AWS Cloud Security vs AWS Recon: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
AWS Cloud Security is a free cloud security posture management tool. AWS Recon is a free cloud security posture management tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best cloud security posture management fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Teams already committed to AWS and seeking native compliance automation will find AWS Cloud Security's tight integration with native services and IAM controls hard to replicate elsewhere. The tool covers AWS-specific compliance frameworks including PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and SOC 2 without additional licensing, and Identity Center integration eliminates separate access management overhead. Skip this if your infrastructure spans multiple clouds or you need threat detection capabilities; AWS Cloud Security prioritizes compliance posture and configuration audit over active threat hunting.
Teams managing sprawling AWS estates who need a fast inventory baseline before deploying paid CSPM tools should start with AWS Recon. It pulls detailed resource attributes and policies across regions in parallel, giving you a complete attack surface map in minutes rather than hours, and the 549 GitHub stars reflect actual adoption by practitioners who've weaponized it in real environments. Skip this if you need continuous drift detection or remediation workflows; AWS Recon is a point-in-time collector, not a monitoring platform.
