There are many that balk at the price of the CCIE exams, they are expensive, we all know this, but how does the CCIE exams compare them against other "top level" computer certifications?
I will compare the CCIE against Juniper's JNCIE track, RedHat's RHCE, Microsoft's MCSE and VMWare's VCP5-DVC.
Let's start by breaking down the costs for the CCIE. We know that it is comprised of two parts, the written exam and the lab exam, and we can break these down into their hourly "rate" - making it easier to compare against other exams.
Cisco CCIE
Total price $1850Written = $350 (2 hours) = $175 per hour
Lab $1500 (8 hours) = $187.5 per hour
Total = Ten hours
Redhat RHCE
Total price $800Prerequisite
RHCSA = $400 (2 hours) = $200 per hour
Exam
RHCE = $400 (2 hours) = $200 per hour
Microsoft MCSE: Server Infrastructure
Total price $750Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012
Administering Windows Server 2012
Configuring Advanced Windows Server 2012 Services
Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure
Implementing an Advanced Server Infrastructure
(2 hours per exam at $150 = 10 hours)
Juniper JNCIE-ENT
Total price $1900Prerequisites:
JNCIA-JUNOS = $100JNCIS-ENT = $100
JNCIP-ENT = $300
Exam
JNCIE-ENT = $1400Approx 14 hours
VMWare - VCAP5-DCD
Total price $3125 (might be upto $3625)Prerequisites
VCP5-DVC exam (2 hours) = $225Training course (28 hours) (approx) $2500 (sometimes as high as $3000)
Exam
VCAP5-DCD (4 hours) $400Approx 34 hours
Comparison
| Certification | Total hours | Hourly cost |
| RedHat RHCE | 4 | $200 |
| Cisco CCIE | 10 | $185 |
| Juniper JNCIE-ENT | 14 | $135 |
| VMWare VCAP5-DCD | 34 | $91 |
| Microsoft MCSE | 10 | $75 |
Cost (Total)
| Certification | Total hours | Total Price |
| VMWare VCAP5-DCD | 34 | $3125 |
| Juniper JNCIE-ENT | 14 | $1900 |
| Cisco CCIE | 10 | $1850 |
| RedHat RHCE | 4 | $800 |
| Microsoft MCSE | 10 | $750 |
As we can see the CCIE is actually not the most expensive. On the overall cost it comes in at number three, and it comes in lower than the RHCE when we look at the hourly "cost".
So really, it's a fairly good cost to hours ratio! I would love to know your thoughts, and if you know of any exams that should be compared then please let me know!