900+ Free Developer and IT Certifications

Massive list of free certificates and badges for developers in data science, software development, and more.

Aug 26th, 2024

Free Developer & IT Certificates

As avid online learners, my Class Central colleagues and I have completed hundreds of online courses over the years, including many with free certificates, as you can see in the collage below.

In 2024, free certificates have become rarer. But if you know where to look, there is still an abundance of free certificates available online for learning software development.

In this article, we bring together all the free certificates and badges that are scattered across the web. In total, the platforms below offer over 900 free certificate courses for learning software development.

I (Dhawal) started Class Central back in 2011, when universities such as Stanford began to offer some of their courses online for free. Since then, the Class Central database has grown to over 200K online courses.

Having written about online education for over a decade, I remember when platforms like Coursera and edX offered free certificates. Then, rather abruptly, free certificates seemed to pretty much disappear.

This inspired us to write a Massive List of Free Certificates and Badges. To our surprise, we discovered there were still thousands of free certificates available online. To date, that article has received 10M views.

In the same vein, this article aims to draw attention to the organizations that continue to support open education in software development by offering free certificate courses. These include:

Please note, Class Central is not involved in running the courses or issuing certificates. This is a dynamic field and you may discover that a course you choose is no longer available, or doesn’t have a free certificate any more. We recommend you always check before starting a course.

Click on the shortcuts for courses with free certificates or badges

Cisco Free Badges

Cisco, the IT and networking giant, offers a series of self-paced online courses through its Networking Academy platform; some include free badges for skills learned. Here’s a selection:

freeCodeCamp Free Certifications

freeCodeCamp platform offers thousands of hours of learning content, broken down into certifications on subjects such as web development and data science.

Here are the certifications currently offered:

FutureLearn Free Certificates

FutureLearn, the European counterpart to Coursera and edX, offers some courses that include a free “digital upgrade” — which, among others, entails a free certificate of completion. Again, you can find more details in our dedicated article.

Here’s a list of some of FutureLearn’s free offerings:

Google Free Certificates and Badges

Google has launched several initiatives to teach people skills such as coding, digital marketing, and data analytics. You can find a complete list of courses offering certificates or badges in our dedicated article.

Here is a selection of Google’s offerings:

Great Learning Free Certificates

Great Learning offers over 700 free certificate courses in a wide variety of subjects, such as AI, data science, programming, cloud computing, and digital marketing. Here’s a selection:

HackerRank Free Certificates

HackerRank, a platform for learning algorithms and data structures and preparing for coding interviews, provides skills certifications tests in topics such as problem solving, Python, and JavaScript.

Here are some of the 24 tests you may complete to earn a certificate:

Harvard Free Certificates

CS50 Free Course Certificate

Harvard offers a series of academic online courses exploring various facets of computer science, including programming fundamentals and AI. You can find all the details and how to receive your free certificate in our dedicated article.

Here are Harvard’s current free certificate offerings. Remember that while you need an account with edX to submit the assignments, the free certificate comes directly from CS50.

Hasso Plattner Institute Free Certificates

The Hasso Plattner Institute offers a range of self-paced courses with free certificates of participation and achievement. Most courses are in German, but some are in English.

Here’s a selection of courses in English:

IBM Free Certificates and Badges

IBM’s platform CognitiveClass.ai offers 100+ courses and 10 learning paths in data science, AI, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain. A few courses offer a completion badge or certificate. Check on the Cognitive Class.AI course page for details.

The platform also provides a virtual lab environment allowing users to practice what they’ve learned in the courses.

Here’s a selection:

Kaggle Free Certificates

Kaggle is an online community for data scientists and aspiring data scientists alike. It offers over 50K public datasets, allowing you to build your own data science projects through Jupyter notebooks, and participate in competitions.

In addition, the platform offers a series of courses to learn the fundamentals of data science. Each leads to a certificate of completion.

LinkedIn Learning Courses with Free Certification

LinkedIn Learning, the online learning platform integrated with the LinkedIn professional social network, offers more than a hundred online courses and learning paths that include a free certificate. Here too, we have a dedicated article with a full list.

Here’s a selection of LinkedIn Learning free certificate courses:

MATLAB Free Certificates

MathWorks, the company behind the MATLAB programming language and software, offers 23 free online courses with certificates through their MATLAB Academy platform.

The courses introduce learners to the MATLAB language and tools — with a focus on machine learning — and MathWorks’ specialized software, such as Simulink. You can find all the details and how to receive your free certificate in our dedicated article.

Here’s a selection:

Semrush Academy Free Certificates

Although Semrush is primarily a business and marketing specialist, some of their free certificate courses are relevant for developers and IT professionals:

University of Helsinki Free Certificates

The University of Helsinki offers academic online courses through its independent course platform, MOOC.fi, including the following courses which include a free certificate of completion:

upGrad Free Certificates

upGrad is an online learning platform that offers free programs and courses on subjects such as data science, business analytics, and technology.

Once you complete all the modules of a program, you’ll receive a certificate of completion.

Here are some of the free programs offered on upGrad:

Wolfram U Free Certificates

The Wolfram Language is a powerful programming tool employed in science, engineering, data science, and finance. It combines math, data analysis, and general programming, and forms the core of Wolfram’s popular software, Mathematica. You can find all the details in our dedicated article.

Here is a selection of Wolfram U’s 40+ free certificate courses:

More Free Certificates

If you don’t find what you need here, browse Class Central’s catalog of over 200K courses or visit our thematic collections: