Are these 14 sites REALLY free?
Tags: beginners, codenewbie, html, css
Published: 2020-12-01 03:08:55

I was scrolling on Instagram and I saw a screencap of a tweet about 15 sites where you can learn coding for free. 

![Screencap of Twitter post that lists websites where you can get free courses some of which aren't free.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ym6ycg1e5ydegewo91vt.png)

I am leaving out who tweeted it for privacy purposes. Also, I counted 14 and not 15.

I am going to go through each one of them to see if any of these courses are really free.

# Table Of Contents
[Codecademy](#codecademy)
[Treehouse](#treehouse)
[Udemy](#udemy)
[Coursera](#coursera)
[Khan Academy](#khan)
[W3Schools](#w3)
[EdX](#edx)
[FreeCodeCamp](#freecodecamp)
[Evanto tuts+](#evanto)
[Codeconquest](#codeconquest)
[Udacity](#udacity)
[Sololearn](#sololearn)
[Code Avengers](#Codeavengers)
[Learnenough](#Learnenough)
[TLDR](#tldr)

#[Codecademy](https://www.codecademy.com/)<a name="codecademy"></a>

![codecademy course catalog page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/y3694zlzv5oi59dfj6hv.png)

Is it free?: Yes and No.

What do you mean?: There is a premium service called Codecademy Pro. In fact, they highly encourage you to purchase it through ads on the site.

How much is Pro?: 
$39.99 a month
$239.88 annually.

If you are a college student, Codecademy Pro Student is the option you want to go to for premium service. They advertise that it's 35% less than a normal Pro membership. Since I am not a student I don't have easy access to the price.

#[Treehouse](https://teamtreehouse.com/)<a name="treehouse"></a>

![treehouse front page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/x4gq1zg0359nod3x2dvv.png)

Is it free?: No

How Much is it?: It depends on what you want...

####Courses
After a 7 day trial period, 29.99 a month.

####Techdegree
After a 7 day trial period, $199 a month

Keep in mind, there are sales throughout the year so if you want it for cheaper, keep checking the site.

#[Udemy](https://www.udemy.com/)<a name="udemy"></a>

![udemy front page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/o5m8occn009eqoge7ue6.png)

Is it free?: No, however, if you search on Twitter hard enough you might find some free courses but I would be wary of that in case it contains outdated information.

How much is it?: Courses start a $9.99 and they have sales all the time. 

From personal experience, if you buy one course you will likely get more sales than if you weren't are buying a course for the first time.

#[Coursea](https://www.coursera.org/)<a name="coursera"></a>

![free courses page at coursera](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7yj8pzctrwdrybgjeabs.png)

Is it free?: Yes and no

What do you mean?: There are free courses you can search for [here.](https://www.coursera.org/search?query=free%20courses&) The rest are free trials of 7 days before payment. There is financial aid available. 
If you want to enroll in MasterTrack™ Certificates or a Bachelors' degree with them that is not free. The cost of them depends on the institution and course.

#[Khan Academy](https://www.khanacademy.org/)<a name="khan"></a>

![Khan Academy SQL Course](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/6y8stjrpkpr6e3zs2zfn.png)

Is it free?: Yes!

What's the catch?: Nothing as far as cost. However, it's aimed towards kids. I recommended it for true novice learners but you probably won't get a lot out of it if you are a little bit more experienced. They have a really good [SQL course](https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/sql) that I recommend.

#[W3Schools](https://www.w3schools.com/)<a name="W3"></a>

![W#Schools frontpage](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/g2c76j42kq96lvs9szwc.png)

Is it free?: Yes!

What's the catch?: Nothing. You can get certified through them at but they aren't pushy about it. It's a good site for true beginners along with the [Mozilla Developers Network Web Docs aka MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/). 

#[EdX](https://www.edx.org/)<a name="edx"></a>

![EdX's free courses page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/qclx51bcrx9z5eusixwg.png)

Is it free?: Yes and no

What do you mean?: Similar to Coursera, there are free courses you can search for [here](https://www.edx.org/search?q=free%20courses) but it's mostly paid.

#[FreeCodeCamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/)<a name="freecodecamp"></a>

![freecodecamp's front page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/osrtkul0mrj053wjbyil.png)

Is it--: YES!

What's th--: There is no catch the word free is in the name. I actually very highly recommend it.

Are you su---: It's 100% free. There is also a [Youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8butISFwT-Wl7EV0hUK0BQ) of free content in addition to the free courses on the website.

#[Evanto tuts+](https://tutsplus.com/)<a name="evanto"></a>

![Evanto tuts+ free courses page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/m7s17iwihtternvui3ne.png)

Is it free?: Yes and no.

What do you mean?: I would compare this site to [Skillshare](https://www.skillshare.com/) the site is a subscription-based site. There are some free courses [here](https://tutsplus.com/courses#price=free)

#[Codeconquest](https://www.codeconquest.com/)<a name="codeconquest"></a>

![codeconquest front page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/t06refrsqmun30dp2pny.png)

Is it free?: Yes!

What's the catch?: If you are more of a visual and auditory learner, there are other options. It's similar to W3Schools and good for beginners.

#[Udacity](https://www.udacity.com/)<a name="udacity"></a>

![udacity's front page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7zm41cjctzkig1twqndb.png)

Is it free?: Yes and no.

What do you mean?: Similar to EdX and Coursera there are free courses [here](https://www.udacity.com/courses/all?type=free%20courses) but it's more like Treehouse's tech degrees except Udacity's courses are called "nanodegrees."

However, there offer scholarships into certain nanodegrees. An example of what going through a nanodegree on scholarship is [here](https://www.udacity.com/bertelsmann-tech-scholarships).

#[Sololearn](https://www.sololearn.com/)<a name="sololearn"></a>

![python course on sololearn](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/3gq4i08slj5djpqmwvg3.png)

Is it free?: YES!

What's the catch?: No catches. In fact, I used this site before to learn on the go with my phone while I was in my web development Bootcamp. 

#[Code Avengers](https://www.codeavengers.com/)<a name="Codeavengers"></a>

![web page for code avengers pro](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/kk83fl9vp6sm7u1xywcm.png)

Is it free?: No.

How much is it?: 
From their pricing site:
$29 for a monthly plan
$150 for a semi-annual (6 months) plan
$240 for an annual (1 year) plan
You do have a 7-day trial before payment.

The cool thing about it is Code Avengers aim towards everyone with separate tiers. JR for kids, EDU for Teachers, and PRO for everyone else. I am not sure if the prices are just for the PRO tier, this is all I could find on the pricing page.

#[Learnenough](https://www.learnenough.com/)<a name="Learnenough"></a>

![Front page of Learnenough](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/40j1xqjgy2rf0jyov84f.png)

Is it free?: No.

How much is it?: Learnenough offers a unique price structure in comparison to the other paid sites:

Starting at $5 one time for À La Carte Downloads for downloads of their ebooks.
Starting at $9 a month for À La Carte Courses
$49 dollars for All Access (after a 7-day free trial.)

I know nothing about this site except that you can learn Ruby on Rails on it from looking at the navigation footer.

#TLDR<a name="tldr"></a>
Out of the 15 sites mentioned in the tweet, only **5** of them are truly free **FreeCodeCamp, Sololearn, Codeconquest, W3Schools, and Khan Academy.**
The freemium sites (paid with free courses) are **Codecademy, Coursera, EdX, Udacity, and Evanto tuts+.**
The sites that aren't free are **Udemy, Treehouse, Learnenough, and Code Avengers.**
A lesson for beginners to not believe everything on the internet especially related to free coding classes.


<em><span>Cover Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@nesabymakers?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">NESA by Makers</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/female-coder?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></span></em>
<em><strong>EDIT (12/1/2020)</strong>: I counted 14 sites even though the post said 15 so the title had to change. I also fixed the conclusion and called it a TLDR in case you don't want to read all of it.</em>