If you’re thinking about switching careers and becoming a developer, a coding bootcamp is a viable way to get you there.
But if you’ve started the bootcamp research process, you might be thinking to yourself:
“HOLY COW HOW MANY BOOTCAMPS ARE THERE?!?”
If you’re thinking that, you’re not alone. There are a lot of coding bootcamps these days, and it can be difficult to figure out how to pick the right one for you.
In order to make your decision, among other things, you probably need to look at things like:
- What kind of bootcamp do you want? Online? Or in-person?
- If in-person, where is it located?
- How long is the bootcamp?
- How much does the bootcamp cost?
- What concepts does the bootcamp teach?
- What are people saying about the bootcamp?
In this post, we’ll run through 19 of the most well-known coding bootcamps in 2017 and talk about the criteria that I mentioned above. After reading it, you should have a solid birds-eye view of the top coding bootcamps and understand how to continue your research.
Let’s start with online coding bootcamps.
Online Coding Bootcamps
Online coding bootcamps began as a reaction to traditional coding bootcamps. Online coding bootcamps are accessible, regardless of student’s geographic location. Instead of meeting instructors in a classroom, you typically communicate with them 1-on-1 via video chat.
1. Firehose Project is the online coding bootcamp we started. We teach students how to build complex real-world applications through 1-on-1 mentorship, weekly office hours, and a student community. At the conclusion of our course, students join small teams of developers led by mentors and build applications just like it’s done in the real world: on a team of developers.
Tuition: $6,500-$8,500
Length: 22 or 44 weeks
Curriculum: Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, Algorithms, Data Structures
Student Quote:
“The Firehose Project really accelerated my early growth, it made the concept of learning programming a lot more approachable. It got me started, it launched my path up, and I’ve been following that acceleration curve ever since.”
– Firehose grad John Zhao
2. Bloc.io was one of the earliest online coding bootcamps. They now offer iOS, android, and design bootcamps in addition to their web development bootcamp.
Length: 12-108 weeks.
Tuition: $5,000-$19,500
Curriculum: Ruby, Rails, Angular
Alumni Quote:
“My mentor recognized my strengths, he recognized my weaknesses. There’s no reason with the program where you can’t change the pace. The areas I struggled, we spent more time on. The places where it was clear I had a solid understanding we would breeze through it.”
– Bloc Alumn Jay Ottenstein on Youtube
3. Learn.co is an online program started by the founders of the Flatiron School in New York City.
Tuition: $1,500/month (capped at $12,000)
Length: Around 32 weeks. Varies per student.
Curriculum: Ruby, Rails, JavaScript
Founder Quote:
“Think of learning to code like learning to play an instrument: playing on your own is fun… but the real excitement comes from creating music with other people. When you study at Flatiron School on campus or online, you’re always learning with a community.”
– Avi Flombaum, Flatiron Dean.
4. Thinkful started with online courses and recently launched their own web developer career bootcamp.
Tuition: $14,000
Length: Around 16 weeks
Curriculum: NodeJS, MongoDB, ExpressJS
Mentor Quote:
“I know if I was going to go do a bootcamp, I would want that one-on-one attention and that’s what I love about Thinkful. I believe in spending extra time with people one-on-one, not in a group.”
– Jason Humphrey, Mentor at Thinkful on Course Report.
In-person Coding Bootcamps
There are a variety of ways that traditional in-person coding bootcamps work.
Many have in-person lectures. But many others follow the flipped-classroom approach to learning. The flipped-classroom approach is a style of teaching where things like lectures and course material are delivered online and outside the classroom, and the in-person component involves applying the lessons you learn to actual projects.
5. Dev Bootcamp was the original bootcamp. In additional to teaching coding skills, they let their students unwind by having them do yoga and pair programming. Kaplan acquired Dev Bootcamp in 2014.
Campuses: Austin, Chicago, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle
Tuition: $12,700-$13,950
Length: 9 weeks of remote prep-work and 9 weeks of in-person classes
Curriculum: HTML, Ruby, JavaScript
Founder Quote:
“If you look at countries like Germany, where unemployment rates are in the single digits, it’s because they have apprenticeship programs, trade schools, guild schools and it’s something that’s not looked at as less than a degree. It’s something honorable and something that people strive for.”
– Shereef Bishay, co-founder of Dev Bootcamp on Bloomberg News.
6. General Assembly is a popular coding bootcamp with campuses all over the world. They offer courses in product management, design, mobile development, data science and other topics too. Their “Web Developer Immersive” is their web development coding bootcamp.
Campuses:
- NORTH AMERICA: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Providence, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C.
- EUROPE: London
- ASIA: Hong Kong, Singapore
- AUSTRALIA: Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney
Tuition: $14,950
Length: 12 weeks
Curriculum: HTML, CSS, Ruby and JavaScript
Student Quote:
“I just graduated from the WDI at GA in Melbourne. It’s a very fast-moving course designed to push you to your learning and making limits. WDI is not for the faint-hearted. The nature of the bootcamp is sink or swim – you really have no choice but to swim. You’re forced to keep up with new concepts, theories and frameworks and it’s really good and difficult. That’s why you’re there – to learn.”
– DH, a WDI graduate, on CourseReport.
7. Startup Institute has programs in design, marketing, web development and more.
Campuses: Boston, New York City
Tuition: $9,100-$9,500
Curriculum: HTML, CSS, ruby and JavaScript
Length: 8 weeks
8. App Academy is an in-person coding bootcamp with a deferred tuition model.
Curriculum: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React, Redux, SQL, Advanced Algorithms, Data Structures, & Job Search.
Locations: San Francisco and New York
Length: 12 weeks (to get ready they offer a prep ~ 2months at $1,999).
Tuition: 22% of first year’s salary ($13,000-$22,000)
Student Quote:
“Learned a lot. Great program if you want to change careers and learn to code. Tuition model is awesome, you only pay if they get you a job.”
– Maria, an a/A graduate, on SwitchUp.
9. Hack Reactor is an in-person, JavaScript-focused coding bootcamp started by some early graduates of Dev Bootcamp.
Curriculum: JavaScript, Algorithms, Data Structures, Job Prep
Locations: San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles, New York City
Length: 12-17 weeks (with a 4-week prep course)
Tuition: $17,780
Executive Quote:
“We have a gong back in Austin that we ring every time someone gets an offer and we really celebrate our successes. Another success, there was a company that came out of Maker Square [now part of Hack Reactor] called GoodScout. Drew Montgomery and his mentor built it out, and they became profitable shortly after he built it.”
– COO Harsh Patel, in a SwitchUp interview.
10. Le Wagon is an international coding bootcamp.
Curriculum: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, HTML & CSS, APIs, Github, Heroku
Locations: Paris, Amsterdam, São Paulo, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Lille, Lisbon, London, Nantes, Rio de Janeiro, Marseille, Montreal, Shanghai, Berlin, Tokyo, Lyon
Length: 9 Weeks
Tuition 4,900€ – 6,000€ (varies per location)
Student Quote:
“When I look back at my journey, I started the training without even knowing what a terminal is .. I can tell you that I am very proud of me today. I am now moving forward with my project with serenity because I know that I am not starting from scratch anymore.
– Annie Tsang, a Le Wagon graduate, on CourseReport
11. Epicodus is an in-person coding bootcamp located in the northwest part of the United States.
Curriculum: PHP/Javascript/Drupal
Alternative Curriculum: Ruby/Javascript/Rails
Length: 16 weeks
Locations: Portland, Seattle
Tuition: $4,800-$7,500
Founder Quote:
“When I was a kid, we always had a computer in the house. My dad was always a computer nerd and raised me on stories of punchcards and whatnot. I was 5 or 6 and he showed me how to use DOS and we had one of those 386’s. As I got older he was like, hey, you can do a lot more stuff.”
– Founder Michael Kaiser-Nyman, on how he got into programming, at PDX tech meetup.
12. Flatiron School is a coding bootcamp located in New York City.
Length: 12 weeks
Location: New York City
Tuition: $15,000
Curriculum: JavaScript, Ruby, HTML & CSS
Student Quote:
“Why go to college for four years, to work up the corporate ladder to get in the position to do something great, when you can just learn to create something great?”
– Lewaa Bahmad, Flatiron Student, on PBS News Hour
13. Ironhack is a coding bootcamp that was founded in Miami and has since expanded to Spain.
Locations: Miami, Madrid, Barcelona
Curriculum: JavaScript
Length: 9 weeks
Tuition: 6.500€ in Spain, $11,000 in Miami
Founder Quote:
“Focus on your first milestone and go after it with all your energy. It’s important to have a sense of the long-term lofty goal, but if you don’t reach those first milestones your startup is doomed.”
– Ariel Quinones, founder of Ironhack.
14. Fullstack Academy is a full-stack JavaScript coding bootcamp.
Locations: NYC, Chicago,
Curriculum: AngularJS, Node.js, JavaScript
Tuition: $14,610 – $17,610
Student Quote:
“My time during Fullstack was amazing, I could learn at a very fast pace and had fun while doing it. My main instructor was Omri Bernstein and I also had classes with Joe Alves. Both are amazing teachers and awesome people.”
– Fullstack student JP on CourseReport
15. Software Guild is a coding bootcamp that teaches .NET and Java, technologies commonly found in industry but seldom seen taught at coding bootcamps.
Locations: Akron, Louisville, Minneapolis, Cleveland
Curriculum: .NET & Java
Tuition: $10,000
Length: 12 weeks
Executive Quote:
“The rate of change is accelerating in our field, especially in the web stack. It’s impossible to keep pace. When you vet bootcamps, take a good hard look at how much attention they pay to fundamentals, because those fundamentals transfer across stacks and will help you stay relevant.”
– Eric Wise, Chief Academic Officer, from a SwitchUp Interview
16. Makers Academy is a coding bootcamp located in London.
Locations: London
Curriculum: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Postgres
Length: 12 weeks
Tuition: $11,675
Student Quote:
“It’s called a bootcamp for a reason. You have to be pushed to your edges, in terms of always learning, always learning, always learning. And it’s difficult.”
– A Maker alumni, talking about the bootcamp on YouTube.
17. Galvanize is a coding bootcamp that teaches web development, data science and other technical topics.
Locations: Denver, San Francisco, Boulder, Seattle, Austin, Phoenix
Curriculum: HTML, CSS, Javascript
Length: 24 Weeks
Tuition: $21,000
Founder Quote:
“We are fundamentally in a skills-based economy. And a skills-based world. And that degree, that piece of paper that used to signal how awesome you were has broken down.
In a competency-based world, in a skills-based world, you’re looking for experience. In the tech world specifically, it’s very obvious whether you have the skills or not. There are things like GitHub now, that’s a code repository, we can look at your code, look at what you’ve written, what you’ve done.”
– Jim Deters, founder of Galvanize, at SXSWEDU
18. Launch Academy is a Boston-based coding bootcamp that recently expanded to Philadelphia.
Locations: Boston, Philadelphia
Curriculum: JavaScript, Ruby, HTML, CSS
Tuition: $15,500 – $17,500
Length: 10 weeks
Founder Quote:
“Launch Academy was founded to give people the gift of loving what they do on a daily basis.”
Founder Dan Pickett, on YouTube
19. IronYard
Length: 12 weeks
Locations: Atlanta, Austin, Charleston, Charlotte, Dallas, Durham, Greenville, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Tampa Bay, Washington DC
Tuition: $13,900
Student Quote:
“I had a great experience at The Iron Yard. My instructor, Chris was passionate about teaching and seeing us become developers. I worked harder in the 12 weeks I was in The Iron Yard than I ever have before, but the end result was more than worth it.”
– IronYard student Zach Bradshow, on CourseReport
If you want to use a bootcamp to switch careers, there are a lot of options to choose from.
And that’s a great thing! There are many different coding bootcamps in a variety of locations, formats, structures, and curriculum sets. You have lots of options to choose from.
Coding bootcamps are here to stay. They offer a streamlined path to becoming a professional-level developer as efficiently as possible.
Not sure where to start in your coding bootcamp research?
Check out our Coding Bootcamp Research Guide here.
