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Overview

Product Information on AWS CloudFormation

Updated 13th October 2025

What is AWS CloudFormation?

AWS CloudFormation is a software that enables users to define and provision cloud infrastructure resources in an automated and consistent manner using templates written in JSON or YAML. It manages the creation, updating, and deletion of a wide range of AWS resources, allowing users to model network, security, and application environments as code. The software tracks configuration changes and dependencies between resources, reducing manual intervention and the potential for configuration errors. AWS CloudFormation aims to facilitate repeatable and reliable resource management, supporting use cases such as infrastructure as code, application deployment, and compliance enforcement.

AWS CloudFormation Pricing

AWS CloudFormation software pricing is based on a pay-as-you-go model where users are charged for the resources provisioned through templates. There is no additional fee for using the software itself, and costs are determined by the underlying AWS resources that are created, with separate pricing applicable to StackSets and some advanced features.

Overall experience with AWS CloudFormation

Sr. Systems Administrator
50M - 250M USD, Media
FAVORABLE

“Automatic Rollbacks Enhance Reliability While Complex Templates Add to Difficulty”

4.0
Mar 5, 2026
Our overall experience with AWS CloudFormation has been solid and dependable, particularly as an IaC tool for our AWS native environments. We found it really helpful for our repeatable infrastructure provisioning needs. We also use it for our change tracking needs as well as rollbacks and audits. It even saved us a couple of times when failed deployments were about to become an incident, but thanks to its native rollback functionality. It does sometimes get overwhelming if the template is huge and complex, but I would say it's still worth it.
Operations Associate
50M - 250M USD, IT Services
CRITICAL

“Repeatable Deployments with CloudFormation Face Debugging Hurdles and Slow Rollbacks”

3.0
Feb 11, 2026
CloudFormation works well for infrastructure as code. It provides strong control over aws resources and supports repeatable deployments.

Key Insights

A Snapshot of What Matters - Based on Validated User Reviews

Peer Discussions

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Software reviews and ratings for EMMS, BI, CRM, MDM, analytics, security and other platforms - Peer Insights by Gartner
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  1. Home
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Logo of AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation

byAmazon Web Services (AWS)
in
4.4
Market Presence: DevOps Platforms (Transitioning to DevSecOps Platforms), Cloud Infrastructure Management Systems for Communications Service Providers

About Company

Company Description

Updated 6th March 2025

Amazon Web Services (AWS), established in 2006, is focused on providing essential infrastructure services to businesses globally in the form of cloud computing. The key advantage offered through cloud computing, particularly via AWS, is its capacity to shift fixed infrastructure expenses into flexible costs. Businesses have been able to forgo extensive planning and procurement of servers and other Information Technology (IT) resources, owing to AWS. AWS seeks to provide businesses with prompt and cost-effective access to resources using Amazon's expertise and economies of scale, as and when their business requires. Currently, AWS offers a robust, scalable, economic infrastructure platform on the cloud powering an extensive array of businesses worldwide. It operates across numerous industries with data center locations in various parts of the globe including U.S., Europe, Singapore, and Japan.

Company Details

Updated 23rd December 2024
Company type
Public
Year Founded
2006
Head office location
Seattle, United States
Number of employees
10001+
Website
http://aws.amazon.com

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User Sentiment About AWS CloudFormation
Reviewer Insights for: AWS CloudFormation
Performance of AWS CloudFormation Across Market Features

AWS CloudFormation Likes & Dislikes

Like

- We like the fact that we don't need to use any third-party providers since CloudFormation is enough for all our AWS services needs - Automatic rolling back of failed changes is another feature that we love, and it has saved us a couple of times - It also helps us control who can create, update and delete specific resources by applying IAM roles - We also found that it keeps things consistent across different environments

Like

I like the ability to control the versions. Change sets help you review updates before applying them.

Like

The following are the key aspects of the service that I like: Consistency of deployment and speed at which environments can be spun up, thus removing human error. The ability to use version control, such that templates can be stored in github and therefore tracked. It is a native tool available through AWS, therefore no need for vendor integration and such like. And finally, the ability to manage costs from one centralized location.

Dislike

- We noticed that working with larger and complex templates becomes hard to read if we don't use macros or nesting - We also found that debugging sometimes requires manual intervention because the errors are vague - There should be some feature for creating reusable modules and sharing between teams

Dislike

Templates grow complex fast and are hard to read. Stack failures can be hard to debug. Rollbacks take time and sometimes leave resources in a failed state.

Dislike

Nothing, since it works extremely well and as expected.

Recommended Gartner Insights

  • Critical Capabilities for DevOps Platforms (Transitioning to DevSecOps Platforms)
  • Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms (Transitioning to DevSecOps Platforms)

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AWS CloudFormation Reviews and Ratings

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Filter Reviews
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Reviewer's Company Size
Reviewer's Industry
Reviewer's Region
Reviewer's Job Function
  • Sr. Systems Administrator
    50M-1B USD
    Media
    Review Source

    Automatic Rollbacks Enhance Reliability While Complex Templates Add to Difficulty

    4.0
    Mar 5, 2026
    Our overall experience with AWS CloudFormation has been solid and dependable, particularly as an IaC tool for our AWS native environments. We found it really helpful for our repeatable infrastructure provisioning needs. We also use it for our change tracking needs as well as rollbacks and audits. It even saved us a couple of times when failed deployments were about to become an incident, but thanks to its native rollback functionality. It does sometimes get overwhelming if the template is huge and complex, but I would say it's still worth it.
  • Manager
    Gov't/PS/Ed
    Education
    Review Source

    Comprehensive Features and Online Resources Enhance Cloud Adoption Across Multiple Regions

    4.0
    Mar 25, 2026
    Our experience with the use of cloud formation has been great, especially when it comes to maintaining the entire real estate via infrastructure as code (IAS). There are a variety of ways in which it can be used, which makes it very flexible and importantly eliminates the need for manual resource management.
  • Vertical Head
    1B-10B USD
    Insurance (except health)
    Review Source

    AWS CloudFormation Offers Security And Compliance Yet Faces Template Readability Issues

    4.0
    Dec 27, 2025
    Overall experience is good with AWS CloudFormation, which is powerful, secure and cost-effective for our AWS environments. DevOps pipelines tightly integrated with AWS services.
  • Software Developer
    <50M USD
    Services (non-Government)
    Review Source

    AWS CloudFormation Simplifies Repeatable Deployments, Though Templates Can Grow Complex.

    4.0
    Feb 10, 2026
    Overall my experience with AWS CloudFormation has been positive, it makes it much easier to manage and repeat infrastructure setups, though templates sometimes get complicated.
  • Director Of Administrative Systems - Clo
    Gov't/PS/Ed
    Education
    Review Source

    AWS CloudFormation Streamlines Resource Management With Predictable Template-Based Setups

    4.0
    Jan 6, 2026
    It was nice using AWS CloudFormation. It lets me define and manage AWS resources using templates instead of clicking around in the console. Basically, I can spin up entire environments of servers, databases, networking, and permissions using a single template file. Once you’re comfortable with the syntax, it saves a lot of time and reduces human error.
...
Showing Result 1-5 of 152

4.4

(109 Ratings)

Rating Distribution

5 Star
44%
4 Star
49%
3 Star
7%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%
Why ratings and reviews count differ?

Customer Experience

Evaluation & Contracting

4.5

Integration & Deployment

4.6

Service & Support

4.4

Product Capabilities

4.5