Study.com

Study.com is a subscription learning platform built on short video lessons and quizzes, used for school subjects, exam preparation and college credit that transfers into a degree. This entry draws on independent reviews and comparison articles. A review on makeheadway.com describes it as an online learning platform for students, teachers and adult learners, says it helps middle schoolers, high school learners and college students, and reports that founders Ben Wilson and Adrián Ridner started the company in Mountain View, California, in 2002. A Vaia article also gives 2002 as the founding year. Study.com serves three groups at once: school students who need help with a subject, test takers, and adults collecting low-cost college credit.

Lessons and study tools

The core of Study.com is its lesson library. Makeheadway.com describes thousands of self-paced video lessons that break complex subjects into simple concepts, followed by practice tests and short quizzes that a learner can retake after reviewing the material; a learner can also build a custom playlist of videos for one subject. The Vaia article lists the Premium Edition as including "Unlimited access to 88,000 + videos", 24/7 homework help, and quizzes and practice tests. A comparison on straighterline.com puts the lessons at 5-7 minutes each, a micro-learning format, and a comparison on learn.org says they are often around five minutes long, followed by quizzes. Makeheadway.com adds that basic AI study tools and tutoring help are built in, and it calls the platform homeschool-friendly, noting that families often use it as a daily curriculum.

Test preparation is a large part of the catalog. Makeheadway.com names prep for the TOEFL and the Florida Teacher Certification Examinations (FTCE), nursing exams and teacher certification tests, and the Vaia article mentions preparatory courses and practice papers for the SAT. A review on collegehacked.com says Study.com is likely to have a course a student can use to prepare for a CLEP exam or a Thomas Edison credit exam (TECEP). The Vaia article says professionals can take certificate courses related to their field and that certificates are generated on completion, usable for academic credit or proof of professional development.

The straighterline.com comparison also names other subscription types, a Teacher Edition and a Basic Edition, aimed at educators, self-learners and corporate training. Collegehacked.com notes that Study.com released a new app in October 2025, and the Vaia article mentions a free app for downloading lessons.

College credit

For degree seekers, Study.com sells courses that carry credit recommendations. Collegehacked.com says Study.com offers over 1,000 college courses, of which about 220 can be transferred for college credit, covering business, computer science, psychology, criminal justice, history, literature and more, with many accepted as upper-level (300-400 level) credit. Learn.org says Study.com offers a larger selection of 300- and 400-level courses than most alternative credit providers, and a comparison on fastgrad.app points to upper-division and specialized courses such as 300-level accounting and organic chemistry. According to the straighterline.com comparison, Study.com courses are recommended for credit by the American Council on Education (ACE) and also by the National College Credit Recommendation Service, and fastgrad.app says Study.com "holds ACE recommendations on most of its courses". Neither Study.com nor its peers are accredited, the straighterline.com article explains, because they do not grant degrees.

Transfer runs through partner schools and case-by-case review. The straighterline.com comparison credits Study.com with credit transfer agreements at 45+ partner schools and acceptance by as many as 1,500 schools in total. Makeheadway.com gives Western Governors University (WGU) as an example partner. Fastgrad.app says it is a transfer partner with several DEAC-accredited schools, and learn.org says non-partner schools usually review the credit case by case.

Course mechanics, according to collegehacked.com: related courses often share modules, so finishing a module in one course counts in another; a learner can test out of parts of many courses through placement tests taken as many times as they like; and graded work comes back in about two days. Collegehacked.com and learn.org both say Study.com no longer relies on live proctoring, with learn.org describing open-book exams for many courses and identity verification measures, while the straighterline.com article describes a proctored final exam for most classes and a passing grade of 70% or higher that varies by course.

Plans and prices

The sources report different prices, partly because Study.com has changed its plans over time. The Vaia article lists the Premium Edition at $59.99 a month and the College Saver Edition at $235.00 a month, the latter with college credit, final exams taken at home and personalized tutoring, and says annual subscriptions cost less than paying monthly. Makeheadway.com describes three tiers: Basic at about $30 for the video library and text lessons, Premium around $60 with practice tests and tutoring, and College Saver at roughly $235 with two proctored exams a month toward a degree.

For credit, the more recent sources describe a split into two plans. Collegehacked.com and upistudy.com put College Saver at $95 a month and College Saver Pro at $235 a month; upistudy.com, writing in September 2026, says the plans give access to 80+ or 220+ courses respectively. The straighterline.com comparison says the $235 College Saver Subscription includes unlimited courses, study tools and two proctored exams a month, with up to three more exams at $70 each. Upistudy.com reports a limit of two active courses and two proctored exams a month, while collegehacked.com says the Pro plan allows three classes at a time. Fastgrad.app estimates a 300-level course at roughly $150 to $250 in subscription and exam fees.

The Vaia article says Study.com offers a 5-day free trial before a paid plan starts.

Caveats from reviewers

Makeheadway.com lists support issues among the cons, saying many users report slow customer service and that a direct phone number for billing questions is hard to find, and it warns that not every university accepts the transfer credits. The Vaia article reports that some users find the subscription steep and that experts would like a student community or forum, which the platform lacks.

Who it suits

Study.com suits a student who learns well from short videos and quizzes: a middle or high school student catching up in a subject, a homeschooling family, someone preparing for the TOEFL, a teacher certification exam or a nursing exam, and an adult earning college credit cheaply. Its biggest draw for degree seekers is the range of upper-division courses that, according to fastgrad.app and learn.org, are hard to find elsewhere. The credit plans differ mainly in the size of the course list and in how many courses and exams can run at once, and those limits set how quickly a fast learner can turn a month of subscription into credit.