Best Free Web Development Resources & Tutorials

Many people who want to learn web development hesitate because of perceived up-front costs because it’s a computer science subject. Thankfully, the only major purchase is a computer. A surprising amount of free resources are available to help beginners learn the fundamentals of web development.

Once you have a handle on the basics, you can invest in classes from there if you’re satisfied with your progress. Keep reading to learn more about tools that can help you get started.

What is Web Development?

Web development is the art of creating a website and ensuring it’s consistently usable. Web Developers use various coding languages to achieve this goal, and it’s common for coding teams to have a person—or multiple people—entirely dedicated to web development. It’s commonly broken down into three types: front end, back end, and full stack development. Each type has a unique role that contributes to the website’s operations.

Front end web development works with the website's client-side, referred to as the “front end.” This part of the website contains the sections people can see, such as sliders, banners, text, and other visual information. On the opposite side, back end web development works on the website's server-side, or “back end.” This part of web development controls the website's functionality and is where all its data resides.

Full stack web development is a fusion of the two and takes on their best qualities. A Full Stack Developer will have skills in each category and can seamlessly maneuver between the front and back end. Teams will often have at least one Front End Developer, Back End Developer, and Full Stack Developer readily working on the website regularly.

Read more about what web development is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Web Development?

Web development can bolster your career, highlight your hobby, and possibly evolve into a small business of its own. Every industry, from medicine to finance to education, has adapted to the world’s changes and is relying on the internet to complete its work. This list only scratches the surface—nearly every business has shifted online because they value the easy access the internet brings them and their clients.

You’ll increase your professional value by having web development skills and helping build your company’s website. You can also shift career tracks by using web development as a bridge. Are you in medicine but want to switch to art? First, you can start web development for hospitals and then pivot to creating websites for artists. The internet’s importance to all industries means you can easily change companies as you progress.

While you can showcase your passions on social media, having a website increases your credibility, helps you connect with others without vying for their attention, and creates a centralized location for your work. Most importantly, it allows you to operate on your own terms without worrying about sudden changes to a social media platform’s algorithms or policies. And, if you want to build a network on social media, why not have both?

Free Web Development Tools

The world of web development is vast, and there are loads of resources to help you through your developer journey. Many of these tools are created by developers for developers to help them with everyday tasks.

Roadmap is a free resource that guides you through each avenue you can take as a Web Developer. For example, it has guides that go through the steps to becoming a Front End Developer and Back End Developer, plus a few more. It uses flowcharts to denote the order you should try to learn different concepts and the supplemental concepts that can help your career but aren’t necessarily required.

As you continue to learn about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you might wonder how you can use different elements and properties effectively. If your mentor isn’t nearby to answer your question, you might find the answer on the Can I Use website. This tool is a search engine that will show you the proper ways to use any element or property in detail.

If you have a working website already, you might want to increase your visibility by improving your search engine optimization (SEO). This topic falls under digital marketing, but its concepts will inform how you format your website to help it appear in Google searches. Three main pillars determine how search engines direct traffic to your webpage, and the three pillars of SEO guide will walk you through them.

Git is another excellent resource for Web Developers since it keeps a record of your files that will log changes and help you spot errors. There are guides on downloading and installing Git on your laptop or desktop and creating a Git Repository that will track your revision history for easy access. If you’re working on a team, you can also learn to set up your email on Git to simplify communication between you and other developers.

Free Web Development Reference Guides

Coding has a decent amount of terminology that goes with it, and it can be hard to keep track of what everything means. The resources below will make things easier.

Two reference guides for HTML and CSS show you the syntax needed for each coding element. Search for the element or property you have in mind, and you’ll find a summary of how it’s used and how you can implement it on your website. HTML uses a specific syntax that makes symbols appear in the text. HTML tags, also referred to as “special characters,” are typically used for this purpose.

When it comes to syntax, even in standard text, sometimes specific characters get mixed up. For example, a coder might accidentally use an apostrophe instead of a foot mark, or vice versa. A free guide to HTML typography will show you the differences and how to access them on different devices.

Free Web Development Online Classes

Free resources are great, but nothing beats taking a class and learning from an expert. Look into some free web development classes that are pre-recorded and available now on Noble Desktop’s YouTube channel.

Intro to Front End Web Development teaches you what the three major front end programming languages do and how they work together to form a cohesive website. It also goes over how some common web development resources are used. One of these resources is Greensock, a JavaScript program that creates animations. The Intro to Greensock Web Animation showcases the best ways beginners can approach it.

When it comes to hosting and formatting web pages, no one beats WordPress. The Intro to WordPress class will teach you the basics of the platform, and the Intro to WordPress for Developers course will show you how to customize your site’s themes to your liking.

You might want to take your customization further and ensure that people enjoy using your site. This information includes user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. The Intro to UI Design and UX Design courses will teach you the basics of each and how to apply them to your website now. After testing the waters with these free classes, you can find web development classes to go in-depth with your preferred topics.

Make It Fun with Games that Teach Web Development

The best way to learn is to make the lessons enjoyable. Once you have the foundation to build your website and have taken a few classes, you can play games that reinforce your knowledge.

This choice is one of the best ways to practice web development if you code as a hobby. You’ll benefit even if coding is a serious career path for you because fun practice is still practice at the end of the day.

CodePen sends out coding challenges in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You’ll be tasked with creating something with one of these three coding languages weekly. It’s free to set up an account, and you can see how your creations compare to others around the globe. If you want to go face-to-face with others while honing your skills, you can partake in CSS Battles. Try to emulate the image they show with the least amount of coding lines possible. You’ll rank on the leaderboard for everyone to see if you do well.

Another notable coding challenge website is Codier. This site gives you specific coding requirements to create your project but creating it is entirely up to you. For example, the user-made Avenger HTML Simple challenge asks you to set up a webpage for a Marvel Avenger with a heading and paragraph that uses stylized colors, fonts, and sizes.

Once you’re done, you can submit it to the challenge’s page to the “solutions” tab, and you can view all of the solutions people submitted. When you click on their solutions, you’ll be able to view the code they used and modify it to see what would happen if you made small changes. All of the adjustments you make will be shown on-screen in real-time as you adjust them.

Key Insights

• Reference guides are perfect for anyone before, during, and after they learn web development
• Video tutorials and free pre-recorded classes can help you make a decision about which classes to take
• Games can help you practice web development and have fun at the same time.

The games you can play, the classes you can take, and the resources you can use are ready right now, and everything listed above is completely free. With these resources available, there’s no reason to delay your web development journey any longer.

Learn Web Development with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers high-quality web development classes and bootcamps that are flexible to your learning needs. These courses, taught by experts in web development, are available in-person at their training center in Manhattan and live online internationally. Noble ensures that you will work in small groups with your instructors to help you receive individualized attention, support, and career mentorship. All Noble courses are also available for a free retake up to one year after completion.

Beginners might be interested in the Front End Web Development certificate program because it gives them the practical knowledge needed to become Web Developers. This program has two tracks depending on how quickly you want to learn: the full-time option takes four weeks to complete, while part-time students will complete the course in four months.

For those that are interested in learning more about web development as a whole, the Full Stack Web Development Certificate will show you all of the significant concepts associated with client-side and server-side web development. This course is another excellent option for beginners since you can take it with no prior experience. Noble’s courses come with certificates that you can proudly display on LinkedIn or send to employers alongside your resume.