Before spending $300–$500 on a CompTIA A+ prep course, most candidates discover the same thing: Professor Messer gives away his entire video course for free. No login required. No trial period. Just 30+ hours of exam-aligned video covering every objective on the 220-1101 and 220-1102 exams. That's unusual enough to warrant a close look at what you're actually getting — and where the limits are.
One clarification upfront: Professor Messer is James Messer, who runs professormesser.com. He's a different instructor entirely from Mike Meyers of Total Seminars. Both teach CompTIA A+, but they have distinct styles, pricing models, and communities. If you searched "professor messer comptia a+" you're looking for James Messer's materials — that's what this review covers.
What Professor Messer's CompTIA A+ Course Actually Includes
The core offering is a structured video series broken into two parts matching the two CompTIA A+ exams:
- Core 1 (220-1101): Mobile devices, networking technology, hardware, virtualization and cloud computing, hardware and network troubleshooting
- Core 2 (220-1102): Operating systems, security, software troubleshooting, operational procedures
Each section is segmented by exam objective, so if CompTIA's official objectives list says you need to know "Given a scenario, install and configure motherboards, CPUs, and add-on cards," Messer has a video specifically for that objective. This 1:1 alignment makes it easy to identify gaps. You're not watching a 3-hour module hoping the thing you need is in there somewhere.
Beyond the videos, Messer's site provides downloadable study guides (course notes in PDF format), which follow the same objective structure. These are genuinely useful for the last few days before your exam when watching video is impractical.
The Paid Tier: Practice Exams and Study Groups
The videos and PDFs are free. Where Messer charges money is practice exams and his study group subscription.
Practice exams cost around $15–$25 per exam set depending on how many questions you buy. They're structured to mimic the actual CompTIA format — multiple choice and performance-based questions (PBQs). The PBQs in particular are worth paying for because they're the hardest part of the actual exam and most free resources skip them entirely.
The Study Group subscription gives you access to monthly live study sessions, a private community, and access to prioritized Q&A. If you're self-studying and prone to stalling, this adds accountability. If you're disciplined, you can pass without it.
Professor Messer CompTIA A+ Pass Rates and Real-World Results
CompTIA doesn't publish pass rates by study method, so you're relying on self-reported data from Reddit, Discord, and exam forums. The pattern that shows up consistently: candidates who combined Professor Messer's free videos with paid practice exams (either Messer's own or Jason Dion's Udemy practice tests) pass at higher rates than those who used video alone.
What the community agrees on:
- Messer's explanations are clear enough for true beginners — no assumed knowledge
- The free content covers every objective, but depth varies by topic
- Watching the videos alone without active recall (flashcards, practice tests) is not sufficient for most people
- The study guide PDFs are underused but underrated, especially for late-stage review
The realistic study timeline for someone starting from zero: 6–10 weeks for Core 1, another 4–8 weeks for Core 2, assuming 1–2 hours of study per day. This assumes you're watching video, doing flashcard review, and taking at least 2–3 full practice exams per test before sitting the real one.
Professor Messer CompTIA A+ vs. Competing Free Resources
Messer has real competition in the free tier. CompTIA itself offers free CertMaster Learn trial content. Professor Certbolt, Andrew Ramdayal (for Security+), and Mike Meyers via YouTube clips all exist in the ecosystem. Here's how Messer stacks up:
- Completeness: Messer's free course is the most complete free option. Most alternatives give you partial content then paywall the rest.
- Update frequency: Messer updates his course when CompTIA revises exam objectives. The 220-1101/1102 content is current.
- Production quality: Screen-capture format with voiceover. No fancy production. Some people prefer this — less distraction, faster to watch.
- Community: Reddit's r/CompTIA is the dominant study community, and Messer's materials are referenced there daily. CompTIA A+ Study Group on Facebook also heavily Messer-aligned.
If you want higher production values or an instructor who goes deeper on hands-on labs, Mike Meyers at Total Seminars or Jason Dion's Udemy course are worth considering as paid alternatives. But for zero-cost preparation, nothing beats the Messer video library in terms of coverage.
Top Courses
Professor Messer's free CompTIA A+ materials are strong for video and reading review. If you want to supplement with structured, instructor-led courses that go deeper on adjacent skills — or explore other professor-taught formats — these are worth a look:
Innovation That Works with Professor Jagdish Sheth
A Coursera course from one of marketing's most cited academics. Relevant if you're thinking beyond the help desk and toward IT leadership or product roles — understanding how innovation cycles work matters once you're past entry-level.
Customer Centricity with Professor Jagdish Sheth
Pairs well with IT support careers where internal stakeholder management and user satisfaction metrics matter more than ticket volume. Many senior IT support roles are fundamentally about customer experience.
How to Write Emails and Engage Professors
If you're supplementing CompTIA A+ study with college coursework or certifications that require advisor coordination, this Coursera module covers professional communication with academic mentors — a practical skill that gets underestimated.
FAQ
Is Professor Messer's CompTIA A+ course actually free?
Yes. The complete video series for both 220-1101 (Core 1) and 220-1102 (Core 2) is available on professormesser.com at no cost. No account required. The paid components are practice exams (~$15–$25) and the optional Study Group subscription. You can pass the exam using only the free content if you supplement with other practice resources.
What's the difference between Professor Messer and Mike Meyers for CompTIA A+?
Professor Messer (James Messer) and Mike Meyers (Total Seminars) are two separate instructors. Messer's course is free online; Meyers charges for his through Udemy and Total Seminars. Meyers tends to go deeper on hands-on demonstrations and physical hardware. Messer is more objective-focused and better for people who want to study efficiently in less time. Neither is objectively better — it depends on your learning style.
How long does it take to complete Professor Messer's CompTIA A+ videos?
The video content runs roughly 15–17 hours for Core 1 and 13–15 hours for Core 2, totaling around 30 hours. At 1.5x speed (which most people use), that's closer to 20 hours of watch time. Add time for practice tests, review, and study guide reading, and a realistic end-to-end preparation is 150–250 hours depending on your starting knowledge and how thoroughly you review weak areas.
Are Professor Messer's practice exams worth buying?
Yes, particularly for the performance-based questions (PBQs). CompTIA's real exams include scenario-based drag-and-drop and simulation questions that trip up candidates who only watched video. Messer's PBQ-style practice questions are among the better implementations of this. Jason Dion's Udemy practice exams are frequently recommended alongside Messer's as a second opinion set.
Does Professor Messer cover the 220-1101 and 220-1102 exam versions?
Yes. The current content on professormesser.com covers the 220-1101 (Core 1) and 220-1102 (Core 2) exam objectives, which are the exams currently offered by CompTIA as of 2026. If CompTIA releases new exam versions (they typically refresh every 3–5 years), Messer has historically updated his materials within a few months of the new objectives going live.
Can you pass CompTIA A+ with just Professor Messer's free materials?
Some people do. But the success stories typically involve more than passive video watching — candidates who passed using only free resources report doing flashcard review (Anki or Quizlet), taking multiple timed practice exams, and spending additional time on hands-on practice using virtual machines or physical hardware. The video alone doesn't build the retrieval speed you need for a timed exam.
Bottom Line
Professor Messer's CompTIA A+ course is the best free option in the space — not because it's free, but because it's genuinely complete. The objective-by-objective structure means you can use it diagnostically: watch the sections you're weak on, skip what you already know, and build a focused study plan around your specific gaps.
The realistic preparation stack for most candidates: Messer's free videos for content coverage, a flashcard deck (his or a community-created one on Anki) for recall practice, and paid practice exams for exam simulation. If you add Messer's own practice tests or Jason Dion's Udemy set, you have everything you need to pass both Core 1 and Core 2 without spending more than $30–$50 total.
If you're comparing Messer to a paid course like Mike Meyers' Total Seminars content, the honest answer is: the gap is smaller than the price difference. Messer's production quality is utilitarian but the content is accurate and current. For most self-directed learners, the free Messer route plus paid practice exams is the highest-value CompTIA A+ preparation path available.