Last updated: June 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.
QUICK VERDICT
Bottom line: The best paid course is Leila Gharani’s Unlock Excel VBA and Excel Macros on Udemy (4.7★, 13,000+ ratings) — she’s one of the clearest Excel teachers anywhere. If you’d rather learn free, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving on Coursera (4.8★, 4,313 reviews) is the highest-rated VBA course online and you can audit it for nothing.
- Best overall (paid): Unlock Excel VBA and Excel Macros (Udemy / Leila Gharani)
- Best free / highest-rated: Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving (Coursera / CU Boulder)
- Best project-based: Master Excel Macros and VBA (Udemy / Kyle Pew)
Learning Excel VBA is the difference between using Excel and automating it. Once you can write a macro, the repetitive work — reformatting reports, pulling data, building the same workbook every week — happens at the press of a button. It’s one of the highest-leverage skills an Excel user can pick up, and the best courses are cheap or free.
Macros vs VBA — the quick version: a macro is a recorded set of Excel actions you can replay; VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is the programming language those macros are written in. Recording macros gets you started; learning VBA lets you write and edit them from scratch. Every course below covers both.
We’ve ranked the five Excel VBA courses worth your time, by intent — the clearest paid course, the highest-rated free option, a project-based pick, an all-in-one bootcamp, and a developer-level course. We confirmed each was live and checked its rating at the time of writing. We earn a commission if you enroll through our links, which never changes the order.
HOW WE PICKED
We weighed teaching clarity (VBA is where unclear instructors lose people fastest), whether the course is genuinely hands-on with real automation projects, learner ratings at scale, and whether each pick serves a distinct need — clearest paid, best free, project practice, or developer depth. We dropped several once-listed courses that have since been retired.
1. Best overall (paid) — Unlock Excel VBA and Excel Macros (Udemy / Leila Gharani)
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Leila Gharani is one of the most respected Excel instructors on the internet, and this is her VBA course — 4.7★ across more than 13,000 ratings, with over 520,000 students. It takes you from complete beginner to writing useful VBA, with a strong emphasis on why you write code a certain way (the syntax reasoning most courses skip). You finish with real, reusable macros and the judgement to know when to record versus when to code.
Best for: business professionals who want the clearest path from zero to automating their own work. Worth knowing: Udemy list prices are inflated — wait for the usual $15–$20 sale.
2. Best free / highest-rated — Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving (Coursera / CU Boulder)
Taught by Charlie Nuttelman at the University of Colorado Boulder, this is the highest-rated VBA course online — 4.8★ across 4,313 reviews, with more than 170,000 learners. Over roughly 20 hours it builds genuine programming fundamentals (loops, conditionals, user-defined functions) and applies them to real problem-solving, including automating Excel’s Goal Seek and Solver. It’s the most rigorous pick here, and you can take it free.
Best for: anyone who wants a proper programming foundation, not just macro recipes — at no cost. Worth knowing: you can audit it free; the certificate needs a Coursera subscription. It’s Part 1 of a specialization if you want to go deeper.
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CU Boulder’s Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving (4.8★, 4,313 reviews) is our top free pick — audit the full course at no cost, pay only if you want the certificate.
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3. Best project-based — Master Excel Macros and VBA (Udemy / Kyle Pew)
If you learn best by building, Kyle Pew’s course is structured around five hands-on projects that each add a new concept — rated 4.6★. You start with the basic building blocks of automation and finish with a fully customised VBA project that chains several Excel tasks together. Every project ships with exercise files, so you’re writing real code throughout rather than watching. Pew is a long-established Microsoft-focused instructor with a huge following.
Best for: people who want to learn by building real automations, not theory. Worth knowing: it pairs well with the Gharani course — one for clarity, one for project reps.
4. Best all-in-one bootcamp — VBA Programming Bootcamp (Zero To Mastery)
Zero To Mastery’s bootcamp (instructor Travis Cuzick) is the most complete single course — 11 hours across 75+ lessons covering macros, variables and user input, loops and arrays, userforms, working with worksheets and pivot tables, and building an enterprise-style data-management system. It treats VBA as real programming and takes you from beginner through to building applications, which makes it a strong choice if you want depth in one place.
Best for: learners who want one structured, programming-first bootcamp. Worth knowing: it’s part of the ZTM Academy subscription; see our Zero To Mastery review for what membership includes.
5. Best for developers — Excel Application Development with VBA (Pluralsight)
Once you’re past the basics and actually building tools others rely on, this Pluralsight course adds the professional layer — custom ribbons built with XML, advanced userforms, the Windows API, and a proper application framework with multilayered architecture, error handling, logging, and source control. It’s aimed at Excel developers who want to ship robust, maintainable applications rather than one-off macros.
Best for: experienced users building production-grade Excel applications. Worth knowing: it’s advanced and assumes solid VBA fundamentals; it’s part of a Pluralsight subscription.
Excel VBA courses compared
| Course | Platform | Best for | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlock Excel VBA and Excel Macros | Udemy (Gharani) | Clearest paid | 4.7 (13k) |
| Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving | Coursera (CU Boulder) | Free / highest-rated | 4.8 (4.3k) |
| Master Excel Macros and VBA | Udemy (Kyle Pew) | Project-based | 4.6 |
| VBA Programming Bootcamp | Zero To Mastery | All-in-one bootcamp | 11h / 75+ lessons |
| Excel Application Development with VBA | Pluralsight | Developers | Advanced |
VBA is one slice of Excel mastery. See our guides to the best Excel courses overall, the best Excel courses on Udemy, and Microsoft Access courses for database work.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Excel VBA course?
The best paid course is Leila Gharani’s Unlock Excel VBA and Excel Macros on Udemy (4.7★, 13,000+ ratings) — she’s an exceptionally clear teacher. For a free option, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving on Coursera (4.8★, 4,313 reviews) is the highest-rated VBA course online and you can audit it at no cost.
What’s the difference between Excel macros and VBA?
A macro is a recorded sequence of Excel actions you can replay with one click. VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is the programming language those macros are written in. Recording a macro is the easy entry point; learning VBA lets you write, read, and customise macros from scratch — which is where the real power is.
Can you learn Excel VBA for free?
Yes. You can audit CU Boulder’s Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving on Coursera free — you get the full lessons, just not the certificate unless you subscribe. It’s also the highest-rated VBA course online, so the free route is genuinely a strong one here.
Do you need to know how to code to learn VBA?
No. VBA is many people’s first programming language, and the courses above assume no prior coding experience. If you can write Excel formulas, you already think in a way that transfers well to VBA — you’ll pick up variables, loops, and conditions quickly.
How long does it take to learn Excel VBA?
You can automate simple tasks within a weekend. Most of the courses above run 11–20 hours; work through one over a couple of weeks and practise on your own files, and you’ll be writing genuinely useful macros within a month.