7 Free Online Courses BUT They're as Good as Paid Ones

Stop throwing away your money on overpriced courses, certificates, certifications, bootcamps, and degrees. Today, I'm gonna be showing you how to get better education for as little as $0. And all of these other players in the education industry want you to believe that expensive equals quality, and that is absolute nonsense. Now, this is coming from someone who went over 300,000 student loan debt to get their doctorate, and have spent hundreds of thousands of extra dollars on online education. And I've overseen thousands of people spending money on bootcamps and all of these different types of education, and so I've tested both the free and the paid options, and I have a really good idea of what the best is. And the results were shocking. Some of the best courses cost nothing, while expensive programs deliver trash. And many of these universities, bootcamps, or course creators are getting rich, selling you information that you can get for free. But today, I'm gonna be revealing seven completely free courses that destroy paid alternatives, and real companies use these for training. Real people get hired from these programs, and you won't pay a single penny. And I'm also gonna explain to you why this actually is, because you might be thinking this is too good to be true. Well, the companies that release these free courses actually have a lot to gain by doing it, and I'll show you exactly what I mean. Now, by the way, quick obligatory disclaimer, the salary figures I mentioned come from sources like Glassdoor. These are average estimates, not guarantees, and your actual salary can vary depending on your experience, location, or the company that you work for, as well as many other factors. So use these numbers as a general guide, not a promise of what you'll earn. And as always, make sure you do your own research. But first, if you appreciate me making this type of content, let me know by gently tapping that like button. And I also wanna tell you that certificates, certifications, and online courses are great. But if you wanna have recruiters, hiring managers, and business owners reaching out to you to hire you, what you wanna do is create content. You want to build your online presence, and build a personal brand online. And up until recently, that has been very difficult to do. It would take tens of hours a week, so it's almost like having a second job. And that's why for one time only, I will be inviting you to our live workshop. All right, quick break, guys. This week, I'm gonna be hosting a free live workshop that's going to be designed to help you grow and make money on YouTube. So click the link in the description below to check out when that will be happening. And at this workshop, I'm gonna be giving away my brand new tool, the Niche Validator Pro 2.0.5 completely free. This is a powerful GPT-driven tool that I've been working on, and it's been trained on thousands of hours of my teaching, my philosophy, and coaching sessions. And with it, you can uncover hidden profitable YouTube niches, and generate viral content ideas with just one click. And I'm gonna be giving it away for this one time only at the workshop, so make sure you show up. Click the link in the description or the pinned comment below, and when you're done registering, make sure to click on add this to your calendar. So it'll show up in your Google, Apple, or Outlook calendar, so you won't miss the chance to grab this free AI tool. Now, you'll also be able to ask me questions live, so I look forward to meeting you. See you this week on the live workshop. Click that link in the description and the pinned comment below to sign up, and make sure you put it in your calendar. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. All right, course number one is the Free Code Camp Responsive Web Design, and really just anything from Free Code Camp. Now, Free Code Camp is a phenomenal company. I think they've helped hundreds of thousands of people get jobs, and like the name suggests, they've done it for free. Now, I picked this particular course, the Responsive Web Design course, because I think it's one of the better ones when it comes to the reviews, and I think it's also perfect for beginners who want to learn web development. Now, here's what you get. Modern HTML5 and CSS. You learn Flexbox and Grid, plus Accessibility and Responsive Layouts. But here's the best part. It's 100% project-based. You don't just watch videos. You build five real projects, a survey form, and a tribute page. Real stuff for your portfolio. And you get to show these on CodePen or GitHub. And the community is huge. There is a forum and a Discord for help. And it's completely self-paced. Now, why is this as good as paid courses? Three reasons. First, employers want portfolios. This forces you to build five real projects. Second, there's actual proof that this works. People get hired from this course. Like this guy, for instance. He said, I took the Responsive Web Design path and landed my first developer job without even applying. And third, no paywall means you can focus your money on hosting and domains instead. And front-end developers make between $76,000 to $136,000 a year, and that's according to Glassdoor. So yeah, Free Code Camp in general, I'm gonna give them a nine out of 10. They have gotten a ton of people jobs. And they get a massive amount of money from donations every year. And companies will actually hire people through Free Code Camp because they'll basically tell companies which their best students are. So yeah, really good one. Course two, Google Digital Garage Fundamentals of Digital Marketing. Now, Google has a bunch of amazing free courses out there. And one of their platforms that's really good is Google's Digital Garage. And they have some really amazing marketing courses. And by the way, this isn't just Google Digital Garage. Google has a ton of free courses and even free certificates and certifications out there. And a lot of the time, companies will actually insist that you're Google certified if you're running Google ads, for instance. Now, Google and many of the other companies on this list benefit from the fact that you're actually using their platform. Because you could be running ads on Facebook or Meta. You could be running ads on Instagram. You could be running ads on Google, TikTok, many other competitors. But they want you to be running ads on Google for obvious reasons, because that's how they make money. And so they actually benefit tremendously for giving these courses away and these certificates and certifications away for completely free. And in this one, you get 26 modules covering everything. SEO, SEM analytics, content marketing, social media. And it takes about 40 hours total to go through. And there are videos, readings, and quizzes, plus a final assessment. And when you're done, you get an official Google certificate. And this is vendor official content. That means it maps directly to the tools that companies actually use. And the 40-hour scope matches what you'd get in a paid intro course. And according to Glassdoor, digital marketing specialists make between $56,000 and $96,000 a year. So yeah, I'm gonna give this one a very solid 9.5 out of 10. It's Google authored and recognized. And unlike the free CodeCamp, it actually gives you a certificate that many companies actually require to hire you. All right, course number three is HubSpot Academy Content Marketing Certification. Or HubSpot courses in general, because they have a lot of really good ones. So this one focuses on content strategy and planning, and you learn audience research, editorial planning, SEO basics, and how to measure your results. And you get video lessons, quizzes, and downloadable templates. Now, why is HubSpot giving away such an amazing course for free? Well, HubSpot is a CRM, or a customer relationship management software. And they want many people to be as familiar as possible with using HubSpot. So their training is going to center around using HubSpot features. And many companies out there use HubSpot as a CRM, especially smaller startups. And so it benefits them tremendously to put out these free courses for people, because then people get familiar with HubSpot, they start using it more and more, and then companies get more familiar with it because the people are familiar with it. And it's just this virtual cycle of companies and workers being more and more familiar with HubSpot, and therefore making it easier for them to use it, and for them to recommend it to other people. And the certificate is verifiable, and it comes with a badge. And hiring managers actually look for this one, because there are many companies out there that use HubSpot. Now, why is this as good as a paid course? Well, it's a brand-recognized credential. The content maps directly to real job tasks, like creating personas and topic clusters. And you get templates that mirror what paid courses give you. And this person wrote on the HubSpot blog that this landed me my dream job in a digital role. And according to Glassdoor, content marketing specialists make between $66,000 and $112,000 a year. So yeah, I'm gonna rate this one an 8.5 out of 10. I think it's really good. I like HubSpot as a company a lot. I think they put out a lot of amazing free content. For instance, I really love it when they put out their yearly marketing statistics blog. And I think it's really great for the right type of person. With that being said, if you wanna learn a lot more about how to actually use content and combine it with AI in such a way where it doesn't become a full-time job for you, and this is gonna be great for you whether you wanna get your dream job, build your personal brand online, start a side hustle, start a business, or even scale an existing business, get a lot more clients for your existing business, then definitely attend my live training down in the description and the pinned comment below. I look forward to seeing you there. All right, course number four is the Odin Project. Now, this one is very similar to FreeCodeCamp. A lot of people prefer Odin Project over FreeCodeCamp though. And a lot of people prefer FreeCodeCamp over Odin Project. It's one of those things where I would just honestly check them out. And it also probably depends on what type of career path you're trying to go down. Now, Odin Project and FreeCodeCamp are as good as some boot camps because they're very project heavy and you build a real portfolio. And the success wall shows actual hires. And again, front end developers make about 69 to $117,000 a year. The downside of the Odin Project is it's probably not very well respected when it comes to credentials, but from all accounts, the training is top tier and the community is really good as well. And I would probably just do a little bit of research between this one and FreeCodeCamp depending on what type of coding you wanna get into. And basically just see what people are saying online about that type of coding and which class would be best for you to take. So yeah, not gonna go into this one too much, but I'm gonna give it an eight out of 10 opportunity score. All right, course number five is the Harvard CS50x Introduction to Computer Science. Now, this is a world famous course. It's offered by Harvard, of course, and it has recently been updated as well. And in this course, you learn C, Python, SQL, and web development. And this is the same exact course that Harvard graduates, people who get computer science degrees at Harvard, they take the same course. And so you're getting a Harvard Ivy League education for completely free. And they give you the assignments too, right? You're able to take problem sets, for instance, and these problem sets are challenging. And the production value is incredible. Now, it takes 10 to 12 weeks at six to 18 hours per week. And you can go through self-paced if you'd like, or you can accelerate and go faster. And this gives you elite university rigor for free. And additionally, you get strong fundamentals and algorithms and data structures. And most paid bootcamps skip this stuff. And there's a huge community for support. And people on Reddit say, CS50 got me a job by accident, and they started as a software developer well above their area's average salary. And according to Glassdoor, software engineers make between 118 to $187,000 a year. And that's the highest on the list. And I rate this one a nine out of 10. I think it's phenomenal. And I do think it gives you sort of like a baseline for computer science knowledge that is gonna be a little deeper than some of the surface level stuff that you're gonna learn in some of these ones that are designed to get you a career. You kind of understand like the deeper level stuff, which is kind of what college is supposed to do for you. So yeah, solid nine out of 10, really like this one. The next one is the Microsoft Learn Azure Fundamentals. Now, Azure is a cloud platform that Microsoft put out. And there are basically three big cloud platforms right now that are all vying for cloud dominance. And that is Azure, AWS from Amazon, which is Amazon Web Services, and Google. And whoever rules the cloud pretty much rules the world. No, seriously, the cloud is massive right now. And that's why companies like Amazon have basically pivoted to put their attention on it. And basically what the cloud allows you to do is store information without having a physical place to store it. It's all stored in the cloud. But with the cloud, if it's done correctly, you're also able to access that information very easily, even though it's still secure. Now, again, the reason that Microsoft is putting this out for free, even though it's very high quality, is because of market share, right? They want more people to be using Microsoft Azure. They wanna make it as easy as possible for people to use it because that's gonna help them take over the market, right? So they benefit tremendously from putting out this super high quality free course. Now, you get modular lessons with quizzes and sandbox demos. And it's self-paced and it's built by Microsoft themselves. And this is vendor official content, right? So it aligns directly with the real certification blueprint. And many employers, especially Microsoft partners, actually require these certs. And someone on Reddit said, once I got a few Azure certifications, I started getting more job offers and I've tripled my income in three years. And that's what getting really familiar with the cloud can do for you. Because cloud support engineers make between 110 to $164,000 a year, according to Glassdoor. And some cloud jobs make a lot more than that. So overall, I'm gonna give this one an 8.5 out of 10. I think it's really good. I do think it kind of pigeonholes you in one specific type of cloud platform, which is great if the company you're applying to uses Microsoft services or uses Azure, but it's not that good if they don't. All right, next course, course number seven, is the IBM Cognitive Class Python for Data Science. Now this one is extremely niche, but I do think IBM puts out some really good free or very affordable courses online. And in this, you're gonna learn Python syntax and data structures, plus basic analysis skills, and it's all through Jupyter-based labs. And it takes about 18 hours total, so it doesn't take that long to get through. And you get hands-on labs and final exercises, plus an IBM badge that you can add to LinkedIn. And over 414,000 people have enrolled with a 4.7 out of five-star rating. And this is IBM-backed content, right? And JupyterLab mirrors tools that you would use in real data jobs. And it's short enough that beginners can finish fast. And it's always a good sign when you have a shareable badge because that's basically a way for recruiters, hiring managers, et cetera, to find you. Because believe it or not, they do actually search people up through LinkedIn with these. So yeah, this one I really like. Again, very specific. Obviously, most people watching this video probably don't wanna learn how to use Python in conjunction with data science. But if you're in the right type of situation, this can be an invaluable skillset because data science is super valuable, and then if you learn how to automate things with Python, that's even more valuable. So this one's really good, but it's also extremely specific too. I'm gonna give it an eight out of 10. But you know what's not gonna be an eight out of 10, and instead it's gonna be a 10 out of 10? My free training. Check it out in the description and the pinned comment below. Look forward to seeing you there. And also check out this video right here where I go over a bunch of either free or very low-cost certificates and certifications if none of these appeal to you and you want more options.