10 Best Web Development Tutorials For Beginners

1. Codecademy

It’s almost like a university course, only you control when and where class happens. Codecademy’s beginning web development course walks you through the basics of HTML and CSS, giving you projects throughout to practice newly learned skills. And once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, it’s easy to launch into a new course on a more specialized skill, such as PHP, JavaScript or Python.

2. HTML Dog’s Beginning HTML Guide

This set of tutorials is much less flashy than Codecademy, but just as useful. HTML Dog provides a straightforward, easy-to-follow group of tutorials covering HTML fundamentals. If you’re interested in learning CSS or JavaScript, they’ve got beginner’s guides for those as well.

3. Ruby on Rails Tutorial

One of the most popular web development frameworks, Ruby on Rails—based on the Ruby language—powers Basecamp, Twitter and GitHub, just to name a few. If you’re interested in building your own awesome web app, check out this free Ruby on Rails tutorial book by Michael Hartl. Covering more than just Rails, you’ll also learn the ins and out of web application development.

4. Mozilla Developer Network

From the folks behind the Firefox browser comes this helpful list of web development tutorials. Focused on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, tutorials run the gamut of beginner to advanced.

5. PHP 101 for the Absolute Beginner

This popular scripting language is not just one of those fleeting web development trends (Flash, anyone?); it’s here to stay, and has long been used for server-side programming on a large number of websites. If you’ve been itching to learn it, start here with Zend’s free tutorials. They’re easy to understand and will have you writing code in no time.

6. GitHub for Beginners

GitHub is the de facto collaboration tool for many software development projects. If you want to work in web development, familiarity with GitHub is a must. This tutorial is a great way to learn the ins, outs and terminology that make the networking site tick. And like the title says, this tutorial truly is for beginners—no prior programming experience is required.

7. Non-Programmer’s Tutorial to Python 3

One of the top 8 programming languages, Python is often used as a scripting language for web apps. This tutorial will help you master the basics of Python, but more importantly, you’ll master the fundamentals of programming in the process.

8. 30 Days to Learn jQuery

jQuery is an open-source JavaScript library, designed to simplify the job of client-side scripting. If you’re looking to use it in web development, check out this tutorial—30 days worth of 10- to 15-minute lessons from Tuts+ will get you started on the road to being a jQuery ninja.

9. Curriculum for N00bs

This tutorial is perfect if you are just starting out in web development. With this big-picture guide, you’ll quickly learn what you need to know and how to get there. It’s a great read before jumping into anything else.

10. Coding Pitfalls for Beginners

Read this last tutorial after you’ve spent time learning your chosen web development frameworks. Also from the Tuts+ team, this article outlines some of the common mistakes made by beginning programmers. With specific insight into Ruby, JavaScript and PHP issues with some language-neutral insights thrown in, it’s definitely worth a read.