When comparing Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, 3rd Edition vs freeCodeCamp, the Slant community recommends freeCodeCamp for most people. In the question“What are the best resources to learn JavaScript?” freeCodeCamp is ranked 1st while Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, 3rd Edition is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose freeCodeCamp is:
Free for anyone who wants to take the camp.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Best book to learn Javascript
Without any hesitation, this is the best book on Javascript with clear-cut and in-depth explanation and coverage. It will make you a top-notch JavaScript developer if you use it properly. Just be patient and you will end up with total understanding. Then you will find yourself as a js programmer. Covers everything that you might need to know about JavaScript.
Pro Explains what makes JS confusing and how to go about it
JS can be a confusing language especially for people coming in from other C-based languages. It often provides difficulty writing good code that uses objects and methods. The book explains why that is and how to think about the language to avoid confusion.
Pro Completely free
Free for anyone who wants to take the camp.
Pro Open source
Due to freeCodeCamp being open source, you are able to contribute to the program that helped teach you how to code in the first place. It's a great way to give back and gain experience.
Pro Self-paced
There is no set schedule with freeCodeCamp. You can work through the program as fast or as slow as you want.
Pro Browser-based
All courses used by freeCodeCamp are done in the browser, rather than students having to set up their own environment. This makes it much easier for beginners to get started.
Pro Actively developed
They are frequently updating courses and adding new material.
Pro Welcoming, active community
freeCodeCamp strongly encourages interacting with other learners and experienced programmers. They provide chatrooms which are always active and full of members happy to answer any questions you may have. Pair programming (programming with another user) is encouraged as a great way to work through some of their coding challenges.
There are also meetup groups where you can code in person with other freeCodeCamp students.
Pro Six certificates available
There are currently six certificates available that you can get once you've completed all the projects:
- Responsive Web Design Certification
- Javascript Algorithms And Data Structures Certification
- Front End Libraries Certification
- Data Visualization Certification
- Apis And Microservices Certification
- Information Security And Quality Assurance Certification
Pro Gain real world experience while helping nonprofits
Once you've completed all the courses and practice levels on freeCodeCamp, you are able to participate with other learners on developing software for non-profits. It's an amazing way to gain experience and build your portfolio as a developer, while helping out a non-profit organization.
Pro Full stack certificate
There is a cool Full stack certificate
Cons
Con Material can be too dense for some
This is not a good starting place for those who can't absorb dense material. It evolves from basic to advanced concepts, but you have to want to stick with it and pay attention.
Con The book requires knowledge of general programming concepts
If your programming experience is currently limited to only HTML and CSS, this book will likely be too advanced to follow. It's great for someone with programming experience in another language who's looking to learn JavaScript. Beginners will have to be willing to simultaneously pick up general programming concepts (like data types, variables).
Con No longer offers opportunity to build projects one-on-one with nonprofits
There are no nonprofits to help upon completing the program.
Con Learning material is not in-depth
The teaching content provided by freeCodeCamp tends to act more as an introduction than a solid learning resource. Unless you already have some prior experience, you won't have enough knowledge to get through the coding challenges and development projects without using outside learning resources to fill in the gaps.
Con Massive time waste
Content mainly focuses on trivial concepts and is very sparse in those few areas that inch beyond 'complete beginner'.
Con Is an email list generator
Early focus isn't on programming. It is on signing up for all of FreeCodeCamp's social media and getting looped into their newsletters. The content is trivial. It is all just a massive marketing scheme to get email addresses of aspiring programmers to affiliate sell to by pushing novice developers to blog posts containing affiliate links.
That is until they sell to a 3rd party. Read their disclaimer. Whoever buys them out gets all their user data, email lists, etc.
Con No offline version
Con Excessive focus on the basics
This platform focuses too much on the basics.