Udemy vs PowerDMS

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

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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PowerDMS software effectively manages policies, training, and accreditation processes, making it ideal for organizations seeking to streamline these crucial functions. A key strength of PowerDMS lies in its ability to connect policies, training materials, and accreditation requirements, ensuring that employees have easy access to the latest information and resources. The software facilitates efficient employee training by offering features such as course creation, progress tracking, and mobile accessibility. User reviews consistently highlight the platform's user-friendly interface, comprehensive reporting tools, and ability to adapt to evolving organizational needs. With a mid-range pricing structure based on a per-user monthly fee, PowerDMS presents a compelling option for businesses seeking a robust and user-friendly solution for managing their training and development programs.

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$20 Monthly
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$4,000 Annually
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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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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  • Provide a User-friendly Interface: Provides an intuitive experience that’s suitable for non-technical users. The software doesn’t have unnecessary features, making it simple to use. 
  • Adopt Automation: Configure settings to send out reminders to users when training is required. The system also has the option to automatically score tests and log training. 
  • Leverage Accreditation Support: Training records, lesson plans, certificates and other documents simplify the accreditation process. 
  • Access Flexible Training: Offering online courses enables learners to work through material after hours. This prevents training from taking away from on-the-job training and provides convenience for employees. 
  • Use Blended Learning: Organizations can conduct a blend of online and classroom training. It supports the in-person format by publishing and collecting course registrations. 
  • Try a Free Trial: The product offers a 14-day free trial. Test real-world scenarios to determine if the system is a good fit. 
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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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  • Course Management: Create courses using a WYSIWYG editor. Course elements include documents, videos, presentations, audio files, surveys and more. The system also supports embedding videos and web pages. Divide courses into sections for individual offerings based on different times for a classroom setting. Reorder individual course elements using the drag-and-drop capability. 
  • Tests: Customize tests to describe fields such as timed or untimed pass/fail, graded and open book or close book. Add due dates, number of retakes, images and text boxes, and enable auto grading. Create question banks, set mandatory questions and preview the test before publishing. 
  • Reports: Generate reports to segment on-training and non-training employees. Document the type and amount of training each employee has received, associated costs of training, credit hour summaries and more. 
  • Certifications: Award employees with certifications to designate receipt of job training after completing courses. 
  • Surveys: Gather employee feedback using different question types, such as true/false and multiple choice. Assign surveys directly to individuals or include them in a course for better accessibility. 
  • Content Hub: Connect with publisher sites to access and share content. Import single files or entire folders, bulk import items and edit documents in case of site changes. Get notified via email as content on the publisher site is added or updated. 
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Product Ranking

#15

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LMS Software

#60

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LMS Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 675 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 835 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.

96%
of users recommend this product

PowerDMS has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 96% when considering 835 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

4.5 (559)
4.7 (107)
4.9 (9)
4.76 (291)
4.9 (102)
4.8 (290)
3.9 (5)
4.9 (147)

Awards

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

User Favorite Award

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

User Favorite Award

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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Centralized Document Management: PowerDMS excels at keeping documents organized and accessible, eliminating the need to search through emails or shared drives. It acts as a single source of truth for policies, procedures, and other critical documents, ensuring everyone has access to the latest versions.
Streamlined Training and Compliance: The platform simplifies assigning, tracking, and reporting on training activities. Automated reminders and notifications help ensure that employees complete required training on time, reducing the risk of non-compliance.
Efficient Collaboration and Communication: PowerDMS facilitates collaboration by allowing users to share documents, provide feedback, and track changes. Discussion forums and messaging features enable clear communication and knowledge sharing among team members.
Enhanced Security and Control: The platform offers robust security features to protect sensitive information. Role-based access controls ensure that only authorized individuals can view or edit documents, while audit trails provide a record of all activity.
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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 LMS Functionality: PowerDMS is primarily a policy management system, so its features for delivering and tracking training content are less robust than dedicated learning management systems (LMS). For example, it may lack advanced features like SCORM compliance, gamification, or detailed learning analytics.
Usability Challenges: Some users find the interface to be clunky and unintuitive, particularly when creating and managing training courses. Navigating the platform and finding specific information can be time-consuming, especially for new users.
Customer Support Concerns: There have been reports of slow response times and difficulty reaching customer support, which can be frustrating for users who need assistance with technical issues or have questions about the platform.
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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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PowerDMS is a popular choice for businesses looking for a user-friendly and feature-rich learning management system (LMS). Users appreciate its intuitive interface, robust functionality, and responsive customer support. PowerDMS simplifies policy and training management, allowing for efficient distribution of critical information and seamless tracking of employee progress. However, some users note that the software can be pricey and may require some initial setup effort. PowerDMS stands out from the competition with its emphasis on compliance and accreditation management. This makes it a top pick for organizations in heavily regulated industries such as healthcare, public safety, and education. Its ability to streamline document control, automate workflows, and ensure adherence to industry standards is a major draw for these users. While PowerDMS may require a larger investment compared to some other LMS options, its comprehensive features and focus on compliance make it a worthwhile choice for organizations seeking a powerful and reliable solution to manage their learning and compliance needs.

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