aws-inventory vs AWS Resource Discovery: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
aws-inventory is a free cyber asset attack surface management tool. AWS Resource Discovery is a free cyber asset attack surface management tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best cyber asset attack surface management fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Security teams and cloud architects auditing AWS accounts for the first time should start with aws-inventory; it maps your actual resource footprint without the sales pitch or subscription lock-in that comes with commercial CSPM tools. Running it once typically surfaces forgotten EC2 instances, orphaned storage, and untagged resources that balloon costs and expand your attack surface, which is why 169 GitHub stars cluster around teams doing manual cloud hygiene. Skip this if you need continuous compliance monitoring or real-time drift detection; aws-inventory is a one-time inventory sweep, not a managed control plane.
Teams building an initial asset inventory across sprawling AWS accounts should start with AWS Resource Discovery because it discovers what you actually have before you can defend it, and the free price tag means zero friction to run it today across dev and prod environments. The tool catalogs resources in JSON format via botocore, giving you the raw material to feed into downstream CSPM or CIEM tools rather than replacing them. Skip this if you need continuous monitoring or remediation workflows; it's a one-time discovery pull, not a persistent control plane.
