Certified Public Accountants are required to earn continuing professional education (CPE) credits every year in order to renew their CPA license.Â
Many people who are working as a CPA have one key question on their mind: What’s the best CPA CPE online course on the market?
With so many options, it can be hard to tell which CPE course is right for you. After all, every single one offers its own unique features and each claims to be the best. Consequently, choosing a course can be a stressful and confusing experience, especially if NASBA is breathing down your neck the whole time!
Luckily for you, the choice just became much easier.
Check out my list of the best CPA continuing professional education courses and self-study programs below:
CPA CPE Course Reviews & Comparison
| Rank | Company | Pricing Info | Get Started | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. |  | Becker CPE | $799 | Go To Becker CPE |
2. |  | Illumeo CPE | $399 | Go To Illumeo CPE |
3. |  | Lambers CPE | $699 | Compare CPE Courses |
4. |  | Surgent CPE | $899 | Go To Surgent CPE |
5. |  | Gleim CPE | $600 No Discount |
1. Becker CPA CPE Course
- Experienced Instructors: Becker instructors all have years of experiences in their fields. This helps them stay up to date with new regulations and rulings. That means students can be assured that they are getting the best instruction available for their CPE courses.
- Competitive Pricing: When signing up for a Becker CPE course, you have a choice in prices. That means you can choose between three subscriptions: one year, two years, or three years.
- Flexible Study Formats: Becker offers both On Demand content and Webinars designed to earn CPEs. On demand is a self study format, while Webinars are live instruction with Q&A. Furthermore, all content is quite varied and comes in the form of streaming video, audio, text, and online Q&A.
- Complimentary Demos: Becker CPE allows complimentary demos of many of their accounting CPE courses at no cost. This allows students to test out the various courses before deciding whether or not they are willing to commit to them.
- Cost: Although Becker doesnât require students to pay an arm and a leg for most of their CPA continuing professional education courses, some of their more involved packages can run a large bill. For that reason, students with tight education budgets may want to stick to the one-year or two-year packages. Check out top Becker CPE discounts here.
Bottom Line: The CPE courses offered by Becker Professional Education are easily the best option out there. They have extremely well qualified instructors and a wide breadth of course content. In addition, they have very flexible pricing to fit your personal needs.
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2. Illumeo CPE for CPAs
- Reasonable Prices: Whether youâre a practicing accountant looking to maintain your certification status or a business owner looking to sponsor the education of your employees, Illumeo offers a fantastic suite of benefits. Best of all is that all these benefits come at one of the lowest prices.
- Try Before You Buy: However, despite having such a reasonable price tag, they also offer free enrollment to some of their courses. 12 different courses can be tried completely free of charge, providing you with a decent sample of how Illumeo conducts their continuing professional education.
- Extra Credit: If youâre curious about additional career paths besides public accounting, Illumeo still has you covered. Their course catalog is far broader than just CPA study materials, and your subscription provides you with full access to these extra fields of study. However, you will need to pay a bit extra for their full certificate programs (also known as microcerts).
- Lots of Distractions: Unfortunately, the ridiculously expansive course catalog provided by Illumeo is also its biggest drawbackâ at least for CPAs. Unless youâre highly disciplined and resistant to falling into a Wikipedia browsing hole, youâre liable to be distracted by the large volume of courses available to choose from.
Bottom Line: If youâre a dedicated self-study master, this is one of the best CPE resources available today. Not only will Illumeo provide an impressive suite of CPA learning materials to help you maintain your professional certification; it can also help you learn about other interesting certifications as well.
3. Lambers CPE Review
- Extensive Library: Lambers is a fantastic option for CPAs who need to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in their industry. This is because enrolling in a yearâs subscription to this platform will provide access to a constantly updating library of webinars and other study content, with the option for earning a virtually unlimited amount of CPE credit hours.
- Engaging Instruction:Â Lambers CPE Review ensures that all enrolled professionals are engaged with the content it provides and the lessons it teaches. This is done through passionate and experienced instructors teaching from a versatile curriculum in a wide range of formats. As a result, you wonât feel like youâre stuck in study hall the entire time.
- Excellent Value: Although it isnât the top choice on our list, Lambers is still worth considering for your CPE needs based on its value alone. Rather than pay for a specific tier of content or a set number of CPE credits, you can have unlimited and unfettered access for an entire year once you sign up. Best of all is that this company has a Crush-exclusive discount where you can sign up for 2 years of access for a great rate!
- Limited Guarantee: When compared to Becker or Surgent, Lambers doesnât offer as appealing of a guarantee for students and professionals who enroll in their program. All sales on their online CPE study materials are final, including your subscription chargeâ and print materials are often subjected to a restocking fee if theyâre refunded.
Bottom Line: Lambers offers a somewhat refreshing and reasonably priced platform for brushing up on your public accounting knowledge. They might not be the very best choice for all students, but itâs a terrific option if you like online webinars and have a lot of free time to earn your credit hours.
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4. Surgent CPE for CPAs
- Webinars: Most of the CPE credits youâll earn from Surgent will be in the form of live webinars. Each of these focuses on an important CPA topic and is taught by experienced tax professionals. This structure allows you to easily find and view webinars that are focused on specific subjects related to your field.
- Highly Rated Content: Surgentâs courses regularly receive high ratings from CPAs and other professionals. In fact, their testimonials reveal just how popular they are in the educational community. Thanks to that, you can rest assured that your education is in good hands if you use their CPE packages.
- Nationally Recognized: Surgentâs online exam review courses are highly praised by NASBA, the IRS, and the CFB board. Plus, their unlimited CPE packages can help you meet the Yellow Book requirements. Best of all, their CPE credits are recognized in all 50 states and Washington D.C.
- Live Content Focus: Live webinars arenât the only thing Surgent has to offer, but theyâre definitely their primary CPE focus. Access to on-demand lectures is locked behind a higher paywall, and thereâs a much smaller number of them. Iâd recommend looking elsewhere if youâre interested in self-paced studying.
- Cluttered Course Library: With thousands of courses available, finding the right one can feel overwhelming. The filtering and search tools could be more intuitive, making it harder than it should be to quickly zero in on what you actually need.
Bottom Line: Youâll enjoy Surgentâs content if you prefer live lectures from experienced CPAs and want practical insight into current accounting topics. However, if youâre looking for more self-paced options, a modern interface, or highly customizable features, Surgent might feel a bit limiting.
5. Gleim CPE Courses for CPAs
- Course Flexibility: The Gleim CPE system grants you one year to pick and choose your courses. Consequently, that means you can choose courses suited for your needs as they come up. Gleim provides some examples that illustrate this point excellently, which helps to inspire enrolled students to choose the course most pertinent to their specific needs.
- Modular Pricing: Course prices are based on their hourly content, which varies from one to a hundred or even more. Hence, you and other students only need to pay for the exact amount of time needed. It also lowers the prices per chapter when youâre buying bundles of content: as low as $6 an hour depending on which package you choose!
- Free Course: Gleim offers two different free courses so you can get a taste for what their service is like. While only one of these courses can be used for professional credit, both of them work well as a free trial for the full Gleim service.
- No Live Webinars: Unlike Becker, Gleim does not offer live webinars. That unfortunately means that there is no live Q&A for what you are watching; you must instead rely on the standard customer service for your questions.
- Dated Visual Design: While the content is solid, the platformâs visuals and layout feel stuck in an earlier era. Itâs not the most engaging or modern environment, which could be a turnoff for users who value aesthetics and smooth navigation.
- Limited Soft Skills Content: Gleim focuses heavily on technical accounting and tax topics, but doesnât offer much in the way of soft skills like leadership, communication, or client managementâareas many professionals are also looking to develop.
Bottom Line: Although itâs not as competitive a choice as Becker or Illumeo (mainly due to a lack of live video content), Gleim CPE can still be worth your time. Their customizable prices and content are helpful for a student looking to shore up specific areas of expertise.
CPE Frequently Asked Questions
đ What is CPE for CPA?
Continuing Professional Education, or CPE for short, is required for CPAs to maintain their professional certification. It can be earned in a variety of ways, but a certain number of credit hours must be reported every year depending on your jurisdiction if you wish to remain CPA certified.
đ€ What is CPE?
CPE is short for Continuing Professional Education. Itâs a term used for many professional certifications, such as those relating to finance and accounting, to refer to additional education gathered after becoming certified. CPE is important because it ensures that practicing professionals in highly technical fields are up-to-date.
âHow many CPE credits do you need to keep a CPA?
Depending on where in the country you work as a CPA, your CPE requirements will vary. Check the NASBAâs website to see specific requirements by state. In general, most states require around 80 hours of CPE per year, with a few exceptions.
đ What can CPE credits be used for?
CPE credits are used for maintaining a professional certification in a highly technical and constantly changing field. If you work in an industry that is undergoing rapid developments due to technology or current events, CPE will be required in order to continue working professionally as a licensed expert on your given subject.
Bryce Welker is an active speaker, blogger, and regular contributor to Forbes, Inc.com, and Business.com where he shares his knowledge to help others boost their careers. Bryce is the founder of more than 20 test prep websites that help students and professionals pass their certification exams.