Is Skillcrush the secret to breaking into tech?

Skillcrush’s story began when CEO Adda Birnir was laid off from a digital ad agency. As she looked around the meeting, she realized that only one of the twelve employees leaving was a developer. In other words, if you had programming skills, your job was probably safe.

After being laid off, Birnir taught herself to code and started a career as a freelance web developer within a few months. After a few years, she decided to use her experience to help bridge the gender divide in tech, officially founding Skillcrush in 2012. The company is now headquartered in New York with nearly 50 employees and over 17,000 students who have completed at least one of their courses.

What is Skillcrush?

At Skillcrush.com, you can find paid online courses to help you gain a variety of tech skills, from using GitHub to working in frameworks like Ruby on Rails.

The curriculum allows students to pick and choose the areas of programming or design that they’d like to focus on, giving them lifetime access to the course material after registration.

The company offers an assortment of 3-month specific skill courses, including Python for Web Apps and Data, Digital Marketing, and several others.

You can also purchase a Break Into Tech blueprint course that teaches you new skills toward becoming a web designer, front end developer, WordPress developer, and full stack developer, in addition to offering some perks to aid in your job search.

Consistent with Birnir’s mission, Skillcrush is targeted primarily at women and marginalized communities including people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities. It specifically markets itself to individuals looking to transition into a career in tech, regardless of their professional background. In fact, the website advertises that 97% of its staff members don’t have computer science degrees.

What Does It Cost?

Compared to other online coding programs, Skillcrush prices fall somewhere in the middle. According to Course Report, the average coding bootcamp tuition (think Flatiron School) is about $11,118.

On the other hand, Massive Online Open Course providers charge much lower rates. LinkedIn Learning, for example, charges a subscription fee of roughly $30/month, while its competitor Udemy charges about $20/month. Skillcrush is often considered a MOOC provider, allowing students to choose their own courses rather than imposing a strict timeline and lesson plan, as you’d see in many coding bootcamps.

Each course has an estimated length of three months and is offered at $549, or three monthly payments of $199. Certain classes are eligible to accommodate add-ons for an additional $199 or $249, depending on what it is.

Skillcrush advertises the Break Into Tech blueprint as the best value, at $1599, or 12 monthly payments of $149. In addition to the monthly financing options, Skillcrush offers discounts for those who are unemployed or full-time students.

The website advises people in exceptional circumstances to contact them via email.

Is There a Free Trial?

Skillcrush offers a free 10-day coding camp for students who aren’t ready to commit to a full course.

The mini-class gives you a quick overview of tech terms and a little bit of coding practice on topics including HTML, Frontend vs. Backend, Databases, and more.

In addition to the trial class, Skillcrush guarantees a 14-day, 100% money-back guarantee if you decide for any reason that the class isn’t right for you. However, this isn’t an option for those using an unemployment discount.

What Makes It Different From Other Open Courses?

Although Skillcrush allows you to work at your own pace, the program is designed to keep you on track and engaged. Once you register for a course, you’ll receive an email at the start of each day telling you which lessons you should complete. It usually adds up to about an hour a day, making it an achievable part-time commitment. You also get to communicate with your cohort and receive help and feedback from instructors over email and weekly office hours.

So Is It Worth It?

Skillcrush’s website is filled with glowing reviews from former students who say the course changed their lives. In its video testimonials, women tell stories about how their newfound digital skills added a much-needed boost to their careers.

In addition to their own website, Skillcrush is rated at 4.8 out of 5 stars on Course Report. Many reviews rave about the sense of community among fellow students and instructors, as well as the flexibility that allows students to keep their jobs while working through the course.

However, Skillcrush reviews from other sources point out some of the downfalls of the program.

One Quora user said that she came in with previous web development experience, having used HTML/CSS, and enrolled in the course specifically to gain more knowledge of Javascript, JQuery, and Ruby. However, she was disappointed to finish the class with almost none of the knowledge she’d been promised. She found that there were too many holes in the lessons for her to keep up. In the end, it wasn’t worth the money for her.

“Really it's just basic instruction you can find on the web for free or pick up in a $30 book,” she said.

One reddit user had a similar experience, thinking the lessons were more cute than actually informative.

“The videos do not go into depth at all, covering as much content as a first google search on a topic would give you,” she said.

She ended up getting an associates degree from her local community college, which she found more cost-effective. Another redditor agreed that it wasn’t worth the money, saying it seemed more targeted at coding newbies.

“Skillcrush is cool if you literally have zero knowledge,” she said. “But even then, if you take away all the glitter and pink, the courses give you basic info that you could get for free on Google.”

Based on the conflicting experiences of many former students, it seems that Skillcrush isn’t necessarily the best choice for everyone.

If you have trouble staying on track, or if you learn best with constant one-on-one instruction, you may be better off with an in-person program or an immersive bootcamp. However, with its free beginner course and 14-day money-back guarantee, you can find out for yourself if Skillcrush is the right option for you.