FreeFellow vs Dalton CFP: 2026 Comparison

The Dalton Review costs $1,659 with an eBook, or $1,789 with a printed textbook, on Dalton's enrollment page (checked September 7, 2026). FreeFellow's CFP bank is free with an account, 2,700+ questions across all 8 domains with written lessons, and Fellow Plus is $199 a year for the CFP track. Dalton's integrated case studies are widely considered the industry standard, and FreeFellow doesn't match them. FreeFellow is much cheaper and gives you far more free practice.

Dalton Education is one of the most established names in CFP review. Scroll r/CFP and you'll see it mentioned in nearly every weekly study-strategy thread, usually positively. I'm Jeffrey Ting, FSA, CFA, and I built FreeFellow as a free and cheaper alternative to courses like Dalton's.

What each one includes

Dalton's enrollment page lists The Dalton Review with two textbook options (checked September 7, 2026):

• The Dalton Review with eBook: $1,659 for exam review.
• Printed textbook option: adds $130 to the review price, for a total of $1,789.

You get review of all 8 domains in CFP Board's Principal Knowledge Topics, the Dalton case-study library, multiple full-length mock exams, recorded video instruction and, in higher tiers, live coaching.

FreeFellow has a free tier and two paid tiers. Prices are in USD, and each subscription covers one credential track. Check pricing for your track and country.

• Free: 2,700+ practice questions across all 8 CFP domains, including scenario-based questions in every topic area, with step-by-step solutions, written lessons, a formula sheet, mixed practice and the readiness score.
• Fellow, $39 a month or $79 a quarter: timed full-length mock exams, spaced-repetition flashcards, analytics broken down by topic and a study plan built around your exam date.
• Fellow Plus, $199 a year: everything in Fellow, plus Common traps.

Dalton sells a review enrollment and FreeFellow sells a year of access to the CFP track, so compare the review schedule and what's taught, not just the price.

How they compare

What Dalton does better

A real CFP exam scenario rarely stays inside one domain. A retirement-income case might have you work through Social Security claiming, Roth-conversion tax mechanics, qualified charitable distributions, Medicare IRMAA brackets and beneficiary-IRA stretch rules in one question. Dalton's case library has decades of refinement on that format. FreeFellow's bank has scenario-based questions across all 8 domains, many of them crossing domains, but it doesn't have the integrated format with a 1,500-word scenario and 6 to 10 linked sub-questions. If integrated case-study practice is your top priority, go with Dalton.

Dalton's video library covers all of CFP Board's Principal Knowledge Topics, which helps most on topics you're seeing for the first time, like estate-planning techniques (GRATs, GRUTs, IDGTs) or how annuity income riders work. FreeFellow has written lessons and no video. Dalton also has 30-plus years of CFP-specific track record, which is reassuring when you're committing 250-plus hours of study, and its Premium tier adds live instructor-led review sessions and personalized coaching, which FreeFellow doesn't offer.

What FreeFellow does better

You get 2,700+ CFP practice questions for $0, with no trial period and no credit card, where Dalton's free trial is much narrower, so you can start working questions before you decide what to buy. And Fellow Plus is $199 a year against $1,659 for The Dalton Review with an eBook (checked September 7, 2026), which matters most if nobody's reimbursing you.

The bank covers all 8 CFP domains (Professional Conduct and Regulation, General Principles of Financial Planning, Risk Management and Insurance Planning, Investment Planning, Tax Planning, Retirement Savings and Income Planning, Estate Planning, and Psychology of Financial Planning), weighted to match the CFP Board Practice Analysis. On Fellow, focus practice goes after your weakest topics based on how you've done so far (free accounts get one focus drill a week), and the analytics show your accuracy by domain, CFP Board learning objective and difficulty. Dalton's analytics are course-based and less granular. If you study on a phone, FreeFellow was built for that, and Dalton's interface is desktop-first.

Which one to pick

If you're a financial advisor with employer reimbursement, take Dalton Live Online and use FreeFellow's free bank for extra multiple-choice practice. The case studies are the best available, and with the cost covered, saving study time is what matters. If you're changing careers from outside financial services, Dalton's structured video and case studies help most when you're learning the concepts from scratch, and FreeFellow's free bank adds more practice.

If you're paying yourself on a first attempt, get Fellow Plus ($199 a year) and work from CFP Board's Principal Knowledge Topics. If case studies are a weak spot, buy Dalton case-study material for just your weakest domain (often retirement income or estate planning).

If you're retaking and already know the material, or you do financial planning every day and see integrated cases at work, skip the full course and get Fellow Plus. What you need is question volume, familiarity with the exam format, timed mocks and analytics that find the gap from last time. If you have a strong financial-services background and study well on your own, FreeFellow's free tier plus CFP Board's own materials can be enough if you practice consistently. Either way, finish what you buy, since a whole $199 year of Fellow Plus that you work through does more for you than half of a Dalton course.

On r/CFP over the last 18 months, the same things keep coming up: Dalton's case studies are the best preparation for how integrated the real exam is, its videos are good but the case studies are what you're paying for, you can pass with Kaplan or Brett Danko for less, and plenty of people pair Dalton case studies with a free question bank. The FreeFellow comments I've seen there are positive on the free question volume and the analytics. People who pass tend to do 2,000-plus practice questions plus case-study work, whichever provider they use.

If I were sitting today, I'd use Fellow Plus for multiple-choice practice and lessons and buy Dalton case-study material for retirement income and estate planning, the two domains where integrated scenarios are most predictive of how you'll do on the real exam. Check whether that material is sold separately before you budget for it. If my employer were paying, I'd buy Dalton Live Online and use FreeFellow's free bank on the side, since I'd rather have both than either one. On a tight budget, I'd use FreeFellow's free tier plus CFP Board's own materials, and write 100-plus practice cases of my own to work through by hand.

FreeFellow's CFP practice page has open samples, and all 2,700+ questions across the 8 domains and the written lessons are free with an account. Fellow Plus (mocks, flashcards, analytics, study plan) is on the pricing page.

FreeFellow LLC is independent of CFP Board. CFP, Certified Financial Planner, and the CFP Board logo are certification marks owned by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.