AWS SAA vs Azure AZ-104: An Honest 2026 Comparison...

certsrise — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:52:13 +0000

AWS SAA-C03 vs Azure AZ-104: Which Cloud Cert Should You Take First in 2026?

I got AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) in March and Azure Administrator (AZ-104) in September — same year, same “cloud engineer” job title on both sides.

If you’re staring at these two exams trying to figure out which one to sink 8 weeks into, this is the honest take I wish someone had given me.

The one-sentence answer

Take the cert your current employer runs.

If you’re job-hunting cold, take AWS SAA first — it opens more doors globally in 2026.

That’s the answer. If you want the reasoning, keep reading.

Comparison at a glance

Area	AWS SAA-C03	Azure AZ-104
Vendor	AWS	Microsoft
Tier	Associate	Associate
Questions	65	40–60
Duration	130 minutes	100 minutes
Pass score	720 / 1000	700 / 1000
Cost	$150	$165
Prerequisites	None, but 1 year AWS experience recommended	None, but 6 months Azure experience recommended
Job listings mentioning it	~48K	~29K
Average base salary, US	$120K–180K	$95K–140K

The salary gap is not because AWS is automatically “better.”

It is mostly because the AWS talent market is more mature. There are more senior architects with SAA in their profiles, more AWS-heavy job descriptions, and more premium roles filtering through AWS keywords.

If Microsoft continues gaining cloud mindshare over the next few years, AZ-104 could close some of that gap.

What AWS SAA-C03 actually tests

The AWS SAA-C03 exam is built around architecture judgment.

AWS SAA-C03 blueprint

Domain	Weight
Design Secure Architectures	30%
Design Resilient Architectures	26%
Design High-Performing Architectures	24%
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures	20%

Everything is scenario-based.

You are usually placed in the role of a solutions architect at a fictional company. You are asked to pick the best-fit service or architecture for a described workload.

The tricky part is this:

Most answer options technically work.

The exam is not asking, “Which option is possible?”

It is asking:

Which option is the most secure, resilient, performant, or cost-optimized for this exact scenario?

The hardest domain is usually Design Secure Architectures.

Even candidates who know EC2, S3, Lambda, and RDS well can struggle here because AWS security requires deeper understanding of:

Shared Responsibility Model
IAM policies
Resource-based policies
Service Control Policies
Cross-account access
Encryption choices
Identity inheritance

SAA is less about memorizing service names and more about choosing the best architecture under constraints.

What AZ-104 actually tests

AZ-104 is more operational and hands-on.

AZ-104 blueprint

Domain	Weight
Manage Azure identities and governance	20–25%
Implement and manage storage	15–20%
Deploy and manage Azure compute resources	20–25%
Configure and manage virtual networking	20–25%
Monitor and maintain Azure resources	10–15%

Azure Administrator expects you to know how Azure is actually managed.

You may see:

Multiple-choice questions
Drag-and-drop questions
Hot-area questions
Case studies
Portal-based scenarios
PowerShell or Azure CLI-style tasks

The hardest domain is usually Configure and manage virtual networking.

Common failure points include:

VNet peering
VPN Gateway SKUs
NSG effective security rules
Route tables
Private endpoints
Load balancers
Application Gateway
DNS integration

AZ-104 is closer to real admin work. You are not just choosing a service; you are often expected to know how to configure or troubleshoot it.

Which exam is harder?

Different kind of hard.

AWS SAA-C03 is harder to reason through

The question stems are longer.

The distractors are more plausible.

The right answer is often one of several valid answers, but it happens to be the most secure, most resilient, or most cost-effective for that situation.

You are doing architecture judgment under time pressure.

AZ-104 is harder to memorize

AZ-104 has more granular service knowledge.

You need to recognize commands, portal paths, configuration details, and administrative behavior.

It is less abstract than SAA, but more detail-heavy.

So the real answer is:

If you are good at reasoning through scenarios, SAA may feel manageable.
If you are good at hands-on configuration and memorization, AZ-104 may feel manageable.
If you have never worked in either cloud, both will feel harder than the vendors suggest.

Prep time: real numbers, not vendor optimism

AWS and Microsoft often imply that these exams can be prepared for quickly.

That may be true if you already work with the platform.

For someone starting from scratch, the realistic numbers are higher.

Situation	Realistic prep time
SAA if you already know AWS	4–6 weeks at 10 hrs/week
SAA from scratch	8–12 weeks at 10 hrs/week
AZ-104 if you already know Azure	3–5 weeks at 10 hrs/week
AZ-104 from scratch	6–10 weeks at 10 hrs/week

The gap exists because AZ-104 has a smaller, more defined surface area.

SAA covers a much broader AWS ecosystem. You are often choosing between services you may never have used deeply.

Which pays more in 2026?

Typical US base salary ranges:

AWS SAA-holder roles

Role	Approx. base salary
Cloud Engineer	$115K
Solutions Architect	$140K
Senior Cloud Engineer	$165K

AZ-104-holder roles

Role	Approx. base salary
Azure Administrator	$100K
Cloud Engineer, Azure	$115K
Senior Azure Administrator	$135K

Typical India salary ranges:

Certification	Approx. range
AWS SAA	₹18–35 LPA
Azure AZ-104	₹12–24 LPA

The AWS salary band is generally higher, but this needs context.

The gap only matters if you are realistically competitive for both AWS and Azure roles.

If your current employer runs Azure, your local market is Azure-heavy, and your internal mobility depends on Microsoft cloud skills, then AZ-104 may be the smarter move.

Taking SAA just to chase a higher salary band may require switching companies, domains, cities, or even countries.

That is a much bigger decision than choosing a certification.

The order I would take them in 2026

If you are job-hunting

Take AWS SAA-C03 first.

It has a larger market, better global portability, and stronger recognition across cloud engineering and solution architecture roles.

If your employer runs Azure

Take AZ-104 first.

You will actually use it. A cert plus internal project experience is usually stronger than a cert plus a cold job hunt.

If you want both eventually

Take SAA first, then AZ-104.

SAA teaches broader cloud architecture reasoning. Once that mental model is built, AZ-104 becomes easier because you are mapping Azure services onto concepts you already understand.

What I used for practice

Full disclosure: I run a small cert-prep site called CertsRise.

When I was preparing, I built adaptive AI mock exams for both certifications because most static question banks do not recalibrate based on weak topics.

If you want to see the head-to-head domain breakdown, I have put it here:

AWS SAA vs AZ-104 comparison

We also publish per-cert study timelines where weeks are distributed proportionally to blueprint weights:

Non-affiliate resources I would also recommend:

AWS SAA-C03

Adrian Cantrill’s video course — detailed and architecture-focused
Stephane Maarek on Udemy — cheaper, concise, and solid for exam prep

Azure AZ-104

John Savill on YouTube — free and excellent
Microsoft Learn official paths — important for blueprint alignment

TL;DR

Take SAA-C03 if you want maximum career optionality, higher pay potential, and global portability.
Take AZ-104 if your current job runs Azure or you prefer hands-on admin-style exams.
If you plan to do both, take SAA first.
Plan for roughly 2× the vendor’s claimed prep time.
Do not stack both exams in 3 months unless you already have strong cloud experience. Burnout is real.

If you are deciding between another pair — like AWS SAA vs GCP ACE or AWS SA Pro vs AZ-305 — let me know. I may write a follow-up.

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