Coding is the new essential in today's competitive world and it is very natural that you chose to learn it online. And most of the people who want to learn coding come to the final question of Codecademy vs Khan Academy before starting off with their course and I am not surprised that you did too.
It is good to make an informed decision before you invest a lot of hours into it and understanding later that it's not working for you and you might need to find something else, maybe the other site you were contemplating while making the decision. You will have a definitive answer by the time you finish reading this article about which website you should choose. Once you have the answer, happy learning!
Codecademy Vs Khan Academy 2020- (Head-to-Head) Comparison
These two platforms are worlds apart and finding the one that really works for you between the two, although tough, is necessary. So, read on to find which is the best fit for you and make it your coding buddy.
One of the two charges you a bomb whereas the other one is completely free for you, being a non-profit organization. So choosing between paid or free might be easy but compromising on the quality can really hurt your learning and career and thus there is more at stake here than just money.
Both Codecademy and Khan Academy are excellent at what they do but there are a lot of differences that you need to get past. These differences will probably make the learning procedure easier for you depending on which website suits you and which one you pick.
In short, Khan Academy doesn't let the quality dip even slightly given the fact that it is completely free and it is an excellent part of the website but it does miss out on some of the more important features which are available on the paid version of Codecademy. We will see these features throughout the article.
Codecademy might not have a base as large as Khan Academy but still has over 45 million users which have been growing from the very first of the company. The Codecademy method of teaching is in the form of text and prompts which is a more traditional way. They also offer an in-browser code editor, unlike Khan Academy. Contrary to Khan Academy, Codecademy offers a free trial of only 7 days after which the user has to pay a monthly subscription fee to have access to all the lessons and courses on the website. I feel that this free trial of 7 days is more than enough to understand if the teaching style of Codecademy suits you or not before you make your decision.
Khan Academy has one of the world's largest student bases and it has been rapidly growing since the inception of the website in 2008. The fact that the website caters to an audience right from the early stages of school to a lot more advanced courses like Coding helps with the large student base. The website has also been endorsed by the Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation which is a feather in its cap that they proudly show. The website and its courses are completely free for all visitors. The lectures are in the form of video lectures where the instructor is explaining the concepts while simultaneously showing how they work. The website, however, lacks the feature of an in-browser code editor which Codecademy offers with all its lectures.
Codecademy Vs Khan Academy- Teaching Styles
If you Google for a place to learn to code through online courses, one of the first results in the search would be Codecademy. Codecademy courses offer 12 different coding languages. Some of them are Java, C++, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, CSS, Python, and HTML. The coding lectures on Codecademy have been constantly improving ever since the inception of the website. This has helped them cater to over 45 million users so far which can at least be compared to the users of Khan Academy.
Codecademy has an easy-to-use interface, is highly accessible with free beginner's courses. It offers features that are most appealing to all the amateurs. These are people who are planning on pursuing coding not as a full-time career but more as a hobby. The low pricing compared to peers also indicates the same and encourages more and more people to pursue it as a hobby.
Codecademy has divided itself into three different fields: first being the documentation, next, code editors, and finally virtual browsers. The platform will automatically check your code. once you catch on the right, you progress on to the subsequent lesson. Codecademy's learning tracks, which are referred to as "Career Paths" is extremely helpful to someone looking to extend their coding knowledge. Career Path programs include courses like Code Development, Web Development, Data Science, and more.
Khan Academy offers beginner to advanced courses in web development, web design, mobile development, and game development taught by a team of instructors from Khan Academy. Its courses are aimed towards the beginners who are looking to find out the required coding skills for a career within the tech industry. These courses tend to stay on the beginner level even though they are named as Advanced.
Khan Academy has been working with a wide audience but the audience is there mainly due to the other courses rather than the Coding courses. These courses are best for beginners who look towards Coding as a hobby which might help them at some point or the other. Apart from this, Khan Academy isn't able to form a community of coders the way Codecademy has been able to. This is a major disadvantage to the website since forming a community is crucial to the coding culture and has great benefits to the users. They are helpful in case you are facing any difficulties.
Khan Academy delivers its curriculum through video classes. After each lesson, there is a challenge for the user. This challenge is Khan Academy's way of testing what you have learned from the lesson. These challenges are creative but in my experience, they are not as good as the ones on Codecademy and lack the tools to test the depth of the understanding. Codecademy clearly shines in this aspect when comparing the two websites.
Khan Academy also breaks down the lectures into smaller parts to ensure maximum retention and this is done keeping in mind the smaller attention span of users.
Codecademy offers hourly estimates for all of their career tracks.
- The online Development course on Codecademy takes approximately 300 hours to finish
- In about 350 hours, you'll complete the Programming and computing program on Codecademy.
- In an equal amount of your time, you'll also complete your Data Science program.
Khan Academy offers a single course when it comes to coding called Computer Programming wherein all the coding languages are smaller sub courses within the course.
The entire course approximately takes just a little over 50 hours in total but it actually depends on how creative you get about the challenges after each session. If you do decide to go wild, it could take up considerably more time but in case you decide to stick to the basics in the challenges, it could get done in about 50 hours. These are quite self-paced so you might finish them in just a little over 3 days or over a couple of months as well depending on how much time you are willing to dedicate to it.
One crucial difference between Khan Academy and Codecademy is the way you learn from them.
- The Codecademy platform is an interactive platform which keeps you engaged in the sessions at all time which is better for your learning experience.
- Most of the lessons are text-oriented. First, you have got to read all the documentation then you have to complete the exercise. The documentation is complete as an entire and therefore the exercises also thoroughly check what you've got learned from the lesson.
- Codecademy will promote you to the next lesson only if your code is satisfying in their tests. If your code isn't correct, you've got to redo the code until you catch on right. you progress on to the subsequent lesson only your code is correct so there are not any shortcuts available.
- There are a few video lessons on Codecademy as well but these are very rare and they are reserved for the really important topics.
- Codecademy also offers Codecademy Go, a mobile application that will assist you to learn and practice from your smartphone as well. However, we recommend that you simply stick with using the complete website because of the better experience.
- Codecademy's projects are downloaded to your terminal and permit you to practice the language you're learning during a basic way with some code and a mockup provided.
- Khan Academy teaches you mainly with video tutorials. These have an instructor speaking in the background. A lot of the users find this method quite convenient.
- After each lesson is a challenge that you must complete before you move on to the next lesson. These challenges are quite easy and offer you the option to show your creativity.
- These challenges are interesting but help only a certain limit, which as you must have guessed, is not enough.
- They are mainly designed to give you a layman's understanding and experience.
Codecademy operates on monthly subscriptions. On the other hand, Khan Academy offers all its lessons for free.
Codecademy offers a free 7-day trial period for the users for you to check out their method of teaching and features. Codecademy offers a lot of interactive and engaging lessons with its Codecademy Pro subscriptions. These subscriptions push you to do your best every day. This paid subscription has access to the Codecademy Go app for mobile users. It also makes sure that it teaches to code well, with a step by step guide.
They also give you access to various Codecademy forums, including a private Facebook group where people can interact with fellow users and clear their doubts regarding coding.
Codecademy's monthly subscription is a little pricey, starting at $39.99 a month, they also offer a discount for longer commitments, such as $19.99/month for an annual commitment. They also have free basic courses and practice exercises on their mobile app.
Khan Academy, like we have mentioned a million times earlier, is an absolutely free website. You don't need to pay a penny to access anything on the app. This means that you can access all the sessions, all the challenges, any time you want for absolutely nothing.
Now you might be wondering how they make any profits? Well, they don't since they are a non-profit. But you always have the option of donating either money or your time by volunteering for them. This is a good way of payment for people who can afford to spend more of their spare time.
Khan Academy has made a cult following among its users as well because they are able to offer the lessons for free and are endorsed by many celebrities, including Bill & Melinda Gates.
The donation amounts are variable, you can donate as low as $1 to any amount that you would like. This gives you a great option if you want to learn to code but not to spend any money on it.
Like I mentioned in the introduction, these two online course websites are worlds apart and you need to choose carefully. You need to ask yourself a couple of questions before you decide. Why are you learning to code? And how much are you willing to spend on it?
If you are learning to code to upskill yourself for better employability, hands down, the best option for you would be Codecademy. It is a little pricey but annual commitment helps you bring down the price significantly. It offers you a lot of features and is good value for money.
However, if you are getting something for free, it is even better value for money. There are a few downsides to this but the quality is not one of them. Khan Academy has been able to keep the overall quality top notch. But the lessons tend to be very basic and it doesn't offer bases for evaluation either.
Codecademy offers a more detailed coding course and is also a touch expensive whereas Khan Academy is actually for beginners and free. Codecademy is good if you are looking for all-round development of your coding skills. Codecademy provides various courses - quality engineering, data analysis, visual design, user experience, and business literacy, and soft business skills.
Khan Academy is quite the opposite of it. They offer lessons that teach you the very basics and lay the foundation for you to go on and learn from a better source.
If you figure out why you are learning to code, you can choose which website in a split second. So, ask yourself the question again and again till you get the answer you need.
If you are doing have that sort of cash to take a position in learning to code, I might definitely suggest Codecademy to you due to the well-rounded package with good teaching techniques but if you can't invest that much or you're simply looking to upscale your skills, Khan Academy works too.
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Have money to spend on learning a new skill that would help you beef up your resume? Codecademy will blow your mind with their lessons and challenges and community support. They will give you good value for your money and let you build a portfolio that you can take to your future employer to show him your work before he hires you.
On the other hand, if you don't want to spend that money on this and learning to code is more of a hobby thing for you, then Khan Academy covers you well. They offer all the lessons for free so you cannot go wrong with it monetarily. Since you don't want a job revolving coding anyway, you don't need that portfolio and you can show off your creativity in the challenges.
Hopefully, the comparison between Codecademy Vs Khan Academy will help you in choosing the right academic path for you.