Learn How to Code With These 10 Free Courses and Tutorials (2024)

In the future, we’ll probably all learn how to code at school, the same way we now learn how to write. But for now, you need to teach yourself, and these ten free code courses and tutorials are the ideal way to do it.

Learn the essentials of popular programming languages like PHP and JavaScript. Or discover how to get started writing your very own mobile apps. Here’s a quick rundown of what you can learn.

1. Learn React 18

If you’ve been thinking about learning React, now’s the time! This comprehensive new code course introduces you to all the features of this popular framework for building user interfaces. And it’s bang up to date with all the latest updates in React 18. Also read this tutorial on building your first React app, and check out the Practical React Fundamentals course.

2. Use Media Queries in JavaScript

Responsive design is a must these days—so many people are browsing the web from tablets or smartphones, while others are using large, high-definition monitors or TV screens, so your website needs to adapt to a wide range of screen sizes. Media queries are the answer, and this tutorial shows you how to take the familiar CSS media queries to the next level by using media queries in JavaScript.

3. Master HTML & CSS

There are so many frameworks and languages out there for web development, but the fundamental building blocks of the web are the same as they were 20 years ago: HTML and CSS. If you want to be a web developer, you need to know them inside-out, and this seven-hour mega-course is the perfect solution! To pave your way into the tech industry, understanding these languages is crucial, and learning how to start coding should be your first step.

4. Build a REST API With Laravel

On the other hand, maybe you already know HTML and CSS, and you’re looking for something a bit more advanced. In that case, try this course, in which you learn how to code a complete, working API from start to finish using Laravel.

5. Build a Mobile App the Easy Way

Learning how to code is a wonderful but time-consuming process. If you just want to get a mobile app up and running quickly, without getting knee-deep in code, check out this video on building an app using AppMySite.

6. Create a Sortable HTML Table With JavaScript

It’s easy to create a table in HTML, but if you want users to be able to sort it by different columns just by clicking an arrow in the header, that’s not so simple. In this code tutorial, Jemima Abu takes you through the process of creating a sortable HTML with JavaScript, step by step.

7. Learn Functional Programming With JavaScript

Although object-oriented programming is popular, functional programming is a useful alternative. In this course, Jeremy McPeak explains how functional programming works in JavaScript. By the end, you’ll know all about immutability, currying, and much more.

8. Create Android Styles and Themes

Making an app that works well is not enough: it also has to look good. To learn how to achieve that, you’ll need to read this tutorial on creating custom Android themes and styles. And if you find it useful, be sure to check out more posts in the Android From Scratch series. There’s plenty there to learn!

9. Create Custom HTML Tags

We all know about the standard HTML tags like <p> and <h2>. Some of us know about the rarer ones like <cite> and <acronym>. But did you know you can also create your own? If not, read this fascinating tutorial on extending HTML by creating custom tags.

10. Use PHP in HTML

PHP is a server-side scripting language, so it can be tricky to know how to combine it with HTML. This video breaks it down, though, and makes it look easy.

Even More Free Code Courses and Tutorials

In this post, we’ve covered ten of the best free code tutorials and courses published recently, but that’s just scratching the surface of what you can find in the full Envato Tuts+ library of more than 1,300 courses and 30,000 tutorials. Here are some of the best code tutorials and courses from previous months.

Learn Laravel 8

Laravel is the most popular framework for writing PHP applications, and the latest version offers even more great features. So whether you’re new to Laravel or just want to find out what’s new in Laravel 8, this free code course is a great place to start.

Use AJAX in PHP and jQuery

AJAX is a great way of creating pages that update without needing to be refreshed. Watch this free video to learn how to create an AJAX form with PHP and JavaScript, step by step.

Use Map, Filter, and Reduce in JavaScript

The three list functions in JavaScript—map, filter, and reduce—all do slightly different things. Learn the difference between them and how to use them in your JavaScript programming in this free YouTube video.

How to Become a Web Developer

Try this massive free course covering all the essentials of becoming a web developer. If you’re starting from scratch and want to launch a new career in web development, this is the course for you. It’ll take you through everything from the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript right through to more complex topics like fetching JSON data and using CSS transitions. And you’ll finish by creating a functional blog in PHP!

Build a Simple REST API in PHP

REST APIs are used all over the web, and if you want to be a web developer, you need to know how to build them. This free code tutorial teaches you how to build a simple demo application that allows you to fetch a list of users from a MySQL database via a REST endpoint.

Master Flexbox Alignment

Flexbox offers some powerful features for aligning different elements on a webpage, but it’s not easy to understand them. This video walks you through flexbox alignment in detail. There are also companion videos on Flexbox sizing and Flexbox ordering.

Start Using JavaScript Event Listeners

Using JavaScript event listeners is a great way of making your websites more interactive. This beginner-friendly video explains some key concepts and gives practical information to help you use event listeners in your next web design or front-end development project.

Build a CMS With Laravel

Or why not learn to build your very own content management system? This is a comprehensive course that includes 24 video lessons with a total viewing time of over four hours. It’s recently been updated with brand new lessons to take advantage of the latest features in Laravel 5, so why not take this comprehensive course and learn pretty much everything there is to know about creating a CMS with Laravel.

Create a WooCommerce Store

WooCommerce is the world’s most popular eCommerce platform for a good reason. It’s free, reliable, full of features, and easy to use. OK, that’s a few good reasons… In this free video course, you can learn all the steps involved in setting up your own WooCommerce store. It’s easy to follow along!

Make a Simple Android Business Card App

Giving out physical business cards is so 20th century. With Covid-19 forcing so many events to go virtual, why not make a digital business card that you can easily share as an app? This tutorial takes you through every step, teaching you some important Android app development techniques along the way. Follow the steps here.

Build a Music App With an Android App Template

How long do you think it would take you to develop a professional-looking music app like the one below? In fact, you can get it done much faster than you think by starting with a well-designed Android app template. It gives you a well-designed app to start from, and then you can just focus on making it your own! See how it’s done in this free code tutorial.

PHP Fundamentals

Most of the websites you visit on a day-to-day basis were built using PHP. PHP is the foundation of WordPress and other popular frameworks, and you can also use it to write all sorts of powerful web applications. So if you want to learn how to code for the web, PHP is the place to start, and this comprehensive seven-hour course teaches you everything you need to know to get up to speed.

Modern JavaScript Fundamentals

Another essential language for web development is JavaScript. And here’s another seven-hour monster of a course to help you learn it from the ground up. It’s split into 65 separate video lessons, so you don’t have to do the whole thing if you don’t have time—you can pick and mix, learning arrays one day and iterators the next. Whichever way you choose to learn, you’ll come out knowing a lot about JavaScript! Start the course now.

Make Mobile Apps With the Android SDK

Every year, the statistics show the same trend: people spending more time using mobile apps instead of desktop computers. So why not learn how to make your own mobile apps by mastering the Android SDK? If you don’t even know what the Android SDK is, let alone what you can do with it, then this short tutorial is a great place to start.

How to Monetize an App

Once you’ve learned how to create mobile apps, you’ll probably want to know how to monetize them. Although you can make good money as a mobile app developer, it’s not always as easy as just sticking a price tag on your app in the app store. You’ll need to get creative and look at a few different monetization strategies. This tutorial explains how to monetize a mobile app and then shows you some app templates to help you do it painlessly.

Learn Node.js From Scratch

What do you mean, you don’t know Node.js? It’s a massively popular open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that will take your JavaScript development to the next level. If you’re a Node.js beginner (or a more experienced developer who needs a refresher), this two-hour introductory course is perfect for you. It’ll take you through Node.js concepts from the ground up, while introducing you to some great tools for Node.js developers. Take the course here.

Make Your First Android App

If you dream of being an app developer but don’t know where to start, this tutorial is for you. It takes you through the whole process of building a simple Android app from start to finish. It’s aimed at complete beginners, so you don’t need any special skills or knowhow for this. Just follow the steps, and you’ll have your own Android app in no time. See how it’s done.

Use Swift Design Patterns

In the world of coding, design patterns are incredibly useful ways of solving common problems that arise in development. But they can be abstract and hard to grasp for beginners, and you can end up struggling to tell your factory from your facade. This comprehensive, 24-video, 3.5-hour course will set it all straight, with detailed explanations and examples of how each pattern can be used in the Swift programming language. Take the course here.

Make Faster Web Apps With the Svelte Framework

Web developers, take note! Svelte is a whole new approach to building user interfaces. Traditional frameworks like React and Vue do the bulk of their work in the browser, but Svelte shifts that work to build-time and drastically improves the performance of your applications. Take this course to learn Svelte from top to bottom.

Learn Advanced Vue.js Concepts

Component-oriented frameworks, such as Vue.js, have changed the way we think about and write web applications. In this course, instructor Jeremy McPeak will teach you some advanced Vue.js component concepts. Take this advanced course now.

Create a Modern Web App With Node, Express, and Vue.js

Follow along with Jeremy McPeak as he walks you through the steps of writing a modern, JavaScript-powered web app using Vue.js with Node, Express, and MongoDB. Take the course here.

Build Your Own Music Player

Well, this is just cool. I don’t know much about Vue.js, let alone Vuetify.js, but I love the idea of building my own music player. If you do too, and if you know a little bit more about progressive JavaScript frameworks than I do, you’ll love this tutorial. What are you waiting for? Get started already.

Code an Image Gallery Android App With Picasso

If you’re creating a mobile app, you’ll probably need to load images at some point. This tutorial teaches you how to do it quickly and easily with Picasso, a popular open-source Android library for loading both local and remote images. It gives you an introduction to what Picasso is and why you should use it, and then it takes you step by step through the process of using it to create an image gallery app. Get the full instructions and source code here.

Create an Android Instant App Feature

If you’re not up to speed with Android’s new Instant Apps feature yet, this tutorial is ideal for you. Instant Apps let people load entire sections of your app on demand, just by tapping a URL and without having to download the full app. This gives you a great opportunity to get your app in front of as many new users as possible. Learn how to create an Android instant app feature here.

Create an AI-Powered Chatbot

Artificial intelligence is here—and I’m not talking about those dumb social media algorithms that collect masses of data on you and yet still can’t arrange your feed in the right order. AI chatbots can hold increasingly realistic conversations with us. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a simple conversational chatbot using the IBM Watson Conversation service. The best part, for me, is the way it serves up inspirational quotes. Get the step-by-step instructions here.

Learn React Through 5 Practical Examples

React is one of the most popular web frameworks, and if you want to learn to use it, what better way than through some practical examples? In this course, you’ll build a digital clock, an Ajax-powered navbar and more, and in the process you’ll learn all the basics of coding React components from JSX and managing state right through to higher-order components and lifecycle methods. Sign up for the course.

And There’s More…

This post has highlighted the best free code tutorials and courses that Tuts+ has published recently, but you’ll find a lot more in the full archives—not just code tutorials, but also photography, video, graphic design, web design, and more. So if you’re still eager to learn, search the full Tuts+ library to find exactly what you need.