No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

AWS Certificate Manager vs Certificate Lifecycle Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 2, 2026

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

AWS Certificate Manager
Ranking in Certificate Management Software
3rd
Average Rating
9.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.7
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Certificate Lifecycle Manager
Ranking in Certificate Management Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Certificate Management Software category, the mindshare of AWS Certificate Manager is 12.1%, down from 30.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Certificate Lifecycle Manager is 8.4%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Certificate Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CyberArk Certificate Manager8.4%
AWS Certificate Manager12.1%
Other79.5%
Certificate Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

SK
Senior IT Auditor at Ernst & Young
Have experienced several challenges while managing certificate lifecycle processes
The renewal function and automated certificate renewal are very helpful for our operations. AWS Certificate Manager provides central control of certificate lifecycle management, which helps to improve security. It streamlines the process and reduces human error. I use ACM Private Certificate Authority for additional security measures. I see benefits of using AWS Certificate Manager in integration with AWS for secure data transmission. I see a positive impact in managing SSL and TLS certificates, which simplifies compliance and reduces risk.
Karthik Kashyap T H - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Eliminates certificate expiration outages and offers good customization and reporting capabilities
Even though it allows for email editing, until version 23.1, you had to log on to the server, and the console itself used to take a lot of time. That has changed from the last release onwards. When you're defining the flow, there are some areas that can probably cause confusion to the users. If you want to rename the default field, you cannot rename it, which caused a lot of confusion during the initial days until everyone got settled in. Allowing the renaming or updating of the default field is something Certificate Manager can improve on. Certificate Manager has both the on-prem and the cloud versions, but the on-prem version is far more mature than the cloud version, which lacks a lot of features that the on-prem version offers, at least when we did the POC and evaluated the product. The maturity of the cloud version needs improvement. Additionally, when considering the on-prem version, there is a minor glitch in the system. When an administrator makes changes, they have flexibility regarding the approval flow. When dealing with a certificate that requires approval from several different teams, there is a minor glitch in the system where the name of the approver does not appear. This is a bug that we are currently addressing. Additionally, there is room for improvement in key management. Changing the default account name is not a straightforward process; it can be quite tedious. This is an area where improvements could be made. If there is a particular workflow that we want to tweak, right now, we can achieve it only via a PowerShell script. It would be great if they could also support a small Python script or anything to expand their scripting or adaptable workflow code base. Even though we can call another script from a PowerShell script, if someone doesn't have knowledge of PowerShell, that would be challenging.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are definitely the alerts."
"AWS Certificate Manager provides central control of certificate lifecycle management, which helps to improve security."
"The solution has an import dashboard where we can import the certificates or create new certificates."
"It is easy to generate, easy to use, easy to integrate, and very cost-effective."
"It offers encryption with specific algorithms for better management."
"Venafi takes care of automatically renewing and deploying your certificate so that you don't need to worry when it expires."
"It's definitely worth the money to have Venafi as a tool; it's definitely miles away from the competition, in my opinion."
"The most valuable feature of Venafi is the automation that helps save time and reduce human error."
"So, from the perspective of risk reduction, it can be directly quantified in the value for the customer."
"Venafi is super stable, and we experienced no issues with its stability."
"CyberArk Certificate Manager has positively impacted my organization as a powerful tool for enhancing the security certificate management process, and by automating the lifecycle of TLS and SSL certificates, it has improved security and ensured operational efficiency, making it a vital component of modern IT infrastructure management."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is their certificate discovery."
"Automating anything, whether on-prem or cloud, is possible."
 

Cons

"Better reporting features would be beneficial."
"One potential improvement could be enabling the extraction of the certificate as a file to be used outside of AWS, even with an additional charge."
"Maybe more integration with third-party certificate authorities would be useful."
"The AWS Certificate Manager's technical support team is sometimes unavailable."
"Currently, there is no option to customize beyond the default settings, and it would be beneficial to have the ability to customize certificates to fit specific requirements."
"Venafi's overall installation could be made easier."
"The on-prem version is far more mature than the cloud version, which lacks a lot of features that the on-prem version offers, at least when we did the POC and evaluated the product."
"The product was really good when it was a Venafi product. However, since its acquisition by CyberArk, there has been a lack of significant innovations. They are pushing for cloud adoption, but we prefer on-premises solutions due to regulatory concerns."
"In terms of scalability, given that we were in the situation where it was on-prem, there were certain limitations there."
"Regarding stability, I observed that in the last year, CyberArk Certificate Manager was down two to three times without any notification."
"Currently, specific processes require manual installations due to the lack of built-in integrations."
"Venafi could enhance its offerings by providing more automation features."
"The initial setup is complex. You need third-party support or support from CyberArk Certificate Manager if you do not have a lot of skillset inside your own company."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The pricing model is complex, considering factors beyond the number of certificates. This complexity can make our payments to Venafi challenging if costs continue to rise. It is good but more expensive than the competitors."
"Venafi's pricing appears to be competitive within the market."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Certificate Management Software solutions are best for your needs.
896,942 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Media Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with AWS Certificate Manager?
While AWS Certificate Manager works well within AWS, one limitation is that it is tightly coupled with AWS services. Exporting certificates for use outside AWS is not straightforward unless you use...
What is your primary use case for AWS Certificate Manager?
My primary use case for AWS Certificate Manager is to manage SSL/TLS certificates for securing applications running on AWS services like Application Load Balancer, CloudFront, and API Gateway. In d...
What advice do you have for others considering AWS Certificate Manager?
My advice would be to use AWS Certificate Manager if you are already operating within AWS, as it simplifies certificate management significantly. I would also recommend using Route 53 for DNS valid...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Venafi?
In terms of pricing, they are a little costly, but they are the best in the market today, so I would say they are worth every penny, rating them again at seven or eight.
What needs improvement with Venafi?
CyberArk Certificate Manager can be improved, particularly in terms of integrations with other tools. I would like to see improvements in integrations with ID, Kerberos, or with other companies for...
What advice do you have for others considering Venafi?
Since using CyberArk Certificate Manager, I have seen specific outcomes such as a reduction in incidents because I can work with CyberArk Certificate Manager, where digital certificates are everywh...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Venafi
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Surescripts, CME Group, TD Bank Group, Aetna, MoneyGram, Zions Bancorp, Cisco
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Certificate Manager vs. Certificate Lifecycle Manager and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
896,942 professionals have used our research since 2012.