is treehouse worth it for php text with php project options in background

Treehouse PHP Review for 2024 (features, projects, price & more)

In today’s Treehouse PHP review you’ll discover features, projects, price and more.

But is Treehouse PHP worth it?

Read on to find out.

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TLDR: Treehouse PHP Review

🌳 Treehouse (aka Team Treehouse) offers multiple PHP courses and three learning tracks.

📜 Treehouse also offers a PHP Techdegree.

Treehouse PHP courses are generally a reliable option for code newbies. In addition, they also offer an intermediate PHP track for advanced beginners.

🎄 Treehouse sale alert! From now until – Dec. 17 you can get 50% off your first month of your Techdegree.
Click here for the discount.

How much do PHP developers make?

According to Treehouse, an entry-level PHP job pays over $60,000 a year.

This is more than $10,000 more annually than the National Average Wage Index.

Is PHP in demand?

Yes, PHP is very much in demand.

For example, 80% of the web is powered by PHP. That is a huge figure!

In fact, WordPress alone (powered by PHP) eats up nearly 40% of the web.

These stats are simply too big to ignore.

So whenever you hear a web development instructor, influencer or your Aunt Lucinda say that “nobody uses PHP,” it’s just not true.

PHP will continue to be in high demand.

That means more jobs and more opportunities.

Additionally, the language continues to evolve. . .Not only with its core features, but also with tools and frameworks like Laravel.

Now that you’ve learned some PHP stats, let’s check out the Treehouse PHP options.

Treehouse PHP with Laravel Techdegree

Treehouse PHP Techdegree project list

All Treehouse courses are video-based. The PHP with Laravel Techdegree fuses their high-production videos with premium features. Those features include:

  • Curated content
  • Peer reviews (get personalized feedback on your projects)
  • Exclusive Slack community (including office hours)
  • Discounts/perks from 3rd party tech products & services
Treehouse PHP Techdegree peer review directions
Peer review option for Treehouse PHP Techreview.

The core of the PHP Techdegree focuses on building PHP skills to make you job-ready.

The curriculum centers around 8 modules where you will learn:

  • PHP syntax & best practices
  • Programming fundamentals
  • Object Oriented Programming (OOP) with PHP
  • MVC framework
  • Tools like text editors, the command line
  • Git & GitHub
  • Testing and debugging tools
  • SQL
  • REST APIs
  • Securing web apps
  • Laravel to build web apps & REST APIs

This Techdegree also features 7 projects and activities. It includes building a pet adoption site, an OOP game show app, a quiz app, and more.

Techdegrees are good for people who are fairly certain they want a job in the software industry. They take months to complete and aren’t cheap! (See pricing below).

However, they deliver a lot of premium features on this tier. And many of them are very job focused so you aren’t wasting time on non-essential items.

Treehouse PHP Tracks

If a Techdegree is too much for you at the moment, consider the Treehouse PHP tracks. In contrast to the Treehouse Techdegree, Tracks offer guided pathways through the Treehouse library.

For PHP, Treehouse features three tracks:

Treehouse Track: Beginning PHP

This track includes six courses and one workshop. Total run time is about 15 hours.

In addition, there is a page where you’ll learn how to install a PHP development environment.

The courses are:

  1. Introduction to HTML & CSS
  2. PHP Basics
  3. HTML Basics
  4. PHP Arrays and Control Structures
  5. PHP Functions
  6. Build a Basic PHP Website
PHP code on Treehouse video
Lesson from Build a Basic PHP Website course (Treehouse)

Then, you’ll learn basic error handling in PHP during the 45-minute workshop.

Treehouse Track: Intermediate PHP

Like the name suggests, this Treehouse Track is for intermediate PHP learners.

With 8 courses, total run time is about 16 hours.

Unlike Beginning PHP, this track takes a more integrated look at PHP.

In other words, you’ll learn how to get other technologies to “play nice” with PHP.

Treehouse PHP review featuring PHP quiz
Secure Authentication quiz as part of the Treehouse PHP with Laravel Techdegree

Specifically, you’ll learn how to integrate PHP with SQL to create a full-blown backend.

The curriculum includes:

  1. SQL Basics
  2. Reporting with SQL
  3. Working with $_GET and $_POST in PHP
  4. Integrating PHP with Databases
  5. Browser Persistent Data with PHP
  6. Modifying Data with SQL
  7. CRUD Operations with PHP
  8. File Handling with PHP

Treehouse Track: Object-Oriented PHP

Treehouse’s Object-Oriented PHP is a Track for those PHP devs wanting to learn OOP, or object oriented programming.

You will learn how to use objects, templates, dependency management and 3rd party packages.

Total run time is about 13 hours.

Courses include:

  1. Build a basic PHP website
  2. Working with $_GET and $_POST in PHP
  3. Object-Oriented PHP Basics
  4. Extending Object-Oriented PHP
  5. Designing Interfaces in PHP
  6. Introduction to PHP7
  7. Basic Exception Handling with PHP
  8. Dependency Management with Composer
  9. Laravel Basics

In addition, there’s an 8-minute workshop called simply Understanding PHP.

PHP challenge question
Quiz in the Object-Oriented PHP track on Treehouse

A Word on Treehouse Tracks

Considering the run times, these Treehouse PHP Track options are manageable. (No 40-hour courses here!)

It’s also convenient that Treehouse curated these courses. You don’t have to peck and pick to find a good collection of courses.

But remember, the Tracks alone don’t include additional projects, peer project review, Slack access or certs. Those only come with the Techdegree option.

Treehouse PHP Review: Price

Treehouse comes with three main pricing options.

First, you can go for the monthly price. This normally runs at $29.99. It will get you access to all 300 Treehouse courses + Track access.

Secondly, you can select the yearly plan. You pay for the entire year at $179.88. This evens out to $14.99/month.

Third, you can upgrade to their premium VIP experience, the Treehouse Techdegree. This unlocks numerous features. For example, you’ll get additional projects, exclusive content, and peer project reviews.

The Treehouse Techdegree option is $199 a month.

Further, Treehouse offers certificates of completion for students enrolled in the Techdegree option.

There is one other option that is kind of tough to find. I only discovered it on my Subscriptions page of my account. This is Courses Plus, which gives you access to all normal courses plus bonus content. This option is $49 a month or $490 a year. But again, I don’t really see it advertised anywhere except on the subscription area of my account.

Treehouse PHP Review: Is it worth it?

Is the Treehouse PHP curriculum worth it? In our opinion, yes. But on three conditions:

  1. You’re a code newbie / new to web development.
  2. You prefer video-based instruction.
  3. You are OK with paying a monthly or yearly fee for access.

While the production values are very high quality, Treehouse courses tend to emphasize “talking head” lectures. This is in contrast to competitor platforms like Udemy where instructors generally hop right into the code editor.

However, there are plenty of videos that show you how to code. It’s just, compared to other platforms, Treehouse does seems to have more on-camera instructors talking to you.

So if you’re a code newbie, this can keep the material manageable. It often feels like there’s someone there, simply explaining things. There’s less pressure to get into the guts of the code and produce.

That said, if you’re an intermediate or advanced developer, Treehouse is probably going to be too basic. I would recommend a more advanced platform like Educative.io.

Treehouse PHP Review: Final Thoughts

Good PHP courses are notoriously difficult to find. Worse, some popular online developer instructors like to dismiss PHP. For example, they say it’s outdated and not in demand. Some even dismiss it on the grounds of not being trendy anymore!

The PHP job openings around the world would say otherwise.

Thanks for reading this Treehouse PHP review. Want to read more about Team Treehouse? We feature them in our list of top 27 Udemy alternatives here.

  1. How many courses does Treehouse offer?

    The Treehouse library currently contains over 300 individual courses. They also offer Tracks, which are guided pathways through the Treehouse library. For example, the Intermediate PHP Track contains 8 courses with a total run time of about 16 hours.

  2. What is a Treehouse Techdegree?

    Techdegrees are bootcamp-style learning environments offered by Treehouse. In addition to offering courses, Techdegrees also provide peer reviews, office hours, portfolio guidance and more. There are currently 5 Techdegrees on Treehouse, spanning from PHP to Full Stack JavaScript.

  3. How much do Treehouse Techdegrees cost?

    The cost for a Treehouse Techdegree is $199 per month.