AWS Config review
Deep AWS governance coverage with usage-based pricing and single-cloud scope.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
AWS Config is a managed service for discovering AWS resources, recording configuration changes, maintaining configuration history, and evaluating configurations against rules. It is designed for teams managing AWS infrastructure, security controls, governance requirements, compliance monitoring, configuration auditing, and operational troubleshooting. Resource inventory, relationship tracking, drift detection, policy evaluation, and remediation bring several governance tasks into one AWS-native service.
Pricing is metered rather than organized into fixed plans. Continuous configuration items are listed at $0.003 per configuration item, while periodic configuration items are listed at $0.012 per configuration item. AWS Config rule evaluations are listed at $0.001 per rule evaluation, and conformance pack evaluations are listed at $0.001 per conformance pack evaluation. The pricing examples reference the first 100,000 evaluations for rule and conformance pack evaluations. Public-Region charges have no minimums or upfront commitments, but total cost varies with recorded configuration items and evaluations. This model fits teams that want usage to track activity, but requires ongoing cost monitoring.
For larger AWS environments, AWS Config can aggregate configuration and compliance data across multiple accounts and Regions. Conformance packs group rules and remediation actions, while configuration snapshots can be delivered to Amazon S3. Amazon SNS supports change notifications, and integrations with AWS Lambda, AWS Organizations, AWS Control Tower, and AWS CloudTrail extend its place in the AWS ecosystem. The trade-off is its single-cloud coverage: teams governing AWS estates can choose it for deep inventory, history, evaluation, and remediation, while organizations needing one governance layer across multiple cloud providers should consider a broader platform.
AWS Config pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Tracks configuration history, resource relationships, and compliance rules
- Aggregates governance data across multiple AWS accounts and Regions
- Supports conformance packs, notifications, and remediation actions
- Where it doesn't
- Usage-based charges vary with configuration items and evaluations
- Covers AWS rather than multiple cloud providers
- Requires AWS ecosystem services for broader workflows
AWS Config fact sheet, pricing and score →
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