Best JavaScript Courses for Beginners
The JavaScript courses worth starting with when you're new to the language, the ones that teach it properly, get you building early, and don't cost much to finish. A solid first stop for anyone learning JS from beginner level.
Courses in this collection
Start with the shortlist, then see how they differ side by side further down.
How they actually differ
What the list leaves out, from who each course is for to what sets it apart.
JavaScript - Made Easy: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners on Udemy | Programming with JavaScript on Coursera | Learn JavaScript on Educative | Introduction to Javascript on Udacity | W3Cx: JavaScript Introduction on edX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Self-paced learners adding a new language with no prior JS experience | Beginners new to programming who want to learn JavaScript and earn a Meta certificate | Learners who absorb a language by writing and running code, not watching lectures, and want short project-based lessons with AI feedback as they go | Beginners who want a quick, hands-on JavaScript course built around a real project | Beginners who want to learn JavaScript from the organization that sets web standards |
| Differentiator | Video coverage that runs end to end and continues into current ES2024 features like Set and Map | Carries a Meta credential and covers software-engineering practice, including writing unit tests with Jest, beyond the language itself | Runs entirely as interactive text and an in-browser editor, with no video | Centers on a mentor-reviewed capstone (an eCommerce shopping cart) with expert feedback and career support | Built by the W3C web-standards body, with real class time on HTML5 browser APIs rather than syntax alone |
| Price | $19.99 | Coursera Plus subscription | Educative subscription | Udacity subscription | edX subscription |
| Rating | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.9 | — | 4.1 |
| Offered by | — |  Meta | — | — |  The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) |
| Prerequisites | None | None | None | None | High school level studies |
| Includes | 17 hrs video1 article2 downloadable resourcesmobile accessTV access | 58 videos29 assignments5 coding exercises65 readings | 79 lessons1 mock interview | 8 lessons1 project | 5 modulesinteractive exercisesHTML5 projects |
| Certificate | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Taught in | English | English, German (auto), Hindi (auto) and 19 more languages | English | English | English |
| Subtitles | English (auto) | Pashto, Bangla, Azerbaijani and 2 more languages | — | — | English |
| Access | Lifetime | Subscription | Subscription | Subscription | Lifetime |
| Duration | 17 hours | 47 hours | 10 hours | 36 hours | 5 weeks (6-8 hours per week) |
The full view adds total enrolled, total reviews and when each course was last updated.
How to pick a course to learn JavaScript from scratch
Every course here teaches JavaScript from scratch, and every one ends with a certificate. So the certificate won't decide it for you, and neither will the title, since they all make the same promise to a first-time coder. What actually separates these JavaScript courses for beginners is format, focus, and how proven each one is. Get those three right for how you learn, and the shortlist takes shape on its own. The checks below run through each one, from the free preview you should watch first to the support you'll want when a bug stops you cold.
What sets these JavaScript courses for beginners apart
The split is easy to see once you look. Some hand you videos to watch, while one drops video and puts you into an editor to break things yourself. A couple lean toward browser graphics or automated testing, and another centers on a single reviewed project. They also range from a few hundred learners to a few hundred thousand. Match the format and focus to how you work, and the shortlist narrows quickly.
Start where you actually are
Some courses wear the beginner label but assume you have coded before, or that HTML and CSS already feel familiar. Because of that, watch the free preview of the first lesson before you commit. If it opens with a terminal and a build tool instead of a browser, it is aimed past you. A real introduction starts with the browser you already have open.
Write the code, don't just watch it
Watching someone else type for twenty hours leaves you with almost nothing afterward. Instead, look for exercises you do yourself and small projects that break, so you learn to fix your own errors. Getting unstuck on your own is most of the early days, and hands-on formats build that muscle sooner.
The language before the frameworks
Plenty of courses called JavaScript for beginners are really React or Node courses with a short warm-up. As a first course, you want the plain language: handling data, reacting to a click, structuring a small program. A seventy-hour bundle that also sweeps in a framework and a database leaves you less usable JavaScript than twenty-five focused hours. For a first language, one thing taught well beats six things introduced.
Current JavaScript, and support when you get stuck
JavaScript grew cleaner over the past decade, and a strong course writes it the current way from lesson one. Watch for the opposite pattern, where old syntax runs throughout and newer features get bolted on at the end. Then check what backs the course once the lessons run out. A recent one with an active question board, a responsive instructor, or built-in AI feedback beats a course that went quiet years ago.
When you're ready for more
Where to go once you're past the JS for beginners stage, each one a shortlist rather than a single course.
4 courses
3 courses
5 courses