If you’re a web designer, developer or freelancer, there’s a lot to like about Tuts+ Premium. The $15/month subscription fee represents great value for the volume and quality of content on offer. In terms of sheer range of materials and topics covered, Tuts+ (pronounced “tuts plus”) is rivaled by few, offering more than 18,000 tutorials and 390 courses in seven categories of design and illustration. The site has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, all while managing to reduce its costs to a very affordable $15 a month.
Given the growing demand for software developers and creative professionals, it shouldn’t be any surprise that the site has grown as rapidly as it has. Deciding which online course best fits your individual needs is no easy matter, so it’s important to evaluate a provider’s content and teaching style before committing to a subscription. If you’re in the market for an online course provider, or have been considering a Tuts+ account, take a few moments to read through this review to see if it’s something that’s right for you.
Stat Sheet
| Subjects Covered | Coding, Web Design, Music & Audio, Design & Illustration, Photo & Video, 3D & Motion Graphics, Business |
|---|---|
| Total Courses | 18,000 + tutorials, 390 video-based courses, + 162 Ebooks (available for download) |
| Student Level | Beginner through intermediate; some advanced topics. |
| Format | Short text-based tutorials, multiple-week video-guided courses, and collection of e-books. |
| Certification | No formal certification |
| Cost |
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Full Review
Tuts+, long considered one of the leading online course providers, continues to deliver one of the widest ranging libraries of technology and design related courses out there. Distinguishing itself from other online competitors, Tuts+ acts as a one-stop-shop for all topics related to programming, design, illustration, music, photography and game development. Made up of three distinct sections, Tuts+ offers content via tutorials, screencast courses, and a large library of eBooks.
Overall, the content offered here is as diverse as any, and certainly has something to offer anyone working in the fields of technology, design, or media. What really sets Tuts+ apart from others is the combination of mediums (written tutorials, screencasts, and eBooks) it uses to deliver content, rather than relying purely on video-based courses. This cross-media platform means you can draw from a wider range of sources on a given topic, helping to round out the learning process and providing greater autonomy over how in-depth you want to go on a given topic. To see how each of these mediums stacks up in terms of content and style, we’ve looked at a few individual topics to assess their strengths and weaknesses.
Tutorials
Aside from serving as a great marketing medium for Tuts+’s paid content, the tutorial section is a great resource for getting introductions and ‘how to’ demos on a range of topics. With over 18,000 free tutorials, this section is huge and touches on almost any and all topics in the creative and technical fields. Most of the content is delivered blog-style, with step-by-step instructions on a given topic or task, paired with lots of screenshots and code snippets.
During an interview with SkilledUp, Tuts+’s strategy and marketing manager, Xavier Russo, gave us a complete rundown of what his company offers learners:
“Tuts+ currently has over 400 video courses, comprising 9000+ video lessons and 900+ hours of learning, as well as 170+ ebooks and 18,000+ free written tutorials,” said Russo. “With our team of editors, producers and instructors, we publish new content daily. In an average month, we probably release about 200 tutorials, 20-30 new courses, and 10 ebooks.”
To sample their breadth of content, I tried out the ‘How to Scrape Web Pages with Node.js and jQuery’ tutorial, which focuses on building a YouTube scraper that displays the videos on a jQuery mobile template. Overall, I found the tutorial to be as great a free resource as any. Instructions were clear, concise, and well curated. Most of all, they were accurate and sequential, outlining the required installations and resources needed for each step along with links for further instruction.
Anyone who has spent time reading various blogs on programming knows there’s a huge variation in quality, accuracy, and relevancy. This makes Tuts+ an ideal place to start when seeking an intro to a given topic, as the tutorials are posted by known professionals and go through a screening and editing process. As a result, you’re more likely to get a better intro to best practices, as well as a logical sequence of instructions, rather than some random guy’s blog that will leave you more confused than when you started.
Given their higher quality, huge base, and cost (free), Tuts+ tutorials are a great resource for a variety of topics and serve as a great intro to their paid content. If you’re thinking of getting a subscription, start here and check out the variety of topics that fall in your interest categories.
Courses
For many, Tuts+ courses are the main draw to the site. With more than 390 of them, they cover a huge range of materials. Currently, all of the courses fall into seven main categories:
- Design & Illustration
- Code
- Web Design
- Music & Audio
- Photo & Video
- 3D & Motion Graphics
- Business
Like Tuts+’s other offerings, the variety of courses on the site is enormous. If you’re looking for anything design, programming, or graphic arts related, you can bet that Tuts+ touches on at least some aspect of it. I was truly impressed by the wide variety of materials covered, particularly more obscure topics that other online course providers overlook.
Coding topics currently account for the largest share, with nearly 200 courses, followed by web design with 90 courses. To help organize this vast array, as well as to allow you to avoid paying for content you won’t use, Tuts+ offers more narrowly tailored ‘Bundles’, or selections of related courses, on differing topics for $45. Buying a bundle in JavaScript, for example, provides six full JavaScript related courses without forcing you to pay for access to animation courses. This is great for a site this large, as I’ve often felt frustrated with other sites that may teach one topic I’m interested in, but require subscriptions to their full library. So, if you’re on a budget and not ready to fully commit, this may be an ideal solution for you.
