• Platform vs. Creator: I should use the platform, but the platform should not use me or limit me in this absurd way.
• My Current Use: Due to these policies, my use of Udemy has been limited to two functions:
  • Online Store: As a space to sell my paid courses.
  • Content Viewer: As a mere player for my videos.

I no longer seek to interact or send messages through their interface. In fact, I always recommend that my students contact me through external channels (like Discord), as Udemy's policies are so absurd that the platform ends up being useless for communication and the creation of valuable free content.

Types of Tests, Select or Complete Code vs. Video Challenges

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I wanted to address the implementation of coding exercises and quizzes on Udemy. The platform constantly insists that instructors use these resources (it has sent notifications about style changes, new features, and AI integration), but I consider this investment of resources by Udemy to be a mistake.

In my opinion, instead of investing in very specific functionalities that instructors barely use, the platform should focus on innovating in areas that truly impact the general experience (such as those I have criticized in previous videos).

1. Low Adoption of Interactive Resources

When reviewing the course offerings on the platform, it's observed that most instructors (especially in older courses or those with a high volume of content) do not implement these exercises:

Time Investment vs. Profitability: Creating this type of resource requires a significant time investment. Given that the return on investment on Udemy is not always high, many instructors choose not to dedicate time to schemes that are not essential for teaching, but rather to creating more valuable content.

A. The Manual Creation Process

The process for creating a simple coding exercise is slow and unfriendly:

• Access the creation menu.
• Select the resource type (Coding Exercises or Quiz).
• Set the title.
• Select the technology and version.
• Configure the explanation and the body of the exercise (which takes time).

I prefer to invest those 5 to 10 minutes in creating one more class to delve deeper into a relevant topic.

2. My Alternative Methodology: The Video Challenge Technique

To measure knowledge without relying on Udemy's black-box scheme, I use a methodology that I consider simpler, more direct, and more pedagogical: the "Dora the Explorer Technique" (or the Video Challenge).

A. Functioning

When I teach a concept (e.g., the different types of routes in Laravel: GET, POST, etc.), instead of moving to a Udemy exercise:

• I Pose the Challenge: I instruct the student that, based on the class explanation, they must perform a specific action (e.g., "If we just created a GET route, now you create a POST type route").
• Request to Pause: I explicitly ask the student to pause the video and solve the exercise on their own.
• Immediate Resolution: Once the time has passed (pause), I resume the recording and solve the exercise immediately afterward.

B. Advantages of my Scheme vs. Udemy (The Black Box)

• Aspect    Video Challenge Scheme    Udemy Exercise/Quiz Scheme
• Continuity    The student does not leave the course or change screens.    Must open a new interface, which breaks the learning flow.
• Feedback    Multiple Feedback (Open Box). If the student gets stuck, they can advance the video slightly for a hint and then pause again.    Binary Feedback (Black Box). Interaction is limited to "True" or "False" upon completion, with no intermediate help.
• Efficiency    Maximizes instructor time: does not require setup in the Udemy interface.    Requires a considerable time investment to configure each test.

My scheme allows the student to interact with the code, get incremental feedback (by briefly unpausing the video if they get stuck) and then return to the exercise, ensuring they understand the exact point where they made a mistake, something that the rigidity of Udemy's exercises does not allow.

SEO on Udemy: Key Concepts

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I am not an SEO expert, but after years as an instructor on Udemy, I have deduced certain patterns about how the platform's search algorithm works. Unlike Google (which measures speed, backlinks, and original content), SEO on Udemy is much simpler and focuses on a handful of key factors.

1. The SEO Factor for Software Development

In the programming niche, SEO is considerably easier than in other fields (like massage or arts), because the keywords are obvious and universal.

A. The Keyword is the Key

• Focus on Technology: In 99.9% of cases, users search for the technology name directly: "Laravel Course", "Django Course", "Flutter Course".
• Avoid Extreme Specialization: It is not advisable to create titles based on niche searches (e.g., "How to create an API with Laravel Breeze"), because people do not search for courses that way on Udemy. The focus should be on the base technology term.

Optimization of Titles and Subtitles: The main keyword (e.g., Django) must always be present in the title and is highly recommended to include it in the subtitle, description, and individual lectures to reinforce positioning.

B. The Error of Super-Specialized Courses

My experience tells me that very specialized courses (e.g., "Consume REST API from CodeIgniter 3" or "Django + Flutter") do not sell well. The user first searches for the base course of the main technology. Specialized courses only serve as add-ons or a next level, and only a small subset of students acquires them.

2. Algorithm Positioning Factors

My comparative analysis between my Laravel and Django courses leads me to the conclusion that there is a clear hierarchy of factors in the Udemy algorithm:

• Priority    Key Factor    Explanation
• Keyword in Title    If the term (e.g., Laravel) is not present, the course is invisible.
• Sales (Conversion Rate)    This is the most important factor. Udemy positions the course that is generating the most income first, regardless of quality or age.
• Rating    It is important, but not exclusive. Courses with slightly lower ratings (e.g., 4.3) can appear above courses with 4.7 if they have more sales.
• Content (Hours)    The high number of hours acts as a powerful hook to attract the buyer and boost sales (which is the key factor). A course with 55 hours vs. one with 12 hours generates more trust and increases conversion.

The Ethical Problem: Black SEO

There is an unfair practice known as Black SEO (which I do not recommend or have done, but have suffered) and which Udemy's system does not penalize:

• Technique: It consists of buying the competitor's course (or using ghost accounts) and leaving an unfounded negative rating (e.g., a simple absurd text like "the sky is red").
• Effect: This decreases the ratings of the attacked course, which, in theory, helps the attacker's course to move up in position.
• Critique: Udemy does not verify the authenticity or content of these malicious reviews, which is a serious lack of ethics and professionalism that directly affects the content creator.