Considering which direction you want to pursue professionally with your coding skills? A career in mobile app development is well worth considering.
In 2019, mobile apps generated $461.7 billion in app store sales and in-app advertising. By 2023, that figure is expected to reach $935.2 billion.
Online mobile application development courses are a great way to test the waters and start building your skills. Today, I’m excited to share my top 20 online mobile app development courses for aspiring app developers.
Whether you prefer learning from mobile app development videos, articles, challenges, assignments, or lecture slides—and whether you’ve dabbled in app development before or are a complete newbie—there’s a course here to help you learn mobile app development online.
Before you choose, consider which mobile app platform will best suit your needs. Android has the largest market share, while iOS users tend to be willing to pay more, and Windows apps are multi-platform across Microsoft devices. So there are pros and cons for each option.
You also need to consider whether to build a native app or a cross-platform app. This guide will help you pick the best mobile app development platform/language for your needs.
Once you’ve decided, have a look below to find the right mobile app development course for you! I’ll also be highlighting some useful feedback from past students of these courses so you can read their insights and experiences.
Disclosure: I’m a proud affiliate for some of the courses inside this article. If you buy a course through my links on this page, I may get a small commission for referring you. Thanks!
Table of Contents
Because this piece is such a big list of mobile app development online courses, here’s a little table of contents so you can easily move around. Simply click one of the links to jump ahead.
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If you’d like to build iOS mobile apps using Objective-C, this course will give you a foundation in this language and teach you the basics of iOS mobile app development. Among other things, it will teach you how to read and write Objective-C, organize your code professionally using objects and blocks and prototype several entry-level apps.
This course will also prepare you for more extensive iOS app development if you want to pursue the iOS Development for Creative Entrepreneurs Specialization.
🌟 Platform: Coursera
👋 Instructed by: Don Patterson & Sam Kaufman
💰 Price: $39/month X 19 hours = $39
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Videos, readings, and quizzes
⏰ Length: 19 hours
🎤 What past students say: “A very well organized step by step introduction to iOS Application development using Objective-C. The course content is good and the instructor is good [at] explaining clearly and in a detailed way.”
iOS 11 Fundamentals is an ideal online course for anyone who has a bit of Swift experience and wants a guided introduction to the world of iOS mobile app development.
This course reviews mobile app development from the ground up and helps you create your first iOS apps using Xcode 9 and Swift 4. It takes you through six levels, covering topics such as app anatomy, adaptive user interfaces that work on multiple devices (including iPhone X), putting buttons and labels on a screen, and fetching data from the internet.
🌟 Platform: Pluralsight
👋 Instructed by: Simon Allardice
💰 Price: $29/month X 4 hours = $29
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Video
⏰ Length: ~4 hours
A quicker alternative to Objective-C, Swift is a modern programming language that many aspiring developers find relatively easy to learn.
During this mobile app development course, you’ll learn how to build iPhone apps from scratch using Xcode 9 and Swift 4. More specifically, it’ll teach you how to build a simple calculator app from scratch, an RGB to Hex code color converter app, a hangman game, a savings calculator app, and more. You’ll need a Mac computer and Xcode 9.
The course covers (among other things) how to design apps in Photoshop and Illustrator, how to use ARKit, Apple’s platform for implementing augmented reality tools, and how to use WatchKit to make Apple Watch apps.
👋 Instructed by: John Bura
💰 Price: $500
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Video, source code, and coding exercises
🎤 What past students say: “I absolutely love this course. I’m only part way through so far but felt compelled to leave a review. This is such a comprehensive course that was well worth the money I spent and a lot more!. Well done. Will definitely be looking at more Mammoth Interactive courses when I finish this.” — Matt Williams
A bestseller on Udemy, this is a three-in-one course that teaches app design, UI/UX, and iOS development. You’ll learn how to design wireframes, mockups, and prototypes using tools like Sketch and Figma and turn those into fully-functioning iOS apps.
Not only that, but you’ll learn how to apply animation and motion to bring interactivity to your app and build custom UI components by creating an Instagram clone.
🌟 Platform: Udemy
👋 Instructed by: Gwinyai Nyatsoka
💰 Price: $94.99
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Videos, articles, and downloadable resources
⏰ Length: 80 hours
🎤 What past students say: “Amazing course. The author does a fantastic job of introducing theory followed up with a chance to apply it in well thought out mini applications. The Instagram Clone project alone was well worth the course. I really appreciated the extensive coverage of design concepts, sketch, swift, networking, sending/receiving data locally/remotely, ca layers, core animations and on.” — Ben P.
With The Complete iOS 10 & Swift 3 Developer Course, you’ll use Xcode 8 and Swift 3 to make apps like Uber, Instagram, and Flappy Bird. You’ll start with the basics, cover everything from accelerometers and motion feedback to online storage with Parse, and finish with the ability to build mobile apps using animation and geolocation.
This mobile app development online course consists of 30 hours of content in the form of videos and articles. It also comes with cool extras like free web hosting, over 1,000 assets such as buttons and icons, and the ebook How To Earn $10,000 While Learning To Code.
🌟 Platform: Udemy
👋 Instructed by: Rob Percival
💰 Price: $109.99
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Videos and articles
⏰ Length: 29.5 hours of video
🎤 What past students say: “Excellent course. Nice that mistakes are left in to show the kind of things people might do themselves. It is difficult to target a course at all experience levels. This course is suitable for those with very little experience of Apple and of programming but it isn’t long before experienced programmers start learning things also. Rob has a very welcoming style that is very easy to listen to and the videos are good quality also.” — Scott MacLeod
Ray Wenderlich courses also come very highly recommended. This one focuses on one very specific but important aspect of apps–the ability to save data. It’s no good building a mobile app with great functionality and design if the user can’t access their data after their initial session.
In this online course, you’ll learn the many different ways you can save data with iOS apps. You’ll cover working with property lists, encoding and decoding objects, using JSON, and lots more.
This is an intermediate course, but it goes quickly, with around two hours of video content. This is part of the iOS Data and Networking learning path.
👋 Instructed by: Felipe Laso-Marsetti, Ehab Yosry Amer, Christine Sweigart, Adriana Kutenko
💰 Price: $9.99 per month or $119.88 per year for access to the full video tutorial catalog
📈 Skill level: Intermediate
💻 Format: Video
⏰ Length: Just under 2 hours
The world is becoming more and more aware of the importance of accessibility and it’s your responsibility as a developer to make sure the apps you build are accessible to as many people as possible.
This course teaches you to spot accessibility issues, use iOS technologies to address these issues, and ultimately ensure that your app can be used by anyone.
This intermediate course consists of six core modules, each made up of a series of short, easily-digestible videos.
👋 Instructed by: Kevin Favro
💰 Price: $39.99
📈 Skill level: Intermediate
💻 Format: Video
⏰ Length: 6 core modules of 3-7 short video lessons each
This course is designed to teach you how to build your first iOS app using Swift. It teaches Swift 4 with Xcode 9 and it explores Apple’s new ARKit for creating augmented reality apps, as well as Apple’s new CoreML to help you create your first machine learning app.
If you choose to take this online course, you’ll learn how to use storyboards to set out your app’s interface, how to use table views to display lists, how to use navigation controllers to link screens, and much more.
This course is made up of 51 sections, all of which include videos and challenges.
🌟 Platform: Udemy
👋 Instructed by: Dr. Angela Yu
💰 Price: $94.99
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Videos, articles, and downloadable resources
⏰ Length: 49 hours
🎤 What past students say: “Angela is hands down the best coding instructor I’ve had on Udemy. Her lessons and course exercises are structured in such a way that it is easy to understand, without being too slow or too fast-paced to follow along with. She breaks down really complex concepts into simple, understandable chunks. As icing on the cake, her sense of humor is delightful!” — Andrew Freire
In this Udemy course, the emphasis is on teaching you underlying coding principles, to make sure you understand what you’re doing and that you can apply it to future projects. It aims to take you from complete beginner to professional Android developer (if that’s what you want), though you don’t have to be a beginner to take this course.
To start with, you’ll learn how to code using Java. Then you’ll cover Git and Android, object-oriented programming, using maps and GPS, and so much more.
You can expect the mobile app development course to take you around six weeks if you spend 1-2 hours on it per day. You’ll also get 10 free app asset packs, live support in the online chatroom, and a course completion certificate.
🌟 Platform: Udemy
👋 Instructed by: Mark Price
💰 Price: $94.99
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Videos and articles
⏰ Length: 6 weeks, assuming you spend 1-2 hours on it per day
🎤 What past students say: “Great course. I especially liked the impromptu debugging exercise. Too many courses gloss over this and it leaves students stuck for too long when they run into an issue. Also like the in-depth explanations of what and why that you give while doing the coding.” — Jim Wasson
If you haven’t heard of Udacity’s Nanodegree programs before, they’re career- and outcome-focused courses built in collaboration with companies like Google, Amazon, and Mercedez-Benz. Other Nanodegree programs include Data Analyst, Full Stack Web Developer, and VR Developer.
This particular Nanodegree program was built with Google to help people with no programming experience to become Android developers. The focus is on equipping you with the real-world skills you need to build Android apps.
You’ll start by designing and building a basic single-page app to display information about a small business. By the end of the program, you’ll have progressed to building a stock inventory app.
Nanodegree programs come with personalized feedback on projects, coach-supported-forums, and the verified Nanodegree credentials.
After taking this course, you can progress to the Android Developer program.
🌟 Platform: Udacity
👋 Instructed by: Katherine Kuan, Jessica Lin, Jennie Kim Eldon, and more
💰 Price: $399 per month for full access to the support and the community
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Videos, quizzes, and projects
⏰ Length: 6 months
🎤 What past students say: “A really well designed course. The instructional materials were well prepared and presented in a very entertaining way. The approach to learning was also to top notch; teaching you enough to feel confident to learn more on your own and careful not to spoon feed you longer than needed.” — Android Basics Nanodegree student
This mobile app development online course by Mammoth Interactive will guide you through the process of building a to-do-list app using Kotlin and the Android Studio.
Among other things, you’ll learn the fundamentals of Kotlin to help you build a fully functioning app from scratch, plus how to build exciting and interactive UIs.
👋 Instructed by: Nimish Narang
💰 Price: $9.99
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Video
This intermediate app development course is built for those who have had some previous experience with Java. You’ll use Java to design, build, and distribute your own Android mobile app. You’ll be given a set of building blocks that you can customize and piece together however you like to build lots of different types of apps.
This course is made up of videos and readings. You should expect to spend 10 hours studying and 10 hours on project work to complete it.
🌟 Platform: Coursera
👋 Instructed by: Dr. Virginie Galtier and Michel Ianotto
💰 Price: $49 or free for the Audit option (which includes access to all the course materials except the graded items)
📈 Skill level: Intermediate
💻 Format: Videos and readings
⏰ Length: 10 hours of study and 10 hours of active project work
🎤 What past students say: “Build Your First Android App (Project-Centered Course) is a well organised course with good introductory material covering the basics of Android development. I recommend this course to anyone who is new to Android development or anyone who wants to brush up their Android development basics. You’ll need to work throughout this 5 week course. The course material is consolidated with quizzes. By the end of the course you will know how to prototype, design and code an Android application with the best practices in mind using a rubric. Instructors of this course are good too in terms of knowing their stuff and being able to convey and explain it in simple terms.” — Build Your First Android App student
While Treehouse has lots of beginner mobile app development courses, this particular one is focused on teaching you the basics of Android development.
You’ll build a basic fun-facts app, learn how to use Android Studio, and learn the basics of the SDK. Topics covered include creating the screen layout, refactoring your code, and testing and debugging.
This is another video course, with three and a half hours of content.
👋 Instructed by: Ben Deitch
💰 Price: $25 per month for access to 1000+ videos
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Video
⏰ Length: 3.5 hours
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This intermediate course focuses on dealing with the many different screen sizes Android devices can have. It looks at the Fragments API, which enables you to create layouts that adapt to all screen sizes, dynamically, at runtime.
You’ll learn how to define a layout, add fragments to activities with Java or XML, create different screen sizes for different devices, and use resource folder names to make sure the correct layout is used.
This mobile app development video course contains two and a half hours of content.
👋 Instructed by: David Gassner
💰 Price: $29.99/month for access to all the LinkedIn Learning courses
📈 Skill level: Intermediate
💻 Format: Video
⏰ Length: 2 hours 26 minutes
With Java for Android, you’ll learn how to program core features and classes from Java. You’ll learn and apply Java programming language features to provide access to structured data, group operations, and data into classes and interfaces, customize existing classes, and much more.
You’ll need to put aside 5-6 hours a week to complete this mobile apps course. This time will be spent working through video lectures, doing quizzes, and writing solutions to assignments to reinforce what you’ve learned. This course is suitable for beginners and anyone who’s new to Android.
🌟 Platform: Coursera
👋 Instructed by: Dr. Jerry Roth, Dr. Julie L. Johnson, Michael Walker, and Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt
💰 Price: $49/month X 7 weeks = $98
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Videos and readings
⏰ Length: ~39 hours; 7 weeks of study, 5-6 hours/week
🎤 What past students say: “A useful course, with clear explanations of the main features of Java programming language and Object Oriented Programming. I found the teachers competent and I liked the approach of the course, especially aimed at understanding the logic of Java and the logic of good software development. Finally I found very useful peer review assessments.” — Java for Android student
In this project-based mobile apps course, data scientist and online mentor Kaisa Crawford Taylor will walk you through how to build creative, fully-functional Android apps from scratch using Java. You’ll learn how to build minimalist user interfaces, handle errors and solve problems that appear day to day as an app developer, and get a solid understanding of the Android Studio interface.
Topics covered include: variables and data types, methods, conditional statements, looping, error handling, and much more.
👋 Instructed by: Kaisa Crawford Taylor
💰 Price: $200
📈 Skill level: Beginner
💻 Format: Video
⏰ Length: 5.5 hours
