Updated in 2023
- What does Codecademy do?
- Who is Codecademy for?
- What does Codecademy cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Codecademy
- Alternatives to Codecademy
- How does Codecademy compare to Pathrise?
What does Codecademy do?
Started in 2011, Codecademy is an online educational tool for people interested in learning how to code. They have both free and paid resources in the subjects of web development, data science, computer science, specific tools and languages, machine learning, code foundations, web design, game development, mobile development, and data visualization.
Users can choose one of three ways to learn: courses, skill paths, and career paths. Courses can take between 1 hour and 20 hours to complete, depending on the subject. Some courses are free and some require the Pro membership.
Skill paths help students learn a specialized skill, like creating a front-end app with React or analyzing data with SQL. These range from 6-10 weeks and all require Pro membership to be completed. The goal of these courses is to give a step-by-step guide to learning this skill. Ideally, then people can utilize it quickly in the real world.
The career paths are in the following topics:
- Back end engineering
- Computer science (Python, data structures, command line, git)
- Data science (Python, SQL, data visualization, machine learning)
- Data analyst
- Front end engineering (HTML, CSS, Javascript, React).
- Full stack engineering
These paths take 20-35 weeks, with the exception of the foundations path, which is introductory and only takes 2 weeks. Students can only participate in career paths on the Pro membership.
Who is Codecademy for?
People who are interested in learning a new skill, advancing their current knowledge, or getting more hands-on learning in programming skills and languages would benefit from Codecademy.
What does Codecademy cost? How much work is involved?
The Pro membership for Codecademy is $19.99/month when on a 12 month subscription. People who choose the 6 month subscription pay $29.99/month. Finally, the month-to-month option costs $39.99/month.
Ratings and reviews
Codecademy has been around since 2011 and has had 45 million users participate in their courses. Reviews online are mixed about the quality, though. In a recent review from January 2021, they gave the platform 8.1 stars out of 10. They felt that it was “one of the best places online to learn to code”. Some users also enjoy the courses and the hands-on experiences and “learn-by-doing” methodology.
There have also been a fair number of administrative complaints made about Codecademy. Often students sign up for a free trial but their credit card is charged or they attempt to cancel before the next month’s charge and can not. They were also frustrated by the lack of customer support help.
Alternatives to Codecademy
As an educational program, there are a fair number of alternatives to Codecademy.
- You can check out Udacity and Springboard. These are online educational platforms that students can use to brush up on the basics or advance their current tech skills. Read more about Udacity and Springboard in our reviews.
- edX is one of the largest online learning platforms. They have courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT as well as big tech companies like Microsoft. Learn more about edX in our review.
- Similarly, Coursera, Treehouse, and Pluralsight are popular online education tools with thousands of classes.
- One of the most well known bootcamps is General Assembly. They offer full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on a variety of topics like software engineering, data science, UX design, digital marketing, product management, and more. Read more about General Assembly in our review.
- If you are looking for bootcamps, Lambda School, Boise CodeWorks, and allWomen Academy are well known. Students can learn fundamentals of web dev or data science as well as other topics.
- Aspiring software engineers and web developers can also consider CodeX Academy, a self-paced coding bootcamp with mentorship opportunities. Learn more about CodeX Academy in our review.
- You can also check App Academy or Hack Reactor, which are bootcamps for software engineering.
- If you want extra help before a bootcamp, First Step Coding has a software engineering prep course.
- The Tech Academy, Zip Code Wilmington, and Coding Dojo are online and onsite bootcamps that help people learn the technical skills necessary to land a job as a (junior) software developer or data scientist.
- For people with an interest in data science, Metis has part-time introduction courses as well as onsite and online bootcamp options. Learn more about Metis in our review.
More alternatives to Codecademy
- Coding Temple and RMOTR are Python data science and web development bootcamps, focusing on the fundamentals.
- Codesmith, Nucamp, Fullstack Academy, Epicodus, DevPoint Labs, and Actualize are software engineering bootcamps with online and on-campus options. Codesmith focuses on preparing people for mid-to-senior level software engineering roles.
- Or, consider Kal Academy, which works with women and underrepresented groups on software engineering, web dev, and data.
- Similarly, there is Udemy, which is an online learning platform with over 100,000 online video courses in a wide variety of topics. Udemy students can pick & choose classes, often paying around $10 per class.
- Aspiring web developers can check out CodeX Academy, a self-paced coding bootcamp with 1-on-1 mentorship opportunities. Read more about CodeX Academy in our program review.
- Another option is GW Bootcamps, which has courses in web dev, data science, and other topics.
- DataCamp, Dataquest, Promotable, and Data Science Dojo are also options for current and aspiring data scientists. They offer individual courses, as well as in-depth tracks.
- Similarly, 365 Data Science is a low-cost and low commitment option to learn data fundamentals. In the same vein, FourthBrain has part-time, online machine learning courses.
- Free online resources, SoloLearn and the Mode tutorials have tracks in SQL, as well as other programming languages.
- You can also check out Bubble no-code bootcamps to learn how to make products without coding. Learn more about Bubble in our review.
- The Menon Labs fellowship helps people learn the skills to get a job in web dev, data, and product management.
We created a list of the best resources to learn software engineering and data science, so you can decide what the best option is for you. You can also check out our list of 93 software engineering interview questions from top tech companies to practice.
How does Codecademy compare to Pathrise?
Codecademy is an online education tool with courses for people who are interested in learning a completely new skill or advancing their current skills. At Pathrise, our fellows should already have a background in the field they are interested in. This is because our industry-specific curriculum is focused on the types of questions they will see in their technical interviews.
All of our workshops and sessions at Pathrise are live as well as recorded. Therefore, our fellows can interact with their mentors and ask questions when they come up. Fellows also meet 1-on-1 with their mentors on a weekly basis. This time can go towards anything they personally need to work on, including technical and behavioral interview sessions, resume and LinkedIn optimization, portfolio building and strengthening, cold email and reverse recruiting, and negotiation. The Pathrise income share agreement (ISA) means that fellows don’t pay anything until they land a job they love and start working. We never require upfront payments or deposits.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. With our tips and guidance, we’ve seen our fellows interview performance scores double.
If you want to work with any of our mentors 1-on-1 to get help with your technical and behavioral interviews or with any other aspect of the job search, become a Pathrise fellow.
Apply today.
