Skillshare

What is Skillshare?

Skillshare is an online learning community focused on creative skills and practical, project-based education. Founded in 2010, the platform hosts thousands of classes taught by working professionals and experts across creative, business, and technology disciplines. Unlike more academic platforms, Skillshare emphasizes learning through doing, with most classes structured around projects that allow immediate application of concepts, complemented by community features that enable feedback and collaboration.

Key Features

Skillshare delivers its creative learning experience through several key elements: short, focused video lessons organized into digestible segments, project-based class structure that encourages immediate application, peer feedback and class discussions that foster community learning, courses taught by working professionals rather than academic instructors, curated collections and learning paths for guided progression, offline viewing for flexible learning, and regular addition of new classes across diverse creative disciplines. Most classes range from 30-60 minutes in total length but are broken into short segments for easy consumption.

Who Should Use Skillshare?

Skillshare is particularly valuable for creative professionals seeking to expand their skillset, aspiring designers and illustrators building foundational techniques, photographers looking for specialized approaches, writers developing their craft, freelancers acquiring business skills, hobbyists exploring creative pursuits, and professionals seeking practical skills for side projects or career enhancement. The platform is best suited to visual and hands-on learners who benefit from immediate application and peer interaction rather than theoretical instruction.

Pricing

Skillshare operates on a subscription model priced at approximately $13.99/month with annual billing ($167.88/year) or $32/month billed monthly. The subscription provides unlimited access to all classes, offline viewing capabilities, and community features. A limited selection of free classes is available to non-subscribers. Team plans for organizations start at $159/user/year. Compared to course-by-course purchases on other platforms, the subscription model offers excellent value for active learners taking multiple classes, particularly in creative disciplines.

User Experience

Users consistently praise Skillshare for its approachable, practical approach to creative education. The platform's focus on projects rather than lectures encourages active learning, while the community aspects provide motivation and feedback. The interface makes discovery of relevant classes intuitive, with well-organized categories and helpful recommendations. While class quality can vary due to the open teacher model, user ratings and reviews help identify the most valuable content, and the subscription approach encourages exploration across different instructors and topics.

Bottom Line

Skillshare distinguishes itself in the online learning landscape through its focus on creative skills, project-based approach, and community elements. While it may not offer the formal credentials of academic platforms or the celebrity instructors of premium services, it excels at delivering practical, applicable creative education from working professionals at an affordable price point. For learners seeking to develop tangible creative skills through hands-on projects rather than theoretical knowledge, Skillshare provides an engaging, accessible, and cost-effective learning environment.