Best CCNA Courses in 2026 (200-301 v1.1), Free and Paid

Last updated: 29 September 2026 (every course, price and exam detail on this page checked that day). Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes the verdict, and we name options we earn nothing from when they are the better fit.

QUICK VERDICT

See Neil Anderson’s CCNA course → Jeremy’s IT Lab on Udemy →

The CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) is the standard first certification for anyone heading into networking. It takes one exam, 200-301 CCNA, now in version 1.1, and it rewards people who can actually configure switches and routers, not just define them. That shapes how we judged the courses below: coverage of the current v1.1 blueprint, how recently each was updated, how much hands-on lab work it builds in, and what it costs.

One warning before you pick anything. Cisco retired the old 200-125 CCNA exam in February 2020, and some well-reviewed courses were never rebuilt for the new blueprint. A few still rank in search. We flag the ones to avoid near the end of the list.

The best CCNA courses at a glance

The best CCNA courses, reviewed

1. Jeremy’s IT Lab (free on YouTube, paid edition on Udemy)

Best for: everyone, whether or not you also buy a course

• Free on YouTube: the ‘Free CCNA v1.1 200-301 | Complete Course 2026’ playlist, 126 lessons
• Channel: about 622,000 subscribers (29 September 2026)
• Udemy edition: Master Cisco CCNA 200-301: Comprehensive All-in-One Course, 4.8 from 6,755 ratings, 50 hours of video, updated December 2025
• Instructor: Jeremy McDowell

Jeremy’s IT Lab is the resource most often recommended in CCNA study communities, and it earns that position. The videos follow the exam blueprint in order, each lesson ends with quiz questions, and the free Packet Tracer lab files mean you configure what you have just watched rather than taking notes on it. The playlist is labeled for version 1.1 of the exam, so the automation and wireless material that v1.1 changed is covered.

The Udemy edition is the same teaching packaged as one course with a progress tracker, downloadable resources and a completion certificate. Buy it if you want that structure or want to support the instructor; skip it if the free playlist already suits you. Both are the same person explaining the same material, which is rare in a market where free courses usually serve as funnels for thinner paid ones.

The catch: the free version has no built-in progress tracking, and you still need practice exams from somewhere else before booking the test.

See the Udemy edition →

2. Cisco CCNA 200-301 – The Complete Guide to Getting Certified (Neil Anderson, Udemy)

Best for: learners who want one paid course that covers the whole exam

• 4.8 from 90,853 ratings; 337,433 students
• 42.5 hours of video, updated September 2026
• Instructor: Neil Anderson

This is the most-reviewed CCNA course on Udemy and one of the most recently updated. The size of the rating base matters: a 4.8 average across more than 90,000 reviews is hard to sustain unless the course keeps working for learners over years, and the September 2026 update means the v1.1 material is current. It walks through every domain with configuration demonstrations and includes lab exercises you run yourself.

Choose it over the free option if you learn better from a single, linear course with a clear end point, or if you want Udemy’s Q&A section to ask questions as you go.

The catch: Udemy prices swing between list price and frequent sales, so check the price on the day, and plan to add dedicated practice exams.

See the course on Udemy →

3. Cisco CCNA 200-301 Complete Course: Packet Tracer Labs (David Bombal, Udemy)

Best for: people who learn by configuring rather than watching

• 4.7 from 5,017 ratings; 37,004 students
• 72.5 hours of video, updated October 2025
• Instructor: David Bombal
• Beginner on-ramp from the same instructor: The Complete Networking Fundamentals Course. Your CCNA start (4.7 from 58,556 ratings, 73 hours)

David Bombal is one of the best-known networking instructors, and this course leans heavily on labs: long Packet Tracer walk-throughs where you build and troubleshoot topologies step by step. It is the longest course on this list, and the length comes from practice rather than padding.

If you have never worked with networks at all, his Networking Fundamentals course is a gentler start and covers the OSI model, IP addressing and basic switching before you tackle the exam material.

The catch: the course URL still carries an older exam code (200-105), and at 72.5 hours it is a big commitment; use it as your lab spine rather than watching it end to end alongside another course.

See Bombal’s labs course →

4. Cisco’s free official resources

Best for: hands-on practice and anyone who wants to learn from the vendor itself

• Networking Basics (Cisco Networking Academy): free, 22 hours, 13 labs, self-paced
• Getting Started with Cisco Packet Tracer: free; enroll to download Packet Tracer at no cost
• Cisco’s CCNA prep program on the Cisco Learning Network: free, according to Cisco
• Cisco Modeling Labs: Cisco says you can get started for free

Packet Tracer is the simulator almost every CCNA course uses for labs, and Cisco gives it away through Networking Academy. Install it before you start any course above. Networking Basics is a good first course if you are completely new, and Cisco’s free CCNA prep program adds study sessions and practice quizzes aimed at the exam itself.

The full CCNA curriculum at Networking Academy (Introduction to Networks and the two courses after it) is taught through partner academies with an instructor, so it depends on whether a school or training center near you offers it.

The catch: the free self-paced courses cover fundamentals, not the whole exam, so treat them as a companion to course 1, 2 or 3 rather than a replacement.

5. Cisco CCNA 200-301: The Complete Guide to Getting Certified Specialization (Packt, Coursera)

Best for: people who already pay for Coursera Plus

• 4.7 from 168 reviews; 16,887 enrolled
• Four courses: Foundations, Intermediate (switching, VLANs and routing), Advanced (WAN, security and services), Expert (automation and cloud)
• Coursera estimates about 4 weeks at 10 hours a week
• Shareable certificate on completion

This is the most complete CCNA program on Coursera, split into four courses that follow the exam domains. Included in Coursera Plus, so if you already subscribe, it costs you nothing extra. Pearson, the publisher behind the official Cisco Press guides, also has a seven-course CCNA 200-301 Version 1.1 Specialization on Coursera, though it has far fewer reviews (4.1 from 22).

The catch: Coursera’s CCNA catalog is thinner than Udemy’s, and neither Coursera option has anything like the track record of the top two picks. Don’t subscribe to Coursera just for this.

See the Coursera specialization →

6. Boson ExSim-Max for Cisco 200-301 CCNA (practice exams)

Best for: the last three to four weeks before your exam date

• $99 for a one-year subscription (auto-renews; cancel any time)
• Free demo available
• Detailed explanations for each answer, simulation mode and score reports

Boson’s practice exams are the ones experienced CCNA candidates most often recommend, because they are widely regarded as close to the real exam’s difficulty and explain why each wrong answer is wrong. Use them as a readiness check: once you are scoring consistently well on fresh exams, book the real one. Boson has no affiliate program with us, so there is no link here; search for it on boson.com.

The catch: it is now sold as a yearly subscription rather than a one-time purchase, so cancel after your exam if you do not need it again.

What is the best CCNA course on Udemy?

Udemy has dozens of CCNA courses, and the ratings are closer together than they look. Here are the ones worth choosing between, checked on 29 September 2026.

Our pick: Neil Anderson’s course for most learners, because it combines the largest review base with the most recent update. Choose Jeremy McDowell’s course if you already know his style from YouTube, and David Bombal’s if you want the most lab time. Treat the practice-test courses on Udemy with care: the most reviewed one we found, CCNA 200-301 Exam-Level Practice Tests, rates 3.8 from 915 ratings, well below the video courses, which is why we point to Boson instead.

CCNA courses to avoid

Two kinds of course keep appearing in search results and are not worth your time in 2026:

• Anything built for the 200-125 exam. Cisco retired it in February 2020. On Udemy, the well-reviewed CCNA 2020 200-125 Video Boot Camp With Chris Bryant is still listed and was last updated in May 2020. Check the exam code in the title before you buy.
• 200-301 courses that predate version 1.1. Chris Bryant’s newer CCNA 200-301 Video Boot Camp was last updated in February 2021, before Cisco’s v1.1 revision of the exam. Much of the core routing and switching still applies, but you would need another source for the newer material. A course’s “last updated” date is the quickest check.
• Stale platform courses. Pluralsight’s Introduction to Networking for Cisco CCNA was last updated in March 2020. If a subscription’s CCNA content is older than 2024, look elsewhere.

CCNA 200-301 exam details (2026)

From Cisco’s exam page and CCNA certification page, checked 29 September 2026:

Cisco does not publish a fixed passing score, and the number of questions varies between sittings. Plan for time pressure: the performance-based questions take longer than the multiple-choice ones, so practice configuring quickly as well as correctly. You book the exam through Pearson VUE, either at a test center or online with a proctor.

What the CCNA exam covers (domain weights)

Cisco’s official exam topics split the exam into six domains. The weights tell you where to spend your time:

IP connectivity is the single biggest domain, and subnetting sits underneath almost every question in the first three. If you only have time to over-prepare one skill, make it subnetting speed. The automation domain is conceptual at CCNA level, but if you want more depth, our Ansible courses guide covers one of the configuration tools it names.

Is the CCNA worth it in 2026?

For a networking career, yes. It is the credential hiring managers use to filter for network technician, network administrator and junior network engineer roles, and it is the foundation for Cisco’s professional-level CCNP. The job market deserves an honest look, though:

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for network and computer systems administrators at $99,130 a year, across 323,600 jobs in 2025. But it projects employment in that group to fall 4% between 2025 and 2035, as more infrastructure moves to cloud services.
• Computer network architects, the senior role many CCNA holders work toward, earn a median $134,050, and BLS projects that group to grow 8% over the same period.
• The pattern suggests the CCNA works best as a starting point you build on (toward CCNP, security or cloud networking) rather than an end in itself.

If you are aiming at cloud roles, pair the CCNA with one of the certifications in our cloud certifications guide; for security, see our cybersecurity certifications ranking. For how the CCNA compares with other tech credentials, see our ranking of tech certifications.

CCNA vs CompTIA Network+: which should you get?

If networking is where you want to work, go straight to the CCNA. If you are new to IT and still deciding, Network+ is the gentler first step; our Network+ courses guide covers the best prep, and our IT support courses guide covers the roles it leads to. For a wider view of networking study options beyond the CCNA, see our computer networking courses guide.

A realistic CCNA study plan

A plan that works for most people studying part-time, around 8 to 10 hours a week:

1. Weeks 1 to 4, fundamentals (20% of the exam): install Packet Tracer, work through the first part of Jeremy’s IT Lab or your chosen course, and drill subnetting daily until you can do it in your head.
2. Weeks 5 to 10, network access and IP connectivity (45%): VLANs, trunking, spanning tree, static routing and OSPF. This is where labs matter most; configure every topic yourself instead of watching it.
3. Weeks 11 to 14, IP services, security and automation (35%): NAT, DHCP, ACLs, port security and the automation concepts. Revisit any lab you could not finish without notes.
4. Weeks 15 to 16, practice exams: take full-length timed practice exams, review every wrong answer, and re-lab the topics behind them. Book the exam once your scores are stable, not when the calendar says so.

Packet capture is a useful companion skill here: watching real traffic makes ARP, DHCP and TCP concrete. Our Wireshark courses guide lists the best free options. And because most network gear and servers run Linux under the hood, a basic Linux course from our Linux courses guide pays off after the CCNA.

Can you pass the CCNA with free resources only?

Yes. Jeremy’s IT Lab, Cisco’s Packet Tracer and Networking Academy courses, and Cisco’s free CCNA prep program together cover the whole exam, and many candidates pass with nothing else. What free resources do not give you easily is a bank of realistic, timed practice exams with detailed explanations. If you spend money anywhere, spend it there, or on one structured Udemy course if you know you need a single guided path to stay on track. Our free certifications guide covers other credentials you can earn at no cost while you study.

How we chose these courses

We did not sit the CCNA exam or complete every course end to end for this page. On 29 September 2026 we checked each course’s live listing: its rating and number of reviews, when it was last updated, its length, and whether it targets the current 200-301 v1.1 exam. We checked every exam detail against Cisco’s own pages and every salary figure against the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Where a strong option pays us nothing (Jeremy’s IT Lab on YouTube, Cisco’s free courses, Boson), we recommend it anyway and say so.

Frequently asked questions

Which CCNA exam is current in 2026?

The current exam is 200-301 CCNA, version 1.1, officially titled Implementing and Administering Cisco Solutions. It is a single exam of 120 minutes that costs US$300. The older 200-125 exam retired in February 2020, so skip any course built around it.

What is the best free CCNA course?

Jeremy’s IT Lab on YouTube. Its ‘Free CCNA v1.1 200-301 Complete Course’ playlist runs 126 lessons, and the channel has about 622,000 subscribers. Pair it with Cisco’s free Packet Tracer, which you download after enrolling in Cisco Networking Academy’s free Packet Tracer course.

What is the best CCNA course on Udemy?

For most people, Neil Anderson’s Cisco CCNA 200-301 – The Complete Guide to Getting Certified: 4.8 stars from more than 90,000 ratings and updated in September 2026. Jeremy McDowell’s Udemy edition of Jeremy’s IT Lab (4.8, 50 hours) is the pick if you already like his free videos, and David Bombal’s Packet Tracer Labs course is the most lab-heavy option.

How long does it take to pass the CCNA?

Most people studying part-time need three to six months. Pearson’s CCNA specialization on Coursera estimates 8 weeks at 5 hours a week just for its video content; the labs and practice exams are what take the extra time. If you are new to networking, add a month for fundamentals first.

How much does the CCNA exam cost?

US$300 plus any local tax, paid when you book through Pearson VUE, or redeemed with Cisco Learning Credits. The course is a separate cost: it can be free (Jeremy’s IT Lab, Cisco Networking Academy) or a low-cost Udemy course.

Is the CCNA hard?

It is broad more than it is deep. The exam covers six domains, and IP connectivity (routing) is the largest at 25%. The parts that trip people up are subnetting speed and the hands-on questions, which is why labs matter more than re-watching videos.

Does the CCNA expire?

Yes. Cisco certifications are valid for three years. You recertify by passing a qualifying exam again or through Cisco’s continuing education program before the three years run out.

Should I get the CCNA or CompTIA Network+ first?

If networking is your target career and you can study for a few months, go straight to the CCNA. If you are brand new to IT or want a vendor-neutral foundation for help desk and support roles, Network+ is the gentler first step, and the CCNA can follow.

Related guides

• Best computer networking courses
• Best CompTIA Network+ courses
• Best cybersecurity certifications
• Best cloud certifications
• Best online courses by subject