Skillshare vs Brilliant - Pricing and Classes Compared

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Course platforms have gotten quite popular lately. As more people have been working from home for the past few years, more people seem to have discovered more at-home alternatives to live gatherings. A lot of people have discovered new hobbies this way and have gotten used to learning from home in their past-time. They'll often subscribe to a course platform as that seems like the perfect option to learn about new subjects from your own home. It’s often a lot easier to learn via a video course at home than it would be if you would have to visit classes at a set time every week. In most cases the price is also significantly lower which greatly lowers the barrier to entry.

Brilliant and Skillshare are two of these major course platforms that have become two of the most well-known in recent years. As more and more influencers are getting sponsored by both Brilliant and Skillshare, the two seem to be fighting for the top spot in the online learning space. While you may think that they are both much the same, they actually try to serve different general demographics. In this post, we’ll get into the details of Skillshare vs Brilliant to see what platform suits you best.

Breakdown of Skillshare vs Brilliant

Skillshare

Skillshare is a video course platform that has existed for over 10 years and has grown quite a bit in recent years. It has long been the top course platform as it is one of the older and more extensive popular platforms. The fact that they have been around for so long means that it has grown to over 30,000 classes. Skillshare offers much of everything in terms of types of classes but they seem to generally be a bit more focused on creative topics. That is because the platform was initially launched as a course platform for creative courses only. Nowadays they are trying to expand the covered topics and offer classes on topics like business, entrepreneurship, and tech. In terms of class lengths, they can range anywhere from 30 minutes long to classes that are a few hours in length.

Brilliant

Brilliant is also a course platform but it differs quite a bit from Skillshare. First of all, Brilliant is focused more on topics related to science and technology rather than creative topics. Brilliant also handles the courses differently. Rather than offering a class in video-form as Skillshare does, Brilliant's courses are mostly text-based. They also test users taking the courses with quick quizzes between the course classes. Although Brilliant offers far fewer courses than Skillshare does — 60+ compared to 30,000+ — their courses seem to be of high and consistent quality. The quizzes in between the classes on Brilliant are also a great way to ensure you've understood the topic you were taught while keeping yourself engaged.

Pros and Cons of Skillshare and Brilliant

When it comes to the number of courses and the variety these platforms offer, Skillshare is a clear winner with over 30,000 courses. You should know, however, that the courses on both platforms are set up differently. With Brilliant, you seem to get slightly higher quality courses than the average Skillshare course because all courses on Brilliant are made by teachers working at Brilliant while Skillshare allows everyone to create courses on their platform. Brilliant also has added various tests and quizzes to courses to ensure your progress. Skillshare doesn't have quizzes as Brilliant does but does allow teachers to set up student projects that you can upload and get feedback on. Although Brilliant’s courses seem to be of higher quality, the fact that they offer such a limited number of courses makes it seem like you’d fairly quickly run out of new interesting courses to take. This may not make their yearly subscription worth it with the current number of courses they are offering.

Skillshare or Brilliant? Which should you pick?

As both platforms allow you to try them out for free, I would recommend you to start a trial on both to see for yourself which platform fits you best. Skillshare offers a trial of up to 3 months and Brilliant a 7-day trial.

If you are looking to get bang for your buck, I would go with Skillshare. They offer far more courses for a lower monthly cost. The great benefit of Skillshare is that if you want to learn something really specific, there’s likely a course about it on Skillshare. If you don’t know what you want to learn specifically and you’d like to improve your math skills, for example, Brilliant may be the best option for you. Brilliant is also a good choice for students that, for example, are behind in math or science, as Brilliant offers a different way of learning more about these topics that may be beneficial to them.

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