Udemy vs OpenSesame

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Our analysts compared Udemy vs OpenSesame based on data from our 400+ point analysis of LMS Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

OpenSesame Software Tool

Product Basics

Udemy is an online learning platform with over 40 million students. Over 80% of the top Fortune 100 companies use it. Lessons are self-paced and recorded by industry specialists. The subjects include business, design, developing and programming, marketing, music, personal development, photography, IT and more. Other courses are more tailored to specific, in-demand and professional skill sets like cyber security, ethical hacking, financial analysis, graphic design, machine learning, Adobe Photoshop, PMP, SQL and web development.

Once purchased, classes are available to the user indefinitely. Learners can reference them for a refresher. Overall, it has 50,000 instructors and 130,000 courses taught in more than 60 languages from over 190 different countries. To date, it’s seen over 245 million enrollments.
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OpenSesame is a comprehensive software solution designed to streamline the management of learning management systems (LMS), making it an ideal choice for organizations looking to enhance their e-learning capabilities. It stands out for its ability to cater to a wide range of industries by offering a vast library of curated online courses that cover various subjects, from business skills to compliance training. One of the key benefits of OpenSesame is its flexibility in integration, allowing it to seamlessly connect with most LMS platforms, thereby enhancing user experience and facilitating easier access to learning resources. Users particularly appreciate its user-friendly interface and the extensive support provided, which significantly simplifies the process of course selection and deployment. When compared to similar products, OpenSesame is often praised for its comprehensive content library and the effectiveness of its customer support. Pricing considerations vary, typically depending on the number of users and the specific courses selected, with options for subscription-based payments that allow for scalability and adaptability to different organizational needs.

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$20 Monthly
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$5/Course, Usage-Based
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Product Insights

  • Upskilled Workforce: Identifies staff with the right abilities and navigates the continuously changing duties in the modern workplace. Provides an easy, affordable talent upgrade for organizations with competency gaps. Courses are skill-based and taught by experts.
  • Culture of Learning: Teaches and trains employees with a variety of self-paced classes. This allows an organization to promote education affordably. Allows companies to give more time and focus to development opportunities. Creates a culture of continuous improvement.
  • Increased Efficiency: Allows workers to improve skills and become more efficient at their job. Increased automation levels make it a massive time and money saver, especially given the fast rate at which jobs change in the modern era. Lets HR staff focus less on manual information input and more on advanced staff development.
  • Happier Workforce: Lets employees acquire new skills and grow in their job, one of the top requests for employees in any workforce. Through a course library, users can expand their minds, meet career goals and feel better about their place of employment. Showcases the level of dedication with an investment in people.
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  • Better Integration: Get adaptable courses with SCORM or AICC-compatible courses. Add courses and monitor progress completion. 
  • Greater Ease of Use: Get pre-built integrations for a better interface and reduce IT burden. 
  • Curated Courses: Choose the best learning and training program according to the enterprise’s needs. Improve learning and employee engagement with advice from advisors. 
  • Upskilled Workers: Build soft skills to develop leadership and management qualities. Improve communication, negotiation and project management. 
  • Reduce Workload: Make implementation easier with constant technical support, simplifying the administration process. 
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  • Class Creation and Management: Manages and creates lectures, text, multimedia, slides, videos and additional resources bundled together for lessons. Offers testing and assignment options like quizzes, practice tests and coding exercises. The license for courses never expires and learners can finish at their own pace.
  • Instructor Capabilities: Sells classes and accepts payment through the solution via PayPal or Payoneer when students enroll. Designs lessons to help people advance skills, upgrade careers or explore hobbies. Offers training that details how to build units, curriculum pages, an instructor dashboard and others. Last, allow students to connect with instructors via messaging, Q&As and announcements. Instructors own all the rights to the class material.
  • Devices: Operates on laptops, desktops, tablets and mobile. Works on both iOS and Android. By downloading classes, users can watch them offline and view them with Chromecast or Apple TV.
  • Certifications: Sends a certificate of completion when users complete paid classes for reimbursement. Showcase talent or dole out bragging rights. Certifications aren’t available for free courses or ones that only have practice exams.
  • Affiliates: Promotes an affiliate program for organizations or individuals who want to promote courses on their blog or website. Users make a commission for each sale.
  • Subjects: Offers a variety of courses on different topics such as:
    • IT and Tech: Provides courses in IT AWS certification, ethical hacking, hardware, networking, operating systems, security and others. It also provides information needed for IT certification like Microsoft Azure, Cisco CCNA, CompTIA A+, CompTIA Security+, Windows Server and others.
    • Marketing: Teaches useful marketing competencies in areas such as copywriting, digital marketing, Facebook ads and marketing, Google AdWords, Instagram marketing, SEO, social media marketing and more.
    • Design: Covers subjects such as animation and 3D, architectural design, fashion, game design, graphic design, interior design, user experience and web design.
    • Business: Offers courses that cover communication, entrepreneurial skills, finance, management, Microsoft Power BI, project management, sales, stock trading, strategic thinking and others.
    • Music Education: Provides classes such as music fundamentals, instruments, production, software, techniques, vocals and others.
    • Health and Fitness: Offers art therapy, aromatherapy, CBT dance, dieting, first aid, fitness, general health, herbalism, massage, meditation, mental health, nutrition, safety, self-defense, sports and yoga.
    • Teaching & Academics: Comes with calculus, engineering, English, German, humanities, IELTS, Japanese, math, online ed, science, Spanish, test prep and more.
    • Office Productivity: Teaches learners how to increase efficiency and get trained in key office tech. Offers classes in Data Analysis, Excel, Microsoft Access, Microsoft and others.
    • Finance & Accounting: Comes with accounting, blockchain, bookkeeping, compliance, cryptocurrency, day trading, economics, finance certification, financial modeling, investing, money management, taxes and more.
    • Lifestyle: Offers several classes that apply other areas of life, such as arts and crafts, beverage and food, beauty, gaming, home improvement, makeup, neuro-linguistic programming, pet care, pet training, portraiture, travel and others.
    • Personal Development: Teaches skills focused at soft skills or life skills. Provides health and wellness, increasing learning and memory or financial issues. Some course categories include energy healing, life coaching, memory, mindfulness, neuro-linguistic programming, reiki, speed reading, stock trading and technical analysis.
  • Udemy for Business: For organizations looking for ways to host corporate training, this coexisting platform is an option. It supports company training, creates learning paths for employees and provides over 2,000 courses. For more information, see its separate product page.
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  • Vendor Consolidation: Combine vendors to cut costs and save time. Navigate through comprehensive lists of courses with ease. 
  • Varied Courses: Get access to 22,000+ courses on a variety of topics in various formats. 
  • Certification: Validate skills and competency through professional certifications like PMI/PMP, CompTIA, ITIL, Microsoft, HRCI, Six Sigma and more. 
  • Compliance: Track course completion data with a robust dashboard. Access the latest courses to meet compliance requirements. Ensure adherence to workplace regulations to avoid litigation. 
  • DIE Courses: Train organizations in diversity, equity and inclusion. Access 900 courses on DIE with multiple formats and languages. Take DIE surveys to get actionable insights. 
  • L&D Courses: Learn from a variety of training courses with regular optimization, minimum administration and maximum utilization. 
  • Safety Courses: Implement industry-specific safety courses like OSHA, first aid, ladders and electrical safety to prevent risk and litigation. Get mobile and microlearning formats to learn from anywhere. 
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Product Ranking

#15

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#98

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LMS Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 675 reviews
Great User Sentiment 50 reviews
91%
of users recommend this product

Udemy has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 91% when considering 675 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

80%
of users recommend this product

OpenSesame has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 80% when considering 50 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.5 (559)
n/a
4.9 (9)
4.0 (25)
4.9 (102)
4.0 (25)
3.9 (5)
n/a

Awards

Udemy stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Useful Functionality: Over 90% of users who discussed features were pleased with the system’s components, notably self-paced learning capabilities.
Upskills Workforce: Users felt that the classes helped train employees in necessary skills in over 90% of reviews that discussed it.
Great for Training: More than 80% of reviewers who discussed using it as a training tool were pleased.
Excellent Courses: Learners loved the quality of the courses themselves in over 70% of comments that talked about it.
Skilled Instructors: Over 60% of users who discussed the teachers felt they were communicative and well-versed in the topics.
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Extensive Course Library: OpenSesame boasts a vast collection of over 20,000 courses spanning diverse topics, catering to various industries and professional development needs. This eliminates the need for organizations to create their own content, saving time and resources.
User-Friendly Interface: The platform's intuitive design simplifies course administration, allowing for easy enrollment, progress tracking, and reporting. This streamlines the learning process for both administrators and learners.
Content Curation Tools: OpenSesame empowers administrators to curate customized learning paths by selecting specific courses and organizing them into relevant categories. This enables personalized learning experiences tailored to individual or team requirements.
Integration Capabilities: OpenSesame seamlessly integrates with various Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), facilitating data synchronization and a unified learning ecosystem.
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Refund Issues: Just under 80% of users who talked about refunds said they had problems getting their money back and didn’t like the policy.
Price: While over 50% of users felt it was reasonably priced, 46% of users who talked about price felt they were overcharged or didn’t like the pricing structure.
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Limited Customization: OpenSesame's course builder offers limited options for branding and customization, making it difficult for organizations to create a consistent learning experience that aligns with their brand identity.
Reporting and Analytics: The platform's reporting and analytics capabilities are relatively basic, lacking the depth and flexibility needed for comprehensive learner progress tracking and data-driven decision-making.
Integrations: OpenSesame's integrations with other business systems, such as HRIS or CRM platforms, are limited, potentially hindering seamless data flow and workflow automation.
Customer Support: Some users have reported challenges with OpenSesame's customer support, citing slow response times and difficulty resolving technical issues.
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Udemy is an online learning solution that provides instructor-led learning classes. Users can pick from a varied selection of topics and train at their own pace. Most reviewers were especially pleased with the features, especially the ability to control the speed of learning. Reviewers left overwhelmingly positive comments on the quality of the classes. Many learners said they were still able to contact their instructors when needed. Most users felt their teachers were skilled and knew their subjects well. Users praised its skill-building both in personal and corporate environments. Though users did like the classes, they also recommended heavily screening for quality. Some complained that the platform didn’t vet what was on the site well. Udemy has reviews for all of its classes left by users. Most people recommended weeding out the good ones from the bad ones. The most significant criticism by far came from people trying to get refunds. They said they had trouble contacting customer support or didn’t receive their money back. Others disliked the 30-day refund policy and felt cheated by it. Users were split on the price of the courses. Classes often came with discounts and some felt they were reasonably priced. Others felt they were too expensive or got angry when they paid for a class that was later offered for free. Udemy is a helpful resource for self-paced learners who have a specific set of skills they want. Vet the courses carefully, wait for discounts and look for details if the price isn’t satisfactory. It doesn’t have HR functionality as it’s more of a content library than a full LMS. Larger organizations who want to take an analytics-driven approach to learning should look elsewhere.

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Unlocking the potential of your workforce is no easy feat, but OpenSesame might just be the key. User reviews from the past year paint a picture of a platform with a unique blend of strengths and weaknesses. OpenSesame shines in its user-friendly interface and extensive course library, making it a breeze for administrators to manage training programs and for learners to access a diverse range of content. The platform's reporting and analytics capabilities also receive praise, empowering organizations to track progress and measure the impact of their training initiatives. However, some users point out that OpenSesame's customization options can be limited, and integration with other HR systems may require additional effort. What truly sets OpenSesame apart is its focus on curation and quality. Unlike some competitors that offer a vast but unfiltered selection of courses, OpenSesame carefully vets its content providers to ensure high-quality, engaging learning experiences. This emphasis on curation is particularly valuable for organizations seeking to avoid the pitfalls of information overload and ensure their employees are receiving top-notch training. Ultimately, OpenSesame is best suited for small to mid-sized businesses that prioritize ease of use, a diverse course library, and reliable reporting features. For organizations with complex customization needs or extensive integration requirements, exploring alternative solutions might be wise. Keep in mind that the eLearning landscape is constantly evolving, so it's always a good idea to check for the latest updates and user feedback before making a decision.

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