AWS CloudFormation vs AWS Config comparison

AWS CloudFormation and AWS Config are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. AWS CloudFormation is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.8, while AWS Config is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.3. AWS CloudFormation holds a 1.9% mindshare in CM, compared to AWS Config’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of AWS CloudFormation users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of AWS Config users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

AWS CloudFormation and AWS Config are categorized in cloud infrastructure management. AWS Config seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive compliance features despite higher costs.

Features: AWS CloudFormation offers infrastructure as code, automated deployment, and stack management for scalability. AWS Config provides detailed configuration auditing, compliance assessments, and resource monitoring for thorough governance.

Room for Improvement: AWS CloudFormation could enhance template features and parameter handling. AWS Config may benefit from streamlining its intricate setup and improving cost-efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS CloudFormation provides straightforward deployment with robust documentation, supporting automated workflows. AWS Config focuses on monitoring and compliance with effective customer support, though its setup is more complex.

Pricing and ROI: AWS CloudFormation generally has lower initial setup costs, delivering a solid ROI for automation. AWS Config's pricing aligns with its deep compliance capabilities, making it a worthwhile investment for strict governance needs.

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

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,384 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

Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.9%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS CloudFormation is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Config is 2.1%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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

Mbula Mboma

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

Facilitates efficient infrastructure deployment with visibility into resource connections

I primarily use AWS CloudFormation for deploying infrastructure efficiently. For instance, if I want to create load balancers with target groups and EC2 instances, I find CloudFormation simplifies the process of deployment and configuration, reducing the possibility of errors AWS CloudFormation…

Read full review

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

"I have seen a return on investment right from the start of the tool's usage."

"The stability of Microsoft Intune is good."

"Intune makes our organization more secure and flexible. We can onboard new employees faster and more securely. We are a governmental organization with strict regulations, and Intune helps us comply with those requirements."

"One of the most valuable features of Microsoft Intune is the detection and remediation script capability."

"It is absolutely a positive investment."

"The ability to send configurations to our systems is valuable, particularly as we don't have a regular Windows AD server. Our current environment doesn't have a Windows AD, which limits our ability to push GPOs. However, this is where the solution can step in and help us push policies."

"The most valuable feature is that we can manage workstations or Android devices remotely without needing the device to be connected to our local network."

"It helps implement conditional access policies to restrict mobile users from accessing potentially dangerous emails."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"There is a cost-benefit to using CloudFormation that comes about because of the automation that it provides."

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

"The most valuable feature of AWS CloudFormation is the simple tracking of infrastructure."

"I appreciate the flexibility of infrastructure as code. With CloudFormation, we can define ground rules, control usage limits, and scale our infrastructure up or down programmatically. Having this level of control through code on infra is a major benefit. That's the beauty of CloudFormation."

"CloudFormation gives us control of AWS and any Cloud infrastructure. It creates the whole stack for Cloud services technologies so it's easy to manage the whole system."

"What I like best about AWS CloudFormation is that it is a quick and simple way to deploy various applications, like WordPress."

"The most beneficial aspect lies in its capability to handle input acquisition and assessment."

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

More AWS CloudFormation pros

"The scalability is a ten out of ten."

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

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

"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."

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

Cons

"To make it a perfect ten, it would be helpful if there was a better way to troubleshoot user issues, as I've had a few users with corrupt files before and had to redeploy it without knowing the root cause."

"China blocks Google and Google Play Store, which makes installation challenging. Microsoft Intune is a company software, which has to be installed to the app portal or Microsoft Software Center."

"There is still a gap between SCCM and Intune, especially in the reporting, inventory, and software deployment areas."

"They need to integrate more with security options."

"Applying security recommendations can be difficult in Microsoft Intune. Sometimes, they give you recommendations, but you need a different server to manage the pieces, or you have to go to each device individually. However, it has been improving. Before, there were certain policies you could not implement directly in Intune, but now I see progress. I would like to see more improvement in policy management, similar to how we used group policies on-premises."

"I assess the stability of the product as low. I have faced downtime crashes and performance issues with Microsoft Intune."

"While the ability to deploy applications at startup is reliable, the policy-based application deployment method has not reached the same level of consistency."

"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."

More Microsoft Intune cons

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

"AWS CloudFormation allows you to use the code templates written in JSON and YAML, but not directly in Python. Adding this feature would be beneficial."

"If you are a developer or a more technical person, it's very difficult to learn the complete syntax or because CloudFormation includes a new way to write infrastructure code."

"Error-handling features can be improved."

"I prefer Terraform over AWS CloudFormation because AWS CloudFormation is specific to just AWS. But if I want to use a multi-cloud or hybrid setup, then Terraform works better. It uses a simple language, HCL. So, if you learn HCL, you can manage your infrastructures across different cloud providers. You don't need to be specific to one cloud provider."

"GUI could be improved by adding graphical components."

"The Infrastructure Composer is not fully complete, making it necessary to tweak the code manually after generating it, which could be improved."

"The speed of the replication process could improve. It can take some time to replicate that could use a speed increase."

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

"Based on the features that it gives, it is cost-efficient. It is not necessarily on the expensive side of the scale. It provides a hefty number of features that any organization would want. It is in a good price range."

"The price for Intune is fair."

"Licensing depends on how you are providing support to your enterprise, whether it's device-based or user-based."

"Microsoft Intune costs about $7 per user per month, which is somewhat on the pricier end. That said, it's a reliable product, so it's fair."

"While I don't have access to high-level financial information, I believe we have achieved lower costs with this implementation."

"It comes with the E5 plan. We bought the E5 plan from Microsoft."

"Our Office 365 Business Premium license, including Office 365 and Intune Management, offers excellent value."

"Any bundle package, such as Security E3, covers multiple things, such as AAP, BitLocker, etc. If you go for them individually, they would be more expensive. Bundling makes the price more attractive and competitive."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

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

"The tool is free for the AWS environment."

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

"This solution is free to use and does not require a license."

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

"AWS CloudFormation's pricing is cheaper than that of other cloud providers."

"The product is free."

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

More AWS CloudFormation pricing and cost advice

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

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

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Configuration Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

23%

Photography Company

Comms Service Provider

Media Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What do you like most about AWS CloudFormation?

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

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS CloudFormation?

Improvements are needed for sharing resources between template files, especially when using AWS ( /products/amazon-aw...

See all answers

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

Comparisons

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 10% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 8% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 6% of the time

Samsung Knox vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Intune Competitors

AWS Systems Manager vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 26% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 13% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 11% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 11% of the time

More AWS CloudFormation Competitors

AWS Systems Manager vs AWS Config

Compared 73% of the time

Spring Cloud vs AWS Config

Compared 18% of the time

More AWS Config Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

August 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation

August 2025

Download AWS CloudFormation product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

July 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

July 2025

Free Report: AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config report.

See our list of best Configuration Management vendors.

We monitor all Configuration Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.