Pros & Cons
-
- A large variety of coding classes
- Easy-to-understand curriculums
- Slick video lessons
- Useful user forums
- Can pause and renew enrollment at any time
-
- Monthly fees quickly add up
Treehouse Specs
| Built-in Tools | |
| Free Trial | |
| Quizzes | |
| Starting Price | $25 per month |
| User Forums | |
| Video Tutorials |
Learning to code can be intimidating, but the right instructor makes for a positive experience. Treehouse provides numerous courses for beginner and advanced coders, and its tools make it easy to follow the lessons. The website couldn't be simpler: You can easily find courses, see your progress, and access the student forum from your dashboard. The forum, in particular, is a terrific resource for when you're struggling with a coding exercise and need a helping hand. For these reasons and more, Treehouse is our Editors' Choice winner for paid online coding classes.
Plans and Prices
Treehouse provides a basic plan for $25 per month that includes access to learning videos and student forums, as well as code challenges to test your skills. A $49-per-month Courses Plus plan adds a few perks and bonus content. Finally, the $199-per-month Techdegree Plan provides a certification, with a custom curriculum, real-world projects, an exclusive Slack channel, peer reviews, and a proctored final exam. Each tier has a free seven-day trial.
(Credit: Treehouse/PCMag)For comparison, Codecademy has free basic courses for beginners, but its full library starts at $14.99 per month. Meanwhile, Code Avengers classes cost $29 per month. You can access SitePoint's ebook library for $9 per month.
If you know you won't be able to log in and work through the class assignments for a while—because of work requirements or taking a vacation, for example—then you can temporarily pause your subscription. Pausing the subscription means you can take a break from classes, and you won't be charged fees until you return. Considering Treehouse bills users monthly, it's nice to have the option.
Students with a valid ID and other supporting documentation are eligible for a discount, and group pricing for businesses and schools is available on request. You can also save money by inviting friends to Treehouse; once five people sign up for full memberships, your account is free for as long as they remain enrolled.
Getting Started With Treehouse
Once you sign up, Treehouse asks about your experience level and what you'd like to build. It then suggests a learning track. Throughout the trial period, you receive occasional emails that suggest what to work on next and remind you when your free trial ends. The interface is simple, with your dashboard displaying your progress in each course. The menu provides easy access to the class listing, forums, account settings, and help.
Your account also includes Workspaces, the development environment where you write code and build projects. You use Workspace during your lessons, but you can also play around with code outside of your coursework. We like that it's incorporated right into the Treehouse website. SitePoint requires you to download a third-party text editor to work on the exercises and doesn't provide an automated way to check if your answer is correct. Students can have up to 100 Workspaces at a time, each with a 50MB storage limit.
(Credit: Treehouse/PCMag)Class Selection, Features, and Help
When you're ready to start learning, you can choose between individual classes or tracks made up of several classes. The track options include Android, Learn C#, PHP Development, Rails Development, and Web Design. Many AI lessons are available, too, including how to make a website and a variety dedicated to Ruby, WordPress, and other topics.
Similar Products
Our Current Picks for The Best Programs for Learning to Code
Treehouse caters to both beginners and experienced coders, and a short, hour-long STEM class is targeted toward kids. You'll also find non-coding classes, such as one on starting your own business or dealing with issues of gender and sexuality. New courses are added regularly; you can see the latest updates on the Treehouse blog.
To start, we selected the Web Design track, which includes 41 hours of coursework. The intro video (which was short and sweet at just over four minutes) goes over the CSS and HTML basics. Using it as a guide, we created a simple website by the end of the class. Beginners will appreciate the pace, but you can skip ahead if you already have coding experience. The videos also come with transcripts.
(Credit: Treehouse/PCMag)During the video, pop-ups show helpful keyboard shortcuts and what code tokens look like, such as the open tag and close tag symbols. After some videos, you're asked to complete a Code Challenge to test what you've learned so far. You earn points for each completed challenge, although points don't do anything beyond making you feel rewarded for putting in the work.
After you complete a code challenge, Treehouse checks your work and provides suggestions if you make a mistake. Longer quizzes test your knowledge, though you can skip them. We found the quizzes helpful—not too easy and not too difficult. You earn a badge for each quiz that you pass. Similar to points, badges serve as proof that you finished a task. But like a video game achievement system, you can compare badges with other users in the community leaderboards for bragging rights.
You can participate in only one track at a time, but you can switch back and forth and resume where you left off. We switched to Python, a programming language we knew nothing about. In this track, you'll learn the basics and put together your first small program.
When you choose to take a one-off class from the Library, you can view a video trailer before you begin. If applicable, recommended prerequisites are also listed. Treehouse no longer has dedicated Android and iOS apps, but the website works fine on mobile devices. You must be online to complete the exercises and challenges; Courses Plus subscribers can learn offline by downloading the videos.
(Credit: Treehouse/PCMag)If you run into problems, you can visit the forums or Discord server to ask questions and troubleshoot code with other students and instructors. Many competing services, including Code Avengers, lack this feature. However, Codecademy also has student forums. You can get extra help or report a bug by emailing Treehouse support. If you need inspiration, read success stories from students who previously took a Treehouse course. If you're more motivated by competition, Treehouse's Code Adventures challenges invite community members to tackle specific objectives, such as making an AI short story generator or simply coding for a half hour per day for 100 days.
Molly McLaughlin contributed to this review.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Treehouse)
Treehouse
Treehouse offers many entertaining and engaging classes for novices to learn programming in a structured environment.