NINJA CPA Review costs $87 a month for its Full Course and $67 a month for Supplement, according to NINJA's FAQ (checked September 7, 2026), which makes it one of the most affordable paid CPA courses on the market. FreeFellow's CPA banks are free with an account, more than 1,400 FAR questions plus full banks for AUD, REG, BAR, ISC and TCP, and Fellow Plus is $199 a year for the whole track. NINJA is the bigger course, with 8,200-plus multiple-choice questions, 340-plus simulations and 300-plus hours of video. FreeFellow's advantages are free access, a fixed price and a study app built for your phone.
NINJA grew out of the Another71 community founded by Jeff Elliott, CPA, and it sells a complete standalone course month to month instead of a two-thousand-dollar package. On r/cpa it's the usual pick for an affordable, content-heavy option. I'm Jeffrey Ting, FSA, CFA, and I founded FreeFellow, so I'm one of the two sides in this comparison. I built it for candidates who want to start on real questions before paying anything and want a modern study app that works well on a phone. I'm comparing against NINJA's Full Course, since it's the complete teaching package.
What each one includes
NINJA's FAQ lists two subscriptions (checked September 7, 2026): NINJA Supplement at $67 per month and NINJA Full Course at $87 per month. Check each package's included materials and section access. You get 8,200-plus multiple-choice questions, 340-plus task-based simulations, 300-plus hours of video lectures, NINJA Notes, the NINJA Book, NINJA Audio, adaptive learning, live instruction and the NINJA study framework, and there's a free trial. You subscribe while you study and cancel when you're done, so a fast studier keeps the total low and a slow one keeps paying every month.
On FreeFellow, prices are in USD and each subscription covers one credential track. Check pricing for your track and country.
- Free: more than 1,400 FAR multiple-choice questions plus full banks for AUD, REG, BAR, ISC and TCP, 35 written FAR lessons, a formula sheet, mixed practice, the readiness score and step-by-step solutions. No trial period and no credit card.
- Fellow, $39 a month or $79 a quarter: task-based simulations with cell-fill grading (more than 130 across all six sections, 45 of them on FAR), timed mock exams, spaced-repetition flashcards, performance analytics and a study plan.
- Fellow Plus, $199 a year: everything in Fellow, plus Common traps and more AI grading.
The full original question bank is free with an account, subject to usage limits. Worked solutions, written lessons, mixed practice, and your readiness score stay free.
| Feature | FreeFellow Free | FreeFellow Fellow Plus | NINJA Full Course |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $199/yr per track | $87/mo (Full Course, FAQ checked September 7, 2026) |
| Full question bank, free | Yes, all six sections | Yes | Free trial only |
| MCQ bank | 1,400+ FAR + full AUD/REG/BAR/ISC/TCP | Same | 8,200+ across sections |
| Task-based simulations | 1 free FAR preview | 130+ cell-fill (45 FAR) | 340+, all item types |
| Video lectures | None | None | 300+ hours |
| Study notes | Written lessons | Written lessons | NINJA Notes + NINJA Book + Audio |
| Modern mobile-first UI | Yes | Yes | Functional, content-first |
| Adaptive quizzing | One focus drill a week | Yes | Yes |
| Mock exams | None | Multiple, timed | Included |
| Flashcards | None | Spaced repetition | Included |
| Analytics | Readiness score | Topic-level plus trends | Performance tracking |
| Live instruction | None | None | Included |
| Track record | Newer (since 2024) | Newer | Established (Another71) |
CPA candidates spend roughly 350 to 450 hours per section, about 1,500 hours in total (AICPA estimates), so NINJA's total depends on how many months you subscribe.
| Strategy | Approximate Total Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NINJA Full Course, 6 months | $522 | 6 x $87; FAQ price checked September 7, 2026 |
| NINJA Full Course, 12 months | $1,044 | 12 x $87; same package and date |
| FreeFellow Fellow Plus, 1 year | $199 | One CPA track covers all six sections; renew for longer access |
| FreeFellow Free | $0 | Full MCQ banks plus lessons |
NINJA is cheap if you're fast. FreeFellow's multiple-choice banks are free for everyone, and Fellow Plus costs $199 for each paid year on the CPA track.
How they compare
What NINJA does better
NINJA's 8,200-plus multiple-choice questions and 340-plus simulations are far more than any single FreeFellow section bank, and NINJA Notes, the NINJA Book and NINJA Audio give you a full content library to learn from, not just questions. If you want one place that teaches and tests all four sections, NINJA is a complete course and FreeFellow isn't.
It also has 300-plus hours of video lectures plus live instruction, which help most on topics you're seeing for the first time, where FreeFellow has written lessons and no video or live teaching. NINJA's simulation bank covers every section and every item type. FreeFellow's 130-plus simulations (45 for FAR) are graded in the AICPA format with tolerance bands and per-cell verdicts, but don't cover document review or research items yet. And NINJA and Another71 have years of community, a known study framework and a long record of people passing with them, where FreeFellow is newer.
What FreeFellow does better
The full question bank is free: more than 1,400 FAR questions plus full banks for the other five sections, with no trial and no credit card, for as long as you need it. NINJA has a free trial, but the bank sits behind the subscription.
The price is also fixed. NINJA's monthly plan is cheap if you move fast, but you pay every month you're studying, and CPA timelines slip. FreeFellow's free tier has no clock, and Fellow Plus is $199 a year for the CPA track. If you study past that year you'll need another subscription period, so budget for your full timeline with either one.
The app is the clearest design difference. NINJA is deliberately content-first and plain, putting volume and price ahead of polish. FreeFellow was built for phones first, with a clean interface, lessons you can review on your phone, and a readiness score that tells you in plain language where you stand against the pass mark. On Fellow, focus practice sends you to your weakest topics without any setup (free accounts get one focus drill a week), and the analytics break down accuracy by topic, AICPA Blueprint area and difficulty. NINJA tracks performance well, but FreeFellow's loop of finding the weak topic, drilling it and rechecking your readiness is tighter and more automatic.
Which one to pick
If you want one complete course and learn well from video, take NINJA. The video, the simulation range and the NINJA content library make it a full standalone course at a low monthly price, and you can add FreeFellow's free bank for extra practice at no cost.
If you're paying yourself and mostly want multiple-choice practice, use FreeFellow's free banks as your main question source and add Fellow Plus ($199 a year for the CPA track) for mocks, flashcards and analytics. Buy a month of NINJA only if you want video on a hard section. That's also what I'd do on a slow timeline around a full-time job, since a fixed annual price and a free tier with no clock are easier to plan around than a monthly fee that keeps running when life gets in the way. If you mostly study on your phone, FreeFellow was built for that.
If you failed by a few points, use Fellow Plus and AICPA's free sample tutorial. You know the material, so what you need is volume, timed mocks and analytics that find the gap.
A cheap monthly subscription you keep for a year adds up, so match the tool to your real timeline and pick something you'll finish. NINJA is good and affordable, which makes this a closer call than FreeFellow against the premium providers.
To try FreeFellow, start with the open samples on the CPA FAR practice page. More than 1,400 multiple-choice questions and 35 written lessons are free with an account, AUD, REG, BAR, ISC and TCP have their own free banks, and Fellow Plus (simulations, mocks, flashcards, analytics, study plan) is on the pricing page.
FreeFellow LLC is independent of the AICPA and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). AICPA, CPA, and Uniform CPA Examination are trademarks of their respective owners. NINJA CPA Review and Another71 are trademarks of their respective owners and are named here for identification and comparison only.