Free or paid?
The short answer
No, you do not need to pay: freeCodeCamp and The Odin Project are free and can take you from zero to building real projects. A mentor is worth adding when you keep stalling, cannot tell whether your code is good, or have limited hours and need the shortest path. Many people do both: a free curriculum for the material, and a mentor for direction and code review.
ZAM Academy charges for mentorship, so we are not neutral. That is why this page starts with when the free route is all you need.
Two private classes, no card. Updated 11 November 2026 by Azzam Makki, founder of ZAM Academy.
The free route
In each provider's own words, checked on 11 November 2026.
freeCodeCamp
freeCodeCamp says "every aspect of freeCodeCamp is 100% free. The courses, the projects, even the certifications." It is run by a donor-supported 501(c)(3) charity.
The Odin Project
The Odin Project says its "full stack curriculum is free and supported by a passionate open source community." You set up real tools on your own computer from early on.
When free is enough
Give a free course a few weeks first. Paying before you know is the most expensive mistake.
If you can keep a routine with nobody checking in, a free curriculum plus its community may be all you need.
Working things out alone is slower but it works, if you have the hours and the patience.
What a mentor adds
If you have started and stopped before, more material will not fix it. A weekly session with someone expecting your work usually does.
Courses check whether a task passes. A mentor reads your own project and tells you what a developer would change, and why.
With six to ten hours a week, a mentor keeps you on the shortest path to what you want to build and stops you wasting them on detours.
For a job, clients or a portfolio, a mentor helps you finish and deploy projects that hold up when someone looks closely.
Doing both
Yes, and it is often the best value. Use a free curriculum for the lessons and exercises, and a mentor for the parts a course cannot do: choosing what matters for your goal, reviewing your own projects, and noticing when a busy week turns into a lost month.
At ZAM Academy your mentor builds a roadmap around your goal and hours and can point you to free material where it is good. Plans run from US$59 a month, and you start with two free private classes. If you join and it is not right, you have 14 days to get your first month back.
Questions
Yes. freeCodeCamp says every part of it is free, including the courses, projects and certifications. It is run by a donor-supported 501(c)(3) charity.
Yes. The Odin Project says its full-stack curriculum is free and supported by an open-source community.
Both are good. freeCodeCamp runs in the browser, so it is the easier first step. The Odin Project has you set up real tools on your own computer early, which is harder at first but closer to real work. Pick one and finish it rather than switching.
People do. What employers check is what you can build and explain, not what the course cost. Finished projects online, on GitHub, and being able to talk through your code matter most.
You are not paying for content. You are paying for direction, review of your own code and someone noticing when you stall. If you do not need those, stay free.
Yes. Your mentor starts from where you are. If a free curriculum is working for you, your roadmap can build on it.
Keep reading
Start with two free classes
The first class maps your goal, level and weekly hours. The second is a real coding session with feedback. Then your mentor recommends one plan, and you decide.
