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AWS Firewall Manager vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 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 Firewall Manager
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Secure Firewall Manag...
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of AWS Firewall Manager is 3.4%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is 2.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AWS Firewall Manager3.4%
Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center2.6%
Other94.0%
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Venda E - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Option Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Centralized security policies have streamlined audits and ensure consistent protection by default
One area for improvement is the reporting and customization option. The compliance reports are helpful, but having more granular insights or export options would make it even easier to use during audits. Also, support for more third-party integration could improve flexibility. Another improvement I need to see is a smoother setup experience. Some of the initial configuration steps, especially around the organization and permissions, can feel complex. A more guided setup or clear UI explanation would make it easier for teams to adopt quickly. One more improvement would be better alerting options. Right now, we mostly rely on AWS Security Hub or CloudWatch for detailed alerts. Having more built-in, real-time notification directly from AWS Firewall Manager would make it easier to monitor policy violations without extra setup.
SurajYadav - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Consultant at NTT DATA
Centralized firewall control has improved visibility and policy management but needs faster UI performance
The best features of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center are the centralized management and strong security visibility. The most useful feature for me is centralized policy management, where I can create and enforce access control policies across multiple firewalls from a single console. It saves a lot of time and ensures consistency. Another key feature is IPS visibility. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center provides detailed intrusion events and signatures, which help in quickly identifying and responding to threats. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has had a positive impact mainly by improving centralized control and visibility across our firewall environment. Earlier, managing multiple firewalls individually was time-consuming and inconsistent. With Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, we can manage policies from a single console, which has improved efficiency and reduced configuration errors. It has also enhanced our security posture with better visibility into traffic and IPS events. We are able to detect and respond to threats more quickly, which helps in reducing risk and improving overall incident response time.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Overall, it improved our security posture and made audits much easier."
"We work with compliance monitoring in the product, which is helpful for identifying framework-based misconfigurations, as it can tell you where to deploy firewall policies based on the frameworks."
"After implementing AWS Firewall Manager, we reduced our manual security configuration effort by around sixty to seventy percent as the policies are now centralized, managed, and automatically enforced."
"It has centralized cloud firewall management rules. It provides compliance in tracking and reporting."
"Once this solution is set up, we hardly have to touch it."
"The interface is intuitive and it is easy for the users."
"From a technical perspective, it is a good product."
"Also, the strength of the community is invaluable."
"With Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, we can manage policies from a single console, which has improved efficiency, reduced configuration errors, and enhanced our security posture with better visibility into traffic and IPS events so we are able to detect and respond to threats more quickly, reducing risk and improving overall incident response time."
"The most valuable features are the Virtual Private Network and the Electronic Control Lists."
"My clients have never contacted me with any issues, so I believe the solution is stable."
"The solution has a great UI and a policy deployment mechanism, and all the configuration is easily manageable for the firewalls."
"The policy management capabilities streamline security tasks by facilitating policy configuration. This ensures the impactful implementation of security policies during product installation, enhancing overall security measures."
"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Scalability is not an issue as long as you are able to buy additional licenses. Ten percent of our customers use Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, and we have large accounts with 50% of their end users behind this firewall."
"The solution is easy to use."
 

Cons

"The areas of improvement are definitely platform resiliency, as we have seen outages on the AWS backbone, and whenever there is an outage on the AWS backbone, it impacts all the services hosted on that region, so we expect regional resiliency."
"I would like to see AWS add some UTM features to the firewall. It would also be great if AWS Firewall had native IPS/IDS."
"Enabling and configuring the logging is not that straightforward."
"They could consider organizing and enhancing documentation in a more structured and chronological manner"
"This solution is suitable for a small-scale enterprise and may not scale up to a very high volume of traffic or a large number of servers."
"It needs to be more employee-friendly, and the security management could be more efficient."
"Enabling and configuring the logging is not that straightforward."
"AWS Firewall Manager should be open to manage other third-party appliances as well."
"The performance of the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center could be improved."
"The tool is a little bit pricey. I was not involved much with finance, but it appeared to be really expensive."
"Cisco firewalls use old ESR or a Linux system, and there are problems with encryption. When we switch on encryption, the throughput goes down."
"The product could be improved by simplifying its user interface and reducing complexity."
"It's not very user-friendly and can be somewhat disorganized."
"We use the suggested standard policies that come with the equipment. We don't put much effort into customizing these policies, which we know is a risk. We're moving to a more advanced IT area that will change how we manage the firewall policies. Cisco offers many ways to manage the equipment, but our team lacks extensive knowledge. We're moving these responsibilities to a specialized security team."
"Areas for improvement include pricing points and the range of products available at any given time."
"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center could improve by being less expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The AWS Firewall Manager is a little on the costly side."
"From what I've heard from my colleagues, it appears that the pricing is competitive, which influenced our decision to choose this option."
"It is a cost-efficient product."
"The licensing is on a pay-as-you-go basis and we are billed monthly."
"As for pricing, the tool is expensive for us. I'd rate it eight out of ten on a scale where ten is the most expensive."
"The solution is expensive. We have a multi-license, and we pay extra for support."
"The solution is not expensive."
"The price of the solution is expensive. We do not have to pay more than the standard licensing fees."
"I rate the tool's pricing a four out of ten. The licensing costs are yearly."
"When you are using a Cisco solution you know it will be expensive. Cisco makes you pay for everything individually. We pay for the licenses that we need."
"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has the best price on the market."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
11%
Construction Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Marketing Services Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Firewall Manager?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for AWS Firewall Manager has been straightforward. There is no separate licensing cost for AWS Firewall Manager itself. It is included with AWS...
What needs improvement with AWS Firewall Manager?
One area for improvement is the reporting and customization option. The compliance reports are helpful, but having more granular insights or export options would make it even easier to use during a...
What is your primary use case for AWS Firewall Manager?
My main use case for AWS Firewall Manager is centrally managing and enforcing security policies across multiple AWS accounts. It helps me to ensure consistent WAF rules, security group policies, an...
What do you like most about Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?
The platform has significantly enhanced our organization's operations by providing secure communication channels between different office locations.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?
I find the pricing for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to be very reasonable, as they offer the license for both virtual and hardware options. For the virtual option, they have minimum lice...
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?
So far, I find that everything related to Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is adequate. The only thing that was missing in the portfolio was SD-WAN, which I would like to use similar to Fort...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Firewall Manager vs. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.