--- title: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Reviews meta_title: 'AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 164 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 164 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-17' parent_category: name: Identity Management url: https://www.g2.com/categories/identity-management --- # AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Reviews **Vendor:** Amazon Web Services (AWS) **Category:** [Identity and Access Management (IAM) Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/identity-and-access-management-iam) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 164 ## About AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that enables you to securely control access to AWS services and resources. It allows you to manage permissions, ensuring that only authenticated and authorized users can access specific resources. IAM provides the infrastructure necessary to control authentication and authorization for your AWS accounts. Key Features and Functionality: - Centralized Access Control: Manage all users and their permissions from a single place, allowing for streamlined administration of access rights. - Granular Permissions: Define precise permissions for users, specifying which actions they can perform on which resources, facilitating the principle of least privilege. - Identity Federation: Allow users who already have passwords elsewhere—for example, in your corporate network or with an internet identity provider—to access your AWS account. - Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enhance security by requiring users to provide additional verification beyond just a password, such as a code from a configured device. - Temporary Security Credentials: Grant temporary security credentials for workloads that access your AWS resources using IAM, reducing the risk associated with long-term credentials. Primary Value and Problem Solved: IAM addresses the critical need for secure and efficient access management within AWS environments. By providing centralized control over user identities and permissions, IAM helps organizations enforce security policies, comply with regulatory requirements, and minimize the risk of unauthorized access. It enables the implementation of fine-grained access controls, ensuring that users and applications have only the permissions necessary to perform their tasks, thereby enhancing overall security posture. ## AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **fine-grained access control** of AWS IAM, enhancing security for critical AWS infrastructure management. (31 reviews) - Users appreciate the **ease of use** of AWS IAM, enabling simple management of permissions and user access effortlessly. (23 reviews) - Users value the **fine-grained access control** in AWS IAM, enabling precise permission management and enhanced security. (22 reviews) - Users value the **intuitive fine-grained access control** provided by AWS IAM for secure and efficient permissions management. (21 reviews) - Users value the **easy management** of users, roles, and permissions, enhancing both security and operational efficiency. (20 reviews) - Integrations (17 reviews) - Policy Management (11 reviews) - Reliability (11 reviews) - Easy Integrations (9 reviews) - Features (6 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users find the **complexity** of AWS IAM challenging, especially with setup and policy management for beginners. (22 reviews) - Users find the **learning curve for IAM complex** , making it challenging to manage policies and permissions effectively. (21 reviews) - Users find the **learning curve steep** with AWS IAM, making it challenging for beginners to navigate its complexities. (12 reviews) - Users find **error handling complex** , making it difficult to troubleshoot and manage permissions effectively in AWS IAM. (7 reviews) - Users experience a **lack of clear information** , making IAM setups complex and policies difficult to understand. (6 reviews) - UX Improvement (6 reviews) - Users find IAM's **complex access permissions** hard to manage, especially when troubleshooting issues or for novice users. (5 reviews) - Users face **notification issues** with IAM, making troubleshooting and managing permissions time-consuming and frustrating. (5 reviews) - Inefficient Processes (3 reviews) - Integration Issues (3 reviews) ## AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Reviews ### 1. AWS IAM: Fine-Grained, Seamless Access Control for Secure Permissions at Scale **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rene M. | Solution Architect, Outsourcing/Offshoring, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM is the foundation for secure access control in AWS and one of the most critical services for managing permissions at scale. It provides fine-grained control over users, roles, groups, and policies, which helps enforce least-privilege access across teams and workloads. IAM roles are particularly powerful for granting services the access they need without hardcoding credentials. Integration across AWS services feels seamless, and capabilities such as MFA enforcement, access key management, and policy evaluation tools make it easier to maintain strong security practices in both small and enterprise environments. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The biggest challenge I’ve had with IAM is its complexity. Policies can quickly become hard to manage and troubleshoot, especially in large environments with many accounts and services. Writing JSON policies is also error-prone; even small mistakes can cause unexpected access problems or result in configurations that are more permissive than intended. For new users, the learning curve is steep, and in my experience it takes strong internal standards, consistent naming conventions, and solid documentation to keep everything organized and maintainable over the long term. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM addresses the core challenge of controlling who and what can access AWS resources. It provides secure authentication and authorization across cloud environments by letting you define precise permissions for users, applications, and services. This helps reduce the risk of misconfigurations, supports compliance requirements, and makes it easier to manage access at scale across teams. By using IAM roles and policies, we can apply least-privilege security, avoid sharing credentials, and operate production workloads with confidence thanks to clear, well-defined access boundaries. ### 2. Granular and scalable access control with AWS IAM **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Caleb F. | Data & IA Specialist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 17, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What I value most about AWS IAM is the granularity of access control through policies. You can define permissions at the level of specific action, resource, and condition, which is essential in data architectures where multiple services (Glue, Athena, S3, Lambda, Step Functions) need to interact securely. IAM roles for services eliminate the need to manage static credentials, and integration with AWS Organizations allows for scaling permission management across multiple accounts without friction. The "least privilege" model is easy to implement with managed policies and inline policies. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The learning curve for policies in JSON can be steep at first, especially when working with complex conditions or cross-resource permission models. Debugging access denied errors is not always intuitive: the Policy Simulator helps, but it doesn't cover all scenarios, and error messages in services are sometimes not very descriptive. Additionally, managing permissions at scale becomes difficult without a clear strategy from the start; it's easy to accumulate redundant roles and policies over time. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** IAM solves the central problem of controlling who can do what on which resources in AWS. In complex data architectures, this is critical: it allows services like Glue, Lambda, and Step Functions to operate with minimal and well-defined permissions, without sharing credentials. It also addresses the auditing and traceability of actions through CloudTrail, which is essential for compliance and troubleshooting. The direct benefit is being able to build secure data pipelines where each component has exactly the permissions it needs, without overexposing sensitive resources like S3 buckets or databases. ### 3. Easy-to-Configure AWS IAM with Robust Documentation and Seamless Performance **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nihal J. | Cyber Security Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 10, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM is very easy to use and configure. I’ve used IAM many times, whether we were integrating third-party applications or provisioning AWS access for users. What I appreciate most is how straightforward it is to work with, especially with the robust documentation and support that walk you through the full process of creating policies, roles, and users. Since IAM is a free service, there’s no added cost we need to worry about. It also runs smoothly and quickly, with virtually no delay. Amazon Q can also help by providing AI-based assistance to guide you through IAM tasks. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What I dislike about IAM is the limited level of control. For example, the security controls for users and user groups could be more robust, as there’s still room for improvement in that area. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** Multiple needs such as role-based access control, creating policies to access specific AWS services, and setting granular permissions across AWS services can all be achieved using IAM. IAM is also crucial for integrating with third-party tools for log collection and for working with APIs. ### 4. Strong Security and Fine-Grained Access Control with AWS IAM **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jemish G. | Software Developer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 18, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like best about the AWS Identity and Access Management is its strong security, fine-grained access control, and easy integration with other AWS services, allowing administrators to manage users, roles, and permissions efficiently while ensuring least-privilege access, multi-factor authentication support, and centralized contol without additional cost since IAM included with AWS. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management is that its interface and permission policies can be complex for beginners, managing large numbers of roles and policies becomes difficult without proper structure, troubleshooting access issues can be time-consumin, and the documentation, while detailed, can feel overwhelming when trying to configure advanced permissions. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS Identity and Access Management solves the problem of security managing access to AWS resources by allowing me to control who can access which services using roles, policies, and permissions, which benefits me by improving security, enabling least-privilege access, simplifying user management across multiple services, and reducing the risk of unauthorized access while keeping everything centrally controlled. ### 5. Fine-Grained Access Control That Enforces Least-Privilege Security **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** mani s. | data engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 03, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What I like best about AWS Identity and Management is that it provides fine-grained access control and security across the AWS environment. What I like most is that it helps enforce least-privilege access to sensitive data, which is the part I value the most. It also supports role-based access for teams working in a shared cloud environment. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I don’t have any major dislikes; it’s a good product overall. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** It mainly solves problems like securely managing acess to aws resources and control permissions. It basically ensures secure acess management for services like S3 and red shift. It simplifies secure service ti service communication in automated pipelines and cloud worksflows ### 6. Reliable AWS IAM with Handy Temporary Credentials **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ketmani P. | React Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 28, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like that it has ability to set temporary credentials in case you need constracter to do some particular job, so instead of creating long term access key you can use this. And of course it is very reliable like most of AWS services, never had a problem with it being down. As well it has of course the integration with all other AWS services natively. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I don't like that it is complicated and unintuitive to debug "access dednied" error, if something is not setup right so it takes long time to figure out the reason. So it adds up to learning curve of the service. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allows to set up authentication both for employees and applications (Lambda, CI pipelines etc). It is very configurable so it is useful to set it all up in one place so you see the full picture of what is happening with access rights. ### 7. User-Friendly Control with IAM, Minor Improvements Needed **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aryan C. | devops trainee, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I appreciate the level of control that AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) provides, which is impressive even for beginners. It's user-friendly for configuring, creating users, assigning resources, and roles. I value the roles, policies, and the Policy Simulator features. IAM roles make it easier to give temporary and secure access to services without sharing credentials. The integration with other AWS services like EC2, S3, and CloudWatch also helps me manage secure access and permissions, which is valuable when working on cloud projects or testing deployments. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** One area where IAM could improve is the overall user experience. Sometimes it takes multiple steps to find or edit specific permissions, which can slow things down for beginners. Error messages during permission issues are also not always very clear. Additionally, as the size of users or employees increases, it can be a bit complex to set up the users with the perfect roles and permission policies. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to create users and roles with proper permissions, which helps me access resources like EC2 and S3 while preventing unauthorized access. It gives me control over resources and accounts, eliminating worries about potential overuse or unauthorized access. ### 8. Make it specific and descriptive, for example 'Game-changer for team collaboration **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kamesh G. | ATL, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The biggest strength is its fine-grained permission system. You can define policies that allow or deny very specific actions (down to a single API call on a single resource). That level of control is hard to match and becomes essential in production environments. Another standout is centralized security management. Instead of scattering credentials everywhere, IAM lets you manage users, roles, and permissions in one place. This becomes especially powerful when combined with roles—services and users can temporarily assume permissions instead of relying on long-term credentials. I also like its tight integration across AWS services. IAM is not an add-on; it’s deeply built into everything in AWS. Whether you're using EC2, S3, or Lambda, IAM policies consistently control access, which keeps your security model uniform. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** IAM is extremely powerful, but that power comes with complexity, and managing it well takes experience and good practices. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** 1. Problem: “Who should have access to what?” In any system, not everyone should be able to do everything. IAM solves this by letting you define exact permissions for each user, role, or service. Benefit: You can enforce least-privilege access, which reduces mistakes and security risks. 2. Problem: Managing credentials safely Without IAM, you’d end up sharing passwords or embedding keys in code. Benefit: IAM provides roles and temporary credentials, so you avoid hardcoding secrets and reduce the chance of leaks. 3. Problem: Scaling access as teams grow Manually managing access for dozens or hundreds of users becomes chaotic. Benefit: With IAM groups and roles, you can manage permissions centrally and apply them consistently across your organization. 4. Problem: Lack of accountability If everyone shares credentials, you can’t track who did what. Benefit: IAM integrates with logging (like CloudTrail), so you get clear audit trails—important for debugging and compliance. ### 9. Precise, Least-Privilege Access Control Across AWS **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nidal S. | Senior DevOps Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 21, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What stands out about AWS Identity and Access Management is its precise control over permissions and consistent integration across all AWS services. You can enforce least-privilege access with detailed policies and use roles with temporary credentials for better security. The downside is complexity. Debugging permission issues can take time. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What I dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management is how easy it is to misconfigure and how hard it is to debug when something breaks. In real scenarios, permissions often span multiple layers (IAM policies, SCPs, resource policies), and a single deny can silently block access without clear visibility. This makes troubleshooting slow and frustrating. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** Managing who can access what across multiple AWS accounts and services in a secure and scalable way, with SSO integration, it removes the need for shared credentials and manual user management. Access is tied to identity providers and groups, so permissions can be assigned/ centrally ### 10. Powerful and Essential Access Control Tool for Secure Cloud Environments **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Eric . | Customer Onboarding and Support Executive, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** As a user, what I like most about AWS IAM is the strong control and security it provides for managing access to AWS resources. It supports very granular permission management, so users only receive access to what they actually need. Features like role-based access, policies, and permission boundaries make it easier to follow security best practices and keep permissions well-scoped. Once the initial setup is in place, it runs reliably in the background without requiring much day-to-day attention. I also appreciate how smoothly IAM integrates with other AWS services, which helps keep access management consistent across the platform. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The biggest challenge with IAM is the learning curve. For people who aren’t security or cloud experts, IAM policies can be difficult to understand at first—especially the JSON-based policy structure. Even a small mistake in a policy can cause access issues that take time to track down and troubleshoot. From a user’s perspective, the error messages also aren’t always very descriptive, which can make debugging harder. That said, once you become familiar with how IAM works, it gets much easier to use and manage. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM addresses the critical need to control who can access what within a cloud environment. Rather than sharing credentials or granting overly broad permissions, IAM enables secure, role-based access for both users and services. This strengthens overall security and helps reduce the risk of unauthorized access. For me, it means I can access the resources I need to do my job with confidence, without worrying about accidental over-permissioning. It also supports the organization in staying compliant and keeping access management organized as the cloud environment grows. ### 11. Simple, Secure Access Control with AWS IAM **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Niharika M. | Developer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The best thing in AWS IAM is controlling access to AWS resources and services is simple and secure. Setting up is easy and interface is straight forward. It integrates smoothly with AWS services. Mainly it manages permissions all at one place. Without any extra tool integration, it works well. IAM gives features like roles, policies etc. which helps us to keep accounts and data safe. One more thing that I like about IAM is that it saves time and reduces mistake. Instead of manually adding permissions for each service, we can add or create one policy and apply them easily. There is a document made from AWS which helps the customer when guidance is required. I was using IAM frequently when I worked in my previous project. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I dislike about AWS IAM is that it is sometimes complicated while creating detailed policies. Sometimes understanding JSON policy syntax takes time. Managing a large number of users and roles can be confused. There is no simple way to visualize permissions. Integration with other AWS services works well but setting up access and permissions can be little tricky. Mistakes made in policy configurations; this can lead to access issues. Setting up permissions and configurations requires extra care. Customer support can sometimes feel slow for detailed IAM issues. Advanced configurations are a bit challenging. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM solves the problem of who should be allowed to do what in the cloud account. IAM lets us to create users, group and roles with right permissions. This prevents from unauthorized access, keeps sensitive resources (like s3 buckets) safe. Features like Multiple Factor authentication (MFA) and password policies help us to protect data and account. The major benefit is control and safety. It reduces mistakes by letting reuse standard policies and makes audits easier. For daily DevOps work, IAM is smoother integrations with code build, device farm, s3, SNS. Overall, it saves time, reduces risk. This is how IAM worked better when I used it for my previous DevOps project. ### 12. Comprehensive, Yet Complex IAM Solution **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rishabh P. | Software Engineer, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) because it provides ease of access and the ability to fine-tune permissions. I appreciate how I can create service roles and attach them to virtual machines or containers, allowing these roles to access specific resources like CloudWatch, S3, and SES. The fine-grained resource-level permissions make it invaluable for managing user access control and service role management. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Having a lot of options is another reason I hesitate to play around with roles that work fine. I am sometimes unsure if I will break my already existing role that works fine. Also, the initial setup was complex until I got more familiar with it. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for user access control and service role management, allowing me to finely tune permissions to limit resource access, like granting access only to specific services. Its ease of access and ability to fine-tune permissions are particularly beneficial. ### 13. AWS Integration **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nilesh K. | Wow Automation Specialist, Banking, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM provides very granular and flexible access control, allowing us to precisely define permissions using policies, roles, and conditions. The tight integration with all AWS services makes it easy to enforce least-privilege access across the environment. IAM roles for workloads (EC2, EKS, Lambda) are especially helpful because they eliminate long-lived credentials and improve security by design. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** IAM can be complex and difficult to manage at scale, especially as the number of policies, roles, and accounts grows. Policy syntax is powerful but not always intuitive, which increases the risk of misconfiguration. Troubleshooting permission issues can be time-consuming, and the user interface is not always friendly for understanding effective permissions. Managing IAM across multiple accounts often requires additional tooling and governance layers. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM solves the problem of securely controlling access to cloud resources in a scalable and auditable way. It allows us to enforce least-privilege access for both users and applications, reduce the risk of credential leakage, and centralize permission management across AWS accounts. This directly benefits us by improving security posture, supporting compliance requirements, enabling safe automation, and reducing operational risk as our cloud environment grows. ### 14. Fine-Grained Access Control and Strong Security with AWS IAM **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nisar A. | System Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What I like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is its ability to provide fine-grained access control and strong security. It allows you to manage users, groups, and roles with precise permissions, ensuring that each user or service has only the access they need. IAM supports multi-factor authentication, temporary credentials, and seamless integration with other AWS services, making it easy to secure and manage resources at scale while following best security practices, Ease to use, Implement **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** One thing I dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is that it can be complex and difficult to manage at scale. Creating and maintaining policies for many users, roles, and services can become confusing, especially when permissions overlap or are inherited. Mistakes in policy configuration can lead to either overly restrictive access or unintended permissions, making it challenging for teams to ensure consistent and error-free security without careful planning and auditing. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solves the problem of securely managing access to cloud resources. In any organization, it’s crucial to control who can access what, and IAM provides a centralized way to define permissions, roles, and policies for users and services. This helps prevent unauthorized access, reduces security risks, and ensures compliance with best practices. For me, IAM is beneficial because it simplifies access management, enforces the least-privilege principle, and allows secure collaboration across teams and applications, making cloud operations safer and more efficient. ### 15. Unmatched IAM Granularity for Least-Privilege Control and Compliance Audits **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chandan D. | Staff Software Development Engineer Test, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The level of granularity AWS IAM provides is truly unmatched. It lets us apply the "Principle of Least Privilege" with real, surgical precision. Whether I’m creating Service-Linked Roles, building complex Condition Keys, or using Identity Federation to sync with our corporate directory (like Okta or Azure AD), IAM handles it smoothly. I also really appreciate the IAM Access Analyzer, which proactively flags resources that are shared with external entities—it’s been a lifesaver during compliance audits. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The learning curve for writing JSON policies can be steep, especially for newcomers. Although the Visual Editor has improved a lot, tracking down the source of a “Deny” within a complex hierarchy of SCPs (Service Control Policies), resource-based policies, and identity-based policies can still be challenging—and at times it feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM addresses the critical need for centralized access management. Before we moved to IAM, handling individual credentials was a security nightmare. Now we rely on IAM Roles for our EC2 instances and Lambda functions, which has completely eliminated the need for hardcoded "Long-term keys" in our code. As a result, we’ve significantly reduced our attack surface and made our secret rotation process far more automated. ### 16. Essential and Well-Documented Access Management for AWS **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ajay S. | Senior System Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM is available by default in every AWS account, requiring no separate setup or licensing. Creating users, roles and policies can be done via: AWS console, CLI, Infrastructure as code. AWS provide excellent documentation,, best practice guides and examples of IAM. IAM is one of the most frequently used AWS services because every AWS service depends on it, it's used daily access control, role based access and automation. IAM integrated seamlessly with other AWS services i.e EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS etc. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** IMA policies are very powerful but also complex. When access is denied, identifying which policy caused the denial can be time consuming. In large AWS environments, it becomes difficult to track unused permissions, identify over privileged users. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** IAM enables unique identities, roles and temporary credentials, allowing me to enforce least privilege access and eliminate shared or hard coded credentials. IAM integrates with cloudtrail, enabling full audit trails, easier compliance reporting and faster incident investigations. IAM supports federation with Active Directory and third party IdPs, allowing me to use existing identities wit sso and centralized identity management. ### 17. Effortless Access Management with Seamless AWS Integration **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM is a very easy to use, integrated application within the AWS ecosystem that allows for simple access management for individuals, groups, etc. within one unified section that can apply to all services used through AWS. It has a very simple and user-friendly UI for IT teams and syncs with all other AWS services that use IAM allowing for one application to control an entire enterprise's access management. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM can get overwhelming and complicated to manage as enterprises or companies get larger making the overall experience a little more complex. There is also a fairly steep learning curve especially when transitioning to AWS for the first time, as well as the semi-requirement of ability to use JSON syntax. Also, IAM isn't particularly useful unless the organization functions mostly or entirely off of AWS. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS makes it very simple and unified to use across all AWS services and applications, acting as a one-stop application for controlling all the organization's access management in AWS. ### 18. Granular, Policy-Based Access Control That Scales Across AWS **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bharath M. | Solution specialist, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 19, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The granular, policy-based access control lets you enforce least-privilege permissions across every AWS service, making it easy to manage security at scale without compromising flexibility. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The policy syntax can be complex and verbose, and debugging permission errors is frustrating — the error messages rarely tell you exactly which policy is blocking access. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** It centralizes user access control and eliminates the need for shared credentials, ensuring only the right people and services have access to the right resources — significantly reducing security risk. ### 19. Seamless SaaS Integrations with Strong SAML/OAuth/MFA and Audit-Ready Reporting **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rahul c. | Senior System Adminstrator, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** As I’ve found, the platform integrates smoothly with most mainstream SaaS applications and supports modern authentication standards such as SAML, OAuth, and MFA. The reporting and access logs are detailed enough to meet security and audit requirements, without having to rely too heavily on third-party tools. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** From my point of view, the initial setup is complex and not very beginner-friendly. While documentation is available, it often assumes prior IAM experience, which can slow down configuration for teams that are new to identity management. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** From my understanding, the platform addresses fragmented access control and inconsistent authentication across systems. It helps enforce least-privilege access, reduces security risk from orphaned accounts, and strengthens the overall compliance posture. From an operational standpoint, it also lowers the IT workload by automating access requests, approvals, and deprovisioning. ### 20. Fine-Grained Access Control and IAM Roles That Strengthen Secure Communication **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sanooj M. | CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Fine grained access control not jus tot a service but a particular action in a service. Also IAM roles help avoid sharing and storing secret keys in the system Ensure to establish a secure communication environment. AWS help notify the admin if a Key gets exposed to a public repository. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Using across multi cloud, we still need secrest key based access. Also, security wise, using IAM roles in machines have more threat than using secret key loaded in memory in case of a compromise situation. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** IAM can be used to give fine grained access to each user, more over, the session keys in IAM ensures that the user's keys are safe even if they get exposed. IAM roles help communicate between services within AWS securely. ### 21. Easy, Secure Access Control with Fine-Grained Permissions in AWS IAM **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Harish K. | System Administrator, Financial Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM tool is used to manage user identities and control access to AWS resources. It allows to manage users or groups permissions of allowing and denying very easily. You can use it to grant temp permissions to access, granular control and can also add mfa for enhance security. It's an easy to implement and manage along with recommendable customer support. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** It comes with a steep learning curve initially after that you can do it generally. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** IAM is very useful in providing fine-grained permissions with enhance security features for access aws resources. It have very detailed API call logs. AWS IAM provides a single point for managing access to all your AWS resources, simplifying administration and boosting security posture. ### 22. Granular Access Control and Reliable, Scalable Security with AWS IAM **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** M S. | Specalist Systems Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 27, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** - Provides very granular access control, making it easy to enforce least-privilege security. - IAM roles simplify secure, temporary access without managing long-term credentials. - Integrates natively with all AWS services, ensuring consistent access management. - Strong security features like MFA and policy controls improve overall account security. - Centralized identity management helps with compliance and audits. - Scales well and remains reliable for enterprise workloads. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The learning curve is steep, especially for beginners trying to understand policies, roles, and conditions. Policy syntax (JSON) can be complex and error-prone, making troubleshooting time-consuming. Debugging permission issues is difficult, as access denied errors are not always descriptive. Managing IAM at scale can become hard to maintain without strong naming conventions and governance. There is no built-in version control for IAM policies, which makes tracking changes challenging. The console UI can feel overwhelming when managing a large number of users and roles. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM solves the challenge of securely controlling access to AWS resources by defining who can access what and under which conditions. It helps prevent unauthorized access and security risks by enforcing least-privilege permissions. IAM eliminates the need to share credentials by using roles and temporary access, improving overall security. Centralized identity and permission management simplifies governance, audits, and compliance. By automating access control and integrating with all AWS services, IAM reduces operational overhead and human error. Benefit to me: It gives me confidence that our AWS environment is secure, compliant, and well-governed, while also saving time managing user access as the environment scales. ### 23. Powerful and Secure Access Management with a Steep Learning Curve **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Suchit W. | Product Associate, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM provides fine-grained control over access to AWS resources using roles, policies, and permissions. It allows secure access management following the principle of least privilege, integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, and supports role-based access, MFA, and temporary credentials. This makes managing users, services, and permissions at scale both secure and reliable. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The biggest challenge with AWS IAM is its complexity, especially for beginners. Writing and debugging IAM policies can be difficult due to the detailed JSON structure and lack of clear error messages. Managing permissions across large environments can become hard to visualize, and the learning curve is steep without prior AWS experience. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM solves the problem of secure identity and access control across cloud resources. It helps prevent unauthorized access, reduces security risks, and ensures compliance by enforcing least-privilege access. By using IAM roles and policies, we can securely manage access for users, applications, and services, improving overall security, auditability, and operational efficiency. ### 24. Versatility with Learning Curve in AWS IAM **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Oscar Alejandro N. | Dirección de proyectos **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** One of the most interesting things about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is that it has pre-loaded policies and roles in JSON format, which makes it easy to create exact roles and guidelines. This makes the workflow very easy. I can have policies for administrators, analysts, and developers, which is very similar to the concept of object-oriented programming. The ease of using Managed Policies, which allows you to read, write, or list roles in an orderly manner, and functionalities like AdministratorAccess that are already pre-designed by AWS, simplify the assignment of specific permissions to roles or groups, making it easy to define exact activities within workgroups. Additionally, if you start from pre-existing policies within the system, the initial configuration is very easy. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** It seems to me that the service has a steep learning curve, especially for people who are not familiar with JSON concepts. The operation can seem a bit abstract during the learning processes, and one might forget or have difficulty keeping the access keys secure. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** With AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), I define groups, roles, and policies, maintain a high degree of security, and an organized workflow. The pre-loaded roles and policies facilitate the creation of exact guidelines to optimize specific functions within the teams. ### 25. AWS IAM Makes Least-Privilege Access Management Easy **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 08, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM is an identity and access management platform that allow user to properly manage resources with least privilege options to access **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Dislike about AWS IAM is it is very difficult to manage large number of custom defined policies. Debugging becomes very complex with large set of policies **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** The problem that AWS IAM solving for me is creation of policies to access the resources very optimally ### 26. Powerful, Fine-Grained AWS Access Control—But Policy Setup Can Be Tricky **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vaibhavee S. | Software Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 19, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** It offers precise, fine-grained access control. It integrates seamlessly across AWS services. Helps enforce strong security with least-privilege access. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** It can be complex to configure, especially for beginners. Policy syntax is verbose and prone to misconfiguration. Debugging permission issues can be time-consuming and unclear. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solves secure access control across AWS resources by managing users, roles, and permissions centrally. It prevents unauthorized access and enforces least-privilege, reducing security risks. This benefits me by simplifying access management and ensuring scalable, consistent security across applications. ### 27. Secure Access Control with Room for Improvement **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ashok S. | Sr.Technical Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like that AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) gives full control over who can access what in AWS. We can easily assign exact permissions to users, keeping everything secure, and manage it all from one place without extra cost. The initial setup was quite easy, allowing us to quickly create users, set passwords, and provide the necessary access without much hassle. AWS IAM is very secure, reliable, and makes it easy to manage users and access, which is why I would recommend it to friends or colleagues. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Some things in AWS IAM can be better. It is little complex to understand at first, especially for new users. Managing policies and permissions is confusing and time-consuming. Also, checking who has what access is not very easy, and error messages are not always clear. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM controls access to AWS, ensuring security by granting correct permissions and preventing unauthorized access. ### 28. Custom policy and excellent solutions for security **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chetan J. | Data analysis, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I find the ability to set IM rules and policies myself in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) the best feature. It is highly customizable, allowing me to grant access to specific things and create my own custom policies. Through this customization, I particularly like that I can have complete control over who gets access and how much. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Overall, everything is almost good, but the alias name option in the IAM access is very well hidden. So, I face a little difficulty with the user interface there, and sometimes the button for the initial password is not found. To be honest, I had a little trouble assigning roles at the beginning. The user part was simple, but the issue was that I couldn't find the alias name, so I had to repeatedly remember the ID routes, the password, and the number associated with it. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to ensure who has access to my resources. It maintains security because even if someone gets my password, I can immediately revoke their access. ### 29. Secure and Integrate AWS with Ease **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Atishay J. | SDE2, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for its fine-grained access control systems. It allows me to use predefined templates or create my own templates for each and every service AWS provides. This feature helps me manage access at a detailed level, where I can block or allow access to read, create, delete, or update services. Additionally, AWS IAM is simple to set up because of the proper documentation they provide. By following their step-by-step process in the documentation, I can easily integrate AWS IAM with other services. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** So for a new user or beginner, it is somehow complicated to understand how AWS IAM works and how to write fine-grained access control. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to secure our AWS services with authorization and authentication, eliminating the need for third-party IAM providers. Its integration with AWS services and fine-grained access controls offer role-level security and protect our internal services. ### 30. Streamlined Access Management with Robust Security **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ayush M. | senior software engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I appreciate how AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) allows me to create IAM users for team members with role-based access. I like that I can give the exact permissions to users or services using roles and policies, from the least to the highest privilege. It's great for ensuring fast onboarding with roles and groups for new users, providing strong security with least privilege, and there are no keys to handle. The easy auditing and permission management are big pluses. I also enjoy the smooth scaling as the team grows, quick access setup, and fewer permission issues. IAM's least privilege feature helps in preventing accidental deletion. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Debugging access denied takes time and the user interface can be slightly better. I would like a one-click debugger to auto-trace since there are multiple layers at each level like group, role, and resources. I mean, clear visibility of the deny source. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM solves the problem of managing access to AWS services. It ensures our infrastructure is secure by providing the right access to the right person. IAM allows for quick access setup, smooth scaling as the team grows, and prevents accidental deletions with least privilege policies. ### 31. Secure, Fine-Grained Access Control with AWS IAM **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** SURAJ K. | Operations Associate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 20, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM helps in managing users and permissions in a very secure way. I like how it allows fine-grained access control using roles and policies. It integrates well with other AWS Services and reduces the need to share credentials. Once you understand the basics, it becomes very reliable for managing access. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The initial learning curve a bit high, especially for beginners. Understanding policies and permissions takes time and can be confusing at first. The interface could be simpler, as small mistakes in policies may cause access issues. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM helps in managing who can access AWS resources and what actions they can perform. It solves the problem of shared credentials by allowing separate users and roles. This increases security and reduces the risk of unauthorized access. It also makes it easier to control permissions as the team or project grows. ### 32. Powerful and Secure Access Management for AWS Environments **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM offers strong security and granular control over access to AWS resources. Once configured, it is easy to manage users, roles, and permissions across services. It integrates seamlessly with other AWS tools, supports MFA, and is used frequently in day-to-day operations, making it a reliable solution for access management. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The main challenge with AWS IAM is ease of use for beginners. The interface and policy syntax can be complex during initial setup, and troubleshooting permission issues can take time. While documentation is detailed, direct customer support is limited unless you have an AWS support plan. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM helps us control and secure access to cloud resources by enforcing least-privilege access and providing centralized identity management. As a result, it reduces security risks, supports compliance efforts, and makes it easier to manage users, roles, and permissions consistently across multiple AWS accounts and services. ### 33. Great for Learning AWS, But Complex Setups **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** SHUBHAM R. | Data Center Administrator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I think AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is great for learning about AWS. It helps me understand security, MFA services, and AWS policies, which enhances my knowledge of security technologies. I find it beneficial for enabling MFA, using IAM policies instead of inline policies, and performing regular audits to manage permissions and delete unused entities. I also find the initial setup of AWS IAM easy, making it a helpful tool for beginners to dive deep into learning about AWS. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I find AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) setups complex. It feels very large, and there's limited support for applications. There's also a lack of centralized visibility, which could be more streamlined. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) helps me understand AWS security and MFA services. It aids in managing AWS policies, enabling MFA, conducting regular audits, and simplifying user management. ### 34. Powerful and Flexible Access Control for AWS Environments **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rahul P. | Devops lead, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The level of control and flexibility it gives over access to AWS resources. You can define very granular permissions using policies, which makes it easier to follow the principle of least privilege and keep environments secure. Managing users, roles, and permissions in one central place is convenient, especially when working across multiple services and teams **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The UI is functional but not very intuitive, which makes managing permissions at scale harder **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solves the problem of controlling who can access what within an AWS environment. By using IAM, we can enforce least-privilege access, reduce security risks, and avoid sharing credentials across services or users. This has benefited us by improving overall security, making audits and compliance easier, and giving us confidence that access to critical resources is well-controlled and traceable. ### 35. User-Friendly AWS IAM: Intuitive User, Group & Policy Management **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Camilo M. | Sysadmin, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 22, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What I like most about AWS IAM is its user-friendly, intuitive interface, which makes it easy to create and manage users, groups, and policies. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What I don’t like is that you often have to create roles just to connect with another account, and it feels a bit heavy and cumbersome to me. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to create users and assign them to groups with the required policies and permissions, as well as copy everything from an existing user, helps me avoid having to configure everything manually, one by one. ### 36. Flexibility and Security in One Place **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lucas V. | IT Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like the flexibility that AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) has for creating detailed policies, which allows us to give each developer exactly the permissions they need for their work without giving them access to things they don't use. Additionally, it integrates well with all of AWS, making it easy to configure because it is already connected with S3, EC2, Lambda, and more. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Sometimes the interface is a bit confusing, especially when you are creating new policies since you have to go back and forth between screens. It would also be good to have better documentation with more real examples. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to manage access and enhance security, preventing everyone from having access to everything and separating production and development environments. ### 37. AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ashwini K. | Software Engineer Trainee, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2024 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Granular control over access to AWS resources is made possible by the crucial service known as AWS IAM. The fact that it enables me to precisely regulate user access is what I value most. From developers who require complete access to particular services to auditors who require read-only permissions on a few S3 buckets, I've used it to set up varying access levels for different team members. The visual editor's ease of use in creating these policies is a major plus, and management is made simpler by the ability to quickly attach or detach policies to users and roles. Our security posture depends on this degree of secure access control. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** ​Despite being a strong tool, IAM has several limitations that might be difficult to overcome, particularly for novice users. One important factor is the high learning curve. At first, it might be difficult to comprehend the distinctions between users, groups, roles, and policies, as well as how they all work together. The intricacy of permits is another source of contention. It might be challenging to create a very detailed policy since even a little setup error can result in lockout or unauthorized access. Troubleshooting permission issues has taken up a lot of my time, particularly when dealing with service-linked roles and cross-account access. It can also be annoying since there aren't any clear defaults; additional templated rules for typical use scenarios would be useful if AWS offered them. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** For our team, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) has been an essential solution that addresses a number of significant operational and security issues we encounter in the cloud. * Access Control and Security: Making sure that our cloud environment is secure is the main issue that IAM helps us with. It was challenging to control who had access to what prior to having a strong IAM approach, which led to needless risk. We've put the least privilege idea into practice with IAM. We have, for instance, given our developers specialized IAM roles that only allow them to access the resources required for a certain project, such as a few EC2 servers or a single S3 bucket. We now have peace of mind and a much tighter security posture thanks to this fine-grained management. * Scalable Permission Management: Managing permissions might have been a major administrative burden as our staff and the number of AWS services we use have expanded. This approach is now much more scalable because to IAM's capacity to generate roles and groups. We can add or remove users from a group without having to change their rights for each member. As we grow our business, this has saved us a great deal of time and work. ### 38. Effortless IAM Implementation, Perfect Security **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Derek N. | Health Insurance Broker, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I really like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) because it enables me to secure and control access to AWS services and resources by managing user permissions effectively. I appreciate that it acts as a gatekeeper, allowing me to grant different permissions to different people. I also like that it enforces multi-factor authentication, which is a significant security feature. The initial setup was very easy to do, and everything works great. I have never had any issues with it. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Everything works great and no problems **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to secure and control access to AWS services and resources by managing user permissions, acting as a gatekeeper and allowing me to grant different permissions to people. ### 39. Secure, Organized AWS Access with IAM Users (No Root Sharing Needed) **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rakesh G. | Frontend Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Use of security, sharing the access of that services of AWS only which is needed to the IAM User without sharing the root user access. using IAM user AWS access is safe & organized. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** In case of many IAM user hard to track the data. debugging it takes alots of time. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** IAM access can solve the problems task can be completed without anyone's innervation. Need not to wait for the someone who have root access or 2FA. ### 40. Powerful IAM Service with Flexible Programmatic Access **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yuvraj S. | Software Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** IAM service can be used for an account as well as for other services to give programmatic access **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I just think it can be more user-friendly, like giving recommendations or something to narrow down access level instead of searching by name, and also each service name has many others. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have one parent account and with IAM service we created sub/child accounts, and also we used it for programmatic access to other services. ### 41. Secure Access with Flexible Control **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Monazah S. | DevOps Engineer **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I appreciate the most is its fine-grained access control flexibility, allowing me to define permissions at a very detailed level and manage who can do what on buckets or prefix levels. Another thing I like the most is AWS IAM's temporary credentials support model, which adds value to automation by utilizing short-lived credentials, thereby reducing the risk of exposure and enhancing security. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Nothing to say here because I don't have any issue . **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS IAM to securely manage access to AWS resources, especially S3. It reduces security risks, supports least-privilege access, and manages temporary credentials for applications, adding value with its fine-grained access control and temporary credentials support model. ### 42. Seamless AWS Integration with Granular Access Control and Strong Auditing **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Market Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** What I like about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is how seamlessly it works with all AWS services. It offers granular permissions, supports MFA, and makes it easy to use roles for centralized access management. I also appreciate the strong auditing capabilities through CloudTrail. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** IAM policies rely on a JSON-based approach that can feel opaque to beginners and even to experienced engineers. It’s difficult to visualize who has access to what, and small misconfigurations can carry major security implications. Overall, navigating IAM still feels dated. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** IAM helps us address issues such as unauthorized access, credential misuse, compliance and audit requirements, complex multi-account access, workload and service access, and more. ### 43. Secures Access, But Policy Management Can Be Tricky **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like how AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) allows services and users to get temporary access through IAM roles instead of sharing access keys. This feature provides secure temporary access, making it easier to manage permissions for both users and AWS services. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** AWS IAM is powerful, but it can be hard to manage at scale; policy creation & troubleshooting permissions can be confusing, especially when multiple policies overlap. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS IAM to control and secure access to AWS services. It solves access and permission management issues, reducing security risk by enforcing least privilege and providing secure temporary access for users and services. ### 44. Powerful Access Control, But Complexity Can Be Challenging **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like that AWS IAM gives fine grained control over who can access what making cloud resources secure and manageable **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I dislike that IAM can be complex and hard to manage, especially with many users, roles, and policie it’s easy to make mistakes **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS IAM addresses the challenge of securely managing access to AWS resources. For me, its fine-grained permission controls, seamless integration with AWS services, robust security features such as multi-factor authentication, and centralized management all contribute to making my projects more secure and easier to oversee. This ensures that only authorized individuals are able to perform the appropriate actions. ### 45. Precise, Flexible Control of AWS Access with Roles and Policies **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sangeeth S. | DevOps Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** It’s the best because it provides precise, flexible control over who can access AWS resources by using roles and policies. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Sometimes, it can be confusing because the IAM policies are unclear, and some users may find them difficult to understand. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solves auditing access to AWS through roles and policies, and in fact helps improve security and enables safer automation. ### 46. Powerful and Secure Access Control with a Steep Learning Curve **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rinu L. | DevOps Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 21, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Role baced Access and temporary credentials - IAM roles eliminate long term credentials and work perfectly with serverless like EC2, ECS, Lambda and CI/CD pipelines Strong AWS support **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Policy complexity and readability Global service quirks **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** IAM ensures only authorized users and services can access AWS resources. I can enforce least-privilege access using well-defined policies, improving security. ### 47. Granular Access Control, Confusing UI **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Oliver L. **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like the granular access control, roles, and policies offered by AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). It's great for managing users, roles, and permissions on AWS. I appreciate its secure access control to AWS services without having to share credentials. I also enjoy the easy integration with other AWS services. The setup was straightforward, making it simple to get started. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** Policy management UI is confusing, a cleaner UI and clearer policy editing would help. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS IAM to manage users, roles, and permissions. It provides secure access control to AWS services without sharing credentials. ### 48. Flexible and Detailed Access Management with AWS IAM **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mohamad O. | CTO, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like that AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is very flexible, allowing me to play around the way I'd like, especially in terms of customizing access and assigned roles. There are a lot of functionalities available for users, which I find valuable. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I think selecting the policies, especially the bulk policies, could be improved. Maybe we can have something that's combined all together directly. **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to give specific and very detailed access to any user in the organization, allowing for flexible customization of access and assigned roles. ### 49. Effortless User and Permissions Management **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vadim K. | DevOps Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) because it's easy to use and manage. It's really great that I can manage it through Terraform as it saves me a lot of time and effort. I also appreciate that I can have my configuration in a Git repo and the whole team can contribute, which enhances collaboration. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** All is good **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) simplifies user and permissions management. It's easy to use and manage, saving me time and effort. Managing it through Terraform allows team collaboration with configurations in a Git repo. ### 50. Effortless Security Management, High Recommendation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Killian M. | Software Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2026 **What do you like best about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** I like how AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is easy to use and how easy it is to reverse actions. Features like specifying users and permissions associated with those users are great; I can also reverse permissions when a user changes departments or resigns. All these are easy to implement. Additionally, the initial setup was very easy. **What do you dislike about AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?** The interface could be improved but otherwise it is professional and standard **What problems is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use AWS IAM for security within AWS, specifying roles and policies for services. It solves security issues and helps manage the use of services. ## AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Discussions - [How do I setup the MFA for AWS cli without changing the MFA code everyday?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/31843-how-do-i-setup-the-mfa-for-aws-cli-without-changing-the-mfa-code-everyday) - 1 upvote - [View AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-identity-and-access-management-iam/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-17+18%3A54%3A40+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=628c33df-bd8a-42c0-a110-a2874b29a67c&secure%5Btoken%5D=864c5254ec70b2490298e4c8cd02dc1382a5eebffde4e8862c979c3089598cdb&format=llm_user) ## AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Integrations - [Agentforce Sales (formerly Salesforce Sales Cloud)](https://www.g2.com/products/agentforce-sales-formerly-salesforce-sales-cloud/reviews) - [Amazon CloudWatch](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-cloudwatch/reviews) - [Amazon EC2](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-ec2/reviews) - [Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-relational-database-service-rds/reviews) - [Amazon S3 Glacier](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-s3-glacier/reviews) - [Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES)](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-simple-email-service-amazon-ses/reviews) - [Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-simple-storage-service-s3/reviews) - [AWS CloudFormation](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-aws-cloudformation/reviews) - [AWS CloudTrail](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-cloudtrail/reviews) - [AWS CodeBuild](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-codebuild/reviews) - [AWS Elastic Beanstalk](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-elastic-beanstalk/reviews) - [AWS Glue](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-glue/reviews) - [AWS Lambda](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-lambda/reviews) - [BrowserStack](https://www.g2.com/products/browserstack/reviews) - [Cloudflare Application Security and Performance](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudflare-application-security-and-performance/reviews) - [eZee Absolute](https://www.g2.com/products/ezee-absolute/reviews) - [IBM Vault (formerly HashiCorp Vault)](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-vault-formerly-hashicorp-vault/reviews) - [JumpCloud](https://www.g2.com/products/jumpcloud/reviews) - [Microsoft Entra ID](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-entra-id/reviews) - [Okta](https://www.g2.com/products/okta/reviews) - [Rippling](https://www.g2.com/products/rippling/reviews) - [Secureworks Taegis XDR](https://www.g2.com/products/secureworks-taegis-xdr/reviews) - [ServiceNow IT Service Management](https://www.g2.com/products/servicenow-it-service-management/reviews) ## AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Features **Functionality** - User provisioning - Password manager - Single Sign-on - Enforces policies - Authentication - Multi-factor authentication ** Type** - On-premises solution - Cloud-solution ** Reporting** - Tracking - Reporting - Access & Permission Change Reporting - Compliance & Audit Trail Export **Authentication & Authorization - Identity and Access Management (IAM)** - Adaptive & Contextual Access Control **Administration & Governance - Identity and Access Management (IAM)** - Identity Lifecycle Management - Self‑Service Account Management **Generative AI - Identity and Access Management (IAM)** - AI‑Driven Access Anomaly Detection - Automated Policy Tuning - Predictive Role Recommendations ## Top AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Alternatives - [Okta](https://www.g2.com/products/okta/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,295 reviews) - [Microsoft Entra ID](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-entra-id/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (873 reviews) - [WSO2 Identity Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/wso2-identity-platform/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (107 reviews)