Best Cisco Certifications for Networking Careers

That is the compressed version. The rest of this article earns it — ranking the options by career goal and experience level, with the cost, renewal and salary context you need to compare them honestly. It assumes you already understand how Cisco's levels and tracks fit together; if you do not, read our Cisco certifications explained overview first, because "best" only makes sense once the map is clear.

How we judged "best"

Five factors, applied consistently:

1. Employer recognition — how often the credential appears in job specifications, by name.
2. Cost against payoff — exam fees (and retake risk) relative to the doors it opens.
3. Durability — whether the skills it certifies are gaining or losing relevance.
4. Accessibility — whether someone at the target experience level can realistically pass it.
5. Optionality — how many onward paths it keeps open.

No certification wins on all five, which is why every recommendation below is tied to a reader circumstance rather than crowned universally.

The picks, by career situation

Best first certification: CCNA

The Cisco Certified Network Associate is the least controversial recommendation in IT certification. It is one written exam (200-301, US $300 as of 2026, varying by region), it has no prerequisites, and it remains the credential entry-level networking job adverts name most often. It scores highest of anything on this page for accessibility and optionality: every Cisco track, and plenty of non-Cisco career paths, build comfortably on CCNA fundamentals.

Its weakness is that it certifies breadth, not specialisation — it gets you into the room, not to the front of it. What the exam covers and costs is its own article: see the CCNA certification guide, and for the value debate specifically, our analysis of whether the CCNA is worth it in 2026.

Recommended for: career changers, helpdesk and support staff moving into networking, junior admins formalising a first year of experience. If you have no IT background at all, the cheaper, shorter CCST Networking exam (US $125 via Certiport) exists as a stepping stone — but most people with any technical footing should aim straight at the CCNA.

Best professional upgrade: CCNP Enterprise

For engineers with roughly three or more years of hands-on work, CCNP Enterprise is the highest-recognition professional credential in mainstream networking. It requires the 350-401 ENCOR core exam (US $400) plus one concentration exam (US $300) — advanced routing (ENARSI) being the most popular pick — so budget around $700 minimum at 2026 US list prices before study materials or retakes.

Two structural bonuses sharpen its value. Passing ENCOR alone earns a Cisco Certified Specialist badge and simultaneously qualifies you for the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure lab, so the money is never wasted even if you stop half-way. And the 2026 ENCOR v1.2 refresh shifted the core towards SD-WAN, automation and AI-assisted operations — meaning the certification now tracks where enterprise networking is actually going, not where it was. Structure and concentration options are detailed in the CCNP Enterprise guide; if you hold a CCNA and are wondering whether it is too soon, our piece on when to upgrade from CCNA to CCNP covers the timing signals.

Recommended for: network engineers who want the standard senior-engineer credential, and anyone eyeing an eventual CCIE.

Best for a security-weighted career: CCNP Security

Security consistently commands a premium, and CCNP Security (350-701 SCOR core plus one concentration, at standard Cisco professional pricing) is the strongest Cisco play for engineers who want to design and run network defences — firewalls, VPNs, identity and secure access. In the 2024 Skillsoft IT Skills and Salary survey data (US respondents, published 2025), CCNP Security holders reported an average of $168,159 — the highest Cisco figure in the dataset, though Skillsoft flags that figure as drawn from fewer than 100 responses, so treat it as indicative rather than precise.

Be clear about which security lane you want, though: CCNP Security is engineering security infrastructure. If your interest is SOC work — monitoring, detection, incident response — the CCNA/CCNP Cybersecurity track (formerly CyberOps) is the better match, and one sentence is all it needs here because our CyberOps certification guide covers it fully. The CCNP Security guide details the SCOR core and concentrations, and the Enterprise vs Security comparison puts the two professional tracks head to head.

Recommended for: engineers with networking fundamentals who want the security premium and enjoy infrastructure defence more than general connectivity work.

Best future-proofing pick: the Automation track

Cisco renamed DevNet to the Automation track in February 2026 — DevNet Associate is now CCNA Automation, still using the 200-901 exam (US $300 associate pricing widely reported) — and the rename itself is a signal: Cisco now treats network programmability as a core discipline. For engineers who can already run networks, adding the automation credential is arguably the highest-durability move on this page, because API-driven, controller-based operations are eating manual configuration across the industry.

The honest caveat is recognition: fewer job adverts name the automation certs than name CCNA or CCNP, so this pick pairs best with a traditional credential rather than replacing one. Who the track suits and what 200-901 covers is the subject of our full DevNet certification guide.

Recommended for: certified engineers adding a second string, and developer-leaning candidates targeting NetDevOps roles.

Best for prestige and ceiling: CCIE

The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert — most commonly CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure for networking careers — still carries weight almost nothing else in IT matches. It is also, by an order of magnitude, the biggest commitment here: the $400 qualifying exam, then an eight-hour hands-on lab at US $1,600 per attempt plus travel, with a 30-day wait after a failed lab and no official pass rates published. Cisco suggests five to seven years of experience, and most serious candidates treat preparation as a year-plus project.

The blunt cost-benefit: a CCIE transforms careers in consultancies, integrators and large-scale operations where expert-level design and troubleshooting is the product. It is poor value for generalists who will never use that depth. Read the CCIE certification guide before committing either way.

Recommended for: senior engineers whose target roles or employers explicitly reward it — and almost no one else.

The picks compared

Certification	Exams and 2026 US list cost	Experience Cisco suggests	Renewal	Best for
CCNA	1 exam, $300	~1+ year (no prerequisite)	3 yrs; 30 CE credits or exam	First networking credential
CCNP Enterprise	Core $400 + concentration $300	3–5 years	3 yrs; 80 CE credits or exams	Senior mainstream networking
CCNP Security	Core + concentration, standard professional pricing	3–5 years	3 yrs; 80 CE credits or exams	Network security engineering
CCNA Automation (ex-DevNet)	1 exam, $300 widely reported	Python/API familiarity helps	3 yrs; 30 CE credits or exam	Automation and NetDevOps roles
CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure	Written $400 + lab $1,600/attempt	5–7 years	3 yrs; 120 CE credits or exams	Expert-level specialists

All prices vary by country and exclude taxes, retakes and study costs; confirm current fees on Cisco's site before booking.