How Much Do AWS Certifications Cost? Including All The Extras

And in terms of the golden, or should we say green, question—salary, these jobs largely pay six-figures. Our U.S. list of the top-paying certifications is based on responses to Skillsoft’s IT Skills and Salary survey conducted May 2023 to September 2023. The survey asks respondents about their current jobs, experiences, certifications, salaries, and more. Respondents encounter multiple choice and multi-select, open-ended, rank choice, and other types of questions while taking the survey. The AWS Certified Security – Specialty certification validates the ability to secure data in the AWS cloud and successfully navigate complex security challenges. This certification showcases an individual’s proficiency in managing security controls, understanding AWS security services, and handling incident response.

• For the Solutions Architect – Pro, every single service in the entire AWS ecosystem is in play, and quite a bit of depth is required in specific areas like security and Direct Connect.
• The certification exam can be scheduled with Pearson VUE or Certiport in multiple languages.
• Learning platforms will always pop up in discussion forums and online articles about how to pass an AWS exam.
• Earning this certification means first sitting the exam, which consists of 65 multiple-choice and multiple-response questions and allows roughly 130 minutes to complete.
• Contact our team today and request a free demo to find out how the program works.
• You can also access your AWS Certified benefits, such as your digital badge and 50% discount voucher for a future exam.

This program covers topics like cloud operations on AWS, cloud computing, data analytics on AWS, and more. Learners will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and perform tasks that are common in a cloud computing role. Upon completion, earn a certificate to include in your resume, CV, or LinkedIn profile.

About AWS Certifications

So to pass your AWS exam, there’s no getting around the fact that it will cost you the fixed amount for the certification fee. But, if you’ve done any research online so far you’ll have seen that there are many, many additional resources that are advertised to you which claim to help you get certified. This certification validates skills and knowledge in implementing data pipelines and optimizing cost and performance on AWS.

AWS recommends a year of hands-on experience designing systems on its platform before taking the exam. Google recommends professionals have at least three years of experience before sitting the exam, with at least one designing and managing solutions in Google Cloud. There is a $200 USD exam fee, and professionals have two hours to complete the exam. The certification lasts for two years before professionals must recertify. The AWS Certified Machine Learning – Speciality cert is one of the newer certifications and focuses on, well, machine learning.

The Highest-Paying Certifications in the Asia-Pacific Region

The exam costs $575 USD for ISACA members and $760 USD for non-members. ISC2’s Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) has been a consistently popular and well-regarded certification in the field, leading to high salaries reflected on this list for years. From 2022 to this year, the reported annual earnings stayed consistent. Last year, professionals reported an average annual salary of $158,191. Those who hope to sit this exam should have strong familiarity with the AWS Well-Architected Framework, and it helps to know the basics of programming, though AWS says deep coding experience isn’t required.

• But, I imagine by now you might be feeling quite overwhelmed with the number of options, and I totally get it!
• The exam features up to 85 questions, lasts 165 minutes, and candidates should have their Network+ and Security+ — or similar expertise — and have roughly four years of hands-on work experience.
• AWS certifications increased the salary of 70 percent of survey respondents by up to 20 percent, according to a survey by Jefferson Frank [2].
• Moving from an on-premise operation to a more cloud-focused approach means that the tech community needs more people.
• Dive deep on any role or solution with downloadable Ramp-Up Guides and/or follow suggested learning plans designed to build your knowledge and accomplish your career goals.
• With more than one million customers, AWS is still the provider of choice for public cloud adoption, where 75% of enterprises and 71% of SMBs are running applications (according to the 2023 Flexera State of the Cloud Report).

CISA-certified professionals can serve as the conduit between technical, legal and compliance teams and ensure organizations protect privacy and manage risk in an efficient, cost-effective way. AWS recommends two or more years of hands-on experience and familiarity with a scripting language, Windows, Linux, and many AWS services. Candidates pursuing this certification should also feel confident translating business requirements into technical solutions. Google does recommend at least three years of professional experience, with at least one working with its platform, before sitting the exam. In this way, organizations stand to gain substantially by employing those who’ve earned this certification, as they bring specialized expertise in handling and analyzing vast datasets.

Prepare for your exam

What’s more, this list also provides a snapshot of the average certification holder, including the average number of certifications held, the most popular cross-certification, if they are in management, and their average age. The average salary for cloud computing professionals in the United States was $118,669, according to ZipRecruiter [5]. That’s higher than the average for the overall industry, which was $115,906, according to Global Knowledge, which listed two cloud professions—cloud administrator and cloud architect—among their top 10 recession-proof IT jobs [2, 3]. A professional AWS architect is someone who can evaluate an organization’s requirements and make architectural recommendations for implementing and deploying applications on AWS. The Certified Solutions Architect Professional certification requires a high degree of technical skill and experience designing AWS-based applications.

• But, unlike the learning platforms, you’re not going to get that course updated very often, if at all.
• We offer private group training services for organizations looking to upskill their team members with a live-instructor.
• With a CSA – Pro cert, you should be equipped to take any AWS feature or service and make good use of it.
• This means that the things you learn from getting a certification can be applied to different cloud platforms.
• These infrastructures include production, test, and development environments.

Built by AWS and delivered by AWS-accredited instructors, you’ll learn from experts with extensive cloud and instruction experience. This certification validates expertise in securing data and workloads in the AWS Cloud. This certification validates the ability to design, deploy, and evaluate applications on AWS within diverse, complex requirements. This certification validates the ability to automate the testing and deployment of AWS infrastructure and applications.

Below, you’ll find another five certifications that earn IT professionals generous salaries due to their rigor, credibility and validation. AWS Specialty certifications dive extremely deep on narrow focus areas — specifically networking, how to become an aws cloud engineer data analytics, databases, security, and machine learning. Like the Pro-level certs, they are not to be approached lightly, and multiple years of hands-on professional experience in each specialty domain is highly recommended for all.