Certificates
A curated list of 20,000+ hours of free IT, CS, design, and business courses that offer certificates or digital badges upon completion.
What is Certificates?
Awesome Certificates is a GitHub repository that curates a massive list of free online courses which provide certificates or digital badges upon completion. It solves the problem of finding legitimate, high-quality educational resources that offer formal recognition without cost, spanning fields like IT, computer science, design, and business.
Students, career changers, and professionals seeking to build skills and credentials in tech and business fields without paying for courses. It's especially valuable for self-learners and those on a tight budget.
Developers choose this resource because it saves significant research time by aggregating only free, certificate-granting courses from trusted providers. Its community-driven, open-source nature ensures the list is constantly updated and vetted, unlike static blog posts or paid platforms.
Overview
Curated list of 20,000+ hours and 200+ free courses with certificates in IT, CS, Design and Business.
Use Cases
Best For
- Finding free alternatives to paid certification programs
- Building a portfolio of verified skills on a budget
- Discovering niche courses from providers like IBM Cognitive Class or Cisco Networking Academy
- Preparing for technical interviews with HackerRank skill verifications
- Learning specific tools like MongoDB, TensorFlow, or Unity with official recognition
- Exploring new fields like AI, cybersecurity, or data science with structured, free pathways
Not Ideal For
- Learners pursuing accredited university degrees or transferable academic credits
- Corporate teams needing integrated learning management systems with progress tracking and analytics
- Users who prefer instructor-led courses with real-time support and structured mentorship programs
Pros & Cons
Pros
Aggregates courses only from reputable sources like Google, IBM, and Cisco, as evidenced by the README tables listing over 200 vetted entries, ensuring trusted educational content.
Each course entry includes difficulty level, duration, and reward type (badge or certificate), making it easy to compare options quickly without visiting multiple sites.
Organized into 30+ categories from AI to cybersecurity, as shown in the README contents, covering diverse tech and business fields for comprehensive skill development.
Accepts contributions via GitHub issues and pull requests, with clear guidelines linked in the README, allowing the list to evolve and stay updated with new free courses.
Cons
No built-in search or filtering tools; users must manually scan markdown tables, which can be cumbersome given the large list and lack of dynamic features.
Relies entirely on third-party course providers for availability and certificate issuance, with no automatic checks for broken links or updated course details, risking outdated information.
Mixes very short courses (e.g., 0.5 hours) with extensive certifications (e.g., 300 hours), without quality ratings or user reviews to guide selection, leading to potential inconsistency.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.