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 #18 with an average rating of 8.0, while AWS Systems Manager is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.3. AWS Config holds a 2.3% mindshare in CM, compared to AWS Systems Manager’s 6.3% 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.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Config vs. AWS Systems Manager

March 2026

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Helped 883,026 peers since 2012

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 March 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 6.9%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Config is 2.3%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Systems Manager is 6.3%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Configuration Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Intune	6.9%
AWS Systems Manager	6.3%
AWS Config	2.3%
Other	84.5%

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

AkashKamble

Sr MacOS specialist engineer at Cyber24

Enables management of multiple operating systems with a single license

The best feature is that it's a Microsoft product, so if anything goes wrong, we get quick support for anything required. Remote system functionality allows us to sit anywhere and take control of any device via remote management. We can enhance security for clients' laptops with built-in Microsoft Defender, which is available with the Microsoft Intune license. We use it for reporting purposes through endpoint analytics. When pushing scripting, there are two types available: remediation script and reservation script. Through endpoint analytics, you can push defender policies to clients. It helps with reporting, inventory updates, and monitoring tenant status health.

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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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Garima Chauhan

Senior Cloud Engineer at Prabhav Services

Efficient value synchronization across multiple accounts with good reliability

AWS Systems Manager's most valuable feature is its ability to dynamically export and import values in various AWS accounts. When you update the value, it's directly reflected across the system without needing manual editing. This is particularly effective for setting policies securely. The parameter store features are among the best aspects.

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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

"For our clients, the conditional access feature along with different compliance policies that they can set is valuable."

"We handle the distribution software, collect metrics for app usage, and create policies to make the device compliant for Microsoft Intune."

"Microsoft Intune is a tool designed for enterprise customers to protect enterprise data from leakage or sharing."

"My favorite feature of Microsoft Intune is the dashboard; the dashboard is very simple and user-friendly, and any person, even without prior knowledge, can understand it easily by seeing the interface dashboard."

"The most valuable feature is that we can manage workstations or Android devices remotely without needing the device to be connected to our local network."

"The core management feature in Intune is invaluable to us, especially considering the challenges we often face with System Center when pushing external updates."

"We can securely manage both company-owned devices and personal devices enrolled in our BYOD program."

"Implementing Microsoft Intune has provided a more streamlined and consistent method for device management across our multiple domains, effectively consolidating our administrative efforts."

More Microsoft Intune pros

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

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

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

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

"The scalability is a ten out of ten."

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

"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."

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

"AWS provides Auto Scaling groups."

"The solution's ability to scale is good."

"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."

"When we do the automation in the cloud, we use the SSM agent. This helps us to test our automation and documents, and monitor the cloud."

"Has a variety of automation options."

More AWS Systems Manager pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in integrating additional features such as Purview and SharePoint activities into Intune."

"There needs to be more support for Mac operating systems."

"Onboarding of endpoint devices is not straightforward. The onboarding process was a little heavier than I thought it would be. That's the key improvement area. Obviously, the more control you have over the devices, the better it is."

"There are challenges with Intune, specifically in reporting. Many third-party companies offer single-pane-of-glass reporting that shows you what your update environment looks like, how your patch is doing, application status, etc., but Intune's reporting is not intuitive. You can connect to Azure, monitoring, and the workbooks, but it's not streamlined."

"Intune's server management could be better. If it could incorporate more features from System Center into Intune's Configuration Manager, it would be beneficial."

"It needs incorporation of Knox, ZeroTouch, etc."

"Lacks the ability to deploy more ways of management, managing devices and processing the policies."

"For additional functionality, I suggest that Microsoft could expand on asset management. Since the platform is there, they could develop it into a full-fledged asset management system."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"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."

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

"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."

"Ensuring broader OS coverage in patch management could be beneficial for the product."

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

"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."

"AWS does not have EKS cluster backup."

"The current challenge is that we can't pull any incidents from other accounts."

"Lacks sufficient integrations."

More AWS Systems Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is good because customers are not complaining about it."

"They have categorized the licenses according to the size of the business. So, if it's a smaller organization, we can choose the license accordingly. If it's a big organization, then we can choose accordingly. Everything is clearly mentioned, and we can decide. It's suitable for all kinds of infrastructure, and that's very goo"

"It's monthly for us, but it's built into the license cost that we pay our IT each month. It's maybe 129 Kroner per head, which translates to £10. There are some additional costs. Our IT had to set up and configure their own server, so there is an extra cost for that, but I'm not sure what that costs."

"The licensing costs we leave up to the customer and these vary from one to another."

"Microsoft Intune is reasonably priced for large organizations that already have Microsoft Enterprise licenses, but it is less affordable for smaller businesses."

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

"It's affordable. It's cheaper if you have an Office 365, E5, or E3 subscription because everything is there."

"Microsoft Intune has a user-based subscription model. You can go for a monthly or a yearly payment."

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."

"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."

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

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

22%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Photography Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	122
Midsize Enterprise	48
Large Enterprise	160

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	7

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 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 advice do you have for others considering AWS Config?

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

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...

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What needs improvement with AWS Systems Manager?

I do not use the automation feature in this product.

See all answers

Comparisons

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 10% of the time

IBM MaaS360 vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 8% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 8% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

Google Endpoint Management vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Intune Competitors

Spring Cloud vs AWS Config

Compared 9% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs AWS Config

Compared 8% of the time

CloudBees vs AWS Config

Compared 7% of the time

SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor vs AWS Config

Compared 7% of the time

Perforce Puppet vs AWS Config

Compared 6% of the time

More AWS Config Competitors

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 8% of the time

Perforce Puppet vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 8% of the time

AWS CloudFormation vs AWS Systems Manager

Compared 6% of the time

More AWS Systems Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

February 2026

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

January 2026

Download AWS Config product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

January 2026

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 is a cloud-based service designed for device management, security, and compliance. It supports automation and facilitates endpoint management for Windows, iOS, and Android devices, ensuring data protection and efficient policy enforcement.

Microsoft Intune offers seamless integration with tools like Windows Autopilot to automate device setup and deployment. Integrated with Azure Active Directory, it enhances policy management while providing robust reporting and analytics tools for compliance tracking. Despite its intuitive interface aimed at simplifying navigation and device security management, there are challenges such as compatibility issues with Linux and Mac, limited policy support for Android, and demands for better third-party integration. It's widely used for both corporate-owned devices and BYOD scenarios in dynamic IT environments.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Windows Autopilot: Automates device setup for rapid deployment.
Azure Active Directory Integration: Enhances user policy management.
Reporting and Analytics: Improves compliance visibility.
Mobile Application Management: Ensures app security without compromising personal data.
Cloud-Based Management: Allows management from any location.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Time Efficiency: Automation reduces time in policy enforcement and configuration updates.
Enhanced Security: Ensures data protection across corporate-owned and BYOD devices.
Improved Compliance: Advanced reporting tools enhance compliance visibility.
Flexible Management: Cloud-based nature supports management from any location.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure data protection and compliance with regulatory standards. Manufacturing sectors utilize Intune for managing a distributed workforce across global locations, while educational institutions employ it to secure and manage devices in learning environments supporting both students and faculty.

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

March 2026

Free Report: AWS Config vs. AWS Systems Manager

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