8 Best Online Web Design Courses in 2023 (Free & Paid)

Are you looking for the best web design courses online so you can improve your knowledge without leaving the comfort of your home?

Between hundreds of blogs and dozens of learning platforms, there is an endless amount of information about web design courses online. However, not all courses are of the same quality. If you choose the wrong place, you will not only waste your time but also your money.

To help you find the best options, we’ve rounded up eight of our most popular web design courses, including both free and paid options. Let’s get straight to the courses…

Best Web Design Courses Online in 2023

With the growth of online learning, it has suddenly become possible for beginners to learn the basics of web design with just online courses. Each of the courses on our list will teach you the basics, so the best course for you will depend on things like price and length of course.

1. The Webflow Masterclass

First on our list of best web design courses is The Webflow Masterclass by Ran Segall, a web designer with over 17 years of experience. The course is available at Flux Academy and in this course, Ran tries to make web design easy through 12 hours of lectures.

Ran wants to teach in a way that doesn’t intimidate beginners. At the end of the course, you will learn how to use Webflow to build a website from scratch while also receiving personalized feedback from experts.

Overall, the course covers the basics of website development, HTML/CSS, CMS, animations and interactions, as well as case studies to help you gain a complete understanding of the subject. You can also join the network of more than 3,500 web designers who have completed the course.

⏱️ Duration: 12 hours

👩‍🎓 What you will learn:

• Introduction to Webflow
• Webflow Basics
• project implementation
• Dynamic websites
• Animations & Interactions
• Advanced Use Cases
• web development process
• project management

💵 Pricing: $278 per month for three months ($834 total) OR $695 one-time payment.

2. Web Design for Beginners: Real World Coding in HTML & CSS – Udemy

If you’re intimidated by the technical jargon of HTML and CSS, this course is for you. Ideal for beginners, the course features 52 downloadable resources broken down into 11 hours of on-demand video. You pay a one-time fee and have lifetime access to the content.

The course is sold through Udemy and taught by Brad Schiff, a tutor and professional web developer. Brad has taught web development for over 100 companies, trying to simplify HTML and CSS in a way that is accessible to beginners.

Instead of going through huge chunks of information, you’ll find the content broken down into 22 easy-to-read sections.

Once you complete the course, you will receive a badge of completion. You will learn to create a website layout using effects and animations with CSS3 and create a responsive website with a mobile-friendly layout.

⏱️ Duration: 10-11 hours

👩‍🎓 What you will learn:

• HTML basics
• Adding media to a web page
• Text Basics
• Semantics & Organization
• to shape
• tables
• CSS basics
• Advanced CSS
• Less exciting but still necessary CSS tasks
• CSS typography
• Developer timeout!
• CSS backgrounds
• Responsive web design
• What is flexbox in CSS?
• CSS3 special effects
• Use JavaScript without writing JavaScript
• What is Bootstrap?
• sass
• Bring a website live to the web
• Cross browser compatibility
• Beyond this course

💵 Pricing: Full price is $129.99. But like many other Udemy courses, you can often get it on sale for as little as $20.99 — so be sure to jump on that price when you see it.

3. Design 101: Product and Web Design Course for Beginners – Design Lab

Design 101 is a four-week online course ideal for beginners. This short course takes you through the entire process of product and web design from idea to delivery. You work like in a company or studio.

What sets the course apart are the 16 hands-on projects you can work on. Not many courses offer this opportunity. You will learn from experienced mentors and the course requires no design experience to get started.

The course will introduce you to details such as color therapy, images and typography to make the website more attractive and effective. It is an ideal course for both beginners and professionals who want to expand their knowledge.

⏱️ Duration: 40 hours

👩‍🎓 What you will learn:

• Learning to see design, ideation and sketching
• Color theory, imagery, typography
• Layout and composition, shaping of the details
• Hi-Fi, design teams and delivery

💵 Pricing: $399

4. Web Design for Everyone – University of Michigan @ Coursera

Web Design for Everyone is a Coursera course by Colleen van Lent and Charles Russel Severance from the University of Michigan. Aimed at beginners, it covers everything you need to know to design and build websites.

You will learn how to create the structure of your page using HTML and CSS (of course according to responsive design principles) and adding interactivity with JavaScript. You will also complete a hands-on project as part of the course, giving you real-world experience building a website.

The course is expected to last six months, but it is self-paced and you can pause or accelerate your learning at any time. Instructors suggest a pace of around three hours per week.

⏱️ Duration: Six months at three hours/week.

👩‍🎓 What you will learn:

• Introduction to HTML5
• Introduction to CSS3
• Interactivity with JavaScript
• Advanced styling with responsive design

💵 Pricing: For free

5. Treehouse web design track

The Treehouse Web Design Track is not a single course. Rather, it is a series of courses compiled into a cohesive “track” to help you learn all the fundamentals of web design. It starts with a basic introduction to HTML and CSS, and then builds to more advanced topics like flexbox, mobile-first and responsive layouts, and more.

The track doesn’t touch JavaScript at all – it’s 100% focused on HTML, CSS and general principles of web design.

Overall, this is a great option if you want to start from scratch and get up to speed quickly.

⏱️ Duration: 41 hours over the entire route. Individual topics range from 45 minutes to four hours.

👩‍🎓 What you will learn:

• Introduction to HTML and CSS
• The web design process
• CSS basics (layouts, selectors, etc.)
• HTML basics (forms, tables, etc.)
• Responsive and mobile-first design
• More advanced CSS themes like Flexbox, Bootstrap, Transforms, Sass and more.
• How to prototype a website in your browser

💵 Pricing: You can access all courses of the track for one price – $25 per month. You also get a seven-day free trial.

6. Introduction to Web Development – ​​FutureLearn

Brought to you by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, this course teaches you to create a website with HTML, style it with CSS, and make sure it’s interactive with JavaScript. During the course, you will learn about the box model and understand how web browsers render the finished website from your code.

You will also learn how the JavaScript code interacts with the Document Object Model (DOM) to modify the web pages. At the end of the course you will design and create a quiz website to show your skills by creating your own website. This course is ideal for beginners who want to get started with JavaScript and HTML.

With this in mind, it is helpful to familiarize yourself with the basic programming structures before taking this course.

⏱️ Duration: The recommended schedule is three weeks, two hours per week, but the course is self-paced.

👩‍🎓 What you will learn:

• HTML tags and attributes
• Designing websites with CSS
• CSS classes and IDs for styling website elements
• Layouts in CSS, including box model and responsive design
• Create interactive websites with JavaScript
• The document object model
• validation

💵 Pricing: Participation in the course is free of charge. If you want a course certificate, it will cost you $49.

7. Complete web design: from figma design to webflow development – ​​Skillshare

This six-part web design course is ideal for beginners and is offered for free on Skillshare. It consists of several modules and tasks over a total duration of 19 hours.

The biggest advantage of this course is that it also contains hints for you module by module. So you have the notes for each section in the class and you don’t have to prepare them. The organization of the lectures is excellent, making it easy and convenient for you to understand and comprehend.

There is also a student discord chat where you can interact with some of the 6,250+ other students who took the course.

⏱️ Duration: 19 hours.

👩‍🎓 What you will learn:

• Secrets of good design
• Practice design like a pro
• Webflow Development
• Customer project from start to finish
• Self-employed
• Advanced Topics

💵 Pricing: For free.

8th. User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide – Interaction Design Foundation

This Interaction Design Foundation course introduces you to areas of user experience and shows you how to create engaging experiences for the users of your product. You’ll learn how visual perception affects the viewing experience, what design mistakes to avoid, and why it’s important to prioritize usability over aesthetics.

It is a beginner’s course that offers lifetime access to the material. It also offers online sessions with optional meetings. By the end of the course, you will have a thorough understanding of the design principles that add up to a user experience. You will also receive a course certificate upon completion.

⏱️ Duration: Estimated 18 hours over 12 weeks but the course is self paced.

👩‍🎓 What you will learn:

• Introduction to User Experience
• The psychological principles that form the basis of user experience
• How visual perception affects user experience
• Why usability always takes precedence over aesthetics
• Real examples of good and bad user experience
• How to empathize with your users

💵 Pricing: The course is free for members of the Interaction Design Foundation – however, membership of the Foundation is not free. Course access-only membership costs $120 per year. Or you can pay $2,400 a year to get your own personal coach.

Get started with web design courses online today

If you want to learn web design and development using Webflow from an industry expert, The Webflow Masterclass is an ideal choice. Considering the extensive module and an expert tutor, it’s worth the money.

FutureLearn’s Introduction to Web Development is an ideal choice if you want to explore a free course and start with the basics. If you are a beginner and want to try your hand at designing, this is a good choice. It is a short course compared to others.

Web Design for All by Coursera and Complete Web Design by Skillshare are complete courses offered for free. Both offer a hands-on approach with a final project that demonstrates your understanding of the subject.

Web Design for Beginners has an extensive module that takes you deep into the subject for an affordable price of $115.

Design 101 is ideal for those who already have a basic knowledge and understanding of web design and ideation, but requires a greater investment of time. It will help you to expand your knowledge and skills in the job.

And if you’re a professional looking to expand your knowledge and continue learning in the future, consider Interaction Design Foundation’s User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide.

For some other ways to improve your web development knowledge, you can check out our roundup of the top five online WordPress courses.