AWS Auto Scaling vs Amazon CloudWatch comparison

Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Auto Scaling are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Amazon CloudWatch is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.9, while AWS Auto Scaling is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.7. Amazon CloudWatch holds a 1.7% mindshare in APM, compared to AWS Auto Scaling’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon CloudWatch users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of AWS Auto Scaling users who would recommend it.

Amazon CloudWatch

Read 48 Amazon CloudWatch reviews

4,127 Views
2,311 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

AWS Auto Scaling

Read 21 AWS Auto Scaling reviews

505 Views
470 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Amazon CloudWatch

AWS Auto Scaling

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Auto Scaling based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Auto Scaling vs. Amazon CloudWatch Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Auto Scaling vs. Amazon CloudWatch

September 2025

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Helped 872,019 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon CloudWatch

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (16th), Cloud Monitoring Software (11th)

AWS Auto Scaling

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

14th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Amazon CloudWatch is 1.7%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Auto Scaling is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Amazon CloudWatch	1.7%
AWS Auto Scaling	0.3%
Other	98.0%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Azam S M

Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC

Has provided reliable monitoring and alerting through extensive metric tracking and dashboard configuration

Amazon CloudWatch itself provides a lot of data. However, for visualization, we need to use third-party tools. We are in a process of integrating Grafana, Loki, and Prometheus to have better visualization on Amazon CloudWatch. We are also integrating Grafana with the application itself to get the application data and logs. Alternatively, there is AWS Kinesis and Glue where you can scrape the logs and have visualization, but a more easy option is Grafana. If you want to get a proper visual representation to see what is happening, then you need to integrate a third-party tool. Amazon CloudWatch has all the data, but to see what is happening, you need some third-party tool.

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Mbula Mboma

AWS Cloud Re-Start Program Specialist at Orange RDC (Congo)

Boosts deployment efficiency with seamless automatic scaling capabilities

My primary use case for Auto Scaling is mainly to deploy applications at scale Auto Scaling has made the deployment of applications more efficient, allowing us to manage traffic and maintain performance as user counts increase. Auto Scaling is a cool feature that works well and its automatic…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Scheduling is a valuable feature."

"We use Amazon CloudWatch for logging."

"The most valuable part is the metrics part, which is really good."

"The most valuable features of Amazon CloudWatch are metrics, dashboards, alarms, logs, events, logs insight, and application insights."

"What I found most valuable in Amazon CloudWatch is that it gives you detailed information, which I found helpful because it can even provide you with data for the past one minute, which is quite granular. That was what helped me most in terms of finding the root causes. Task automation is another valuable feature of Amazon CloudWatch."

"CloudWatch immediately hooks up and connects to the KPIs and all the metrics."

"The monitoring feature is valuable."

"The tool's UI is good. One can scroll through the logs very easily."

More Amazon CloudWatch pros

"AWS Auto Scaling is very good for managing traffic and creating new instances when necessary."

"The product provides self-healing features."

"Auto Scaling is a cool feature that works well and its automatic scaling capabilities are very useful."

"When a lot of traffic comes into our organization, the product scales our instances based on our environment’s requirements."

"It is a stable platform."

"The various scaling options available, such as step scaling, are particularly useful."

"It can scale."

"AWS Auto Scaling is very good for managing traffic and creating new instances when necessary."

More AWS Auto Scaling pros

Cons

"The solution's auto-scaling could be improved."

"Incorporating a straightforward method or a plug-and-play solution for integrating these databases with our systems, facilitating smooth data transfer, and enabling the creation of dashboards for monitoring and analysis would be beneficial."

"Some of our customers want to use Kubernetes to monitor their CICD flow but Amazon CloudWatch does not support it. We need to use another solution, such as Datadog or Dynatrace has the needed capability."

"When customers want to see the CPU or memory utilization there is a cost. This should be free to see the utilization."

"Better reporting is always something needed. That could be an answer to just about anything. But you always want better reporting, better dashboards, things that are just more dynamic and more accessible."

"I do not know whether or not CloudWatch can be integrated with on-prem services."

"The configuration capabilities could be better."

"CloudWatch's scalability could be improved."

More Amazon CloudWatch cons

"It is sometimes very critical to deploy on AWS since some servers are already running in the background. There are challenges for employees on how to deploy at a given time."

"Setting up the configuration involves too much work for the cloud engineer, like configuring the ALB, the target group, and all the steps."

"In comparison to other public clouds, the product is costly."

"It could be cheaper."

"The solution must improve automation."

"It requires a downtime before deploying the Auto Scaling group."

"We can have more auto scaling algorithms implemented in AWS Auto Scaling."

"There hasn't been a need for improvements."

More AWS Auto Scaling cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon CloudWatch has very cheap pricing, and it hardly costs my company $25-$30 a month for fifty systems, so it's pretty affordable."

"Its pricing is reasonable. It is sometimes tricky, but it is reasonable as compared to others."

"I consider it as a medium-priced solution."

"What's were using is the free service of Amazon CloudWatch, so they're not charging us. As for hidden fees, we're not aware of them because we're using what our clients provided us."

"It’s an open-source solution."

"It is a free-of-charge service."

"We have monthly licensing costs. The licenses are probably in the vicinity of about $300 - $350/month."

"The solution is expensive."

More Amazon CloudWatch pricing and cost advice

"AWS Auto Scaling is a cheap solution."

"The product has moderate pricing."

"AWS Auto Scaling is a pay-per-use and pay-as-you-use service."

"The pricing is good. I have not had any customers that have complained about the price."

"AWS Auto Scaling is an expensive solution."

"The product is expensive."

"AWS Auto Scaling's price is high."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon CloudWatch?

The monitoring features are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudWatch?

Overall, the pricing of Amazon CloudWatch is very expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon CloudWatch?

Apart from traceability of network resources, Amazon CloudWatch needs to be more interoperable with other tools because many companies are starting to use AI-based dashboards. When using third-part...

See all answers

What do you like most about AWS Auto Scaling?

The tool's most valuable feature is vertical auto-scaling, which is easy to use. However, most companies now prefer horizontal scaling. I set up the health check integration to monitor CPU usage. W...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Auto Scaling?

The pricing of Auto Scaling is medium range, neither high nor low.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Auto Scaling?

It is sometimes very critical to deploy on AWS since some servers are already running in the background. There are challenges for employees on how to deploy at a given time. It requires a downtime ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Grafana Loki vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 22% of the time

Amazon OpenSearch Service vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 12% of the time

Zabbix vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 9% of the time

Dynatrace vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 6% of the time

Datadog vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon CloudWatch Competitors

VMware Aria Operations for Applications vs AWS Auto Scaling

Compared 54% of the time

Splunk ITSI (IT Service Intelligence) vs AWS Auto Scaling

Compared 46% of the time

More AWS Auto Scaling Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch

October 2025

Download Amazon CloudWatch product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

October 2025

Download AWS Auto Scaling product report

Also Known As

No data available

AWS Auto-Scaling

Overview

Amazon CloudWatch integrates seamlessly with AWS, providing real-time monitoring and alerting features. Its interface supports task automation, enhancing troubleshooting and analytics capabilities, while offering strong security and scalability at a cost-effective rate.

Amazon CloudWatch is an impactful platform for monitoring AWS resources and managing application performance. It simplifies infrastructure performance monitoring by providing comprehensive analytics capabilities, including application insights and event scheduling. Users appreciate CloudWatch for its detailed metrics, dashboards, and support in issuing alerts to detect anomalies. It efficiently tracks performance, optimizes resource utilization, and ensures service availability. CloudWatch is recognized for its robust alerting features and integration with other AWS services, further supporting its resource monitoring capabilities. However, there is room for improvement in dashboard customization, log streaming speed, and integration with non-AWS services. Enhancements in API integration, machine learning features, and support for third-party tools are also desired.

What features does Amazon CloudWatch offer?

Seamless Integration: Works effortlessly with AWS for cohesive service management.
Advanced Metrics: Provides detailed monitoring of CPU, memory, and more.
Real-time Monitoring: Offers up-to-the-minute alerts on infrastructure status.
Dashboards: User-friendly and informative for quick insights.
Automation: Supports task automation for efficient troubleshooting.

What benefits does Amazon CloudWatch provide?

Cost-effectiveness: Efficient resource monitoring without high costs.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing infrastructure needs.
Security: Strong protocols for safe monitoring activities.
Improved Performance: Enhances application insights and operational efficiency.
Operational Insights: Provides comprehensive logging and performance analysis.

Industries implementing Amazon CloudWatch often focus on optimizing IT infrastructure. Companies in sectors like finance and e-commerce rely on its monitoring and alerting capabilities to ensure service uptime and performance. The platform's automation and analytics features empower teams to proactively manage performance and detect potential issues promptly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS Auto Scaling monitors your applications and automatically adjusts capacity to maintain steady, predictable performance at the lowest possible cost. Using AWS Auto Scaling, it’s easy to setup application scaling for multiple resources across multiple services in minutes. The service provides a simple, powerful user interface that lets you build scaling plans for resources including Amazon EC2 instances and Spot Fleets, Amazon ECS tasks, Amazon DynamoDB tables and indexes, and Amazon Aurora Replicas. AWS Auto Scaling makes scaling simple with recommendations that allow you to optimize performance, costs, or balance between them. If you’re already using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling to dynamically scale your Amazon EC2 instances, you can now combine it with AWS Auto Scaling to scale additional resources for other AWS services. With AWS Auto Scaling, your applications always have the right resources at the right time.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

AirAsia, Airbnb, Aircel, APUS, Avazu, Casa & Video, Futbol Club Barcelona (FCBarcelona), National Taiwan University, redBus

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Buyer's Guide

AWS Auto Scaling vs. Amazon CloudWatch

September 2025

Free Report: AWS Auto Scaling vs. Amazon CloudWatch

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