Skillshare

Skillshare charges a single monthly or annual membership for unlimited access to its whole library rather than selling individual courses, which makes it closer to a streaming service for classes than a store. Teachers earn from a royalty pool, roughly 30% of total membership revenue distributed by share of premium minutes watched, typically $0.05 to $0.10 per minute, with new eligibility rules from January 2026 requiring both a minimum follower count and a minutes-watched threshold before a teacher gets paid at all.

The catalog leans hard toward creative and lifestyle skills, illustration, photography, writing, marketing, over technical depth, and classes run short, often under an hour, built around a hands-on project rather than a lecture. That format suits a subscriber who wants to sample a lot of topics casually more than someone after a rigorous, certificate-bearing course, and the subscription model means access ends the moment you cancel, unlike a course bought outright on Udemy.