9 Best online coding courses

Many accessible educational tools have popped up in recent years, all of which make learning new web design and development skills more straightforward. The daunting task is finding one that's right for you and your learning style. Looking for something more formal? Take a look at our roundup of the best coding boot camps.

We've tested and reviewed some of the most popular schools around, to give you a better understanding of the pros and cons of each. Here's our list of the web's best online coding courses.

1. Pluralsight: Code School

• From $35/£28 per month
• Free 10-day trial

No discussion of online training would be complete without a mention of Pluralsight. Following an acquisition spree, it now offers the world's biggest online training library.

Of all the tools we dug into, PluralSight's Code School was one of the best. Not only does the site look great, but it offers quality content and a great student experience. You can follow a 'path', which will guide you through a succession of different courses, or you can opt for a single course on its own. Code School offers a 10-day free trial, so you can try it out for size, or you can buy a monthly subscription for $35/month.

2. Envato Tuts+

• From $16.50/mo

With online code school Envato Tuts+, you can learn about a number of aspects of design, from coding and web design to 3D and illustration. Users can select from courses (video-based lessons), tutorials (write-ups about different topics) or ebooks (including the ever-popular A Book Apart series), to suit their particular learning style.

Envato Tuts+'s monthly subscription gives you access to all these learning materials, plus design resource library Envato Elements.

3. Skillshare

• Plenty of free classes
• Premium access from $7/mo

Skillshare is a subscription-based service that offers thousands of classes taught by industry professionals. And these aren't just any professionals either – at time of writing there were courses by Rachel Andrew, Christian Heilmann, and Jenn Lukas on there, so you're getting world-class knowledge here.

Courses come complete with material that's been created by the instructors, and there are projects for you to apply your skills.

4. Skillcrush

• From around $699 (course-dependent)
• Free 10-day coding bootcamp

Skillcrush is a unique online coding course, and the option here that most closely resembles an actual curriculum in a classroom setting. Users enroll in their chosen three-month 'blueprint' – a bundle of three courses that build on each other.

Skillcrush has expanded its offerings and there are now eight blueprints to choose from, including frontend development, visual design, web development, and UX (the newest course). Once enrolled, students have access to not only a classroom setting chat forum with their fellow students, but also to office hours and one-on-one time with their instructor.

5. Udacity

• Large selection of free courses
• Nanodegrees from around $399 / £299 per month

Udacity offers robust guides to many different topics, with seriously advanced courses on everything from robotics to design theories in everyday life. There's a big selection of free courses on offer here – and not just basic ones, either, but across all skill levels. Prices and lengths of course vary dramatically, but the cheapest courses start at around €200.

All courses are summarised before you begin, outlining the difficulty level, why the course is important, any prerequisites for taking it, and the project you will complete at the end. This means you can easily scan through and choose the one that suits you best.

6. Code Avengers

• From $20/mo
• Free 7-day trial

Code Avengers is an online school offers coding courses teaching you how to code or build websites, games and apps. There are lessons for total beginners, or if you have a little prior knowledge, you can start at a higher level.

There's also a dedicated Junior programme, dedicated to teaching under-16s basic programming and computer literacy skills, via gamified courses. Code Avengers walks you through each process with very simple, step-by-step instructions, starting with minor tasks, while you watch what happens in a mini phone simulator next to your editor.

7. Khan Academy

• Free

Khan Academy is a free online school that's not just focused on coding – there are a wide range of courses on offer, from economics to arts and humanities. Under the Computing section, you'll find courses on computer programming, computer science, coding and animation, all of which are broken up into specific sub-sections.

What's interesting with Khan Academy is that you hear someone talking while they write the code, which feels natural, like you're sitting down with someone. Sometimes, there are mini-quizzes following a demo, which help you think about things conceptually and understand what the code is doing a little better.

You can also like: business analyst job description, web design mistakes, back-end developer

8. Hack Design

• Free

The 'courses' on Hack Design are just collections of aggregated content, whether that's blogs, books, games, tutorials or videos, from around the web. There isn't anything to 'complete' by way of tasks, but if you're after some resource recommendations to help you learn more about a specific part of design, this is a good place to turn.

There are also tool lists with recommendations from people who use them. This is an excellent catalog of design resources for all levels. It offers great introductory content for beginners and more advanced techniques for those who do this full-time.

9. Udemy

Udemy is an expansive catalog, filled with thousands of other topics besides web and technology, with prices ranging from free to hundreds of dollars. We would venture to say you could find just about anything you wanted to learn. On the downside, the vast number of courses available (over 80,000 at the time of writing) does make it tricky to dig out the good stuff.

SHARE THIS