Scrimba vs Frontend Masters
Is this for you? You are deciding between Scrimba's in-player coding for beginners and intermediates and Frontend Masters' recorded expert workshops aimed at working developers.
The short version: Frontend Masters is a premium workshop library where instructors like Brian Holt (Microsoft), Will Sentance (Codesmith), Steve Kinney (Temporal), Sarah Drasner, and Maximiliano Firtman spend six to eight hours going deep on one topic in front of a live class. Scrimba is a guided platform where you pause the instructor, edit their code, and run it inside the same window. The right answer usually depends on whether you already ship apps for a living.
Last reviewed: May 2026. Frontend Masters pricing taken from their public join page; Scrimba pricing changes by region, so confirm on the official page.
Decide in one minute
Three questions cover most of it.
- Beginner-friendly format vs intermediate-to-expert workshops. Scrimba paths are built to walk a beginner from "what is a variable" to a deployable React app. Frontend Masters assumes you already know the syntax and wants to teach you how the framework works under the hood.
- In-lesson coding vs watch-and-rebuild. Scrimba lets you pause a scrim and edit the instructor's file in place. Frontend Masters records live workshops; you watch the instructor type and then rebuild it in your own editor.
- Structured paths vs deep workshops. Scrimba ships four career paths (Frontend, Fullstack, Backend, AI Engineer) with a fixed order. Frontend Masters offers curated learning paths but the unit of value is the standalone workshop, not the path.
The Verdict
Scrimba is the better starting point for beginners and early intermediates: in-lesson coding, four ordered career paths, named React and AI instructors. Frontend Masters is the better second subscription once you ship apps and want senior-level depth on TypeScript, performance, system design, or React internals. On price, Frontend Masters lists $39/month or $390/year (their published rates); in most regions that puts FM at roughly 2x Scrimba's annual rate per month at list. Confirm Scrimba's current number on scrimba.com/our-pricing. Many developers run Scrimba first, then add Frontend Masters.
Pros
- Scrimba: Code inside the lesson (pause, edit, run, resume)
- Scrimba: Structured career paths and dedicated AI engineering track
- Scrimba: Trustpilot 4.3/5; named instructors Bob Ziroll, Per Borgen, Kevin Powell, Tom Chant
- Frontend Masters: Senior instructors with industry name recognition (Holt, Sentance, Drasner, Kinney, Firtman)
- Frontend Masters: Deep 6-to-8-hour workshops on advanced topics, live workshop attendance
Cons
- Frontend Masters: Watch-only video; assumes you can rebuild in your IDE
- Frontend Masters: $39/month or $390/year at list, roughly 2x Scrimba's annual rate per month in most regions
- Frontend Masters: Assumes prior JavaScript knowledge; not built for absolute beginners
- Scrimba: Lighter on expert-level conceptual content (React internals, performance, system design)
- Scrimba: No live workshops
This comparison table may scroll horizontally on smaller screens.
| Feature | Scrimba | Frontend Masters |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching format | Interactive scrims (edit code in video) | Recorded live workshops, ~6-8 hours each |
| Target audience | Beginner to intermediate | Intermediate to senior developers |
| Interactivity | Pause and edit inside the lesson | Watch the workshop, code along in your own IDE |
| Career paths | 4 structured paths (Frontend, Fullstack, Backend, AI) | Curated learning paths (workshop lists) |
| Instructor pool | Small specialist team (Bob Ziroll, Per Borgen, others) | Brian Holt, Will Sentance, Steve Kinney, Sarah Drasner, Maximiliano Firtman |
| Topics | Web dev, AI engineering, Python, cybersecurity | Advanced JS, TypeScript, React internals, performance, system design, DevOps |
| Monthly price | See [our pricing](https://scrimba.com/our-pricing) | $39/month |
| Annual price | See [our pricing](https://scrimba.com/our-pricing) | $390/year |
| Free tier | ~24 full courses | Preview lessons only |
| AI courses | 15 dedicated AI courses (agents, RAG, MCP) | Some AI workshops, not the focus |
| Community | Active Discord (Pro) with instructor presence | Limited community features |
| Reputation signal | Trustpilot 4.3/5; freeCodeCamp mirrors the Bob Ziroll React course | Industry name recognition through instructors (Holt, Sentance, Drasner, Kinney) |
What Frontend Masters actually is
A Frontend Masters course is a recording of a live workshop. The instructor stands in front of a room of paying attendees, teaches for two days, and the camera captures the whole thing including the in-room questions. There is no in-video editing in the Scrimba sense; you watch the screen share, take notes, and rebuild the project in your own editor afterwards. The catalog is built around senior names. Brian Holt runs the "Complete Intro to React" track and a product management workshop; Will Sentance teaches the JavaScript hard parts series rooted in Codesmith's classroom approach; Steve Kinney covers state, performance, and now AWS for front-end engineers; Sarah Drasner has the SVG and animation deep dives; Maximiliano Firtman handles mobile web and PWA territory.
That format is the whole pitch. You are paying $39 a month to watch a workshop you would otherwise need to fly to and pay four figures to attend in person.
Where Frontend Masters clearly wins
- Expert depth. If you want a six-hour TypeScript workshop or a deep dive on React rendering internals, Frontend Masters has more of that than Scrimba does.
- Recognized instructors. Brian Holt, Sarah Drasner, and Will Sentance carry real industry brand. Hiring managers know the names.
- Breadth of senior content. Performance, accessibility, web security, system design, Node internals, browser APIs. The catalog leans toward the kind of topics a mid-level engineer studies for a staff interview.
- Live workshops. Subscribers can attend new workshops live and ask questions, which Scrimba does not currently offer.
Where Scrimba wins
- Beginner pacing. Scrimba assumes nothing. You start by typing one line of HTML and end up shipping a React project. Frontend Masters' "Complete Intro" courses are explicitly intermediate; the platform itself recommends prior JavaScript experience.
- In-lesson coding. This is the single biggest format difference. On Scrimba you pause Bob Ziroll mid-sentence, edit his file, run the result, then resume. Frontend Masters cannot do that because the source is a live workshop recording.
- Structured career paths. Scrimba's Frontend, Fullstack, Backend, and AI Engineer paths give you a fixed order with checkpoints and certificates. Frontend Masters offers curated lists, but the work of sequencing still falls on you.
- Free tier that actually teaches. About 24 Scrimba courses are free in full, including Learn React. Frontend Masters preview clips do not get you to a working project.
- AI engineering coverage. Scrimba has 15 dedicated AI courses covering agents, RAG, MCP, and prompt engineering. Frontend Masters has a handful of AI workshops but it is not the platform's center of gravity.
Pricing reality check
Frontend Masters lists $39 per month or $390 per year for individual access on their join page, with team plans at $24.50 per seat per month for groups of ten or more. The annual plan saves about 17%. GitHub Student Developer Pack members get six months free.
Scrimba prices vary by region and run promotions year-round, so I link to scrimba.com/our-pricing instead of quoting a number that will be wrong by the time you read this. The anchor most readers actually want: Frontend Masters' $39/month list price is roughly 2x what Scrimba's annual plan works out to per month in most regions, and FM's $390/year is meaningfully above Scrimba's annual at list. Scrimba's free tier is also materially larger: about 24 full courses (including the 15-hour Learn React with Bob Ziroll) versus preview clips on Frontend Masters. The right way to read it: Frontend Masters is priced like a senior workshop library, Scrimba is priced like a structured beginner-to-intermediate platform, and the gap shows up in the per-month math.
When to choose Scrimba
- You are a beginner or early-intermediate developer who has not yet shipped a real app
- You learn better when you type along inside the lesson instead of switching to a separate editor
- You want a fixed sequence (paths) instead of picking workshops off a menu
- You are aiming at AI engineering (AI Engineer path) or cybersecurity (Learn Cybersecurity)
- You want a Discord community of other learners
When to choose Frontend Masters
- You already ship apps for a living and want to level up to senior or staff
- You want deep dives on TypeScript, performance, React internals, system design, or accessibility
- You learn fine from a workshop recording and prefer rebuilding the project in your own editor
- You value named instructors (Brian Holt, Will Sentance, Sarah Drasner) and live workshop attendance
- $39 a month is a reasonable line item against your salary
Bottom line
These are not competitors so much as stages. Scrimba walks a beginner to "I can build and deploy a React app." Frontend Masters takes a working developer and pushes them toward "I understand how this framework actually works." If you are starting out, Scrimba first. If you already have a job and want to grow into a harder one, Frontend Masters is worth $39 a month. A lot of developers end up subscribing to both at different points.
Related Pages
- Scrimba Pricing | Scrimba vs Codecademy
- Scrimba vs The Odin Project | Scrimba vs Coursera
- Scrimba vs YouTube interactive coding vs passive video
- How Scrims Work the technology that sets Scrimba apart
- All Scrimba Courses | Learning Paths
Sources
- Frontend Masters pricing (Join page)
- Frontend Masters Brian Holt teacher page
- Frontend Masters live workshops
- Frontend Masters course catalog
- Scrimba official pricing
Yes. Scrimba is built for beginners and early intermediates with in-lesson coding and structured paths. Frontend Masters targets developers who already ship apps.
$39 per month or $390 per year for individual access, per the official join page. Team plans start at $24.50 per seat per month.
Yes. Scrimba for structured beginner-to-intermediate paths, then Frontend Masters for senior-level workshops once you are shipping apps.
No. It is workshop-recording video. Scrimba is the platform with in-lesson code editing.
Start on Scrimba, add Frontend Masters when you are ready
About 24 Scrimba courses are free in full, and Pro typically lands at roughly half FM's $39 monthly rate in most regions. Confirm at scrimba.com/our-pricing.
Use our partner link to get 20% off the Pro plan.