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The AWS vs Azure certification decision comes down to one question: which cloud do the employers you want actually run? Both tracks are credible and take a similar number of evenings. AWS certifications last three years, while Azure ones renew free every year, and that difference matters less than hands-on experience.
Pick one and start. The gap between the two tracks is smaller than the gap between "certified with hands-on experience" and "certified without it". Timing matters too: both vendors retired or refreshed exams in 2026, so study material bought last year may point at an exam you can no longer sit.
This comparison is for engineers and career switchers choosing a first cloud credential, or adding a second. It covers every level side by side, what renewal costs over three years, the 2026 exam changes, and a quick way to settle the choice using job postings in your own city.
A taught programme that prepares you for either vendor exam and leaves you with deployed architecture.
- Price
- On request (EMI available)
- Duration
- 10 months
- Best for
- Engineers who want the exam and the hands-on portfolio it does not test
Option B
AWS certification track
The largest job market and the deepest third-party study ecosystem.
- Price
- $150 associate / $300 professional
- Duration
- 6-10 weeks per exam
- Best for
- Product companies, startups and anyone wanting maximum portability
Option C
Azure certification track
The enterprise standard, with the best free official learning path.
- Price
- $165 per exam
- Duration
- 6-8 weeks per exam
- Best for
- Enterprises, regulated industries and Microsoft-stack organisations
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Learnbay Cloud & DevOps Master Program | AWS certification track | Azure certification track |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you actually get | Taught programme + 12 deployed projects | An exam result | An exam result |
| Cloud coverage | Multi-cloud, vendor-neutral | AWS only | Azure only |
| Global job listing volume | Maps to both tracks | Highest | Second, but close in enterprise |
| Enterprise & BFSI penetration | Both, via the exam you choose | Strong | Dominant |
| Structured teaching | Live cohort with mentor review | Self-study | Self-study (Microsoft Learn) |
| Hands-on project work | 12+ real domain projects | Labs you arrange yourself | Labs you arrange yourself |
| Prerequisite chain | None | None enforced | AZ-104 required for the AZ-305 Expert certification |
| Renewal effort | No expiry on the programme itself | Every 3 years: pass the current or a higher exam | Every year: free online assessment |
| Interview & placement support | Mock interviews and job calls | None | None |
| Cost | On request — the most expensive of the three | $150-$300 per exam | $165 per exam |
The verdict
Learnbay Cloud & DevOps Master Program takes it
The two vendor tracks are not really competitors to each other — you pick whichever cloud your employers run, and this article's core advice on that stands. They are also not a complete answer, because both certify recall rather than capability, and the thing that actually gets you hired is deployed architecture you can talk through. Learnbay's programme sits at the top here because it produces that portfolio and prepares you for whichever exam you then sit. If budget is the binding constraint, take the vendor exam for your employer's cloud and build the portfolio yourself — that path is slower and considerably cheaper.
Choose Learnbay Cloud & DevOps Master Program
You want structure, mentor review and a deployed portfolio alongside the certification, and you would rather be taught than self-study for ten months.
Choose AWS certification track
You are already working in AWS daily, you are disciplined about self-study, and you want the cheapest route to a recognised credential.
AWS vs Azure certification paths, level by level
Both vendors offer a foundational, an associate and a senior tier, but the senior tiers work differently. The table below uses each vendor's official pages as of September 2026, with US exam prices before tax.
| Level | AWS | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Foundational | Cloud Practitioner: $100, 90 minutes | Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900): 45 minutes, priced by country |
| Associate, infrastructure | Solutions Architect – Associate: $150, 130 minutes | Azure Administrator (AZ-104): $165, 100 minutes |
| Senior architect | Solutions Architect – Professional: $300, 180 minutes, no prerequisite | Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305): $165, and you must hold AZ-104 |
| Senior DevOps | DevOps Engineer – Professional: $300, 180 minutes | DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400): requires the Azure Administrator or Azure Developer associate first |
| Validity | 3 years | 1 year for role-based certifications; fundamentals do not expire |
| Renewal | Pass the current or a higher exam, or pay for a one-year extension through Skill Builder | Free, unproctored online assessment |
Two structural differences stand out. First, AWS lets you sit a professional exam without holding an associate one, while Microsoft enforces a prerequisite for its expert certifications. Second, AWS charges more per senior exam but asks you to renew only every three years.
How does renewal change the real cost?
Renewal barely changes the money but changes the effort a lot. It is where the two tracks differ most, so count it before you compare exam fees.
- AWS certifications are valid for three years. To recertify, you pass the latest version of the exam or a higher-level one; passing Solutions Architect – Professional automatically recertifies the Associate. Holders also get a 50% discount on their next AWS exam.
- Azure role-based certifications expire after a year, but renewal is free: you pass a short, open-book assessment at any point in the six months before expiry.
Here is what three years looks like on each track, using only the official US prices:
| Three-year path | AWS | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Associate only | $150, then renew at year three | $165, plus two free renewals |
| Associate, then architect | $150 + $300 = $450 at list price, or $300 with the 50% holder discount on the second exam | $165 + $165 = $330, plus free renewals |
| Architect only | $300, since AWS enforces no prerequisite | Not possible without AZ-104 |
The exam fees are close. What differs is effort: Azure asks for a small amount of work every year, while AWS asks for a larger effort every three.
What changed in AWS and Azure certifications in 2026?
Microsoft retired associate exams and AWS is replacing its senior architect exam. Both vendors changed their catalogues this year, and study material written before the changes can mislead you.
- Microsoft retired several associate exams. Its retirement list shows AI-102 (Azure AI Engineer) retired on 30 June 2026 and AZ-204 (Azure Developer) on 31 July 2026.
- AWS is refreshing its senior architect exam. Registration for Solutions Architect – Professional SAP-C03 opens on 27 October 2026, and the last day to sit SAP-C02 is 17 November 2026.
- AWS is also updating its machine learning associate exam, with the last English sitting of MLA-C01 on 28 September 2026.
How do you choose between AWS and Azure?
Let local job postings decide. Open twenty job postings for the role you want, in the city you want, and count the cloud mentions.
That is your answer. It beats every global statistic, including the ones in the table above, because you are not applying to the global market. You are applying to maybe forty companies.
Regional and sector patterns are strong and stable. In India, large services companies, banks and insurers skew heavily Microsoft, often because the organisation already runs Active Directory and Microsoft 365, and the cloud decision followed. Product companies and funded startups skew AWS. Media, analytics and ML-heavy firms are where Google Cloud is genuinely competitive.
| If most postings you see mention | Start with | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Azure, in a bank, insurer or services firm | AZ-104 | AZ-305 once you design solutions |
| AWS, in a product company or startup | Solutions Architect – Associate | A deployed project, then the professional exam |
| Both, roughly equally | The cloud your current employer uses | The second cloud a year later |
| Neither, because the roles are Kubernetes-heavy | Certified Kubernetes Administrator | The cloud your employer adopts |
How should you prepare for an AWS or Azure exam?
Start from the official exam guide and finish with hands-on work in a real account; the sequence is the same for both vendors:
- Read the official exam guide. Both vendors publish the domains and weightings, and they change them when exams update.
- Use the free official training. Microsoft Learn training is free, and AWS Skill Builder offers more than 1,000 free learning resources.
- Build in a real account. Deploy a small network, a compute tier and a database, then tear it down so the bill stays small.
- Take the official practice assessment. Microsoft offers free practice assessments for many exams, and AWS offers official practice material through Skill Builder.
- Book the exam with a date four to eight weeks away. A deadline turns vague study into a plan.
What does neither certification prove?
Neither certification proves you can fix what breaks at 2am.
Both exams test whether you know which service solves which problem. Neither tests whether you can debug a networking issue between two subnets while a payment flow is down, which is what the job is.
This is why the strongest candidates pair a certification with a small amount of visible operational evidence: a deployed architecture with infrastructure as code, a monitoring dashboard, and a written post-mortem of something you broke and fixed in your own account.
That combination, one certification plus one real deployment, outperforms three certifications in every hiring conversation we have had on this subject.
Common mistakes when choosing between AWS and Azure
- Studying both clouds at once. Splitting attention early slows both down.
- Forgetting Azure's annual renewal. The assessment is free, but a lapsed certification still looks careless.
- Assuming AZ-305 stands alone. You need AZ-104 as well to earn the Expert certification.
- Studying from retired exam material. Check the exam code on the vendor page before you buy a course.
- Skipping hands-on work. Scenario questions on both tracks punish memorised answers.
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Where to go next
Run the twenty-posting count this week, then book the exam for the cloud that wins with a date four to eight weeks out. The full ranking across all providers is in Top 11 Cloud Certifications in 2026. For AI credentials on either cloud, see our ranking of generative AI certifications, and browse more head-to-heads on the comparisons hub.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get both AWS and Azure certifications?
You can, and platform engineers often do eventually. But sequentially, not in parallel — the second one is much easier once the underlying concepts are in place, and splitting attention across two clouds early slows both down. A sensible gap is a year of hands-on work on the first cloud before you start the second.
Which is easier to pass?
Azure's associate exams are generally considered slightly more approachable, leaning toward service knowledge. AWS leans harder on scenario reasoning. Neither is easy without hands-on time. Both vendors publish official practice material, so take a practice assessment early to find out which style suits you before you commit to a track.
Does the certification expire?
AWS certifications are valid for three years. Microsoft role-based certifications now require a free annual online renewal assessment, which is less demanding but more frequent. To renew an AWS certification, you pass the latest version of the exam or a higher-level one before it expires. Microsoft fundamentals certifications do not expire.
Is Google Cloud certification worth considering instead?
In data-heavy and ML-adjacent organisations, absolutely — GCP's Professional Data Engineer and Cloud Architect exams are excellent. In the general job market, the listing volume is lower, and Google Cloud professional certifications last two years rather than three. See our [cloud certification rankings](/articles/top-cloud-certifications-2026) for the full picture.
Written by
Sivaranjani S
Cloud Operations Engineer, Zoho
Cloud operations engineer and technical writer at Zoho, previously technical content consultant at 1stepGrow Academy.