Are Free Udemy Courses Worth It? Certificates and Access

"Free" on Udemy can mean two different things, and they do not give you the same course experience. Before you decide whether a free course deserves your evenings, it helps to know which kind you are looking at.

Two kinds of free

Paid courses made free by a coupon

These are regular paid courses, often with a list price of $50 or more, that an instructor has temporarily opened up with a 100% off coupon. When you enroll this way you are treated like any paying student. Every course on our free Udemy courses list with a coupon code is this kind.

Permanently free courses

These are courses the instructor has priced at zero for good. Udemy gives them a reduced feature set: the video lessons are there, but several extras are not.

What each kind includes

• Video lessons: both kinds. Permanently free courses are limited to under two hours of video; coupon courses can be any length.
• Certificate of completion: coupon courses, yes. Permanently free courses, no.
• Instructor Q&A and direct messages: coupon courses, yes. Permanently free courses, no.
• Lifetime access: coupon courses, yes, on the same terms as a purchase. Permanently free courses stay available for as long as the instructor keeps them free and published.
• Downloadable resources, quizzes and exercises: included with coupon courses whenever the course has them.

The short version: a paid course you got with a coupon is the full product. A permanently free course is closer to a preview.

Is the certificate worth anything?

Be realistic about this. A Udemy certificate of completion says that you finished the course. Udemy is not an accredited institution, so the certificate is not a degree, a professional licence or university credit.

That does not make it useless. It is reasonable to list on a CV or LinkedIn profile as evidence that you keep learning, and it gives you something specific to talk about in an interview. What employers respond to, though, is what you can do. A small project built with what the course taught you will carry more weight than the certificate.

One exception worth knowing: many Udemy courses are exam preparation for industry certifications from AWS, Microsoft, CompTIA, PMI and others. The Udemy certificate is not that credential, but the course can be a very cheap way to prepare for the real exam. You will find plenty of these under IT & Software.

Does lifetime access really last?

In practice, yes. Courses you enrolled in years ago remain in your library, including ones you got for free with a coupon. Udemy's terms do allow a course to be removed in rare cases, such as a legal or policy problem, but that is unusual.

The real cost is your time

A free course costs no money, but a 20-hour course still costs 20 hours. Quality on Udemy varies a lot, because anyone can publish there. So the question is less "is it worth $0" and more "is this the best course for the hours I am about to spend".

A few signs that a free course is worth it:

• A rating of 4.3 or higher from a meaningful number of reviews.
• A recent "last updated" date, especially for software topics.
• Preview lessons where the instructor is clear and easy to listen to.

We go through the full checklist in how to choose a free Udemy course worth your time.

Verdict

Coupon courses are worth it. You get the complete paid course, certificate included, and you keep it. The only discipline needed is choosing well and actually finishing what you start. Permanently free courses are worth it as samplers: good for trying a subject, not a substitute for a full course.

If you want to start now, browse the courses by category and enroll in one that fits something you already want to learn.