Which IT certification actually gets you hired?

The entry credentials employers screen for, with the real all-in cost and the occupation each maps to.

• No experience? Start here

  CompTIA A+

  CompTIA A+ costs $548 for both required exams (220-1201/220-1202): the retake math and renewal over 9 years. Verified against CompTIA.

  All-in

  $548

  Occupation median

  $61,860

• Break into cybersecurity

  CompTIA Security+

  CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) costs $439 per exam voucher: the retake math, renewal over 9 years, and who should skip it. Verified against CompTIA.

  All-in

  $439

  Occupation median

  $129,180

• Get into cloud

  AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

  AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) costs $100: the exam format, all 4 domain weights, and renewal math. Verified against AWS.

  All-in

  $100

  Occupation median

  $99,130

• Cheapest, and it never expires

  Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

  Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) costs $99 and never expires: the exam format, domain weights, and the no-renewal policy in full. Verified vs Microsoft.

  All-in

  $99

  Occupation median

  $61,860

• Palantir Certifications: What Exists, What They Cost, and How Registration Actually Works

  Palantir has two Foundry certifications. Courses are free, exam pricing is contact-gated. How registration, codes, and retakes actually work.

• How to Get Discounts on IT Certification Exams: The Legit Ways to Pay Less

  Student and military discounts, retake bundles, free-voucher events, and after-pass discounts that chain, plus the reseller scams to skip.

• IT Certification Pass Rates: What Vendors Actually Publish (Almost Nothing)

  Not one of the 18 vendors we track publishes exam pass rates. Where the invented percentages come from, what vendors do publish, and what to use instead.

• IT Certifications That Never Expire: The Verified List

  The certifications with no renewal clock at all, the ones that stay free if you do the homework, and the renewal traps that surprise people. Verified.

• Security+ and Government Contracting: Why One Cert Unlocks Federal Work

  Why Security+ appears in so many defense and federal contractor postings: the DFARS clause, the DoD 8140 baseline, and how to sequence it with a clearance.

• The New AI Certifications: Anthropic, Palantir, NVIDIA, and What Is Actually Real

  The verified state of the newest AI certifications: Anthropic's Claude exams, Palantir Foundry, NVIDIA's GenAI credentials, and what OpenAI has not launched.

• AWS AI Practitioner vs Azure AI Fundamentals: Which AI Badge Should You Get?

  Pick by the cloud your employer runs: AIF-C01 for AWS shops and broader generative-AI depth, AI-901 for Azure shops and the only badge here that never expires or costs another dollar.

• AZ-305 vs AWS Solutions Architect Professional: The Expert-Tier Fork

  Pick the cloud your employer runs; the exams will not change that answer. On Azure, budget $330 for two exams and renew free every year after. On AWS, pay $300 once and plan a discounted retake every three years, because nothing sits above SA Pro to renew it for you.

• CKA vs CKAD: Same Exam Shell, Different Kubernetes Job

  Price, format, and renewal are identical, so this comes down to which job you actually do: if you run clusters, take the CKA; if you build the software that runs on them, take the CKAD. And when a job posting names one of the two by name, it is almost always the CKA.

• CompTIA CySA+ vs Cisco CyberOps Associate: Same SOC, Different Rungs

  This is a rung decision, not a brand war. CyberOps Associate at $300 is the entry ticket into a first tier-1 SOC seat, strongest in Cisco shops; CySA+ at $439 is the mid-level analyst credential to earn once you have real triage time behind you. Sequence them, do not substitute one for the other.

• CompTIA SecurityX vs ISC2 CISSP: The Advanced-Security Fork

  If you can document the five years and your target postings name CISSP, sit CISSP; at the senior tier, recognition is the product. SecurityX is the deliberate exception: choose it to stay hands-on technical, to skip the experience wall, or to escape an annual fee, and accept the smaller keyword footprint.

• GIAC GSEC vs CompTIA Security+: The $999 Question, Answered for $439

  Security+ is the default: it ticks the same DoD 8140 box and serves the same occupation for $439. GSEC earns its $999, realistically its $9,000-plus SANS path, only when an employer is funding SEC401 or a posting asks for GIAC specifically.