React.js or React is one of the most popular Javascript libraries today. According to Stackoverflow’s 2020 survey, React stood firmly as the second most popular web framework/library behind jQuery.
Numerous companies around the world use the library to build user interfaces of websites or web applications. Unsurprisingly, React developers are highly in demand.
Learning React is thus hugely lucrative. Based on Ziprecruiter’s data, React developers earn as high as $108175 per year, while top performers can earn up to $150000 annually in the United States.
Hence, React is a precious skill to have on your resume and 100% worth learning for 2022 and beyond.
Thanks to the availability of online courses, anyone can learn React anywhere, any time. You don’t need to break the bank by enrolling in costly web development bootcamps anymore.
However, not all courses available online are worth taking. Some could provide only superficial React training that is a waste of time and money. Hence, this post will only list the best React courses that you can take to build real-life skills and become an adept React developer.
Affiliate Disclosure: This post from Victory Tale contains affiliate links. if you purchase through them, we will receive a small commission from the course providers
Nevertheless, we always value integrity and prioritize our audience’s interests. Therefore, you can rest assured that we will present each React course truthfully.
Prerequisites for a React course
Since React is a JavaScript library, you will need to know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript before enrolling in any React course. Regarding JavaScript, you should have knowledge of modern JavaScript features (ES6+) as well.
Furthermore, you should be comfortable using Git and the command line. Some React courses might have additional prerequisites. However, most will not require experience in working with any other JavaScript library or framework.
1. Become a React Developer
This React Nanodegree program from Udacity is one of the best options to learn React. Within one program, you will develop practical skills in React, Redux, and React Native and become fully equipped to build React apps for both web and mobile.
In addition to the above prerequisites, you should handily use NPM (Node Package Manager) before enrolling in the program.
Course Content
The program comprises three minor courses as follows:
1. React Fundamentals – The first course will cover React’s component model. You will learn to write declarative user interfaces and understand all steps to build production-ready web apps.
2. React and Redux – The second course will help you handle the state management of your apps. You will learn Redux and use it to build a more complex, enterprise-level web application.
3. React Native – The final course will transition to React Native. You will use this mobile application framework to build production-ready apps that will run smoothly on iOS and Android devices.
Besides video lectures, each course in the program has many code examples, quizzes, assignments, and, most importantly, hands-on projects.
You will complete as many as three projects in this program. For instance, you will build a virtual bookcase to store your eBooks, a quiz application, and a mobile flashcard app.
Udacity suggests spending 10 hours per week on the courses, and you will complete the program in 4 months. As the program is entirely self-paced, you can set up your own schedule and ignore those suggestions.
However, keep in mind that Udacity’s tuition is subscription-based (see below). The more time you spend on the program, the more tuition fees you will pay.
Student Support & Pricing
Furthermore, similar to other Udacity Nanodegree programs, you will get access to the following student support.
Mentor Support – You can use the chat interface on Student Hub to ask questions to your mentor 24/7. You will receive a response within less than an hour.
Therefore, if you get stuck on some topics or coding challenges, you don’t need to wait for days or even weeks on the forum like other programming courses.
Project Reviews – This support makes Udacity shine. You can create unlimited requests for industry experts to review your projects.
They will provide personalized feedback, tips, tricks, and best practices that will enhance the quality of your projects, making them highly suitable for adding to your existing Github portfolio.
Career Services – Like full-stack web development bootcamps, Udacity’s program also provides access to career services. The team will review your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, and Github portfolio to ensure that you are ready for job applications.
The tuition is $399 per month. If you pay for all four months at once, you are eligible for a 15% discount. Thus, on average, you will pay only $339 for each month.
Furthermore, Udacity frequently offers financial support and extra discounts so that you may pay only $100 per month.
Tips: Udacity’s personalized discounts can be as high as 75% off. However, the promo code is only available after registration and only new students can use it.
Many prospective students wonder whether Udacity’s program is worth the price. I would say it is.
In my opinion, project reviews single-handedly justify the price. You can learn directly from industry experts who will pinpoint your weaknesses in your React skills, allowing you to enhance them to reach professional standards.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- An all-in-one program that can help you develop a comprehensive skillset to build high-quality web and mobile applications
- Learn React JS with leading experts
- Well-structured curriculum
- Excellent course materials
- Three real-world projects for students to gather hands-on experience
- Unlimited project reviews can be highly beneficial in learning React.
- Swift, reliable mentor support
- Well-maintained, hence all React courses are always up-to-date.
- Career services are a plus.
- Self-paced learning
Cons
- Much costlier than other React courses
- The suggested weekly commitment is high. Busy students may end up paying extra tuition because they may finish the program after the four-month timeframe.
2. React – The Complete Guide (incl Hooks, React Router, Redux)
This Udemy course by Maximilian Schwarzmüller is unarguably one of the best video courses on React and Redux.
Max is a self-taught web developer who turns out to be a gifted instructor. I have taken several courses with him and have had a great learning experience, so I don’t hesitate to recommend him to you.
This course has no additional prerequisites besides those indicated above.
Course Content
Below is a summary of the course content that you will learn from this online course.
- Introduction to React.js + JavaScript brief reviews
- React Components, Props & JSX
- React State, Events, Rendering Lists, Conditional Content
- Styling React Components using CSS classes and modules
- React Fragments and Portals
- Dealing with side effects (using reducers and Context API)
- How the React library works + Optimization techniques
- Class-based components
- Custom React Hooks
- A deep dive into Redux
- Using React Router to build a multi-page SPA
- Deploying React apps
- Adding features to your apps
- Testing React apps
- TypeScript and Next.js (for server-side rendering)
- and many more
The course contains 47.5 hours of video lectures. Max has also provided additional learning resources, including quizzes, assignments, and a massive project where you will build a food order app from scratch.
Regarding the reviews, most of them are highly positive. The course receives 4.7/5.0 stars from 118000 reviewers.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Unarguably one of the best React.js courses available online
- Learn with a knowledgeable, gifted instructor
- Excellent blend of theoretical explanations and hands-on projects + Informative lectures
- Step-by-step curriculum
- High-quality course materials
- Build a React application from scratch
- The instructor frequently updates his course. Thus, most of its content is unlikely to be outdated.
- Lifetime access
- Inexpensive + 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Some reviewers believed the explanations could be much more straightforward, particularly sections regarding React Hooks. The instructor is also verbose when explaining certain parts.
- A few sections of the course are not well-structured.
3. Modern React with Redux
If you are looking for a more concise React course, you may want to take this Udemy course with Stephen Grider. Stephen is a talented developer who has tons of experience in training new software engineers for numerous companies.
I have also taken some courses with him and appreciated his teaching style. Hence, I decided to recommend his course to you.
Course Content
The course contains 52.5 hours of on-demand videos. However, among those are sections that used an old version of React. Video lessons in these sections are now outdated and not suitable for taking. If we choose not to take these into account, the entire course is only 34.5 hours long.
Below is a summary of what you will learn from the course.
- Install React and other relevant software
- JSX and Props
- Using Class-based components to structure web apps
- State and Lifecycle methods
- Use forms and events to handle user inputs
- A deep dive into React Hooks
- Different methods to deploy your React web app
- Introduce Redux and integrate it with your React application
- How React and Redux work behind the scenes
- React Router
- Adding features to React applications + Styling the app to make it more engaging
- and many more
Unlike other React courses, this one focuses on design patterns that tech giants and enterprises use to build massively popular web apps. Therefore, once you complete the course, you will have substantial knowledge of enterprise web development, which is an in-demand skill in the IT industry and can land you lucrative job offers.
Apart from video lectures, there are assignments and projects that will gradually develop your expertise in React. These learning resources will help you gain crucial hands-on experience in the process.
The course is well received. It scores 4.7/5.0 from 69000+ reviewers.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Another great React course to take on Udemy
- Concise and easy-to-follow explanations
- Include numerous custom diagrams and visual examples to help students understand how React and Redux work
- Well-structured and informative lessons throughout the entire curriculum
- Exceptional code examples and other course materials
- Lifetime access
- Inexpensive + 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Some coding exercises are not adequately challenging.
- Inconsistent pace: several reviewers believe Stephen should add more videos to explain React Hooks and React Router. In contrast, he is overly repetitive in some other sections.
- The course lacks a large-scale, real-world project for students to work on.
- You will need another course to learn advanced React concepts (see #6)
4. The Modern React Bootcamp (Hooks, Context, NextJS, Router)
If you have taken some online React courses but still struggle to understand React concepts or find it challenging to implement them, I highly suggest you buy this Udemy course.
You will learn with Colt Steele, who used to be the lead instructor and curriculum director at Galvanize, a leading web development bootcamp. Based on my experience, Colt is a fascinating instructor who explains everything clearly.
Course Content
This Udemy course has 39 hours of on-demand video. Below is the summary of all lessons in the course.
- Introducing React and React Components
- JSX and Props
- A deep dive into State
- React events, forms, and lifecycle methods
- React Router
- React Hooks and Context API
- State Management with useReducer and useContext
- Debugging + Optimizations
- Adding features to your web application
- NextJS and Server API
- Webpack mini-course
The best thing about this course is that the instructor provides numerous exercises, challenges, and projects. You will learn how to build a React application from scratch, which will cement your skills.
However, unlike other React courses on Udemy, this one does not cover Redux. You will utilize useReducer and useContent as state management tools. If you want to learn Redux, you will need to consider other alternatives.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Step-by-step curriculum
- Excellent course materials, including detailed handouts and cheatsheets for future reviews, interactive slide decks for each section, and many more
- Numerous exercises to test your knowledge
- Include several projects for learners to work on, including a huge, real-world application to build at the second part of the course.
- Lifetime access
- Inexpensive + 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- This course is not comprehensive as it does not cover Redux extensively. You will need another course if you want to use Redux as a state management tool.
- Colt does not update his courses as frequently as other instructors. Therefore, some lessons could be left outdated.
- Some reviewers noted that some lessons on advanced concepts are not detailed enough.
5. Complete React Developer in 2022 (w/ Redux, Hooks, GraphQL)
Suppose you are looking for the best React course that focuses on real-world projects. This Udemy course by Andrei Neagoie and Yihua Zhang is definitely worth your consideration.
You will not work on numerous projects like other courses. Instead, you will use all your skills to complete a single, scalable, real-world React project that you will be proud to include in your Github portfolio.
Course Content
Below is a summary of the course content of this React course.
- React Key Concepts (State, Props, Events, Components, etc.)
- Setting up your project
- React Router, Forms, Components
- Introducing Firebase and adding a user authentication feature to the app
- Redux for state management
- Integrating Stripe into your app to build a painless payment system
- Deploying your app to Heroku
- Using Redux-Saga, a side effect manager
- React Hooks
- Context API
- GraphQL and Apollo
- Optimize your app for better performance
- Bonus Section (Progressive Web Apps, Testing, Firebase Security, etc.)
In total, this course is 39.5 hours long. You will spend most of your time on the eCommerce project. Besides step-by-step explanations, both instructors will provide additional high-quality learning resources, including the source code, that will help you work on the project smoothly and effectively.
The course receives 4.6/5.0 stars from more than 19000 reviewers.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Project-based React course that teaches students to build a high-quality, scalable React app
- Learn with highly knowledgeable instructors
- Informative but bite-sized lessons
- Clear explanations for most sections
- Lifetime access
- Inexpensive + 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Some parts are left outdated, despite the instructors’ frequent updates.
- Several reviewers pointed out that some parts are less well-explained than others.
- The instructors reused content from his other courses (such content is in the bonus section.)
6. Advanced React and Redux
This course by Stephen Grider will continue from where he has left off on his React course (#4.) He will drill deep into advanced concepts, including HOCs, Middlewares, Testing, and many others.
Unlike other courses on this list, you need to have a solid understanding of React and Redux before taking this course.
Course Content
What you will learn from this course is as follows:
- Deep dive into testing React and Redux code (action creators and reducers included)
- Higher Order Components (HOCs)
- Middleware with Redux
- Authentication (Server-side and client-side)
This course will also include deprecated content (for React v14.) Thus, the actual length of the video lectures (not including React v14 content) is 11 hours.
The rating for this course is 4.6/5.0 stars from more than 10000 reviewers.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Detailed explanations, particularly on authentication
- Stephen provides useful tips and tricks
- Easy-to-follow curriculum
- Lifetime access
- Inexpensive + 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Despite an update, some parts are still outdated.
7. UI.dev
UI.dev is a website created by an experienced developer, Tyler Mcginnis. This website offers excellent training on the modern JavaScript ecosystem, focusing primarily on the React library.
Course Content
Unlike Udemy courses, UI.dev separates React content into several courses as follows:
- React – This course includes the fundamentals of React, including lists, components, state management, props, forms, class fields, and React Router.
- React Router v4/v5 – These two courses will explain both versions of React Router in detail for students to add them to your codebase.
- React Hooks – This course features React Hooks topics such as state management, side effects, custom hooks, bypassing props, and many more.
- React with TypeScript – This course explains how we can leverage TypeScript with React. You will learn about built-in React types, typing props, class components, and many more.
All courses are equipped with high-quality learning resources, including quizzes, exercises, and projects. Hence, you can practice and enhance your skills throughout your journey.
Furthermore, the instructors frequently update the course. UI.dev stresses that all course materials are up-to-date. You can even ask for a full refund if the team fails to update the API 60 days after a breaking change.
I consider this guarantee excellent, as you will always receive new content and never be frustrated about the useless old content.
Regarding pricing, UI.dev uses a subscription model. A yearly subscription costs $350. However, the website offers an extra discount for developing countries to reflect real purchasing power parity.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Course content is always up-to-date + 60-day money-back guarantee if the instructors fail to update content.
- Well-structured curriculum
- Clear and informative explanations
- Detailed lessons
- Excellent course materials, including exercises and real-world projects
Cons
- The yearly subscription is costly compared to other video courses with the same level of support.
8. Codecademy’s React Courses
Codecademy is a popular platform for students who would like to learn to code but abhor lengthy video lectures. You will learn React mostly by following informative instructions and guides or watching bite-sized video lessons.
Unlike other courses, you will code almost exclusively on Codecademy’s platform. This has several benefits. First, you don’t need to install a source-code editor at all. Second, you can take the course anywhere, any time, from its high-quality mobile applications.
Course Content
Codecademy has several React courses as follows:
- Learn React – This course will introduce students to React fundamentals, including JSX, Components, Lifecycle Methods, Hooks, etc.
- Learn Redux – The second course will drill deep into Redux and its role in state management with React.
- Learn React Router – This course will explain front-end routing with React Router.
- Learn React Testing – You will use Jest to perform testing and use React testing library to simplify component testing.
- Learn React Native – The last course will discuss React Native and Expo. You will learn how to build high-quality apps that can run smoothly on iOS and Android.
According to Codecademy, most students spend approximately 30 hours completing the above React courses. However, some finish them much faster.
Besides those courses, students can complete two other project-based courses as follows.
- Create a Front-end App with React – You will build a fully functional app from scratch by using React and other tools in the JavaScript ecosystem.
- Create an Advanced Web App with React and Redux – You will pair React with Redux and use both to build a production-ready web application. Subsequently, you will deploy this app using Netlify.
With regards to pricing, Codecademy uses a subscription model, which starts at $15.99 per month. After you subscribe, you can access all courses on the platform, including other programming language courses.
Compared to the video courses I recommended above, Codecademy’s content is less in-depth. If you are a learner who is looking for explanations of advanced concepts, you would better choose the above video courses.
In contrast, if you are very new to React or programming in general, Codecademy is a promising alternative that simplifies concepts to be approachable for beginners. You will grasp them easier and faster and gain confidence in the process.
If you are unsure whether Codecademy is right for you, I highly suggest you try their free lessons before making decisions.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- User-friendly platform
- Excellent mobile app, allowing students to learn anywhere, any time
- Easy-to-understand text instructions and guidance
- All-inclusive pricing (You can take other courses besides React, such as Vue.js, Node.js, Express, or even Python and Java)
- Free lessons are available.
Cons
- Despite a significant improvement over the years, Codecademy’s content is still not as in-depth as video courses.
- Some students, including me, believe the pre-written code is excessive. Thus, students will not complete tasks from scratch. This would undoubtedly fail to satisfy those who want to code everything on their own.
Other React Courses to Consider
Below are some other alternatives that you may want to consider. However, I decided not to include them on the list, as all have issues.
The Complete React Developer Course (w/ Hooks and Redux) – This Udemy course by Andrew Mead offers excellent step-by-step training for React. However, Andrew has not updated his courses for almost a year, so all sections are outdated.
Full-Stack Web Development with React Specialization – This Coursera specialization is a decent comprehensive application development tutorial based on React. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of its React tutorials are outdated.
Still, you can audit an entire specialization for free.
LinkedIn Learning – The platform offers several practical courses that teach the fundamentals of React. However, almost all of them are outdated. Hence, I don’t think they are the best option to learn React.
Related Courses
Below is a list of articles that I have written about web development courses. It might be useful for those who have completed React courses and would like to find more courses to strengthen their skills as web developers.
- MERN Stack – A stack that consists of MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node
- React Native – Coming Soon
- Node.js – A JavaScript runtime environment popularly used for backend development
- MongoDB – Coming Soon
