AWS CloudFormation vs AWS Config comparison

AWS CloudFormation and AWS Config are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. AWS CloudFormation is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.7, while AWS Config is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.3. AWS CloudFormation holds a 1.1% mindshare in CM, compared to AWS Config’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of AWS CloudFormation users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of AWS Config users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

AWS CloudFormation and AWS Config are both integral to managing AWS resources. CloudFormation shines in automated resource provisioning, while AWS Config is superior in continuous resource monitoring and compliance validation.

Features: AWS CloudFormation offers infrastructure as code, automated deployment capabilities, and flexible template management. AWS Config provides robust resource monitoring, compliance checks, and detailed configuration history.

Room for Improvement: AWS CloudFormation could enhance its parameter handling and make automation features more extensive. It can improve nested stack usability and increase template flexibility. AWS Config could benefit from integrating more intuitive compliance rule settings, expanding alert customization, and improving its user interface for easier navigation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS CloudFormation facilitates a simplified setup with a focus on infrastructure deployment, supported by customer service for provisioning challenges. AWS Config offers a user-centric deployment model with straightforward setup and strong support focused on compliance maintenance.

Pricing and ROI: AWS CloudFormation provides cost-efficient infrastructure management with significant ROI through automation. In contrast, AWS Config, with a slightly higher setup cost, offers long-term ROI through reduced compliance risks and thorough monitoring capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config

March 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 April 2025, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 10.2%, up from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS CloudFormation is 1.1%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Config is 1.7%, up from 0.5% 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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Mbula Mboma

AWS Cloud Re-Start Program Specialist at Orange RDC (Congo)

Facilitates efficient infrastructure deployment with visibility into resource connections

I primarily use AWS CloudFormation for deploying infrastructure efficiently. For instance, if I want to create load balancers with target groups and EC2 instances, I find CloudFormation simplifies the process of deployment and configuration, reducing the possibility of errors AWS CloudFormation…

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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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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."

"I like Intune's ability to manage roles, maintenance tasks, compliance settings, and patch development for all endpoints."

"Application deployment and keeping the devices secure no matter where they are, by having this cloud solution — that has been great."

"Its security is most valuable. It gives us a way to secure devices, not only those that are steady. We do have a few tablets and other devices, and it is a way for us to secure these devices and manage them. We know they're out there and what's their status. We can manage their life cycle and verify that they're updated properly."

"Stable solution at a good price."

"The most valuable feature of Intune is the user-friendly portal for end users."

"The ability to manage devices with different sets of policies is most valuable."

"...Intune itself integrates with that entire Microsoft ecosystem. As an individual product itself, it's okay. It holds up. But when you start saying "I've bought this as part of a wider solution, as a company we are going Microsoft throughout," then it makes more sense to have Microsoft Intune... so you have that single dashboard."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"The integration of the solution is very good."

"There is a cost-benefit to using CloudFormation that comes about because of the automation that it provides."

"The reusability of the solution is valuable."

"The nested stacks would be one of the more valuable features."

"AWS CloudFormation makes infrastructure deployment easy."

"Since AWS CloudFormation integrates well with the AWS platform, it facilitates faster deployment. Building templates for AWS services within the solution is also straightforward, making the process easier."

"Automations make it pretty easy to provision AWS, development, or deployment environments."

"Its ability to treat infrastructure's code is valuable. It makes things automatable and reproducible."

More AWS CloudFormation pros

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

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

"The scalability is a ten out of ten."

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

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

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

Cons

"I have a lot of Apple products in my environment. It would be nice to have an improved integration of Apple products with Microsoft Intune without Jam."

"It just doesn't handle software updates well at all by itself. You need to be a scripting wizard to make those happen properly, or you use third-party tools. The Windows feature updates are very difficult to implement. I would like to see a proprietary built-in remote control tool. I know that they have Team Viewer integrated, but it is not seamless. It would be nice if they had a seamless remote desktop capability directly from the Intune console."

"Applying security recommendations can be difficult in Microsoft Intune. Sometimes, they give you recommendations, but you need a different server to manage the pieces, or you have to go to each device individually. However, it has been improving. Before, there were certain policies you could not implement directly in Intune, but now I see progress. I would like to see more improvement in policy management, similar to how we used group policies on-premises."

"It would be nice to have a location tracker for the mobile device management tool. I'm not sure if it exists but hasn't been configured or if it's missing, but we've been unable to utilize the location features."

"The interoperability or communication with a different platform can be better. It is a two-way street. It is not only about Microsoft. The other platforms also have to be willing to share some information, but that absolutely can be improved."

"We haven't really gone through all the features of Intune. We are just discovering them. Every day, we see a new feature that we want to apply, but what will be great for Intune is to be able to deploy apps in a simple fashion. We should be able to easily install various apps on the Windows platform, iOS, and Android. Currently, we have to write some scripts. It's not as straightforward as we would like it to be. It should be simplified so that we can do it just with three clicks—next, next, finish—without needing to write a script."

"What would make this product better is adding more security policies and features in the next upgrade."

"Manually syncing devices to enforce policies is cumbersome."

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 product should be made cloud-agnostic, allowing users to deploy the same environment with minimal tweaks across different cloud platforms, similar to Terraform. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have the ability to manage templates outside of the AWS environment."

"CloudFormation is not particularly good at handling cross-account dynamic references. If you try to refer to an object that CloudFormation has created in a separate AWS account, it tends to fall apart. That's because it is a byproduct of the multi-tenant configuration. This is the most glaring shortcoming in my perspective because you can't dynamically reference objects in other accounts that CloudFormation has created, but it is not a shortcoming that you can't overcome. This is the only pain point that I've come across that didn't have a workaround natively. Sometimes the confirmation is slow, and it could be faster. The downside to CloudFormation when you're fully embracing it is that the AWS services do not get released immediately fully CloudFormation enabled. If you need to use the latest AWS service that just got announced or reinvented, you're not going to be able to continue with CloudFormation for the first X number of months. This is because they develop the products separately, and then they hand it to the CloudFormation team, which later on develops a CloudFormation integration. So, if you need to be on the newest thing AWS has, CloudFormation is often going to be a constraint that prevents you from doing that."

"If Amazon could extend CloudFormation to other cloud platforms, that would be good. Currently, it is only limited to AWS."

"Including certain examples of templates would be advantageous."

"The conditions that can be added in AWS CloudFormation are not as powerful as any programming language."

"There could be better error handling. It would be a good way to improve the solution."

"Error-handling features can be improved."

More AWS CloudFormation cons

"Improvements are needed as per customer requirements."

"There is room for improvement in built-in tools, they are not up to the mark."

"The solution is missing a configuration that can assist us when writing our programming languages."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We work with the subscription rather than a server license. I think it's economical this way because we don't have to have a server license for that, and I think that works in our favor."

"Its price is fair. It's a normal price. It isn't too expensive or too cheap."

"Microsoft Intune is more expensive than other solutions, but it offers a wider range of features and control."

"We are partners, so we receive some discount. However, from the customer's perspective, Microsoft Intune's pricing is competitive with non-Microsoft technology, and the price is good compared to other market competitors."

"There are licenses required for this solution. We enable licenses on the devices we need to manage."

"The pricing is not cheap, especially with inflation. They've had to increase their prices. It's not excessive, but alright."

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

"The E5 license is expensive."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"There's no cost for launching any template using CloudFormation."

"The product is free."

"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 pricing is not notably high."

"AWS CloudFormation doesn't have any cost because it's only the resources that you deploy with the solution that'll incur costs."

"In general, pricing within AWS is relatively affordable."

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

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

More AWS CloudFormation 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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

21%

Retailer

Government

Financial Services Firm

23%

Healthcare Company

Photography Company

Comms Service Provider

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 ...

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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?

Improvements are needed for sharing resources between template files, especially when using AWS ( /products/amazon-aw...

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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

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Compared 14% of the time

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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

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AWS Systems Manager vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 78% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs AWS CloudFormation

Compared 22% of the time

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AWS Systems Manager vs AWS Config

Compared 71% of the time

Spring Cloud vs AWS Config

Compared 20% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

March 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation

April 2025

Download AWS CloudFormation product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

April 2025

Download AWS Config product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

CloudFormation

No data available

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)

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)

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Nextdoor, Coinbase, Expedia

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

Buyer's Guide

AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config

March 2025

Free Report: AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS CloudFormation vs. AWS Config and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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