Best coding bootcamps in Austin: find options near you

I went to Austin Coding Academy in 2023. I began in person and switched to online. The administration was helpful. The teachers were professional and knowledgeable. The unlimited individual tutoring was a big part of what made the bootcamp worthwhile to me, as otherwise most of the learning is done on your own and, other than providing a general structure, differs little from self-study in that regard. 2023 was a difficult year for the industry and I believe most people will have to go above and beyond with personal projects and networking in order to be employed as a web developer. But if you have the drive, are interested in learning to code, and would like a bit of guidance and personalized support on your journey– I believe Austin Coding Academy could be a good option for you.

I researched many schools in the Austin area before choosing the Austin Coding Academy. The reason I chose them was because they offered the best quality at an exceptional price. I come from a Finance background and I have never worked in IT before. The intro course is very informative and detailed. As soon as you begin classes the school brings in guest speakers and IT recruiters. I love the field trips we take as well. Halfway thru my Intro course the career services team placed me in a new job within the IT industry. It occurred very fast and I am very grateful for all their instruction and help. My goal is to have a better work-life balance and the Austin Coding Academy has already helped me get my foot in the door. I am very excited to see what opportunities will be presented to me once I complete the entire Full Stack Developer program. Choosing to attend the Austin Coding Academy has proven to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Austin Coding Academy was a phenomenal experience for me. I had a little experience in web design and coding, so I knew I would enjoy it, but classes at ACA really pushed that passion forward. Instructors and staff are really driven and so obviously love what they do – they all go the extra mile to make sure you are getting everything you can out of class. Our instructor, Jake, and TA, Victoria, were always available to us and both had a very natural gift for teaching. I enjoyed classes and homework so much that it never actually felt like ‘school’ or ‘work.’ ACA really strives to make their environment community-oriented, which allowed me to learn from classmates and even make great friends! I’m astonished at the amount of knowledge I gained in three short months and would recommend ACA to anyone I know.

Austin Coding Academy provides a great learning experience! However, the flipped classroom style is not for everyone; it takes discipline to learn concepts outside of class. The instructors are very knowledgeable and are very helpful in making the concepts easier to grasp. ACA also provides a lot of resources to keep up with the class including awesome TA’s and tutors will flexible schedules. The only downside is the class size was larger than I anticipated.

I just completed the entire Full Stack curriculum at Austin Coding Academy and not only did they help me transition my career into coding, they helped me land a JavaScript Engineering job before I even graduated. The instructors are ‘wicked smart’, the curriculum is challenging in a good way, and the community is incredibly supportive. I recommend anyone looking for an upgrade to their skill set or a complete career change to look no further than Austin Coding Academy for the most affordable and flexible option available in Austin.

Challenging classes lead by an incredible team! As a (previously) non-technical person it was very very rewarding to learn coding in a way that suited my schedule and pace of learning. The structure and pace of their classes are great and enable you to really choose how and what you’d like to learn. The ACA team is comprised of professionals full of great resources for students to take advantage of. Highly recommend for those wanting to up their skill set or change careers all together.

I took the front-end and back-end classes in 2014, and loved every minutes of it! The instructors were professional, knowledgeable, and always willing to help inside and outside of class. The founders were super involved in the entire process and were always looking for feedback – both positive and negative.

As for the classes themselves, the front-end was more to my liking as I had dabbled in html and css prior. The back-end class was challenging and a bit less structured, but totally worth it. Both kept me extremely busy, and the instructors made it possible to advance further when I needed it and slow down when I struggled with a topic.

Results: I am currently working with a classmate on freelance work, the resume website I made in the front-end class got me a part-time job with graphic design, and the back-end class let me get into some app creation with one of the founder’s friends.

Great people, waiting for my schedule to clear so I can take the intermediate classes!

Best educational experience of my life. In one year I was able to completely turn my life around and land a high paying job in a completely new field, thanks to the skills I acquired through Hack Reactor. The immersive is only 3 months, but you spend at least 3 months preparing and maybe another 3 months afterwards practicing and making your own projects. The remaining 3 months might be dedicated to full time job searching until you finally land a job, and that’s pretty standard (3-6 months of job searching). If you are able to afford a full year of not being employed to focus on your software engineering career switch, then you can rapidly go from no coding experience to a mid level engineer.

I’d like to preface this review with this: If you are not ready to work and give a school 110%, MakerSquare might not be the place for you. Though it is only 3 months, It definitely takes a lot out of you. But what you get in return is much more than I could have ever imagined.

The staff was amazing. So many resources there to help you in constructive ways. Instead of giving flat answers, they worked with you until you would came up with the correct logic to the puzzle.

One of the toughest challenges in learning any programming language is getting passed the basics. Learning where and how to take that next step can take years. At MakerSquare, within a month I was learning advanced concepts, bleeding edge frameworks and technologies, and solving complex algorithms on a daily basis.

Upon completion of the program, I felt very prepared in every aspect for my future career as a Software Developer. Not only did I have the required technical and interview skills, but I learned how to properly work in a team to develop dynamic applications.

I was able to land an amazing job within about a month of graduating the course. It was the best career move I could have ever made.

10/10 would learn JavaScript again

I took the Part Time Front End course at MakerSquare and absolutely loved it! The instructors are fantastic, knowledgeable and supportive! As a complete beginner I was really encouraged and empowered to learn more about the varied topics handled in the course! Not to mention that all my classmates were incredibly motivated and overall great friends!

Having a solid understanding of the different aspects of the world of Front End web development, do I have the confidence on working on and creating my own projects! There’s still much to learn, but Maker Square provides us with a solid base of knowledge paired with great instructors and a great environment to be in! Highly recommend MKS to any wanting to learn!

I had chosen Hack Reactor (Makersquare at the time I was introduced to it) after hearing about it through at least two of my friends in the Software Industry. I had originally considered getting a degree from a university and was working towards that at a community college. But when I heard about this program and it’s amazing reputation in the industry, I decided to go this route. By the time I enrolled at HR, I had taken an Introduction to Programming course (coded in Python) at a community college to see if I like programming before committing. The knowledge I gained from the course helped me through the prep and the first week or two of the programming, after that it was an unfamiliar, challenging but exciting territory.

Hack Reactor is great for learning programming and about yourself as an individual. This intensive 12-week program is great for those that are able to pick up things after doing the hands-on learning for 2 days and then pivot to another concept afterward. Although this type of learning style may take some adjusting on your part, after this section (first six weeks) is over, you will have a pretty good idea about how you learn as a student and how much research/practice you as an individual needs in order to understand a concept or new technology. Moving into the second half of the program, you’ll be put into teams of 3-5 to work on building apps. Here, you’re able to work on teamwork skills such as communication, organization, accountability, and problem solving as a group. You’ll learn how to balance each team member’s style of work and personality as you’re going through this process.

Overall, my experience at Hack Reactor was amazing and I would definitely recommend it for prospective students!

I graduated from MakerSquare back in 2014. Not to be overly dramatic, but it was a transformative experience full of incredible people. I have no regrets investing in my education with MakerSquare, since it brought me to the awesome career I have today. Of course to get there, require 110% dedication and lots of struggle and hard work.

Here’s why MakerSquare was stellar:
– MakerSquare cares about your success. Their hiring network is great and vast. Career staff is on point, and there to support you on this rough journey to your first coding gig. My first job after graduating, the company had a former MakerSquare instructor on my team and learned a ton from him and the team there. A few months after that, we hired 2 more MakerSquare grads and they were great team members. I imagine I’ll just have more and more opportunities to bump into MakerSquare alumni in my future which is is nice.
– Amazing classmates. Of course, your experience may vary, but I absolutely loved my cohort. We grew very close and now fast forward almost 2 years later and we still stay in touch. I’m constantly amazed by my peers and where they have ended up in their careers. And I’ll mention that many of them continue learning and improving their craft. I think this is a testament to the commitment of students that MakerSquare brings in. I recall one of the mentors said “It’s not about whether you can code, because anybody can learn how to code. But it’s whether you will stick with coding or not.” All of my cohort still passionate about coding are slaying it at their careers.
– Good on selecting students that are committed to code journey. I was surrounded by peers who were willing to put in effort around the clock. This is important because even just one person who is not committed could bring a group’s learning down. And choosing students who are not collaborative and willing to help each other learn also can bring down that dynamic.
– Constantly iterating and improving the program. Which mirrors the super fast pace in the industry. This is SUPER important because it’s the only way to stay relevant and ensure students get placed in the appropriate jobs the industry demands. For example, my cohort in 2014 learned Ruby/Rails+JS, and now it’s 100% JS. And in just the last year and half, I see the job landscape changing (I’m always curious about the jobs out there). So it’s really nice to see MakerSquare constantly evolving the program to match what the industry needs.
– Curriculum focuses on coding. That’s like a big “duh” but the instructors understand that constant hands-on coding is the way to learn. Instructors are highly invested in the students learning and success, and were super helpful and encouraging. I won’t mention details of what the curriculum was since it will naturally evolve (see my previous point).

MakerSquare is a phenomenal program, but is not for the faint of heart. It requires 100% commitment, not just for three months, but for the next chapter of your career. Those who are serious about changing their career to something more fulfilling, I say go for it.

My experience with MakerSquare was enormously positive, and I’d recommend it to anyone with a genuine commitment to pursuing software engineering as a career.

I was reasonably well-established in my previous career in sales before attending MakerSquare, and I’d like to think I did my due-diligence in terms of researching outcomes and comparison-shopping with similar programs – I even went all the way through the admissions process with one of the others. I chose MakerSquare because it seemed like the most rigorous, and I wasn’t disappointed. I showed the pre-course work to a friend who’d attended another program, and she was blown away by the depth of knowledge we were required to have just going in.

The curriculum was well-designed, and it included a lot of fundamental CS topics that I’ve heard employers express concern about when discussing boot-camp candidates – in fact, most of the topics that seemed at all abstract or esoteric came up in interviews during my job search. I think in that way, MakerSquare responds very well to the market conditions for its graduates.

The program is loosely divided into the a curriculum phase and a project phase, and the curriculum phase wisely avoids delving too deeply into the hot modern frameworks (though when I attended, it included Backbone, and a quick introduction to Angular at the end). The project phase gave us broad latitude to select and learn the technologies we thought would be most relevant, and ultimately the ones we thought would look best on a resume.

MakerSquare also provided a great deal of guidance during the job search, which I was grateful for. I ended up with three offers on the table, and I couldn’t be happier in my new job as an engineer. MakerSquare suggests budgeting for a 3-month job search, and all of my cohort-mates that I’ve kept in touch had jobs within that time frame.

My only criticism, and it’s a small one, comes from the project phase, where I felt in retrospect that the instructors could have been more proactive in steering us away from less marketable technologies. The flip-side, of course, is that we were able to take advantage of full autonomy. One group wrote their back-end in Go instead of Node; my group pursued mobile-first development using Meteor and Cordova. The skills ultimately translated well to more widely-adopted technology stacks in the workplace, and so I don’t see it as much of a negative at all.

Excellent course work taught by great instructors. Lots of people I’ve talked to about MakerSquare are skeptical about what can be learned in 12 weeks, but that skepticism all goes away when they see the projects we’ve worked on (or after a coding interview) because grads are extremely capable. The staff is genuinely interested in helping people succeed, and the students are also great to work with.

We love how easy and fun it is for our son to do coding here. He has been going twice a week for the last two years. The owner Chris is fantastic. He is very accommodating to our schedule and our son enjoys spending time with him and the other sensei.

We’ve been using Code Ninjas for a year now. The product is great and they keep improving it. The kids really do learn from it.

The guy who runs it, Chris, is especially amazing. He doesn’t just offer coding but also 3d printing and robotics. He’s flexible and will help your kids learn anything tech related. He’s also fair, letting us make up sessions when we miss them. We’re lucky to have this close to home.

The programs at Code Ninjas are fantastic. Chris takes the time to get to know each kid’s interests and abilities and really goes out of his way to make it a fun, customized experience. He is always welcoming and really does an incredible job creating not just a fun place for my son to go, but also a safe place.

My kid simply loves coding and everything Code Ninjas has to offer. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere and there is flexibility with rescheduling, unlike other more rigid extracurriculars in town.

Highly recommend this Code Ninjas location. Friendly and knowledgeable Sensei who make coding super fun for the kids. Chris takes care so that the kids can have a great experience at the camps/lessons. We will be signing up for more camps in the future at this location.

Code Ninjas has provided our five-year old an excellent introduction to coding. Chris and the team are very friendly, supportive, and patient. Code Ninjas makes learn code fun. Also I would highly recommend their camps.

Code Ninjas on Mesa is awesome! My daughter enjoys the weekly coding sessions and summer camps. It’s one of the highlights of her week. I highly recommend for anyone that is looking for a fun, safe, afterschool coding/technology class!

I don’t know about other locations but this location hired a bunch of highschoolers who only knows the basic of HTML and tried to have them teach advanced levels of coding and AI

Edit my post due to the owner’s comment:
‘iCode Austin does not employ any high school students as instructors’ =>

Don’t have trust me. You can look up on LinkedIn yourself and see a lot of highschoolers having iCode Austin lead instructors role a year or two before they enroll in college ‍♀️ ‍♂️

My kids have been coming here for summer camps at South Austin for 2 years and now going through the Belt program. They love it. The staff are really nice and helpful and give the kids lots of hands on help and attention. Mr Valentine helped my oldest pic out the components for his game computer build and does so much for the kids. I also love how flexible they have been about letting my youngest choose what he wants to focus on to learn… options like 3D design and 3D printing; game development… and my oldest is learning web site design now at 11/12. This place is the best.

We just started here but I cannot say enough good things about this place! The school itself has multiple rooms, up to date equipment, and a computer room parents can work in while kids are in class. The staff from front desk to teachers, are friendly and competent. I didn’t have the first clue of what class to enroll my 8 year old in, they helped navigate what was best for him and were very flexible if/when we needed to change classes. My kiddo LOVES it there, I was blown away after just the first class, of how much he learned and what he could do. Highly recommend for anyone interested in coding, or just being more computer literate.

We had horrible experience here. If there were negative ratings, I would give that! Horrible management!! The teachers, the staff on the front desk don’t seem to care at all! Our son Jason ( 6 year old) registered a five day summer camp on 2D Web development. He was in a classroom on Monday, but somehow switched to another room and stayed there until Friday. It turns out our son was in the wrong classroom for four days! The teacher in the first classroom has no idea our kid was missing from his class for four days and even shown us his certificate on the last day! And the teacher in the second classroom just told our son he was not supposed to be in his classroom , and let him sit playing game himself. When we talk to the teachers and the staff today, they just don’t care at all. It is what it is. Such a shame!

Our son also registered another course here in next next week, which hasn’t started yet. We are considering cancelling it!

It is my first time to post a bad review. I really don’t feel safe to leave a young kid here, especially after what we have just experienced .

My 9 year old son LOVES iCode! Over the years my son has attended every single summer camp available around austin and his most favorite is iCode. The staff are really sweet and knowledgeable about what kids are into these days in regards to coding and games.

This is our first time going to iCode, and it has been a great experience. My son went to bed making plans for today because he was so excited. The instructor has been patient and knowledgeable on all things MineCraft. I appreciate the communication and customer service we’ve received from the office manager. It so nice to have the personalized attention, and I love hearing about his day on pick up. We’ll definitely be back for more camps.

Stumbled upon iCode when my 9 year old granddaughter came to stay with me this summer. The experience has been above & beyond what both she and I expected. Each day when I ask her about how her day at camp was, she is full of enthusiasm and stories of what she was able to do. In addition the staff has been fantastic – engaged, caring and supportive! I highly recommend iCode Austin to anyone looking to engage their children in a fun and educational environment.

My 7 year old son has done summer camp and after-school classes with My Coding Place for the last year and thoroughly enjoys it. He’s learning scratch, getting familiar with computers, and having a ton of fun. We are looking forward to learning more about games and robots during camp this summer.

The Coding Place is amazing. They have a wonderful variety of classes, camps, and private lessons for all skill levels and areas of interest. Amy and all the instructors truly care about the kids and their learning. Amy helped me find the right class and instructor for my son and gave me the highest level of attention and responsiveness. She is a parent and really “gets it” about kids and what they need to stay engaged and have fun and learn at the same time. My son learned so much in a short time and used his knowledge to create a unique project for application to magnet high schools. Amy went above and beyond helping out, emailing back at night and on the weekends for last minute schedule changed due to conflicts with sports and music lessons. They found expert instructors to teach computer coding my son wanted that I didn’t even know existed. All in all the best! Your kids will love it here!!

My 9 year old started doing camps at My Coding Place a couple years ago and now we have done after school programs through the pandemic! She LOVES it. They are really flexible about making the classes work for the kids’ interests and levels. She is far more advanced than me in graphics (including 3d), and she has learned so much about html, CSS, chess, and Scratch – all while virtually schooling! I LOVE the particular focus on trying to engage girls in these activities!

We were looking for a camp that would keep the boys (Ages 9 and 10) engaged and busy during the day for the summer. We already had them signed up for a sports all day kind of thing.

And then we found My Coding Place. They were incredibly flexible and had great communication. Bonus: THE KIDS LOVED IT. We would love to do more once we get our school schedule ironed out.

Awesome classes, great instructors, and excited kids— You can’t ask for anything more!

Despite the fact that they’re more expensive than most of the competition, we jumped in away. One day they had my son and daughter play each other, and got no instruction the entire time. That’s near $100 and a trip across town so my kids could play chess exactly like they would have at home. I tried to work things out with MCP, but they wouldn’t play ball. I couldn’t even cancel the program without doing a credit card chargeback. I would not recommend doing business with a company that makes you resort to calling the credit card company.

My 9 year old took a summer coding class here and came home overjoyed and excited every afternoon. She was always so eager to tell us what she did and what she learned. And it was thrilling to see the class end’s culmination! She will be returning!

My seven year old daughter attended a robotics and coding class here and loved it. She had a great experience in the class and learned a lot. Highly recommended.