Which IT certificate to take first

"Which certification should I start with" has a standard answer — A+ — and the standard answer is right often enough to be worth questioning. There are four realistic first moves, they suit different people, and only two of them are certifications in the strict sense at all.

This page compares them on what their issuers publish. Not on which is respected, which is opinion; not on which leads to a job, which nobody can tell you; and not on price, because the one issuer here that matters most does not print one.

First, the word that gets misused

A certification is awarded by a body that tests you under its own conditions and can take the award back. CompTIA A+ is a certification: you sit two proctored exams, you are bound by a candidate agreement, and CompTIA can revoke the result.

A certificate is awarded by whoever taught you, for finishing what they taught. The Google IT Support Professional Certificate is a certificate: Coursera issues it when you complete the course series. It is not worth less for that — but it is a different kind of object, and an employer reading a CV knows the difference even if the CV does not.

The four doors

CompTIA Tech+ — the one below A+

Tech+ is CompTIA's entry point below A+. Version 6, exam code FC0-U71, launched on 16 July 2024. It is a maximum of 70 questions, all multiple choice, in 60 minutes, passing at 650 on a scale of 900. CompTIA's stated recommended experience is "no prior experience necessary" — the only one of these four where that is true.

The quirk is renewal. CompTIA sells Tech+ in two forms: FC0-U71, which has no expiration, and FC0-U71-CE, which is valid for five years. Its continuing-education fee is $0, but the fee table adds a condition — renewal requires passing the latest version of the exam. Free to renew, in other words, but not effortless.

CompTIA A+ — the default, and usually correct

Two exams, Core 1 (220-1201) and Core 2 (220-1202), both V15, both launched 25 March 2025. Each is a maximum of 90 questions in 90 minutes. Core 1 passes at 675, Core 2 at 700, on a scale of 900. Recommended experience is 12 months hands-on in an IT support specialist job role. Renewal is three years, at a continuing-education fee of $75 for the period. The full breakdown is on the CompTIA A+ page.

CompTIA's own claim for it, on the A+ landing page, is that A+ "appears in more tech support job listings than any other IT credential". That is CompTIA's statement about its own product, unaudited and uncited, and it is reproduced here as such.

CompTIA Network+ — not a first certificate

Network+ V9, exam code N10-009, launched 20 June 2024. Maximum 90 questions in 90 minutes, passing at 720 on a scale of 100-900. The reason it is on this list is to rule it out: CompTIA's recommended experience for it is "CompTIA A+ certification, with 9 to 12 months of hands-on experience in a junior network administrator or network support technician role". CompTIA is naming A+ as the step before. People do take it first, and CompTIA does not stop them, but they are working against the recommendation.

Google IT Support Professional Certificate — the course-shaped option

A six-course series on Coursera, described on its page as designed to take beginners to job readiness in about three to six months, with an indicative pace of "3 months at 10 hours a week". It is sold as a subscription and Coursera states that financial aid is available. It is a certificate of completion, and completing it does not make you A+ certified.

The comparison, on published facts only

What the comparison does not show

Three things are missing from that table and all three are missing on purpose. There is no price column, because CompTIA publishes no exam price on any page this site could read on 24 September 2026 and Coursera's page did not state a subscription figure in the text we read either. There is no difficulty column, because CompTIA does not rank its own exams by difficulty and a stranger's ranking is worth nothing. And there is no outcome column, for the reason set out further down.

What the table does show is the shape of the commitment, and the shapes are genuinely different. Tech+ is one hour of multiple choice. A+ is two separate three-quarter-hour sittings with drag-and-drop and simulated tasks in them. Network+ is a single sitting that assumes you already hold A+. The Google certificate is months of coursework with no proctored exam at the end of it at all. Someone who finds exams easy and courses tedious should read that table one way; someone who finds the opposite should read it the other.

Language, versions and the small print worth checking

Two details catch beginners out and neither is obvious from a marketing page. The first is language availability: CompTIA lists A+ V15 in English, German and Japanese only, while Network+ V9 is listed in five languages, adding Portuguese and Spanish. If English is not your first language, the certification with the shorter list is the one with the harder exam for you, whatever its objectives say.

The second is the version clock. CompTIA states retirement as "usually three years after launch" and gives estimates — 2028 for A+ V15, 2027 for Network+ V9. Those are estimates on CompTIA's own pages rather than committed dates, but they tell you how long the material you are about to learn is likely to be the current material. Buying a course written for a version approaching retirement is a common and expensive mistake.

How to choose between them

Three questions decide it, and none of them is about prestige.

1. Have you ever taken a proctored exam? If the answer is no and that worries you, Tech+ is 60 minutes of multiple choice with no performance-based questions, and it is a genuine certification rather than a practice run.
2. Do you want structure or do you want the credential? The Google certificate is a taught course that ends in a certificate. A+ is a credential you can earn without buying any teaching at all. They are answers to different questions.
3. Are you already working in support? Then A+ directly, and skip Tech+. CompTIA's own recommendation for A+ is twelve months in the role, so the job is the preparation.

The order most people should take

If you are starting from nothing and can tolerate an exam: A+ first, then work, then Network+ when CompTIA's recommendation for it starts to describe you. If exams themselves are the obstacle: the Google certificate first to build the vocabulary, then A+ once the material is familiar. If you want the cheapest possible proof you can learn this material: Tech+, whose continuing-education fee is $0.

Whichever you pick, the next thing to read is what the A+ credential actually gets you, which separates the checkable benefits from the ones nobody can evidence.