Skillshare Costs: What Are Your Options?

If you are someone with a creative flair, then most likely you have heard of Skillshare. This online learning community is very popular among designers, photographers, chefs and artists. According to its own data, this platform seems to have over 5 million users and offers more than 25,000 courses (they call them classes).

How much is Skillshare? Will you be able to refund your Skillshare account if you aren’t happy with the premium version of it? Is Skillshare worth it?

These may be questions you are looking to answer. Let me help you out and explain to you Skillshare’s prices.

Skillshare Costs: An Overview

Skillshare monthly cost is $15 if you pay month by month, or $99 if you decide to pay for a full year – yearly payments come out at $8.25 a month. The Skillshare plans for Teams are $99 per year for (3 to 49 students), larger teams will get a custom Skillshare pricing and more features (e.g. onboarding and consultations).

Is Skillshare Free?

Skillshare offers a lot of courses for free, you will also have access to the community where you’ll be able to interact with other students. So yes, Skillshare offers about 10% of its total classes free of cost, not too bad right?

Free Classes Skillshare

Unlike other elearning platforms, Skillshare makes it easy for you to find its free courses, as it has a dedicated filter (and page) where all the available complementary classes are shown.

However, I have the personal impression that its free courses are not always the most advanced ones, and at times a bit outdated (not always) – but hey, they are free.

Skillshare Premium Plan

Alright, if you opt-in for the premium Skillshare plan, you’ll be able to access the whole Skillshare course library with over 25,000 classes (courses). On top of that, you get a couple of perks:

• You are allowed to follow the courses offline
• No ads will be shown
• Get exclusive discounts from partners like Adobe, Shutterstock or Squarespace

Skillshare discounts for premium users

Additionally, with your premium Skillshare account, you’ll be able to support the community of instructors and teachers.

Skillshare Teams Plan

As some other elearning platforms do, Skillshare also has a specific plan for businesses and teams, so you all can keep on developing existing skills or learn new ones.

There are two packages available for organizations, the Starter and the Enterprise plan. But before going into what each of them offers, let me tell you that you won’t be able to refund these.

Skillshare teams tiers

Starter Package

The Starter plan is very similar to the individual Skillshare plans as you’ll be able to see the classes offline, and you’ll be granted access to all the resources (courses) available at this elearning platform for creatives.

On top of that, the Starter plan also offers:

• Admin capabilities to manage all the users
• Teacher feedback
• Access to a student community
• Team management features

The price for the Starter plan is $99 per year and user, and it’s not possible to pay for it on a monthly basis. Additionally, you’ll need a minimum of 3 users and a maximum of 49 to be able to access this offer.

Enterprise Package

This Skillshare plan is good for teams of 20 users (or more) and you’ll need a custom quote to find out how much it will work out as.

It’s suitable for larger organizations as it’s pricier and has some unique perks for larger teams. Besides the Starter plan features, your organization will also get:

• Dedicated account and success manager to help you track progress
• Integrations with other tools (e.g. via API or LMS)
• Custom 1-on-1 onboarding
• Private community groups for your team

Accepted Payment Methods & Currencies

You can use either a credit card or PayPal to pay for your Skillshare premium account. They have a program that if you refer friends (and he or she subscribes to Skillshare), you’ll be awarded free months of Skillshare premium access.

Skillshare is available in many currencies, so you can most likely pay for your annual or monthly subscription with your local currency. Check out the table below to see the prices for the most popular currencies.

Skillshare Gift Cards

With Skillshare you’ll be able to buy a gift card for a loved one. You can decide between giving 3, 6 or 12 months subscription, and by the way, the gift cards never expire.

Financial Aid

There are a couple of ways in which Skillshare makes the resources available to those with financial needs:

• Every student that has a valid .edu email address will have a 50% discount on the Skillshare Premium cost.
• The One for One Skillshare policy means that for each premium subscriber they donate a free membership to those in need of financial help.

To apply for a Skillshare scholarship you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Create a free Skillshare account
2. Submit the scholarship form and explain how you will use what you’ll learn at Skillshare. Submit a summary of your financial situation.
3. Wait for the Skillshare confirmation
4. If approved enjoy access to Skillshare for 1 year for free

If you’d like to help someone with limited financial resources by giving them access to Skillshare, you can become a benefactor to sponsor students.

How To Cancel Skillshare

You’ll be able to cancel your Skillshare premium membership at any time. To cancel your account you’ll need to find the ‘Payment’ section under your ‘Accounts Settings’ and then cancel the membership account.

Please be warned that once you cancel your account you’ll lose access to the premium courses, materials and you won’t be able to watch classes offline anymore.

Skillshare Refunds

With Skillshare you have 7 days to refund your annual premium plan. Please be aware that if you go for a monthly account (e.g. you pay month by month instead of annually), you won’t be able to refund your payments.

Skillshare 1 Month Free Trial

If you purchase Skillshare via a third party (e.g. Google Play or Apple), you’ll have to contact them in order to request a refund or cancellations – Skillshare won’t be able to help you here.

Note: Please, be aware that there aren’t any refunds available for the Teams plans.

Skillshare Costs: Last Thoughts

Alright, we’ve reviewed Skillshare costs and we’ve seen that:

1. It’s not very expensive
2. The Skillshare prices and plans are easy to digest

This popular platform to improve or learn new (creative) skills will make you choose between an annual or a monthly membership. If you choose the yearly subscription, you’ll be given a big discount (almost 50%), but be ready to pay the full amount ($99) upfront. Note that there’s a 1-month free trial policy that you can benefit from, sometimes there’s a promotion of 2-months trial.

But institutions and businesses have tailored versions (the Team’s plan) of Skillshare to provide access to the platform for their employees. These packages start at $99 per year and user – a minimum of 3 users required.

I hope you have a clearer understanding of what the different Skillshare costs are and which plan you should choose. However, if you still have questions, please leave a comment below.

Catherine Cooke

Hey. I am Catherine and have been working as a freelancer for many years now and I believe that you are in charge of your own destiny. If learning a new skill or having a career change is something you want to do, then there is no better time than the present. If you have a question please feel free to ask me anything or leave me a comment.