While JavaScript has ranked the most popular language in the world for eight years in a row, there are still ways of making it better. Rarely do programming languages possess an all-in-one structure, so they rely on libraries and frameworks for added support, like the React.js library.
According to the same Stack Overflow survey, React ranks second for most popular and most loved frameworks by developers, quickly closing the gap between first place with jQuery, for its amazing contribution to front-end development.
React optimizes user interfaces (UI) on web pages and enhances client-side operations, making you a better programmer and a more valuable developer in the eyes of companies.
Now, this isn’t for newcomers to the industry, but anyone using or even learning JavaScript can only benefit from using React.js, especially if you don’t mind making up to $124k a year.
So, here are our favorite React courses. Whether you want free courses or professional ones, beginner or advanced, we have it all. Join us as we explore the top classes guaranteed to work, and hash out their key strengths, course content, budget, and skill level!
What is React.js?
React, also known as React.js and ReactJS, is a free open-source JavaScript library that’s used by developers to add reusable interactive applications to their web pages. More specifically, for single-page web development and mobile applications.
Released in 2013, it was developed by Jordan Walke at the social media megacorp Facebook, where it’s maintained alongside individual developers.
React.js is focused on state management, and rendering that state to the DOM, which is essentially the outline or representational tree of how the website is set up. It also uses JSX, a JavaScript extension, to modify the DOM more easily, therefore making your job easier.
And these are only a few of the tools React works with seamlessly to deliver high-scale user interfaces, as it’s often paired with other libraries for routing and client-side functionally. It’s truly the glue that pieces all these tools together to form amazing application development.
We also have a ranking of the best JavaScript courses
How to Choose the Best React Courses?
Just like with any course, you have to find the right one for you (and your wallet).
Whether you’ve dabbled with React, use it daily, or are completely new to the arena, there’s always more to learn. If you’re familiar with React, focus on advanced courses that optimize your performance when developing, or cover new frameworks to use with the library.
However, if you’re new, focus on beginner courses that are jam-packed with information and resources you can reference while you build your React skills. And if you’re sitting on the fence, try checking out free React courses to see if it’s right for you before investing in more serious beginner and advanced classes.
Most of all, no matter what your skill level or budget is, always go for interactive learning.
Learning by watching isn’t nearly as fun or beneficial as learning by doing, and chances are, you’ll finish the course with items to add to your portfolio, giving you a leg up when it comes to finding a job.
Beginner React Developer Courses
1. Best Free React Course: Intro to React.js
- Skill level: Beginner
- Pros: Created by the React.js devs
- Cons: Not a full course
This course is actually an Intro to React tutorial, so you work your way through an article rather than videos – but hey, it’s free.
It’s also created by the official React.js website, so you’re getting advice and information from the people who created it.
The tutorial requires previous knowledge of HTML and JavaScript but assumes no prior experience with React, so it’s great for beginners, as a refresher for experienced users, or for those wanting to test the waters before diving in.
Along with the tutorial, there’s a complimentary step-by-step guide that strips back the tutorial’s project-building aspect and works well either in tandem with the course, or on its own for those that would rather learn by reading.
While it’s interactive, you don’t have to worry about downloading anything as all coding takes place in a web-based coding portal. The project is centered around building a tic tac toe game that you explore and build with React.
You’ll cover what React is, inspect starter code, immutability, function components, storing and showing history, implementing time travel, and much more.
Overall, it’s an excellent introduction to React.js and would feed nicely into any of the more comprehensive courses below.
2. Best ReactJS Crash Course
- Skill level: Beginner
- Pros: It’s free!
- Cons: Doesn’t make you career-ready
This ReactJS Crash Course is another amazing free training class for React beginners. It’s created by Academind, which has nearly 700k subscribers on YouTube, and an online teaching site full of coding courses alongside their free videos.
The course was released recently so it includes the new March React update and is a 3.5-hour project-based course.
You’ll get a complete breakdown of the fundamentals, like how React works and its different functions. Then, you dive into building reusable components, handling events, adding links and navigation, as well as CSS modules.
You’ll also practice useEffect, which tells the components what to do after rendering, prepare apps for HTTP, get user input, practice using Context in React components, and build your understanding of how to think like a React developer.
This course comes with access to loads of free extra resources that would benefit any skill level and is known as excellent training for new React students. However, if you want to use React.js professionally, you’ll need to take more other detailed courses like the ones on this list.
3. Best Beginner React Course
- Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Pros: Doesn’t require JavaScript expertise
- Cons: No server-side topics are covered
Remember that free course at the top from Academind? Well, this is its more extensive sister course, which comes at the price of $59.99.
This complete guide to React.js is a Udemy bestseller and has helped over 400k students master React and Redux.
What makes this the best beginners course is you don’t have to be a JavaScript guru to understand this class. You’ll enter into the workforce not only as a JavaScript developer but fluent in one of the most in-demand libraries.
As you know, a beginner React course is nothing without its fundamentals, so get ready to dive into React basics, events, debugging, hooks, and building powerful reactive apps. It also covers portals and refs, style components, conditional content, and rendering lists.
You’ll build multipage SPA with React router, learn how to deploy Reacts apps, and work with Next.js and Typescript. So, those looking for a Typescript React course should check out this class.
You practice on multiple projects throughout the course, like the food ordering app, and gain the experience to score engineering and developmental roles.
Overall, there are over 48 hours of content and 487 lectures, which you’ll have lifetime access to, as well downloadable resources to keep you going once it’s finished.
4. Best React JS Course on Udemy
- Skill level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Pros: Thorough breakdown of React and Redux
- Cons: Not targeted towards career growth
If you want more information on React than you could possibly imagine, then this is the course for you.
The Udemy bestseller Modern React with Redux course by Stephen Grider, an engineering architect and JavaScript developer, is by far the most comprehensive and most updated React and Redux course there is.
And that’s not all, you’ll also get practice using toolchain support from NPM, Webpack, Babel, and ES6/ES2015 JavaScript syntax.
This course has a strong emphasis on core concepts and structures.
You begin by installing Node.js and starting your React app project. It covers building content with JSK, communicating with props, app structure with class-based components, and State in React components.
You’ll also develop life-cycle methods, build REST-based React apps, use hooks, which are not guaranteed in React courses even though they’re crucial for manipulating an operating system’s behavior, and even get practice using older versions of React for a better understanding of how it works and grows.
In the end, you’ll have built dozens of custom diagrams and reusable components, watched over 52 hours of on-demand video, and completed 570 lectures, all for $59.99.
While the course doesn’t cover much of the professional industry, once completed you will qualify for web programming and application development roles, as well as design independent applications for app stores.
Advanced React Developer Courses
5. React Full Stack Program
- Skill level: Beginner to Advanced
- Pros: Includes full-stack topics
- Cons: Overall more expensive than other options
Now here’s a program that’s about helping you evolve into a well-rounded developer.
The Full-Stack Web Development with React Specialization is a 3-course university-backed program from Coursera that takes complete beginners to expert front-end and back-end developers, building web and hybrid mobile solutions, with a focus on React.
Developed by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, this project-based program teaches not only React.js, but also Bootstrap, Node.js, Mongo DB, and jQuery to name a few.
The specialization consists of:
- Course 1: Front-End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4
- Course 2: Front-End Web Development with React
- Course 3: Server-side Development with NodeJS, Express, and Mongo DB
The first course focuses on client-side web UI frameworks, in particular Bootstrap 4. It covers grids, responsive design, Bootstrap CSS, and JavaScript components. You’ll even get the chance to work with Node.js, NPM, and task runners like Grunt and Gulp.
By the end of course 1, you should be developing and managing responsive web pages, but it’s not until the second course React comes in.
Course 2 explores JavaScript-based front-end development using JavaScript ES6 to develop React applications. You’ll learn Reactstrap, which lets you use Bootstrap’s responsive UI design, React router, Flux architecture, Redux, and learn Fetch for client-server communication.
It also covers REST API, a quick tour of React’s animation support, and how to design controlled forms. After this, you’ll have experience developing React-Redux apps and implementing single-page React applications.
Then, last but not least, the third course switches things up by focusing on server-side functionality. You’ll work with Node.js and Node.js modules, review database CRUD operations, NoSQL databases, MongoDB, and Mongoose, which lets you access MongoDB from Node.js.
It finishes off with examining REST concepts and RESTful API, touching on authentication, and BaaS approaches.
Needless to say, this program is not for the faint-hearted, it’s for those looking to get the most out of their front-end development. However, one of the great things about this specialization is that you can pick and choose which courses to take.
So, if you just want to take the React.js course, you can! But if you’re new to full-stack development, then definitely invest in the whole program for some invaluable educational resources.
It takes approximately 3 months to complete the entire specialization, and Coursera charges via a $49 monthly subscription service.
Overall, it can become more expensive than other options, but you’re getting substantially more bang for your buck, plus university-accredited certification.
6. Advanced React and Redux Course
- Skill level: Intermediate to Advanced
- Pros: Teaches how to optimize your React development
- Cons: Not beginner-friendly
The creator of this course will sound familiar as we have another Stephen Grider original.
The Advanced React and Redux course builds on the beginner course and focuses on optimizing your workflow with React and Redux. It aims to take your work to the next level with scalable API with authentication, Express.js, Mongo, and Passport.
You’ll learn how to set up your own testing environments with Jest and Enzyme, learn the difference between cookie-based and token-based authentication, write Redux middleware, as well as build composable and higher-order components.
It covers the security information that’s often ignored in React courses, like server set up authentication and client-side authentication in React v14.
This course is significantly shorter than others on the list, only ringing in at 21 hours of content and 240 lectures, but the price is on par with a one-time payment of $59.99. Again, this is only for experienced React and Redux users looking to enhance their workflow and performance.