# Josh W Comeau

> Josh W Comeau is a Montreal-based frontend developer, indie course creator, and one of the most beloved CSS and React educators on the internet. After stints at Unsplash, Shopify, Khan Academy, and Gatsby, he left corporate engineering in 2020 to build interactive, deeply original courses that generated over $550,000 in presale revenue. His CSS for JavaScript Developers and The Joy of React courses have taught more than 28,000 developers through a teaching style that blends interactive widgets, mini-games, and the rare gift of building genuine mental models rather than just showing code.

- **Role:** Independent Course Creator & Developer Educator
- **Organizations:** joshwcomeau.com, CSS for JavaScript Developers, The Joy of React
- **Nationality:** Canadian
- **Education:** Web Development Bootcamp (Ruby-based), BitMaker Labs
- **Known for:** Generated $550,000+ in revenue from CSS for JavaScript Developers course presale and launch, Hit $50,000 presale target in approximately 10 minutes, Taught more than 28,000 developers through interactive online courses

## Career timeline

- **2007** — Started tinkering with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- **2014** — Attended BitMaker Labs bootcamp in Toronto
- **2015** — Switched to React development professionally
- **2016** — Released react-flip-move open source library (~500k NPM downloads/month)
- **2016-2018** — Engineer at Unsplash
- **2018-2019** — Engineer at Khan Academy (independent learner team)
- **2019-2020** — Engineer at Gatsby Inc.
- **2020** — Developed Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, worked hands-free using Talon Voice and eye-tracking
- **2020** — Left corporate engineering to become full-time indie course creator
- **2021** — Launched CSS for JavaScript Developers - hit $50k presale target in 10 minutes, earned $550k+ total
- **2023** — Launched The Joy of React course; spoke at SmashingConf SF
- **2024** — Updated The Joy of React for React 19 and Next.js 15; spoke at SmashingConf New York
- **2026** — Whimsical Animations course in development, expected release 2026

## Achievements

- Generated $550,000+ in revenue from CSS for JavaScript Developers course presale and launch
- Hit $50,000 presale target in approximately 10 minutes
- Taught more than 28,000 developers through interactive online courses
- Created react-flip-move with ~500,000 NPM downloads per month
- Created use-sound React hook; combined open source ~600,000 monthly NPM downloads
- Speaker at SmashingConf New York 2024 and San Francisco 2023
- Recovered from Cubital Tunnel Syndrome without surgery after 7 months of hands-free coding
- Built a blog from scratch in 2018 with custom interactive embedded content using MDX, Next.js, and React

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Appeared on Chats with Kent C. Dodds discussing effective learning strategies
- **2025-12** — Updated The Joy of React for React 19 and Next.js 15 with React Server Components coverage
- **2025-03** — Featured on devtools.fm Episode #133: Creating Delightful Developer Education
- **2024-10** — Spoke at SmashingConf New York 2024

## Links

- Website: https://www.joshwcomeau.com
- LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/joshwcomeau
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/joshwcomeau
- GitHub: https://github.com/joshwcomeau

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/josh-w-comeau
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-21