AZ-700 vs AWS ANS-C01: comparing the cloud network engineer certs

Cloud networking is one of the few corners of the certification market where both Azure and AWS have a clearly defined "this is the network engineer cert" credential. AZ-700 on the Microsoft side, ANS-C01 on the AWS side. They're often mentioned in the same breath, but they sit at different levels, cost different amounts, and target different career stages.

Short version: AZ-700 is associate-level at $165 and works for most Azure network engineering jobs. ANS-C01 is specialty-level at $300, harder, and aimed at senior network architects on AWS. The salary delta in 2026 is smaller than the difficulty delta, but both are real signals if you actually do the work.

What AZ-700 covers

AZ-700 — Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate — assumes Azure operational experience and tests:

• Design, implement, and manage hybrid networking (~10–15%): site-to-site VPN, point-to-site VPN, ExpressRoute (circuits, peering, FastPath, Global Reach), ExpressRoute Direct.
• Design and implement core networking infrastructure (~20–25%): VNets, subnets, IP addressing, VNet peering, custom DNS, Private DNS Zones.
• Design and implement routing (~25–30%): UDRs, BGP basics for ExpressRoute and VPN, Azure Route Server, Virtual WAN, hub-and-spoke vs Virtual WAN.
• Secure and monitor networks (~15–20%): Azure Firewall, Firewall Manager, Network Security Groups, Application Security Groups, DDoS Protection, Network Watcher, Connection Monitor.
• Design and implement private access to Azure services (~15–20%): Service Endpoints, Private Endpoints, Private Link.
• Design and implement Azure Front Door, App Gateway, Load Balancer application delivery layer.

40–60 questions, 100 minutes, $165 USD list price (regional pricing drops to ~$80). Case studies plus multiple-choice. 1-year validity, free renewal via a 30-question online assessment.

The exam assumes you've done AZ-104-equivalent Azure operations work. It's not formally required, but candidates without that background struggle on the routing and hybrid sections.

What ANS-C01 covers

ANS-C01 — AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty — is the senior-tier AWS networking exam. It replaced ANS-C00 in mid-2022. Current blueprint:

• Network design (~30%): VPC architecture, subnets, IP addressing at scale (including IPv6 and IPAM), Transit Gateway design, edge networks.
• Network implementation (~26%): Direct Connect (dedicated and hosted, public/private/transit VIFs), Site-to-Site VPN, Cloud WAN, Transit Gateway routing, Route 53 Resolver.
• Network management and operation (~20%): VPC Flow Logs, Reachability Analyzer, Network Manager, Traffic Mirroring, Transit Gateway Network Manager.
• Network security, compliance, and governance (~24%): Security Groups, NACLs, Network Firewall, AWS WAF, Shield Advanced, AWS Verified Access, GuardDuty for network detection.

65 questions, 170 minutes, $300 USD. Multiple-choice and multiple-response, no case-study format. Pass mark is scaled but lands around 750/1000. 3-year validity. No free renewal — you re-sit the full exam, though AWS gives a 50% discount voucher to current cert holders.

ANS-C01 expects you to know BGP at a working level — route propagation, AS_PATH manipulation, communities, ECMP, BFD. It expects you to know Direct Connect at a level where you could actually order one and configure it without help. It expects multi-region, multi-account, transit-gateway-of-transit-gateways thinking.

How they actually compare

Dimension	AZ-700	ANS-C01
Level	Associate	Specialty
Cost (USD)	$165	$300
Questions	40–60	65
Time	100 min	170 min
Validity	1 year (free renewal)	3 years (50% retake voucher)
BGP depth	Light, mostly ExpressRoute context	Heavy, must work BGP fluently
Hybrid depth	ExpressRoute + S2S VPN	Direct Connect + S2S VPN + Cloud WAN
Routing topology	Hub-spoke + Virtual WAN	Transit Gateway + Cloud WAN
Prep hours, experienced engineer	60–90	100–150
Prep hours, beginner	150–200	250+

ANS-C01 is genuinely harder. It's a specialty for a reason — the breadth and depth of AWS networking primitives is larger than Azure's, partly because AWS has more years of accumulated services and partly because Azure's networking design is more opinionated (Virtual WAN replaces a lot of what you'd otherwise hand-build on AWS).

AZ-700 is the cleaner first cert if Azure is your stack. ANS-C01 is the cleaner first cert if AWS is your stack — but only if you're already at senior-network-engineer level. Newer AWS engineers should do SAA-C03 first and come back to ANS-C01 once they've actually configured Transit Gateway and Direct Connect on a real account.

What the market pays

Per BLS OEWS May 2024, Computer Network Architects (15-1241) median wage around $130k, 90th percentile around $190k. Cloud network engineers cluster in the upper half because the cloud-native end of the market pays better than legacy network architecture.

levels.fyi 2025–2026 data:

• AWS L5 Network Engineer / Solutions Architect with networking specialty: total comp ~$240k.
• Microsoft L63 Network Engineer: total comp ~$235k.
• Mid-tier non-FAANG cloud network engineer roles (Cloudflare, Fastly, Equinix, large banks): $170k–$220k base.

The salary delta between AZ-700 holders and ANS-C01 holders is smaller than people expect — most of the variance comes from years of experience and the seniority of the role, not from which cert you hold. ANS-C01 is more often paired with Principal-level titles, but that's because the people who take it are usually Principal-track already.

If you're an associate-level engineer, AZ-700 is probably going to deliver more career return per dollar of exam fee in 2026, especially in shops that are Azure-first. If you're senior on AWS already, ANS-C01 is the credential that matches your seniority.

When each one is the right call

Take AZ-700 when:

• Your day job is on Azure and networking is part of it.
• You hold AZ-104 or have equivalent ops experience.
• You're a generalist Azure engineer specializing into networking.
• Your employer is a Microsoft Solutions Partner — partner status counts AZ-700.

Take ANS-C01 when:

• You're a senior network engineer or architect on AWS.
• You've already done SAA-C03 or SAP-C02 and want a specialty signal.
• You work on multi-region, multi-account AWS networking — Transit Gateway, Cloud WAN, Direct Connect at scale.
• You're consulting and need the specialty to bill at architect rates.

Skip both when:

• You don't actually do cloud networking. Both exams reward operational reflexes that come from configuring real environments. Reading the docs gets you to maybe 60% of a pass, not 80%.

What I'd recommend in 2026

If you're equally exposed to both clouds and choosing between them as a first networking cert: AZ-700. It's cheaper, covers a roughly equivalent skill surface for most enterprise networking work, and the renewal flow is more painless.

If you're an experienced AWS engineer with networking depth: ANS-C01. The specialty signal lands harder on AWS-shop résumés than AZ-700 does on the AWS market, and vice versa.

If you're going to work in mixed environments — which is most enterprise networking jobs in 2026 — both eventually. The order I'd do them: AZ-700 first as a calibration exam, ANS-C01 second once you've built the BGP and Transit Gateway reflexes.

Whichever side of the fence you're on, drill the AZ-700 question bank or run a timed ANS-C01 simulation on CertLabPro — both exams reward pattern recognition, and realistic items surface gaps in your topology mental model faster than re-reading the docs.