Learn to Code for Free: Top 10 Websites to Learn Coding for Free

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Coding has become such an important core job skill currently across industries and not just restricted to the IT sector.

What pulls people towards learning coding is that it is most wanted skill and the high paying tag attached to it.

Learn to Code for Free

Hence, it is wise to start to learn to code for free initially and maybe you can go for more paid options to learn specific skills later.

There are numerous resources to help you learn code for free such as the MOOCs, blog posts, open source learning communities, online learning platforms and YouTube tutorials.

I have shortlisted top 10 websites to learn coding for free and most noteworthy is that these online learning platforms are top notch qualitywise.

Top 10 Websites to Learn Coding for Free

1. Codecademy

Codecademy - Udemy AlternativesCodecademy is currently a popular choice to millions of users to learn how to code for free.

The courses provide solid understanding of basics and syntax in database, web development and PHP concept much as to the needs of  a new comer to technology.

Also, it is a great place to start your coding journey with self guided courses, coding exercises at every level and get to know what programming fundamentals are.

Not just that, you can find courses at Codecademy dealing with advanced concepts as well, particularly in Python and Ruby on Rails.

Note: They have recently introduced Codecademy Upgrade Pro plan at $19.99/mo with added benefits to their course offerings.

So if you find Codecademy free courses beneficial for entry level programming, you can rather switch to their upgrade version too.

List of Courses you can learn code for free:

  • Learn HTML & CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Sass
  • Make a Website
  • Lean the Command Line
  • Deploy a Website
  • Python
  • HTML & CSS
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • ReactJS: Part I
  • ReactJS: Part II
  • Angular JS 1.X
  • Ruby
  • Learn Ruby on Rails
  • Ruby on Rails Authentication
  • Java
  • Git
  • SQL: Table Transformation & Analyzing Business Metrics
  • PHP
  • Learn the Watson API

2. Coursera

Coursera - Udemy AlternativesCoursera is  yet another popular MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) provider with more than 20 million registered users and has 1000 plus of free courses and specializations on Computer Science.

Almost all the courses are actually created by professors from different universities and colleges partnered with Coursera to make online learning to code for free easy for wider audience.

Apart from being free, Coursera discussion forums are very active and their interface is very simple and easy to use.

Note: Coursera has recently introduced subscription options for some of its specialization courses apart from the existing $49 Signature Track which is a paid feature of Coursera to obtain a certificate of completion.  

Major Categories of Specialization courses Coursera offers for free:

  • Software Development
  • Mobile and Web Development
  • Algorithms
  • Computer Security and Networks
  • Design and Product

3. EDX

edx logoEDX is a popular MOOCs, apart from Coursera and Udacity and offers lots of free online courses in variety of departments including computer Science courses.

Currently has more than 10 million registered users who are leaning coding for free at EDX .

Similar to Coursera, EDX partners with more than 100 Universities to produce content, with the recent addition being Oxford University to its kit.

While there are Paid programs in EDX such as Credit-Eligible, Micro Masters and XSeries, most of below subject courses are still free to learn:

  • Python,
  • Java,
  • Cloud Computing
  • App Development and
  • Information Technology.

Furthermore, you get to learn EDX courses to learn in other languages too,apart from English.

Just don’t miss their most popular free course from Harvard CS50x: “Introduction to Computer Science”  in any case you new to programming.

There are over 300 plus courses under Computer Science Department as of now and caters to all levels of programming: Introductory, Intermediary and Advanced.

More noteworthy is that all the courses are self paced and you can learn them at your own time.

With variety of courses on technology and taught by professors from big universities, EDX is a best place to learn coding online for free.

4. Free Code Camp

Free Code CampFree Code Camp is a self funded nonprofit organization where you can learn coding for free  and earn certificates on completion.

It works as an open source community where you can try your hands on coding challenges on different coding skills like Jquery, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Algorithm Scripting, etc.

Once you have successfully complete 1200 hours of coding challenges, you are allowed to built projects and apps for nonprofits as part of their curriculum under the assistance of a project manager.

Free Code Camp is currently one of the best free coding boot camps to start as an absolute beginner in coding.

Even though being a free alternative to other popular paid ones like Treehouse and Udemy, their community forums are very active and helpful in solving real time queries.

Coding Languages you will learn for free here:

  • HTML5
  • CSS3
  • JavaScript
  • Databases
  • Git & Git Hub
  • Node.js
  • React.js
  • D3.js

5. Udemy

Udemy logoUdemy is one of its kind online learning platforms where you get huge number of both free and paid coding courses to learn from a pool of instructors/experts.

It is the best place to polish your coding skills in any desired technology  for free to help you stay updated in the tech market.

Currently Udemy offers thousands of free online courses in:

  • Web Development
  • Mobile Apps
  • Programming Languages
  • Game Development
  • Databases
  • Software Testing
  • IT Certification
  • Network and Security

6. Udacity

Udacity - Udemy CompetitorsThough widely popular for its Nanodegree course, you can also learn to code for free from the open courses at Udacity.

Udacity courses are very structured, engaging and professional and are designed by major Industry Giants like Google, AT&T, Facebook, etc.

Also, they have an active discussion forum to get help in case you got stuck during the learning process.

The Free Courses you can learn at Udacity are:

  • Android
  • Data Science
  • iOS
  • Georgia Tech Masters in CS
  • Software Engineering
  • Web Development

7. Khan Academy

KhanAcademy - Udemy CompetitorsKhan Academy needs no Introduction! A very popular non-profit organization with a mission to provide free education to everybody online.

All their courses use colorfully animated videos to make learning more intuitive and engaging. Also, courses are self paced, concepts are followed by practice exercises to learn code by doing.

Currently they have a bunch of free online coding courses on three major categories namely

  • Computer programming – JavaScript, HTML& CSS (Beginner to Advanced courses)
  • Computer Science – Algorithms, Cryptography and much more
  • Hour of Code – Programming basics, web development, databases and much more.

8. The Odin Project

The Odin ProjectThe Odin Project is another great place for aspiring web developers to learn web development courses totally free of cost.

What’s unique about their project is they will provide you a proper path on how to start with structured syllabus and thereby build your portfolio by creating projects around it.

While their entire resources are open source and free to use, their courses are also self paced.

The Free Web Development courses you will learn at The Odin Project are:

  • Introduction to Web Development
  • Web Development 101
  • Ruby Programming
  • Ruby on Rails
  • HTML5 and CSS3
  • JavaScript and jQuery

9. CodeFights

CodefightsIf programming is your hobby sorts, then try your hands on CodeFights to refresh your programming debugging skills and it is all for free.

For beginners in coding, seems like it is a good site to learn how to solve bugs in a competitive way.

In addition, you have company bots, Tournaments (bot challenge), quizzes and untimed challenges to find bugs from difficult lines of code and write a new algorithm to debug it.

10.W3Schools

w3schools logoW3Schools provides free tutorials, references and code examples on a variety of web development topics.

Programming beginners on coding basics can take the help of W3Schools free materials to improve their understanding on web development fundamentals.

The web developer topics you can learn to code for free are:

  • HTML and CSS
  • JavaScript
  • SQL
  • PHP
  • jQuery
  • BootStrap

Do you know any other quality online training platforms that help learning to code for free? Let me know in the comments!

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