Ever since digitization took over the world, web design courses have been blowing up. Every day a new business comes up and requires a website for its operations. It leads web designers to stay up-to-date with the latest technology and qualifications of web development. There are numerous learning platforms, blogs, and videos online providing web design qualifications. However, not every program is of the same quality. A wrong program may lead to a wastage of money and time. Therefore, you must start from the right place.

Qualifications required to become a web designer:

Before we present you with the list of best web design courses available online, you must know the qualifications and qualities that are necessary for a web designer to have:

• They should keep pace with the advancements
• Show your recent portfolio rather than a ten-year-old work
• Master essential tools, including basic illustration and photo editing, interactive design tools, etc.
• Have soft skills like understanding psychology, pricing, negotiation, and creating proposals.

Best online web design courses:

Here we present the top places online where you can avail of up-to-date web design courses. Our compilation consists of both free and paid courses along with their pros and cons:

• WebFlow university: 

It is a free web design course made available by the WebFlow university on the learning platform that is hosted and developed by the CMS and WebFlow design tool. It provides an excellent introduction to the basics of web designing with a five-hour video session. It covers topics like:

• HTML and CSS
• Web structure
• Typography
• Buttons
• Media elements
• Styling and layout basics
• Responsive design
• SEO, etc.

Benefits of this course:

• Updated information about the web design technology
• The instructions are easy to follow and practice
• Time-effectiveness: Five hours only to study the basics in-depth

Disadvantages of this course:

• It does not exactly provide a strong foundation
• No certification
• Udemy course:

Udemy course provides real-world coding in HTML and CSS for web design for beginners. It is an eminent name among all online learning platforms.

They have various programs from website design and development to freelancing and productivity. They charge nominal rates for their specialized programs. The topics they cover in the web design for beginners include:

• JavaScript Frameworks
• CSS3 Animations
• Media
• Fonts and typography
• HTML layout and other essentials
• Page structure and navigation
• Bootstrap, etc.

The course videos length goes up to eleven hours approximately. They charge around $17 for it.

Benefits:

• They cover the latest trends in responsive design in a well-structured introduction course.
• The program is pretty interactive, where you can ask your queries to the instructor.
• Instead of paying monthly, you pay a single time.
• It is a certification course that can testify to your skills.

Disadvantages:

• Even though it is a paid course, it does not provide in-depth information.
• freeCodecamp:

It is a free four-hour course video available on their Youtube channel. In this session, they give an introduction to responsive web designing.

The web design program covers:

• Basics of responsive designing
• CSS units and styles
• Page structure
• Widgets
• Flexbox, etc.

Benefits: 

• It provides an in-depth understanding of creating an appropriate responsive design with HTML and CSS.
• Available for free in a well-structured way.

Disadvantages:

• No certification available
• It would be best if you have some prior knowledge of the basics of HTML and CSS, as the foundational information is limited.
• Frontend Masters:

Whether you are a beginner or intermediate web designer, this is a great learning platform for you. It covers modern CSS techniques that help create a responsive web design layout.

The topics taught in this course include:

• Basics of responsive design and images
• CSS float, grid basics, and their implementation
• Flexbox basics

It is a five-hour-long video session that is accessible for $39 monthly.

Benefits:

• The video lessons provided by educated professionals give an in-depth insight and understanding of the course.
• The information taught is pretty significant for wireframe and layout designers.
• The particular platform has several other fundamental web design and development courses.
• It is a certification course.

Disadvantages:

• If it takes a lot of time to learn the basics, the program can become pretty expensive for you.
• OpenClassrooms Course:

It is a stellar online learning platform that offers a free web design introduction course. Even if you don’t know anything about web development and design, this course is an excellent place to start.

The topics covered in this ten-hour course include:

• Basics of HTML5 and CSS3
• Colour theory and fonts
• Page structure
• CSS styling
• SEO and image optimization
• Block and inline elements

Benefits:

• It is a fantastic place to get a website design and development introduction using the latest HTML and CSS.
• They show you how the different codes work in real life.
• It is an interactive session with quizzes and video lessons.
• The learning is available for free in only ten hours.

Disadvantages:

• It only gives you a surface level understanding of the concepts
• The certification is available at a $20 membership per month

There is a wide range of courses available on multiple platforms for everybody to access. Choosing a free or paid platform depends upon your choice as both have their pros and cons.