We independently test and review every course that we recommend.
Please support us by joining our mailing list, and recommending this guide to others.

Course Review

The Odin Project

The Odin Project

Here is our in-depth review of The Odin Project, based on hours of rigorous testing and evaluation.

Updated: November 30, 2023

Bottom Line

Another stellar free, self-paced bootcamp curriculum. While not quite as in-depth or comprehensive as our other recommended resources, it's still a great option to learn full stack development foundations.

This Course is Great For

  • Learning Through Reading
  • Microlearning
  • Supplemental Materials
  • Real-world Projects

Fast Facts

The Odin Project

The Odin Project

The Odin Project

By Various

💰 Free 🕗 10+ months at 10 hours per week
👩‍💻 Written Guides, External Guides, Solo Projects

#6 in The Best Self-paced Courses for Learning Fullstack Development in 2024

Odin Project begins with a foundations curriculum and then splits into two tracks: a full stack JavaScript curriculum, and a Ruby & JavaScript curriculum. Both are excellent and proven curricula, and the platform includes resources to help you choose.

Before You Buy

Odin Project emphasizes recall and project application more than practicing techniques. So with Odin Project, you won’t get nearly as much built-in practice as you’ll get in other platforms.

The curriculum doesn’t go into some important concepts you’ll need to be familiar with, including devops essentials like Linux, AWS, and CI/CD. You’ll want to supplement the curriculum with some additional study in these areas.

Go to Course

Other Courses to Consider to Learn Fullstack Developer

Full Stack Developer Career Track

Full Stack Developer Career Track

Udacity

By Various

💰 $249 per month 🕗 4-12 months at 10 hours per week
👩‍💻 Videos| Readings| Quizzes| Exercises| Solo Projects

#1 in The Best Self-paced Courses for Learning Fullstack Development in 2024

The best self-paced full stack program money can buy. It's expensive, but well worth the cost for the quality of instruction and the quality of feedback on your work. The emphasis on practice exercises and real-world hands-on projects are standout features.

Read Our Full Review

App Academy Open

App Academy Open

App Academy

By Various Authors

💰 Free 🕗 10-12 months at 10 hours per week
👩‍💻 Videos| Readings| Coding Challenges| Quizzes| Solo Projects

#2 in The Best Self-paced Courses for Learning Fullstack Development in 2024

Tremendous free curriculum for learning the foundations of fullstack software development, from one of the top-rated coding bootcamps. Not as seamless an experience as our other recommendations, and lacks assessments and feedback on your work, but it's an excellent option.

Read Our Full Review

Full Stack Open

Full Stack Open

Full Stack Open

By Various Authors

💰 Free 🕗 13 weeks at 10-20 hours per week
👩‍💻 readings| hands-on exercises| projects

#3 in The Best Self-paced Courses for Learning Fullstack Development in 2024

An impressive free, text-based curriculum developed in partnership with tech companies, that offers feedback on coding exercises and certificates of completion.

Read Our Full Review

Full Stack Engineer Career Path

Full Stack Engineer Career Path

Codecademy

By Various Authors

💰 $29 per month 🕗 6 months at 10 hours per week
👩‍💻 Videos| Readings| Assessments| Coding Challenges| Guided Projects| Solo Projects

#4 in The Best Self-paced Courses for Learning Fullstack Development in 2024

Solid hands-on learning option for the core concepts of fullstack development. Also a good option for supplemental practice or knowledge checks. Probably not enough to land a job as a fullstack engineer, but probably enough to start freelancing on smaller projects.

Read Our Full Review

CS50 and CS50 Web

CS50 and CS50 Web

CS50

By David Malan and Brian Yu

💰 $199 per course for certificate (Free to audit) 🕗 6 months at 10 hours per week
👩‍💻 Videos| Projects

#5 in The Best Self-paced Courses for Learning Fullstack Development in 2024

The gold standard of open online courses, Harvard's CS50, provides one of the best ways for programmers to learn programming as well as the basics of full stack web development. Probably not enough to land a job as a fullstack engineer, but probably enough to start freelancing on smaller projects.

Read Our Full Review

Why You Should Trust Us

Our course reviews are conducted by a team of technical professionals, course developers, and lifelong learners.

The lead of this project, Brian Green, has worked in developer education since 2009. He built the content development teams at Pluralsight and Udacity, implementing quality standards and tutorials to improve course quality and working with hundreds of authors to create courseware. Most recently, he built the product team at App Academy. As of writing, he estimates he has spent nearly a year of his life taking or reviewing online courses, on topics ranging from Web Development, Networking, Server Administration, DevOps, Cybersecurity, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.

How We Tested

Evaluation Criteria

We reviewed this course using the following criteria:

  1. Outcomes: The course needs to cover the essentials for someone to start working with Fullstack Developer in a professional capacity or on a professional-grade project. That means covering the right topics and not going beyond the scope of the course objectives.
  2. Learning Features: Real skill development happens with fingers on keys, particularly for learners moving from novice level. We looked for courses with more than just videos; exercises and projects were essential.
  3. Production Quality: The course should include polished and professional course materials. In 2024, the table stakes of even an average course are professional video production, uniform sound levels and noise-free audio, and course materials that are free of typos. Videos should also be captioned and transcribed.
  4. Real World Application: A great course teaches you enough to work on a production application. We looked for examples and best practices from professional experience, not just basic examples of how something works on a toy application.
  5. Support and Community: Learning is better together! We promote courses with thriving communities and rapid, helpful support for learners, and tend to rate courses lower if they lack community or if the community isn't valuable.

Get Curricular In Your Inbox

Subscribe to get the latest learning guides, deals, and tips for maximizing your learning.

Back to Guides