AWS CloudFormation vs Perforce Puppet comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Perforce are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.6, while Perforce is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 3.0% mindshare in CM, compared to Perforce’s 2.9% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Perforce users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 21, 2025

Perforce Puppet and AWS CloudFormation compete in configuration management and cloud orchestration. AWS CloudFormation has the upper hand due to its integration with AWS, making it ideal for businesses invested in AWS infrastructure.

Features: Perforce Puppet provides agent-based functionality, real-time reporting, and comprehensive automation for configuration management. AWS CloudFormation offers infrastructure as code, seamless AWS resource orchestration, and a user-friendly interface for managing complex environments.

Room for Improvement: Perforce Puppet could enhance its support for newer cloud environments, improve documentation clarity, and streamline its user interface. AWS CloudFormation could expand its integration capabilities beyond AWS, offer more intuitive error handling, and reduce complexity in large-scale infrastructure setups.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Perforce Puppet is versatile across diverse environments but may require specialized knowledge. AWS CloudFormation benefits from AWS's extensive documentation and support network, providing efficient deployment for AWS-centric environments.

Pricing and ROI: Perforce Puppet incurs higher setup costs due to its customizability and expertise requirements but promises strong ROI for complex configuration management needs. AWS CloudFormation is cost-effective for existing AWS users, offering quicker returns by leveraging existing AWS infrastructure.

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

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. Perforce Puppet

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 Perforce Puppet is 2.9%, up from 1.0% 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%
Perforce Puppet	2.9%
Other	85.9%

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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reviewer2284542

Business Development Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Automated configuration management ensures consistent server setups

The strength of Puppet is in automated configuration management. We can configure a server once and set rules with Puppet so that future server configurations are automatic and consistent with company requests. Puppet is declarative, meaning it finds the best state for itself and corrects any deviations in the configuration.

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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

"We can manage and standardize security across your environment, identify problems, receive alerts, and so on. That's its purpose, and that's also why it's so good."

"It supports end-users who tend to lock their devices quite frequently. Its conditional access policy helps us keep the users logged into their devices."

"The one feature we find most useful is the Mobile Application Manager. There are two types, we have the complete MDM and the Mobile Application Manager(MAM). We don't give our users phones, it is their own personal phone, and we need to allow them to have access to the company detail on their phone. We need to create a balance between their own personal data and the company data. We deploy the Mobile Application Manager for them so that we won't be able to interfere with their own personal data."

"Intune enables us to manage our devices from anywhere."

"The tool's most valuable feature is Autopilot."

"Intune saves time, and it is very easy to use. It allows us to manage applications completely."

"The most valuable feature for us is the security, including risk analysis and patch management."

"The features of Microsoft Intune that I appreciate the most are its user-friendly interface and robust security options."

More Microsoft Intune pros

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

"AWS CloudFormation has automated the resource-building process, thereby removing the scope of human errors. We can tag the resources which help the billing process."

"The most valuable features of AWS CloudFormation are all the resources documentation is located in one location, simple resource reverting, and ease of use of the full package for new users."

"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."

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

"With CloudFormation, there is no need to use complicated coding."

"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."

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

More AWS CloudFormation pros

"Puppet3 and 4 series provides optimum deployment solutions for infrastructure and applications."

"Puppet Enterprise has good functionalities."

"The versatility is great."

"Anything that we manage through Puppet always runs perfectly."

"The main purpose for this automation tool would be: deploying, controlling, ordering change for the system and IT Infrastructure."

"The most valuable features are the agent, high load balancing, and overall robustness and features."

"I rate the stability of Puppet as ten out of ten."

"The agent-based feature helps me by being stable."

More Perforce Puppet pros

Cons

"It would be helpful if there was proactive remediation."

"There could be more wizard-driven policy development or creation. Some of the policies can get quite complex. If they have a wizard that assists the administrators in creating the policy, that will be a great job."

"I would like to see easier pushdowns. Currently, we have to package our own software and then push it. Intune can make that way easier and integrate applications, such as Zoom and Adobe Acrobat, that are used by a lot of enterprise or corporate organizations."

"I would like Intune to natively support easier report generation. This improvement would enable less experienced staff to run reports more efficiently without relying on additional tools or functions."

"The reports aren't complete, and it's not easy to build custom reports. For example, Windows Autopilot isn't working well in cases where the computers don't have a good internet connection. Then the option is not good enough."

"Intune could add more Linux security features and more integration with on-prem devices. The application deployments can also be improved."

"Each feature has a separate license, making logistics and cost management difficult if not strategically bundled together."

"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. You can connect to Azure, monitoring, and the workbooks, but it's not streamlined."

More Microsoft Intune cons

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

"The code we write in AWS CloudFormation is pretty big compared to Terraform. We need to have more modules in the solution. A library should also be there where we can save code lines. A dashboard feature would be good for designers."

"Including certain examples of templates would be advantageous."

"Creating the inline policies is not great."

"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."

"GUI could be improved by adding graphical components."

"Error-handling features can be improved."

More AWS CloudFormation cons

"Puppet Enterprise should improve the general extensibility for places where they can't install it."

"There's a lot of scope for enhancement on the DevSecOps side. They should definitely include features for compliance, for both the Linux and Windows side of the devices, as well as for network devices. Compliance is something they need to work on."

"The solution has really complex code, you have to understand the Ruby language. However, once you know the code then you can move ahead without any problems."

"It's a bit of a pain point to make sure that everything works once we've upgraded it because Puppet has been evolving pretty fast."

"We would like Puppet to add more integration for applications."

"Puppet Enterprise is more complex and difficult to configure."

"Clients with less technical expertise may find Puppet complex to configure. Our team may struggle if technical team members leave the organization, leaving others uncertain about using the tool."

"At the beginning the initial setup was kind of complex."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of the license and the features are justified for myself as a technical person."

"It is average. Some of the costs are quite high depending on what the customer currently uses, but overall, it is not bad. I would not say that I would not recommend Intune based on the cost. I definitely would, but they can definitely improve on the cost. So overall, its cost is not bad."

"It is not expensive."

"I rate Intune five out of 10 for pricing. It's expensive."

"Microsoft Intune is reasonably priced for large organizations that already have Microsoft Enterprise licenses, but it is less affordable for smaller businesses."

"In terms of the product price and licensing costs, my company finds the product to be reasonably priced."

"Cost is not my department, but the product is included in the E5 license that we already pay for every user, so no additional cost is incurred."

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

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

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

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

"The tool is free for the AWS environment."

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

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

"The pricing is not notably high."

"The product is free."

More AWS CloudFormation pricing and cost advice

"The main thing that we noticed when we switched from the enterprise version to the community version was the difference in cost — the infrastructure is pretty expensive."

"Puppet Enterprise can be an expensive solution for smaller businesses."

"Puppet Enterprise’s pricing is competitive."

"Depending on the size of the organization there is a point when the price of Puppet Enterprise should be lower. However, they provide really good functionality, features, and capabilities."

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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

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing 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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

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.

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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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Puppet Enterprise?

Regarding the cost, I find it expensive, always. I don't know how much the license would cost per year or per user ap...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Puppet Enterprise?

I don't know what could be improved in Perforce Puppet to make this tool better for the next release. I can't think o...

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What is your primary use case for Puppet Enterprise?

My main use case for Perforce Puppet is for configuration management.

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 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

More AWS CloudFormation Competitors

AWS Systems Manager vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 17% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 9% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 9% of the time

More Perforce Puppet Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

December 2025

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Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation

January 2026

Download AWS CloudFormation product report

Buyer's Guide

Perforce Puppet

December 2025

Download Perforce Puppet product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

CloudFormation

Puppet

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)

Perforce Puppet provides robust features for configuration management, compatible with Linux, Windows, and UNIX. It simplifies infrastructure management with automation and role-based access control, though it requires mastering command-line operations due to limited GUI.

Perforce Puppet utilizes a hub-spoke architecture to enhance automation across production environments, excelling in provisioning and configuration management for on-prem servers. Its infrastructure as code approach eases deployment and maintenance, supported by community resources for stabilization. Support for diverse devices makes it adaptable for complex configurations, but pricing and integration gaps, especially with Infosec tools, pose challenges for some.

What are the key features of Perforce Puppet?

Remote Package Installation: Centralized server management for remote installations
File Management: Streamlined file operations from a single point
Infrastructure as Code: Simplifies infrastructure maintenance
Scalability: Grows with organizational demands
Role-Based Access Control: Ensures secure user management
Device State Control: Efficient device integration and configuration

What benefits should users expect?

Automation Efficiency: Reduces manual tasks with hub-spoke architecture
Versatility: Supports multiple operating systems
Community Support: Backed by a stable and organized community
Configuration Simplicity: Simplifies and streamlines setup processes

Puppet is implemented across industries for managing production servers, especially in regulated environments. Its security compliance checks ensure adherence to required standards, while public configurations assist in device network integration. Industries benefit from its ability to streamline Linux server automation and explore expansion into Windows systems to meet cross-platform requirements.

Perforce

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Nextdoor, Coinbase, Expedia

Los Alamos National Laboratory, GitHub, IP Commerce, Cedexis, Spiceworks, Server Density, Swisstopo, Chockstone, Constant Contact, NICS, Citrix

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. Perforce Puppet

December 2025

Free Report: AWS CloudFormation vs. Perforce Puppet

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