11 Best Physics Courses for Beginners
We compared 11 Physics courses currently listed on Udemy, edX and Coursera, priced from $19.99 to $833.33. 10 of them teach the subject directly and 1 are built around a certification exam. 5 come from a named university or institution, including University of Virginia, Rice University and University of Chicago. They are ordered by our CourseAsk score, which is built from how thoroughly each course describes what it teaches, whether it comes from a named institution, and how it compares on price — not from star ratings, which our course data does not include.
- Courses compared
- 11
- Price range
- $19.99 – $833.33
- Providers
- Udemy, edX, Coursera
- Last updated
- 18 Sep 2026
How these 11 courses were chosen
Every course below is a real, currently listed course from Udemy, edX, Coursera, matched to "physics" 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 $19.99 to $833.33, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.
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1
Physics Basics for Beginners IGCSE , IB , AMERICAN
This is a free course to teach some basics of physics Understand the 2 primary system of units and how to use dimensional analysis to convert between them.Learn the concept of vectors in a 2-dimensional plane and how to...
$19.99listed price -
2
Physics Fundamentals: Electromagnetics
Offered by Universitat Politècnica de València
We will study the causes and laws of electromagnetic interaction. We will look at the electric field, the magnetic field and magnetic induction.
$29.00listed price -
3
How Things Work: An Introduction to Physics
Offered by University of Virginia
An introduction to physics in the context of everyday objects.
$49.00listed price -
4
edX MOOC / Non-creditPhysics Fundamentals: Oscillations and Waves
Offered by Universitat Politècnica de València
We will study the wide variety of wave phenomena observed in nature.
$29.00listed price -
5
Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism
Offered by Rice University
This specialization is for learners who are interested in first-year, university-level physics. Through four courses, you will gain a foundation in electromagnetism and circuits including charge, forces, fields, potentia...
$49.00listed price -
6
Introduction to Quantum Computing for Everyone
Offered by University of Chicago
This first course in quantum computing is for novices and requires learners to have only basic algebra. It covers the future impacts of quantum computing, provides intuitive introductions of quantum physics phenomenon, a...
$199.00listed price -
7
Applied Quantum Computing I: Fundamentals
Offered by Purdue University
Learn the fundamental postulates of quantum mechanics and how they can be mapped onto present-day quantum information processing models, including computation, simulation, optimization, and machine learning.
$833.33listed price -
8
Introduction To The Magnetism
How many misconceptions did you have or maybe still have about magnetism? Probably, you at least once in your life thought that only magnets can have magnetic fields. What’s worse, you might even misunderstand the way ma...
$19.99listed price -
9
Unity DOTS Fundamentals - Making a full game with ECS
Unity DOTS Fundamentals teaches you how to use the technologies powering the future of Unity development, the Unity Data Oriented Tech Stack.In this course we make a full game using the the Entity Component System (ECS)...
$49.99listed price -
10
Fundamentals of Electromagnetic Theory
This one-hour crash course delivers a streamlined yet comprehensive introduction to fundamentals of electromagnetic (EM) theory, perfect for engineering students and beginners in physics. Through clear explanations and e...
$19.99listed price -
11
NE101: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Offered by North Carolina State University
My name is William Roysdon Murray, and welcome to Nuclear Engineering 101! There's not many online resources available online for getting started with Nuclear Engineering, so I made my own! I first learned abou...
$149.99listed price
Best Physics Courses for Beginners compared
| # | Course | Provider | Offered by | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Physics Basics for Beginners IGCSE , IB , AMERICAN | Udemy | — | $19.99 | View → |
| 2 | Physics Fundamentals: Electromagnetics | edX | Universitat Politècnica de València | $29.00 | View → |
| 3 | How Things Work: An Introduction to Physics | Coursera | University of Virginia | $49.00 | View → |
| 4 | Physics Fundamentals: Oscillations and Waves | edX | Universitat Politècnica de València | $29.00 | View → |
| 5 | Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism | Coursera | Rice University | $49.00 | View → |
| 6 | Introduction to Quantum Computing for Everyone | edX | University of Chicago | $199.00 | View → |
| 7 | Applied Quantum Computing I: Fundamentals | edX | Purdue University | $833.33 | View → |
| 8 | Introduction To The Magnetism | Udemy | — | $19.99 | View → |
| 9 | Unity DOTS Fundamentals - Making a full game with ECS | Udemy | — | $49.99 | View → |
| 10 | Fundamentals of Electromagnetic Theory | Udemy | — | $19.99 | View → |
| 11 | NE101: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering | Udemy | North Carolina State University | $149.99 | 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 11 priced courses on this page run from $19.99 to $833.33, with the middle of the range around $49.00 — a spread of $813.34. That is a wide gap for one subject. 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 Udemy, edX and Coursera. 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. 5 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including University of Virginia, Rice University and University of Chicago — which usually means a fixed syllabus and a recognised certificate, rather than an individual instructor’s own course.
Courses versus exam preparation
1 of the entries here are built around a certification exam rather than teaching Physics from scratch. They are the right choice only if you already know the material and want to pass a specific exam; if you are starting out, pick one of the taught courses first and come back to exam preparation afterwards.
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.