Did you know that JavaScript is considered the language of the web? And that it is used for a wide variety of online and mobile applications?
Whether you’re a beginner or intermediate coder, JavaScript is one of the best languages to start with. Not to mention, it’s quite popular these days considering the nature of mobile technology and internet-ready devices.
Why is JavaScript one of the best to start with?
Compared to other languages like C++ or Ruby, JavaScript is much simpler which makes it easier to learn and work with. Furthermore, you don’t need an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) or Virtual Machine (VM) to get started with JavaScript. You can use a plain text editor and a web browser to check your work.
JavaScript also happens to be one of the most open and widely supported languages in terms of developer support. It’s cross-platform and can be used on a variety of devices, computers and applications.
There are some promising technologies based on the language, too, like Node.js and MongoDB. That’s not even including popular frontend JavaScript frameworks like Backbone.js and Angular.js.
It’s ideal for both of those looking to break into professional coding, as well as the people just starting out.
Where Should You Start?
When it comes to learning how to code, it is fairly easy to teach yourself.
You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars for a degree or one of the popular coding bootcamps. One of the best ways to hone your skills is through practice. That is, trial and error.
To help you get started, we have compiled a huge list of resources that will either help you get started with JavaScript or broaden your understanding if you already know the basics.
We’ll explain which of the options below are more suitable to your tastes — whether you’re at a beginner, intermediate or expert level.
Top 50 Websites to Learn JavaScript
Keep in mind, the first ten resources on this list are some of the best around. The following forty, then, are not listed in any particular order.
1. Mozilla’s JavaScript Guide
The Mozilla JavaScript Guide hosted on their developer resources network is one of the most comprehensive guides you’ll come across, hands down. It’s ideal for any skill level and it covers a wide variety of topics from basic to more advanced functions.
Price: Free
2. Codecademy JavaScript Track
Codecademy is one of the more promising online coding schools out there, and the JavaScript track is exceptional for coding newbies. The best part is that you don’t even have to register or pay to start the course. Give it a try.
Price: Free
3. JavaScript for Cats by Max Ogden
Do you love coding? Do you love cats too? Well, then you’re in luck! JavaScript for Cats walks you through the entire language from basic to advanced. As the name implies, it’s written in a more quirky tone — as if cats were learning how to code. Yes, the furry kind. It also happens to be a lot of fun, and you’ll end up learning a lot.
Price: Free
4. Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke
Eloquent JavaScript is a digital book about coding with the language. You can access the entire thing online, which is great if you plan to have the content open on another device. If you’d like you can also purchase the book in a traditional print (physical) copy. Eloquent JavaScript is ideal for coders of any level.
Price: Free; physical copy starts at $19
5. Wikibooks JavaScript Guide
Wikibooks JavaScript Guide is essentially a crowdsourced online tutorial. Don’t take that to mean the content is shoddy, because it’s top-notch and extremely useful. It’s also a great resource if you’re looking for a something specific.
Price: Free
6. JavaScript Is Sexy
This website offers a comprehensive roadmap for learning JavaScript “the right away,” and it applies to all skill levels from beginner to experienced programmers. There are tons of resources listed — and linked — too, some of which you might not even find here.
Price: Free
7. JavaScript Garden
This site goes more in-depth with JavaScript, by offering “a growing collection of documentation about the most quirky parts of the […] language.” It’s an ideal resource for all skill levels, including experienced coders.
Price: Free
8. WTFjs
Every once in a while when you’re coding you come across something strange or quirky, either through something you’ve done or through the language itself. WTFjs is dedicated to those moments and serves as a collection of JavaScript irregularities that may crop up while you’re working with the language. This is a good one to memorize because you’ll wind up needing it at some point.
Price: Free
9. JavaScript Tutorial by W3schools
This is a free online JavaScript course that you can take through W3schools — they offer a wide variety of programming lessons. When you’re done, you can take a final exam to earn a JavaScript certification. It’s a good place for beginner to intermediate coders. Experienced programmers might come across a thing or two here, but there’s no sense in sorting through all the basic lessons to locate something relevant.
Price: Free
10. JavaScript Guide by WebPlatform.org
The WebPlatform JavaScript guide is straightforward and reads like a textbook or educational resource. It has valuable information for all levels of experience and offers a targeted web development section for beginners.
Price: Free
11. Douglas Crockford’s JavaScript
The original site offered a bunch of lessons on using JavaScript, but it’s no longer available. However, Douglas Crockford’s JavaScript page is still a great resource for all. It even includes articles in other languages.
Price: Free
12. Khan Academy Computer Programming Course
Khan Academy’s course doesn’t specifically deal with JavaScript, it also delves into HTML, CSS and more. However, you will learn how to use JavaScript to create drawings and animations, and later you’ll learn how to make your own games with it. Most of the content is free, but you’ll need to sign-up for an account to access a lot of it.
Price: Free
13. JavaScript The Definitive Guide, 4th Edition via O’Reilly
This definitive JavaScript guide or textbook by David Flanagan is incredibly useful. You will need to pay for a subscription to O’Reilly books to gain access to the material, however.
Price: Starts at $1 after 10-day free trial.
14. Learning JavaScript Design Patterns by Addy Osmani
This is yet another book that’s available for viewing online for free and distributed through the Creative Commons license. It’s a good resource for intermediate and experienced programmers. Those with less experience may want to look elsewhere, but it can serve as a great resource for specific functions and elements of the language.
Price: Free
15. ECMA-262 by Dmitry Soshnikov
Don’t be frightened by the different sections in alternate languages, there is an option to convert each lesson into English — or another language if you’d rather do that. ECMA-262 is a hidden treasure trove of JavaScript guides. If you really want to see some expert programmers in action and how they handle the language, check this website out.
Price: Free
16. Code Combat
You always hear that one of the best ways to learn is to make sure you’re having fun, so why not learn coding by playing games? Code Combat will teach you JavaScript for the expensive price of free! The lessons and tutorials you’ll experience are great if you plan on developing a game with the language someday.
Price: Free
17. Reference Designer JavaScript Tutorial for Beginners
If you have some previous experience with HTML and CSS, yet are still relatively wet behind the ears when it comes to JavaScript, this guide is for you. The lessons are useful in many ways, and the content is easy to follow. In between lessons there are a few quizzes too, which allow you to test the knowledge you’ve learned up until that point.
Price: Free
18. JavaScript Fundamentals
As the name implies, JavaScript Fundamentals is designed for “absolute beginners,” which means even if you have no prior coding experience you can get in on the action. You learn through intuitive video courses, which walk you through various concepts of the language.
Price: Free
19. JavaScript Koans
This resource on GitHub is a bit different than most of the other stuff on this list — it takes inspiration from a similar project called Ruby Koans. It’s actually a depository with finished code, but the idea behind it is that you learn JavaScript by spotting and fixing errors. It’s great for anyone who prefers to learn by experience, but you’ll definitely need a bit of previous experience for this one. If you want to set up the tutorial, you’ll need to register for a GitHub account.
Price: Free; expanded accounts start at $7/month
20. HTML Dog JavaScript Tutorials
HTML Dog’s JavaScript Tutorial runs the entire gamut of the language, starting with beginner concepts and ending with more advanced stuff like working with local storage, errors and exceptions, different frameworks and more.
Price: Free
21. A Better Way to Learn AngularJS
This is for intermediate to experienced JavaScript developers. Once you get the language down pat you’ll need to consider a framework that you can use. AngularJS is one such framework, and this online guide will walk you through it.
Price: Free
22. Backbone Fundamentals
Frameworks, frameworks. Backbone is another that you can use, and this guide will help you do so. It’s written by Addy Osmani, the same guy responsible for the Learning JavaScript Design Patterns book that’s listed above. As with the other framework resources, beginners need not apply.
Price: Free
23. EmberWatch
Ember.js is another JavaScript framework that you can use as an alternative to AngularJS or Backbone. The EmberWatch guide offers a bevy of video tutorials, written guides and quick tips for working with the framework.
Price: Free
24. TodoMVC
Having trouble choosing one of the frameworks out of all the options that are available? This easy to use tool will help you discern which is ideal for your project.
Price: Free
25. Scotch.io
If and when you start working with JavaScript frameworks like Angular.js or Ember.js, you can head to Scotch for some great tips and tricks. As an aside, there are plenty of resources for other languages too so it’s a great place to bookmark. Due to the nature of JavaScript frameworks, this one is recommended for intermediate to experienced coders only.
Price: Free
26. Tuts+ JavaScript Tutorials
Tuts+ actually has a couple good places where you can find JavaScript lessons. They maintain a blog with lots of decent coding advice, which also happens to be free. The main draw is the premium course section that cover everything from basics and fundamentals to working with frameworks. It’s relatively inexpensive for a subscription at $15 a month — when compared to similar portals — and you gain access to the entire site with an active account.
Price: Free; premium courses start at $15/month
27. JavaScript Kit
This site offers some great tutorials for advanced coding concepts. Newbies may have a tough time understanding some of the concepts and lessons covered, but there are a few more basic guides hiding away on the site.
Price: Free
28. Udemy Become a Web Developer from Scratch
This popular Udemy course actually focuses on a lot more than just JavaScript, but that’s okay. If you don’t have any prior coding experience it’s an incredibly valuable resource. You’ll learn how to work with a variety of languages including JavaScript, HTML, CSS, PHP, JQuery and much more. It’s a premium course, so you will need to pay a one-time-free of $199 to gain access to the entire thing.
Price: $199
29. DailyJS
This website is nothing more than a blog tailored for JavaScript developers. Here you’ll find helpful guides, tutorials and tips for working with the language. In addition, there’s a JavaScript 101 section just for beginners, and plenty of advice for experienced coders. The blog no longer updates, but all posts are accessible.
Price: Free
30. John Resig’s Blog
John Resig is the Dean of Computer Science at Khan Academy (linked above!) and he’s also responsible for creating the JQuery JavaScript library. His personal blog focuses on working with JavaScript and even though he doesn’t always update it, there’s plenty of archived tips, guides and more. The best resource is the advanced JavaScript guide he put together.
Price: Free
31. JavaScript Jabber
Do you learn better by listening to a lesson rather than reading one? JavaScript Jabber is a weekly podcast dedicated to working with the language. Similar to a daily blog or resource site, the hosts offer some great tips and guides that you can use for your own projects. If you’re good at multitasking, you can even listen to the podcast while doing other work.
Price: Free
32. Code Avengers
Similar to Codecademy or Treehouse, Code Avengers is an online coding school. The difference is that Code Avengers focuses on a more advanced form of JavaScript and there are multiple lessons available: app development, and game development. The introductory course is free, so you can give the lessons a try before spending any money. If you want to complete the full course, however, you’ll need to pony up $29-39 for each intermediate and experienced course.
Price: Starts at $29 after the free introductory course.
33. JavaScript Enlightenment
This is an online book that’s simply not meant for beginners. It’s designed to help JavaScript library users into full-blown developers, so it uses a lot of advanced concepts and details. It is well elaborated and easy to follow, so if you have previous experience you should feel right at home. Keep in mind, it was written back when JavaScript 1.5 was being heavily used. It’s still a great resource, however. There are also two other guides to acquire more knowledge from: JQuery Enlightenment and DOM Enlightenment.
Price: Free
34. Speaking JS
This is a free online book from Dr. Axel Rauschmayer, a renowned JavaScript developer. He also runs a blog which you’ll find on the list right below this.
Price: Free
35. 2ality Blog
The 2ality blog is another free resource from Dr. Axel Rauschmayer, the developer responsible for the book Speaking JS. His blog is excellent for intermediate to experienced coders that want a deeper look at the language. Most of his posts are about working with advanced functions and elements.
Price: Free
36. Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine is a pretty popular site that focuses on web development, apps and programming in general. There’s a lot of good information available, including some about other languages and forms of development. The JavaScript section offers a wide variety of tips.
Price: Free
37. Addy Osmani’s Blog
This guy has been listed three times, because he’s incredibly resourceful. His blog offers a lot of useful tips for experienced coders. He also publishes videos where he discusses working with the language in more detail.
Price: Free
38. Perfection Kills
Don’t be put off by the name, Perfection Kills is a great resource for JavaScript coders and developers. You can try your hand at the difficult quiz to test your JavaScript knowledge. If you’d rather not, you can take a look at the many posts that offers tips, tricks and tutorials for working with the language. The only downside is that it’s updated rather infrequently by the owner, Juriy Zaytsev, who used to be a core developer of Prototype.js and also created Fabric.js. Despite that fact, there’s plenty of information to consume on the site.
Price: Free
39. Alex Sexton’s Blog
Sexton is a core developer of the Modernizr JavaScript framework. While he doesn’t update his blog on the regular, he does occasionally offer some useful tips and advice.
Price: Free
40. DevDocs
DevDocs is a pretty straightforward resource, and it’s most helpful for active developers. It’s a collection of API documentation guides for various languages. JavaScript developers will find the CoffeeScript, Angular.js, JavaScript and JQuery materials useful.
Price: Free
41. JSFiddle
JSFiddle is billed as a web development and coding “playground” which encourages you to learn languages through experience. There aren’t many tutorials, resources or guides instead it just throws you into the thick of things. One of the best features of the platform is that you can add a wide variety of JavaScript libraries — like JQuery — and you can even test out your work through them.
Price: Free
42. JSLint
You may remember Douglas Crockford from earlier in the list, he’s also responsible for JSLint which is essentially an online code proofreader similar to Grammarly. You’ll want to bookmark this one, it’s an incredibly valuable resource for coders of any skill level. All you need to do is copy+paste your code into the window and it will tell you if there are any syntax errors or problems. It’s pretty strict when it comes to seeking out coding issues, so you may spend a lot of time with decent code — no need to seek perfection, just make sure everything works!
Price: Free
43. Firebug
Originally designed as an extension for Firefox, Firebug is now cross platform and works with pretty much any browser. It’s a debugging tool for check your work, and it also happens to be one of the most popular among developers. The JavaScript debugging support is particularly special and it does a great job at highlighting issues that you might not have seen during your coding sessions.
Price: Free
44. SitePoint JavaScript Course
According to stats from the SitePoint site (previously known as Learnable), their JavaScript course has helped more than 10,000 students learn to code with the language. There are a ton of course covering basic topics to more advanced elements of JavaScript. You will need to pay for a membership to access the course material, which costs about $100 annually. The good news is that once you pay for a membership you gain access to all of the courses and tutorials on SitePoint, even ones for different subjects like HTML and CSS.
Price: Starts at $9/month
45. David Walsh’s Blog
If you’ve ever heard of the MooTools JavaScript framework then you should know David Walsh, he’s one of the core developers. His blog is primarily focused on offering JavaScript advice through tips, tricks and quick guides. He’s a web developer, so a lot of the content is ideal for those working with JavaScript on a web app, but you could always apply the information appropriately.
Price: Free
46. EchoEcho JavaScript Tutorial
Admittedly, EchoEcho’s site isn’t one of the most appealing around — the design is quite dated — but they offer some great JavaScript Tutorials covering a wide variety of concepts of the language. Bear in mind that the information does deal with older versions of JavaScript.
Price: Free
47. Oracle Corp. JavaScript Tutorial
This JavaScript Tutorial covers the language in its entirety from beginner to expert concepts. Most of the content is text-based and there are few images and code samples, so keep that in mind.
Price: Free
48. Web Teacher JavaScript for the Total Non-Programmer
If you have no prior coding or programming experience and you want to learn the fundamentals, this is a great place to start. Some of the concepts discussed are a little dated, but you’ll need to build a foundation before you start working on the more advanced stuff anyway. By the time you’re developing web applications or games, you’ll have moved on to another resource.
Price: Free; optional programming clinics are $25
49. How to Create JavaScript Tutorial
Most of the information on this site hasn’t been updated since 2008, but that’s okay. If you’re just getting started with JavaScript, or you need a quick reference guide then How to Create’s tutorial works great for that.
Price: Free
50. Xah JavaScript Tutorial
If you want a “simple, practical, and example based” guide then the Xah JavaScript Tutorial is the place to go. It will teach you fundamentals and basics, more advanced stuff like working with frameworks and much more. When you complete the entire tutorial, you can even move on to a JavaScript and DOM tutorial.
Price: Free; offline access is $14.99
That’s a Massive List of JavaScript Websites and Resources!
After sifting through the list of 50 resources, you should be able to find at least one to guide you through the world of JavaScript.
However, if you’d rather learn through a more educational or collegiate format, give one of the many online code schools a try, such as Treehouse, Lynda or Code School.
Stay tuned as next week we’ll cover the Top 50 Websites to Learn Mobile App Development!
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
