All 16 of These Certifications Have a Free Path. 4 Point at Shrinking Jobs.
The price of a certification turns out to be the least interesting thing about it. Across 16 tracked certifications, cost runs from 1.1% to 9.8% of a single month's pay in the role it targets. Every one of them has a free path to the material.
What actually separates them is the job. 4 point at occupations the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects to shrink through 2034, and all 4 of our Caution verdicts sit in that group.
Cost is not the decision
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) costs $99, which is 1.1% of one month's pay for a Cloud / Azure Associate. The most expensive here, CompTIA A+ at $492, is 9.8%. Both are rounding errors against a year of the salary they point at.
That is the useful thing to know first, because it removes price from the decision entirely and leaves the question that actually matters: is anyone hiring for this?
The question that does decide it
Growing roles
12 of 16
Target occupations BLS projects to grow through 2034, up to 34%. Mean certification cost in this group: $261.
Shrinking roles
4 of 16
Target occupations projected to contract. Mean certification cost in this group: $371, which is more than the growing group, not less.
| Certification | Cost | Target role | Growth to 2034 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) | $330 | Network Engineer openings not published |
-4% |
| CompTIA Network+ | $369 | Network Administrator openings not published |
-4% |
| Google IT Support Professional Certificate | $294 | IT Support Specialist 50,500 openings a year |
-3% |
| CompTIA A+ | $492 | IT Support / Help Desk Technician 50,500 openings a year |
-3% |
These are not bad courses and the material is not the problem. The occupation is contracting, and a credential does not reverse that. If you want one of these roles specifically, go in knowing the direction of travel; if you are choosing a field, the table below is the more useful one.
One thing we tested and are not claiming
Reading the table, it looks as though the more expensive certifications point at the worse jobs. We checked. The correlation between cost and projected role growth is -0.26, against a critical value of about 0.51 at 16 observations.
That is the right direction and it is nowhere near significant. The mean-cost difference between the two groups ($371 against $261) is real in this sample and rests on 4 certifications, which is too few to generalise from. We are reporting it because the alternative is running the test, liking the shape, and writing it up as a law.
All 16, ordered by what they cost relative to the job
| Certification and target role | Cost | Share of a month's pay | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) Cloud / Azure Associate · $103,790 · 1 mo |
$99 1.1% |
+9% Solid |
|
| Tableau Desktop Specialist Data Analyst (BI / Visualization) · $112,590 · 2 mo |
$100 1.1% |
+34% Strong |
|
| AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Cloud Support / Associate · $103,790 · 1 mo |
$100 1.2% |
+9% Solid |
|
| AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate Cloud Solutions Architect · $130,390 · 3 mo |
$150 1.4% |
+12% Strong |
|
| Salesforce Certified Administrator Salesforce Administrator · $103,790 · 3 mo |
$200 2.3% |
+9% Solid |
|
| Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate Security Analyst · $124,910 · 6 mo |
$294 2.8% |
+29% Strong |
|
| Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate Data Analyst · $112,590 · 6 mo |
$294 3.1% |
+34% Strong |
|
| Google Project Management Professional Certificate Project Coordinator / Manager · $100,750 · 6 mo |
$294 3.5% |
+6% Solid |
|
| Google UX Design Professional Certificate UX Designer · $90,930 · 6 mo |
$294 3.9% |
+7% Solid |
|
| Meta Front-End Developer Professional Certificate Front-End Developer · $90,930 · 7 mo |
$294 3.9% |
+7% Solid |
|
| CompTIA Security+ Security Analyst / SOC Analyst · $124,910 · 3 mo |
$425 4.1% |
+29% Strong |
|
| Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Network Engineer · $96,800 · 4 mo |
$330 4.1% |
-4% Caution |
|
| CompTIA Network+ Network Administrator · $96,800 · 3 mo |
$369 4.6% |
-4% Caution |
|
| Google IT Support Professional Certificate IT Support Specialist · $60,340 · 6 mo |
$294 5.8% |
-3% Caution |
|
| Project Management Professional (PMP) Project Manager · $100,750 · 4 mo |
$589 7% |
+6% Solid |
|
| CompTIA A+ IT Support / Help Desk Technician · $60,340 · 3 mo |
$492 9.8% |
-3% Caution |
A red growth figure is a projected decline, drawn differently because it is a different kind of number rather than a smaller one. Verdicts are ours; the salary, growth and openings figures are the Bureau's.
How to use this
- Pick the occupation first, then the certificate. The spread between these certifications on cost is a few hundred dollars. The spread on projected demand runs from -4% to +34%.
- Take the free path first. All 16 let you see the material without paying. Audit before you buy an exam voucher, and you will know inside a week whether the subject holds you.
- Read "annual openings" alongside growth. A large occupation shrinking slowly can still hire more people than a small one growing fast. ⚠️ BLS publishes an openings figure for 10 of these 16 occupations; where it does not, the table says so rather than showing a zero.
- Treat the verdict as ours and the data as the Bureau's. Disagree with our call if you like; the underlying figures are linked per row on the certification pages.
What this does not show
Bottom line
Every certification here can be started for nothing, and none of them costs more than 9.8% of a month in the job it targets. Price is not the decision.
4 of the 16 point at work the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects there to be less of in ten years. That is the decision, and it is in a column most comparison tables do not carry.
Data: certification cost and terms from each provider; median wage, projected 2024 to 2034 growth and annual openings from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Per-certification detail, including the exact BLS occupation used, is on the certification pages.