Skip to content
CourseAsk.

15 Best Bioinformatics Courses Online

Choosing a bioinformatics course online involves weighing several factors: the specific sub‑topics covered, the teaching institution, the platform, and the price. This page lists fifteen courses from Coursera and Udemy, all priced between $49.00 and $99.99, and each is offered by a recognised university or a well‑known instructor. The courses range from introductory programming for bioinformatics to specialised subjects such as molecular evolution, bacterial genomics, and AI‑driven analysis.

The ordering reflects our own ranking based on breadth of content, relevance to current research practices, and price‑to‑value balance, not an absolute claim of superiority. Whether you are a beginner seeking foundational skills, a researcher wanting to expand into machine learning, or a professional aiming to apply AI prompts in bioinformatics, the options here provide a clear overview to help you decide which programme aligns with your goals.

Courses compared
15
Price range
$49.00 – $99.99
Providers
Coursera, Udemy
Last updated
18 Sep 2026
How these 15 courses were chosen

Every course below is a real, currently listed course from Coursera, Udemy, matched to "bioinformatics" by our catalog and ordered by our CourseAsk score. Courses whose own title names the topic rank above those only tagged with it.

The grade on each entry scores how much the provider publishes about the course before you pay — the length and detail of the description, whether it lists learning outcomes and objectives — and whether a named university or institution stands behind it. A is fully documented and institution-backed; E is little more than a title and a price. Courses with almost nothing published are left ungraded rather than marked down, because an unknown course and a poor one are not the same thing.

There are no star ratings on this page — the course feeds we license do not include them, and we would rather leave a column out than fill it with a number we cannot stand behind. What we do have is price: these range from $49.00 to $99.99, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.

  1. 1
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Molecular Evolution (Bioinformatics IV)

    Offered by University of California San Diego

    In the previous course in the Specialization, we learned how to compare genes, proteins, and genomes. One way we can use these methods is in order to construct a "Tree of Life" showing how a large collection of related o...

    $79.00
    listed price
  2. 2
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A Lowest price here University-backed

    Bioinformatics

    Offered by University of California San Diego

    Join Us in a Top 50 MOOC of All Time! How do we sequence and compare genomes? How do we identify the genetic basis for disease? How do we construct an evolutionary Tree of Life for all species on Earth? When you complete...

    $49.00
    listed price
  3. 3
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners

    Offered by University of California San Diego

    Are you interested in learning how to program (in Python) within a scientific setting? This course will cover algorithms for solving various biological problems along with a handful of programming challenges helping you...

    $49.00
    listed price
  4. 4
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Genome Sequencing (Bioinformatics II)

    Offered by University of California San Diego

    You may have heard a lot about genome sequencing and its potential to usher in an era of personalized medicine, but what does it mean to sequence a genome? Biologists still cannot read the nucleotides of an entire genome...

    $79.00
    listed price
  5. 5
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Comparing Genes, Proteins, and Genomes (Bioinformatics III)

    Offered by University of California San Diego

    Once we have sequenced genomes in the previous course, we would like to compare them to determine how species have evolved and what makes them different. In the first half of the course, we will compare two short biologi...

    $79.00
    listed price
  6. 6
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Bacterial Bioinformatics

    Offered by University of Virginia

    This course provides demonstrations and exercises for performing common genomics-based analysis tasks of bacterial sequence data. It uses BV-BRC, the Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (merger of PATRIC,...

    $49.00
    listed price
  7. 7
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Statistics, Bioinformatics, and AI in SABV Research

    Offered by University of Colorado System

    This course addresses statistics, bioinformatics, and machine learning/artificial intelligence in the study of sex differences and SABV research. You'll learn from experts about the following: addressing common statistic...

    $49.00
    listed price
  8. 8
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade B University-backed

    Applied Bioinformatics

    Offered by University of California San Diego

    This Specialization is intended for anyone to learn practical applied Bioinformatics skills by studying real data from the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether you're new to the world of computational biology, or you're a bioinfor...

    $49.00
    listed price
  9. 9
    Udemy MOOC / Non-credit Grade B

    AI Prompt Engineering for Bioinformatics

    Bioinformatics is entering a new era, one where artificial intelligence is not just a supporting tool, but a core component of how research is conducted. From analyzing high-throughput sequencing data to designing comput...

    $69.99
    listed price
  10. 10
    Udemy MOOC / Non-credit Grade B

    Machine Learning in Bioinformatics: From Theory to Practical

    Machine Learning for Bioinformatics: Analyze Genomic Data, Predict Disease, and Apply AI to Life SciencesUnlock the Power of Machine Learning in Bioinformatics & Computational BiologyMachine learning (ML) is transfor...

    $99.99
    listed price
  11. 11
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Documentation and Usability for Cancer Informatics

    Offered by Johns Hopkins University

    Introduction: Cancer datasets are plentiful, complicated, and hold information that may be critical for the next research advancements. In order to use these data to their full potential, researchers are dependent on the...

    $49.00
    listed price
  12. 12
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Whole genome sequencing of bacterial genomes - tools and applications

    Offered by Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

    This course will cover the topic of Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of bacterial genomes which is becoming more and more relevant for the medical sector. WGS technology and applications are high on international political...

    $49.00
    listed price
  13. 13
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Pharmacotherapy: Understanding Biotechnology Products

    Offered by Taipei Medical University

    Welcome to "Pharmacotherapy: Understanding Biotechnology Products," a specialized course led by Dr. Charles Lee. This curriculum offers a comprehensive exploration of therapeutic protein products, spanning from laborator...

    $49.00
    listed price
  14. 14
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Data Visualization for Genome Biology

    Offered by University of Toronto

    The past decade has seen a vast increase in the amount of data available to biologists, driven by the dramatic decrease in cost and concomitant rise in throughput of various next-generation sequencing technologies, such...

    $49.00
    listed price
  15. 15
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade A University-backed

    Genome Assembly Programming Challenge

    Offered by University of California San Diego

    In Spring 2011, thousands of people in Germany were hospitalized with a deadly disease that started as food poisoning with bloody diarrhea and often led to kidney failure. It was the beginning of the deadliest outbreak i...

    $99.00
    listed price

Best Bioinformatics Courses Online compared

# Course Provider Offered by Price
1 Molecular Evolution (Bioinformatics IV) Coursera University of California San Diego $79.00 View →
2 Bioinformatics Coursera University of California San Diego $49.00 View →
3 Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners Coursera University of California San Diego $49.00 View →
4 Genome Sequencing (Bioinformatics II) Coursera University of California San Diego $79.00 View →
5 Comparing Genes, Proteins, and Genomes (Bioinformatics III) Coursera University of California San Diego $79.00 View →
6 Bacterial Bioinformatics Coursera University of Virginia $49.00 View →
7 Statistics, Bioinformatics, and AI in SABV Research Coursera University of Colorado System $49.00 View →
8 Applied Bioinformatics Coursera University of California San Diego $49.00 View →
9 AI Prompt Engineering for Bioinformatics Udemy $69.99 View →
10 Machine Learning in Bioinformatics: From Theory to Practical Udemy $99.99 View →
11 Documentation and Usability for Cancer Informatics Coursera Johns Hopkins University $49.00 View →
12 Whole genome sequencing of bacterial genomes - tools and applications Coursera Technical University of Denmark (DTU) $49.00 View →
13 Pharmacotherapy: Understanding Biotechnology Products Coursera Taipei Medical University $49.00 View →
14 Data Visualization for Genome Biology Coursera University of Toronto $49.00 View →
15 Genome Assembly Programming Challenge Coursera University of California San Diego $99.00 View →

Prices shown are the provider's listed price when we last updated this page. Confirm on their site before enrolling.

What the prices here tell you

The 15 priced courses on this page run from $49.00 to $99.99, with the middle of the range around $49.00 — a spread of $50.99. The options are closely priced, so cost is unlikely to be your deciding factor. A higher price on this page usually reflects who is behind the course rather than how much material it contains, so it is worth opening two or three at different price points and comparing their syllabus before deciding.

Who is behind these courses

These courses come from Coursera and Udemy. The platforms differ in how they sell: some charge once per course, others expect a subscription, and the listed price is not always what you pay at checkout after a promotion. 7 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including University of California San Diego, University of Virginia and University of Colorado System — which usually means a fixed syllabus and a recognised certificate, rather than an individual instructor’s own course.

Before you enrol

Open the provider’s own page and check three things this comparison cannot tell you: when the course was last updated, what the syllabus actually covers in its later sections, and what recent learners say. Prices shown here are the provider’s listed price when we last rebuilt this page on 18 September 2026 — they change often, and a promotion can move them substantially. We earn a commission if you enrol through our links, which costs you nothing and never affects the order courses appear in.

Frequently asked questions

What level of prior knowledge is required for these courses?
Most courses assume basic biology and some familiarity with programming concepts, but introductory options such as "Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners" are designed for learners with little or no prior experience.
Are the courses accredited or offer university credit?
The Coursera courses are offered by accredited universities such as UC San Diego, University of Virginia, and University of Colorado System, but they typically provide a certificate rather than formal academic credit.
How do the Coursera and Udemy courses differ?
Coursera courses are university‑partnered and follow a structured syllabus, while Udemy courses are instructor‑driven, often focusing on practical skills like AI prompt engineering or machine‑learning applications.
Can I access the course material after payment?
Both platforms generally allow lifetime access to the video lectures and most resources once you have purchased the course, though any additional support or grading may be time‑limited.

Keep looking