📰 Originally published on SecurityElites — the canonical, fully-updated version of this article.
The Uncomfortable Price Comparison
Before You Pay $199 for a Course on Udemy — Read This.
Udemy “Complete Ethical Hacking Bootcamp”
$199
22-hour video course · Recorded 2021 · Requires registration
Coursera Cybersecurity Specialisation
$49/mo
Subscription model · Certificate costs extra · Paywalled
SANS Institute SEC504 Course
$8,275
1 week in-person · Employer-funded usually · GPEN cert included
SecurityElites.com — 100-Day Course
$0
No registration · No paywall · Updated 2026 · Forever free
The SecurityElites.com course is not “free with hidden costs.” It is free because the founder believes quality cybersecurity education should be accessible to every person on earth regardless of their financial situation.
** All 100 days. All topics. All screenshots. All practice tasks. Zero cost. Always.**
02
There are exactly two types of people searching for a “free ethical hacking course for beginners” right now. The first type wants something free in the way a drug dealer’s first sample is free — a taster that locks you into a subscription, a teaser that paywalls the good parts, a “free tier” that makes everything beyond Module 3 unavailable. The second type wants something genuinely, completely, permanently free with no catch and no asterisk.
If you are the second type — you are in the right place. This is a 100-day ethical hacking course with no email capture, no free-trial countdown, no “upgrade to premium,” and no future price increase. It was free on Day 1, it is free today, and it will be free when you read this in 2027.
What follows is the complete breakdown of everything this course covers, why it is built the way it is, exactly how it compares to paid alternatives, and how to navigate from Day 1 to Day 100 as efficiently as possible. Day 1 is linked at the bottom. You can start in the next five minutes.
100
Days of structured daily lessons
5,000+
Words per article — avg 22 min read
500+
Screenshots across the course
8
Course phases from zero to advanced
$0
Cost. Today, tomorrow, and always.
📋 What This Article Covers
Why This Course Is Genuinely Free
How It Compares to Paid Courses
Course Structure — Every Phase Explained
Phase 1: Foundation (Days 1–10)
Phase 2: Web Security (Days 11–20)
Phase 3: Core Attacks (Days 21–30)
Phases 4–8: Advanced Topics (Days 31–100)
What Every Day Article Contains
How to Study This Course Effectively
Start Day 1 Right Now
Why Is This Ethical Hacking Course Free? (And Why It Always Will Be)
I want to answer this before you spend time on it, because scepticism is rational. Every “free” course you have encountered before had a catch. Here is why this one does not.
SecurityElites.com is funded through the security consulting work the team does — not through course sales. The content exists to serve the cybersecurity community and to build SecurityElites.com as the definitive free resource in this field. Making it genuinely free — with no registration wall, no email capture, no free tier — is both a philosophy and a strategy. The most comprehensive, most accessible free resource in any field attracts the most people and earns the most trust. That trust is the foundation everything else is built on.
What “Free” Means at SecurityElites.com — Explicitly
✅ No email required to access any article
✅ No credit card at any point in the course
✅ No “Pro version” that unlocks hidden content
✅ No countdown timer to a price increase
✅ No affiliate links inside course articles
✅ No advertising within course content
✅ No data sold to third parties
✅ No “community membership” fee to ask questions
How This Free Ethical Hacking Course Compares to Paid Alternatives
The honest comparison matters because “free” sometimes means inferior. In this case, there are genuine trade-offs — and genuine advantages — over paid options. Here is the full picture:
securityelites.com
FREE ETHICAL HACKING COURSE — FULL COMPARISON MATRIX 2026
Feature
SecurityElites
Udemy
TryHackMe Pro
Cybrary
Cost
FREE
$12–$199
$14/mo
$49/mo
Registration Required
None
Yes
Yes
Yes
Updated for 2026
Yes — ongoing
No (most 2019–2022)
Partial
Partial
Days / Depth
100 full days
20–40 hrs video
Paths (variable)
Courses (variable)
Practical Tasks Each Day
Yes — every day
Quizzes only
Yes (labs)
Some
Screenshots
500+ across course
Video only
Some
Some
Format
Text + screenshots
Video
Interactive labs
Video + labs
3 Companion Courses
Yes (340 days total)
No
No
No
The one genuine advantage of video courses: some learners retain better from video than text. If you are a pure video learner, combine this course with complementary YouTube channels for visual reinforcement.
Course Comparison Matrix 2026 — SecurityElites.com is the only entry with zero cost, zero registration, daily practical tasks, 2026-updated content, and three companion courses (100-day hacking + 60-day bug bounty + 180-day Kali Linux). The text-with-screenshots format allows simultaneous reading and terminal practice — something video courses cannot offer.
Course Structure — How 100 Days Are Organised Into 8 Phases
The 100-day course is not a random collection of tutorials. It is a deliberately sequenced progression — each day builds on the previous, each phase unlocks understanding required for the next. The architecture mirrors how professional penetration testers actually think and work: reconnaissance first, vulnerability identification second, exploitation third, post-exploitation fourth.
📖 Read the complete guide on SecurityElites
This article continues with deeper technical detail, screenshots, code samples, and an interactive lab walk-through. Read the full article on SecurityElites →
This article was originally written and published by the SecurityElites team. For more cybersecurity tutorials, ethical hacking guides, and CTF walk-throughs, visit SecurityElites.
Top comments (0)