AWS CloudFormation vs AWS Systems Manager comparison

AWS CloudFormation and AWS Systems Manager are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. AWS CloudFormation is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.8, while AWS Systems Manager is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.1. AWS CloudFormation holds a 1.3% mindshare in CM, compared to AWS Systems Manager’s 10.7% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of AWS CloudFormation users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of AWS Systems Manager users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

AWS CloudFormation and AWS Systems Manager provide essential solutions for infrastructure automation and operational management. CloudFormation stands out with its infrastructure as code capabilities, enhancing deployment efficiency and scalability.

Features: CloudFormation supports infrastructure as code, enabling rapid environment deployment with reusable templates, modular design through nested stacks, and comprehensive automation. Systems Manager automates operational tasks, offers patch management and configuration tools, and integrates seamlessly with other AWS services.

Room for Improvement: CloudFormation's complexity with verbose syntax and AWS exclusivity can be challenging for newcomers, limiting its flexibility. Systems Manager would benefit from improved analysis tools and integration capabilities beyond EC2, particularly for dynamic configuration management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CloudFormation supports diverse environments, including public, hybrid, and on-premises clouds, with robust technical support. Systems Manager is optimized for public cloud with satisfactory support; however, CloudFormation offers broader deployment flexibility.

Pricing and ROI: CloudFormation is free to use, with costs only for AWS resources, providing cost-effectiveness and efficient rollback features. Systems Manager is generally low-cost, with some costs under increased demand, facilitating effective budget management. Both solutions offer substantial returns on investment.

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

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Systems Manager

July 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 July 2025, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 10.2%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS CloudFormation is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Systems Manager is 10.7%, up from 10.0% 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.

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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…

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GeraldMusaga

Sr. AWS Cloud DevSecOps Engineer at Manhattan Strategy Group

Has valuable automation capabilities and a straightforward setup process

I advise others to evaluate specific needs and tasks to see if Systems Manager aligns with organizational requirements, particularly in operational and application management. It is beginner-friendly with extensive features that can be learned gradually based on the user's needs and tasks. Integration with other AWS services like Lambda is seamless and enhances its functionality. I would rate it an eight out of ten.

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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

"Its direct integration with all the other products that we have from Microsoft is valuable. We're using the E5 license, and we have a whole wealth of different products available. It just makes it easier to have everything from one provider."

"Among the most valuable features are the Company Portal that is built into Intune, and the update rings so that we can manage what types of future updates the devices get."

"Dynamic groups allow us to set conditions for automatic membership, eliminating the need for user intervention or manual review and ensuring a seamless workflow."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Intune is its scalability."

"It works well if you have a Microsoft environment."

"The most useful features in Microsoft Intune are the policy enforcement and conditional access."

"The most useful features in Microsoft Intune are the policy enforcement and conditional access. These features make our operations easier from a company perspective."

"The most valuable feature is probably mobile device management. Small businesses are coming under greater scrutiny and requirements for compliance as time goes on. We don't have to worry about a VPN because we can manage these devices, control company data, and lock users out. If needed, we can remotely wipe devices and deadman-switch them."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"What I found most valuable in AWS CloudFormation is its configurability. The solution is easy to configure. I also like its change management configuration because that's also good."

"The most valuable features of AWS CloudFormation include the import and export functionality, and pseudo parameters, which reduce our coding efforts by managing parameterization at the account level."

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

"I love CloudFormation as it's a great tool for infrastructure as code. This makes my job very easy."

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

"AWS CloudFormation makes infrastructure deployment easy."

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

"CloudFormation itself is free to use. You will be charged for the resources you deploy using CloudFormation."

More AWS CloudFormation pros

"When we do the automation in the cloud, we use the SSM agent. This helps us to test our automation and documents, and monitor the cloud."

"I use AWS Systems Manager primarily for infrastructure management and automation. One of its key benefits is managing patches and updates for our EC2 instances, including both Windows and Linux workloads. It can perform compliance checks on all managed workloads, identifying which systems aren't compliant or haven't been patched."

"The solution is user-friendly"

"AWS Systems Manager's most valuable feature is its ability to dynamically export and import values in various AWS accounts."

"With AWS Systems Manager, our company can patch our systems directly from it, so we don't need to patch our systems manually."

"The solution's ability to scale is good."

"Systems Manager has a feature where it analyzes the logs and gives us a performance overview in the form of a graph. We know when it's taking up more resources and when there are spikes, so we can predict the usability."

"It is beginner-friendly with extensive features that can be learned gradually based on the user's needs and tasks."

More AWS Systems Manager pros

Cons

"I am not involved in the day-to-day with Intune, but we have gone with a different product for updating mobile device software. We do not integrate many of our mobile devices that are not Microsoft-based devices, such as Dell laptops, with Intune."

"One thing I would suggest is that servers are not getting managed through Microsoft Intune."

"In an upcoming release, I would like to see some kind of analytics report."

"The technical support by Microsoft is not so good. We have to manage many things by ourselves and do not receive responses in a timely manner."

"Once it's configured it is unobtrusive, but it does take some hands-on to configure and deploy it properly."

"Microsoft Intune lacks live location tracking capabilities."

"There is room for improvement, particularly in terms of compatibility, extending beyond the well-known major brands."

"Improvements are needed in Microsoft Intune's enterprise app management, including support for more applications in app patching, boot batching, and discovery. I also hope the cost of Remote Help will decrease because it's a much-needed Intune function. Our customers need that capability, or they will buy it from a third party at a premium."

More Microsoft Intune cons

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

"There could be more tools for conditional outputs in CloudFormation. Although YAML syntax is structured and AWS has CDK, perhaps more validations could be added to make the work easier."

"For a beginner, it's kind of difficult to set up. So, the user does need some knowledge in order to do it."

"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."

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

"If Amazon could extend CloudFormation to other cloud platforms, that would be good. Currently, it is only limited to AWS."

"Creating the inline policies is not great."

"The product should be made cloud-agnostic, allowing users to deploy the same environment with minimal tweaks across different cloud platforms, similar to Terraform. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have the ability to manage templates outside of the AWS environment."

More AWS CloudFormation cons

"Lacks sufficient integrations."

"Every AWS service comes with some associated costs."

"We formerly used third-party products to analyze the log, give us information, and find bottlenecks. Systems Manager could provide more tools that conduct this analysis, so we don't have to do it ourselves."

"The current challenge is that we can't pull any incidents from other accounts."

"One area that could be enhanced is dynamic configuration management. Additionally, improving integration with other AWS services like Lambda and CloudFormation would be beneficial."

"The fact that AWS Systems Manager takes time to complete the patching process, makes it an area where improvements are required."

"I'd like to see more automation for monitoring and managing things like AWS CloudWatch and AWS Config. It would be a significant improvement if it could automatically handle these tasks and address issues as they arise."

"The AWS UIs are not the most intuitive. Also, the usability needs room for improvement."

More AWS Systems Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a bit expensive from a licensing perspective, especially as we look to have organizations with tenants across the globe."

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

"The clients pay for a license and each can have a different type of license, such as an E3 or E5."

"It is cheap, but as compared to Google, it is costly. Google is cheaper, but quality-wise, Microsoft Intune is better."

"It's reasonable. They're not giving it away, but it's reasonable."

"If you ask the accountant or the finance department, they'll tell you that it is way too expensive, but when I look at the cost and compare it with the value you actually get, it's more than fair."

"The pricing for Intune and the competitor products are all within the same range, there is no true advantage when it comes to cost."

"For Microsoft 365 E5 clients, cost is not an issue as this product is one of the benefits."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

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

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

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

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

"The product is free."

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

"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."

More AWS CloudFormation pricing and cost advice

"As we were doing a government project so the government got the project at a very nominal cost."

"The platform provides excellent value for the capabilities it offers when compared to third-party tools for similar tasks."

"An AWS cloud engineer can bring down the costs."

"Most of the features are free. I'm not entirely certain, but I believe the pricing is generally very low. Some services that are part of Ops Manager might have associated costs."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

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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.

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 ...

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What needs improvement with AWS CloudFormation?

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

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What do you like most about AWS Systems Manager?

With AWS Systems Manager, our company can patch our systems directly from it, so we don't need to patch our systems m...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Systems Manager?

Every AWS service comes with some associated costs. While using AWS Systems Manager, we continually monitor to optimi...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Systems Manager?

There isn't anything specific I remember at the moment.

See all answers

Comparisons

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 11% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 7% of the time

SOTI MobiControl vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Intune Competitors

Red Hat Satellite vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 13% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 10% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 10% of the time

Spring Cloud vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 7% of the time

More AWS CloudFormation Competitors

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 15% of the time

AWS Config vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 14% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 8% of the time

BigFix vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 4% of the time

More AWS Systems Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

July 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation

July 2025

Download AWS CloudFormation product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

July 2025

Download AWS Systems Manager product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

CloudFormation

Amazon Elastic Container Registry

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 Systems Manager is a management service that helps you automatically collect software inventory, apply OS patches, create system images, and configure Windows and Linux operating systems. These capabilities help you define and track system configurations, prevent drift, and maintain software compliance of your EC2 and on-premises configurations. By providing a management approach that is designed for the scale and agility of the cloud but extends into your on-premises data center, Systems Manager makes it easier for you to seamlessly bridge your existing infrastructure with AWS.

Systems Manager is easy to use. Simply access Systems Manager from the EC2 Management Console, select the instances you want to manage, and define the management tasks you want to perform. Systems Manager is available now at no cost to manage both your EC2 and on-premises resources.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Nextdoor, Coinbase, Expedia

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Systems Manager

July 2025

Free Report: AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Systems Manager

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