Is Cyber Essentials free?
No - Cyber Essentials certification is not free. Fig Group publishes the Micro tier at £299.99 + VAT. Eligible holders may separately receive a scheme-level cyber-liability benefit arranged by IASME and its insurance partner.
Section 01
Is Cyber Essentials free?
No - Cyber Essentials certification is not free. Fig Group publishes the Micro tier at £299.99 + VAT. Eligible certificate holders may separately receive a cyber-liability benefit arranged by IASME and its insurance partner; eligibility criteria and policy terms apply, and Fig does not provide or arrange it.
Section 02
Why isn't it free?
Cyber Essentials is delivered by IASME-licensed certification bodies - around 290 private-sector assessment organisations accredited by IASME on behalf of the NCSC. Every certificate involves:
- Time from a qualified IASME-licensed assessor reviewing the self-assessment submission
- Peer review from a second qualified assessor before the certificate is issued
- An IASME licensing fee paid by the certification body
- The cost of maintaining the assessment platform, feedback mechanism, and IASME directory listing
The scheme is not a taxpayer-funded service - it is a commercial certification operated under NCSC scheme rules.
Section 03
Is there a separate scheme benefit?
Eligible Cyber Essentials certificate holders may separately receive a cyber-liability benefit arranged by IASME through its insurance partner. Eligibility criteria and policy terms apply. Customers should refer to IASME and the applicable policy documents for current details. Fig does not provide, arrange, or administer this benefit.
Section 04
What's also free
- The self-assessment questionnaire itself. You can review it on the IASME site before paying; the fee is for the assessor's review of the submission, not the questionnaire access.
- Fig Group's free readiness check. A free 10-minute evaluation against the five controls, produced as a scored report.
- Public resources from the NCSC and IASME. NCSC guidance is freely available.
Section 05
How cheap can Cyber Essentials legitimately be?
The IASME-set baseline for the Micro tier is around £320-£350 + VAT. Fig Group publishes £299.99 + VAT as the lowest UK price (subsidised by the platform economics described on the pricing page).
Anything substantially lower than this is worth checking against the IASME directory - certificates that cannot be verified on the IASME directory are not valid Cyber Essentials certificates. See How to verify a Cyber Essentials certificate.
Section 06
Are there free alternatives?
No valid equivalent. Self-attesting cybersecurity controls to a client without an IASME-licensed body's verified certificate does not meet Cyber Essentials requirements for tender, insurance, or supplier-onboarding purposes. Some free cyber-hygiene assessment tools exist (NCSC's Cyber Action Toolkit, for example) but they do not produce the scheme's recognised certificate.
Section 07
Bottom line
Cyber Essentials is not free. Fig Group publishes the Micro tier at £299.99 + VAT and offers a 6-working-hour SLA for compliant submissions. Any eligible scheme-level cyber-liability benefit is arranged separately by IASME and its insurance partner, not by Fig.
Start Cyber Essentials from £299.99 + VAT | All pricing tiers | Free readiness check
About the author
Jay Hopkins
Managing Director, Fig Group
Jay Hopkins is the Managing Director of Fig Group and an IASME-licensed Cyber Essentials assessor. He was previously Head of Technology for a global regulated firm. He works with UK organisations across regulated sectors on baseline compliance, supply-chain assurance, and AI-augmented security tooling.
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