CompTIA offers a wide range of products, and they're all at your fingertips in our LTI tool's Content Selector. However, there is a very wide range, and knowing exactly what product you're after can be a challenge. Furthermore, building incorrectly can cause technical issues down the line, so it's important to know exactly what you're after.
This article will help clarify our selection in two sections: product type (Learn, Labs, Perform, Practice, and legacy TestOut Pro). The differences in the A+ products we offer are outside the scope of this article, and are covered in the article linked here.
A note on the dangers of mixing and matching products
CertMaster Practice is the only product that should be used alongside other products. Otherwise, mixing and matching product types in a single LMS course can cause a range of technical issues, from student progress tracking and grade syncing, to license management, billing, and even basic integration functionality.
Any given LMS course should only link to one product line among Learn, Labs, Perform, and TestOut Pro. Practice can be used alongside any of these.
If you believe you need to mix and match products in the above list (for example, Learn and Labs, or TestOut Pro and Labs), it's likely you're looking for the Perform product instead, which combines those products natively.
Product Lines
CertMaster Learn and Essentials
Choose this if you are only interested in the main learning content and simulation-based labs, and not virtual machine labs. CertMaster Learn contains reading content, quizzes, simulation-based labs, videos, and practice exams. Essentials is the same type of content, but the courses are much shorter and more focused (4-8 hours).
CertMaster Labs
Choose this if you are only interested in virtual machine labs, and not the main learning content. CertMaster Labs is CompTIA's supplementary learning product, which includes virtual-machine-based Lab activities, where the student learns and works on a fully spun-up operating system through the cloud, rather than in a simulated environment.
CertMaster Perform
Choose this if you want all of the above. CertMaster Perform is CompTIA's flagship product, which includes all the content from both Learn and Labs. It replaces CompTIA's older "Integrated Learn and Labs" product.
CertMaster Study
Choose this if you are looking for a lean, ebook-like functionality with multiple choice knowledge checks along the way. Simulations, Live Labs, and Practice Exams are not included in this product.
CertMaster Practice
Choose this if you are looking for a complementary exam-readiness product to use at the end of your learners' studies to assess their preparedness for certification. This product captures data from other related products to determine a learner's strengths (Mastery Scores), and provides review quizzes and Practice Exams with a pool of thousands of questions. It is the only product that is built to be used alongside other CertMaster products.
TestOut Pro
These are legacy products from CompTIA's acquisition of TestOut, and, much like Learn, include reading content, quizzes, simulation-based labs, videos, and assessments. Most titles, such as Security Pro and Linux Pro, have direct CertMaster equivalents and will be replaced by those products over time.
Regarding Migration to Learn for existing TestOut users: Learn is functionally equivalent to the TestOut Pro products, and TestOut users whose product has retired will want to build with the corresponding Learn product. Most corresponding CertMaster course names are obvious (Network Pro is replaced by Network+), but some, such as PC Pro being replaced by A+, are less so. Check with your CompTIA Customer Success Manager if you're unsure.
Regarding NOT adding Labs to existing TestOut courses: You may be thinking that you want to add CertMaster Labs to your course that already uses TestOut Pro. Please read the section on Perform, as this product natively combines Labs with the core learning material of TestOut Pro.