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AWS Firewall Manager vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 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 Firewall Manager
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Secure Firewall Manag...
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of AWS Firewall Manager is 3.7%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center1.4%
AWS Firewall Manager3.7%
Other94.9%
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Karthik Ekambaram - PeerSpot reviewer
Has centralized rule management and improved protection against suspicious traffic but needs better threat intelligence integration and automated policy enforcement
I have not compared AWS WAF with any other WAF solution yet, but whatever WAF you choose, there will always be challenges, and it cannot block all malicious traffic. For AWS WAF, we have seen cases where it allowed suspicious HTTPS headers even if they carried malicious payloads. However, the malicious payloads are not straightforward, and there are assembly scripts that come with the HTTP headers that sometimes AWS WAF misses. In the last four or five years, we have seen a case where WAF was unable to capture a threat. On the other hand, we also see alerts from WAF indicating that it has figured out many DDoS protection alerts and was able to block them, even with rate limiting. Rule-based WAF works perfectly fine, but I don't think any threat intelligence-based WAF solutions can be 100% accurate. The integration with AWS Organizations and enforcement of security policies, particularly SCP, is difficult to deploy in most of my companies due to client environments. When I say difficult, it depends on the client's organization processes, not AWS itself. The SCP feature is excellent in my view and is the best way to reduce the attack surface for organizations structured in a specific manner. While we have used it internally, limited features of SCPs can be utilized by customers. Regarding automating security policy deployment, we have utilized automated security policy features, but it is difficult in some instances. We have identified what has been identified, but enabling automated SCP policies can be restrictive, which is actually good but makes it hard to implement for all organizations. Automating security policy features could understand the customer's environment better. An AI- or ML-enabled automated SCP could be a better option since it can understand the actions of administrators or developers in the customer's organization within the AWS platform, providing more in-depth automated assessments and SCP features. I rate this solution 8 out of 10.
Yonas Abebe - PeerSpot reviewer
Great dashboard with extensive visibility and good support
I expect more integration with AI. I expect Cisco to be easier for users in India, especially for junior users. For a junior one, it may somehow be complex, especially when configuring something. I remember version 6.4 had an integration with Eddie, allowing me to define a policy according to my users, however, the latest version, lacks this integration. The logging of FMC should be improved as it does not offer real-time solutions like DazaSodo.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Once this solution is set up, we hardly have to touch it."
"Also, the strength of the community is invaluable."
"AWS Firewall Manager isn't a separate solution when you create the virtual private cloud (VPC), so you can control the traffic through that security group."
"We work with compliance monitoring in the product, which is helpful for identifying framework-based misconfigurations, as it can tell you where to deploy firewall policies based on the frameworks."
"The most valuable feature is the centrally managed rule. I also like the central orchestration."
"The interface is intuitive and it is easy for the users."
"The product is highly reliable."
"It has centralized cloud firewall management rules. It provides compliance in tracking and reporting."
"The platform has significantly enhanced our organization's operations by providing secure communication channels between different office locations."
"Scalability is not an issue as long as you are able to buy additional licenses. Ten percent of our customers use Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, and we have large accounts with 50% of their end users behind this firewall."
"The solution is quite scalable."
"The product's user interface is very easy to use and convenient."
"The tool's deployment is not complex."
"The solution is useful and powerful."
"The solution has a great UI and a policy deployment mechanism, and all the configuration is easily manageable for the firewalls."
"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is scalable."
 

Cons

"The system should be more customizable."
"They could consider organizing and enhancing documentation in a more structured and chronological manner"
"The product could benefit from improvements in the user interface and integration capabilities."
"I would like to see AWS add some UTM features to the firewall. It would also be great if AWS Firewall had native IPS/IDS. They have the separate IPS/IDS, GuardDuty."
"Enabling and configuring the logging is not that straightforward."
"AWS Firewall Manager should be open to manage other third-party appliances as well."
"This solution is suitable for a small-scale enterprise and may not scale up to a very high volume of traffic or a large number of servers."
"It needs to be more employee-friendly, and the security management could be more efficient."
"The interface is an area that could be improved."
"The solution should improve the user interface."
"It's not very user-friendly and can be somewhat disorganized."
"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center could improve by being less expensive."
"I had a challenging time trying to size the firewall on the cloud. Maybe the information is there, but I couldn't find it easily. Usually, it depends on the cloud provider itself, whether you use AWS or Azure. These guys give you the information, so this part is not as detailed."
"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center needs to reduce its price."
"Improving the product by incorporating SD-WAN functionality would be highly beneficial, especially for remote offices with limited server and Internet availability."
"The IOS and the deploy option could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a cost-efficient product."
"From what I've heard from my colleagues, it appears that the pricing is competitive, which influenced our decision to choose this option."
"The AWS Firewall Manager is a little on the costly side."
"The licensing is on a pay-as-you-go basis and we are billed monthly."
"The platform is costly."
"I rate Secure Firewall Management Center eight out of 10 for pricing."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"As for pricing, the tool is expensive for us. I'd rate it eight out of ten on a scale where ten is the most expensive."
"My license offers all the protection, like malware protection, VPN protection, IDS, IPS, and endpoint protection."
"The solution is not expensive."
"I rate the tool's pricing a four out of ten. The licensing costs are yearly."
"Technical support is an additional annual cost and is not included with the license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Retailer
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Retailer
9%
Performing Arts
9%
Transportation Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Firewall Manager?
Microsoft Firewall costs depend on region-based pricing. I don't recall the exact costs because we usually don't get the costing for the firewall alone but rather for the entire product we use, so ...
What needs improvement with AWS Firewall Manager?
I don't see any specific problems with AWS Firewall Manager, but the area of improvement could be in threat intelligence integration. For instance, while I'm not specifically saying Mandiant, which...
What is your primary use case for AWS Firewall Manager?
The major use case for AWS Firewall Manager is to deploy firewalls in front of the products we expose to the internet in our Kubernetes clusters and AKS clusters, ensuring we block DDoS attacks and...
What do you like most about Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?
The platform has significantly enhanced our organization's operations by providing secure communication channels between different office locations.
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?
Licensing has been a challenge with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, and personally, I would consider switching to another solution. We are thinking of taking a Fortinet or another solution...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Firewall Manager vs. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
871,408 professionals have used our research since 2012.