HubSpot Academy vs Google Digital Garage vs 20 Minute Marketing: Which Course Wins for Australian Small Business (2026)?

HubSpot Academy vs Google Digital Garage vs 20 Minute Marketing: Which Should You Choose?

An honest comparison, including where we are not the right answer · Updated October 2026

20 Minute Marketing publishes this guide and ranks its own course first. Here is why, and where other options fit better.

If you are weighing up a free certification against a paid, practical program, this guide breaks down where each one genuinely wins. It is written for anyone learning digital marketing: career changers, students, freelancers, people upskilling at work and owners marketing their own business. We publish 20 Minute Marketing, so treat the sections about our own program accordingly, and note that we have been specific below about the situations where one of the free options is the better choice.

The 30 second comparison

Our ranking

1. 20 Minute Marketing ($79 to $999, paid once). Our #1 pick: short practical lessons with Australian context, a clear path from Essentials to Expert, 12 months access and a 30 day money-back guarantee.
2. HubSpot Academy (free). Better if you want free, widely known certifications and a deep library.
3. Google Skillshop, Fundamentals of Digital Marketing (free). Better as a free beginner overview with a Google badge.

20 Minute Marketing: practical skills for people short on time

20 Minute Marketing is our own program, so read this section with that in mind. It is designed for people who want to do digital marketing, not just understand it: career changers building toward a first marketing role, freelancers adding a service, staff who have been handed the marketing at work, and owners doing their own. Every lesson runs about 20 minutes and ends with something to do: set up a Google Business Profile, write an email that converts, run a small Google Ads test, publish a social post that gets seen. If you do not have a business of your own, you work on a practice brief or a real business you help with permission, which gives you work you can show an employer or client.

It is paid, and that is the honest trade-off against two free options that are genuinely good. What the fee buys is Australian context, a short-lesson format designed around a busy life rather than set study blocks, a structured path from Essentials through to Expert, industry-specific tracks, and support from people who know the local market.

Choose 20 Minute Marketing if: your time is scarcer than your money, you want Australian-specific guidance, and you would rather practise real tasks than only study theory.

HubSpot Academy: best if you want free certifications

HubSpot Academy is one of the most respected free training libraries in marketing, and the depth of its catalogue is something no small paid program matches. The certifications are widely recognised by employers who use HubSpot, they look good on a CV or LinkedIn profile, and they cost nothing.

Where it fits less well: it is global, with US-centric examples and no Australian context, and much of it is built around the inbound methodology and HubSpot's own ecosystem. The modules are long, and the step from finishing a module to knowing what to actually do on a website on Tuesday morning is left to you. That translation step is where many learners stall, though plenty of people manage it fine.

Choose HubSpot Academy if: you want free certifications, you enjoy self-directed learning, or you expect to work with HubSpot's CRM and marketing tools.

Google's Fundamentals of Digital Marketing (formerly Digital Garage): best free starting point for beginners

Google's Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course was the core of Google Digital Garage. Google retired the Digital Garage platform in early 2025 and the course now runs on Google Skillshop, available through Google's own training programs. It is a free overview of the whole landscape: search, social, analytics, and more. It is not accredited, and completing it now earns a Skillshop badge rather than the old Digital Garage certificate. The structure is clear, and for a complete beginner it is genuinely the best free orientation available.

The trade-offs: it stays at fundamentals level by design, some material moves slower than the industry does, and like HubSpot it is global rather than tailored to Australian realities such as local SEO, Google Business Profile setup for an AU service area, or the local advertising landscape. It tells you what the channels are. It does not walk you through doing the work.

Choose Google's Fundamentals of Digital Marketing if: you are brand new, you want a free Google credential, and you are comfortable working out the application yourself.

The question behind the question

Most people comparing these three are really asking something else: will a course actually get me a job, clients or customers?

No course will, by itself. What determines the outcome is whether you practise what you learn and can show the results. The main reason people do not practise is not lack of knowledge, it is that the gap between finishing a lesson and doing the thing is too wide. That is the real difference between the options here: the free courses teach more total content, and a shorter practical format gets more of it actually done.

So the useful question is not which course is best. It is: which format will I still be using in six weeks? A free course you finish beats a paid one you abandon, and a paid one you use beats a free one you never open. Answer that honestly about yourself and the choice becomes obvious.

Which should you choose? By situation

• "I have no budget and want to learn the basics." Start with Google's free Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course on Skillshop. It is free and it covers the ground properly.
• "I want free certifications for my CV." HubSpot Academy, which has the best known certifications of the three.
• "I want a marketing career." Collect the free HubSpot and Google certificates for your CV, and use a practical program to build hands-on skills and work you can show in an interview. Our guide to changing careers into digital marketing sets out a fuller path.
• "I freelance and want to add a service." A short course in the specific skill, such as SEO, Google Ads or social media, gets you billable faster than a broad fundamentals course.
• "I run a business and need customers, not a qualification." A practical, implementation-focused program, which is what we built 20 Minute Marketing to be.
• "I work with tradies, cafes, salons or clinics." Industry-specific and Australian-specific guidance will save you the most time, since the free global courses will not cover the local reality.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

All three are good, for different people. If you only want a free certificate, HubSpot Academy and Google's free courses on Skillshop are excellent and you should use them. If your real constraint is time, and you want practical skills you can use in a job, with clients or in your own business, a short-lesson practical program is built for you, and that is the gap we set out to fill.