This content is currently locked.

Your current McLean & Company subscription does not include access to this content. Contact your account representative to gain access to Premium SoftwareReviews.

Contact Your Representative

Or Call Us:
+1-877-281-0480 (US/CAN) or
+1-703-544-9513 (International)

Amazon

AWS CloudFormation

Composite Score

8.7 /10

CX Score

9.0 /10

69 Reviews Write a Review

What is AWS CloudFormation?

AWS CloudFormation provides a common language for you to describe and provision all the infrastructure resources in your cloud environment. CloudFormation allows you to use 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 file serves as the single source of truth for your cloud environment.

Company Details

Need Assistance?

We're here to help you with understanding our reports and the data inside to help you make decisions.

Get Assistance

AWS CloudFormation Ratings

Real user data aggregated to summarize the product performance and customer experience.
Download the entire Product Scorecard to access more information on AWS CloudFormation.

Product scores listed below represent current data. This may be different from data contained in reports and awards, which express data as of their publication date.

91 Likeliness to Recommend

98 Plan to Renew

85 Satisfaction of Cost Relative to Value

{y}

{name}

Emotional Footprint Overview

Product scores listed below represent current data. This may be different from data contained in reports and awards, which express data as of their publication date.

+96 Net Emotional Footprint

The emotional sentiment held by end users of the software based on their experience with the vendor. Responses are captured on an eight-point scale.

How much do users love AWS CloudFormation?

0% Negative

5% Neutral

95% Positive

Pros

Helps Innovate
Continually Improving Product
Fair
Includes Product Enhancements

Feature Ratings

Average 86

Dynamic Scalability

Configuration Management

Resource Availability

Resource Definition

Systems Administration

Task Process Automation

Agent or Agentless

Service Templates

Scripting Support

Multi Tenancy

Workflow Support

Vendor Capability Ratings

Average 85

Business Value Created

Breadth of Features

Ease of Data Integration

Vendor Support

Quality of Features

Ease of Customization

Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement

Availability and Quality of Training

Ease of Implementation

Ease of IT Administration

Usability and Intuitiveness

AWS CloudFormation Reviews

Role: Consultant
Industry: Finance
Involvement: IT Leader or Manager

Validated Review

Anonymous Reviewer

Submitted Mar 2024

Effortless Orchestration

Likeliness to Recommend

9 /10

Pros

Helps Innovate
Continually Improving Product
Reliable
Performance Enhancing

Kabilan M.

Role: Information Technology
Industry: Technology
Involvement: IT Development, Integration, and Administration

Validated Review

Verified Reviewer

Submitted Nov 2025

IaC Tool with Room for Better User Experience and

Likeliness to Recommend

9 /10

What differentiates AWS CloudFormation from other similar products?

AWS CloudFormation stands out from other IaC tools primarily because it is natively integrated into the AWS ecosystem. Since it is an AWS-managed service, it provides deep integration with AWS services, lifecycle automation, and security features that external tools cannot fully match.

What is your favorite aspect of this product?

My favorite aspect of AWS CloudFormation is the ability to define and manage infrastructure as code in a fully automated and repeatable way. I really appreciate how CloudFormation can create, update, and delete entire environments consistently with a single template, eliminating manual setup and reducing configuration errors. The built-in features like change sets, automatic rollback, and drift detection make deployments safer and more controlled, especially in production environments.

What do you dislike most about this product?

What I dislike most about CloudFormation is that it can become quite complex to manage and debug when dealing with large or advanced infrastructure setups. The error messages are often not very clear, which makes troubleshooting time-consuming.

What recommendations would you give to someone considering this product?

I would recommend starting with AWS CloudFormation if you’re looking for a reliable and fully AWS-integrated Infrastructure-as-Code solution but be prepared for a learning curve. Begin with smaller templates and build gradually to avoid complexity. Make use of Change Sets, Stack Policies, and Drift Detection to safely manage deployments and prevent accidental errors.

Pros

Inspires Innovation
Acts with Integrity
Continually Improving Product
Reliable

Cons

Less Generous

Ravinder C.

Role: Information Technology
Industry: Technology
Involvement: IT Leader or Manager

Validated Review

Verified Reviewer

Submitted Apr 2025

Best Fit for AWS-Centric Teams

Likeliness to Recommend

8 /10

What differentiates AWS CloudFormation from other similar products?

There are several points when comparing AWS CloudFormation with similar products. let me mention For example, it comes at no additional cost, offers native integration with AWS services, and provides tight integration with IAM. Additionally, features like drift detection are especially helpful.

What is your favorite aspect of this product?

It define your entire cloud environment as code, making deployments consistent and repeatable. Features like change sets, drift detection and stack sets are my favorite.

What do you dislike most about this product?

The syntax (especially in JSON/YAML), handling nested stacks, and debugging template errors can be time-consuming. It would benefit from being more beginner-friendly and offering clearer error messages.

What recommendations would you give to someone considering this product?

It is powerful tool, especially for teams already working within the AWS ecosystem, It brings more value in automating and managing infrastructure. It does come with learning curve so i would recommend setting aside time for proper training and starting with small use cases. ThankYou

Pros

Saves Time
Helps Innovate
Continually Improving Product
Reliable

How We Deliver

Events

AWS Cloud​Formation

What is AWS Cloud​Formation?

Company Details

Need Assistance?

AWS Cloud​Formation Ratings

91 Likeliness to Recommend

98 Plan to Renew

85 Satisfaction of Cost Relative to Value

Emotional Footprint Overview

+96 Net Emotional Footprint

How much do users love AWS Cloud​Formation?

Pros

Feature Ratings Average rating of all product features, some of which may not be shown below

Dynamic Scalability Ability to scale servers up or down, depending on resource requirements. This activity may be automated, triggered by conditions, or be completely manual.

Configuration Management Tracking of server configuration and configuration changes.

Resource Availability Orchestration/Provisioning software must be able to allocate resources for new server requests so that compute, memory and storage is not over-provisioned.

Resource Definition The systems administrator defines resources needed for the new server definition, which is processed and deployed by the Orchestration/Provisioning software.

Systems Administration Tools allowing the systems administration of multiple servers through a single tool, to reduce repetitive task execution.

Task Process Automation Automation of tasks and processes of the Orchestration/Provisioning software without systems administration intervention.

Agent or Agentless The orchestration, provisioning, deployment and management of servers being done with or without a software agent.

Service Templates Templates for standard server configurations, to allow for expedited provisioning and deployment of standard server types.

Scripting Support Support for systems scripting languages such as Python and Java to further automate operating systems level tasks.

Multi Tenancy Software works in tandem with hosting system and the management of the multiple systems running in the same environment with appropriate levels of segregation.

Workflow Support The ability to incorporate pre-defined workflows into provisioned servers.

Vendor Capability Ratings Average rating of all vendor capabilities, some of which may not be shown below

Business Value Created Software needs to create value for employees, customers, partners, and, ultimately, shareholders. This data expresses user satisfaction - or lack thereof - with the product's business value.

Breadth of Features Users prefer feature rich software that enables them to perform diverse series of tasks. This data expresses user satisfaction with the product's breadth of features.

Ease of Data Integration Use this data to determine whether the product will cause headaches or make data integration easy.

Vendor Support The importance of vendor support will vary for each organization depending on internal capabilities, but there will always be issues that only the vendor can resolve.

Quality of Features Feature quality is just as important as quantity. Use this data to determine if this product will do what you're purchasing it to do, easily, intuitively, reliably, and effectively.

Ease of Customization Don't get bogged down in a difficult customization; use this data to make sure you can easily achieve the functionality you need for your particular situation.

Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement Vendors who don't stay on top of emerging needs and trends won't enable you to meet your business goals. Use this data to separate innovators from imposters.

Availability and Quality of Training Effective and readily available training enables users to get the most out of the software you've chosen. Use this section to make sure your vendor's training programs and materials measure up.

Ease of Implementation Successfully implementing new software is necessary to realize its full value and promote end user adoption. This data indicates whether or not the product is easy to implement.

Ease of IT Administration This data indicates whether IT personnel will be able to resolve issues and perform configurations efficiently and effectively.

Usability and Intuitiveness End user learning curves cost the organization money. Pay attention to your end users' technical ability to determine how important UX is in your purchase.

AWS Cloud​Formation Reviews

Effortless Orchestration

Likeliness to Recommend

Pros

Kabilan M.

IaC Tool with Room for Better User Experience and

Likeliness to Recommend

Pros

Cons

Ravinder C.

Best Fit for AWS-Centric Teams

Likeliness to Recommend

Pros

Title

AWS CloudFormation

What is AWS CloudFormation?

AWS CloudFormation Ratings

How much do users love AWS CloudFormation?

Feature Ratings

Dynamic Scalability

Configuration Management

Resource Availability

Resource Definition

Systems Administration

Task Process Automation

Agent or Agentless

Service Templates

Scripting Support

Multi Tenancy

Workflow Support

Vendor Capability Ratings

Business Value Created

Breadth of Features

Ease of Data Integration

Vendor Support

Quality of Features

Ease of Customization

Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement

Availability and Quality of Training

Ease of Implementation

Ease of IT Administration

Usability and Intuitiveness

AWS CloudFormation Reviews