AWS Config vs AWS Systems Manager comparison

AWS Config and AWS Systems Manager are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. AWS Config is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.3, while AWS Systems Manager is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.1. AWS Config holds a 2.2% mindshare in CM, compared to AWS Systems Manager’s 10.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of AWS Config 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 Sep 16, 2024

AWS Config and AWS Systems Manager compete in the AWS resource management category. AWS Config seems to have an upper hand in terms of compliance and ease of deployment, while AWS Systems Manager stands out in versatility and functionality.

Features: AWS Config offers continuous monitoring, evaluation of AWS resource configurations, and compliance checking. AWS Systems Manager provides operational data management, automation capabilities, and versatile functionalities.

Room for Improvement: AWS Config users suggest the need for more integrations, finer granularity in monitoring capabilities, and performance improvements. AWS Systems Manager could improve its documentation, user guidance, and interface usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS Config is praised for straightforward setup and effective customer support. AWS Systems Manager offers intuitive setup but faces criticism regarding complex configurations. AWS Config is simpler to deploy with better customer support.

Pricing and ROI: AWS Config's pricing is competitive, deriving quick ROI through compliance features. AWS Systems Manager, despite higher perceived costs, balances its value with extensive functionalities. Both products are valuable, but AWS Systems Manager's capabilities justify its cost.

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

Buyer's Guide

AWS Config vs. AWS Systems Manager

June 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 Config is 2.2%, up from 0.5% 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

Joseph Merusi

Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Everything has worked better since we started using it

Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.

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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.

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Ambe Frankline

Cloud/DevOps Engineer at Innovative Technology Systems

Tracks every action on AWS accounts in a centralized way

Setting up AWS Systems Manager to monitor and control other services is easy. You need to link the services you want to observe and track. The time it takes to deploy depends on factors like connectivity, latency, and the complexity of the services. For example, setting up a simple application is faster than setting up a more complicated three-tier or multi-tier system. Using the solution for batch updates varies depending on the number of servers involved and the commands needed. Personally, when I do small projects at home, deploying a few servers doesn't take long. But at work, where we handle larger deployments with hundreds of servers, it's faster due to better connectivity and resources.

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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

"The automatic patch management feature in the Intune Suite is helpful."

"Intune significantly simplifies application deployment, mobile application management, and policy enforcement, such as restricting user access to specific applications, thereby enhancing overall environment security."

"Previously, SCCM was used as an on-premise solution for clients, but now they are moving to Microsoft Intune as a cloud solution with better security and functions."

"I would say the biggest benefit is the single-pane view. There's no jumping around multiple UI's to do your overall management."

"Microsoft Intune scales very effectively with our growing needs."

"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."

"The best features include the management, which is quite good, and endpoints."

"Microsoft Intune's autopilot has been nice to have."

More Microsoft Intune pros

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

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

"The scalability is a ten out of ten."

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

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

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

"The solution is user-friendly"

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

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

"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."

"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."

"The store organizes parameters hierarchically, making it easier to configure and control versions. It also ensures scalability and high availability, automatically scaling to handle increasing workloads and providing reliable access to configuration data across multiple AWS availability zones."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the change management option. It tracks every action on my AWS accounts in a centralized way, acting like a control tool for me. This is especially useful when working with Kubernetes and AWS ECS services. Additionally, my colleagues and clients often use the application management tools for configuration, parameters, and installations."

"Has a variety of automation options."

More AWS Systems Manager pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the remediation and detection modules, which are currently about eighty percent fully functional."

"Additional application deployment options e.g. MSI deployment with more complex parameters or additional side-by-side files, and non-MSI deployment options."

"The reporting could be improved, as it's pretty poor compared to other products of this type."

"The reporting is subpar. That's the only issue we have with Intune. We use another solution for that purpose."

"If you wish to block any App Store application, there is no way to do so."

"Intune has some limitations when it comes to application updates for third-party applications. You can schedule an update, but when it's a package setup, you need to supercede and replace it each time."

"The security aspect could be more effective."

"The backend of Microsoft Intune needs to be improved. We have seen a little bit of delay as compared to other MDM solutions. That needs to be improved. A little bit more granularity should also be added"

More Microsoft Intune cons

"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."

"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."

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

"Additional features can be added as per customer requirements."

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

"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."

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

"AWS does not have EKS cluster backup."

"It could be agentless if there's room for improvement in the AWS Systems Manager. Currently, you have to install agents, although, for most of the latest EC2 images, the agents come preinstalled. If it could be at the level of Ansible, which is agentless, that would be fantastic. When you compare the solution to Ansible, one of the most widely accepted tools, the agentless feature stands out. So, if the AWS Systems Manager could become agentless, that would be a significant improvement."

More AWS Systems Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Intune is a cost effective choice. It is less expensive than other products on the market."

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

"The price of Intune is included with the license for Office 365, so we don't have to pay anything extra for it."

"The price is reasonable, but they should lower it a bit to make it more competitive. It's cheaper than AirWatch and other products, but I still feel like Microsoft can make a base version or with Exchange online or a la carte only Intune version which will be useful. A customer who doesn't want to go full-fledged E3 or E5 can take out or consume an Intune solution only for their purpose, and we want to target that customer."

"The price for Intune is fair."

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

"The cost is handled through our Office 365 license, so I have yet to be able to compare it directly with other tools in its class."

"While Microsoft charges for actual usage, it lacks discount options."

More Microsoft Intune 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."

"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."

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

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

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

25%

Photography Company

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing 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 ...

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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

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 3% of the time

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Spring Cloud vs AWS Config

Compared 19% of the time

More AWS Config Competitors

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 15% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 8% of the time

AWS CloudFormation vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 5% 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

June 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

June 2025

Download AWS Config product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

June 2025

Download AWS Systems Manager product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

No data available

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 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)

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

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

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Buyer's Guide

AWS Config vs. AWS Systems Manager

June 2025

Free Report: AWS Config vs. AWS Systems Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Config vs. AWS Systems Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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