AWS Systems Manager 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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On this page

Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews

Overview

AWS Systems Manager

4.6

(62)

Pricing

Pricing available upon request

About AWS Systems Manager

AWS Systems Manager is a comprehensive management solution that helps organizations improve visibility and control over their resources on AWS, on-premises, and at the edge. It caters to a wide range of industries and organizations that need to manage their applications and infrastructure efficiently.

The system helps shorten the time to detect and resolve operational issues. It allows organizations to maintain instance compliance against their patch configuration and custom policies. AWS Systems Manager also enables organizations to automate the configuration and ongoing management of their applications and resources.

The service centralizes operational data in a single console, allowing organizations to gain actionable insights across AWS services and third-party tools. This helps organizations make informed decisions and take appropriate actions to optimize their operations.

AWS Systems Manager Screenshots

AWS Systems Manager Pricing and Plans

Starting price: Connect with an advisor for pricing

Free Trial

Free Version

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AWS Systems Manager Features

Popular features found in IT Management
Access Controls/Permissions
Capacity Management
Compliance Management
Incident Management
Issue Auditing
License Management
Maintenance Scheduling
Remote Access/Control
Server Monitoring
Ticket Management
More features of AWS Systems Manager
Activity Tracking
Alerts/Notifications
Configuration Management
Dashboard
Data Import/Export
Event Logs
IT Asset Management
IT Reporting
Patch Management
Real-Time Monitoring
Real-Time Notifications
Security Tools

AWS Systems Manager User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.6

Ratings Breakdown

60%

39%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.2

Value for money

4.4

Customer support

4.4

Functionality

4.5

Have you used AWS Systems Manager and would like to share your experience with others?

Mehakpreet K.

Verified reviewer

Information Technology and Services

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed August 2025

Excited for further experience

My overall experience was very satisfying, as our IT team works with different software systems, and AWS Systems Manager made it much easier to configure, monitor, and track updates across them.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

AWS Systems Manager was easy to install and configure, allowing smooth operations and simple management of the different configurations we used for our projects

Cons:

There was nothing we disliked—our team loved the interface as it was easy to handle and helped us track updates efficiently.

Jitae K.

Verified reviewer

Computer Software

51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed September 2025

Seamless integration with other AWS services and Good automation tool

We've been using mostly in Parameter Store/Run Command/Automation for many years. Run Command/Automation is pretty good tool to maintain/deployment tasks on our ec2 instances. We could also utilize those services to create AMIs and patching systems on regular basis

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Very good integration with other AWS services and can have up to 10000 standard parameters as free tier to store config data or secrets in Parameters Store. Also if you utilize or deploy any infra resources using AWS Cloudformation stack, then you can just directly access to System Manager Parameter Store Keys without exposing your values.

Cons:

Most painful moments in AWS System Manager is Automation documentation failures. It does not have any options starting over where it fails and so you have to start Automation documents from beginning. And if your app or webservices heavily rely on AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, then you would see lots of api throttling errors while getting values from SSM PS.

Verified

Reviewer

Real Estate

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed October 2025

Mixed Emotions with AWS

It is reliable and has a pay as you model. It is usually the first to market with new cloud technologies.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I like that it securely connects to EC2 instances. Automate patching operating systems and applications.

Cons:

hard to predict cost and can overwhelm the person using the software. It is also hard to estimate bills without unknown charges.

Mia A.

Verified reviewer

Child Day Care Services

51-200 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2025

Great Product

overall very satisfied and with this program, will be using in the future and recommending to others

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

it’s very easy to use and helping when working on projects like new websites and where to store data

Cons:

It is a little difficult to use at first if you don’t know what you’re doing but watch reviews really helps

Verified

Reviewer

Education Management

501-1000 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed September 2025

AWS Systems Manager a helpful necessity in AWS

My overall experience has been great. Being able to control systems via sessions manager instead of having to use ssh keys is a critical part of our control of our environment and patch management.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The thing we like the most about AWS Systems Manager is it's ability to manage and control our instances in one place across multiple accounts.

Cons:

The thing I like least about AWS Systems Manager is that the amount of things that are packed into the side bar can be confusing to what is actually a core service offered by Systems manager.

Verified

Reviewer

E-Learning

Self-Employed

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed September 2025

Centralized AWS Management During Studies

Overall, my experience with AWS Systems Manager as a student was very positive. It gave me hands-on exposure to managing cloud resources like EC2, S3, and RDS in a centralized way, and automation features helped me understand how real-world cloud operations are streamlined. While there was a learning curve and costs could add up even with student credits, it was a valuable tool that made my academic projects feel more professional and industry-aligned.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I liked how AWS Systems Manager gave me a centralized way to manage EC2, S3, and RDS during my projects. Automating tasks like patching and monitoring saved a lot of time and made the whole environment easier to control.

Cons:

It can get expensive, and even with student credits provided through my university, there were limits that sometimes restricted how much we could experiment with the service.

Verified

Reviewer

Research

2-10 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2025

Maintenance of AWS infrastructure made easy

Overall very helpful for private and hybrid cloud management of resources. Facilitates the setting of systems to shut-down on certain days of the week to minimize cost of operations.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Makes it very easy to manage and maintain resources within AWS, but also those that are not part of AWS. There is good granularity in terms of minimizing the number of clicks to resolve issues - not too detailed and not too sparse.

Cons:

Did not encounter any issues while using the application, on some cases the region one is in is not as prominent on the top-right-hand side of the interface and that could be made more outstanding to minimize creation of resources within the wrong AWS region, but this is cosmetic.

Raylon H.

Verified reviewer

Consumer Goods

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed July 2025

Great Platform

Now that AWS System manager is set up and configured, it's a smooth platform and is easily managed. We are currently launching updates company wide

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

What is most likeable with AWS Systems manager is the integration, ease of use, and scalability of the system.

Cons:

AWS Systems manager can be a bit of a bug during set up and configuration, it's certainly built for professionals. We hired a software engineer to configure for us

Eric S.

Verified reviewer

Information Technology and Services

Self-Employed

Used daily for free trial

Review source

Reviewed June 2025

Crucial Platform

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

It is an overall great way to manage all your nodes in AWS. If you have enough nodes that it is cumbersome to manage them individually, Systems Manager is crucial to operations.

Cons:

I don't have anything negative to say about AWS Systems Manager, it is a crucial tool to managing your AWS environment.

Pierre K.

Verified reviewer

Health, Wellness and Fitness

501-1000 employees

Used weekly for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed August 2025

Automation Station

I have used this tool to automate workflows, monitor multiple environments, and patch management. This tool is a must have for any organization or team.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I love having the ability to control our hybrid environments from a centralized location. The automation capabilities this tool offers is simply mandatory.

Cons:

Can be time consuming training new staff on how to use the tool. Having lots of features is great but you must learn to utilize them.

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