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GSEC vs Security+: What the Extra $560 Buys, and Who Should Pay It

Security+ costs $439 and GSEC $999, and neither needs experience. How the exams differ, which job each fits, and when GSEC is worth the higher price.

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Lisa Thompson
Security Training Director
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GSEC vs Security+: What the Extra $560 Buys, and Who Should Pay It

Security+ and GSEC sit at the same point in a career: early defensive work, no experience required by either vendor. What separates them for most people is who's paying. A Security+ voucher is $439. A GSEC attempt is $999 before any training, and SANS sells the matching course at $8,780, so GSEC tends to make sense when an employer is funding it.

The two exams side by side

GSECSecurity+
IssuerGIACCompTIA
Current versionReleased April 6, 2026SY0-701 until June 11, 2027 in English; SY0-801 from November 17, 2026
FormatProctored; printed books and notes allowed; CyberLive tasks in virtual machinesMultiple choice and performance-based questions
Questions and time106 questions in 4 hoursUp to 90 questions in 90 minutes
Passing score72%750 on a 100 to 900 scale
Price$999 attempt; $899 retake$439 voucher
ExperienceNone requiredNone required; Network+ and two years as a security or systems administrator recommended
DeliveryProctorU remotely or a Pearson VUE test centerPearson VUE test center or OnVUE online
RenewalEvery 4 years: 36 CPEs and $499, or pass the current examEvery 3 years: 50 CEUs and $150, or a fee-free route

Which job each one fits

CompTIA writes Security+ for a security administrator with about two years of hands-on experience, and it lists the certification against US Department of Defense (DoD) 8140 work roles that include cyber defense analyst, incident responder, security control assessor and system administrator. If you're paying for your own first certification, or a posting or contract names Security+, buy that one. If subnetting and ports are still shaky, take Network+ first, as CompTIA recommends.

GIAC's audience for GSEC starts with new information security staff who come from systems or networking jobs, then adds administrators, operations staff, IT engineers, auditors, forensic analysts and penetration testers. A strong fit is an administrator whose employer sends them to SEC401, the six-day SANS course written for the exam. Someone at that stage who can already use Windows and Linux at the command line will get more out of GSEC's live-machine tasks than out of a second multiple-choice exam.

GIAC, for its part, lists GSEC among its certifications approved under DoD 8140, so check which qualification your own work role asks for before treating defense work as a reason to pick either.

Four hours at a keyboard, or ninety minutes of scenarios

GSEC is open book for printed material. You can bring books, notes and an index you've built, but nothing electronic, and you get 10 to 15 skips and a 15-minute break. GIAC delivers the CyberLive items at the end, in working virtual machines, and warns that candidates who can't answer a majority of them correctly shouldn't expect to pass. Six of GSEC's 26 objectives are about Windows: permissions, Group Policy, auditing with PowerShell. Others cover Linux hardening, containers, macOS and cryptography in use. So a good index helps you look things up, but on the CyberLive items you still have to run the commands.

Security+ allows a minute a question on average. It mixes multiple-choice and performance-based questions, and CompTIA doesn't publish how many of the latter appear on a form. What it asks for that GSEC mostly doesn't is governance. Security Program Management and Oversight is 20% of SY0-701 and 14% of SY0-801, covering policy, risk management and third-party risk, while GSEC treats the program side in a few high-level objectives such as defense in depth and the CIS Critical Controls.

Timing this autumn

Security+ changes version on November 17, 2026, when SY0-801 launches in English with new content on artificial intelligence threats. SY0-701 stays available until June 11, 2027. Our SY0-701 vs SY0-801 piece covers which to sit. GSEC's change happened earlier in the year. The version released April 6, 2026 set a 72% pass mark, and Ric Messier's GSEC All-in-One guide, published in 2019, predates it, so work from GIAC's objective list.

What holding one does for the other

Only Security+ shortens the road to CISSP. It's on ISC2's list of credentials that waive one of the five years of experience CISSP requires, and GSEC isn't, though four other GIAC certifications are. CompTIA's list of outside certifications that renew Security+ includes two GIAC credentials, GISF and GBFA, and not GSEC.

Credit runs the other way more easily. GIAC accepts "other accredited professional training or certification" toward renewal in a category worth up to 36 CPEs, which is the whole GSEC requirement, and CompTIA states that Security+ is ISO 17024 accredited through ANAB. GIAC doesn't say how many CPEs one certification earns, so confirm before you count on it.

Upkeep for both comes to $150 every three years for Security+ and $499 every four for GSEC. Our GSEC vs CISSP comparison follows the GIAC route further up.

Our view

For anyone paying their own way, Security+ is the better buy. It costs less than half a GSEC attempt and knocks a year off the CISSP wait, and CompTIA maps it to a long list of DoD work roles. GSEC is the stronger test of skill because it makes you work on real systems, and we'd take it without hesitation when an employer pays for SEC401 and the attempt together. We wouldn't spend $999 of our own money adding GSEC to an existing Security+. A self-funded holder learns more from CySA+, which as a higher CompTIA certification also renews Security+.

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