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The 9 Best SQL Courses, Paid and Free, Ranked

By Owen Middleton · Updated November 2026 · We ran the examples on PostgreSQL 17

If you will pay, the best SQL course for most beginners is DataCamp SQL Fundamentals: you get lessons from your first query to window functions, a check on each coding exercise, and two projects, for $28 a month on the yearly plan. In our test, DataCamp accepted a right answer in another row order and rejected a wrong one.

We built SQLMaxx Learn. It is at rank 1, with 11 of 13 points, only because of the price test; without that test, it is at rank 3, behind DataCamp and Dataquest.

Choose SQLZoo if you will not pay: all tutorials and exercises are free, you need no account to start, and you get a check on each result, but only short notes before the questions.

Choose Dataquest if you want a person to ask: Dataquest says that its staff answer in its forums, and you do three guided projects, for $49 a month or $588 a year.

Our take. Ask yourself two things: do you want lessons before you practice, and will you pay? DataCamp gives you both lessons and checked exercises at the lowest monthly price of the paid courses at rank 2, but you need Premium for everything after the first chapter of each course. On the check of your query, the two free courses are as good as the best paid ones; from the paid ones, you get guided projects, and at Dataquest and LearnSQL.com, the companies say that a person answers. We would skip Udemy and LinkedIn Learning: we found no change to either course after February 2023, and we found no lessons on window functions in either.

If you want SQL for an analyst job, see the best SQL course for data analysts; if you want to learn from free videos, see the best SQL courses on YouTube. If you want free courses only, see where to learn SQL for free.

The best SQL courses compared

The 9 best SQL courses
Rank Course Best for Price Score Checks (×2)DepthHelpCost to finishProjectsCertificateUpdated
1 SQLMaxx LearnWe make it Free start, every query graded Free 11 / 13 4212011
2 DataCamp SQL Fundamentalshow we know Beginners who will pay $28 a month, billed annually 10 / 13 4210111
2 Dataquest SQL Skills for Data Analysishow we know Guided projects, forum with staff $49 a month or $588 a year 10 / 13 4220110
2 SQLZoohow we know Free practice, four SQL engines Free 10 / 13 4212001
5 LearnSQL.com SQL from A to Zhow we know One payment, 884 challenges $149 for all 82 courses, one payment 9 / 13 2221011
6 Codecademy Learn SQLhow we know A 5-hour first look Free lessons; Plus $14.99 a month, billed annually 7 / 13 2111110
7 Coursera SQL for Data Sciencehow we know University course, final project With Coursera Plus, $399 a year 5 / 13 2100110
7 Udemy Complete SQL Bootcamphow we know Video lessons, PostgreSQL on your computer $159.99, one payment; often on sale 5 / 13 2101010
9 LinkedIn Learning SQL Essential Traininghow we know Short SQLite videos With LinkedIn Premium 4 / 13 2100010

"Checks (×2)" is a check on your query results, counted two times. "Depth" is joins, GROUP BY, subqueries and window functions. "Help" is help when you are stuck. "Cost to finish" is the price test. "Updated" is a dated change in the last two years. The full rules are in how we checked the best SQL courses.

Joins, GROUP BY, subqueries and window functions are the four topics of the depth test. If you do not know joins yet, start with the INNER JOIN lesson; for GROUP BY, start with the GROUP BY lesson.

Without the double weight on query checks, SQLMaxx Learn is still at rank 1 with 9 points, and DataCamp, Dataquest, LearnSQL.com and SQLZoo are at rank 2 with 8.

The best SQL courses, one by one

1. SQLMaxx Learn

Made by SQLMaxx

Best for a free start that grades every query, up to window functions

  • Price: Free; no account to start; you need a free account for the certificate
  • Ours: We built this course, and we gave it the same seven tests as the other eight courses.
  • Last update: September 14, 2026: the newest change date of our 66 lesson pages
  • Strength: You get all 66 lessons and 615 practice problems free, with a grade on each query in PostgreSQL.
  • Limit: You get no video, no teacher to ask and no project.

Score: 11 of 13 points.

Go to SQLMaxx Learn

For all 66 lessons, go to our SQL course.

2. DataCamp SQL Fundamentals

Best SQL course for beginners who will pay, from your first query to window functions

  • Price: Premium, $28 a month billed annually, or $35 if you pay monthly
  • Free: The first chapter of each course; you need Premium for the track itself
  • What decides it: DataCamp checks each exercise result; in our test, it accepted a correct answer in another row order. You also get a hint and the answer.
  • Size: Seven courses, about 26 hours, plus two bonus projects
  • Limit: DataCamp says that it gives no personal code support.

how we know

Score: 10 of 13 points.

Go to DataCamp SQL Fundamentals

2. Dataquest SQL Skills for Data Analysis

The best SQL course with projects, if you will pay: three guided projects

  • Price: $49 a month or $588 a year; $1,176 for life only in promotions
  • Free: The introductory courses; you need Premium for the full path and the certificate
  • What decides it: One of the three projects is on window functions for Northwind Traders
  • Size: Five courses; Dataquest gives "2 months (5 hrs/week)". We found no update date.
  • Limit: Dataquest says that staff answer in its forums and that you get a check on your code from its answer checker; we did not see either work.

how we know

Score: 10 of 13 points.

Go to Dataquest SQL Skills for Data Analysis

2. SQLZoo

Best for free practice on four SQL engines, with no account

  • Price: Free
  • Free: Every tutorial and exercise
  • What decides it: SQLZoo compares your result with the expected rows; in our test, it took a rewrite in another order and refused a result one row short
  • Help: After a wrong answer, SQLZoo can show you the expected rows; in an answer mode, you see the answer query in each box
  • Limit: You get short notes, not a full lesson, before the questions, and no certificate.

how we know

Score: 10 of 13 points.

Go to SQLZoo

5. LearnSQL.com SQL from A to Z

Best for one payment and 884 coding challenges, with no subscription

  • Price: One payment: $273 for the track, or $149 for all 82 courses
  • Free: The free section of each course
  • What decides it: Challenges up to window functions and recursive queries
  • Help: LearnSQL.com says that you get "mentor2student support"
  • Limit: LearnSQL.com says that it checks your solution, not that it checks your result; no project.

how we know

Score: 9 of 13 points.

Go to LearnSQL.com SQL from A to Z

6. Codecademy Learn SQL

Best for a short first look at SQL, about 5 hours

  • Price: Basic is free; Plus is $14.99 a month billed annually, or $29.99 billed monthly
  • Free: The lessons; the quizzes, the projects and the certificate are locked
  • What decides it: Codecademy says that it compares your code with the solution. It does not say that it checks your result.
  • Limit: We found no lesson exercise on subqueries or window functions.

how we know

Score: 7 of 13 points.

Go to Codecademy Learn SQL

7. Coursera SQL for Data Science

Best for a university course (UC Davis) with a final project

  • Price: No price for this one course without an account; Coursera Plus is $59 a month or $399 a year
  • Free: You buy the Certificate experience to open the materials and assignments
  • What decides it: No window functions in the syllabus
  • Size: Four modules; Coursera gives "2 weeks at 10 hours a week"
  • Limit: Coursera says that staff "may not" reply in every course.

how we know

Score: 5 of 13 points.

Go to Coursera SQL for Data Science

7. Udemy Complete SQL Bootcamp

Best for video lessons with PostgreSQL on your own computer, for one payment

  • Price: $159.99, or $22.99 in a sale on October 15, 2026; Udemy changes the sale price often
  • Free: The preview videos only
  • What decides it: You check the challenges yourself against solution videos
  • Size: 83 lectures, 8 hours 51 minutes
  • Limit: Last update December 30, 2022; no lecture on window functions.

how we know

Score: 5 of 13 points.

Go to Udemy Complete SQL Bootcamp

9. LinkedIn Learning SQL Essential Training

Best for a short SQLite video course, if you already have LinkedIn Premium

  • Price: With LinkedIn Premium; we could not read the price without an account
  • Free: A one-month trial
  • Size: 4 hours 36 minutes of video and 11 quizzes
  • Limit: Released February 7, 2023, with no later change that we found; no window functions; no project.

how we know

Score: 4 of 13 points.

Go to LinkedIn Learning SQL Essential Training

We did not score these courses on this page:

  • Khan Academy, SQLBolt, DataLemur, freeCodeCamp and ThoughtSpot. We scored them on our list of free courses.
  • Courses on YouTube.
  • Sites with practice problems only, and courses for data engineers.

Questions about the best SQL courses

What is the best online SQL course?

If you will pay, DataCamp SQL Fundamentals, for most beginners: lessons up to window functions, a check on each coding exercise and two projects, at rank 2 with 10 of 13 points. We gave our own course 11 points, and 9 without the price test; we gave it less than full points on help (1 of 2) and projects (0 of 1).

What is the best SQL course for beginners?

A course in which you get a check on the result of each query, and help when you are stuck. Four courses on this list do both: SQLMaxx Learn, DataCamp, Dataquest and SQLZoo. Two of them are free: SQLMaxx Learn, with lessons before the problems, and SQLZoo, with short notes only. Codecademy is short, about 5 hours, but on the check, Codecademy says only that it compares your code with the solution.

Are paid SQL courses better than free ones?

Only on two tests: guided projects and a person who answers your questions. Four of the seven paid courses have a project. For two of the seven, Dataquest and LearnSQL.com, the company says that a person answers. On the check of each query result, the free courses are as good: both free courses have it, and two of the seven paid courses do.

How much does a SQL course cost?

From nothing to $588 a year, for the prices that we could read. We could not read the LinkedIn Learning price without an account. SQLMaxx Learn and SQLZoo are free. LearnSQL.com and Udemy sell lifetime access for one payment: $149 for all 82 LearnSQL.com courses, and $159.99 for the Udemy course, often less in a sale. The others are subscriptions: DataCamp $28 a month billed annually, Coursera Plus $399 a year, Dataquest $588 a year. Codecademy gives the lessons free and sells Plus for the projects and the certificate.

Is SQL still worth learning in 2026?

Yes. In a study of 855 US data analyst job posts on Indeed, 365 Data Science found that employers asked for SQL in 52.9% of them.

Source: 365 Data Science, Indeed study

How we checked the best SQL courses

We did the free chapters of DataCamp with a free account, we read the public pages of the other eight courses, and we paid for none of them.

For some courses, we could not see a check or a help feature work without an account or a purchase. There, we use what the company says about its course. We label these facts "Product's own words".

We give each course a score on each of these seven tests. We count query checks two times, because with a check on each query, you see your mistakes.

You get a check on your query results. 2 if you get a check on the result of each query. 1 if you get a check on your work, but not on the query result. Examples are a check on the text of your code, fill-in blanks, multiple choice, and quizzes only. 0 if you only watch or read, or if you check your answers yourself.

Depth. 2 if you get lessons on joins, GROUP BY, subqueries and window functions. 1 if you get lessons on joins and GROUP BY. 0 if you get fewer topics, or if we found no topic list.

Help when you are stuck. 2 if a person answers your questions, for example in an instructor Q&A or in a forum with staff. 1 if you get written help on each problem: a hint, a worked solution or an AI helper. 0 in all other cases.

Cost to finish. 2 if all lessons and all practice are free. 1 if you pay one time for lifetime access, or if the lessons are free and you pay for practice, projects or the certificate. 0 if you need a subscription for most of the course.

Projects. 1 if you get at least one guided project or capstone on a realistic dataset. We do not count single practice problems.

Certificate of completion. 1 if you can earn a certificate of completion, free or paid. We do not score the value of the certificate.

Updated in the last two years. 1 if the company gives a date of change from the last two years for its course pages. We count a date on the course page, and a change date that the company lists for search engines. We do not count a copyright year in a footer, or a listed change date that is the same as the day we read the list. So a 0 means that we found no such date from the last two years.

The top total is 13 points: 4 for query checks (a score of 2, counted 2 times), 2 each for depth, help and the price test, and 1 each for projects, certificate and updates.

We give the same rank to courses with the same total. Inside a shared rank, we list the other courses in alphabetical order and our own course last.

We do not score the SQL dialect. A score for PostgreSQL is an advantage for our own course, and you can use most SQL from one dialect in other databases too.

Without the double weight on query checks, you get this order: 1. SQLMaxx Learn (9 of 11); 2. DataCamp SQL Fundamentals, Dataquest SQL Skills for Data Analysis, LearnSQL.com SQL from A to Z and SQLZoo (8 of 11); 6. Codecademy Learn SQL (6 of 11); 7. Coursera SQL for Data Science and Udemy Complete SQL Bootcamp (4 of 11); 9. LinkedIn Learning SQL Essential Training (3 of 11).

Without the price test, you get this order: 1. DataCamp SQL Fundamentals and Dataquest SQL Skills for Data Analysis (10 of 11); 3. SQLMaxx Learn (9 of 11); 4. LearnSQL.com SQL from A to Z and SQLZoo (8 of 11); 6. Codecademy Learn SQL (6 of 11); 7. Coursera SQL for Data Science (5 of 11); 8. LinkedIn Learning SQL Essential Training and Udemy Complete SQL Bootcamp (4 of 11).

Dataquest SQL Skills for Data Analysis, the price test: 0 of 2. Dataquest says that the offer for life is for limited promotions only, and that Premium is billed monthly or annually. So we count the path as a subscription.

LearnSQL.com SQL from A to Z, query checks: 1 of 2. LearnSQL.com says that it checks your solution. It does not say that you get a check on the result of your query.

LearnSQL.com SQL from A to Z, which plan: With the all-courses plan, you get all 82 courses, and the 7 courses of this track are among them. So for this track, the all-courses plan is the lower price.

Codecademy Learn SQL, query checks: 1 of 2. Codecademy compares your code with the solution. It does not say that you get a check on the result of your query.

Udemy Complete SQL Bootcamp, query checks: 1 of 2. You check the challenges and the assessment tests yourself. You get a check only on the 2 quizzes.

Udemy Complete SQL Bootcamp, help: 0 of 2. Udemy says that you can post questions in the course Q&A. On the Udemy pages that we could open, we found no statement that a person answers them. The solutions are videos, not written help.

Coursera SQL for Data Science, query checks: 1 of 2. Coursera says that some assignments are AI-graded. It does not say that you get a check on the result of each query.

Coursera SQL for Data Science, help: 0 of 2. Coursera says that staff and instructors may not reply in every course. We found no hints on the course page.

Coursera SQL for Data Science, the price test: 0 of 2. A one-time payment for 180 days is not lifetime access. Without an account, we could not see if this course has that option.

Coursera SQL for Data Science, updates: 0 of 1. The 2025 date is for a new version of the Specialization. We found no date for a change to this course.

LinkedIn Learning SQL Essential Training, query checks: 1 of 2. LinkedIn Learning promises "real-time feedback" on the Code Challenges. It does not say that you get a check on the result of your query.

LinkedIn Learning SQL Essential Training, help: 0 of 2. LinkedIn said in 2019 that you can ask the instructor in a Q&A. Without an account, we found no Q&A for this course.

SQLMaxx Learn, our own course: You get a check on your query results, 2 of 2. You write each query in a PostgreSQL database in your browser, and you get a grade on the result. Depth, 2 of 2. GROUP BY (lesson 14), joins (from lesson 17), subqueries (from lesson 24), CTEs (lesson 30) and window functions (from lesson 38). Help when you are stuck, 1 of 2. You can open a worked solution for each of the 615 problems: the query and a written explanation. You get no teacher and no forum. Cost to finish, 2 of 2. All 66 lessons and all 615 practice problems are free, and you need no account to start. Projects, 0 of 1. You get no guided project. Each practice problem is one query. Certificate of completion, 1 of 1. The SQLMaxx Certificate of Completion. You earn it when you master all 66 lessons. It is free, it has no exam, and you need an account for it. Updated in the last two years, 1 of 1. The newest change date of our 66 lesson pages is September 14, 2026.

For the rules behind each score, see how we score SQL courses.

Dataquest SQL Skills for Data Analysis

First the facts on the card and in the table: price, what is free, account, size, query checks, topics, help, projects, certificate, last update and SQL dialect. Then the facts for each of the seven tests.

Dataquest

DataCamp SQL Fundamentals

First the facts on the card and in the table: price, what is free, account, size, query checks, topics, help, projects, certificate, last update and SQL dialect. Then the facts for each of the seven tests.

DataCamp

LearnSQL.com SQL from A to Z

First the facts on the card and in the table: price, what is free, account, size, query checks, topics, help, projects, certificate, last update and SQL dialect. Then the facts for each of the seven tests.

LearnSQL.com

SQLZoo

First the facts on the card and in the table: price, what is free, account, size, query checks, topics, help, projects, certificate, last update and SQL dialect. Then the facts for each of the seven tests.

SQLZoo

Codecademy Learn SQL

First the facts on the card and in the table: price, what is free, account, size, query checks, topics, help, projects, certificate, last update and SQL dialect. Then the facts for each of the seven tests.

Codecademy

Udemy Complete SQL Bootcamp

First the facts on the card and in the table: price, what is free, account, size, query checks, topics, help, projects, certificate, last update and SQL dialect. Then the facts for each of the seven tests.

Udemy

Coursera SQL for Data Science

First the facts on the card and in the table: price, what is free, account, size, query checks, topics, help, projects, certificate, last update and SQL dialect. Then the facts for each of the seven tests.

Coursera

LinkedIn Learning SQL Essential Training

First the facts on the card and in the table: price, what is free, account, size, query checks, topics, help, projects, certificate, last update and SQL dialect. Then the facts for each of the seven tests.

LinkedIn Learning

  • LinkedIn Learning price, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning free use, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning account, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning content, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning query check, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning SQL topics, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning query check, note 2, checked October 17, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning content, note 2, checked October 17, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning content, note 3, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning certificate, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning update, checked October 17, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning SQL engines, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning strength, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes
  • LinkedIn Learning limit, checked October 15, 2026 — source · our notes