Over the past year, we have added a ton of new value to Codecademy Pro. Today, we’re announcing that we’re changing our prices so that we can keep delivering great new content and features to our Pro learners. Codecademy’s mission has always been to teach people the skills they need to upgrade their careers in a way that is accessible, flexible, and engaging. This mission still rings true. That’s why I want to share a little history on how we got here, choices we made along the way, and what we’re doing to deliver on our mission to make Codecademy the best place for accessible tech education.
Looking Back
My co-founder Ryan and I founded Codecademy seven years ago in our dorm room at Columbia with the belief that we could make learning to code more engaging, flexible and accessible.
Four years later, we built and scaled the company to over 20 million learners with a major focus on our free product.
In 2015, we saw an opportunity to deliver a faster and more interactive learning experience with projects, quizzes, structured paths and a small community of like-minded learners. This idea evolved into what Pro is today.
Seven years later, more than 45 million people have learned to code with us. Many of them have used those skills to launch very successful careers in tech.
One of our Pro alumni, Lacey Bathala is a prime example. A working mom of two who wanted to further her career, Lacey came to us when her boss asked her to learn SQL for work. She completed the Data Science Path in just three weeks and now works in data science at Microsoft.
There’s also the story of William Ha, who used Codecademy to transition from a career as a lawyer to an iOS developer.
And Nick McElligot who came to Codecademy without a four-year degree or any idea of what he wanted to do. After learning on Codecademy, he landed a job as a junior developer, quickly expanded to full-stack, and rose to a lead developer after only a year and a half.
It is learner stories like these that inspired us to build Codecademy Pro in the first place and to keep evolving. Over the past year, we’ve completely revamped Pro to make it easier than ever to teach people the technical skills they need to upgrade their careers. Here are a few of the features we’ve added:
Easier Ways to Learn
We’ve added new guided learning Paths, project walk-through videos, and FAQs embedded directly into the lessons make learning easier than ever.
Fresh Content
We’ve tripled the amount of course content and continue to add new courses each week, covering hot new topics like Blockchain and Machine Learning, as well as the basics like C++.
New Ways to Practice
We created a mobile app that lets you review and practice on the go, making it easy to fit your coding practice into your busy lifestyle.
It has been super gratifying to watch learners like you achieve new milestones, dive into the latest courses, try out the app, and participate in the Codecademy community. We’ve loved getting your feedback on Pro, and we’re excited to implement your ideas in the future.
At the same time, we’ve also realized that in order to continue to deliver a high-quality experience and evolve the product, we need to make some fundamental changes to our pricing structure.
Moving Forward
We’re adjusting Pro pricing to more accurately reflect the value our learners get from the product and to make room for some great new features. To minimize disruption, the change will only apply to new learners at this time. We will continue to honor current prices for existing Pro memberships.
As of November 29th, new learners will see the following Pro plans:
$39.99 USD per month for a monthly plan
$29.99 USD per month for a 6-month plan
$19.99 USD per month for a yearly plan
We still offer the $19.99 per month price point, but only for learners who commit to the annual plan. This new structure aligns with our long-term vision to inspire and support lifelong learning. We don’t believe learning is episodic or finite, but rather an ongoing and constantly evolving journey. As such, we want to reward learners who invest in long-term learning with us. That’s why we’ve structured our pricing to allow you to save 50% on a year of Pro when you commit to an annual plan instead of paying monthly for twelve months. This change provides more than double the savings you would receive today by subscribing annually rather than monthly.
The Future of Codecademy
This new pricing will help Codecademy continue to provide the excellent education you love, both for our Pro learners and our many millions of free learners.
Here’s a taste of what you can expect from Pro in the near future:
- Ongoing releases of new course content and guided learning paths tied to career-specific outcomes
- New ways to apply your skills, including more real-world projects, interactive Livestream workshops, and more
- Initiatives to expand and enrich the Codecademy community and forums, led by our community management team
- Improvements to our mobile app, including more content, practice exercises, and seamless integration with the web platform to help you make progress toward your outcome faster
We’re excited to have you on board with us as we make Codecademy the best place to connect people with the tech skills they need to upgrade their careers.
Thank you for helping to make Codecademy what it has become. I’m thankful for every learner, every partner, and every team member in believing that, together, we can create the future of education.
Zach Sims
CEO & Co-Founder, Codecademy