CompTIA moves Security+ to a new exam, SY0-801, on or around November 17, 2026, while the current SY0-701 stays bookable in English until June 11, 2027. That overlap is the whole buying decision right now. The best Security+ books for SY0-701 are mature, discounted and full of practice questions, but most SY0-801 editions are still preorders, so the right book depends on the date you plan to sit.
This guide ranks seven Security+ study picks across both versions plus one hands-on Linux book. The picks include the Sybex Study Guide and Certification Kit, Get Certified Get Ahead, Professor Messer’s notes and practice exams, the Exam Cram, the first SY0-801 guides, and Linux Basics for Hackers. We checked every edition, binding and price against the publishers and Amazon’s live catalog in October 2026, and read CompTIA’s V7 and V8 exam pages plus the SY0-801 objectives PDF to see what changes.
Pick a Security+ book by exam date
Start from the day you expect to test, because a SY0-701 book teaches the SY0-701 objectives and nothing in its cover price changes that. If you can sit before June 11, 2027, the SY0-701 shelf is the safer buy today. If you are only starting in November or later, an SY0-801 book saves you from studying an exam that retires a few months after you finish:
- Best overall for SY0-701: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, 9th Edition (Sybex)
- Best value bundle: CompTIA Security+ Certification Kit: Exam SY0-701
- Best single-book option: Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-701
- Best companion to free videos: Professor Messer’s SY0-701 Course Notes
- Best for SY0-801, in stock now: CompTIA Security+ SY0-801 Certification Guide (Packt)
- Best for SY0-801 once it ships: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide: Exam SY0-801, 10th Edition (preorder)
One full study guide plus one bank of practice questions is enough for most people. The remaining two picks, the Exam Cram and Linux Basics for Hackers, cover the last week of review and the hands-on side of the performance-based questions.
Know what changes from SY0-701 to SY0-801
The exam format stays the same. CompTIA lists both versions at a maximum of 90 questions in 90 minutes, a mix of multiple-choice and performance-based questions, with a passing score of 750 on a 100 to 900 scale. What moves is the weighting across the five domains, and one domain name:
| Domain | SY0-701 (V7) | SY0-801 (V8) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. General Security Concepts | 12% | 16% |
| 2. Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations (Attacks in V8) | 22% | 24% |
| 3. Security Architecture | 18% | 19% |
| 4. Security Operations | 28% | 27% |
| 5. Security Program Management and Oversight | 20% | 14% |
The governance domain loses six points and most of that weight lands in general concepts and threats. The SY0-801 objectives PDF also gives artificial intelligence its own objective, 2.6. It covers threats such as prompt injection, poisoning, model manipulation, jailbreaking and hallucinations, and objective 4.6 adds AI capabilities such as agentic tools and chatbots to automation and orchestration. A SY0-701 book was written to the older objectives, so treat it as a strong base that still needs CompTIA’s V8 PDF beside it if you switch exams.
We picked books from established certification publishers and training authors that are buyable new on Amazon today, plus the one SY0-801 preorder from the series most candidates already use. The wave of self-published SY0-801 titles that appeared in 2026 is left out, as are the McGraw Hill All-in-One and Mike Meyers’ guides, whose newest editions on Amazon still target the older SY0-601. This is a buyer’s guide built from publisher pages, covers and live catalog data, not full read-throughs of every book.
Compare the Security+ books side by side
Page counts come from Amazon’s catalog, except Messer’s, which come from his store. Prices are what Amazon charged when we checked, so read the price column as a band. The exam column is the one to read first:
| Book | Publisher | Exam | Pages | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Study Guide, 9th Ed | Sybex | SY0-701 | 704 | Primary study text | ~$30s |
| Certification Kit (SY0-701) | Sybex | SY0-701 | 1,008 | Guide plus question bank | ~$40s |
| Get Certified Get Ahead | Certification Experts | SY0-701 | 674 | Readable single book | ~$30s |
| Messer Course Notes + Practice Exams | Messer Studios | SY0-701 | 96 + 380 | Video learners | ~$33 + ~$50 |
| Exam Cram, 7th Ed | Pearson | SY0-701 | 688 | Final review | ~$30s |
| SY0-801 Certification Guide, 4th Ed | Packt | SY0-801 | 696 | SY0-801 now | ~$30s |
| Study Guide: SY0-801, 10th Ed | Sybex | SY0-801 | 752 | SY0-801 primary text | ~$60 preorder |
| Linux Basics for Hackers, 2nd Ed | No Starch | Hands-on | 264 | Lab practice | under $20 |
1. CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, 9th Edition (SY0-701)
Mike Chapple and David Seidl’s Sybex guide is the core of the Sybex kit, which had the best Amazon sales rank of the books here when we checked (pick 2). The cover says why: it maps to SY0-701 and bundles access to an online learning environment with over 500 practice test questions, 100 electronic flashcards and a searchable glossary.
Its 17 chapters run from “Today’s Security Professional” to “Risk Management and Privacy”, with hundreds of review questions and an appendix of answers, so you can test yourself chapter by chapter instead of saving it all for the end. You will still want a second source of questions written by someone else, because practice from one author team only shows you one way of phrasing a scenario.
Pass on it if you will not sit before June 11, 2027, when SY0-701 retires in English; the 10th edition for SY0-801 is already on preorder. Around $30, list $55. Check the current price on Amazon.
2. CompTIA Security+ Certification Kit: Exam SY0-701
The kit is the 9th edition Study Guide above plus the CompTIA Security+ Practice Tests, 3rd Edition, in one box. Wiley describes the Practice Tests as hundreds of domain-by-domain questions plus practice exams, which is the second question bank this guide recommends pairing with any full study guide.
Bought together, the two books came to roughly $40 to $45 on Amazon when we checked, against about $60 for both bought separately. The standalone Practice Tests listing was down to a few copies from a third-party seller. That makes the kit the cleaner way to get both. It also had the best Amazon sales rank of any book here on the day we checked, which tells you this is the default pairing for SY0-701.
Leave it on the shelf if you already own the Study Guide or prefer Messer’s practice exams. Sybex has an SY0-801 kit listed for January 2027. Around $42, list $75. Check the current price on Amazon.
3. CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-701 Study Guide
Darril Gibson’s Get Certified Get Ahead series has covered Security+ through several exam versions, and Joe Shelley carried it into the SY0-701 edition. The cover promises full coverage of the exam objectives, two practice exams and over 350 practice test questions.
Its appeal is focus: one book written against the objectives, with two practice exams built in, so you can start without buying anything else. The companion site, getcertifiedgetahead.com, adds 13 free labs (hashes, John the Ripper, nslookup and dig, netcat, tcpdump, PowerShell, steganography and more), which gives you a head start on the performance-based questions. It has fewer questions than the Sybex kit, so a second bank helps in the final weeks.
Our link goes to the hardcover, which Amazon sold and shipped itself when we checked; the paperback was listed through a third-party seller. An SY0-801 edition was listed as a Kindle preorder for November 25, 2026. Around $38 for the hardcover, list $70. Check the current price on Amazon.
4. Professor Messer’s Security+ SY0-701 Course Notes and Practice Exams
James Messer’s SY0-701 video course is free on professormesser.com, 121 videos and just over 15 hours, and these two print books are built to sit next to it. The Course Notes are 96 color pages that follow the exam objectives, and the Practice Exams book holds three 90-question exams with detailed explanations.
This is the cheapest route to a pass that still feels complete: watch the free videos, annotate the notes, then take the three exams under time pressure. The notes are a summary, not a textbook, so if a topic does not land in the video you will need one of the full guides above to fill the gap. The Practice Exams book is listed separately at around $50.
Hold off if you are aiming at SY0-801, because Messer’s site listed only SY0-701 material when we checked. The Course Notes run around $33, list $50. Check the current price on Amazon.
5. CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Exam Cram, 7th Edition
Robert Shimonski and Martin Weiss wrote the Exam Cram for the last stretch of study. Pearson organizes its 28 chapters into five parts that follow the SY0-701 domains, ending with a glossary and the Cram Sheet for last-minute review.
Short chapters and Exam Alerts make it easy to re-read a weak domain in an evening. The base book includes Pearson Test Prep software with two complete practice exams; Pearson’s Premium Edition, sold separately, raises that to four. It works best as the book you open in the final week, after a full guide has done the teaching.
It is not a first book. Someone new to security will find the coverage too compressed to learn from. Around $35, list $50. Check the current price on Amazon.
6. CompTIA Security+ SY0-801 Certification Guide, 4th Edition
Ian Neil’s Packt guide is the one SY0-801 book from an established certification publisher that was already in stock when we checked, published in September 2026. Its cover claims full coverage of the SY0-801 objectives, three full-length mock exams, over 500 practice questions and interactive flashcards.
If you are starting from zero after November, this is the book that lets you begin on the new objectives today instead of waiting for the Sybex release. Packt’s own product page blocked us, so we could not read its table of contents, and our view of what is inside comes from the cover and the catalog listing. Plan to check its coverage against CompTIA’s SY0-801 objectives PDF as you go, particularly objective 2.6 on AI.
Pick the SY0-701 shelf instead if your test date is before the switch, since the third edition of this book covers SY0-701 and costs less. Around $36, list $45. Check the current price on Amazon.
7. CompTIA Security+ Study Guide: Exam SY0-801, 10th Edition (Preorder)
The tenth edition of the Sybex guide is the one to wait for if you want the same author team on the new exam. Wiley’s US store lists it as a 752-page paperback for December 2026 (Wiley-VCH shows February 2027, so it may slip), and its cover promises over 500 practice test questions, more than 250 electronic flashcards, a searchable glossary and audio reviews for each chapter.
Wiley says the update maps to the SY0-801 objectives but has not published a chapter list yet, so confirm the table of contents once it appears. The matching Practice Tests (4th Edition) and an SY0-801 Certification Kit are listed for early January 2027, which means the full Sybex set lands about seven weeks after the exam launches.
Do not preorder it for a SY0-701 test; the 9th edition is cheaper and already covers that exam. About $60 on preorder when we checked. Check the current price on Amazon.
8. Linux Basics for Hackers, 2nd Edition
Security+ includes performance-based questions, and they are easier when the command line is not new to you. OccupyTheWeb’s No Starch book teaches Linux through Kali across 18 chapters, from text manipulation and permissions to logging, services, wireless and Python, and the second edition adds a chapter on AI in cybersecurity.
It is not an exam book and it will not teach you governance or risk, but it turns terms like permissions, logs and services into things you have actually done. At 264 pages it fits around a main guide without slowing you down. Set up a lab first with our Kali Linux install walkthrough so you can follow along.
Skip this one if you already work in a Linux shell every day. Around $17, list $40. Check the current price on Amazon.
Judge a Security+ book on four things
Most Security+ books look alike on Amazon, with the same cover badges and the same “100% coverage” promise. These are the checks that actually separate them:
- The exam code on the cover, SY0-701 or SY0-801, against your test date
- The publisher, since self-published titles rarely say who checked them
- Practice questions in a style different from your main guide
- Some hands-on component for the performance-based questions
The exam code matters most because CompTIA writes questions from the objectives, not from any book. A practice bank is the next priority, and two banks from different authors beat two copies of the same style. If a book you like covers the older exam, keep it and download CompTIA’s objectives PDF for the new one, then mark the objectives your book does not mention. Once Security+ is done, the same approach works for CySA+ study books or PenTest+ guides.
Practice the hands-on questions before exam day
Performance-based questions put you in a simulated task instead of a list of options, and they are where book-only study shows. A small lab fixes that, and one virtual machine running Kali is enough to start with:
- A shell for permissions, logs and services
- Packet capture with tcpdump and Wireshark
- Hashing and password tools such as John the Ripper
- DNS lookups with nslookup and dig
Those are the same tools the free Get Certified Get Ahead labs walk through. Our walkthrough on Wireshark network analysis on Kali covers the capture side, and the Wireshark book picks go deeper if packets turn out to be your weak spot.
If networking is still new to you, a few weeks with the Network+ books first makes Security+ noticeably easier, because ports, protocols and segmentation show up throughout the Security+ objectives. Readers coming from help desk often take the A+ route before that, and anyone aiming at a security management track can move on to CISSP once they have the experience it asks for.
