DataCamp or Codecademy Pro [Best Place to Learn Data Science?]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for a data scientist is $100,560.

And using DataCamp or Codecademy Pro can help you:

✅ learn data science fundamentals

✅ build your skills

✅ prepare for a data science career

And beyond.

Aside from that tasty 6-figure salary, why should I learn data science?

We can think of a few reasons:

• growing demand – demand for data scientists is triple the national average of related fields
• diverse skill application – careers in data science include data analyst, machine learning engineer, infrastructure architect, statistician, and much more
• versatility – data science applies to healthcare, banking, teaching, e-commerce, etc.

And that’s just for starters.

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You mentioned DataCamp or Codecademy Pro to learn data science. What are they?

They’re both video-based online learning platforms.

And they can help you learn data science using a series of lessons, quizzes, projects and more.

Plus in the age of COVID-19, we’re spending more and more time at home.

What better way to spend that time than to learn a valuable new skill set!

So what do we think? Which one is better… DataCamp or Codecademy Pro?

A blend of DataCamp and Codecademy Pro is ideal.

And here’s why:

	DataCamp	Codecademy Pro
Learning Style	Video-based, some text	Primarily text-based, some video
Focus on Beginner Courses	❌	✅
Focus on Intermediate Courses	✅	❌
Data Science Courses	✅	✅
Data Science Skill Paths	✅	✅
Data Science Career Paths	✅	✅
Projects	✅	✅
Support and Community	✅	✅
Certificate of Completion	✅	✅
Cost	$399/year	$199/year

As you can see, both platforms have similar features.

But the big difference between their data science programs is the experience level.

What does that mean?

Well, if you don’t have the fundamentals of programming down, you’ll want to spend some time on Codecademy Pro first.

Learn more about Codecademy Pro here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MYZJfoHxgk

And if you’re ready to dive deep into data science, DataCamp could be the platform for you.

Check out our full DataCamp review here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xaw7ZKaiOCw

📚 TLDR: Codecademy Pro is good for learning programming foundations. DataCamp is decidedly all things data science.

Now let’s investigate. 🕵️

✨ Codecademy Pro

⚠️ Level: Beginner

Codecademy Pro is a blend of text and video-based learning platform that offers data science-related courses, skill paths and career paths.

However, their primary focus is on building a foundational understanding of programming.

So it’s an ideal platform if you’re just learning to code.

And if you’re ready to delve into data science, there are plenty of quality courses to get you started.

Programming Language Courses

This platform covers everything from programming basics to data analysis.

Some beginner courses relevant to your data science journey may include:

✅ Learn Python3

✅ Learn R

✅ Learn the Basics of Machine Learning

✅ Learn SQL

And much more.

Data Science Courses

While Codecademy Pro offers some data science courses, don’t expect to find a full spectrum. Especially when it comes to advanced learning of data science.

But there are a few intermediate and advanced courses such as Learn Complex Data Structures, Learn Sorting Algorithms with Python, and Learn Data Visualization with Python.

Data Science Skill Paths

Skill paths contain a curated list of lessons, quizzes, videos and projects. They’re designed to help you learn and practice real-world skills.

So they typically take about 2-3 months to complete.

Codecademy Pro offers 6 skill paths related to data science:

1. Analyze Data with Python
2. Analyze Data with R
3. Analyze Data with SQL
4. Analyze Financial Data with Python
5. Build a Machine Learning Model with Python
6. Visualize Data with Python

Each skill path contains multiple lessons, quizzes, videos and projects.

⏲️ Time investment: Codecademy Pro data science skill paths usually take about 2 months to complete. ⏲️

Data Science Career Path

A career path is designed to give developers an in-depth foundational understanding of concepts in a specific career. Similar to skill paths, career paths contain lessons, quizzes, videos and projects to learn and practice real-world skills.

There is 1 beginner-friendly data science career path on Codecademy Pro.

And using 23 lessons, multiple quizzes and projects, you’ll learn:

✅ data science fundamentals

✅ SQL – basics, intermediate, analyze real data, off-platform

✅ Python – functions, logic, lists, loops, statistics

✅ data analysis with Pandas

✅ machine learning – supervised & unsupervised learning

And much more.

⏲️ Time investment: Codecademy Pro data science career paths typically take 6 months to a year to complete. ⏲️

Projects

Codecademy Pro features ample projects within their data science courses, skill paths and career path.

Support and Community

Codecademy Pro has a robust community forum where you can get help, share your projects, get answers to frequently asked questions and more.

In addition, the platform offers peer support.

Certificate of Completion

✅ Codecademy Pro does offer certificates of completion.

💰 Cost

There are 3 subscription tiers for Codecademy:

	Free	Monthly – $39.99	Yearly – $199 🤩 Best Deal!
Course Access	Basic	✅	✅
Skill Paths	❌	✅	✅
Career Paths	❌	✅	✅
Real-world Projects	❌	✅	✅
Step-by-step Guidance	❌	✅	✅
Community & Support	✅	✅	✅
Certificates of Completion	❌	✅	✅

You can check out Codecademy Pro here.

✨ DataCamp

⚠️ Level: Intermediate

DataCamp has over 300 courses that are a blend of text and video-based learning. And new courses are added regularly.

Plus, DataCamp has a Trello board. It’s an online sticky board where you can see their upcoming courses and progress.

And while there are programming courses on DataCamp, they’re limited and focus on basic programming concepts.

So if you need to learn the fundamentals of programming, DataCamp probably isn’t for you… Yet.

Why don’t we take a closer look.

Programming Language Courses

DataCamp has some introductory and intermediate programming language courses in Python and R.

But you won’t get a full education on the fundamentals.

Data Science Courses

DataCamp offers 61 courses related to data science.

From basic to advanced, topics covered include:

✅ Introduction to Python, R, SQL, Scala, etc.

✅ Practicing coding interview questions in Python

✅ Writing functions in R

✅ Building and optimizing triggers in SQL Server

✅ Object-oriented programming in Python

✅ Big data fundamentals

And much more.

Data Science Skill Paths

DataCamp skill paths contain a curated combination of lessons, quizzes, videos and projects. These are designed to help you learn and practice real-world skills.

There are 51 data science skill paths including:

• Anaconda Skills
• Finance Fundamentals
• Applied Finance in Python
• SQL Server Fundamentals
• Probability and Distributions with R

And more.

Each skill path contains 3-6 courses related to the desired skill.

Data Science Career Paths

Career paths are designed to give developers in-depth foundational understanding of concepts in a specific career. Like skill paths, career paths contain lessons, quizzes, videos and projects to learn and practice real-world skills.

But there’s a much heavier work load and takes months longer to complete.

DataCamp has 14 data science-related career paths based on Python, SQL and R.

Some career paths include:

✅ Data Scientist (with Python or R)

✅ Data Analyst (with Python or R)

✅ Quantitative Analyst with R

✅ Machine Learning Scientist with R

✅ Data Engineer with Python

✅ Data Scientist with Python

And more.

⏲️ But be aware: These career paths are massive, with some of them containing 20+ courses and clocking in at over 100 hours of materials. ⏲️

Projects

DataCamp has 81 projects you can work on such as:

• Visualizing Covid-19
• Exploring the Kaggle Data Science Survey
• Wrangling and Visualizing Musical Data
• Level Difficulty in Candy Crush Saga

And much more.

Support and Community

You’ll get full access to DataCamp’s support and community only with a Premium membership.

Certificate of Completion

✅ DataCamp does offer certificates of completion.

💰 Cost

There are 3 subscription tiers for DataCamp:

	Free	Standard – $300/year	Premium – $399/year 🤩 Best Deal!
Course Access	1st chapter only	✅	✅
Skill Assessments	Limit 1	✅	✅
Projects	Limit 7	✅	✅
Skill Tracks	❌	✅	✅
Career Tracks	❌	✅	✅
Community	❌	✅	✅
Priority Support	❌	❌	✅

You can check out DataCamp here.

DataCamp or Codecademy: Conclusion

DataCamp or Codecademy Pro? The answer is, it all depends.

If you’re just getting started in your programming career, we recommend Codecademy Pro.

You’ll learn the fundamentals of programming before delving into the world of data science.

Plus they have some decent data science courses to get you started.

And when you’re ready to upgrade to full-on data science, go with DataCamp.

There you’ll take courses focused on your data science career.

Up Next: Is DataCamp Worth It in 2020? [DataCamp vs Codecademy vs Educative]