techdegree

Short answer. You will be provided the same learning material that you can find via tracks and the library. The difference is that, you will be given the necessary course work units / projects as well to work on, a certificate at the end etc. You can get a more in-depth description about it when comparing the subscriptions on the subscription plan page.

I did the free week trial and noticed that I had completed some of the learning material and it was the same as the track that I have been following since subscribing as a basic plan. I plan to continue to do that till I have completed the learning stage and then subscribe to the techdegree and complete the course work.

Also, with tech degrees, there are different units that you go through and projects that you must complete at the end of each unit. The projects require that you actually write a lot of your own code, putting into practice and applying the things that you learned throughout each unit. When you complete a project, you submit it for review and if it meets all the unit requirements then you pass that project, and move on to the next unit. And each unit you go through can include courses from several different tracks.

If money is tight, and you feel confident learning on your own with less support, you can get a lot out of following a track. If you change your mind later, you'll have a head start on the techdegree witch has a lot of the same courses.

If you're going to learn on your own, make sure you build projects and get feedback. It's important to not just passively watch videos, you have to build stuff. Having another pair of eyes on your code helps you learn better ways of doing things, and helps you get used to the code review process that exists at a lot of major companies.