Best cybersecurity certifications for beginners: CC, Security+, Google's certificate and CySA+, in the order to take them

The order, and what it costs

For someone with no IT job and no security background, this is the sequence:

1. Google Cybersecurity Certificate, to learn the material with labs and a schedule. At $49 a month, three to six months costs $147 to $294.
2. ISC2 CC, only if you already hold a free exam code or want a cheap first exam on your resume. It is $199 for everyone else.
3. CompTIA Security+, the certificate CompTIA maps to US Department of Defense 8140 work roles. The voucher is $439.
4. A job. Help desk, NOC or a junior SOC seat.
5. CompTIA CySA+, once you are working alerts. Another $439.

If you already work in IT, skip steps 1 and 2. CompTIA recommends Network+ and two years as a security or systems administrator before Security+, and your current job may already count.

The job in step 4 is where most of the order's value sits. ISC2's 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, from 16,029 practitioners, found 56 percent entered the field through IT experience and 6 percent by earning cybersecurity certifications. ISC2 sells certifications, so that is an awkward figure for it to publish. Plan around it. Certificates get you into the IT job next door. That job gets you into security.

Starting from zero: Google's Cybersecurity Certificate

Google's certificate is a course, not an exam you book at a test centre. It runs on Coursera at $49 a month in the US and Canada after a 7-day free trial, and Google says many learners finish in three to six months, with the course built for under six months at 5 to 10 hours of study a week. No prior cybersecurity experience is required. Because you pay monthly, your study pace sets the price: finish in three months and you pay $147, drift to six and it is $294.

Google states the certificate helps prepare graduates for the CompTIA Security+ exam, and that graduates can get the exam and extra training at a discounted price. Google's page does not give the size of that discount, so check what the course offers you before you buy a voucher anywhere else. CompTIA voucher discounts lists the other legitimate ways to pay less than $439.

Read Google's job figures with care. Its page quotes Lightcast job-posting data for 2025: 170,000+ open cybersecurity jobs and a $120,000+ median salary for jobs asking for 0 to 5 years of experience. Those are advertised salaries across a range that includes people with five years behind them. They are not what certificate graduates earned, and Google does not publish a placement rate on that page.

If you are choosing between Google's IT Support certificate and A+ for a help desk start instead, A+ vs Google IT Support covers that pair.

ISC2 CC: the free programme has closed

ISC2's Certified in Cybersecurity used to be free through its One Million Certified in Cybersecurity programme, which gave enrollees the CC Online Self-Paced course and a free exam. Once enrolments passed 1 million, ISC2 closed the programme to newcomers on 20 May 2026. If you enrolled before then and hold an exam code that has not expired, you must schedule and sit the exam by 31 December 2026, and an expired code cannot be reactivated. Make sure the name on your registration matches your ID exactly; ISC2 warns it will not reimburse fees otherwise.

For everyone else, the CC exam costs $199, and passing it means paying ISC2's $50 annual maintenance fee to become certified. ISC2 requires no work experience. The exam outline in force since 1 September 2026 sets a 2-hour computerised adaptive test of 100 to 125 items, with a pass mark of 700 out of 1,000, across five domains: security principles (24 percent), networking and cloud security concepts (21.3 percent), identity and access management (20 percent), security governance (17.3 percent), and security operations and incident response (17.3 percent).

So is CC worth it now? With a valid free code, yes: sit it before 31 December. Without one, compare $199 plus $50 a year with Security+ at $439. ISC2 positions CC as an introduction to its exam style for later certifications such as CISSP. CompTIA ties Security+ to named DoD 8140 work roles. If your budget covers one exam, make it Security+. See the CC exam page if you are sitting it this year.

Security+: the exam to build toward

CompTIA Security+ costs $439 for the voucher in CompTIA's US store, or $579 with Retake Assurance, which adds a second attempt. Both are valid for 12 months from purchase. SY0-701 has up to 90 questions in 90 minutes, a mix of multiple choice and performance-based items, and you need 750 on a 100 to 900 scale. CompTIA maps it to DoD 8140 work roles including cyber defense analyst, incident responder and vulnerability analyst.

CompTIA recommends Network+ and two years in a security or systems administrator role first. CompTIA does not enforce it, so you can book without them. Employers read the certificate against that recommendation, though, and whether Security+ alone gets you hired has its own post: is Security+ enough.

The occupation is worth the effort. The BLS reports a $129,180 median for information security analysts in May 2025 and projects 21 percent growth from 2025 to 2035, or 40,600 more jobs. It also lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry route and less than 5 years of related work experience, which is the gap the job in step 4 fills.

Timing matters this winter. CompTIA expects Security+ V8 on or around 17 November 2026, and the English SY0-701 exam retires on 11 June 2027; SY0-701 or SY0-801 explains which to sit and whether your books still apply. A fail costs a second $439 voucher, which makes two attempts $878 against $579 for the voucher with Retake Assurance. Buy the plain voucher if your practice scores are already high, and read what happens if you fail Security+ and how long to study for it before you book. For prep, the best Security+ practice tests and Professor Messer vs Jason Dion cover the options from free videos up to Boson, whose Security+ Training course lists at $2,495. If you are weighing CEH instead, Security+ vs CEH compares that pair.

The CompTIA trifecta, and when A+ and Network+ come first

The trifecta is A+, Network+ and Security+, taken in that order because each one's recommended experience assumes the one before. At CompTIA's US list prices it costs $1,386: $548 for the two A+ exams, $399 for Network+ and $439 for Security+.

That is a lot to spend before your first security job, and you do not need all three to apply for one. The trifecta makes sense in one situation: you have no IT experience and want a paid help desk or network support job while you work toward security. CompTIA ties A+ to the help desk support specialist role, Network+ fits CompTIA's 9 to 12 months as a network support technician, and by the time you sit Security+ you have the two years of IT work CompTIA recommends.

If you have IT experience already, skip A+. If you have networking experience, skip Network+ too. Our best IT certifications for 2027 ranks A+, Network+, CCNA and the cloud exams by fee and by the BLS job each leads to, and jobs with CompTIA A+ lists the help desk titles to search.

CySA+: after your first security job

CompTIA CySA+ is the analyst exam: detecting, analysing and responding to threats. The current version, V4 (CS0-004), has up to 85 questions in 165 minutes, with a pass mark of 750 on a 100 to 900 scale. The voucher is $439, or $579 with Retake Assurance. CompTIA recommends about four years in a SOC analyst or vulnerability analyst role. If you still have V3 material, CompTIA retires the English V3 exam on 22 December 2026.

CySA+ comes after Security+ for two reasons. Its questions describe alerts and logs that make more sense once you have worked a queue of them. And passing a higher-level CompTIA certification such as CySA+ renews Security+, so sitting it inside your three-year Security+ window saves you a separate renewal. CySA+ itself lasts three years and renews with 60 continuing education units or a higher certification.

If you have a SOC interview coming before CySA+, SOC analyst interview questions goes through what Tier 1 interviews ask.