Treehouse is amazing for aspiring web developers

I dislike reviews that don't tell you the verdict until the end. I won't do that. You'll get my verdict in the very beginning, every time.

Treehouse is an online technology school and it's amazing. Anytime someone asks me the best way to learn the basics of web development, I point them to Treehouse first. It's reliable, fun, incredibly high quality, and they're always adding new content.

What you can learn

With Treehouse, you can learn web development, web design, iOS programming, Android programming, and how to start a business. The "web development" category has the most content. You can learn HTML/CSS, JavaScript/jQuery, Ruby on Rails, PHP, and even Wordpress, all through tidy packages called Learning Adventures.

There are downsides

There are some downsides to Treehouse, but they're mostly inconsequential if your goal is to learn the basics of web development and get a strong foundation from which to continue.

1. The pace can be slow sometimes. Learning simple concepts could feel much faster if they broke some of the more complex concepts down into multiple shorts videos.


2. The forums aren't very helpful, especially for technical questions beyond the specific code challenge you're working on. For example, if you just learned about for loops and want to test your skills with the new concept outside the course, the Treehouse forums are a dead end for help.


3. There are learning gaps in the content. Treehouse is excellent for learning the basics or following a very, very specific learning path. There are many, many things that Treehouse doesn't cover that you'll need to know to be a web developer.

The facts

• Cost: $25/month or $49/month depending on how much content you want.


• Teaching style: videos + coding challenges + quick quizzes + community forums.


• Uniqueness: "Learning Adventures" give you entire courses aimed at educating you in a general technical area like web development, design, iOS programming, Android programming, and starting a business.

One of my favorite things about Treehouse is that they are constantly growing their library of great content by adding new lessons, new skills to learn, and more bonus content (only available with the $49 Gold membership). They let you see a content roadmap so you can what they'll be coming out with next. A perusal today showed several dozen coming lessons ranging from "Console Foundations" to "Advanced Social Features with Ruby on Rails."

Treehouse's killer feature

There's no doubt in my mind that Treehouse's killer feature is the pace that they add new content. One of my gripes above, learning gaps in the content, is quickly being taken care of. I don't foresee too many gaps in the content in the near future. This is the main thing that will make Treehouse dominant in this particular learning space.

I've been watching other similar learning tools and no one is producing such high quality content at such an incredible pace. In fact, the company is constantly hiring new teachers to make sure this pace on new content stays fast. Eventually, the amount of great content available through Treehouse will dwarf the competition.

How to use Treehouse effectively

Like any tool, there right ways and wrong ways to use it. With Treehouse, you'll get the most bang for your buck (and time) if you focus on consistency over volume. Doing 20 lessons one week and then stepping away from it for a week will almost certainly cause you to lose a lot of what you learned.

A better approach would be to commit to a minimum number of lessons each day or week. You can go over that minimum, but don't stop learning altogether. Treehouse's model values constant learning and a steady rhythm.

I tried to go through a ton of lessons all at once when I first started a year ago. I thought I'd save some money if I went through everything in one month and then canceled my membership. That was a really bad strategy. Not only did I rush through the lessons without fully understanding them, I didn't have any chance to reinforce what I was "learning" as I progressed.

If you have an extra $25/month and you want to learn web development, web design, iOS programming, Android programming, or how to start a business, I highly recommend Treehouse.