What you need to know
- Hopscotch is making video tutorials free to all users.
- The app makes coding easy and fun to learn for kids.
Last year iMore's Lory Gil sat down for an interview with the founders of Hopscotch, a platform that makes learning how to code easy and fun for kids. Today, the company has announced that it will be opening up even more lessons to new and aspirational coders for free.
For the last few years, the company has offered a subscription service that includes access to "advanced coding features and video tutorials that could take you from beginner to advanced while creating fun games that you actually wanted to play." While they are extremely helpful to those who want to learn, some have been unable to access that content due to the paywall.
Samantha John, one of the co-founders of Hopscotch, says that all of these video tutorials are now free to all users. The company wanted to add more value to those who are new to coding while focusing its paid service on those who are moving on to more advanced coding.
"Starting today, we've made the video tutorials available for free to all users! We've wanted to focus the subscription more on advanced users while giving learners the best possible materials to improve their coding skills and become ready to be subscribers."
John says that, while the company has wanted to make this change for some time, Apple's launch of the App Store Small Business Program gave them the breathing room to take that step.
"This is something we've wanted to do for a while. And recently, Apple announced that they would cut developer fees for small companies to 15% ... that announcement helped give us the courage to take the plunge and do something that will be way better for our users and set up the company for long-term success."
You can download the Hopscotch app for free from the App Store.
