Have you ever wondered who the top and most popular teachers on Udemy are? This list proudly represents 15 top-rated Udemy instructors of 2019.
For me, an instructor’s popularity is one of the most essential factors to consider before purchasing a course, besides price, the number of students, and general reviews.
While an instructor with ten hundred thousand students might not be better than professors at the university, these numbers do speak volumes about that instructor’s teaching style, course credibility, or, at least, marketing skills.
During my researching stage, I came across multiple profiles of agencies or groups of instructors. However, I decided to drop out those names and only included instructors who created courses as an individual.
Anyway, as promised, below are 15 of the best instructors in the Udemy platform up to now.
1. Most Popular Udemy Instructor: Rob Percival
Total students: 1.267.000+
Review: 247.000+
Courses: 41
Instructor rating: 4.5
Leading in the Udemy instructor’s popularity chart is Rob Percival with a-million-plus students.
Mr. Percival here majored in Mathematics from Cambridge University yet considered himself a bit of a coding geek. After building websites for friends and family for fun, he soon learned that web development was a very lucrative career choice and stuck to it.
Rob wants to revolutionize the way people learn to code by making it simple, logical, fun and, above all, accessible. Thus, he created
The Complete Node.js Developer Course (3rd Edition) is one of the best courses taught by Rob Percival. This is where you’ll be able to develop, test, and deploy real-world production applications.
2. Jose Portilla
Total students: 1.083.000+
Review: 320.000+
Courses: 23
Instructor rating: 4.5
The second most favored trainer on Udemy is Jose Portilla.
Jose has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Santa Clara University and years of experience as a professional instructor and trainer for Data Science and programming. He is currently Head of Data Science for Pierian Data Inc. and provides in-person data science and python programming training courses to employees at top companies.
Over the course of his career, he has developed a skill set in analyzing data. He is hoping to use his experience in teaching and data science to help others learn the power of programming, the ability to analyze data, as well as ways to present data in clear and beautiful visualizations.
Two of my favorite courses by Jose Portilla are
- Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3
- Python for Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp
3. Phil Ebiner
Total students: 959.000+
Review: 87.000+
Courses: 89
Instructor rating: 4.5
Phil Ebiner graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television Production at Loyola Marymount University back in 2011. After graduation, he shot and edited short-form documentaries for Participant Media. That stint was followed with a contract at Stanbridge College where he discovered online learning.
In May 2015, he left the nine-to-five world to pursue his own path. Since then, he has devoted his life to teaching people to become a better version of themselves. He shows his students how to be a professional creator, make money from your creations, and live the life you dreamed of.
Phil Ebiner has successfully transferred his passion for filming and photographing into multiple popular photography and videography courses on Udemy.
4. Kirill Eremenko
Total students: 823.000+
Review: 254.000+
Courses: 59
Instructor rating: 4.5
The number four candidate for most popular instructors on Udemy is Kirill Eremenko. Kirill has got over five years of experience as a Data Science management consultant. He is also psyched about public speaking and is a regular presenter on Big Data, at leading Australian universities and industry events.
His courses are a combination of his real-life experience and academic background in Physics and Mathematics. A frequent co-instructor of Kirill is Hadelin de Ponteves.
5. Hadelin de Ponteves
Total students: 572.000+
Review: 137.000+
Courses: 32
Instructor rating: 4.5
Hadelin got an Engineering master’s degree with a specialization in Data Science where he did research in Machine Learning and worked on innovative and exciting projects.
His courses combine the two dimensions of analysis and creativity, allowing you to learn all the analytic skills required in Data Science by applying them on creative ideas.
These two instructors are holding Udemy’s second best-selling course, Machine Learning A-Z™: Hands-On Python & R In Data Science, with over 413 thousand students and counting.
6. Maximilian Schwarzmüller
Total students: 540.000+
Review: 228.000+
Courses: 28
Instructor rating: 4.6
Maximilian Schwarzmüller is a self-taught developer and instructor, who had the chance to broaden his horizon studying Business Administration where he holds a Master’s degree.
He started his programming journey at the age of thirteen. This passion has since lasted and lead to his decision
Together with Manuel Lorenz, he founded
- Angular 8 (formerly Angular 2) – The Complete Guide
- React: The Complete Guide (incl Hooks, React Router, Redux)
7. Ben Tristem
Total students: 520.000+
Review: 137.000+
Courses: 13
Instructor rating: 4.6
Ben Tristem attained a degree in computing from Imperial College London and a physics diploma from the Open University.
After building and selling a home computer support business, he became an angel investor and business mentor in Cambridge UK. Through one of his investments, he fell in love with teaching game development.
He now spends all of his time sharing his passion and helping students experience the fulfillment and financial freedom brought by having a deep understanding of technology.
My most favorite Udemy courses taught by Ben Tristem is Complete C# Unity Developer 2D: Learn to Code Making Games, where you’ll learn to build games using Unity.
8. Daragh Walsh
Total students: 549.000+
Review: 87.000+
Courses: 13
Instructor rating: 4.5
Another sought-after trainer on Udemy is the Ireland instructor, Daragh Walsh. As a Google Certified Marketer, he has worked with companies in more than forty countries around the world including Amazon, Hertz, and CallawayGolf.
Daragh believes the Internet is the greatest opportunity to create more wealth and freedom. He focuses on results and is determined to help other people achieve the results they want.
The instructor has a total of 13 courses on the Udemy platform, all of which have helped put Daragh’s name on the map. Most of his courses provide learners with knowledge about social media marketing.
9. Colt Steele
Total students: 511.000+
Review: 153.000+
Courses: 7
Instructor rating: 4.6
Colt Steele is a developer and Bootcamp instructor who’s currently running seven Udemy courses under his name.
What’s impressive is that five of these seven courses are marked Best-Sellers by Udemy. He
The most popular Udemy courses taught by Colt Steele is The Web Developer Bootcamp. With this course, you can expect to build amazing web applications from scratch.
10. Jonas Schmedtmann
Total students: 503.000+
Review: 93.000+
Courses: 4
Instructor rating: 4.6
Jonas Schmedtmann has been identified as one of Udemy’s Top Instructors, whose premium courses have recently earned him best-selling status for outstanding performance and student satisfaction.
Jonas is a web designer and developer with a great passion for building beautiful new things from scratch. It was in college where he discovered his passion for teaching. That passion brought him to Udemy, where he has created multiple courses that are ranked best-sellers.
11. Tim Buchalka
Total students: 462.000+
Review: 108.000+
Courses: 9
Instructor rating: 4.5
Tim Buchalka has been a professional software developer for over 35 years. Throughout his career, he has worked for major companies such as Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, and Saab.
His professional programming experience makes Tim a unique man. He has also created The Learn Programming Academy, whose goal is to teach one million people to learn how to program in the next three years.
Tim’s mission is simple: make a difference in students’ life by helping them become a better software developer. Tim does that through his Java, Python, C#, Spring Framework, and Android development courses. Some of the best ones on Udemy include:
12. Jaysen Batchelor
Total students: 415.000+
Review: 70.000+
Courses: 8
Instructor rating: 4.5
At the age of seventeen, Jaysen Batchelor began a six-month internship with an animation studio out of Utah. After the internship was up, he was hired on to build backgrounds and to design props and characters for animation projects.
That started his freelancing journey through networking and online freelancing sites. He is currently working as a freelance illustrator and designer.
Although he has only created eight courses on Udemy, one of them has turned into a real hit with more than 275 thousand students enrolled.
13. Chris Haroun
Total students: 403.000+
Review: 59.000+
Courses: 50
Instructor rating: 4.5
Chris Haroun is one of the highest-rated professors on Udemy. His courses have been featured in Business Insider, CNBC, Inc, Forbes, CNN, Entrepreneur, and other business news websites.
Chris is very passionate about education as he believes that all problems in the world can be solved through education. His ultimate goals are:
- Access: To help make education accessible and affordable.
- Give: If you work for a charity and want to help your employees improve, Chris is more than happy to grant you his online business and self-development courses for free.
- Edutainment: His passion is to “make business education impactful and entertaining with no boring theory and edutainment works!”
14. Edwin Diaz
Total students: 408.000+
Review: 57.000+
Courses: 41
Instructor rating: 4.4
Edwin Diaz is a professional who has experience in computer science and a broad set of skills in software, web development, and information technology.
His passion to teach and to help other people was something engraved in him since he was a little boy. Edwin’s ability to transmit his energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge to other people allows him to do what he does best: teaching.
Edwin has taught thousands of people all over the world how to code. He has also built hundreds of apps, programs, and websites for individuals and businesses.
15. Evan Kimbrell
Total students: 405.000+
Review: 34.000+
Courses: 20
Instructor rating: 4.4
Evan Kimbrell is the Founder and Director of Sprintkick, a full-service, referral-only digital agency based out of San Francisco. Over the past four years, he has overseen the development and launch of over a hundred web and mobile applications.
His courses have been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, BusinessInsider, BuzzFeed, Mashable, TheNextWeb, The Daily Beast, and Techcrunch.
Who to Learn with?
As you may have already noticed, all these Udemy teachers have more than 400.000 students. As a result, you will always have plenty of quality reviews to look at before making any decision to purchase a course.
I’m not saying you should enroll in all courses from these favored Udemy instructors. However, I did take some courses and they are, in fact, pretty good.
Whomever you choose to learn with, hope that these top most popular Udemy teachers will help you in your journey to becoming a better version of yourself.
Happy learning!