Best online coding courses for beginners

With abundant coding languages and platforms today, it can get overwhelming choosing where to start for aspiring programmers. You may be unsure about the first steps to learn essential skills or the best courses that provide a solid coding foundation.

This guide compiles the top 10 best online coding courses for absolute beginners based on quality, teaching methodology, support and affordability. Whether looking to learn web development, app building or data science - these structured courses by industry experts offer interactive learning journeys tailored to coding newbies. Let’s explore the key features of each platform to help you make the right choice!

1. Codecademy

**Price:** Free - $40/month

    **Key Features:**

  • - Practice coding directly in browser
  • - Learn by doing with hands-on projects
  • - Choose your own learning path and pace
  • - Community support in forums

**Overview:** Codecademy excellently caters to motivated beginners through a flexible, interactive format across 12 coding languages. The intuitive interface and project-based structure make Codecademy a popular starting point for coding first-timers without assumed prior knowledge.

2. freeCodeCamp

**Price:** Free

    **Key Features:**
  • - Self-paced open source curriculum
  • - 800+ hours of coding lessons
  • - HTML, CSS, JavaScript focused
  • - Build portfolio through projects

**Overview:** As a donor-supported nonprofit, freeCodeCamp offers free access to an extensive full-stack development syllabus. The curriculum intricately builds from basic to advanced concepts covered through coding challenges, projects and reading resources.

3. Coursera

**Price:** Free-$80 per course

    **Key Features:**
  • - Specializations and certificates
  • - Project centric with peer grading
  • - Taught by university professors
  • - Industry Recognized Credentials

**Overview:** Through top university partners like University of Michigan and Duke University, Coursera enables high quality introductory computer science and programming content. The comprehensive courses feature graded assessments and capstone projects for certificate credentials.

4. Udacity

**Price**: Free -$400 per course

    **Key Features:**
  • - Built with industry experts
  • - Nanodegree credentials
  • - 1:1 project reviewer support
  • - Accessible teaching methodology
**Overview:**

Developed in collaboration with tech recruiters, Udacity’s project-based courses provide deep mentoring support. The beginner Nanodegrees offer guided curriculum covering basics to advanced skills tailored for industry needs.

5. Udemy

**Price:** $12-$200 per course

    **Key Features:**
  • - 65,000+ courses on programming
  • - Practice while learning
  • - Code reviews from instructors
  • - Discussion forums for doubt resolution

**Overview:** With the highest number of coding courses on any e-learning platform, Udemy empowers unlimited access to programming education through affordable pricing models. Their library spans across languages, tools and niche technology topics.

6. Khan Academy

**Price:** Free

    **Key Features:**
  • - Daily bite-sized video lessons
  • - Self-paced learning dashboard
  • - Foundational computer science basics
  • - Additional readings and practice

**Overview:** Khan Academy allows learning coding fundamentals interactively through short videos andsupplementary digital resources. Their beginner computer science lessons cover building blocks in an intuitive sequence suitable for total newbies.

7. MIT OpenCourseWare

**Price:** Free

    **Key Features:**
  • - Taught by MIT professors
  • - Video lectures & assignments
  • - Additional textbook resources
  • - Beginner & Advanced Courses

**Overview:** For those seeking highly academic coding curriculum, MIT OpenCourseWare offers free access to university level computer science classes online. Spanning core concepts to advanced systems - benefit from MIT’s expertise.

8. Codecademy Pro

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*Price:** $20-$40 per month

    **Key Features:**
  • - Personalized learning plans
  • - Exclusive project solutions
  • - 1:1 expert help from mentors
  • - Access solutions hassle-free

**Overview:** Codecademy’s premium subscription provides additional support through tailored learning plans based on your goals, real-time mentor guidance and solution access when stuck. Ideal for steady progress.

9. Pluralsight

**Price:** $45 per month

    **Key Features:**
  • - Pathways for different experience levels
  • - Practice Labs for hands-on learning
  • - Progress tracking facilities
  • - Offline viewing supported

**Overview:** Pluralsight offers high quality video courses by industry practitioners across software development domains including development tools. With assessments and Labs, code alongside world-class teachers.

10. Treehouse

**Price:** $25 per month

    **Key Features:**
  • - Project-based learning platform
  • - Additional workshops & events
  • - Teacher assistant support in forums
  • - 60-day money back guarantee

**Overview:** Treehouse believes strongly in learning by doing through a library of over 1,000 coding video courses building real applications from scratch. Their model balances videos, quizzes and feedback effectively.

Make an Informed Choice! With abundant quality introductory coding content online spanning free to paid services, identify resources aligning closest to your learning requirements and ability to invest.

Structured specializations allowing hands-on practice through projects and community support tend to work best for absorbing concepts. Develop foundational programming literacy before diving deeper.

The most important criteria is ensuring interactivity in the learning process rather than just passive video consumption alone. Allow ample room for experimentation and errors as both fuel mastery.

While the coding journey demands rigor, consciously working through these beginner stepping stones leads to exponential knowledge growth in due time. Be patient, persistent and positive!

Happy learning! The world awaits your creations.

Naeem Bhavnagri

Sr. Digital Marketing Executive