AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Reviews & Product Details

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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 Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.