CommunityWhat are the differences between Treehouse Courses, Courses Plus and Techdegree?

So, you’re thinking about learning to code. Great! Whether you’re dreaming of being a well-paid software developer or planning to be a tech entrepreneur — or looking to sharpen and update the coding skills you already have — Treehouse can help you achieve your goal.

We’re often asked what the differences are between our three student programs, Courses, Courses Plus, and Techdegree. Before we go through how they differ, here’s what they have in common:

Imagine a library that never goes out of date and is available wherever you go.

That’s what we offer.

All 1,000+ hours of our self-paced, on-demand video courses are created and regularly updated by our faculty of full-time teachers and visiting industry experts. Their teaching skills and industry experience produce lessons that are always up to date and designed to make learning easier.

Students taking Treehouse courses require a computer with a web browser, an Internet connection and the desire to learn. We take care of the rest. All the coding students do can be done in our Workspaces — need to end your learning time in the middle of a code challenge? No problem! Save your Workspace and it will be waiting for you the next time you log in. There’s no software to download, so you can study with us on any computer you can use; your own computer, one at your public library, borrowing a friend’s laptop — we’re always here for you to learn.

Education that can fit into your schedule, not the other way around

Unlike bootcamps that demand thousands of dollars and weeks away from your home and regular life, Treehouse is available for when students have time free to learn. We’re big believers in a healthy work/life balance, so our students are encouraged to learn at their own pace and when it’s most convenient. Got 45 minutes to kill before moving your laundry from the washer to the dryer? If you’ve got a computer and Wifi, why not kill that time building skills that could improve your life? Our students are surprised to discover how many of the wasted moments between events in their day can be spent watching a lesson or taking a code challenge.

Looking for interactive, self-paced online instruction for your team? Check out Treehouse for Businesses.

Putting a lesson into practice immediately after learning it makes it easier to remember

Studies regularly show that the practical application of concepts like computer code helps students retain that knowledge and how they can use it. We’ve structured our courses so that workshops, quizzes, practice sessions and code challenges regularly follow each lesson in a course. We love going beyond the services most coding schools offer to give our students an advantage that helps them grow and achieve their goals.

Sharing encouragement, assistance and knowledge in our 24/7 Community

One thing that makes Treehouse unique is its community of learners. As our student, you have access to our public Community forum, an active safe space used by more than 50K other Treehouse students as well as our support staff and teachers. The Community is extremely supportive, and moderated by former Treehouse students who and are deeply empathetic to the struggles of anyone who is new to code, having been in the same spot themselves.

Gamified fun that charts your learning progress and achievements

Everybody loves a cool leaderboard, right? Students earn points and badges of completion as they finish courses, which are showcased in their user profile that’s visible to fellow students, talent recruiters, proud parents, etc.

All three programs begin with a free seven-day trial for potential students to try before they buy.

That’s how Courses, Courses Plus and Techdegree are similar. Here’s how they differ:

Treehouse Courses

Treehouse Courses is a comfortable introduction to coding if you’re just beginning your learning journey. It’s a small investment at just $25/month, with the option to upgrade to Courses Plus or Techdegree at any time.

Even if you have some experience with writing code, looking at the Treehouse Library to decide where to start can be overwhelming. You can take any course that you want in the Library, of course, but our teachers have created Tracks, a curated series of courses designed to help guide students in learning the right concepts and skills in the right order for a given language. If you’re new to code then we highly recommend you start with the Front End Web Development Track, which provides a foundation of knowledge that will be used in virtually every coding language.

Treehouse Courses Plus

We often see Courses users level up to Courses Plus as they gain a solid understanding of the languages they want to learn. For $49/month, Courses Plus also provides students full access to our entire library, twice the amount of learning material as Courses — 1,000+ hours of courses and Tracks plus exclusive industry workshops and interviews — as well as the option to download videos for offline viewing and gain access to beta versions of Treehouse’s newest innovations in online training. It’s a good option for experienced coders looking for more industry-focused skills and concepts.

Treehouse Techdegree

Here’s where the major life transformations happen for our learners.

We currently offer Four Techdegrees at $199/month, with more on the way:

• Front End Web Development
• Full Stack JavaScript
• Python Development
• Data Analysis
• User Experience (UX) Design

Techdegrees guide learners from beginners to job-ready junior developers in a given language, but with three crucial additions:

Projects that help build a professional portfolio

Techdegree graduates regularly tell us about the career-launching benefits of the Projects feature. Each Techdegree has 9-12 units that conclude with a challenge for you to code a capstone project of your own that uses all of the concepts you’ve learned. These projects make a comprehensive portfolio that showcases all of your new developer skills to prospective employers, or give you the confidence to create the apps you’ve dreamed of making yourself.

Projects in the Techdegree program are professionally reviewed by the Treehouse Techdegree Services staff as well as other students Techdegree Students. Every project you complete is graded Needs Work, Meets Expectations, or Exceeds Expectations with notes on how to improve, so that you know what you need to work on and/or how awesome you’re doing.

Peer Review

Education studies have shown that students who spend time teaching others what they’ve learned retain more of that understanding than students who simply take a course. After you complete the third project in each Techdegree, you unlock Peer Review, where you can review the work of students who have just begun their Techdegree and take on the projects that you’ve finished.

Peer Review is completely optional, but for most students, having the opportunity to grade peer work has had an incredibly positive impact on their own knowledge and ability.

Private Cohort Community

We work hard to maintain and protect the supportive, open and positive nature of our public Treehouse Community, but we also know how people can sometimes feel a bit lost when surrounded by so many coders at radically different levels of experience and skill — that’s why we’ve created exclusive, private learner communities for each Techdegree language, staffed by mods and specialists in that particular language. You’re not the only person in a course anymore — you’re in a cohort of learners just like you. Everyone in your chat is studying the same language — some at the same stage of understanding as you, others further ahead in the program and can help you in your learning — and, eventually, students just starting their Techdegree and sometimes struggling with a problem that you’re experienced enough to help them resolve.

The main benefit of taking the Treehouse Techdegree is that as you finish up the program, you have the knowledge and skills to launch a career in Tech as a Junior or Apprentice Developer. Students learn how to post and maintain a project portfolio online, which makes it easier to share and be found by potential employers. Many Techdegree students apply to positions in the tech industry before they finish the program!

Any other questions? Ask them in the comments below, or reach out to us at support@teamtreehouse or @treehouse on Twitter!

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