JavaScript is a programming language created to work in conjunction with HTML and CSS. With this trinity in mind, you can create a full-blown website. If you want to get into web development, learning JavaScript from reliable resources is essential. In this article, we’ll present the best places to learn JavaScript online.
What is JavaScript?
JavaScript is one of the core components of web technology along with HTML and CSS. While HTML is defining the content and CSS is dealing with the layout, JavaScript is responsible for the behavior of the websites.
But, what is JavaScript? It is a client-side scripting language which runs inside a browser. JavaScript code is written into an HTML page and when a user requests the page, a browser will execute it.
JavaScript can be loaded in a website using many ways: loading an external JavaScript file, using an URL if it is from a different domain, and direct embedding to trigger a popup alert.
In a real situation, JavaScript might affect the behavior of web pages because it can
- Change HTML content
- Change HTML attribute values
- Change HTML styles
- Hide or show HTML elements
If you want to do something more, JavaScript is ever more useful to make simple games, create image effects, and disable right-clicking on your web pages.
So, having a good knowledge of JavaScript is important if you want to create powerful, dynamic websites.
Learning JavaScript is fun and challenging both for beginners and intermediate learners. But, the good thing is you don’t need to set up a development environment to start learning.
How Long Does It Take to Learn JavaScript?
This is a common question people ask when starting to learn JavaScript. Actually, it depends on the skills you want to get and where you start.
If you have a good knowledge of HTML and CSS, then it might be easier for you to learn JavaScript fast. While starting from the beginning, takes more time.
Also, if you want to dive deep to advanced JavaScript topics like JS runtime environment or asynchronous programming, you need both extra power and time to practice coding continuously.
In short, understanding the basics needs a shorter time (from a couple of hours to a week) while diving deep could take years of effort without end.
Websites Where You Can Learn JavaScript
As the learning process could be different for each individual, you need a good strategy to get the best results.
If you are a beginner, you’d better start with JavaScript basics and keep practicing with as many samples as you can. This is important to understand the topic before moving onto the next ones.
Intermediate learners can start at any topic they want to learn from the many resources on the internet.
Now, let’s get started with the ten best places to learn JavaScript online.
1. Udacity
Udacity is a great platform to learn all about technology from programming to the autonomous systems. They have a great collection of JavaScript courses too.
On the Program Catalog page you can get many JavaScript courses:
Every course has different skill levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced (with an indicator bar of each level difficulty).
Choosing one of the courses gives you lists of lessons. Start any lesson you want and see how far you’ve learned from the progress bar. If next time you want to continue, you can start where you left off.
While most of the content is video, the course provides coding practices as well. Also, a series of challenging quizzes are available.
You can enjoy industry-relevant content from their free course, but their nano degree programs offer benefits like project reviews, mentorships, certifications and much more.
Each program has its own pricing. For example, it costs $999 for a Front-End Web Developer Nanodegree program with full access for four months.
2. Codeacademy
Codeacademy is yet another great place to learn JavaScript.
This interactive platform offers many JavaScript courses from the basics to more advanced courses:
When picking a course, you’ll get a syllabus of the course. It tells you what skills you’ll get after finishing the course. Not only that, you can peek at the key concept from View Details before starting.
Codeacademy has a one-page lesson approach to let you focus on one topic at a time. It divides the webpage into three sections:
- The lesson
- The editor
- The result
With this amazing approach, you can practice coding while learning the materials. After you understand the topic, simply click next.
They have many courses for free. But, to get full access, you can upgrade to their Pro Plans: $19.99/month for the monthly subscription, $17.99/month for a six-month subscription, and $15.99/month for a 12-month subscription.
3. One Month
Do you want to become a JavaScript developer in 30 days? This online platform offers a one Month JavaScript course.
The class contains a series of videos to guide you into making a full-blown website. It is perfect for beginners as it uses a step-by-step method.
Before you start with your week 1 lessons, there is a guide for basic preparation like installing text editors and web browsers, defining what JavaScript is, and setting the goal of the courses.
Some of the materials you can get from this course are
- JavaScript basics like variables, functions, arrays
- DOM
- querySelector()
- JSON.parse()
At the end of this course, you’ll get a certificate and bonus tips.
Unfortunately, you can’t get free courses from this platform. One Month offers two plans: $199/per course for one year access and $299/year for an annual subscription to get unlimited access.
4. Frontend Masters
Frontend Masters is a great place to learn JavaScript. They offer high-quality courses from experts, that will teach you everything you need to know.
This platform has plenty of JacaScript courses, that you can easily find and access. All the courses give you information about the instructors and the time you need to finish them.
Each course has high-quality video and audio. The instructors give you easy to follow tutorials and give you time to practice.
Frontend Masters’ courses have a neat table of content with information about the duration for each section. This is helpful for you who need to manage your time well.
While you can still get much great content for free, it costs $39/month to access all the premium classes. Or, you can get the yearly plan for $390.
Alternatively, you can get the Frontend Masters Monthly team to get access for ten people at your company that costs $195/month or $1950/year.
5. Pluralsight
Previously known as Code School, Pluralsight is an exceptional platform to learn JavaScript.
Pluralsight is a very intuitive platform, with an easy to navigate interface. Let’s say you type JavaScript on the search bar. Not only will it show you the list of courses, but will also provide learning sources from various blogs and webinars.
As for their courses, they have plenty of courses cover all skills level:
- Basics of Programming with JavaScript
- JavaScript Fundamentals
- Advanced Node.js
- Front-End Web Development Quick Start With HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript
When choosing a course, you’ll get thorough information including ratings, last updates, and the total duration of the course. Plus, a general description, table of contents with duration per section, and related courses are all available.
One good thing about Pluralsight is they offer a skill-based IQ test based on the subject you want to learn. So, you’ll know where your JavaScript skills stand.
Pluralsight has two pricing categories; personal and business.
While you can get their personal plan for $29/month or $299/year, their professional plan costs $579/user/year and their enterprise plan costs $779/user/year.
6. Freecodecamp
You can learn to code for free with Freecodecamp. This platform offers various sources from articles, videos, and interactive coding lessons.
After signing in with your account (Google, Facebook, Github, or Email), you can go to the coding curriculum.
Typing JavaScript on the search bar will give you results of all those three categories: Guide, Lesson, and YouTube.
Comparing to the previous two platforms, Frecodecamp provides fewer features. But, you can still learn JavaScript well by practicing with their interactive coding lessons.
7. The Odin Project
The Odin Project is a free and open source project. It offers an online curriculum for learning code.
Being open source means anyone can contribute to the resources – adding new resources or improving the existing ones. As of writing, there are 1500 contributors and 80,000 learners.
Once you’re logged in with an account (Google, GitHub, or a new account), you can start taking the courses.
The JavaScript course contains 35 lessons. The course starts with an introduction to using the course and continues with:
- Organizing JavaScript Code
- JavaScript in the Real World
- Front end Frameworks
By the time you finish the course, you’ll get tips on how to use your acquired knowledge to develop websites.
8. Team TreeHouse
Team TreeHouse is committed to making education accessible for all students regardless of their social or financial background.
The platform has more than 300 courses about coding and web design. If you want to become a full stack JavaScript developer, for example, you can join the Treehouse Techdegree program. You’ll get 10 projects, 34 courses, 199 quizzes and 191 challenges for 3-9 months.
Team Treehouse is perfect for beginners and intermediate developers to learn JavaScript. The courses they give by joining the above program are:
- JavaScript Basics
- DOM Scripting By Example
- jQuery Basics
One of the best things about learning JavaScript from Team Treehouse is that you will be assisted by an appointed team through Slack.
Team treehouse offers a free seven-day trial. After that, you can continue with $25/month for Basic plan, $49/month for Pro plan, and $199/month for Techdegree plan.
9. JSforCats
JSforCats is a great platform dedicated to JavaScript courses.
It perfectly covers all the basic information needed to learn JavaScript:
- The console
- The string, values, and variables
- Built-in JS function
- Loops, Array, Objects
JavaScript for Cats offers valuable information for free. You don’t just get written information, but you can practice with code it gives as examples to test out.
But, this is just a single page introduction about JavaScript which may not be appropriate for advanced learners.
10. Egghead
Egghead is built by web development professionals. It offers video courses which cover many subjects: JavaScript, Angular, Typescript, and more.
When searching for JavaScript, you’ll get a list of courses which might seem a bit advanced:
- JavaScript Promises in Depth
- Data Structures and Algorithms in JavaScript
- Modern JavaScript Tooling with React
Once you click on one of the courses, you’ll see a short description, course’s rating, and table of contents. You can jump on a specific section or play full course video.
To get all of the access to courses and lessons, you can get individual full access membership for $250/year. Egghead also has a team plan that costs $300/user/year and enterprise plan that costs $400/user/year.
Conclusion
JavaScript is a popular programming language of the web, used by 95.1% of all the websites. It controls the behavior of the web pages making it fast and responsive.
Learning JavaScript online is not only important but also easy. Depending on your level of knowledge, you can learn JavaScript from many platforms available.
While there are plenty of places to learn from we have a couple of favorites. Codeacademy and Frontend Masters are one of the best online recourses for learning JavaScript. And if you’re on a budget, you can learn JavaScript from places like The Odin Project and Team Treehouse.
