Network+ vs Security+ comes down to what you can already do. If you are heading for a security job and you can read a subnet mask without a calculator and say what a VLAN separates, book Security+ and skip Network+. If those are words rather than things you have configured, take Network+ first. CompTIA says as much itself.
CompTIA recommends Network+ before Security+ on the Security+ page itself. It also states, in its own career-pathway FAQ, that these certifications carry no required prerequisites. Roadmaps that quote the first sentence and drop the second are how people end up sitting an exam they did not need.
Does CompTIA Say Network+ Comes First?
Yes, and it says where. The recommended experience listed in the Security+ (SY0-701) exam details is CompTIA Network+ plus two years working in a security or systems administrator role. The Network+ (N10-009) page asks for A+ plus nine to twelve months as a junior network administrator or network support technician, and names no security exam under its own recommended experience. Where it names Security+, it is as one of three possible next steps, alongside Server+ and Linux+. The recommended-experience chain runs one direction only, and CompTIA’s reason for it fits in a sentence: “Before you can secure a network, you must understand how it functions.” Study security operations without that, and you are memorizing defenses for a machine you cannot picture.
Then the same vendor tells you when to ignore its own order. CompTIA writes that there are no required prerequisites for these certifications, and that someone with two years of security experience or equivalent knowledge might start at Security+ to prove it. Asked directly whether the pathway has to be taken in sequence, CompTIA answers no. Your route depends on the job you are after.
Nothing stops you booking Security+ tomorrow, and the exam checks whether you understand what it assumes you already understand.
When You Can Skip Network+
Skip it if you can do all four of these cold:
- subnet an address range without a calculator
- read a routing table and say where the next hop sends a packet
- explain what a VLAN separates, and what a trunk port carries
- describe what DHCP and DNS hand a client during boot
Most people who can do that learned it on a helpdesk, in a NOC rotation, or on a home lab with a real switch in it. You can arrive with that knowledge without ever sitting an exam for it. If the list above is a coin flip for you, work through a set of Security+ questions built on the current objectives before you decide. Pass-IT writes its questions from those published objectives. A bad practice run costs less than a bad booking.
Skip Network+ too if you are aiming at a security desk. CompTIA maps Security+ to a long list of DoD 8140 work roles: cyber defense analyst, incident responder, vulnerability analyst, security control assessor, information security manager, and more. Network+ carries three, filed under a combined NICE and DoD 8140 heading and all on the infrastructure side: technical support specialist, network operations specialist, and system administrator. Those are work-role mappings rather than regulatory requirements, and CompTIA is careful about the wording. Those analyst roles are also where CySA+ picks up after Security+, the fork after this one.
When Network+ First Is Worth the Extra Exam
Take Network+ first if you are coming into IT from outside it. CompTIA’s recommendation for N10-009 assumes A+, meaning both Core 1 and Core 2, plus nine to twelve months in a junior network administrator or network support technician role. That is the floor the exam was written against. Start below it and Security+ study turns into two subjects at once: the security control, and the networking it sits on top of.
The N10-009 objectives show what you would be buying. Troubleshooting is the largest domain at 24%, networking concepts 23%, implementation 20%, operations 19%. Network security accounts for 14%, so the two exams already overlap at one edge. Security+ puts its weight elsewhere: security operations at 28%, threats and vulnerabilities at 22%, program management and oversight at 20%. Nothing on that list teaches you what a subnet is, because the exam assumes you already know.
For a lot of people Network+ is the destination. If you want a technical support, network operations or system administration job, those are the three roles CompTIA lists against the exam, and they are the job titles you will be applying under. Sitting Security+ first because it is the better-known exam puts a security credential in front of hiring managers who were not asking for one.
Is One Exam Harder Than the Other?
On paper the two are nearly the same exam. Both run a maximum of 90 questions in 90 minutes, and both mix multiple choice with performance-based questions.
One number on the score report separates them: Network+ passes at 720 on CompTIA’s 100–900 scale, Security+ at 750 on the same scale.
Ignore any site that quotes you a percentage passing score. The scale starts at 100 rather than zero, and multiple-choice and performance-based questions carry different weight. CompTIA keeps the raw-to-scale conversion to itself, so you cannot turn either number into a count of correct answers.
Security+ is the harder sitting for most people who ask this question. Its published bar sits thirty points higher on the same clock, and it is written for someone who already knows the networking underneath. Come at it from five years of infrastructure work and the ranking flips, because you spend the 90 minutes learning one subject instead of two.
Do Network+ and Security+ Expire?
Both expire three years after you earn them, and both renew through CompTIA’s Continuing Education program. Network+ takes 30 continuing education units per cycle. Security+ takes 50.
Holding both does not double that. CompTIA renews lower certifications with the higher one: you meet the requirements for your highest-level certification, and the ones below it renew automatically. Its own renewal table lists Security+ as fully renewing Network+ and A+. Keep Security+ current and Network+ stays current with it, on 50 CEUs every three years and one continuing-education fee at your highest level. CompTIA drops the fee on the lower certification only when the higher one fully renews it, which Security+ does for Network+.
Your three years start when you pass. The exam versions retire on a schedule counted from launch instead. CompTIA lists N10-009 as retiring usually three years after launch, estimated 2027, and SY0-701 as estimated 2026, with no date fixed for either. Put Network+ in front and you push your Security+ sitting toward that second estimate, so read the Security+ exam page before you buy study material.
| Network+ (N10-009) | Security+ (SY0-701) | |
|---|---|---|
| Exam version | V9 | V7 |
| Retirement (CompTIA estimate) | 2027 | 2026 |
| Questions | maximum of 90 | maximum of 90 |
| Time | 90 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Passing score (scale 100–900) | 720 | 750 |
| Performance-based questions | Yes | Yes |
| Experience CompTIA recommends | A+ plus 9–12 months hands-on | Network+ plus 2 years |
| CEUs to renew | 30 | 50 |
| Renewal cycle | 3 years | 3 years |
So Which One Do You Book?
Book Security+ first if you already understand networks and a security desk is the target. If you are new to IT, or if infrastructure is the work you want, Network+ comes first. Anyone early in a career and in no hurry takes both in that order anyway, which is why CompTIA publishes A+, Network+ and Security+ as a stack.
Security+ is also the nearer retirement of the two. Plan that sitting for the next few months instead of letting prep run into another year.
This fork is one step in a longer sequence, with CySA+ and the specialist exams above it. The CompTIA certification path for 2026 lays out that whole order in one place. SecurityX is the far end of it: CompTIA recommends ten years of hands-on IT experience, five of them in security.
