When comparing Codelearn vs edX, the Slant community recommends edX for most people. In the question“What are the best websites to learn to code?” edX is ranked 4th while Codelearn is ranked 50th. The most important reason people chose edX is:
Both edX and the classes are free.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Runs in the browser
Since setting up the development environment can be difficult for a beginner, Codelearn provides a complete Rails environment on the browser ("Codelearn Playground").
Pro Free
Both edX and the classes are free.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Offer certificates for some courses
Cons
Con Requires some knowledge of linux
The Playground emulates a linux environment, so it's best to have some experience with linux or you may find yourself lost.
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.
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.
Con The forums are difficult to navigate
The forums are difficult to sort by date and topic, and are unintuitive to navigate.