Are Cloud Certifications Worth It? We Analyzed 825 Jobs to Find Out
December 20, 2025
I analyzed all my active job listings to see if cloud certifications are actually useful.
Last Updated: December 2025
"Get certified and you'll earn more." It's advice you'll hear in every career guide, at every tech conference, and from every cloud vendor. But is it actually true? And which certifications are worth it?
I analyzed the 918 job listings in my database to find out. Here are the results.
First, the numbers: 918 jobs -> 825 deduplicated jobs -> 658 jobs with salary.
The Data at a Glance
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Jobs Analyzed | 825 |
| Jobs Mentioning Certifications | 130 (15.8%) |
| Jobs Without Certifications | 695 (84.2%) |
| Overall Average Salary | $167,204 |
Plot twist:
| Category | Avg Salary | Sample Size |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs WITHOUT certifications | $168,052 | n=555 |
| Jobs WITH certifications | $148,171 | n=103 |
| Difference | -$19,882 (-11.8%) |
You read that correctly. Jobs that request certifications pay 11.8% less on average than jobs that don't.
But why?
Salary vs. Demand: The Big Picture
Before we dive into the why, here's a visualization of every certification we tracked. The X-axis shows average salary, the Y-axis shows how many jobs requested that cert:
Before we dive into the why, here's a visualization of every certification I tracked. Hover over any dot to see detailed information:
Key insights from the chart:
- GCP Professional Security Engineer sits alone in the right-hand corner: high salary ($209K), but low demand (3 jobs).
- CISSP dominates in demand (47 jobs) but pays below the overall average. It's the "safe" choice.
- Most certs cluster in the $120K-$170K range. The "cert premium" is largely a myth—or even a discount.
- The dashed line marks the average salary for cert-requiring jobs ($148K). Notice how many certs fall below it.
Methodology
Before going any further, let's be transparent about how we collected and analyzed this data.
Data Collection
- Source: 918 job listings focusing on cloud, DevOps, and infrastructure roles. This is a point-in-time snapshot-- the results could be different a year from now.
- Deduplication: Jobs were deduplicated by company and normalized title to avoid counting the same role posted in multiple locations (e.g., "Enterprise Solutions Engineer - New York" and "Enterprise Solutions Engineer - San Francisco"). This reduced the dataset to 825 unique positions.
- Salary Data: Only jobs with explicit salary ranges were included in salary calculations. Salary was calculated as the midpoint of (salary_lower + salary_upper) / 2. This isn't perfect, but it's the best we could do-- some jobs had one "salary" listed, some had a range.
- Certification Detection: Job descriptions were parsed for certification mentions using pattern matching against 50+ certification codes. This doesn't differentiate between mandatory and "nice to have".
Comparison Baselines
I use two baselines for comparison:
- Overall Baseline ($167,204): Average salary across ALL jobs
- Cert-Jobs Baseline ($148,171): Average salary for jobs that mention ANY certification in the job description
The second baseline lets us compare whether a specific certification pays better than the average certified job.
Hypothesis Testing
I had two main hypotheses for why cert-requiring jobs might pay less.
Hypothesis 1: Certifications are more common in entry-level roles
Status: DISPROVEN
I used the same entry-level detection logic as the Entry-Level Jobs page:
- Positive keywords: junior, entry level, intern, trainee, apprentice, graduate, associate
- Negative keywords: senior, sr., lead, principal, staff, manager, director
- Salary cap: less than or equal to $130,000
Results:
| Category | Total Jobs | With Certs | Cert Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry-Level | 31 | 2 | 6.5% |
| Non-Entry-Level | 794 | 128 | 16.1% |
Entry-level jobs are 9.7 percentage points LESS likely to require certifications. The opposite of what we expected.
Hypothesis 2: Certifications are more common in government/contractor jobs
Status: CONFIRMED
I flagged government/contractor jobs by:
- Company names: Booz Allen, Leidos, SAIC, Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon, General Dynamics, etc.
- Description keywords: clearance, TS/SCI, top secret, DoD, federal, government, FedRAMP
Results:
| Category | Total Jobs | With Certs | Cert Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gov/Contractor | 288 | 58 | 20.1% |
| Private Sector | 537 | 72 | 13.4% |
Government/contractor jobs are 6.7 percentage points MORE likely to require certifications. And they pay less:
| Sector | With Certs Salary | Without Certs Salary | Cert Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gov/Contractor | $141,054 | $164,690 | -14.4% |
| Private Sector | $154,144 | $169,932 | -9.3% |
This is known. If you want to handle government systems, you need at least Security+, and sometimes CISSP, depending on role and seniority. Even at a senior level, the $200k+ executive roles requiring CISSP are outweighed by the $110k defense contractor roles.
The Certification Leaderboard
It's what you've all been waiting for. Here's every certification we tracked, sorted by demand. Click a column header to sort.
Baselines: Overall = $167,204 | Cert-Jobs = $148,171
| Cert | Full Name | Demand | Avg Salary | vs Overall | vs Cert Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CISSP | Certified Information Systems Security Professional | 47 | $154,691 | -7.5% | +4.4% |
| Security+ | CompTIA Security+ | 21 | $149,452 | -10.6% | +0.9% |
| SCS-C01 | AWS Certified Security - Specialty | 17 | $169,643 | +1.5% | +14.5% |
| SAA-C03 | AWS Solutions Architect - Associate | 16 | $135,992 | -18.7% | -8.2% |
| AZ-500 | Azure Security Engineer Associate | 13 | $136,423 | -18.4% | -7.9% |
| AZ-305 | Azure Solutions Architect Expert | 12 | $144,657 | -13.5% | -2.4% |
| CCNA | Cisco Certified Network Associate | 11 | $123,795 | -26.0% | -16.5% |
| CCNP | Cisco Certified Network Professional | 11 | $146,860 | -12.2% | -0.9% |
| OSCP | Offensive Security Certified Professional | 11 | $177,205 | +6.0% | +19.6% |
| AZ-104 | Azure Administrator Associate | 11 | $127,418 | -23.8% | -14.0% |
| SAP-C02 | AWS Solutions Architect - Professional | 7 | $124,240 | -25.7% | -16.2% |
| CKS | Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist | 7 | $171,442 | +2.5% | +15.7% |
| CEH | Certified Ethical Hacker | 7 | $164,024 | -1.9% | +10.7% |
| ANS-C01 | AWS Advanced Networking - Specialty | 6 | $139,373 | -16.6% | -5.9% |
| DOP-C02 | AWS DevOps Engineer - Professional | 6 | $170,000 | +1.7% | +14.7% |
| CKAD | Certified Kubernetes Application Developer | 6 | $148,837 | -11.0% | +0.4% |
| AZ-900 | Azure Fundamentals | 6 | $111,180 | -33.5% | -25.0% |
| AZ-204 | Azure Developer Associate | 6 | $131,430 | -21.4% | -11.3% |
| CKA | Certified Kubernetes Administrator | 6 | $141,410 | -15.4% | -4.6% |
| CLF-C01 | AWS Cloud Practitioner | 5 | $138,410 | -17.2% | -6.6% |
| DBS-C01 | AWS Database - Specialty | 4 | $126,212 | -24.5% | -14.8% |
| A+ | CompTIA A+ | 4 | $157,800 | -5.6% | +6.5% |
| TA-003 | HashiCorp Terraform Associate | 4 | $123,883 | -25.9% | -16.4% |
| GCP-PCSE | GCP Professional Security Engineer | 3 | $209,223 | +25.1% | +41.2% |
| DVA-C02 | AWS Developer - Associate | 3 | $130,000 | -22.3% | -12.3% |
| AZ-400 | Azure DevOps Engineer Expert | 3 | $134,183 | -19.7% | -9.4% |
| GCP-PCA | GCP Professional Cloud Architect | 2 | $150,100 | -10.2% | +1.3% |
Key Observations
Best Performers (vs Cert-Jobs Baseline):
- GCP Professional Security Engineer: +41.2% premium, $209K average
- OSCP: +19.6% premium, $177K average
- CKS (Kubernetes Security): +15.7% premium, $171K average
- AWS DevOps Professional: +14.7% premium, $170K average
- AWS Security Specialty: +14.5% premium, $170K average
Worst Performers:
- Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900): -25.0% discount, $111K average
- CCNA: -16.5% discount, $124K average
- Terraform Associate: -16.4% discount, $124K average
- AWS SA Professional: -16.2% discount, $124K average
- AWS Database Specialty: -14.8% discount, $126K average
Vendor Comparison: GCP > AWS > Azure
Click any column header to sort.
| Vendor | Demand | Avg Salary | vs Overall | vs Cert Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCP | 6 | $179,495 | +7.4% | +21.1% |
| Security (general) | 88 | $156,890 | -6.2% | +5.9% |
| Kubernetes | 19 | $155,565 | -7.0% | +5.0% |
| AWS | 67 | $144,982 | -13.3% | -2.2% |
| Networking | 23 | $139,972 | -16.3% | -5.5% |
| Azure | 53 | $133,790 | -20.0% | -9.7% |
GCP certifications are the only vendor group with a positive salary premium against both baselines. Azure certifications consistently correlate with the lowest salaries.
Why? A few theories:
- GCP just pays more: This was already known-- while not as popular as AWS and Azure, GCP salaries have been higher for as long as we've been tracking them.
- GCP scarcity: Fewer GCP-certified professionals means higher market value. Fewer jobs, fewer candidates, and it seems the supply/demand dynamic favors the employees.
- Azure customer base: The government runs on Azure. No surprise the certs pay lower, the jobs pay lower too!
Certifications with Zero Demand
These certs appeared in my certification master list but zero job listings required them:
- AI-102 (Azure AI Engineer)
- Cloud+ (CompTIA)
- DCA (Docker Certified Associate)
- FOCP (FinOps Certified Practitioner)
- GCP-PCD (Professional Cloud Developer)
- GCP-PCDB (Professional Database Engineer)
- GCP-PCDOP (Professional DevOps Engineer)
- Linux+ (CompTIA)
- RHCA (Red Hat Certified Architect)
- RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer)
- Server+ (CompTIA)
If you're considering any of these, the data suggests employers aren't asking for them—at least not in cloud/DevOps roles. Idk why we're even tracking the "Docker Certified Associate".
What This Means for Your Career
If You're Deciding Whether to Certify
Security certifications are the exception. OSCP, CKS, AWS Security, and GCP Security all show positive salary premiums. If you're going to certify, security is the domain where it pays off. Not only do they open a lot of doors, apparently there's more money behind each door.
Fundamentals certs signal junior roles. AZ-900, Cloud Practitioner, and similar entry-level certs correlate with significantly lower salaries. If you're just out of school, you should get one. If you're already working, skip it.
GCP is underrated. Despite lower demand (fewer jobs require GCP certs), those that do pay significantly more. This could indicate scarcity value or that GCP-focused companies pay better. Nota Bene: may require moving to California.
Azure certs are over-saturated. High demand but low salaries suggest the market is flooded with Azure-certified candidates, and/or these certs are heavily concentrated in lower-paying government contracts.
Explore the Data
Interested in job listings for the certifications discussed here?
- Security: AWS Security Specialty Jobs | Security+ Jobs
- High Pay: GCP Security Engineer Jobs | K8s Security Specialist Jobs
- High Demand: CISSP Jobs | AWS Solutions Architect Associate Jobs
- DevOps: Terraform Jobs | AWS DevOps Engineer Jobs | Azure DevOps Engineer Expert Jobs
Interested in a comically low salary? Consider taking an AZ-900 practice test. A cert with no market demand? Take a Cloud+ practice test?
Data analyzed from job listings collected in December 2025. Salaries reflect posted compensation ranges and may not include equity, bonuses, or benefits. Sample sizes for individual certifications vary; low-demand certs should be interpreted with caution.