Publish Date - July 31st, 2023
|Last Modified - July 31st, 2023
Node.js is a very popular backend coding language that has multi-application. Whether it’s used with MongoDB, Express.js, Angular (MEAN stack) or React substituting for Angular (MERN), it is the underlying foundation for many modern web frameworks. Statistica found node.js as one of the this most popular web frameworks in 2023.
While not as popular as Python, Java or C++, node is a critical foundational structure for backend development and works well with NoSQL due to it’s ability to create a web server. In this list, are highly rated Udemy courses for NodeJS so that you can learn the essential skills to becoming a top tier software developer.
Course | Ratings / Reviews | Highlight / Summary |
Best complete guide to learn node.js by Maximilian Schwarzmüller | 4.6 / 5 stars – 42.5k+ reviews | MVC, REST APIs, GraphQL, DenoJS, MongoDB GraphQL APIs |
Runner-up best node.js course by Jonas Schmedtmann | 4.6 / 5 stars – ~20k+ reviews | Mongoose, RESTful APIs, Express, NoSQL DBs Credit card gate w/ Stripe eCommerce store, GIT crash course, multiple apps built. |
Best node.js project course on Udemy by John Smilga | 4.8 / 5 stars – ~3k+ reviews | Four projects: task manager API, Store API, Job board API and eCommerce API. |
Best Microservices Udemy course w/ NodeJS (intermediate) by Stephen Grider | 4.8 / 5 stars – 15k+ reviews | React, Docker, K8s, NATs, CI/CD, Cloud development |
Best course for Node.js w/ Redis, Clustering, S3 Buckets (Advanced concepts) by Stephen Grider | 4.6 / 5 stars – ~9k+ reviews | Event loop, MongoDB backed w/ Redis, Image hosting on AWS S3, Threads + clustering |
Best GraphQL course w/ Node on Udemy by Mirko Nasto | 4.6 / 5 stars – ~4k reviews | GraphQL server on Node, express and Apollo Real-time GraphQL app updating tool |
Best complete guide to learn node.js by Maximilian Schwarzmüller
Overview NodeJS – The Complete Guide (MVC, REST APIs, GraphQL, Deno):
Node.js: The Complete Guide is a thorough instructional program designed to provide learners with all they need to know about Node.js fundamentals and its related technologies like npm modules, ES6+ syntaxes and Express frameworks. Through this course’s hands on approach, students will be able to create their own Node.js applications from scratch and hone their web development skills.
Pros:
- Lot’s of exposure RESTapis and authentication in Node.js.
- One of the best node.js courses on Udemy, with extremely high ratings and purchases.
- Max has ~45 courses on all sorts of web development and coding topics. Whether it’s Docker, Kubernetes, Dart and Flutter, GitHub, AWS and even Python – he’s got a course for it. For the most part, they are all highly rated.
- The course material is broken into “Features”, so you will learn how to first work in NoSQL + MongoDB, then install Mongoose. After that, it’s building things like validation, pagination, file upload and download and then how to handle asynchronous requests.
Cons:
- Another potentially out of date course, with there being specific issues with versioning and functioning with Typescript and some open-source libraries.
- When I audited this course, it felt like Max was repeating himself a lot. Also, some of the code just down right didn’t work due to the versioning of libraries.
- This is not a project-based course, it felt more like a “intro to Node.js programming language” (I know node.js isn’t a programming language).
Instructor:
Max has a lot of courses, many better than this one. That being said, he’s an experience online course creator, and has a lot of experience building web apps.
What the students say:
It proposes many topic lessons inside nodejs subject, helping to improve your knowledge, but it is also a good deal to find many others resources to make you even better, since this course might not go deep inside everything.
Renan T. – August 2023 – 4.5 / 5 stars
I really enjoyed the whole course, I learned a lot. I loved that at the ending I was able to practice what I did in the first lectures of the course and that helped me to remember and comprehend better how NodeJs works. I would like also to get some updates for some lessons that are outdated, I had to go to the QA tab or google myself how to fix some incompatibilities due the age of this course, but that’s something that a real developer does everyday, so it’s not a big deal.
Oscar M. – July 2023 – 5 / 5 stars
Verdict:
If you’re an experience programmer and know how to work in Node, I wouldn’t bother with this course. However, if you’re a novice – this course is a great way to get the base fundamentals of Node.js.
Start learning Node.js with Maximilian Schwarzmüller now!
Solid Node.js Bootcamp Node.js by Jonas Schmedtmann
Overview of Node.js, Express, MongoDB & More: The Complete Bootcamp 2023:
The Node.js Express & MongoDB Bootcamp course is an in-depth guide to web development using React and Node.js, making it ideal for anyone who wants to build dynamic web applications. This comprehensive course covers all the essentials such as React components, React hooks, React Router, SQL databases, and more. The instructor guides throughout the entire process of application creation from start to finish, providing detailed explanations along the way.
Pros:
- Jonas is a fantastic, experience web developer with ~10 courses ranging from node.js basics to React and Redux.
- This course focuses on CRUD operations in MongoDB / Mongoose which many other courses don’t
- There’s also a small GIT Crash course.
Cons:
- This is not a course for beginners, there’s no crash-course in HTML, CSS or JavaScript – you jump right into Node.js and npm.
- All of the hosting and environment set-up is done on your local environment and then Heroku. It would have been more meaningful if you deployed to AWS or GCP.
- As this is a Node.js course, there is very little frontend web development.
- The course seems to be a little bit outdated.
Instructor:
I love Jonas’ courses, he has a great CSS / SASS course that I did a few years ago, and he has been a highly rated Udemy instructor for years.
What the students say:
Amazing course, fantastic experience gained a lot of knowledge and jonas is a great teacher!!! only bad thing is that the course is a bit outdated in 2023 but if u motivated jonas gives you all the tools to finish the project!!!
Giovanni C. – July 2023 – 4.5 / 5 stars
Fantastic course. Jonas explains concepts slowly and clearly. He doesn’t just spit code at you, but pauses to explain why we’re doing things and how it can be useful to you. Lots of great projects and examples to test your skills. Only docked half a star because there are quite a few things that aren’t updated to 2022/2023 when I took the course. Now I normally wouldn’t quibble with this, but Jonas keeps renaming the course to “…Complete Bootcamp 2023”. So if you’re going to call it the complete bootcamp for 2023, you should update it for 2023.
Luke W. – July 2023 – 4.5 / 5 stars
Verdict:
Jonas is a great teacher and has put together a fantastic course on Node.js and server-side development. That being said, one of the biggest issues with this course is some strategies or obsolete. Therefore, this is why this course is a runner-up and not the best. Overall, you can’t go wrong with Jonas’ courses.
Build an eCommerce payment gateway in Node.js
Best NodeJS project courses on Udemy by John Smilga
Overview NodeJS Tutorial and Projects Course:
The Node.js Tutorial & Projects Course is a comprehensive program that enables learners to learn the fundamentals of Node.js while they create practical projects in React React Router, SQL databases, and more. This course covers both the theory and practice of web development with React and Node.js, giving students a complete understanding of how to build dynamic web applications using React and JavaScript technologies.
Pros:
- I would have marked this course as the best Node.js course on Udemy if it only had more of a ramp-up. While there’s ~3.5 hours on introduction to Node.js, and ~4.5 hours covering Express.js, that’s not enough to actually understand nodejs or learn express.
- Three strong projects, Task manager API, Jobster API and eCommerce API (with a functioning stripe payment gateway). This only makes the course worth it.
- John is a React pro, having multiple courses in MERN and MEAN stack, which are all highly rated.
- This course actually goes pretty quickly, because you’re building an application.
Cons:
- Not for beginners, make sure you know Node framework and have a strong fundamental understanding of JSON, Linux, HTML, CSS and JavaScript (ES6)
- I would have liked to see some templating like EJS or even handlebars, which are all popular templates to generate frontend content.
Instructor:
John is legitmate coder, with a ton of activity on GitHub, and has built many different apps and released dozens of web development courses.
What the students say:
This course was, more or less, exactly what I wanted, plus as of July 2023, the instructor did a fantastic job of providing updates and patches, which I cant say for every instructor here on Udemy!I came into this as a Frontend Dev hoping to learn more about the MERN stack, and I think the instructor did an excellent job explaining Node, Express, and MongoDB.
I appreciated that he gave some discussion about what/how Node functions, as that really helps me to get a fuller picture of what I’m supposed to be doing (as opposed to purely coding along). I am definitely one of those people that needs to know how something is working, or what it’s function is, and in general John did a great job explaining things in detail as we went through the projects.Of course, I mostly appreciated all of the projects the instructor used to illustrate concepts – I now feel very comfortable with basic server setup, and even though we didn’t repetitively go over advanced concepts, I now have a great resource to use when I am looking to implement those more advanced concepts.
I think it would be difficult to come into this class without a working knowledge of how frontend works (how to send information to the backend, query params, useState in React)…remember, this course doesn’t focus on frontend, so if you want a more thorough understanding of how/why some of the backend interacts with the frontend, you’ll have to do some outside research.
Kelli – 5 / 5 stars – August 2023
A well and extensive course that is amazing and I can’t show my thanks enough to the teacher because he was awesome!
Matthew E. – July 2023 – 5 / 5 stars
Verdict:
Take this course if you want to build some Node.js projects with update-to-date strategies and frameworks. What this course lacks in actual “bootcamp’ness” (not a lot of onboarding or introductory lessons), it makes up projects and actual usable code for the world to see.
Build some Amazing node projects with John Smilga!
Best Microservices Udemy course w/ NodeJS (intermediate) by Stephen Grider
Overview Microservices with Node JS and React:
Microservices with Node.js & React teaches students how to develop microservices architectures with React and Node.js, enabling users to quickly build sophisticated applications without writing complex code or dealing with complex data structures. Through this course, learners will be introduced to concepts such as state management, React component design, API creation and deployment strategies.
Pros:
- Extremely highly rated course, with a ton of content on both React and Node.js
- Nice crash course in Docker, Typescript and CI/CD
- You’ll use Nest.js (NATs) module for a lot of the work
- Great use of diagrams to explain the complex concepts easily.
- You’ll touch on a lot of interesting popular topics and skills / tools like Github actions, Digital Ocean and Google cloud platform (GCP).
Cons:
- Extremely long course.
- Definitely not for beginners
Instructor:
Stephen Grider is a great speaker and is an engineer who has worked at a multitude of companies in varying capacities. He specializes in JS, Elixir, and Ruby websites/apps, so you’ll get first-hand experience on how a real developer works in the wild. He has over 30 courses on Udemy revolving around similar topics, so you almost can’t go wrong learning from him.
What the students say:
Excellent course on micro-services. I would like to see another course (that I would buy) that takes course as a base that goes into detail on creating a NextJS frontend based on this course.
Steve A. – 5 / 5 stars – July 2023
I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know and I feel like I leveled up. Thanks Stephen.
Roberto A. – 5 /. stars – June 2023
Verdict:
Fantastic course if you’re looking to build microservices in Node.js. There isn’t any other courses like it on Udemy, so consider picking this one up if you want to learn this specific skill. If you’re looking for a MERN or mean stack guide or bootcamp, consider another course.
Learn Microservices architecture in Node on the Cloud Now!
Best course for Node.js w/ Redis, Clustering, S3 Buckets (Advanced concepts) by Stephen Grider
Overview Microservices with Node JS and React:
The Advanced Node for Developers course is a comprehensive guide to web development with React and Node.js. Students will gain an understanding of how React works under the hood while also learning React best practices and design patterns. This course covers all the essentials such as React components, React hooks, React Router, SQL databases, and more. The instructor guides learners through each step of building an application from start to finish and provides detailed explanations along the way.
Pros:
- Stephen Grider’s courses are solid, well structured and full of information.
- You’ll learn how to use Event Loop at all stages, which is an important concept for Node.js.
- One of the best parts of this is you’ll build an app on amazon web services S3 bucket, that allow you to upload and resize images.
Cons:
- There is a lot of information on Node.js advanced concepts, but the course misses the mark when it comes to e2e testing.
- Some of the portions of the course are out of date.
Instructor:
Already spoke about Stephen Grider, he’s a great instructor – talented and very skilled at what he does.
What the students say:
Stephen explains things in a very clear and straightforward way, and I was able to learn a lot of new things that I’d never thought about before related to nodejs.
Filipe L. – 5 / 5 stars – July 2023
I learned great things but the updated date is misleading. Some stuff are old.
Yaşar – 4 / 5 stars – June 2023
Verdict:
Interesting course, created by a very skilled web developer. Overall, most of the concepts will be useful to you. If you already have some skill in node, consider taking this course. It’s comparable to concepts learned in a quality Coursera course.
Learn advanced node skills on Udemy w/ Stephen Grider!
Best GraphQL w/ Node on Udemy by Mirko Nasto
Overview GraphQL by Example:
GraphQL by Example teaches students about GraphQL concepts and tools such as schemas, queries, mutations, subscriptions and directives on a real-world example project using Apollo Server & Client libraries. Through this course’s hands-on instruction, students will be able to create their own applications utilizing GraphQL for advanced web development.
Pros:
- This is the type of course that you can do in one weekend, but still has a lot of information
- Good breakdown of topics, reminded me of a textbook from college.
- Straight into the course content – so great course if you’re skilled Node / GraphQL user.
Cons:
- As a native english speaker, I struggled sometimes to understand with Mirko was saying. Non-native english speakers may struggle.
- Not for beginners, and zero ramp-up if you are.
Instructor:
Mirko has been a software developer at a number of medium sized companies like the Financial Times and Expedia. So, you know he’s bring real world experience to his code. He has three highly rated web development courses already in Next.js, GraphQL and coding in Ionic React.
What the students say:
The course was very descriptive and thoroughly explained. I required some help in some issues I faced for which I was almost instantly provided help from the instructor. Would recommend this to anybody looking for learning GraphQL.
Sanatanu G. – 5 / 5 stars – July 2023
The instructor goes straight to the point, teaching everything clearly, in addition to giving clean code tips during the course. I haven’t finished the course yet but I’m already recommending it to my friends.
Matheus Alves dos Santos F. – 5 / 5 stars – July 2023
Verdict:
Great little 8 hour course if you’d like a refresher on GraphQL mixed in with a little React, this is the course for you. Since it’s not for beginners, you can always purchase the course and go back to it since you have lifetime access.
Become a pro at GraphQL querying in Node now!
Conclusion
By the end of these courses learners will have developed the skills and knowledge required to build complex React applications with Node.js that are ready to launch on any environment or platform. With topics ranging from React components and hooks to SQL databases, these courses provide the perfect foundation for developing powerful web applications with React.js and Node.js.
Each course is designed to give learners a comprehensive understanding of React and Node.js so that they can confidently create dynamic web applications.
By the end of these courses, learners will have gained an in-depth understanding of React and Node.js plus their related technologies such as SQL databases, GraphQL by Example, MongoDB: The Complete Developers Guide, Microservices with Node.js & React and Advanced Node for Developers. They will be well equipped to build complex applications that are ready to launch on any platform or environment.
FAQs
The best free courses for Node js are Ryan Dhungel’s Node JS API development for beginners which focuses basic concepts like event loop and async programming and to handle post data with MongoDB.
While Reddit doesn’t call out specific courses, it does bring up strong instructors (many who are on this list). Brad Traversy, Maximillian Scharzmueller, Stephen Grider, Andrew Mead are all instructors redditors have called out as solid instructors. A lot of the callouts are a few years old though!