The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) are both entry-level, non-technical cloud certifications, and they cover almost the same ground. The decision is about platform, not about the exam. Here is the detailed comparison, beyond the table above.
The core difference
The AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) introduces the AWS world: cloud concepts and economics, core AWS services, security and the shared responsibility model, and pricing, billing and support plans. It is a foundational badge on the AWS certification ladder.
Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) introduces the Microsoft world: cloud concepts, Azure architecture and core services, and Azure management and governance. It is the entry point to Microsoft’s role-based Azure certifications.
The skills they teach are conceptual and overlap heavily (the cloud ideas transfer between platforms), so the real difference is simply which provider’s services and terminology you learn. Pick the one that matches the cloud your target employers run.
Cost compared
These are close to identical on cost. The AWS Cloud Practitioner exam is US$100; AZ-900 is around US$99, though it varies by country. Neither has any prerequisite or education barrier.
Study materials can be free on both sides: AWS Skill Builder offers free digital training, and Microsoft Learn provides a free learning path plus a free practice assessment. So for most people the only real spend is the exam fee. One small long-run difference: AZ-900 does not expire, so it carries no renewal cost, whereas the Cloud Practitioner is valid three years.
Difficulty and time
Both are beginner-level and conceptual, with no hands-on requirement. The AWS Cloud Practitioner is 65 questions in 90 minutes; AZ-900 is typically 40-60 questions in roughly 45 minutes. Both pass at 700/1000.
Study time is short for either: commonly one to four weeks of part-time study for the AWS exam, and one to two weeks for AZ-900, depending on your starting point. People with some IT background often need only a handful of hours. Neither is meaningfully harder than the other; any difference comes from which platform’s terminology you already know.
Ecosystem and job market
This is the real deciding factor.
- AWS has the largest overall public-cloud market share and the widest range of jobs, which makes the Cloud Practitioner a safe default if you have no platform preference.
- Azure is the standard in many Microsoft-centric enterprises, the public sector, and a large share of the European and DACH market, where organisations already run Microsoft 365 and Windows Server. AZ-900 fits naturally there.
If you already work somewhere, the cloud your employer uses is the obvious choice. If you are job-hunting, look at the actual postings in your target region and industry and follow the platform they list.
Career outcomes
Neither of these is a technical-role credential on its own. Both prove cloud literacy and suit beginners, students, and non-technical staff in sales, project management, recruitment or support who work alongside cloud teams.
- AWS Cloud Practitioner is the on-ramp to the AWS ladder; the natural next step is the Solutions Architect Associate.
- AZ-900 is the on-ramp to Azure’s role-based certifications; the natural next step is the Azure Administrator (AZ-104).
Engineers aiming at cloud or DevOps jobs often skip the fundamentals entirely and start at the associate level on their chosen platform.
How to decide
Choose by platform, because the exams themselves are near-equivalent.
- Your employer or target employers use AWS, or you have no preference and want the largest job market → AWS Cloud Practitioner.
- You are in a Microsoft-centric or European/DACH environment, or plan to continue toward AZ-104 → AZ-900.
- You only want one: do a single fundamentals exam, then progress to that platform’s associate level. Taking both adds little, since they overlap so heavily.
The validity difference (AZ-900 never expires, the AWS exam lasts three years) is a minor tiebreaker at most. Decide by the cloud you will actually use.