Home › Study Guides › Kaplan vs. STC for the Series 7: Pricing, Format and Which One Fits
Package-by-package pricing verified against both providers, and an honest account of where a question bank does not substitute for a course.
Kaplan and STC, meaning Securities Training Corporation, are the two biggest names in Series 7 preparation, and both will get a disciplined candidate to a pass. Kaplan's self-study packages start cheaper; STC's self-study tier includes a printed manual and its enrolment window runs longer. Neither is better across the board. It depends on whether you want a live instructor, how much you are willing to pay for that, and whether you already know your own study habits well enough to skip the hand-holding.
One disclosure before the comparison: we make CoStudy, a question bank. It is not a substitute for either of these courses, since it has no live instruction and no full licence exam manual. Where it fits, and where it does not, comes at the end. Everything before that is a straight comparison.
Kaplan Financial Education is a large, broad test-prep company covering securities, insurance, real estate and financial planning licensing among others, so Series 7 preparation is one product line within a much bigger catalogue. You get a mature, well-produced learning platform and video library, but less securities-specific specialisation than a firm that only does this. STC has focused on securities licensing exams for over fifty years and is part of the Colibri Group. It is narrower than Kaplan but deeper on this specific vertical, with instructors who specialise in FINRA exams rather than licensing content generally.
On pricing, the figures below were confirmed directly against each provider's own site at the time of writing. Both run seasonal promotions and adjust tiers periodically, so confirm current pricing before buying.
Kaplan publishes a Series 7 range of 139 to 309 dollars across four packages. Basic Self-Study sits at the bottom of that range and covers core study tools only, with no instruction. Essential Self-Study adds a fuller self-paced toolset, still with no live class. Premium OnDemand costs 279 dollars and adds recorded instructor-led classes to all the study tools. Premium Live Online costs 309 dollars and adds scheduled live classes with recordings. Both Premium tiers include the licence exam manual, the question bank, a practice exam, a mastery exam, a midterm, checkpoint exams, a performance tracker, instructor access and a student community. The two self-study tiers strip out the instructor-led class and some of the exam layers, so verify exactly what is cut at each tier before choosing, since the inclusions table changes package to package.
STC's Series 7 Top-Off packages are three. Standard costs 273 dollars and is built for disciplined self-starters doing efficient self-study. Premier costs 479 dollars and adds on-demand lectures, flashcards, progress and green-light exams, and the STC Pass Guarantee. Premier Plus costs 576 dollars and adds a full instructor-led virtual class with weekly live question-and-answer sessions. STC's Standard tier includes a printed study manual rather than only a digital one, plus an online manual, chapter quizzes, final exams, an instructor hotline and round-the-clock technical support, even at the base tier. The Pass Guarantee only starts at Premier.
Combination packages exist for both providers if you are stacking the Essentials exam, the Series 63 or the Series 66 alongside the Series 7. Those run higher, and the per-exam saving is usually modest, so only bundle if you are actually sitting both exams close together.
On format, Kaplan's self-study tiers are genuinely self-paced, with no scheduled sessions and no cohort, just the manual, question bank and practice exams on your own timeline within the access window. Live instruction only appears at the Premium tier, where you choose between a scheduled Live Online class and an OnDemand video class. STC's Standard tier is also self-paced, but STC builds in more support touchpoints even at that level, with hotline and technical support, than Kaplan's equivalent low tier. Live instruction at STC only appears at Premier Plus, which includes a genuinely instructor-led virtual class with weekly questions, closer to a real classroom than Kaplan's Live Online, which is closer to a scheduled video lecture with some ability to interact. Neither provider makes a fully in-person classroom the default any more; both have shifted to online-first delivery with live instruction as an upgrade rather than the base product.
That gives three clear decision points. If you want no live component at all and the lowest entry price, Kaplan's Basic Self-Study is the cheapest way into either ecosystem at the bottom of its published range. If you want live instruction and weekly instructor access, STC's Premier Plus goes considerably further than Kaplan's Premium Live Online on scheduled live contact, but at nearly double the price. And if you want a printed manual without paying for a live class, STC's Standard tier includes one as standard, whereas Kaplan's cheaper self-study tiers lean digital-first with print as an add-on in some configurations.
Access windows differ slightly. Kaplan's standard window is five months, with a further five-month extension available for 49 dollars. STC's enrolment runs six months. Both are workable for the standard four-to-eight-week study plan, with STC's window giving more built-in slack if life gets in the way. As for guarantees, STC's Pass Guarantee applies at Premier and Premier Plus, and any equivalent Kaplan guarantee on higher tiers is worth reading the fine print on, because these typically require documented completion of the course components, meaning a certain percentage of the question bank and the practice exams, before they apply. They are a real safety net, not a no-questions refund.
As for who each fits: Kaplan suits you if you are price-sensitive at the self-study end, want a big established platform with materials for multiple exams, which is useful if you are stacking the Series 7 with the Essentials exam or planning other licences later, and are comfortable managing your own schedule without built-in phone support at the base tier. STC suits you if you specifically value a securities-only specialist, want a printed manual and hotline access even at the entry tier, or want the option to scale up to genuine live instruction with weekly questions without switching providers. Neither fits you especially well if your employer already covers a specific provider, in which case use what is reimbursed because that is the actual best deal regardless of the name, or if you have already passed a securities exam and mainly need volume practice rather than a full course rebuild.
To be direct about positioning: CoStudy is not a Kaplan or STC replacement. Neither Kaplan's Basic package nor STC's Standard package needs to be cheaper than it is for what it delivers, which is a structured manual, a real study plan, and enough practice volume to get through material you are seeing for the first time. If you have never sat a securities exam before, start with a real course, because options, suitability and margin maths do not teach themselves well from raw question drilling alone. Where CoStudy fits is the gap both providers leave: extra practice volume in the final stretch, without paying course prices for it. After you have been through a course and want more fresh, unseen questions to pressure-test readiness, or if your firm's reimbursed access window has expired and you just need a few more weeks of drilling before a retake, a low-cost question bank with rationales is a reasonable supplement. It is questions and answer explanations, not a manual, not video lectures, and not live instructor access. The Series 7 bank holds 1,170 questions with rationales, task-based simulations and full-length timed mocks with multi-testlet flow, and the first ten questions are free with no signup, so you can judge quality before paying anything.
A few questions come up repeatedly. On which is cheaper, Kaplan's entry-level self-study tier is, at the bottom of its published range against STC's Standard tier at 273 dollars; at the top end STC's Premier Plus at 576 dollars costs more than Kaplan's Premium Live Online at 309, largely because it includes more live instructor contact. Both offer pass guarantees on their higher tiers, STC's at Premier and above, and these typically require proof you completed a set portion of the course, so read the specific terms before assuming a refund is automatic. Using only a question bank instead of a full course is not recommended for a first attempt with no prior securities exam experience, because you need structured instruction on the material rather than just practice questions; a question bank makes more sense as a supplement after a real course, or for a retake where you already know the material and need volume. Both providers have shifted toward online-first delivery, with Kaplan's Live Online being a scheduled online class with archived recordings and STC's Premier Plus a fully instructor-led virtual class with weekly live sessions, closer to a traditional classroom rhythm. On access, Kaplan's window is five months and extendable, STC's enrolment is valid for six, and both comfortably cover a typical four-to-eight-week study plan with room to spare. And on reimbursement, which one your firm covers depends entirely on its vendor relationships, so ask your compliance or training department before buying either, because reimbursed preparation is the best deal regardless of provider name.
CoStudy is a study and practice supplement, not a full exam prep course, and not affiliated with or endorsed by FINRA, Kaplan Financial Education or Securities Training Corporation. Pricing and package details change; confirm current offers directly at kaplanfinancial.com and stcusa.com before purchasing.
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