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AWS Control Tower vs AWS Trusted Advisor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

AWS Control Tower
Ranking in Cloud Management
18th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
AWS Trusted Advisor
Ranking in Cloud Management
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of AWS Control Tower is 1.5%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Trusted Advisor is 1.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
AWS Trusted Advisor1.2%
AWS Control Tower1.5%
Other97.3%
Cloud Management
 

Featured Reviews

SI
Head of Platform Engineering at Ascend Group Co., Ltd.
Streamlines governance and security management but requires effort in managing hidden costs
I believe AWS Control Tower could be improved. I compare it with Huawei Cloud's enterprise project, which is a similar concept but different implementation. In Huawei Cloud, you partition in one single account, but in AWS, you have to separate many accounts. You end up with maybe 20 or 30 accounts if you try to separate. It has limitations; you pay a fixed amount for 15 accounts, but if you exceed that, you have to pay more. It could be useful for implementing a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCOE) for multiple organizations, but for one organization, I would advise against it; it is too much overhead and adds hidden costs. There are limitations on the Landing Zone feature as well. If we implement AWS Control Tower, we need to implement Landing Zone and the security policy, guardrails, and Account Factory; it is not one single product. Using another cloud's enterprise project, you can just create the project and manage it already. It requires some learning curve to get hands-on. For pricing and licensing of AWS Control Tower, it has hidden costs. The Control Tower itself does not cost much, but the child accounts created from AWS Control Tower add costs for checking all configurations, logging, and metrics.
MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Optimizes cloud strategies with security and cost insights
Trusted Advisor offers features that provide inside information for the entire account, including identifying security gaps and offering cost optimization insights. The key features include security recommendations, cost optimization, and various packages to choose from, depending on the size of the company. It is especially beneficial for larger companies, as the tool provides a comprehensive view of account security, open ports, buckets, and offers recommendations for protection.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Security is the most valuable feature of Control Tower."
"One of the standout advantages is the fine-grained control it offers in terms of permissions and privileges."
"It provides a central point for account management, access control, and compliance monitoring."
"The most intriguing feature is the automatic generation of user accounts. Leveraging Active Directory and global company settings, AWS Cloud Tower enables the creation of AWS user accounts based on job descriptions in Active Directory. This establishes a direct correlation between the user's name, job definition, and the corresponding rules applied to each account."
"It is incredibly user-friendly and functions seamlessly."
"It provides centralized solutions for all AWS accounts in one place, customized to meet the organization's specific needs."
"I would rate the solution a 10 out of 10."
"AWS Control Tower helps companies save costs."
"The cost optimization and security-related fixes in AWS Trusted Advisor have been great."
"The Security Advisor is the most valuable feature. It instantly informs you about any system misconfigurations, and the best part is, it's completely free."
"I would give it a ten out of ten."
"I strongly recommend using Trusted Advisor due to its role in cybersecurity, providing cost-effective solutions compared to external companies."
"The key features include security recommendations, cost optimization, and various packages to choose from, depending on the size of the company."
"Trusted Advisor scans the complete infrastructure within the account, providing a consolidated view of all services in use."
"Trusted Advisor offers features that provide inside information for the entire account, including identifying security gaps and offering cost optimization insights."
"It is very stable."
 

Cons

"The solution's stability could be improved."
"The tool's setup is very technical. Its pricing can be cheaper."
"AWS Control Tower should improve its fast execution. It also needs more tools for triggering and monitoring AWS services. AWS Control Tower needs more tracking as well."
"There is a sync issue within the organization. It is important that the system syncs automatically instead of requiring me to manually choose sync options."
"The initial setup is complex."
"The process of closing an AWS account using Control Tower needs improvements to simplify it, especially when managing multiple accounts."
"By making APIs and organizational units more centralized, it would be simpler to pinpoint the source of issues in case of a breach and would ultimately benefit everyone involved."
"There is a sync issue within the organization."
"Trusted Advisor currently scans the whole system, including development, staging, and QA environments, which increases costs. It would be better if it could selectively scan only production systems."
"Maybe adding more security rules would be great."
"Cost is a significant factor that needs improvement. Reducing the cost would make it more beneficial for all users."
"The tenancy must be free for all metrics."
"For EC2 instances, we need to install the AWS CloudWatch agent to get the memory metric because we don't have a by-default memory utilization graph on cost optimization."
"Trusted Advisor currently scans the whole system, including development, staging, and QA environments, which increases costs."
"Cost is a significant factor that needs improvement."
"I'd like the solution to support clouds beyond AWS."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is efficient, not overly expensive but also not very cheap."
"It is expensive but it is an investment in my opinion."
"The pricing structure is closely intertwined with the specifics of your environment and the billing strategy you employ."
"AWS Control Tower is not really that expensive."
"The cost is reasonable, but there are opportunities for improvement in terms of pricing for larger enterprises."
"It operates on a pay-as-you-go model, meaning we are charged only for the services we actively use within it."
"It is cost-effective and the associated cost is quite minimal."
"I believe it's free of charge or comes at a very low cost. It's an additional feature. Even if there is a fee, it's minimal. AWS seems to assist customers in gaining a comprehensive view of their security setups within AWS. Using Control Tower is highly recommended, especially as your company grows and involves Active Directory, various departments, and different architectural aspects. It becomes more advisable to leverage Control Tower rather than managing these aspects manually, especially for larger organizations."
"Trusted Advisor offers various packages, with the most comprehensive costing $15,000 per month."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Retailer
12%
Performing Arts
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Insurance Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Control Tower?
The most intriguing feature is the automatic generation of user accounts. Leveraging Active Directory and global company settings, AWS Cloud Tower enables the creation of AWS user accounts based on...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Control Tower?
Control Tower within the AWS Organization does not have a charge. It is free and does not incur additional charges.
What needs improvement with AWS Control Tower?
I believe AWS Control Tower could be improved. I compare it with Huawei Cloud's enterprise project, which is a similar concept but different implementation. In Huawei Cloud, you partition in one si...
What do you like most about AWS Trusted Advisor?
The Security Advisor is the most valuable feature. It instantly informs you about any system misconfigurations, and the best part is, it's completely free.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Trusted Advisor?
The cost of Trusted Advisor is reasonable, though it can be further economized by allowing selective scanning, focusing only on production systems, to avoid unnecessary costs associated with develo...
What needs improvement with AWS Trusted Advisor?
Trusted Advisor currently scans the whole system, including development, staging, and QA environments, which increases costs. It would be better if it could selectively scan only production systems...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Control Tower vs. AWS Trusted Advisor and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.