# EPSO Preparation Platforms Compared (2026): What Each One Publishes, and What It Actually Costs
URL: https://eu-now.com/blog/epso-preparation-platforms-compared-2026
Published: 2026-08-27 · Updated: 2026-10-07
Category: Guides
Tags: EPSO, preparation platforms, comparison, EU Training, Pass EPSO, ORSEU, JobTestPrep, pricing, 2026
A dated, source-linked comparison of 12 EPSO preparation platforms — EU Training, Pass EPSO, ORSEU, Prepari, Yepso, JobTestPrep, EPSOready, EPSO Genius, EPSOHQ, EU Campus, Open Exam Prep and EU-now. Every figure is what the platform itself publishes, checked on 27 August and 6 September 2026.
## Key takeaways
- The market grew from seven providers to twelve in ten days. Five new platforms — EPSOready, EPSO Genius, EPSOHQ, EU Campus and Open Exam Prep — are in the table with the same rules: only what they publish themselves, with a link and a date.
- Headline question counts are not comparable: EU Training's 35,000+ is the whole catalogue, while the largest AD5 package a candidate can actually buy contains 2,500 questions.
- Every platform here prices differently — one-off packages, monthly plans, per-question rates and course fees — so the only honest axis is what you get for what you pay, over the months you will actually prepare.
- Only two things in this market are free and open: SHL publishes around 25 practice tests itself, and EU-now's daily practice and SHL simulator carry no paywall.
- For the Commission's internal competitions, the paid packs on sale are general SHL bundles that also include personality and mechanical tests, which are not in those competitions.
- We are one of the platforms compared here. Every figure below is what each provider publishes on its own site, with the link and the date we checked it, so you can verify any line — including ours.
## Why this comparison did not exist

If you search for the best EPSO preparation platform, the page that answers you is usually written by one of the platforms. The most-cited list in this market was last updated in May 2025, and it does not compare platforms at all — it lists official EPSO material, a book, and the products of the company that published it.

That is not a scandal. It is just what happens when nobody writes the other thing.

So here is the other thing, with three rules that make it checkable:

1. **Every figure is what the provider publishes on its own site.** No estimates, no "sources say", no judgements about anyone's quality. Where a provider does not state something, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
2. **Every figure is dated.** The first seven providers were read on **27 August 2026**; the five added below, and our own updated figures, on **6 September 2026**. Prices and question counts move; a comparison without a date is a comparison you cannot trust six months later, including this one.
3. **We are in the table.** EU-now is one of the platforms compared here, and the section on where we are the wrong choice is not decoration.

## The table

| | Questions published | Languages | Price | Free tier | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **EU Training** | "over 35,000" (whole catalogue) | multilingual, no number stated | €135–€475 AD5 packages | trial packages + demo test | one-off purchase |
| **Pass EPSO** | "4300+" | "24 EU languages" | €49–€229 plans | diagnostic + 5 questions/day | plan |
| **ORSEU** | packs of 4–19 tests | EN, FR | €12.50–€89.30 excl. VAT | not stated | per pack |
| **Prepari** | "1300+" | not stated | not stated | sample quiz | not stated |
| **Yepso** | courses, not a bank | EN, ES, FR, GL, PT | €315–€1,125 per course | not stated | per course |
| **JobTestPrep** (SHL) | "1000+", 110 tests | not stated | £59–£99 | free sample page | **one month** |
| **EU-now** | 13,200 active, in 5 languages each | EN, FR, DE, ES, IT | €14.99–€29.99/month | 10 questions/day, no expiry | monthly |
| **EPSOready** | "2,000+" | 8: EN, FR, IT, RO, ES, DE, EL, PT | €39.99–€69.99 packs | Free Starter, no card | one-off, "until your exam day" |
| **EPSO Genius** | "6,000+" | 5: EN, IT, PT, FR, ES | €69 one-off **or** €14.99/month | 3 tests/day | one-off or monthly |
| **EPSOHQ** | "43,000+" | "14" localised libraries | not stated | not stated | not stated |
| **EU Campus** | not stated | 6: EN, ES, IT, FR, DE, EL | €127–€293 per AD5 module | not stated | one-off, "lifetime" |
| **Open Exam Prep** | "100+" on the ICT hub | not stated | free | the whole thing, no signup | free, no account |

## The headline numbers are not comparable

Two of the figures in that first column mean something different from the rest, and both differences run in the same direction.

**A catalogue is not a package.** EU Training publishes "over 35,000 practice exam questions", and that is a real number — it covers every competition and profile the company has built for since 2006. What an AD5 candidate can actually buy is set out on its packages page: **540 questions for €135**, 1,150 for €275, and 2,500 in the largest package at €395. The company also sells questions individually, at €0.17 each for reasoning, €0.21 for EU knowledge and €0.20 for digital skills, which is the clearest statement of what the catalogue figure means in practice.

**Questions used is not questions available.** The same homepage reports "17 million+ Questions used". That counts answers given by candidates over two decades, not the size of the bank. It is a fair thing to be proud of and a misleading thing to compare against a bank size — and we say that having made exactly this mistake ourselves: until this month our own homepage advertised a figure that turned out to be a count of translations rather than of questions. It is corrected, and the correction is why this section exists.

So the axis that survives contact with reality is not how many questions exist. It is **what you get for what you pay, over the months you will actually prepare**.

On that axis, the shapes are genuinely different rather than better or worse. EU Training's €395 package is yours permanently and includes two written tests marked by a person. EU-now's €29.99 gives you the full bank for a month and stops when you stop paying. Over thirteen months those two cost the same. Which is better value depends entirely on how long your competition runs — and EPSO competitions now run long.

## Five more platforms arrived within ten days

When this page was written in August it compared seven providers. Ten days later a search for EPSO preparation returns five more with visible, working products: EPSOready, EPSO Genius, EPSOHQ, EU Campus and Open Exam Prep. They are in the table above under the same three rules as everyone else.

Three things about them are worth reading rather than skipping.

**The catalogue-versus-package confusion has a second case.** EPSOHQ publishes "43,000+" questions. On the same site it also publishes the count for each family: 1,357 verbal, 2,616 numerical, 1,192 abstract, 1,119 EU knowledge and 440 digital skills, plus "80+" essay prompts. Those five add up to 6,724. Both figures are theirs and both may be perfectly true — a catalogue can hold far more than the five core families. But if you are sitting the AD5, the second set is the one that describes what you would practise on, and it is the one that took a click to find. Same lesson as EU Training's 35,000, same fix: read the number next to the thing you are buying.

**One-off pricing is now the majority shape in this market.** EPSOready sells packs at €39.99 to €69.99 with access "until your exam day". EPSO Genius sells the same product two ways — €69 once or €14.99 a month — which is the clearest statement anyone has published of what the two shapes are worth against each other. EU Campus sells per module, €127 to €293 for a single AD5 component, with lifetime access. Ours is a monthly subscription and stays one. If your competition runs eighteen months, do the multiplication before you choose; if it runs two, do it the other way.

**Free now means several different things.** Open Exam Prep publishes its ICT practice with no account and no payment at all. EPSOready has a Free Starter with no card, and a 30-day money-back guarantee on the paid packs. EPSO Genius gives three tests a day free and a seven-day trial of the paid tier. Ours is ten questions a day that never expires, plus the SHL simulator. These are not the same offer, and the difference between "free tier" and "free trial" is the one worth checking before you plan a week of study around it.

**Italy has a separate market, and it is 45% of the field.** Of the 174,727 AD5 applications, 79,343 came from Italy — more than four times the next country. Three Italian-language providers serve it and appear in none of the English-language searches above: Concorsando (which publishes "13,952 quiz", broken down by area, and whose parts add up exactly to its headline), Futura ("up to 25,000 quiz") and EUQP (Italian and English, free quizzes every Sunday). None of the three publishes a price on the pages we read on 6 September 2026 — the mirror image of the international market, which publishes prices and blurs catalogue into package. The [Italian version of this page](/it/blog/epso-preparation-platforms-compared-2026) covers them in full.

## Match the platform to what you are actually sitting

Catalogue size stops mattering quickly once you know your profile.

**AD5 generalist.** The widest field: all seven providers above address it in some form. Compare on package contents and on whether the written test is marked by a human, because that is where the prices separate.

**Specialist AD7 (field-related MCQ).** The field narrows sharply. Most providers cover reasoning well and specialist fields thinly or not at all. This is where our own bank is concentrated: 9,230 of our 13,200 active questions are specialist, across the ICT, law, audit, finance, economics, procurement and other profiles.

**Commission internal competitions (SHL).** The most confused corner of the market. The paid packs on sale here are **general SHL bundles** — JobTestPrep's, at £59 to £99 for one month, includes the OPQ personality questionnaire and mechanical comprehension alongside the reasoning tests. Those are real SHL products; they are not in the Commission's internal competitions. Before buying any pack for this route, read the contents list against the notice of competition. And start with SHL itself, which publishes around 25 free practice tests including the interactive formats — [we wrote up what is genuinely free for this test](/blog/free-shl-practice-tests-commission-internal-competitions).

**CAST Permanent.** A rolling database rather than a competition, so a monthly plan and a one-off package behave very differently here. Buy the shape that matches how long you will be in the pool.

## Where EU-now is the wrong choice

Three cases, stated plainly.

**If you want the largest catalogue, we are not it.** EU Training's is larger, and it has been built since 2006 against 180,000+ registered users. We have 13,200 active questions. Ours are each available in five languages, which makes 65,312 localised items — but that is a different claim, and by now you know why we are careful to say which one we mean.

**If you need your written test marked by a person**, EU Training and ORSEU both sell that; EU Training prices expert evaluation at €79 per piece. Our essay evaluation is automated. It is fast and it is available at any hour, and it is not a human examiner.

**If you want to be tested in one of the other 19 EU languages**, we cover five: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Pass EPSO states 24. If your L1 is Polish or Greek and you want to practise in it, that is a real reason to look elsewhere. And it is no longer only Pass EPSO: EPSOHQ declares 14 localised libraries and EPSOready declares 8, both including Polish or Greek. On this axis the market has moved past us.

## How to check any of this

Every provider above is linked in the sources at the foot of this page. The checks that take five minutes and change decisions:

1. **Find the number next to the package, not on the homepage.** Ask how many questions are in the thing you are about to buy, for your competition.
2. **Find the access period.** One-off, monthly, or one month dressed as a one-off purchase — all three exist in this market.
3. **Read the contents list against your notice of competition.** If a pack contains tests your competition does not use, you are paying for them.
4. **Test any exclusivity claim.** They are the easiest claims to check and the most likely to be out of date.

Apply the fourth one to this page too. We have an interest in what you conclude, which is exactly why every line here is a link to somebody else's site and a date. If you find a figure that has moved, it has moved — and we would rather hear it than keep publishing it.

If you would rather start from the competition than from the platforms, [our EPSO preparation guide](/blog/epso-preparation-guide-2026) covers the selection process end to end, [the specialist competitions guide](/blog/epso-specialist-competitions-2026-complete-guide) covers the AD7 routes, and [our free daily practice](/daily) needs no account.
## FAQ
### Which EPSO preparation platform is the best?
There is no single answer, because the platforms are not selling the same thing. If you want the widest catalogue and the longest track record, EU Training has been in this market since 2006. If you want one-off packages with human marking of the written test, EU Training and ORSEU both sell them. If you are preparing a specialist AD7 profile or a Commission internal competition, coverage matters more than catalogue size and the field narrows sharply. Compare on what you are actually sitting, not on the largest number on a homepage.
### How much does EPSO preparation cost?
As of 27 August 2026: EU Training's AD5 packages run from €135 to €475 as one-off purchases; Pass EPSO's plans run from €49 to €229; ORSEU's test packs run from €12.50 to €89.30 excluding VAT; Yepso's courses run from €315 to €1,125; JobTestPrep's SHL pack is £59 to £99 for one month's access; EU-now runs €14.99 to €29.99 a month with a free tier. Added 6 September 2026: EPSOready sells packs at €39.99–€69.99 with access until exam day; EPSO Genius offers the same product at €69 once or €14.99 a month; EU Campus sells AD5 modules at €127–€293 with lifetime access; Open Exam Prep is free with no account; EPSOHQ does not publish a price. Prices change — every one of these is linked below so you can check it.
### Is there genuinely free EPSO practice?
Yes, in three places. EPSO publishes official sample tests. SHL, which supplies the cognitive test used in the Commission's internal competitions, publishes around 25 free practice tests including the interactive formats. And EU-now's daily practice and SHL simulator are free with no time limit. Most other free offerings are samples designed to show you what the paid product looks like, which is useful but is not preparation.
### Why does one platform advertise 35,000 questions and another 4,300?
Because they are counting different things. A catalogue figure covers every competition a provider has ever built for — all profiles, all test types. What matters to you is how many questions exist for the competition you are sitting, and how many of those you actually get in the package you buy. On the largest AD5 package EU Training sells, that figure is 2,500. Always read the number next to the package, not the number on the homepage.
## Official sources
- EU Training — exam question packages and prices: https://eutraining.eu/products/exam-questions
- Pass EPSO — plans: https://passepso.com/
- ORSEU Concours — EPSO online tests: https://www.orseu-concours.com/gb/6-epso-online-tests
- JobTestPrep — SHL Verify Interactive G+ pack: https://www.jobtestprep.co.uk/shl-verify-interactive
- SHL Direct — free practice tests (the test publisher's own): https://www.shl.com/shldirect/en/practice-tests/
- EU Careers — EPSO tests (official): https://eu-careers.europa.eu/en/selection-procedure/epso-tests
- EPSOready — packs and prices: https://epsoready.eu/
- EPSO Genius — plans and prices: https://www.epsogenius.com/en
- EPSOHQ — question counts: https://epsohq.com/
- EU Campus — AD5 modules and prices: https://eucampus.com/en/
- Open Exam Prep — free ICT practice: https://open-exam-prep.com/practice/epso-ict

## This article in other languages
- French: https://eu-now.com/fr/blog/epso-preparation-platforms-compared-2026/llms.txt
- German: https://eu-now.com/de/blog/epso-preparation-platforms-compared-2026/llms.txt
- Spanish: https://eu-now.com/es/blog/epso-preparation-platforms-compared-2026/llms.txt
- Italian: https://eu-now.com/it/blog/epso-preparation-platforms-compared-2026/llms.txt

Source of record: https://eu-now.com/blog/epso-preparation-platforms-compared-2026 — published by EU-now (eu-now.com), which is not EPSO and not affiliated with the European Commission.