Maxwell CPA Review vs. NINJA: Which CPA Course Should You Buy in 2026?
Kyle Ashcraft, CPA · 2019 CPA Exam Scores · 95 FAR · 98 BEC · 91 REG · 90 AUD
I run one of these two courses, so read the judgments here as mine. The facts about NINJA I have checked against NINJA's own pages, and where NINJA is better I will say so, because a comparison written by a competitor is only useful if it does that.
NINJA and Maxwell CPA Review have a lot in common. Both are owned and taught by one CPA rather than a publishing company. Both are month-to-month with no contract. Both exist because the founder thought the large providers were asking too much, in money and in hours. We disagree about one specific thing, and it is worth isolating.
In this comparison
NINJA prices and terms are taken from NINJA's own FAQ page and were last checked on 9 September 2026. Providers change pricing without notice, so check the current offer before assuming these figures.
What does NINJA actually offer?
Two monthly options, both cancel-anytime, both run by Jeff Elliott, CPA, who also founded Another71.
| Option | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| NINJA Supplement | $67/month | For candidates who already own a course and want the NINJA Notes, Audio and MCQs. |
| NINJA Full Course | $87/month | Every NINJA product, including the Sensei AI study assistant. |
NINJA calls its components the Study Weapons: the test bank, the Notes, the Audio, the book, video, the AI assistant and live sessions. Candidates using it as a supplement typically reach for three of them. Candidates using it as a primary course typically use all seven. The subscription renews monthly and can be cancelled at any time with no further obligation, and materials you have downloaded stay downloaded.
Those components are not a pile of tools. NINJA sequences them through its own five-step study framework: nail the concepts, take intense notes, non-stop MCQ, rewrite your notes, and then it all comes together. Note the order. Step one is understanding the concept, and the question bank does not arrive until step three.
NINJA sells two paths, a supplement path and a complete course path, and says the supplement path is the more popular of the two.
Where does NINJA beat Maxwell?
Four things, and the last one I want to say plainly rather than bury.
| NINJA advantage | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Practice volume | NINJA's test bank is larger than mine. If your diagnosis is that you need more reps, NINJA is built for exactly that and I am not. |
| The Notes and the Audio | Condensed written notes plus audio you can run during a commute is a format I do not offer, and for candidates with dead time in the day it is genuinely useful. |
| Live tutoring and community | Live group sessions, a private candidate community and other CPA instructors alongside Jeff. I am one person answering email. That is an advantage for coherence and a disadvantage for coverage. |
| The supplement slot | NINJA sells both a supplement and a complete course, and the supplement path is the more popular one. It has owned that position for years and it earned it. I am not trying to take it. Maxwell is built to be the course you pass with. |
| Honesty about pass rates | NINJA publicly refuses to publish a pass-rate percentage, and points out that provider figures are usually built on selective criteria. That is the correct position and more courses should take it. I do not publish one either. |
If your problem is that you have not done enough questions, buy NINJA. Everything below assumes that is not your problem.
What is the real disagreement?
It comes down to one question: what is a candidate actually short of?
NINJA's answer is volume, applied in a sequence. Learn the concept, take notes on it, then work the test bank hard, then rewrite the notes. Jeff is explicit that the questions come after the understanding, which is a position I agree with, so anyone telling you this comparison is drilling versus thinking has not read his framework. Where we differ is how much material goes into the first step, and how many reps it takes to finish the third.
Maxwell's answer is less material and better selection. Every other course in this category answers a shortage. More practice questions, longer explanations, better visuals. Maxwell answers a surplus. On a high-yield topic like leases we work the journal entries from commencement through to the end of the lease life. On a low-yield topic we cover the rule quickly in case it appears, then get back to the material that matters. That is the Max Yield Method, and it is built on the approach I used to score 90 or above on every section.
The test I would apply. Think about the last question you got wrong. If you read the answer and thought "of course, I knew that," you need reps and NINJA will give you thousands of them. If you read the answer and still did not follow why the adjustment went that direction, more questions will not fix it. You will get faster at recognizing that question and no better at the next one built on the same rule.
When candidates tell me why a section did not go their way, the answer is almost never that something was missing from their course. It is that they ran out of time before they ran out of material.
One student who had tried both Becker and NINJA before switching:
This is hands down the best CPA studying course out there. I have tried studying with Becker and Ninja, but Maxwell review course for FAR was awesome. Went from a 63 studying with Becker to a 78 with just studying with Maxwell. It's simple, straight to the point, and really nails down those topics exactly as shown on the exam.
Tajinder, Maxwell student
Individual results. Score improvements vary by candidate, preparation time and starting point. Note that the improvement he describes runs from a Becker attempt, not a NINJA one, so read it as one student's experience rather than as evidence about NINJA.
How do the two subscriptions work?
A correction to what this page used to say. An earlier version of this comparison said NINJA charges per section. That is wrong, and NINJA's own FAQ answers the question directly: you do not need a separate subscription for each section. You choose a section, and when you have sat that exam you contact NINJA inside the Dojo and they switch you to the next one at no extra cost, with switching available roughly once every 30 days. I would rather correct that here than leave a competitor misdescribed on my own site.
So the difference is not how many times you pay. It is how much is open at once.
| NINJA | Maxwell | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $67 or $87 | $49 |
| Sections open at once | One, switched on request | All six, simultaneously |
| Switching sections | Email or contact inside the Dojo, roughly once every 30 days | No request needed |
| Commitment | None beyond the month paid for | None, cancel anytime |
Whether that matters depends entirely on how you work. If you study one section, sit it, and move on, NINJA's model costs you nothing and the switch is an email. If you like to look ahead at the next section while finishing this one, revisit a topic from a section you already passed, or run two sections in parallel, having everything open is the difference.
What is in Maxwell, section by section?
Exact figures, not ranges.
| Section | Video | MCQs | TBS | Textbook | Outlines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FAR | 7 hrs | 800 | 36 | 233 pgs | 74 pgs |
| AUD | 6 hrs | 750 | 32 | 190 pgs | 60 pgs |
| REG | 8 hrs | 750 | 35 | 120 pgs | 80 pgs |
| BAR | 5 hrs | 700 | 15 | 150 pgs | 45 pgs |
| ISC | 4.5 hrs | 602 | 8 | 140 pgs | 40 pgs |
| TCP | 5 hrs | 700 | 15 | 160 pgs | 50 pgs |
FAR also includes a baseline assessment, final review, mock exam and ten interactive apps. AUD includes a final review and a full simulated exam. REG includes a final review and six mini exams. Every section includes the textbook, study outlines and answer explanations built around worked examples.
Start free with CPA 101
Before you decide, try the teaching. Practice all 25 of the 2026 AICPA released MCQs, plus a free study outline. FAR, AUD and REG tracks available. No credit card required.
Which should you choose?
| Choose NINJA if | Choose Maxwell if |
|---|---|
| You already own a course and need one more thing, or you want a flexible full course with a large practice bank | You are choosing the course you will pass with |
| You understand the material and need repetitions | You have done the questions and the rule still does not hold |
| You want live tutoring sessions and a candidate community | You want one instructor who wrote every part of it |
| You want condensed notes and audio for dead time | You want a textbook and outlines written by the person in the videos |
| You study one section at a time and move on | You want all six sections open at once |
| You want the larger test bank | You want fewer hours and a decision about which ones matter |
Best for candidates whose problem is the amount of material rather than the amount of practice: Maxwell CPA Review, with bite-sized lessons focused on the concepts that matter most, at $49 per month, billed monthly, cancel anytime.
Use it as your primary course. Use it to retake a section you failed. Use it alongside what you already bought.
Frequently asked questions
How much does NINJA CPA Review cost?
$67 per month for the NINJA Supplement, which includes the Notes, Audio and MCQs, or $87 per month for the NINJA Full Course, which includes every NINJA product plus the Sensei AI study assistant. Both are month to month with no commitment beyond the month you have paid for.
Does NINJA charge separately for each exam section?
No. One subscription covers your studies across sections. You select the section you are working on, and when you have sat that exam you contact NINJA to be switched to the next one, roughly once every 30 days. Maxwell CPA Review takes a different approach and opens all six sections at once for $49 per month.
What is the difference between the NINJA Supplement and the Full Course?
The $67 Supplement is built to sit alongside a course you already own. The $87 Full Course is the complete standalone option. Maxwell CPA Review is a complete course at $49 per month rather than a supplement.
Does NINJA have a study method or is it just a set of tools?
It has a method. NINJA sequences its materials through a five-step framework: nail the concepts, intense notes, non-stop MCQ, rewrite your notes, and it all comes together. Understanding the concept comes first and the question bank comes third. Maxwell CPA Review also teaches a defined method, so the difference between the two courses is the volume of material, not whether either has a framework.
Does NINJA publish a pass rate?
No, and it says so deliberately, pointing out that provider pass rates rest on selective criteria. Maxwell CPA Review does not publish one either, for the same reason.
Is NINJA or Maxwell CPA Review a better supplement?
NINJA. It has held that position for years and it is built for it. Maxwell CPA Review is designed as a complete course covering all six sections, and while candidates do use it alongside another course, that is not what it was built to be.
Can I use Maxwell CPA Review alongside NINJA?
Yes. Maxwell is built to the current AICPA Blueprint and covers the same material, so the two work together. The usual pattern is using Maxwell's lessons to understand a topic and NINJA's test bank for the repetitions.
Try the teaching before you decide
Start with the 2026 AICPA released questions and the free study outline. No credit card, and you will know within an evening whether the explanations work for you.
Kyle Ashcraft, CPA scored 90 or above on every section of the CPA exam in 2019, including a 95 on FAR. He is the founder and sole instructor of Maxwell CPA Review, where he creates every lecture, textbook and study outline himself.
See also the full comparison of every major CPA review course.
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