Most Affordable Online Master's in IT in 2027

An affordable online master’s in IT is a graduate degree whose total published tuition lands near the low end of the range, here $11,005 to $63,000 across 22 programs. Cost comes down to the per-credit rate, the credit count and any transfer credit. The order starts with University of Massachusetts-Lowell, then University of the Cumberlands and Kennesaw State University.

How We Rank an Affordable Online Master’s in IT

Each program gets a score out of 100, and cost leads it. Total published tuition counts for 50%: the online per-credit rate times the credits the degree requires, lower is better. The school’s graduation rate counts for 25%, median earnings one year after completion for 15%, and ABET accreditation or a CAE-CD designation for 10%, so a cheap program whose students rarely finish can’t top the list on price alone. Per-credit price alone can mislead, because the credit count changes from one program to the next. University of the Cumberlands charges $355 a credit for 31 credits, which makes $11,005. George Mason charges $950 a credit for 30 credits, so its total is $28,500. The rate gap is large, and the total gap is larger.

Semester Credit Rates by School Type

Each figure in this table is a price per credit that the school publishes for online students. Purdue University Global, Walden and Drexel publish quarter credits, so their totals rest on a larger credit count.

The private for-profit group has 2 programs, too few for a spread to mean anything. Across all 22 priced programs the median rate is $630, so the cheapest private schools can sit above or below a public university depending on where you live.

Why Residency Changes the Order

2 programs here set separate in-state and out-of-state prices, so the tuition measure uses the price an out-of-state online student pays. North Carolina A&T State is the clearest case. Its in-state rate is $303 a credit and its any-student rate is $1,035. A North Carolina resident would pay a fraction of the total shown on its card, and a student anywhere else would not. The same split applies at the University of Cincinnati, where the in-state rate is $746 and the any-student rate is $761. Check your own residency before you drop a public school from your list.

What the Score Weighs, and What It Leaves Out

Tuition leads the score, but it isn’t the whole of it. Graduation rate, early earnings and accreditation make up the rest, so a program that costs a little more than the cheapest can rank above it when its students finish and earn more. The score still leaves out brand, curriculum fit and fees beyond tuition. The sections below cover fees, financing, pacing, curriculum and accreditation so you can test a program against everything else. For the full scoring rules, see the methodology page. For a ranking that weighs graduation and earnings more heavily, use the online IT master’s degrees ranking, and for bachelor’s degrees ordered by price alone, the cheapest online IT degrees page.

What an Affordable Online Master’s in IT Costs Beyond Tuition

A master’s in IT usually runs 30 to 36 credits, with a median of 30, so total tuition is a fraction of a bachelor’s. The median program here costs $23,115, the lowest costs $11,005 and the highest costs $63,000. That is a wide gap, so read each card’s total.

Fees Schools Publish

11 programs on the list publish fees beyond tuition, and the examples show how different they look. University of Massachusetts-Lowell lists $30 term registration fee; $50 graduate application fee. Kennesaw State University lists $594 student fees per term (flat). New Mexico State University-Main Campus lists $39/credit tuition differential; course fees charged separately. A per-term fee punishes slow pacing, since a student who takes one course per term pays it more often than one who takes two. A per-credit differential grows with every course. A one-time application fee barely matters.

Flat-Rate and Per-Credit Pricing

22 programs bill per credit, and 1 bills a flat rate for each term. Western Governors University prices at $4,425 per 6-month term, and it lists a set number of courses that you complete one at a time with a program mentor. Under flat pricing the total depends on speed. A student who finishes several courses in a term pays the same as one who finishes a single course. A student with spare evenings gains the most, and a student with a heavy work schedule may pay more than the per-credit programs ask. 1 programs here charge per course.

Public Against Private

11 programs are at public schools and 9 are private nonprofits. Public schools can charge residents less per credit, and out-of-state students may pay the higher rate. The private schools on this page publish a single online rate with no residency split. University of the Cumberlands, a private nonprofit, holds first place on this cost ranking.

Costs the Total Does Not Show

Add books, any certification exams you plan to sit, and any fees a course lists. Subtract anything that lowers the bill, such as the Certificate in Data-Driven Cybersecurity that the University of Cincinnati says comes at no extra cost with its degree. Treat the number on each card as a floor, and keep a column in your own comparison for fees.

Paying for an Affordable Online Master’s in IT

Tuition is only one way to lower the bill. Most accredited online master’s programs qualify for federal student loans, and you apply through the Federal Student Aid site. Federal graduate borrowing has annual and lifetime limits, so read the current limits there before you assume a loan covers the full total. Borrow what the degree needs and no more, and keep in mind that a program near $63,000 will leave a far larger balance to repay than one near $11,005.

Military and Veteran Benefits

The Department of Veterans Affairs says the Post-9/11 GI Bill covers the full cost of public, in-state tuition and fees for anyone who qualifies for the maximum benefit. It also says it caps the rates for private and foreign schools and updates them each year, and that students who need more for higher private or out-of-state tuition can apply for the Yellow Ribbon Program. For a veteran, that makes a low-priced public program the simplest fit, and it makes the out-of-state rate worth asking about. Call the school’s veterans office and ask whether the online rate counts as in-state for GI Bill purposes before you apply.

Employer Tuition Assistance

Employers sometimes pay part of a graduate degree, sometimes with a requirement to stay for a set time afterward. Ask four things: the annual cap, whether it pays the school directly or reimburses you, which grades qualify, and what you owe if you leave early. A lower-priced program stretches a capped benefit further: a degree that costs $11,005 uses far less of it than one that costs $63,000.

Pacing as a Payment Strategy

Slower pacing spreads the bill across more months, but it can raise it. Schools that raise the per-credit rate each year, or that charge a fee every term, cost more to a student who takes three years than to one who takes two. Find out at enrollment if the rate you start with stays fixed. Then work out the number that matters: the total tuition on the card, plus fees and books, compared with the raise or new job you expect. A master’s that costs $11,005 needs a smaller pay step to break even than one that costs $63,000, which is the reason this page sorts by cost.

How Long an Affordable Online Master’s in IT Takes

Credit counts run from 30 to 36 credits across the 19 programs that publish one, and a full-time student can finish in about a year. A student with a full-time job should plan on two years or a little more. New Mexico State publishes both paths: one year full-time and two years part-time. Concordia University Saint Paul says its asynchronous program can be completed in eighteen months.

Eight-Week Terms and Course Pacing

6 of the 7 programs listing a term length run course terms of eight weeks or shorter. Cumberlands says each course lasts eight weeks, called a bi-term. Champlain College runs seven-week terms and says that taking two courses per term without a break finishes the degree in five terms. Colorado State University Global publishes eight-week courses with start dates every month, which means you never wait a semester to begin. Short terms suit a student who wants momentum and who can take on one or two courses at a time. They are hard on someone whose job has a busy season.

Transfer Credit and Prior Learning

Among the 5 programs that publish a maximum, transfer credit runs from 6 to 18 semester credits, with a median of 12. Colorado State Global accepts up to 18, Concordia accepts up to 15, Grand Canyon accepts up to 12 or one third of the program, taking the smaller figure, and North Carolina A&T accepts up to 12 semester hours of graduate work. Each credit you transfer saves one credit of tuition at that school’s rate. At Colorado State Global that is $675 a credit. North Carolina A&T specifies graduate work, so ask each school whether undergraduate credits are accepted at all.

Certificates and Certifications

1 program here, Purdue University Global, says credit toward the degree may be available to students who have already passed IT certification exams. UMass Lowell takes a different route and says you can apply credits from a lower credential, its Graduate Certificate Program in Cybersecurity, to the master’s. If you hold a certificate already, ask the school before you pay for the same material twice. See the certifications hub for what common exams lead to.

What You Study in an Affordable Online Master’s in IT

Course lists differ more than the degree names suggest. Cumberlands runs Analyzing and Visualizing Data, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Database Systems and Introduction to Data Mining, then lists an Information Technology Project. Colorado State Global lists Managing Virtualized and Cloud Systems, Information Technology Auditing and Assurance and Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, along with a capstone in Information Technology Management.

Core Courses and Electives

At UMass Lowell you pick two courses from each of three groups (System Infrastructures, Network Infrastructure and Software Management) and choose four electives, among them Developer Operations (DevOps) and Introduction to Malware Analysis. Concordia University Saint Paul teaches Information Technology Audit, Control, and Risks, Network Architecture and Analysis, and Advanced Agile Portfolio Management. Bellevue University requires IT Infrastructure, IT Strategy and Policy, and System Development and Deployment before its advanced courses, then branches into Database, Software Development, Data Science or Cybersecurity.

Delivery and Labs

6 programs publish a delivery format, and 5 of those are fully asynchronous. Live sessions are rare: 0 programs are fully synchronous and 1 mixes formats, which is Temple, where classes are offered online or in person and held in the evening. Asynchronous delivery means there are no scheduled class meetings. Hands-on work appears in a few listings too: Purdue University Global builds in learning labs modeled on real-world, on-the-job situations, and Walden lists virtual labs and simulations.

How the Degree Differs From Related Fields

An IT master’s sits between computer science and management. Computer science goes deeper into algorithms and theory, and the IT versus computer science guide explains where the two split. Management information systems adds more business coursework. A cybersecurity master’s narrows to defense, and the online cybersecurity degrees ranking covers those programs. Pick the IT master’s when you want to run systems and teams without committing to a single specialty.

Prerequisites and Bridge Courses

Not every program starts at zero. Cincinnati requires bridge courses for students with a low undergraduate GPA or no IT background, and says those do not count toward the degree. Abilene Christian asks for coursework in programming, databases, networking and statistics. Drexel says you do not need a background in information systems. Ask for the prerequisite list before you count on a short timeline, because bridge courses add tuition that the total on the card does not include.

Accreditation and CAE-CD in an Affordable Online Master’s in IT

Cost shouldn’t be the only filter. Institutional accreditation comes first, because a master’s from an unaccredited school may not count for promotion, transfer or a later doctorate. 21 of the 22 programs here have an institutional accreditor on file, and you should confirm the rest yourself; the CHEA directory and the US Department of Education database both let you verify each one.

Who Accredits These Schools

The most common accreditor is the Higher Learning Commission, which covers 10 programs. Next is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, with 5, followed by the New England Commission on Higher Education, with 4. All three are regional bodies. Regional accreditation matters most when you transfer credits in or out, apply to a doctoral program, or claim employer tuition assistance.

CAE-CD Designation

10 of the 22 programs are at schools designated as Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense under a program sponsored by the NSA. Examples include Cumberlands, Kennesaw State, Champlain, Bellevue and George Mason. Check whether the designation reaches the specific program you are applying to, since it may attach to the whole school or to a single program. Use the CAE community map to check a school, or the CAE-CD schools ranking to filter for it.

ABET and Program-Level Review

ABET reviews individual programs, and you can search accredited programs at the ABET accreditation database. 0 of the programs on this page hold ABET accreditation, and the ABET-accredited online IT degrees page covers programs that do. For the master’s programs here, look at the curriculum, the faculty who teach online and what graduates do afterward. Look for a concentration that matches a job you want and a capstone you can show an employer.

Why Accreditation Affects Cost

Accreditation changes what you pay in two ways. Federal student aid, including the loans described above, requires an accredited school, so a cheaper unaccredited program usually cannot be financed. And credits earned at an accredited school hold their value if you transfer or continue to a doctorate later, while credits from an unaccredited school may have to be repeated. Ask each admissions office which accreditor it holds, then check the answer against the CHEA directory instead of relying on the program page alone. Five minutes of checking protects the whole tuition bill.

Careers and Pay After an Affordable Online Master’s in IT

A master’s can fit three situations. You hold a bachelor’s in another field and want to move into IT. You work in IT and want to move toward management or architecture. Or you want a security specialty. For computer and information systems managers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics names a bachelor's degree as the usual education needed to get in, so check what the specific job posting asks for before you count the master’s as a requirement.

Pay for the Roles a Master’s Targets

Based on the May 2025 OEWS survey, computer and information systems managers have a median pay of $175,140, while the highest-paid tenth make $297,510 or more. For information security analysts, half earn more than $129,180. Computer network architects, the closest BLS match for network engineers because BLS has no separate network engineer code, earn $134,050. The IT manager career page and the network engineer career page show how each path works.

Growth Differs by Role

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 2025-35 growth of 15.8% for computer and information systems managers and 21% for information security analysts. Database administrators are projected at -0.1%, which is flat. So a general IT master’s does not point to one growth story. A management or security track carries stronger projections than a database track, and that should shape which concentration you choose.

When a Master’s Is Not the Best Spend

If you already hold a bachelor’s in IT and want a pay bump for technical work, compare the degree’s cost with the cost of certifications. The certifications hub covers the common ones. If you do not have a bachelor’s yet, start with the best online IT bachelor’s degrees or the lower-priced options on the cheapest online IT degrees page. A master’s builds on a bachelor’s and does not replace one.

Reading the Pay Figures Honestly

A median is a midpoint, not an offer. Half of the people in each role earn less, and the pay for a manager depends on company size, region and the team you run. Use the figures to compare roles with each other, not to promise yourself a raise. Read the information security analyst salary page and the IT manager salary page for the spread around each median, and weigh it against the total tuition on the program cards. A graduate degree that costs $23,115 at the median needs a clear route to a pay step before it makes sense.

How to Choose an Affordable Online Master’s in IT

Run each program through a short checklist before you apply. A cost ranking narrows the field fast, and the checklist is how you pick one program out of the cheap handful. Keep a simple sheet with one row per school and one column per item below, then fill it from the program pages instead of from memory. Write down the date you checked each page, because tuition and start dates change. The cheapest total is only the first filter, and each item below comes with an example you can check yourself.

Confirm It Is Fully Online

Look for the phrase on the program page. Cumberlands says it is a fully online program, and New Mexico State calls its degree non-thesis and fully online. Kennesaw State offers online, on-campus and hybrid formats, so confirm you are applying to the online program and read its fee list.

Match the Delivery Format to Your Week

Asynchronous programs such as Concordia and Colorado State Global have no scheduled class meetings. A program with scheduled sessions gives structure and classmates but fixes your calendar. Check which one the school means, and ask how often live sessions meet if the page mentions them. A weekly evening session is easy for one student and impossible for another.

Compare Total Cost and Billing Unit

Start from the total shown on the card and add fees to it. Look at whether the school bills per credit, per term or per course, and whether quarter credits are involved. A quarter credit is worth less than a semester credit, so Purdue University Global, Walden and Drexel need many more credits than the rest, and comparing only the per-credit rate would flatter them or punish them unfairly.

Look at Transfer and Waiver Terms

Every credit you skip is tuition you do not pay. Grand Canyon, Colorado State Global and Concordia publish a transfer limit, and some programs here waive the GRE. Bellevue University says no GMAT or GRE is required to enter its program, and Florida Institute of Technology says the same. A waived test saves the exam fee and the weeks of preparation.

Check for Embedded Certifications

Western Governors University says its program lets you earn the PMI Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification and a Scrum Alliance agile leader certification. Abilene Christian includes a graduate Certificate in Cybersecurity, and Cincinnati bundles the Data-Driven Cybersecurity certificate. The IT degrees with certifications ranking shows more, and a free certificate can change which program is cheapest in practice.

Check Accreditation and Start Dates

Confirm the accreditor as described above. Then check starts: 1 program of the 14 that publish start dates begins every month, and several use fall, spring and summer terms. A program with three starts a year makes the application deadline matter.

Affordable Online Master’s in IT by State

The 22 programs are spread across 18 states, and no state dominates. Four states have two ranked programs each, and the rest have one. The map is a reminder that an online program does not have to be near you, but the school’s home state can still affect its rate.

Indiana, Massachusetts and Minnesota

Indiana has 2 programs, Indiana Wesleyan and Purdue University Global, and 1 is public. Massachusetts has 2, UMass Lowell and Merrimack College, with a public in-state rate of $610. Minnesota has 2, Concordia University Saint Paul and Walden, both private. Because neither is public, the price does not depend on where you live, so a student anywhere pays the same rate at either school.

Pennsylvania and Arizona

Pennsylvania has 2, Temple and Drexel, with a public in-state rate of $1,023 at Temple, the top of the public in-state range. Drexel is the other Pennsylvania school and is private, so it follows a different pricing logic. Both Pennsylvania programs sit in the upper part of this ranking, so read each card on its own terms. Arizona has 1, Grand Canyon University, a private for-profit school with a rate of $610 a credit.

How to Use State Pages

State matters most when you want a public in-state rate. 7 public programs charge everyone the same rate, and 2 charge residents less. Out-of-state students at public schools often pay more, so the rate in the table matters less to you if you live elsewhere. A resident of Georgia, for example, might look first at Kennesaw State, and a student in New Mexico at New Mexico State. Open the page for your own state in the state directory to see local options, including programs outside this price ranking. Your own state’s public university may charge a resident less than the cheapest private school here, even if it does not appear on this list.

States with a single ranked program still deserve a look if you live there. The state pages list every program in that state, with rates and formats, and they can include schools that are close to this page’s price range without making the list. Compare at least three programs before you apply, and include one public school from your own state.