Free Apps To Learn Coding

When you don’t have a laptop or computer at hand, you can now use your mobile smartphone or tablet device to learn code. There are plenty of applications on the play store and app store available for superior informative learning. In this article list, all will be defined and explored for your learning pleasure.

1. SoloLearn

About SoloLearn

The SoloLearn app provides over a thousand lessons in a broad spectrum of development industry education. Boasting a current status of over 5 million active learners.

Some of the courses listed are as follows –

• C++
• Python
• HTML
• CSS
• Swift
• PHP
• JavaScript
• JQuery
• SQL

Instantly, just by viewing this inexhaustive list, there is an opportunity for learning the full-life cycle of development.

SoloLearn screenshot Android

What to expect when using the app

After installing from the Google Play Store (Android), the opening of the application was relatively speedy. After this, you are prompted to create an account or use Facebook or Google to sign in, which I always prefer. From here you are presented with a feed of courses sectioned by categories like Web Development, Programming, Data Science and more.

Subsequent selecting a course, you can instantly access its contents, no paywall, no nonsense, just pure learning. Learning pages have both read and code functionality, for example, there is information on certain snippets of code. Then you can go into the code playground and try it for yourself.

Its code playground is very similar to that of JSFiddle or CodePen, offering the adjustment of HTML, CSS, JS and then the facility to run the code into an output tab.

During learning pages, you will be instructed or asked to fix code snippets and execute the checking mechanism, where the app will check and give you feedback on what you have done. It’s pretty slick!

Notable Features

• Make course available offline – Always a great perk, especially when you are often out and about.
• Code Playground within courses to execute your code as you learn
• Code Playground feed – A feed of other user’s creations for your viewing
• Q&A feed/forum for asking relevant questions to the community
• Coding challenges
• Reward system in the format of badges
• Global & local leaderboards based on experience earned via learning

Who can use it?

Great news, SoloLearn is available on the following operating systems –

• Android
• Apple

Not only is it open to devices of this nature, but you can utilize its learning features on the web too.

Is it free?

SoloLearn is entirely free to use, with the option to upgrade to the Pro version. But the best thing about this is that you only need the Pro version if you want to boost your learning. Pro features including more personalized activity insights, no-adverts, and daily learning goals.

2. Programming Hub

About Programming Hub

Well, to start, Programming Hub won Google Play’s ‘Best of the Best’ app award back in 2017 and has also been picked as an ‘Editors Choice’ app too! These achievements, of course, speak volume for what’s offered by the app itself. Programming Hub boasts over 5 million users around the globe and is backed by Google Experts too!

Some of the courses listed are as follows –

• C#
• VB.NET
• HTML
• Swift
• Python
• CSS
• Swift
• PHP
• JavaScript
• Java
• SQL

Not only is there even more languages to learn additional to the list above, but there are further specialized courses like Machine Learning, Android Development, React Native, iOS Development and many more.

Programming Hub screenshot Android

What to expect when using the app

Programming Hub offers sign-up via Facebook, Google, and your email address. After signing in you will be presented with a very clean and beautifully contrasting feed of courses. Just click a course you want to take and you will then be given a break down of what you will learn and who the target audience is.

In addition to that, it even goes into detail of the average salary you would be qualified for with the skills you are going to learn, which is pretty cool to be fair. To take the course, you hit the enroll now button and the course will load.

Course content is broken down into sequential blocks, forcing you to learn in a structured way rather than jump in at the deep end. There is a mix of theory and practice throughout, including quiz questions to re-cap on things learned during lessons.

After course completion, you will be awarded a certificate which is easily-shared to social media or downloaded to add to your C.V!

Notable Features

• Active courses are available offline
• Course certification shareable and downloadable
• Quiz questions during courses
• Specialized courses, for example, iOS Development
• A potential earning in industry stated from courses undertook – which I really like!

Who can use it?

Programming Hub is cross-platform working on both of the following –

• Android
• Apple

Is it free?

Yes, it’s free to a certain extent and does offer learners a Pro version. The pro version opens up further features like access to its code-compiler and more courses. The pro version starts from £8.99 a month and offers a lifetime buy, a one-off fee too.

3. Grasshopper

About Grasshopper

If you’re looking for a super-accessible and user-friendly application to help you code, then this is undoubtedly the one. Grasshopper has been built for ultimate accessibility and elegant user experience.

Grasshopper teaches modern JavaScript to enthusiastic beginners and intermediates alike. It’s not just the old school JS, but the industry-standard concepts and syntax too. Believe it or not, this fantastic app was created by some great coders who worked at Google’s workshop for experimental products, you can find out more about that here .

Grasshopper screenshot Android

What to expect when using the app

From the get-go, the application design is perfectly contrasted to suit viewing pleasure. There are two ways of accessing the app, either simply click the get started button for instant access, or you can sign in with your Google account. Next, you will be presented with a series of screens, being introduced to their Grasshopper mascot and being asked if you’re new to coding or you’ve coded before. This will decide how the app will present the next set of screens to you.

You will also have access to a slide menu which has a list of courses that you can work your way through puzzles, quizzes, and tutorials. In addition, you will have full access to a Code Playground, which is really cool. The playground allows you to construct your own custom code and execute it. Within this playground is some real magic, a drop-down pane with quick access to code snippets ready to be added to your code, another excellent accessibility feature.

If you want to learn JavaScript, then give Grasshopper a try, you won’t be let down with the work the devs at Google have put into this app.

Notable Features

• Code Playground with easy-addition of preset code snippets
• Achievements
• Intuitive and user-friendly
• A great user experience
• Don’t want to sign in with Google? No problem, there is no requirement for email signup!
• Quizzes, puzzles and real-time feedback
• Available offline

Who can use it?

Grasshopper is available for download on the following operating systems

• Android
• Apple

Is it free?

Yes, Grasshopper is free to use for everyone, there isn’t even a monetizing Pro version, happy days!

4. Enki

About Enki

A cool team of developers built Enki from across the world; you can see who they are precisely on their about page and possibly follow them on Twitter!

Some of the courses listed are as follows –

• JavaScript
• Python
• Git
• Linux
• Java
• SQL
• Blockchain

There is also a list of up and coming topics that include courses for iOS, Ruby, docker, PHP, C#, go, C++ and many more.

Enki screenshot Android

What to expect when using the app

Singing into Enki can be done in one of three ways, sign up to Enki themselves or sign in with your Git or Google Account. Immediately, I feel at home with the styling of the app, being dark themed, it’s pretty beautiful. The app will ask you to select two courses from the list to learn and then to select your level of knowledge in each. For example, beginner, expert etc.

After you’ve selected some courses, you’ll be presented with a set of menu options, one being Workout. This tab offers you new educational workouts based on the courses you selected and even tells you how long it will take to complete. The workouts teach you on one page and quiz you on the next. Workouts can even be shared and commented on (or questioned) which will then be visible to the Enki community. Pretty helpful!

Another neat feature is that you can create or join teams, allowing you to collaborate with your friends or other learners globally. With a team you can access further insights like ‘How much is your team learning?’ and ‘Team Workouts Performed’.

Notable Features

• Dark themed, which all us developers love!
• Has the ability to create teams or to join existing teams for learning
• Git sign up!
• Has some really genius game-style learning
• Ability to skip course workout sections if you already knew it
• Available offline

Who can use it?

Enki available for download on the following operating systems

• Android
• Apple

Is it free?

Yes, Enki is free to use for everyone but, there is a Pro version, which for £7.00 a month unlocks Pro content. Some of the current Pro content includes courses on React, NPM, and Node.

5. Encode

Encode specializes in JavaScript, Python, and Web (HTML & CSS) and has this all laid out elegantly. The app even offers two themes, Day and Night, I’ll let you guess which one I chose.

Encode screenshot on Android

What to expect when using the app

Encode doesn’t even require a login, which in a way is great, no messing around, just straight learning. After launching the app, you will be presented with a beautiful dashboard for each of the Python, JavaScript and Web Tabs. Encode allows you to pick a section for your self and then to start lessons.  Each of these is rated on a scale of Newbie, Explorer, and Ninja.

Lessons are made up of both theory and practice, asking you to fill in the blank or write out your own code to execute. Lessons even have a ‘hints’ icon if you find things are getting tricky.

Notable Features

• Light and dark theme selection (I chose dark)
• Courses rated by difficulty
• A very sweet design
• Available offline
• No sign in required

Who can use it?

Encode is available for download on the following operating systems

• Android
• Apple

Is it free?

Encode is free to use for a certain amount of courses but then requires to upgrade to Pro to unlock further challenges in courses and to unlock some whole courses. The pro version also removes adverts from the entire application also.

Summary

There is certainly lots of free resources at your fingertips on both Android and Apple app stores. These apps span an exciting breadth of learning including many supported languages. Some are better than others, but all-in-all, excellent in their own way. I’m sure there are plenty more out there that I haven’t listed, but these ones that are listed are 100% installable on Android & Apple devices, and that’s why I picked them, just so no one is let down.