Last updated: September 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. Prices and programs checked on Udacity’s and Codecademy’s own pages on 22 September 2026. See our review methodology.
By Josh Hutcheson · E-Learning Specialist
Reviewing online learning platforms since 2019. Review methodology
THE SHORT ANSWER
Choose Codecademy if you are starting from zero, want to learn by typing code in the browser, and want the lowest price: Pro costs $19.99 a month on an annual plan. Choose Udacity if you already know the basics and want a shorter, project-heavy program in a specific role, with a person reviewing every project you submit, and you can pay $249 a month or wait for a sale.
- Best for beginners: Codecademy
- Best for portfolio projects with feedback: Udacity
- Cheapest: Codecademy (free Basic plan; Plus from $14.99/month billed annually)
- Common path: Codecademy for fundamentals, then a Udacity Nanodegree to specialize
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Udacity vs Codecademy at a glance
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| Codecademy | Udacity | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Beginners and hobbyists learning to code | Learners with some basics who want job-focused projects |
| Format | Interactive, in-browser lessons with built-in exercises | Nanodegree programs: video and text lessons plus graded projects |
| Main unit | Courses, skill paths and career paths | Nanodegree programs (typically 40 to 110 hours) |
| Free option | Basic plan: free course content, no certificates | A catalog of free individual courses |
| Paid price (list) | Plus $14.99/mo annual ($29.99 monthly); Pro $19.99/mo annual ($39.99 monthly) | $249/month, $212/month prepaid for four months, or $999 for a single program |
| Project feedback | Automated checks; portfolio projects on paid plans | A person reviews every graded project |
| Credentials | Certificates of completion (Plus and up); professional certifications in 6 career paths (Pro) | Nanodegree certificates; some programs carry credit toward Udacity’s MSc in AI |
| Career help | Interview prep, interview simulator and job-readiness checker on Pro | Career coaching and interview prep on the subscription |
| Scope | Coding, data, AI, cloud, cybersecurity, DevOps and more | Programming, AI, data science, cloud, cybersecurity, autonomous systems, business and more |
How they teach: interactive lessons vs project programs
The biggest difference is the learning model. Codecademy puts a code editor next to every lesson: you read a short explanation, write code in the browser and get instant feedback. That removes setup friction, which matters most for beginners. Its paths bundle courses into a route toward a skill or a job; the Full-Stack Engineer career path, for example, is listed as beginner level, about 150 hours and 96 projects, with more than 313,000 learners enrolled when we checked.
Udacity teaches through Nanodegree programs built around a few substantial projects. You work in your own environment or Udacity’s workspaces, submit each project, and a reviewer checks it against a rubric and sends line-by-line feedback. The programs are shorter than Codecademy’s career paths (the React Nanodegree is about 61 hours) and most assume you already know the basics.
In practice, Codecademy is better at getting you from nothing to writing code, and Udacity is better at getting you from writing code to building something you can show an employer.
Pricing compared
Codecademy
| Codecademy plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | Free course content and a start on some advanced courses; no certificates |
| Plus | $14.99/month billed annually, or $29.99 monthly | Assessments, most skill paths, certificates of completion |
| Pro | $19.99/month billed annually, or $39.99 monthly | Everything in Plus, plus career paths, interview prep, code challenges and professional certifications |
| All Access | Not listed on the pricing page | Full Pro access plus Codecademy’s live bootcamps, one at a time during your membership |
Plus and Pro both offer free trials, annual plans include one complimentary workshop, eligible students get Pro Student at more than 35% off, and you can cancel or pause at any time; a cancelled plan runs to the end of the billing cycle.
Udacity
| Udacity option | List price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | $249/month | Every program in the catalog, project reviews, career coaching and certificates; cancel anytime |
| Four-month prepaid bundle | $212/month ($848 up front) | The same subscription, 15% cheaper than paying monthly |
| Buy a single program | $999 one-time | One program at your own pace; coaching and the wider catalog stay with the subscription |
Udacity discounts these prices often; on the day we checked, a time-limited sale was cutting them by almost half. Because most programs run 40 to 80 hours, two months of subscription is usually far cheaper than the one-time price. Current codes are on our Udacity coupon page.
The cost gap is large. A year of Codecademy Pro on an annual plan costs about $240, roughly what one month of Udacity costs at list price. Udacity’s case rests on what the extra money buys: reviewed projects and career coaching. If you do not need those, Codecademy is the better value.
What it costs to finish: a worked example
Monthly prices hide the real comparison, which is the total you pay to reach a goal. Take someone aiming for a first web-development job and studying about 10 hours a week:
| Codecademy Full-Stack Engineer path (Pro) | Udacity Full Stack JavaScript Nanodegree | |
|---|---|---|
| Listed length | About 150 hours | About 70 hours |
| Time at 10 hours a week | About 15 weeks (3.5 months) | About 7 weeks (2 months) |
| Cost at list price, monthly billing | About $160 (4 months at $39.99) | About $498 (2 months at $249) |
| Cost on the cheaper plan | About $240 for a full year of Pro billed annually | $848 for the four-month bundle, or $999 for the program alone |
| What the money buys | Beginner-to-job curriculum, many small projects, a professional certification exam | Fewer, larger projects, each reviewed by a person, plus career coaching |
Two things follow. First, Codecademy’s path assumes you start from zero, while Udacity’s program assumes you already know JavaScript, so a true beginner comparing like with like would add Udacity’s 109-hour Introduction to Programming first. Second, Udacity’s cost is driven almost entirely by how fast you finish: every extra month adds $249 at list price, which is why buying on a discount and studying steadily matter more there than on Codecademy.
A typical week on each platform
On Codecademy, a week of study is a series of short sessions. You open a lesson, read a few paragraphs, write code in the editor beside it and run it; the platform tells you immediately whether it works. Quizzes check recall, and every few lessons a project asks you to build something small on your own. Because everything runs in the browser, you can study on a work laptop or, for review, on the mobile app, with no setup at all.
On Udacity, a week looks more like a university module. You work through video and text lessons with short exercises, then spend most of your time on a project in your own development environment: setting up tools, reading documentation and debugging. When you submit, a reviewer returns detailed feedback, sometimes asking you to fix things and resubmit. It is slower and harder, and it is much closer to how professional work feels.
AI tools and learning on the go
Codecademy has built AI into its plans. Every plan includes an AI Learning Assistant (limited on Basic and Plus) and an AI Builder that lets you build prototypes in natural language, with more builder credits on higher plans. Codecademy also lists mobile learning among the features of every plan. Udacity’s newer programs teach AI tools as subject matter, such as its agentic AI and generative AI Nanodegrees, but its learning experience still centres on projects and human review rather than an AI tutor.
What you can learn on each
Codecademy covers a wide range of languages: Python, JavaScript, HTML and CSS, SQL, Java, C, C++, C#, Go, Kotlin, PHP, R, Ruby, Swift and Bash. Its subject areas include web development, data science, machine learning, AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, DevOps, game and mobile development. Its career paths with professional certifications are Full-Stack Engineer, Front-End Engineer, Back-End Engineer, Data Scientist (Machine Learning and Analytics tracks) and Computer Science.
Udacity is organized into schools, with programming, AI, data science, cloud computing, cybersecurity, autonomous systems and business among them. For someone choosing between the two to learn to code, these are the most relevant Nanodegrees, with figures from Udacity’s pages:
| Udacity program | Level and length | Rating | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction to Programming | Beginner, ~109 hours | 4.8 (1,350 reviews) | absolute beginners |
| Front End Web Developer (review) | Intermediate, ~39 hours | 4.6 (866 reviews) | HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the web |
| Backend Developer with Python (review) | Intermediate, ~49 hours | 4.6 (504 reviews) | Python, Flask and SQL backends |
| Full Stack JavaScript Developer (review) | Intermediate, ~70 hours | 4.7 (86 reviews) | front and back end in JavaScript |
| React (review) | Intermediate, ~61 hours | 4.7 (574 reviews) | modern React with hooks and React Query |
| iOS Development with SwiftUI and SwiftData (review) | Intermediate, ~76 hours | 4.6 (253 reviews) | SwiftUI apps |
| Intermediate JavaScript (review) | Intermediate, ~41 hours | 4.4 | the JavaScript language itself |
| Data Structures and Algorithms (review) | Intermediate, ~47 hours | 4.7 | interview preparation |
Codecademy’s breadth suits exploring; Udacity’s depth suits committing to a role. See every program in our Udacity Nanodegree guide.
Projects, feedback and support
This is where the price difference shows. On Codecademy, exercises are checked automatically, paid plans add portfolio projects, and help comes from the community and an AI learning assistant (limited on the lower plans). Its newer live bootcamps and paid one-to-one coaching add human support, but they cost extra or require All Access.
On Udacity, every graded project is reviewed by a person against a published rubric. Our graduate reviewers consistently name this as the reason the programs are worth paying for: Tainá Condé called the reviews “useful, professional, clear, and easy to understand” in her React Nanodegree review, and Katharina Vujinović saved every resource her reviewers sent (iOS Nanodegree review). The trade-off is that you must be able to work fairly independently; Udacity’s projects give you requirements, not step-by-step instructions.
Certificates and career outcomes
Neither platform offers an accredited degree for these programs. A Codecademy certificate of completion shows you finished a course or path; its professional certifications, available on Pro in six career paths, require passing exams. A Udacity Nanodegree certificate shows you passed a set of reviewed projects, and some programs are marked as eligible for credit toward Udacity’s accredited MSc in AI.
For job hunting, the certificate matters less than the portfolio behind it. Udacity’s projects tend to be larger and closer to real applications; Codecademy’s career paths contain many more, smaller projects. Codecademy Pro includes interview prep and an interview simulator; Udacity’s subscription includes career coaching and interview prep. Either can support a career change, but neither replaces building projects of your own.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| Codecademy | Beginner-friendly interactive lessons; free plan; low annual prices; wide language coverage; professional certifications on Pro | Automated feedback only on standard plans; browser exercises can hide real-world setup; bootcamps and coaching cost extra |
| Udacity | Human review of every project; job-focused programs; shorter, deeper curricula; career coaching | Much more expensive; most programs assume prior knowledge; value depends on finishing quickly |
Which should you choose?
- You have never coded: start with Codecademy’s free plan, then Plus or Pro once you know you enjoy it.
- You know the basics and want a job-ready portfolio: pick a Udacity Nanodegree in your target role, and buy it on sale.
- You are on a tight budget: Codecademy Pro on an annual plan, or free options such as freeCodeCamp.
- You want a structured career path from zero with a certification: Codecademy’s Full-Stack Engineer career path on Pro.
- You want both: learn fundamentals on Codecademy for a few months, then use a Udacity subscription for two months to complete reviewed projects.
Comparing other platforms? See Pluralsight vs Udacity, Udacity vs Treehouse, Coursera vs Codecademy and our Codecademy Full-Stack Engineer review.
Frequently asked questions
Is Udacity or Codecademy better for beginners?
Codecademy. Its career paths assume no prior experience, its interactive lessons run in the browser, and its free Basic plan lets you try it at no cost. Udacity’s programs are mostly rated Intermediate; its beginner route is the 109-hour Introduction to Programming Nanodegree.
Which is cheaper, Udacity or Codecademy?
Codecademy, by a wide margin. Codecademy Pro is $19.99 a month billed annually ($39.99 month to month), and Plus is $14.99 a month billed annually. Udacity’s subscription is $249 a month, or $212 a month if you prepay four months.
Is Codecademy free?
Partly. The Basic plan is free forever but gives access to free course content only, and it does not include certificates, skill paths or career paths. Certificates of completion need Plus, Pro or All Access.
Do Udacity and Codecademy certificates help you get a job?
Neither is an accredited qualification. Employers care more about the projects you can show. Udacity’s advantage is that a person reviews every project; Codecademy Pro adds professional certifications, earned by passing exams, in six career paths.
Can I switch from Codecademy to Udacity?
Yes, and it is a common path: learn the basics cheaply on Codecademy, then take a Udacity Nanodegree for reviewed, portfolio-level projects once you know what you want to specialize in.
Is it worth paying for both Udacity and Codecademy at the same time?
Usually not. Their strengths come at different stages: Codecademy for learning a language and the fundamentals, Udacity for reviewed projects once you have them. Paying for both at once mostly means paying for one you are not using. Finish the fundamentals on Codecademy, cancel, then subscribe to Udacity for the months you need to complete a Nanodegree.
Does Udacity offer a free trial?
Not a standing free trial, but Udacity has a catalog of free courses and frequently discounts its subscription. Codecademy offers free trials of Plus and Pro.
The verdict
Codecademy and Udacity solve different problems. Codecademy is the better, far cheaper place to learn to code from scratch and to explore languages (see our Codecademy review). Udacity is the better place to turn basic skills into reviewed, job-focused projects, provided you finish quickly and buy on discount. For most beginners the smart order is Codecademy first, then Udacity when you know what you want to build.
Related: every Udacity Nanodegree in 2026 · our complete Udacity Nanodegree review