You are staring at a checkout page, about to spend somewhere around $530 on two exam vouchers, and the honest question in your head is not “will I pass?” It is “will this actually get me a job, or am I about to burn a month of nights on a piece of paper?” You have read the Reddit threads. Half of them say CompTIA A+ is 100 percent worth it. The other half say skip it and go straight to Network+ or Security+. You have no degree, or a degree in something unrelated, and you are trying to break into IT without wasting money you do not have a lot of.
My honest answer is: it depends on where you are starting, and here is the honest breakdown. I am not going to sell you a “resounding yes.” I build the practice-question banks people use to study for this exam, and I hire technical people, so I look at A+ from the outside, as a signal, not as a trophy on my own wall.
The short answer
Worth it if you are breaking into IT with no degree and no relevant experience, and you will pair the cert with real hands-on practice. Questionable if you already work in IT or have a strong portfolio of things you have actually fixed and built. And close to a waste if you collect it and stop there, assuming the certificate itself is the job offer.
A+ is worth it if you pair it with hands-on skill, and a waste if you collect it and stop, because the paper is a door, not a destination. That is the whole thing in one sentence. Everything below is just detail on which side of that line you fall on.
What A+ actually gets you (and what it does not)
CompTIA A+ is two exams, Core 1 (220-1201) and Core 2 (220-1202), which succeeded the retired 220-1101/220-1102 versions. You need both to be certified. Together they cover the practical bread and butter of IT support: hardware, operating systems, networking basics, mobile devices, security fundamentals, troubleshooting, and a chunk of operational procedures. It is deliberately broad and shallow. It is designed to prove you can be trusted near a help desk without setting anything on fire.
What it genuinely gets you: it is treated across the industry as the foundational entry cert. It maps cleanly to help desk, desktop support, field service, and IT support specialist roles. It clears some automated HR filters that screen out resumes with no credentials at all. And it shows up on the DoD 8570/8140 baseline lists, which matters if you are aiming at government or defense contractor work.
What it does not get you: a job, by itself. A+ tells a hiring manager you have studied the fundamentals. It does not tell them you can sit across from a frustrated user, diagnose why their laptop will not connect, and stay calm doing it. That gap between “knows the material” and “can do the work” is where a lot of freshly certified people stall out. The cert is necessary-ish for some doors. It is not sufficient for any of them.
Who it is genuinely worth it for
Here is who I would tell, without hesitation, to go for it.
You are a career switcher with no IT background and no degree that helps you. You have been in retail, hospitality, the trades, the military, and you want a foothold in tech. A+ is one of the cleanest ways to signal “I am serious and I have a baseline” to someone who has never met you. It gives you vocabulary, structure, and a line on your resume that a filter recognizes.
You are aiming at help desk or desktop support as your first role, not a network engineer or security analyst job you are not qualified for yet. A+ is calibrated exactly for that entry tier. Applying for it with A+ in hand is playing the game as designed.
You learn better with a syllabus. Some people need a defined finish line to actually study. The exam objectives give you one. Even if you never framed the cert on a wall, the forced structure of preparing for it can be worth the price if it is what finally gets you to sit down and learn the material end to end.
If you are switching careers with no degree and no track record, A+ is not the prize. It is the ticket that lets you into the room where you can prove you belong.
Who should skip it (and take Network+ or Security+ instead)
Now the part the vendor blogs bury.
If you already work in IT, even informally, A+ may be beneath you. If you have been the person who fixes everyone’s computer, ran a home lab for years, or already hold a support role and want to move up, A+ can be a step sideways rather than forward. Plenty of experienced people skip it entirely and go straight to Network+ for infrastructure roles or Security+ for the security track, because that is where the job they actually want lives.
If your target is a security role specifically, and you already have some technical grounding, Security+ is the cert that opens those doors, and it is the one on more of the baseline lists that matter for security jobs. Spending money and months on A+ first, when you could aim directly at Security+, is a detour some people do not need.
And if you have a real portfolio, things you have built, scripts you have written, systems you have administered, that evidence can outweigh an entry cert for the right hiring manager. Not every manager, but enough that it is worth being honest with yourself about whether you need the paper or just think you do.
The rough decision:
| Your situation | Worth it? | What I’d do |
|---|---|---|
| Career switcher, no degree, no IT experience | Yes | Get A+, pair it with hands-on labs |
| Aiming at help desk / desktop support | Yes | A+ is calibrated for exactly this tier |
| Already in IT, want to move up | Questionable | Consider Network+ or Security+ instead |
| Targeting a security role, some tech background | Often skip | Go straight to Security+ |
| Strong portfolio of real, built things | Maybe skip | Lead with the portfolio; cert is optional |
| Plan to get it and stop studying | No | You will have paper and no ability |
The real cost, honestly
The money: A+ is two exams, and a single voucher runs around $265 an exam, so you are looking at roughly $530 for both. Hedge that number in your head, because student bundles, retake insurance, and periodic discounts exist and can move it. Do not treat any exact total as gospel; check current pricing before you buy.
The time: for someone new to IT, plan on a couple of months of consistent evenings, more if the material is entirely foreign. That is the cost people underestimate. It is not the $530. It is the fifty or sixty evenings.
And then there is the hidden cost almost nobody names: the cost of studying wrong. Memorizing a thick study guide front to back, when your weakness is actually one or two specific domains, wastes most of that time. The efficient path is to find where you are weak first, then spend your evenings there. People who study everything equally are the ones who take three months instead of one and still walk in shaky on the domains that trip them up. Wasted study time is a bigger tax than the voucher.
What the cert signals to someone hiring
This is the lens I actually have to offer, and it is worth being clear about. When I look at a candidate with A+, here is what I read from it. I read: this person cared enough to learn the fundamentals and prove it. I read: they can probably hold a basic technical conversation and will not be completely lost on day one. That is a real, positive signal for an entry role, and it is genuinely worth something.
What I do not read from it: that they can do the job. The cert opens the door, but your hands-on ability is what keeps you in the room once you are through it. The candidates who get hired and stay hired are the ones who can talk about an actual problem they solved, a machine they rebuilt, a network they set up at home. The cert plus a story about real work beats the cert alone every single time. If you are going to invest in A+, invest equally in having something concrete to point to.
A+ vs the Google IT Support certificate
People ask about this constantly, so, honestly: the Google IT Support Professional Certificate is a legitimate, cheaper foundational option. It is more of a guided course than an industry-standard exam, and it does not carry the same recognition on HR filters or the DoD baseline lists that A+ does. But it is a genuinely good on-ramp, especially if the A+ material feels like too big a jump right now.
My take: they are not mutually exclusive. For a lot of total beginners, the Google cert first, then A+, is a sensible sequence. Google builds the base and the confidence; A+ gives you the recognized credential employers screen for. If money is tight and you can only do one, and your target role explicitly asks for A+, do A+. Otherwise, starting with Google and deciding later is a perfectly reasonable move.
Where I’m coming from, and how I’d prep if you go for it
Quick honesty about my angle, because you should know it. I am a software engineer by training, out of NUST, and I have spent years building machine learning and product tools. My connection to the security world is real but modest: across 2022 and 2023 I delivered a series of cybersecurity webinars for a software vendor, GFI Software, sometimes solo and sometimes alongside their regional channel manager, on topics like security directives, email security, network performance, and firewall-as-a-service. I have done marketing and product work with cybersecurity companies over the years. I am not a certified exam-passer, and I am not going to pretend I hold A+. What I do is build the practice-question banks people study with, and I hire and work with technical people, so my view here is a builder’s and an operator’s, not a cert collector’s.
So if you decide it is worth it for you, here is how I would prep without wasting money. My team and I built PrepClubs for exactly this. It is a one-time payment with 30-day access and a Pass Guarantee, not a subscription. It starts with a free 25-question diagnostic, so you find your weak domain before spending a cent, then ten full-length practice forms to work through once you know where to aim. These are original practice questions, not the real exam, and we are not affiliated with CompTIA. Start with the free diagnostic, and if the paid part is not right for you, you have still learned where you stand for nothing.
FAQ
Is CompTIA A+ worth it in 2026?
For someone breaking into IT with no degree and no experience, yes, provided you pair it with hands-on practice and a resume that shows real work. For someone already in IT or with a strong portfolio, it is often skippable in favor of Network+ or Security+.
Is A+ enough to get a job?
Not on its own. A+ clears some filters and signals you know the fundamentals, but hiring managers still want hands-on ability, a resume or portfolio, and someone who interviews well. The cert opens the door; your ability keeps you in the room.
Should I skip A+ and go straight to Security+?
If you are specifically targeting a security role and already have some technical grounding, going straight to Security+ can be the smarter path, since it is the cert those jobs and baseline lists actually ask for. If you are a total beginner with no base, A+ first builds the foundation Security+ assumes you have.
How much does CompTIA A+ cost?
Around $265 per exam, and there are two required exams, so plan on roughly $530 total. That figure moves with student bundles, retake insurance, and periodic discounts, so check current pricing before you buy rather than trusting a fixed number.
Is A+ worth it if I already work in IT?
Often not. If you already hold a support role, run a home lab, or are the informal fix-it person, A+ can be a step sideways. Your time and money may be better spent on Network+, Security+, or a role-specific cert that moves you forward instead of proving a baseline you already have.
A+ or Google IT Support certificate?
The Google IT Support certificate is cheaper and a good on-ramp, but it lacks A+’s recognition on HR filters and baseline lists. For many beginners, Google first then A+ is a sensible sequence. If your target role explicitly asks for A+ and you can only do one, do A+.
The honest bottom line: A+ is worth it as a first step for a career switcher who treats it as a starting line and not a finish line, and it is money wasted for anyone who expects the certificate to do the work their hands are supposed to do.