There are definitely options between free and 15k. I went to an online code bootcamp and paid about 4k. The course came with about 18 hours of one-on-one mentor sessions, an all original curriculum, office-hours chat help, a generally good community, and job prep help.

In hindsight, yeah, I could have made up my own curriculum from free and cheap sources, and just paid a mentor out of pocket for a lot less. But I had already done Treehouse and Codeschool courses and found I hit a barrier. A lot of what I was learning just did not stick beyond a certain point and I could not see the forest for the trees.

I know it's not for everyone, but it turns out what worked for me was a highly structured course with a focus on building practical projects, checkpoints, deadlines, and one-on-one guidance. And maybe I did need to sink a non-trivial amount of money into it just to make me take it all a little more seriously.

In any case, I was able to switch careers (at the age of 40 I might add) and I've paid off my investment many times over.

Regardless of whether you are considering a paid bootcamp, a free one, learning by yourself, or getting a traditional college education, my advice would be the same:

You get out of it, what you put into it.