The Best IT Certifications for Beginners With No Experience (2026)

The best IT certifications for beginners are the ones that need no experience and still show up in entry-level job postings: CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security+, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Microsoft AZ-900 and ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC). If you have no IT background at all, start with A+. Help desk is where most IT careers start, mine included, and A+ is the cert help desk postings ask for by name.

Below is what each one costs, what the exam looks like, who it’s for, and the order I’d take them in depending on where you want to end up.

Which IT certifications can you get with no experience?

All six of these. None has a formal prerequisite: you buy a voucher, book the exam with Pearson VUE, at a test center or online, and sit it. Nobody checks your work history at the door. “No prerequisite” isn’t the same as “no preparation,” though. These exams test whether you understand the material, and the CompTIA ones include hands-on simulation questions that punish people who only memorized flashcards.

Here’s how they compare, with US prices as of October 2026.

Certification	Exam cost (US)	Exam format	Best first step toward
CompTIA A+	$274 per exam, $548 for both	Two exams, each up to 90 questions in 90 minutes	Help desk and desktop support
CompTIA Network+	$399	Up to 90 questions in 90 minutes, 720 to pass	Networking and systems administration
CompTIA Security+	$439	Up to 90 questions in 90 minutes, 750 to pass	Security, government and defense work
AWS Cloud Practitioner	$100	65 questions in 90 minutes, 700 of 1,000 to pass	Cloud roles at AWS shops
Microsoft AZ-900	$99	45 minutes	Cloud roles at Microsoft and Azure shops
ISC2 CC	$199	100 to 125 questions in 2 hours, 700 of 1,000 to pass	A first look at security

Why is CompTIA A+ the best first certification for most beginners?

Because it matches the job you’re most likely to get first. A+ covers hardware, Windows and other operating systems, mobile devices, basic networking, security and troubleshooting, which is exactly what a help desk or desktop support tech does all day. It’s vendor-neutral, and HR screeners recognize the name even when they couldn’t tell you what’s on it.

It’s two exams, Core 1 (220-1201) and Core 2 (220-1202), and you can take them in either order. Each has up to 90 questions in 90 minutes on a 100 to 900 scale; Core 1 needs 675 and Core 2 needs 700. At $274 each, the pair costs $548, which makes A+ the most expensive cert on this list. It’s still the one I’d start with if you have no background, because it opens the most entry-level doors.

Like every CompTIA cert, A+ is good for three years. You renew with continuing education and a $75 fee per three-year cycle, or by passing a higher CompTIA exam. If you’re weighing the cost, I broke it down in whether CompTIA A+ is worth it.

Prepare with something you can touch. Grab an old desktop, take it apart and put it back together, wipe it and reinstall Windows a few times, and set up a cheap router. The A+ performance-based questions reward exactly that, and you walk into interviews with stories instead of flashcards.

What should you take after A+: Network+ or Security+?

Network+ first, for most people. A+, Network+ and Security+ are often called the CompTIA trifecta, and the order matters because each one leans on the one before it. Security+ assumes you already understand how traffic moves across a network, and Network+ is where you learn that.

Network+ (N10-009) is one exam, $399, up to 90 questions in 90 minutes, and you need 720 on the 100 to 900 scale. It covers how networks are built, addressed, secured and fixed. It gets less hype than Security+, but it has carried real weight for me. When I was splitting my time between a school district and consulting work, Network+ was one of the two certs the people hiring me actually cared about. The other was the CISSP, which is not a beginner cert.

Security+ (SY0-701) is $439, also up to 90 questions in 90 minutes, and you need 750. It covers threats, cryptography, identity, risk and security operations. It’s the security cert entry-level postings name most often, and it’s on the Department of Defense’s approved list under DoD Manual 8140.03, which replaced the old 8570 rules in 2023. That makes it close to mandatory for government and defense contractor jobs.

Timing matters right now. CompTIA’s next version, SY0-801, launches around November 17, 2026, and SY0-701 retires in English on June 11, 2027. If you’re already studying for SY0-701, keep going and take it before it retires. If you’re starting from zero next year, check which version your study materials were written for. Network+ and Security+ both renew for $150 per three-year cycle.

Should you go straight to Security+ if cybersecurity is the goal?

Not if you’re starting with zero experience. Beginners want to sprint at Security+ because so many postings screen for it, and the instinct backfires more often than people expect. A Security+ with no A+, no lab and no story behind it tends to get you screened in by the software and then screened back out at the technical interview, because the first follow-up question is about how the machine underneath actually works.

CompTIA itself recommends Network+ and a couple of years in the field before Security+. None of the three is a formal prerequisite for the next, and if you’ve already done real IT work you can reasonably start a rung higher. For a true beginner, though, A+, then Network+, then Security+ is the path that holds up. When you get to that last rung, here’s how long Security+ actually takes to pass.

Is AWS Cloud Practitioner or AZ-900 better for a beginner?

Pick the one your target employers run. Both are cheap, both are fundamentals exams that assume no cloud experience, and both cover the same ideas: what the cloud is, how it’s priced, the shared responsibility model and the main services. The difference is whose services.

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) costs $100. It’s 65 questions in 90 minutes, 15 of which are unscored, and you need 700 on a 100 to 1,000 scale. It’s valid for three years, and passing it gets you 50% off your next AWS exam. AWS describes the target candidate as someone with up to six months of exposure to AWS, but says outright that isn’t required.

For hands-on practice, know that the free tier changed. Since July 15, 2025, new AWS accounts get up to $200 in credits on a free plan that lasts six months or until the credits run out, instead of the old 12-month free tier. That’s plenty for Cloud Practitioner study if you shut things off when you’re done.

Microsoft AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals) costs $99 in the US and gives you 45 minutes. It’s the natural on-ramp if the companies near you run on Microsoft 365 and Azure. Microsoft Virtual Training Days, free online sessions on the fundamentals curriculum, come with a 50% discount voucher, so you can cut the cost in half. AZ-900 leads to AZ-104, the Azure Administrator exam, when you’re ready for a real cloud role.

Neither one will get you hired as a cloud engineer on its own; they prove you can talk about the cloud sensibly. They pair well with A+ on a beginner’s résumé. I compared the two in more detail in AWS Cloud Practitioner vs Azure Fundamentals.

Is ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity still worth it now that it isn’t free?

It’s worth it as a cheap, low-stress first security credential, not as a replacement for Security+. For a few years ISC2 gave the course and exam away through its One Million Certified in Cybersecurity program. That program closed to new sign-ups on May 20, 2026. If you already have an unexpired exam code from it, you can still sit the exam through December 31, 2026. Everyone else pays the standard $199.

ISC2 CC needs no work experience. The exam is adaptive: 100 to 125 questions in two hours, and you need 700 out of 1,000. A new outline took effect September 1, 2026, and business continuity is no longer its own domain. The five domains are now Security Principles; Security Governance; IAM Concepts; Networking and Cloud Security Concepts; and Security Operations and Incident Response. Once certified, you pay a $50 annual maintenance fee.

CC is on the DoD 8140.03 approved list and comes from the same organization as the CISSP, which helps. But it’s lighter than Security+, and far fewer postings ask for it by name. Take it if you want a gentle first look at security for $199. If you can only pay for one security exam, make it Security+.

Where do the Google IT Support Certificate and SC-900 fit?

Both are reasonable extras, not first choices. The Google IT Support Professional Certificate on Coursera is a guided course rather than a proctored exam: six courses that Google estimates take about three months at ten hours a week. It lines up with the A+ objectives and suits people who do better with structure and labs than with a textbook. Use it as a warm-up for A+, not a substitute, because A+ is the name more hiring managers know.

Microsoft SC-900 (Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals) is another 45-minute fundamentals exam, this one on Microsoft’s identity and security tools. It complements Security+ if you’re aiming at a Microsoft shop. Microsoft is updating the English exam on October 21, 2026, so make sure your study guide matches.

Which certifications should beginners skip?

Skip the senior security certs for now, the CISSP above all. Nothing stops you from sitting the CISSP exam, but you need five years of experience to actually hold it. Pass it without that and you’re an Associate of ISC2, which is a hard, expensive way to prove something A+ proves better at this stage. CISM and CISA are the same story with ISACA. There’s a time for those certs. It isn’t your first year.

Also skip collecting. Studying for three exams at once is a reliable way to pass none of them.

What do these certifications actually get you?

A phone screen, mostly, and that’s worth a lot when you have no experience. A cert gets your résumé past the first filter for help desk, desktop support and junior admin roles. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says user support roles can be reached with a high school diploma plus relevant certifications, which is an unusually open door.

The pay is real but not glamorous. BLS puts the median at $61,860 for computer user support specialists and $76,220 for network support specialists (May 2025). Be clear-eyed about the outlook too: BLS projects support specialist jobs to shrink about 3% from 2025 to 2035, though turnover still creates about 48,700 openings a year. Across all computer and IT occupations, BLS expects about 280,000 openings a year. Support is the door in, and the certs after A+ are how you move up and out of it.

What order should you take them in?

Decide where you want to end up, then work backward. If you just want to get hired in IT and figure out the rest later, take A+ and start applying to help desk jobs while you study for Network+. If security is the goal, go A+, Network+, Security+, and add CC only if the price and the timing suit you. If networking is the goal, go A+ and Network+, and later Cisco’s CCNA ($300, no formal prerequisites), which is harder than the CompTIA exams but carries real weight for dedicated networking roles. If cloud is the goal, take A+ and the fundamentals exam for whichever platform your target employers run, then move to an associate-level cloud exam once you’ve had some hands-on time.

If you already have IT experience, skip A+ and go straight to the cert that matches the job you want next. And whatever you pick, you don’t need to spend much on study materials; I keep a list of free study resources for every entry-level IT cert.