A Review of Skillcrush as a Tech Bootcamp

What does Skillcrush do?
Who is Skillcrush for?
What does Skillcrush cost?
Ratings and reviews of Skillcrush
Alternatives to Skillcrush
How does Skillcrush compare to Pathrise?

What does Skillcrush do?

Skillcrush is an online bootcamp and resource that helps people learn the necessary skills to find a job as a web developer, UX designer, and visual designer. The online courses allow students to determine their own pace. But, they recommend 6-8 hours of work per week to finish each individual skill course in 3 months. Similarly, students should spend the same amount of time to complete the Break Into Tech Blueprint program in 9 months.

The Break Into Tech Blueprint program covers visual & web design, front end development, WordPress development, and full stack development. Most people can complete the full program plus a specialization (either WordPress or Ruby on Rails) in about 12 months. Students work at their own pace to complete projects, quizzes, and other assignments based on recorded lectures.

The web development track offers skill courses in Python fundamentals for web applications and data visualization, WordPress development, and ReactJS. Students also learn front end and general web development (HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, and Ruby).

The design track offers skill courses in user experience (UX), web design, and visual design. The user experience course covers UX research, information architecture, prototyping, and user testing & iteration. The web design course covers the fundamentals, HTML & CSS, Git & GitHub, and coding responsive websites for web and mobile.

Once a student registers, they have lifetime access to the online community, instructors, and the recorded lessons. These can be completed at a student’s own pace. For students in the Break Into Tech Blueprint program, Skillcrush provides students with a personalized curriculum and additional guidance for job search support, including assistance with portfolios, resumes, and technical interviews.

Who is Skillcrush for?

People with little to no experience in web development and user design will benefit most from Skillcrush’s courses. The individual courses are useful for students who need extra guidance on specific topics. The Break Into Tech Blueprint program is for students who are looking to land a job in web development or design.

What does Skillcrush cost? How much work is involved?

The Break Into Tech Blueprint program costs $1,599 altogether. You can also make 12 monthly payments of $149. The specific skill courses, including Python, UX Professional, Visual Designer, Front End Developer, Web Designer, Web Developer, and WordPress Developer cost $549 upfront or 3 monthly payments of $199. The Front End Developer plus React course is a one-time payment of $699 or 4 monthly installments of $199.

People can add the Introduction to JavaScript React class to the Break Into Tech Blueprint program, Front End Developer, and Web Developer courses for an additional $199. Students in the Break Into Tech Blueprint program can add Python, Digital Marketing, and UX Professional Courses for $249 each. Full-time students or people who are unemployed are eligible for discounts.

To enroll in courses at Skillcrush, students must select their course and make the initial payment. Once students submit payment, they will receive an email with instructions for completing the Skillcrush orientation.

Ratings and reviews

Online reviews of Skillcrush are generally positive. On CourseReport, web designers and developers looking to learn new skills benefited from the individual skill courses. Students felt that the Break Into Tech Blueprint program was a great way to launch a career in web development. Many praised the curriculum, with one student noting that the “lessons are very well structured and explained.”

But, some SwitchUp grads felt that the lessons and curriculum were not detailed enough. According to one review, “the videos are short and easy to understand, but in my opinion not nearly thorough enough”. One Reddit reviewer notes that Skillcrush is great for students who “need some hand holding and structure.” Another grad says that students might “have a hard time landing a development job at a big name company” and will “probably have more success starting with small, web design freelance gigs.”

Some people say that individual courses will not prepare you to land a job. One grad noted “you certainly cannot switch careers with their courses, especially if you have never worked with websites.”

Alternatives to Skillcrush

Depending on your previous coding or web design experience, Skillcrush might not be the best fit. You might consider one of the alternatives listed below instead.

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.
Aspiring designers can consider Designlab. This online bootcamp teaches the necessary skills to land a job as a UX designer. Read more about Designlab in our review.
Students interested in taking online self-guided or instructor-led product design courses can check out DesignerUp. Learn more about DesignerUp in our review.
UX Pro Academy, Design Sprint School, Avocademy, and Memorisely have UX design courses for beginners as well as more experienced people.
Students can also consider Kenzie Academy. A full-time tech bootcamp, Kenzie offers in-person and online courses in 2 tracks: software engineering & UX design and front-end engineering. Learn more about Kenzie Academy in our review.
Or, they can look at Bloc and Big Nerd Ranch. Both cover web dev and design, but Bloc is online and Big Nerd Ranch is on campus.
HackDesign sends weekly design lessons right to your inbox for free, which can be beneficial for aspiring and current product designers.
Another option is Lambda School, which offers 9-month bootcamps in software engineering and data science fundamentals.
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.
Codecademy is one of the most popular coding programs online. They provide free courses on many different programming languages. They also offer membership options ranging from $20 to $40. Learn more about Codecademy in our review.

More alternatives

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.
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.
Students can also consider Coursera, which provides courses ranging from free to $25,000. By partnering with accredited universities, Coursera offers a wide range of low-cost college courses.
Online learning platforms with thousands of video courses in a wide variety of topics, Udemy, Skillshare, Pluralsight, Learn UX, Treehouse, egghead, and Learn@Forbes allow students to pick & choose classes based on their interests.
GrowthX Academy is an online bootcamp with courses in growth marketing, UX design, and sales and business development.
With online and in-person classes, Flatiron School and University of Arizona Bootcamps offer tracks in UX design, software engineering, and more topics.
Other options are InternStreet, Interaction Design Foundation, Helio Training, and OpenClassrooms, online bootcamps and resources with tracks in design and web dev. Gymnasium is a free resource with courses in those subjects.
BrainStation is a bootcamp with online and in-person courses in UX/UI design, web development, marketing, product management, and data science.
Students located in the Bay Area or looking to work in Silicon Valley can check out Tradecraft, which has tracks in product design, growth marketing, engineering, and sales.

How does Skillcrush compare to Pathrise?

Skillcrush is an online bootcamp with courses for people who have minimal coding and design experience and are interested in acquiring the skills to become a web developer or designer. At Pathrise, fellows should have some background in their field of interest so that they can fully benefit from our curriculum, which is based on the technical questions they will encounter in their interviews.

The Pathrise program is flexible, requiring only 2-4 hours of sessions per week. 1-on-1 sessions can be scheduled as needed by the fellows. Our curriculum is personalized to address the specific skills that fellows struggle with the most. The Pathrise income share agreement is a percentage of their first year’s salary and 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. If you are interested in working with our mentors to optimize your job search, join Pathrise.