Cheapest Legit CEU Sites for Nurses & NPs (2026)
Continuing education is a recurring tax on every nursing and NP license, and the CE industry knows it. Renewal comes around, you need hours, and a dozen sites are happy to charge you per course for content you’ll click through at 11 p.m. the night before your deadline. The good news: the cheapest legitimate options are much cheaper than the default ones, and a few are free. Here’s the honest map.
This article contains affiliate links — Meridian may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. These are my honest takes.
One thing up front so there’s no confusion: before you buy anything, confirm what your state and certification renewal actually require — total hours, any required topics (pharmacology hours, state-specific subjects), and which accreditations your renewal accepts. Buying the cheapest hours is pointless if they don’t count toward your renewal. Check that first, then optimize for price.
CEUfast — the cheapest legit path
If you just need to bank a pile of accredited hours for the lowest price, CEUfast is hard to beat: a flat annual fee (around $39/year) for unlimited courses.
- Pros: Unlimited CE for one low yearly price — genuinely the cheapest legitimate path for most nurses who need volume. ANCC-accredited, straightforward, fast to get through. For a nurse staring at a big hour requirement, the math is unbeatable.
- Cons: The platform is utilitarian and the catalog is broad rather than deep on PMHNP-specific psych topics. You’re optimizing for cost and accreditation, not for the richest learning experience.
- Honest disclosure: CEUfast has no public affiliate program, so I earn nothing by sending you there. I’m listing it first anyway because it’s the right answer for the “cheapest legit hours” question — and that’s the whole point of being honest with you.
Elite Learning — the free-courses angle
Elite Learning (part of Colibri Healthcare) regularly offers a rotating set of free accredited courses alongside its paid catalog.
- Pros: You can pick up some hours for $0 if you’re willing to take what’s on the free list. Large, well-established catalog, widely accepted accreditations, and frequent promotions and bundles on the paid side.
- Cons: The free courses are a limited, rotating subset — you won’t complete an entire renewal for free, and the topics are whatever’s currently offered, not necessarily what you’d choose. The paid à-la-carte pricing can add up fast if you’re not watching for bundles.
- Honest disclosure: Elite/Colibri has no public affiliate program I can point you to, so again — no payout to me. I’m including it because “free hours, even partial” belongs in any honest cheapest-path conversation.
Medbridge — the subscription with depth
Medbridge is a subscription CE platform spanning multiple disciplines, with a deeper, more polished library than the bargain sites.
- Pros: A large, well-produced catalog with video courses and clinical-education content, all under one annual subscription. If you want CE that’s actually worth watching — not just clickable — and you’ll use it across the year, the per-hour cost gets reasonable.
- Cons: Pricier than CEUfast, and the catalog is multidisciplinary rather than laser-focused on psychiatric nurse practitioner topics. You’re paying for production quality and breadth, which is great if you’ll use it and wasteful if you only need a quick batch of hours.
- Honest disclosure: Medbridge is the one CE platform here with a real affiliate program, so if you subscribe through my link, Meridian may earn a commission. I’m telling you that plainly and telling you it’s the most expensive option of the four — so you can weigh it knowing my incentive. I’d only steer you here if you genuinely want quality CE you’ll use all year, not just to clear a deadline.
Nurse.com — the established name
Nurse.com (part of Relias) is a long-standing CE provider with a big nursing catalog and subscription options.
- Pros: Well-known, broad catalog, established accreditations, subscription model that can be economical if you use it heavily across a renewal cycle.
- Cons: Not the cheapest for low-volume needs, and like the others it’s general-nursing-leaning rather than PMHNP-specialized. The brand recognition is real but doesn’t translate into a price advantage over CEUfast for pure hour-banking.
- Honest disclosure: No public affiliate program here either, so no payout to me — listed for completeness because it’s one of the names you’ll see everywhere.
The honest cheapest path
Here’s how I’d actually play it:
- Grab the free hours first. Take whatever applicable free courses Elite Learning is currently offering. Zero dollars is zero dollars.
- Cover the bulk with CEUfast. For most nurses needing real volume, one ~$39/year unlimited subscription covers the rest at the lowest legitimate cost. This is the workhorse.
- Add Medbridge only if you want depth. If you’d rather have CE you’ll genuinely learn from across the year — and you’ll use it — the subscription is worth it. If you just need to clear a deadline, skip it.
- Always verify acceptance before you buy. Confirm the accreditation and any required topics match your renewal requirements. Cheap hours that don’t count are the most expensive hours there are.
Notice the pattern: the cheapest options are the ones I earn nothing from, and the one I do earn from is the priciest. I’d rather you renew your license for $39 and trust me than overpay and feel sold to. That trust is the only thing that makes a recommendation worth anything.
CE keeps your license current; it doesn’t sharpen the clinical reasoning the boards and real patients actually test. If you want CE-adjacent content that genuinely makes you a better diagnostician, see The 10 Highest-Yield Differentials on the PMHNP Boards.
Meridian is built around the teaching that clicking through CE modules doesn’t give you — real clinical reasoning, worked cases, and board-ready discrimination. See the board-prep course or browse the full list of tools I recommend.