Looking for help with coding but don’t know where to go? Thankfully there are tons of online forums and communities where developers will answer questions and help you solve problems.
Reddit is one of the largest social sites out there and it’s one of the the best resources for finding quick coding help. You just need to know where to look.
I’ve curated the best subreddits for everything related to web development & backend programming. Whether you’re doing frontend HTML/CSS or some backend Node.js there’s a subreddit out there that can help.
1. r/WebDev
By far the largest community and best place to start is the r/WebDev subreddit.
It’s heavily populated with over 160k subscribers and growing larger every month. This is the de-facto “main” subreddit for talking about all things webdev including both frontend & backend code, career advice, open source projects, helpful tools and much more.
It does move fast and the front page is full of new topics on a daily basis. Thankfully it’s also an active community and if you post a good question you’re bound to get a response.
I recommend this more as a starting point if you have simple questions or want advice from a larger group. The webdev community is vast and this subreddit offers a direct link to gather advice or critiques on your work.
2. r/Frontend
Here’s a slightly smaller sub geared more towards HTML/CSS work. The r/Frontendcommunity is packed with great tips and news about the frontend landscape.
Everything related to frontend development is welcome including critiques, open source projects, and of course questions from noob-tier basics to more advanced subjects.
This sub is fairly sizeable with an active audience and 27k subscribers.
Since it’s smaller you won’t need to worry about questions being pushed off the front page too fast. But it also may take a little longer to get replies so don’t get too antsy with new posts!
3. r/CSS
Getting even more specific is the CSS subreddit dedicated to all things Cascading Stylesheets.
Again it’s a fairly small sub but the total community size matches the same as /r/frontend. So it’s definitely a great place to go for answers to your questions, or to find suggestions on how to build something.
The front page is full of advice and tips for coders trying to learn new techniques in the world of CSS. Everything from flexbox to CSS animation and every other topic you can think of can be found here.
No matter what your background or experience level I definitely recommend the /r/CSS community for relevant code advice.
4. r/AskProgramming
If you want a community dedicated to answering questions then you want the AskProgramming subreddit.
It’s not a huge resource but it is very active with members posting every day. It’s also one of the few places where you can get immediate answers without being downvoted for asking a stupid question(or for no reason, it is Reddit).
This sub is really made for anyone who has questions about programming in general. It does feature plenty of topics unrelated to the world of webdev. But you can learn a lot from those questions too and of course you’ll find plenty of web topics mixed in.
Although you should probably have some understanding of programming before asking anything here. You certainly don’t need to be an expert but it helps if you’re not a total noob either.
Think of this place more like a support group with experienced programmers willing to help you out, but only if you’ve done some of the legwork yourself.
5. r/LearnProgramming
One of the largest coding subs on Reddit is r/LearnProgramming.
Just as the name suggests it’s a massive community of beginners and intermediate-level coders hoping to pick up a new language(or learn their first one).
It’s an excellent resource for asking questions about how to get started, which books to study for web dev, or which online courses will help you learn to build websites.
But since this is a general programming subreddit it’s also very much involved with other languages. You’ll find a ton of posts on Ruby, C#, Python, and other popular languages. Many times these can be used on the web but they’re rarely a beginner’s language.
Either way this sub is really a mixing ground for everyone and it’s the perfect place for beginners to ask questions without feeling obnoxious.
6. r/Coding
I can’t say the r/Coding subreddit is the absolute best resource for a beginner. But it is one of the strongest places to start if you’re unsure of what you wanna learn.
This community offers a nice mix of discussion threads, general questions, and news posts talking about the latest information in the world of coding. It is not just a web-related forum although it does have a lot of content in that area.
Really the /r/coding subreddit is useful for picking up tidbits from other developers on the process of coding. This might include the npm package manager or even setting up a typical IDE workflow for learning HTML/CSS on your own.
Either way this is a sub you should definitely check out if you’re interested in web coding as a career.
7. r/JavaScript
The biggest and baddest of all the frontend languages has to be JavaScript. This language started off as a small standard created by a developer at Netscape.
Over the past couple decades JavaScript has become a must-learn language for modern development. And the r/JavaScript subreddit is the place to be if you’re hoping to learn more, share advice, ask questions, or just consume a bit of daily JS wisdom.
There is no way anyone could master all of JavaScript. It’s just such a huge area with hundreds of frameworks and libraries that build upon vanilla JS code.
I personally think it’s best to specialize and focus on one area at a time. If you’re brand new then try reading some guides and asking questions as you have them. But I don’t recommend this JS subreddit for absolute novices.
Instead think of this place as a professional-level discussion board. If you bring a question to the table you should be thoughtful and try to respect the advice of others.
And you can try searching Google first to see if anyone else has asked your question in the past.
8. r/LearnJavaScript
Now here’s one of the better communities for getting started as a beginner. r/LearnJavaScript is solely meant for anyone who really doesn’t understand the JS process and needs to ask some pretty newbie questions.
You might get answers on the main JS sub if you ask newbie stuff, but really you’ll get more info from the Learn JavaScript community.
It’s a pretty large sub with about 30k subscribers and a handful of new posts every day. You’d be surprised what kinds of questions get asked here and it’s not very hard for your post to hit the front page.
Sometimes you’ll also find articles and tutorials shared from other members who found some content valuable on the web. Bookmark any links that grab your attention and try going through them at a later date.
But this is really the best support community for aspiring JS devs. Commenters are usually more than willing to help so long as you provide enough details on your problem.
9. r/PHP
The largest backend web language in the world is PHP. This powers most of the big CMS engines including WordPress so it’s no surprise that the PHP subreddit would be massive.
This place does support general webdev/WordPress topics although it’s more focused on the PHP language itself.
Posts range from news updates to questions and even developers asking how to approach a certain problem. These aren’t usually complex algorithmic problems but they are issues that web developers face every day.
You can also find posts offering advice on speeding up website performance since PHP can run a tad slow. Although it’s still the most used open source backend language so it’s gonna be around for a while.
10. r/WordPress
Piggybacking on the PHP subreddit is the ever-popular WordPress sub.
Since WordPress now powers more than 25% of the Internet it’s fair to say this CMS is worth learning. And if you’re having trouble with WordPress this community can help.
It’s one of the better subs to gather code snippets and helpful plugins that are bound to increase your WordPress coding process.
You can get support for everything from theme development to plugin development and even common problems you may face when building your functions.php file. WordPress is truly its own ecosystem so you need to feel comfortable learning the ropes.
This community does run a bit slower than others but you’ll still get really helpful responses if you’re patient.
11. r/ProWordPress
Are you already pretty skilled at WordPress development? Know your way around the backend and feel very comfortable building new themes from scratch?
Then you might prefer the r/ProWordPress subreddit along with the default. This pro-level sub is a lot smaller with only 3k subscribers and far fewer posts(maybe one per week).
However it’s also a lot more technical and it’s probably one of the better places to ask complex programming topics.
My first recommendation is actually the WordPress Stack site because it’s full of talented coders who specifically make time to answer questions. But as another resource the /r/ProWordPress subreddit is definitely something to check out.
12. r/Learnwebdev
While this subreddit is very small I do think it’s a great resource for absolute beginners. Plus it’s a small enough community that even a couple active members would really make a difference.
r/Learnwebdev aims to help people learn web development from scratch. It’s the best place to start learning and the best place to find learning materials. However because it’s such a small community there aren’t too many new posts, maybe 3-4 per week.
It’s also built to support text questions for beginners who want to post a thread about a specific problem. But in that case you might do better asking other communities dedicated to that specific language, or posting on the main webdev subreddit.
The reason you’d join this community is for the free resources and lack of competition with new posts. You can write up a thread and it’ll stay on the front page for at least a week leaving plenty of time for others to respond.
But since it’s pretty low volume I don’t know if this will prove incredibly helpful.
13. r/Rails
If you wanna move beyond PHP development then you’ll probably choose between either Ruby or Python. Both languages are super popular on the web and they’re both heavily supported in most server environments.
And the best Ruby framework you can learn is Rails which has its own support forum brimming with advice for all skill levels.
I usually recommend Rails for anyone moving beyond PHP since the RoR framework forces you to learn best coding practices. You can find similar frameworks for Python but they just aren’t as structured or as popular.
The /r/rails community is an excellent place to ask questions and gather feedback on your project work if you choose to learn Ruby. It’s a decently sized community with 20k subscribers and new threads pop up every day.
Give it a go if you’re itching to dive into backend development and want something beyond PHP.
Now Get Coding!
Support communities are great but they’re no replacement for hard work. If you want to learn web development you’ll need to put in the hours and really practice.