When comparing Python Programming Fundamentals vs Treehouse, the Slant community recommends Treehouse for most people. In the question“What are the best resources to learn Python?” Treehouse is ranked 16th while Python Programming Fundamentals is ranked 29th. The most important reason people chose Treehouse is:
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.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Practical
Fun project to build as you learn.
Pro Beginner-friendly
Excellent for complete beginners with no previous experience.
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.
Pro Great material presentation, instruction, and visualization
Their animations and screenshares supplement the instruction, giving a really good all-around learning experience.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Pro iOS and Android app
Treeehouse provides an app for both iOS and Android that is easy to use.
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.
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.
Pro Student discount
You can get a student discount easily using their email support.
Cons
Con Uses commercial software to teach the language
One of the first things the guide asks you to do is create an account with Nitrous.io to use their cloud IDE. While Nitrous has a free plan, the practice of doing that is questionable.
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.
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.
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.
Con Way too expensive compared with other options
Most advanced materials are locked away as "Pro/Bonus."
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.
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.
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.
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.