298 Best + Free AWS Courses & Certificates [2026]
Ranked by Michael Kuhlman, CourseDuck's founder, from student reviews across every provider. How we rank · Embed this list
Our guide: The 10 Best AWS Courses on Udemy in 2026
Our top picks
- Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2026 [Udemy]Best Paid Course
- [NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 2026 [Udemy]
- Machine Learning A-Z [2026]: ML, DL, AI with AWS, Python & R [Udemy]Best Paid Course
- Ultimate AWS Certified Developer Associate 2026 DVA-C02 [Udemy]
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Zero to Hero [Udemy]
- [NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 [Udemy]
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) Exam Training [Udemy]
- Deep Learning A-Z [2026]: DL, AI in Python & AWS + LLM Prize [Udemy]
- Decoding DevOps – From Basics to Advanced Projects with AI [Udemy]
- Introduction to Cloud Computing on AWS for Beginners [2026] [Udemy]
About the best AWS courses
Frequently asked questions
The most-reviewed AWS course in this category is Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2026 by Stephane Maarek, with about 297,000 reviews at 4.7 as of October 2026.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is Amazon's cloud computing platform. Organizations rent computing, storage, databases, networking and many other services from it instead of running their own hardware. Courses here cover AWS certification exam preparation, cloud fundamentals, solutions architecture, serverless APIs and CloudFormation.
- Average
- $132,096 a year
- Middle half earn
- $107,000 to $155,000 25th to 75th percentile
- Full range
- $39,500 to $193,500
Share of US job postings in each pay band; the dark bar holds the average, the striped bars the 25th and 75th percentiles. Source: ZipRecruiter salary data collected in 2020-21, when this FAQ was first written; pay has moved since, so treat it as a rough guide.
Paid Udemy video courses include a certificate of completion when you finish; free courses and practice-test-only courses do not. It shows you did the work, but it is not an accredited qualification. Coursera and edX usually charge for a certificate, issued with the university or company that made the course. LinkedIn Learning gives a certificate of completion for most of its courses as part of the subscription.
1
Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate 2026
Stephane Maarek's 27-hour SAA-C03 prep, backed by nearly 300,000 reviews and refreshed again in September 2026, that students say was enough on its own to pass.
Best for: Anyone who wants one structured path to the Solutions Architect Associate exam, starting from zero AWS experience.


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- 27 hours across 397 lectures, ordered as a progression from IAM and EC2 to VPC rather than a service list
- Refreshed in September 2026, with logged updates every year from 2019 to 2023, so console walkthroughs stay current
- Recent reviewers report passing with this course plus practice exams, some with no other study
- All 800+ slides come as a downloadable PDF, handy for revision in the last week before the exam
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- A three-star reviewer found it thin on why similar services exist and when to pick one over another
- Only one full practice exam is included; several passing reviewers used extra tests
- One reviewer says chapter quizzes don't line up well with the lecture content
2
[NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 2026
Stephane Maarek's AWS Cloud Practitioner prep: 14.6 hours, section quizzes, one full practice exam, hands-on Free Tier demos, and last updated in September 2026.
Best for: Complete beginners who want a structured path to the CLF-C02 exam with hands-on console demos, not just slides.


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- Maarek explains each service simply and flags what the exam actually tests, reviewers say.
- Hands-on demos in the AWS Free Tier plus section quizzes and a full practice exam.
- Updated in September 2026, with 32 caption tracks and all 300+ slides as a PDF download.
- Roughly 200,000 five-star reviews, and reviewers report passing the exam with it as their main material.
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- Some hands-on videos still show an older AWS console, so demos can be hard to follow.
- Instructor is voice-over-slides only after the intro; one reviewer found it sleepy.
- Only one practice exam included; one reviewer leaned on a separate six-test pack to pass.
3
Machine Learning A-Z [2026]: ML, DL, AI with AWS, Python & R
A 49-hour survey of nearly every classic machine learning algorithm in Python and R, plus an AWS deployment track, taught intuition-first with diagrams rather than derivations.
Best for: Beginners with high school math who want a map of the whole ML field, with code templates in Python and R, before specialising.


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- Theory lectures explain each algorithm with diagrams and intuition; reviewers say the concepts stick.
- Covers regression through neural networks, plus an AWS track on SageMaker, deployment and CI/CD.
- Python and R tracks can be taken separately, with code templates included for the models.
- Refreshed in June 2026 and backed by 1.2 million students and a 4.5 rating from 206,000 reviews.
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- Coding videos are padded with long intros; one reviewer estimates a quarter of the runtime could be cut.
- Some Python snippets are deprecated and the graded labs fail on variable names, per recent reviews.
- Shallow on statistics; model assumptions are rarely checked, so it can feel like a coding tutorial.
4
Ultimate AWS Certified Developer Associate 2026 DVA-C02
A 31-hour DVA-C02 prep with 448 lectures, 29 quizzes and a full practice exam, refreshed in September 2026 and backed by roughly 124,000 reviews at 4.7 stars.
Best for: Developers with basic programming skills who want to pass the Developer Associate exam and actually use Lambda, DynamoDB and API Gateway afterward.


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- Recent reviewers report first-try passes and say the lectures match what the exam actually asks
- Updated September 2026, with 448 lectures, 29 quizzes and a full practice exam included
- Over 700 slides available as a downloadable PDF; one reviewer says he still uses the notes at work
- Clear, fast explanations that one reviewer says needed no supplementing from outside sources
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- Several 2026 reviews complain of an exam voucher pop-up after every lecture that breaks autoplay in the player
- Kinesis is no longer on the AWS free tier, so that hands-on section can't be followed along for free
- Hands-on demos move quickly and there are no projects that combine multiple services
5
Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Zero to Hero (2019)
A free three hour walk through EC2, RDS, S3, SES and CloudWatch from BackSpace Academy, lifted from the opening section of their certification course, with about 464,000 students enrolled.
Best for: Complete beginners who want to click through real AWS services for free before paying for a certification course.


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- Free and under three hours, so it's a low-risk first look at EC2, RDS, S3, SES and CloudWatch
- Hands-on demos reviewers call clear and easy to follow, with subtitles in 24 languages
- Shows how to clean up resources afterwards to avoid AWS charges, which one reviewer singles out
- Rated 4.5 by about 12,000 reviewers, with roughly 464,000 students enrolled
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- Last updated July 2019, so the AWS console in the videos no longer matches what learners see
- No certificate, no quizzes, and a single section of 14 lectures, so little to practise on
- One reviewer found the video resolution low, and an AWS account is still required
6
[NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 (2026)
A 10-hour, exam-focused prep for Amazon's entry-level AI certification from AWS Hero Stephane Maarek, with section quizzes, downloadable slides and one short practice exam.
Best for: Anyone who wants the AIF-C01 badge quickly, especially people who already hold Cloud Practitioner or another AWS cert.


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- Clear, easy explanations; several reviewers passed earlier AWS exams using his courses
- Quiz after most sections, a practice exam, and all 200+ slides as a downloadable PDF
- Hands-on demos of Bedrock, Amazon Q and SageMaker, using the AWS free tier where possible
- Refreshed in September 2026, and one reviewer says Q&A answers reached beyond the AI topics
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- Only one 20-question practice exam; one reviewer says first-timers need at least two full-length tests
- Opens with Bedrock before the AI and ML basics, which one true beginner found too much too soon
- A recent 2-star says agentic AI topics (AgentCore, Strands, MCP) were missing as of August 2026
7
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) Exam Training (2026)
A 15-hour, exam-aligned CLF-C02 prep from Neal Davis with optional console labs, section quizzes and a 65-question timed practice exam, refreshed in September 2026.
Best for: Total cloud newcomers who want a guided path to the CLF-C02, with optional console labs and a 20-day study plan.


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- Follows the four CLF-C02 exam domains, so little time goes to off-topic material
- Hands-on labs are optional, and one reviewer says they do not feel rushed
- 120 section quiz questions plus a 65-question timed practice exam
- Updated September 2026 and tied to the current exam blueprint
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- Only one full practice exam, so one reviewer paired it with outside practice questions
- Some new terms arrive fast with little explanation, per one reviewer
- Following the labs means setting up a free-tier AWS account first
8
Deep Learning A-Z [2026]: DL, AI in Python & AWS + LLM Prize
Six-part tour of neural networks, CNNs, RNNs, self organizing maps, Boltzmann machines and autoencoders that leads with intuition and has drawn over 400,000 students.
Best for: Beginners who want to understand why each network works before writing code, across six different architectures.


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- Intuition lectures before every coding section, which reviewers call clear and lucid
- Covers six architectures including SOMs, Boltzmann machines and autoencoders
- Updated June 2026, with AWS sections and an annex on regression and preprocessing
- Links to further reading and code templates included
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- Coding sections reportedly lean on copy and paste, with some keywords left unexplained
- Datasets must be requested from an outside site, which one reviewer found slow
- No transformers in the syllabus, and reviewers call parts outdated or too basic
9
Decoding DevOps From Basics to Advanced Projects with AI (2026)
A 64-hour DevOps survey from Linux basics to Kubernetes, taking in AWS, Terraform, Jenkins and AI helpers, that reviewers find easy to follow and hands-on.
Best for: Newcomers with a little tech background who want one course that touches every major DevOps tool.


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- Covers Linux, AWS, CI/CD, Terraform, Ansible, monitoring and Kubernetes in one place
- Reviewers say explanations are clear and most lessons are hands-on
- Real projects, including an AWS lift and shift and a Google Cloud build
- Updated in June 2026, with a Bestseller badge and about 290,000 students
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- Some reviewers say it drags, with long setups and watch-me-do-it sections
- Breadth over depth: one reviewer says it only teaches the basics
- No coding exercises, and single reviewers report outdated steps and weak support
10
Introduction to Cloud Computing on AWS for Beginners [2026]
A short, diagram-heavy tour of core AWS services, from EC2 and VPC to Lambda, built for people starting with no cloud background at all.
Best for: People who learn from diagrams and want a clear first map of core AWS services before picking a certification.


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- Colored diagrams and animations make hard ideas easier to picture
- Clear, unhurried delivery that reviewers describe as easy to follow
- Covers access control, VPC, databases, CloudFormation and Lambda in under 10 hours
- Updated in September 2026, and reviewers say lessons still matched the console
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- Some sections move fast, like the role assignment and STS switch, and skip the why
- Labs are simple and real-world use cases for each service are thin
- No quizzes or practice tests, and Docker and Cognito get light coverage
11
AWS Fundamentals: Building Serverless Applications (2019)


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- Course is taught by the best AWS experts in the world.
- The hands-on learning is efficient and effective.
- Covers deep topics but is still accessible to beginners.
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- Its a rare problem for a computer science course to overemphasize practical skills and undervalue theory, but here we are.
- Course is too short for the complex topics covered.
- Course has multiple instructors which can lead to an uneven learning experience.




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