Free Online Courses and Certifications
Online learning is constantly shaping today's further education landscape. Thanks to popular MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms such as Coursera, edX, FutuerLearn and many more, acquiring high-quality training from Ivy League schools and their global equivalents is becoming much more accessible and convenient. To top it all, you can upgrade your professional skills from any part of the world with their free online courses. Here you will be able to differentate and choose from free online courses that you can enrol and audit, as well as free online courses with certificates that are offered after assessments and completion.
Online learning is constantly shaping today's further education landscape. Thanks to popular MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms such as Coursera, edX, FutuerLearn and many more, acquiring high-quality training from Ivy League schools and their global equivalents is becoming much more accessible and convenient. To top it all, you can upgrade your professional skills from any part of the world with their free online courses. Here you will be able to differentate and choose from free online courses that you can enrol and audit, as well as free online courses with certificates that are offered after assessments and completion.
- Free Online Courses with Certificates: Free vs Paid Certifications
- Free Online Courses on Trending Skills in 2025
- Top Course Providers Offering Free Online Courses with Certificates
- 3.1 Coursera
- 3.2 Udemy
- 3.3 edX
- 3.4 Google
- 3.5 Great Learning
- 3.6 Udacity
- 3.7 Alison
- 3.8 HubSpot Academy
- 3.9 SWAYAM
- 3.10 NPTEL
- 3.11 FutureLearn
- Free Online Courses with Certificates in India from Top Providers
- Kickstart Your Career with Free Online Courses with Certificates
Free Online Courses with Certificates: Free vs Paid Certifications
Now, free online courses with certificates can offer more career-transforming advantages than without them. Either ways, they help you learn invaluable industry skills for free that make you highly employable in a much shorter span of time. Most of them provide the best learning experience through recorded video lectures and even free exercises that you can download for future use.
Not all free online courses offer free certificates. Just to keep your confusion at bay, a majority of online course providers have four different models of free online courses.
- With one, you can enrol for free and audit the entire course online without a free certificate
- In another model, you can complete an online course with a professional certificate by paying a fixed or monthly amount as a subscription
- One is where you can subscribe and enrol in multiple courses with certifications
- The other is one that is free to enrol and even offers a free course certificate of completion
Let’s find out their individual benefits.
| Free Online Courses with Free Certifications or No Certifications |
Free Online Courses with Paid Certifications |
| Best for freelancing or growing one’s own business |
Best for accessing quality education at an economical price |
| Mostly about learning by doing - for people who just want to explore the topic or who want to learn something specific to apply |
Mostly about building credentials and learning deeply about certain technologies and concepts |
| You will have to complement your learning with additional resources as the course would mostly be elementary |
Additional resources like mentorship experience, regular assignments and their reviews, and doubt clarification with peers are usually available |
Free Online Courses on Trending Skills in 2025
On our platform, we collect and curate courses across every domain under technology, management, data science, finance, and more. Some free online courses with certificates across various fields and specialisations are listed below.
| Free Fullstack Development Courses |
|
Top Course Providers Offering Free Online Courses with Certificates
Be it, any skill or level, we, at Shiksha Online, regularly curate courses for professionals from every major industry. Apart from the renowned MOOC platforms, do check out some of the new online higher education platforms from India. Some of them provide a large number of free online courses with certificates of completion and you get the advantage of learning from industry experts.
Here is a list of the major free online learning platforms from abroad and India.
Coursera
Undeniably, Coursera is among the most popular MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms for the best free courses. It also offers many paid courses online with different specialisations along with masters and bachelors programmes. Over 200 universities and 100 Fortune 500 companies, including Stanford, Yale and IBM have a tie-up with this platform.
The free online courses with certificates on Coursera offer only free enrolment, aka free classes. One of the best advantages of taking up courses for free on this platform is that you can reschedule the exam deadlines at your convenience. Coursera’s free certification courses offer a great many opportunities for immediate career development in various areas of management, technology, and finance, among others. The duration of the free Coursera courses ranges from less than two hours to three (or more) months.
Udemy
Udemy is known for its instructional course framework through instructors with rich industry expertise. The platform has over 57000 certified instructors for a variety of niche and mainstream industries in over 65 languages.
Udemy’s free learning courses only offer video lectures. You will find beginner to advanced level tutorials, starting from 30 minutes to more than two hours. One of the best advantages of Udemy’s free online courses is that you not only get to indulge in continuous professional development but also improve your personal growth and learn about increasing productivity.
edX
edX has partnered with over 160 universities globally, but, unlike Coursera, it majorly offers free-to-audit online courses without certification. Apart from its pay-for-certification, online specialisations, and online masters programmes, it has a tie-up with top universities and companies offering MicroMasters and MicroBachelors courses.
edX offers the most trending courses in engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and business for students, professionals, and educators to study online for free. This means that the edX free courses registrations are open to anyone. The only caveat is the free courses on edX are not there forever, meaning they get archived and resume later.
The platform even features ‘optional upgrades’ for each of its free e training courses in case you want a professional certificate. The advantage you get from these course certificates is that they will have the stamp of major universities, including Harvard, IIM, etc. The durations of free edX courses can range from 2 weeks to a few months.
Most of Google’s online certificate programmes are free. Google's courses on its products are specifically designed by the brand’s own team of instructors with exceptional industry experience. Being one of the biggest names on the planet, a free online course with a certificate from Google does offer a significant career boost, especially when you are considering entering a relevant industry.
Google offers free online courses for digital marketing and many business and cloud-related topics. They are extremely helpful for beginners as well as experts in the industry. You can also find Google’s free certification courses that are available in collaboration with other MOOC platforms and top-ranking universities from around the world. Some are tie-ups with Coursera and other certification bodies like Project Management Institute - all of which are free to enrol.
Those looking for free online computer courses with certificates can also find them from Google.
Great Learning
This leading Indian higher education platform features a number of postgraduate programmes in high growth sectors, including data science, cloud computing, and business analytics. These PG courses come with experts designing and teaching the curricula while partnering with major B-schools and technical institutes from India and abroad.
Great Learning also offers one- or two-hour-long introductory online courses with certificates that are completely free. Taught by the in-house industry experts of Great Learning Academy and included quizzes, you get a free certificate of completion. Overall, Great Learning free courses are for beginners across domains.
Udacity
If you are looking for free online tech courses, Udacity is the answer. Currently, there are over 193+ free tech courses for beginners, intermediates and advanced. Along with the paid ones, Udacity free courses feature classroom-like learning experience with videos of expert instructors and learning exercises.
Unlike other course providers offering financial aid for free online courses with paid certificates, Udacity offers 10 scholarship programmes. Those are sponsored by Google, AT&T, Lyft and Accenture.
Alison
Alison has been around since 2007 offering free online courses with completion acknowledgement while certificates are nominally priced, and cheaper than Coursera and edX. Over 3500 free online courses on Alison, this platform covers engineering, management, science, coding and a lot of other subjects. For most of the free online courses, you will need to purchase the certificates. The platform also ships the certificates no matter where you are for free. Even if you do not pay for the certification, you can download the ‘learner record’ that proves that you completed the course.
HubSpot Academy
If you ever aspire to grow in the vast digital marketing domain, HubSpot Academy is there for your professional development.
HubSpot Academy provides free certification courses in all important areas of marketing, sales, and customer relationship, and across different experience levels, the courses will get you job-ready. The best part is, that the academy provides free online certification exams to assess your knowledge. If you do not make it on the first go, you can take the assessment again.
Another advantage of HubSpot is that it offers many free short online courses with certificates. These will quickly boost your skills in specialised areas and help you grow.
SWAYAM
It offers certificates approved by the Indian government. The free courses online from SWAYAM are for a wide age group - students from Class 9 onwards to postgraduate students. There are 9 national coordinators, including AICTE, NIOS, NCERT, NITTTR, IIMB, CEC, UGC, NPTEL, and IGNOU.
NPTEL
National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning or NPTEL has become a staple MOOC platform among learners and professionals in India. Having a tie-up with IITs and IISc, you can find a wide range of online courses across 23 domains. Best is, there is no requirement to enrol here for free NPTEL courses online. Apart from technology, AI, and engineering-related courses, also check out the soft skills development NPTEL courses online.
FutureLearn
This is one of the best free learning websites among other MOOCs with plenty of options to upgrade your career. Learners can choose subject-based online courses ranging from business and management to law and history. Then there are online courses in partnership with international organisations and European universities of repute.
If this does not convince you, FutureLearn further provides ExpertTracks for continuing your specialisations with practical exercises adequate for your professional development. If you want academic accreditations and/or academic credits, you can choose Microcredentials. Or if you want to pursue UG or PG completely online, FutureLearn has you covered there too.
But, all in all, the free online courses from FutureLearn are only to audit. They do not come with certificates. To get one, you would have to upgrade the account.
Free Online Courses with Certificates in India from Top Providers
Apart from the ones mentioned above, you will also find a large number of free online courses with institutes and instructors from abroad and India. Below are free online courses with certificates in India by Government, and from other popular course providers.
| Course Title |
Platform |
Availability |
| Swayam |
Free |
|
| NPTEL |
Free |
|
| FutureLearn |
Free |
|
| Big Data Analytics: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Future |
FutureLearn |
Free access for 4 weeks |
| FutureLearn |
Free access for 6 weeks |
|
| Udacity |
Free |
|
| Udacity |
Free |
|
| NPTEL |
Free to enrol |
|
| NPTEL |
Free to enrol |
|
| Digital Marketing Course: Get Certified in Digital Marketing |
HubSpot Academy |
Free |
| Coursera |
Free to enrol |
|
| Great Learning |
Free |
|
| |
Free |
|
| Alison |
Free |
|
| edX |
Free to enrol |
|
| Udemy |
Free |
You can explore beyond this list of online courses on our platform.
Kickstart Your Career with Free Online Courses with Certificates
By now, you must have figured how you can enhance your career opportunities with online courses for free. On Shiksha Online, you can also find several such programmes for many other sectors, including finance and healthcare. Whether it is a job promotion you are after or a career transition, select courses that offer real-world training necessary to compete in your respective industry. Gain specialised skills and stay ahead of the curve, starting today!
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