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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

IAM is extremely powerful, but that power comes with complexity, and managing it well takes experience and good practices. 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.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like most about AWS IAM is how securely it lets me manage users, roles, and permissions through fine grained access control. It integrates smoothly with other AWS services, supports multi factor authentication (MFA), and aligns well with the principle of least privilege. Overall, it helps me maintain strong security without getting in the way of productivity. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The policy syntax can be difficult to understand at first, and configuring permissions for complex environments can take time. Better visualization and easier policy management would make it more user friendly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I don’t have any major dislikes; it’s a good product overall. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

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. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.