Top Coding Resources and Tools for Beginners (+ Beyond)

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When you’re just getting started exploring the world of tech, having the right programming tools for beginners makes a world of difference. You want coding resources that make it easy and fun to learn the skills you want—not dry, incomprehensible teaching that you can barely wrap your head around.

The programming resources list in this article contains many of my favorite websites to learn coding, courses, tutorials, guides and books, including many I used when I was just starting out! It also has resources to help with your tech career or just make your work & learning life easier (e.g. productivity tools, computers, keyboards, standing desks, etc). 

Tech evolves quickly, so as I discover any awesome new programming tools for beginners, I’ll make sure to add them to the list. I want this to be a post you can bookmark and reference for all your beginner-friendly coding resource needs :) 

Disclosure: I’m a proud affiliate for some of the resources mentioned in this article. If you buy a product through my links on this page, I may get a small commission for referring you. Thanks!

Table of Contents

Please note that pricing listed below may change in the future!

⭐ Sponsored Resource ⭐

TripleTen

TripleTen is an online coding bootcamp aimed at sparking career change. They stand by the quality of their program; if you don’t secure a position within six months of graduating, they’ll refund your money — guaranteed.

They currently have three professions to choose from: Web Developer, Data Analyst, and Data Scientist. Each bootcamp includes full access to an interactive online platform, real-life projects, tutor support from experienced professionals, code reviews, live-coding sessions, and career acceleration programs from resume building to job offer negotiation with an average employment rate of 87%. 

Pick your desired profession and get your career change underway. 

💰Price: A one-time payment of $4,900-9,700 depending on the profession you choose. 

General Coding Resources for Beginners

Codecademy

Codecademy is entirely free, and it’s the coding resource where many people get their start. (It’s actually the first place I started learning, back while I was living in Thailand.) Instead of having video lectures, they offer interactive learning; you type the lessons into your desktop, and it shows you the results almost instantly. They also have a Pro account in addition to their existing free material.

💰 Price: Free or $19.99 a month, billed yearly (or $39.99 a month, billed monthly) for their Pro plan

Team Treehouse

Carries videos of everything from HTML to Ruby on Rails and PHP. So far, I have used Treehouse to learn JavaScript primarily. I like Treehouse because they have periodic quizzes as well as code challenges throughout the lessons. These quizzes and assignments help keep you on your toes!

💰 Price: $25/month (free 2 weeks trial)

team treehouse

Udemy

Udemy is an online learning platform where anyone can create and upload courses on just about any topic. There are over 35,000 courses on the platform, from cooking to coding. You can find coding resources for beginners or more advanced programmers there. Some of their popular coding classes include Learn and Understand AngularJS, The Complete Web Developer Course 2.0, and others. They have programming courses on almost any language and framework imaginable. However, you can check out 15 of the best web development ones here.

💰 Price: varies based on course (typically free – $300)

Coursera

Offers a multitude of online courses taught by actual college professors, all for free. So far I have only taken one course through the platform, Programming for Everybody, which is a coding-for-beginners course that I really enjoyed. Different online classes have different formats, but Programming for Everybody combined video lectures, coding assignments, and quizzes, so it felt like the best of all worlds. Check out 11 of the best Coursera coding courses for aspiring programmers here.

💰 Price: varies but typically $29–$99 per course; there are also “specializations”, which are like bundled courses that range from $39–$79/month

Pluralsight

In my opinion, Pluralsight is a lot like Treehouse. However, Pluralsight has more interactive challenges. (I know some people like more than multiple-choice quizzes.) Pluralsight also offers some completely free courses, which is nice.

💰 Price: $29/month or $299/year

pluralsight

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is a great resource for people who want to learn about a variety of topics. It has thousands of courses that range from Photoshop to negotiating skills to typography…and of course, web development and other tech skills. Read my in-depth review of the platform here

💰 Price: $29.99/month or $19.99/month billed annually (one month free trial)

Udacity

With more of an academic bent, Udacity has courses that don’t just relate to web development, but also cover data science, business, and more. Also, they offer “nanodegrees,” a type of credential program that helps you learn career-targeted skills and develop a portfolio. Udacity partners with companies like Google, AT&T, Salesforce, and others to create their courses. If you’d like to learn more about Udacity, read my review about one of the Udacity Intro to Programming courses.

💰 Price: Free–$399/month per nanodegree program

freeCodeCamp

A self-paced coding class that teaches powerful skills such as JavaScript, HML5, CSS3, and more. After completing 1,200 hours (starting with beginners’ coding and getting more advanced), you can further develop your skills by working in a small team to build solutions for nonprofits while gaining real-life experience. As the name implies, freeCodeCamp is a completely free tool for coding and only requires an email address to get started.

💰 Price: Free

freecodecamp

One Month

One Month keeps adding new courses, which cover topics like Ruby on Rails, iOS, content marketing, command line basics, and more. Each class is designed to be completed in one month, hence their name. The annual plan ($299) provides access to all of One Month’s coding resources. Read my full review of the platform here.

💰 Price: $299/year (sign up for One Month here)

edX

edX offers university-level courses in various computer science disciplines, including Python, front-end and full-stack development, and blockchain. Beyond CS topics, edX also  offers courses, MicroMasters degrees, professional certificates, and other types of courses on 31 different subjects from music to design to medicine.

💰 Price: Free when you enroll in the audit track; between $50–$300 to get a verified certificate

Code With Mosh

“Clear, concise and practical training with no fluff.” Code With Mosh offers 40 different coding courses on topics like Python, Git, React, Node.js, SQL, data structures, and much more! All courses are taught by Mosh Hamedani, a software engineer with 20 years of professional experience.

💰 Price: $19/month (30-day money-back guarantee)

Mammoth Interactive

Offers a wide range of courses in programming, data science and development taught by a variety of different expert instructors. Check out their best-selling masterclass Hello Coding 2020: Anyone Can Learn to Code (250 Hours).

💰 Price: $19.99/month for access to all 261 courses; individual course prices range from $50 to $500

Mammoth Interactive

The Collins School of Data

Want to advance your data analysis and spreadsheet skills? The Collins School of Data is a great option. Courses range from the free Advanced Formulas 30-Day Challenge to Automation with Apps Script. Throughout Ben Collins’s courses, you’ll learn how to build data-driven applications for the Google stack (e.g., Google Sheets, Google Data Studio, Google Apps Script, Google Docs, Gmail).

💰 Price: $649 for the all-course bundle; free to $199 for individual courses

Zero to Mastery

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, Zero to Mastery’s comprehensive programming resources will help you gain the practical skills that will get you hired. Enroll today to receive instant access to 13 courses, including over 3,500 professional (and fun!) lessons. Subscription includes access to all courses, a private Discord server, member-only content, competition certificates, and more.

💰 Price: $29/month or $264/year for access to all current and future courses + other perks

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HTML/CSS Coding Resources

GA Dash

General Assembly is an in-person coding school with “schools” around the US. Recently, they also added a free online learning platform. Their projects mostly focus on coding resources for beginners like HTML/CSS, with some Javascript. I enjoy Dash because of their overall learning experience: they combine slideshows with interactive learning, where you code in an online editor and view the results instantly. Find out more about Dash here, where I talk about their Tumblr theme tutorial.

ga dash

CSS-Tricks

Chris Coyier, the creator of CSS-Tricks, is basically a CSS god. When I first began teaching myself HTML and CSS, his site was one of the first I came across. While his blog reel goes far back (he began years ago, in fact), his latest posts are always extremely relevant and up-to-date.

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JavaScript Programming Resources

JavaScript Courses at Team Treehouse

Treehouse has multiple online classes teaching JavaScript, from beginner levels to advanced. In fact, they currently offer nearly 300 different courses, and are always adding more! They also have instruction on specific libraries like Angular.js, Ember.js, and jQuery. While I’ve dabbled in a few of their JavaScript classes, I’ve only completed the JavaScript Basics course from start to finish.

Learn more about Team Treehouse and pricing ≫

JavaScript Is Sexy

Curated study guides for learning certain JavaScript-related topics. Every guide gives you a learning plan, suggesting various resources around the web that will help you learn to code and grasp new concepts. This coding resource is a wonderful alternative for the person who wants a more self-directed learning experience, rather than the “press play” experience associated with a lot of the online learning platforms. (Which by no means is a bad thing…it just depends on your preference!)

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Tools for Coding Fundamentals

Foundations of Programming: Fundamentals

This online course on LinkedIn Learning is perfect for an absolute beginner. The instructor, Annyce Davis, does a fantastic job explaining the basics and demonstrating programming concepts using Javascript. All in all, I think JavaScript is a great first or second language for beginners to learn to code, especially given the popularity of JavaScript on the back end.

Learn more about LinkedIn Learning and pricing ≫

Programming for Non-Programmers

As the One Month team says, this coding-for-beginners course will teach you how to “speak geek”. It goes over the basics of web development: how to hire a developer, how to read code, how to set up web project deliverables etc. Great for project managers and entrepreneurs.

programming for non-programmers

Learn more about One Month and pricing ≫

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Tech Career Prep Resources

Interview Cake

Interview Cake is a website that allows you to run through technical interview practice questions. You can practice programming-language-specific questions, plus see what some of the common interview formats are for major tech companies. Listen to my podcast episode on how to rock the tech interview with the founder of Interview Cake, Parker Phinney or read my comprehensive Interview Cake review.

Break into Tech

Created by former Apple and LinkedIn employee Jeremy Schifeling, Break into Tech offers resume, cover letter, and interview advice for those looking to break into the tech industry. Want individualized help with your job hunt? Look into a coaching call or application review with Jeremy.

AlgoExpert

AlgoExpert is a platform that helps you master the information you need to ace your coding interview. It offers 100 coding interview questions with solutions in 9 different programming languages, plus 70+ hours of code walkthroughs from experienced software engineer Clément Mihailescu. Read my full review of the platform here.

algoexpert

Exponent

If you’re interviewing for product management roles, Exponent is the interview prep tool you need. Get access to interview prep courses with questions on product design, product strategy, etc., plus 1-on-1 mock interviews, a database of interview questions, and more. LTCWM readers even get a discount using my link.

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Command Line Resources

Unix for Mac OS X Users

I enjoyed this online class on LinkedIn Learning. It’s a great way to familiarize yourself with the command line. The instructor also covers things like the history of computing. It’s always nice to understand the past to realize how we got to where we are today.

Learn more about LinkedIn Learning and pricing ≫

Command Line Crash Course

A great guide by Zed Shaw (mentioned below). Understanding the command line is crucial when it comes to learning how to program. In this crash course, Shaw goes over all the command line fundamentals over and over again to get it in your brain. By the end, you will gain some level of familiarity with working in the command line. (Find out more about the command line here.)

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Git and GitHub Resources

GitHub Learning Lab

Learn how to use GitHub by doing practical projects with the help of a bot!

💰 Price: Free

GitHub Learning

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Python Programming Resources

Learn Python the Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code (via Amazon)

A book by Zed A. Shaw. It may take a while to go through all 200+ pages in this book, but I guarantee you will learn twenty times more with it than by doing a few free Python exercises online. It’s not easy, but it works. Check out this post for 54 more programming book recommendations

💰 Check the price on Amazon

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Ruby on Rails Coding Resources

Launch School

Launch School is an intensive learn-to-code program that has been created for aspiring software engineers. Focusing on programming fundamentals, this coding resource is for serious beginners only, not the faint-hearted. Check out their free ebook Introduction to Programming with Ruby.

💰 Price: $199/month

Launch School

One Month Rails

I loved this online course when I took it. It’s a perfect coding resource for beginners who are just starting out and looking to learn to code simple web applications with Ruby on Rails. Read my more in-depth review of the online course here.

Learn more about One Month and pricing ≫

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One-on-One Coding Assistance

Codementor

Codementor is more focused on long-term mentorship than instant help. On Codementor you can look at different mentors’ profiles, similar to LinkedIn. Also on Codementor you can schedule appointments in advance. Read my review of the service here.

💰 Price: depends on the mentor you choose.

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In-Person Workshops

Girl Develop It (GDI)

If you learn to code better with in-person interaction, set in a more traditional classroom style, I highly recommend looking into GDI programming resources. I personally have taken nearly ten workshops with the group on a number of different topics: HTML/CSS, Javascript, Photoshop, SEO, and a few others. At the time of writing, they have chapters in 40+ cities across the US. Check here for the one closest to you.

💰 Price: Depends on workshop and location; typically from free to $90

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Website Tools

Bluehost

Bluehost is really easy to use with WordPress because it offers a one-click installation. They also have pretty awesome customer service online and over the phone. You can even add multiple domains to your hosting account, which is great. Because it’s so cheap, it’s a good beginner-friendly option (and where I got started!).

💰 Price: From $3.95/month (host your site on Bluehost now)

bluehost

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an email service provider geared toward podcasters, and other businesses who are building audiences. Unlike other competitors in a similar price range, ConvertKit offers advanced email marketing automation features. (Think tags, segments, triggers, drip emails, and more.) If you’re a blogger and would like to automate your email marketing, check out ConvertKit.

💰 Price: Free if you have 1,000 subscribers or fewer; from $29/month if you have more

Kinsta

With this robust WordPress-only host, you can rest assured that your site will be able to seamlessly handle a ton of traffic (with plans ranging from 20,000 monthly visitors to millions). You can also use one account for multiple WordPress sites if you choose. Kinsta is the host I use now for LTCWM. While it’s more expensive than Bluehost, it’s definitely an upgrade. Features include free SSL certificates, built-in analytics, and more. (Learn more about Kinsta in our review here.)

💰 Price: $30/month to $1,500/month

Buffer

Schedule your social media posts in advance with Buffer. The service has other awesome tools, like the ability to add multiple users to accounts, suggested posts, ability to add various RSS feeds, etc. 

💰 Price: $15/month–$99/month

buffer

Teachable

Similar to an online classroom, Teachable is a learning management system for creating and teaching courses. With millions of students and over 20,00 active courses, content creators can effortlessly create an online course and upload them with powerful features for selling your course, such as discount codes and affiliate tracking.

💰 Price: $29–$299/month.

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Blogging 101

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Design and Multimedia

Creative Market

A marketplace where you can find all kinds of design elements to use in your projects — from fonts to Photoshop add-ons to photos and graphics (e.g., icons, illustrations, textures) to 3D characters and much, much more.

💰 Price: Varies

creative market

Lucidchart

In-browser program where you can make all different kinds of charts and diagrams. It’s a great tool for wireframing and mind-mapping. They also offer premium and enterprise memberships so that you can collaborate with others on a team—in real-time, even.

💰 Price: Choose from their free plan or individual plan that starts at $7.95/month, depending on your needs

Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

There are two premium Adobe design tools that I use. (There are many others that I don’t.) These two — Photoshop and Illustrator — are often found in the designer’s tool box. Photoshop is meant more for photo editing, whereas Illustrator is for creating vector graphics or SVGs.

💰 Price: From $20.99/month

Canva

A free alternative (with some paid options) for people without the budget for Illustrator. Canva gives you dimensions for social media imagery (like cover photos), and pre-made layouts. It makes designing easy for the non-designer. They now have “Canva for Work”, which is essentially a pro plan.

💰 Price: free or $9.95/month per team member (if using Canva for Work)

canva

ScreenFlow

Great for screen recording and editing. With ScreenFlow, you can record through your desktop and through your webcam at the same time. However, it is available on Macs only. I use it to give out project instructions sometimes, too :)

💰 Price: Free trial, but videos will be watermarked. $129 one-time fee.

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Productivity Tools

Grammarly

This online writing assistant tool saves you time because you don’t have to manually triple-check everything you write — it checks grammar, spelling, sentence structure, misused words, etc. for you. 

💰 Price: Free (for individuals)–$1,200/year (for group plans)

Asana

A project management tool that lets you keep track of tasks, set deadlines, and collaborate with others.

💰 Price: Free–$10.99/month (per user)

Google Drive

Create and store documents, spreadsheets, and more with the convenience of the cloud.

💰 Price: Free (15 GB)–$149.99/month (30 TB+)

Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud storage service that allows you to store files online and synchronize files between devices. It comes with visibility controls, so you can choose to keep files private or share them with others. You can access Dropbox via computer, tablet and smartphone, making it simple to do work on the go. Even better, Dropbox is free up to a certain point; you can store up to 2 GB free of charge. More than that will cost you, but it’s affordable.

💰 Price: Free, $9.99/month for personal plan, or $16.58/month for business plan

dropbox

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Electronics and Office

All the tools in this section are from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

13.3″ Macbook Pro (Retina Display)

This was my first Macbook ever. Before I began coding/designing, using a Windows computer was perfectly suitable. It got the job done. But nowadays, having a Retina display really helps when it comes to web design. Plus, Macs run on Unix — which is more common for my purposes. I don’t think I can ever go back to Windows now!

💰 Price: Check the price on Amazon

Apple Wireless Keyboard

This keyboard works using Bluetooth. I put off buying this keyboard for months. But after going through a few keyboards and losing USBs, I figured it was time for an upgrade. It has been so worth it! The keyboard can be used on other devices, too, like your iPad. It is pricier for a keyboard… But I am so happy I invested in this!

💰 Price: Check the price on Amazon

Apple iPad Air

I know this is dangerous…but I mostly use my iPad while at the gym. It’s a way for me to handle an inbox full of emails and burn some calories at the same time. (I do this by riding a stationary bike or walking slowly on a treadmill and multitasking.) Of course, an iPad also comes in handy when traveling or going to events, as it’s lighter and smaller than a laptop.

💰 Price: Check the price on Amazon

ipad air

Apple Watch Series 3

A sport band with heart rate sensor, accelerometer and gyroscope. I use it primarily to track my steps and be able to receive notifications while not looking at my phone.

💰 Price: Check the price on Amazon

Adjustable and Portable Laptop Table

Speaking of staying active…I stand more than I sit when working. This desk is particularly awesome because the height is adjustable and you can travel with it. (I actually keep it in my trunk…) I actually have two other standing desks—but neither are as portable.

💰 Price: Check the price on Amazon

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Even More Resources for Coding

Want the scoop on hundreds of other programming resources? Check out these other posts on the Learn to Code With Me blog:

Note: This article contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.