When I embarked on the internet to find examples of growth hacking, I found, well, too many of them. From niche companies I hadn’t heard of, to global giants—everyone used it to get users or go viral. My favorite example was how Discord gained its first few thousand users.

A few months after the launch, growth was stagnant. So they found a Final Fantasy 14 subreddit and told their friends to ask people for feedback on this “new app” that they’d downloaded. They got 50 users that day, 50 the next, and it snowballed over the next months.

The reason I love this example is that it’s simple. They had a goal, chose an unconventional method to achieve it, took a blind chance, and scored.

This is what growth marketing is—high-impact results with a low-cost strategy and a side of a “let’s see what happens” approach.

While the strategy may seem easy, it is born from rapid experimentation, analytical understanding, and creativity. You need to practice these, but first, you’ve got to learn.

So I’ve picked seven growth hacking courses to learn from in 2025.

• What is growth hacking?
• Why trust us and why these courses?
• The best growth hacking courses in 2025

The best growth hacking courses in 2025

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What is growth hacking?

Sean Ellis, the father of the growth hacking movement, defined it as a process of rapid experimentation across the full customer journey to accelerate customer and revenue growth.

To lay it simply, it is the use of resource-light and cost-effective digital marketing tactics to help grow and retain an active user base, sell products, and gain exposure.

It’s not the same as traditional marketing which works on building brand awareness and attracting leads in a sustainable and long-term way.

The need for growth hacking and hackers is increasing as small businesses and startups want to grow more with fewer resources. Today, 7,000 growth hacking agencies are registered on LinkedIn. Plus there has been around 138% increase in growth hacking blogs in the last two years.

While blogs are a great learning resource, how about courses that we vouch for? Here are our seven picks!

Why trust us and why these courses?

At Class Central, we are always on the lookout for new courses that keep up with current work trends. If you look at our database, we’ve got 250,000 online courses, from chess basics to data science. We want to help you choose your next course without having to search on different learning platforms.

Now, let’s see how I’ve picked these courses.

Since growth hacking isn’t traditional marketing and it’s a relatively new concept, there are limited courses out there. Most of them are paid (even expensive) and I’ve chosen free and paid courses

Apart from this, I’ve chosen courses that offer:

• Diverse content: Some focus on creating a growth hacking mindset, some rely on case studies, while some are heavy on analytics and metrics
• Level of learning: Most of the courses in the list are beginner-friendly since the need for growth hacking is still building
• Instructor experience: I’ve chosen courses with instructors who are experienced growth marketers or have crafted marketing courses extensively
• Certification: Most of the courses offer certifications, which could be helpful for those seeking employment

Now, let’s get to the 7 best growth hacking courses.

Full Beginners Course to Growth Hacking with Ward van Gasteren (University by GrowthHackers)

• Level: Beginner
• Rating: 4.3 (8,358 ratings)
• Duration: Approx 5 hours
• Cost: Paid ($299 with 50% off for students)

If you’re new to marketing in general and can invest in a course, I’d suggest you take this course. The instructor, Ward van Gasteren, is one of Europe’s first certified growth hackers and has worked with 70+ clients including TikTok, StartupBootcamp, Cisco, and KPMG.

Since growth hacking is about achieving more with fewer resources, it’s crucial to have strong basics. This certificate course offers you an idea of what growth hacking is, the skills you need to become one, and even the frameworks, templates, and models to ace it.

Plus, you get a personalized development plan as a bonus!

What sets it apart?

• The course materials are extensive, filled with worksheets, external resources, and even the instructor, Ward van Gasteren’s personal tools
• You get unlimited access to this course on any and all of your devices
• The instructor updates the course to keep up with trends and learning patterns
• It offers a dedicated learning experience, as it includes homework and self-understanding frameworks. Plus, Ward van Gasteren is eager to improve the course, so he’s always open to feedback.

What you may not like:

It is a financial investment ($299), but it also offers a well-rounded learning experience from an instructor who has been in the industry for years.

Please note: The 50% discount is available when you email the team with proof that you’re a student to info@growthhackers.com.

Who is it for?

• University students who want to learn about growth marketing (again, you get a 50% discount!)
• Small business owners or entrepreneurs who want growth tools and templates at their disposal
• Marketing employees who want to expand their marketing strategies

150 Digital Marketing Growth Hacks for Businesses (Udemy)

• Level: Beginner
• Rating: 4.7 (7,272 ratings)
• Duration: 20 hours 52 minutes
• Cost: Paid

“To the Point, Practical and Actionable. 100% Practical and no bullshit” – this review pretty much sums up this course.

More than a learning experience, this course is a tutorial on how to scale quickly and big on different platforms—Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, even Quora, and others.

This is a fast-paced certificate course that includes hacks that you can apply for free (except for one). This is a beginner course that offers straightforward tips and actionable directions to increase views, engagement, or even business.

What sets it apart?

• It has a section on using ChatGPT for growth hacking
• It uses tools, templates, and articles to make learning easier
• You get lifetime access to future updates
• It is taught by Robin and Jesper, who are instructors of 24 Udemy courses and have taught 480,081 students

What you might not like:

• It’s an absolute beginner’s course, so if you’re well-versed in marketing, you may not find it useful
• The strategies are growth-oriented and if you prefer traditional marketing, you might not see them as viable marketing tactics
• Some learners found it too basic, but many others have found winning growth tactics too

Who is it for?

• Small business owners who want instant hacks to grow their customer base
• Students who want to learn diverse marketing tactics
• Marketers who want to explore different platforms to grow their companies

Grow Your Business Through Growth Hacking Experiments (Skillshare)

• Level: Beginner
• Duration: 1 hour 8 minutes
• Cost: Paid (Free trial of 7 days)

Growth hacking is about experimentation. It requires continuous testing of ideas until you find one that escalates your growth.

This course focuses on building the right mindset for growth hacking and how to leverage it to get the best results. It also has a step-by-step approach to growth hacking, making it easy to implement it.

It also highlights global companies that have implemented successful growth hacking methodologies and grown exponentially.

What sets it apart:

• It has worksheets, templates, and checklists for seamless implementation
• It’s a mixture of theoretical knowledge and case studies
• The final project involves working on an experimental framework that would be ready to implement
• Since it’s just an hour-long class, it’s a concise learning experience to begin your growth hacking journey with
• Oren, the instructor, is the founder of Kurve; a London-based, growth marketing consultancy specializing in disruptive scale-ups

What you might not like:

Again, this one is a beginner’s course that’ll put you in the growth hacking mindset and offer you simple tips to implement it. If you have marketing knowledge, this course might not offer much too much insight.

Who is it for?

• SaaS entrepreneurs who want to test their software/platforms
• Marketers who work in product-based startups
• New business owners who are targeting a broad audience for their product/service

Please note: Since this class is just an hour long, you can sign up for the free trial and complete it until your 7-day free trial ends.

Growth Hacking with Digital Marketing (Now with AI!) (Udemy)

• Level: Intermediate (Beginner-friendly if you know marketing concepts)
• Rating: 4.3 (8,361 ratings)
• Duration: 8 hours 16 minutes
• Cost: Paid

What intrigued me about this course was the line, “This course is used by teams at PayPal, IBM, Citibank & many other successful organizations!”

It’s not a beginner’s course, so knowledge of marketing concepts such as SEO, funnels, Google Analytics, etc is helpful. If you know the general metrics and want to dive head-first into a growth hacking course, go for this one.

This certificate course covers different approaches to growth hacking—building user personas, leveraging data, creating content, getting viral, and even building a growth-focused user experience. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

What sets it apart?

• It’s heavy on data and metrics, which is crucial in growth hacking
• It also has an expert interview with Sean Ellis, the father of growth hacking
• The course has been updated six times since it launched, and it claims to go hand-in-hand with modern digital marketing
• The instructor, Davis Jones, is the Chief Learning Officer for Eazl, a business school whose courseware is used by organizations like Tesla®, Harvard, the World Bank, and more

What you might not like:

• The course has few examples and mostly focuses on theory
• It might feel rushed as they cover several concepts, but you can go at your own pace
• A few learners said that the background noise and animations were overpowering, you can view the previews to check if it works for you

Who is it for?

• Digital marketers who want to work on different data metrics
• Marketers who want quick results for their companies
• Small business owners with a lean budget

Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content by University of Pennsylvania (Coursera)

• Level: Beginner
• Rating: 4.8 (5,240 ratings)
• Duration: 4 hours
• Cost: Free to audit

Small businesses want to go viral, be known among their target audience, and have an organic reach in the community.

This course teaches you how to create a buzz about a brand. It focuses on the science of virality and the art of making a product/service memorable. It also breaks down the power of having a meaningful influence on potential customers.

By the end of this course, you will know how to decode another business’s virality and take lessons from it.

What sets it apart?

• This is a relatively short course (4 hours) but it gets you in the mindset of creating viral brands
• It offers frameworks and models that make understanding human behavior easy.
• The instructor, Jonah Berger, is the author of the bestselling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On. He is an expert on word of mouth, social influence, consumer behavior and a marketing professor at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

What you might not like:

• The course is for beginners, so it’s best to audit it, as per some of the other learners
• It is also mostly theoretical and has few examples of how businesses create viral content

Who is it for?

• Entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to market their products on social media
• Marketers who want to learn more about influencing people and building organic reach
• Social media influencers or marketers who want to create viral content

Growth Hacks for Entrepreneurs (Udemy)

• Level: Intermediate requires some knowledge of business and marketing)
• Rating: 4.6 (591 ratings)
• Duration: 3 hours 35 minutes
• Cost: Paid

You can learn from theories, tools, and reading material, but this course teaches you with examples. Learn how Ryanair, Uber, Tesla, and more companies came up with “eureka” moments that transformed their growth trajectory.

If you cater to small businesses or have a business with a tight marketing budget, this course will inspire you to test hacks that’ll fast-track your sales. It teaches through theory, but largely, it discusses case studies, which the instructor has chosen among hundreds.

The course helps you build sustainable growth hacking strategies. Plus, it adds a sense of judgment to gauge the potentiality of a growth hack.

What sets it apart?

• It will help you grow niche businesses or companies with low-cost business models
• The course is simple, straightforward and according to some learners, very concise
• It offers tips and showcases examples of how other companies implemented those tips to grow
• Asen Gyczew, the instructor, is an expert in performance improvement, scaling businesses, and turning around companies. He has used his experience of 15 years to create this course

What you might not like:

Some learners claim that the instructor’s voice gets monotonous. You can watch the previews and check if the tone works for you (and there’s always the option to speed up).

Who is it for?

• Business owners or founders who want to build a sustainable growth hacking mindset
• Marketers who want to learn from case studies
• Students who want to expand their knowledge about real-time marketing

Growth Hacking in 2021 by Neil Patel (YouTube)

• Level: Intermediate
• Duration: Approx 4 hours
• Cost: Free

Neil Patel is synonymous with digital marketing and for good reason! This isn’t technically a course, but it has a list of YouTube videos that teach you how to gain more views, more sales, and more demand.

It has 37 videos that cover hacks to improve SEO, conduct an efficient competition analysis, drive website traffic, leverage Google ads, and much more. Neil also talks about other companies like Amazon and his own, to show applications of growth hacking.

The name claims it’s from 2021, but most of the analytical and technical knowledge is relevant today.

What sets it apart?

• Since it’s a list of videos, you can choose to learn from the ones that resonate with your marketing problem
• The videos are loaded with hacks, tools, examples, and resources
• The course caters to different KPIs, for instance, you can use it to get traffic to your website, understand how YouTube works, or even rank higher. It’s a multipurpose course!
• The instructor, Neil Patel, is a marketing legend and has helped companies like HP and Viacom to grow their revenue

What you might not like:

• Since the videos aren’t in a particular order, the information may seem difficult to find
• Some content might be outdated since it has videos from over six years ago, but Neil Patel’s blog is another goldmine of growth hacking knowledge!

Who is it for?

• Marketers who want to leverage different digital platforms for growth hacking
• Small business owners and entrepreneurs looking for ways to grow
• Students who want to learn about growth hacking and marketing on a tight budget

These courses can teach you growth hacking, but it’s a long-term skill that sharpens as you practice it. Don’t forget to keep your experimental hat on and be open to finding growth opportunities everywhere!