CMMCMade Simple vs Simplesense STIG Hardened AMIs: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Short answer

Startups and small contractors pursuing CMMC Level 1 certification should pick CMMCMade Simple for its templated task execution; you get 25 pre-built workflows covering the 59 required controls, which cuts the typical documentation burden from weeks to days. The policy generator alone saves teams from writing SSPs from scratch, and the audit-ready output means you're not scrambling to reformat evidence weeks before assessment. Skip this if you need Level 2 or 3 coverage, or if your supply chain already mandates a specific compliance platform as a dependency. DoD contractors and defense integrators building on AWS will find Simplesense STIG Hardened AMIs worth the deployment friction because they compress ATO timelines by starting with pre-validated, continuously updated baselines instead of remediating from scratch. DISA STIG compliance is baked into each AMI across Amazon Linux 2, Amazon Linux 2023, and Ubuntu Pro FIPS 22.04 LTS, eliminating the manual baseline-hardening work that typically stretches compliance cycles. This is narrow in scope; if you need CSPM drift detection, vulnerability scanning, or runtime cloud security across your entire AWS footprint, you'll layer in additional tools anyway.