2023 Best Web Design
Bootcamps

What Is a Web Design Bootcamp?

A web design bootcamp provides intensive programs that train students on the fundamentals of website design within a short period, equipping them with practical and professional skills. These web design courses pave the way for successful UX and UI design careers. Our unbiased selection of the best web design bootcamps, including both UI and UX bootcamps, is based on student reviews.

The website design courses offered at UX bootcamps, UI bootcamps, and UX/UI bootcamps come in all formats. You can find in-person, online, instructor-led, self-paced, and hybrid versions. If you have a busy schedule with a full-time job or other obligations, you can always attend a web design bootcamp online to learn a valuable skill at a flexible pace.

Whether you join a UI or UX bootcamp online or in person, most web design bootcamps teach the skills needed to master web design. You’ll focus on user interface and user experience design, covering topics such as wireframes, mockups, user research, responsive design, information architecture, and analytics. Many of these web design courses also cover the basics of front end development, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

In addition, the best web design bootcamps ensure that you are ready for the job search and your professional life by helping you develop critical soft skills through extensive career services. Common career services offered by bootcamps include resume and cover letter reviews, portfolio preparation, access to employer networks, and mock interviews.

Is a Web Design Bootcamp Worth It?

Yes, web design bootcamps are worth it if you are interested in the design process of digital products like apps and websites and would like to start a career in the field. The web design courses offered at UI bootcamps and UX bootcamps are career-oriented, meaning that they are geared toward real web design jobs.

As a result, you’ll have access to a wide range of high-paying job opportunities. Web design bootcamps are thus chiefly worthwhile in the monetary sense, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, web design professionals make an average of $79,890 per year. This comes as the number of jobs in the field is expected to increase by 16 percent by 2031.

To drive home why UI and UX bootcamps are worth it, let’s take a closer look at the various job roles that could be open to you upon graduating from one of these web design courses. The average salary estimates listed below are from PayScale.

• Product designer - $89,731 per year
• App developer - $81,115 per year
• User Experience (UX) designer - $77,553 per year
• User Interface (UI) designer - $69,898 per year
• Visual designer - $67,903 per year
• Web developer - $63,003 per year

How Much Does a Web Design Bootcamp Cost?

A web design bootcamp costs between $2,000 and $20,000. According to Career Karma’s 2023 Bootcamp Market Report, the average cost of any tech bootcamp is $12,953. How much you pay for your UI or UX bootcamp depends on a variety of factors, including the school and the format of the program.

Self-paced online UX bootcamp programs are more flexible and affordable, but they offer less direct assistance. Although instructor-led immersive programs are more expensive, they are worth the money when it comes to one-on-one help and constant communication. While the price of these web design courses can be high, most bootcamps offer an array of financing options to help you pay tuition.

How Can I Pay for a Web Design Bootcamp?

You can pay for a web design bootcamp with an upfront payment, private loans, and payment plans, to name just a few common options. Another popular financing option is deferred tuition plans. Bootcamps with deferred tuition allow the student to begin payments only once they have graduated and landed a qualifying job. In the same vein, many bootcamps offer income share agreements (ISAs).

The main difference between ISAs and deferred tuition resides in the repayment terms. A deferred tuition plan sets a fixed amount that must be repaid to the school. By contrast, under an ISA, the total amount to be paid back is not set in advance.

Apart from these popular financing options, there are also coding bootcamp scholarships, which are often awarded to students that show great potential, belong to underrepresented groups, or don’t have the financial means to cover the cost of the program. Finally, many coding bootcamps also accept GI Bill benefits.

Best Web Design Courses at UX or UI Bootcamps

Coding bootcamps are fast becoming the most efficient way to take online web design courses. Most coding schools with a nationwide presence allow you to attend your UX bootcamp online, and if the bootcamp style isn’t your speed, there are many less intensive web design courses you can take instead. The best of these programs in web design, course fees included, are featured below.

• Front End Development for Designers ($1,900) at CareerFoundry. On top of its UI and UX bootcamp programs, CareerFoundry offers intro web design courses for beginners and advanced web design courses for professionals. This advanced website design course bridges the gap between development and design.
• UX Design Course ($4,500) at General Assembly. Known for its bootcamps, General Assembly also offers part-time courses in a range of subjects for a third of the price. This course teaches web design from the perspective of an industry insider who practices UX design and uses all of the top platforms in their daily work.
• User Experience ($549) at Skillcrush. You can’t beat these course fees for web design. Skillcrush is an online bootcamp that specializes in affordable courses in website design and development. The user experience course is self-paced, with course progress measured by the completion of class projects.
• Visual Design ($549) at Skillcrush. For the same price as the user experience web design course, you can take Skillcrush’s course on visual design. Whereas the UX course is marketed toward those interested in user research and problem-solving, the visual design course is intended for artists who enjoy creating beautiful websites.
• UX Career Track ($7,900) at Springboard. While this web design course is technically a UX bootcamp, Springboard’s self-paced instruction model provides the same flexibility that appeals to students of online courses. One way to think about it is as a really long online course. Once you enroll, you have nine months to finish.
• UI/UX Design Career Track ($11,900) at Springboard. For $4,000 more, Springboard offers a more comprehensive online web design course, one that covers both user experiences and user interfaces. This one is also time limited at nine months, but it packs more in, including a four-week industry design project.
• UX/UI Design ($21,000) at V School. V School has one of the more unique pedagogical models in the bootcamp industry. A practitioner of mastery-based learning, V School sticks with each student until they’ve mastered each skill. If you’re looking for individual attention and a set of hard-won skills, V School is for you.

Best Online Web Design Certificate Programs

If you’re looking for online web design courses whose outcomes are more demonstrably geared toward professionalization, you can learn industry-standard skills with a web design certificate program. Some of these programs are similar in scope to a UI or UX bootcamp, while others are tailored to specific tools and approaches in the web design industry.

• UX Design Certificate Program ($12,500) at Kenzie Academy. This online UX bootcamp doubles as a certificate program through Southern New Hampshire University, one of the leaders in online college degrees. The program lasts nine months and consists of nine two-credit classes.
• Web Design and Development ($3,750) at eCornell. This professional certificate program focuses on both the coding and non-coding aspects of building the front end of a website. It lasts three months and teaches students how to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to bring their designs to life.
• Growth-Driven Design Certification Course ($0) at HubSpot Academy. This free web design course looks at the principles of design through the eyes of a marketing professional. By seeing what marketers see, you can better learn how to keep users on your website for more time.
• Associate Android Developer ($149) at Google Developers Academy. Although this certification is directed more toward developers than designers, you should still consider it if you’re interested in designing user interfaces for mobile.

How Long Are the Best Web Design Bootcamps?

The length of a web design bootcamp ranges from three to nine months. The duration depends on the length and intensity of the program as well as your learning pace. A full-time bootcamp generally requires a daily commitment of seven to nine hours. A part-time program, by contrast, involves just four to six hours of learning or practice a day, and many allow you to set your own hours.

The time commitment is often divided between class time, where you learn the theory, and labs, where you put theory into action. Likewise, you may be given homework to complete in between sessions. In addition, many web design bootcamp programs involve prework. This is a series of lessons and labs to get your skills up to the required level prior to the start of your web design course. This pre-course can last up to one month.

If you apply yourself to your studies, you can learn web design in six months. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you will learn everything there is to learn in just half a year. As with any other subject, you will need years of practice to become an expert. However, in six months, you can become a competent designer and be ready for the job market.

Should I Join a Web Design Bootcamp Online or In Person?

The main benefits of online web design bootcamps are flexibility and convenience. The skills taught in UI and UX bootcamps are not the kinds of things that you need to be in a physical classroom to learn. If you’re learning Figma, InVision, and other leading web design tools, you will be able to collaborate with your classmates virtually. That’s the whole point.

Onsite web design bootcamps are becoming less and less common, which is not to say they don’t have their place. Some people just learn more effectively in physical space, with all five senses fully engaged in the task at hand. That being said, if you want to take a website design course in person, a college or university may be a better option than a bootcamp.

How Do Online Web Design Bootcamps Compare to Other Kinds of Online Web Design Courses?

A web design bootcamp tends to be more comprehensive than other types of web design courses, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs). Web design bootcamps are more personalized than MOOCs, with the student having access to a teacher and, in many cases, a personal mentor or career advisor. If your goal is to learn web design thoroughly, then a UI or UX bootcamp is a better bet than a website design course on a MOOC platform.

Likewise, the best bootcamps for web design typically feature extensive career services to help the student develop the soft skills needed to impress future employers. This is a service you won’t find at a MOOC. Web design bootcamp reviews show that most students are happy with the results, with many having gone on to land profitable jobs at top tech companies.

Many MOOCs are taught by world-class professors from leading universities around the world, which is one of their main draws. However, bootcamps also have a reputation for having instructors who are experts in their fields with many years of experience.

MOOCs are significantly cheaper than the average web design course at a UI/UX bootcamp. In fact, many are free, although you usually have to pay a fee to receive a certificate of completion. Bootcamps are much more expensive, but this is because you are paying for much more than just educational materials. You are paying for a host of career services that will fast-track your entry into a new field.

How Do I Apply for a Web Design Bootcamp?

The web design bootcamp application process involves a few simple steps. Here is how the process works:

1. Go to the official website of the bootcamp you are interested in and fill out an online application for the web design course of your choice.
2. Wait for a representative of the admissions team to reach out. You will then schedule a behavioral interview. During this interview, you will be asked about your motivation to join the bootcamp and your career goals. You can also use this opportunity to ask questions about the school or program.
3. Complete a technical challenge. Most bootcamps will want to test your preexisting coding knowledge to assess whether you are a good match for the program or if you need a prep course.
4. Pay a deposit and secure your spot in the UI or UX bootcamp.

Generally speaking, it is not hard to get into a web design bootcamp. Schools such as Kenzie Academy and General Assembly are beginner-friendly, although a common requirement is that the student is computer literate. Other schools require some coding experience but you can enroll in a prep course to bring your knowledge up to par.

Can I Work and Go to a Web Design Bootcamp?

Yes, you can work and go to a web design bootcamp. This is because there are self-paced and part-time bootcamps to accommodate students who work during the day. Students can set their schedules and learn at a pace that suits them in a part-time web design course.

A great web design bootcamp for working professionals is offered by Flatiron School. Flatiron School’s Product Design bootcamp has a part-time version. This online web design bootcamp can be completed in the span of 40 weeks. Students are allowed to set their own hours but have the option to attend live weekly lectures and come on campus to discuss course materials with instructors.

Will a Web Design Bootcamp Help Me Get a Job?

Yes, a web design bootcamp will get you a job. The best web design bootcamp programs offer career services to help you get a job. Some coding bootcamps have established partnerships with hiring companies and strong communities to help you network. Students can also benefit from other career services such as alumni events, personalized career coaching, resume review, job search support, and job interview coaching.

There are also several web design bootcamps that offer a job guarantee. A job guarantee can take several forms. Some web design bootcamps will refund your tuition if you fail to get a job within a set period of time, often six months. Other web design schools boast vast networks and can confidently claim that their graduates will land a job with a partnering company shortly after graduation.

After completing your UI or UX bootcamp, it won’t be hard to land one of the many web design jobs out there. Web design bootcamp students typically get jobs as web designers, web developers, UI/UX designers, and app developers, to name a few.

You can land one of these well-remunerated jobs even if you don’t have a traditional degree. Employers are starting to value skills and knowledge over academic credentials. In fact, an increasing number of companies, particularly in the tech sector, hire candidates that don’t have a college degree as long as they have the technical skills required to get the job done.

Learn Web Design: Is a Web Design Bootcamp Right for You?

Yes, a web design bootcamp is right for anyone looking for an engaging way to develop their web design skills and kickstart successful tech careers. Compared to university degrees, the best bootcamps for web design are cheaper, faster, and more career-focused. The curriculums of UI and UX bootcamps drill down on user experience and user interface skills, which are increasingly what real-world jobs in web design are asking for.

While web design bootcamps are hard and can be expensive, anyone can learn web design as long as they put in the time and effort. Although there are many aspects to web design, from interaction design to analytics, you don’t need to be particularly good at any one skill to learn web design. A good online UX bootcamp will also teach you the soft skills needed to succeed in this profession, including networking, leadership, and working as part of a team.