If you’re currently working in Information Technology or if your employer offers educational benefits, see if any of the below resources (or others) are available to you. Your employer may have a subscription to an online video training to help keep employees up to date. Or they may provide discounts or reimbursements if you subscribe to one of these services yourself. The list below is in no particular order. Most, if not all, online video training sites provide free trials so make sure to use them to save on some cash.
1. Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning
You may be familiar with the general purpose online video training hub of Lynda.com. It was recently purchased by LinkedIn and rebranded as LinkedIn Learning. LinkedIn Learning is not specifically geared towards IT so if you purchase a subscription, you’ll also have access to a wide range of training videos on other topics such as photography, design, web development, audio and music, marketing, and more.
The course instructor for the CompTIA A+ online course is Mike Meyers author of the popular CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide book. Meyers is a lively presenter and is one of the best at making topics easy to understand. Courses generally have downloadable project files and quizzes.
LinkedIn Learning has a great deal of letting users have a free month to trial the training site. After that it is currently, about $30 per month on a month to month plan or about $20 per month if an annual subscription is purchased.
They also have a mobile app for offline learning.
2. Professor Messer on YouTube
Professor Messer’s YouTube channel is by far the cheapest online training, costing a whopping $0, but you’ll have to watch a few ads. The training may be free but the content is still excellent. The content is arranged according to the exam objectives.
3. CBT Nuggets: https://www.cbtnuggets.com/certification-playlist/comptia
CBTNuggets.com is targeted specifically for IT training. Therefore, it offers very in-depth detailed videos on many of the CompTIA exams such as the A+, Security+, and Network+. In my experience, the videos aren’t very high level so at times can put you to sleep because of the vast amount of detail being explained. But it’s good if you’re just looking for details with no fluff. Currently, there isn’t a course for the updated 220-1001 and 220-1002 exam, but should be coming shortly.
CBT Nuggets offers a mobile app so that you can download and watch videos offline.
If your company has a paid subscription to CBT Nuggets, then by all means use it. Otherwise, if you’re a solo student, you can sign up for a free 7 day trial.
4. Pluralsight
Pluralsight is another website designed specifically for IT training. They do have a course for the updated 200-1001 and 220-1002 series of the CompTIA A+ exams. It’s a 21 hour online video training course. The structure of the courses is broken into sections to match the exam objectives. Each section is taught by different instructors, so you may like some better than others. The Pluralsight course focuses more on quickly reviewing subjects rather than taking the time to educate new learners. I like that the videos are short and straight to the point. More information can be found here: https://www.pluralsight.com/paths/comptia-a-220-1001-and-220-1002
Pluralsight offers a free 10 day trial (https://www.pluralsight.com/pricing/free-trial). After that prices are about $25 to $38 a month depending on which plan you choose.
5. ITPro.tv
The CompTIA website (https://store.comptia.org/training/c/11294?facetValueFilter=tenant~certification:comptia-a%2ctenant~user-type:individual%2ctenant~content-type:video-training&) offers video training through a partnership with ITProTV. The cost of the training is $49 from the CompTIA store, but going directly to ITPro.tv has plans for $42/month and a 7 day free trial. So if you were thinking of purchasing the video training via CompTIA you might want to start with the ITPro.tv free trial first to either test it out and see if its worth purchasing or you might even be able to go through the entire course just with the trial. For more details on the ITPro.tv training for the Comptia A+ visit: https://www.itpro.tv/courses/comptia/comptia-a-2201001-core-1/
6. Cybrary.it
Cybrary offers a free training course on the CompTIA 220-901 and 220-902 series. Even though it’s the older test, most of the content is still relevant to the 220-1001 and 220-1002 exams. It’s free so you can’t go wrong. https://www.cybrary.it/course/comptia-901-2018/