eJPT vs GCIH

doo108

Which one would you do? GCIH is significantly more than eJPT but i'm more interested in the material I would be learning. Which one is more rich in content?

SteveLavoie

I think you need to compare eJPT to GPEN instead of GCIH. Also, with the new GCIH, there is much less overlap between GPEN and GCIH and is more "defense/blue team" oriented. I did my GPEN in June and I have access to eJPT (still trying to find time to complete it).  If you are only interested by the content eJPT is fine, a lot of material is similar. However GPEN has a bit more content, it is well-written, but if you are considering cost.. then eJPT is clearly a winner (prize is 499$ as of today), compared to 7k$ + 800$ for GIAC exam. 

You can do eJPT and eCPPTv2 for less than half of GPEN+GIAC.  However, brand recognition is better on SANS/GIAC certification. 

doo108

Thank you @SteveLavoie .....It is funny you say that GCIH is now more defensive. On their website, it is still considered a pen testing certification. I do agree with you about the recognition that comes with GIAC certifications but the price difference is just so vast!!! I am not interested in becoming a pentester but just wanted to take a course to gain some red team knowledge. But if GCIH has been revamped to be more defensive then I would definitely be interested.

SteveLavoie

Until recently, GCIH and GPEN had a lot of overlap. Enough that SANS put a FAQ on the subject. In August, they released the new version of GCIH, over 70% new content and they removed a lot of overlap in the content between GCIH and GPEN.  SANS did a webcast on this release. https://www.sans.org/webcasts/whats-sec504-hacker-tools-techniques-exploits-incident-handling-116030

I will probably do GCIH in 2021, after completing eJPT. 

E Double U

Took GCIH in 2015 and GPEN in 2018. Lots of overlap in concepts, but I felt GCIH took the blue team approach and GPEN took the red team approach. Still most of the content was the same. So much so that I used my GCIH index which already contained the terms/definitions/tools and just updated it with the GPEN book/page numbers. 

yoba222

eJPT is not even in the same league as GCIH. $500 versus $7000. I'd say avoid SANS unless your employer pays for it, but I did meet a guy last year that paid for 2 SANS courses out of pocket. His current employer was very impressed by his motivation and the guy is doing well as a result of taking that (massive) training cost.