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AWS Control Tower vs AWS Trusted Advisor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

AWS Control Tower
Ranking in Cloud Management
16th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
AWS Trusted Advisor
Ranking in Cloud Management
23rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of AWS Control Tower is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Trusted Advisor is 1.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AWS Control Tower1.8%
AWS Trusted Advisor1.4%
Other96.8%
Cloud Management
 

Featured Reviews

Sharkrit Impat - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Platform Engineering at Ascend Group Co., Ltd.
Streamlines governance and security management but requires effort in managing hidden costs
I believe AWS Control Tower could be improved. I compare it with Huawei Cloud's enterprise project, which is a similar concept but different implementation. In Huawei Cloud, you partition in one single account, but in AWS, you have to separate many accounts. You end up with maybe 20 or 30 accounts if you try to separate. It has limitations; you pay a fixed amount for 15 accounts, but if you exceed that, you have to pay more. It could be useful for implementing a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCOE) for multiple organizations, but for one organization, I would advise against it; it is too much overhead and adds hidden costs. There are limitations on the Landing Zone feature as well. If we implement AWS Control Tower, we need to implement Landing Zone and the security policy, guardrails, and Account Factory; it is not one single product. Using another cloud's enterprise project, you can just create the project and manage it already. It requires some learning curve to get hands-on. For pricing and licensing of AWS Control Tower, it has hidden costs. The Control Tower itself does not cost much, but the child accounts created from AWS Control Tower add costs for checking all configurations, logging, and metrics.
MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Optimizes cloud strategies with security and cost insights
Trusted Advisor offers features that provide inside information for the entire account, including identifying security gaps and offering cost optimization insights. The key features include security recommendations, cost optimization, and various packages to choose from, depending on the size of the company. It is especially beneficial for larger companies, as the tool provides a comprehensive view of account security, open ports, buckets, and offers recommendations for protection.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Security is the most valuable feature of Control Tower."
"The most intriguing feature is the automatic generation of user accounts. Leveraging Active Directory and global company settings, AWS Cloud Tower enables the creation of AWS user accounts based on job descriptions in Active Directory. This establishes a direct correlation between the user's name, job definition, and the corresponding rules applied to each account."
"It aligns well with the customer's needs and it ultimately fosters a strong customer-company relationship."
"It offers automated recommendations for security and policies, creating a landing zone and providing a list of policies."
"The most significant benefit of Control Tower is its capability to align with our organization's standards."
"Control Tower offers many valuable features for managing all account security."
"There are two features in Control Tower which are the most valuable. One is the guardrails because it has preventive and detective guardrails."
"With Control Tower, there are ready-to-use automated templates available, simplifying the implementation of a centralized management solution."
"The cost optimization features are valuable."
"Trusted Advisor scans the complete infrastructure within the account, providing a consolidated view of all services in use."
"Trusted Advisor has helped our organisation gain insights into best practices across a number of important domains for us, and it has helped me maintain a holistic view of our AWS platform and guided me to improve areas needing it."
"The key features include security recommendations, cost optimization, and various packages to choose from, depending on the size of the company."
"The cost optimization and security-related fixes in AWS Trusted Advisor have been great."
"I would give it a ten out of ten."
"I strongly recommend using Trusted Advisor due to its role in cybersecurity, providing cost-effective solutions compared to external companies."
"The recommendation feature is really good."
 

Cons

"The tool's setup is very technical. Its pricing can be cheaper."
"By making APIs and organizational units more centralized, it would be simpler to pinpoint the source of issues in case of a breach and would ultimately benefit everyone involved."
"There aren't any additional features that I feel are missing. However, it's worth noting that Control Tower seems to function as a layer utilizing standard AWS products in the background. Occasionally, the interface may appear less streamlined, with changes in layout based on the underlying products being used. While this doesn't impact functionality, having a more standardized user interface, irrespective of the background products, could enhance the user experience."
"The sole drawback is its restriction to enable only one Control Tower."
"The initial setup is complex."
"The product's affordability depends on the value it brings to specific organizations."
"The solution's stability could be improved."
"The integration with other AWS functions has room for improvement."
"For EC2 instances, we need to install the AWS CloudWatch agent to get the memory metric because we don't have a by-default memory utilization graph on cost optimization."
"Whenever they suggest anything or any changes in the environment, we cannot click and simply implement those changes."
"Maybe if Trusted Advisor could also help us with IP address issues and the status of our VPCs, it would be beneficial."
"I'd like the solution to support clouds beyond AWS."
"The integration between Trusted Advisor and Security Hub sometimes lacks, and I need a way to ensure things come through there."
"The tenancy must be free for all metrics."
"Cost is a significant factor that needs improvement. Reducing the cost would make it more beneficial for all users."
"Maybe adding more security rules would be great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free."
"The pay-as-you-go model ensures you're only charged for what you use, which offers great flexibility for different types of companies."
"The product's affordability depends on the value it brings to specific organizations."
"It is expensive but it is an investment in my opinion."
"It operates on a pay-as-you-go model, meaning we are charged only for the services we actively use within it."
"AWS Control Tower is not really that expensive."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing an eight."
"The pricing structure is closely intertwined with the specifics of your environment and the billing strategy you employ."
"Trusted Advisor offers various packages, with the most comprehensive costing $15,000 per month."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Insurance Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Retailer
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Performing Arts
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Control Tower?
Control Tower within the AWS Organization does not have a charge. It is free and does not incur additional charges.
What needs improvement with AWS Control Tower?
I believe AWS Control Tower could be improved. I compare it with Huawei Cloud's enterprise project, which is a similar concept but different implementation. In Huawei Cloud, you partition in one si...
What is your primary use case for AWS Control Tower?
I use AWS Control Tower to enhance governance, enhance security, and manage multiple subsidiaries. We sunset the AWS Control Tower that I implemented, but it was a new project that we implemented. ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Trusted Advisor?
The cost of Trusted Advisor is reasonable, though it can be further economized by allowing selective scanning, focusing only on production systems, to avoid unnecessary costs associated with develo...
What needs improvement with AWS Trusted Advisor?
Trusted Advisor currently scans the whole system, including development, staging, and QA environments, which increases costs. It would be better if it could selectively scan only production systems...
What is your primary use case for AWS Trusted Advisor?
We have been using Amazon Inspector and Amazon Trusted Advisor for monitoring. These tools are especially useful for preventing cyberattacks on our systems. Trusted Advisor scans the complete infra...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Control Tower vs. AWS Trusted Advisor and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,264 professionals have used our research since 2012.