6 Best Learn-to-Code Resources Online

Once you've created a Codeacademy account and begin taking a course, the service keeps track of your progress, so it's easy to stop and start without needing to spend hours tracking down where you left off. 

Another plus is that this service is targeted toward total beginners; it recommends complete newbies start with HTML and CSS, though it offers more advanced language courses as well.

You can browse by course type (web development, tools, APIs, data analytics and more), and thanks to the site's huge popularity — it boasts more than 20 million users — its forums are a great resource for asking and answering your own questions on anything from problems within a specific course to how to build what your heart desires.

Another pro: Codeacademy is free.

Some courses (or particular questions or problems within a course) aren't written perfectly clearly, which can lead to confusion on behalf of the user.

The robust Codeacademy forums can usually come to the rescue in these instances, though it can be discouraging to run upon a snag when most of the content is presented so seamlessly.

Courses through Code Avengers are fun and engaging — in this respect, it's comparable and even competitive with Codeacademy.

The biggest one is that there's a cost; while you can get a free trial, subscriptions — which give you full access to each course, rather than a limit of up to just five lessons in a course — cost $29 per month or $120 for six months.

Another disadvantage, at least compared to Codeacademy, is that there aren't any forums specific to individual courses, so it's harder to track down solutions if you're struggling with a certain problem within your course. 

Compared to some other sites, you also have relatively few language options to study.

Everything is free, making Khan Academy one of the great resources for learning to code online without having to hand over credit card information. 

Lessons are reasonably sized (not hours-long) and engaging.

The way new skills are presented and taught is also well-organized; you can jump to animation basics within the JavaScript materials, for instance.

Relatively few languages offered, and you won't enjoy the same thriving forum community as available with Codeacademy.

That may or may not make a difference depending on your learning style and preferences — it's just something to keep in mind.

A great selection of courses, and a very helpful beginners guide that can inform your decision of which language to begin with.

In line with its reputation for providing professional-quality courses, Code School offers professionally curated content lists, along with podcasts and video shows.

You can dip your toes into the world of coding for iOS devices — something that isn't possible to do with most of the other resources mentioned in this list.

You might feel a bit lost if you come to Code School with zero prior programming knowledge. Plus, to get unlimited access to all the site's 71 courses and 254 screencasts, you'll need to pay ($29 a month or $19 a month with a yearly plan) — and if you want to use this site to its full potential you'll need to shell out.

Courses are available from world-renowned institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Stanford and the University of Michigan, so you know you're in good hands. Plus, most courses are free, though you can pay for some, including options that present you a certificate of completion at the end.

You won't find all the coding lessons in one easy-to-digest place, meaning it could help to come to this site knowing exactly what you're looking for. The courses generally aren't as engaging or interactive as those available through Codeacademy, Code Avengers or Khan Academy, either.

Includes mobile programming languages for iOS, so if you want to build an iPhone app, this site could help you learn how to do it.

You get access to community forums, which can further your learning and passion for coding in addition to helping you when you're stuck.

Once you've used up the free trial, Treehouse requires you to select one of two paid plans. The cheaper one costs $25 per month and gives you access to more than 1,000 video courses and interactive tools, while for $49 a month the "Pro Plan" gets you access to a members-only forum, bonus content, the ability to download videos for offline learning and more. Some of those features could definitely be useful, but you'll need to be pretty serious about learning to code for it to be worth paying that much on a monthly basis.