14 Best Online Growth Hacking Courses (2021) by Ward van Gasteren

In short: Best Growth Marketing Courses 2024

At this moment, these are the 5 best growth hacking courses:1. CXL, Growth Marketing Degree – $1392 – 🏆 Best in General 20242. GWW, 2024 Full Beginner Course – $299 – 🏆 Best for Beginners3. Reforge, Growth Series – $1999/year – 🏆 Best Advanced4. GrowClass, Full Certificate + Community – $19995. Growth Tribe, Growth Marketing Certificate – $495

What should you learn to become a Growth Hacker?

There is a lot of confusion about what growth hacking really is, causing a lot of smaller online training on public platforms such as Udemy, Skillshare and Coursera, to have a much lower quality.

Unfortunately, those courses are of very low quality. They earn their money by promising you to go ‘viral’ if you use their techniques or by advising you to use slightly illegal tactics. You will grow quickly, but it’s certainly not profitable in the long run (or even more damaging!).

In another blog, I explain what the most important Growth Hacking skills are in 2024. The most important thing that you should learn, are the ‘fundamental skills’ for Growth Hackers: This involves understanding processes, models and mindset. Think of controlling the GROWS process, the Pirate Funnel and the Growth Hacking Mindset.

Thanks to the fundamental skills, you will soon be able to think for yourself instead of simply repeating the same structure over and over.

In addition, you should learn a basic set of skills (the General Skills), so that you can set up your own Growth Hacking experiments.

Below are the four online courses that teach you correctly how Growth Marketing works.

Top 5 Online Growth Hacking Courses

There are many online courses around Growth Hacking, but there are a few that really stand out, while many other online courses have jumped on the hype surrounding Growth Hacking for startups, causing a much lower quality.

Therefore, here are the four best online growth hacking courses, so you can really learn how Growth Hacking works:

1. CXL – Growth Marketing Mini Degree – €1392

CXL, once started as Conversion XL, has a very extensive (114 hours of video!) Online Growth Marketing course, in which you can also learn all specific growth marketing skills. The total course costs €1392 euro.

The online training environment of the CXL Growth Marketing Minidegree is perhaps too extensive: with 114 hours of videos about everything from Project Management for Growth Marketers to specific Google Tag Manager videos, this course may be too extensive for people who only want to learn the basics of growth hacking.

On the other hand, I believe this is the best environment for existing growth hackers to further develop their skills.

The CXL Growth Marketing Minidegree is provided by several teachers, so the quality varies slightly, but they always have experts in their field, like Peep Laja, Morgan Brown, Sean Ellis, David Arnoux, John McBride, and many others.

In addition to the Mini Degree, CXL has an online growth hacking course called Product-Led Growth by Wesley Bush. This course focuses specifically on SaaS growth hacking. Unfortunately, this extra course is only available as part of a $199/month CXL membership.

2. Grow with Ward – 2024 Full Beginner Course – €299

Grow with Ward is my personal website. I wouldn’t put myself in first place because there are other courses that are even more comprehensive, but this course contains everything a beginning growth marketer should know about Growth Hacking, in terms of process, theory and skills.

What makes this course unique & different from others?

• Affordable – where the others cost €800 to €2000, this one costs €299 for a complete overview.
• Made for beginner Growth Marketers, so just really understand the basics well.
• Focused on process rather than just quick hacks, so you won’t fall behind when a new tool or technique pops up either. Instead I’ll explain how the day-to-day process works, how to plan & track your Growth Experiments and how to make a bigger impact.

In this growth hacking course, you’ll learn:

• The theory of how Growth Hacking really works
• The frameworks for long-term growth, such as GROWS, AAARRR & LIFT
• The skills you really need while working (from Data & Dev, to Ads & Social)
• Finally, a long list of learning resources so you know where to stay to keep getting better and better

Bekijk de cursus op: school.growwithward.com

3. Reforge – Growth Series – $1999/year

The Reforge Growth Series is the most exclusive online training in growth hacking and has clearly been made for experienced growth hackers with 3+ years of experience. The course was originally developed by Brian Balfour and he involved several growth hacking experts to teach it.

Reforge’s online courses last 6 weeks and cost 5-10 hours per week on average, consisting of consuming teaching materials, hands-on exercises and online sessions.

The costs are no joke either: participation costs $3,495…

In addition to the Growth Series, which is mainly intended for the basic knowledge of Growth Hacking, Reforge organizes a few specialist online growth marketing courses:

• Retention + Engagement Course
• Experimentation + Testing Course
• Pricing + Monetization Course
• Advanced Growth Strategy Course

Note: For all Reforge online courses, you must register in advance as some sort of application process and you will have to wait to be admitted.

4. GrowClass – Certification + Community -$1999

GrowClass is to me the best choice for founders to learn growth hacking for their startups. They’re also catering to marketers, but I see that their community is one of the strongest selling points to learn growth hacking, including co-working sessions, accountability buddies & office hours to ask your questions.

The course has been created by Sarah Stockdale as has been live for 3+ years now. Previously, she’s worked as Growth/Marketing Manager or as a startup founder herself. See this video where she introduces the class:

The Full Certificate consists of 8-weeks of live classes and video lessons. During these 8 weeks of modules, you’ll discuss everything from creating a full growth strategy plan to actually implementing your ads & analytics. In the end you can put your own Growth Marketing Certificate on your LinkedIn 👉

Again, I think they stand out as one of the best ways to learn from experts with real-world experience in a friendly, approachable environment. Their membership also includes a 12-month membership for their moderated community.

Have a look at GrowClass.

5. Growth Tribe Academy – €495

Growth Tribe is one of the most well-known brands around learning Growth Marketing. You may already have seen some of their videos where David Arnoux discusses tools, tips and tricks around Growth Hacking or maybe you have considered joining one of their webinars.

For a long time, they only provided training and traineeships from their head office in Amsterdam or one of their other offices in Europe. However, since the Corona pandemic in March 2020, Growth Tribe has put all their focus on online courses and turned their entire website into online growth hacking training courses within a few days.

Currently, they provide two online courses in growth marketing:

• 3-Day Growth Marketing Crash Course for €1,197 (≈ $1,397) excl. VAT
• 6-Week Growth Marketing Evening Course for €1,997 (≈ $2,297) excl. VAT

What is striking about the online courses of Growth Tribe is that they are not self-paced, but consist of several days of live, interactive training courses. You will then receive additional in-depth material to learn more at your own pace.

I have also experienced the courses of Growth Tribe a few years ago and can confirm that they provide top quality training!

All four of the above courses will teach you what growth hacking is and thus you will become a growth hacker. Although of course you still have to put it into practice 😉

Smaller Online Courses on Growth Hacking

To be complete, I wanted to list all online growth hacking courses.

But … the quality of these courses is not too high in my opinion, so I would definitely use your common sense before buying these courses.

• Ultimate Beginners Course to Growth Hacking 101 – $299
• GrowthHackers – Growth Master Training – $399
• Skillshare – Basics of Growth Marketing – $15/mo (for Skillshare membership)
• Foundr.com – $297
• Growth Hacker Marketing Course – $59
• GrowHack – $1,699
• OneMonth – $29.99/mo
• GrowthHackingCourse.io – $599
• Gimme Growth – $500
• Udemy – Funnel Optimization – €124.99
• Udemy – GH for Startups – €34.99
• GrowthX Academy – $1750

Extra tips to learn Growth Hacking

Do you want to learn growth hacking? Then, of course, there are other places where you can learn more about growth hacking:

• I spend a lot of time on my own Grow with Ward blog, where I try to explain all the topics within Growth Marketing as well as possible so that beginners can understand it from A to Z.
• Also visit the GrowthHackers.com forum, where growth hackers from all over the world share articles.
• And you will have to practice – practice – practice! Sorry

Good luck!

P.s. if you have any questions, you can always message me at my LinkedIn.

FAQ on Online Growth Hacking Classes

For beginners looking to become a growth hacker, I would recommend starting with GrowthHackers.com’s online course called Complete Beginners Guide to Growth Hacking. This training is reasonably affordable at $299. It is definitely the best, affordable online course on growth marketing.If you really want to learn full Growth Hacking and money is not a problem then I would go for the Growth Tribe 3 Day Crash Course. Note: this is live and interactive, so it cannot be performed at your own pace.

For advanced growth hackers who want to further develop in Growth Marketing, it depends on whether you want to develop more in-depth/seniority or further develop wide/skills.For seniority, I would recommend the Reforge Advanced Growth Strategy online course. This course is more focused on becoming a Growth Leader.If you mainly want to develop skills and are still medior, I would recommend taking a subscription at CXL Institute and get their online Growth Marketing Minidegree.

Unfortunately, there are no free online growth hacking courses.If you want to keep an eye on your budget, I would go for the Growth Masters Training by GrowthHackers University. At $ 299, this is the best, inexpensive option yet.Personally, I wouldn’t go for one of the smaller and perhaps cheaper online courses, because then you really lay the wrong foundation for your new growth hacking career.Maybe it’s even better to start with a good, basic Growth Hacking book.

Or rather, what should you learn?The quality of online growth hacking courses varies enormously! Many courses originated during the buzzword period of Growth Hacking and only talk about ‘going viral with your startup’, while nowadays it is really a serious field.In another blog, I explain the most important Growth Hacking skills in 2024. The most important thing you should learn are the ‘fundamental skills’ for Growth Hackers: This involves understanding working methods, models and mindset. Think of controlling the G.R.O.W.S.process, the Pirate Funnel and the Growth Hacking Mindset.Thanks to those fundamental skills, you will soon be able to think for yourself instead of simply repeating the same thing over and over.In addition, you should learn a basic set of skills (the Generalistic Skills) so that you can set up your own Growth Hacking experiments.