CourseVerdict

CSS Grid and Flexbox, v2 vs The Complete JavaScript Course 2024: From Zero to Expert!

Same Bayesian formula, same rubric — so the difference in scores reflects the difference in the courses, not the difference in how we evaluated them.

Frontend Masters · Web Development

CSS Grid and Flexbox, v2

4.3/ 5 · 27 opinions
21 positive4 neutral2 negative/ 27 total

Udemy · Web Development

The Complete JavaScript Course 2024: From Zero to Expert!

4.4/ 5 · 42 opinions
32 positive7 neutral3 negative/ 42 total

Per-criterion

Content quality4.4 / 5

Covers responsive layout across two parts — Flexbox (grid systems, navigation, responsive images) and CSS Grid (Mondrian and magazine layouts, cards). Reviewers say it teaches modern layout "without hacks", though v2 predates subgrid and container queries.

Instructor4.6 / 5

Jen Kramer is the most-praised element — a long-time CSS educator who explains layout clearly and at a beginner-friendly pace. Learners and a Hacker News commenter call her CSS courses "very good" and her teaching "well taught, in-depth".

Value for money4.1 / 5

Requires a $39/month (or $390/year) Frontend Masters subscription rather than a one-time purchase — strong value if you use the wider catalog, weaker if you only want this one course. The course is included in the standard subscription.

Projects4.0 / 5

More hands-on than most CSS courses: each section ends in build exercises and a capstone, including a Mondrian painting and magazine layouts. The builds are small practice pieces rather than a full portfolio site, but they reinforce the concepts well.

Real-world use4.3 / 5

Flexbox and Grid are the everyday tools for production layout, and learners report finishing real site layouts noticeably faster afterward. The main gap is currency — the newer features (subgrid, container queries) are covered in Kramer's v3, not this version.

Content quality4.4 / 5

Praised across HN for "behind the scenes" coverage of execution context, scope chain, hoisting and prototypes, paired with modern ES6+. The 2024 refresh added optional chaining and async patterns, though ES2023+ features land slower than on MDN.

Instructor4.2 / 5

Consistently named alongside Stephen Grider and Andrew Mead as a top Udemy instructor. The recurring caveat is delivery — one HN commenter called him "a great teacher but ridiculously monotonous", a real preference filter rather than a one-off.

Value for money4.7 / 5

Listed at $200 but realistically bought on Udemy sales for ~$15-$20. At sale price, 69 hours of video plus lifetime access make it one of the highest content-per-dollar paid JS resources. No commenter we tracked recommends full price.

Projects4.4 / 5

Three substantial build-along projects (Pig Game, Bankist, Forkify) are repeatedly singled out. Forkify in particular forces real architectural decisions — MVC, async data, module bundling — rather than toy examples.

Real-world use4.3 / 5

Strong on language fundamentals and vanilla DOM work that transfer to any framework. Weaker on production tooling — most learners supplement with a React or framework course afterwards to close the gap to job-ready.

Scoring methodology applies identically to every course on the site — see the formula.