MasterClass

MasterClass is a subscription library of video classes taught by famous practitioners, made for learners who want to hear how leading figures in a field think about their craft. Wikipedia describes the company, legally Yanka Industries, Inc. doing business as MasterClass, as "an American online education subscription platform on which students can access tutorials and lectures pre-recorded by experts in various fields," headquartered in San Francisco. The descriptions below come from Wikipedia and from independent reviews and comparison articles on kindlepreneur.com, nibble-app.com, riseguide.com, makeheadway.com and powersuccesstraining.com; each claim is credited to the source that makes it.

Background

According to Wikipedia, David Rogier founded the company while a student at Stanford University, under the name Yanka Industries, with Aaron Rasmussen joining as co-founder and chief technology officer; Wikipedia gives October 2014 as the founding date. The website went live under the MasterClass name on May 12, 2015, with three instructors. Twelve classes were added in 2017, and by late 2018 MasterClass had about 50 classes and 1,000 lessons. Support for mobile devices arrived in April 2018. As of 2019, Wikipedia says, the company was expanding into politics, economics and video game design.

Wikipedia also records the funding behind it: a Series E round of $100 million in May 2020 led by Fidelity Investments, and $225 million in a Series F round in May 2021 that gave the company a $2.75 billion valuation, according to CNBC reporting. In June 2022 the company laid off 20% of its staff, and Wikipedia lists 480 employees for that year.

What a subscriber watches

Classes are video series built around one well-known instructor. Riseguide.com says MasterClass "built its name on cinematic, celebrity-taught video courses," naming Gordon Ramsay on cooking, Margaret Atwood on writing and Chris Voss on negotiation. Wikipedia says classes cover topics like writing, sports and cooking, and that many instructors give live demonstrations where a topic can be shown visually, while writers lecture. Powersuccesstraining.com lists acting, music, sports, creative writing and culinary arts among the subjects and names Serena Williams and Hans Zimmer among the teachers.

Kindlepreneur.com, which reviews the platform from a writer's angle, lists writing instructors including Dan Brown, Judy Blume, James Patterson, Margaret Atwood, R.L. Stine, N.K. Jemisin, Malcolm Gladwell, David Baldacci and Neil Gaiman, and names other classes such as "Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation," "Serena Williams Teaches Tennis," "Anna Wintour Teaches Creativity and Leadership," "Richard Branson Teaches Disruptive Entrepreneurship" and "RuPaul Teaches Self-Expression and Authenticity." The long list of notable instructors on Wikipedia runs from Madeleine Albright and Simone Biles to James Cameron, Noam Chomsky, Yotam Ottolenghi and Martin Scorsese.

On size, kindlepreneur.com puts the catalog at "around 1,000" and elsewhere "over 1000 courses," and reports that a search for fiction writing returned 20 classes. Its point is that the draw is who teaches, not how many classes there are.

Format and learning experience

The sources agree that MasterClass is something you watch. Kindlepreneur.com puts the average course at three to four hours, split into videos usually ten to fifteen minutes long, while nibble-app.com describes sessions of 30 to 60 minutes and riseguide.com calls the lessons long. Nibble-app.com says the production quality matches Hollywood films and that the platform "feels like a Netflix documentary. Beautiful to watch, hard to apply." Kindlepreneur.com found the videos "professionally shot and edited," with consistently good sound, and compared the feel to sitting in the instructor's living room.

Each class comes with written material. Kindlepreneur.com says every class it took had "a nice-looking PDF," essentially an abbreviated version of the course with the main notes, which subscribers can keep after canceling. Nibble-app.com lists "Downloadable PDF workbooks" for MasterClass, and powersuccesstraining.com mentions workbooks, assignments and community forums as supplements to the video.

On interaction the sources lean the other way. Wikipedia says the classes "are typically not interactive," though at least one included assignments where students acted with other students in person or over Skype. Kindlepreneur.com finds not much interaction or community to speak of. Wikipedia's reception section adds that reviewers found some classes, such as those in the performing arts, assume a basic level of skill, and praised the courses for high production values and for inspiring students to keep going with a subject.

Kindlepreneur.com says MasterClass offers mobile apps and apps for smart TVs. Wikipedia notes that MasterClass won two Webby Awards in 2020, two more in 2021 along with a Webby People's Voice Award, and that Dominique Ansel's class on French pastries received a James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award in 2019.

Plans, refunds and certificates

All the sources describe an annual subscription. Kindlepreneur.com, in an article updated January 5, 2026, lists three plans: Individual at $15 per month billed annually at $180 a year, Duo for two devices at $20 per month billed annually at $240, and Family for six devices at $23 per month billed annually at $276. It found the pricing easy to locate on MasterClass's site. Riseguide.com describes the subscription as "a year-long commitment" across a few tiers.

Kindlepreneur.com says MasterClass has no free trial, though visitors can watch teasers, and that it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Makeheadway.com says subscribers can cancel at any time in account settings, that the subscription is typically billed upfront for the full year so canceling mid-year does not refund unused months, and that new subscribers get a 30-day satisfaction guarantee with a full refund.

On certificates the sources disagree. Kindlepreneur.com says there are no official certifications and the platform is not accredited by any educational institution. Nibble-app.com says "MasterClass does give certificates of completion, but they aren't accredited" and that they will not count toward a degree or professional qualification. Riseguide.com says a certificate that means something to an employer is something MasterClass "doesn't set out to provide." Either way, a learner should not expect a credential.

Who it suits

MasterClass suits a curious adult who wants to spend evenings learning how a famous chef, novelist, athlete or negotiator approaches the work, and who values polished production and a downloadable workbook. Writers are well served: kindlepreneur.com, a site for self-publishing authors, recommends it for learning storytelling from well-known authors. Makeheadway.com calls it "edutainment" and says it fits self-motivated learners, and the smart TV and mobile apps make it easy to watch from the couch or on a commute.

It suits less well someone who needs a credential, regular assignments with feedback, or step-by-step technical practice; several of the sources make that point. The annual billing with no free trial also means paying for a year up front, with the 30-day guarantee as the safety net. For a learner who will watch several classes over a year, the sources broadly agree that the format delivers what it promises.