Treehouse vs. Udemy: A Full Comparison

As someone who is new to tech development or a developer interested in upskilling, you’ll find several courses on Treehouse and Udemy that will provide the knowledge and guidance you need to succeed in your chosen career path.

These two platforms comprise different online development programs for beginner, intermediate, and advanced developers in many fields.

So, if you’re ready to take up a development skill and don’t know what coding platform to choose — whether it’s Treehouse vs. Udemy, keep reading.

In this article, we’ll compare Treehouse and Udemy in terms of course curriculum, duration, cost, learning interface, and support, to help you decide on the most suitable coding platform for you.

TL;DR – Treehouse vs. Udemy

  • Treehouse is a coding- and design-specific learning platform designed to help aspiring, beginner, and ready-to-advance developers while Udemy is a learning platform that also has courses on tech development.
  • Treehouse is a curated curriculum of video courses and interactive coding environments with a well-defined learning progression while Udemy is a collection of courses.
  • Treehouse is a subscription-based learning platform while Udemy sells individual courses
  • Treehouse offers peer review and collaboration opportunities while Udemy does not.
  • Treehouse has a community forum and a Slack group for students and staff to share ideas for enhanced learning while Udemy does not.

Course Comparison

Treehouse and Udemy provide online programs for different development skills and courses to prepare you for your preferred tech roles. 

By taking in-depth coding courses on these platforms, you can become a proficient developer without a degree

Related: Treehouse vs. Codecademy

Treehouse Curriculum

Treehouse is an online coding platform that has thousands of hours of development courses and resources. These courses and other learning resources are in the forms of:

Treehouse Tracks are curated courses you can learn at your set pace. They are a guided curriculum of courses that provide more flexibility and affordability than Techdegrees. Tracks can be quite detailed, for instance the Front End Web Development track contains 56 hours of content.

Treehouse Techdegrees are interactive, fast-paced, and intensive Bootcamp-styled online coding courses. Students work closely with the Treehouse student success team throughout the entire program, and receive a certificate upon graduation.

They are structured, in-depth programs that provide the expertise and certifications that learners need to become professional developers. 

With Treehouse Techdegrees, you can learn your preferred expertise, build a portfolio, and land your dream job without having a formal college tech degree.

Treehouse offers five intensive Techdegree programs to help you become an expert developer. These Techdegrees are:

Front-End Development

This is an online bootcamp-style coding course to learn how to build functional and responsive user interfaces for websites and apps. 

This Techdegree program contains eight projects to build your expertise and certify you as a proficient front-end developer who is skilled at using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for client-side development. 

Full Stack JavaScript

This is Treehouse Techdegree on full-stack JavaScript that teaches you how to develop the front-end and back-end of websites and applications. 

This online program contains nine projects to make you a certified full-stack developer who is proficient at using JavaScript programming language to build functional and responsive websites and apps from scratch. 

UX Design

The Treehouse UX Design Techdegree teaches you to become efficient and certified in user research and website and application design.

It comprises nine projects that enable you to design sites with great user experiences. 

Python

This Treehouse online program trains you to build basic command lines and software applications with the Python programming language.

This Techdegree has four projects to make you a certified Python Developer.

Data Analysis

This Treehouse Techdegree has seven projects to teach you to become a certified data analyst. You’ll learn how to analyze and interpret data from spreadsheets, databases, and Python code.

Udemy Curriculum

Udemy offers numerous development courses under 10 subcategories. These categories are:

Web Development

This Udemy subcategory comprises a number of online courses that teach you front-end, back-end, and full-stack development for websites and apps.

Data Science

In this Udemy subcategory, you’ll find several courses that will teach you how to analyze complex machine learning and interpret it into context-rich insights that let you make informed business decisions.

Mobile Development

In this class, there are various courses on mobile application development to teach you mobile technology.

This includes courses on how to build apps for Android, iOS, and Windows phones. 

Programming Languages

This is a subcategory filled with a collection of courses on computer programming languages for developing software programs, instruction, and scripts.

Game Development

This Udemy sub-class comprises courses that teach you how to generate game concepts, and design, build, and test games. 

Database Design and Development

In this sub-category, you’ll find various courses on how to design, develop, and maintain databases to keep businesses organized. 

Software Testing

Udemy has different courses in the Software Testing sub-category. You’ll find video courses on how to ensure that software products are defect free.

You’ll learn to prevent bugs, improve performance, and reduce development costs.

Software Engineering

Here, there are video courses on the entire aspects of software engineering. These include how to design, develop, test, and maintain software applications. 

Software Development Tools

In this sub-category, you’ll learn about the tools needed for software development including management, support, and analysis tools, frameworks, compilers, code editors, debuggers, and programs.

No-Code Development

This class contains courses on how to quickly build applications without coding.

With these courses, developers and non-developers can create applications with a graphical user interface without writing code. 

Cost Comparison

Treehouse provides ranging subscription prices depending on your preferred learning path — Techdegree, track, or a simple course. They are available on paid monthly subscriptions.

Treehouse Techdegree, which is a self-paced online coding bootcamp, is $199/month.

Udemy courses start anywhere from $12.99 to $199 per video course. The more detailed the development course you need, the more you should be ready to spend.

Treehouse Techdegrees contain a series of video courses to learn in a progressive order. However, with Udemy, it’s up to you to choose what course to learn next by taking factors like the course info and ratings into consideration. 

Here’s what is included in each platform’s pricing:

Treehouse Techdegree Udemy
Curated curriculum of video courses Collection of video courses
Development programs are in the form of Techdegrees, Tracks, and Courses They are only in the form of standalone courses
There’s a learning progression for every program since Treehouse uses a project-based learning approach There is no learning progression since they are standalone courses. However, there are detailed courses that have learning progression
It offers solid community support which includes a Slack group The courses have Q&A chat sections
Treehouse has vetted and dedicated experts for its programs Anyone can create coding courses and sell them on Udemy 
You can practice and build your portfolio with real-world projects
There are interactive quizzes and coding assessments you must complete before becoming a certified developer Some courses have coding assessments, but you don’t have to submit them to complete the course or receive a certificate
Treehouse certificates are recognized by third parties Udemy offers certificates of completion. However, this is not recognized by third parties
You get access to peer reviews and support
After subscribing to a Techdegree, you’ll also get access to Tracks and the catalog library It’s not a subscription-based model with any additional benefits. You have to buy the course you want
Treehouse is a community-driven course platform. Therefore, you can’t buy out individual courses Udemy is a course platform for one-off purchases
You can download videos for offline learning You can download courses for offline learning on the Udemy mobile app
There is a live chat support system
Treehouse Techdegrees cost $199 per month.  Udemy charges per course video

Treehouse offers a free 7-day trial for all their programs and it is also easy to cancel your subscription whenever you want to. On the other hand, Udemy offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all their courses.

Course Length Comparison

Treehouse Techdegree and Udemy courses are self-paced. Therefore, the course duration will depend on your availability and learning commitment.

After analyzing the learning patterns of Treehouse students, we were able to come up with the best schedules for our Techdegrees. 

We observed that by dedicating 3 hours to study every day, Treehouse Techdegree students were able to complete their development programs in these timeframes:

  • Front End Web Development – 4 months
  • Full Stack JavaScript – 5 months
  • User Experience (UX) Design – 3 months
  • Python Development – 2 months
  • Data Analysis – 4 months.

However, the duration of courses on Udemy starts from less than 1 hour to over 80 hours.

Live Support Comparison

One of the factors that make Treehouse Techdegree worth it is its student support provision.

Treehouse provides live Slack support and individual guidance for Techdegree students. You will work closely with the Treehouse team throughout the entire program, and can always contact the Treehouse staff about any concerns. 

This human-to-human communication while learning is something Udemy doesn’t offer.

Also, for students enrolled in Courses or Courses Plus subscriptions, Treehouse offers a moderated community forum where students ask questions, review projects, and collaborate with each other. 

Udemy courses have Q&A chat boxes within the course section to cater to any issue students might have. The pitfall of this is that most times, students put lots of questions into these chat boxes, making it difficult to follow up or reply to everything.

If you choose to be proactive by reaching out to the course experts personally, there’s no guarantee that you will get answers since the chance of getting responses from cold outreaches is as slim as 1-5%.

Interface Comparison

Treehouse delivers its development programs through video tutorials. This is the same as Udemy. 

However, Treehouse differs substantially from Udemy in that after watching each video Treehouse students will reinforce what is learned through quizzes and code challenges. Learning reinforcement is even greater for Treehouse Techdegree students due to the heavy emphasis on project-based milestones. 

Treehouse vs Udemy: Which is right for you?

Treehouse and Udemy are top-rated learning platforms that have in-depth courses to teach you the skills you need to code and land your dream tech career.

Treehouse follows a structured progressive approach to teaching and there’s consistency in the lecture of experts, while Udemy gives you the freedom to choose a course that covers your specific part of interest. 

Treehouse programs provide you with real-world examples to build an impressive portfolio that can land your dream job.

Also, you get access to live chat and calls with course experts and Treehouse staff to help with any course or platform issues you have.

Ready to become a proficient developer? Get started with a Treehouse Techdegree for free today.