CompTIA Continuing Education Units Hack: Earning CEUs Without Buying Courses

What is this page about?

A guide to earning CompTIA Continuing Education Units for free, covering every legitimate no-cost CEU path CompTIA officially recognizes to keep a certification active without retaking the exam. It walks the categories, higher-level and non-CompTIA certifications, higher education, free industry webinars (SANS webcasts) and conferences (BSides), teaching and mentoring, professional experience, and publishing, then covers the documentation discipline that is the real key, a sample three-year free CEU plan for Security+, the unavoidable annual CE fee, and the mistakes that cause renewal failures.

What has been corrected on this page?

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 11 July 2026 · corrected by Melik Can Sariyer

   4 flagged issues verified: a quote attributed to James Stanger (real CompTIA executive, quoted with different unverified content in multiple sibling articles) had no locatable source and was de-attributed; a quote attributed to Lesley Carhart (real, well-known security professional) had no locatable source and was de-attributed; a claim attributed to Brian Krebs (real journalist, commenting on an unrelated niche administrative detail) had no locatable source and was de-attributed; a claim attributed to Wendy Nather (real industry analyst) had no locatable source and was de-attributed.

   Before

   "The CE program is designed to recognize the work practitioners are already doing on the job and in the community. The activity categories reflect that. We are not trying to force people back into classrooms." -- James Stanger, Chief Technology Evangelist at CompTIA ..."I have not paid for a renewal in eight years. SANS webcasts, ISACA chapter events, and BSides talks cover my full Security+ and CASP+ renewal cycles. The trick is logging them as you attend, not at the last minute." -- Lesley Carhart, Principal Industrial Incident Responder at Dragos Inc. ...Brian Krebs, the longtime independent security journalist behind KrebsOnSecurity, has written that the documentation requirements for the publishing category are far lighter than candidates expect, and consistent low-volume blogging covers a renewal cycle for many practitioners. ...Wendy Nather, a longtime industry analyst now at 1Password, has commented in interviews that the work-experience CEU category is the most underused renewal mechanism in the industry, simply because candidates assume they need to do something extra rather than documenting what they already do.

   After

   The CE program is designed to recognize the work practitioners are already doing on the job and in the community. The activity categories reflect that; the intent is not to force people back into classrooms. ...A practitioner who stays active in the community can go years without paying for a renewal at all. SANS webcasts, ISACA chapter events, and BSides talks are enough on their own to cover a full Security+ or CASP+ renewal cycle, provided they get logged as they happen rather than left until the last minute. ...The documentation requirements for the publishing category are far lighter than most candidates expect, and consistent low-volume blogging is enough to cover a renewal cycle for many practitioners. ...The work-experience CEU category is widely considered one of the most underused renewal mechanisms in the industry, simply because candidates assume they need to do something extra rather than documenting what they already do.

   Why: De-attributed 4 unverified named-expert quotes/claims (James Stanger, Lesley Carhart, Brian Krebs, Wendy Nather), none of which had a locatable source, to plain prose.

   View the full record →

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