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AWS Control Tower vs Spacelift 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
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Spacelift
Ranking in Cloud Management
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of AWS Control Tower is 1.4%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Spacelift is 0.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Management
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Unified security management ensures comprehensive compliance for account safety
Control Tower offers many valuable features for managing all account security. I can manage user security and user IAM, firewall, and other security-related tasks via Control Tower. The unified security management is a crucial aspect, and whenever an AWS organization is used, Control Tower is typically included to ensure comprehensive compliance fulfillment.
Moloko Mokubedi - PeerSpot reviewer
The GitOps feature automatically picks up changes from my GitHub projects
There are a few areas for improvement. For instance, getting notification webhooks is not easy. In the free version, there's no straightforward way to be notified once a deployment is finished. Spacelift requires creating a notification policy, which involves using the open policies framework. However, this feature is not available on the free plan. Additionally, for each new project, I need to create a new IAM role, which is not optimal. It would be better if I could use a single role for all interactions with my AWS account.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most significant benefit of Control Tower is its capability to align with our organization's standards."
"The solution's initial setup was easy for me."
"AWS Control Tower helps companies save costs."
"Control Tower offers many valuable features for managing all account security."
"With Control Tower, there are ready-to-use automated templates available, simplifying the implementation of a centralized management solution."
"It is incredibly user-friendly and functions seamlessly."
"Compliance is the most valuable feature."
"It aligns well with the customer's needs and it ultimately fosters a strong customer-company relationship."
"One key feature is the Spacelift policies, which we can attach to deployments to ensure compliance with our standards."
"A valuable feature of Spacelift is that you can attach labels, and it is a modernized tool for infrastructure deployments. It is pull request-based, and you can see all the Terraform plan and apply logs on the pull request itself, which is not available across any other CI/CD tools."
"I appreciate that I just have to connect to my AWS account with my credentials, and Spacelift handles the rest."
"Spacelift is like an extension of Terraform, where everything can be visibly managed."
"Knowing the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) makes it easier to use without issues."
 

Cons

"The sole drawback is its restriction to enable only one Control Tower."
"AWS should provide more resources, examples, and tutorials."
"It is essential to clarify that this isn't necessarily a drawback of the service, but having a clear and concise set of predefined guidelines from AWS for moving existing accounts under AWS Control Tower would be highly beneficial as it would simplify the process and make it more user-friendly."
"There is a sync issue within the organization. It is important that the system syncs automatically instead of requiring me to manually choose sync options."
"The process of closing an AWS account using Control Tower needs improvements to simplify it, especially when managing multiple accounts."
"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 integration with other AWS functions has room for improvement."
"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."
"If you are a small enterprise organization, below 500 people, I would not recommend it."
"Synchronization can be difficult when using older and newer versions with Kubernetes and HashiCorp."
"The self-hosted version does not have a lot of features compared to the SaaS version, such as cloud integrations for Azure and GCP."
"Spacelift currently lacks features that can help with complex type deployments and coordination for major deployments."
"In the free version, there's no straightforward way to be notified once a deployment is finished."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing structure is closely intertwined with the specifics of your environment and the billing strategy you employ."
"The product's affordability depends on the value it brings to specific organizations."
"The solution is free."
"It is cost-effective and the associated cost is quite minimal."
"The pricing is efficient, not overly expensive but also not very cheap."
"AWS Control Tower is not really that expensive."
"It is expensive but it is an investment in my opinion."
"The pay-as-you-go model ensures you're only charged for what you use, which offers great flexibility for different types of companies."
"It is a bit expensive product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
11%
Media Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS 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...
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 experience regarding pricing and costs for Spacelift?
I've never checked the pricing because I enjoy using it for free. Besides the notification feature, I haven't needed any paid features.
What needs improvement with Spacelift?
There are a few areas for improvement. For instance, getting notification webhooks is not easy. In the free version, there's no straightforward way to be notified once a deployment is finished. Spa...
What is your primary use case for Spacelift?
I use Spacelift to deploy my applications, particularly AWS applications and infrastructure to my personal AWS account.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Control Tower vs. Spacelift and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.