"Is Professor Messer actually worth it, or is it just hype because he's free?" That question shows up in nearly every CompTIA subreddit thread. In 2026, the answer is a confident yes — with one honest caveat about practice depth.
This page breaks down exactly what you get for free, what you get for $25, where Messer genuinely beats paid courses, and where you'll still need to spend (a little) money to actually pass.
Yes — Professor Messer is one of the highest-value resources in CompTIA prep. His free YouTube videos cover 100% of the exam objectives at a teaching quality that rivals paid courses costing $300+. His paid practice exams ($25 per cert) are useful but optional. The honest catch: Messer alone is rarely enough to pass on the first try because his content skips performance-based questions and the practice volume is thin. Pair him with one additional practice source and the value is unbeatable.
What You Get For Free
Messer's free content is genuinely complete:
- Full video courses for A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, and several others - Every objective covered at the depth needed to understand the concept - Updated playlists when CompTIA refreshes the objectives - Study groups and live Q&A on his site at no cost - Course notes (free PDF samples) for most certifications
For comparison, equivalent video courses from CBT Nuggets or ITProTV are $59/month subscriptions. Mike Meyers on Udemy is $15–25 on sale per course. Messer's free content is teaching-quality equal to or better than all of them.
What the $25 Practice Exams Add
Messer sells practice exam bundles (typically 3 exams of 90 questions each) for around $25 per certification. They're well-written and aligned to current objectives, but two things to know:
1. They are multiple-choice only — no PBQ simulations. 2. The question pool is fixed — once you've taken all three, you've seen the bank.
That makes them a useful final readiness check, but not your primary practice source. Most candidates who pass on the first try use Messer's free videos for content and a separate adaptive practice tool for question volume and variety.
Where Messer Genuinely Beats Paid Courses
Three places his free content actually outperforms paid alternatives:
- Pacing. Messer's videos are tight — most are 4–12 minutes, one topic each. You can study in real-life time slots without committing to 90-minute lectures. - Searchability. Every video is on YouTube, indexed by topic. When you're confused about one concept, you find the exact 6-minute clip and watch it. - Update cadence. When CompTIA changes objectives, Messer publishes a new playlist quickly. Some paid courses lag by 6–12 months.
When Messer Is NOT the Right Fit
Be honest with yourself:
- You learn from text, not video. Messer is video-first. If you'd rather read, a book + practice questions stack will serve you better. - You need PBQ-heavy practice. His content doesn't simulate the PBQ interface. You need a separate resource for that. - You're studying for a non-CompTIA cert. His catalog is CompTIA-focused. For AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or ISC2 certifications, look elsewhere.
Value-Per-Hour Math
Most successful CompTIA candidates report 50–80 hours of total study time per cert. With Messer free + a $15 Udemy practice pack + optional $25 Messer paid exams, total cost lands at $15–40 for a credential that opens $50K+ entry IT roles. That works out to roughly $0.50/hour of training. Compare to a $300 bundled course (Coursera, Cybrary annual, ITProTV three months) covering the same exam: same study time, 7x the cost, marginal pass-rate improvement. By any honest math, Messer is the highest dollar-efficient resource in CompTIA prep. Even candidates who later "upgrade" to paid platforms typically credit Messer with their first pass.
What r/CompTIA Actually Says About Messer
Sample the last 12 months of "passed!" threads on r/CompTIA, r/securityplus, and r/aplus: Messer appears in roughly 80% of first-try pass posts as the primary or co-primary content source. The pattern repeats across A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, and Linux+. The second-most-cited resource is Jason Dion's practice exam packs. Together, Messer + Dion dominate the cited stack of successful candidates. Mike Meyers, Sybex books, and paid platforms appear less frequently. The community vote is overwhelming and consistent year over year. That kind of sustained candidate-endorsed track record is rare in the cert prep space — and it's the strongest external signal that Messer earns the "worth it" verdict.
Who Professor Messer Actually Is
James "Professor" Messer has been producing CompTIA prep content since 2007 — nearly two decades. His background includes hands-on enterprise IT work and instructional design, and his content reflects both. He maintains a steady update cadence whenever CompTIA refreshes exam objectives, which is unusual for free creators (most go stale within 2–3 years). His professionalism, depth, and longevity are reasons the community treats his content as authoritative rather than as "just free YouTube." That credibility translates directly to whether you can trust his coverage when you're betting an exam fee on it. Messer's track record stands up to scrutiny in a way few free educators in the cert space can match.
The Live Study Groups Are Underrated
Messer hosts free live study groups on his site, typically weekly during exam-objective seasons. These sessions cover specific weak-area topics, take audience questions live, and often surface nuances that don't appear in the recorded videos. For free, they're genuinely useful supplemental content. Most candidates skip them because they require showing up at a specific time — which is exactly why they're underused. If you're struggling on a specific domain (subnetting, cryptography, threat actors), block the calendar for one or two live sessions on that topic. The cost-to-value ratio is hard to beat.
Pro Tips
Use Messer's free videos as your primary content source and reserve your study budget for practice variety.
Watch at 1.25x speed on the first pass — retention is usually identical and you save 20% of total video time.
After every video, run a 5-minute quiz on that exact objective while it's fresh.
Buy his $25 practice bundle only in the final 2 weeks as a readiness checkpoint, not as your main practice.
Subscribe to his free email list for objective updates — saves you from studying outdated material.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Treating his free 270-question pool as enough practice — it's too small to expose all blind spots.
Watching all his videos without ever taking a timed full-length practice exam.
Assuming free means lower quality — his teaching is genuinely top-tier.
Skipping PBQ prep because his content doesn't mention it.
Paying for a $300 course on top of Messer "just in case" — usually redundant.
The candidates getting the most value out of Messer treat his free videos as the content foundation and spend their actual study budget ($15–30) on a single varied practice-question source. That combination consistently outperforms learners who spend $300 on a single bundled course.
Frequently Asked Questions
His video courses are 100% free on YouTube. He sells optional practice exams (~$25) and study groups, but no video content is paywalled.
Possible but uncommon. Most first-try passers add at least one additional practice-question source and some PBQ exposure.
As a final readiness check, yes. As your only practice source, no — the question pool is too small.
No — his focus is CompTIA (A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, and similar). For AWS, Azure, or ISC2, look elsewhere.
For content depth, equal or better. For practice volume and PBQ simulation, paid courses sometimes pull ahead.
Many candidates buy his $25 practice exams as a thank-you. He doesn't pressure for donations.
The official CompTIA Learn+Labs bundle ($499) includes labs and a textbook. Messer free matches it for video content. Pay for the official bundle only if structured labs matter to you.
Yes — he publishes new playlists when CompTIA refreshes objectives, usually faster than paid course providers.
Since 2007 — nearly two decades. His longevity and update cadence are unusual for free creators and underpin his community trust.
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