Published: 2023-11-29
Written by: Jessica Wilkins
7 min read
Recently, Danny Thompson posted a list of paid tech courses to check out and I wanted to share my thoughts on it because I have used many of the resources mentioned in the list.
Scrimba is an online platform that offers free and paid courses for web development. They also have a very active online community, podcast and YouTube channel.
I have watched a few of their free videos when I was first learning and I liked their teaching style. They move at a good pace for beginners and they have a lot of courses to choose from. They have an impressive list of instructors that include Cassidy Williams, James Quick, and Ania Kubow.
They also have a unique feature that allows you to pause the video and edit the code in the video. This is a great way to practice what you are learning and see the results in real-time.
I haven’t personally tried any of their paid courses, but I have heard good things about them. I would recommend checking out their free courses first to see if you like their teaching style before investing in their paid options.
If you are interested in learning more about their pricing options, check out this link.
I bought a subscription to Frontend Masters shortly after I landed my first tech job and absolutely love it. They have dozens of courses on a variety of topics and they are taught by industry experts including Brian Holt, Steve Kinney, Scott Moss and Angie Jones.
As the name would imply, they have tons of courses focused on frontend development, but they also have courses on, computer science, databases, the command line, VIM fundamentals, Node and AWS. You can choose to start with the beginner track or jump into topic paths like JavaScript, Python or Data Visualization.
The subscription also gives you access to their live workshops which happen a few times a month. If you are not able to attend the in-person workshop, you can watch it live and participate in the chat or watch the recording later.
I feel like this resource is more geared towards those who are already in tech and want to level up their skills. Even though they have beginner courses, I feel like they move at a faster pace than other beginner courses I have taken and you would benefit more from them if you already have some experience.
The subscription isn’t cheap because it is $39 a month or $390 a year. So I realize that this might not be feasible for those just starting that don’t have the budget for it. But if you can afford it, especially after you start in tech, then I would highly recommend it.
In addition to Frontend Masters, I also have a subscription to egghead.io and have learned a lot from their courses. They have a wide variety of courses on topics like frontend libraries, bash, AWS, accessibility and more.
This is a video-based format with most of the courses being no more than a couple hours long. It is great if you want to learn something quick like their “Introduction to Cloudflare Workers” or how to “Build a Full Stack Blog with Astro”.
Similar to Frontend Masters, these courses seem more geared to those who have been programming for a while and want to learn something new. I think you will get the most out of this platform if you already have some experience and are looking to level up your skills as a working developer.
The current price per year is $150 and I would recommend it if you have the budget for it.
I was first introduced to boot.dev, when their creator Lane Wagner started creating videos for freeCodeCamp’s YouTube channel.
I watched a little bit of their courses and enjoyed their teaching style. I visited their site and they have a really good roadmap for learning backend development. They have a lot of courses on topics like Python, Go, SQL, Docker, and more. They also have a course on how to get a developer job.
While I have not personally tried any of their paid courses, I have heard good things about them. I would recommend checking out their free videos on YouTube first to see if you like their teaching style before investing in their paid courses. They also have a lot of good articles on their blog that are worth checking out.
If you are interested in learning more about their pricing options, check out this link.
When I was first learning, I audited a few courses on Coursera and enjoyed the content. They have a wide variety of courses on topics like computer science, data science, business, and more.
Most of their courses are taught by professors from universities like Stanford, Duke, and Yale and the courses include video lectures, projects and quizzes.
If you are interested in gaining a certificate, you can pay for the course and complete the assignments and quizzes. If you are just interested in learning the material, you can audit the course for free.
I never saw the value in gaining the paid certificate because it didn’t seem to hold much weight in our industry. They do offer online degrees in Computer Science, but I would do a TON of research before investing in one of those.
If you are interested, you can learn more about their degrees and certificates here.
One of the running jokes in this industry is that we all have some Udemy courses we bought a few years ago and never finished or even started. 🤣
I am guilty of this but there are a lot of great courses to find on Udemy. They have a wide variety of courses on topics like web development, mobile development, computer science, and more. Some of the programming instructors include Angela Yu, Colt Steele, Stephen Grider, and Maximilian Schwarzmüller.
Some courses will be a few hours long while others will be a 60+ hour-long bootcamp. Most of the videos will include short lectures followed by coding challenges or project tutorials you can follow along with.
The thing to be careful about with Udemy is that you have to do your research first before buying a course. There are a lot of courses on there that are not worth the money. Make sure to check the reviews for each course and see what other students are saying about it. Generally, if a course has a lot of positive reviews and a high rating of 4.5 or higher, it is probably worth the money.
Another thing about Udemy is the price. Most regular price for these videos is usually around $100+ but oftentimes times they will do sales for $10 or $15. My suggestion would be to wait for the sale and then buy the course you are interested in.
You might be in a season of life where you can’t afford to pay for a course and that is ok. I was there and was able to learn using free resources like freeCodeCamp, YouTube, and blogs. But if you can afford it, I would highly recommend investing in a paid course when you have done the proper research.
Reach out to your network and see if anyone has taken the course you are interested in and see what they thought about it. Look at reviews and check on programming forums like r/learnprogramming to see what others are saying about it.
Good paid courses can help you level up your skills and get you to the next level in your career. So invest in yourself and your career and you won’t regret it. 😀