AWS CloudFormation vs AWS Config comparison

AWS CloudFormation and AWS Config are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. AWS CloudFormation is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.6, while AWS Config is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.0. AWS CloudFormation holds a 3.0% mindshare in CM, compared to AWS Config’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of AWS CloudFormation users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of AWS Config users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 2025

AWS CloudFormation and AWS Config serve different roles in AWS's cloud management category. Although both offer distinct capabilities, AWS Config seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive feature set supporting compliance and auditing, providing significant value for its cost.

Features: AWS CloudFormation enables users to automate resource provisioning using Infrastructure as Code, facilitating quick application deployment and management. AWS Config provides continuous compliance monitoring and auditing, offering detailed insights into AWS resource configurations. AWS Config's tracking history and security alert features help identify and respond to threats efficiently.

Room for Improvement: AWS CloudFormation could enhance its parameter capabilities and simplify configurations for complex applications. AWS Config can benefit from improved user interface design and expanded support documentation. AWS CloudFormation might also improve its support for large-scale or multi-region deployments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS CloudFormation supports streamlined deployments and easy updates, with tight integration across AWS services ensuring comprehensive infrastructure management. However, its setup could be complex for large-scale applications. AWS Config shines in simple deployments, focusing on compliance across multiple accounts with user-friendly tracking and validation.

Pricing and ROI: AWS CloudFormation generally offers lower setup costs with a pay-per-use pricing model, matching the budget constraints of many businesses. AWS Config justifies its higher investment with a rich compliance feature set believed to improve governance and offer potentially higher ROI through robust auditing capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config

December 2025

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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

Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 8.2%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS CloudFormation is 3.0%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Config is 2.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Configuration Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Intune	8.2%
AWS CloudFormation	3.0%
AWS Config	2.4%
Other	86.4%

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

AkashKamble

Sr MacOS specialist engineer at Cyber24

Enables management of multiple operating systems with a single license

The best feature is that it's a Microsoft product, so if anything goes wrong, we get quick support for anything required. Remote system functionality allows us to sit anywhere and take control of any device via remote management. We can enhance security for clients' laptops with built-in Microsoft Defender, which is available with the Microsoft Intune license. We use it for reporting purposes through endpoint analytics. When pushing scripting, there are two types available: remediation script and reservation script. Through endpoint analytics, you can push defender policies to clients. It helps with reporting, inventory updates, and monitoring tenant status health.

Read full review

Kishor Kawale

Full-stack Developer / AWS Architect at Mantiqh Technologies

Infrastructure management becomes more efficient with automated deployments using code

Improvements are needed for sharing resources between template files, especially when using AWS SAM. Documentation can be difficult to understand, and I suggest AWS provide small instructional videos on their website. Additionally, creating microservices and connecting multiple APIs into a single API gateway can be challenging; documentation should address specific needs. The ability to split CloudFormation templates without losing data due to changes in resources like API gateway URLs or Cognito pools is also needed.

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Dineshkumar Thulasiraman

Cloud Engineer at cloudifyops

Useful for vulnerability scanning and data encryption

AWS Config's dashboard improved our company's security as it helps with the vulnerability scanning of resources. AWS Config integrates with the existing security infrastructure of our company, and it is an easy process that is not at all complicated. AWS Config is a security product. The tool protects its users' resources and data from unauthorized access, security breaches, and threats. The product helps with data encryption. You can have your data on AWS KMS, which helps with data encryption. For areas like SSL/TLS encryption, the tool offers data protection between AWS services and endpoints. As I need to learn the components of the product, I rate the overall tool a seven out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"By using Microsoft Intune we can control which websites the users can go to and it provides a secure environment for our employees using their laptops that are having access from home. We have installed Intune to control the user's environment minimizing the chances of any hacking."

"One of the main features of the solution is it allows the management of many devices in different ways."

"The policy and compliance monitoring of devices and the software deployment are most valuable."

"Our main use is Intune's management of mobile devices, like Android or iPhone devices. The application performs quite well for both types. We successfully managed almost 3,000 endpoints."

"Stable solution at a good price."

"The technical support of Microsoft Intune is good."

"I particularly appreciate the administration and security features, which can be deployed easily."

"Microsoft Intune is unique in providing management for all operating systems, including macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"The CloudFormation template can be reused to create multiple stacks, reducing duplications and improving our infrastructure."

"It is easy to work from the console and deploy new database services."

"AWS CloudFormation makes infrastructure deployment easy."

"AWS CloudFormation is valuable because it allows me to create resources using YAML files without needing to learn a specific language."

"The integration of the solution is very good."

"The solution has helped with automation. I don't have to worry about provisioning machines and ensuring everything is set up. AWS CloudFormation takes care of the entire infrastructure for me."

"With the help of AWS CloudFormation, I have managed the updates and rollbacks smoothly when there are changes in the infrastructure."

"CloudFormation has helped automate the infrastructure in AWS, making the process more efficient."

More AWS CloudFormation pros

"Installing the instances and performing upgrades is smooth and clean."

"The tool protects its users' resources and data from unauthorized access, security breaches, and threats."

"AWS Config's dashboard improved our company's security as it helps with the vulnerability scanning of resources."

"The scalability is a ten out of ten."

"The initial setup is super easy, it takes like two minutes. Literally a one-click deployment."

"The solution is scalable and provides over 100 rules."

Cons

"Integration with Mac devices requires some improvement."

"Lacking in features such as Wi-Fi and network security."

"Intune's reporting and logging could be improved. When troubleshooting, it's difficult to collect the logs and determine what's happening. If I want to filter out the compliant devices, I can see it from the logs, but I would like the option to drill down further."

"The platform is incredibly slow and could be more responsive. Specifically, when making changes to security policies, I would like to see those changes take effect more quickly."

"There are challenges with Intune, specifically in reporting. Many third-party companies offer single-pane-of-glass reporting that shows you what your update environment looks like, how your patch is doing, application status, etc., but Intune's reporting is not intuitive."

"It doesn't economize when you scale up. We have over 14,000 employees, and we have between 7,500 and 8,000 city-owned or personal devices being used to conduct city business. Its price can be improved. It is not a cheap solution."

"I expect Microsoft Intune to have more features in the cloud because there are two major functionalities that we need to be added. This is software metering and license management. These functionalities, for now, must be on-premise. For this purpose, we have set up a SQL Server and I hope that in near future this option will be in the cloud in Microsoft Intune."

"At the moment, we need more flexibility. We have some offices migrating to Windows 11 remotely. Sometimes, it is difficult to manage image installation because we have to collect some information before starting image deployment. Currently, Intune cannot collect the information needed for deploying new images."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"What could be improved in AWS CloudFormation is its user interface, in terms of graphical design, I prefer WYSIWYG."

"The conditions that can be added in AWS CloudFormation are not as powerful as any programming language."

"CloudFormation is not particularly good at handling cross-account dynamic references. If you try to refer to an object that CloudFormation has created in a separate AWS account, it tends to fall apart. That's because it is a byproduct of the multi-tenant configuration. This is the most glaring shortcoming in my perspective because you can't dynamically reference objects in other accounts that CloudFormation has created, but it is not a shortcoming that you can't overcome. This is the only pain point that I've come across that didn't have a workaround natively. Sometimes the confirmation is slow, and it could be faster. The downside to CloudFormation when you're fully embracing it is that the AWS services do not get released immediately fully CloudFormation enabled. If you need to use the latest AWS service that just got announced or reinvented, you're not going to be able to continue with CloudFormation for the first X number of months. This is because they develop the products separately, and then they hand it to the CloudFormation team, which later on develops a CloudFormation integration. So, if you need to be on the newest thing AWS has, CloudFormation is often going to be a constraint that prevents you from doing that."

"The solution needs to offer better support to other cloud vendors."

"It would help all users if AWS improved the auto-generation of the CloudFormation file."

"Splitting CloudFormation into multiple formations results in changes to resources like API gateway URLs and Cognito pools, which causes issues, especially when trying to maintain consistency across resources."

"They could improve the product's capability to handle circular dependencies more effectively."

"Creating the inline policies is not great."

More AWS CloudFormation cons

"The reboot process for AWS instances could be improved. Microsoft Azure does not have this problem, so AWS could consider making their instances more robust. You would not need to reboot your instances frequently to replace the hardware and stuff. They can look for a better approach or mechanism to improve in the future. The concern is that you need to plan for the outage when you reboot an instance. You need to have a maintenance window where you can properly reboot the instance without affecting your application. When Amazon announces that you need to reboot an instance and are not ready, this becomes a problem."

"The solution is missing a configuration that can assist us when writing our programming languages."

"There is room for improvement in built-in tools, they are not up to the mark."

"Improvements are needed as per customer requirements."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Even if they charge a premium, they aim to provide equal value."

"There is a cost benefit of using Microsoft Intune because of the packaging with other Microsoft products."

"Microsoft Intune is more expensive than other solutions, but it offers a wider range of features and control."

"There is a license needed to use the solution and we are on an annual license."

"Microsoft Intune is included in the E5 license at no additional cost."

"The Intune license model is costly."

"Microsoft Intune is pretty reasonable. We have difficulty with Azure, which is probably why we have not put many assets in Azure. Everything we put there is very expensive."

"Its pricing seems reasonable."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"The tool's pricing depends on the page model."

"The price of the solution is good because it is scalable."

"The solution's cost is normal, neither cheap nor expensive."

"There's no cost for launching any template using CloudFormation."

"In general, pricing within AWS is relatively affordable."

"AWS CloudFormation doesn't have any cost because it's only the resources that you deploy with the solution that'll incur costs."

"If you compared serverless and container-based, serverless is less expensive. If you use certain instances the price can increase and become too expensive."

"The tool is free for the AWS environment."

More AWS CloudFormation pricing and cost advice

"It is a very expensive tool. AWS pricing for Config is not fixed and depends on your organization's size and complexity."

"The solution charges us per hour. There's no license."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Financial Services Firm

22%

Comms Service Provider

Photography Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	119
Midsize Enterprise	47
Large Enterprise	153

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	17

No data available

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?

Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...

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What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...

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How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...

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What do you like most about AWS CloudFormation?

AWS Cloud automation reduces the time needed to create AWS resources.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS CloudFormation?

AWS CloudFormation is free. However, there may be unexpected costs if developers deploy services incorrectly without ...

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What needs improvement with AWS CloudFormation?

When it comes to the challenges with AWS CloudFormation, I faced a few challenges. One challenge is associated with l...

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What do you like most about AWS Config?

The initial setup is super easy, it takes like two minutes. Literally a one-click deployment.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Config?

Improvements are needed as per customer requirements.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for AWS Config?

I use the solution in my company to check the vulnerabilities for all the resources, including tools like S3, EC2 Ins...

See all answers

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Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

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Compared 6% of the time

IBM MaaS360 vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

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AWS Systems Manager vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 16% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 15% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 13% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 12% of the time

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AWS Systems Manager vs AWS Config

Compared 55% of the time

Spring Cloud vs AWS Config

Compared 18% of the time

BigFix vs AWS Config

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

December 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation

January 2026

Download AWS CloudFormation product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

December 2025

Download AWS Config product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

CloudFormation

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Intune provides centralized management of mobile devices and applications, ensuring security, compliance, and productivity through integration with Microsoft services like Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory.

Organizations use Intune for managing mobile devices and applications, enhancing security and compliance across platforms. With features like single sign-on, conditional access, and zero-touch deployment via Autopilot, it facilitates efficient operations. Intune's scalability, easy enrollment, and capabilities such as remote wipe support diverse device management, offering robust data protection and efficient operation. Despite its features, improvement areas include reporting, compatibility with non-Microsoft devices, and better support for macOS and Linux devices.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Seamless Integration: Works with Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory, and System Center for streamlined management.
Conditional Access: Enhances security with policies that restrict access based on conditions.
Autopilot: Provides zero-touch deployment for setting up new devices efficiently.
Mobile Device Management: Enables control over both personal and corporate devices.
Application Deployment: Facilitates app delivery across a range of devices.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Centralized Management: Reduces complexity by managing devices and applications in one place.
Security Enhancement: Protects data with features like remote wipe and compliance monitoring.
Improved Productivity: Enhances efficiency with seamless integration and automation features.
Device Scalability: Supports diverse device management for growing business needs.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and education, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure secure and compliant device management. Companies leverage its capabilities to deploy security policies and manage both corporate-owned and BYOD environments, facilitating a unified approach to data protection and compliance.

Microsoft

AWS CloudFormation provides a common language for you to model and provision AWS and third party application resources in your cloud environment. AWS CloudFormation allows you to use programming languages or a simple text file to model and provision, in an automated and secure manner, all the resources needed for your applications across all regions and accounts. This gives you a single source of truth for your AWS and third party resources.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. Config continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations and allows you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations. With Config, you can review changes in configurations and relationships between AWS resources, dive into detailed resource configuration histories, and determine your overall compliance against the configurations specified in your internal guidelines. This enables you to simplify compliance auditing, security analysis, change management, and operational troubleshooting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Nextdoor, Coinbase, Expedia

Flatiron, Prezi, iZettle, British Gas, Burt, Autodesk, FanDuel

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config

December 2025

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