20 best alternatives to SQLBolt as of 2018 - Slant

Codecademy

Top Pro

Interactivity

Right from the start, users write code. They start small in an environment that has constant feedback and gradually progress to more complex concepts. Users can see code results instantly, giving great feedback. See More

Top Con

Lack of context

Codecademy is great for providing a hands-on approach, but there is a lack of context regarding how to start a project in real life. While users may learn how to code using Codecademy's interface, they may not have any idea how to code independently. See More

Top Pro

Excellent progression

Codeacademy doesn't overwhelm beginners with information. It gives bite-sized information, the bare minimum needed to finish a task and get to the next one. As the course progresses, it slowly fills in background information. See More

Top Con

Not the best structure for quick refreshers

The content of the lessons is aimed very much at people just starting to learn how to code. This is perfect for beginners but if you want to use Codecademy to refresh your knowledge the lessons are not designed to be quickly done. See More

Top Pro

Good editor

Codeacademy has a powerful, beginner-friendly integrated development environment (IDE) that can also be used outside of curriculum. See More

Top Con

Buggy

Codecademy is known to have many bugs which interfere with the editor, resulting in error messages despite having the correct answer. See More

Top Pro

Bite-sized lessons

Each lesson in code-academy focuses on a single concept, and repetition is provided to drill the concept. See More

Top Con

Deleted a lot of content

A lot of free content has been taken away, for example the PHP course was removed from the site. See More

Top Con

Allows infinite loops to run

If you run an infinite loop, the browser freezes. Many other similar websites will give you an error, preventing the loop from running. Though not a bug, the lack of feature to stop infinite loops from running can be quite frustrating to beginners. See More

Specs

Languages:HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Ruby, Python

Features:Code editor, forum, progress saver, written tutorials

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136 28

Treehouse

Top Pro

Great instructors

The course formats are flexible enough that instructors are able to employ their own styles so long as exercises are offered in consistent intervals and student progress is measurable. The instructors communicate very clearly and are very approachable. See More

Top Con

Credit card required to sign up for the free trial

Treehouse offers a free 14-day trial, but requires a credit card to sign up. See More

Top Pro

Great material presentation, instruction, and visualization

Their animations and screenshares supplement the instruction, giving a really good all-around learning experience. See More

Top Con

The quality is inconsistent among courses

Treehouse has multiple teachers in order to provide such a variety of content. However there is a lack of consistency with teaching styles - Some courses provide content that is well explained and goes at a reasonable pace. Other courses can be quite hard to follow. The challenges are also inconsistent - Some are too easy and don't reinforce much of the material learned. See More

Top Pro

Learning tracks

Trying to figure out what language or tool to learn can be frustrating. TreeHouse groups their courses into learning tracks so you have more guidance, based on what type of development you want to do. Some of the tracks they offer: Web Design, Front-end Development, Full-Stack Javascript, and PHP Development (see the list here). See More

Top Con

Regular participation is essential

This is not a good place to skip ahead and work backwards from a specific need. In fact, even skipping sections you have mastery in can be risky since the condensed material relies heavily on past examples. See More

Top Pro

Best beginner's option

Materials are very well made and it'll get you started with the technology as fast as possible. Haven't found tutorials that well made and understandable. Nothing is skipped or assumed without reference to courses within that were recommended to you earlier. This makes the site an efficient review resource if you ever forget a basic concept. See More

Top Con

Way too expensive compared with other options

Most advanced materials are locked away as "Pro/Bonus." See More

Top Pro

Project-based learning

Soup to Bits videos show you how to build an app step by step in real time. Each is short and digestible yet illustrates many relevant new concepts. See More

Top Con

Charges your credit card before the free trial expires

The Treehouse offers a free trial period, which is nice on the one hand. On the other hand you still need to register a payment method to be able to use it. And what's even worse, if you cancel the paid subscription before the FREE trial ends, you loose any access to free trial! So you will then have to pay a subscription fee to renew the access to the free course even though you SHOULD have some trial period left. That is absolutely unacceptable these days and smells as quite a shady business practice. See More

Top Pro

New material added freqently

TreeHouse releases multiple new courses every month on various different topics. They do an excellent job of keeping pace with a changing industry. For example, they released courses on Swift not long after Swift was released. See More

Top Con

Has become very buggy/unreliable

The number of bugs has gradually been increasing to the point where the platform may be more frustrating than beneficial for some users (as of October 2016). The engineers seem to be doing their best to stay on top of things, but bugs appear to be occurring faster than they can fix them. Some bugs require you to refresh the page (often multiple times) before getting the information correctly displayed. UI elements jump around, some features on the site are broken. See More

Top Pro

Build projects as you learn

Most TreeHouse courses allow you to build interesting real-world projects that make for a fun way to learn how to apply what you've learned (such as apps, websites, UI elements and more). See More

Top Con

The forum lacks conversation/engagement

TreeHouse provides a a forum for students to have discussions. However almost all posts are students looking for answers to the quizzes and challenges. Any attempts at general discussions about business, learning, programming, job seeking etc. tend to go without replies. See More

Top Pro

Forum

If you're stuck with an task you can easily get help on their forum. Most topics are visited by hundreds of students per day and responses are often returned within minutes if not seconds. In case your question cannot be answered by the imminent community, they can be pushed to recommended members or staff experts for prompt responses. See More

Top Con

Not an in-depth resource

Most Treehouse courses are geared towards beginners, making it necessary to use other resources in order to gain a deeper understanding of the language you're learning. See More

Top Pro

iOS and Android app

Treeehouse provides an app for both iOS and Android that is easy to use. See More

Top Pro

Portfolio

You can share courses that you successfully completed when you're applying for a job. Probably after completing course you have a solid understanding in given technology. See More

Top Pro

Motivates Students

The community is very supportive and the company convincingly more interested in your positive referral than in your subscription, though both is obviously preferred. Besides recognition and gamification, your timely progress is actively encouraged. There are even employer monitored sections with suggestions of how to meet career goals with related skills. See More

Top Pro

Workspaces

You don't have to install anything to your computer and can learn from anywhere using their Workspaces. The effectiveness of this tool cannot be overstated. Even though instructors often preface courses with installation guides to setup popular environments the Workspaces allow you to jump right in, mimic the examples, work on your project, experiment with tangent thoughts, or even complete parallel courses simultaneously, within separate Workspace instances. Execution is very fast and space is ample. See More

Top Pro

Very Effective Resource

Criticizing the lack of advanced material seems unjustified considering how consistent the paths are with the costs and transparent intentions. Advanced resources are usually politely introduced then passed over. See More

Top Pro

Student discount

You can get a student discount easily using their email support. See More

Specs

Languages:HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, PHP, Objective-C, Java, Swift

Features:Projects, quizes, video tutorials, editor, progress saver, forum

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51 15

SoloLearn

Top Pro

Completely free

Top Con

Only the most commonly used languages are covered.

C++, Java, JavaScript, C#, Python, SQL, PHP, Swift, Ruby, JQuery, HTML, CSS. You won't find anything less common like Haskell, Erlang, Elixir, Common Lisp, Scheme, Clojure, Rust, etc. See More

Top Pro

Offline learning mode for mobile apps

Allows learning while disconnected from the net. See More

Top Con

Limited usefulness for intermediate or experienced programmers

No advanced coding challenges. Look for those on other sites like hackerrank. See More

Top Pro

Easy for beginners

Anyone can get started with this. See More

Top Pro

Share and modify others' projects

Top Pro

Browser-based code playgrounds

No software installation needed, just a modern web browser. On mobile devices though the mobile apps are highly recommended. See More

Top Pro

Excellent mobile apps available

Top Pro

Gamification

XP, levels, badges, certificates, etc. See More

Specs

Languages:C++, Java, JavaScript, C#, Python, SQL, PHP, Swift, Ruby, JQuery, HTML, CSS.

Offline operation:Yes

Mobile apps:Yes

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10 0

edX

Top Pro

Large selection of science courses

edX offers a wide variety of science-related courses. This makes it a great resource for learning not only specific programming languages, but also other topics relating to computer science. See More

Top Con

Courses aren't always available

While edX does offer some self-paced courses, you may end up waiting for the course of your choice to be run. See More

Top Pro

Offers courses from well known schools

edX offers courses from a wide range of well known colleges and universities including Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley, Cornell and more. See More

Top Con

Lack of engagement in the forums

edX does not have the same forum participation from both students and instructors that other websites do, and the form of engagement often does not encourage discussion. See More

Top Pro

Offer certificates for some courses

Top Con

The forums are difficult to navigate

The forums are difficult to sort by date and topic, and are unintuitive to navigate. See More

Top Pro

A lot of topics (subjects)

Topics include biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, finance, electronics, engineering, food and nutrition, history, humanities, law, literature, math, medicine, music, philosophy, physics, science, statistics and more. See More

Top Pro

Free

Both edX and the classes are free. See More

Specs

Languages:Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, English, Russian, French

Features:Forum, video tutorials, written tutorials, projects

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34 2

Dash

Top Con

Requires you to sign up for information

The Dash website provides very little information and requires you to sign up with your e-mail if you want to learn more (such as cost). See More

Top Pro

Real-time editor

The result of what you write shows next to your code in real-time. See More

Top Pro

Slideshows

Slideshows explain concepts and show the final result of given task without taking you out of the moment. See More

4 0

Udacity

Top Pro

Courses taught by industry professionals

Top Con

Nanodegrees are expensive

Udacity is quite expensive at $200/month if you want to do a nanodegree. See More

Top Pro

All courses are self-paced

Courses are always made available which means there is no waiting for the specific course you want to run. You can work through the courses as fast or as slow as you want. See More

Top Pro

Offers Nanodegrees

Udacity offers a few different Nanodegrees which provide access to various different courses, project reviews and coaching support for $200/month. Current options include Front End Web Developer, Data Analyst and Android Developer. See the full list here. See More

Top Pro

Courses are easy to understand

Top Pro

Actual feedback on coding projects

You get actual feedback from developers on your code, which is useful. Yes having your sites/apps do what it is supposed to do is important, but you need feedback to learn industry standards/best practices and other gotchas that are much harder to learn on your own. See More

Specs

Languages:HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Python, Swift, SQL, R

Features:Editor, progress saver, forum, video tutorials

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69 4

Lynda

Top Pro

Quality and quantity

Top Con

Lacks a community

With no user forum, there is very little opportunity to engage with other students and discuss the learning material. See More

Top Pro

Video tutorials with commentaries

Top Con

iOS and Android apps are somewhat poor

Compared to the experience available on the web, the mobile apps are severely lagging behind. See More

Top Pro

Extensive

There are a lot of different languages to choose from thanks to their large offering of courses (almost 4000 total that cover various subjects). See More

Top Con

More ways to help retain the information would be helpful

More quizzes, tests and assignments to help practice and retain the presented information would be helpful. See More

Top Pro

Build as you learn

Many courses offered on Lynda take a hands-on approach, encouraging you to apply what you learn by building projects. See More

Top Pro

It's possible to get transcripts of videos

Top Pro

Videos can be watched at 2x speed

If you feel yourself getting bored with the lecture, it's possible to speed it up to get through it quicker. See More

Specs

Languages:Java, JavaScript, C++, PHP, Ruby, HTML, CSS,MySQL, Go

Features:Video tutorials, progress saver, tutorials

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44 3

Code Avengers

Top Pro

Reinforces concepts through fun interactions

Code Avengers makes their material engaging and interactive, which aids with understanding and retention of the material. See More

Top Con

A little slow

It may be slow, but that's only because it's thorough. See More

Top Pro

Full of context

Explains what everything is before you must use it, unlike Codecademy, which just kind of tells you to do stuff. To figure out what everything is exactly, you must either look at the glossary or google it. See More

Top Con

Limited selection of courses

Compared to many other paid learning resources, Code avengers currently has a limited number of courses to choose from. See More

Top Pro

Wide selection of courses

Not only do they offer Python, CSS and HTML, and all the works, they offer them in context packages, where you can work on a project that utilizes one or the other. Also, there are different recommended tracks for different purposes - web designer, etc. See More

Specs

Languages:HTML / CSS / JavaScript / Python

Features:Editor / written tutorials / progress saver

13 1

exercism.io

Top Pro

Human review and feedback

Rather than merely test for code correctness, Exercism uses peer review to improve general programming techniques. Users are encouraged to comment on others' solutions, and refine their own based on feedback. See More

Top Con

Custom commandline client

Exercism requires using a CLI utility to fetch and submit exercises. This is inconvenient compared to web-only alternatives, and poses an additional barrier to entry for some users. See More

Top Pro

Practice with production tools

Unlike many code practice websites, Exercism requires the user to develop and test entirely offline, submitting only the finished code. This promotes familiarity with essential tools and workflow, not just the bare language. See More

Specs

Languages:Clojure, CoffeeScript, C++, C#, Crystal, Elixir, Java, Elm, Erlang, F#, Go, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Common Lisp, Lua, Objective-C, Ocaml, Perl 5, PHP, PL/SQL, PureScript, Python, R, Racket, Ruby, Rust, Scala, Scheme, Swift, TypeScript

Features:Exercises

72 5

Thinkster

Top Pro

Real-world projects

The tutorials walk you through building different apps such as a Slack clone and simplified Google+ clone. See More

Top Con

Monthly subscription to access videos

With a free account, you are able to view all the text in a tutorial. However to view the videos, you have to sign up for a monthly subscription ($19/month). See More

Top Pro

Available online, as a PDF and screencast

Depending on your needs or wishes you can get the ebook, screencasts, sample code on thinkster.io. See More

22 2

Coursera

Top Pro

High quality courses from well known universities

Many courses offered at Coursera are from well known universities (such as Stanford and Princeton) and instructed by their professors. Often the material taught in the Coursera courses is material from the actual university course. See More

Top Con

Courses are not always available

Courses are run on set dates, though some courses provide access to the material whether or not the course is running (however, there will be far less student activity in the forums when the course is not running). Some courses only make their material available when the course is running, so you may have to wait a long period (sometimes months) for your course to be offered. See More

Top Pro

You can audit courses for free

Top Con

You cannot take the full courses for free

While you used to be able to take courses for free and earn a statement of accomplishment, this is no longer the case. You can only audit the courses if you are not paying. Coursera makes it seem like you should also do the quizzes, but the submit button says "Upgrade to submit". See More

Top Pro

Wide selection of courses

Coursera offers over 1000 courses on a variety of different topics. Courses are offered on learning to code and specific languages, but there is also a large selection of courses that would be beneficial to someone wanting to learn more about computer science as well (algorithms, data science, computer security) and plenty others. See More

Top Pro

Courses offered in a variety of languages (with transcriptions available)

Coursera offers courses from all around the world, resulting in courses taught in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Turkish and a long list of others. Transcriptions for a large number of languages are offered for each course. See More

Top Pro

Some courses offer a verified certificate for a fee

There is an option to earn a verified certificate as proof you completed the course (for use on LinkedIn, resumes etc.). The cost varies between courses, but is generally around $49-$60. See More

Specs

Languages:English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean

Features:Video tutorials, tests, forum

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38 4

Platzi

Top Con

Many courses are only offered in Spanish

Platzi originally launched as Mejorando.la, an educational resource offering all courses in Spanish. They have since rebranded and now offer courses in both English and Spanish, however their English courses are currently still limited. See More

Top Pro

Focuses on skill development

Platzi designs their courses in a way that will teach you tangible skills and encourages you to apply them right from the start. See More

Top Pro

High course adherence

By focusing on teaching tangible skills, Platzi has a 70% adherence rate to their courses compared to the 20% of other online courses. See More

Top Pro

Live streaming classes

Top Pro

Courses taught by industry leaders

Platzi has a few courses available taught by well known industry leaders such as Y Combinator President Sam Altman. See More

Specs

Languages:Ruby / JavaScript / PHP

Features:Video tutorials / written tutorials / progress saver / editor / projects

2 0

Codewars

Top Pro

Challenges cover all areas of programming

Algorithms, OOP, functional programming, you name it - there's a challenge class for it and in just about every language. See More

Top Con

Require some coding knowledge

You require some coding knowledge to get an account with code wars. The topics are limited See More

Top Pro

Multi-language support

Users can complete code challenges in over 12 different languages. See More

Top Pro

Learning gamification

Get points and increase your level by completing coding challenges. See More

Top Pro

Free

Codewars is completely free to use. See More

Top Pro

Submit your own challenges

If you think you have a good idea for a challenge that could be added to the dojo then go add it and get feedback. See More

Specs

Languages:BF / C / Clojure / CoffeScript / C++ / Crystal / C# / Dart / Elixir / Erlang / F# / Go / Haskel / Java / JavaScript / Lua / Nim / Objective-C / OCaml / PHP / Python / R / Ruby / Rust / Shell / SQL / Swift / TypeScrypt

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14 2

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