Screencast series for Programmers

As I run a large Perl-related site with screncasts I wanted to look more closely at some of the other sites and services out there offering high-quality screencasts.

Luckily, back in June 2013 Avdi Grimm posted a list of programming screencast series. I took that list, added some more links, and a lot of other information about the popularity of the sites, and about the cost of the subscriptions.

For each site I also looked up the Alexa ranking. It can give some indication about the relative popularity of those sites and you can also compare those number to real visitor statistics.

Backbone Rails

Backbone Rails Rails and Backbone.js by Brian Mann.

There are two free screencasts and two series that cost money. One of them costs $25 the other one $30.

Alexa 720,214

Build podcast

Build Podcast is a screencast show about technology tools for design and development by Sayanee Basu.

The screencasts are hosted on YouTube and on Vimeo. The first episode was published on 01 Jun 2012, the most recent one was published on 14 Dec 2014.

Alexa: 751,321

Clean Coders

Clean Coders about software design and discipline by Robert C Martin.

Alexa 562,906

February 2011 and it is still going on.

The screencast and videos on this site are much longer, they usually last 60-80 minutes. They are sold one-by-one. It seems all of them have the same price structure:

  • $12 to watch online
  • $18 to download
  • $10/viewer for business
  • $60 for a user group

There are some awesome sample videos on YouTube

Code School

Code School Not only screencasts, but also on-line, in-browser exercises in some of the subjects they cover which include JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Ruby, iOS, Git, and more.

There is a whole company behind it with ventura capital and all that. Alexa ranking is 5,460.

It costs $29 / month though longer subscription plans will get you some discount.

Destroy All Software

Destroy All Software provides screencasts about a mixture of subjects including Ruby, Unix, OO Design, TDD. The screencasts were created by Gary Bernhardt. (The guy who brought wat to the world). Alexa ranking 256,183.

The screencast was launched in February 2011 and ended in March 2013. Currently you can purchase 5 "seasons". Each "season" includes 18 screencasts and cost $40.

Devcasts

Devcasts various subjects such as Django, JQuery, Python, Ruby-on-Rails, etc.

Alexa 856,989

This is just a site hand-picking screencasts from various YouTube channels.

They are all freely accessible.

Egghead

Eggehead Bite-sized video training with AngularJS by John Lindquist.

There are almost 300 free videos and a lot of "pro" episods.

Alexa 29,537

$15 / month or $150/ year.

Emacs Rocks

Emacs Rocks free screencasts about Emacs by Christian Johansen

The screencasts are hosted on YouTube.

Alexa: 462,655

Ember 101

Ember 101 about Ember.js by Ryan Florence

Screencasts are free and are hosted on YouTube.

Alexa 1,154,038

Frontend Masters

Frontend Masters about JavaScript, Node.js, HTML5, CSS3, D3, Angular.js, Backbone.js by several several teachers.

Alexa 115,055

Fee: $39 / month or $390 / year.

Hack Emacs

Hack Emacs by Rick Dillon.

Videos are hosted on YouTube.

Metacasts

MetaCasts Go , CoffeScript, Backbone.js etc by Mark Bates.

Alexa: 1,370,254

$9 / month or $90 / year or buy individual episodes for $6 each.

The 3rd episode was published on November 21, 2012 (and I don't seem to be able to list the 1st episode). The most recent episode was on December 22, 2014.

Minimalist Programming (Jekor)

Minimalist Programming Haskell, Emacs. by Chris Forno.

This is basically a YouTube channel.

Must Hack

Must Hack Alexa: 9,640,651

There seem to be only 3 videos on the site. One of them is free. The other two cost $2.50 each.

Neckbeard Republic

Neckbeard Republic free Python and Django screencasts by Mahdi Yusuf.

Started in February 2013 and stopped in December 2013. At some point the screencasts were only available to subscribers, but now you can watch them freely.

Length: 10-25 minutes.

Alexa: 4,399,122

NS Screencast

NS Screencast weekly bite-sized screencasts on iOS development by Ben Scheirman.

Started on February 10, 2012, most recent episode on December 18, 2014 It started out with a few free episodes but within a few weeks subscription-based epiodes started to appear and today most of the episodes are for subscribers only. A subscription costs $9 / month or $100 / year.

The videos are between 5-25 min long.

Alexa: 415,958

Peer2Peer

Peer2Peer live coding videos by various people. I think the editor behind it is Drew Neil, who also runs Vimcasts.

Each episode is a 90-120 min video showing two people implementing some functionality and discussing it. Each episode costs $25.

Alexa: 3,136,451

Pluralsight

PluralSight A platform that covers every subject (both PeepCode.com and Tekpub.com redirect here)

Alexa: 5,975

On this platform for individual authors can sign up and work with the PluralSoght people to prepare a course. They get paid a one-time fee when the course is completed and then monthly royaltees based on the percentage of time paying customers spent watching these screencasts.

Fee: $29 / month standard or $49 / month with extra features. Annual discounts apply.

Programming Tutorials

Programming tutorial by William Byrd.

A YouTube channel with a few videos.

Railscasts

Railscasts provides screencasts about Ruby on Rails. Alexa ranking is still 17,633 even though there has been no new episode since June 2013. The site and the screencasts were created by Ryan Bates. It was launched in 2007.

For a long time everything was free.

Then, at the end of 2011, he launched the "Pro" edition which meant additional screencasts for $9 / month. After a while he wrote that he could quit his day-job and focus on the Railcasts.

In June 2013, he ran out of steam and stopped publishing new screencasts. Both free and paid.

You can still subscriber, pay $9 once and get access to all the previous screencasts as well.

Ruby Tapas

Ruby Tapas provides 2 screencasts a week about the Ruby programming language. It was created by Avdi Grimm. The site was launched on 24 September 2012.

Two years later, on 24 Septeber 2014 he posted that the site has passed 2,000 subscribers.

The site has an Alexa ranking of 571,196. The actual content for the subscribers is served from another domain. (Event the personal web site of Avdi has better Alexa ranking at 256,253) Before he launched the RubyTapas site, Avdi has already self-published 2 books about Ruby.

Skillfeed

Skillfeed Platform that covers every subject.

Alexa: 24,311

A platform where people can upload their screencasts and courses. The site offers unlimited access to all the videos for $19 / month flat fee and then distributes a part of that money among the authors of the screencasts proportionally to the time their videos were watched in the given month.

Treeehouse

Treehouse about HTML, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, CSS, iOS, etc.

Individuals can sign up to become teachers, but I have not figureed out how are they compensated.

Alexa 2,873

$25 / month or $49 / month

Udemy

Udemy Platform that covers every subject.

Alexa: 783

A platform where people can upload their courses. They sell the individula courses and share the revenue with the author. As I understand the course prices are decided by the authors themselves. I saw courses between 0-1000 USD. Though I think the majority are under 100 USD.

Vimcast

Vimcast free screencasts about vim by Drew Neil.

First episode was on Jan 4, 2010, the most recent episode was on Jul 23, 2014.

Drew does not charge money for the screencasts, but he uses it as a platform to sell his vim training sessions. He also started another project called Peer2Peer. See that separately.

Alexa: 245,800

Watchmecode

Watchmecode weekly screencasts about JavaScript by Derick Bailey.

Alexa 823,188

The free demos are served from YouTube.

Started on October 25, 2011 and the most recent was on December 18, 2014.

The monthly subscription fee in $14.

Each screencast is 3-8 min long.

EventedMind

EventedMind Alexa 214,802

Dot Enter

Dot Enter Site hosted on Github, videos on Vimeo.

deveo.tv

deveo.tv Alexa 16,660,171

Let's Code: Test-Driven JavaScript

Let's Code: Test-Driven JavaScript

Alexa 597,827

Motioncast

Motioncast

Alexa 2,988,213

Learning iOS Development with Azam Sharp

Learning iOS Development with Azam Sharp

A YouTube channel.

EmberCasts

EmberCasts

Alexa: 1,679,273

Perl Maven

Perl Maven

Alexa: 95,990

Coursera

Coursera

Alexa 941

Let's Play: Test-Driven Development

Let's Play: Test-Driven Development> Alexa 766,074

Go Django

Go Django Alexa 311,165

Cost $9 / month or $90 / year

Mojocast

Mojocast Alexa 20,458,777

Mark Hagan .NET

Free ASP.Net C# Programming Video Tutorials Alexa 1,334,874

Web dev break

Web dev break Alexa 2,700,953

TutsOwl

TutsOwl Alexa 2,418,751

Laracasts

Laracasts Alexa 12,033

Drupalize Me

Drupalize me Alexa 88,858

Udacity

Udacity Alexa: 4,723

Levelup Tuts

Levelup Tuts Alexa 140,670

Learn Sampson ms

Learn Sampson ms Alexa na

Dashing D3.js

Dashing D3 Screencasts Alexa 134,398

Learn all the Nodes

Learn All the Nodes Alexa 1,421,737

Pragmatic Bookshelf

Pragmatic Bookshelf Alexa 48,643

tuts+

tuts+ Alexa 1,008

dnrTV

dnrTV Alexa 2,675,767

Nodetuts

Nodetuts 447,619

Parlons Ruby (French)

Parlons Ruby Alexa 27,810,336

Ruby on Rails (French)

Ruby on Rails in French

Summary

Individuals

SiteSubjectsAlexa rankLengthFee
Backbone RailsRails with Backbone.js720,214$25 and $30 for 2 series
Build PodcastTechnology751,321free
Clean CodersSoftware design and discipline562,90660-80$12 online or $18 to download each episode
Destroy All Software Ruby, Python, Unix, software design.256,18310-15 minNo new videos but you can purchase 5 batches of 18 videos for $40 each.
DevcastsHandpicked videos on various subjects.856,989 variousfree
EggeheadAngularJS29,537$15/month or $150/year
Ember 101Ember.js1,154,0385-8 minfree
MetaCastsGo, CoffeScript, Backbone.js etc1,370,254$9/month or $90/year or $6/episode
Minimalist Programming (Jekor)Haskell, Emacsnafree
Neckbeard RepublicPython and Django screencasts4,399,12210-25 minfree
NS ScreencastiOS Development415,9585-25 min$9 / month or $100 / year
Peer2PeerLive Pair coding3,136,45190-120 min$25 each episode
Programming tutorialna
RailscastsRuby on Rails17,63310-20 minWas $9 / month. No new episodes, but you can watch the whole backlog for a single payment of $9
Ruby TapasRuby, TDD, and OOP571,1962-5 min$9 / month
Vimcast245,800free
WatchmecodeJavaScript/Node.js823,1883-8 min$14 / month
Emacs RocksEmacs462,655free
Hack EmacsEmacsnafree
Must Hack9,640,651
EventedMind214,802
deveo.tv16,660,171
Let's Code: Test-Driven JavaScript597,827
Motioncast2,988,213
Perl Maven95,990
EmberCasts1,679,273
Coursera941
Let's Play: Test-Driven Development>766,074
Go Django311,165
Mojocast20,458,777
Free ASP.Net C# Programming Video Tutorials1,334,874
Web dev break2,700,953
TutsOwl2,418,751
Laracasts12,033
Drupalize me88,858
Udacity4,723
Levelup Tuts140,670
Dashing D3 Screencasts134,398
Learn All the Nodes1,421,737
Pragmatic Bookshelf48,643
tuts+1,008
dnrTV2,675,767
Nodetuts447,619
Learning iOS Development with Azam Sharpna
Dot Enterna
Learn Sampson msna

Platforms

SiteSubjectsAlexa rankLengthFee
Code SchoolRuby, Rails, iOS, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, etc.5,4605-10 min$29 / month or less for longer period.
Frontend MastersJavaScript, Node.js, HTML5, CSS3, D3, Angular.js, Backbone.js115,055$39/month or $390/year
PluralSighteverything5,975$29 / month standard or $49 / month with extra features. Annual discounts apply.
Skillfeed24,311
TreehouseHTML, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, CSS, iOS, etc.2,873$25 / month or $49 / month
Udemyeverything7830-$1000/course, most of them under $100

Non-English

SiteSubjectsAlexa rankLengthFee
Parlons Ruby (French)27,810,336
Ruby on Rails in Frenchna