About CertNorth
CertNorth is an independent guide to project management certifications and careers. We are not a training provider, we do not sell courses or exam prep, and we have no commercial relationship with PMI, Scrum.org, the Scrum Alliance, or any other certifying body. That independence is the whole point of the site.
Why this site exists
Most advice about project management certifications is written by the companies selling the training. That doesn't make it false, but it does make it one-sided: a training provider has little reason to tell you that a certification is overpriced, that a cheaper alternative is better value, or that you shouldn't buy anything yet. We are free to say all three, and we do.
You will find sentences on this site like "who this certification is not for", and comparisons where our conclusion is that the more expensive option buys you teaching rather than prestige. That is the kind of guidance we wanted to read when trying to make sense of this field, and could not find.
How we research
Every price, eligibility rule, and renewal requirement comes from the certifying body itself — PMI, Scrum.org, the Scrum Alliance, PeopleCert, ICAgile — and we link the source so you can check it. Salary figures come from official labour-market statistics where they exist, such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and from named commercial sources where they don't.
When official data doesn't exist, we say so rather than dressing up an estimate. Scrum Master and Product Owner, for example, have no government occupation code anywhere, so every salary figure for those roles is self-reported to a commercial aggregator. We tell you that instead of quoting one number confidently.
Certification prices and rules change — PMI updated the PMP exam in July 2026, for instance. We re-verify the volatile figures on a schedule, and we record the month each one was last checked. We never bump a date to look fresh without actually revising the content.
Who writes CertNorth
Articles are researched, written, and published by the CertNorth editorial team. We compile and verify from official primary sources rather than claiming personal credentials we don't hold — and because we name the source for every fact, you never have to take our word for anything. If we get something wrong, we correct it and say what changed.
How we make money
Right now, we don't. CertNorth carries no affiliate links and earns no commission from anything we recommend, and we have no commercial relationship with any certification body or training provider. The site may display advertising in future, and we may add affiliate links — if either happens we will disclose it here and on the pages concerned. Neither would ever change a ranking or a verdict: when we conclude that something isn't worth buying, that conclusion stands whether or not there is money attached, and you'll find plenty of those conclusions here.
Corrections and contact
If you spot an error, or a price that has changed since we last checked, please tell us — we would rather be corrected than be wrong. You can reach us at contact@certnorth.com.