QuickStart vs PluralSight - A Factual Comparison

QuickStart and PluralSight are well-known IT skills training providers that offer a variety of courses for IT professionals. Their courses are popular in the industry among executives and managers as they offer a number of interesting features that make the learning process effective for learners and their managers.

Courses

The quality and variety of courses determine whether an LMS offers value to its users. QuickStart offers more than 1300 courses that cover more than 170 technologies in collaboration with key IT partners like Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco, NetApp, AWS, EC Council, and ITIL. In addition, there are numerous training and IT certification courses that can be customized to the learner’s needs. The most distinguishing feature of QuickStart is the CLIPP (Cognitive Learning Project Performance) platform, which is based on artificial intelligence and multimodal learning to address the learning requirements of professionals more accurately.

PluralSight offers more than 4500 courses with new courses added regularly to the learning management system. The courses include software courses like mobile development and Python, IT courses like database administration and server management, and cybersecurity courses on system auditing and malware analysis.

Pricing Plans

QuickStart offers three different pricing options for learners under the Lite, Learn, and Master plans. The pricing for each plan is listed below:

• Lite: Free
• Learn: USD 39.99 per month
• Master: USD 2,999 per year

Under the Lite program, learners get limited access to self-paced courses as well as informal learning, community access, and complete reports on their performance. The Learn plan includes ebooks, case studies, and blogs in addition to the Lite plan features as well as hundreds of additional courses.

Finally, the Master plan offers learners access to more than 200 virtual classroom programs, virtual labs, mentoring sessions, and learning paths. Both Lear and Master plans come with a free trial for seven days.

PluralSight offers three pricing plans to its users. These are the personal, professional, and enterprise plans, the prices for which are given below:

• Personal: USD 29 per month
• Professional: USD 499 per month
• Enterprise: USD 699 per month

The Personal plan gives learners access to all the channels and courses in the library, as well as assessments, discussions and exercise files, mobile apps, and a certificate on the completion of the course. The Professional plan offers data analytics, customized learning paths. With the Enterprise plan, users get mentoring sessions as well as advanced analytics to monitor and improve their performance. PluralSight also offers a 10-day free trial for a holding fee of USD 1, which is refunded and adjusted against the course fee.

Features

Both QuickStart and PluralSight offer interesting features in their learning management platforms and courses. This section compares the dominant features of their learning systems in terms of their utility to learners and their impact on the quality of the learning experience.

AI: A unique feature of QuickStart is the CLIPP platform which offers customizability and progression to the learner based on continuous assessment of their progress and prefers learning approach.

Multimodal learning: Another feature of QuickStart is the option of multimodal learning that allows the platform to tap into the different learning needs of the learners based on their preferred mode of learning.

CLIPP: QuickStart offers the CLIPP platform, which merges course learning with AI to deliver a customized learning experience to the learner. All the classes are carried out in a virtual environment, including classrooms and labs, and allow the user to self-pace their learning while also benefiting from mentor support.

The CLIPP and workforce readiness platform are based on the following needs of learners which have been mapped by QuickStart:

• Modern learners prefer to learn skills right when they need them
• Modern learners want to self-pace their learning
• Modern learners prefer an informal approach to learning
• Modern learners prefer to learn from instructors rather than through collaboration

Course Retakes: Learners can also retake a course without any additional charge within a year of the starting date of the course. This is subject to payment of the course fee and availability of seats in the course.

Refund: Some courses offered by QuickStart are guaranteed to run, which means that if the company is unable to provide the course, it will refund the fee to the learner. 

Skill IQ: PluralSight offers a Skill IQ tool that helps learners assess knowledge gaps. This helps them know where they currently stand and what skills they need to learn to meet their learning needs. 

Role IQ: The Role IQ is another tool that PluralSight offers to measure the learner’s suitability for a particular job role. This helps them to identify whether they possess all the skills for a particular job role so that they can enroll in the courses to complete their skill set.

IRIS: IRIS is the technology that underlies PluralSight and is based on the use of machine learning to deliver nuanced assessment results for learners. The assessment questions are modified depending on learner responses to previous questions, which makes each assessment unique and customized according to the Skill and Role IQ results. It also compares the results for each learner against a global standard to give a more accurate result of the learner’s competitiveness.

Conclusion

Comparison of the features, courses, and prices of QuickStart and PluralSight shows that both offer unique benefits to the learners. However, QuickStart’s LMS offers greater autonomy and control to the learner over their own learning and progress. It makes better use of AI, and its delivery methods are based on modern learning methodologies. The number and variety of courses offered by both companies are more or less similar. Furthermore, QuickStart offers a free learning plan, while its paid plans are also more competitive than PluralSight in the long run. Based on these factors, QuickStart offers a better learning experience than PluralSight.