Codecademy Review - Is it the right choice for you?

Learning to code is probably the most sought-after skill of recent years. With tons of developers needed to meet the global demand for new & better software, learning how to code is also one of the most valuable skills to learn to get a better salary and live a better live. According to Indeed, the average base salary of a software developer in the U.S. is $118,886!

For the last decade, Codecademy has helped people achieve that goal. But is Codecademy a good way to learn how to code? And what does Codecademy even offer?

Let's find out in this full Codecademy review!

What is Codecademy?

Codecademy is an online learning platform that focuses on teaching you how to code through digestible and interactive online courses. It was founded in 2011 by Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski and has since amassed more than 50 million total learners from 190+ countries. Every month, more than 8 million users visit Codecademy's website to learn how to code.

Let's check out some of the things that make Codecademy unique:

Codecademy projects

Codecademy projects are problems you can solve to strengthen the skills you learned and to build up your portfolio. They don't give you as much guidance as the regular curriculum does, which means you will have to think more for yourself, which is essential to really learning something new.

Code challenges

Challenges are smaller tasks that help you test your knowledge of specific features or concepts, solidifying your knowledge of a language.

Codecademy workspace

Similar to DataCamp, Codecademy also offers a ready-to-use online workspace you can use to develop simple software projects without having to do the manual setup work. This IDE (integrated development environment) lets you launch projects in languages like JavaScript, Python, PHP & more extremely easily. In addition, it also makes it much simpler for you to share your projects with others, be it to get some feedback or to build up a portfolio.

Codecademy mobile app

In addition to the web app where you have access to the full course library, projects, challenges and so on, Codecademy also offers a mobile app for iOS & Android. It allows you to solidify the concepts you learned by giving you bite-sized challenges to learn.

Pro & Cons

Who is Codecademy for?

Codecademy is meant for anyone that wants to learn how to code. It's great as an addition to a computer science degree, as a way to just freshen up your knowledge of software & coding, or as a way to start your career in programming.

Anyone not looking to learn how to code should rather go with platforms that offer a wider range of courses like Udemy, or platforms that focus on other skills like Skillshare.

Codecademy pricing: How much does Codecademy Pro cost?

Codecademy Pro is the premium subscription Codecademy offers. It'll give you access to:

• The full Codecademy course library

• The Codecademy Go mobile app

• Projects to practice your skills

• Step-by-step guidance

• Certificates

Codecademy Pro can be purchased either as a monthly or a yearly subscription. The monthly subscription is $39.99/month, while the yearly subscription is just $19.99/month. As you see, they clearly want to go for the yearly subscription!

If you don't want to commit to a full year subscription, try it out for one month and then upgrade to the yearly plan to save money.

Codecademy refund policy

Codecademy currently doesn't offer refunds for Codecademy Pro purchases. There is a 7-day free trial available, though, so you can test if Codecademy Pro is for you, before you purchase it.

Free Codecademy courses

If you don't want to go for a paid Codecademy subscription immediately, you can also sign up for a free account, which will give you access to a couple of basic courses to get you started. Once you know that Codecademy is right for you, you can easily upgrade your account.

Codecademy for businesses

Codecademy also has two plans for businesses that want to upskill their employees. There's Codecademy for Teams & Codecademy for Enterprise.

Both of these plans give you access to the Codecademy course library and management features to help you track your team's progress. The Enterprise Plan even gives you the option to customize content to tailor it exactly to your team's needs.

This means you can build a custom learning experience for all your employees. Here are the exact details of the different plans:

Codecademy for Teams

• Access to the full Codecademy course library

• Access to all projects, challenges & quizzes

• Simple admin dashboard & reporting features

• Price: $240/user/year

Enterprise plan

Everything from Codecademy for Teams, plus:

• SSO

• Reporting API

• Customize the content to fit your needs

• Price: Custom

Codecademy for students

Codecademy offers a dedicated Student Plan, which gives you access to the entire Codecademy course library for only $149.99/year, compared to the regular price of about $239.99/year. To get access to the plan, you need to be eligible, which will be checked during the checkout process.

Learning & Customer support

Codecademy offers quite a lot of ways to receive support when you're stuck, or you just want to talk with someone about coding. They have a Discord group for real-time chat and quick questions, a full-blown forum to ask very technical questions when you're stuck with your course/project and a self-service knowledge base for all questions about your account.

They even have what they call "Codecademy chapters", which are in-person meetups organized by enthusiastic community members. If you happen to live next to one of these, you can actually meet up with other learners in person to get help and to help others.

Lastly, they also have Codecademy Docs, which are well-written roundups of important programming language features, concepts and other things you might want to look up again, when going through a Codecademy course. Overall, I would say that even though you don't get any personal support directly, Codecademy still gives you plenty of options to receive help.

Certification

If you complete a course or skill path on Codecademy, you will receive a certificate of completion, which you can use to showcase your new skills on platforms like LinkedIn. Here's what the certificate looks like:

This certificate is not accredited, so it's not a formal proof of your skills. Still, it might very well help you find your dream job as more and more employers look for more than just university degrees.

Create a Codecademy account

To create a Codecademy account, just enter your email and password and click on "Sign up".

Alternatively, you can sign up using LinkedIn, Google, Facebook or GitHub.

Popular courses on Codecademy

Learn Python 3

Learn the fundamentals of Python 3 and join 45 million (!) students that took this course before you. In about 25 hours, you will learn all about control flow, lists, loops, functions & much more!

Check out the course

Learn HTML

Learn how the web is built in this introduction to HTML course, which has been taken by 5,300,000 students already. Learn about semantics, tables, forms & HTML structure to get started in web design!

Check out the course

Learn JavaScript

Get started with web development through this great introduction to JavaScript. In about 20 hours, you will learn about conditionals, functions, scope, arrays, loops, objects & much more!

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Codecademy instructors

Codecademy instructors are hired directly by Codecademy, which means that instructors are vetted and are experts in their respective fields. Since all the content is developed by Codecademy, there's not much public information available about the instructors.

But again: Since Codecademy hires instructors to teach a specific topics, I'm sure that all the instructors know what they are doing!

Summary: Is Codecademy worth it?

Codecademy is definitely worth it, if you like to learn how to code in bite-sized and interactive only courses, and you don't dread the thought of learning on your own. Obviously, you have the option to ask questions in the Codecademy Discord community or their forum, but you will still learn mostly on your own. You will love Codecademy for their:

• Broad selection of courses on software development & programming languages

• Easy online workspace

• Useful mobile app

• Supporting community