Free Coding Bootcamp Guide
Coding bootcamps are known to help individuals double or even triple their salaries. Programs can teach anything from web development to UI/UX design, and the best-rated programs showcase strong job outcomes for graduates. A recent blog post from our friends at Climb Credit explains why Most Bootcamps Have Great ROI, though it's true that many are a noteworthy investment. In an effort to improve bootcamp accessibility, several nonprofit organizations and other programs now offer free coding bootcamps to help introduce students to software development at no cost.
In addition to free courses, students can also take advantage of several programs and financing structures to help them get started for free. Bootcamps like Flatiron School and Fullstack Academy offer free prep courses, which prepare applicants for the full-time programs. Schools like Revature employ students after graduation. Other options include deferred tuition and ISAs. We have a comprehensive list of these programs, as well as a comprehensive list of free coding bootcamps online.
Our guide below highlights each free coding bootcamp that is offered in-person or online. Each program is designed to help you gain fundamental skills before you invest in a more intensive program.
Free Code Camp
Description: Free Code Camp helps people build job-worthy portfolios of real apps used by real people while helping nonprofits. FCC offers free verified certifications in Front End Development and Full Stack Development, and a 1,600-hour full stack JavaScript curriculum that is completely self-paced and browser-based. FCC aims to serve people who are traditionally underserved in the coding community: 80% of FCC's students are 25 or older and a fifth are women.
Resilient Coders
Description: Resilient Coders offers a free, full-time, 14-week JavaScript coding bootcamp in Boston, Massachusetts. The bootcamp trains young people of color for apprenticeships and high growth careers as software engineers. The class meets daily for fourteen weeks to learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, React, Node, and Mongo DB from professionals. Before graduating, students will have demonstrated proficiency in semantically structured markup, inheritance and specificity, accessibility, progressive enhancement, responsive design, and effective use of functions, methods, and variables.
Codecademy
Description: Codecademy is a great place for beginners to start coding. This interactive online platform offers real-time results to individuals who are just beginning to dabble. Their curriculums include HTML & CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Angularjs, The Command Line, and others.
Bridge
Description: Bridge is a free eleven-week program for women in software development. Students meet in-person twice a week, in small class sizes, to work on real-world projects and learn in-demand skills from expert Rangle developers. Bridge is committed to providing a supportive environment where women can learn, ask questions, and build on their technical skills. At the end of the course, students will leave with greatly increased confidence, a project for their portfolio, and experience with highly-sought-after technologies taught by industry experts.
Coursera
Description: Large online course library, where classes are taught by real university professors. All courses are free of charge, but you have the option to pay for a "Coursera Verified Certificate" to prove course completion. These cost between $30 and $100 depending on the course. Coursera also now has specializations, which you do have to pay for.
GA Dash
Description: General Assembly's free online learning platform. Entirely project-based. You build a "project" with each walk-through. They are one of the very few options that have a course on how to build a Tumblr theme from scratch.
Khan Academy
Description: Tons of subjects (as their front page says, "You can learn anything"), including many on computer programming. A few courses are offered for younger kids, too.
The Odin Project
Description: The Odin Project was created to provide a complete path for students to go from zero to employed as web developers while working with other students along the way. Students will start with a short Introduction to Web Development, before moving on to Web Development 101 and more in-depth modules including HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ruby, Rails, Git, databases and more. The tutorials are completely flexible, allowing students to work through each lesson or jump to different lessons/projects. The Odin Project is a completely free coding bootcamp and is best for absolute beginners (and those who have tried other resources without success) who want to work as a web developer, do freelancing work, build a startup, or learn to build a website homepage.
Udacity
Description: Offers individual courses, as well as "nanodegrees" that train you for specific careers like front-end web developer or data analyst. Some course materials are free, but nano degrees require a tuition fee.
Udemy
Description: Udemy offers both paid and free courses on a variety of subjects such as web development, programming, data science, and others. Courses can be created by anyone, so be sure to read Udemy's reviews before diving in.
Skillcrush's Free Coding Bootcamp
Description: Skillcrush's free coding bootcamp is a perfect place to start for absolute newbies. You'll learn what it means to work in tech, get digestible definitions of common industry lingo, and get the chance to write your first lines of code.
NodeSchool
Description: NodeSchool is an open source project run by volunteers with two goals: to create high-quality programming curriculum and to host community learning events.
42 School
Description: Code 42 is a computer-programming training program, which provides its curriculum completely free-of-charge to its students. The program started in Paris, France in 2013 with the aim of improving France's technology sector by developing more qualified technical candidates within France.
Recurse Center
Description: The Recurse Center (formerly Hacker Center) offers a free, 3-month immersive retreat for people intent on improving their programming skills. Recurse Center fosters a largely unstructured, self-directed, and project-based environment, with an emphasis on self-motivation. Participants attend 12-week batches in New York, where they write open-source software and grow together as programmers in a friendly, intellectual, and energizing environment.
Insight Data Science
Description: Insight is an intensive seven-week post-doctoral training Fellowship bridging the gap between academia and data science in Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, Seattle, and Remote. In the past five years, Insight has grown to over 1000 alumni working at over 800 top data teams across the US, including Facebook, Apple, Google, LinkedIn, New York Times, Biogen, Amazon, Airbnb, Yelp, Bloomberg, McKinsey, 23andMe, Wayfair, and many high-growth startups. Insight programs are 100% tuition-free.
The Data Incubator
Description: The Data Incubator is an intensive eight-week bootcamp that prepares the best science and engineering PhDs to work as data scientists and quants. It identifies Fellows who already have the 90% difficult-to-learn skills and equips them with the last 10%: the tools and technology stack that make them self-sufficient, productive contributors. The program is free for Fellows. Employers only pay a tuition fee if they successfully hire.
Ada Developers Academy
Description: Ada Developers Academy is a 27-week program in downtown Seattle offering a tuition-free full-time program to teach full-stack web development to women and people of non-binary gender.
Revature
Description: Revature partners with top universities across the U.S. to provide no-cost courses in programming and software development. RevaturePro is available to current college students and graduates. Through in-person or Hybrid (online and on-campus) coding immersion programs, Revature creates a pathway for individuals with diverse backgrounds to build the knowledge, skills, and abilities to reach their potential as technology professionals.
Founders & Coders
Description: Founders & Coders C.I.C. runs the only free full-time coding course in the UK. It takes students with little or no knowledge of programming and turns them into full-stack web developers. After completing the course, students are encouraged to join their freelance community and to contribute to a growing array of community activities, including the course itself.
Hack Reactor Basic Prep
Description: Founded in 2012, Hack Reactor is a 12-week immersive coding school providing software engineering education, career placement services, and a lifelong network of professional peers. Hack Reactor has campuses in San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles, and New York City, as well as an online, remote immersive (full-time and part-time_. Their cost-free prep program prepares individuals to participate in their full-time, immersive program.
Flatiron School Introductory Courses
Description: Flatiron School is an outcomes-focused coding bootcamp that offers Full Stack Web Development and iOS Development programs at its NYC, Washington, D.C., London, and online campuses. Flatiron School has led the bootcamp industry on outcomes, backing its 98% job placements rate and $75k starting salary with annual independently-verified jobs reports. Flatiron School also offers several free coding bootcamp introductory courses, including Bootcamp Prep, and Certificate courses on their online campus.
Fullstack Academy Prep Program
Description: Fullstack Academy is an immersive software engineering coding bootcamp located in New York City and Chicago. Students of the full-time flagship course learn full stack JavaScript over the course of a 13-week, on-campus program. Students can participate in a free coding bootcamp preparation program to gain basic skills to prepare for the full-time, immersive course.
Makers Academy
Description: Apply for the Makers Fellowship: Make an impact on the technology industry. Learn to code for free at the cutting-edge of tech education and spend your first 12 months working for Makers on transformation projects across the UK. Or apply for a Makers Apprenticeship: Future-proof your career by learning to code through this Government initiative. Our Ofsted-approved pathway is designed to help you transition securely into the tech industry in partnership with your first employer.
Rithm School
Description: Rithm's full-stack web development program is a four-month accelerated learning experience. Rithm School takes independent and thoughtful students and turns them into confident and creative full-stack developers. Rithm School values an intimate learning community and therefore class sizes are 8-16 students. Their curriculum is centered around JavaScript and Python, and also features two weeks of time to contribute meaningfully to open source projects.
Lamda School
Description: Lambda School invests in a small number of ambitious individuals by training them for the world's most in-demand careers. In exchange, Lambda School graduates pay back a small percentage of their salary after they are hired. This unique application and interview process is designed to identify those with great aptitude for a technical career, regardless of their background.
RMOTR
Description: RMOTR school is one of the leading online Python Web Development and Data Science bootcamps. RMOTR offers 4-months online programs where students interact with teachers, mentors, and classmates remotely. Trainings include a clear and curated path to always know "what to do next", scheduled live sessions and mentor support every week to keep you accountable, a set of real-life projects to build your own portfolio, and much more.