Review: Frontend Masters

Frontend Masters is a website that provides front end engineering video courses. Their courses focus on frontend development and technologies such as webpages, HTML, JavaScript, React, and many others.

Overview

Device support

Frontend Masters can be accessed online from any device, and there are apps for Android and iOS that allow you to download the videos for offline viewing. Some of the more 'presentation' style videos should be watched offline, whereas others should be followed along with. You can also cast videos from your phone to your TV, which is useful if you have one.

Course breadth

While Frontend Masters likely has more than 200 different courses, some of them are updated versions of previous courses, and others are for obsolete technologies. On Frontend Masters, I estimate there are about 100 modern courses.

The nice thing about these courses is that they are organised chronologically, so you are unlikely to encounter these older courses. Even if you do come across them, Frontend Masters provides a helpful banner informing you that the course is out of date and directing you to the most recent course.

You don't usually get to choose who to learn from because they have a smaller library of courses, especially with more specialised technologies like React or GraphQL.

However, I would argue that this is a benefit because these people are professionals who have been hand-picked by the Fronend Masters staff to ensure that the courses are of high quality and the instructors are memorable. In fact, I would recommend certain courses based on the instructors who teach them. This also solves the problem of deciding which of the five similar Intro To React courses to take.

They cover all of the most popular technologies and frameworks, including React, Vue, GraphQL, and others.

Course Depth

The instructors are from well-known companies such as Netflix, Adobe, and Microsoft. They bring best practises and point you to resources and areas to focus on. Instead of going over every aspect of each technology, they teach the most useful parts of it. It's a very targeted method of delivery, and I felt like I learned a lot from it.

The instructors are clearly enthusiastic about their work and knowledge, which is evident when they are teaching in front of you.

This is in contrast to other locations where the instructors go over every aspect of the technology. It's tedious, like reading a reference from beginning to end. It may be beneficial to create 20-hour courses, but I'm not sure if the length of a course is a good indicator of its value. All it means to me is that you'll be learning for a long time.

Frontend Masters usually breaks up key technologies into two courses:

1. An intro course for complete beginners.
2. An advanced course that is built for people who have finished the intro course as well as people who have a basic understanding in the technology.

The courses are filmed over the course of one, two, or three days, with each day about accounting for 3 ~ 5 hours of course time. The videos are broken up into sections, but each section flows smoothly into each other.

They do a simultaneous video of the lecturer and screen capture of the lecturer's laptop, so you don't have to squint at a video of a projected image. Because it is also a live workshop, there are question and answer portions that people raise both in person, and on the online chat to clarify some detail.

This live learning environment appealed to me because it feels more like a course than online training. This, I believe, is a unique feature that Frontend Masters provides that distinguishes it from many other online courses.

The degree to which courses are interactive varies. Some courses involve a lot of back and forth between the lecturer and the students, while others rely heavily on practise to build understanding, and still others focus on building out a single project.

Customer Support

Excellent and responsive. A few times that I contacted customer support to ask a question, I usually got an answer by the next day, even on a weekend. Customer service can be reached by the live chat icon on the webpage or in the App, which is very convenient and something I appreciate.

Cancellation is fast and quick, with two clicks you can cancel your subscription without having to explain yourself in an essay and interview afterwards.

Cost

Usually at this section people will trot out the prices of similar competiting services and compare them. My experience is that this is not useful because it doesn't answer the question: Is it worth it?

It is worth it. Even at my low level of expertise and access to several other platforms that I didn't have to pay for, notable ones being Lynda (now Linkedin Learning) and Udemy, and I would definitely still pay for and learn from Frontend Masters.

Yes, it is pricey compared to some alternatives, but think of it as an investment in yourself. That investment will pay for itself over time.

Frontend Masters produces all the videos, and so the quality is consistent with vetted instructors. You don't have to do all the hard work of making sure each course is worth it. There's no reason for any gimmicky practices because the key is not getting you through the gate, it is getting you to stay, and they can only do that if they make great content. The feeling you get is more akin to attending school than to a platform that people publish courses on.

Because it is subscription based, it is best if you sign up when you have or are anticipating a big block of time free.

Who it is for

Frontend Masters is good for people who are looking to get an introduction into several new technologies. It targets beginner-intermediate level of knowledge.

I recommend looking at the course listings and watching the free previews of some of the lessons to get an idea of what Frontend Masters offers you. If you are still feeling unconvinced and are a beginner, I recommend trying out their free Bootcamp, where you can learn the basics of web development with courses that they have developed. These courses are the same as the ones in their library, so you'll get a good taste of what it is like.

I feel that a better way to indicate what you have learned is to actually apply these new skills and knowledge in a project that you can build and then show people.

Conclusion

I really like Frontend Masters and I highly recommend considering it if you are a beginner. If you are an expert, it also provides great introductions to new technologies by industry professionals.