This post is written by a guest author, Jessica Crawley, who is a data science enthusiast and who has hands on experience with DataQuest. Here is her honest review.

Hi! My names Jessica and I'm 24 years old and in the past few years I've been looking at getting into computer science and more specifically data science. I find it to be a really interesting subject and I'm always looking for ways to better my knowledge in the data science area.

Mid-last year I stumbled upon DataQuest.io after seeing a post on Reddit in the /r/datascience subreddit, it had some good comments being said about it and some not-so-good ones too. I decided to check it out and I went on the website to see what all the fuss was about.

I was really tempted to sign up there and then, it looked like it was exactly my kind of thing and I was looking to get more into data science, but the price tag scared me away a bit as I'd not been working for awhile at that time and budgets were low. So, I left it for a bit and forgot about it.

A few weeks afterwards, a friend of mine told me he'd signed up for DataCamp and I mistakenly thought he meant DataQuest.io due to the similar names and I was surprised when he told me it was only $29 per month for the full set of courses. I thought maybe DataQuest.io had adjusted their pricing and I eagerly went on the website and was disappointed to find that the full set of courses was still $49/month. The basic version was available for $29 per month so I assumed my friend had just bought the basic version and not realized all the courses were not included.

I was more interested in Data Science at this point and I had recently gotten a job. And even though I hadn't really saved up enough money to justify buying the course, the glaring recommendation by my friend and the projects he was telling me he was working on got me excited and jealous enough to take a financial risk.

I paid the full $49/month for all the courses in DataQuest.io and begun my journey into data science! I was excited and for the first weekend, I did little else than eat, sleep and data science! And every night after work, I'd be doing more of the course. I got fairly far into the course and I was enjoying it but I was wondering when I was going to get to the projects my friend had been telling me about.

All became clear when I met him for coffee and he confirmed it was actually DataCamp, NOT DataQuest he had signed up to! That made a lot of sense. I took a look at DataCamp's website and they both looked pretty similar. I did a Google search for Datacamp vs Dataquest and that is actually how I ended up a reader (and now contributor) of this blog!

It looked like they were both fairly well respected places to learn data science, but DataCamp had the upper hand on quite a few things, including price. I was a little bit tempted to switch over to DataCamp, if not only to save on the money and I asked myself "Is dataquest worth it?" but I figured I'd already made a commitment to DataQuest, so I'd carry on as long as I could afford it.

Unfortunately, that didn't last for long. Not too long after that, I was let go from my job. Not even because I did anything wrong, the company was just downsizing.  Frustrated, I had to cancel my subscription, at least until I got another job.

I told my friend how frustrated I was and he did something a little naughty - he gave me access to his DataCamp account. I didn't want to start all over again but starting again with DataCamp was the only choice I had at that time, and I was hungry to learn more with data science.

Immediately, I noticed a difference. DataCamp was laid out in a completely different manner. I breezed through the early lessons (as you might expect as many of it was taught to me in DataQuest) and when I got onto the projects, that's where I noticed the REAL difference! The projects were MUCH more exciting. Much more interesting and I felt like I was really learning something with real world applications.

After spending a few weeks working on DataCamp using my friends account, I managed to get another job and I had to make the decision on whether to go back to DataQuest or stick with Datacamp. It was a question of DataCamp vs DataQuest... who wins?

Well, from my point of view the money mattered. So immediately I thought of getting my own DataCamp account (although I could have stuck with using my friends - it wasn't ideal and I did feel kinda bad for misusing the service). DataCamp was cheaper and the quality of the lessons were much higher.

I'd been given a unique opportunity to compare both services, and in my honest opinion, if you were to ask me is DataQuest worth it, I'd say Yes - BUT and it's a big but. But, compared to DataCamp, it's just no competition. DataCamp wins hands down in every category.

If you're looking for a course in data science and you're wondering whether DataQuest is worth it, I would recommend you go with DataCamp instead. They are cheaper and provide a higher quality service.

That is my DataQuest review - they're great but DataCamp is better! If you're still not sure, this blog has a great DataCamp review and they also have the DataCamp Vs DataQuest comparison page too.