LinkedIn Learning (Lynda) vs Skillshare

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When you want to learn something new these days, it’s often easier and more affordable to look for a course online rather than an in-person class or school. There’s a good reason these course platforms have become so extremely popular. Two of the leading platforms these days for online courses are LinkedIn learning (formerly known as Lynda) and Skillshare.

You might already be familiar with Skillshare and LinkedIn as a website, but LinkedIn learning still not that well known to most people. If you ever heard of Lynda.com, that’s actually what LinkedIn learning is. Lynda was bought by LinkedIn and renamed to LinkedIn Learning. This means that the platform isn’t actually that new so it has a fair bit of courses in its library already. The new platform does look quite a bit different than Lynda.com looked like but in terms of the fundamentals and courses, it’s mostly the same.

Course Libraries

Both LinkedIn Learning/Lynda and Skillshare have a very extensive library of courses. On the LinkedIn Learning website, it’s stated that they offer over 15,000 courses. Skillshare course library is a bit larger, offering over 28,000 courses. Note that both platforms allow people to apply themselves to become a course instructor. LinkedIn Learning seems to have a more complex application process compared to Skillshare and also seems to accept fewer applicants that Skillshare does.

Linkedin Learning does have the advantage however, of being tied to LinkedIn. If you already have a LinkedIn profile, it’s very easy to get started with them. Another benefit of this is that the teacher profiles are all tied to their personal LinkedIn profiles which means that you can easily verify and check the expertise and credibility of a specific teacher.

Skillshare and Linkedin Learning/Lynda also seem to put more focus on different topics. Skillshare, for example, started out as a course platform for creatives whereas Lynda (now Linkedin Learning), seemed to focus more on developers at first. This means that Linkedin Learning currently has a very large library of developer and technology courses covering a ton of different subjects related to technology. Because Skillshare focused more on creatives, they offer a lot more creative courses covering topics like graphic design and illustration and they offer a very little amount of technology courses.

Lynda / Linkedin Learning Pricing

Pricing for Linkedin Learning and Skillshare is quite different. LinkedIn Learning offers a 30-day trial. Using the trial, you can try out the Linkedin Learning courses for 30 days. After your trial ends, you can start one of the plans they offer. The prices quite high but with that, you get some extras for your LinkedIn profile. Prices start at $19.99 per month for the yearly plan and $29.99 per month for the monthly plan. If you get the monthly plan you’ll be able to cancel your subscription every month but with the yearly plan, you’ll save 33% but only are able to cancel each year.

Linkedin Learning also makes it possible to buy courses individually, this is a great alternative for people who don’t want to be stuck to a subscription or only need one course. If you buy the individual course, you’ll be able to access it forever and they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for if you don’t like it.

Skillshare Pricing

Skillshare is quite a bit cheaper than Linkedin Learning. They also offer a trial if you sign up with our link, you’ll be able to try it out for 14 days compared to the 30 days you get from Linkedin Learning. After that, plans start at around $15 per month for the monthly plan and the annual plan is only $8.25 per month, paid in one payment of $99.

Certificates

Course certificates can be very helpful when you are doing courses online. Especially when you are doing courses to advance your career. Linkedin Learning does offer certificates for when you finish a course but unfortunately, Skillshare does not. This, of course, doesn’t mean that you can’t add your finished Skillshare courses to your resume, a certificate only makes it look more official.

Linking Learning/Lynda or Skillshare, Which Should you Choose?

If pricing is important to you, I’d go with Skillshare. They are a lot cheaper than LinkedIn Learning and you are able to try it out for longer. However, if you want to be sure the person teaching your course is an expert on the subject, I’d go with LinkedIn Learning. LinkedIn Learning doesn’t let anybody who wants to create a course create one and you can be certain the teachers on there are great at what they’re doing.

I will still encourage you to try them out both, if you don’t like them, just cancel the trial and it won’t cost you anything.

Try out Linkedin Learning / Lynda for free: Claim your 30-day trial

Try out Skillshare for free: Claim your free Skillshare Premium trial