Codecademy Pro Review: When it’s worth it and when it’s not
Do you feel like you need to learn programming skills and the best way for you to do it is online? Codecademy may be a good choice in this case. Codecademy Pro is the best pricing deal to develop the skills and experience you need to land a job in tech. As there are many e-learning companies out there; thus, we need to find out whether Codecademy Pro is worth your time. So, let’s read the review to get more information on this offering.
What is Codecademy?
Codecademy is a New-York based company focused on providing education services in programming. The platform has a bunch of progrmming languages to choose from. Among them are Java, Python, C++, Javascript, PHP, R, and many others.
Particularly, the Codecademy Pro plan offers to build in-demand skills to land a job. It provides comprehensive career support, including professional certifications, technical interview preparation, code challenges, assessments, and priority customer support. These features are not available in the Basic or Plus packages and are highlighted as new additions to the service.
| Evaluation Criteria | Codecademy Pro Evaluation |
| Overall rating | 4/5 Provides the resources for landing a job in tech. No direct job placement |
| Content quality | 4/5 Beginner-friendly, a mix of basic and advanced topics, well-structured content, supportive learning features such as coding exercises and quizzes. |
| Convenience | 5/5 Self-paced, user-friendly interface, unlimited access across devices |
| Course structure | 4/5 Well-structured courses with clear explanations, real-world projects, coding exercises, quizzes, and assessments |
| Free content | 2/5 7-day free trial, monthly or annual paid subscription required to proceed |
| Career development | 3/5 Full access to skill and career paths, professional certifications, technical interview preparation, career services, code challenges, assessments. No direct job placement. |
Overview of Codecademy Pro
| Focus | Learning programming skills |
| Languages | HTML & CSS, JavaScript, Java, Python, R, SQL, Ruby, C, C#, C++, R, PHP, Go, Swift, Kotlin, Bash/Shell |
| Courses | 300+ courses 50+ skill paths 12 career paths |
| Projects | yes |
| Price | 7-day free trial $19.99/mo billed annually or $39.99 billed monthly |
| Career Development | Professional certifications Technical interview prep Career services Code challenges Assessments |
Who Is Codecademy Pro For?
Codecademy Pro is tailored for individuals seeking to reskill and secure employment in the tech sector. It provides extensive career development features, including various programming-related career paths, professional certifications, technical interview preparation, and career services.
This way, Codecademy Pro equips users with the necessary skills and expertise the tech industry demands. Whether transitioning careers or enhancing existing programming skills, Codecademy Pro offers comprehensive resources to achieve career goals in tech.
When Codecademy Pro is not worth it
Codecademy Pro may not be worth it for individuals who have extensive prior experience or specialized knowledge in programming. They might find the content redundant or too basic. Additionally, those who are unable to commit sufficient time to utilize all the platform’s resources they pay for may not see the full value of the subscription.
Finally, individuals with limited financial resources or those with no plans to land a job can access similar resources to get basic knowledge in programming for free elsewhere. For this purpose, Codecademy Pro not worth the investment.
Codecademy Pro vs. free version
The free Basic plan offers limited access to courses, community support, and learning resources. In contrast, the Pro plan provides unlimited access to all courses, quizzes, personalized practice, skill paths, real-world projects, and certificates of completion. Additionally, Pro offers exclusive career development features that will be reviewed below.
| Features | Basic (Free version) | Codecademy Pro |
| Basic access to free courses | ||
| Community support | ||
| Learning resources | ||
| Mobile access | Limited | Unlimited |
| Access to all courses | ||
| Access to quizzes | ||
| Personalized practice | ||
| Access to skill paths | ||
| Real-world projects | ||
| Certificates of completion | ||
| Access to career paths | ||
| Professional certifications | ||
| Technical interview prep | ||
| Career services | ||
| Code challenges | ||
| Assessments | ||
| Priority customer support |
Codecademy Pro features
The main difference between Codecademy Pro and free version or a cheaper Plus plan, lies in the career development features it provides. Only the Pro plan offers access to career paths, professional certifications, technical interview preparation, career services, code challenges, assessments, and priority customer support. It is aimed at helping individuals develop the skills and experience needed to land a job in the tech industry.
Codecademy Pro pricing
Codecademy Pro has a 7-day free trial with basic access, available after you connect your credit/debit card or PayPal account, and two paid subscription options.
The free plan allows accessing over 300 free Codecademy courses and other resources. It also provides access to a community platform for communication.
Codecademy Pro has two subscription options. You can pay $239.88 billed annually ($19.99 per month) or $39.99 per month. This premium subscription provides access to all courses and unlimited practice on mobile. Also, you’ll be able to get a certificate upon completion and practice–for example, by writing a game or testing a business hypothesis.
The Pro subscription also gives career options like access to career paths and technical interview prep.
Codecademy Pro gives you access to Career or Skill Paths which are a set of different courses to get in-depth knowledge on the topic and be able to start a career in the corresponding field. Such paths last for about 20 weeks and allow to practice while building real-world projects – for example, by writing a game or testing a business hypothesis.
All in all, the Paths are helpful if a person needs a clear roadmap of what needs to be completed to get to some level of proficiency with coding. Additionally, the Pro plan gives a certificate of completion.
Below you can see examples of which courses are free (tagged as ‘Course’) and which are paid (tagged as ‘Pro_Exclusive Course’, Skill Path’, or ‘Career Path’).
Codecademy Pro сourses
As you have already noticed, this company offers single courses and Paths as a longer option. The average duration of the Path is 7-8 weeks and 6-8 hours for a single course.
The list of languages you can learn on Codecademy includes HTML & CSS, Python, JavaScript, Java, SQL, Bash/Shell, Ruby, C++, C#, R, PHP, Go, Swift, and Kotlin.
There aren’t equal opportunities for all languages in terms of choice. The biggest options you can select from are available for three languages, Python, JavaScript, and HTML & CSS.
| Python | You can find many single Python courses (like ‘Learn Python 2’ or ‘Learn Python 3’, ‘Natural Language Processing’, ‘Web Scraping with Beautiful Soup’ and many more) and also a number of Skill Paths (like ‘Analyze data with Python’, ‘Machine Learning’, ‘Build Chatbots with Python’). However, most options aren’t available for free usage. The only course you can take on is an outdated one on Python 2. |
| Javascript | Codecademy offers 4 Skill Path options and up to 20 single courses. To illustrate, ‘Create a front-end app with React’ and ‘Create a back-end app with JavaScript’ are among the paths and the course list includes such topics as React, Angular, Vue, jQuary, Phaser and others. As for the free options, here you can find a number of courses at no cost. |
| Java | Codecademy has a Skill Path (Develop Basic Android Apps with Java) which takes about 10 weeks to complete and also two courses. The basic one on Java can be completed for free and the second one, Learn the Basics of Android, requires signing up for a paid plan. |
| C++ | There isn’t much to choose from if you want to learn C++. There is only one free course called ‘Learn C++’, no Skill or Career Paths are offered. |
| SQL | The company offers one Skill Path (‘ Analyze data with SQL ‘) and four single courses (one is free and three others are paid). |
| R | On Codecademy, you can find a Skill Path (‘Analyze Data with R’) and one free basic course on R. |
| HTML & CSS | Codecademy offers the Path called ‘Learn how to build websites to get basic Front-end development skills. Also, you can find a number of single courses, both free and paid. |
Courses quality
With its wide variety of courses, Codecademy offers both very basic topics and also advanced ones. The quality of content veries but courses generally are well built and easy to follow. However, the content is best for the beginner level.
Their courses are good for gaining an understanding of coding languages, web development, and data analysis. They also provide an explanation of the context in which these coding languages can be best applied to real-world situations.
The platform also makes the learning process simpler with coding exercises and quizzes which provide a great learning experience. The assessments are designed to test how much you’ve learned from each lesson and keep you moving forward.
Will Codecademy Pro help you with your career?
Codecademy Pro provides valuable resources for individuals looking to advance their careers in tech, offering multiple skill and career paths, professional certifications, technical interview preparation, career services, code challenges, assessments, and priority customer support.
Yet, while Codecademy Pro offers diverse learning opportunities tailored to different preferences and learning styles, its Pro product doesn’t directly assist with job placement. However, completing projects within the Pro courses can enable learners to demonstrate their skills effectively, potentially aiding in the job search process.
To increase your chances of landing a job, Codecademy suggests building a portfolio showcasing your work and accomplishments, including badges earned from completing courses. Additionally, they emphasize the importance of completing projects within the Pro courses to demonstrate your skills effectively to potential employers.
Codecademy reviews
Let’s start with the positive aspects mentioned in the users’ reviews. First, the classes by this company are well-structured and include enough exercises and recourses to grasp the concepts. Forums and peer-reviewing are also of great help for Codecademy users.
Here come the shortcomings. There are many complaints about the content, particularly that some of the instructions are too vague or incomplete which makes it hard to understand the task. Also, there are some bugs in the system.
Let’s see the actual Codecademy reviews from Reddit.
I paid for Codecademy for the year, I found it really helped to learn the basics with Python as it was nicely structured and helped me learn but passed that I regret it due to learning a lot more when I just play around In python myself and work out a problem when I run into one and now I don’t like the hand holding structure
I love codecademy. It’s a great site to get the basics of a new language. I always find it a great starting point to get the basics down before moving onto something a little meatier
Code academy is fine for a beginner. I did their Java projects over and over when I first started learning. Once I was able to complete the whole project without any of the advice or tips, I would move on to the next project. Its all about repetition and practice.
Good for syntax when learning a new language. Otherwise it is too hand-holding I would say, there are basically zero difficult exercises
Codecademy is good but for me it just slowed down my learning. Learning with Codecademy the concepts didn’t stick and took me longer to understand because of how much handholding there is.
I think Codecademy’s python and data science material is solid. Everything else is kinda meh
Codecademy alternatives
We have a separate article about Codecademy alternatives but here is a quick comparison with two of them, Datacamp and Udacity.
To compare the cost, they both have free options and paid packages. Codecademy’s price is $16 per month and Datacamp costs $13 per month.
Moreover, Codecademy offers only software development to learn online, while Udacity also has business-related programs like marketing.
Our verdict: Should you pay for the Codecademy Pro version?
The Codecademy platform is a good option to learn by doing and also its basic free courses are a good place to start with a particular programming language. However, the main question is whether Codecademy Pro is worth it.
After reviewing everything this provider has to offer, it seems that there’s no good choice of courses to pay for on an annual basis. Also, some incompleteness in its content and systems bugs make it hard to recommend the paid subscription.
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