Is Scrimba profitable in 2026?

Scrimba's careers page claims the company has been self-sustaining and cash-flow-positive for several years, though this is a vendor claim not an audited disclosure. Revenue is estimated around $1.9M to $2.1M as of 2024 to 2026 by third-party data brokers, with headcount and revenue largely flat since 2022.

Could AI replace Scrimba?

Scrimba's core offering, guided code walkthroughs, faces direct substitution risk from AI coding assistants. Stack Overflow's 2025 survey found about 84% of developers use or plan to use AI tools, and Claude Code hit a $1 billion run-rate by December 2025, pressuring demand for traditional coding-education subscriptions.

Who is Scrimba's biggest competitor?

Scrimba competes with Codecademy, freeCodeCamp, The Odin Project, Frontend Masters, and Zero To Mastery in interactive coding education, while Coursera is both a much larger platform competitor and, as of mid-2026, a distribution partner reselling Scrimba specializations.

Scrimba is privately held, founded by Per Harald Borgen (CEO) and Sindre Aarsaether (CTO), and backed by small amounts of venture funding from Y Combinator, Amasia, Nordic Makers, Alliance Venture, StartupLab, and Founders Fund AS. No valuation has ever been publicly disclosed.

Is Scrimba growing or shrinking in 2026?

Scrimba's growth has plateaued: Crustdata reports 0% headcount growth over the last three months of tracked data as of June 2026, and Caplight flagged 'no recent growth signals' in mid-2025, with revenue estimated flat around $1.9M to $2.1M since 2022.

Has Scrimba raised new funding recently?

No. As of June 2026, Crustdata reports Scrimba has gone approximately 70 months, roughly five to six years, without any disclosed new institutional funding round, with its last raise tagged as a secondary transaction dated October 9, 2023.

Education companies · Norway

Scrimba

scrimba.com ↗

Norwegian platform teaching coding through interactive, in-browser video lessons.

Losing its protection

Assessed 22 July 2026 · Evidence as of 22 July 2026

The structural protection is eroding.

On the recordSince 22 July 2026 · Checkable from mid-2027 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: 12-month check on whether AI Engineer Path and Instant Feedback features reverse flat revenue

The call

Scrimba survives on community loyalty and a Mozilla endorsement while free AI coding tools quietly erode the reason people pay to learn.

Scrimba teaches people to code through interactive lessons and practice problems, making about $2 million a year with roughly 80 employees. It is easy for larger competitors like Codecademy and Coursera to copy what Scrimba does, and harder still to compete against free or cheap AI tools like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot, which most developers already use and which can teach coding on the fly. The company's survival depends on whether paying students stay or sign up once Scrimba adds AI features to lessons, since the business has been flat for three years and free AI rivals are getting stronger every month.

Why

AI pressure: Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, ChatGPT. Free or cheap AI assistants now write and explain code directly, cutting into the reason people pay to learn coding step by step. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.

Bigger players: Codecademy and Coursera. Both are bigger, better funded, and could build their own AI-driven lessons or simply absorb Scrimba's niche through partnerships like the current Coursera distribution deal. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.

What protects it. A loyal community of 1.5 million users and a unique Mozilla MDN partnership that sends learners its way.

What would change this call

Scrimba's disclosed annual revenue for 2025/2026 stays flat near $1.9-2.1M or declines. AI-curriculum pivot failed to reverse stagnation and paid subscriber growth is stalling.
Mozilla MDN drops or de-emphasizes Scrimba as its recommended interactive course partner. Loss of key distribution channel would weaken Scrimba's main external visibility source.
Coursera builds or promotes its own AI-coding curriculum instead of listing Scrimba content. A distribution partner turning competitor would signal direct customer diversion.

Key numbers

Revenue about $1.9M in 2024 (2024-10-16)
82 employees, 0% growth last quarter (2026-06-23)
No new funding round in 70 months (2026-06-23)

Named risks

Core product (guided code walkthroughs) directly substitutable by free or near-free AI coding assistants. Severity: high
Revenue estimated flat around $1.9M to $2.1M since 2022 with no verified growth. Severity: high
No new institutional funding disclosed in roughly 70 months as of June 2026. Severity: medium
Headcount growth plateaued to 0% over three months as of June 2026. Severity: medium
Dependent on Coursera as both distribution partner and larger competitor, which could deprioritize Scrimba content. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor (AI coding assistants)	losing to	84% of developers use or plan to use AI tools per 2025 Stack Overflow survey, cited Dec 2025
Codecademy	contesting	Scrimba holds 4.5/5 Trustpilot rating vs Codecademy's 2.4/5 as of June 2026
freeCodeCamp	losing to	Free nonprofit alternative with 10M+ YouTube subscribers as of Oct 2024, no cost barrier
Coursera	gaining on	Coursera now distributes Scrimba specializations while also being a larger, credentialed rival platform, 2026
Zero To Mastery	contesting	Offers $1,299 lifetime plan that Scrimba lacks, per 2026-06-13 comparison

Questions people ask

Is Scrimba profitable in 2026?: Scrimba's careers page claims the company has been self-sustaining and cash-flow-positive for several years, though this is a vendor claim not an audited disclosure. Revenue is estimated around $1.9M to $2.1M as of 2024 to 2026 by third-party data brokers, with headcount and revenue largely flat since 2022.
Could AI replace Scrimba?: Scrimba's core offering, guided code walkthroughs, faces direct substitution risk from AI coding assistants. Stack Overflow's 2025 survey found about 84% of developers use or plan to use AI tools, and Claude Code hit a $1 billion run-rate by December 2025, pressuring demand for traditional coding-education subscriptions.
Who is Scrimba's biggest competitor?: Scrimba competes with Codecademy, freeCodeCamp, The Odin Project, Frontend Masters, and Zero To Mastery in interactive coding education, while Coursera is both a much larger platform competitor and, as of mid-2026, a distribution partner reselling Scrimba specializations.
Who owns Scrimba?: Scrimba is privately held, founded by Per Harald Borgen (CEO) and Sindre Aarsaether (CTO), and backed by small amounts of venture funding from Y Combinator, Amasia, Nordic Makers, Alliance Venture, StartupLab, and Founders Fund AS. No valuation has ever been publicly disclosed.
Is Scrimba growing or shrinking in 2026?: Scrimba's growth has plateaued: Crustdata reports 0% headcount growth over the last three months of tracked data as of June 2026, and Caplight flagged 'no recent growth signals' in mid-2025, with revenue estimated flat around $1.9M to $2.1M since 2022.
Has Scrimba raised new funding recently?: No. As of June 2026, Crustdata reports Scrimba has gone approximately 70 months, roughly five to six years, without any disclosed new institutional funding round, with its last raise tagged as a secondary transaction dated October 9, 2023.

Timeline

2026-06-28Scrimba content distributed via new Coursera specializations including Vibe Coding with Claude Code
2026-06-23Crustdata shows Scrimba headcount at 82, with 0% growth over prior three months
2026-03-29Scrimba publishes AI Engineer Path and agentic AI course content amid Gartner enterprise-agent forecasts
2025-06-30Caplight flags Scrimba as 'Quiet, no recent growth signals'
2025-01-14Scrimba courses added to ACI Learning's myACI Marketplace B2B channel
2024-10-16Latka estimates Scrimba 2024 revenue at $1.9M, headcount flat at 74
2024Mozilla MDN partners with Scrimba, naming it MDN's only recommended interactive course partner
2023-10-09Last disclosed Scrimba funding event, a secondary transaction per Caplight and CB Insights
2020Scrimba participates in Y Combinator Summer 2020 batch
2017Scrimba incorporated per multiple aggregator sources, though company narrative cites 2016

Revision history

22 July 2026

First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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