Having a budget before you start preparing for certification exams is prudent. The right IT certification can fast-track your career, leading to substantial salary increases and greater life satisfaction. CompTIA certifications are some of the best known and most in demand for aspiring and established IT and cyber security professionals.
You could get inundated with so much information about CompTIA certifications. Is there a summary of how much CompTIA certifications cost?
Look no further: this article is what you need right now. Here, we’ll answer the question “How much does each CompTIA certification cost?” by giving you a detailed breakdown of every certification CompTIA offers. We’ll look at upfront exam fees for CompTIA certifications, their validity periods, and annual renewal fees.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
What Is CompTIA?
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is an internationally recognized organization based in the USA for certifying, educating, and connecting people in IT. Through its training programs, it helps people to navigate tech careers and organizations to train and hire IT professionals.
CompTIA is well known for different certifications. It offers credentials on infrastructure, cyber security, data analytics, and much more.
If you’re starting from scratch in IT or cyber security, begin with the Core Skills exams. This article explains CompTIA’s stackable certifications (exams that build upon one another) so that you save time and get the most bang for your buck, as higher CompTIA certifications can renew lower ones. For example, Security+ renews A+ automatically.
CompTIA's Core Skills Certifications Cost
Here, we list the costs and exam descriptions of basic IT and cyber security certifications offered by CompTIA. These certifications can help you land an entry-level position in IT, networking, and cyber security or transition into such roles if you’ve already got your foot in the door of the IT industry.
Exam Cost: $134 USD
Expiry: None; has lifetime validity
CEUs: Not applicable
Renewal Fee: None
Official Page: CompTIA IT Fundamentals
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA ITF+ certification helps those without an IT background gain IT competence for professional purposes or transition into IT.
- It tests you on the knowledge and skills required to identify and explain the basics of computing, operating systems, IT infrastructure, software development, and database use.
Exam Cost: $246 USD per exam (2 exams total)
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 20
Renewal Fee: $25 (per year), $75 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: CompTIA A+
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA A+ certification is a foundational certification for those aiming to enter the IT industry, usually through the entry-level technical support role.
- The two exams of A+ include the latest core technologies, such as cloud infrastructure, IoT device security, data management, and command-line scripting with applications like automation.
Exam Cost: $358 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 30
Renewal Fee: $50 (per year), $150 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: Network+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA Network+ certification tests your fundamental skills in essential computer networking functions. It covers troubleshooting, configuring, and managing networks.
Exam Cost: $392 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 50
Renewal Fee: $50 (per year), $150 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: Security+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA Security+ certification assesses your aptitude in up-to-date best practices for risk management and risk mitigation of digital assets.
- It emphasizes the practical aspects of identifying and addressing security threats, attacks, and vulnerabilities.
CompTIA's Infrastructure Certifications Cost
There are many open positions requiring expertise in IT infrastructure: the hardware and software that support the flow, storage, manipulation, and analysis of data in a system or organization.
The following list details the costs and exam descriptions of basic IT infrastructure certifications administered by CompTIA. These certifications can give you a solid foundation in cloud computing, Linux administration, and server management.
Exam Cost: $358 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 50
Renewal Fee: $50 (per year), $150 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: Cloud+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA Cloud+ certification validates the skills needed to deploy and automate secure cloud environments so that business systems and data can remain highly available to end users.
Exam Cost: $358 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 50
Renewal Fee: $50 (per year), $150 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: Linux+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA Linux+ certification tests you on competencies required of an early career systems administrator supporting Linux systems.
- It focuses on how Linux powers the cloud.
Exam Cost: $358 USD
Expiry: None; has lifetime validity
CEUs: Not applicable
Renewal Fee: None
Official Page: Server+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA Server+ certification validates the hands-on skills of IT professionals who install, manage, and troubleshoot servers in on-premises and hybrid environments, including data centers.
CompTIA's Cyber Security Certifications Cost
This category is for cyber security professionals with some years of experience under their belt. Here, we list the costs and exam descriptions of intermediate to advanced-level cyber security certifications offered by CompTIA. These certifications can fast-track your career, leading to substantial salary increases.
Exam Cost: $392 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 60
Renewal Fee: $50 (per year), $150 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: Cybersecurity Analyst+ - CompTIA CySA+
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA CySA+ certification tests cyber security professionals on incident detection, prevention, and response through continuous security monitoring.
- It assesses how well you detect and analyze indicators of malicious activity, understand threat intelligence and threat management, respond to attacks and vulnerabilities, perform incident response, and report and communicate related activity.
Exam Cost: $392 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 60
Renewal Fee: $50 (per year), $150 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: PenTest+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA PenTest+ certification tests cyber security professionals on planning and scoping a penetration testing engagement.
- The exam includes vulnerability scanning, understanding legal and compliance requirements, analyzing results, and producing documentation containing remediation techniques.
Exam Cost: $494 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 60
Renewal Fee: $50 (per year), $150 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: CASP+ (Plus) CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner Certification
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA CASP+ certification tests cyber security professionals charged with leading and improving an enterprise’s cyber security readiness.
- It focuses on the technical knowledge and skills required to architect, engineer, integrate, and implement secure solutions across complex environments to support a resilient enterprise while considering the impact of governance, risk, and compliance requirements.
CompTIA's Data and Analytics Certifications Cost
Below, we list the costs and exam descriptions of basic data-related certifications offered by CompTIA. These certifications can help you take up or improve in job roles such as data analysts, scientists, and engineers.
Exam Cost: $246 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 20
Renewal Fee: $25 (per year), $75 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: Data+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA Data+ certification tests candidates on professional data analytical knowledge and skills required to solve business problems.
Exam Cost: $358 USD
Expiry: 3 years, starting from exam day
CEUs: 30
Renewal Fee: $50 (per year), $150 (total over three years) USD
Official Page: DataSys+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA DataSys+ certification tests your competence in building, managing, and securing growing data systems.
- It covers what database administrators need to deploy, manage, and maintain high-availability systems, including employing the fundamentals of scripting and programming in a relational database environment while using security and business continuity best practices.
CompTIA's Professional Skills Certifications Cost
These certifications recognize established career professionals who step up in additional responsibilities such as project management and duties related to cloud computing.
Exam Cost: $358 USD
Expiry: None; has lifetime validity
CEUs: Not applicable
Renewal Fee: None
Official Page: Project+ (Plus) Certification | CompTIA IT Certifications
About The Exam:
- A common issue IT professionals face is project management.
- The CompTIA Project+ certification helps IT professionals gain the fundamental skills they need to manage small to medium-sized projects successfully.
Exam Cost: $134 USD
Expiry: None; has lifetime validity
CEUs: Not applicable
Renewal Fee: None
Official Page: CompTIA Cloud Essentials+
About The Exam:
- The CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ certification helps career professionals, regardless of IT background, gain knowledge of cloud computing and make wise decisions regarding cloud technologies and their business impact.
- It covers evaluations of business use cases, financial impacts, cloud technologies, and deployment models.
Conclusion
We hope this article on how much CompTIA certifications cost prepares you to financially plan your certification roadmap. To learn more about CompTIA exams and exam preparation, check out our training materials above (all included in our StationX membership, along with career advice and mentorship) and our articles on certifications. Last but not least, if you plan to take a CompTIA certification exam soon, we wish you all success.