13 Best Web Developer Certifications for Your Tech Career

Web development is now considered to be one of the most marketable skills in tech. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that web development jobs will grow by 23% in the coming years, making it one of the fastest-growing roles in the industry. 

So if you’re looking to upskill or cash in on this trend, then you might be considering a web development certification. And the problem with such growing demand for web developers means that there’s also a growing number of web development certifications. 

How do you know which certifications are worthwhile? With this guide, of course. Below, we’ll tell you about the 13 best web development certifications and what makes them great so that you can choose the one that’s right for you. 

Are Web Developer Certifications Worth It?

Yes. When applying for jobs in web development, it’s important to provide proof of your expertise. And while previous work experience is always a good thing to have on a resume, it’s also important to have a strong web developer portfolio and the right certifications. 

13 Best Web Developer Certification Programs

These are our choices for the 13 best web developer certification programs to help you break into web development or advance your career.

Springboard: Software Engineering Bootcamp

Rating: 

Course Report: 4.64 out of 5 (1306 ratings)

Overview: 

Springboard’s Software Engineering Bootcamp offers key resources, including 1:1 mentorship, and classes taught by development expert Colt Steele. Coursework ranges from front-end and back-end development to production-ready web app development. Mentorship is provided through experts who are working in the field and who will provide key insights, networking tips, and interview advice. By the end of the course, you’ll be ready to enter the workforce. Many different payment plans are available, and Springboard also offers flexible scheduling options.

Best For

This course is best for beginner to intermediate programmers. It is particularly ideal for those who are making a transition into software engineering or web development.

Duration

800 hours of content over a 9-month period

Prices Starting From

$9,900, with multiple payment methods available

Cornell University: Web Design & Development Certificate Program

Rating: 

G2: 4.3 out of 5 (37 ratings)

Overview

This web design and development course offered by Cornell University helps aspiring web developers learn the basics. The course provides lectures and practical activities that teach the basics of HTML and CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and data collection techniques. The course gives students the tools that they need to construct an impressive portfolio and to land a meaningful job in web development.

Best For

This course is best for inexperienced web developers who are breaking into the web design industry and are looking for practical skills. 

Duration

2 weeks

Prices Starting From

$3750

General Assembly: Software Engineering Immersive Online

Rating

Course Report: 4.31 out of 5

Overview

This course is designed to help those with little experience in the industry kickstart their career and launch directly into web development. With personalized job search support, the course offers you the chance to pursue a job immediately after graduating with the help of experienced job recruiters and HR experts.

Best For

This course is best for individuals who are new to the web development world and who are at the beginning of their careers. As the course offers assistance with career services and one-on-one coaching, it is a great way to ensure you are not only prepared technically but also prepared for the job search and networking processes that are necessary for starting a promising career in web development.

Duration

12 weeks, at 40 hours a week

Prices Starting From

$15,950

Meta Back-End Developer Professional Certificate

Rating

Coursera: 4.7 out of 5 (962 ratings)

Overview

This certification is provided by the back-end development team at Meta. It’s a course that you can complete over the course of several months and is designed to get beginners job ready.

Best For

This course is best for new back-end developers with little to no experience who are trying to kickstart their careers.

Duration

8 months to complete.

Prices Starting From

$59 monthly

Udacity: Front End Web Developer Nanodegree Program

Rating

Udacity: 4.6 out of 5 (1189 ratings)

Overview

This course is designed to help students complete projects for dynamic applications and user experiences. Through a learning process that is built around a practical application, you will learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You will then be shown how to build websites and develop a high-quality user experience.

Best For

This course is a great option for anyone who is building a portfolio in order to break into web development. Both the instruction and the practical resources that are provided give you the ability to confidently put together a strong portfolio and apply to web development positions.

Duration

This course takes 4 months to complete.

Prices Starting From

$1356

MIT xPRO: Professional Certificate in Coding

Rating

Career Karma: 3.8 out of 5 (15 ratings)

Overview

This full-stack developer course is offered by MIT, ensuring a high quality of instruction. The course is designed to give you access to skills that will translate directly to practical applications. You’ll learn how to put together your GitHub portfolio, how to develop an API, and how to develop for both front-end and back-end.

Best For

Beginner to intermediate developers will find this course useful when constructing a full-stack portfolio. While front-end and back-end developers will find this certification helpful, it is designed for those who are pursuing a career as a full-stack developer.

Duration

32 weeks

Prices Starting From

$7450 for the course and certification.

CareerFoundry: Full-Stack Web Development Program

Rating

Course Report: 4.67 out of 5

Overview

This course is a full-stack development program that offers certification upon completion. It boasts a flexible schedule and helps with building a portfolio. Given that one of the most vital parts of a web development application is a strong portfolio, some expert assistance in that process is invaluable.

Best For

This course is best for a beginner who is pursuing a career as a full-stack developer. With the course being flexible, it is ideal for a professional who may already be working or has commitments that would make a rigid schedule difficult.

Duration

32 weeks with 15-20 hours/week necessary to complete on time.

Prices Starting From

$7650 paid upfront.

OpenClassrooms: Associate Diploma in Web Developer

Rating

Course Report: 4.62 out of 5

Overview

The Web Developer Associate Diploma is a flexible program that teaches website construction as its primary focus. As a course built around practical project-based work, it gives you the tools that you need to have constructed interactive web pages from scratch.

Best For

This certification is a great way for beginner developers to kickstart their careers in web development. It’s designed to get you ready to go directly into the job application process.

Duration

6 months

Prices Starting From

$300 a month

Meta Front-End Developer Professional Certificate

Rating

Coursera: 4.8 out of 5 (2,356 ratings)

Overview

The Meta Front-End Developer Certificate is designed to give you access to a certification directly from Meta upon graduation. This is a front-end-focused course that will give you the ability to construct a functioning website by the end. 

Best For

This course is best for new developers who want to gain experience and develop their portfolio at the same time. It is also a great certificate for web developers who may be interested in working for Meta or any of the major tech companies, as the course gives an insider’s perspective on how these companies carry out their web development processes.

Duration

7 months

Prices Starting From

$399, or $59/month with Coursera plus

BrainStation: Web Development Diploma Program

Rating

Course Report: 4.7 out of 5

Overview

This course is an intensive bootcamp that focuses on beginner developers breaking into web development. With both full-time and part-time options, it’s designed to give you every skill that you need upon completion.

Best For

This certification is best for beginner developers who are just beginning their careers in web development and want a comprehensive education in web development techniques.

Duration

12 weeks at 40 hours/week

Prices Starting From

$15,000

W3Cx’s Front-End Web Developer Professional Certificate

Rating

N/A

Overview

The front-end web developer certification by W3Cx is offered by edX and covers the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With these skills, you will learn how to build websites that are dynamic and interactive.

Best For

This certification is best for developers who are focusing on front-end development. A beginner with little to no experience should be able to complete this program with a sufficient understanding to begin looking for a job in front-end web development.

Duration

7 months, at 5-7 hours per week

Prices Starting From

$895.50 

Learning Tree: Web Development Certification

Rating

N/A

Overview

The Learning Tree Web Development certification is a great way to validate your skills as a web developer. It’s separated into 3 different modules that cover different aspects of the web design process. By the end of the course, you should have a good understanding of the web development process and should be able to apply it in a workplace setting.

Best For

This course is best for beginner to intermediate web developers. But it’s also great for experienced front-end web developers, as this course can help you to develop an even more robust portfolio and upskill. 

Duration

4 days for each of the 3 modules

Prices Starting From

$2990/module

GIAC Certified Web Application Defender (GWEB)

Rating

N/A

Overview

This web development certification shows a candidate’s master of web application security. As a certification that requires knowledge of both security and web development concepts, this can be a high-yield option for anyone who is specializing in web security.

Best For

This certification is best for web developers and application developers. Most web development specialists with experience will find that with some study, they will be able to pass the exam. It’s a great option for those who are interested in elements of both cybersecurity and web development.

Duration

The exam for the certification lasts 3 hours and consists of 75 questions

Prices Starting From

$949

How Do You Choose a Web Developer Certification?

A web developer certification can be a big investment, and it’s important to make sure you choose the right one. Here are some factors to consider:

Instructor Credibility

The skills an instructor has to offer can be just as important in your decision as the structure and focus of the course. Many students have dropped out of certification courses and switched to others solely because they learned better under one instructor than another. Most certifications provide the names and backgrounds of their instructors, so check to see who will be teaching your course before you enroll.

Accreditation

Before you begin a program, make sure that it will be widely recognized and that it has a good reputation for providing helpful skills within the web development specialty that you are pursuing. The main purpose of confirming the accreditation of your certification is to ensure that employers and recruiters see the value in the certification. While many options exist for educating yourself on web development, a certification is there to show others that you have a broadly recognized accreditation body that has also validated your skillset.

Course Structure

When deciding on certification, the course structure will greatly affect how much you will learn and what your career outcomes will be. Knowing what kind of course structure you are looking for generally relies on what structures you learn the best from and what learning method you should choose. Do you learn better from a mentor or a lecture? Does your learning style work best with self-paced content or scheduled? These are just a couple of the questions that you should know before committing to the course.

Schedule

Each course and certification will have a different time commitment. Before you choose a course, make sure that you are giving yourself a realistic timeline to prepare for the certification. To do this, you need to know how many hours it takes to prepare, how many hours you can dedicate each week, and how long the actual certification exam is. Knowing how many hours you can complete a week can help you to set a realistic pace that will give you the highest chance of success. Many courses allow flexible schedules, and many certifications have equally flexible study plans and examination times. 

Payment Options

The cost of certification may initially seem daunting. However, most courses offer flexible payment options, and some offer financial assistance programs. As budgeting for your course is an important part of the process, knowing ahead of time what your options for payment are can greatly help you decide on certification. Many employers will offer compensation for certifications and courses. Another common way that some of the best certification courses offer payment options is through a post-employment payment plan. Springboard’s job guarantee plan can help you by ensuring that you are employed in a job with satisfactory compensation before you ever begin making payments on your certification.

Making the Most of Your Web Developer Certification

Knowing how to make the most out of your web developer certification program is a vital part of the process. So ask yourself these questions:

How Does A Web Developer Certification Work?

A web developer certification validates skills that you’ve learned from either a preparation course or from past experience. While you may claim on a resume or CV to have certain web development skills, certification can show potential employers that you do, in fact, have these skills and that they have passed a test that is at least partially standardized. 

What Should You Expect to Learn from a Web Developer Certification Program?

A web development certification program should provide you with both skills and practical applications. Most web development certifications are going to require you to have the ability to apply your skills in a practical way. The best way to ensure passing certification is to utilize practical application problems and projects that will help you prepare. Whether these are provided in the certification process or are from an external source, they will help you to learn the skills that you need in order to pass the certification and apply those skills in your job.

What Will Your Schedule Look Like?

Preparation for certification will consist of setting a consistent study schedule and staying faithful to that process. The course should have information on how quickly students complete it and how many hours a week it takes them to do so. Pace yourself, and don’t worry about how quickly you’ll complete your course. What matters the most is the quality of the time that you spend on your subject matter. In practice, a job is more likely to be concerned with the quality of your work than the speed with which you completed a certification. Certification can be much more than an indicator of your skills if it’s practiced with good study habits.

Web Developer Certification FAQs

We’ve got the answers to your most frequently asked questions.

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