I think the main difference lies in the end goal of the student. We train people that are looking to become software engineers. People that are looking to dedicate the rest of their life to creating software. The Starter League is more suited for founders looking to build a prototype, or people of other professions looking to gain basic competency in tech.
Their classes are 96 hours, we total over 500. We also have around a minimum of an 1:8 ratio of instructor to student.
I think the last major difference is that we set up an employer day at the end and recruit companies looking to hire junior developers. Two weeks on from the graduation of the current class we've had over 13 students with offers at an average of above $83,000.
We also cost $12,000 versus their $8,000 (for the most comparable course).
I've met Neal, and some of the guys from Starter League and they're amazing. They're going to keep crushing it, now with the power of 37signals! Good job guys.
We're very supportive of Shereef and his team at DevBootcamp. Thankfully we've got the Ruby Dojo http://starterleague.com/dojo (which also sports an 8:1 student/instructor ratio) this quarter which serves a similar audience to DevBootcamp's cohort with training for people aspiring to become software engineers. And class/hours/ratio comparison is a bit different, since it's a full time commitment for our students as they often work in our space at http://1871.com 24/7 and practice around the clock with mentors, fellow students, and the many startups that are looking for development support. While we aren't explicitly jobs/placement focused, our outcomes have been similar to that of DevBootcamp for our students that have aspirations to become software engineers.
I believe Code Academy was around before DevBootcamp, since they've been around for a couple of years now. They teach more than just Ruby, they have a co-working space and are based in Chicago.
DevBootcamp teaches you the full stack for being a Rails developer too, not just Ruby. I'd say they differentiate by getting 80-90% of their students entry level development jobs after and that's a core part of their bootcamps.
"DevBootcamp teaches you the full stack for being a Rails developer too, not just Ruby."
We teach way more than just Ruby. Our Web App Development course covers the same material as the Dev Bootcamp offering. We also have a User Experience course and two HTML/CSS classes. Over the past year our students have wanted us to teach MORE Ruby which is in part why we have finally added an Advanced Ruby offering to our lineup.
Another differentiating factor is that we are not focused on just helping our students get jobs. Students who apply to The Starter League have a lot of different goals in mind. Some want jobs, some have startups that they are looking to grow or get off the ground, and some just want the ability to take what's in their head and make it real through software. Our priority at The Starter League is to create the environment where all these goals can thrive.
For students who want jobs, we have an environment that can helps network with the local community to find those opportunities. For those who want to build companies, we are located in 1871 (http://1871.com) which is the new mecca of Chicago digital entrepreneurship.
We have a lot of respect for what Shereef has been able to do with DevBootcamp, and we wish him continued success! It's great that the software education landscape has grown this much in just a year's time.
DevBootcamp: http://devbootcamp.com/ http://m.techcrunch.com/2012/05/10/dev-boot-camp-is-a-ruby-s...