Rating
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4.5/5
I first discovered Frontend Masters in 2021 through a friend, who had access to it via his educational institution. He walked me through the courses and spoke highly of its instructors. So I decided to give it a try and got a subscription myself. Since then I have subscribed on and off, depending on the time available, to maximize the platform usage and minimize my cost. On average, I renew the monthly subscription three times a year.
With over 190 hours of course content watched and 1400+ lessons completed, I am in a good position to review the platform and help others decide if it’s worth their time and money.
Is It Worth It? TL;DR
Absolutely! Every penny of it. From beginners to professionals, for any stage of your career as a software person, Frontend Masters has something valuable to offer to everybody.
The Misleading Name of Frontend Masters
Before I dive into the pros and cons of the platform, a brief note about its naming. As the famous saying goes:
‘There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.’
This applies perfectly to Frontend Masters!
I’ve no idea what went into naming this platform, or if any future-proofing was considered at the time. The name is misleading and limiting. Anyone who hears it would assume the platform is dedicated to front-end technologies. It might have started with a JavaScript and CSS focus, but over time it has expanded and included all sorts of languages and technologies that are industry-standard and in-demand. It now includes computer science fundamentals, DevOps, AI, and even management topics. You’ll find courses on languages like Go, C#, Java, and Python alongside in-depth frontend content.
With that, let’s dive deep and explore what Frontend Masters offers.
Why Frontend Masters Is Worth It: Key Benefits & Features
Top-tier Instructors from Leading Tech Companies
The best thing about this platform is its instructors. Almost all of them are big names from top software companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twilio, Netflix, and Stripe, to name a few. Learning from Brian Holt, ThePrimeagen, Steve Kinney, Nina Zakharenko, Scott Moss, Will Sentance, Jen Kramer, Kyle Simpson, and many more from different companies and backgrounds, you should be confident that whatever they are teaching is relevant and based on best practices.
Well-Structured Video Format for Easy Learning
The whole course is divided into logical chapters. Each chapter is broken into small 10-20 minute sections. The video shows both the instructor and the screen they want to show, which is usually slides, live coding, or a digital whiteboard.
The videos are autoplay, with the next section starting automatically once the first one finishes.
Questions are asked during the session from the live audience, both sitting in the room and remotely. I find the high quality of questions and their answers super helpful in understanding the topic.
The course length depends on the course. It could be anywhere from 2 hours for introductory courses to 10 hours for in-depth ones. As is my habit for any other video platform, a speed of 2x or even 2.5x does the trick of speeding my way through the course without skipping anything.
Some instructors like Brian Holt have their notes hosted on a web link that is open source and available for everyone. In many courses, there’s a GitHub link to the public repository.
Up-to-Date Courses & Frequent Version Updates
I have taken several courses on Udemy. My biggest frustration with its courses is their lack of updates. Technologies evolve, but the course material is stuck with the outdated content recorded years ago.
That is not true for Frontend Masters, for the most part (more on that later). For technologies that are central to the industry, you’ll often have multiple versions. React is one example, with over half a dozen versions for both introductory and intermediate courses. Technologies with fewer frequent changes, like containers, may have only a couple of versions spaced years apart, but they still receive updates when necessary.
Older versions are archived but still available if you ever need them. I once needed to look up older Next.js, and it was great to have that kind of option.
At any given time, when you’re subscribed to Frontend Masters, you can expect up-to-date versions of the in-demand courses available on the platform. It also means that you’ll never run out of material.
Courses for Every Skill Level
Do you want a quick overview of React? Complete Intro to React is a great starting point. Want to go deeper? You will get Intermediate React. The same goes for the key courses, such as Next.js, Typescript, and Python. However, some courses are standalone, covering specific concepts without a follow-up.
Official Certification of Course Completion
Frontendmasters offers a PDF downloadable certification on course completion, both in dark and light mode, along with the option of directly sharing it on LinkedIn.
You also get your public link, with configurable username, like talhaawan, that you can share with anyone. It showcases your learning action timeline, overall learning stats, streaks achieved, and total hours watched, with the help of visuals and graphs. It’s a great way to track your progress and share your learning journey with others.
Progress Tracking & Learning Paths
In the same public link, you will get a circular progress bar for all the learning paths you have taken and their completion status so far. That includes both skill level categories like Beginner, Expert, or Professional (as defined by Frontend Masters), or technologies such as React, Node.js, TypeScript, and more.
I find this visualization motivating.
Option to Take Notes
You can take notes as you go through the course, and revisit them later at one place.
Affordable Pricing
For $39 a month, the whole course library is accessible to you. If you belong to a country with lower purchasing power, Frontend Masters gives you some concession. Just reach out to their support team to request it. There’s also an option of 7-day free trial.
Free Courses to Get Started
Frontend Masters offers a few courses for free. All you need is to log in, browse the list of available free courses, and start watching. Below are some excellent free courses that will help you understand the quality of the paltform and its various instructors:
- Complete Intro to Web Development
- The Last Algorithms Course You’ll Need
- A Practical Guide to Algorithms with JavaScript
- Getting Started with JavaScript
- Getting Started with CSS
- Getting a Software Engineering Job
- Visual Studio Code Can Do That? (Although a bit older, this course offers plenty of tips and tricks to boost your productivity in VS Code.)
Short Tutorials for Quick Learning & Insights
A more recent addition, tutorials are short videos about specific technical problems or insights on topics like CSS, TypeScript, and JavaScript. While they might be useful and informative (alongside their public blog), I’m not sure they alone justify a subscription to the platform. If you’re considering subscribing, the real value lies in the full-length courses.
Where Frontend Masters Falls Short: Issues & Limitations
Let’s discuss a few things where there’s still room for improvement. The list should help you understand the platform’s shortcomings before purchasing the subscription.
Subpar Mobile App Experience (Android)
The Android app experience is far from ideal. One major issue is the handling of buffering. The screen goes completely blank with the loading spinner in the middle. You cannot even pause the video to let it buffer and see the content of the screen at that time. That is true for the rewind and forward buttons as well, both of which cause the screen to freeze until the buffering ends.
Another minor annoyance is that clicking on a course starts right away rather than showing the course details. I don’t necessarily want to start the course yet and only want to explore the contents first.
Some Courses Are Outdated & Need Updates
I know I praised the platform for keeping the in-demand courses up-to-date with newer versions, but that is not true for all the courses. For instance, at the time of writing, very weirdly, Python has only three courses, taught by Nina Zakharenko, all dating back more than five years. Given Python’s significance in the industry, it deserves a more up-to-date and diverse set of courses, much like the extensive variety of JavaScript courses available on the platform. So, if you’re interested in learning Python, Frontend Masters might not be a good fit. You can find out if the courses of your interest are available through their search bar before deciding on purchasing the subscription.
No Flexible Subscription Options
There might be a reason why SaaS-based companies avoid a one-time purchase option for their service, but there are examples, such as Teal (of which I heard in a Frontend Masters' course!), which not only offers a one-time purchase of its services but also a weekly option. I have shared this feedback with Frontend Masters while unsubscribing, suggesting they introduce a one-time purchase option for a month. I add that even a weekly pass would be great. This would be helpful for users who only need access occasionally, depending on the spare time available to them for learning, so they don’t have to worry about canceling their subscription when they’re too busy to take courses.
Missing Course Upload Dates on Listing Makes Browsing Harder
This one bugs me every time. You’re going through the list of courses and you have no clue how fresh or old the course is. Only once you click the link and go to the detail page you find out. How does it help the platform by hiding the date of the course on the listing, when clicking on the detail page is going to reveal it anyway? It seems like an intentional design choice, possibly to hide older courses. In any case, giving your paying customer extra ease in identifying the latest and slightly outdated courses at a glance would be great. I don’t think it should matter anyway when you’re doing a good job of updating and adding courses regularly.
Lacks Courses on Important Technologies
This deserves a mention because, surprisingly, Frontend Masters lacks courses on some key JavaScript technologies, such as NestJS, which is a popular backend framework.
The absence might be due to NestJS offering its own paid courses, but that hasn’t stopped other platforms, like Udemy, from teaching it. Do they not find an instructor easily? Or is there a legal implication? I don’t know. But I was hoping to find a high-quality NestJS course on Frontend Masters. Since it wasn’t available, I had to purchase a Udemy course instead.
No Quizzes or Certification Tests for Skill Validation
A good-to-have thing I found missing: A multiple choice questions quiz at the end of each course (probably AI-generated, given it has the whole transcript of the course). Such a quiz would help gauge the retention of concepts from the course and provide a quick refresher later.
Additionally, for intensive and industry-critical courses, a paid certification test won’t hurt. I wouldn’t mind getting an official React, Node.js, or PostgreSQL certification from Frontend Masters. I know AI tools make online and take-home tests tricky to conduct, but platforms like AWS and Google have found ways to maintain credibility.
Conclusion
Based on my experience, I love Frontend Masters. I can’t recommend it enough, and I have recommended it to all my friends, colleagues, and even managers (to the point of convincing them to purchase the subscription on behalf of the company). The course content and the caliber of instructors are unmatched. It has helped me a lot to fill the gaps in my knowledge and skills, which I took for granted. It’s a one-stop shop for improving your software engineering skills. I would like to specifically call out instructors Brian Holt, ThePrimeagen, Steve Kinney, Nina Zakharenko, Scott Moss, Will Sentance, Jen Kramer, Kyle Simpson, and so many others for the excellent work they have put into teaching all the courses.
